Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
The Other Doctor
Prologue
With a noise halfway between a belch and a sigh, another cloud of noxious gas sifted into the air from a crack in the ground. For a brief moment, the lone occupant of the planet considered avoiding it. Considered holding his breath. Considered surviving.
But that time was long past. The sky, once the most dazzling shade of greens and oranges during the day, had now been reduced to a shadowy grey, with brown clouds acting like smog across the landscape.
With a grunt of effort, U'Chut heaved himself to a half standing position. The grunt quickly gave way to a coughing fit, and he collapsed back down on the floor. Of his four legs, his frontal right had been claimed by the eruption of the Volcano in the north province of his country. His arm lost to the bombing that followed. His skin, once a brilliant deep blue, faded and rotted to a pale green. And his will to live?
That was taken when his life-mate died, enveloped by an earthquake and screaming his name.
And all because of one man.
They hadn't known it was him causing it, at first. No-one in the entire universe did. But soon, populations began to disappear, planets crumbled, and solar systems faded away. Nothing left but a memory and a wisp of dust.
Soon, what was left of the intergalactic authorities from the different worlds banded together to find the cause. To find out why the universe was dying. And, through all their explorations, battles and negotiations, they found out the one thing the dead and the dying had in common.
The Blue Box. The Blue Box with the alien writing uniformly engraved above the entrance. The entrance that no-one could get through in time to save themselves, but the same entrance that he somehow managed to enter as thought it were nothing.
U'Chut remembered the first time he had heard the noise. That horrifying, stomach twisting noise. Like an animal howling as it died. Back when news actually travelled to different planets.
They had tried to fight him. But somehow he always outwitted them, made them to be fools. And then he killed them. Mercilessly, ruthlessly… but never in the same way. Always with different methods for each individual person. Because, as they soon found out, the Blue Box was a time machine. So he took his time. Psychologically assessed all of his prisoners. And then he found the ways to kill them that would torment them the most.
Some weren't even dead. They were left in a limbo of agony and despair for the rest of eternity.
Some called him the Beast. Some called him the Devil.
U'Chut froze. A noise filled the air. That noise. Repeating, again and again. Like an approaching storm.
At first, there was a ghost of an image. And with every beat of the Blue Box's 'heart', it brought itself into his world.
The noise stopped.
The door opened.
And then he stepped out. Confidently, easily.
Cruelly.
He didn't even register U'Chut's presence. He just reached inside his flowing dark trench coat and pulled out a thin silver device. It glowed blue at the tip and whirred menacingly as he squatted and pointed it at the ground. Almost as quickly as he began, he stopped, and slid the device back into his coat.
A disinterested grunt was the only noise he made as he stood and went back to his ship. As he opened the doorway, four lights appeared on either side of the Blue Box, surrounding him.
Still with that same look of boredom, he pulled the door shut and leant against it, one hand idly slipped into his pocket while the other slowly reached inside his coat and pulled out the thin silver device.
Four Judoon formed from the lights. Their armour was damaged, burnt and faded, their horns cracked and ageing. The status indicators on their rifles flickered precariously.
"You will die," one barked, although U'Chut couldn't tell which.
The man seemed to find this amusing, and grinned. "Is that right?"
"You will die."
After a small hand signal to his fellows, the Judoon on the right charged his weapon.
"Aim!"
With a roll of his eyes, the man lifted his silver device into the air, and flicked it on.
"F-"
A wave of blue energy burst from the light on top of the Blue Box, dissolving three of the Judoon into nothing and knocking the fourth skidding along the ground. U'Chut only felt a slight tingle as the blue wave spread over him.
U'Chut watched, transfixed as the small device was leisurely slipped back into the man's trench coat and he sidled over to where the injured Judoon lay. His hands in his pockets, the man stood over his injured hunter.
"Genetic bio-feedback wave. The TARDIS detected you coming, so I thought 'They've come all this way, I might as well put on a show for them'." He leant over the Judoon. "Did you like it?" has asked, grinning.
A weak Judoon hand grasped at the man's ankle in some vain attempt to attack.
"Of course, I was coming here anyway to check on the degradation levels." He looked over the dying landscape. "The TARDIS really does nice work when it tries." With a smile, he looked at U'Chut. "Don't you think?"
U'Chut didn't reply. It was a mix of fear and burning fury that prevented him from doing so.
"Aaanyway," he said lightly, whipping his head around to look down at the Judoon, his hair bouncing around with him, "got to run. This planet's exploding in five minutes. Well, I say five minutes, it's more like three. Well, two. Well, half a minute really. So you see," he said, tapping the Judoon on its' horn with his finger in time with his words, "I. Really. Need. To. Go."
U'Chut stared. Should he try to gain access to the Blue Box? What did the man call it? The TARDIS? The man seemed preoccupied with his gloating for the moment.
He crawled along the ground, his energy sapped by the noxious gases that filled his atmosphere long ago. He wondered if his lungs would be able to adapt to normal air ever again.
A desperate three fingered hand reached for the door, when another five fingered one rested on the door beside it. The man pointed a finger at him.
"That's mine."
He struck out with his other hand, knocking U'Chut onto his back.
"You don't touch other people's things!" he said exasperatedly, landing another kick to U'Chut's midsection.
The door opened, and he went in. After only a few seconds, that haunting noise began again, and the TARDIS faded from existence.
As the sky grew red and the world crumbled around him, U'Chut just stared at where the TARDIS had been.
Some called him the Beast. Others called him the Devil.
Most, though, simply called him the Doctor.
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