" Where are you?"
The young boy sighed, blinking in the dim evening twilight. He stood waste high in the rust colored grass. His earth tone robes and dark hair making him seem to be dissolving bit by bit as the red orb in the sky dipped lower and lower . Only his pale face and bright blue eyes stood out undiminished.
" Theta Sigma, come out !"
The boy gave an exasperated huff. He was getting impatient. The evening curfew bells from the academy were ringing. They would be punished. He shook his head and turned to go. He hadn't gone far when a hand suddenly shot out from a group of bushes and grabbed his leg. He gasped.
" Kos, it's me! Get in here!"
"Theta? What.."
" Shut up!"
A pair of arms shot out and dragged him down into the branches.
" Ow! Theta! What are you doing?!"
A brown eyed boy with untidy dark hair grinned at him .
"Hiding stupid!"
" You are in so much trouble! The Elders are furious!"
"That's why I'm hiding, idiot!"
The blue eyed boy frowned.
"Why did you have to run? They'll send you home! Then you'll never be a Time Lord!"
The dark eyed boy seemed unbothered by this fact.
"I'll always be a Time Lord. So will you. It's who we are, they just teach us the rules."
"We need to go back, Theta. It's getting dark…you hate the dark!"
The brown haired boy sighed.
" You're right, Kos. Let's go."
They crawled out from under the bracken and started slowly back toward the academy. The shadows were darker than ever and growing darker still.
" Was it that terrible?" asked the blue eyed boy slinking closer to his friend as the darkness gathered.
"No, Kos. It wasn't terrible at all. It was beautiful."
"Then why did you run?"
The other boy was silent for a time. He seemed to be searching for the right words.
" I ran because it was too much. Too beautiful, too big, too amazing. It hurt me to look at it."
They walked in silence for a time. When the blue eyed boy spoke again, his voice was reverant.
" What did you see?"
"We're not supposed to tell."
"Oh come on! What did you see?"
The brown eyed boy gave a sigh. His voice was full of wonder.
"I saw everything, Kos. Everything! The entire universe. Planets, stars and more, so much more. I could feel time flowing all around me like the ripples in the grass when wind blows. I could feel lives being born and fading all around me. It was amazing!"
The blue eyed boy sighed .
"You're lucky, they say you can see terrible things in the schism."
" Well, next year you'll see for yourself."
Suddenly the dot of a lantern appeared a ways in the distance and the voice of an elder could be heard.
"KOSCHEI ! THETA SIGMA!"
The boys cringed .
"I think we're going to see terrible things right now, Kos." Said the dark eyed boy his eyes still closed.
Hand in hand they walked forward.
The moonlight fell in silver shadows over the dormitory room. Theta lay wide awake in the dark. Most Time Lord Children needed more rest then an adult time Lord as they had not yet learned to maximize their energy . But Theta was usually the exception, he could rarely sleep for long. No matter how much his body needed rest his mind had other ideas. Tonight was no exception.
Theta's large, brown, eyes followed the paths of the two moons as they inched across the sky, his eyes mapping constellations of stars instinctively. He whispered the names of them to himself in the dark.
" The Scales Of Justice, The Emperors Garden, The Tower, The Angel's ring."
His mind mapped the orbit of planets around the suns and moons around the planets. The trajectory of stars and any other thing he could find to distract himself from actual thought. But the memories came any way.
He thought of his family. A family he would likely never see again.
His Mother, dead now for years and his Father who he was now dead to . His father had never forgiven him for being born compassionate. He wanted a son more like the other Military Captains had, someone strong and tough. A good recruit for the Galifreyan army.
Instead, he had gotten him. Shy, sensitive, prone to tears and a Time Lord. Though his father never really cared much about the last fact.
When they had come for him to take him to the academy his father was more surprised then reluctant.
"This one?! You want him? You might as well, he's not fit to be a soldier. But don't get your hopes up, odds are he'll never make a Time Lord either."
It had taken Theta a long time to get over that remark and even now he still had trouble believing it wasn't true.
He rubbed at his eyes fiercely trying to stop the tears. Time Lords remember everything…EVERY THING. Sometimes he thought it would drive him mad, other times he wondered if it already had.
He closed his eyes hoping to lose himself in a trance, but just as he felt himself floating off he heard a noise. There were a lot of noises as one would expect in a dorm full of young boys. But this one stood out.
If anyone else had heard it they might have thought someone was trying to smother a kitten. A very angry kitten. As it was, Theta knew the sound immediately and it brought him back to full consciousness. He rolled his eyes and stepped out of bed.
Edging carefully through the dark, like someone trying to out run something very carefully he made his way toward one of the bunks. He knelt beside it and layed a hand gently on the lump of blankets from which the sound was coming.
"Kos? Kos, wake up!
The sound rose into a smothered scream, Theta shook his friend. "KOS!"
The boys blue eyes snapped open and for a moment stared blankly into Theta's own. Then they blinked.
"Theta?"
"Who else would it be? You had another nightmare."
