Chapter One
"You really do have a brilliant mind. It's a shame that it will be broken before you taste freedom again. You should have joined me when you had the chance, boy, because in your own destruction, you will help me destroy the Doctor."
--
The Doctor was muttering to himself. The TARDIS had started beeping a while ago and now the Doctor was rushing round the console, pressing buttons, flipping switches and not for one instance pausing to let Donna know what was going on.
"Oi!" she yelled. The Doctor paused, looking up like there was something wrong with her for interrupting. "What is going on?"
"The TARDIS is receiving a signal. It's faint, but it's on a subtemporal channel which strange enough, but what's impossible is that it's encoded on a multidimensional harmonic frequency."
"In English!" Donna demanded.
"The signal could only have been produced using Time Lord technology." And then he was back to racing around the console pressing things and muttering. "The signal isn't very strong and normal cosmic interference would dissipate it quite quickly. This thing could have been running for centuries but I've never been close enough to pick it up, but now its frequency is resonating with the heart of the TARDIS and we're on a course to locate its source. Unfortunately the signal is so weak that we keep losing track, so it would be really easy for the TARDIS to lose it at just the wrong moment as we come into land and plant us right in the middle of a solid object."
"And that would be bad."
"That would be very, very bad." He burst into a grin. "Oh, yes! If we could find the signal back through the TARDIS systems, that would boost it enough to form a solid link. Hold this down." He grabbed Donna's hand and shoved it against a lever. She could feel the lever straining to move as the Doctor raced around in his frantic pressing of controls.
"Brilliant!" he exclaimed and the central column stopped moving. "Text book landing. Wonderful ship. Never lets me down!"
Donna saw that as the cue for something to blow up, but the TARDIS sat there, serene and still.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor grabbed his coat, still grinning. "Now let's go find the source of that signal."
"Could it be one of your people?" Donna asked. There was an instant of hesitation and the Doctor's grin faded.
"No," he said. "It must be something old that was just abandoned when the call came."
"What call?"
Here, for a moment, Donna caught a glimpse of a deep sadness.
"The call to war. All Time Lords were summoned home for the final battle. Someone must have left a system running."
Then the Doctor was gone. He headed through the TARDIS doors and into whatever lay outside. Donna hurried after him, wanting answers but not hopeful of getting them any time soon. She stepped out into what looked like some sort of lab. The walls were black, with circular panels somewhat reminiscent of those in almost all the rooms of the TARDIS. There was even a circular console that looked similar to the flight controls, just lacking the central column.
"What is this place?" Donna asked.
"I'm not sure." The Doctor touched a switch on the console and a large screen in the wall lit up. It displayed a face, of a man with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He smiled cruelly down at them.
"No," the Doctor breathed, clearly recognising what he saw.
"Well, Doctor," the man on the screen said, his voice as cruel as his expression, "I can only assume that your finding this place means that I am destroyed. So many times we have matched wits and so many times you have emerged victorious, but I have learned to plan for all eventualities. I take comfort in the fact that even in my demise, I hold the key to your utter destruction. That signal that drew you here was programmed to start transmission on the event of my death. You face me for the last time, Doctor, and this time I shall be the victor."
"It was a trap!" Donna said, as the Doctor stared pale-faced at the screen. His expression was one of grief and anger. He stared at the screen, now blank as the message ended. His eyes weren't seeing what was in front of him, but some distant past that was invisible to Donna.
"Doctor, we've got to get out of here."
Donna started to move towards the TARDIS, but the Doctor remained frozen.
"Oi!" her voice rose to a near shout. "We are leaving!" He started, looking almost surprised to see her standing there as he snapped out of his thoughts.
Then there came a faint sound from across the room. It was just a subtle indication of movement, but it struck fear into Donna's heart. She was thinking of what the man on the screen had said. This trap was supposed to lead to the Doctor's utter destruction. Whatever was here with them must be something unthinkably horrible.
--
"When next you see the Doctor, you will destroy him."
No. I won't.
The thought didn't carry much conviction any more. Time and pain were taking their toll. How much time, he couldn't even guess. Days. Years. Centuries. Time was meaningless when all he was left with was the darkness and the pain. And the voice. It bypassed his silent ears to whisper straight into his thoughts.
"By your mere existence, you will destroy him."
He would have cried if he could, but tears were as unattainable as movement or light or freedom.
Doctor, I'm sorry.