(AN: Once again, people speak of the audio dramatization of Doctor Who - aka. Sir Not Appearing in My Local Library. Honestly, there's nothing of that sort in my area and I'm in the US. And don't say "oh, well what can you expect, it's the US?" because that proves my point that the UK has become what people think the US is: arrogant little fellows who think they're the center of the universe.)

(Hmm, I don't know, when I hear the Doctor telling Astrid Pith that he has nothing, he just goes about the universe at his own free will, or that oft-repeated phrase "The Doctor, the man who keeps running, never looking back, because he dare not, out of shame", yeah, leads me to think that he does just go about the universe, blowing up planets, killing the odd trillion people here and there and thinking nothing of any consequences or responsibilities. But that's just me, I'm going through a mid-fandom crisis as far as Doctor Who goes [and I've only got two stories under my belt.)

(Okay, one more rant before I continue. To me, the Doctor is how he is in "The Christmas Invasion". Humans end up on alien radar, they try to fix things themselves, they fail, and then the Doctor shows up and saves the universe with an apple. In the latest season, the one with Clara [aka. mary sue dalek], the Doctor is more of the Companion to Clara's adventures because about 8 times out of 10, SHE saves the universe and himself in the process and the Doctor is just there to act silly. As far as my stories go, I'd like to think that I try to put the Doctor in instances where he can't just do a quick fix [like in The Doctor's Star Wars, Revenge of the Master or the upcoming The Doctor and Clara in Middle Earth], but has to use his own smarts and cleverness to come out victorious and, yes, his companions are helpful. Hell, I gave Rory, Amy and River lightsabers, for Pete's sake! I won't give any spoilers for The Doctor and Clara in Middle Earth because River Song is holding a sonic blaster to my head [she fixed it after Revenge of the Master] and I really don't want to be killed by a psychopathic killer.)

(So instead, here is the next chapter.)

Sanction

The TARDIS rumbled again and it was then that the Doctor remembered into what predicament they had fallen. He ran to the console, threw a switch and held on for dear life. The whirring of the TARDIS thundered throughout the main chamber as the Gallifreyan space-time ship left Albios behind and returned once again to the nowhere place called the Island of Time. The Doctor ran back to the door and threw it open. From here they could see the island, but below their feet, many hundreds of feet down, there lapped the waves of the ocean.

"There," he said. "That should buy us some time." He then closed the doors and turned to the Empress. "Alright now, start talking."

"You are in no position to give me orders, Doctor!" the Empress retorted. "I am the oldest Timelord present, therefore I decide who talks first!" She turned to Faruuk. "Human, speak. What did you mean you tried to save her?"

"Time flows through me," Faruuk began, but the Doctor held his hand out.

"Enough of this 'time flows through me' nonsense!" he shouted. "That's impossible. The last time that time flowed through a human's head, Rose Tyler almost died, I had to assume the time vortex out of her and into myself, horribly painful business, forced to regenerate. In short, no human is capable of having time flow through themselves, not even Timelords."

"You lie!" both Faruuk and the Empress said at once.

"Aha!" the Doctor exclaimed, turning to the Empress. "You I can trust. You won't try to deceive me with all this 'burden of God' nonsense. You'll tell me straight on, right? What did you do? Why is he chasing you?"

"I have no idea what you mean, Doctor," the Empress said.

"The beast!" the Doctor said loudly, waving his fingers about before the Empress' face. "All...tentacly wentacly, like Yog-Sothoth or old Hermaeus Mora. Funny guy, old Herma-Mora. Would you like to hear about the time I had tea and scones with Hermaeus Mora?" His right hand then slapped him across his protrusive chin. "Ow! Yes, needed that. Now! Back to the beast, all tentacly wentacly. He only goes after extreme temporal paradoxes, and he's after you. Why? Why is he after you?"

"I am not bound to answer to you, Doctor!" the Empress retorted. "Not before you answer my questions. You said that you destroyed Gallifrey. All of our people destroyed, slaughtered. And you are the only one left? Why? Tell me why! I demand to know why!"

"Well, unlike you," the Doctor began. "I will actually tell you why. Do you remember Rassilon?"

"Rassilon?" the Empress asked, a smile appearing at the corner of her lips. "Yes, I knew him well."

