[TARDIS Console Room]
The very second the Doctor touches Ally's arm, she pulls up the Vortex in self-defense.
She grabs his wrist, spinning while she does, and twists it behind him before sweeping out his legs from underneath him, making him land on the ground face first. She kneels on top of him with her other hand pressing against the back of his neck. He groans.
Jack and Rose stopped dancing when Jack shouted to watch the quick moves. Rose's jaw drops in shock, and Jack sighs.
Realizing what she's done, Ally leaps off him and stumbles, backing away to the doors before falling to the floor and holding her knees close to her chest. She's panicking now and starts repeating "Sorry" repeatedly again with her eyes tightly shut. She presses the top of her head into her knee and begins rocking back and forth, still repeating "Sorry" before her words switch up and she includes "Monster" and "Weapon."
Rose stares on in shock, looking from the Doctor to Ally before she snaps out of it and runs around the console to turn off the music.
Jack sighs sadly and goes to help the Doctor as he stands up, "I tried to warn you, Doc. You can't approach her from behind. You can't even touch her, period. She has to initiate contact first."
The Doctor doesn't even look at Jack as he listens to everything he tells him before he takes one step away from the man and focuses on what she's saying. He can't stop the tears that begin to fall.
"Oh, Ally," he mutters, full of sorrow. "What did he do to you?"
"She, uh, she can't hear you right now," Jack tells him as the Doctor sits on the ground across from her.
He nods to let him know he heard him, so Jack continues, "She started doing this about two weeks back after the filter that stopped her speech broke down enough to let her speak in full sentences."
Rose slowly walks around the console to reach Jack's side and asks, "Filter?"
Jack nods and crosses his arms, frowning, "When we met, she could only speak one word at a time, pretty much. Whatever they did to her made it so that she could only respond to orders. It was hard for her to figure out what words broke through the filter, but she's broken it as much as she can by herself."
The Doctor doesn't have the energy to be angry right now, "How long does this usually last?"
"I think it depends on how and how long you touch her. I've always been real careful about staying in her field of vision since I met her. But the first time this happened, I accidentally touched her finger, and she threw me over her shoulder. She was like this for nearly an hour after. She always repeats the same words. I've only done it twice, but the more contact she seems to receive, the longer it lasts."
"How long did it last the second time?" Rose asks.
She can tell the Doctor doesn't want to talk; he's focused on Ally.
"I reached over her shoulder, and my arm accidentally hit it. She tossed me again, a different move though. When she got like this? It lasted about three hours."
"What, what happened to her?" Rose asks, not expecting an answer.
"I think whoever did this to her tortured her; they must have called her a 'monster' and a 'weapon' since that's what she always repeats," Jack tells them softly, "She doesn't need to sleep much apparently, every three weeks she said. The one time she did sleep, I think she was hoping I'd be out the whole time, but I got back early."
He glances down at the Doctor before deciding he should know, "She was sweating and just kept scratching at the back of her neck until it bled. She was writhing on the bunk and screaming. I just sat back against the ship and waited until she woke up. I knew she'd be on the offense if I tried to get her out of it. She burned the bedding after. I had to get a new set."
The Doctor sits there, watching her. He's trying to process everything that Jack's told him. He rubs the tears away from his eyes and dries his hands on his trousers. Rassilon tortured her, turned his Bondmate into a weapon, and called her a monster.
He saw way too many regenerations of her during the war for her even still to be alive so she must have been given a second set. He can hardly bear to think of it, but he wonders if she was even hit during the war. With the way she moves, he doubts it. He has a feeling she was forced to Regenerate.
"Did she tell you anything else?" he asks Jack, still not looking away from his wife.
It's breaking his hearts to see her like this.
Jack sighs, "Yeah, when we first met. It was hard for her to explain, but I picked it up quickly. She said they did something to her sight, hearing, and sense of smell. She also said 'hand sense' before uh, pointing to her head. When I asked if she meant brain surgery, she said 'yes.'"
The Time Lord shudders in response, "Brain surgery is banned by our people. It's considered a crime punishable by death. The only way to change any of our senses is to access our version of the central nervous system, which is possible," he pauses, "There's a part of our brain towards the back that can act as an access point. I've only read about it, but to make any change, she would have had to have been aware, and she would have felt the entire thing. It's one of the reasons why it's a punishable offense. It would have been agony for her."
Rose gasps, clutching her hands to her chest as Jack sighs in remorse.
