The Ninth Doctor, recently regenerated from his warrior incarnation near the end of the Time War, had just recovered from a longer than usual period of unconsciousness. Upon waking, he forgets what had happened, only fragments in his mind: constant chaos and suffering; walking across an endless desert with the most dangerous weapon the Time Lords ever possessed; standing alone, about to activate it. Having a bad feeling, he goes to Gallifrey's galactic coordinates, only to find the planet has vanished, fragments of debris belonging to Dalek battleships floating through space.
He actually did it. The war ended, the Daleks annihilated, but at the cost of his own people.
Overcome with profound guilt, despondent, the Doctor is at a loss of what to do. He still forsakes his chosen name and the promise he made with it.
His first adventure after the Time War is one that he needs more than anything. Fortunately, the TARDIS is prepared to give him just that.
HEALING ANGELS
The console room of the TARDIS felt silent, even with the electronic purr in the background. Though that silence was felt more in the Doctor's mind than anything.
He stood beside the console, his newborn but gaunt face riddled with anger and sorrow.
The man who once called himself the Doctor despondently slammed buttons and roughly pulled levers to set the TARDIS to another destination, a profoundly angry voice muttering "No more" in his mind, as the familiar boom of the ship echoed around him upon take-off.
He had lost too many people at this point. Katarina, Sara, Adric, Kamelion, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, his great-grandson Alex, Cinder, his entire family, his own people. Enough is enough, he thought.
The calming groan of the ship itself couldn't soothe the Doctor's pain. He continued to stare into space, ignoring the central pillar that was rising and falling rhythmically as the great vessel took him to a destination he neither knew nor cared about.
If only to find somewhere at least serene and quiet where he could spend his solitude in emotional healing, the Doctor entered the space-time coordinates for the Elpisian Cliffs of the Pandora Sphere, where the lakes and view of the purple moons above are said to be a source of calming influence for travelers lost both emotionally and geographically.
Not long after the coordinates were installed, however, the TARDIS rumbled and veered off course. Surprised, the Doctor rushed to the console and saw not only that the ship was flying astray from his intended destination, but was entering a state of automation.
It seemed to be taking him somewhere.
"Great, that's just what I need." the Doctor said bitterly. The last thing he needed right now was another major malfunction.
Any attempt at seizing the controls was futile. Brushing them with a feather would have been just as effective.
The TARDIS' groan increased in pitch, as if screeching in response to his efforts to regain control.
After two minutes of relentless turbulence, the TARDIS stopped with another echoing boom.
Confused, the suspicious Time Lord regained balance after losing it during a particularly strong tremor, which could only suggest that wherever the TARDIS was taking him, it was clearly breaching some sort of temporal barrier in the process.
He consulted the coordinates on the console, which read:
Amsterdam, Europe, Earth (Sol III), Solar System, Milky Way, Virgo Supercluster, 1943 AD.
"One day, I will be able to go through life without some stupid mauve alert."
Seeing no other course of action, he proceeded to the doors and, prepared for the worst, swung them open.
Silence. Darkness. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor stepped precariously out of his beloved ship, and was met with a loud creak from underneath his shoes.
By the looks of it, he was inside an old building. The darkness was such that he could barely see two feet in front of him. Walking around the ship, he saw a small window facing the back of the TARDIS, moonlight slightly shining through. Its light was obscured by the ship. Combined with the small size of the room, it must have made the place darker than it usually was.
Looking around further, he found some potato sacks, along with boxes and other storage items. He was in an attic of some sort. He didn't understand: why would the TARDIS bring him here? He could have been meditating in the silver towers of Elpisia by now, and here he was in a dusty attic on Earth in 1943.
The Doctor sighed and leaned against the back of the TARDIS, his head in his hands. What was he to do?
His lamentation was soon interrupted by a noise coming from below.
Before he could rush round to enter the TARDIS, he was face-to-face with a young girl in her early teens carrying a candle. She had a pretty but unusually pale face (like she hadn't seen the sunlight for months), brown hair that was cropped at her shoulders, and was wearing a nightdress.
