One Life
8888
"This is the Atriosian refugee ship Ambassador; we are under assault. I repeat we are under assault. Engines are dead, life support failing… Requesting aid from any vessel within range. Our crew is made up of Atriosian families, we have very few soldiers here, this is not a war craft. I repeat this is not a war craft…."
The ship shook as the broadcast looped into the vacuum. The families onboard screamed as the vessel sparked and fumed under the assault from the attackers. A woman walked between the huddled groups of families in the cargo hold, she wore a white dress, her blonde hair was dirty from debris. She knelt down to one of the children.
"Do not worry, we will be safe." The woman said smiling.
"Lady Astra, I know you will protect us." the children looked up at the woman. She wasn't the first 'Lady Astra', her family had been naming the girls Astra for a generations now. She smiled at the children.
The door to the cargo bay started to sizzle. The families all stood up looking as the smoke billowed from the heavy metal door. Lady Astra walked forward, three men carrying blasters followed closely behind as the door burst open, the metal of it clanking to the ground.
The soldiers marched forward. Lady Astra's eyes narrowed as she glared at them. They were stocky, with protruding brows, brutishly blank looks on their faces, wisps of hair trailing from the sides of their bald heads. In the midst of them was a man, wearing heavy, black armor.
"Lady Astra, you will come with us…" the man said as he lifted a small crystalline rod.
"I will not…" Lady Astra replied defiantly. "We are refugees, what point is it to attack us!?"
"Your people were caught in a conflict beyond your conception, a war that unleashed the destruction that tore the atmosphere from your world…" the man said his obsidian eyes narrowing. "I am here to claim that which will end the war."
The man held out his hand and a small crystalline cube appeared, or rather the vast majority of a cube appeared. A sixth of it still yet, was missing.
"Is that-" one of Lady Astra's guards whispered.
"This provides no explanation for why I must go for you, nor does it explain why you would harm innocent refugees-" Lady Astra started.
"But it does, my lady…" The man said as he walked forward. "You must be aware of what must happen now. You must know."
"Those are old stories, long past. I am not my ancestor." Lady Astra snarled taking a step back.
"Your biology, has been coded, the tracer confirms it…." the man said as the crystal rod clicked loudly when he pointed it to Lady Astra. "You are the final, living piece to the Key of Time. Come with us, and we may yet spare the rest of your crew."
"And if I don't?" Lady Astra asked, half knowing the answer.
"Then the Crown Prince of the Gothic courts, high ambassador of the Dalek Empire, will murder everyone on this ship in front of you, and take you anyways." An old man's voice grumbled from the door that the invading soldiers had cut open.
The man in black armor turned and sneered. "Time Lord…"
"I'd have figured the Daleks would wish to see this done themselves…not send out their honor guard…" The old man grunted as he walked forward.
"What makes you think I am doing this for the Daleks?" The man in armor growled.
"Nothing, I just wanted to confirm that you're in full rebellion." He looked to the brutish aliens with the bald heads. "Even convinced a few Ogrons, have to admit to being slightly impressed."
"Then you will be even more impressed when I acquire the final piece of the Key!" the man growled as he turned back to Lady Astra.
"No, you won't…" the old man said quietly.
"Oh but I will, Doc-"
"No, you won't, plus it won't matter if you did anyways." The old man interrupted the prince. He lifted a pistol to the prince. "It won't work."
"Will you stop me?" the prince growled, a smile spread across his face showing jagged sharp teeth.
"From killing an innocent woman, and thousands of refugees?" the old man asked, narrowing his eyes. "I suppose, just this once, yes."
"I've heard tales of you, Time Lord." The prince grunted. "My father knew you…and whispers come from across all corners of the Time War, telling long tales of how you are fighting to end the war." the prince held out the five-sixths completed cube. "If we joined forces we could end the war…now, today."
"And then what, precisely?" The old man asked not lowering his weapon. "Would the Gothic hordes return to Goth in peace and quiet never again building an engine of war? Would the crowned prince turn his crown over and let the people rule?"
"We would bring sanity to the universe, end the conflict!" the prince growled.
"And start something worse, something more horrific…" the old man retorted. He seemed to chuckle to himself, "and I'm being generous because I'm only talking about the horrors I, myself, would unleash, which in comparison would make whatever half-concocted nightmare of your making look like indigestion." The old man stopped chuckling and glared at the prince. "The Key is not to be used!"
"On whose authority!?" The prince roared. The Ogrons in his entourage started to mumble and fidget.
"Mine." The old man said quietly.
"An old, senile Time Lord? I've seen your people die, I've seen your people fight, you have no more authority over me than the Daleks…" the prince shook his head and turned pointing the tracer towards Lady Astra.
There was a humming buzz, a loud snap, and then the prince screamed as the crystalline rod twirled through the air, clinking as it hit the ground and bounced across the cargo bay into the shadows.
"If you have seen so much, and heard so much, and know me so well." the old man said as he stood firm, the pistol still smoking slightly, "then you know that I'm far more than just another senile, old Time Lord….you know why I have the authority. You know then who I am and what I can be to those who do not heed my first, and last warning."
"Kill him!" the prince growled loudly pointing to the old man.
The Ogrons turned pointing their rifles towards the old man, but the old man had switched out his pistol for a small metallic rod that he had lifted above his head. A whirring was being emitted from the small, speaker-like head at the end of the rod. Almost as if by magic a large, orange creature appeared in the doorway behind the old man. Lady Astra had a hard time even understanding what she looking at, something between some kind of huge larva and maybe a lizard. It roared and hissed loudly as it loomed over the old man.
