#the untempered schism is my number one enemy

[triple1st]

A COUPLE OF NOTES & EXPANDED CANON ON : ROMANA'S  BACKSTORY  + ASCENSION TO THE SEAT OF LORD PRESIDENT .

the gallifreyan chapterhouse to which romana belongs is somewhat unclear, while the gallifrey audio series (a primary source which informs several key events within romana’s life & how i characterize her) unanimously agrees that she is from the house of heartshaven, it maintains a relation with house (of) dvora, romana openly referring to herself as : “ the inheritor of the house of dvora & the custodian of the house of everston . ” certain gallifreyans in the expanded universe also retain their chapterhouse in their full name, such as quences .  leela was also given a gallifreyan name containing her husband andred's chapterhouse, who belonged to the house of redlooms in the novels, later retconned to the house of deeptree in the audio series .  as such & in keeping with the history of house dvora throughout faction paradox, i've combined romana’s houses of origin into a single backstory .

romanadvoratrelundar was loomed as one of 20 cousins of house dvora, the house of devouring hounds, one of the oldest newblood houses of the prydonian chapter (newblood, essentially, refers to gallifreyans loomed utilizing an updated version of the universal biodata imprint which all looms on gallifrey draw from in order to weave new gallifreyans .  they possess a secondary heart & better control of their regeneration, something romana displays expertly in destiny of the daleks . every couple of centuries, this universal biodata imprint is updated with new genetic information drawn from the matrix as a way to replicate the natural evolutionary process undergone by every other living species, as all gallifreyans are sterile & thus any natural process is forcibly recreated mechanically using rassilon’s gift of technology) .  house dvora was among the most prideful & powerful chapterhouses in the prydonian academy .  it had, for generations now, ruthlessly & efficiently trained its 'children' for the roles of high office within the capitol .  it was infamous for the steel & ice present within the hearts of its members, a result of their upbringing .  impenetrable  ironic & sharp around the edges, all of house dvora’s cousins strove to achieve great things, obtain the unimaginable power granted by gallifrey’s highest office all to make house dvora & their kithriarch proud .

romana was no different, not at first, she was loomed in the generation following morbius, the last successor of house dvora who went on to become lord president of the high council of time lords, only a few years into his presidency .  she shined brightly among her cousins, commanding, beautiful, smart, endless potential following in her path .  romana was considered by the house kithriarch (the head of the household, its caretaker, responsible for the social well-being of each family member) to be dvora’s finest, the only cousin of twenty who would bring great pride to the house & become everything it wanted of her .  however, romana never felt the pride house dvora took in her .  much like her cousins, she was kept under strict expectations, monitored by her mechanical caretakers, pushed to her limits by the voices trapped within the walls of the house, whispering of the great legacy of her ancestors & their disappointment should she ever disobey .  house dvora’s treatment would only worsen when romana showed a streak of compassion for her fellow cousins, helping them out on one of many brain-buffing (teaching, essentially) exercises .  such things are unbecoming of members of house dvora .  like all gallifreyans, they are taught the values of selfishness, to seek only their own interests first & to curb those interests in relation to the house itself .  romana’s behavior was considered a malfunction of the house loom, an error of birth & something the house kithriarch would take personal responsibility to fix .

fortunately, he never got the chace, as this coincided with the imperator crisis, lord president morbius showing his true nature, putting gallifrey on a warpath with the rest of the universe & overthrowing its anti-interventionist policy .  upon his defeat by the alliance formed by the high council & his subsequent trial & execution by the sisterhood of karn, house dvora would devour itself in shame .  shame to have produced such a warmongering tyrant, shame to have brought disaster & ruin to gallifrey, shame to have had its name tarnished by one of its star pupils . romana, along with any surviving cousins who were not present within the walls of their house as it collapsed in on itself, were taken by the prydonian chapter castellan & dispersed among other surviving chapterhouses .  she became a foundling of the house of heartshaven, one of 35 cousins, & her memories of house dvora were lost when her brain-buffing was readjusted for her new home .  heartshaven was a lesser known house whose members became archivists, officials of more mundane offices, keepers of the matrix & even chancellery guards .  she spent a total of fifty years within the walls of heartshaven, only twenty or so within dvora, still the brightest star among her cousins, with her only surviving memories of house dvora being of the cold breeze that passed through its halls, bitting into her skin, knowing it was the house itself trying to make her feel small .  the harsh voice of its kithriarch, the thunder & fury that followed it, the house slamming doors in its wake .  heartshaven, by comparison, was infinitely warmer .  a candle-lit fire, minuscule & never quite enough on its own, but much greater by contrast .  it was through heartshaven that romana later found work as an archivist in the bureau of ancient records, a library within the capitol which kept volumes of gallifreyan history dating back to the dark times .

