The Life Beyond

"Where am I?" Sala recoiled slightly at the echo of her voice. It was so earie, so... Unnatural. She tried to reach out around her, but it was as if her limbs were pinned to her sides. Did she even have any limbs? Wait, where was her body? She panicked and twisted but it did no good.

The space around her seemed to whirl and revolve in vibrant spiral patterns. It was mesmerising, but she still didn't know where she was. Hadn't she just been on the battlefield in front of the Luria prison?

"You are... in between." Came a deep voice from behind her.

"What... What do you mean?" She stammered, doing all she could to find the source of the sound. The spiralling whirlpools were just too hypnotising, keeping her frozen in place.

"You are on the knifes edge between life... And death." The voice boomed.

Sala shuddered at the force of it as it rippled through her.

"You should have died by that bullet, but someone it's holding you back."

The Minister, it had to be. Her heart lurched at the thought.

"Your death will come to Time someday, but for now it seems it is not your destiny. We must return you to your place in history."

Sala muttered her gratitude weakly, still far from certain where she was or what was going on. All around her, the whirlpools spun faster and faster until she was forced to shut her eyes. It didn't stop the pressure building in her mind. Oh gods, she was going to burst if it didn't stop. She let out a shriek as the whiteness burned brighter, finally exploding into a great void of nothingness.

Her mind went blank.

Then, like the gradual trickle of a stream, sensation came back to her. She didn't know where exactly she was, but she knew it was home. The familiar sounds of the splattering of water, the rustle of leaves. The warm feeling surrounding her, engulfing her. She felt truly safe for the first time in days and allowed herself to sink into the comfort of it. Someone was holding her, she realised as touch came back into focus, a hand across her back, on her arm. She didn't need to open her eyes to know who it was. The smell of dusty books, clean linen and something else alien that had become so familiar to her over the past few days filled her nostrils and she released a sigh. A faint smile played on her lips as she opened her eyes.

The Minister could hardly believe what he had said to the Doctor.

I'll kill you all.

The part that horrified him most was that he had meant it. He had annihilated the Canisian fleet with only his thoughts, what could stop him from doing the same to the Doctor? Sala's chest rose and fell, with the faint sign of her fragile grip on life, giving him all the answer, he needed.

Sala.

The Minister squeezed his eyes shut. How much longer could he stand this purgatory? He didn't know. It was torture to have her so close to him and yet not truly with him. He supposed it was what he deserved after such a violation of the universal code. Yet, as much as it had pained him to do so, he knew that faced with the same situation again, he would make the same decision. It was what Sala had wanted, and he found that at the core of it all, that was what mattered to him. Besides, it still bothered him that it was his action of saving a planet should be considered extreme and dangerous, when it was Tannis who was truly causing the destruction, even if he wasn't breaking the code.

A slight twitch of her lip caused the breath to catch in the Minister's throat. The merest change in her expression. He did not dare to let hope take hold for even a second until her eyes cracked open slowly, only a millimetre at first, but at the sight of it he was so overwhelmed with relief that he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Snake." She said weakly, but it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.

"Yes, Sala, it's me." The words could hardly leave his mouth fast enough as he eased her up to get a better look at her, as if he somehow needed to prove to himself that this was real, that she had really awoken. "Oh Sala, I thought- I thought that you had- never mind."

She gave him a meaningful gaze as she slid her arms around his shoulders. Her eyes had lost the glazed look, much to his relief and were back to their usual sharp blue.

"Never again," he muttered, doing his best to keep his voice calm and even. "Never again will I let them hurt you."

Sala nuzzled closer, though he was not quite sure whether she had heard his promise. It was a struggle to contain his joy at finally being able to hold her in his arms – without her being unconscious and on the brink of death. For a long moment, they held each other, the sky crackling above them.

"Minister, where are we, where is everyone else?" Sala said, measured and slowly, as if testing out her own voice.

