In The Presence Of Another World
Full Summary: Before the events of The End Of Time, another race were plotting the destruction of the Time Lords, intent upon erasing them from all of time and space in every universe possible. Les Invisibles: a race that exists beyond the limitations of time, considered by the Time Lords themselves to be nothing more than a myth; a bedtime story for the Childeren of the Damned. But they are real, and their agent in Earth's history is setting into motion events that spell danger for both the Doctor and his duplicate in another world.
Extended A/N (please read for explanation of background to the story): I suppose this could be described as a crossover fic of sorts, but it's a bit difficult to apply that term when the thing I've crossed over DW with isn't much more than just a concept. It might be more accurate to say I've drawn heavily on the concept of the myth of Imaginos, which was thought up by Sandy Pearlman (a producer for the band Blue Öyster Cult) and was subsequently used as the basis for a concept album by that band in 1988.
If you aren't familiar with the album Imaginos or the story behind it (which you probably aren't as it is very obscure) then this fic might mean less to you than if you knew enough to spot all the lyrics and song references I've incorporated into this, but even so I'm going to try to do my best to make sure you can understand it anyway. There are a lot of different interpretations of the story of Imaginos, mostly because the version offered by the concept album is rather vague and confusing due to it being incomplete, but I'm going to try and explain my interpretation of it as fully as possible and how I've linked it in to the world of Doctor Who.
Listening to the album, I think there are many aspects of it that tie in very well with the history of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, and I think that the character Imaginos himself has a lot of parallels with the Doctor (eg. a time traveller who changes faces, can cheat death and (possibly) has a granddaughter named Susan (or Susie?)). Some of the odd lyrics in the album also seem to be able to link in with the history of the Time Lords, and I think in many ways Les Invisibles are like a malevolent version of the Time Lords.
I wanted to write this because I think there are so many ways to make the two worlds fit together which I wanted to explore, and although this story will quite probably seem to make no sense if you aren't familiar with Imaginos, I hope I can do my best to explain it. If any of you are interested, I'd definitely recommend listening to the album and reading some of the commentaries on it on the internet if you'd like to understand it a bit more. And aside from the weird storyline behind it, there's some great pieces of music on the album as well. If you like avant-garde hard rock, then I think you'll like Blue Öyster Cult.
Disclaimer: The characters and concepts are all the property of the incredible Sandy Pearlman and the genii that created Doctor Who.
Prologue – On A Bay Of Dreams
The Doctor stood on the shore, looking out along the vast beach for any sign of the man that had brought him here. His single heart was beating quickly as his sense of unease continued to grow. Maybe he shouldn't have come here. Or at the very least he should have told Rose where he was going. The man may not have specifically forbidden him from telling anybody about their agreed meeting, but there had been an underlying sense of secrecy in the psychic message that suggested he wanted nobody but the Doctor to know. And for some reason the Doctor had agreed to it. Maybe it was because of how novel he'd found it, being contacted via the telepathic matrix. Having spent so long getting used to being part human he'd found that reminder of his Time Lord nature exhilarating. It had thrilled him enough to provoke this kind of reckless action in coming here alone. Despite sensing an inherent danger about the situation, he felt a burning to need to find out just who it was who had contacted him.
He'd been stood on the bay for fifteen minutes before he heard someone speak softly from behind him, and taken slightly by surprise he turned to look in the opposite direction to the one he'd been facing. He was somewhat intrigued by the appearance of the man standing just a few metres away. The man was roughly the same apparent age and height as the Doctor but he was very strangely attired; wearing a white long-tailed suit with a black waistcoat and silver tie, and on his head was a white top hat that just showed the ends of his auburn hair curling under his ears. In his left hand he held an unusually shaped cane: at the top was a silver hook with a crossbar just underneath it, but the man didn't seem to be using it as a means to support himself; it appeared to be purely decorative. As the Doctor cast his gaze over him he felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he'd seen the man somewhere before, but he could quite place where. Unusual, as Time Lords usually had excellent memories, and particularly so when it came to men as peculiar as this, but even so the Doctor found he couldn't remember him. It had briefly crossed his mind that the man might in fact be another Time Lord, but during their psychic exchange the Doctor hadn't sensed anything from the man that suggested that might be the case. Although there definitely seemed to be something both intriguing and dangerous about him, it was difficult to really specify exactly what.
The man was smiling as he addressed the Doctor. "I'm glad you came, Doctor."
The Doctor gave him a slightly wary nod. "Good, does that mean you're going to tell me why I'm here? Or who you are, for that matter?"
The man just continued to smile and responded calmly. "I'm the Captain."
"Captain what?" The Doctor tried to prompt him to give his full name.
