Author's note: in amendment to the previous Author's note where I said that the next chapter would act as a standalone chapter bridging the gap between Sun and Shadows and the final part: First Evil; this has ended up being too long so I have ended up splitting it in two rather than have one ridiculously long chapter.

The Bridge to Thoruxa Medio

The Doctor paced up and down, for once completely silent in his ponderings. Thoruxa Medio had been centuries ago, no millennia, near the start of his first life in fact. But Xkitor had been defeated, surely if he was going to return he would have done so sooner wouldn't he? He froze as a horrible thought suddenly occurred to him. What if Xkitor had been waiting for the opportune moment.

Those meetings with his previous incarnations now came to mind. Was this what they were warning him about, an upcoming reunion with one of his oldest foes? No they were trying to tell him something else. And how would they know, being figments of his imagination they only knew things that he already knew, or the things that he knew but didn't know that he knew, so would not have known about this either. Yet he felt that what they were trying to tell him was still linked to Xkitor's sudden reappearance.

"Full circle," a voice echoed in his head. What was that all about? What could that possibly mean? And then it clicked into place.

In his first adventure with Lisa they had battled with Harry, and when her adventuring with him had come to an end it had been in a repeat encounter with Harry; an encounter which had proven to be fatal. Did that imply that the same thing was now going to happen to him? Normally he would scoff at such a suggestion, but that didn't take into account the message that his previous lives had been trying to tell him.

He glanced out the window at the calm that had befallen the space around the Sundew base since the Shadow Proclamation had taken it. He knew that while everything looked calm now there was going to be absolute chaos once Kabrok returned and Shadon found out that he had been cut loose.

"Who's Xkitor?" The Doctor smiled to himself when he heard his companion's voice. He slowly turned to face her.

"I envy you, you know," he said. "One of these days it would be nice to simply sit back, relax and let someone else save the day. Perhaps we should swap, you revel in adrenaline that comes from a close quarter fight like the one I had here."

"Actually I had my fair share of action where I was too," Broxa explained. "So who is this Xkitor person then?"

"I'm going to have a quick nap," the Doctor carried on as if he hadn't heard her question, "need to check up on something. Good thing you are here, I need someone to keep an eye on me while I'm away."

Broxa frowned. "Why would you need someone to keep an eye on you?" She asked. "The Shadows have won."

"Just because the right team has won doesn't mean that there is no longer anyone around who means me harm. The one's that came with us in the TARDIS are not the only one's here," he explained. "So just make sure no one that you don't know or trust comes near me." He leaned back against the wall. "Was the Albino blood nice by the way?"

She blinked a couple of times before responding. "I haven't been drinking any blood."

"There's a spot on your collar," he said casually. As Broxa gave herself away by looking for this spot of blood that didn't exist the Doctor smirked, put his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes.

[flashback]

The residents of the normally quiet town continued about their daily business, the triplet suns beating down on their backs only sparing a brief glance at the two strangers wandering down the centre of the street. It was quite obvious that they were strangers, even if their attire was quite normal for a resident, for the part of the street they were wondering down was normally reserved for vehicles, they had light coloured skin whereas all natives were dark and they were staring about the place in wonder. The town was dull even by the standards of the planet, burnt orange stone buildings matching perfectly with the sand.

"It's so amazing Theta," the female stranger exclaimed. She wore long purple robes that was getting quite grubby at the hem due to rubbing along the sandy ground. Her hair was brown and was cut short and neat. "We're on a completely different world!"

The stranger known as Theta smiled and nodded in agreement. He had long blonde hair that he had tied in a ponytail behind his head. The robes that he wore were orange. "Reminds me of Low Town back on Gallifrey," he said.

"If you say so," she replied, unconvinced.

"No look," Theta insisted. "Simple houses dotted about, people wandering about or doing work with their hands. Everyone is dirty, there are children running about aimlessly, even the odd old man unable to keep their eyes off us. They may not live in wooden huts but this is almost exactly like any Shabogan town, for all we know there could be a huge citadel where the upper classes sneer down on little towns like this whilst living in luxury and seclusion."

She hit him lightly on the arm. "Don't be so pessimistic."

"I'm not being pessimistic, I was just supposing," he insisted. He stopped and regarded the corner of a building where a gang of youths were congregated. "That could almost be the exact spot where Koschei had the fight with those Shabogans."

She giggled at the memory. "Borusa was so angry, wasn't he," she sobered quickly. "How is he by the way, I hear things have been... hard."

"He is struggling," Theta said diplomatically. "But he'll bounce back, he's too good to allow this crisis to keep him down forever."

"Shouldn't you be back there helping?" she questioned.

"I would only get in the way," Theta said, "and Lord Oakdown made it very clear what would happen if he ever saw me again. What Koschei needs right now is a bit of seclusion so he can put his head down and work his way out of it without the distractions that I would cause. He will get out of it, and I'll be there to congratulate him when he does but right now it is best if I just leave him alone."

