Chapter 9

The world once again shifted to the past.

A few centuries had passed since Rassilon unlocked the power of regeneration. His reign was still strong, and his Time Lord subjects obeyed him without question. There were some that had questioned his methods but he easily brushed aside their worries. That was one of his greatest gifts, to make others think what he wanted them to think. It had worked with so many people. Rassilon had made his people feared across the universe. With the powers of time travel and regeneration, his armies of Time Lords were practically invincible.

Rassilon was meeting his war council to discuss their latest victory. He had gone through many bodies in his time, his latest being a tall man with curly brown hair, a full beard, and fierce amber eyes. His generals were deep in discussion when a young female barged into the room.

"Lord Rassilon, please!" said the young lady, completely out of breath. "I have urgent news!"

"You dare enter this chamber without authority!" shouted a nearby general.

The guards suddenly appeared.

"Forgive us, sir." said one of the guards. "We tried to stop her, but..."

"You will be punished." shouted the general.

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone became silent and turned.

Rassilon had stood up, glaring at everyone in the room. The generals all stood aside and let the young lady approach.

"Lord President," said the lady. "I'm afraid I bring troubling news. One of your soldiers came back from the battlefield injured. Her injuries were minor, nothing more than a bullet. We sent her to a Zero Room to prepare for the regeneration, but…"

"But?" asked Rassilon.

She took a deep breath.

"But the regenerative process did not begin at all. No matter what we did to help trigger the process."

The generals were not impressed.

"Why are you wasting our time with this nonsense?" asked the head general. "We have lost soldiers on the field before. This is nothing new."

"Because she was not the first Time Lord to not have the process fail after a certain amount of bodies."

Rassilon stood.

"Explain."

"I have kept a record of the Time Lords: what faces they have had, how many they have used, what caused the changes. And according to my findings, no Time Lord has ever passed beyond twelve regenerations. I have checked all of my findings many times and it is always the same. It is as if there is a limit to our ability to change."

This caught everyone's attention. Everyone looked at each other worried. What did this mean for them? Did this mean that the Time Lords were not really immortal? If there was a limit to the amount of times they could regenerate, they would have to keep track of how many they had gone through.

As everyone vocalised their thoughts, Rassilon left the room unnoticed. He made his way to his hidden lab in the Death Zone. When he arrived, he began to angrily pace around the room.

"How? How?!" he asked aloud. "I copied all of her findings perfectly! There shouldn't be any limits! The Child went through dozens of changes, many more than just twelve! So WHY?!"

"Why indeed?"

Rassilon turned, startled.

Out of the shadows, behind his teleport pad, emerged a figure. The Doctor looked at the figure with much interest. It was a man of average height, an aged face, and deep blue eyes. The Doctor thought he looked familiar but she couldn't place where she had seen him.

"You!" snarled Rassilon, his face scrunched with much distaste. Clearly, this man was no friend of the Lord President. "What are you doing here?!"

The man walked around the room, seemingly not caring about Rassilon's rage. He was looking around the lab, carefully analyzing every detail, every layout, every tool or trick that was available. He gave off an aura of confidence, intellect, and rebellion, as if he owned the stage, above all before him. But The Doctor also noticed a bit of calmness, peace, as if he had prepared for this moment.

"I heard you discovered a small issue with your 'healing factor'." said the man.

Rassilon grew angry.

"What have you done?!" screamed the Lord President. "My Immortal Legion! What has happened?!"

"I assure you this has nothing to do with me, 'Lord President',", said the Stranger. "Perhaps you should have asked Tecteun."

Rassilon became shocked, scared even.

"What does that ignorant fool have to do with this?" he demanded. "She has been dead for years."

"You could say everything," The Stranger replied. "Before her execution, Tecteun confessed her sins to me. How she used her "Timeless Child" to create the Regeneration Process, how you tricked her into dissecting a child, torturing her for centuries. She also told me that she found out that the process was not permanent. She heard of your plans, and altered her formula. Our bodies might continue to generate the energy to heal minor injuries, but after twelve changes, there is not enough energy to change."

Rassilon was shocked. His empire was not eternal, he wouldn't live forever. Unless…

"Then I will continue where she left off," he replied. "I shall…"

"Bring the Child from her cell and run the experiments again." The Stranger interrupted. "She knew when you found out you would try to correct her work. So she had the Child sent away. She would not say where, but it is beyond your reach."

So Tecteun removed her child from Gallifrey. Without the Child, he would never attain immortality. Or could he?

"So what?" scoffed Rassilon. "The little bitch might have figured out my plans, but I can easily travel to the past and prevent this problem. All her effort would be for not."

"I anticipated this as well." replied the Stranger. "Which is why I took the liberty of generating a Time Lock around Gallifrey's past."

"You Did What?!" exclaimed the enraged President.

"That's right, Rassilon. This world's past is now lost to you. You can travel to any planet's history, but Gallifrey will always be in the present. Neither you, nor anyone, can change the history of Gallifrey. You have lost."

And with that Rassilon attacked the man.