Twenty minutes into the meeting, it was obvious to the Doctor that it was going to get nowhere. It was probably clear to the others as well, but they were far more stubborn and had more personal reasons to keep going. Charlene and Yeseana—who Lathezia had insisted join the group—were busy taking minutes on all that was said, though right now it was a circular argument about voting power vs. being un-educated about political workings. Right now it was mostly Julius and Lathezia battling; even Kathryn had stopped trying as of five minutes ago.
The Doctor had taken no part in any of this. The Iuhin representatives had already been sitting on their side of the table when the Doctor, Lathezia, and Yeseana had entered the room. Charlene had been sitting nervously while Julius and Kathryn spoke quietly together. The Doctor had scanned Kathryn to reassess her attitude and had seen Julius withdraw his hand from her arm. So; something there. It was sad, but he supposed not un-expected considering her age and state of mind.
It had all begun civilly enough, with the legend figures sitting flanked by their chosen attendees. Problems had been outlined and priorities had been discussed. Then it had degenerated rapidly into the current shouting spree. It was as if Julius and Lathezia had some other kind of personal vendetta between them that fueled the disagreement. It would have been childish had it not been so harsh and twisted, full of veiled references to something else.
"No, that isn't what I'm saying!" Julius hissed. "I've explained this several times, insect."
"No, I hear and understand you, lizard," Lathezia clicked rapidly. "I just see no way that I would allow that to happen."
"Allow? It isn't your place to 'allow' anything; we could have you flooded in twelve hours with the Labyrinth, use a page from your book and take you down from the inside."
"Threats and disruption from the inside?" Lathezia mocked. "That doesn't sound like a thing your sort would do, now does it?"
"Oh, the Krize rules aren't so strict with Planter Jahra like you."
The Doctor felt every nerve in his body sing with instant tension. He could see the absolute shock in Kathryn's face as well as the built in fear at the race names. Julius and Lathezia were paying no attention to either of them.
"The Krize are such hypocrites about Jahra like me," Lathezia sneered. "So what if Logan Lathezia never existed in history? Neither did Julius Robertson."
The Doctor stood before he realized he was up. This was something very, very new, and very, very worrying. The Rahki had never placed one of their Jahra in an original capacity; Jahra were always replacement recorders. The Krize, polar opposites and total enemies of the Rahki, barely even left their home planet; on the rare occasions that they did they never interfered. No wonder time felt weird here; this war wasn't even supposed to exist, and all because of a single Krize agent and a single Jahra clone.
The Doctor's movement had brought the attentions of Julius and Lathezia down on him. Lathezia grinned. "What? Am I in violation of your Shadow Proclamation, your Gallifreian Laws? To hell with you, Doctor, and all those like you. The Rahki are branching out, placing ripples that you can't help fixing, and all to keep track of her." Lathezia looked at Kathryn, malicious loathing clear even on his face. Kathryn looked stunned.
"Me? What have I done?"
"Oh shut up," Julius snapped at her. He looked back at Lathezia, sneering. "You Jahra always make a mess of timelines with your constant swapping and tampering, but this thing you call Scorch is the absolute limit."
Kathryn looked like she'd been punched in the stomach. Her face was white and she seemed to have trouble breathing. The Doctor felt pity for her, but couldn't help seeing the whole thing from a big-picture perspective; all legends fell. Charlene and Yeseana were still writing, recording the collapse.
Julius was still talking. "Making it was the start of the mess, and then when it becomes apparent that you've lost the thing—"
"No thanks to interfering, mercenary-hiring, coward Krize," Lathezia interjected. Julius, on a roll, ignored him.
"You just create wrinkles instead of hunting it down and reeling it in. What happened to no-holds-barred?" Julius taunted. "Why the dancing?"
"You know perfectly well, Krize," Lathezia smirked back. "Even a low-level starter agent like you knows all of what we're doing, things even your precious Time Lord remnant Doctor doesn't know. Non-interference in the time-lines, right?"
"Since when have you cared?" The Doctor blinked, surprised to hear Kathryn speak. She was staring at Lathezia with a hollow look. "You're run by the Rahki; you have no life except to interfere in time-lines."
"Oh, what a precious naïveté it is to have your own life," Lathezia almost crooned. "To not have all knowledge pushing at your mind. To be able to retain emotion instead of knowing you'll lose all personal memory again and again over the course of the ages. We're all watching for you, Scorch, and we have rewards for bringing back pieces. I should really thank you; you've managed to drop the literal Key to my own life right into my waiting hands."
Julius and the Doctor both went white. "You have my TARDIS Key," the Doctor stated, eyes wider than usual. Lathezia grinned widely.
"Oh yes." He looked back to Kathryn. "As much as I'd love your life as my own, I do not envy what you have waiting."
