AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finally, the chapter you've all been waiting for.

CHAPTER 57

"YOU'VE WON."

When the Doctor finally reached the top of the path, he was surprised to see he was on the opposite side of the ravine directly across from the TARDIS. The maze of tunnels had zigzagged to such an extent that he had completely lost his bearings. Even with the clouds covering the sun, he could easily make out the shape of the Police Box standing against the reddish brown rock face.

"Doctor, where have you been?" came Jason's annoyed inquiry as he appeared at the top of the path behind him.

The Doctor turned back to face him, equally annoyed. "I should like to ask you the same question," he snapped. "One minute you're behind me and the next you've vanished." He scowled disapprovingly. "And where's Mel?"

"Um..." Jason gave him a guilty look and glanced back at the path.

"Jason, you haven't gone and lost Mel, too, have you? You were supposed to be looking after her," the Doctor scolded. He looked down the path the Alterran had just ascended, seeing it empty. "Come on, let's have a look for her."

"No, I've found what I'm looking for."

This was not Jason's voice and the Doctor looked up, taking an alarmed step back. Trevor gave him just long enough to register who he was before reverting to his true form, his tendrils entwining the astonished Time Lord before he could react further.

"You can't fight me, Doctor," Trevor stated amusedly to his struggling captive.

"I case you hadn't noticed, that's exactly what I am doing," the Doctor retorted sharply.

The Alterran's reply was to send a jolt of energy through his captive's body. While it did not knock him unconscious, it was enough to stun him.

Trevor lifted the dazed Time Lord off of his feet, carrying him bodily across the long narrow stone bridge to the opposite side of the ravine. There was a large fabric screen standing before a corner of the rock face that had an image projected on it, completely camouflaging it from view. It wasn't until they were actually behind it that the Doctor even realized it was there.

By this time, the Doctor had recovered from the jolt but wisely chose not to struggle further. His captor bound his hands in front of him, and then dumped him face down on the ground, jamming a long metal pole through his elbows and behind his back, pulling his bindings taut. The Time Lord arched his back, crying out in pain as this was done.

"Where's your bravado now, Doctor?" Trevor sneered as he tightly bound his captive's feet.

"Somewhere on Eldeberon," the Doctor replied through clenched teeth.

"Eldeberon," Trevor growled. "Years of careful planning—wasted!"

The Doctor scowled. Years? He watched as his captor pulled a second screen from alongside the first, completely enclosing the corner. "Was it you who arranged the prison ship hijacking?" he found himself demanding. "And where it would land?"

"What do you think?" Trevor spat back.

"I think you created a mission that was supposed to fail."

"Then you thought right." Trevor activated a holo-projection, camouflaging the second screen and concealing their presence.

There were two upright posts beside the Doctor that had another metal pole slotted into grooves at each end. When he first saw it, he thought it held a body. It wasn't until he was closer that he saw it was a dummy, much like an earth-type scarecrow. Apparently, his captor had been testing the screens. What the Doctor did not know was the hologram generator did more than conceal him visually; it also made him invisible to an Alterran's powerful sensors, which meant Jason would be unable to see his heat signature through the fabric.

Trevor snatched the pole off of the upright supports and threw it aside, tearing the fabric of the scarecrow at the same time. The Doctor was uncertain how long his captor would continue to answer his questions so he pressed on. "Did you destroy the extraction ships as well?"

Trevor seemed to find this question amusing. "That was so simple! They wanted everyone accounted for, even the dead, the fools! All I had to do was plant a few remote control explosives in each corpse, set the timers and—boom!"

Before the Doctor could ask another question, his captor took hold of the pole behind his own back and used it to lift him from the ground, pulling a cry of pain from him. He felt as if his shoulders were being pulled completely out of joint, the binding on his hands digging painfully into his abdomen. The ends of the pole were dropped into the slots where the other had been, suspending him so that his feet barely touched the ground. Trevor removed the torn fabric from a stake in the ground and then secured his prisoner's bound feet to it, anchoring him into place. Now he was the scarecrow, the Doctor thought sardonically.

"I told you we could have a nice chat, didn't I?' the Alterran said conversationally. "A nice little information exchange. And here we are."

"What's the point?" the Time Lord demanded. "You've won. Jason was supposed to find the information leak. Now everyone believes he was the leak and set this whole thing up to cover his involvement. His reputation is in ruins and no one even suspects you. You even had me fooled, and that's no small accomplishment."

"I haven't won!" Trevor exclaimed angrily, giving his prisoner's bindings a painful tug. "He was supposed to die!"

"Why? Once he vanished, the investigation ground to halt."

"Do you really think I went to all this trouble just to stop some ridiculous investigation?" Trevor said derisively, returned to his human form at the same time. "I don't care about that!"

"Do you mean…?" The Doctor blinked, not quite believing what he was hearing. "It was just a coincidence?"

"I thought you were intelligent. But you're just as stupid as the rest of them. You high and mighty Time Lords. You sit back, watching mistakes being made and never lifting a finger to correct them."

