The Legend of Gallifrey Part Nine: Secrets of the Daleks
The Last Great Time War had been taking a toll on the Doctor, if he could still call himself that. Not only had his hair recently finished transitioning to gray, but he'd also grown a beard. He'd been subconsciously trimming it and shaving around it over the last few years. It was the first time in his long, long life that he'd had a beard for any extended period of time.
Of course, time was the key thing here. This war was being fought all across it, making it seem like a literal eternity to the people of the universe. They were calling this the Last Great Time War, which seemed rather strange to the Doctor. It wasn't great at all. The Doctor had been forced to kill more people than he'd ever had to before. This war had turned him into something he never wanted to be, and he wasn't sure how he could live with this, if he ever survived.
He sat in his TARDIS, on his way back from the battle of the Hand of Omega to Arcadia, the capital of Gallifrey. Even through all this, the noise of the TARDIS still remained the same. It almost annoyed him, that the TARDIS could remain the same while he couldn't.
The noise suddenly stopped, and the TARDIS became eerily silent. The Doctor (no, not the Doctor anymore) stood up. He could still sense the Vortex outside the TARDIS walls, but they were not moving through it any more. They were simply floating.
He walked over to the console, flipping a switch and yanking a lever. The TARDIS started up again, heading for Gallifrey. Was that a simple glitch, or something worse?
He suddenly got a feeling in his gut, like he was going to be sick. Something in the TARDIS was giving off something that contradicted time. Had it stowed away during the battle? The only way to find out was to enlist the Time Lord's help.
The TARDIS materialized in the war control room, and the Doctor stepped out (Why did he keep thinking of himself as the Doctor? He wasn't anymore). The General ran over to him.
"Doctor!" he said. "I take it the battle of the Hand was successful?"
"Stop calling me the Doctor."
"What shall we call you then?"
"John Smith will do for now."
The General nodded.
"I need your help with something," said the Doctor. "Something's in my TARDIS, and I need you to find it."
The General walked over to the control station and pressed a button. Immediately, the station shorted out and began beeping loudly. The General flew backwards and landed on his back on the floor.
"Wh… what was that?" John asked.
"Whatever is inside your TARDIS is resistant to our scanners," the General told him, as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"But Time Lord scanners can detect anything," said John. "That's impossible."
The General shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you should get someone else's help. I can give you the time signature of the Time Lord who owned the TARDIS before it was in the repair shop."
It had never occurred to John that the TARDIS had had a previous owner, but now it seemed like a 'no-duh' sort of idea.
"Who is it?" he asked.
"A Time Lady by the name of Linina. She now lives a few hundred miles outside the city, and last I heard she was refusing to fight. She's an old lady on her last regeneration, so I guess it would make sense."
John opened the door to the TARDIS, then stopped and turned around towards the General.
"I'm sorry General, but I never asked your name," he said.
"Soorya," he said. "I don't suppose there's any point in asking yours?"
John shook his head. "John Smith for now, until I get the right to call myself Doctor again, and who knows when that will be."
He stepped back into his TARDIS, immediately getting that feeling again, but he ignored it and set the coordinates for Linina's house.
It was a tiny place for a tiny woman. Linina was no taller than 5'2", with extremely gray hair and a withered face and body. She had a wooden cane engraved with gallifreyan writing and hunched over it as she walked, when she did. She wore old-style robes of a Time Lord, the ones that were silver and green and didn't include crazy collars and hats. She seemed very nice, as when John walked up to her front door she immediately offered him tea and biscuits, Earth-London style.
"I know you," she said. "You're that bloke from the news-blasts about the War! The Doctor, wasn't it?"
"Not anymore." John sat down on a white couch, after brushing off a few layers of dust. "I actually came to talk to you about my TARDIS."
"Oh, that old thing? It's directional circuits broke after I'd had it only a century. I'd come to like it, but it needed to be repaired. Then I got the message saying it'd been stolen. That was the message that made me decide to go out for politics rather than adventuring. Even though I liked that TARDIS, I suppose I should thank you."
