Lady President Romana of the Time Lords of Gallifrey readied her notes. She couldn't believe it- they had won! Granted, her sensible side reminded her, a huge cost had been paid, both in the universe and here, on Gallifrey. But the Daleks had been beaten. She thought back to what had happened a few months ago. The largest fleet of the Daleks, containing their greatest battleships, had been destroyed all at once. Not by the Time Lord armada that was there, on the request of her old friend, but by "unknown sources". Or, at least, officially, it was unknown sources. Unofficially, she knew that the Doctor had done something. He had blown them up. She hadn't expected it of him, but she was grateful. Everyone was safe.
Of course, the Daleks still existed. It was one thing to fight a species that was directly threatening them; it was against the High Laws of Time to interfere enough to drive them extinct. They were still around, but they would never rise to the same power. They could form an empire of a few planets, but that was it. She would make sure of it with her new proposal. It said that the Time Lords would be able to interfere with the universe if, and only if, the species presented a direct threat to them. It was in their best interests for this to pass. She took a drink of liquid from a cup her aide had brought in and thought about the one who had caused all this to be able to happen- The Doctor.
He hadn't been seen since the The Fleet Burning of The Last Great Time War (Time Lords were nothing if not melodramatic) as it was being called. She had monitored Gallifrey as well as she could-nothing. She hadn't though he would come back here, but it was just in case. She had also monitored his other planet- Earth. She had had to be subtle- they weren't technically allowed to interfere or even too closely monitor a foreign planet, but she had been able to go to Earth herself too scan for him. Granted, "Allowed to go" meant "she snuck out", but the principal still stood. He hadn't been anywhere in the universe since that day.
She staggered around her office. She knew she'd be feeling nervous, but she felt… ill. Horrible. Like her chest was full of stinging wasps. She fell to the ground, clutching her stomach. Something bad had happened to her.
She pressed the button on her desk to call for her aide. The young Time Lord walked in, looking for the President to find her lying on the floor, clutching her stomach, writhing in pain.
"My Lady, what has happened to you?"
"I don't know. I think I've been…" She looked up at him to see her aide smirking, like a snake looking at poisoned prey. "…Poisoned. You did this to me? Why!?" Realisation dawned on her, and she started to scream at him, both in pain and in anger.
"Simple. You can't go through with passing this bill. It would mean more and more interference, and I and other like-minded Time Lords don't like that. We prefer the old ways. So, I'm sorry, but you'll have to go. We'll make it seem like an accident."
"Who's we?" Romana spat at the man, slowly dying, trying to force a regeneration to burn the poison out of her system, but her body wasn't responding.
"My… accomplice, if you wan't to use the technical, criminal word."
"You are criminals!"
"No. We're revolutionaries." His smile grew wider as Romana start to look on in despair. She had to figure out a way to get out of this.
"Ah. Here we are." The man's accomplice walked in, dragging a cleaning trolley behind him. He was dressed in a long black cloak, with a hood over his face, covering it in shadow.
"Why don't you show your face to the President? Let her know who she's been beaten by?" He laughed at the man's strange dress.
"If she survives, I don't want her angry at me." The man spoke slowly, like he was trying to disguise his voice.
"She won't survive! I used Miramis poison- no regeneration, no chance of survival without help. She's going to die." The Time Lord spoke in surprise, as if he felt insulted.
"Without help being the main word there."
The cloaked figure shoved the young Time Lord to the ground with his trolley, pinning him aganst a wall by applying the brakes. He ran to the Time Lady writhing on the floor in pain. He pulled a small bottle out of a pocket on the inside of his cloak with one hand and grasped the President's mouth with the other. He emptied the contents of the bottle down the president's throat, and after a few seconds she stopped writhing. All three stopped breathing for several moments, two waiting to see what the last would do. What she did was expel a large quantity of yellow liquid from her mouth and yellow gas from her nose. Or, in other words, she threw up all the liquid in her stomach, and got rid of all the poison in her bloodstream through her lungs. She gasped for a few moments, and then turned on the two other Time Lords in her office.
She pressed a button on her console. "Chancellery Guard? We have an attempted murderer in here. I believe we need to put him on trial. Thank you."
She looked directly at the man pinned under the trolley. "You are going to pay for this. Very much."
She turned to look at the man in the cloak, who was starting to mess about with the door locks.
"What are you doing? You won't be able to stop the guards."
"They couldn't blast their way through a wooden door, Romana. Besides, I believe you've been looking for me." The figure was no longer disguising his voice, and it was low and sarcastic in tone. He dropped his coat to reveal a Victorian looking outfit, with a long waistcoat and cravat.
"Hello, Romanavotrelundar. I'm the Doctor, in case you didn't recognise me. Now-"
Romana slapped him.
"Ouch! That hurt!"
"Why didn't you come back? Why didn't you tell me what happened? What happened to your friend? What-?"
"Don't ask me that. I don't want to talk about it."
"She's dead, isn't she? Of course she is."
"Yes." He was wearing an emotionless face.
"Don't you care about all the others that are dead? Many, many Time Lords died in that battle, that diversion you created so that you could have your moment!" Romana was shouting at him now, angry at his lack of care for his race.
"Without me, you wouldn't have been able to get that close to the Daleks. I'm allowed to mourn who I want. I don't care about some random Time Lords." Hs face or expression remained unchanging.
"Your own son was in that battle! He was the first one to die! He didn't even know we would win in the end!"
His expression flickered slightly, but he stared straight at Romana. "They knew they might have to give their lives. Ace didn't. Besides…" He started walking towards the back wall of her office. "I'm not here for long. Just to say this." He flicked a hidden switch, and the wall swung open, revealing a blue police box. "One: there's a secret compartment here that was installed in the old days as a secret way on and off the planet. Please don't change it- I need one way to sneak back here. Two: Don't go looking for me. I don't want to be found."
He stepped into the TARDIS, and the door shut on him. The secret door slided across his entrance just as the TARDIS started to fade away. The guards smashed through the door into Romana's office. "Madam. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine." She stood there staring at the secret compartment in the wall before she shook her head clear. "Arrest this man." She pointed towards her (now former) aide, who was still crushed under the trolley.
"Yes Madam. Anything else?"
"…No"
The old TARDIS flew through the time vortex away from Gallifrey, piloted by a renegade Time Lord, not on the run from his people, but still finding himself an outcast. He looked for a nice place to land, but couldn't find anywhere. Most places would be better than the burnt planetoid where he had crashed just after his regeneration, but that had been fun.
"The prison break had been exciting. Shame about the penguin."
He flipped a few more switches, before finally deciding on a place to go. "Yes… that's nice."
He readies himself, then moved a final lever.
Well, here he is. The Rowan Atkinson Doctor. The Curse of Fatal Death Doctor. The Ninth Doctor. Hope you enjoyed this (and him), and I'll be writing a new story for him (hopefully) some time soon.
