Pertwee

The Present…

The Doctor flipped several more switches and pulled three levers before grabbing the viewing screen and yanking it in front of him. He watched the event play out again. Having ditched his jacket he was in rolled shirtsleeves flipping more switches and running through another set of calculations. Frustrated he pushed the screen aside and leaned against the console. "Not possible," he muttered. "Not possible, but there it is." He sighed.

"You've been at it for hours," Amy said from behind him. "Are you going to share or what?"

"The Azure Spiral," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, it's gone."

The Doctor spun on her. "No, not gone. It's destroyed. There's a difference. The galaxy, all its stars and all its planets and every living thing in it was destroyed; countless lives ended in a flash. We barely escaped. The TARDIS had to shift us in both time and space and even then we took some damage." He turned back to the console.

Amy looked at the screen and the recording of the event. "So what is this then?"

"It's a projectile fired into the black hole at the heart of the galaxy," The Doctor said.

"How did it survive the trip?" Amy asked. The Doctor gave her a look. "Hey you've got a library. Rory leaves books lying around. A black hole destroys everything that goes into it. How did, whatever that is, survive?"

The Doctor put the TARDIS in flight. "I don't know."

"Have you seen anything like this before?" she asked.

The Doctor worked at the controls. "Once." He turned to Amy and flashed a reassuring smile that melted as soon as it appeared.

"How did it happen last time?"

"I don't know."

"Who does?" Amy asked. The Doctor did not answer moving around to the other side of the console. She followed, "Doctor, who knows how that thing works?" He glanced at her not answering. "Not to state the obvious, Raggedy Man, but finding the person who knows how your projectile works would probably help."

The Doctor pulled the main control lever and looked up at the ceiling exasperated. "I can't."

"You can't?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't."

"All those lives, all those stars and you 'just can't'?" Amy prodded. "You have to. What if it happens again? What if it happens to Earth?"

The Doctor stepped away from the console and wrung his hands. "Amy, you don't know what it is you're suggesting." He grabbed his jacket hanging over the railing, whirling into it as he headed for the doors. "Stay here."

"Where are we?" Amy asked.

"Just popping in to see River, won't be a minute."

Outside River waited for him dressed in boots; billowing white pants bloused just so and her brown tank top. A holster was on her hips complete with blaster and there was a bag over her shoulder. Her hair was wild, her expression grave. She gave him a tight smile.

"Hello sweetie," the Doctor said trying to appear cavalier. "Thought I'd give it a try this time, see how it felt. I don't like it. You do it better."

"I know why you're here," River said quietly. "I'm coming with you."

"I don't need your help," the Doctor said.

"You don't have a choice." River took a breath. "My mother suggested that you do something. She just did. You don't want to. The very idea frightens you. It frightens you worse than that night six months ago. To be uncharacteristically honest, it frightens me too."

"You're telling me…"

"You have to," River said. "Do you understand?"

"Do you understand?" the Doctor hissed.

River swallowed and nodded. "Yes, I do."

The Executor

Later, the TARDIS having flown to their next destination, the Doctor threw a heavy look at River, Rory, and Amy before he stepped outside. The Doctor had given them strict instructions to stay in the TARDIS. River promised to make sure his wishes were met. This did not sit well with her mother.

"We can't just let him face what's out there alone," Amy said.

"Mother, normally I would agree but this is something you cannot help him with," River replied. Standing at the console she flipped a switch locking the door.

"Melody Pond, you unlock that door right now!" Amy scolded. She turned her glare to Rory. "She's your daughter, do something!"

"She also knows what's going on," Rory said, gesturing toward their child.

"Fat lot of good you are," Amy said crossing her arms in a huff. She turned. "Well if you know so much, tell us. Tell us what's going on."

River took a seat on the stairs. "It started during the Time War. He's told you about the Time War?"

"Vaguely," Rory said. "It doesn't seem to be a subject he likes to discuss."

River nodded. "Well during the War there was a Time Lord; Gallifrey's most celebrated warrior, responsible for the deaths of millions of Daleks. In his heyday it was said they feared his wrath above all others."

"Now he fancies tweed and thinks bowties are cool," Amy said with a shrug.

River shook her head. "No I'm talking about someone far older and for whom death and destruction came far more easily. He was called, the Executor."

The Executor

Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor walked the corridors of the Bastion Hall. As he got nearer to his destination, the object in his jacket pocket seemed to sense what was going on, moving against his chest as if the metal itself was alive. Approaching the door he saw an extra closet out of the corner of his eye.

"Still here, huh?" he said nervously. "Is he in?" He nodded rubbing his hands together and knocking twice.

"Come in."

The Doctor entered. The room was just as white and blank as he remembered, the single bed immaculate. Sitting in a wheelchair in the middle of the room was a man, looking the same age as the Doctor's current body. Handsome and fit though with darker more exotic features, his head was bald. His eyes, hazel and quick, regarded his visitor with cautious curiosity.

"Are you a doctor?"

"Of sorts," the Doctor replied.

"You look afraid."

The Doctor swallowed. "Just nerves, first day and all. What's your name?"

"Dantes."

"Well, Mister Dantes, this session will be a bit unorthodox," the Doctor said. "I'm going to ask you a question. There are no right or wrong answers. I just want you to be as truthful as you can."

"All right."

The Doctor took a breath. "Do your dreams frighten you?"