the legacy of house dvora would follow romana into the prydonian academy & into the early days of her presidency . the reputation of dvora’s cousins as cold & untouchable landing her the nickname of 'the ice maiden' (probably less gendered in the original gallifreyan language, given that in the expanded universe gallifreyans are generally portrayed to be either genderless or ambiguous) .  she would try disprove these notions, rebel against them, befriend her classmates, sartia among them whom romana considered her best friend only to realize sartia's hatred for her upon being reunited during her travels with the doctor . she found that the time lord academy itself encouraged her to curb her compassion, fend only for herself as to survive as the sole victor among its pupils .  it would only be upon her travels with the doctor that romana’s compassion & care would be allowed to bloom, gifted another perspective beyond that of rigid gallifreyan socialization .  it was a perspective she would later want to impart upon her fellow time lords, wanting them to see the universe as she does, not just coldly observe but to covet & care for all that which gallifrey deems beneath itself & why when she returned to her home planet, romana found herself a seat on the high council & ascended to the office of lord president . though she would never admit it, having travelled with the doctor certainly helped her political prospects, given he left the presidency vacant on multiple occasions despite the time lords insisting upon it . through assassination plots, bids for immortality & one brief stint in office the doctor was unwilling to fulfill his duties, he proved he could never be trusted . who better then than a time lord that had been his travelling companion ?

her enemies in the high council, however, insisted upon romana's inheritance as an argument against her inauguration . that the malfunction in the breeding engines that led to morbius' ascendancy meant all of house dvora's children were tainted & to allow any one of its survivors his power would be tantamount to suicide . though other more conservative elements within the capitol considered the prospect of romana's presidency a return to form, despite the risk that morbius' legacy lives on within her . he understood the power gallifrey held over the universe . at every step of the electoral process romana stressed that she was more of heartshaven than dvora, that everything house dvora represented died when the house sunk into the ground in shame & anguish & that she was defined by her adoptive house more than anything . it's what she wanted to believe, of course, that she was no tyrant & nothing of morbius survived through her or any other of dvora's lost children, but it was never the imperator romana should have feared . morbius lived on through history, through his cult & its adherents, pandora was erased from time itself & she would come to define the first term of romana's presidency, plunging gallifrey into a second civil war .

#* ◦ ❝ « 𝘰𝘰𝘤 . the poster's crusade . #* ◦ ❝ « 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘯 . ancient records . #a repost from my old multi lightly edited & expanded upon #i feel like this is somewhat of an inaccessible read if you're not as familiar with gallifrey's VNA/EDA lore as i am #which i'm very sorry about i tried my best to explain some of these terms but i can't really pause every few seconds #to explain everything #it'd ruin the pacing #gallifrey is a fucked up very alien society to ours & it's honestly tragic how the new series ignores it #the untempered schism is my number one enemy #anyway i could also recap the pandora arc of the gallifrey audios too if i really wanted but no you're gonna go listen to gallifrey #i'm not asking you i am threatening you #i've said it on the original post but it's interesting how romana's time as a companion barely defines her #she has spent more time as lord president than she ever did travelling with the doctor #she was a dalek captive for longer

[thelordice]

One-Off Doctor Who Short Fic

I decided to go and rewatch “School Reunion”, the third episode of Season 2. And I got an idea for a one-off... more to flex my muscles than anything else. I’m sure the idea’s been done somewhere else, by someone else, but... it’s a fun idea, I think. Go give the episode a watch before you read this.

“...everything has its time. And everything ends.”

Sarah Jane. So old now. Not nearly as old as him - he’d been exponentially her elder even when she’d been young. And yet, still exactly as he’d known her. Her eyes sparkled with conviction. Sadness. Courage. Loss. He could feel it. They’d been together long enough, he formed passive psychic links with all of his companions - it was one of the ways the TARDIS Translation Matrix was able to extend to them.

Rose Tyler. The woman who had been a god. That moment had led to this face. Took in the Time Vortex just to save him. And her, almost a carbon copy of what Sarah Jane had been. She loved him - they both did. And he loved them. He loved all of his companions.

And they were all gone. All of them, in the end. Eventually, he’d failed them all. Even his own people. Even himself. A man of many faces, with a face he denies. The one that failed even his own name. It had been necessary, but there was still blood on his hands. More blood than any of his companions could imagine. They would be mortified.