"Yes, well, forget everything you knew about him," the Doctor said. "Time War, Daleks versus Timelords, epic battles, the Nightmare Child, the Deathsmiths of Goth, the works. Bad day, all of it. All these horrible Could've Beens, Neverweres and Meanwhiles running about Gallifrey, creatures from alternate realities. You know I fought almost two dozen versions of myself from these various alternate realities on the ground, in space. Horrible stuff! Anyway, Rassilon proposed a little something called the Ultimate Sanction. Pretty much create a paradox so big it would tear time and space apart. The Timelords would survive, though, as beings of pure conscious thought. Only problem was that I couldn't let that happen."

"So you betrayed your own people?" the Empress asked, crossing her arms across her bosom. "For humans?"

"Not just humans," the Doctor began. "All the things in the galaxy, don't you see? These things, the inhabitants of this universe, they're not like stones and trees and-and rocks, well, actually that's not true. Some trees and rocks are like them. Atoms, yes! Atoms, atoms. Tiny little atoms, electrons spinning around a nucleus in infinite inner space, unfeeling, unknowing, uncaring. That's not what they're like! They have their lives, their troubles, their worries, waking up at seven o'clock in the morning, going to work, having a cup of tea at eleven, weddings, births, funerals, all these little important things. You see? It's not like how they taught us about mortals back on Gallifrey, all that about their insignificance, the meaninglessness of what they do, matter in motion. That's how I saw the universe when I first left, but then...but then I went out there and I saw it and I saw just what it was and how much there was and all these little, apparently insignificant things that are so important to them." He sighed, a smile splitting his face. "Then I saw that it was all worth it. That there's no such thing as an insignificant life."

"That's quite a heavy-handed speech," Faruuk spoke up. "Especially after you let Alarica die."

"Shut up!"

"No!" Faruuk interjected. "I was there, I saw it all happen."

"Saw what happen?" the Empress asked.

"I took pity on her when I heard her story," he began. "The Dahaka appeared and she was taken."

"Yes, yes, we saw that," the Doctor interjected. "Now please get somewhere without saying his name again!"

"And I went back," Faruuk continued. "I took her to a safe place, all of you. But it followed us again, and as the shelf crumbled away, you stood there and watched her die while...that thing kept me from doing anything. I tried almost a hundred times over and every time she died, and you never lifted a finger to help her."

The Doctor stared him down with stern reprimands in his small, beady eyes.

"Do you see now?" Faruuk asked. "I have seen the outcome of a thousand time-lines, and in each case, the results have always been the same. What you propose for my people must never be."

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked suspiciously. "Who are you? You say over and over that time flows through you, you defy all logic and reason, your cells are so old, you should have crumbled into dust a thousand years ago and yet-and yet you exist!"

"You will know the truth in time, Doctor" Faruuk said calmly.

"I want to know now!"

Suddenly the TARDIS lurched forward. The Doctor examined the controls, but saw that it was still hovering in place over the Indian Ocean. Regardless, they were still moving. The Doctor then opened the door and looked out. Below, on the island, was a small black hole, from which came the dark tendrils of the beast, the one whose name Faruuk had spoken of previously. The Doctor's beady eyes exploded in fear.

"No! No!" he shouted. He ran to the TARDIS' console and started pulling every lever and turning every knob. There was no response, save for the occasional shaking and shuddering of the TARDIS as it tried to pull away from the might of the Beast. The Doctor collapsed as he felt his left heart failing. He looked up at Faruuk and the Empress once at a time.

"I want answers!" he shouted again. He pushed himself up, leaning on the main console and pointed at each of them in turn: first at the Empress and then at Faruuk. "You, tell me why it's after you! And you, my good man, tell me why I should die! Why do I deserve to die? Is it because I don't believe in your god? Tell me now!"

Suddenly, the TARDIS came to a halt. As though all light had passed through a sieve that had eroded the color from the world, everything they saw became dark, grainy and gray. Color seemed to vanish from out of existence. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the door, which closed. There was suddenly a pounding upon the door that shook every inch of the TARDIS. The lights went out, drowning them in complete darkness.

"etaf ruoy teem dna tuo emoc, rotcoD!" a deep, menacing voice growled beyond.

"Something's wrong," the Doctor said nervously. "The TARDIS' translation matrix isn't translating what it's saying. What's it saying?"

"htrof emoC! htrof emoC!" the voice demanded again.

"Well, Doctor?" Faruuk asked. "What will you do?"

The Doctor turned around, gritting his teeth against the pain in his chest, then straightened himself up. He screwed up his grimace into a dauntless smile and straightened his bow-tie.

"Go out and say hello," he said.

(AN: Stuff is happening, lots of stuff. I'm glad some of you have been following and enjoying it.)

(Next chapter it hits the fan as the Doctor comes face to face with, you guessed it.)