"So Doctor," wheezed the old man as he clutched to his life support system. "We meet again."
"Maybe for you good sir," said the Doctor, an old looking man with white hair and a mischievous glint in his eyes, "but I'm afraid I'm at a lot to know who you're meant to be."
"How can it be that you do not remember me. Ah but of course. For you it is all about to happen."
"Indeed it seems that way," said the Doctor, clutching his lapels. "So I do not think it would be a good idea for you to reveal too much of my future to me. You can not change history sir. Not one line."
"Oh that's rich," hissed the old man before bursting into a violent cough. "Shall I tell you a story then? A story of love, loss and betrayal? A story of a man who had everything and lost it all?"
The Doctor ran down the corridor as the building shook from another blast. Fine powder rained down into his hair, making his already hobo look seem even more dishevelled. He turned the corner into the main control room.
"Ah," he said. "I thought I might find you here."
"Did you Doctor?" sneered the old man. "You're here just in time. I'm about to activate all of the world's nuclear weapons. End the blasted world in one foul swoop."
"But you can't do that," blustered the Doctor. "What about all the people."
"What about them?" said the man. "Death is inevitable."
"But why would you do such an evil thing?"
"Why Doctor? Why did you do what you did to me? What possessed you to do that?"
"I'm afraid I have no idea. It hasn't happened to me yet."
"I see. So if I kill you..." Without warning he picked up his gun and pulled the trigger.
"Don't you see that this man is a threat Brigadier. You need to storm that base immediately and stop him."
"As much as I'd love too Doctor I still need clearance from Geneva to do it."
"Don't you realise what is at stake man? He has access to the world's nuclear weapons."
"I find that very hard to believe."
"Well you have too because-" The Doctor faulted, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.
"Yes," the Brigadier asked his velvet-wearing friend. The Doctor's exile had made him unpredictable, but his proposal to storm a multi-millionaire's mansion seemed foolhardy.
"Because it's already happened before," admitted the Doctor sheepishly. "In my past. If you don't do it you'll cause a time paradox."
"Be that as it may Doctor, but orders are orders. And I can't act on your suspicions until I receive some."
"But Brigadier-"
"But nothing. Until I get my orders nothing shall be happening!"
"Would you care for a jelly baby?" asked the Doctor, offering it to the guards.
"The boss wants to see you," grunted one of them.
"Oh if you insist," said the Doctor, strolling past the two before they could react. "Come on now. We can't keep him waiting." The two quickly hurried by his side, training their weapons on him.
"Oh stop it," said the Doctor. "Guns make me nervous. Anyway I'm co-operating, aren't I?"
"For now," he continued under his breath as he turned a familiar looking corner and stopped dead in his tracks.
"Ah," he said. "I thought I might find you here."
"Indeed," said the man. "I'm glad you received my invitation."
"Well it'd be rude not to come. You were so insist after all."
"Still flippant Doctor. After all that has happened?"
"Well time heals all wounds, doesn't it."
"No it does not Doctor. Not all. Shall I tell you a story?"
"I refuse to do it," said the Doctor. His youthful features and cricketer like outfit hid his age and weariness.
"No Doctor? I shall think very carefully before you attempt to defy me." He snapped his fingers, a monitoring turning on. On it were his two companions, Tegan and Nyssa, both tied to a stake with a firing squad aimed at them.
"Two? Didn't there use to be three?"
"Let them go. Your quarrel is obviously with me."
"Yes it is Doctor, but still you do not know. No matter. Build for me a device that gives me access to all the world nuclear weapons or your companions will meet their end."
"What you ask of me is impossible."
"Oh come now Doctor. We both know that isn't true. Not for someone with your expertises. Now do what I want or your companions die." The Doctor looked grief-stricken, then sighed.
"Fine," he said. "I'll do it."
"This is outrageous," exclaimed the Doctor, his voice matching his equally loud and distasteful coloured coat. "I demand you let me go."
"Free Doctor?" snarled the man. "When my plans are just about finished? You will co-operate with me and give me what I want."
"A system to link all the nuclear devices together. I already have! Why do you want it again." He realised what he said and cursed out-loud.
"You have? Ah so my future looks bright. Anything else you care to tell me?"