The man known as Dantes seemed stricken by the question. "I don't want to do this now."

The Doctor grabbed the doorknob behind him. "I'll come back later." He turned to leave.

"Wait," Dantes said. "I'm sorry. Please don't go."

"I have to." said the Doctor, facing the door.

"Why?"

"Because you told me to."

"Well don't." Dantes stood and walked toward his bed. "I apologize. I was struck by the question. They stopped asking about my dreams a long time ago." He picked up a tattered sketch book. "I want you to look at something and tell me what you think." He handed it over.

"My dreams do not frighten me, doctor," the man said. "They horrify me beyond imagination. I dread sleeping for fear that I won't be able to wake up. And there are times when…times when they feel less like dreams and more like memories."

The Doctor flipped through the pages. Inside he found penciled drawings of stars and planets, letters written in Gallifreyan, drawings of Daleks and violence, images of Time Lords. One in particular was a woman with dark hair and fierce defiance on her face. Beneath her picture was a love sonnet written in Gallifreyan. There was a picture of a man kneeling in a pile of rubble surrounded by bodies. The sky was drawn black. To anyone else, the man would seem to be on fire. The Doctor knew he was in the middle of regenerating and it was a self-portrait.

The Executor

Inside the TARDIS, River continued her story. "At the height of the war, a group of Daleks killed the woman he loved and did so in a fashion that was especially cruel. Enraged, he went after them destroying world after world, collapsing stars, and causing unimaginable suffering in the name of revenge. Time and time again he came close to satisfying his anger, only to be thwarted. Then he cornered the Daleks in a galaxy known as Iome."

"What did he do?" Rory asked.

"Did it have anything to do with what we saw?" Amy chimed in.

River nodded. "The Executor fashioned a weapon; a terrible weapon. He set it loose and an entire galaxy was destroyed. The resultant chaos saw the deaths of countless beings and the decimation of life in a neighboring galaxy. His TARDIS was destroyed. His crew was killed. He barely survived. Crawling from the ruin of his ship on a planet scorched by his folly, his body dying; it is said he looked on what he had done and went mad with despair."

Amy took Rory's hand as they listened, rapt. "What happened next?"

"The Time Lords came for him," River said. "He expected a reckoning but instead was hounded for his secrets. He told them nothing. They imprisoned him for treason. He told them nothing. Threats, bargains, torture and he told them nothing. They kept him locked away until Gallifrey's last day. It was the Doctor who freed him and brought him here."

"But if the Doctor and he are on such good terms, then why be afraid?" asked Rory.

"The Doctor hates the Daleks," River said, "and with good reason. But he is able to see reason. Outside that door is a man who abandoned all reason and very nearly destroyed the entire universe."

"Until he saw reason," Rory offered.

River's nodded. "That is the hope."

The door opened and the Doctor entered. He walked past the group to the console. Yanking on the main control lever, the TARDIS shuddered lifting off. He was quiet walking around the console, adjusting this and that. He found the others staring at him.

"The suspense is killing us," River said.

Amy, "Was he there?"

Rory, "Did he help?"

"Do you still have the watch?" River asked.

The Doctor looked away. "No."

"So now what?" Amy asked.

The Doctor pulled a few more levers. "I'm taking the two of you home. River will be going back to Stormcage."

Rory, "Are you sure?"

"Not a chance," said Amy.

River, "You've bumped your head."

The Doctor's expression was weighed down by his centuries of life. "This is not up for discussion. Whatever happens next will not involve my wife or her parents. You all are too important."

Amy pointed. "And this is why we need to go with you. You're getting emotional and…you know how you are when that happens."

The Doctor pulled another lever. He glanced at Rory giving him a slight nod. Rory grabbed Amy holding her tight. The Doctor pulled the main control lever. To him, the Ponds dematerialized. To them the TARDIS disappeared, leaving them in their living room.

River marched up the steps visibly irate. "That was cruel."

"But necessary," the Doctor replied.

"You won't be doing the same to me," River said. "You need me for this."

The Doctor stopped working and leaned against the console. "And how do you know that?"

"Because he told me," River said.

The Doctor stood straight, shocked. "You spoke with him, how?"

River nodded. "Who is the warden of Stormcage?"

"Novarius Dantes," the Doctor answered. He pointed at her. "That's how you're always in the same cell, never isolation or stasis. He was looking the other way preparing for this."

River nodded. "And he said you would need me."

The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. "So what's next?"

River stepped to the console and took control of the TARDIS. "We need to trace the origin of that projectile."

"What about him?" the Doctor asked, mirroring her movements.

"I suspect he'll catch up," River said. She caught the Doctor's look. "Well he didn't tell me everything, would you?"

The Doctor shook his head and adjusted a few dials. On the view screen he watched the playback of the incident. "Right, so this object was traveling close to the speed of light but not quite. If we calculate its exact speed and estimate the blast radius while taking into account the best distance for data acquisition…"

"Data acquisition?" asked River. "You think it was a test?"

"The beings in that galaxy were primitive," the Doctor said. "Electric light would've been witchcraft to them, interstellar war the stuff of myth. Yes, this was a test." The Doctor pressed a few more keys on the console, his head snapping back up to the screen. An image of another galaxy appeared along with a dot and a set of space-time coordinates.

"We have it then?" River asked.

The Doctor pulled the flight control lever.