"I- I brought you to the lake, I couldn't stay down at the prison any longer and I couldn't leave you." The Minister stammered. He had been a fool all his life to listen to the Timelords, avoiding attachment like he might catch some sort of disease. The love he felt for Sala eclipsed all the hurt and regret he felt for his actions in the past few hours.

She murmured thanks and he squeezed his eyes shut at the feeling of her breath against his ear. It was simply too good to be true. He wished to every higher being that he knew that time would stop right in this moment. Sala in his arms, the sinking sun, the dripping of the lilies growing ever louder as the thunder subsided.

"Hawk and the others are still down in the field, tending to the… dead and wounded." He had to be careful about how he said it, as he wasn't sure how she would take the Santine victory, at the great cost to her people.

"Did you-" She whispered.

"Yes." He said, surprised by the dark tone his voice took on. He knew exactly what she was about to ask, and it was hardly what he wanted to discuss with her right now, especially after his unpleasant conversation with the Doctor.

The Minister felt her body suddenly tense and straighten, shrugging out of the embrace. She stood sharply, leaving the Minister to briefly wonder what he had said wrong.

"Sala, I really don't think you should be moving so soon after-" The Minister began, but the cold look she fixed him with from the edge of the lake froze the words in his throat.

Sala turned away from him once more, and he could have sworn that eons passed until she spoke again. With a wave of cold regret, he realised what had caused the sudden change in attitude. It was curse he faced constantly as a Timelord. Dealing with your own survival when everyone else around you had been slaughtered. He would not press her; he would give her the space she needed to come to terms with it. All the while, the sky grew darker, the glinting of light off the lake dimmed

"I should have died for my people." She said at last, in a low and bitter voice. Her hands trembled as she spoke, and the Minister wanted nothing more than to take them and still them, soothe them.

"I couldn't let you die Sala." The words hung in the air like a storm cloud, and she finally turned back to face him.

"What about everyone else, why did they have to die?" It would have been worse if she were shouting at him, but she wasn't, her voice was as cool as a frosty morning.

"I couldn't save everyone. I didn't even know if it would work when I saved you."

"The suffering, I just wanted it to end."

"I know." He said, softly.

"I should have died." She repeated, and for a reason the Minister could not quite place, it sent a chill down his spine. "I'm not supposed to exist in the universe anymore."

He stared in horror. Surely, she was not thinking of-

"When I was dying, the voices, they said the bullet should have killed me."

The Minister felt his insides turning to stone. He should have known. If she had been in The Outside, if she had seen her original fate, well, anyone of lesser mental strength would have… corrected the timeline already.

"How can I continue, knowing what I do? Am I already causing damage to the timeline just by being here?"

"Sala, the universe with you in it is infinitely better than one without."

"That wasn't an answer to my question." Her raised voice startled him.

"Yes," The Minister sighed, he could not bring himself to lie to her, even now. "The new timeline will already be deviating from the original, but that does not necessarily mean it has been damaged, it's just... different."

"I was wrong, I should not have asked you to break your code." She sounded deflated now, and it broke him to see her so defeated. "I foolishly chose to ignore that there would be consequences, thinking only of the survival of my planet."

"There is nothing foolish about fighting for those you believe in."

Sala stared at him blankly, but at least she did not seem to be burning with anger and regret any longer.

"You must understand that when I saw that bullet strike you down, I realised the code meant nothing to me anymore." Once he had begun it was like a dam had burst. "You have made me see that, Sala. I should never have been afraid of involvements and attachments, and it was my fear that caused all of this, this destruction, this chaos. I should have listened to you from the first."

She looked up at him, and he saw the hurt in her eyes fade into something softer, as tears threatened to spill. Just as she reached out for him, he reached out for her.

"I'm sorry. I just-" It wasn't fair. It seemed to be both selfish to be allowed a second chance at life and to not be grateful for it. Sala's brain threatened to burst with the pressure of it as more hot tears leaked from her eyes. She was usually to keep emotions behind closed doors, but with the Minister she felt none of the shame and embarrassment, only comfort and security. She buried her head into his chest until all her tears had been spent, silently berating herself. They were such selfish tears, and she did not deserve to shed them, not when so many others had died.

