The Legend of Gallifrey Part 16: Death of the Doctor
That was it.
Of course, the scene was awful. A young boy lay dead on the ground with a hole in his head. And as horrible as the sight was, that was it.
When War shot Theta Sigma, it was just that. The Doctor had seen people get shot many times before, and this wasn't any different. This was the event that caused the paradox. There wasn't a bright light, or a rumble, or anything, just the body of a young boy.
Nevertheless, the Doctors were shocked. They stood staring at War, who still held the laser gun in his hand. He was worryingly unnerved.
Rassilon walked up behind War and put a hand on his shoulder. He nodded at War with a grin on his face.
"Your loyalty is appreciated, War," he said. "You have earned a spot in my hall."
"But I haven't, have I?" War said. "By killing Theta Sigma, I erased myself from existence, it just hasn't come into effect yet. I WON'T EXIST!"
Rassilon blinked and stepped backwards when War yelled at him. "Careful," he said. "I am Rassilon, your Lord President. I can keep you from being erased from existence, but what I do to you after is up to you."
"So you're going to torture me?" War asked. "Me, the man who proved for you that you can control your own destiny through manipulation? I would never side with you without a backup plan, 'Lord' Rassilon."
Rassilon's face tightened as he realized what War was saying. He ran over to Theta Sigma's body and looked for anything on it that he hadn't realized before, but as he held the body up it began to vanish.
Rassilon's eyes widened and he looked around at the room. "What was that?" he demanded.
War smiled. "Don't like not knowing what's going on, do you?" he asked. "I'm the Doctor, and I always have a plan.
"Under no circumstances would I ever trust you with anything other than attempts at power. When you asked me to join you, I did so to find out what your plan was. The whole time, I was talking it over with the other Doctors in the psychic link. They all agreed with what I was doing.
"Then 6 and 7 met the boy and found out that he was Theta Sigma, and after a quick talk with X, they figured out the nature of the paradox and your motivations, and they hypothesized that you would try to get me to kill young Theta Sigma. We came up with a plan to avoid this.
"The psychic link only connects Doctors, and even though young Theta Sigma isn't the Doctor yet, he is still me, so we brought him into the psychic link and updated him on everything he needed to know.
"He programmed something into the pillar while you all were trying to fix it that related to holograms, then he programmed the whole situation and hid behind the pillar to watch it play out."
On cue, Theta Sigma poked his head out from his hiding spot a little ways up the pillar and waved at everyone. "Hi guys!" he yelled.
Rassilon looked up at Theta Sigma with anger in his eyes. He was defeated, and he couldn't allow that.
He lunged at War and grabbed his wrist, and the two of them began to wrestle over the laser gun. 10 ran in to help, but Rassilon swung his arm towards him with a device in his palm, and 10 was enveloped in white light.
Rassilon elbowed War in the nose and yanked the gun out of his hand, then he hit War with the device and knocking him out of the paradox behind 10. Then he swung the gun towards the pillar and began to fire.
Theta Sigma jumped off of the pillar just as several laser bolts hit it in several spots, and it began to spark again.
"It's going to blow!" 8 yelled. "And we can't stop it!"
12, Theta Sigma, Melody, 5, and 8 all turned towards the exit. Rassilon stared at his handiwork, then rushed towards the group and tackled 5, and they both fell to the ground. Rassilon then knocked 5 over the head and dragged him over.
12 and Melody went to pull 5 away from the pillar, but Rassilon pulled a device out of his robe and threw it to the floor, and a force field wall appeared between 12 and Melody, and Rassilon and 5.
"Rassilon!" Melody yelled. "You have to stop this! The pillar is going to explode any second, and you've just contained the explosion around you and the past Doctor! The paradox will still form!"
"Yes! Yes it will!" Rassilon yelled. "And the eighth Doctor will never have existed, and wouldn't have been there to trap me in the alternate universe! I control my own destiny!"
…
Just as Rassilon was finishing up his monologue, someone appeared in front of him out of nowhere and grabbed 5. Then someone else appeared and grabbed Rassilon, and all four people disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the force field wall.
6 and 7 deposited 5's unconscious body at 12's feet, and Rassilon's twitching form at Melody's feet. X appeared right behind them.
"X knows how to manipulate paradox space as he needs," 6 said. "He also knew that Rassilon would do everything in his power to control his own destiny. X predicted everything."
"I didn't have to," X said. "I remembered."
Suddenly, all of the people were thrown backwards as the pillar exploded. The fire was contained behind the force field wall, but the force knocked everyone backwards onto the floor.
The explosion left a huge hole in the wall and cracks in the opposite wall, which were beginning to crumble. Any moment, the whole building was going to fall down on top of them, and they all had to get out before that.
