A/N: I had it all planned out. My first Doctor Who fanfic was going to be a (very late, admittedly) AU story for The Impossible Planet. I had it all figured out in my head, and was even going to let a friend, in her words, "British-ify" it (I'm American). And I wasn't going to start anything else until it was finished.
And then this idea hit me over the head at work yesterday. Grrrr. The best laid plans….oh well. This would have been posted last night, but the site wasn't playing nice.
Back on topic—while I never really got the arrogance vibe off of the Doctor and Rose like some were this series, I can understand how it could be seen that way. And thus this story. Too long to be a drabble…a ficlet, then? First two quotes are from The Satan Pit, and the last two are from New Earth.
And I should stop before the author's note is longer than the story.
Feedback: Is LOVE. Please review!
Only after Rose went to bed would the Doctor let himself reflect on the day's events.
"If that thing said it came from beyond the universe I'd believe it. But before the universe? Impossible. Doesn't fit in my rules."
And so he'd ploughed on, ignoring the voice reverberating through his head. The Beast was lying, lyinglyinglying. That was what evil beings did, lied and twisted the truth until you didn't know fact from fiction. But the Doctor knew—knew what had to be truth, knew that it meant the Beast was speaking falsehoods, knew that he would find the truth and reveal the Beast's fabrications for what they were.
And then he'd gotten to the bottom of the pit, seen the drawings on the wall and so much more, and he'd had to change his beliefs, just a little.
"I accept that you exist. I don't have to accept what you are, but your physical existence, I give you that."
He couldn't—he just couldn't. Some beliefs were too hard to change. If he accepted that, there were so many other things he would have to admit to. Things came in pairs—good and evil, up and down, stop and go, war and peace…heaven and hell. If he accepted that the Beast was the actual Devil, then he'd also have to accept the existence of the Devil's counterpart, it's polar opposite, omnipotent and immortal—God.
"It's said he'll talk to a wanderer. To the man without a home. The lonely God."
He'd have to accept that there was something out there more powerful than him, something that even he had to answer to.
"I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me."
And there were some things that the Doctor just couldn't do.
FIN