All rights for Doctor Who are the BBC's. I own nothing.
AN: Just in that sort of mood, I guess.
"No one should have that much power."
The words echoed in his head over and over, as if there was someone inside, playing them on repeat. Again and again he'd heard Adelaide's voice telling him it was wrong; again and again he'd heard her telling him that what he did was too much, even for the alien he was. Even for a Time Lord.
What did she know, anyway?
Time Lord Victorious can't be wrong, he thought. He was the only who survived; the only Time Lord still in existence; and that could mean but one thing: that he was the only one to still hold that kind of power. He and he alone.
Because the thing was, the Time Lords were the most powerful species in the universe. In any and every universe, actually. There was almost nothing they couldn't do, and there was no one - not even the Daleks - who knew that as well as he did. They could change time and space; create and destroy; save or doom. They could alter the course of events; erase the existence of species and planets. They could travel between the universes.
They could travel between universes.
Ever since that day, in Canary Wharf, there was only one thing the Doctor could think of. Whether it was in the back of his mind or the main issue he was facing, it was always there. Crossing the Void. Travelling between the universes. Seeing Rose.
Anything to see his Rose again.
When they died, the universes shifted. Changed. Everything the Time Lords could do died with them, burned that day with Gallifrey and the Daleks. In that exact moment, the very second he burned them all, the universes changed. Every universe. Every bit of creation was altered. There was nothing anyone could ever do to change it. The moment he decided to go through with it, to destroy Gallifrey, everything the Time Lords could do was gone.
He saw it when he took Rose back in time to meet her father. He saw it - briefly - when the Master returned and reminded him of everything they've lost. He saw it when he and Donna visited Pompeii and had to make that horrible choice to destroy it and everyone on it to save mankind.
Even he couldn't do the things the Time Lords used to do. He, the only Time Lord still alive.
But if he couldn't do it, if nothing of the Time Lords remained, what was the point of everything they've done while they were still alive?
If there was one thing he could do to check it, if there was one thing he could do to see if maybe, just maybe, he could still do what the Time Lords used to do, it was trying to change a Fixed Point in time. Because if he could change one Fixed Point - and such an important point like Adelaide Brooke's death - there was nothing he couldn't do. Not even the walls between realities could resist him.
He would be able to see Rose again.
She knew nothing about Rose, about the reasons he did things. She knew nothing about his pain. She knew nothing about how tired he was of losing the people he loved, over and over again.
So who was she to say Time Lord Victorious was wrong?
He was the only one who could have that kind of power. He deserved to have that kind of power. He had to have it.
"Is there nothing you can't do?" She asked, and he could see in her eyes just how much she despised him in that moment; how she despised what he did in that moment.
"Not anymore," He responded just as fiercely. Because there was nothing he couldn't do, not anymore. That was the only thing the universe could give him after everything it took from him. He had the only right to have this power.
And when he turned around after she left, when he headed back to his TARDIS, the only thing he could think of was that it was over. All those years of self-loathing and loneliness, they were all over. He could do anything. He could save everyone. And most importantly, he could see Rose again.
His Rose. He'd lost her so many times now that he thought he probably wouldn't be able to survive meeting her again. His hearts would surely burst. But what did it matter if she was there?
That's when he'd heard the sound of the laser blast.
His last thought, as he faced the Ood, was that it really was over. For him, anyway. It was time. Perhaps the Time Lord Victorious really was wrong, just like Adelaide said. Perhaps he really did try to get hold of too much power. But none of it mattered, because he would soon be dead. Alone. Without the only person he wanted there by his side.
Rose.