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The World of Paradox

Returning to the Kaled bunker on this occasion was far less comfortable than his previous visits had been. Even if he knew that his companions were going to come through this situation relatively unharmed, it still frustrated the Doctor that he couldn't spare Sarah and Harry from Davros's attempt to torture them just to make his past self talk about the Daleks' future defeats.

He should have known that Davros wouldn't give up on trying to change history if he was given the chance; he'd done it even when he hadn't seen that future, so why would he have changed his attitude just because he had a better idea of the risks?

Still, at least the TARDIS had been moved to the underground passage now; once the Cousin had been dealt with and/or the Daleks had been activated on schedule, it should be simple enough for them to retreat to the lower exit. The passageway itself would become useless to the Daleks once the destruction of the hatchery blocked that path off to them as well as the destruction of the main entrance, leaving him with only the challenge of making sure the Cousin didn't do anything and that he got back to the passage before the destruction of the hatchery blocked their access.

No matter when he went to Skaro, it was always complicated…

"You OK, Professor?" Ace asked, looking anxiously at him as they reached the door that would lead back into the bunker.

"The TARDIS will be safe back there, right?" Amy asked, glancing anxiously between the way they'd come and the door facing them. "I mean, if this all goes wrong-?"

"It won't," the Doctor said, looking firmly at his current companion before he looked at his old one. "And I'm fine, Ace; it's just… this bunker… what's about to happen here…"

He sighed. "It's… a painful memory, by any definition."

"You did the right thing," Amy said, looking firmly at him, something deeper than compassion in her eyes that the Doctor chose not to analyse right now. Not responding to her statement, the Doctor turned around and opened the door back into the bunker, waiting until his companions were both inside before he began to outline his plan.

"Right then," he said, looking between the two young women, trying to focus more on the present than his past. "At this point, Davros is interrogating my past self for information about future Dalek defeats, and his assistant Nyder will later leave the recording of that interrogation in a safe in his office. I managed to destroy the tape before Davros could use it when I was here the first time, but…"

"You think the Cousin'll try to switch tapes to save the data?" Ace asked.

"Or even plant some tape of his own with some kind of subliminal programming in it that will do the job he came here to do even if we have to leave," the Doctor speculated, shaking his head grimly. "Either way, the options aren't pleasant, and it would be a neat way to change things and let my past self think everything's worked out…"

"They're still reluctant to mess with your life at this point?" Amy asked.

"The Grandfather's insane, not stupid; direct interference with our mutual timelines is still too dangerous for his current resources," the Doctor confirmed before he continued. "I can make sure he doesn't switch the tapes while everyone's away, but just in case he tries to go for the hatchery…"

"We wait there while you deal with the trickier bit?" Ace asked, looking at him in that neutral manner she'd seemingly perfected after her time in the Space Fleet.

"It's nothing against you; it's just that… well, I'll spending more time in that office later, so it's better I'm there to make sure nothing important moves around from where I remember it," the Doctor explained awkwardly, not wanting to give the impression that he doubted his friends' abilities.

"Whereas it doesn't matter much if things get messed up in an exposed corridor because there's less stuff to muck about with right now?" Ace noted, smiling slightly at her old mentor. "Fair enough."

"Take care," Amy said, smiling sympathetically at him before she and Ace turned to hurry towards the hatchery, leaving the Doctor to make his way to Davros's office.

As he walked through the currently-deserted main laboratory on his way to the office, however, the Doctor couldn't help but pause to examine the currently-abandoned workspace where his and Harry's items had been placed during their initial arrival in the Kaled bunker. Acting almost on automatic, the Doctor walked over and opened the drawer, staring at the Time Ring as it lay in the box beside his other confiscated items, almost unable to believe how strongly such a simple thing could affect him even after so long.

He'd never really liked the Time Ring as a method of time-travel- one-way journey, two-way at most, completely under the control of whoever had programmed the original temporal coordinates into the ring rather than being able to make your own choice- but right now, looking at the Ring as it lay before him, it was so hard not to just take the opportunity in front of him… just take the ring, get back to his past self's TARDIS, get to Gallifrey while it still existed, warn them about the Faction…

No.

The risk was too great.

Even if he could warn them about the Faction's power, their very nature made it hard for anyone to pin down an exact time when they could be stopped; it was hard to destroy a time period that didn't technically exist, and the Eleven-Day Empire was the closest thing the Faction had to a 'home time' even now. Preventing his infection by the biodata virus wasn't an option after Compassion and the TARDIS's efforts had effectively negated his original trip to Dust, and there was no guarantee that killing his past self would negate the Grandfather after the complex mess the Faction and he had made of their linked timelines…

As much as he wanted to see Gallifrey again, he couldn't take the risk of even a brief glimpse; things were precarious enough without him even indirectly resorting to the Grandfather's methods.