But there it was, right before him. The Skasis Paradigm. The God-Maker. Lassar had probably planned to use it to enslave the universe, create the perfect body and consume whatever he didn’t need. He’d turn on him the moment he had the power.

But Lassar was slow. Even showing him what went into it, he could finish cracking the Paradigm. It needed thought power - he had a billion times more than any human brain. It needed imagination - the things he’d seen just living his life could provide more inspiration and imagination than every child on the planet put together. Lassar expected it to take hours. He could do it in minutes. String Lassar along, make him think he’d get the Paradigm well after he had its power. Then he could - oh, he could think of a billion ways to fix Lassar.

And a billion other ways to fix a trillion different things. He’d been literally from one end of time and space to the other. He’d seen universes of possibility - and impossibility. He’d stared into the Untempered Schism itself, and he’d been running ever since.

And that running had led him... here. Through joy, and hope, and miracles... through misery, pain, loss, war, death... the Last Great Time War... and he could stop it all.

But Sarah Jane was right. Everything ended. But that didn’t mean everything had to be miserable. Life has trillions of little tragedies, small endings. Even death, if it came at the right time, could be handled. He didn’t have to make everything immortal or perfect. But he could eliminate agony. Mass suffering. Horrors. With the Skasis Paradigm, he could undo every great and tragic calamity that ever was. Rebuild the universe from the ground up. Normal every-day lives... except happy endings. No genocides, no natural disasters, no Last Great Time War.

His old voice called back to him, from that day during The Blitz. And he said it again, to himself. Just this once, Rose. Everybody lives.

But they wouldn’t understand. They’d be mortified. Of course, they never need know. He lied all the time. And with the Paradigm, a morphic illusion like Lassar’s would be child’s play. Get the Paradigm, blink back here, make everyone think he’d refused Lassar’s offer. He could even come back and freeze time for himself while he did it.

And, indeed, he noticed - everyone else was frozen as if in a blink. He’d already done it. And so he did. The Doctor darted over to one of the computers. It was still running - time was only frozen for the witnesses. Tapping into the Skasis Matrix was simple for the Doctor - they’d been hypnotically trained to link together, humanity’s latent psionic potential tapped by the subconscious mind. They were, in essence, dreaming a shared dream - a dream of concepts, numbers, things beyond words. It took him only a moment to integrate into it. He accelerated the process - they’d filled in almost all of what he didn’t know for the solution. And just as he finished his inputs for their missing pieces-

The final one fell into place with it, from the children. Time Lord and human minds. One of the most powerful combinations in the universe.

It was infinitely complex. It was utterly simple. It was elegant and hideous, light and sound and silence and darkness and joy and sorrow and past and future. The Doctor beheld it all. It was a good thing Lassar hadn’t gotten it first. His head would have exploded. The Doctor himself barely survived the sight. But he did, and he saw. The first thing he did was start his illusion - free the children. He blocked their minds from seeing the solution, saved them. He deleted his parts from their minds, and so they kept working. Everyone would think he’d saved the day, stopped the aliens, made everything alright.

And they/d be right. He’d branch off time, create a whole universe where he’d actually rejected Lassar. He was beyond that Time Lord now. He ran to his TARDIS, took Sarah Jane home just as if he were still mortal. Even brought back K-9, blinked him into the world as he departed, good as new and better on top. He froze Mickey and Rose, just for a second, and then braced himself. He folded his body, reshaped it. Physically, he looked the same. But he needed a body much more durable than before for what came next. With the Skasis Solution, simple parlor tricks like stasis were easy. He had the knowledge to become a God. But to be a God, he needed energy. And so, he opened the console of the TARDIS, stared into her heart... and did just as Rose had done. Took in the Time Vortex. He bore the power - it was what he’d made himself for. He closed the console and used his newfound might to refine his new form. Now, bearing the Vortex was easy. And yet, outwardly, he was just as he’d been a moment before. With a thought, be created that branch reality. Time would go on as normal, even for him. He knew it was necessary, many fixed points in time relied on the path he’d rejected. That done, he cast himself from the corporeal plane - phased out of the TARDIS as it flew through the Vortex. She still thought he was onboard - they all did. Fooling even the unfoolable was simple for him now.

He knew just where to begin his quest to end disaster. He would erase the Time War. But how? He’d had to Time Lock the War, prevent it from affecting the rest of reality. But to stop it?

