As this is my first fan fiction, any feedback and/or criticism is welcome. :) I promise that I won't abandon it, and I can't remember a promise I have ever broken.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. All original characters, items and places are not mine, they're BBC's, those lucky people.
Prologue
My life has been filled with sorrow, grief and hate. All 850 years. My home, family and friends are dead. In fact, my entire planet was destroyed in a great war, called the Time War. None survived the attack except for I, and one other. No one knows his true name, not even I, but he goes by the Doctor. And he is my older brother.
Chapter 1
He doesn't know I'm still alive, let alone exist. The Oracle of The Lost told my parents after my birth that a battle would kill all but my brother and I.
A time of blood and death shall come,
when time itself shall become undone.
Only two children, brave and bold,
shall escape the danger I have foretold.
The Oncoming Storm will fight for his life
and the Silvered Lightning must heal the strife.
But the storm must never see
the other who shall flee.
Otherwise the Time Lords shall fall
Bringing the end of life for once and all.
Mother and Father took me to the Citadel, and never told my brother I was alive. My earliest memory is of my mother, sobbing, taking me to the bright halls of the Citadel. There I studied under the care of Lianna the Pathfinder.
The Pathfinder taught me how to fly a TARDIS, a time travelling machine that only Time Lords had. The Pathfinder also brought my parents into the Citadel once a year to see me. In these yearly meetings my parents showed me pictures of my older brother when he was a little Time Lord nearly 65 years ago. I even got to see a recording of his naming ceremony when he was 8, where he chose his name, The Doctor. My ceremony was held privately, where I picked the name Nightingale, a Earth bird that is also known as the night songstress. It is a peaceful bird, whose song brings hope wherever it goes. My parents told me that The Doctor had been a terrible Time Student and barely passed each grade. He fled from the Untempered Schism during Initiation for the Academy of the Time Lords and got Fs in his Time Flux, History, Future, and TARDIS ed classes. I did not have my brother's, shall we say, lack of brains, and got straight As in all classes.
My brother did have a kind heart, which made up for his terrible grades. Unfortunately, that kind heart was his undoing. A year before I was born, he helped save a young Sontaran named Strax from execution. Strax was returned to his time period, but the Doctor was faced with execution from existence itself. He escaped the Time Lords in a type 40 faulty TARDIS with his granddaughter Susan. He was said to have an unknown accomplice who helped, a young girl who was seen on security footage, guiding the Doctor to the TARDIS. He must have regenerated while in the TARDIS or something, because the next time I saw him he was about 10 years younger.
Father taught me about a different enemy of the Time Lords each year. I learned about the Slitheen when I was 5, the Silence when I was 6, Weeping Angels when I was 7 and so on. I was given exams on each one, where I would be faced with a hologram of the enemy and had to defeat it. This was to ensure that on the rare case I would be faced with one of them, I would be prepared. The Slitheen were by far the easiest, for I simply had to find some vinegar in my kitchen before entering the exam, and splash it on the Raxacoricofallapatorian. The Silence were harder, since I forgot them the moment I turned away, so I did my best to keep it in sight, and whenever I did look away, I looked at my arm, where I had put in tally marks the number of silence by me. Once I found one, I would shoot it down with a bow, the only thing time ladies were allowed to fight with. Weeping Angels were the most difficult to beat, since you couldn't really hurt stone. I eventually figured out that the weeping angels were like the Earth myth Medusa, who couldn't see her reflection, so I covered myself in mirrors. When I turned 15, I was taught about the Daleks, the deadliest foe of the Time Lords. They could not be shot with a bow, and their rays would instantly trigger regeneration. I didn't need an exam for them, because that was the year they came to take my family away forever.
They came in the early morning, when the suns were just starting to rise, their rays bouncing off the gleaming walls of the city, and the burnt orange sky blazed as dawn peaked. Their ships covered both suns, casting darkness upon the people. Billions upon Billions of them. Some of the Gallifreyans tried to flee. TARDISes were destroyed before they could even properly dematerialize, and the Daleks killed adults and children alike. Yells of "Exterminate! Exterminate!" filled the air. From the Citadel tower, where I had been watching some children that day, I had a perfect view of the entire city of Arcadia. I saw my father and brother, who had returned to Gallifrey, fighting side by side along the frontal lines. At one point my brother looked up at the tower I was at and I backed away from the window, fearing that he had seen me. The Oracle of the Lost was never wrong, and was the very prophet of the High Council themselves. If she said that my brother could not see me, he couldn't see me. My race killed thousands of daleks, but for every dalek that fell, two more rolled into its place. Slowly, the Time Lords were overwhelmed.
I saw my father fall. He was crying silently as his friends lay dead or dying. He fought valiantly until the very end, blasting daleks this way and that with his laser. But even my father couldn't keep back millions of daleks forever. I cried out in horror as his body flashed and collapsed. My mom, appeared out of nowhere, screaming curses at the daleks, running to her husband. The same dalek that had shot my father turned to Mother. She never saw it coming. "Exterminate!" It was the lowliest form of attack, a shot to the back, but I supposed that in war you don't have time to follow the rules. My brother stopped fighting and just looked at our parents. There was an expression on his face that seemed like a mix of horror, anguish, despair and were both waiting for a regeneration that would never happen. The dalek emperor had created a special laser for his army that would force a time lord to lose all his or her regenerations when hit. I heard him scream the words "No More," and turned right around, heading towards the Time Vaults. I wondered what he could possibly want there, since all the weapons were long gone, used to fight the daleks. As I watched my city fall, I fell to my knees. The Citadel was the home of the Time Lords, and would be a big target. The prophet had been right. Destruction had come. I held the children close to me and waited for death.