John smiled. "Thank you, and I appreciate it, but I need to talk to you about something else."
Linina sat down shakily on a tatty blue chair opposite John. "Is something wrong with it?" she asked.
"You could say that," John said. "I was returning to the High Council when I sensed something that contradicted time. Did you maybe pick up anything while you were observing the universe for the Time Lords?"
Her face turned dark. "You could say that. You said you were the Doctor? I'm sorry, my hearing's been fading lately."
John nodded. "I used to be the Doctor, yes, but after all the fighting I've done I've lost the right to call myself that. I need to know about what you picked up."
Linina stood up slowly. "Good to know, then," she said.
A closet door behind her opened, revealing a spinning purple portal. It was eerily silent, until four black shapes appeared deep inside it. As they came closer, their outlines solidified, and they rolled out of the portal.
Daleks. Linina was in league with the Daleks.
"You are the Doctor. You are a Time Lord, and an enemy of the Daleks. You will surrender to us your craft and your regenerations."
John was shocked. Why was Linina, a Time Lady, working with the Daleks, the number one enemy of the Time Lords? What had they promised her? He decided the best way was to ask.
"Linina, whatever they've promised you, they're lying. The Daleks have never stuck to an agreement in their life," he said.
"It doesn't matter what they will do, I can do it for myself. The Daleks stored something on my TARDIS when I first met them, and all this time it's been growing and maturing. From what I gather from what you've told me, it can use its power now, and the Daleks need it. When they're done with it, they won't need the TARDIS. They'll leave it to me as they eliminate Gallifrey, and when they leave I'll come down and pick up as many regenerations as I can hold and fly off to live the rest of my life among the stars."
"What is in my TARDIS?" asked John, with a more angry tone.
"Victory," said one of the Daleks. "The Victory of the Daleks."
The Daleks escorted John outside towards where he'd parked the TARDIS, then they insisted he open it, and they rolled inside. Linina brought up the rear, walking slowly with her cane and her hunch. The TARDIS rumbled slightly when she entered.
Two Daleks went ahead with the other two behind John, their guns trained on him. Linina followed behind, moving as fast as she could in order to keep up with the others. The Daleks seemed to know where they were going, and directed John and Linina as the group made their way through the TARDIS corridors.
The Daleks guided John into an area of the TARDIS that he'd never been in before, down a Dalek-themed hallway towards a door with a glowing ball on the wall next to it. One of the Daleks pressed the ball with its plunger arm, and the door slid upwards, revealing a big, dark room, with the walls hidden in the darkness.
In the center of the room was a large, black shape that seemed to be moving up and down, like it was breathing. It was also making noises like it was, in fact, breathing.
The two Daleks moved over to the creature and around to the other side. The creature shifted and looked like it was slowly standing up. It made a grunting noise, and something in John's stomach moved, making him feel as if he was going to throw up for a moment.
The creature stood up and turned towards John and Linina. It was about 6 ¾ feet tall and had skin that seemed to be similar to humans, but all across his body it was covered in scars and masses of scar tissue. It wore a gentleman's suit and top hat, with a black suit jacket, black pair of pants, a black top hat, black bow tie, and white collared shirt under it all, with a red rose stuck into its lapel. And on top of it all, it had a blank face with a slash across it like a crack in its face, and several smaller cracks spreading across its face and around the back of its head. It bowed its head towards John, and a raspy voice spoke in his mind.
"Hello, Doctor," it said. "You may call me the Nightmare Child."
The Daleks rolled up beside the Nightmare Child and turned towards it. "Entity (designation: Nightmare Child) will come with us. You are the creation of the Daleks, and you will answer to us!"
"Oh, of course, yes. Death to the Time Lords!" it said. "Lead the way, my fine fellows!"
The Daleks escorted John, Linina, and the Nightmare Child out through the TARDIS, where a hoard of Time Lord warships was on the horizon, heading towards the house. They'd undoubtedly detected an unauthorized rift in spacetime, as well as Dalek DNA.