"She has sensory preceptors in her hands; she was born with them. It's incredibly rare for Time Lords to have them. She used to need to touch things to get a read on them, but apparently not anymore."
It's silent for a few minutes besides the repeated words falling from Ally's lips as she continues to rock herself back and forth.
"Rose, can you show Jack to his room?" the Doctor asks softly, not looking away from Ally, "The TARDIS should have made it by now."
"Yeah, yeah, of course, Doctor," Rose says kindly before turning to Jack and giving him a brief smile, "Just follow me, Jack."
He nods at her before glancing between Ally and the Doctor and following her out of the console room and down the corridor.
When the Time Lord can no longer hear their steps, he looks over his shoulder to ensure they're gone. He can't; he can't see his wife suffer like this anymore.
"Amara," he calls without response, "Amara, can you hear me?"
He frowns when he still doesn't get a reaction. Not her Academy name, then.
She said he was the only one who could bring back her memories. Maybe she meant her true name? He's the only one who knows it now, after all. It's worth a try.
The Doctor calls out to the TARDIS, "Let me know when they're in their rooms, and make sure their walls are soundproof."
He gets a quick hum, and the lights flash in response, so he waits, watching her.
About five minutes pass before the TARDIS lets out a deeper hum and flashes the lights even brighter.
"Thanks, Old Girl," he mutters.
The Time Lord decides not to get any closer but still whispers it in Gallifreyan, knowing that she can pick it up with her hearing: "Fyrinnaenellitarazela."
Her movements stop instantly, and her head whips up. Her eyes glow like the universe is spinning with the Vortex.
He blinks, shocked. He continues to wait. Maybe it takes a while for everything to break down? The most pain he has ever experienced in all his lives flashes through his head before it stops. It takes everything in him not to scream, and he just pants for a moment, holding his head in agony.
It could only have come from their emotional bond, but it's blocked off again. She must have blocked it to keep him from feeling it. Is that what she's experiencing right now? It was horrific but she's not even reacting to it. He wants to get closer and hold her, but he knows he must wait.
Ally experiences a powerful rush as her true name resonates within her, instinctively summoning the Vortex. The barriers around her mind start to crumble. With each moment, her awareness of the world around her sharpens, bringing a sense of calm despite the pain. She has endured worse before.
As the emotional bond re-connects, she slams it shut, desperate to shield her Bondmate from the intensity of her pain; it surpasses programming. The walls that contained her memories break apart, and everything flows through.
She remembers all of it. Her childhood: running through the red grass and down to the sea, finding the failing Great House, the Elite entrance exam and her acceptance letter, and the night she looked into the Untempered Schism. That odd reaction, feeling inspiration flow into her before the Vortex connected, and she ran like a bat out of hell.
Hugging her brother and saying goodbye to each other when they entered the different sections of the Prydonian Chapter House Academy. The Elite Prydonians. Her first day. Meeting her best friend when assigned as project partners.
It just keeps flashing forward. Waiting at the tree for her brother on their 25th birthday like they did every year. When she met eyes with Theta Sigma, their designated weekly meetings so they could get to know each other, the mental link snapping into place the day she turned 50.
The Doctor watches her. It feels like hours, but it's only been a few minutes. He can see her shoulders are relaxing, which gives him some relief. He's waiting for her to come out of it now.
The day of her graduation comes through when she receives her Elite Placement. The shock she felt and the faces of everyone in the audience when she announced as First Placed Elite. Theta Sigma asks for her hand the next day.
Their Bonding Ceremony and ring exchange. The Celebration after being gifted their own Great House—the very one she healed. Their completed Bonding. Every birth of their children flashes by in quick succession. Susan rushes past—the TARDIS.
Traveling through Time and Space like they'd always planned. Their companions, the enemies they faced, the friends they made and lost.
The night she received his threat to join the war, every blocked memory from the war comes through, and she tenses. She recalls tearing the chip out of her neck mid-regeneration that she had forced to happen.
She remembers meeting with her father to use his communicator to send the message to her Bondmate. Her father begging her not to make him reprogram her again after she changed the system commands and made him and her Bondmate her handlers. He orders her to jump into the Untempered Schism, and finally, it stops.
The Alchemist finally feels the block around her Time Lord senses break down, followed by the one around the mental bond. The nanochemical blocking her scent glands and weaponizing her genetic code must also be off now.