Well, it had all started with the Time Lords and the Daleks. And the Daleks were born of disaster, and brought nothing but. And so his first stop was Skaro, in the distant past. Unmaking the Daleks was easy, if one knew how. His people had tried - he’d nearly succeeded once, but couldn’t bring himself to do it because they were already alive. Now, though, he had better ways. A whisper in the mind of a single man, a changed mind and decision at just the right key points. The Daleks were created out of the mutated remains of the Kaleds after they destroyed themselves in a nuclear war, a war that claimed the sight and legs of their creator, Davros. So, with just the right tweaks up and down Kaled history, the war never happened. Davros was never mutilated, the Kaleds never destroyed... and the Daleks ceased to be. The Time War... never was. He had unmade his greatest enemy with the one thing they hated most: compassion and mercy.

But that was only one of trillions. A grin on his ethereal face, The Doctor set out... to make the universe happier.

#doctor who #dw #tenth doctor #one-off #fanfic

[theother-timelesschild]

*Doctor tinkering on various things at the console.*

*Yaz walks in with 2 teas, walks up and sets one down on the console, then moves to lean against a column*

*the Doctor still tinkering doesn’t notice, or so Yaz thinks.*

*Doctor on a loop around the console grabs a drink*

13: Thanks Yaz! Just what I needed.

13: Is it “morning”, are Ryan and Graham up too?

Yaz: No, couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d come see how you were doing.

13: I’m fine, fine. why wouldn’t I be? Aren’t you tired.

Yaz: nope, I was on second shift this week use to late hours, and You called to picked us up in the middle of the night. You won’t even tell us what happened on Galli... *Doctor interupts*

13: Ah, so you’re the reason the TARDIS landed at midnight, you just got off shift.

Yaz: Well yes, but what does.. *Doctor interupts*

13: The TARDIS wants me to talk to you.

Yaz: I’m trying but you keep interrupting.

13: Have I told you the TARDIS is sentient? Once the TARDIS’s soul was stolen , put in a body, it was nice, we got to talk with mouth’s and everything for a little while, except that she was dying. She doesn’t always take me where I want to go, but she always takes me where I need to be when I need to be there.

13: In emergencies you can activate a voice interface. If she likes you, she’ll be nice about it. *TARDIS hums agreeably*

Yaz: Why is it only for emergencies why can’t you talk to the tardis with mouths and everything all the time?

13: Believe me ...timelords tried, but it doesn’t work, a 12th dimensional Matrix can’t exist that way.

Yaz: Doctor.. . *Doctor interupts*

13: Yaz, have I told you my rules?

Yaz: Yea, rule 1 no guns.

13: hm, the rules numbers change all the time, I’ve had many different rule 1s.

13: Rule 1 use to be “Don’t wander off.” But as I’ve gotten older I’ve had to move that back to replace old rule 2: Stick close to me.

13:  when I was a grey-haired Scotsman Rule 1 was : “Use your enemies’ power against them.”

13: For bow tie sometimes rule 1 was: “There is always a plan.” However it was more like a thing, like a plan to have a plan.

13: Other times rule 1 was: “the Doctor lies.” I’ve been trying to not use that one.

Yaz: well I’m glad your not using that rule anymore, it’s not right.

13: No that Rule 1 can be about kindness, It’s not about right or wrong, Yaz....It’s more complicated than. It’s about foreknowledge and that can be cruel and dangerous. If you’re not careful you can create fixed points, things that can’t be changed, sometimes those things can be bad.

Yaz: How can lies be about kindness?

13: Have I told you but my wife? *yaz gives a look* your right I know I haven’t, she’s a time traveler too, you may even meet her sometime. Professor River Song, PhD. 51st Century, Luna University, Archeology Department, if you ever need to look. *pause*.

13: I met her the day she died. Are you telling me that next time I met her when she was younger and it would have been a kindness for me to tell her I saw her die.

Yaz: Yes, maybe if you’d have warned her, so it could have be prevented.

13: No, Yaz because she told me about the last time I saw her. How I cried as the towers sang because I knew where she was going, and she made me promise not to change one line of our story because if I did, if i took her place that day then we would never have met,and she wouldn’t have been who she was / who she became. And quite possibly it would’ve created a universe ending paradox. When I first met her I used to hate her word “spoilers”, but then over the centuries “spoilers” became best word ever. Because it meant we would see each other again.

Yaz: whispers “centuries”.... why spoilers?

13: Because it was a way to say I know something about the future but I can’t tell you, I’m sorry and I’m not going to make up a lie to you about what that something is, just to give you an answer to your question. Because there’s a chance if you don’t know, you can make changes, if those changes ripple outword and so long as they don’t create waves, somethings don’t have happen the way I remember, they can happen the way You will remember, and time will fix everybody’s memories. Well, if I was the one with the spoiler it wouldn’t fix my memories I would end up with two sets of memories but otherwise most people won’t notice, but I’m a timelord. It’s like how when younger versions of me meet older versions of me, only the oldest of us remember what happened, but we still remember what the younger versions thought, felt, and believed.

