Chapter 6: The Doctor

From the Watcher

Up to this point in our narrative we have been focused on the workings of Emetrius and the other vampires that exist. The reason for that is simple. From Emeritus's point of view events transpire from a to b to c and so forth. With the exception of his abrupt arrival in 1000BC Egypt, that is exactly how events transpire. That is how the entire world, in which Emetrius finds himself in, functions. The present rolls into the future and becomes the past. Something only to be remembered never reclaimed. These rules do not apply to the one known as the Doctor.

Sunday, November 4, 1888

London England

There was combat taking place in the tunnels of the London Underground. The combat was extremely furious to the point where the combatants did not notice the arrival of the TARDIS. When the TARDIS had finished rematerializing, the door opened up and out came the Doctor and Rose Tyler.

"You owe me fish and chips Doctor." Rose said playfully as she tugged on the Doctors arm.

"Fish and chips it is." The Doctor said when an unearthly wail came from down the tunnel.

"Doctor!" exclaimed Rose and the Doctor pushed her up against the door of the TARDIS. "What was that?"

"I don't know Rose, why don't we find out?" he asked her with a smile breaking out across his face, dispelling the mild fear that had appeared on hers. The smile was short lived when a second wail came from down the tunnel. This time it was more like a scream followed by ground shaking impact. There was a brief moment of silence when another scream came followed by a series of ground shaking impacts. Then a dust cloud came from down the tunnel and small pieced of debris skittered to a halt near their feet.

"Doctor," Rose began only to be silenced by the Doctors upraised hand. Without a word, the Doctor raced down the tunnel and after a moment, Rose followed. They raced down the tunnel for several hundred yards when they came to the site of a tunnel cave in. The open sky was visible from the roof of the tunnel. There was a pile of loose stones in the center of the tunnel. It exploded in a shower of loose stones knocking the Doctor on his back just as Rose arrived on the scene. In the middle of the melee was a figure dressed in flowing black robes and had clasped in its grip was a blond man dressed in the contemporary fashion of the period. The black robed figure emitted an ear piercing screech as it took the man by the throat and spun him around and slammed him against the tunnel wall with such force that more of it came down in a heap. The hood of the robe fell away from the creatures head to reveal the features of a woman. Her features were contorted with rage and hatred as she advanced towards the man that she had surely must have killed. The man sprang forth and wrapped her up and began to grapple with her. She shrieked that unearthly earsplitting wail and then he violently threw her up and out the hole in the ceiling. At first glance, it would seem that the man was human but his visage quickly dispelled that notion. His eyes glowed amber and he had fangs protruding from his mouth. The veins in his face and neck were rope like and his skin was color of a corpse. His eyes briefly locked with Roses and then he turned his attention towards the hole in the ceiling and he tensed as to leap through it. Time seemed to slow as his attention returned to Rose once again and the demonic visage was replaced by an ordinary human face. He had an incredulous look on his face as he looked at Rose. The moment was broken when the Doctor sat up and put on his glasses. The Doctor and the man looked at one another for several seconds when the latter seemed to recognize the Doctor. His visage changed from incredulous to rage and hatred in a heartbeat. The demonic visage was back and he hissed like a cat.

"Doctor!" he said with a voice that seemed to resonate from within him. He bolted forward, arms outstretched towards the Doctor when a very large stone statue crushed him on the floor. The black robed woman was back. She began to savagely attack the figure that was pinned under the statue. Rose was spellbound by the battle that now seemed to include the Doctor and herself. She was caught unaware as the Doctor grabbed her by the hand and nearly pulled her off of her feet.

"Run!" he screamed as he pulled her along the entire length of the tunnel. They arrived at the TARDIS and he slammed and locked the door. He raced towards the consol of the TARDIS and activated it. As the center columns began to pulse he looked at Rose with a haunted look in his eyes.

"Doctor, who were those people and how did that man know you?" Rose asked.

"I'm not really sure Rose, but I do know one thing. That should not have happened at all."

***

14 AD

On a bluff overlooking a small village.

Emetrius sat on a bluff overlooking what was left of the village below. The carrion birds were circling in greater numbers in the sky above. There was no sign of life in the small farming village below. The afternoon sun was warm and by looking at Emetrius, one would have thought him to be a blind beggar. His clothing was in rags and his eyes were milky white with no pupil. Emetrius had been sitting there since the sun came up, sending burning sensations on his exposed skin. Emetrius had been aware for some time that he was not alone on this bluff.

"Hello Emetrius," said the One with no name. "How have you been my old friend?"

"Why do you continue this façade that we are somehow friends? I feel nothing but contempt for you."

"Come now Emetrius, I have, on several occasions, saved your life. In fact, Austriel has told me more than once that I myself should kill you, but I have developed and attachment for you so I spare your life."

"My life?" exclaimed Emetrius. "Is that what this wretched existence is supposed to be, a life?"

The One had a brief moment on rage pass over his features but quickly let it subside.

"Emetrius why do you resist what you are? Why don't you embrace it?"

