A/N: Edited. 09/05/14 Was trying for angst here, so I would really appreciate any and all concrit anyone has. (I appreciate concrit for any other chapters too :D)
-1349-
-The Plague-
"How do you mean? If she's not got a Tardis, and she's not a time lord, how's she bouncing around time then?"
Calypso woke to the sound of the woman's voice somewhere nearby. She struggled to open her eyes, but it was so bright, much brighter than it had been outside.
"Donna," the man was there too, though she couldn't see either of them. He sounded exhausted as he answered. "It's complicated." She knew that voice, she remembered his name just before she'd lost consciousness. But it was gone now, like a ghost from her dreams. Her eyes slowly adjusted as she lay there, wrapped in a warm blanket, revealing the two speakers nearby.
"Well, uncomplicate it then, spaceman." The woman stood with her hands on her hips. Her brilliant red hair was pulled back from her face, and she wore a bright purple tunic down to her knees, with gray tights covering her legs.
"She's from Gallifrey," Calypso focused her eyes on the man, trying to remember where she had seen him. His hair seemed to defy gravity as it stuck out in strange directions, and he wore a blue suit. Her heart hammered in her chest, she knew this man. But she was having trouble believing it.
"So…she is a Time Lord? You've randomly found another time lord just kicking around in the dark ages?" The woman he'd identified as Donna seemed skeptical.
"No," he shook his head. As he shifted, Calypso realized his hand was holding hers, his thumb absently stroking the back of her fingers. "Not a Time Lord. A Gallifreyan. We called them the Engineers. She's got Huon particles in her, which react with her biology somehow, and send her forward through time. I don't know why."
"Huon particles? You said those were deadly."
"Well, that's because they are, strictly speaking. But the Engineers were the original builders of the Tardis. They were bound to build up some resistance to it, working with them for so long."
"Doctor?" Calypso finally found her voice as she coughed to clear her throat. Her mouth was stale with the coppery taste of dried blood, but she found she wasn't in any pain. The Doctor turned immediately and she started, the same wide brown eyes stared back at her, the same face. He smiled at her as he saw she was awake. "You're the same…" she said wonderingly as she tried to sit up.
"Thought I'd hang onto this face a while longer, bit fond of it," he grinned as he helped her sit against the wall. She felt woozy as she moved, but things started to settle gradually. "It's good to see you up."
"Do you know this man?" Donna asked with a tilted head. "Because he's absolutely barking mad. I'm Donna, by the way. Donna Noble. So you're a time traveler too, yeah?"
"Donna," the Doctor chided her gently as he reached for a brown mug on a table nearby. "Here, drink this. It'll help clear things up." She took the warm mug and sniffed it carefully before taking a sip. It burned as it went down, but it also spread a comfortable warmth through her, helping soothe the remaining aches in her body.
"Well, I just want to know. You know, is she a proper space cadet, or is she just one of the poor sods you up and kidnap from time to time."
"Honestly Donna, you'll confuse her. And I didn't kidnap you, so stop holding that against me." Donna rolled her eyes.
The drink was having more than just an effect on her body, she could feel it spreading through her thoughts, brushing away the dust and cobwebs that had gathered there in the last few weeks or maybe even months. She had lost track of time since Anthony had gone, lost track of everything. And while she wanted to know how a man she had met in a convent almost fifty years ago still looked the same, it was the word 'Gallifreyan' that had caught her attention.
"Did you- Did you say you knew where I was from?" It was the one thing that continued to haunt her; her inexplicable past.
"Yes," he said, searching her eyes. "How much do you remember from the last time we met?"
"I…" she felt a little reluctant to tell him, since it still seemed so impossible that it was the same man. "I was a Sister at the Saint Ada convent, we had a creature attacking our animals. You showed me a blue box."
"Convent, convent…" he pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Ah, yes. Right. So that, that was your first. So you don't know- Well, any of it, I suppose. We've met a few more times- Well, I've met you a few more times. I guess. From my perspective."