Yaz: Timelord?

13: A bit pretentious I know, but that’s what those that mastered time decided to call themselves. Those in the Outerlands...are the Shobogans. Anyway, as children when we are eight we are taken and tested before the untempered schism, those that...pass, join a Chapter and attend the Academy; Timelord, school, so to speak.

Yaz: What’s the schim and what’s a Chapter, like a degree program?

13: Not exactly, Gallifrey is not like Earth, there is one central government and It is based on the old caste system. The Chapters represent the original six ruling families or Houses, and associated sub-Houses. Generally those of us of the Old Houses are expected to stay within our Chapters., unless of course an alliance amongst the other Chapters would be advantageous.

Yaz: What was your house?

Oh, House was once a Noble House perched on the west side of Mount Lung overlooking the Cadonflood River south of the Citadel. *Pause* You don’t mean....you mean the name, Lungbarrow was one of the senior Prydonian Houses. It was once a family of wealth and privilege but over the centuries it stagnanted and only produced petty servants and clerks. Could you imagine me a clerk, for one of the High Council. Uhhh. nope couldn’t be that still for lives on end, although once I was a lecturer for 70 years... Oh, I need to go back clear out my office, St Luke's University in Bristol.

13: Enough of the past, back to lies being about kindness, say I jumped forward in your timeline, picked you all up one midnight before Christmas and then you all were asking me questions wanting answers to things that haven’t happened yet for me; I try to change the subject but you still end up telling me things I don’t know. It’s going to force my hand to do those very things you spoke about. If I try to do something to change the things you told me, It’s not gonna end well, I can already see the timelines solidifying around me. My course for Gallifrey and Master is set. Would you want to know that, or would it be kinder for you to not know that?

Yaz: *hand to mouth* Doctor, no!

13: Yes, I’m sorry, to burden you so. Do you want Ryan and Graham to know? Do you want to remember?

Yaz: You say that like remembering is optional...

13: It is

Yaz: You could wipe my memory of this conversation?

13: A human compatible neural block would make it easier, but yes, I could make you forget it....all, no memory of the future, space or time travel...or meeting Rosa or Tesla... or just a little bit of this conversation...

Yaz: Have you, before?

13: Not to my Fam.

Yaz: That’s not a no, just that you haven’t done it to us.

13: I don’t make a habit of it, only if it’s needed to protect the future, or a life. Well what do you say?

Yaz: I want to remember, but I don’t think Graham and Ryan need to be told, but if they find out you aren’t the you we last saw, they get to deside for themselves. Okay?

13: Okay, yes. Yaz, you don’t know me, and it’s my own fault, I haven’t told you things. I’ve lived for over 2000 years, and not all of them good, I’ve made many mistakes, in part It’s why I have so many rules. also why I don’t travel alone. I’ve been negligent with you all. I thought if you didn’t know my past, that you couldn’t get hurt by the things you didn’t know.

Yaz: that seems a bit naive, given your age.

13: Yea, well I realize that, but I had hope. I don’t know what happened after you last saw me, but here are some other old rules that you could find useful; like number 7: Never run when you are scared; Rule 8: Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy, then always ignore a coincidence. Rule 27: Never knowingly be serious. Rule 408: Time is not the Boss of you. And Never give up, never give in.

I don’t have a number for this, its just an in the TARDIS rule: No being sick and no hanky-panky. Caveat, unless you aware of the risks of having a baby with a “time head”.

Yaz: a time head”?

13: Yeah, that’s what Amy called it, I didn’t take her worry seriously and I should have. Her and Rory’s daughter was born human plus.

Yaz: Plus what?

13: Plus, Stuff. Like arton energy from the vortex woven into her DNA, a triple helix, like my people, two hearts, and a keen sense of time. The people who took Amy did experiments, tried to cooked themselves more timelords, make clones. They did succeed in sending me my very own bespoke psychopath. Programmed an assssin to kill me when we first met, she also saved my life that same day, as first dates go it was mixed messages. 

Yaz: Doctor!!

13: No, worries, I married her. Hang on, woven, wait....I need to see her files from Demons Run, again, Later though. Now back to rules: Never use weapons, unless the damage can be repaired. I haven’t given it a number yet, but I’m sure it’s in the top 10.

13: Never be Cruel, Never be Cowardly. Never eat pears. Remember hate is alway foolish, Love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind. Laugh hard, run fast, be kind. These are rules I told myself a half hour before I met you all, When I had a different face.