"What I am is a miserable creature and death follows me around like a shroud. It doesn't mean anything."

"You are a magnificent creature now Emetrius, why can't you see that?"

Monday, November 5, 1888

The TARDIS rematerialized in an alley in London in mid morning. The Doctor emerged looking shaken and Rose was right behind him.

"Doctor, wait!" she literally had to yell to get him to stop. "What has come over you Doctor? I have never seen you this way before."

"Rose, do you remember that creature we encountered in the Underground last night?"

"Last night Doctor? It was only five minutes ago."

The Doctor pointed back at the TARDIS and said, "That creature. I am somehow responsible for him. And in his creation that timeline has been contaminated. "

He paused in his narration and pondered a bit.

"Can't you just use the TARDIS to scan the time line Doctor?"

"It's not that simple anymore Rose. I can see a dozen places where time itself has been fractured. I am not sure which one I need to fix. Oh well then, there is no use bellyaching about it here. Come along Rose."

He took off at a fast pace and strode into a book store, in fact the very book store where Elizabeth worked at.

14 AD

Emetrius had a sour look on his face like he had just eaten something that was monumentally bad.

"What make me a magnificent creature?" He asked.

"Emetrius you are ageless, you have a gift. The world could be ours."

"I have no interest in this world." Emetrius said as he swiped his hand in a general arc.

"I have been trying to get you to live the life that you have been given, and yet all are doing is merely existing. Look at how you are dressed, you are dressed in rags when you could have splendor."

"It's of no consequence as to how I dress." Emetrius said. "In fact, it's of no consequence as to what I do either."

"It matters to the thousand people that are lying dead in that village below, Emetrius."

"One thousand fourteen to be exact," Emetrius began, "Let's get facts straight here."

Then his milky white eyes narrowed and his continence changed into something sinister. He said in a low voice, "My name is Nigel."

At that, The One, with his face a mask of rage, grabbed Emetrius around the throat with a bone crushing grip and pulled him close until their faces were only inches apart.

"Listen and listen close, Nigel Brown has been dead for a thousand years and when he died, you were born. Everything that we were dies when we are transformed. It is long time that you…"

Emetrius stopped paying attention at this point because he realized something profound. He and The One both suffered in the daylight but Emetrius found that if he changed his eyes so that he was blind, he was able to exist in full daylight with no real diminishment of his powers. When The One had grabbed him, he should have been able to easily overpower him. His grip was strong and painful around his neck but it wasn't nearly as powerful as it should have been, the realization was like a fireball exploding in his mind. He reached up with one hand and grabbed the hand that held him by his neck and began to squeeze. He could hear the cracking of the bones in The One's wrist and he immediately began to howl in pain. Emetrius took the other hand and grabbed him by the throat. He smiled wickedly as he was going to finally put an end to this pompous, pretentious being. As he applied pressure, the howling ceased and Emetrius was getting ready to decapitate him.

Monday, November 5, 1888

The Doctor walked into the book store and paused to look around for a bit. Rose walked in right behind him. The bookstore appeared to be empty. Finally a tired, weak sounding voice came from underneath the counter and said, "The store is closed and you will have to come back another time." At the last part of that sentence the voice broke into a sob.

Rose and the Doctor both looked at each other and then they both raced behind the counter to find a young woman, whose disheveled look told them both that she had been crying for a long time. She had a revolver in her lap and was holding it like she could raise it to shoot at any time.

"Is your name Elizabeth?" the Doctor asked with kindness in his voice.

"Y-Y-Yes," she stammered out.

"I need to talk to you about a young man that you may know."

With that, she broke down into fresh sobs.

"Elizabeth," said the Doctor, "This is important."

"Don't be so daft Doctor," said Rose as she pushed past him and took Elizabeth by the shoulders. "It's ok; it's going to be alright just tell me what happened."

Finally when the sobbing subsided some, Elizabeth managed to say, "Nigel….Nigel….He's a monster!" She broke down into fresh sobs at this point.

Rose held her and as she was comforting her as she took the gun from her fingers and laid it down. She held her close and the looked down and saw a discarded photograph. She picked it up and looked at it. Her eyes got wide and the color drained out of her face.

"Doctor!" she said as she handed the photograph to him.

The Doctor saw that one of the figures in the photograph was Elizabeth. The other figure was the very creature that he and Rose had seen in the tunnel the night before. He felt a chill wash over him as he began to consider what all this meant.

"Tell me about Nigel." Rose prompted Elizabeth.

As Elizabeth continued to sob, the Doctor kneeled down beside her and said, "Elizabeth, I will not hurt you but I need to see what you saw. I am going to put my hands on your face, it won't hurt and I will stop but I need to see what you saw."

Elizabeth looked up at the Doctor with uncertainty in her eyes and finally nodded.

The Doctor placed his hands on her temples and closed his eyes.