The boy groaned.
"Did the others hear?"
" No, I don't think so."
"Good."
Theta was suddenly aware of a pressure on his arm. He looked down to find his friend had grabbed it and now had a death grip on it as though he were afraid his friend would disappear.
" It's OK, Kos." He said, " It was just a dream.
The grip loosened slightly.
" You must think I'm such a coward."
Theta smiled, " He says to the Time Lord that's afraid of the dark."
Kos smiled, then his mouth turned down into a frown.
"You've been crying."
Theta brushed at his face irritably.
"So what if I have?"
Kos's voice was scolding, "You shouldn't cry Theta. If The Elders see you..you'll never be a Time Lord if you don't learn control!"
"Shut up! " said Theta, " Don't say that to me!" Then he took a deep breath and steadied his tone. " Sorry."
" It's Ok, I understand. I just don't want them to send you away. You really wouldn't be a Time Lord then."
"I'll always be a Time Lord. So will you. The academy doesn't make us Time Lords, it's who we are. They just teach us the rules."
Kos sighed, " Theta, if you leave me here with these people I swear…"
Theta chuckled, " You worry too much, Kos."
"You don't worry enough."
Theta yawned.
" I'm going back to bed. Are you all right now? No more screaming?"
Kos's eyes flicked over his face. He felt the tap on his brain instantly.
"Oi! Kos, get out of my head!"
Kos, smiled smugly. "You're scared."
" You didn't need to read my mind to find that out."
Kos's smile widened to a grin. " No I didn't."
"You know I hate it!"
" Yup."
"You're a…"
Kos cut him off, "Careful Theta. Remember, choose your words."
Theta paused for a moment. "Nope, still pratt. I'm going now."
Theta sat for a moment staring into the shadows willing his legs to move. Suddenly something grabbed his arm and he yelped. Then he heard Kos's half smothered giggle.
"Gotcha!"
Theta wacked him on the shoulder, "That's not funny!"
"Theta, just stay here! We're friends, who cares?"
Theta shook his head, "No, I'm OK."
He stood and turned, then froze.
"Kos.."
"Yeah?"
"Shift!"
Theta leapt into the bunk making sure to keep his feet well clear of the space under the bed.
"Ow!" said Kos, rubbing his head where it had bounced off the top bunk. "Why do you DO that?!"
"Sorry," said Theta, " It was just this dream I had once. It felt really real."
"I know about that." Kos spoke to the wall, his blankets forming a protective cocoon around him.
"What do you dream, Kos?"
Kos was silent for a moment his fingers tracing random projects on the wall. Finally he spoke.
"Nothing."
Theta sighed, rolling over. " Fine, be that way."
Kos rolled back to face his friend.
"No Theta! That IS what I dream about. Nothing."
Theta rolled back over. " How can you dream about nothing?"
" I don't know…I just do. It's dark. Really dark. No stars, no planets, not even the light behind your eyes when you close them. "
Theta listened, enthralled.
" There's no ground under my feet. I feel like I'm just floating or like I don't even exist. When I try to scream there's no sound…."
"And?" Theta prompted.
"That's when I hear them."
"Hear what?"
" The drums."
"Drums?"
"Yeah."
Kos tapped a rapid rhythm of four beats on the wall. Theta groaned.
"It's your heart beat, stupid!"
But he could feel himself trembling.
" It is not!" said Kos defensively. " It's different! It's faster! Does THIS sound like a heartbeat to you?!"
He began tapping the rhythm again.
"OK, Kos! I believe you!"
The tapping stopped.
"I don't care if you believe me! I know what I hear!"
There was a moment of silence, then Theta spoke.
"Well, at least you don't have to worry about that here."
"Why?"
"Listen!"
"What?" asked Kos impatiently.
"Just listen!"
Stillness surrounded them and in that stillness, sound. Rustling, snores, murmurs, bed springs creaking, the murmur of sleeping children and from somewhere far in the back of the room a very rude noise.
The boys giggled.
"Does that sound like nothing to you?" asked Theta.
"No." said Kos, smothering another laugh. " and it definitely doesn't sound like drums."
When they had settled down again and sleep was just settling over them, Kos spoke quietly.
"Theta?"
"Go to sleep, Kos."
"I will. I just wanted to ask something. Theta….if something goes wrong during my initiation. If I come out of it different somehow. If I'm …not right. Will we still be friends?"
Theta's eyes popped open in the darkness, the seriousness of Kos's words hitting him like a stone between the eyes.
"Of course, you idiot." He said, " We'll always be friends."
"Really?"
"Time Lords don't lie."
"Yes they do!"
" Not this Time Lord, not to you. Sorry, Kos. You're stuck with me for a long time."
Silence fell then. After a time the sound of Kos's deep, regular breathing came from beside him.
Theta's eyes remained open. He reached out his hand and found Kos's in the darkness.
"If they take you away from me, if they hurt you, I'll never forgive them. Never. I swear."
Then his eyes closed and he was asleep.