The Saber-Class Servant named Artoria was strangely wandering within an utopia.
An eternal utopia where Time itself originated from...an unearthly landscape where the universe began a clockwork eternity...
The ever-distant utopia not named Avalon...
Rather...
"Oh...I...think I am on Gallifrey..." Artoria recognized the Doctor`s home-planet.
This...has to be a dream. The last the King of Knights remembered before she arrived at this place was the awful sight of Unlimited Blade Works (Infinite Creation of Swords) being destroyed by the one named the Doctor Alter. There was nothing Artoria understood she could do. The others have rescued her from the aftermath only as she was strangely unable to awaken, this indicates her body was severely weakened therefore...
Artoria grimaced. "A healing coma..."
"...Miss Artoria?" A voice called from behind.
Gray had materialized from nowhere within this dream, looking at her ancestor bewilderingly.
"Gray...?" Artoria hesitated. "You...do not appear to belong in this dream...what are you...?"
"I...think I was blasted into unconsciousness by the Master..." Gray observed the landscape of the astral Gallifrey bewilderingly, slowly discerning what was happening. Artoria`s comatose body was resting in the stolen TARDIS all this time, the sole being who was not on the battlefield of Gallifrey at the moment. Therefore the TARDIS must had used its space-time telepathic abilities to bring Gray`s consciousness into the sleeping Artoria`s dream as a contingency to save itself.
"The...Master...?" Artoria did not understand. "Master of who?"
Gray hastily explained everything. "...Therefore I think my presence inside your comatose mind is affecting what you are dreaming of...especially considering that you have never witnessed Gallifrey before."
"I...I see." Artoria was solemn at the end of Gray`s story. Everyone else was on Gallifrey battling to save Akasha only she herself was helplessly comatose within the stolen TARDIS. "I believe I have to will myself to awaken."
A moment passed as Gray watched Artoria mediate, doing everything she could to awaken only to gasp in surprising pain. "Are you okay!?"
"I...I am fine...my body has not been completely healed, therefore my brain must have instinctively stopped me from awakening." Artoria grimaced, standing up to look at the Gallifreyan landscape. "I suppose all I could do is await until that time then..."
A strange thought came to Gray`s mind as she was reminded of King Arthur`s legend. When Arthur was brought to the utopia of Avalon after her death at the Battle of Camlann, humankind spoke of a future time when the king would resurrect once more to save all of Britannia in its darkest moment. The battlefield on Gallifrey was certainly not on Earth, only could this legend be...?
A voice broke the silence of Gray`s thought.
"I never want to be a soldier..."
A boy younger than Gray appeared, walking past like she was not there. A crying boy drowned in despair, heading towards a distant field of silver flowers.
"...Young man, are you - ?" Artoria hesitated as the boy did not acknowledge her presence too.
"...I think...we are witnessing the Doctor`s memories of all his past incarnations..." Gray discerned. "I myself strangely dream of the Doctor`s memories whenever I am sleeping, the TARDIS`s telepathic abilities must have you as a witness to this too. It is all too Scientific for me to understand..."
"The...Doctor...?" Artoria looked bewilderingly at the young boy who would become the madman with a box.
Gray silently indicated Artoria come with her.
The boy-Doctor stopped within the field of flowers, picking up a beautiful Gallifreyan rose. "I want to be a person who watches over the universe, never a soldier...only...what should I do...?"
"You...could be a healer instead." Gray whispered gently, acknowledging the boy could not hear her.
The landscape become distorted until Gray discerned the Doctor`s memories brought her into another place in space-time with Artoria.
The boy-Doctor had become a grandfatherly old man walking with a pretty young girl Gray identified as 'Susan', the Doctor`s granddaughter. Artoria watched curiously as the Doctor entered a strange metallic cylinder with his granddaughter before closing the doors, the cylinder disappearing into thin air.
"I...think that was when the Doctor in his first incarnation stole the TARDIS." Gray finally spoke.
"...The TARDIS was never a police box in the first place?" Artoria had more than enough questions only the Doctor`s memories continued onward.
