Chapter 13
The Doctor and the Vampire Doctor appeared on a world with lava flows and ruins of mighty buildings. Skeletons littered the entire surface of the scorched planet. The Doctor was sickened at what he saw. He was here once before. It was during the final years of his eighth incarnation. Why had his Vampire alter ego brought him here?
"Do you like this place, Doctor?" asked the Vampire Doctor.
"This is my memory of Arcadia. Why did you bring me here?" asked the Doctor, speaking through clenched teeth.
"This is a memory from the Last Great Time War itself, is it not?" asked the Vampire Doctor.
"Yes, it is. Why did you bring me here?" spat the Doctor.
"To break you. If I can make you faulter, I can get inside and win this battle of wills," answered the Vampire Doctor, "I must admit to you, Doctor, that you are my best opponent. If it had been any other victim, I would have beaten them down and taken them over already. Even your friend, Alex Russo, was on the brink of faultering, but you had to open your big mouth and save her from me. Oh and does she know that you love her?" asked the Vampire Doctor, "Because she sure loves you."
"I love all of my companions," said the Doctor, "They were like and are like family to me and you keep them out of this or I will turn into someone, something, you don't want to see. Not even you can see into that part of my mind."
"Yes, but I will soon. Now back to your companions," said the Vampire Doctor, "You are right. You do love all of your companions, but you love some more than others. There were several times when you fell in love with companions romantically. There was you and Sarah Jane Smith. Then there was Romana and you can't deny that. I mean anyone who saw you two could tell that you two had something special. I remember you even said that she would be the one that could actually make you settle down and live your life without traveling the stars or the timelines."
"That true," said the Doctor. He thought about Romana and wondered where she was in the final days of the War.
"Then a lot less subtle, but still as ever present was your relationship with Perpugilliam 'Peri' Brown and Six. Behind the constant harassment and bickering, you two loved each other. It was undeniable. Then there was Eight and Grace Holloway. Then came Ten and Rose. Twelve and River. Then you and Ashton and now its you and Alex."
"Why are you saying this to me?" asked the Doctor, clearly annoyed at talking with his fanged foil.
"To show you that I can see your past and I can read you like a book so don't you dare say or try to take control," answered the Vampire Doctor, "But do you want to know why I think you fell in love with the majority of those people."
"Okay, I'll bite. Why?"
"Because you needed to fill a hole in your hearts the same size and shape as a certain planet. As in Gallifrey. You lost everything in one minute and then had nothing. You looked for something to fill it so you wouldn't be so empty inside but even now, over a thousand years after the Last Great Time War ended you are still trying to fill that void in your hearts, but you know as much as I do. That hole can never be fill except by the miraculous return of Gallifrey and the Time Lords and tell me, am I dead on?"
The Doctor didn't answer the Vampire and the Vampire Doctor smiled at the fact that he was right. There were several geysers of molten material erupting around them and the Doctor put his head down and rubbed his eyes, fighting back tears. Then the screams came, the endless screams.
"What's that?" asked the Vampire Doctor, thrown off by the unexpected noise.
"It's my memory," answered the Doctor, "Ten billion humans roasted on this planet and those are their screams. You want to see my memories? Try the memories from the Last Great Time War, but you won't because they are even too gruesome and horrible for even you to look at and gaze upon them. So why don't you give up and let me win because I will never break and I will never let you fulfill your duty and obligation. No, wait that's not it. I will never let you fulfill your sick lust for power and control and your thirst for blood. I won't. Do you here me? I won't!"
"That's okay," replied the Vampire Doctor, unsure what to say next. He wasn't used to a host with this must resistance. He had severely underestimated the Doctor's will power and mental strength to resist him. He was going to have to find that part of the Doctor's mind that terrifies the almighty Doctor himself, but did he really want to? The Doctor was clearly not scared of his Vampire Alter Ego or anything else that the Vampire Doctor could think of. So what was so bad in that part of the Doctor's mind that could scare the Doctor so bad and why did the Doctor say it was an empty part of his mind. How can there be part of a mind missing? Unless that part of the mind actually became its very own being and was out in space somewhere. The Doctor did seem only partial when the Vampire Doctor first read him upon the initial conflict with Borusa in the classroom. The Vampire Doctor had to get to that hole in the Doctor's mind and break the Doctor. He would do anything he could to get there and do it to this most formidable host. The Vampire Doctor stood still and didn't move at all. He knew that the empty part was the only one that had the slightest chance at breaking the Doctor's holdout against the Vampire Doctor.
The Doctor had noticed that the other hadn't spoken in a long time and asked, "What are you thinking about now, Vampy?"
"You will find out when it's time," answered his Vampire self.
"Okay." That was the Doctor's only response.
The Vampire smiled and looked at the Doctor and said, "Found it."
"Found what?" asked the Doctor.
"I found the hole you were afraid of," answered the victorious Vampire Doctor.
"I warned you not to take us there and if you do, there will nothing that can hold me back against you," said the Doctor, preparing for the worst, "That void is unspeakable essence of an evil that is no longer inside of me. I buried that part of my past and don't want to dig it up, but it seems I don't have a choice."
"No, ya don't, Doc. Let's go," mocked the giddy Vampire Doctor.
The two vanished and the Doctor screamed something with all of his power as they vanished.
Russo Home
"GOLLOCK TA MALA VALEYARD!" the unconscious Doctor boomed, making everyone in the room jump.
"What was that?" asked Harper.
"What did he say?" asked Justin.
"Alex?" asked Theresa.
"He said 'Beware the evil Valeyard'," answered Alex.
"What does that mean?" asked Jerry, "What's the evil Valeyard?"
"Believe me, Masters and Mistresses, you do not want to know from me," said K-9, "The Doctor should tell you. I would not be my place."
"I know what the Valeyard is," said Alex, "It's an evil version of himself."