What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
-William Blake
The Doctor didn't think about what he had done. Not because he felt guilty, or ashamed. He knew that the Weeping Angels were amongst the most dangerous creatures in the universe, and that he had had no choice but to stop them from completely breaking time. To save the universe, he had to stop them.
No, the Doctor didn't think about what he had done because that hadn't been the first time that he had had to do something like that. There had been a time when he'd have hesitated, when he would have wondered if the evil the Weeping Angels did outweighed the good of people who banded together in the face of it. But he'd stopped being that man a long time ago.
So he didn't think about it.
The Doctor moved around the TARDIS, flipping switches, pushing buttons, and then a crack opened in the middle of the room, a crack in space, in time, in reality itself. Suddenly the Doctor was elsewhere.
He wasn't in Sunnydale. He could tell that much. As for where he was… he wasn't sure about that. Not quite. It looked like some kind of desert, covered in rocks and sand. Everything was a sort of rusty red.
However, at that moment he wasn't particularly bothered about where he was. He was more concerned with the blonde who was sitting on a particularly large rock in front of him.
"You cheated." She sounded as though she was admonishing him, but everything about her from her expression to way that she sat told the Doctor that she was amused.
He shrugged. "I do that. Famous for it, as a matter of fact. But if you wouldn't mind telling me what I'm supposed to have cheated at now…"
"Their story. The angel's story. I started it, Doctor. You heard what they said. I made them and I told them what they were. But they fought it, like young species tend to do. They thought that maybe they could be better. And then you came, the nameless old man, and you crushed their idealism and condemned them to burn. Not because of what they are, but because of what they could be. You weren't supposed to look ahead, Doctor. You were just supposed to see what was there and tell them their story based on that."
The Doctor shrugged again. "One of the perks of being a time traveller."
The blonde slid off her rock. "We weren't sure you'd cheat. I thought you might see them in all their boundless naiveté, and they'd remind you of your precious humans. I thought you might be kind. But you're not, Doctor. You saved the world and made it a little bit darker, all at the same time."
"I just saved the universe."
She smiled widely, as though he'd just made a joke. "Do you know where we are, Doctor?"
He looked around again. He stuck his tongue out, tasted the air. He felt the flow of time over his skin. He felt the planet turn beneath his feet. "Normally I'd say Mars."
"Then why don't you, Doctor? Why don't you in all your certainty stand there and make a proclamation of what is and isn't true? Is it because of the air, Doctor? Don't worry about that. I took care of it. It wouldn't do for you to suffocate. Or is it something else? Why don't you tell us, Doctor? Tell the story."
"There's no one here. If this is Mars, then there should be pyramids, signs of the Ice Warriors. But there isn't everything here is…"
"Dead?" The blonde supplied. The Doctor didn't respond. "Welcome to the universe, Doctor. An exquisite corpse. No life, anywhere, except for a tiny blue planet. A story just waiting to unfold. Isn't it glorious?"
"You killed-"
"Us? If we wanted the universe to die, we could snuff out every star at once as easy as pinching a candle wick. We could tear it apart like wet paper. Or we could just wait. We'll be here for the end of the universe, just as I was here for its beginning."
"Then why is…" the Doctor trailed off. He couldn't even begin to wrap his head around the idea of a universe suddenly devoid of life. It just didn't seem possible. She had to be lying. She had to be.
"Maybe you didn't stop the angels early enough. Maybe the cracks in the universe are just too big. Maybe every creature here saw you coming and got away while you were busy on Earth. Or maybe there was never any life here at all. We offer no answers, Doctor. Only questions. The questions of the moment." The blonde smiled faintly. "Oh, how we wish you had the wit to understand us. If you remember nothing else, remember that."
The Doctor blinked. "But that can't be true. The universe can't be wiped out like that, it isn't-"
"This isn't your universe, Doctor. This is mine. Things are different here. Yours is still out there, the universe of another story." The blonde paused for a moment. "Eventually, this one will be like yours. Humans will be everywhere. From here to edge of space. And they will look around themselves and feel so small… we wonder how long it will be before they all go mad. We'll have fun finding out."
"Why? Why do all of this? What's the point?"
"What else are you for? All you tiny people and your tiny galaxies. All of you are just tools in our hands. Even you, Doctor. You are something that I've made. My immortal hand framed thy fearful symmetry."
"I met your sister." The Doctor said suddenly. "Nice girl. Seems-"
The blonde continued as though he hadn't spoken. "Interesting thing, Doctor. You missed. You thought you were sending them to die at the end of the universe, but you didn't. You sent them to a primordial world at the beginning of time, and there they'll stay, starving and so full of rage and loneliness that in the end that will be all they are. And then eventually someone will land on that planet, and the angels will spread, killing wherever they go. And one day, very soon, they'll kill your friends right in front of you. You'll never see them again. They'll just be gone in the space it takes you blink, and you'll stand there crying in front of their grave. And that, Doctor, is just another part of your story even though it will be the end of theirs. We made you, Doctor, just as you made the angels. We have shaped you and moulded you all your life."
Then the Doctor was back in his TARDIS as though he had never the left. The only sign that he had been anywhere was a voice echoing in his ears. Soon, the story will end. Look for us under different circumstances.