"It's not even Finished," Julius said quickly, almost protesting in a panic. "You can't control it, not correctly. The Last Stage was never activated; we made certain you didn't have the chance."
"As if Krize fumbling would deter the Rahki," Lathezia said. "You might as well say the death of a Natural Born would bother them. Here; I'll show you."
In a smooth motion, Lathezia reached into the breast pocket of his coat, pulled out a gun, and fired in Charlene's direction.
The Doctor reached for the gun, but Lathezia had already danced back out of reach, exoskeleton shining. He grinned wickedly. "Oh, such a miserable self-sacrifice you are, Scorch. Constant failure at fighting your programing."
The Doctor looked to Kathryn. He could see the laser burn in her shirt and knew she had absorbed the energy in an effort to protect Charlene. But right now Kathryn was kneeling next to a gray, shriveled corpse, clutching her own hand; the same hand the Doctor had removed the invisible SecondHand glove from.
The Doctor heard Julius shouting again. "What use to you is it when that thing kills so easily?"
"Kills? That's what happens when the known universe changes, Krize; things die."
Julius stared at Lathezia for a long moment, then turned wildly to the Doctor. "Doctor, this goes against all I believe but you need to be told—"
He got no further. A single laser burst removed Julius's lower jaw, preventing any sort of warning. Julius collapsed, twitching and hitting frantically at his pockets. There was a small beep, and then he was teleported out. Lathezia snorted.
"There goes another retreat. I won't thank you for a chance at life, Doctor," Lathezia spat. "You owe it to me for giving the Jahra living death." Lathezia shoved a hand in his pocket and also vanished in a transport.
The room was silent. The Doctor looked at the spot Lathezia had been for another moment before looking about the room. There was blood on the floor where Julius had been. Kathryn was still sitting shell-shocked. Charlene was already flaking in death. Only Yeseana was untouched save for confusion. The Doctor looked steadily at him.
"Colonel Yeseana, I promote you to Field-Marshall. Take the records that Major-General Charlene Mailand made and use them with your own. Explain that this war was the by-product of a larger, longer, bigger fight that had nothing to do with your world and no right to be here. You must still deal with the consequences that arose; I advise you to think well and proceed carefully."
Field-Marshall Yeseana stared at the Doctor another moment before nodding once. He stood, took his padd, walked carefully around the table to take Charlene's notes from where she had been sitting, and left the room without a word.
Finally, the Doctor looked to Kathryn. She was still staring at her hand. The Doctor said nothing, watching as Kathryn peeled off her other SecondHand. She looked up at him, broken, confused, young, scared.
"Doctor…I don't want to be a legend anymore."
The Doctor made excuses with the Ranngour and remaining Iuhin diplomats that he had really only come to take care of the larger issue between Lathezia and Julius. He also told them that Kathryn hadn't had a say in it; she'd had enough criticism for one day. The Labyrinth took them back to the TARDIS, being the fastest way. Back at the Iuhin camp, Kathryn had gone immediately to the people in change of the Iuhin company and reported the story in its entirety, leaving nothing out. The Doctor was painted the hero again; the companion was faded to nothing.
They had left soon after, and currently they were just in the vortex, drifting gently. Kathryn had retreated to her room, leaving the Doctor to make the real repairs. She had done a decent job at it, but not enough to keep the TARDIS working beyond the one journey.
His hands worked automatically. Most of the Doctor's mind was on the last five minutes in the diplomacy room. This was all very wrong and very planned. Someone had put a lot of time and effort into this, carefully arranging everything. But what could be worth all this?
Though the Doctor and Kathryn had never discussed the Krize beyond what their race was, or the Rahki beyond what they made the Jahra for, he thought about the mess a great deal. He knew the full span of the generational hatred bred into Rahki, the morals the Krize clung to, and for whatever reason both races were centered in on Kathryn; Scorch as they had called her back in the meeting room. She had been made carefully by the Rahki, so carefully that as strong a race as the Krize would step off their planet to tamper with her.
Yet…yet she was just…Kathryn! Fifteen year old, still growing, still learning, Kathryn! The Doctor was certain that she had no knowledge of what was surrounding her. She didn't even want to think about what might be; she was too concerned about living today and running now. But unlike the Doctor, Kathryn couldn't run forever.
The Doctor's greatest fear was that when she did hit the wall at the end, she wouldn't be the only thing stopping.
Hope you enjoyed this re-write.
So, for anyone bothering to read my stuff, here's how to continue the story: go to my Profile page and read "American Bred 10 Coup at the Institute". Yes, this story was number 10 as well, but it was 10.2. Remember, "Coup at the Institute". Soon I will have the re-written versions of "When the Sky Falls In" and "And She Lived" up. When that is done I'll post the correct reading order on my Profile page. If anyone really, really wants to read an updated version of my first Coup at the Institute, send me memo and I'll get on it.
Thanks again for reading.