Chapter 1: Who?
The good doctor had decided to take a step back for a moment. Daleks; it was always the Daleks. As he sat in his study room his eyes looked at one of his particular incarnations. A silly man, who not only managed; to become president of the time lords, but had the chance to once and for all rid him and existence itself of these cockroaches of the universe,
His eyes traced back through the portraits. ~ Question marks…~ He thought to himself as he shook his head In amusement. His smile widened as he looked at another portrait of his former self. A man with a mop top and a bowtie; willing to be silly and play a flute of all things; even as he recalled all the adventures and companions he had gathered over his lives he could still feel the cold steely eyes of those that passed.
Standing; his eyes fell apoun his first incarnation.
~ Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet - without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day... His old voice said in his head.
"Susan…" He said sitting back down on the chair. How could he have forgotten about Susan. He was going to take her back to their home world. Instead of taking her with him he left her there to get stuck in that damned time lock. He looked up again. This time his second incarnation seemed to be drilling into his very soul.
~There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought!~ His second voice told him. With this the doctor stood to his feet. He could feel this irrepressible feeling of judgment coming over him.
"I will have none of this!" He shouted looking at the paintings. "I'm not like any of you, I have made my decisions and stuck by them, My very name makes all my enemies and the enemies of my friends tremble with fear!" He shouted. For a moment there was silence; he started to feel silly as his eyes darted toward his own portrait.
"I'm different." He said; he began to recall saving the universe from the most feared thing in existence. "Feared thing…" He said as his eyes fell on his tenth incarnation.
"A demi god..." A voice spoke to him out of thin air. The doctor paused for a moment. He knew this voice; it was the voice of a far greater power than him. "Doctor, after all you have been through and all I have seen of you. I am saddened that you bring shame not only on your fellow Time lords; but yourself as well."
"And who are you to judge me?" The Doctor asked; the words biting sharp into his own psych.
" I am known by many names." A man in plain white clothes said appearing to him in the corner of the room. "You know me as the White Guardian." The doctor for the first time in many a year and many a life was frightened, backing hesitantly into the portrait of his third self.
~Allow me to congratulate you, sir. You have the most totally closed mind that I've ever encountered.~ it said in his mind as he immediately sprung for the door. His hands; though however tightly he grasped and turned he could not open the door. He started to panic. Reaching for his sonic screwdriver he adjusted the dials pointing at the door with several clicks and muttering under his tongue about the confounded thing not working.
"Why are you doing this to me?" The Doctor shouted looking in the direction of the White Guardian who was now sitting in his seat.
"If there is one thing you have been good at." The Guardian said placing his hands gently on the armrests. "It's been running away; screwing up…then dragging as many people as you can into your problems to correct it." The doctor; though caught off guard and not taking this volley of insults lightly found himself another chair across from this man. There was no arguing with him; he knew that. He had figured that out the first time when he was dealing with the black guardian.
"Why do this?" The doctor asked. He could still feel the eyes of his former selves boring down on him. He had shown mercy in the past and all it had ever brought him was destruction. "You know my story."
"Yes I do." The White Guardian said with a slight nod. "I also know that you are on your last two regenerations." He said. "I have reached through others, mostly the companions in which you have kept. I have tried to be; through them the voices of reason to keep you off your destructive path." He said pointing to his ninth incarnation. "You were a trouble maker before, but there is where you started your path into which those who care for you could not save you. Did you learn nothing from your trial; or the lesson of the Valeyard?" He asked.
The doctor grimaced as the mention of the Valeyard passed his lips. Yes it had been centuries since that day.
"You have turned into nothing more than a fearful, vengeful…war mongering, time traveling side show." The white guardian said with a little more force. The Doctor bit his lip; no one had dared to speak to him this way; and those that did were companions and others he never listened to. "And I have come to put a stop to this."
The Doctor swallowed hard. So many words he wanted to say but his past lives were getting louder. The scolding of an old man; the disappointments of wandering hobo, he could swear; that for just a moment he could feel Ace's heart breaking. In his vision he could see all of his companions, all painted on oil canvases.
"No…." The Doctor said as he gripped the side of his head. "No!" He yelled louder as his body crumpled to the floor. The white guardian sat unapologetic though it broke his own heart to see such a mighty champion of justice fall so hard. It needed to be done; not just for all of existence but the doctor himself.
When the Doctor woke; he was in a familiar area of London. It was the landfill, the one which he had first arrived to when he landed. Pushing the door open; he saw the Tardis.
