Hello everyone! Back with the seventh chapter. It's a long flashback (which has a timing that is not casual at all), but it's really not. It's made of events that never occurred, but that had a relevant influence nervetheless. You'll see why.
NOTE: the name Last First Sight, the Luksertia Plain, the Watchers and the first Watcher, the gesture, the first name of the Master (Hanereyan), the name of the Doctor and his brothers' and sisters', except Braxiatel, are my creations and I own them. The other things are references to real Doctor Who facts, names and characters. I do not own them.
MOVE ON
7- Lost childhood reminiscence.
That queue was really long and stifling. Two hundred thousand children, all gathered together, strictly divided and ordered by family, Chapter, social status, age etcetera, awaiting to experience the Last First Sight, as everyone called it.
There was place for everyone on Gallifrey in the Luksertia Plain after all, he thought. The whole city of Capitol could have fit there pretty nicely, and there would've still been plenty of space left. They would've had a better weather throughout the whole year if it just transferred there, he thought again.
He was purposefully distracting himself because honestly, he just didn't want to be there. He really couldn't understand Hanereyan Koschei when he spoke of "having chills" just at the thought that that was the day he could finally look at it.
"The Time Vortex in its majestic immensity! Just think of the possibilities: we see through it, we see our past, our present, our future. I could see your future, I could see everyone's past! I've been fantasizing about it since I was thirty, and now I'm going to see it, for real! Don't you feel like me, too?"
"Honestly, I don't" he remembered answering, whispering so that the Watchers couldn't hear him "Because, see, I understand the hype. Overall, it's something that's too huge to be described, but if you think about it, all of the Time Lords looked at it, and what have they been bringing upon us? Discord, mostly. They secretly search for power, even though all they deny and withhold it, and Rassilon more than everyone else. I don't want to be like him!"
"But we won't be!" Koschei protested, touching his arm to better connect him psychically to himself "We know Rassilon's faults and we have minds on our own. We're going to be better than him and than everyone else and they will all look up to us! Wenzikzi and Koschei: our names will resound everywhere on the planet and make the plants sway!"
He remembered grinning at him as he said that. Hanereyan Koschei was a very ambitious kid and he really, really admired him. He knew he was going to be an important Time Lord because he was so willing to be one and he was so good.
As for him, he wasn't that sure.
"Wenzikziellpertyenat of the Prydonian Chapter in Capitol, come forward!"
Wenzikzi shook his head confusedly.
The First Watcher called him. He called his name!
He looked around. He was sorry he couldn't see Koschei anywhere. He would've liked to see his face, before he got to have the Last First Sight.
Aliska, Lunaktekewer, Freverteyan and Braxiatel greeted him the usual way: index finger of the right hand horizontally behind the index and the middle finger of the left hand.
It was a metaphorical Gallifreyan gesture which represented the separation between Time -the upper gap that was open to eternity, since the tips of the two fingers were outdistanced- and Space -the lower gap apparently closed and restricted by the three fingers-.
He responded with a crooked smile and he quickly greeted back. His brothers and sisters thought pretty much as Koschei did about the Last First Sight, but they were a lot less admirable than him - and Marnal, his true personal hero.
"Put yourself before the greatness within the Time Vortex" the First Watcher ordered.
His eyes suddenly got teary and dimmed and his two little hearts started to pound hard in his chest.
He knew he was going to be afraid and tried to relax, but now he couldn't quite control it.
Whatever he saw there now would've changed his whole life irreversibly.
So, he breathed and stepped forward, with slow, terrified steps, and then finally he dared to look.
"Look..."
Wenzikzi looked, looked deep, looked very deep, and an amazed sob escaped his mouth.
Time Vortex energy clashing, swinging, rippling and shining brighter than a billion stars, shaping all the conscious and unconscious beings that were, are, and will be in the entire universe...
… and he could see them all, be.
Praying. Feeding. Singing. Shouting. Communicating. Shattering. Miserably dying.
He felt his pupils burn, his ears whistle, his whole body freeze still.
Endless flowing sensations possessed his unsteady head, flying through his aching nerves.
He had been so naïve. Optimistic even.
It was horrible. And physically painful.
