CHAPTER 56

THE HANDS OF A FRIEND

The Doctor stood over the Alterran's moaning form, his face contorted with contempt. "Now I expect you want me to save you?" he sneered. "That's what you all want, isn't it? Does anyone ever think to ask what I want?"

"I came…to save you," came the weak reply.

The Doctor laughed derisively. "You what?"

"I thought you needed my help."

"I don't need anyone's help! I'm the Doctor!"

"No you're not. I don't know who you are. But you're not the Doctor."

The next thing Jason knew the Time Lord was on top of him, his hands at his throat. "Whose aura do you feel?" the lunatic growled, slowly squeezing against Jason's throat and partially cutting off his air.

Too weak to stand, and almost too weak to fight back, Jason could do little to fend off the attack. He pulled unsuccessfully at the fingers at his neck. "Yours," he managed between gasps.

"Whose? Say it! Whose aura do you feel?" the Doctor snarled, banging his captive's head against the stone-like floor. "Say it!"

"The Doctor's," Jason said in a frightened whimper. "I feel…the Doctor's!" The pressure on his throat only increased after he said this and the full horror of the situation came crashing in on him. The Doctor wasn't just threatening him. He was actually trying to kill him! "You're… choking me!"

"That was the general idea," came the bland reply. "It's so incredibly easy. Just apply a little pressure…"

And I die, Jason thought as the fingers around his neck grew tighter. He fought back with what little strength he had, clawing at the hands at his throat. He felt himself growing weaker and weaker and was on the verge of unconsciousness when the pressure on his throat was suddenly released. He fell back, gulping in huge lungsful of air. The hands remained where they were and he realized with a jolt that his tormentor was simply toying with him, taking him to the brink of unconsciousness and then pulling him back.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked once he could speak. Tears were now streaming down his face, but he was not sure if it was due to his mounting terror or the thought of dying at the hands of his best friend. Possibly both.

"Tears, Jason?" the Doctor said as if this came as a shock. "Are you afraid?"

"Terrified."

"But you're an Alterran. Surely you can take me. I'm just a frail humanoid," the lunatic said in a mocking tone. He released his grip and leaned back, waving his hands in the air. "Why don't you just…use your powers? Change into something big and nasty."

My powers? Jason's unseeing eyes were wide. Something big and nasty? Where did that come from? Just what did you see in my future, Doctor?

"I can't…" Jason said in as even a tone as possible. "My system's too badly damaged. You know that." Suddenly the hands were back at his throat. "You're right. I do." The Doctor's voice went from light to malicious in a single breath. "Now where was I? Oh yes…" He started to squeeze with all his strength.

"Oh no!" Jason defiantly reached out and clawed at his attacker, racking his nails down the Time Lord's face. He was rewarded with a savage slap across the face that brought the taste of blood to his mouth.

"Ah, getting a little angry, are we?" the Doctor chided cruelly, catching hold of the Alterran's flailing arms and pinning them to the floor with his knees. "We can't have that. Must stay in control. I wouldn't want to be responsible for you going over the edge, now would I?"

"No!" Jason wailed as his arms were immobilized. "Let me go! Please, let me go!" He knew he should be angry, but all he could feel was an overwhelming terror rising like a tidal wave inside him. He should be furious! Why wasn't he angry?

"Let you go? But you just got here," the Time Lord replied tauntingly, watching with sadistic delight as his captive struggled unsuccessfully to free himself. "What's the matter, Jason? Too confining for you?"

"You're breaking my arms!"

"That's alright. You can fix them, can't you?"

Too panicked to reply, Jason was thrashing frantically in an attempt to get free, kicking his feet and squirming wildly without success. Inwardly he was glad he was already blind. The last thing he wanted was to see the face that went with the malevolent voice. A face that was no longer that of the friend he had entered the corridor to save.

The captive Alterran started to wail in fear and frustration, an action that only seemed to amuse his tormentor. "Oh, really," the Doctor moaned. "You're supposed to be reserved and unemotional like the rest of your species. That's what you've been striving for all these years, isn't it? Hasn't made that much difference as far as I can see."

Species? Even in his panic Jason's mind was clear enough to register the Doctor's bizarre reference to his race. He let out a scream containing every ounce of terror he felt.

