Chapter 4 – Time Continuity –

There was a loud fanfare, and huge cheers, that erupted from down the street. The doctor turned his head, looking down, to see what the commotion was. He could just only see confetti, and bright flashes near but, but every few minutes getting louder and nearer, so whatever it was, it was moving here slowly. A celebrity doing a tour maybe? Nonsense, the Doctor though, the only real celebrities back in this time for the dear planet Earth were all shallow crooks and cronies, as he had found out by accident and leaked information to the press, under different names. Nope, it would have to be a proper figure of power in this world, probably liked, or at least in these parts, so he assumed from the loud cries. November 1963? It suddenly rang a bell.

But where? No idea. Could it be the Cyberman invasion? No… that was 69' He frowned, and scratched his short hair (which he wasn't too fond of, but thanks to his current regeneration, it couldn't really grow) and just pondered on.

Rose also had heard the commotion, and turned her head, but was too busy in thought to actually notice how concerned the Doctor actually was. She jumped up, and saw the jet black, open roof car, but despite not being able to see J.F.K, or his face, she saw the front two body guards, and a waving arm in the back, and it was near! She grabbed the Doctors hand, and pushed through the clouds, to allow them to see what was going to happen, and they were only a few rows in now, only about 2 metres or so actually away from JFK, and she could see him now, both her and the Doctor could see J.F.K, and suddenly the Doctor realised who this was, and what was going on. Rose, in her haste, fumbled, and fell to the ground, giving a sharp cry but was concealed in the cheering and roaring. The Doctor failed to notice this, for Rose could not actually be seen by anybody in the crowd anymore and looked up, as if to see where the killer could attack from. How could he have been so stupid not to have realised what date this was. He suddenly saw a glance of sunlight from one of the buildings, and as he looked upwards to it. It flashed at him. He suddenly blinked, and took a step, only coming to the realisation now that he had just been photographed. Damn, that was going to be something he regretted until his next regeneration, especially since he was so close to J.F.K. He tripped backwards over Rose, and stumbled back into the crowd. As he did, a large bang, a resounding shot went off, and the noise as he hit the ground rung in his ears. To make matters worse, the whole crowd screamed out loud now, and just simply pushed backwards, away from J.F.K, who was now almost certainly dead, no matter what the doctors would say later. He pushed himself up, as Rose did, looked around, only to notice that they were the only two people even remotely stood near the scene of the crime now. Not good, he thought, and promptly gave Rose a very stern look, before just walking off.

Rose instantly knew. He had figured out what had been going on the whole time. Normally, he would have taken her hand, and then taken her with him. But, nope, this time he had gone off by himself. Suddenly, the stark realisation of what he might be doing came across her, and hit her hard. He was going to the TARDIS. Without her.

He couldn't, could he? Last time had had come back, but this time? She didn't want to find out. She suddenly bit hard onto her lip, then chased after him through the crowd.

By the time she had got there, she could just see him, stood by the TARDIS, about to open the door. She shouted to him "Doctor, please, no! Don't!" He looked up at her, then looked back to the TARDIS. She finally got there, after sprinting down the alleyway, then bent over, looking at him, taking deep breaths.

"Please… please don't go"

He looked at her, stared deep down into her eyes.

"Why? Last time you tried to interfere with history you very nearly got me killed. Wiped from time itself. You could very well nearly do that again, now"

"But…. I never meant for you to save him…..." She begged "I really do have a valid reason"

He turned, looked at her, tilting his head, and folding his arms, but this time, without the cheeky smile "Go on then"

"When…. When I first met you, I was interested in who you were, and how you did what you did. This man, this man who spent his life researching you… He showed me a picture, a picture of J.F.K in his car. And you were stood right near him, in the crowd….. I just wanted to see why you were here"

He suddenly stopped in his tracks. Turned his head to the TARDIS, then simply said "But I hadn't been here yet…… That picture was only just taken, so the Rose of the future will only just be seeing it now." He turned to face her "So how on earth did you see that picture? Despite me only having come with you now?"

