I don't own Doctor Who.
The Doctor sighed wearily, running a hand over his face, positive the last adventure had given his current body several grey hairs and few more wrinkles and crows feet; while Time Lord incarnations aged slower than humans during each regeneration, they were susceptible to stress and time as well.
After meeting Drax and getting involved with a new con that was a twist and a half, the Doctor was unsurprised that he seemed to be older. It was times like this he wondered if he should just force another regeneration, give himself a boost. Regeneration was like an adrenaline rush, a fiery renewal. But he always stopped himself. His eighth incarnation had been through many trying times; the mystery of the Enemy, the Factions' meddling, his 100-year exile on Earth, his time with Anji, Trix, and Fitz, as he tried to find out more about himself in a new world where the Time Lords had fallen, before meeting Lucie and then spending 600 years on Orbis, before going through the simultaneous deaths of Tamsin, Lucie, and Alex because of the Dalek invasion of Earth (the second one), and then going through the conspiracies with the Doom Coalition and the Ravenous.
But there was no doubt in his mind, the universe was getting darker. It was like twilight was setting in, or the first signs of a terrible storm were setting in.
Padrac had after all made it clear something was coming, and nobody was sure if even the Time Lords could keep on the sidelines.
While there were moments he felt that his current incarnation and its adventurous, childish persona of wonder was not out of place in this darkening universe, the Doctor decided against a regeneration. It was wasteful, really and he wasn't one of those Time Lords who used up one body after another to stave off boredom. He was someone who loved to embrace life and see it through to the end.
No. He decided to stay as himself. No point wasting his life on something frivolous, in any case, he could already feel this body wearing thin. Might as well get every drop out of it.
The Doctor sat down in a chair close to the console, letting out a sigh of contentment now the whole business was dealt with, and even better, Drax - all three of the lives who'd taken part this time - was gone.
Sadly, his companions would not let him rest.
"D'you reckon Drax will be back?" Helen asked.
The Doctor let out a sigh. Just when he wanted to sleep, someone began talking. "Well, I haven't seen him or her for centuries," he said, "Knowing my luck, Drax will come back."
"And rope you in yet another con?" Liv said in that usual pessimistic manner.
"Yes."
"What did they teach you in your school?" Liv demanded.
The Doctor remembered the mess with the Eleven and those two other incarnations of the Master with the Ravenous; Liv had said the same thing then. "I sometimes ask myself that question when I think of that context," the Doctor replied.
"Do you?"
"Oh, come on, Liv; while Drax is annoying and irritating, he's nothing like the Eleven, the Nine, the Six, the Master, or even Padrac," the Doctor protested.
"Okay, maybe he isn't as bad as them, but he still drove us mad," Helen's tone was diplomatic.
"When are you going to learn, Doctor?" Liv demanded. "If one of your old friends is involved, you instantly try to protect them."
"That's not entirely true," the Doctor had a feeling he knew where this was going. "The Master, the Monk, and Drax and Padrac were in my class back on Gallifrey; I didn't want to believe Padrac would try to destroy the universe, and I only wanted to save the Master on Parrak because a part of me still misses the old friend he was before everything went wrong."
"Yes, what did happen between you? I get the fact you fell out but what happened to take things to that extent?" Helen asked before Liv could say anything.
The Doctor ran a hand through his messy hair, his mind going back to the days when he was young with the Master and their friendship started to spiral out of control. They were both to blame in many ways. "Oh, we had a number of arguments, and he began plotting to take control of everything…something I never wanted," the Doctor replied. "But I do have a blind spot where my old school friends are concerned, but I don't let that cloud my judgement."
"Yes, I noticed you were quick to turn your back and let that Angel send the Monk back through time," Liv commented; she had seen it during that confrontation in New York.
The Doctor scowled. "The Monk crossed the line," he said tightly, sighing when he saw his friend's reactions. "I met the Monk a few times in my first incarnation; I stopped him from changing the outcome of the Battle of Hastings, and in the end, I removed a piece of his TARDIS. He later repaired his ship and came after me, he tried stranding me but I repaired the lock and we met in Egypt. The Daleks were behind us. They were trying to create a temporal weapon, but I'd stolen the power source. The Monk allied himself with them and I was forced to return the power source, but I stole the directional unit from the Monk's TARDIS - in those days, my control over the old girl was impossible compared to what it is now - and he was stranded on an ice planet. A long time later, he began travelling with a displaced friend of mine, Lucie, before he murdered the parents of a future dictator in an avalanche, but then he duped a friend of mine, Tamsin, and she went off with him. Later he lied to her again when he helped the Daleks reconquer Earth in the 22nd century. He spread a virus in the planet's atmosphere, to make it easier for the Daleks to invade."
