Chapter 2: A Message from the Past
The Doctor re-materialized the TARDIS in the same room where the message was sent out. The Doctor opened the doors and stepped outside. He found nothing. The room looks abandoned and barren like nobody lived here for the past many years.
There's a window opening on the Doctor's right side, with winds blowing the curtain away towards the Doctor's face. The Doctor immediately walks a few steps forward and pulled out his sonic screwdriver to scan the area. Clara came out right behind him and noticing the same thing what the Doctor was seeing.
"Well, looks like this place needs some fixing," commented Clara as she looked around and realized that she is now in Tibet, which is one of the 101 places she likes to go.
"Where is that Rinpoche fellow? Why would he send a message that lists the coordinates at an area where he's not present?" The Doctor looked around and examine the surroundings. The Doctor went to the Rinpoche's bed and the sonic screwdriver detected another white message cube.
"Doctor, who is this Rinpoche guy?" asked Clara, being curious to see what is going on.
"Oh Rinpoche, is just a good friend of mine awhile back. He was a Time Lord back on Gallifrey during my younger years. He used to be called the Hermit. He was a great mentor and a surrogate father to me during my days at the academy. He used to tell me stories about the Grandfather Paradox and other Gallifreyan legends that used give me nightmares at night."
"So, where is he now? Don't tell me that we're just getting a message from a dead Time Lord."
"Shhh...quiet, I think I found something that may answer our questions."
The Doctor snuck his hand below the bed bunk and pulled out the message cube. This time the message cube contains the family crest of Rinpoche's and the Doctor's.
The Doctor activated the message cube with his sonic screwdriver and a holographic projection of the lost great Time Lord appeared. This frightened both Doctor and Clara at first, causing the Doctor dropped the cube on the floor. The Doctor immediately put it back on its proper position to see the great abbot Rinpoche standing right in front them.
"Doctor, it's been a very long time since your courageous battle against the Spiders of Metebelis III. By the time you receive this message, I am already long gone, somewhere far away in space and time, somewhere I cannot mention and somewhere you may have forgotten by now due to the ill-effects of Post-regeneration amnesia. But hopefully you will remember and once you do, you would know the reason why I send you this message. By now, you are probably in your 11th body and there isn't much time."
As the Doctor watches and listens to the message, The Doctor begins to shed a tear or two as he felt grief on the thought that he really is the last Time Lord after all. In the deepest parts of his two hearts, the Doctor was hoping all this time that there are still other Time Lords alive and have escaped the ravages of the Last Great Time War. He was hoping by receiving a message from his long lost mentor, the Hermit, he'll be at peace with himself that members of his own people, his family are still alive. The only thing that is left of the Hermit is an echo, inhabiting in the message cube.
Clara saw the tears coming out of the Doctor's eyes and walked close to him to comfort him. She wrapped her arm around the Doctor the same way her father did when she and her father were visiting her mother's grave.
The holographic projection of the Great Abbot Rinpoche continues to explain, "I was left behind instructions from your prior incarnation to hand you over a letter. You will find this letter inside a small casket in the drawer behind you. Take it with you, Doctor. Go to a private location where you are alone. Read the letter. Follow its instructions for it may very well be the key to explain your current situation. I know you have many questions on how I come across this information, but everything you seek would be in that letter. You must hurry Doctor and please take good care of yourself."
The holographic image faded away and the Doctor takes a few deep breathes to pull himself together and head over to the drawer behind him. He opens the drawer and found a metal casket that has the Doctor's family crest on it. The Doctor immediately picks up the message cube and head right back into the TARDIS. Clara followed him behind and the TARDIS disappeared into the Time Vortex.
The Doctor and Clara sat down in his personal quarters with the casket on a table in between them.
"Rinpoche, the Hermit as he's called. I still can't believe he's really gone. I thought he would be alive somehow and I just happened to forget he still exists. But now, I am really alone in the universe as the last surviving member of my people." The Doctor put his hands over his face in utter disappointment and dismay on his recent findings.