The Doctor couldn't help but find her strangely familiar. He was certain he had never met her before, and yet he felt he saw her face somewhere. The girl looked at him with an expression that radiated fear and apprehension.
"Hello." he said simply, with a hint of a grin.
"Who are you?" she whispered warily, "Are you some kind of German spy?"
"Course I'm not." he replied simply. "I'd make a very bad spy. Too loud. Then again, your floorboards may need fixing, or are they like that to catch intruders?"
The girl shushed him urgently. The Doctor didn't intend to be so flippant about the situation. For some reason, the girl made him feel somewhat less depressed. Either that, or the recent turn of events had been distracting him.
"Who are you?" she asked, still whispering.
"I'm…just passin' through." he answered. "I'm nobody."
"How did you get in here? And what's that thing doing there?" She pointed at the TARDIS.
"Ah, now that might be hard to explain."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let's just say I'm from somewhere a little further than Germany."
As he said this, the Doctor began to slowly suspect where he was. Amsterdam in 1943? This girl's specific mention of Germany? Again, why did she suddenly look so familiar?
"What's your name?" he asked her suddenly.
"Why?" she said cagily.
"Listen. If I were a spy or a thief, I would either have chosen a better way of infiltratin' your house, or I wouldn't have come in as loudly as I have clearly done. Also, if I were your enemy, I'm sure you would have been dead by now. Trust me on that."
She looked at him, still suspicious.
The Doctor sighed, and then took out his psychic paper, a white card which, when shown to a person, could usually induce them to see whatever the user wishes them to see. The Doctor received it years ago, but he barely used it up to this point. Due to the current circumstances, he had no other choice. He opened it and showed it to the girl.
"You're a friend of Miep?"
"If you like, yes." he replied, smiling and pocketing the psychic paper inside his leather jacket.
The girl hesitated. She was clearly fighting with herself as to whether she should trust him, this strange man who suddenly appeared in the attic even though he had credentials proving he was a close acquaintance of this person called Miep. The Doctor had a strong feeling that Miep was someone this girl trusted deeply.
The girl lowered her candle, and after a bit of hesitation, she replied:
"Anne. Anne Frank."
The Doctor and Anne Frank stood in silence. He knew he recognized her from somewhere. Even in several galaxies light years away, in distant worlds where literature actually surpassed technology, her diary was at least heard of. The Library, the biggest in the universe, had every edition of the book. How he enjoyed it.
He always meant to visit once, but it wasn't like meeting other inspirational figures in Earth's history; her life was fraught with danger. To see this young girl, petite but so full of wisdom, stand before him, whilst knowing what awaited her at the end of her road filled him with more sadness than ever. Again, this was the last thing he needed. The TARDIS brought him here, but why?
As for Anne, she was beginning to get concerned. The second after she introduced herself, the stranger didn't say a word. He merely looked at her. Why did he look so sad?
"So, that's it, then," the Doctor murmured to himself. "1943, and I'm standing in an attic with you. Then that must mean…No, no, hold on."
He's really gone now, Anne thought. Dressing in strange, dark clothes and staring at her was curious enough, but now he was saying irrelevant things as if they mattered. Who was he? Would Miep really be acquainted with this madman?
"Anne, where are we?" he asked, like it was important.
"In…in an attic."
"Yes, but specifically, where are we?"
"I still don't understand. How did you even get in here, let alone manage to bring a big blue box in here? No-one is supposed to know we're in this building, except for our closest friends."
She said all this in a hushed, but panicked tone.
The Doctor understood what was going on now. Miep was a close friend of the Franks, and the psychic paper introduced him as the closest person to a friend so as not to alarm Anne. Perhaps her trusting him a little more could make it easier to explain himself.
"You're very clever, Anne, so I trust you to listen. You see, I'm not exactly the kind of person you think I am: I ended up here by accident. This blue box is actually a time machine."
He stopped talking in order to give Anne time to register.
After a while, she spoke.
"Time…time machine?"
"Yes. Didn't really do the best job of explainin' it, but there you go."
"This is mad. I-I thought the whole world was going mad before, but this is…"
Anne faltered, immediately stumbled towards the window next to her and sat down awkwardly.