The Doctor realizes he can feel her and closes his eyes in relief. The slight buzz in the back of his mind is a feeling he never thought he'd experience again. He can tell her mental link is open but doesn't send anything through.
The Time Lady feels the pain stop and opens up her side of the emotional bond. His worry, his relief, and his love surge through. There is so much guilt, though—so much self-hatred and shame. She'll have to fix that.
She lets the power of the Vortex slip back, and her eyes fade to their usual shade of blue and gold.
His eyes are closed, and he hasn't noticed she's aware yet. She smirks at that and decides to surprise him. She decides to put her forced abilities to use.
Eyes still shut, the Doctor senses her emotional bond open up and he can't help but smile. She's angry but happy, although he does feel a tremendous amount of guilt and self-hatred, and he feels the love she always had present.
With a rough gasp, he's knocked back to the ground, and he opens his eyes in shock to see his grinning Bondmate right above him.
"Hello, Theta Sigma," she greets, smiling, beginning to press gentle kisses all over his face.
The Doctor sighs in relief, kicks out his legs, and closes his eyes again. He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her closer against him.
"Hello, Amara," he replies quietly.
The Alchemist pulls back and caresses his cheek with the back of her hand. "It looks like you figured out how to bring me back all on your own, huh?"
He opens his eyes and grins at her, pulling one hand off her waist to tug at her glossy ginger hair, "You gave me a pretty good hint and scared me half to death."
She grimaces at that, remembering her reaction to him touching her and then the panic she went into. The Alchemist never remembered what poured out of her mouth every time it happened, but Jack told her when she would panic, and she honestly wasn't surprised. Two of those words are what he called her, after all. After what she did, though, she knows he wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, I don't think that'll be happening anymore, thankfully... at least to that extent. I am worried about the night terrors, though. I'd rather you not have to deal with those when we dream-share."
He wants to ask what happened but refrains, "Amara, anything you experienced, I'm ready to listen when you're ready to tell me. I have my own nightmares from the war. They'll probably switch out when we sleep."
She hums at that, "One step at a time. I've been through a lot. We both have; we'll add the whole thing to the later pile and go over it slowly."
"Ah, now you remember," the Doctor grumbles, rolling his eyes.
"I remember everything," she says brightly.
"Good," he says, relieved, "Can we remove one thing off the pile now though?"
"Depends on what it is, Theta," the Alchemist tells him with a raised brow.
He sighs, looking up at her with a frown, "Why did you leave? Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?"
The Time Lady tilts her head, "I wrote you a letter. I was worried you would try to stop me from going if I told you why I needed to in the first place. Did you not read it?"
He blinks at that, "What letter?"
"You're still a moron," she says and rolls her eyes before rolling off of him and standing.
The Doctor remains flat on the ground, "There wasn't a letter, Amara. You just left your rings."
She shakes her head, laughing, astounded, and leans over to help pull him off the floor.
"Trust me, there was a letter. I put it where we always put our letters on Gallifrey. I even left my rings in front of it as a reminder. You were probably just too upset to remember."
Standing now, he narrows his eyes at her thinking back before it dawns on him. He can't help but groan at his idiocy.
"Uhuh, figured it out now, I see," the Alchemist quips with a raised brow.
The Doctor sighs and shakes his head, "It's behind the framed photo from our Bonding Ceremony."
"Yep, that's where we always put them," she reminds him.
"I guess I should probably read it now, then, huh," he says with quiet annoyance.
"Good guess," the Time Lady responds, "Now, where are my rings?"
The Doctor nods and reaches under his sweater to pull the chain out. They're all on it, his ring and hers.
"I wanted to keep them safe," he mutters as he unclasps it.
The Alchemist presents her hand, letting the three rings drop onto her palm.
"You've kept them polished," she notes.
The Time Lord smiles as she hands him hers and holds out her ring hand, fluttering her fingers for a moment before he slides each onto her ring finger. They glow a bit as they adjust to the size they need to be.
She looks at it with a grin before moving to do the same for him when he holds out his own hand, watching as it slides on with ease and its glow.
The Alchemist looks up at him and smiles brightly before pulling him down to press her lips against his. He sighs into the kiss. She pulls back before it gets too heated and rests her forehead against his.
"I love you," she breathes.
"And I love you," he replies, tugging at her hair again.
She takes his hand and leads him out of the console room, "You need to read the letter before anything else."