"No man must know about his future. Least of all you."
"I think you'll change your tone after a while," sneered the man, pressing a button. Electricity crackled through the Doctor's body.
"That was on the lowest setting. Tell me what I want to know or I'll turn it up. Five is paralysis. Ten is death. But for you death is temporary. I can do this twelve times. Can you?"
"Do you really think you can escape my prison?" said the man.
"Oh I can escape whenever I want," said the Doctor, a short man with a Scottish accent. "I just want to say sorry."
"So you know why I hate you then?"
"No, but I thought I'd apologize now. Stop what you're doing. Or I will stop you."
"You? The man with many faces? So far I have seen three. I wonder how many more of you are there."
"Wouldn't you like to know," said the Doctor.
"Oh but I do," said the man. "Ever since that day I've been researching you. I've found all sorts of fun stuff about you. Stuff you've done. Stuff you've let to do."
"Well I suggest you let me go. Wouldn't want to damage the timelines now, would we."
"Oh but I would Doctor. If I stop you now you'll never be able to do it. She'll still live."
"Hello there," said the curly-haired man in the Edwardian cloak. "I'm the Doctor."
"Oh I know who you are," sneered the man. "Why are you here?"
"I've come to pay my respects."
"To her? Do you even know what you did?"
"No, not yet. But I came here to help." He pulled out a lottery ticket. "Start a new life somewhere else. Forget all about me. Forget all about this."
"Oh very noble of you," sneered the man. "You'd like that, wouldn't you." He snatched the lotto ticket and put it in his pocket. "Believe me Doctor, this has only just begun. I will have my revenge."
"But why? Why not just leave now. Live your life away from me. I beg of you."
"And give you the satisfaction you want? No Doctor. No I want you to crumble. I want the world to crumble." He tapped his pocket. "And thanks to you I now can."
"I'm sorry," said the Doctor, a short-haired man wearing a leather jacket. "I had to."
"You had to, did you," snarled the man. "You had to shoot my wife. What are you, some sort of psychopath."
"She was infected. Her poison would have spread and destroyed the world. I had to stop it here and now."
"Oh I see. Just one little life against that of the world. Is that all she was too you. Just some random life."
"I'm sorry."
"No I'm sorry Doctor. I'm sorry for trusting you, for believing in you. You promised me that she'd be safe."
"I know, I regret saying that. I never meant for any of this to happen." The man picked up the body of his wife and walked towards the TARDIS.
"Take me back home Doctor," he said with a snarl. "Take me back to Earth. Now." The Doctor unlocked the doors and let his companion inside.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor," said an enthused man wearing a pinstriped suit. "Would you like to come with me and see the universe?"
"Of course," said the woman. She, her husband and the Doctor had just saved the world from an invasion of deadly plants and were ready to go on a trip back to the past. The married couple marvelled at the spaceship that was bigger on the inside than the outside.
"Are we really going back in time?"
"Of course," said the Doctor happily.
"And will it be safe?" asked the man.
"Of course," said the Doctor absent-mindedly, fiddling with the TARDIS control. "In fact there's someone I want you to meet. He's me, but an earlier version of me. A previous incarnation, if you will. Travel with him and make sure he stays safe, will you."
"Why? What do you mean?"
"Just do that for me will you. Trust me, I'm the Doctor."
The Doctor stood over the crib in the hospital, staring at the small baby inside. The name read 'Adam Smith'.
"Oh Adam," said the Doctor sadly. "I'm sorry. I'm oh so sorry." He looked down at the little baby, tears welling up in his eyes.
Sometimes the laws of time were cruel, uncaring. They enslaved people to them and forced them down certain paths. There were things in time, fixed points that could never be changed.
And Adam Smith's life, a life so tied up with the Doctor's, was one of those fixed points in time. Something that was on a set path and nothing he could do would change. He tried to do something about it, Lord knows he'd tried. But even the slightest good that he did seemed to have a ripple effect. The very universe fighting against his changes. He'd been down that road once before, trying to make the rules of time bend to him. He knew he couldn't do it again.
What could be said to the man whose life he was going to unwittingly ruin. A man who was going to go on and cause all sorts of damage. All because of what the Doctor originally did to him.