Yaz: You weren’t joking when we first met about being a Scotsman or being thousands of years old?

13: Actually if you count the time I was trapped in the confession dial, I’m over 4 1/2 billion years old. Although since I kept dying and being reset and all the skulls in the bottom of the water were me, yea, lets say we don’t count all those years I spent punching a hole in a wall of diamond.

Yaz: that’s horrible! Why and Who did that to you?

13: The Lord President Rassilon himself and the rest of the High Council of Gallifrey. Don’t worry not everyone was like that, the kind people, the good people, the regular people, those who saw my actions during the Time War, the citadels guards that refused to execute me, They stood by me as I kicked Rassilon and the rest of the High Council off my planet. My title as the Lord President, restored once again.

Yaz: Your....thats....Better than a clerk.

13: Not really, no travel benefits, I tricked them though, because they tricked me and it cost Clara her life, I had them bring Clara out of her timestream, heartbeat frozen in the moment just before her death, then I stole a TARDIS and ran away again., Only this time I didn’t designate a Lord Regent my place. In fact I have no idea if Rassilon just returned soon after I was gone.

*Long Pause, Doctors gone silent, thinking*

Yaz: Doctor, Who are people you’ve mentioned: Amy, Rory, and Clara. Past us? Past “fam”? And where are they now?

13: Friends, In-laws even, The Ponds, Amy and Rory Williams they lived a long life, in the past. I couldn’t get back to 1938 I barely got there the first time. In fact I can’t take you to New York anytime during their lifetime there. The tardis just can’t go there. Their daughter River, with her vortex manipulator found away, she would send me updates and take messages back-and-forth.

13: I don’t know what happened to Clara, I took her someplace, I thought her heart would restart, it didn’t. It was an untenable solution one of us had to lose all of our memories of the other. Clara the impossible girl that met me over and over throughout time and space. I mean it’s entirely possible that we could still meet one of her fragments somewhere along my timeline.

Yaz: So, that means....

13: I lost my memories of her. Before I died, before I regenerated into this face, I was given a gift that returned my memories of her. I don’t know if that means she returned to the moment of her death or if she is still somewhere out in the universe traveling in a stolen tardis with Lady ME/ Ashildr.

Yaz: She can pilot a TARDIS, is she also a timelord?

13: No, a human, I told her too much, I taught her too much. and she became too reckless, like me.

13: she was following rule 1: “Use your enemies’ power against them.” She came up with a plan, she didn’t tell me the plan before going forward with it. I was doing that more then, letting her take the lead.....she was told “You can pass the Mark on, but you can’t cheat death.” And she was trying be clever and cheat, because that’s what I did, that’s what I taught her to do. But she was lacking key knowledge of the Shades true nature and the contract of the mark.

Yaz: Because you didn’t tell her?

13: I realized too late, my interactions with Mayor/Lady Me, even my very act of saving Ashildr’s life all those centuries ago could have brought her to Gallifrey’s attention, especially that early in earths history, all the prophecy’s about the Hybrid, Timelords can be a devious lot, none more so than those of the Prydonian Chapter especially the Grand Master himself, Lord President Rassilon. They knew Mayor ME was a hybrid, but somehow they’d eliminated her as the threat. But if I’d created one Hybrid how many others might I have made, they wanted to know who the hybrid threat to Gallifrey was and thought I knew, So they laid a trap, On a trap street and Clara died, and I was angry.

Yaz: Didn’t you say, your family was of the Prydonian Chapter. Calling them devious, doesn’t sound like you are a fan?

13: On the contrary, Prydonians were noted for their cunning and deviousness and honesty about it, it is those that forsworn their vows as a Prydonian, that are especially dangerous. Like The Master. A Chancellor from another chapter once lamented that the Prydonians were comprised of "renegades, fugitives, lunatics and ingrates". I suppose that is the true to a certain extent there was a group of about 10 of us from our year that all left for various reasons, just a well, we would have made terrible politicians. *pause* It’s never good for me to be angry. I can go too far. There are those that call me the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Imp of the Pandorica, the Beast of Trenzalore, the Butcher of Skull Moon, and in the Language of the Gamma Forest the Doctor means mighty Warrior. I once destroyed the entire Twelfth Cyber Legion for a Message.

Yaz: Well, good, Cybermen nearly wipeout the Human Race.

13: No, not good, Not justified, they hadn’t done that, yet...That cyber fleet monitored their local galactic quadrant, They knew the exact location where Amy was being held, and I wanted to send a message, just to make a point to the people that took Amy, to know I was coming for them.