"It takes a while to get used to." the Doctor said calmly. "I hope I haven't woken up your family."
"N-no." she said, still staring into space. "So, you're a time traveler?"
"Yes, I am. I will have to say, I'm impressed you're catchin' on this quick."
"My whole life has been all over the place, to be honest. And there's really no other way your machine appeared here overnight without making any noise. It's impossible, but what else could it be? I'd suppose I'd believe anything."
Anne then looked out the window, at a giant tree standing outside.
The Doctor couldn't help but look at her. She had so much potential. Her life would end before she would even have a chance to live it to the fullest and take advantage of fulfilling her goals. She had such a clever mind. She was shut in because humanity was at its worst right now, and she was one of many suffering from it.
Meeting her made him feel happier. How could he return the favour?
Then he realized what he had to do. This must have been why the TARDIS brought him to this time and place.
"Would you like to come on a small trip?" he asked her.
Anne looked at him, a confused expression on her face.
"W-what do you mean?"
"It's a time machine than can travel through any time, any place in the universe. You have been inside for far too long, Anne. It's time you saw the world like you always wanted to, or at least a part of it."
She kept staring at him. Her face was riddled with emotion. At first she was scared, then excited, then afraid again.
"Won't it be dangerous?"
"Depends on where you go. But don't worry; getting you hurt is the last thing I will allow to happen."
She thought for a second.
"But my family will worry where I am…"
"Ahh, but that's the beauty of this machine, Anne. I can take you to so many places. You can spend as much time as you like there, and you wouldn't even have left when you return."
Excitement slowly began to return to her face.
"What do you say?"
She hesitated a couple of times, and then she stood up.
"Can you take me to Paris?"
Grinning, the Doctor beckoned her to the TARDIS, and escorted her in.
She was inside for only a second before she gasped. The Doctor stood by her, still smiling warmly. Every human companion he had reacted pretty much the same way, yet to see Anne Frank, a girl with many beliefs, react like this was heartwarming.
"Say it. I've heard it before."
"Well, doesn't it go without saying? I mean it was smaller on the outside just a moment ago!"
The Doctor frowned. That's a new one, he thought.
For Anne, this was almost too much. A giant room with roundels decorating the walls, with a tall column in the centre, strange-shaped pillars supporting the ceiling from which wires were hanging haphazardly. The place seemed more like a workshop than a time machine.
And yet, it was magnificent in every way. She exclaimed this to the Doctor, who replied with a cheeky grin.
How could she manage such an experience?
However, compared to the fear of being discovered by the Germans, this was simply uplifting. It was like seeing something from a fairy story. Like one of the stories she read and grew up with as a child.
"So, Paris. I will take you to the future. France is a little dodgy at the moment."
The Doctor stood at the large central column, the bottom of which, she noticed, was surrounded by some sort of circular desk covered in strange buttons. He pressed some of them in a pattern even she quickly lost track of.
A huge boom echoed around them, and the TARDIS shook as the column began to move. A strange but somehow calming noise, like the ship was wheezing, resounded across the room. Anne felt comfortable and uplifted immediately. This was wonderful!
A few moments later, the ship stopped and fell into silence. Anne looked apprehensively at the Doctor, who looked at her with that confident and warm smile on his face.
"Go on." he said simply.
She walked slowly and nervously towards the doors of the machine. Was this real? Was her dream finally about to come true at a time when she least expected it to…?
Without a moment's hesitation, she swung open the doors.
And for the first time in months, she felt warm sunlight on her face.
The city of Paris was absolutely bustling with activity, just like she thought it would. So much caught her eye from every corner, the streets filled with people.
And it was different from what she pictured.
"You said this is the future?" she asked the Doctor.
"Yep. This is seventy years after your time, Anne. By this time, Paris went further than it did during the war, and continued as one of the greatest cities on Earth."
Anne looked around her, still entranced by what she was seeing in the flesh at last, before turning to the Doctor.
"Should you really be telling me this? I'm way ahead of my time. Is it a good idea for you to tell me things that haven't even happened to me yet?"
"I'm not showing you the events leading to the future, Anne; I'm showing you the future itself. I'm showing you what you need to see."