[TARDIS Corridors]
They turn left, left, right, left again, and right before she stops in front of the door to their room. She grins at the sign on the copper door. 'The Fated Pair,' it says in Old High Gallifreyan.
They decided to ask the TARDIS to make it as a joke. It's what the Time Lords called them because they believed them to be the Bondmates of Prophecy.
She didn't find out it was true until her connection to the Time Vortex increased enough that they could speak with her and they called her and her Bondmate in that name in her mind.
She turns to him and smirks.
"You know, according to Teacher, we actually are the Fated Pair from prophecy," the Time Lady informs him lightly as she touches the doorknob.
She hears the lock unclick, twists the knob, and pushes the door open.
"You're kidding, right?" the Doctor asks her dryly as they both step into the room.
[Fated Pair Bedroom]
"Not at all. Teacher doesn't lie about anything," she shrugs before dropping his hand and looking around the room.
Her brows pinch, and she frowns at the stale scent in the air coming from the bedding.
The Doctor walks over to their shared dresser and picks up the framed photo from their Bonding Ceremony before turning it around. He rolls his eyes when he sees the envelope behind it; his Academy Name scrolled out in Old High Gallifreyan on the front.
"I'm really stupid," he mutters, pulling it out and heading to his old chair by the fireplace to read.
"You are, and clearly I hurt you terribly," The Alchemist replies.
He feels her pain and regret through the bond and quickly looks up to focus on her; she's standing in front of their bed.
"What are you on about?" The Doctor asks.
"I can smell the sheets, Theta. They smell like our seventh bodies. You haven't been in this room since you discovered I left, have you?" she asks him before turning to look at him with mournful eyes.
The Time Lord sighs and scratches his head, "I couldn't handle the thought of sleeping in our bed alone. I made a new room. The forest is healthy, though. I took care of them. That's the only time I came in."
She nods, "We'll be getting rid of that then. You'll be in here with me from now on. You read. I'll change the sheets."
The Doctor smiles at her softly before sitting in the chair. Being in this room again with her by his side feels natural. He slides the sheets of paper out and notes with narrowed eyes that everything she wrote is in Old High Gallifreyan. She only ever did that when something was serious.
The Alchemist takes a deep breath to prepare herself for the onset of emotions she's about to feel from him before going to the wardrobe to get a fresh set of bed linens and change them.
He focuses on the first page and begins to read.
[Letter]
Theta Sigma,
One love of my lives,
I write this as you sit in the library, reading. You will be in there for hours, so I have the time to say what needs to be said. It is coming, a great war that the Time Lords and our allies must face. As I have long feared, the Daleks have turned their hatred towards our people and have risen in mass. According to three of my fellow Elites, who have also been watching their rise while we prepare, they will be ready to attack in two years.
There is something I never told you, my beloved, beyond my brief mention of worry about what they may do in the future when we first met Davros. I feared they would turn their hatred toward the entire universe. I informed the First Ten of everything I witnessed. Trusting my intuition and theory, we have studied them and worked on calculations since their creation to prepare for such an event.
We call it the Dalek Descriptor. It would pause the changing DNA code of every Dalek mutant and then unravel it all at once with a virus that burns out their encasement. We would then only need to capture Davros and imprison him. By our calculations, we are nearly two months from completion. Two months is all we need. I can only hope that he listens, but I fear that he will not because he is clearly madness himself.
The High Council has apparently learned of what is coming. It is most likely a prophecy by the current Visionary. They have secretly risen Rassillon in preparation for war. The Time Lord is twisted. I have told you my theory on that. His belief that the true meaning of time is to lead to the end of life has never felt right to me. I theorize that is not only due to my research but has been sent to me through my small connection to the Time Vortex itself, nudging me toward the truth I seek. Rassilon's beliefs have corrupted him.
Three years ago, I had a dream, a nightmare, that was separate from yours. I thought nothing of it at the time until around two weeks ago when I spoke with Titan. He told me he had a dream about me, a nightmare that Semine did not share. He saw me sitting silently in a cell, a cage, he called it. My eyes were haunted and nearly blank of emotion; what he could see of my body was covered in bruises. He could hear many different screams calling out in Gallifreyan. The door to the cage was opened by a shadow who approached me and injected something into my neck before my eyes became filled with golden light, and he heard a horrible laugh.
He said that laughter has been haunting him for years—three years. When he told me this, I could barely breathe before I informed him of my nightmare. I did not see who the shadow was, but I could see who was screaming. Time Lords, a countless number, strapped into chairs as a pulse of light surrounded their heads. We had the same dream but from different perspectives, my love—a warning from the Time Vortex itself.