It was an Ouroboros in brief. An endless cycle of pain and violence. He started it and got stuck in it.
The Doctor sighed and turned to leave. He had work he was forced to do.
"Why do I have to leave them there?" asked the skinny Doctor.
"We both know why we have to," replied the bowtie Doctor.
"But it's cruel and inhumane. Surely there must be another way."
"I wish there was. I truly wish it. But we can't alter fixed points in time and I'm afraid they've become one."
"It isn't fair," said the skinny Doctor. "I don't want to go."
"You remember what happened last time we thought that." The skinny Doctor stood in silence.
"You win."
"How could you," snarled the leather-coat Doctor. "How could you set me up like that."
"They're fixed points. You had to pick them up."
"And let one of them die? Let the other grow up to be a dictator. Why can't we change it."
"Don't say that," said the skinny Doctor. "You don't want to go there. I already have. And it cost innocent lives then as well. If we didn't do it then you know the consequences would be worse."
"Fine. You win then."
"Are you sure giving him a lottery ticket is going to help him out," said the long-haired Doctor. "I still don't even know what I did."
"You don't want to know," said the Doctor sourly. "But hopefully this will help change the future."
"Or set it in stone. It would explain where he got all his money from."
"Do you want to risk damaging the timeline and bringing in the reapers? The Time Lords would happily let this world be torn apart."
"Yes. You win."
"Here's the key," said the Doctor, handing it to his shorter self. "Use it when he leaves."
"And what will you be doing during all this pray tell?"
"I have my own battles to fight. But you know what to do when you get free?"
"But of course. I do have this all planned out you know. But why are we doing this?"
"To ensure history stays on its correct course. There's no interfering with this one I'm afraid. It's fixed."
"I see. You win."
"Thank you," said the Doctor with the horrible coat, shaking hands with his shorter self. "I must say, that was quite a distraction."
"Indeed it was. So you know what to do next?"
"Of course I do. Fortunately I was smart enough to build a fail-safe into the device. I just hope my past self remembers how to use it."
"More importantly you must save our past companions. You know what damage their premature deaths will have on the timeline."
"You're right. So you win."
"Thank you for rescuing us," said Nyssa as the tall blond stranger untied them.
"Whoever you are," added Tegan.
"Never mind who I am," said the stranger. "You need to get out of here. It won't take long for him to realise something's amiss and the Doctor to finish his work. Just tell him what I told you."
"What, to send the invitation out to those co-ordinates. But won't that cause more trouble."
"Just trust me."
"Fine then," said Tegan with a sigh. "You win."
"No thank you," said the Doctor, putting his scarf back on. "I'm afraid I've gotta go do some urgent business. I'd love to stay and chat, but must dash."
"Don't toy with me Doctor. You built this device, I want you to be around when I detonate it."
"I made it, did I? Good thing I'd have put in a safety code like alpha delta sigma charlie omega." There was a bang from deep inside the base.
"I'm afraid I've just stopped you. I win."
"Sir," said Sargent Benton. "It Geneva. They've given us permission to attack the base. Apparently some high-ranking official came in and ordered it. Directly from the Prime Minister himself."
"Well don't just stand there man, get the troops moving. If what the Doctor has been saying is true we don't have much time."
"Tell me Benton, did they describe this chap per chance."
"Yes Doctor. Tall man with a long scarf and floppy hat. Why?"
"Ah," said the Doctor. "Good. Looks like I will win."
The Doctor leapt to safety as the bullet went wide, the gun being shot out of the man's hands. He peered over the console to see who'd saved him.
"Oh good shot Brigadier," said the Doctor. "Just in time."
"Doctor?" said the Brigadier confused.
"No time now, tell your men the reactor has gone critical. It's about to explode and bring down the entire base."
"But-"
"Don't argue with me man, do it!" The Doctor took one last look at Adam. "I'm afraid I win."
"So there you have it," wheezed Adam Smith as he lay there dying. "I escaped, only to be arrested by UNIT. And here I am now. Are you happy Doctor. Are you happy that you destroyed my life."
"I'm sorry," said the Doctor. "But by telling me this you set that future in stone. Even if I forget there is nothing I can do to change it. It's Ouroboros."
"Then that is your punishment. You shall suffer knowing what you did to me. I win."