"Why?"
"To give you hope."
"But…but we're in hiding, my family and I. They said that the war will be won, that the Germans will lose. Why would I need-?"
Anne stopped and swallowed. Even when saying it, she still felt doubt as to whether they would pull through in the end. Her mother was worse with this sort of thing, always fearing the possibility of being discovered. Anne made sure to never do the same. She would spend every day building up courage, though deep down, she was just as afraid as everyone else.
She snapped out of her depressing reverie.
"I-I'm sorry. It's just…"
"I know. It's a lot to take in."
Anne paused for a few seconds, before gathering herself. She smiled somewhat reassuringly.
"Never mind. I would like to see more of this place. What is there to see? Wait, I know! The Eiffel Tower! Can we go to the Louvre?"
She walked off excitedly before the Doctor could answer. He looked on at her, smiling in spite of himself. Her sudden happiness alone was enough to cheer him up for a moment. After all her time spent in a confined space, living in fear of discovery by a powerful enemy, she finally found a moment of true joy.
And, by giving her this, so did he.
"Not so fast, Anne! The Eiffel Tower's this way." With that said, he chased after her.
The two travelers stood (or, in the Doctor's case, sat) on the upper levels of the tower, looking over the city. The brightness on Anne's face remained, her eyes darting back and forth as she took in the glorious view, the most radiant smile pervading her pale face.
While she was doing this, the Doctor was pensive. He felt sorrowful once again. Not only was he in the company of a doomed and innocent child, but standing here reminded him of the same trip he took with someone he was so close to.
Romana.
By this point, he had changed his face not half a dozen times after taking a magical mystery tour with Romana. They both stood on this very spot in the Eiffel Tower, admiring the city in its splendor.
But she was gone now, along with the rest of his people.
His mind then strayed to the inevitable: he realized that while he did give something to Anne that she deserved more than most, he would have to take her back to her eventual fate. Was it worth it, doing all this for her?
"Sir?"
It was the Doctor's turn to be brought back to earth. He continued to stare for a couple of seconds before glancing up at Anne, who had left her excited observation of the city after supposedly turning round and noticing his troubled expression.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothin' you can help me with, I'm afraid, Anne. Trust me."
"You did all this for me. It's not right that I can't do a little something for you."
"This is different. It's…" he faltered.
Anne continued to look at him. "You have credentials saying you're an acquaintance of Miep, but I don't even know your name. You never told me, and I decided to go into another time and place with you. After living in fear of being discovered for so long, do you really think I would have come with you if I didn't have a bit of trust in you? Now it's your turn to trust me. Please."
The Doctor said nothing. Anne knew what it was like to live in a period of war, but she never had the responsibility of finishing one at the cost of her own people. She never committed the worst crime imaginable. Would she understand?
Oh, he then thought to himself, but of course she would.
Anne had something the Doctor admired the most in the human race: faith. Not only did she have the courage to live through a time of hardship when she became a victim of discrimination, she also had faith in her own species.
What was it that she wrote in her diary?
"In spite of everything, I believe people are really good at heart."
Anne represented the best of humanity. The Doctor felt he owed her that trust in return.
Is this why the TARDIS brought him to her? He needed emotional healing, and if Anne couldn't give any consolation, then she could at least listen.
Then again, she lived in fear of a man who committed genocide. Would she still trust and listen to him after he confessed?
The Doctor looked up at Anne for a moment, smiled wanly and sighed before speaking.
"Do you know what it feels like to lose your identity? When you went into hiding, did you feel like that you were losin' everything that you cared about?"
Anne nodded, frowning.
"I never gave you my name, because I betrayed the one I went by, a name that I chose."
"What do you mean?"
"Where I come from, we reach a point where we choose a different name. A title that represents what we strive for. When we choose a name, we make a promise. Not too long ago, I broke that promise. Now, I cannot bear to live with myself. Like I said, Anne: I'm nobody."
"What was the name you chose?"
"I called myself…the Doctor."
"Because you helped people. You made them better."
The Doctor gave another wan smile. "Well, I try."
"But…why don't you use it anymore? What did you do?"