Elizabeth was just getting ready to go and meet Nigel. She was sure that he was going to ask her to marry him tonight and she was filled with an excitement. She paused in her preparations and stared at the mirror without really seeing anything in it. She was so in love with him and she was definitely going to say yes. She raised her hair brush to brush her hair when she saw a figure in the mirror. A small cry escaped her lips as she turned to face the strange intruder. It became apparent that it was a woman in the room with her. She met the strange woman's gaze and was transfixed; she had never known such fear as she was experiencing now.

"Elizabeth," the woman said in an almost inaudible voice.

Elizabeth was unable to respond.

"Nigel," the strange woman said, "is a monster like me."

With that the woman's visage changed to show an almost demonic in the way that it appeared. The woman crossed the distance in the room without seeming to move, and stood face to face with the terrified Elizabeth and said in a voice that wasn't human, "Nigel is a monster just like this."

Elizabeth felt something cold being pressed into her hands. It was an American made revolver. The woman looked down at the gun that she placed into her hands and said, "You should use that on yourself because when I finish with Nigel, I'll be coming back for you. I am going to make you like me. I'll make you a killer." The woman had a cruel smile on her face. Elizabeth raised the gun and pointed it at the strange woman's chest and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was deafening in the confined space of the room. The strange woman didn't even flinch as the bullet struck her. She smiled her cruel smile and then her face returned to a more human visage.

"Don't be afraid dear Elizabeth," she said in a mocking voice. "The bullet that you put in your own head will be far less painful than what I am going to do to you. Oh by the way, Nigel goes by Emetrius these days."

The woman pulled a dark hood over her face and then went to the window and climbed up onto the sill. She turned and looked back at Elizabeth with the same demonic visage that she had a moment ago. "I'll be coming for you," she said and then she was gone.

14 AD

Emetrius was on the verge of a victory that he had waited almost a thousand years for. He was going finally kill the one who had tormented him. This thing had hunted, haunted and just generally aggravated him off and on since that fateful night. What happened next was one of those moments that happen that defines a destiny. Sound travels through the air at approximately 768 miles per hour. Emetrius had learned long ago that the sunlight was extremely painful to his preternatural state. He learned to adapt for this. All vampires learned this and most would simply repress their vampiric nature and become almost mortal to avoid this. This is why he was about to vanquish his tormentor. Emetrius had a different strategy. A vampires hearing is far more sensitive than most bats. Emetrius also noticed that most of the pain was concentrated in the eyes. Emetrius would rely completely upon his hearing and make himself blind for the duration of the day.

Emetrius was about to pull off the head of his opponent, and when that was accomplished he would simply burn the body and that would be that. A sound reached his sensitive ears that caused him to pause and listen. His opponent sensed him pause and began to reassert his own vampiric nature so as to break free from Emeritus's killing grip. Emetrius stood to his feet and turned his head to listen even better. The sound could not be mistaken for anything else. Down in the village below, there was a sound coming that Emetrius heard on the Egyptian desert over a thousand years ago.

Monday, November 5, 1888

The Doctor continued to probe Elizabeth's memories.

Time passed, how much, she wasn't sure. She had been numb with horror and then awoke with a start. The grandfather clock was striking four in the morning. She picked up the gun that had fallen from her grasp. She stared at it dully, unsure what to do. She was afraid of it but she was more afraid of the woman that was surely going to be coming for her. A knock came at her door and she cried out with fear and surprise. The door opened and Nigel walked in.

"Elizabeth?" he asked.

She stared at him and her eyes were wild with terror, she was unable to speak.

"Elizabeth," he began. "What is the matter?"

He took a step forward and he paused as she swung the gun wildly and pointed it at him. He looked at her with shock on his face and he stopped.

She was gulping air now and then she managed to say, "Nigel."

He held his hands out to his side so as to appear not threatening to her. "Elizabeth," he began.

"That woman," said Elizabeth. "She said that you were a monster."

"What woman?"

Elizabeth looked deep into his eyes and said in a barely audible voice, "Emetrius." A name that should have no meaning to Nigel Brown but to the one who stood before her, for just the briefest of instants, she saw recognition and that same inhuman, demonic visage cross his features. If she hadn't been looking at him she might not have noticed. She felt her heart break inside her chest and she managed to fire her gun twice at him before he crossed the room with the same preternatural speed that the mysterious woman had. In an instant he was standing before her and she pushed the gun into his abdomen and fired it again. The wound instantly healed and he batted the gun out of her hands. He grabbed her by the back of the head and pulled her close. He stared deep into her eyes and she felt her vital life force draining. She knew at that moment that she was going to die. Then she felt the draining cease and sadness cross his features.

"Elizabeth," he said in a very sad voice. "I've waited almost three thousand years for this moment and she robbed me of this as well. She robbed us of the life we could have had and now she managed to rob you of the life that I would have given you. You would have never known what I became. This is the fault of someone else, not mine. It was this very night that my journey down this dark path began and I had sought to end it here as well. You need not fear that woman, her name was Austriel and I put an end to her tonight."

He looked at her terror stricken face for several moments and then turned and walked away from her. He paused at the door and said, "I will always love you Elizabeth."

The he walked away.