Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to, I don't own Doctor Who
Feedback: Of course
AN: Back to the Eighth and Tenth Doctors, with a brief bonus reference to "The Eight Doctors" for good measure (The Sixth Doctor 'segment' of the novel, if you're interested in more specific detail); it's a bit short, but I do have a couple of longer ones coming up to make up for it...
AN 2: For anyone who wants to know, I've made some minor modifications to my 'Silence in the Library'/'Forest of the Dead' chapter based on both recent information regarding River Song's history and my own plans for her in future stories; feel free to check them out if you want.
The Legacy of Gallifrey
As he stood in front of the building that Compassion had identified as the source of the transduction barriers that they were trying to shut down, the Eighth Doctor spared a moment to reach out and make contact with his future self, relieved when he 'felt' his other self's presence; he wasn't entirely comfortable, but at least he seemed to be fairly intact, wherever he was.
He couldn't believe that Romana had fallen this far; her last incarnation had remained in E-space to save the Tharil's from enslavement, and now she was essentially torturing him to learn information about the future?
After all the effort he'd gone to in the past to try and avoid learning anything about the war, to have the High Council violate everything they'd ever stood for that effortlessly when faced with such a potentially minor opportunity...
It was disheartening, to say the least; there were probably stronger terms that he could use, but to actually voice them would have made this situation too real for him, and he was having a hard enough time as it was.
To think that Romana would go this far, after all her efforts to reform their people into something that wouldn't hide away from the rest of the universe...
Even after he'd witnessed her cold resolution to 'acquire' Compassion during their confrontation in Avalon, it was still hard for him to reconcile the young Time Lady who'd been sent to him during the first search for the Key to Time with the cold leader who was even now probably 'questioning' his future self.
"Are you all right?" Compassion asked, looking slightly uncertainly at him through her current disguise, having used the chameleon circuit to turn herself into a slightly saggy red-haired man with a thin face that looked like it would be better suited to a smile than the frown that it currently possessed.
"Just... worried about myself, I suppose," the Eighth Doctor said, turning his attention contemplatively back to the large building in front of them with the distinctive antenna and dishes on the roof that seemed to be used for radio transmissions the universe over. "Anyway, this seems to be the source of the barriers we're looking for; we'd better see about getting inside."
"And you're certain it will be as simple to disable them as you appear to think it will?" Compassion asked, looking pointedly at him. "Keep in mind that we are up against your people; you've told us more than once how dangerous they can be-"
"This entire facility has the air of something that was set up at the last minute; even with our resources, they'll just be using what was already there rather than adding anything particularly detailed to the systems," the Eighth Doctor said, smiling reassuringly at Compassion. "Quamtaanian technology might not have branched out into temporal physics before they were destroyed, but their energy production abilities were certainly sufficient to maintain this kind of barrier; all Romana's forces would need to do is channel the power correctly, so all that I need to do is find the power source and shut it off."
He couldn't help but hope that it would be as simple as he was trying to make it sound; it had been so long since Gallifrey had even had to face any kind of actual war that he had no way of knowing what changes they might have made to their usual methods of operation or other such issues...
Still trapped in his chair, the Doctor wasn't sure what was worse; being tortured by his old companion for information that she should know he couldn't give her, or being faced with the possibility of doing something that he really wanted to do while also knowing that he was unable to do it regardless.
Even with everything he'd told Martha after Pompeii about how he couldn't change history whenever he wanted without becoming the Master, imposing his will when the universe didn't fit what he wanted to see, there was still that part of him that wanted to be able to save his people, to undo everything he'd had to do during that terrible confrontation with Davros or Grandfather Paradox (He knew what had happened originally, but when the rest of the universe 'insisted' that Faction Paradox had never existed it was so much harder to retain a memory of the original timeline)...
"Come now, Doctor," Romana's voice said, breaking into the Doctor's thoughts once again, the Doctor drawing his attention back to his former companion as she looked almost pityingly at him, "this really isn't getting us anywhere-"
"Oh, I don't know," the Doctor replied, trying to sound cheerier than he was as he indicated the interrogator beside Romana. "I'm certainly giving him a good telepathic work-out, aren't I?"
"Quite," the man said, restraining the slight tremor in his stance as he looked at the still-trapped Time Lord. "Your barriers are... impressive, Doctor."
"I picked up a few tricks while I've been out and about; you'd be surprised what you can learn in the right times and places when you're dealing with the right people," the Doctor said, trying to appear nonchalant as he stared the other man down; a couple of minor possible clues about what he'd been up to in his future might be enough to make them relax their assault if they assumed that he was about to crack anyway.
It was a long shot, of course, but it was all he could do right now; his main goal had to be to buy time for his past self to get him out of this mess...
"Except a sense of duty, apparently," Romana said, shaking her head as she looked at her former mentor. "Doctor, you have always fought for Gallifrey in the past; why do you seek to defy us now-?"
"Do you think I want to defy Gallifrey, Romana?" the Doctor interjected, his eyes narrowing as he glared at her, briefly allowing some part of his eighth self from this time to slip through; it wasn't easy, but letting who he'd been at this point dictate his words right now would at least decrease the possibility that he'd reveal future information, given that he'd be focusing on how he felt about the situation without the benefit of hindsight. "Gallifrey's safety has always been one of my priorities, but that can also mean protecting it from itself-"
"By defying a Presidential order and depriving us of our potentially greatest weapon?" Romana asked, clearly sceptical at the Doctor's explanation. "How is that 'protecting' us?"
"Sometimes protecting Gallifrey includes protecting it from itself," the Doctor repeated, grateful that he still believed in the motives of what he'd been trying to accomplish by keeping Compassion away even if his attempts had ended badly; it wasn't like there was anything her presence in Gallifrey's fleet during that assault around the Edifice could have done anyway. "I don't want the Enemy to win the war if they're as bad as what I've heard about them, but I don't feel that what you're trying to accomplish is worth the methods you're using to ensure it happens; it's not the same thing as defying you-!"
"It is precisely the same thing, Doctor," Romana said, shaking her head at him in a mockingly sympathetic manner, as though she couldn't believe that anyone could be as foolish as he was being at present. "You would refuse to do your duty for Gallifrey, and for that-"
"Oh yes, the same sad old line all over, isn't it?" the Doctor said, temper pushed to the edge as he glared at his old companion. "If I'm not with you I'm against you, and if I'm against you then I'm automatically a threat, regardless of how often I've helped you in the past?"
"I have to think of Time Lord society, Doctor-" Romana began.
"And what price is victory worth, Romana?" the Doctor said, glaring resolutely back at his old companion. "Where is the point in winning if you're going to destroy everything that was worth preserving about what you're trying to save in the first place? Honestly, the last time Gallifrey was in this kind of state it required two of me to sort it out-!"
"I am nothing like Niroc, Doctor; I am not doing this to cover up my own mistakes-" Romana began.
"No, you're just doing it to secure survival at the cost of survival," the Doctor said, glaring scornfully at his old companion. "Did you learn nothing from your time with me, Romana? What's the point in winning if you destroy everything worth preserving in the first place?"
"Ensuring that we're still around to restore what we might have lost afterwards," Romana said, folding her arms as she looked at the Doctor. "If you can help us learn how best to survive the coming war, Doctor-"
"I won't," the Doctor said resolutely.
Romana sighed.
"Then we'll just have to do this the hard way," she said sadly.
As the assault on his mind was renewed, the Doctor could only grit his teeth and pray that his younger self would reach him sooner rather than later...
AN 3: Short, but there wasn't much to cover here; the next few chapters are going to be more interesting as the past Doctors deal with the problems facing them...
