The Moment's Been Prepared For

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It had first come from the Seriphia Galaxy and then it came from Mutter's Spiral. They had seen it coming but had had no power to stop the onslaught from both sides. Esk clenched his fist, his red skin darkened as his fingers curled tighter. He still remembered the initial attacks. His people had attempted to evacuate. Using their powers to avert their destruction but the attackers were time walkers, their ships appeared in front of their evacuation fleet just as they were preparing to slip away into the endless night.

The blaring klaxons still screamed in his head. The screams and shouts of the terrified people bundled like cordwood in the holds of rickety old transport ships. The heaving rolls of a ship rocked by the firepower of genocidal maniacs. Somehow, someway his ship was one of the few that had slipped past the monsters. It had limped into the velvet night and beyond the roving net of extermination and genocide.

Esk opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. He was now part of a growing camp of refugees on some world far away from his home. He scanned the sky looking for familiar stars. His eyes hung on one spot in the sky. It wasn't impressive compared to the other parts of the sky, it had no objective importance to the rest of the night sky, in fact unless one knew already, one would not have even guessed that there should have been a star in that patch of sky. It had been a small bluish star. Their home had been a beautiful world, green with life. The star was gone now, destroyed in the crossfire of two impossible races that had waged war across all of reality.

At one time there had been many of his kind. They were peaceful, loving, caring. A friend to all races and creeds. Now, though, he was alone. His people were shunned by the others, feared because of their powers, because their kind attracted the attention of the warring factions. Esk looked out across the tents and makeshift buildings. He was now the only one of his kind, amongst the motley crew of species fleeing the burning reality. Zygons, Sunari, Nekkastani, a Navarino or two, they all had succumbed to the war. All once great races, now shivering in the dark and the cold standing around flickering flames fearing the night sky. Esk narrowed his eyes. He had to stop what was coming. He had to.

He continued down the dirty path towards a leaning hovel of metal plating and cloth that he had put together and pulled back the cloth that covered the doorway and walked inside. He lit the candles on a small altar and sat down crossing his legs and closing his eyes. His head lowered as the incense filled his nostrils.

The world around peeled away, melting as the warmth swarmed around him. He could hear it, the chaos roaring in the vast beyond of this world. The webs of time swishing and sloshing as great forces pulled and tugged at it, tearing it at the seams. It had become hard to see the shapes of things to be, to understand the ways of things that were, to know that which was now. Each night he delved into the vast beyond, searching for others like him, looking for the dangers, looking for the solutions. Each night he found no one like him, no one at all. The dangers were everywhere. The exterminators crawled along reality like pestilent grubs, the murderous lords strode across the veils of time slicing and hacking at all in their way. Neither was any better than the other, but both were searching for something worse. They were searching for someone. In the wilds and the fire they sought someone. Someone they feared, someone that shook them to their core. This person was the heart of the war, and Esk knew where this person was, and where he was going.

Esk opened his eyes. The sound of it was rumbling in the distance. The evacuees were shouting in fear of it. Esk smiled slightly as he stood up. He turned and walked out of his small hovel. The grating noise of the great impossible engines trumpeting the arrival of the ship. Esk patted his side, feeling for the disruptor at his belt. The vessel finally pushed itself into reality. The blue doors opened.

The occupant was an old man. His face pockmarked with battle scars and age. A gray beard covered his chin and his cold gray eyes looked forward wearily as he took a hesitant step from the ship, closing the door behind him. He looked around him and then to Esk.

"I'm afraid I'm a bit lost." The old man said, he tried to smile an amused smile. The refugees coward at his presence. All except for Esk who stood in front of him, staring at him, appraising him. The old man coughed and straightened up, tugging at the beaten leather jacket he wore. He looked around him, the refugees were huddled peering out from behind half-closed doors and from behind boxes and piles of detritus, shaking in fear. "I realize that I must not be very welcome here…"

"Quite the contrary…" Esk said quietly as he looked at the man. "In fact one could say, that you've been expected."

"I see…" the old man said, looking at Esk. "You're - one of them aren't you. I didn't think any of your kind survived the onslaught. I'm sorry….I…"

"I know what you were doing." Esk said, he spat the words. "I saw you in your ship, watching the bombardment. I saw you call the retreat as the exterminators burned my world. I know you watched as the lords themselves saw fit to ignite our sun, and attempted to destroy the exterminators and ensure my people died never to be reborn. I know many things about you."

"Then you know that we tried, that the-" The old man started but stopped and raised his hands as Esk brought the disruptor at his side up, pointing it at the old man.