"What?" Helen gasped.
"I didn't like the Monk before, but now I hate him. Why would he do that?" Liv demanded, outraged.
"The Daleks offered him whatever he wanted, and the Monk decided to plunder Earth's treasures," the Doctor's voice was grim. "He lied to Tamsin when they arrived; the Earth's population was largely slaughtered and the survivors were forced to burrow down into Earth, so the Daleks could install an engine, to move the planet anywhere in the universe."
"What? But that's insane!" Liv shouted.
"I know," the Doctor shook his head at the Daleks' lack of imagination and their brutality.
"Wait, you said he'd duped Tamsin. How? What did the Monk say to her?" Helen remembered what he had said before.
The Doctor sighed. "He told her the Daleks are medical missionaries and they were helping humanity," he told them, "he also lied by saying they were saving all of Earth's treasures, conveniently missing out the facts he didn't care about humanity; he just wanted some of it for himself so he could sell the rest on the black market."
"If I ever see the Monk again, I will murder him," Helen hissed her promise.
"I take it it didn't work out," Liv said.
"How do you know that?"
"Well, you have defeated the Daleks before," Liv shrugged like it was obvious.
"Yes, I was able to destroy the Daleks' warp engine, and it sucked the Daleks in. The Daleks had killed Tamsin, so the Monk was forced to face the responsibility for his actions, but the Monk had not only wiped out millions of humans but was the accomplice to them putting down the resistance on Earth. But the Dalek invasion saw Tamsin die, but also Lucie and Alex. Tamsin was just shot down. Lucie gave her life, crashing a Dalek flying saucer into the warp engine. Alex was also shot down."
The Doctor took a deep breath and he looked down at his hands, trying to muster the will to go on. He knew Liv and Helen were waiting, so he forced it out.
"Alex…Alex was my great-grandson," he said.
Helen gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth in horror. Liv stared at him in shock. "What?" She whispered.
"Alex was my great-grandson. I'd left Susan, my granddaughter, on Earth following the original Dalek invasion. She had fallen in love with a resistance fighter and I took the decision for her to leave her behind," the Doctor closed his eyes, struggling hard not to cry at how the Monk had pushed the boundaries.
Helen wrapped her arms around him. "Doctor, I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Thank you," the Doctor said quietly.
Liv awkwardly wrapped her arms around him. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"It never came up, and when we met the Monk in New York, we were barely together since we had Ollistra and the Weeping Angels to worry about; but when I laid eyes on the Monk, I struggled not to lash out at him. He went too far with trying to get revenge on me, and I gladly turned my back on him when the Angels threatened him."
"And Drax?" Helen asked.
"What about Drax?" The Doctor's face was genuinely puzzled.
"Well, you did say you now found him infuriating," Helen pointed out.
"He is," the Doctor agreed, but he quickly added, "But Drax is different from the other Time Lords you've met. He's not a single-minded automaton like Ollistra. He's a different kind of selfish compared to Padrac, he's a criminal, so his gains are smaller. He might not be a time meddler like the Monk. He's not a homicidal monster like the Master. He's not twisted like the Eleven; he's in a class of his own. An annoying class."
"Sounds to me like you're still defending him," Liv commented.
That was the wrong thing to say.
The Doctor glared at her so witheringly that she actually took a step back. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. A part of me still thinks of Drax, Padrac, and the Master as friends. When I found out what the Master and Padrac were really like I was horrified. But I don't let that get in the way of stopping them. Drax is different. He's just a criminal, and in many ways, he's like me; we're both thieves, he bought his own TARDIS, but we're closer than I am with the others. He's just annoying."
"When do you think you'll see him again?"
"I don't know. It's been centuries since I saw him last," the Doctor shrugged. "I'm just worried about what he'll come up with next for a con. The good news is he's got others to play with."