The Doctor was now completely lost. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw it." Trevor was suddenly rambling. He began pacing back and forth in front of his captive audience, the words tumbling out of him. "It wasn't right and then it happened. He's not fit. Shouldn't even be considered."

"Who's not fit?"

Trevor stopped dead and looked at the Doctor as if he were a complete idiot. How could he not understand? "Jason Krystovan!" he said, sounding as though this should answer everything.

It didn't.

"Trevor, you're not making sense."

"You're a Time Lord and you don't know the future. That's funny. Don't you think that's funny?" came the unintelligible reply. "I saw him. In the Matrix of Time. First they make him king. And then what, hmmm? They'll make him Emperor."

"What?" This was absolutely the last thing the Doctor expected to hear. "When did you see this?" he asked cautiously.

"He didn't even understand what it meant."

The Doctor felt as if he were hanging onto this conversation by a thread. "Who didn't?"

"Wythe, when he as Matrix Keeper," Trevor rambled on. "Just a demonstration, he said. But I knew better. I saw the future. He didn't understand. Nobody understood. But I understood."

"You saw Jason as Emperor?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Trevor replied impatiently, waving his hands in the air. "He was king. I knew that was wrong. He was just a Healer. Should've stayed one, too, usurping little mongrel. Then King Terran died. That's when the mistake happened." He was pacing again.

The Doctor knew Jason's history, and this was all true. When they first met, his friend was a Healer, with no indication anywhere that he would, or even could, ascend to the throne. All that changed at some point after Jason stopped traveling with him nearly two centuries ago, which meant that Trevor had seen the Matrix prediction longer ago than that, and for some reason, this one vision of the future had driven him mad.

The Doctor watched his unstable captor cautiously. Somehow, he had managed to trigger this explosion of information, however unintelligible, and wondered how best to get the whole story without sending Trevor completely over the edge—if he hadn't gone over already. "You said he'd be made Emperor," he said guardedly. "Did you see that later?"

"No!" came the exasperated reply. The Alterran looked at him as if he were a stupid child who needed to be told everything. "Don't you see? First King Terran died. That made him Crown Prince. Now he's an Imperial Ambassador. After that, he'll be head of the House of Krystovan and then King. What's next? Emperor, of course. That's the next logical step. I mean, what else is there?"

The Doctor looked at Trevor's proud expression and had a sudden, horrifying realization. "Are you telling me that you wiped out every living being on Eldeberon because you thought maybe, someday, by some miracle,in a possible future, Jason might, by some wild stretch of the imagination, have a slim chance of becoming Emperor?" he asked in utter disbelief.

"Yes!" Trevor cried happily. "You understand!"

"Understand! It's the most outrageous—no, the most hideously ludicrous piece of deductive reasoning I have ever heard in all my lives!" The words were out of the Doctor's mouth before he could stop himself. This was not the thing to say to a raving lunatic. Nor were the next words out of his mouth. "You're insane!"

Trevor pushed on the Doctor's shoulder with one hand to look him in the eye, forcing him upward. With his feet secured to the ground, the Time Lord's body could only go so far and his back pressed painfully into the pole. "I'm going to change the future, Doctor," the Alterran stated flatly. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

The Doctor could only respond with a cry of pain as the pressure on his spine increased.

"I could break your back so easily," Trevor said calmly, sounding as if this idea had just occurred to him.

"Yes, you like to break bones, don't you, Trevor?" the Doctor replied through clenched teeth. "I saw what you did to Cardinal Wythe."

"He deserved it!" Trevor cried defensively. "He could've stopped it." He looked the Time Lord in the eye as he realized, "And so could you!" He placed a hand on each shoulder and pushed up hard, pulling a cry of agony from his helpless captive.

On the far side of the chasm, Jason suddenly appeared at the top of the path, a worried look on his face. "Doctor!" he called out. "Doctor, where are you?"

Startled, Trevor spun around, a low growl rising in his throat. Released from his torment, the Doctor sagged in his bonds. Before he could recover enough to call out, his captor was in his true form and had a tendril wrapped threateningly around his throat. "Not a sound," the Alterran hissed. "Or I'll snap your neck like a dried twig."

"You're going to kill me anyway. What difference does it make?" came the defiant reply.

"I want you to watch me change the future first, Time Lord, that's what difference it makes."

"No!" This was all the Doctor managed to say before a gag was unceremoniously jammed into his mouth. He struggled to fight it off so he could call out a warning, but to no avail. Within seconds, he was effectively silenced.

Trevor was now completely consumed by his inner madness. He made certain his prisoner had an unobstructed view before moving off to meet his unsuspecting prey, leaving the Doctor struggling frantically behind him. No one would be able to see him behind the camouflaged screens. He, on the other hand, would have a front row seat in what might end up being Jason's murder.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you're reaction to the big reveal of Trevor's actual motives was the same as the Doctor's (WTF!), I ask that you not spoil it for others by giving it away in your reviews. And even if it wasn't, don't give it away, please.