The Doctor hesitated, and resumed his gaze towards the floor.
"There was a war."
"The one being fought now? I mean, where I'm from?"
"Worse. Much worse. The whole of reality was at stake. I ended it, but I…I killed…" He swallowed. "I had no choice."
Anne said nothing. The Doctor was ready for her to run away, at which point he would have to make another difficult choice and return her to her own time by force, to avoid losing her after her time and risking the collapse of history.
Instead, Anne did the noblest thing the Doctor saw anyone do in centuries.
She knelt down and placed her hands on his own.
The Doctor looked back up at her, surprised.
"Anne. These hands brought about the deaths of billions."
"To save trillions." she replied sincerely, "You did something bad, Doctor, but I can see in your eyes that it hurts you more than anything."
"You and your family are in hiding because a man is doing the same thing that I did…"
"But does he regret it? Does he lose sleep over it? He does it by choice, Doctor. You didn't have one."
"My name isn't the…"
"Daddy once said to me that all people, good and bad, make mistakes. The difference is that good people admit their mistakes and learn from them. I'm not saying that you did a good thing, Doctor, but the fact that you are admitting you did a bad thing, and you regret it, makes you a good man."
The Doctor said nothing.
"You can't dwell on the past forever, Doctor. You need to move on. You are still a good man. You broke your promise, but you can fix it."
The Doctor looked at her, unblinking. A girl so young, yet so wise.
He stood up swiftly, "So, where do you wanna go next?"
Anne, who jumped at the Doctor's sudden change of mood, thought for a couple of seconds.
"Umm…how about London?"
Both the Doctor and Anne had lost count of how much time had passed. Both of them enjoyed their time together. The Doctor chose to focus solely on giving Anne the enjoyment she needed and deserved. It was as if her words of counsel turned into a force of energy that sparked his urge for adventure once more. He found that in this new body of his, he could overcome his profound guilt with the youthful passion he once had.
As for Anne; well, she was absolutely fine. For the first time in months, she felt carefree and without fear. Taking in the fresh air and sunlight (the Doctor made sure they would land on a day where the weather was decent), the delicate walks to which she became so accustomed soon became such swift steps she felt like she was walking on air. When she met the Doctor she spoke in whispers and low tones, but now she was able to cry out, exclaim, actually express herself. Like in Paris, she saw all the places in London she wanted to see, as well as places she had never heard of before.
The Doctor followed Anne with a proper smile on his face. He was glad he opened himself up to her, a young girl who continued to trust him in spite of what he admitted doing. She seemed to understand what he did even though he didn't exactly say so, and she still wanted to travel with him.
After what felt like a day of exploring and sightseeing, they stopped at the edge of the Thames, at the spot where the TARDIS landed.
They gazed at the London Eye for only a couple of minutes before the TARDIS gave its familiar groan, only it was prolonged and seemed…insistent.
The Doctor didn't need to question what it meant.
It was time.
"Anne…" he began, but stopped. How could he explain?
"Anne, was this all you wanted to see?"
"Yes, it was. I had always wanted to see the world, but it feels like I had seen it already. To have freedom like this. It's fantastic."
"Fantastic…" the Doctor repeated that word with a heavy heart. He seemed to have given Anne exactly what she needed, and now he had to be the one to take her back.
"Anne Frank," he smiled, "I would take you to so many places. Not just the world, but beyond. The Solar System, the Medusa Cascade, planets and galaxies far and wide…"
Anne was looking at him curiously. Was that comprehension he could see slowly dawning on her face?
His smile faded now. "But you must understand that I can't."
Anne looked slightly upset and said nothing. When she spoke however, her voice wasn't raised but rather gentle.
"I didn't think it would last. I wish I could go on like this forever. But I also want to live my life. I want to do so much when the war's over. I want to be a writer, and now I could see the rest of the world myself."
The Doctor listened to all of this with pain. He knew what waited at the end of the road, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her. It would be a vulnerable point in the timeline but, most importantly, it would ruin everything for what she held dear. He couldn't give her hope and immediately take it away from her.
"Sounds like a nice plan." he told her with earnest.