"Just 'the Captain'."
Curious. He even followed in the Time Lords' fashion of referring to themselves by titles, but yet the one thing the Doctor was certain about was that this man wasn't a Time Lord. "Only a title? Ok, well I've got one of those too, but you knew that already. I think the question is how you knew that and why you're here."
"The Loa sent me," the Captain replied, and his answer took the Doctor somewhat by surprise. Could he really mean what the Doctor thought he meant?
"The Loa?"
"Yes. What some of your people believe to be the Vortex. The Nexus of the crisis."
And this man knew about Time Lord history. Well, 'history' was a crude term for it, but the Captain seemed to know things about Time Lords that only Time Lords should know. The Doctor was growing both more intrigued and more disconcerted. "Interesting. For you to know something like that I might have thought you were a Time Lord, except you used the phrase 'your people'. What does that make you?"
"Just a visitor," the Captain said with a slight smirk.
What was that supposed to mean? "You still haven't really told me what you've brought me here for."
"To share with you some starry wisdom," the Captain replied as cryptically and as calmly as ever, "And to extend an invitation to you."
"An invitation to what?"
"To the party of astrologers. It takes place at the height of Christmas Tide, in the house just down the shore from here," said the Captain, pointing past him. The Doctor glanced behind him to look, but he couldn't see anything beyond the bluff that enclosed the bay. "That's seven days from now," the Captain continued, "And I expect to see you there."
"But why?" the Doctor asked, more confused than ever. He was used to being able to make sense of just about situation he found himself in, but this whole thing felt like a highly perplexing dream.
"Because of the things I know about you. I know you have thirteen faces. Thirteen fancy dreams of which you've almost run out."
That sounded like a reference to his regenerations, but the Doctor couldn't be sure. Why did this man speak in riddles? "I honestly don't know what you mean by that."
Again, the Captain smirked. "Oh, I think you'd know enough."
The Doctor was getting more confused than ever. "Know enough about what? What do you know about me?"
The man was still smiling, but there seemed to be an underlying menace in the outwardly pleasant expression. "I know of your Star of Rassilon, that was no star but a Magna of Illusion."
So now he was speaking in rhymes? The Doctor couldn't understand any of it. This sense of being completely baffled and perplexed was so unfamiliar to him and he didn't like it.
The Captain continued to talk as the Doctor stared at him in confusion. "And I know that this is just the place to hopelessly encounter Time," he said, gesturing round at the bay around him. "And the world that mirrors it. Or perhaps not you alone, for the other one's a duplicate."
But I'm a duplicate. Does he know about...? I don't understand. "What…?"
"And I know of the Eye of Harmony and its obscured sight, for though it does not flux the queenly flux is eternal light."
"Wait, why does everything you say have to rhyme?" the Doctor asked, not even sure which questions he should be asking to get the kind of explanation he wanted.
The Captain smirked. "Because it's rhymed like the real, and real as the rhyme. Invented by those with the instruments of Time."
The Doctor just stared at him in confusion. "What does that even mean?"
"If you want the wisdom known to me," the Captain said, still wearing that enigmatic smile, "Then at that party is where you'll be."
"But…" For once the Doctor was truly lost for words. "What exactly is going on? What do you want with me? Who are you?"
The Captain just continued to smile. "I am the one who'd never lie," he said, before turning away from the Doctor and beginning to walk back along the shore.
"Wait!" the Doctor called out after him, but just as he did so he thought he heard the sound of something out to sea: a kind of chattering, like a cacophony of voices all muttering something in unison. He turned to glanced out towards the ocean for a second, but seeing nothing out of place he then looked back to where the Captain had been headed, only to find that the man had vanished seemingly into thin air.
He blinked a few times to make sure he hadn't been dreaming, and wasn't at all surprised when the image of the bay surrounding him faded into black and was replaced with the image of the ceiling as he woke up to find himself lying in bed. Despite having confirmed that he'd dreamt the whole thing, that still didn't do much to quell the feeling of intrigue and unease that had now lodged itself in the back of his mind.
A/N: That probably made no sense. I've made references to some of the most obscure BÖC songs in existence, including an unreleased demo from an out of circulation album that first came out in 1988. If you would like to make sense of this a bit more, look up the details of the lyrics to the songs The Siege And Investiture Of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle At Weisseria, The Girl That Love Made Blind, Astronomy, Magna Of Illusion, Les Invisibles, I Am The One You Warned Me Of, Del Rio's Song and In The Presence Of Another World.
The Captain's appearance is inspired by the video for the Astronomy promo and the song Dance On Stilts.
Please do keep reading because I promise I will explain things more in future chapters (and reviews would be nice too!)