His mind made up, the Doctor walked out of the lab and continued towards Davros's office, reaching the corridor just in time to see Nyder walking out of the door, the Kaled's empty hands suggesting that he'd just dropped off the recording in the vault. Hiding in one corner until Nyder had walked past, the Doctor hurried into the office, taking a quick look inside the safe; it had been too complex for his fourth self to open on his own, but equipped with his more advanced sonic screwdriver it was easy enough to gain access.

"You're really doing that?" a voice said from behind him just as the Doctor was reaching up to examine the tape more closely.

"More like making sure you don't do it," the Doctor corrected, turning around to look at the Cousin he'd encountered earlier, taking care to keep himself between his adversary and the safe behind him; it was a small thing, but he had to believe that he could hold the Cousin back if he tried anything impulsive.

"You think you're better than us because you're scared to affect what came before?" the Cousin said, looking mockingly at the Doctor. "At least we have the nerve to make changes-!"

"The only thing you and your cult have the 'nerve' to do is break stuff and find out if it's 'better' afterwards," the Time Lord countered grimly. "The Grandfather is nothing more than an angry child who makes excuses for breaking things to claim that he has some 'grand plan', and you're all nothing more than monsters who dress up your appetite for destruction by claiming there's some reason for it."

"We are freeing existence from the tyranny of Time-!"

"And replacing it with what?" the Doctor asked. "Chronal anarchy? Chaos over any sense of order? Even the Black Guardian recognised the need for the White, even if he wanted to shift the current status quo around so that he was on top; all your sick cult believes in is your own power and screw everything else!"

"And how is your philosophy any better?" the Cousin countered. "Standing by and lettings things happen because of past enforcement by some higher authority that doesn't exist any more?"

"We have to have limits," the Doctor countered. "What none of your sick cult can understand is that things only have meaning because they won't last forever; if I could save everyone, how would any lives have meaning?"

"So you let people die because of some self-centred hope that things will get better?" the Cousin spat, looking sarcastically at the Time Lord. "Your morality led you to save the Daleks-!"

"Because I'm not them," the Doctor said firmly. "No matter the Grandfather wants me to be, I will never join you… and I will never set myself up as a god because I 'think' I can make things better than they were before."

"You hesitate because you're afraid," the Cousin said coldly. "The Faction fears nothing; we can go back over everything-"

"Except that you can't, remember?" the Doctor retaliated, even as he wondered how long he had until someone came by; he might be fairly sure that only Davros and Nyder used this room regularly, but that didn't mean someone couldn't come here on impulse. "You don't have the Time Lords' technology; all you have are an assortment of scattered relics that are never going to be enough to let you enforce a philosophy that's all about hearing the screams and knowing you'll never be one of them."

"With the power of the Daleks-!"

At the end of his patience, and satisfied that this Cousin knew nothing more about the Faction than their essential philosophy, the Doctor lashed out with an amateurish but powerful punch that knocked the Cousin off-balance, his head striking the side of the desk before he hit the ground.

The Doctor wasn't normally in favour of violence as a solution, and he wished that his current self was more comfortable with impulsive Venusian aikido than he was- that was one thing he regretted losing from his third and eighth selves; just because he didn't like to fight didn't mean he didn't like having the option- but there were times when he could sympathise with the desire to just hit the source of your problems. Taking a moment to examine the other man, the Doctor nodded in grim approval; there was no sign of any serious damage, but he would probably be out for a few hours, which was all that he needed right now. Locking the safe behind him once again, the Doctor bent down, slung the Cousin's arm over his shoulders, and began to carry him out of the office, pausing only to grab a long coat that must have belonged to Nyder from a nearby cupboard; with the Cousin still wearing his military garb, the Doctor should be able to claim that he was taking this man to the infirmary so long as nobody realised they didn't recognise him.

Despite the weight of the Cousin slowing him down, it didn't take long for the Doctor to reach the hatchery once again, smiling at his two companions as they each took tentative glances before stepping out from their hiding-places.

"This the guy?" Ace asked, looking critically at the still-comatose Cousin.

"It's the guy," the Doctor confirmed, indicating another nearby door. "Just… help me put him in there, will you?"

"You're leaving him here?" Amy asked.

"It's not like we can just turn him over to the local authorities, Pond," the Doctor said, his tone so bitter it surprised even him as Ace opened the door for him to throw the Cousin into the room. "As it is, I've given him a decent enough knock that he should be out for a few hours, and the Faction don't have the resources to keep on trying to re-do their failures after a mission like this; if he wakes up, he'll either have time to get out before the Daleks get down here, or he'll be exterminated while they're clearing out the rest of the Kaleds, and I don't particularly care which."

Exchanging glances with Ace, Amy was relieved to see that her fellow companion was just as unnerved by the Doctor's coldness as she was; neither of them were that sympathetic to a member of the Faction, but it was still unnerving to hear the Doctor be that dismissive about another living being…

Still, as the Doctor had said, there wasn't any kind of prison they could take him to which could be guaranteed to keep a member of the Faction locked up, and they were still giving him a chance at escape even if it wasn't a very good one; it was more than any of the Faction might have done if they'd gained the advantage in this confrontation.

