Chapter 5
A hundred years of life
*Record scratch* *Freeze frame over Edain's face* *Cue narrator's voice* *As she speaks, the pictures change to show what she's talking about*
Narrator: Okay, let's jump a little in time. And by "a little" I mean a hundred years. I know it seems like a lot for us humans, but considering that (and I'm quoting the Second Doctor), barring accidents, timelords basically live forever, a hundred years is really not that long. I bet now you're starting to get exactly why children are so unappreciated in Gallifrey. Anyways, let's do a quick roundup of the past hundred years so you know what's been going on, and where we are now.
Edain is still a child, as you might suppose (the story is called The eternal child, did you expect anything different?), but he looks different. When he was eighty-three, there was an earthquake (Galliquake? Gallifrake?) and a house fell on him. He survived, but the injuries were too big and he regenerated. He's even changed races this time. His first self was white, this one is Arabic. He has straight black hair (and he wears it long, in a ponytail, because he's cool like that), and dark eyes. He's a bit taller than the last time, which is great, but there was a bit of a problem with the regeneration because Mik didn't recognize him at first. They had to shut him down and change the programming so that he would recognize Edain even after regenerations, or any timelord that he knows. There were no more problems after that.
He's also started other projects. He went on his first trip with the doctor to Limyè and Earth, and took Mik with him, obviously. Mik loved it as much as Edain did, so after they came back Edain decided he wanted a spaceship for himself. And not any kind of spaceship: he wanted it to be bigger on the inside, and be able to travel through time as well as space. Basically, he wanted a TARDIS of his own (and who wouldn't?). His parents said they were not going to buy him one, so he decided to build it himself. The Doctor agreed this time, mostly because he wanted to see how far he could come. It took Edie a really long time to do the designs (months, actually), but he eventually finished, and started building his spaceship. I'll spare you the technical details, just know that he did design everything by himself, and his father was very surprised with the outcome. At the time we get back to the story, he's still building it, and it's going to take him a really long time, because it's a complicated project. Mik is the only one allowed to help him, because he wants it to be completely his. He's a little stubborn, so it's unlikely anybody else will help with the spaceship.
By the way, Tardises are grown, not built, so Edie's spaceship is not going to be a TARDIS. It will have another name so it's easier to differentiate them.
Edain's already old enough to have finished the Academy (timelords graduate at the age of 45), and the doctor has stopped teaching him. They still have scientific discussions when Edie feels like it. He's keeping balance between his century and his ten year old self. Basically, this means that he acts like a kid most of the time, and has all the optimism and imagination of a child, but he knows damn well how the world is, and understands very well what's going on around him. For example, he can hold his own in a conversation with Rassilon, who is no longer principal of the Academy but presides the Senate of Gallifrey, and impress him (it has happened a few times), but he still plays gobstones, gets tired easily and requests a bedtime story every once in a while. The doctor has actually started telling him the stories of his trips, which he never did with his other children. They don't know about this, though.
As for the Doctor, he has regenerated quite a few times and is about 1700 years old (This might seem confusing for some people. The ninth doctor is 900 years old in season 1 of New Who, but according to Russell T. Davies, this is because the Time War left him de-aged. A Time War uses time as a weapon too, not just missiles and exterminating rays, and the Doctor was really scarred in the last Time War, so he de-aged a lot. Keep in mind that the Time War lasted 400 years, so the bomb that destroyed Gallifrey de-aged him 1200 years. This is all canon, by the way). For reference, the Doctor we're talking about now is the War Doctor (if that doesn't serve as a hint of where we are in the story, I don't know what does). Also remember that he's a time traveler, so his time stream is different from that of his family. For Edain it has been a hundred years, but for the doctor almost a thousand. At the beginning of the story he was around 800, so it's been about 900 years in between trips.
I know this makes him sound like a horrible father, but this is the Doctor we're talking about. He didn't see River Song that much during the time they coincided, and nobody doubts that he loves her to death, for example. The same thing happens with his children and wife in Gallifrey. This situation is quite common amongst timelords (at least in my headcanon). They live forever, so it makes sense they don't want to be together forever (if you live with someone for a really extended period of time you can end up hating them. Imagine how it is for timelords). However, he does travel with his wife quite a lot, and with his older children. He just doesn't take Edain out that much, because he's a kid. He is actually careful when travelling with Edie (and by careful I mean super careful. And the TARDIS doesn't mess up with the destinations while he's on board), and doesn't take him anywhere dangerous.
Thais has travelled a lot with the Doctor during this time as well. So much, actually, that she's aged a hundred years more than Edain has. This means she's two hundred and twenty years old when the story starts. She's become a lawyer, by the way, and has left home already, so it's just Edain and his parents now. She's regenerated too: she's kept her blond hair, but that's basically it. Now it's curly and longer, and she has big green eyes and is quite short. Edie and her are not so close anymore. She lives far away now, and they don't see each other so much. But she and her wife are adopting a baby, and they have promised Edain that he will be the godfather (Time lords do have godparents, Eleven mentions it in Vincent and the Doctor).
In other news, Ainur has become a father as well. He got married to an army pilot fifty years ago, and they've had two kids: Amser and Sarari. Amser is the oldest, and he's about to graduate from the Academy, while Sarari is still younger than Edain. She's just six. Ainur has also become a writer, as he wanted, and has become one of the most renowned fiction writers of Gallifrey.
Runa's life hasn't changed much, to be honest. Edain got her the checked notes after he built Mik (he didn't really have a choice other than admit that he'd stolen her design), so she launched the PS as soon as she saw the corrections (and checked that they were correct). The PS is widely used now for small ships, such as the Wing-X and the Orion (any of its versions in this case), but Edain's will be the first big aircraft to use a PS reactor at its core. This is the reason why Runa has actually insisted a lot in helping Edain, but it's really no use. Oh, and Edain's name is in the copyright for the PS, as a co-inventor. Runa is the official inventor, but Edie gets a small share of the sales. That way he can help a little at home (no one will let him work for them), and it's not a bad statement against all those that say Ankuris can't do anything.
His family still gets some hate for his condition. Most of the people they know still think that Edain should be sent to Earth to live as a human, but they know his parents and have stopped insisting. The Doctor has already earned his title of Oncoming Storm (but not Destroyer of the Worlds yet), and even other timelords know not to mess with him. Rassilon in particular has had quite a few arguments with the Doctor on this subject, but eventually gave up. And for those that wanted to turn Ed into a lab's rat, they haven't even tried anything since he went out of the hospital for the first time. They don't dare try and convince his mother.
*The image shakes, and we hear Edie's voice in the background, calling Mik for something. A few strange noises, and then silence*