NOTE: Can't sleep...must write...
On another note I got a phrase into this chapter that I've been dying to get into this story! You'll know it when you see it!
Chapter Twenty-five
"We need to get to the bridge, but he's already hacked into the transporter!"
"I hear Time Lords can be clever with transporters."
"They are clever with everything," Jackles said seriously "that's what makes them so dangerous."
"So I've been told."
"Come on, we'll have to walk."
Leaning against one of the burnt out computer consoles in the ruined lab the Doctor reached into his jacket and brought out the sonic and clicked it on briefly. Jackles was heading for the door and cried out when it suddenly slid shut in front of him. While Jackles tried uselessly to get the door to open the Doctor pulled out his phone and sent Amy a quick text to let her know he was okay and to hide. The inside of the TARDIS wouldn't be safe for a few hours at least after the Haldon burst.
Turning the phone off for now the Doctor slipped it back in his pocket. Sitting up on the console he watched Jackles desperately trying different combinations on the wall control to get the door to open. When Jackles tried the communications circuit to call for help the Doctor used the sonic to block him again. Thrown into a full panic Jackles slammed his fist against the solid metal door a few times. Resting his forehead against the locked door in defeat Jackles sighed.
"We are all going to die..." Jackles whimpered "and it's my fault."
A ship wide alarm suddenly went off as the rest of the crew realized that something was terribly off. Jackles jolted at the sound and backed away from the door. Annoyed by the noise the Doctor turned it off. The alarm gave the Doctor the impression that the memory gap had effected everyone to some extent and that it was probably wrecking chaos on the inhabitants of the ship as they panicked.
Uninterested in the others at the moment the Doctor continued to study Jackles. After dragging his hands through his thinning salt and pepper hair Jackles sighed and joined the Doctor at the console. He leaned against it and stared at the floor. The Doctor felt bile rise to the back of his throat at having Jackles so close and it took all his will power not to move away from him.
"I knew it would end like this one day." Jackles whispered. "It was inevitable that a Time Lord would eventually tear through us like a wolf among sheep, but it certainly didn't help that I poked a spear in him first."
"Maybe if you just talk to him, you'll discover he's not as violent as you think." The Doctor suggested.
"Don't be foolish. You can not reason with a Time Lord, you can not negotiate with one, you can not even beg for mercy."
"I'm sure he would say the same of you."
"What?"
"You spoke of the need to capture him before he could call for help. Why would he need to bring the 'wrath of all of Gallifrey' down on this ship unless he was being mistreated?"
"It wouldn't have mattered either way." Jackles muttered darkly.
"Why not?"
"You must be a member of memory C Class or lower." Jackles noted.
"That's right." The Doctor lied.
"You're lucky, I'm A Class but most days I'd give anything to be D or even F for that matter." Jackles forced a chuckle as if he'd told some kind of joke. "However you are right, I'm sure the Time Lord suffered terribly at my hand. Once he's slaughtered the rest of the ship he will come back here for me. I'm sure that's why he's sealed me in here, hopefully you didn't have much of a hand in his torment and he will grant you a quick death."
"What did you do to him?" The Doctor asked gently.
"I don't remember."
"But you know what you think you did." The Doctor insisted. "What did you have planned for the day you caught a Time Lord?"
"I...I don't want to talk about." Jackles whispered as he glanced over at the broken pieces of the device that once hung from the ceiling. "Turns my stomach to think about it, even without the memory of what actually occurred...I can't believe I even suggested it, let alone built the device. I deserve a slow death at the Time Lord's hand."
"I think that depends on your motivation."
"What?"
"Why did you torture him? What did you want from him?"
"I can't tell you, you're not A Class, it's...it's classified." Jackles stuttered. "I...I can't..."
"You're going to die." The Doctor pointed out. "Nothing can stop a vengeful Time Lord, he's probably ripped half the ship apart by now."
To emphasize his point the Doctor used the sonic that he was casually holding in his far hand to cause the lights to flicker. Jackles jerked in fright and looked to the Doctor for courage. As much as he hated to admit it the Doctor found that he got some satisfaction in seeing Jackles fear him.
"Confession is good for the soul, Jackles." The Doctor said softly. "Why did you capture and torment a Time Lord?"
"For the good of all..." Jackles whimpered.
"What does that mean?"
"When was your last Memory Clean?" Jackles asked suddenly.
"A while back." The Doctor answered vaguely.
"It's been nearly fifteen thousand years for me...longest I've ever been by far and it's driving me mad. As you know A Class keep far more memories to start with, but even for us fifteen thousand years is much too long to go without any Cleaning at all."
"Why have you gone so long?"
"Because I came up with a theory, a theory as to how to break us free from the Age Lock. I shouldn't tell you this but we don't age because of what the Time Lords did to us. I came up with a theory of how to use a Time Lord's energy to reverse it." Jackles whispered. "Lady Aleena and I agreed that we couldn't risk me losing it to a Cleaning accident so I haven't touched one since. I spent the last fifteen thousand years working on my lab, all the while we've been secretly trying to capture a Time Lord."
"And you finally found one slow enough." The Doctor grumbled.
"We must have." Jackles nodded. "And in what would have been just in time to save us. We were running out of time."
"Why the time crunch if you weren't aging?"
