It shouldn't matter.
It was stupid and pathetic and insignificant. It was a complete waste of life.
There were over fifteen trillion planets in the universe supporting intelligent life, some which saw new life grow from single celled organisms, some that started barren before being terraformed and inhabited and others still that were actually built specifically for the people who lived there, exactly the way they wanted them.
But this one planet, this one tiny ridiculous little planet, whose population never even managed to rise above three billion, this useless little world is the only one; literally the only one, whose inhabitants never do anything.
Their only interesting attribute is that they are the only intelligent species in all of existence of which every single member from the first to the very last lives and dies on the same pathetic little rock at the edge of nowhere.
To Time Lord kind the Gaian's were barely a blip. An odd little curiosity that was briefly mentioned once during lessons when they were children and then never brought up again.
They were remarkable only in their unparalleled mundanity.
He didn't know why he stayed here.
Of all Time Lords in the universe he is the last one that anyone would ever expect to find here. On this stupid worthless little planet. To be honest that was exactly why he came here originally. Just a little break away from the rest of the world and its endless drama. Not that he didn't love drama of course, was usually at the center of it in fact. But even he needed a holiday once in a while.
Twenty years later and he couldn't quite figure out why he stayed.
But he did.
He had a life here. Nothing like his actual life of course. Legendary villain blazing a trail across the universe, countless bounties on his head from the edge of the Dundra System to the furthest reach of the Fostrix galaxy. He had traveled to the far corners of all of space and time and left a burning trail in his wake, he had wiped entire galaxies from existence, he had stared into the heart of time and heard the beat of the drums calling out to him through the void.
And here he was. On the universes most insignificant lump of dirt playing soldier. He wanted to laugh sometimes at what passed as a war on this planet. They spoke of the Wutai War like it was the greatest event that ever happened. He supposed to them it was. Children playing with sticks. That's what they were. Silly little children on their silly little world. They had no idea what a real war was. No comprehension of how tiny and unimportant they were.
How little they mattered.
They shouldn't matter.
It was pitiful the way that little friend of Zack's tried so hard.
Why was he trying? What was he trying to achieve?
In the grand scheme of things it was nothing. Fifteen trillion worlds, countless species spreading out across the universe all leaving their little marks on the world.
What marks would he leave? One tiny little Gaian, part of a tiny little species on a tiny little world that would never have even the slightest impact on any other world. He meant nothing. He didn't matter.
But he didn't know that. Foolish child.
He didn't know why he joined in with this charade. Helping to train the child. Teach him to fight. To become a soldier. To achieve a pointless dream when he knew it meant nothing.
Maybe it was because there was nothing else to do around here.
He didn't know why he stayed.
He never was very patient. Even on a world as slow as this one. He didn't know why he bothered. why it mattered. He was just curious. All the time he was putting into the kid. He may as well find out if he succeeded. Even if it didn't really matter.
Just a peak into the future. Nothing for a Time Lord. Just a little jump ahead to see the boy get his results.
It shouldn't matter.
It shouldn't matter that the child's hand shakes as he opens the letter. Shouldn't matter that his eyes well up with tears. Shouldn't matter that his smile looks like it's going to rip his face open if it gets any wider.
It definitely shouldn't matter that he looks up at that moment with eyes deeper and bluer than the endless oceans of Antalin with an openness that shouldn't take his breath away and breaths "Thank you"
It shouldn't matter. Just the stupid dream of a stupid child from a stupid species on a stupid planet that never does anything. Nothing here matters. In the whole universe, fifteen trillion planets, this one doesn't matter.
But when those eyes catch his. Holding his focus like nothing has since the day he stared into the time vortex. When he sees in them the pure simple joy of someone who has just had the only dream he ever dared to dream come true.
Somehow.
It matters.
I'm not sure why but I had a daydream about Genesis being the Master just hiding on Gaia for a while and unexpectedly finding a home there even if he never really understood why. It made sense to me that they would be a fairly insignificant planet in the universe since they shut the space program down and never reached the stars. I'm a big Cloud fan so I thought it would be nice to give him a happy ending. Hope you enjoyed. I may add more to this in the future if I get enough interest and come up with anything resembling a plot. Please review if you have any comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading.