Hello beautiful readers! :D Yes Jane is in the time war. She is a type of paradox. She fell through the void because she has to be there and vice versa. Like I wrote in the last chapter, she could see the Moment because the Moment was judging her for her part in what the Doctor has to do. Hopefully it will make more sense after the next chapter.
In other news, this fic is finished and only needs to be posted. :) I made myself cry but I also cheered so...trust me. My brother read it and said it was brilliant. And he's pocket about this sort of thing so...yeah. Anyway, enjoy. Please R&R. As we near the end I want your input and opinions. It will help me edit the last chapters in a way to make them better for you. Happy day!
The first six months are the hardest. I'm grateful for all the Gallifreyan the Doctor taught me. Also for the customs. You would think that war would make these people drop the formalities in deference to survival but try are a cultural people. So for the first six months I fight as best I can with my wits and piece of sharpened scrap metal.
I fight alone. I know no one here. Eventually I'll meet the War Doctor. I'll have to be careful when that happens. I'm crossing time lines by being here. But I'm also closing a paradoxical loop. So when I find myself in the middle of a major scale ambush on the edge of Wild Endeavor's coast, I'm not expecting to find allies.
I run into the front room of the library there with a handful of explosives that I managed to get my hands on. There's a man and a woman fighting off Daleks back to back. They're surrounded with no way out. I smirk. Good thing I'm here then.
I rush at the weakest looking Dalek and use my metal sword to chop off it's gun. They have a slight weakness right at the base of the metal welding that makes it possible. I push the Dalek with my foot into the one next to it.
"Get out!" I shout at the other two time lords. The charge through the opening I made. I pull the pin out of the grenade with my teeth and toss it into the center of the squad and follow after them like my feet are on fire. The force of the explosion knocks me to the ground.
The next thing I know is I'm being staged up from the ground. The three of us run for our lives to get out of the line of fire. When we make it behind a building and out of the way we lean heavily on the wall to catch out breath.
"Thank you kindly," the woman says to me. She appears to be around twenty five like I do. But I can tell by her eyes and timelines that he is in fact older than me. Somewhere around seven hundred years old. Her hair is probably platinum blond but it's so dirty from the life a soldier that I can't quite tell. Her eyes are a nondescript brown color but there is life there that makes them interesting.
"Your thanks is welcome." Until names are exchanged the formality is expected.
I turn to man as he speaks. He appears to be older, about mid-thirties, but with a closer look I realize that he's younger, around five hundred and fifty or so. Everything about him is dark. His hair, his eyes, his skin. The only color on him are the red robes of a warrior but even they are tattered. "I am Lord Door of the House of Heartshaven. This is my cousin, Lady Trey. May I inquire after your title?"
In all honesty I hadn't thought about it. I can't call myself Jane Ryder here. It's a name that I'll have to leave behind. I think about all of the titles that I have earned over the years...but only one feels like it could be my name. The Drifter in the Dark. "I am Lady Drifter of the House of Commons." The House of Commons is a phrase that simply means I have no family. It effectively labels me an orphan. I would have said Lungbarrow, but when I meet the Doctor, that will raise questions i'd rather not answer.
"We are honored." He may be younger, but he is the male of the Household which is why he is speaking. Gallifrey has rather Victorian era customs. It's a strange mix of equality and purism. Women are capable of joining the army and even being president, but the government on a smaller scale within families has a stricter order. Not that I can fully comprehend it.
"Would you both perhaps be open to a friendship between us?" I ask politely in the common method for becoming less formal.
"Certainly. I am Tonsillfrolizongurvorzela."
"And I am Romanadvoratrelundar, former Lady President."
My eyes widen. Not because of the long names. Those are common. But because this is Romana. It must be. I don't know much about her. I know she traveled with the Doctor before the Time War at some point. I can't let on though.
"I have no name under Gallifrey of which to speak of, but you may call me Drift."
"And I Tonsil."
"And I Romana."
The screams in the street bring our attention back to the battle. Even though I'm the youngest, I'm have a lot of experience in the fight and have been a lieutenant since I was around nineteen years old. Because of that, I naturally take charge of the situation we find ourselves in.