You felt my concern three days ago when I was working in my office. You asked about it later, and I told you I was simply worried about a project I was working on. I lied to you without intending to correct it in person for the first time, and I am genuinely sorry for that; I am far more sorry for what I am about to write now.
I had just finished entering the multi-level encryption code that provides access to the Elite Ten Portal. It changes by the hour, and you must know one key code to understand how to translate the first encryption before beginning the access process. Only The Ten know it. It's an incredibly complicated code, nearly indecipherable. Someone can only pass it down through knowledge alone. When I accessed the portal, I checked my messages as always. One came from the Achiever, so I looked at it first. It was a request for The Ten to return to the Citadel on Gallifrey in preparation and help to prevent a potential war as he had done.
Every name of The Ten was listed in order; all of us were named, even the Achiever. There was a check off to say you were coming, the Achiever checked off. None of us responded, wary. The Achiever and I are the head planners of the Dalek Descriptor; all of The Ten know that. The plans for the Dalek Descriptor are buried deep within the portal, and very hard to access. I believe we have all come to the same conclusion: someone has taken the Achiever and forced him to reveal how to get into the portal. The next day, we received the same message; only "request" was changed to "demand." Still, we have yet to respond.
I was in my office all day. We all accessed the hidden discussion forum. We discussed what may be happening, and we all came to the same conclusion. The High Council has learned of the Dalek threat that we have been concerned about, and they took the Achiever to figure out how to contact us. I told them my theory, and I did not believe they wanted us to help prevent the war but to participate. All agreed with my theory. I hope by Alpha that it is inconclusive.
Today, my beloved, we received another urgent message from the Achiever. I opened it at once, fearing what it may say. There was no request, no demand message. There was merely a looped recording and our list of names. I blocked my feelings from you; I apologize and will do so again and again. I am in tears now, not wanting to write down what I witnessed, what all of The Ten witnessed in that recording.
Our children stood in a line, terror on their faces. Titan called out, "Remember," then I saw a gauntlet rise within the frame and strike them, starting their Regeneration process. He must not have known, but he found great pleasure from it. As you well know, our little Susan is still on her first body. I heard her first scream. Rassilon laughed. Then it played repeatedly.
I continued watching, etching it into my mind. I will always remember this. Never. I shall listen to our firstborn, our Titan, and remember it through whatever I may have to endure. I will remember every version of you that I have loved passionately, as I always have, to face whatever may come.
I accessed the forum as quickly as possible and asked them one question. I will only do this if my fellow Elites are in agreement. "Do we go?" I asked, and within an hour, I had 9,998 responses on the check-offs that I had made in question. Yes. That was the only response I received. I checked it off and went to see the message again to send my reply.
There is only one name erased from the list, one name: the Achiever. His ranking sits, but his name is erased as he has been by the hand of our new Lord President.
We all know that we will be met with shackles as they lead us to wherever we must go. As the First Placed Elite, I can demand presence to speak with the Lord President or the High Council whenever I please. I will do so and attempt to dissuade him from this dark path of war.
I will tell him how near we are to completing the Dalek Descriptor. I theorize that he will not listen and those nightmares that the Time Vortex sent Titan and I will come to pass. Whatever may happen, my beloved, know I am doing this to protect our children and you.
Run. Keep running as we always have until you feel the call to aid in the war that is to come. I will face whatever horrors; I must survive every second. I will remember, as Titan said. I will remember what that monster has done to them and every version of you to make it through this.
I swear to you, we will make it out of this, and I will get our family out as well. Every action has consequences, as I have always said. If the consequence of saving you and our family is facing what Titan and I dreamed of, then so be it. I will face this with dignity and the knowledge of The Ten's belief in me and myself in them, as well as you and our children.
He is sending a TARDIS to every one of The Ten who is currently off-planet. It will arrive in eight minutes, allowing me to finish this letter and slip out of our TARDIS without you knowing. I desperately wish I could explain all this to you directly, Theta Sigma, but I cannot, for I know you will try to stop me. You will suggest we find our family and run.
I cannot do that this time. We cannot. I cannot run with you, but I will run to you to protect you and our children when you feel the call to join. I will figure out a way to get us out of this—all of us—but I am sure I will face much before doing so.
I love you, all of you, always.
Your Stars,
Amara