CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

PARADOX

Jason went to his unconscious son, getting down beside him and checking him over. "You did well, my boy," he whispered. "Just as you were supposed to."

The Doctor pushed a button on a wall panel and a bed slid out from behind it. "You knew what he was going to do, didn't you?"

Jason lifted the boy from the floor and placed him on the bed. "Well…yes and no," he replied unhelpfully. Touching the Epsilon sphere again, a small black box appeared out of nowhere and he pulled out a syringe injecting the medication it contained into his unconscious son. Prince Juris took a sharp breath, his body going rigid a moment before going limp again.

The Doctor looked sternly at his Alterran friend when he looked up at him. "Would you explain your reply, please?"

"It's just that…all of a sudden I realized I'd seen everything that was happening," Jason informed startlingly.

"Dèjá vu?"

"No, more than that. It was a long time ago. When I had contact with the Great Seal. I saw…" Sighing, Jason admitted, "I thought it was me, because I only saw his back. But it was Juris. Here. Now."

"You saw the successor!" the Time Lord gasped.

"I saw—" Jason blinked. "You know about that?"

The Doctor cleared his throat. "The White Guardian indicated the successor was in danger, and to be frank, I wasn't sure if he meant you or not. You'll forgive me, I hope, but I don't think you have the temperament for the job."

Jason gave a small smile "I agree completely. My Uncle wouldn't deny or confirm when I confronted him about it, but…I know what I saw."

"And you've been running from it ever since. For how many centuries?"

"Too many." Looking down at the boy beside him, the monarch shook his head. "Running from a destiny that wasn't mine. It was his."

A ghost of a smile passed across the Time Lord's face. "Are you sure of that?" he asked hauntingly.

Before Jason could think of a suitable reply, Ace came to her senses and sat up slowly, a hand going to her pounding head. "I think I hated that," she muttered darkly.

"You'll live," Jason replied.

Frankie and Alex stirred and then sat up, both feeling as bad as Ace.

Seeing Juris stretched out on the bed, Frankie feared the worst and asked, "Is he going to be alright?"

Jason nodded, a knowing smile coming to his face. "He's going to be great."

"I'm glad to hear it," a weak voice said from beside him. "I was afraid you'd be mad at me."

"Why would I be mad at you?" came the biting reply. "All you did was practically kill yourself and allow the TARDIS, and everyone onboard, to be sucked into an unstable time fissure."

Juris tried to sit up but could not quite manage it, falling back, exhausted. "Sorry."

His father gave him a dark look and rose to his feet, his face slowly softening. "Yes, well…I suppose I can forgive you." Suddenly his voice was serious again, "How do you feel?"

"Exhausted."

"You're lucky you feel anything," Dr. Albert scolded as she sat down beside the drained youth. "You could've been killed."

"Yeah," Ace injected, "a decent sized bomb could've leveled the place."

"A time portal is a bit more complicated than a computer or spacecraft, Ace," the Doctor pointed out. "It takes a bit more that a few cans of Nitro-9 to close one down."

"Yes, something on the scale of a nuclear warhead," Jason said darkly. "And they're not what you'd call environmentally friendly."

Ace gave him a sour look and went over to Reed, who was slumped down in his chair. "Oi, come on, mate. Time to wake up," she said, hitting him on the shoulder. When he did not respond, she shook him, catching her breath when he slumped forward. "Professor, I think he's dead!"

Jason looked up, crossing to the unmoving form, pushing him back into a sitting position to examine him. "The temporal disturbance must've thrown all his systems off line," he observed quietly. "His primary circuits have overloaded." Turning to the Doctor, he said, "Question is, do we reactivate him?"

"Reactivate?" Ace asked.

"He's an android!" the Doctor gasped. "Of course! I wondered why your tone towards him changed in the dome."

"Is that what you meant about possession being nine tens of the law?" Frankie asked, receiving a nod in reply.

More to himself than anyone else, Juris said, "No wonder he was a hole in the universe." He tried to sit up again only to fall back, his head spinning. Closing his eyes, he put a hand to his head. "Why do I feel so weak? I had enough energy flowing through me to power this planet for a century."

Jason exchanged a knowing look with the Doctor before saying, "You had a misfire when Ace took the sphere away from you."

"What?" Juris shuddered. "Are you sure?"

"Well, it's been a while since I practiced medicine, so I'm a bit rusty," his father said sarcastically. "But if you didn't misfire, I'd say you gave a very convincing imitation of one."

"You are mad at me."

Jason flashed a broad smile. "Oh, I'm sure I'll get over it by the time you've reached your first century."

The Doctor came over and dropped a bag of candies into the young man's hands. "Here, have something to eat. It'll get your energy level back up. Jason and I need to check the stabilizers, anyway."

"We do?" Jason said in bewilderment. Seeing the stern look on the Time Lord's face, he said, "We do." and headed for the door. Stabilizers my foot, he's going to read me the riot act about this. Just as he reached the door, he remembered the circuit in his hand and casually tossed it to Ace. "Look after that for me, will you?" He then vanished through the door.

Juris sighed heavily, struggling, and succeeding, in sitting up. He swung his feet off of the bed, pulling a candy from the bag. "Of all the people in the universe…why would it have to be them I used the power against?" he said dejectedly.

"I can understand your father, but why does it matters what the Doctor thinks?" Frankie said amazedly.

"Oh, Frankie. It matters more than you can possibly imagine," Juris said seriously. Seeing the Teggellan's puzzled expression, he sighed and lowered his eyes. "How can I put this? My father…is my mentor. And the Doctor is his. I can get away with a lot with my father, but not the Doctor. He sees things very differently. On an entirely different level."

"Yeah," Ace agreed softly, nodding her head.

"But he doesn't seem upset by what you did," Frankie pointed out. "Not like Jason."

The Alterran shook his head. "Don't let that calm exterior fool you. I'm telepathic remember. And so is the Doctor. He's afraid of something in me. I'm not sure what, he wouldn't let me see that far into his mind. Just the fact that he let me see that much—" Shaking his head again, he sighed. "Maybe he's trying to warn me. Afraid I'm becoming as unpredictable as my father."

"I can see why that would upset you."

Juris looked her in the eyes. "It only upsets me because—he may be right. I've been through a lot in the last two years. I'm not the man I used to be. I'm not even sure who I am now." Rising to his feet, he cried, "My God, I am becoming a paradox!"

Juris had been sitting with his back to the door and was unaware of the fact that the Doctor and Jason had returned and were silently listening in the doorway. The reason they had left was the Doctor's way of allowing the young man to work out the implications of his actions without his father's input. It was only when Juris turned that he registered their presence. Drawing himself to his full height, the young man tried to meet his father's steady gaze but could not and lowered his eyes guiltily.

"We are all a paradox," the monarch said calmly. "It's how you deal with the growing duality within you that will determine your fate. When you can face yourself and not turn away, then there is no need to fear."

The Doctor's eyes flickered, a look of admiration coming to his face. As of that moment, he knew that his job as Jason's guide was completed.

Then it was as though the incident had never taken place. The Doctor threw a quick glance over to his perplexed Teggellan passengers, striding to the console to check the readings. "Jason, I hope you remembered to correct for the time field's interference," he said without looking up. "Otherwise, we'll end up doing this all over again."

"Naturally," his former companion grinned, activating the scanner. Frankie caught her breath when she saw the image of her beach house. Looking over at her, Jason said seriously, "Here is where we say good-bye. For good this time."