"Now you come right back Susan!" The doctor heard his first incarnation shout. The Doctor's eyes watched as the doors opened and Susan; in all her youthful spirited glory. Out she ran to a school where he knew she got bored but sent on a special mission to learn about the planet they had landed on. A sense of peace and ease was high in the air; no threats of Daleks, no weeping angels. No Torchwood or Unit.
It was just an old man, his niece, in the middle of a human landfill.
He walked over to the Tardis but didn't touch it. He still was not sure how this was happening or exactly what was going on. Something on his hand caught his attention; it was a ring of sorts. Making a mental note of this he placed his hand on the door. It squeaked open, as it had always done in the days when the shape shifting controls of the Tardis got stuck.
"Ahh, you're finally here." came the voice of the first doctor. He walked out of one of the rooms; he seemed to covered in engine grease and various other fluids. "So who sent you, the hobo? The aristocrat? Or was it the fool with the celery pinned to his shirt; or; possibly, the fool with no fashion sense?" He said rolling his own eyes at that comment. "Seems my sense of fashion goes out no matter which incarnation I am in." He said as The Doctor blinked for a moment. He reached out to touch his former incarnation when he backed away. "Are you mad? I'm covered in grease." He said as he finally wiped his hands off on his shirt. "Obviously I'm not too bright either."
The Doctor was a bit taken back by this comment, he had remained fervently quiet but it was become more apparent he would need to speak.
"I…I've crossed my own time stream?" He asked.
"No; you are in your own head." The first doctor said as looked at him sternly.
"What's with that look?" The Doctor asked?
"This look?" The first doctor asked pointing to his own face before putting his hand back down. "This is the look I give Susan after she has done something childish and wrong." The first doctor said as The Doctor frowned for a moment. "Do you know how many times I; along with the others have had to sit here. In your head; and watch as you go gallivanting around strutting your stuff? Do you know how irrefutably infuriating it is to know that there has been a death; of any sorts at my very own hands?"
The Doctor watched as he was treated like a little child, the same way his father would scold him when he did something wrong. Infact; when he looked at himself in this life he saw his father.
"Then what are you here for?" The Doctor asked.
"I often ask myself that same question." The First Doctor said as he formed a seat beneath him to take a seat. As he sat down his cold authoritative eyes never left the Doctor. "It was never my intention to be feared any ware in the galaxy. I was a professor. A man of knowledge; someone who prided himself on being of a higher thought process than those of The Master; or anyone else who thought they could outwit me. Instead my knowledge is used for folly lolly gagging and dragging random strangers through the trenches of time. "
The Doctor himself found a seat; the ring on his finger still bothering him somewhat. From what he could tell he was stuck and until the point arrived where he could leave; there was no way he was going to escape the beratment of the old man.
"I'm the last of the Time Lords." The Doctor said finally speaking up. "Yes I know; we all know. Everyone knows." The first doctor said crossing his arms. "And instead of trying to do something about it you have developed an out of sync relationship with a woman named River Song; who by some sort of paradox quandary is a Time Lord as well. "
"I have a feeling I'm not going to get to say much." The Doctor said as the First shook his head. "Not likely; I have a lot of problems with you and I'm going to express them dutifully before you are sent away from here." He said. "Instead of running away from the time war; why didn't you ask for help?" He asked as the Doctor opened his mouth. "Because you think you can saddle everything on your shoulders." The First Doctor said as The Doctor closed his mouth. "Then there was Rose Tyler; then Mickey and your alonsi nonsense." The First Doctor said uncrossing his arms.
"I suppose it is not your entire fault; you are however only the eleventh incarnation. But you are in dangerous waters. "He said. From the doctor came the voice of his fourth incarnation.
~But if I kill... wipe out a whole intelligent life-form... then I become like them. I'd be no better than the Daleks.~ The fourth doctors voice whispered in his ear.
"You are the Daleks..." He said disapprovingly. "And in many cases you have become worse than they could ever hope to be. " The first doctor said as he sighed leaning back in his seat. "I…have done my job now." And with that the First Doctor vanished. The world as the Doctor saw it turned black as those last words echoed in his mind.
The doctor awoke still crumpled on the floor. Sudden realizations all hitting him at once; too many… human feelings began to whirl inside him. He will never admit it; but that night the universe fell silent. Alone, locked in his study…the doctor wept with no one to comfort him.