The battle is not a loss, but we can hardly call it a win either. Both sides suffer. Both sides burn. And we barely have space in between to lick our wounds. Over time, the camaraderie between the three of us builds. We fight side by side and begin to build a reputation. But I keep Romana out of as much as I can. Especially after her regeneration and I realize that she was the woman covering her face when we were dealing with the Master. I can't afford Rassilon finding out that she's with me. Her position on the counsel is too valuable.
As far as the High Counsel is concerned, I'm a renegade. Even after successfully helping them keep the Dome City, they banish me from the planet. But I don't leave. As a fugitive I both run and fight for a planet that I know is doomed. But i am here none the less. And I fight regardless. I may not have been born here, but these people now run in my blood, and instinct will not let me abandon my species, despite human memories.
It's is only a couple years before I meet him. The War Doctor. It wasn't the happy day I'd allowed myself to imagine. I thought perhaps I would tease him with knowing something he did not. That I could help him through the war as he would help me. But it isn't like that. It's at a battle in a city with no name. Romana is not with Tonsil and I for this fight. She had work to do in the counsel, trying to uncover the truth about Rassilon's plans for the Time Lord ascension.
We are overwhelmed. Being slaughtered. Tonsil gets hit directly in the heart and there is nothing I can do for him as he goes down. I try to fight my way toward him. To give him time to regenerate. But I'm too late, they deliver the death blow in the middle if the process and I'm too far away. After fighting in a war like this you get use to seeing death. And even seeing the fall of a friend is not as shocking to me as it once was. I'd seen too much of that at this point.
But it still hurts. Tonsil was a good man, a decent man. He worked hard and fought with fire in his soul. He was a good follower of my orders and he was useful in a skirmish. And he was funny. More blunt than anyone else I'd ever met in my life. And he honestly believed we could win. He almost made me believe at times, at the times I needed to most.
It's because of my moment of mourning that I don't see the Dalek come after me. I don't see the shot until it's in my right shoulder, and then again in my left hip. I thought it would burn, getting shot with their lasers. But it's like a bullet of ice piercing your body. The cold spreads in a painful way. And it does burn. The kind of burn when you're too cold to stand in the hot shower because it stings so much.
I fall to the ground. They didn't shoot me anywhere lethal. Not yet. But they will. And when I start to regenerate, they'll shoot to kill. I'm about to go down fighting like my character demands of me when an explosion knocks me back down. The next thing I know is that I'm lifted up and run from the battlefield in a fireman's carry.
The old abandoned coal house provides cover for me and my rescuer as he sets me down. It doesn't really surprised to see the War Doctor. Not really. I know him well enough though, to know that formalities will simply try his patients even more than mine. So I skip to the important stuff. "Thank you. I'm Drift."
He hesitates for a moment. "Warrior."
I raise my eyebrows. "You're a bad liar. If you're going to help me with my wounds, I think I deserve to know who you are."
He huffs only the way an old man can. "Doctor then."
I smile. "Nice to meet you Doctor." I wince from the icy pain beginning to spread further. Without preamble, he rips my shirt. If these burns aren't cared for immediately it will mean a slow and painful death for me. I grit my teeth as I survey the damage. I'll likely lose feeling in both places. The black blisters indicate the frostbite like reaction. I've seen it before, but I never realized how painful it could be.
The Doctor does his name justice. He helps me apply the salve and bandage it up. He doesn't fight me when I insist we get out of here. This fight is lost and it isn't cowardly of us to retreat. We won't sacrifice ourselves to a lost cause. We will live to fight another day. Romana eventually joins back up with us. She is saddened by the death of her cousin but she is strong, and does her best to hide it.
With her here, the Doctor and I are able to relax. With just the two of us we would barely speak. I cant tell him the future and he has nothing to say to me. But it makes reading each other into a necessary skill, which proves to be our most valuable weapon when in the middle of a fight. Our silent ability to communicate makes for a fantastic tactical advantage. Romana is thrilled to have an old friend around. And with time, trust builds, and the threes of us become close all over again, in loving memory of Tonsil.
And over the years I try. I try to find another way to end it. A way I can fix it so that Gallifrey is easier to find or never gets lost in the first place. And I come up with nothing. Options are running out. And one day, Romana makes that immensely clear. I stay silent with my thoughts as Romana and the Doctor try to decide our next step, the next plan. But I know the plan. And it's time to set it in motion.