"That's quite enough of that," the Doctor snapped. He placed a hand over the Alterran's mouth, only to yelp in pain when his captive sank his teeth into it. "Damn you!" he snarled, pulling out his handkerchief and wrapping it around his hand. "You may have everyone else deceived with this human form, you abomination of nature, but I know the truth! You're nothing but a hideous, grotesque monstrosity!" He struck the Alterran several times across the face before returning his hands to Jason's throat.

The Doctor's words were so inexplicably malicious that Jason found himself shocked beyond comprehension. He did not even feel it when the lunatic slapped him across the face. Then the Time Lord's fingers were digging mercilessly into his flesh again and he wondered almost abstractly how many times he could be taken to the brink before he finally died of asphyxia. With a jolt he realized he didn't really care anymore and stopped fighting, feeling himself plummeting into the depths of despair.

Eventually the Alterran's wide disbelieving eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp. The Doctor sat back, seeing himself reflected in the shiny surface of the wall before him, his face a vile twisted mask of pure evil. A face that was not his own.

It was at that moment that l'X'el stabilized the far end of the fractured time corridor and the Time Lord's body faded again. This time, the Doctor was able to fight his way through the contradictory timelines, his original self clawing through the power that had so completely overtaken him. In a blink, reality solidified and snapped back into focus, returning the Doctor to his proper place in time.

The events that had transpired in his absence suddenly exploded in the Doctor's mind, causing him to recoil. He fell to the floor, dazed and shaking, thinking he had just seen a vision of a possible reality. Then he saw the motionless form beside him and gave a small cry of anguish. It wasn't a vision! It actually happened! He quickly checked Jason for signs of life—and found none.

"No! Dammit, I will not let you die!"

He gave the Alterran's chest a sharp thump with his fist and started CPR. After a minute, a spasm shook Jason's body and was followed by a sharp gasp. His eyes snapped open and he rolled onto his side, gasping and choking violently as his body struggled to re-oxygenate itself.

Falling back against the wall, the Doctor put his head in his hands, his mind a wild jumble. He had a horrible feeling he knew what had happened, but was uncertain as to how it had been brought about or why it had been brought about at this particular time. He looked back at the timelines, seeing the second set fading in and out. This meant only one thing. Jason was dying. Unlike the Doctor, the Alterran was not a true time sensitive and could not stay in the fractured temporal corridor indefinitely. If he did not get out soon the unstable temporal energies would damage his partially shattered body beyond repair.

As if to verify this observation, the fracture lines on Jason's body suddenly increased in number. He gave a weak cry of pain and lost consciousness.

Drawing a deep breath, the Doctor gave his own timelines another look, seeing them in a whole new way. How incredibly seductive, he thought with a shudder, and how insidiously evil. Again he felt the power pulling at him but this time he pulled back and threw up a mental barrier. The instant he did this he heard laughter in the distance and stiffened visibly, recognizing it immediately. Somehow, he had known this was who was behind it all.

"Every step brings you closer to me, Doctor," the voice of the Valyard taunted.

"Not if I can help it," the Doctor replied defiantly. He pocketed the dropped energy tube before lifting Jason's limp form from the floor. "Come on," he said gently, "let's get you out of here."

"But you can't help it. You've just proven that. You can't change history, Doctor," the Valyard's voice mocked. "Not even here."

The Doctor looked in the direction of his disembodied tormentor. "You've got it backwards, don't you? You are not history. You're the future. And you can't change what I know, not even here. The future—my future—hasn't been written yet. The choices are mine to make, not yours. I must be doing something right if you're getting this desperate." He turned in the direction Jason had appeared from, seeing a pinpoint of light in the distance.

"Don't flatter yourself, Doctor. It's inescapable! Mark my words," the voice continued tauntingly.

The Doctor felt a chill run down his spine but did not reply.

"Your friends will all drop away as the evil within you grows! You've just lost Jason. He'll never trust you again. Who will you lose next?"

The Doctor looked down at Jason's battered form. "So that's what this was about," he said under his breath. Drawing himself to his full height, he stated flatly, "You are an illusion. Everything in here is an illusion." Nodding towards the light, he said to his unconscious friend, "And that way leads to reality. That's where we're going."