I'm sorry that I haven't uploaded in quite a while. I had no Internet access the last week and over the weekend. At least I couldn't click on the wrong W-LAN to be caught inside the Internet...
Chapter 12
This was the first time Theresa really did want to not look out of the TARDIS and step into another world. This was what she has always feared, not only since she had regenerated and remembered. She didn't want to return to the planet for which she has once so bravely fought. This planet was like chains, they had bound her to war, created her for the simple order to kill all life that opposed her mighty race.
Was it a wonder that they have feared her to collaborate with the enemy? And was it even a greater wonder that she had indeed risen to a point of thinking whether she should continue this slaughter or simply kill every being around her in order for the war to stop. But was it her fault? Wasn't that what she was taught to do? And when you were never given other possibilities, why should you think about it?
River was the first one to step out of the TARDIS. She had never been to Gallifrey before and after all, she felt a bit home here as she had been a Timelord and was also married to one. Theresa followed. They entered a dark place which remembered more of a ruin of any building than of a glorious empire.
The lights were flickering until they fully burnt out. There was rubble everywhere, the corridor in front of them seemed hardly like an invitation. First, they heard nothing, only their own breathes and the footsteps of The Doctor leaving his ship as well and stepping on the rubble and dust which covered the floor.
"Welcome to Gallifrey," he muttered, half-pessimistic, half with a regretful voice, as usual when he wasn't in the best mood to present someone a new place. River and Theresa didn't need to turn around to imagine his sad face. Theresa then walked toward the tiny windows and River followed They both looked out and noticed that they were inside a high building as they were looking down to a burning planet that was screaming for salvation.
You could still hear the shouts of vengeance and pain from the Timelords and the electronic voices of the Daleks cut through the air. Regenerations were going on everywhere but still you could see a Timelord fall from time to time who didn't stand up and never will. Whole cities were burning, children were running on the streets, crying for help and mercy.
"Let's go," The Doctor muttered and the two women followed him.
"What do we plan?" River asked and climbed after her husband over the huge piles of debris.
"This planet will reappear at a later point of time and space in a few hours. We need to stop it from doing that."
"And how do we do that?" Theresa asked but the Doctor suddenly stopped and turned around to her.
"We have had a mind-meld. You know everything about me."
"Yes, why?"
"The Lost Year, The Master building a paradox machine that was finally destroyed and those tiny, beasty drones disappeared. The Weeping Angels taking over Manhattan, but could be stopped," he said, side-looking at River.
"I know. It already happened. I even died," she said.
"Which is a paradox. They're all paradoxes," Theresa said. "They have always been resolving themselves."
"But now, the whole universe is a single paradox. Nothing happened yet because the Timelords are a powerful race, they can control time and space to a certain degree," The Doctor explained.
"You talk as if you weren't one of them," River mentioned.
"I don't consider myself one of them anymore. Their only goal is the rise to power, whatever it cost. Rassilon is probably the leader of all this, he was also responsible for The Master's evilness. He was responsible for the creation of Theresa and her sister. Whoever his victim was, they never had a chance. That was probably also the reason why he used The Master's DNA for The Soldier and The Warrior."
"If The Master had failed in the first place, we should have done what he did in The Lost Year," Theresa suddenly said. "That's the reason why I can also hear the drums."
"You still hear them?" River asked surprised. The Doctor had probably told her most of his stories during the few 'times' they had shared at the same place.
"That's probably because of the rising of Gallifrey," The Doctor said.
"But Gallifrey will rise in a few hours."
"Paradoxes, not only time itself is collapsing, but also the paradoxes are, am I right, Doctor?" Theresa asked and left the corridor they had been crawling through.
"That's right. It might be that old paradoxes reappear and that people who we saw die or who we left can reappear. Time and space know no borders or limitations. Anything could happen right now," The Doctor said and looked around to decide where to go now.
"Great. Have you answered me how to stop this from happening now or are you just talking until you figure out a plan?" River asked impatiently.
"I have a plan. Well, the first step of the plan was arriving here alive."
"I assume the last step will be leaving alive," Theresa muttered.
"We need to go that direction," The Doctor then said and walked toward one of the other corridors.
"How does he know?" Theresa whispered to River.
"No idea," she answered and followed the two Timelords. She took one last look around and to the other corridors and then knew why the Doctor had chosen this way. The paradoxes he had talked about began to materialize. She had never known how she looked like but River was pretty sure that the woman, looking like a not yet fully appeared ghost in black and white, screaming at her was Susan, The Doctor's granddaughter. But who were the other two people next to her.
River didn't have time and followed Theresa and The Doctor. For one second she thought of asking him when this was over, but then she realized that she'd die if they succeeded. She sighed. Wasn't it always that someone died when she was close to the Doctor? Either him 1938 in Berlin or 2011 at Lake Silencio, or she dies in the biggest library of the Universe, or her parents died, when they took their life to create a paradox, when a plastic-Rory shot Amy, when he was erased from history, when she actually was a Ganger...would dying ever stop?
"So, where are we walking now?" Theresa asked when she followed the Doctor through corridors she began to remember more and more.
"What if we walked to the lab where you were created? They must have implanted something into you that would trigger your power to awake."
"What, like a nanoprobe or something? Or a sonic probe?" she laughed.
"No, like a memory. They erased everything from your brain, they didn't overwrite it or block it, they erased who you actually were. Even now, you're only slowly gaining back your memory. That's probably why you can't think straight and help me now."
"I want revenge for what they have done to me."
"Revenge is never a solution, Theresa. Remember that."
