The Brink of Death

This was a dream of some sort. Well, a nightmare, really, thought the Minister. The sight of Sala's motionless body was just so unreal to him that there could be no other explanation. They were still on the mountain side, and he had accidentally fallen asleep.

No, he couldn't fool himself, no matter how hard he tried. Sala had been struck down by his own slow action. He has still lashed out anyway, but it had been too late. Sala had suffered the consequences and the field was strewn with the corpses the prisoners who had not been able to escape the merciless bombardment of the Canisians. The ground was near unrecognisable, as if it had been savaged by the claw of a giant beast.

This field, this area, would never be the same again. They could remove the bodies, they could replant the grass, they could rebuild the prison, but the swirling, mocking whirlpool of time in the sky above would always remain. He had corrupted time in his rage and for all he knew the damage was permanent.

He was nearly swaying like he was intoxicated by now as he neared Sala. Hawk and the medic were still crouched by her, their mournful faces suddenly extremely agitated.

"There's a pulse, she's got a pulse!" Cried Hawk as the medic did all he could to the bullet wound.

The Minister closed his eyes briefly, steeling himself. Hawks joyful outburst would be short lived when he realised, they were miles from any proper medical attention, and that even with this century's medical advancements, they would be useless to Sala, and she would mostly likely fade into the night. There was no one who could save her. Except for him.

There was no way of reviving the dead, not even for the God's of the Fourth. Destruction, diseases, all manner of mistakes could be undone, but not the cold hand of death. But Sala wasn't dead, not yet. Not if he had anything to do with it.

The Minister would admit, it was out of attachment, it was out of anger, but he just couldn't bring himself to care anymore. The code could go to hell if it meant living without Sala.

He loved Sala. The thought took him with such a force it almost knocked the breath out of him. Yes, he loved her. The fondness he had felt for her at first had swelled and bloomed into genuine adoration and love. There was no one else he had ever felt so strongly for before and somehow, he knew there never would be. He wasn't going to let death take her away from him so soon, it just wasn't fair. The way he had brushed away her words of similar sentiment by the lake only hours before almost made him squirm with a wave of cringe. If only he hadn't still been hung up on the code, then Sala could be slipping away into the afterlife with the knowledge of his returned feelings. A chilling hand gripped his heart as he realised, she may not have even been shot if he had just listened to her in the first place.

Kneeling beside her, he carefully pushed a strand of her magenta hair back from her forehead. There was the barest sign of breath trickling through her lips, but otherwise her body seemed to be shutting down at the shock of a near fatal wound. Her consciousness had fully left her, and her eyes were shut in a manner eerily similar to her fallen comrades in the field.

Hawk and the medic shrank back at the dark glare on his face as he lifted Sala into his arms.

Take her back to the time when she was free of the bullet wound. Return her to health. Just let her live, please.

The Minister stretched his mind out with a desperation he had never felt before into the time stream, focusing fiercely on the reversal of the wound. After an agonising interval of stumbling about the realm of space-time, pushing his power to its absolute limit, he released a shuddering breath and his eyes cracked open in time to see the wound on her abdomen close up. It was as if it had never been there.

He almost sobbed with relief as her breathing seemed to deepen. However, Sala's eyes remained firmly shut and she was still as motionless as a statue. Had something gone wrong? The Minister had never attempted to pull back someone so close to the brink of oblivion before. In truth, he had no idea what should happen.

For hours he sat by her in disbelief. She was breathing, why wouldn't she wake? Could he have done more for her? Dusk was creeping into the horizon by the time they were nearly alone at the scene of medic had examined Sala, saying couldn't find any reason why she shouldn't be coming too, but the Minister hadn't really been listening. No drug or stimulant he administered seemed to have any effect. It was as if she was neither in the hands of death, nor in the realm of the living.

The resistance had cleared most of the bodies, giving anyone who could be saved the medical attention they needed. It was a sombre sight to watch them drag corpse after corpse off the ill-fated clearing, and at long last the Minister could take no more of it.

No one dared oppose him as he scoped Sala into his arms and carried her into the forest, not even Hawk who averted his eyes as he passed. He didn't know where his feet were taking him, but he just knew he needed to take her away from this place. The lush greenery surrounding him was no longer pleasant and soothing as it had been, but rather suffocating and foreboding. Still, it was better than being anywhere near that prison.

A slight sound reached his ears as he trekked on mindlessly into the valley. It was enough to break the trance he had been in, and remember he was still holding Sala to his chest.

It was the gentle pattering of water as it fell from the lily leaves into the water. It was enough to knock his knees out from under him.