The grandfatherly Doctor was laying lifelessly alone on the ground of the first TARDIS console room. Artoria instinctively moved over to check on the man only to gasp. "I do not think the Doctor is breathing..."
Gray merely smiled sorrowful. All this time, the Doctor never told anyone aside from her what precisely was Time Lord regeneration. Artoria stared as an otherworldly light appeared around the Doctor, the man`s form slowly becoming unidentifiable until...
Memories of the Doctor`s past incarnation continued to flood, everything moving at such speed that Artoria could barely perceive anything.
The universe. Past. Present. Future. Everywhere. Nowhere.
Gray herself was calm, having witnessed everything before in her dreams as the Doctor`s companion. All this time, the Doctor was such a lonely wanderer cursed to walk upon eternity until death itself. Artoria hesitated, thinking she sighted an unidentifiable Doctor reaching for a certain 'Sword in the Stone' of his home-universe, only this memory disappeared before she could investigate it.
The Doctor`s memories began to slow until the landscape of Gallifrey returned...although...
A raggedy older Doctor covered in dust had set a strange clockwork cube on the ground, inspecting the machine wearily like the end of the universe was about to descend.
"The Last Great Time War...this is the lost 'War Doctor'..." Gray remembered. The only one of the Doctor`s incarnations who was theoretically Summonable as a Berserker-Class Servant...a fallen 'healer' who broke his eternal promise to wrought the battlefield as a warrior instead.
"What is that machinery...?" Artoria indicated to the cube, shivering in fear despite herself. "I understand this is a dream...only that 'Scientific Construct' radiates an unearthly presence to it...like Akasha itself loathes its memory..."
Gray retreated backward with Artoria. "The 'Moment'...I...suppose it is you would call the ultimate 'Noble Phantasm' of the ancient Time Lords, one capable of destroying creation itself. The Doctor is about to use it to end the Last Great Time War by destroying all of Gallifrey."
"Gallifrey...?" Artoria gasped, horrified. "No...!"
The War Doctor stood up like Artoria`s voice reached him only to walk over to the door of the wooden house he was in before looking outside, speaking to thin air.
Gray watched bewilderingly with Artoria, not understanding what was going on. Unknown to everyone, a certain rose-like 'Bad Wolf' was unable to been seen by these humans of Magic origins...
"Only everything ended with the War Doctor`s victory in the end...although the healer himself became 'no more'..." Gray observed the Doctor`s memories distort the landscape until she was strangely standing within an art museum, looking at an otherworldly painting of Gallifrey.
"Gallifrey Falls No More..." Artoria read the name on the painting, her heart finally able to rest. The art museum disappeared to be replaced by the Doctor`s continued memories until it finally reached the incarnation of the Doctor she was companions with.
What a lonely boy the healer was on the inside...an eternity of saving others should have brought him joy, although it merely caused the healer to regret not being able to overcome his inner darkness. These unforgettable memories...it was a burden to the Doctor until the end, a reminder to the healer of the self-destructive promise he made as a child.
"The TARDIS must have brought you into my comatose consciousness, revealing all these memories for a reason I do not understand..." Artoria finally spoke.
The landscape distorted one last time to be replaced with the TARDIS console room. The bigger-on-the-inside room where the healer`s journey began...as Gray had witnessed in the Doctor`s memories throughout his incarnations, a legacy that would last an eternity...
"The Doctor`s incarnations..." A strange thought came to Gray. All those past incarnations who could be theoretically Summoned as Servants too...only...no one would think of creating such a time paradox when...
"A paradox..."
It was at this moment Gray understood what the TARDIS was telling her.
The secret to defeating the Doctor Alter.
"Gray...?" Artoria looked at the girl hesitantly. "What is it?"
"I..." Gray was about to answer only the girl hastily discerned she was disappearing like a ghost. "Oh...Miss Artoria...I think you are awakening from your healing coma..."
Artoria gasped as everything around slowly became enshrouded by darkness. "...I am?"
Gray did not answer, having disappeared a moment ago.
Darkness was all Artoria understood before the King of Knights returned back to her awakening self.