"Oh right," Donna snorted. "Wouldn't want to confuse her."
"Let's just start from the beginning, yeah?" He raised his eyebrow at Donna. "Your people, and my own. We both come from a place called Gallifrey. It's a planet in a whole other galaxy, millions and millions of light years away from this one."
"Fourteenth century might be a bit early for astronomy lessons, Doctor."
The Doctor paused, and shrugged. "Right. Well, it's a world, like this one, but it's…it's a long way off. A different world, it's red and orange, it looks like a ball of fire from the sky." He smiled, as though remembering the place himself. She didn't really understand what he meant, but the dreams had never left her and as he spoke, the rolling fields of red grass came back to her sharply. Two glowing orbs floating in the sky. It seemed like madness, and yet, it almost seemed real.
"And you're a time traveler. Of sorts." He said the words slowly, so she might have some hope of digesting them. "I use a ship, the blue box, to take me where I want to go. You seem, well, you seem to use the Huon energy that's been woven through your DNA. It's actually a rather brilliant design, instead of needing a protective shielding to-"
"Doctor," Donna put her hand on his shoulder. Giving him a look. "Bit much."
"Right," he nodded quickly, returning his attention to Calypso. "The details aren't important. It's just the basic time travel bit."
"I'm sorry," Calypso shook her head. "That doesn't make sense."
"That's what I've been saying." Donna said with a snort.
"Well, d'you know how time generally goes? One day at a time? You work, you eat, you sleep, and then it's the next day. And that's pretty much how it goes until you're done?" She nodded, that seemed easy enough for her to follow. "Well, you and I don't have to do it that way. That blue box I showed you, it can go to any day I want, immediately. I don't have to wait for all the other days to pass. And neither do you. I imagine that's how you ended up here."
"What do you mean?"
"When you vanished, that night in the convent. What happened? Did you wake up the next morning in your bed?"
"I guess…" she thought back, she had done her best to push it out of her mind for so many years. Her past had always been so complicated, and it was easier to dismiss it entirely, than try to make sense of it. Instead, she had invested herself fully in the kind man she had met when she arrived here. She had built a life with Anthony, and none of the questions of her past had mattered anymore.
She did remember though. The yellow fire consuming her, waking in a strange place. Unable to explain how she had gotten there, and confused as to how the years had seemed to pass without her knowing it.
"I just arrived here. I don't know. Time had passed, I wrote letters to the convent to try and explain my absence, but there was no one who knew of me, or the people I asked about." She paused, "So you're saying when I vanished that night. I traveled through time to get here?"
"Yes, exactly." He smiled.
"Are there…others like me?" She asked. She hadn't dared dream that she could discover her heritage since her time in the convent. But this man, this time traveler; he knew of her past, maybe he knew of her family. Maybe he could even take her to them. Her heart surged with the possibility, filling her with a sense of hope she'd never before had. His mouth hung open, hesitant to answer. "My people, do they still reside in Gallifrey?"
"Oh, sweetheart." Donna's eyes had turned sad as she covered her mouth.
"No," the Doctor said slowly. "I'm sorry. They don't. Gallifrey…" he swallowed. The smile he so readily wore when he was fleeing for his life was suddenly replaced by the face of a broken man. "It's no more. There was a war-"
"Oh, don't tell her." Donna's voice was a soft pleading. "She doesn't want to hear."
"She needs to know," he stared down at the floor, pain clear in his eyes. "There was a great war. A great terrible war." He turned his gaze back to Calypso and she felt herself shiver. "Both sides were tearing each other apart. And I- I was a part of it. I had to stop it. The whole of the universe would have perished. Billions upon billions of lives would have been blinked out of existence. So I ended it. I had to-" he sounded as though he were still trying to convince himself. "Calypso, I'm so sorry, but our people are gone."
The silence hung in the air as the meaning of what he said slowly sunk in.