"I'm so thankful for you saving my life. I just don't know what to think." She could hardly understand why she had felt anger towards him, when he had saved her and her planet. It was the Canisians that deserved her rage. Tannis, the Lieutenant, all of them.

"I know." He said and she released a sigh at the soothing circles his hand made on her back. "You don't ever have to thank me; I would do it a thousand times over."

"I know you did all you could." She murmured.

"Yes, but I... I killed them, Sala." The strong front he had been putting up began to evaporate, replaced by a tremor in his voice. "The hatred within me, I just couldn't stop it, I didn't want to stop it." He paused and took in a deep breath. Sala felt the pained rise and fall of his chest as she held him tighter. "I'm glad I didn't stop it."

"What's done is done." Sala murmured.

"I know." He said, darkly. "But where does that leave me? Have I become the monster they told me to fear for my entire existence?"

Sala realised what a burden it was for him to carry, for anyone, really. The power to end suffering, and yet be forbidden to use it. She did not envy him.

"No." She said, and she truly believed it. "Minister, those Canisians were not innocents, as you well know. You saw what they did to our planet, to countless others, and what they would have done to many more. What you did was save a world from total destruction."

He held her close, but Sala noted that some of the tension was gone, and he was no longer trembling. She leaned back in their embrace to meet his gaze. "Besides, I still think you are the best of men."

The look of pride that gleamed in his eyes, finally irradicating that plaguing internal struggle as his mouth shaped into a gentle smile was so perfect, Sala could have stood there in that moment forever. But she knew all too well that it was too good to be true. As much as she wanted to imagine it was just them in this moment, there was still her planet to deal with, just barely getting up off its knees. It was she who broke their contented silence. "So, what happens now?"

"Well, there's a planet to restore, cities to rebuild, that sort of thing." He said, his voice returning to the jovial rumble she had come to enjoy so much.

"I know," she said. "But I meant you."

"Me?" There was a nervous tremor in his voice that did not bode well with her, but she would let him finish. "I'm staying here, if that is agreeable to you."

Sala could hardly believe her own ears. As much as her heart protested, she knew he came from another time. How could it be possible for him to stay? Surely her mind was playing tricks on her.

"That is to say," the Minister continued. "I cannot actually leave."

"You can't leave?" Sala echoed, her heart sinking slightly. She attempted to slip out of their embrace once more, but she did not quite have the strength to do it. The joy that had burst forth at his declaration to stay vanished as he let her go anyway. "You are only staying because you can't leave?"

"No, Sala, not at all! When you were still unconscious, down by the lake, an old friend appeared and there were some harsh words exchanged regarding my... actions, and as a result he revoked my Tardis, my method of transport."

"But you were going to leave, back to the stars, onto your next adventure." Sala's voice crept out of a small, hollow place that she didn't recognise.

"Not before the planet was stable once more, so I could be sure of your safety." The Minister said, crackling with emotion.

She closed her eyes. It was too much to take in.

"And not before asking if you wanted to come with me."

Sala had to force herself to remember to breathe, so taken was she by the intense glow in his eyes. So, he wouldn't have left her. She didn't know whether she could have made that decision to leave her planet behind, but that didn't matter now. They were here now, and he wasn't just going to leave her behind. Why had it even worried her in the first place?

All her fears melted away like the frost on a new day. For the first time since the invasion, she felt sure of something, the certainty that things could - and would - return to normal. Her planet would breathe once more, free of the crushing grip of the Canisians. The burden of her cheating death was lifted by the Minister's radiant warmth, his unwavering belief in her.

There was something that had taken root in her soul ever since she had first laid eyes on this man before her, and Sala could ignore it no longer. Ever the level-headed diplomat, she had always scoffed at her friends' silly notions of 'love at first sight'. She had told them to grow up and face the real world as they giggled and swooned over their latest crushes. It was the stuff of the old Earth fairy tales of their ancestors. After all, it was easy to disbelieve something one has not experienced for themselves. The Minister had changed that.