She shrugged. "You know him best," she said. "Seems a shame for him to miss this."

"He wouldn't appreciate it like we do, but let's not worry about those back on stuffy, old Gallifrey," he gestured to their surroundings. "We've got a whole planet to explore."

She grinned and clasped his hand in hers. "Where are we exactly?" she asked.

"Thoruxa Medio according to the time capsule computer. Second planet of the Thoruxa system, Zed Alpha Two Four Devyatnadtsat Phi," he paused. "What's that noise?"

They both turned a full 180 degrees to stare down the centre of the street towards the origin of the noise. Just in the distance Theta could make out a grey blur slowly getting larger. "What is that?" the female wondered.

The whirring got louder as the grey object grew closer. The whirring was then accompanied by the sound similar to a claxon, it was repeated several times but the two strangers remained motionless. The female looked on in interest, pondering on what it could be, but her companion was starting to narrow his eyes in suspicion; especially when the claxon was sounded again, for a longer duration.

Theta's eyes widened as he suddenly recollected about his time when he had partaken in some secret, private study on far off, mostly regarded as irrelevant, planets. In this case he thought about a particular object he had read about that was very commonly used by residents of the class five world of Sol 3. "Car," he breathed. "Get back!" He shouted, grabbing his friend as he did so and quickly pulled them to the side of the street. Milliseconds later the grey blur shot by accompanied by a shout of the Thoruxan equivalent of 'jackasses!'

"Whoa," was all that the female stranger could manage. "What was that?"

Theta let go of her and stared down the street after the vehicle. "Land based vehicle," he said. "Now that is interesting."

"What a strange invention," she observed.

"Well we aren't on Gallifrey anymore," Theta pointed out. "They are bound to do some things differently."

"Yes, but why would anyone need something like that?" She persisted. "What is wrong with walking?"

"Why did we choose to steal an old time capsule?" He replied philosophically. "What was wrong with our lives on Gallifrey? Why was the Eye of Harmony created? Why do we have ships that can take us across the stars? Why were the time capsules created in the first place?" He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. "Let's stick to the sides from now on shall we?"

[end of flashback]

The Doctor carefully shouldered his way through the throng of people, doing well to resist the urge to dance the music that was being played. It occurred to him that nobody would bat an eyelid if he did, with them all concentrating heavily on the roulette wheels spread around the room (and the fact that this was a dream), but he had allowed himself to enter the dream world for a reason and he couldn't afford to allow himself to get distracted this time. He needed to find the Doctor who had set up home in this dream.

The crowd whooped, cheered and groaned in direct correlation to how well they were doing in their respective games. Men and women with plastic smiles wandered through the crowds carrying trays of drinks. There were beeps and jingles from the fruit machines, the flicker of cards being shuffled, the rattle of the roulette table and the clicking of chips being passed about; in short it was a standard casino. There was only one Doctor who was outlandish and eccentric enough to choose a casino as his dreamworld, yet he was nowhere in sight.

The Doctor continued through the casino, searching for the tell-tale tweed jacket that would mark him out from the others. In fact it was the overzealous celebration from a craps table that allowed the Doctor to pinpoint his past self.

A man in a tweed jacket wearing a bow tie and a Stetson cowboy hat, was punching the air like an over-enthusiastic four year old while several people clapped politely. The Doctor watched this man with an almost shocked smile, had he really been that young? Well he was quite young now actually but he had almost forgotten how young this life had been, due to ageing to death like in his first life; in the last few centuries of his eleventh life he had seen an old man in the mirror every day. It was such a long time ago. He had had a good long run though, at least a thousand years, and it was nice to see what he looked like when he was young once more; he never got that luxury with First, almost as if everyone (including himself) had forgotten that he had been young at all.

Dude (the Doctor's nickname for this incarnation) turned back to the table and started to distribute his chips around the table. Other people also began to place bets, throwing chips down and talking loudly. The Doctor reached into his pocket and was unsurprised to discover a handful of gambling chips, well it was a dream after all. He strode purposefully over to the table and gently wriggled through the crowd to the edge of the table. He threw down a few chips and instantly the atmosphere changed.

Dude slowly raised his head so that his eyes were trained on the Doctor, the same eyes of all the other incarnations he had met in these dreams. "Betting against me?" Dude said with distaste. "Playing the dark side? Should I be concerned about your current personality?"

"Oh come on, me putting money on you losing is hardly indicative of my current personality," the Doctor complained.

"No," Dude agreed. "Not really playing in the spirit of things though."

"This is a game of chance," the Doctor justified. "The odds are you won't keep winning forever, you won the previous roll so you may lose this time. Seeing as there is an option to put money on you losing it seems stupid to not do so every so often."

Dude nodded in a sudden understanding. "Yes I see what you're doing," he said. The Doctor nodded in appreciation. "You're trying to piss me off," Dude finished. "Just like with Three and Six."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Your being childish now," he chided. "Although there isn't much point in being grown up if you can't be childish occasionally. Look you made us meet in a casino you could at least have the good grace to allow me to play against you. It isn't much fun if I have to be on your side all the time."