"What?" Her voice was a harsh whisper. "How could you just- how can you end a war?" He swallowed, unwilling to answer the question, but the deafening silence was answer enough. He had done something terrible. And many people had died because of it. The hope she had felt, for the answers to her questions, was snuffed out like a candle in the rain. She suddenly couldn't breathe, feeling as though she had been physically struck.
"But- but I had a home. I had a family." Her voice trembled as she spoke, she couldn't remember them, but she knew if she had just been able to go back, she would have found them. She knew they were real, and now they were gone. Dead. She shook her head, as though she might erase the words he had spoken. "Why? Why?" She whispered, tears filling her eyes once more. He had given her hope, and then he had snatched it all away.
"I'm so sorry," he looked desperate to make her understand. "If there had been any other way. I swear it. I would have given anything to have not done it." He pulled her hand toward him, gathering her in his arms as he hugged her. "I'm sorry." He leaned back and cupped her face, his brown eyes desperate for forgiveness, but she was too stunned, too broken to give it.
"I know," he nodded, seeing in her eyes that she couldn't. He stooped forward and kissed her cheek where her tears had fallen. "I'm sorry." He whispered again, his breath warm against her skin. She jerked back, startled at the intimate gesture.
"What are you doing?" She snatched her hand out of his grip, pressing herself further into the wall to escape his touch. How dare he touch her like that when her Anthony was gone, only recently torn from her. "Get away from me!"
"I'm sorry!" The Doctor looked just as startled as she, "I didn't mean- I forgot when this is for you."
"It's not his fault, love." Donna spoke soothingly, trying to assuage her anger over Gallifrey. "He was trying to help."
But she wasn't listening, she didn't want to hear her make excuses for this man, this murderer who sat in front of her, who touched her as though he knew her. She leapt from the bed, pushing past the both of them. Her weak legs were shaky as she tried to run, and she stumbled, falling toward the green pulsing tube that she recognized from years ago.
"Sweetheart, it's alright!" Donna called after her, but she ignored her, keeping her eyes on the Doctor. He was the monster who terrified her now.
"Let us help you," he said, striding forward again, doing his best to calm her. "You're severely malnourished. We can get you fed, and set you on your way."
Her broken shoes snagged on the iron floors and she tumbled backward, she fell across the table, her hands scrabbling over the dials as she tried to catch herself. The floor shook and the room wheezed, but her eyes stayed locked on the man in front of her. He bent down to help her stand, but she shook her head vehemently.
"Dont! Don't touch me!" She shrieked, not even knowing why it was so important that he didn't.
"Alright," he said slowly, he stopped in his tracks and crouched down on the ground next to her. "I won't. I swear it. I'm sorry Calypso. It was my mistake. When we last met, we-" he shook his head, a pained smile flickered across his face. "We were friends. I didn't mean to upset you."
"What's happening?" Donna's voice was alarmed, from something more than Calypso's outburst. "Doctor, what's she doing?" The tingling had started again, it had been years since it had happened, and yet it was instantly familiar to her again. She raised her hands up and saw her flesh crawling with the same yellow flames. "Are you alright?" Donna looked between Calypso and the Doctor, unsure why neither of them appeared to be panicking.
The Doctor ran his hand over his face, finally looking at Donna, "She's going." He said quietly. He looked back at Calypso and she could see how much it had hurt him, to tell her about Gallifrey and the war. But there was more to it than that, the way he looked at her, like her rejection had struck him hardest.
"Going? Bloody going where?" Donna was nearly shouting now.
"I am sorry," he repeated, his gaze never wavering from Calypso's eyes. His hand reached out once more, but fell short when he remembered his promise. "Safe travels."
She could feel the misery radiating off of him, it was like a cloak she recognized from having worn so long. He was like her, completely alone. But she couldn't make herself forgive him, not yet. A frightened sob rose in her throat as her body became numb and the room around her faded. The last thing she saw was the Doctor's haunted eyes, and then the world disappeared completely.
