When I wake up, I'm in a cell. I'm being charged with war crimes. Romana has already been executed. We're her death was a single regeneration or a complete death is unknown to me. No one bothers to tell the prisoner anything. Across the hall from me is the Master's cell. The silence in his head has made him a little more crazy. He talks incessantly but I manage to tune him out and not listen.
My sentence is nearing a verdict when a crack appears on my cell wall. I recognise it as the crack in Amy's wall. At least that's what it looks like to me. I get closer but not too close. I can hear him. I can hear Junior. I choke on a sob as I remember the scared boy that I left in the TARDIS with parents that I knew would one day leave him alone in the universe.
If the crack is here, and I can hear him, then that means he's almost there. Eleven's hour is over now, the clock is striking Twelve's. I send as much metal comfort as I can through the opening. I relax when I receive a response. I want to know what happened. To his parents, so I send that question through on the link as well.
And that's when the memories start pouring into me. His memories. It's the only way he can tell me the story. And I watch as the images play out behind my eyelids. I sit against the wall they flow through.
*Things are good for many decades. Even centuries. The Doctor regenerates again and I feel giddy that he finally got to be ginger. Rose regenerates once as well, and I'm surprised to see that her coloring resembles that of my first body when I was human. Not exactly, but similar.
But then a war brings them to Trenzalore. It's a horrible battle. A fight between shadow and light. I feel Junior's shock and fear when his father falls on the field. He and Rose rush him back to the TARDIS, but it's too late. He's dying, and he has no regenerations left. The Doctor says goodbye to his family. "I love you."
But his death was not in vain. It is the reason that the army if light gathers together in anger to defeat the shadows, and the succeed. Trenzalore is won for another day.
Mother and son leave to mourn their loss. They travel for a few more years together. But tragedy strikes again. Rose becomes sick. It's the same disease that quarantined a whole planet when Amy had to wait for 46 years. A disease that is deadly to two hearted species.
"Be strong son. I know you can be. You're a good man, and that's all your father and I ever wanted. You just continue to be a good man." Through Junior's eyes, I watch the light fade from hers as she draws her last breath.
From here he falls into depression. Even going so far as becoming the Timelord Victorious on Mars. Which is where his father and I had run into him that day so long ago. He was sick then as well with a more mild strain of the disease. He survived, but it cost him a regeneration, and that is when he crash landed in the backyard of Amelia Pond.*
The memories stop coming then, and I come back to my present. My cheeks are wet with tears. My sister is dead, and it hurts more than I thought it would. I cry for her, and for the Doctor, and for their son, my nephew who took on his name and purpose.
I open my eyes to see my distorted reflection in a metal pipe running from the floor to the ceiling in my cell. Next to me, I can just make out the reflection of Meta. My personal ghost who kept his promise. He's always there when I need him.
A clanging brings my attention to my cell door. The Master I shouting at the people who have come to visit. It's the new Lady President. I don't know her name. She took power after the Master killed Rassilon. The only thing the Master ever did right, really.
They've come to analyze the anomaly in my cell. When they realize that "the Doctor" is on the other side, the Lady President immediately wants confirmation. If it is, then try can bring Gallifrey back into the universe it belongs to.
"Doctor who?"
Silence will fall when the question is asked. "Doctor who?"
"He won't answer you. He can't. It isn't safe." But they don't listen to me. For hours they keep asking the same question, and I can sense that what may be hours for us, centuries are passing over there. Junior is growing old and the clock is ticking.
And then, like the voice of an angel, I hear Clara speak. "Listen to me, you lot. Listen! Help him. Help him change the future. Do it. Do something. You've been asking a question, and it's time someone told you you've been getting it wrong. His name, his name is the Doctor. All the name he needs. Everything you need to know about him. And if you love him, and you should, help him. Help him."
"Listen to her," I beg them. "She's right. He's the Doctor. And he's dying. An if he dies, you aren't ever getting out of this pocket universe!"
The Lady President looks thoughtfully at me. "What would you be willing to do to save him?"
I don't have to think about it. I love that man like he's my own son. I never regretted not having my own children because I helped raise him. "Anything. Everything."
She nods at me. And that's how my sentence is decided. Because of my war crimes against the High Counsel, I will give my regenerations. All of them till final death. And they will be given to Junior, or the man that they called Doctor.
I don't know why he needs it this time. He's not on his last regeneration. He doesn't need extra. But I don't think that matters to them. They need to give him enough time to find them again, and it might take even more lives than I have to give.
I stand there as the read me the rites. I don't listen to them. I don't need to know what they're saying in their formal language. And then the ceremony begins, and they pull my life from me.
It's painful. They're essentially striping me of my body's connection to the time vortex. I feel the energy pouring out of me from every pore. I feel like I'm shriveling up into nothing. My vision blurs as if I'm staring through heat and the world around me is a mirage. And then pain becomes too intense for my conscious body to handle, and the darkness claims me yet again. This time, most likely for good.