"Alright then," Dude gathered up the dice and held them up for the red headed girl stood next to him to blow on. "Wish me luck." She responded by blowing on it seductively. He then turned and offered the dice the brunette girl on his other side.

"Hold on a minute!" the Doctor exclaimed. "That's Amy!" the red headed girl stared back blankly.

"That is correct," Dude nodded. He indicated the brunette who had just blown on the dice like Amy had. "She should be familiar too, as should the man next to you."

The Doctor whipped his head round and jumped out of his skin upon realising that it was Rory. "It isn't really them though is it," the Doctor said sadly.

"No, they just merely look like all my companions," Dude nodded. "Everyone here travelled with me."

The Doctor scanned the room and saw that he was correct, each person had travelled with him in his 11th life, several of which appeared more than once. The most notable being that each dealer or banker at the various different tables was the slightly overweight, unshaven Craig Owens. "Wow," the Doctor said eventually.

"Good isn't it," Dude said with a grin, and he threw the dice. They bounced off the back wall and rattled to a halt, one dice showed five dots while the other showed six. Dude punched the air and whooped with joy.

The Doctor smiled a smile that is normally perfected by people who have discovered that their lottery numbers have come up on the week that they forgot to buy a ticket. "That's just how it goes sometimes," he muttered. "Alright my turn, I think."

Craig, after distributing the chips amongst the winners, collected up the dice and offered them to the Doctor along with three others. The Doctor chose two at random and rolled them about in his hand. "What is this place really?" he wondered. "Seems odd that you would create this place in such detail, including all your companions, just so we had a place to talk in."

"I suppose you never wondered what happens to us after we regenerate," Dude said, placing several gambling chips on the table.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at the fact Dude was betting against him but decided not to say anything; after all he had started it. "Well you never did," he pointed out. "Enlighten me."

"We create dreams for us to inhabit," Dude said. "This casino is a place I created after I regenerated for me to live in."

"Oh I see, you have each been given a little corner of my subconscious mind to exist in and have shaped it to your will," the Doctor said. "I suppose that begs the question: why is Previous' idea of heaven a big empty beach."

"Actually the beach is a shared area," Dude explained. "We all go there when we want some peace and quiet."

"And a chance to skim some stones," the Doctor added. "And you sit here and just wait for me to contact you in my sleep. Why haven't I done so before? And why did First not take me to his world?"

"I would guess that you didn't delve deeply enough into the dream world," Dude shrugged. "You were only sleeping lightly that time. Are you going to throw then?"

The Doctor blinked and looked down at the dice in his hands having completely forgotten all about them. He shrugged and threw them absent-mindedly. "By the way, I've worked out what you have been trying to tell me," he said.

Dude didn't seem to be listening, his eyes following the arc of the dice perfectly. One dice came to a stop showing six dots on the upper face, the other bounced a couple of times before coming to a rest itself. There was a collective moan of confusion from the crowd, even Dude blinked several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. The die had landed with its upper face showing seven dots.

Dude stared at the Doctor, his face showing a complete mixture of emotions; the Doctor was quite impressed by the variety of expressions his past self was using. Eventually he managed: "How?"

"Just lucky I suppose," the Doctor shrugged. "Although this is more a result of bad luck than good. I don't see myself rolling thirteen again before sevening out. You win."

"Why thirteen though?" Dude questioned. "That wouldn't happen by chance, you did that on purpose."

"Well I didn't plan to do it," the Doctor shrugged, "but this is a dream, strange things happen in dreams. Coincidentally that is the answer that I was about to give to you." Dude raised his eyebrows at this. "That's right, I am the thirteenth, and therefore the last, Doctor."

"I think you had better come with me," Dude said gravely.

The Doctor followed as his eleventh incarnation turned away from the table and began to stroll to the other end of the casino. The crowd did not give them a second glance as they made their way through the casino; it was quite eerie actually considering that he actually knew them all. Dude stopped in front of a door and knocked eleven times. After waiting a few seconds he opened it and walked through, the Doctor, intrigued by the knocking followed.

The door opened up into a large meeting room. The walls were dark and nondescript apart from a few flaming torches dotted about to create an ambient light. In the very centre of the room was a round mahogany table with thirteen seats set up around it. The Doctor just gaped as Dude went and sat down in his seat for eleven other men had also entered and were seating themselves at the table.

"Well, sit down then," one of them said once they were all seated. The Doctor nodded and slowly took the empty seat.

Each man had the same eyes, but they got progressively older as you went round the table until they reached the Doctor. The one with the youngest eyes was seated on the Doctor's left yet had a body which only one other could rival for age; and the owner of that body was seated on the Doctor's right. They were the Doctor's previous twelve incarnations.

Author's note: the brunette is supposed to be the eleventh Doctor's new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman upon the departure of Amy and Rory, I obviously do not know the character's name yet, I may well add it in later when we learn it.