"How comes you still call me Theresa and not 'The Soldier'. I also call you The Doctor or shall I call you now –"
"Ah, don't say that. I call you Theresa because I want me to imagine you as a nice little girl and not as a slaughter who has killed billions and trillions of people," he said and they entered the inner ring of Gallifrey's governmental complex.
"Great, now, where's the lab?" The Doctor wondered loudly. "Why don't they have a map hanging at the walls here?"
"This way," Theresa suddenly said and shrugging their shoulders, River and her husband followed.
Again, they had to climb over rubble and whole walls and floors lying in front of them, but also corpses of Timelords lay there and none of them felt quite right walking over them. "How many did you know?" River asked when they reached a part of the corridor labyrinth where most of the ceilings were intact.
"Too many," The Doctor answered. Like most of the times, he could respond without giving any answers. But his normally smiling face had turned into an old man's one which showed only grief and sadness in his ancient eyes.
"The lab is over there," Theresa said with a monotonous voice. She dared not to look at him when he passed. Together, the three of them entered the door and were surprised how unaffected by the war this room looked. Everything was clean and in a white colour, people were working as if nothing happened in here. The government complex of Gallifrey was indeed under attack but yet it was also well defended – ignoring the fact that whole parts were already collapsing.
"Who're you?" one of the workers asked and looked up from a huge bowl filled by white crystals that seemed like snow.
"Why haven't you evacuated yet?" The Doctor asked.
"We've been told to continue research whatever happens. These days we need every help we could get," the man answered and came closer to them.
"Well, these orders were taken back days ago. Haven't you heard?" The Doctor said loudly. "Everyone out here, except for who's in charge."
"Well, that is me," the man answered, but then nodded to his workers. "You heard him, leave and try to get to the main administration to find out what we're now supposed to do." The men left and he turned back to the three people in front of him. "Well, I am The Creator. I am sorry for that, we don't get a lot of contact or messages at all. We just try to stop whatever is happening down there with science."
"I know, and you're doing a great job. Can you show me some of your latest progresses?" River asked and The Creator led her to one of the stasis chambers.
The Doctor and Theresa, now unobserved, began walking through the lab themselves. Suddenly, Theresa stopped at a small testing tube filled with a golden liquor. "What's this?" she asked.
"No idea," he admitted.
"I thought it had just made a noise," Theresa muttered surprised and went closer. The liquid began whirling around in the glass tube and when she reached out for touching it, bubbles began to build inside.
"It reacts to your proximity. Try to touch it," The Doctor advised.
Theresa grabbed the tube which now seemed boiling without vaporising anything. With her pointing finger, she reached inside her the golden liquid pressed itself to the bottom of the glass until there was no room left. Then she felt the coolness of the liquid and would have nearly dropped the testing tube.
"What was it?" The Doctor asked.
"The drums...the eternal drums. And a picture..."
"A memory?"
"Yes," she said.
"Then this is it."
"What do you mean?"
"The liquid reacted to you because it was an even greater paradox than the rise of Gallifrey itself. This picture – whatever you saw – was the memory that would bring back all of your memory and trigger the reaction which would make you regenerate. This is the memory which The Creator will implant into you so that the planet can resurrect with all its inhabitants," The Doctor explained, for the first time in ages he was smiling again.
"But that would mean that The Creator has to implant this memory into me – or my sister – within the next few hours or I couldn't bring Gallifrey back...although, it's a paradox."
"But it's the basic paradox. It's the paradox which creates other paradoxes, so this one is inevitable. Oh my god, that was far too often the word 'paradox'."
"So I should steal or destroy this? Wouldn't you be against it? I mean, you're always like 'never create paradoxes...I can't do this... don't touch the baby, Rose...I can't bring you back – oh, now we need Mercury...I can't bring your parents back, River, one paradox is enough...I'm sorry, Donna...I can't make this un-happen, I'm so sorry..."
"Are you mocking me?" The Doctor asked and folded his arms.
"I would never think of that," Theresa answered sarcastically.
"Hey, what are you doing there? Put that testing tube back!" The Creator suddenly shouted and came running back to them. "Who the hell are you at all?"
"Is that the memory you are going to implant to The Soldier and The Warrior?" Theresa asked angrily.
"Yes, so put it back."
"How?"
"It's a very complex mechanism that their bodies are going to live through and implanting a memory – or rather an idea – is more difficult than you think."
"Then you are the only person who can do this?" Theresa wanted to know.
"No, don't do this," The Doctor muttered.
"Yes, I think so," The Creator said, still confused about the questions he was confronted with.
"Hold this," Theresa said and gave the tube to The Doctor.
"No," he protested when Theresa walked towards her Creator.
"What do you want to do?" River asked, also confused of the situation.
"Don't do that!" the Doctor shouted and sprinted forwards. He pressed the tube into River's hands and tried to hold Theresa back. But he was too late. She had already grabbed The Creator, her father, and thrown him down the few stairs. Then she walked over him, grabbed his head and started smashing it on the floor, over and over again.
"Theresa, what are you doing?" The Doctor yelled while River could only stand there, her mouth dropping open and the testing tube fell out of her hand. Awoken from their thoughts by the sound of breaking glass, both The Doctor and Theresa turned around. The golden liquid was creating a big puddle on the floor from which River stumbled back. It began glowing brighter and brighter, as everything in the room was.
"What is it now?" River asked scared.
"The paradox idea. It must resolve itself. But it's not powerful enough. It is nearly the whole universe which it has to recreate. It would take some time but it is too complex," The Doctor shouted back when suddenly the room and all things in it vanished.
"Then I think it needs some power," Theresa decided and before The Doctor could say anything, she started her regeneration process. He shouted at her, but her energy was already filling the space around them and shortly after that the whole universe.
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