There had been others before who had caught her attention, of course. Not that she had ever really taken love seriously then, senators being typically 'married to their work' and all that nonsense. The realisation that the Minister had been different from the first was settling slowly in her mind, like an image coming into focus. Never had she felt so at ease with someone, so safe, so appreciated and valued. She loved him.

With that realisation, the whole world seemed to grow lighter and brighter, even against the darkening sky. Sala ran to him and threw her arms around him once more. This time she was not clinging to him for comfort, not to cry, but to just hold him, to be near him. The first genuine smile for a long time lit up her face as his own arms curled around her, drawing her into a tight embrace. She sighed, tucking her head under his chin. Sala was not short, by any standards, but the Minister was exceptionally tall, and she couldn't help but notice how perfectly they fitted together. She knew then, that until this moment, she had never truly known contentment.

The loss of his powers, the revoking of his Tardis - none of it mattered any more. The Minister had finally found what he had been missing. He was convinced all of years upon years of aimless wandering had been leading him to this point, to her.

Their embrace radiated warmth and adoration, and as Sala gazed up at him once more, he felt the need to say something. He needed to verbalise his sentiments, as if saying them aloud would prove to himself that this was not a dream. But when he opened his mouth to speak, all of the profound feelings and realisations slipped away, leaving him with only three words.

"I love you." And yet it was enough, it was more than that, actually. The words flowed from him more naturally than a river winded its course through the earth.

The sight of his own sentiments reflected back at him in her eyes set him free. All his tangled doubts and emotions begun to unwind themselves from their crushing grip around his hearts. The weakest link in the chains of the code that had been holding him back for all these years finally snapped, and he tilted his head forward, gradually enough that she could have turned away from him. She did not.

"I love you too, Snake." Sala whispered.

He closed the gap between them, raising a hand to gently brush a strand of her pink hair behind her ear. Then their lips met and no more words were required. It was the sweetest, most exquisite thing he had ever experienced. His hearts swelled in his chest to such an extent at the perfection of it all that he was sure he would burst. Her hand on his cheek, his own wrapped about her waist and entwined in her hair, their lips moving together in perfect harmony. He never wanted it to end. Never before had so pure and simple an action stirred such emotions in him. Ever since their first meeting, he had been caught in her gravity well, and at last he had collided with the brilliant sun in its centre.

Soon they remembered that breathing was also rather a necessity and reluctantly broke apart. They gazed deeply at each other, before the Minister leaned down to press another tender kiss to her forehead and folded her into an impossibly closer embrace.

The Minister had truly been set free. The Canisians were gone, Tannis was gone, the Doctor was gone and so were the Timelords. He was without his Tardis and his powers, stranded in time and space, the very thing he had feared for so long. Where his life would lead him now, he could not be certain, and he didn't much fancy running the numbers on the probabilities, because it simply didn't matter. All that was important was that he knew who he would forge ahead on that new life with. The one thing of which he was certain was that there was a life beyond the code, and he would go wherever it led him, so long as he was with the person he loved.

With Sala.

Acknowledgements

This fanfiction was written during a tough year. I was fresh in university, in the midst of a global pandemic, way out of my comfort zone, making my way week by week. My constant was the bus ride over the harbour every morning and afternoon – and it was during those bus rides that the majority of this fanfic was written. It began largely due to my obsession with audiobooks, specifically Death Comes to Time, upon which the fic is based. I instantly became attached to the Minister and Sala and was naturally distressed by their tragic ending. I wanted a version where Sala didn't die, where the Minister was allowed to be happy (its what he deserves, what they both deserve).

I would like to thank the bus drivers that took me over the bridge twice a day, Stephen Fry for being amazing, and for his and Britta Gartner's brilliant performance in the audiobook. Also myself for writing and publishing this fanfiction. That's it really. Oh, and the Library for owning a copy of Death Comes to Time. I know it's on YouTube, but I would never have found it otherwise.,