"It's just…I don't know if I'm good enough. I want to be different from other girls. I want to be an inspiration."
"No-one knows if they'll be good enough. But I'll tell you this, Anne. You have something no-one else does. You lived through hardship, you are passionate about what you do. Anyone who says you're not good enough has no idea what they're on about. You know somethin'? I'm sure you will be a fantastic writer!"
He said the word 'fantastic' with emphasis, as a meaningful echo. It seemed to work, as Anne smiled at him.
"You're like my healing angel." she joked.
"Likewise." he replied, grinning widely.
The TARDIS returned to the attic only a few seconds relative-time after it left. For Anne, this was the last bit of weirdness she would experience.
"See?" the Doctor whispered, "Like you haven't even left."
Anne turned to look at him, with sadness in her eyes.
"Don't worry. You and your family will pull through. You win the war, and you get to live the life you always wanted."
After saying this, the Doctor noticed Anne still looked sad. Could she see beyond his lie?
"Doctor. Will I become recognized later on? I remember what you said earlier, but my writing, will it be known to everyone? Just so I know that my life won't be completely worthless, that my dreams aren't worthless…"
The Doctor stood in the TARDIS doorway, silent. He reckoned Anne would ask him this at some point, but what could he say? Whatever he said would be a risk on her future.
Then he spoke the truth.
"Anne. You will become the voice of a generation."
The melancholy in Anne's eyes faded as she continued to look at the Doctor.
Then, without warning, she ran forward and threw her arms around him.
"I'm beginning to think you're not acquainted with Miep, Doctor. But you gave me something I will never forget."
She let go, and looked up at him. "Thank you."
"Go forward in your beliefs, Anne. I'm sure you will prove that I'm not mistaken in mine."
"You know I will, Doctor," she corrected. "And please promise me something."
"Yeah?"
"What you did for me. You can do the same for others. Make up for your mistake and learn from it by doing what you do best. Be the Doctor. Help people. Make them better. Like you made me better."
The Doctor only smiled.
"Have a good life, Anne Frank. You're gonna need it."
He closed the door and proceeded to the console. He hated long goodbyes.
Before he set the controls to take off, the Doctor looked at the monitor screen, which showed the ship's exterior, and Anne standing there. She gave a final smile at the TARDIS, at where her bringer of hope stood a couple of seconds ago. It would seem the Doctor made her happy again.
But could he truly live up to the name of the Doctor again?
Even if he brought hope to one person, no matter how amazing she would one day be, could he live up to his lifelong promise after all that happened?
He slammed a lever down, and the TARDIS took off, leaving the secret annex, and Anne, for the last time.
After the Doctor closed the doors, his magnificent blue box made its signature boom and dematerialized with an echoing groan. Her hair blew before the ship vanished entirely, leaving her in the darkness of the attic.
She looked at the space where the TARDIS used to be for a moment, before quietly returning downstairs and into bed.
It was fair to say that her trip left her exhausted, but extremely blissful.
She knew that the rush of excitement would soon dissipate within the next few days, however.
In spite of that, she felt she could go on with more hope in her heart.
After taking off, the Doctor did not move from the console. He stood in silence, his mind rushing. This didn't feel right. He gave Anne all this, and he would just leave her to her inevitable death?
He became the only survivor of the Time War. He was forced to kill his own people to save everything else, and the TARDIS took him to give hope to someone who was going to lose it anyway? There was more to this, surely.
This was his chance. After years upon years of war, he could make up for his greatest sin by saving the life of one person, history be damned! His people were gone, which meant he was the only Time Lord left.
He set coordinates on the console, and got to work. Pressing buttons, hammering the console excitedly, the Doctor felt like he was on fire. This was his chance to be the Doctor again!
He set the TARDIS to return to the time he left Anne.
At that, the ship shook violently.
As the TARDIS spiraled through the vortex, as if in protest, sparks flew from the console in rapid succession.
"No, no, no!" the Doctor shouted.
The image changed on the monitor, showing images of Anne according to the advancing months of her teenage life. The TARDIS was approaching the end of Anne's life, and it was resisting the Doctor's efforts. The ship knew what the Doctor was intending to do.
