"Which way now, I wonder?" The Doctor - the Eighth Doctor - asked himself and his beloved TARDIS. But then he sighed as he remembered what was outside right now, both in the Time Vortex itself and in the real universe. "I don't suppose we can outrun it, can we, eh old girl?" The Doctor asked sadly as he gazed around the console room.
The TARDIS was becoming as battered as he was; while the old girl had largely recovered from the cold fusion bomb detonated by Marnal, all those years ago, when the Doctor was still running around following the loss of Gallifrey which resulted in a massive loss of memory and a 100-year exile to Earth, where he lived through the whole 20th century, the TARDIS console room interior had largely remained in a gothic/library configuration, and because he had liked it for so long, the Doctor had made sure the configuration stayed the way it was, but the TARDIS had become battered other the years by so many conflicts and disasters; the mess with the Eminence, the Doom Coalition and that one was extremely nasty as the old girl had nearly been destroyed by a rogue group of Time Lords who wanted to destroy the universe to save themselves, losing power because of the Ravenous, and then being stranded on Earth in the 21st century. Wear and tear had taken its toll, and the Time War had only made it worse.
The Doctor grimaced.
The Time War. The Last Great Time War, was already the worst war the Time Lords and indeed the entire universe had ever fought in (although warlike races probably loved it) being fought by the Time Lords and the Daleks.
The Doctor, despite not wanting to fight in the Time War, had gotten involved in it more than once, and the Time Lords had tried on multiple occasions to rope him into it, but they had always made some mistake he'd used to use as an escape route.
The Doctor blamed himself for the Time War, he didn't want to make things worse. He had been given the mission by the Time Lords to prevent the creation of the Daleks, and he'd failed. He had then taken strong stances against them since, but one of his biggest stands was when he had used the fabled Hand of Omega on Skaro's sun.
Small fry cases he could take, but a long war was out of his comfort zone. And then again there was what the Time Lords had been doing; destroying whole races and throwing their timelines into reverse, not helping the other time-travelling powers and leaving them to fend for themselves…
The Time War was already taking a massive toll on the universe; each blast sent shattering shockwaves through the vortex as history changed. The Time Lords were able to rewrite and modify and mitigate the changes in the timelines as they saw fit, but they made the rules and they could break them.
"You can go anywhere," the Doctor jolted with a shock, realising that while he'd been thinking he had not seen the telepathic circuits pulsing, and he didn't feel the telepathic-temporal link until the voice spoke. But he relaxed when he recognised who it was.
He turned, seeing her there. She was slightly physically older now, but like all Time Ladies, she possessed that timeless beauty. She wasn't here, of course, it was just a telepathic image of her being beamed through the vortex from her own TARDIS into his own.
"Romana," he breathed, taking in her robes in surprise. "I heard you'd been exiled from Gallifrey when you tried to assassinate Rassilon."
Putting down the monster was the best decision ever. All Rassilon seemed concerned with was his own power, not the greater good.
"I have," Romana nodded, "Me and Narvin both managed to..escape, although Mantus was behind it. We're now travelling in a TARDIS, just like you."
"I know, but if you're hoping I'm going to join the war, forget it; the disaster with Ysalus has only made me more determined to avoid Rassilon like an outbreak of Chen-7," the Doctor said seriously.
Romana shuddered. "Please don't say that, Doctor. And besides, you have gotten involved, it's only a matter of time before you are brought in. You can't avoid it forever. And before you start ranting about morality, I'm not here to get you into the Time War."
The Doctor, who had been steeling himself for a quick fight, suddenly lost his fire. "What do you mean?"
"Just because I understand your reasons for wanting to avoid the war, doesn't mean others will be. Sooner or later they will get you, and then you will be trapped, and they won't risk damaging your TARDIS to do it. They know how many modifications you have made on the dear, Doctor; she's got so much to offer them."
"All the more reason to keep out," the Doctor insisted.
"Rassilon wants you," Romana said seriously. "Just because he looks at you with contempt and disgust doesn't mean he doesn't want you completely out of the picture. And besides, you've been a part of this war from the beginning, since you first stepped foot inside your TARDIS."
"I didn't have a choice, Romana," the Doctor said defensively, making her raise her eyebrows, showing exactly what she thought of his manner, but he refused to tone it down. "The Time Lords wanted me to prevent their creation-."
"I know. But the TARDIS and you…you're both a part of the Time War, and it's been going on for centuries," Romana said.
"What do you mean?"
"You kidnapped those human teachers, and one of your first trips with them was to travel to Skaro, but before that, you took the Hand of Omega straight to Earth, with plans of burying it. Why?" Romana folded her arms.
The Doctor, stunned by the question, faltered. "I…don't know," he admitted, "because I didn't believe the Time Lords should have possession of such a lethal weapon."
"No, Doctor, it was put into your mind. The Time Lords are reaching back into time, manipulating the minds and the TARDISes of all renegade Time Lords," Romana said. "I found the file just before I left Gallifrey, and was one of the reasons why I wanted Rassilon out of the picture. Apparently, Rassilon doesn't have any faith in the current capacities of the Time Lords, he thinks that we've gone soft and weak."
The Doctor nodded. "I can't blame him for thinking that, Romana; Gallifrey has been stagnant for centuries, you know that."
"I know, but Rassilon wants to create an elite army of Time Lords. He feels renegades are the best option, as we, and yes, I believe myself to be a renegade, especially now learn a great many things and we interfere. Doctor, whenever you step out of the TARDIS, do you sometimes feel that something is wrong with your memories?"
"What are you talking about?" The Doctor whispered.
"Just answer me."
The Doctor sighed and yet he nodded. "Yes," he admitted. "A few times, I feel like I can remember multiple time streams."
Romana nodded, satisfied. "That's because the Time Lords have been changing history. And you are not the only one." Romana clicked her fingers and a monitor screen activated and showed a red thread. "Your timeline is the red one, the others are the Rani, the Monk, Berenyl, the Master, the Eleven, the Corsair, and so many other renegades."
"These are my travels," the Doctor said, squinting at the threads. And then he gasped when they shifted, changed. "Impossible."
"No, it's not. The Time Lords are actively changing history. Do you think that the Time Lords would ever allow you to escape Gallifrey and let you go on your way, any more than they'd allow other Time Lords to do the same? They allowed you to take Susan and the Hand of Omega, allowing you to plant it on a primitive world without recovering it for themselves and they allowed you to meet the Daleks. Fight them. Tell me, Doctor, do you really think that Susan would have wanted to be left on Earth following a Dalek invasion when she would have guessed that the Daleks would have left nasty surprises? You, her, all of us are weapons. We have encountered and fought the Daleks more than once, each of us developing experience to stop them."
"No," the Doctor shook his head in denial.
Romana ignored him and she went on. "In your third incarnation, did you ever escape using a ship capable of travelling in different realities?"
"Yes, no wait, no I didn't," the Doctor frowned, turning fear-filled eyes towards the screen showing his timeline, and he blinked, deftly manipulating his third self's time so he could see it better, and he saw he had indeed stolen a dimensional starship while his TARDIS was grounded, and he had…encountered the Daleks in several different worlds.
Romana studied him sympathetically, rubbing her forehead, knowing full well that her own life was manipulated. And it was only going to get worse.