"We were peaceful people." Esk said. He clenched his teeth. In his dreams and his fantasies he'd imagined this day. The day that he would do it. He always imagined himself less angry and more businessman-like, detached but he couldn't help it. When facing this person who had done so much. He gritted his teeth. "We didn't want any part of your war. We were a neutral party! We weren't even going to defend ourselves. We were simply going to run away. Slip into the night and allow ourselves to be forgotten!"

"Your people were dangerous." the old man said flatly. "You would have been hunted, corralled and shipped off. Your women and children used to fight the war and to see the timelines as they shifted. To win the war for those monsters. I didn't want it to happen. If your people had fallen into the wrong grasp….we didn't have a choice."

"You had all the choices!" Esk growled. "You could've fought to protect us, you could've stepped in! I've seen it! All the myriad paths! You could've done so much more! I know who you were! I know what you've become! I know what you'll be…."

"Then you have me at a disadvantage." The old man said, his eyes locked on the deadly end of the disruptor.

"I've seen the worlds you'll burn." Esk said, glaring at the old man. "I've seen the flames you'll light. I've heard the screams of those you'll terrorize. I've stood in the oceans of blood you'll let flow from a billion worlds ablaze." Esk closed his eyes. "Even now, the thumping sound of your heartbeat drums with the rhythm of war. I can hear it." He opened his eyes. "I have to end it. I will change it. I will walk across time and undo this all, I will unwrite this war."

"Son, if you think killing me will make your people come back-" the old man started.

"Son? What would you know of parenthood?" Esk's eyes opened and glared at the old man. "My parents struggled, for decades. I watched them get pushed and chased out of camp after camp. I watched my mother and father murdered by Adherents of the Black Sun. My sister killed in the prison camps of Bastion at the hands of the Deindem! My wife was killed by one of the Knights of Velyshaa when the Second Velyshaan Empire rose in the backlash of the lords' weapons and the exterminators' rage. And now I'm alone. I search the wash of reality for someone, anyone who is left and I find no one. The timelines shift constantly and yet the only constant is my loneliness." Esk gritted his teeth and pushed himself towards the old man. "Because of you."

"I am not the universe, I am not the war-" The old man said sternly. "I am simply a…"

"There is nothing simply about you." Esk growled, glaring at the old man. "You are a Time Lord. But you are far more than just another Time Lord. The Daleks fear you, Rassilon on his golden throne scrutinizes everything in reference to you. I have seen the timelines; they warp and shift around you, but they all head in one direction. One final destination. I won't let it happen! I won't let you do it! The weapon you want will destroy so many worlds, will immolate thousands of civilizations."

"The war must end." The old man said. "You can see what is coming. You must know the way the tide will go out if I don't do it. What will happen, will not be done for me, not for Rassilon, not for Gallifrey. I do it for you, I do it in the name of peace and sanity. Please, let me go, let me do what must be done, before you get yourself hurt."

"I can't let you." Esk said shaking his head. He tightened his grip on the disruptor. "The war will end, because I will take your vessel and undo it!"

Esk pulled the trigger. The old man was fast, faster than Esk believed he'd be. Old man pivoted and shifted his body out of the disruptor bolt's way. Esk felt his arm hurt as the disruptor flew from his hand. He felt a cutting jab crash into his sternum, sending him staggering backward. The old man twisted around lifting his arm and bringing a staser pistol up to Esk's eyes.

"I'm sorry." The old man said as he looked remorsefully at Esk.

Esk could see the potentialities forming around him. The fragile crystals of inevitability were forming around this moment like the first freeze of late Autumn. Delicate easily shattered but none the less resolute and given half a chance would quickly hardened into an unbreakable surface. Esk saw the opportunities. He knew his chances. He looked into the gray eyes of the old man. Searched the old man for some sign of doubt, and then he moved.

Esk's body tensed. His muscles locked as the bolt of energy stabbed through him. He felt his shoulders and spine crash against the ground. The old man stood over him, looking down. Esk could see it. The timelines were solidifying, hardening. The flames roared. He looked at the old man who was remorsefully looking back. He'd known. All this time, he'd known. He knew that Esk would not relent, he knew he'd be forced to shoot. He knew. Esk felt his chest seize. It hurt. It burned. The timelines locked in, the point was fixed, there was no avoiding it now. Esk looked one last time up to that empty patch of sky as the stars slowly started to go dark.

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AN: This one took some work. I'm not sure how it plays. I guess will see in the reviews.