"Come on," the Doctor said, looking over at Amy and Ace as he sealed the storeroom door shut. "The Cousin should be secure enough down here, but we need to get out before I come down."

"Before you- oh, the younger you, right?" Amy asked, correcting herself as she looked at him in understanding.

"Yes," the Doctor said, his expression solemn as he remembered what was about to happen to himself; his impossible choice about whether or not to destroy the hatchery, the Daleks completing the circuit after too many of them had been released for it to halt their entire creation, the surviving Kaleds all exterminated by the Daleks in their first great act of murder…

If he didn't get out of here soon, regardless of his promises to himself and protests to the Cousin, he wasn't sure if he could stop himself from trying to do something about it.

"Actually…" Amy said, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder, an unusually anxious expression on her face as she looked at him. "Before we leave here for good, can I just do…one last thing?"

A few hours later for the rest of the universe but just a few minutes on for herself, standing a short distance away from the now-sealed Kaled Bunker, Amy watched and waited for her moment as her gaze focused on the tall, curly-haired man in the long scarf that the Doctor had identified as his past self, standing slightly off to the side of the group of Thals and 'mutos' that had gathered around the now-concealed entrance.

The Doctor had expressed his doubts about the point of her request, but after Amy had confirmed that just because he couldn't remember this happening didn't mean that it had never happened, he'd conceded to her request, taking the TARDIS on a short hop into the future and a few hundred metres away from the bunker, far enough for Amy to reach it easily enough without being so near that anyone would see it who shouldn't. While the Doctor and Ace waited in the TARDIS, Amy had changed into a nondescript green jumpsuit and hurried up to the bunker to wait for the right moment, finally spotting her chance as the past Doctor walked off to one side while his companions talked with their latest allies.

"Doctor?" she said, walking up from the side so that he couldn't see her until she was ready.

"Yes?" the younger Doctor asked, turning towards her, only for Amy to run up and wrap her arms around him, burying her face in his chest before he could see her properly.

"You did the right thing," she said, her voice trembling slightly as she made herself think about everything this man would blame himself for because of his decision today, doing everything she could to conceal anything that might make her distinctive enough to remember. "If you'd done anything else, you wouldn't be the Doctor… and we will always need the Doctor."

It was a small moment of comfort, and she knew that the man she was talking to would probably never understand who she was or why she'd done this for several centuries, but it was all that she could offer him.

Besides… as he awkwardly raised his own arms to squeeze her back, his manner slightly uncomfortable as though he wasn't used to this sort of expression of affection… Amy felt that he'd understood enough.

"You did the right thing," Amy said one last time, giving the Fourth Doctor a final squeeze before she turned around and ran back towards the TARDIS, confident that the younger Doctor wouldn't follow her.

It was a small thing, but considering what the Doctor would endure in the future when thinking about the decision he'd made today, she wanted to give him something positive to remember.

"Well," the Doctor said, as the three of them walked out of the TARDIS, "here we are; Paris, 1900, just as requested."

"1900?" Amy repeated, looking at Ace in surprise. "You live here?"

"It's actually fairly comfy," Ace smiled, as she wheeled her Time Hopper out of the TARDIS and into a corner of the sparsely-decorated room with a view of the Eiffel Tower. "Spent enough time in the TARDIS that language isn't an issue, no need to worry about paperwork or surveillance, and I'm past the worst parts of the history of the place."

"Fair enough," Amy nodded.

"Talking of the worst parts," the Doctor said, looking cautiously at Ace, "considering the scale of what we're dealing with…"

"I'm not coming with you."

"What?" the Doctor said, looking at his old friend in a hurt manner.

"It's nothing personal, Professor," Ace said, smiling warmly at the Time Lord. "Believe me, it's been great spending time with you again, and Ames here's great company… but with the Faction out there now, I think it's better for us if we just… keep up a few different angles of attack against those pricks."

"So… you think you can keep up a second front?" Amy asked.

"Bingo," Ace said, before she turned back to the Doctor with a slight shrug. "Besides… no offence, but it's weird to think of you as the Professor when you look more like my brother than my dad."

The Doctor could only smile at that statement as he looked at the other woman for a moment, before he walked over to give her a comforting hug.

"You'll be fine," he said, as he stepped back from his old companion once again. "After all… you're my daughter."

As the Doctor and Ace smiled warmly at each other, as much as she appreciated the knowledge that the current TARDIS dynamic wouldn't change- even if she had liked getting to know the other woman- Amy suddenly wasn't sure how she felt about it.

On the one hand, she was grateful that the Doctor had such a close but platonic relationship with his old companion (And she would not consider why the fact that their relationship was platonic was so important to her), but on the other hand, considering how old he would have been when he'd travelled with Ace, and the fact that he was so much older now…

Could he ever see her the way she wanted him to?

AN: Hope you all enjoyed that; coming up, a new take on a particular episode of the modern series; hope you'll appreciate the new spin I plan to put on things