"I shouldn't tell you." Jackles said guiltily. "I've already said too much. I shouldn't be talking to you. Why am I talking to you?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes slightly and turned the alarm back on to instill some more fear in Jackles. Getting to his feet Jackles paced nervously for a moment. Turning the alarm back off the Doctor got off the console as well and went over to put a comforting hand on Jackles' shoulder. Jackles put his hand over the Doctor's and smiled gratefully.
"Please tell me, why did you capture a Time Lord?"
"This isn't public because we didn't want to panic people, but the Memory Residue from Cleaning is building up in the adults faster with each passing use."
"I don't know what that means."
"Of course you don't. Only Aleena and the A Class know this, but with the current Cleaning schedule in just under a thousand years the adult population of this ship is going to go insane and die. Even if we stop all Cleaning it won't take more than two thousand years at this point for anarchy to break out. We are just too old, we can't keep going on. Unfortunately our children can keep going."
"Unfortunately?" The Doctor asked surprised.
"It will take at least one hundred thousand more years for the same Residue build up to effect the children. Their young minds don't mature, so they need Cleaning more often, but they Clean better with less Residue. However, they will not be able to care for themselves, they have bodies that are hundreds of thousands of years old but even without Cleaning they would always have the intellect of children. They would be unable to run this ship, or the Cleanings, or care for one another. If the Time Lord wasn't killing them right now without a cure for the Age Lock we would have been forced to kill them ourselves or leave them to drift in space as helpless orphans."
"And taking something from the Time Lord could have stopped this?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?" The Doctor asked.
"I had to try something, I had to take the risk, we were running out of time!" Jackles began to panic. "I knew it was going to be horrible, I knew it was going to be cruel, I knew I'd never be able to live with myself after ward...but my daughter, my wife, everyone else on this ship, they could all live, and age, and grow, multiply, and die as nature intended. We could finally settle on a world and know peace again. I had to try! If you had to condemn one soul to suffer to save your entire species...wouldn't you do that? One man, that's all I asked for, that's all I took, *one* soul! Is that so much to ask?! Wouldn't you do anything to save your family, save the people you love?!"
"This isn't about me." The Doctor deflected.
"You're right." Jackles nodded sadly as he bowed his head in weary defeat. "I'm sorry, I don't know even know why I'm telling you all of this. You're a lower memory Class, I shouldn't be burdening you with my problems. That's why we set the classes in the first place, so that at least some of us would know peace. I'm sorry, I've talked too much about myself when we are both about to die."
"It's okay." The Doctor sighed. "I have one of those faces: everyone talks to me, but no one ever listens in return."
Jackles furrowed his brow and looked at the Doctor, appearing to truly see him for the first time. Lost in thought the Doctor leaned against the console once again and absently played with the sonic as he tried to figure out what to do with the information he'd been told. Learning that the Time Lords may be behind placing the people on the ship in an Age Lock had terrifying ramification that he didn't really want to think about. If these people were who he suddenly feared they might be it meant a terrible lie had been told and a dark secret had been created long ago.
"I'm sorry," Jackles took a nervous step back "I...I...never did get your name."
"I'm called The Doctor." The Doctor replied quietly without looking at Jackles.
"Doctor? Doctor who?"
"Just The Doctor."
Putting the sonic away in his pocket the Doctor raked his hands through his long hair before he finally turned his attention to Jackles. Standing a few feet away Jackles was just staring at him. When the Doctor didn't move Jackles took a step closer. Once again the deep hidden memories of pain caused the Doctor to automatically recoil when Jackles approached. Seeing the effect he had on the Doctor for the first time Jackles froze in place.
"It...it's you..." Jackles breathed in horror "you...you're the captured Time Lord..."
The Doctor just nodded.
"But, you can't be...you only have one heart...I...I checked... Unless..."
"You cut the other one out of me."
What little colour remained in Jackles' face instantly drained away. The Doctor yelped as Jackles suddenly dropped to his knees and scrambled over to him. Putting his hands out to try and keep the groveling man at a distance the Doctor backed away until his back was pressed up against the far wall. Despite his age Jackles was amazingly quick even on his knees and kept pace. Prostrate at the Doctor's feet he gripped the hem of the Doctor's pants tightly.
"Jackles, get off me..."
"Time Lord, I beg you, do what you want with me, torture me till the end of time itself, but leave the rest! I alone caused your pain, I alone should take the punishment! Please, leave my people, we have suffered so much already. I am begging you to show mercy!"
"Stop that, get up." The Doctor ordered annoyed. "Get off your knees this instant."
"But..."
"There is no punishment, Jackles." The Doctor assured gently as he helped Jackles back to his feet. "I'm not angry, well...maybe a bit. However, I'm not going to hurt you, I forgive you."
"How...how can you possibly forgive me? Why would you?"
"Do me a favour and just accept the fact that I do."
"I don't understand."
"Of course you don't. If you understood me, you wouldn't have feared me and we could have solved this without all this violence!" The Doctor snarled. "If you had just *talked* to me when we first met, all of this could have been avoided!"
"No, never. I'm sorry, but there was no avoiding this, Doctor."
"Why not?"
"Because I would never have listened to you until you heard my story..."
"...and you would never had told me your story if you'd known I was a Time Lord."
"Exactly, bit of a paradox."
"Tricky thing about paradoxes, they tend to work themselves out. Still, no fun being in the middle of them when they do..."