"Just a little further."
The images shifted. Anne, her family, the Van Pelses and Mr Pfeffer being arrested by the Gestapo; her last moments with Peter van Pels; the train leaving Westerbork transit camp…
"Come on!"
Anne, her mother Edith and her sister Margot being separated from her father Otto in Auschwitz…
"Come on!"
Anne's tearful reunion with her long-lost friend Hanneli in Bergen-Belsen; a dangerously sick Anne holding a dying Margot in her lap…
Boom.
The Doctor rushed to the TARDIS doors. Swinging them open, he rushed out, expecting the sound of mud beneath his shoes.
He was met with not the cold wind and the sight of desolation, but a spring breeze and a vast, lush field surrounded by woodland. The memorial pillar towered over him.
"No…" the Doctor whispered. "Not again."
He could only stand there, in the middle of the field that was once the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Anne Frank…
Wasting no time, the Doctor walked across the site, visiting each of the graves dedicated to the unfortunate inmates, until he came across what he was looking for.
There it stood, the dark tombstone established in memory of the girl whose words influenced many, and would continue to do so for generations to come. The girl who never had the chance to live her life the way she wanted, yet her wish was fulfilled in a sense: she did become recognized. Because of what happened, she not only became a source of inspiration for many, she became an example of what the best of humanity can be.
She was, in every single way, a hero.
He did not know how long he stood for, staring at the grave of the girl who healed him, nor did he care. This was only the beginning of what he would set out to do in order to fulfil the promise he was meant to give her.
Anne was right. He could be a good man again. What he gave to her, he could give again to others. In the end, Anne did not lose hope; it was taken from her. In memory of her, he could go back to not only bringing hope, but prevent any who would do so from extinguishing it.
Like he once did, a long time ago.
Back in the TARDIS, he took out his own copy of Anne's published diary, and turned over to the passage that compelled him to share his thoughts with her, to let out his guilt and allow her to fill him with courage:
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
What caught the Doctor's eye was the day it was written: Saturday, 15th July, 1944.
This passage was written after they met.
This didn't lead him to assume it was addressed or referring to him, yet it gave him the courage to decide what he had to do.
It would be difficult. He was the only survivor of a cataclysmic war, and the last of his people. Following that, he failed to save someone from an unfair fate (history may have decided that for him, but he did not care).
Yes, it was going to be far from easy, but it did not matter.
Because, no matter what, he refused to give up, to give in.
He was neither cruel nor cowardly.
He was the Doctor.
Author's Notes
I chose Anne Frank having wanted to portray her in fiction for a while. The Doctor meets historical figures many times, and Anne brings a perfect opportunity, she has a strong voice which reaches across generations, as well as a unique form of wisdom extraordinary for someone so young.
I also chose the Ninth Doctor not only because he's one of my favourite incarnations, but Anne Frank is someone who, deep down, he needs desperately. Someone who can help heal him from his psychological wounds. Anne was able to hold courage in spite of everything, and she leaves a powerful legacy after her passing. She could help teach the Doctor to do the same: even after a time of war, the Doctor can do what he always did before the war began.
Regarding the Ninth Doctor, I portrayed him as he was always meant to be shown, before The Day of the Doctor first aired.
Now, I actually do like the 50th anniversary special, though I find the climax to have multiple issues, one of them being that it is detrimental to the Ninth Doctor's character: if he never destroyed Gallifrey and killed his people, doesn't that make all of his character development ultimately meaningless? The most important part of his character is his guilt and how he continues to follow what the name of the Doctor stands for as a way of moving on, but now that form of character development is rendered kind of moot, because he never destroyed it in the first place, and just forgot the whole incident of "saving Gallifrey". Not that the first series of the revival never happened, but the impact of the Time War and the subsequent drama is reduced significantly…and not in a good way.
In this fanfiction, I have essentially ignored The Day of the Doctor, which is easy seeing as it is written from the Ninth Doctor's point of view, and have tried to keep the drama and weight of his post-trauma alive. After all, isn't that what his character is about, a guilt-ridden wanderer through the stars and the ages who seeks atonement for a sin that he was forced to commit?