The Doctor's mind reeled from his conversation with the Kingmaker as he approached his old friend, who was sitting at the edge of a lake, spotted with some sort of lily. As he drew nearer, he could see that he was clutching a woman in his arms, his form slightly shaking. The only true sound was the occasional splash of water as the lilies dipped under the weight of the water pooled in them and the ominous storm in the distance.

The danger always lurks in the uncertainty of the half-light. It is rarely in the deep darkness. He could hardly believe it, the Minister had been causing the distortions in time, the Minister had violated the code, not once, but many times.

Any violation even born of good intention is still a violation. He sought to help as you did, aeons ago, but it was not his place to do so. The Minister is lost, the Kingmaker had said, end his torment. You must destroy your friend. Could the Doctor really destroy his friend if he was too far beyond reason? No. There was always another way.

"Minister, old friend. Minister." The Doctor reasoned it would probably be best to begin with a calm and friendly approach.

"Get out. Go away, I don't want to talk to you." Snapped with Minister, keeping his back to him.

The Doctor sighed. He was going to make this difficult, wasn't he? "Come away from there."

"Keep away from me!" The Minister yelled, finally turning over his shoulder to look at the Doctor with an uncharacteristic snarl.

The swirling in the sky intensified as he spoke. Through the trees the crackle of lightning could be seen. Thunder rolled and seemed to be drawing ever closer, but there was not a drop of rain. The Doctor closed his eyes. This was the Minister's doing, he had done precisely what they had always been warned against and ruptured the fabric of time. However, there was still the more important business of Tannis and the remaining Canisians to be seen too.

"You must see reason. Tannis is running amok. I need your help. He's a Time Lord..." He said, restraining the frustration in his voice. Surely his old friend could not refuse a request for help.

"Tannis? Tannis?" The Minister all but shrieked the name. "Blood and guns and idiots marching in lines, I'm ... I'm sick of this. Get away!"

The thunder rumbled louder, threatening to tear the forest up from its roots. The Minister was more unstable than the Doctor had anticipated.

"Stop." Said the Doctor, ignoring the Minister's commands to keep back. "Think what you're doing. This must stop!"

"I don't care, I'm sick of it." Cried the Minister as he held the woman in his arms closer. "I'm sick of watching them die and talking to two-faced rubbish."

He cast a dark stare at the Doctor, his voice suddenly weakened. "We can stop the killing. Why do we have to sit by and watch? We can stop the pain. Why?"

The Doctor was reaching the end of his patience, it was slipping out of his grip with every passing second the Minister wailed on to him about being 'sick of it'.

"Have you stopped the killing here?" He bellowed over the thunder. "The plain below the prison is strewn with bodies. How many killings did you stop? This is against everything we were. It's not our place to interfere like this."

"Go back and leave us be." The Minister said, turning his attention back to the woman, brushing away a lock of her hair from her forehead.

"You've corrupted Time. You must listen to me." Pleaded the Doctor.

"I want it to stop. Would you not have done the same for your friends?" The Minister muttered, fixing the Doctor with an accusatory state.

The Doctor found himself momentarily frozen, images of himself and Ace in the same position. The agony of Antimony's screams as Tannis blasted him to scrap metal. No, he shook his head, he couldn't allow these thoughts.

"Get away or I'll kill you too. I'll kill you all." He stared at the back of the Minister's head, stunned in disbelief. The venom in his voice struck him like a blow to the head. The woman he was cradling really meant that much to him? This was not the Minister who had once been his friend, that much was clear. Part of him hoped the Minister simply didn't know what he was saying.

"Plagues and bombs and blood." The Minister was nearly sobbing now. "She was just trying to stop them."

This nonsense had gone on for too long. If the Minister didn't see reason now, he was lost forever, as the Kingmaker had said. The Doctor had been foolish to disbelieve her, blinded by his friendship. "Enough! I don't have time for this. I am a God of the Fourth." His voice spoke not out of his own mouth, but out of time itself. "Your Tardis is revoked!"

The Doctor's own thunder now cleaved the sky, emitting a sharp fork of lightning which blasted the Minister's Tardis somewhere in the hills beyond. He hadn't wanted to do this, in fact he'd rather be almost anywhere else in the universe, but leaving his friend stranded here, powerless, was better than the alternative.

"Now, I'm going to try to stop this. You," the Doctor commanded, stabbing a finger in the direction of the Minister. "Face yourself."

"I wanted it to stop. I just wanted it to stop. Make it stop." The Minister rambled, his shoulders shaking violently, but never once let go of the woman.

"What have I done?" He cried. The sound burst out of him in all directions, accompanied by a crescendo of thunder. The Doctor's hearts ached to see one of his own, fallen so low.

"What have I done." The Minister repeated, his voice took on a darker tone, laced with hurt and regret. He uttered it so quietly the Doctor felt a chill run down his spine as he turned his back on his friend one last time.