Melody grabbed 5 and ran towards the door, and 12 ran ahead and opened the door. Theta Sigma ran behind her, and 8 grabbed Rassilon's leg and dragged him out with Rassilon protesting profusely the whole time, and 6, 7, and X followed behind. The whole group gathered a while away from the tower as they watched it collapse.
"I spent almost a year on that pillar," Theta Sigma said. "Rassilon brought me into the paradox purely for that reason."
"I think it's time for you to head home and forget all this," 12 said. He took Rassilon's device that removed people from the paradox and hit Theta Sigma with it. In a flash of white light, Theta Sigma vanished.
"Now for you," he said to Rassilon. "I can adjust the device to remove Rassilon's memory of his future as well as his time within the paradox."
"That would fit with time," 7 said. "Me and 6 saw a vision of future Rassilon, who didn't remember anything that happened in the paradox."
"NO!" Rassilon screamed from the ground. He squirmed to try to get to his feet, but 8 was still holding his leg and made it nearly impossible to stand.
"Here we go." 12 pointed the device at Rassilon. "You might want to let go of him so you don't get kicked out with him."
"I'll be leaving anyway," 8 said. "We all will be. In fact, you're the only one who will be remembering all this, so get on with it."
12 shrugged and activated the device, and 8 and Rassilon vanished in a flash of white light, then he stood there with 6, 7, X, Melody, and 5's knocked-out body, looking out across a Gallifreyan desert and the sun was going down.
Suddenly, the whole ground shook, and the device fell out of 12's hand.
"What's happening?" 7 yelled over the noise.
"The paradox!" X replied. "It's unraveling! We're going to be caught in the quantum soup left over where it was! We need to get out!"
12 grabbed the device from the ground, but it was broken in two.
"How did that happen?" he said. "I dropped it onto soft sand."
"Time is wonky in paradoxes," X said. "It was as weak as if it was centuries old when you dropped it."
"Doesn't matter," 7 told them. "We've lost our way out!"
The horizon began to dissolve. The effect quickly began to rush towards the group, and a moment later their vision turned white.
…
The best part of the rescue, in 3's opinion, was the look on everyone's faces as his TARDIS materialized around them and saving them from being stuck in the leftover quantum soup forever.
The second best part was getting to explain his brilliance, which was made even better by the fact that his future selves hadn't expected it in the least.
"Me, 1, 2, and 4 were caught in an explosion of this white light that, according to the sonic, knocked them out of the paradox and erased their memories, and it partially disconnected me from the psychic link since I was just out of its range. That's why you didn't pick me up in the psychic link, but I knew everything that was happening.
"When I figured out the paradox, and your plan, then I knew what would eventually end up happening, so I went in search of where M, or Melody, had put my TARDIS. She did tell me it would be there when I needed it, and it was."
12 shook his head. "I can't say I saw that coming," he said.
3 smiled and pulled a lever. "I'm taking us away from the remains of the paradox, and when I do everyone's memories should begin to fade. Except 12's, Melody's and X's, since they've had countermeasures put in place. I'll be landing on Earth in the year 2016, in a spot where all our TARDISes seem to have congregated."
"That was me." X raised his hand.
"Good," 3 replied. "So everyone else can head to their TARDISes and take off before memory loss sets in."
So 6, 7, 8, and 3 all took off, and 5 was carried to his and the TARDIS dematerialized on a five-second delay, enough for those who'd brought him in to get out.
Finally, X turned to face 12 and Melody. "My TARDIS was destroyed, but I still have my Vortex Manipulator," he said. "My future has now become an alternate reality, and I need to return to it before the damage that the paradox caused heals completely. Thank you for keeping my future happening."
He smiled, then raised his wrist and pressed a small silver bracelet he was wearing that the Doctor hadn't noticed before. A moment later, he vanished into the vortex.
…
Melody walked out of the TARDIS wardrobe in a whole new look. She wore a white collared shirt with a loose black tie, dark blue jeans and black Nike sneakers. She wore a black trench coat with futuristic shoulder pads and Gallifreyan writing down the left lapel, and her red hair was braided and draped over her right shoulder. She smiled as she walked into the control room.
"It's nice to not be a rule-obsessed nut with a mystery complex," she said.
The Doctor laughed. "You were that, I'll admit, but personalities change when a Time Lord regenerates, not just the face."
Melody took a deep breath. "I guess it's time for me to go now. Worlds to save, you know how it is."
The Doctor smiled. "Will I see you again?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Your destiny is your own now, but you've never much cared for fate. That being said, it's a big universe."
Melody held up her Vortex Manipulator and held her hand over it. She looked at the Doctor for a moment, then she brought her hand down and vanished.
The Doctor turned to the monitor, and for a moment he saw a man with long grey hair in a black suit, but the man turned into an alley and vanished. The Doctor laughed, then he pulled a lever, and the TARDIS spun off into adventure.