"Do you really think you can use some old, hypersonic mind tricks on us? Your fake monster will not spook my Ogrons!" The prince laughed loudly.
"Who said anything about fake. I never travel alone…" The old man said quietly, the whirring rose a pitch. The monster lashed forward stabbing a talon or an appendage through one of the Ogrons and before anyone could react the monster had swallowed the Ogron whole. "Had a stop by the Ogrons' home-world, picked up a pet…realized I hadn't gotten any food for it. Lucky I ran into you then; isn't it?"
The prince sneered as he turned to see the other Ogrons dropping to their knees.
"Get up! It's just a stupid beast!" the prince shouted.
"Leave, now…" The old man growled, glaring at the prince.
"Or? Even if you scare the Ogrons; I have an attack fleet!" the prince growled.
"Had…" the old man replied. The old man reached into his jacket with his free hand and pulled out a radio. "Sebec, how's it going out there?"
"Our attack squadron has destroyed all but one of the Gothic warships. Shall we proceed?" the voice came over the radio.
"Not yet, I believe his royal highness will need a lift." The old man said quietly. "And thank you, Sebec, for transporting my pet, didn't want to get hairs on the TARDIS carpet." The old man looked to the prince. "Now is your final opportunity, hand over what you have of the key and leave this ship…."
"And when you have possession of the key, what will you do with it, Time Lord?" The prince growled as he dropped the key onto the metallic floor of the ship.
"Something undoubtedly foolish." the old man said as he walked carefully forward, looking down at the mostly complete key. He looked up at the prince and his Ogrons. "Go, now, before I lose my grip, and my finger slips off of the sonic screwdriver, and the beast gets a second course. I'm old, after all, fingers get slippery, you know."
The prince sneered and turned he moved to the Ogrons dragged them to their feet and then hit a button on the regalia on his armor. In a flash of light and the burning smell of ozone the group of invaders disappeared. The old man called over the radio and the beast also disappeared into thin air. The old man pocketed the metallic rod he'd been holding and leaned down, taking out a handkerchief and lifting the cube that the prince had thrown on the floor.
"So it's true, it's real; the Key to Time?" Lady Astra asked as she walked forward, looking at the incomplete cube. Her people murmuring in the background.
"It's been a millennia, yes?" The old man asked quietly, looking up at Lady Astra. He winced slightly as he stood back up. "Amazing…never thought I'd see that face a third time on a different person. You look just like her, well both of them, I suppose…."
"Like who?" the girl asked.
"The last Lady Astra that was this close to a mostly completed Key to Time…" the old man said as he walked across the cargo bay and knelt down picking the crystalline rod. "And of course like another person I knew who liked the face so much she…well….borrowed it for a bit."
"You are…are you?" Lady Astra's eyes widened. "But you'd have to be…"
"Preposterous isn't it?" the old man said smirking. He walked towards Lady Astra. "But in this old universe, there's a lot that's preposterous…" The old man looked at the tracer and then to Lady Astra. "Like this cube…all I have to do is touch this tracer to your flesh, and poof you become a chunk of crystal," He pointed with the tracer to the hole in the cube, "that slots into that very hole there…and then with that completed cube in my hand I become the most powerful entity in reality, full control of every particle, every quanta, every moment of time and every speck of space. Nothing within this timescape could escape my power and will…" The old man gave Lady Astra a side-long look, seemed to be appraising her. "I could end the Time War, restore Atrios, neuter the Time Lords and the Daleks, and half a dozen other wretched and foul things let loose into the universe, I could eliminate pain and suffering across the cosmos and then some…I could fix everything that ever went wrong with history and replace it with utopia forever…and ever…Or I could conquer it, leave nothing behind but darkness and dust…."
Lady Astra took half a step back as she gulped slightly. "But…but…"
"That's the theory anyways…truth is, only would work if the Guardians were still about, but they left with everyone else high and mighty. Decided it wasn't worth it when the Time Lords decided to Swiss cheese the web of time." the old man said quietly. He blinked and pocketed the key. His eyes returned to Lady Astra. "Amazing…just like her." The old man started to walk away from Lady Astra, towards where the heavy cargo bay doors had been, stepping onto the cut down bulkhead door. He stopped and looked back. "I'll, of course, take care of the key make sure no one else gets the stupid idea to come calling on you ever again."
"Thank, thank you!" Lady Astra said finally, swallowing a lump of doubts as she looked at the old man who still looked as if he was deciding if he was making the right decision.
The old man waved off the thank-you, and turned and walked out of the cargo bay. Within minutes Lady Astra heard it though, above the murmuring refugees. The sound of something ancient groaning and wheezing as it rumbled off….
….The old man looked over the edge of the TARDIS, down into the bawling screaming turmoil of white and snapping blue. He looked at the incomplete cube in his hand and narrowed his eyes.
"Every once in a while…because they smiled…or they made you remember…because on some whim they were lucky…" he whispered quietly as he tipped his hand forward. The cube slipped from his palm and tumbled into the quantum furnace below. There was a pulse as ancient matter was evaporated and annihilated. "It's how you justify killing billions….the only lie that seems to trick me anymore…."
A/N: The question sometimes comes up as to why the Time Lords didn't use the Key to Time…sure why not. Also…Infinity War…am'I'right?