Clara walked over and comforted him, telling him that everything would be okay. "It's okay Doctor. It's okay. I'll be right here with you. You may be the last one of your people. But, you will not be the last person I am going to lose in my life. I can see that this man was like a father to you and I know what is like to lose someone who is like a parent to you. But, Doctor, you need to stay strong. Let's open that casket and look into that letter."
Doctor turned his face around and looked at Clara and said, "I appreciate your kind words, Clara. You're right, I have to stay strong and see what's in that letter."
The Doctor opened the small casket and pull out the letter. The letter is sealed with a red stamp with the Doctor's family seal on it. He opens the letter and begins to read. The letter is read as follows.
Dear 11th Doctor,
I know this may sound very strange that you are getting a letter to yourself from myself. But, that's besides the point. The real reason I am writing this to you is to warn you of what's to come. During my time in as the third incarnation as the Doctor, I was at Tibet visiting our old friend the Great Abbot Rinpoche or the Hermit, our great mentor back on Gallifrey before his exile to Earth.
There I was in a meditative session where I saw my past and possible points in the future. This leads me to an interest in understanding psycho-kinesis and its implications in helping people. As much as I hate to say this, but...the future, our future, Doctor, looks blight. Many dangers are coming to you as you already have, but worse is yet to come and I am hoping by writing this would help you to avoid or prepare for these upcoming circumstances. Doctor, we are probably the only sane Time Lord in the Universe to ensure that time and space is in balance for all life to exist. I don't know of anyone who could do the same thing As I pierce through this gaze of our future, I begin to see signs. Signs that I do not understand, but signs that only you would understand for I know in our 11th body, you would have the gift of "great intelligence" to sort this out; just as much I saw in our 7th body, we have the gift of "foresight."
Listed below are instructions to put yourself in a meditative trance and try to focus on these key symbols:
(1) Orange skies.
(2) A machine full of life.
(3) A soldier in silver with biological and temporal anatomy.
(4) Looms.
(5) A father and a mother
(6) A child being re-born
(7) A returning old founder
(8) Artifacts of destruction
(9) Loss/pain/tears/blood
(10) A fleeing blue box
(11) Temporal Madness
(12) The Great Cosmic Fire
(13) Lock and Key.
You must be alone in a private room with lights off and no disturbance of the outside. To perform this trance, you must follow the same manner our dear old friend, Edgar Casey did to find the possible location of Atlantis. You must haste. Time is running short and what I have written could very well be the key to survive dark days to come. I wish the best of luck to you.
"Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow!"
The Third Doctor.
"You are not taking this seriously are you?" asked Clara as she is getting pretty frightened what she is reading.
"Of course not, Clara. I mean it what else could be worse. It could just be just a random event that can be easily fixed, like we always do. But, why do I write a message to myself from myself? Unless..."
"Unless what doctor?"
"Unless..." as the Doctor re-read the list of the 13 items, he begins to feel heavy in his two hearts. He took two steps back and sunk in disbelief, realizing that his "secret" might be linked to all of this.
"Unless...it can't be. It can't be."
"Doctor...what's going on?" Doctor immediately turns his back to Clara and started to walk further away in complete shock and awe.
"Clara, I need you to do a big favor for me."
"What is it?"
"I am going to my personal quarters. I need you to put the TARDIS on a temporal stasis. You know how to pilot the TARDIS since you know how to build them in your prior life back on Gallifrey. I also need you to lock the doors to my personal quarters and open it up for me until I shout for you. Okay?"
"Doctor, what's going on? Is it something to deal with your secret?"
"I'm not sure Clara, but what I am going to be doing could be the very key in figuring out my future and why I died on Trenzalore. I really need you to be my side in case anything happened to me because you are the only person out of anyone else that understands me."
The Doctor cup his hand on Clara's face and Clara responded back, "Of course, I would always be there for you even for a thousand years."
"I know you will and that's why I love you."
"I know Doctor and so do I."
Clara smiled and pressed her lips against the Doctor's. In the next few hours, Clara set the controls in temporal stasis where it would remain motionless in the time vortex with its shields still up. The Doctor stayed in his quarters and have Clara locked the doors so he will not get out until he knows reason for himself writing this letter.