The Nightmare Child's face shifted slightly, like it was trying to smile despite the lack of a visible mouth. Then its suit melted into its scarred skin, which turned gray and Dalek-y as it began to grow to almost fifty feet tall. Its face grew big black eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth the size of people, and Dalek tentacles extruded from its chin. Then it roared.
Behind the group, Linina's house imploded into the portal as it grew larger, and several Dalek ships flew out. The Time Lord warships fired on the Daleks, destroying one and damaging two others. The remaining Dalek ships fired back, damaging four Time Lord ships.
The Nightmare Child swung its huge hand at one of the Time Lord ships, swatting it into the ground. Another Time Lord ship tried to fire on it, but the lasers simply bounced off. The Nightmare Child growled at the warships, then stepped forward and snapped its jaws at the ship that fired on it, and the ship was swallowed. The Nightmare Child roared and grew larger.
The Daleks that had been guarding John and Linina apparently decided that the Time Lords were more important , because they lifted into the air and flew up to one of their ships. Linina watched the battle with a disturbing satisfaction.
"Was this what you wanted?" John asked. "An all-out battle on Gallifrey between the Daleks and Time Lords?"
"Oh, this was exactly what I wanted, Doctor," said Linina. "Once the Daleks have won, Gallifrey will be desolate. Then I can take my TARDIS back from you and travel across the ruins, soaking up all the unused regeneration energy."
"You're insane."
"Yep."
"You're coming with me." John grabbed Linina by the arm and dragged her into the TARDIS, and she fell to the floor. The TARDIS rumbled slightly again when she entered, but with less intensity, as if it was giving up hope on her. John ran to the controls and pulled a lever, and the TARDIS lifted off the ground.
Linina stood up slowly, laughing. Her hands began to glow, and she stumbled towards John on her withered legs. She was aiming to steal his remaining regenerations.
John ran to the opposite side of the console and pulled a lever. Linina's hands stopped glowing, and her face turned angry.
"I forgot I installed that," she said. "The ability to cancel out regeneration energy. How long have you known about it?"
"Oh, since day one. I could sense it when I first stepped in."
Linina collapsed into the seat, and John brought the monitor over to where he stood flying the TARDIS around the battle. The Nightmare Child seemed to be wiping out the Time Lords since none of their time-based weapons worked on it.
"Doctor," it said in his mind, in the same raspy voice as when they'd first met. "I do hope you aren't planning to attack me like those other foolish Time Lords. Time weapons won't work on me, I was created in the paradox."
The paradox again. John had been running into the results of the paradox practically since he left Gallifrey the first time. He had been getting closer to what it was, but he hadn't run into the effects since before the war started almost 300 chronological years ago.
"And a paradox is a hole in time," John said. "Anything created inside it would be immune to its effects. But the Daleks don't have the technology to do that. How do you exist?"
"The Daleks didn't create me, they only discovered me," said the Nightmare Child. "I was created by someone else entirely."
"Who?"
"You, Doctor."
That comment hit John like the Nightmare Child had smacked the TARDIS into another universe.
"Me?" he said. "How could I create you? How could I create anything like you?"
"You haven't yet," it said. "You have yet to enter the paradox. But just wait until you do."
Then the Nightmare Child raised its hand and smacked a Dalek ship. It grabbed another one and ate it, growing even larger. A signal came through on the TARDIS radio; a Dalek cry for help in the voice of the Dalek creator Davros.
A thought began to form in John's mind, something that might work if A) the TARDIS had enough power, and B) he was crazy enough to try.
"Linina," he said. "You're crazy and self-absorbed and obsessed with your own continued existence, but you were present when this TARDIS was born. Whatever it thinks of you, it will do what you say, and you know everything about it, even more than I do. I need your help."
She looked up at him, grinning. "And what would make me help you?" she asked.
"I've become a hero in the High Council," John replied. "I can get them to give you a full new set of regenerations, if you can get this TARDIS to have enough power to pull a creature of non-time off of Gallifrey, then I'll get them to do it."
She thought for a moment. "Hand me my walking stick," she finally said.
John ran over and grabbed the stick and brought it over to her, and she hoisted herself up and shuffled over to the console. She began typing and pulling levers and pressing buttons, and suddenly the round things on the walls of the TARDIS began to brighten.