Yaz: Its understandable, she is your mother in-law.

13: Except I didn’t know that, not then. She was my best Friend, and they stole her from us...me & Rory, they had her for at least 6 months, They were using Flesh, sending a signal into the TARDIS, all the time, her mind was with us, but her actual body was with Madam Kovarian all the while she was pregnant with their daughter Melody.

Yaz: I thought their daughter was River?

13: “the only water in the forest is the River”. The TARDIS told that to Rory, when Sexxy had a human body. Didn’t get the reference at the time.... In the Language of the Gamma Forests Melody Pond is River Song.

Yaz: Like how for them your name means Mighty Warrior?

13: Yes, it was a warning from my wife, what I might become if I continued down that path, The Oncoming Storm, able to turn armies around at the very mention of my name. Able call upon an army of my own friends...

Yaz: That’s...hard to imagine, you leading an ar... *Doctor interrupts*

13: I was running around being clever, orchestrating things from behind the scenes until the big reveal. Demon’s run, but count the cost. The Battle’s Won, but the Child is lost.

Yaz: what is that? you mentioned Demons run earlier, I thought I was a place.

13: it’s from a Poem, as old a time, about a what happened at Demons Run...where that place got its name, like I said a warning from my wife, the very child that was lost.

Yaz: will you tell me the full poem?

13: *hmmm* I sent Rory to call on River to join the fight, she said it was her birthday and she couldn’t show until the end ....I was so slow...she couldn’t be there as an adult, because she was already there as the child. “Demon’s run when a good man goes to war. Night will fall and drown the sun, When a good man goes to war. Friendship dies and true love lies, Night will fall and the dark will rise, When a good man goes to war. Demon’s run, but count the cost. The battle's won but the child is lost.”

Yaz: What happened did you find the child, River...Melody, did you reunite her with Amy and Rory?

13: *sigh* No, little Melody Pond was not returned to her mother, but Mels Zucker did grow up with her mother and father, as best friends. The Ponds worked it out, they traveled with me off an on for about 10 years. I traveled on my own for about 200 years of it...well, not all on my own, I ran into River alot during that time.

13: It’s never been good for me to travel alone. The TARDIS knows that, I think that’s why I couldn’t get you all home right away. My wife, after Darillium, she sent me Nardole. Did you know a night on Darillium is 24 earth standard years, and oh did we stretch out those years, but always back from an adventure five minutes after we left.

Yaz: Are sure it was 5 minutes later on the same day?

13: Very funny, was late 12 months late once, besides it was River that got us home on time. The TARDIS taught River how to pilot her, *TARDIS makes a pleased sounds*

Yaz: Oh, could the TARDIS teach, us how to as well? *TARDIS makes a sad noise*

13: Not in the same way, River is a child of the TARDIS, with natural telepathic abilities, and they have a special bond, as a TARDIS does with its pilots. You’d have to use the telepathic interface, and concentrate on exactly where and when you want to be, if you stay focused and not waver, then she should take you where you need to be.

Yaz: Pilots, plural?

13: Yaz, There are 6 sides to the console for a reason, it is meant to be flown easily with 6 pilots, 2 minimum, 1 if all maneuvers are pre-planned and plotted, before leaving.

Yaz: *grins*

13: Yaz, I”m concerned about what you said when I picked you up.

Yaz: I’m surprised you heard anything, the way you were interrupting..

13: *sigh* the last human I traveled with Bill, just before I meet all y’all, she got converted into a Cyberman, and I laid dying on the battlefield. Don’t know what happened to Nardole. I don’t even know how I got back to the TARDIS or how she got me out. However remember this; in an emergency you can ask the TARDIS for the voice interface, and use the telepathic circuits.

Yaz: Would that work with any TARDIS, or just yours?

13: hm, best with this old girl *pats a column and TARDIS hums agreeably* I doubt you could just take one from Gallifrey without a Timelord to disable the security protocols, but if that was done, it could, maybe work.

Yaz: how would I know if the protocols were disabled?

13: *sets tea cup down* come on, off to one of the old desktops, I’ll show you.

*later a Cloister bell tolls and a Dalek warning “you will be exterminated” sounds through out the TARDIS*

—————— After Adventure relaxing ———————

*Night - Khan home, with fam & The Doctor - laughing and holiday cheer *

*Yaz and the Doctor quietly talking*

Yaz: So this is it then...one last adventure...just dangerous enough to make us consider giving it all up.

13: Yes, but Yaz, you don’t have too, if you don’t want to.

Yaz: How? You said your path to Gallifrey is set...