She felt confused, not entirely sure about what he was saying. But she just didn't want to look stupid, so she replied with a simple "Well. I dunno"

"Of course you wouldn't"

"Huh?" Rose looked at the Doctor "What do you mean?"

The Doctor looked back, his face now no longer angry or mad at her, but confused also "I never said anything"

"Nope, he never did, did he?"

Rose looked around. That voice was certainly not the Doctors, and it certainly had come from behind. As she looked around, a figure stepped from the shadows.

"I must confess, the source of all your confusion was indeed conjured up by me, well, my voice to be more precise."

His face, slightly wrinkled and old, was weathered with age, and travel. He had piercing grey eyes, that looked to be set in stone, and held much knowledge, that Rose could tell. His hair was fairly long, and greyish, with a few white streaks here and there. He looked very bold, like a hitchhiker, with a weary and aged, but joyful impression on his face. He wore a grey and blue attire, with a grey t-shirt underneath the jack, and as he walked forward, she noticed he was wearing a long blue cape, drawled all around him. He smiled at both of them, and then stopped in front of them.

"Hello" he grinned "Been causing trouble in time have we?"

The Doctor gave him a stern look, then asked "Who are you?"

"Ha" he laughed "I'm like you Doctor, well, actually, tell a lie, I'm slightly similar to you, I wouldn't want to be like you, goodness gracious me, isn't that what you earthlings say?"

"You didn't answer my question"

"No, I never, did I?"

"Well…. Are you going to?"

"I may do…. but then again, I may feel the random impulse to not tell you, Isn't that what they say you do Doctor, live your life on random impulses? Taking no real plot through life, taking each day as it goes?"

"That's none of your business"

"No. quite right, how rude of me anyway" He took Rose's hand and kissed it, much to her surprise "My name is Kymern, and I like you Doctor, am a Timelord, a Galifreyian, so to speak"

The Doctor suddenly glared at him "Really? I thought I was the last one, I thought you were all dead"

"Oh don't be stupid, We're ruddy timelords, we could just teleport away from there. However, it's slightly annoying now, seeing as we are all spread across the galaxy. Bit of a nuiscance isn't it? Maybe we should get them all to have a convention one day, call it Gallifrey One? But nonsense, think of all the trouble we'd have trying to track them down?" He laughed, something which both the Doctor and Rose was beginning to find annoying now.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Rose intervened, seeing as she felt left out, and just had to ask something.

"Very good question little girl, something which I often ask myself. Well, you see, I'm actually tracking down the other timelords. Big business you see, after the Time War"

Rose had no idea of what the Time War actually was, but had often heard the Doctor make mention to it at several times but was met with blank faces and replies every time she asked the Doctor, so she decided to ask Kymern.

"The Time War? Bit of a sensitive subject for us Time Lords you see. Some fool, who I myself suspect to be possibly either the Master, or his friends, or even the Doctor here, to have given the Daleks time travelling powers"

"Nonsense!" the Doctor intervened, you know how much I hate them, why on earth would I want to give them such powers?"

Kymern coughed, and gave the Doctor a disapproving face, before continuing "as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted… The Daleks came to the creation of time, where us Time Lords sat, out of time, and out of the way. Where they got the power from is beyond me, but there they were, and they began to assault our home world. Now, ironically, despite being the most advanced race in the universe, we had not gotten any defences, apart from those equipped with the TARDISs, seeing as we were removed from time and such, we didn't see any attack possible. So, unfortunately, we had to sacrifice the planet, and a lot of people, to ensure that the Daleks were wiped out. Every last single one of them."

"Well, there was that one" Rose insisted

"We took care of it, it's gone" The Doctor told her.

Kymern looked concerned "Oh really?"

"We took care of it" the Doctor insisted

"Well" he sighed "If you say so"

"I do"

"So…." Kymern said, suddenly noticing the breeze.

"What….." the Doctor dryly noted, knowing full well that he was going to regret whatever Kymern said.

"Aren't you going to ask me in?"