"Ah, they're lights," said John.
"What was that?" Linina asked.
"Never mind, just answering old questions," he replied.
The TARDIS lurched as John and Linina hooked onto the Nightmare Child's non-temporal signature, and the lights began to flicker and dim as they pulled it into the Vortex.
"We need somewhere to land it," Linina said. "Somewhere where it won't do any trouble for a while."
"Or we can redirect its power," John said. "Bring it to Skaro, a ways off so they'll see it coming."
Linina nodded and spun a lever, and the TARDIS exited the Vortex on Skaro. With a shudder, the Nightmare Child was dragged out behind them and into a mountain, and the TARDIS entered the Vortex again.
This time John took over, directing them into the High Council chamber. The General was happy to see they'd both survived.
John helped Linina out of the TARDIS and into the war room. "This woman helped me save Gallifrey, and she's nearing the end of her life. Can you fix that?"
The General nodded. "As a reward, we will grant you another set of lives." HE stepped backwards and held up a vial filled with golden energy. He pulled the top off, and the energy flowed out of the vial and into Linina, then Linina's wrinkled skin began to glow, sending the golden regeneration energy off in all directions.
Seconds later, the energy stopped. Linina's life had been reset. She now had the face of a twenty-year-old, with long, curly blonde hair and a pointy nose, green eyes and a tight mouth. She grabbed her face in excitement.
"It worked!" she yelled in happiness. Her voice had a moderate pitch, and when she spoke she seemed to slur certain letters together.
"It did work," said the General. We have granted you a new set of 12 regenerations, 11 now. We also have one more gift for you."
Linina looked up, excited. "What else have I earned?"
"A prison sentence of 5 lifetimes, for allowing the enemy access to the planet Gallifrey. It will be served consecutively."
Her face hardened, and two guards grabbed her around the arms. She looked at John with a hateful expression.
"You gave me hope for life," she said. "Then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone angry."
John stepped back into his TARDIS, on his way back into the fight, but he was expecting something else, and as he stepped inside his suspicions were rewarded.
"Your fight can wait, Doctor," said M. This time, she wore a red T-shirt with a dark grey collared shirt buttoned up halfway, and a pair of tan pants with her signature red converse sneakers.
"The paradox needs you more than any of your other faces," she said. "Not only can it not form without you, but it also cannot be fixed without your help."
"But ultimately, it's up to you." Another person walked out of the shadows. This person wore a white collared shirt with a black suit jacket, black pants and black suit shoes. "Whether or not you listen to someone who won't tell you who they are, that's your choice."
M gave Rassilon a scowl, then she turned towards John. "Almost all the main players in this little adventure are here. You still have one more person to recruit, and you'll be meeting him again very soon," she said.
Rassilon lifted his nose. "That, she's right about. This may be the most important player on the board, and likely the one you'll get along with the best, even better than a mysterious woman and a man you trapped in an alternate universe."
"And you two expect me to leave my people to fend for themselves while I go off on some crazy adventure that was presented to me by a mysterious woman with a mystery complex and a crazed overlord who fancies himself a god?" John asked.
"While your war is widely believed to be destroying time, this 'crazy adventure' will repair a blemish on time that has been threatening to destroy it for a long time," M said. "This paradox may very well be more deadly to time than anything the Time War could cook up."
John stood there, considering M and Rassilon. Even though he knew next to nothing about M, she'd never led him astray and always helped him when he needed. Rassilon, on the other hand, had taken every chance to deceive and control him when he was the Doctor. Ultimately, M was the better choice. He just hoped M wasn't deceiving him like Rassilon.
"You two'd better get out of here," he said. He walked over to the console and put his hand on a lever. Rassilon's face hardened, but he turned and walked into the hallway that lead to the rest of the TARDIS, and a dematerialization noise echoed into the console. M activated her Vortex Manipulator, and she vanished into a cloud of dust.
John pulled a lever, and the TARDIS spiraled, once again into paradox. For the moment, he was the Doctor again.