13: I do have a TARDIS, the T does stand for Time...we could go the long way ‘round.

Yaz: Doctor...

13: What do you say, you could log some actually piloting time with the telepathic circuits?

Yaz: Then what? One day you just drop me back off here on this night? Never knowing what happened after we left Gallifrey.

13: Look if I can I’ll come back. I will, and if I can’t, I’ll ask the TARDIS to come find you and to take you to whomever can help you find out what happened. Deal?

Yaz: Well I think, even if I don’t don’t run off with you, you’ll need to do that last part anyway. 

—————— LATER ——————

*A new Year, Yaz stands before the console in the TARDIS, the telepathic circuits exposed.*

Yaz talking to the TARDIS: Let try, Earth, just a few years ago, St Luke's University in Bristol.

*later*

Yaz talking to the TARDIS: Alright, that wasn’t so hard was it? Just that a few years to you means any time in the last 70 years of teaching, should’ve been a little more specific, but at least we found Bill on the last trip...what do you think, jump to the last day? Or little hops?

*TARDIS lands in its old spot, Yaz quietly leaves and notices packed boxes around, hears voices in the hallway.*

Man: I’m sorry you just can’t enter.

Woman: I assure you I have every right to be here, and if you just check you’re files you will easily verify all I’ve said. I can wait, I don’t mind.

Man: *Huffs* This is still most irregular, you should have called in advance, we could have avoided all this unpleasantness, wait right here. *walks off*

Woman: wouldn’t dream of moving.

*suddenly woman walks into the rooms* I thought he’d never leave * spots Yaz* Are you my Ride, Detective?

Yaz: *supprized* Um, well, Yea, sure, I could help....

Woman: Ah. My apologies. PC Khan, Could you grab those boxes by the desk? There are just a few things in the other room for me to get. Meet you in the TARDIS.

*Yaz pacing the around the console*

*Woman walks in with 2 more boxes and a guitar, puts down boxes next to the others, and sets the TARDIS to leave.*

Yaz: *stops* See the thing is, I haven’t met you yet, I’m not sure, but I think I know who you are.

Woman: And whooooo am I?

Yaz: The Doctor’s wife, Professor Song.

River: Oh! I knew I liked you, got it one. *presses buttons on data pad* Low level perception filter. *Does a pirouette* What do you think?

Yaz: *Looks toward the boxes* you look just like your photo.

River: Not bad for nearly 300, *looks at photo* Sentimental old hippie, that’s from the day of our first kiss, practically died that day.

Yaz: But you saved him.

River: Well, you are well informed, I am supprised.

Yaz: And you’ve been to Darillium, then? You said your nearly 300...the Doctor said you were just over 200 at Darillium.

River: *walks around the console* Spoilers, so where shall we go, what is your plan?

Yaz: *puzzeled* I hadn’t gone past trying to find you at Luna University in the 51st Century.

River: Ah, well then lets get Missy’s vault, and make sure I recieve the message Nardole left for me.

Yaz: You know what happened to Nardole? The Doctor, she didn’t remember.

River: No...I suspect I may need to send the message to myself. Absolutely not, we can’t go to Gallifrey. What century were you in?

Yaz: *gasps* 61st, she said you had natural telepathic abilities.

River: I’m practically untrained, you must have been thinking aloud. Had you been there long, know anyone from that time, that is still there?

Yaz: No, but a Captain Jack did Scoop us up from Gloucester, with a warning about the Cyberman, so he could be from that time.

River: Harkness, really... alright, and don’t tell him I’m married to the Doctor, he’s always trying to find out to whom I’m married too, it’s practically a game at this point.

*takes off guitar and sets coordinates*

—————— Later ——————

Yaz: Your not coming with us, are you?

River: No, I’ll look after the other TARDIS, never know when you might want one that knows how took like a House.

Yaz: You haven’t been to Darillium yet, have you?

River: *smirks* that would be telling, and were is the fun in that...You know I’ve read a diary from a Victorian Era Lady, there is ample evidence that all the Lady’s of her social circle were 35 for years.... when my parents first started traveling with the Doctor in their early twenties, I was never less that 35 when I saw them as River.... so what’s century or so when married to an ageless god.

———————

*Doctor emptying the boxes from St Luke’s; sadly looking at River’s photo*

Yaz: Doctor, I think we’ll see River again, when she first saw me beside the TARDIS she called me Detective...

13: Well it does say police on it, she’s flirty like that.

Yaz: Except she apologized right away and corrected to PC Khan, before we even got to introductions....

13: *looks up and grins* Spoilers......