Most of the things he saw were awful.
He wanted to turn back, flee and never be tortured again, and he discovered that he couldn't.
It took him a while, but then he understood.
The Time Vortex was somehow creeping inside him, branching and proliferating, making him hallucinate and suffer inexplicably.
But was that only him? The others had looked rather fine while looking – expect the ones who had run away.
His legs were totally immovable, however.
They felt... dead. As if they had run out of time.
His whole body felt dead. A cover, a corpse to his living soul.
What was special about him? Or, more reasonable question... what was wrong with him?
And then, just then, he heard a womanly voice standing out among all the cries, addressing him.
"Wenzikziell..."
"What?!" he exploded, physchically shouting to the source of that piercing voice: apparently, the Time Vortex itself. But how?! Why?!
"Wenzikziellpertyenat... of... the Prydonian Chapter ..."
"That's my name..." he confirmed, his eyes more and more magnetized by the Time Vortex. He started to walk in its direction, to better reach that somewhat appealing lure...
"What are you doing?!" the First Watcher scolded him. All the kids behind him in the queue were screeching.
He was about to react, run away, but then something stopped him and put him again on the path to the Vortex eternity.
That voice... it was so inevitable... he had to hear more of it, more of it...
"No, that's not your name" she gently replied. She sounded sweet... delicious almost...
"Yes, it is" he insisted, getting closer one step after another, his eyes beginning to feel weird.
"To you, the Original Incarnation, of course. But not to your consciousness. The consciousness that developed your body and everything that was, is, and will be..."
Wenzikzi crushed his eyelids. He was so intrigued and so confused. Yes, he was the Original Incarnation. He was picturing it. It was the truth.
That attraction seemed to be due an ancient bond. He knew her.
"You know me. I'm your complementary consciousness" she repeated, unstoppably perusing his mind and soul.
A growing shadow appeared within the Time Vortex. He could recognize it, but he couldn't name it.
"FOR RASSILON LORD PRESIDENT, DON'T GO THERE! DON'T GO NEAR THERE! WALK AWAY IMMEDIATELY!" the First Watcher screamed, quickly reviewing the emergency teleport procedures.
"WENZIKZIELL! THERE'S SOMETHING IN THERE! RUN!" his brother Braxiatel cried, as Aliska and Freverteyan stepped forward to better see their brother.
"Your consciousness is now free. Me and you together. We're helping. Just help and love. It will all be done. It will be created. Because of us" the voice heralded.
He was the only one who could hear it. Obviously.
The Original Incarnation... he was more than that. And he never knew until then.
His sight was widened. His eyes were sore and eternal. His ego was expanding to the whole universe.
He was everything, everyhere, anytime.
"Now you know. Name me and name yourself. This is the question, my question, the First Question that's ever been asked: Doctor Who?!"
The shadow grew until it absorbed the Time Vortex and rose up to the sky, revealing its-her true from.
Wenzikzi stared at her, reinforcing their overwhelming psychical connection.
She wasn't composed of real actual matter. She wasn't concrete, because she couldn't and didn't actually exist.
She was the Bad Wolf.
The First Watcher shouted as he teleported everyone back home and sent an instant psychic message to Rassilon.
"I already know" he answered, his voice filled with tension "I was repeatedly told of this date in my long and distant childhood. They told me and gave me orders. I'll do what I must for the sake of the Time Lords and of all the other creatures. Marnal's TARDIS is the nearest to the Luksertia Plain: I'll send her a message and hopefully she'll activate"
Wenzikzi raised his behold to her angrily. He rose as well, higher than the higher mountains, higher than the two suns.
"You... are... my... enemy... we... are...the... lost... pieces... of-"
Suddenly, a open TARDIS materialized near them and sucked them inside in an instant.
"Everyone must forget... everyone, but me" Rassilon's sigh was destined to be unheard for eternity.
It was too much.
Wenzikzi made up his mind and ran away as fast as he could, trying to erase all of those images and perceptions from his memory.
The First Watcher disregardedly followed him with his neck as he fled. Then, he cleared his voice and called:
"Aliskagharkzior of the Prydonian Chapter in Capitol, come forward!"