Chapter Text
Rose felt like she hadn’t slept in a week. In and out with early mornings and late nights. She certainly hadn’t been the only one, of course. No, the entire base had been buzzing with activity to try to identify an object that had just popped through a crack in the wall between the world they lived in and some other parallel universe. About all they knew was that it wasn’t from their old universe and - as far as the Doctor and the UNIT scientists could estimate - the new crack had sealed itself up again. Granted, there were plenty of nerves to go around about thinning walls and shattered universes. Namely the one that they lived in. Hence the exceptionally long week. It had been all hands on deck, especially for those that had interdimensional travel on their resume.
The moon was already high and bright in London’s night sky as Rose made her way up to the Doctor’s lab. She was off-duty and had been ordered home. They’d apparently given him the same order a couple of hours before, but she could guarantee he hadn’t bothered to listen to it. He never did. Some things never changed.
He was exactly where she’d wagered that he’d be: bent over a table in the lab, tinkering with something or the other. She stood in the doorway for a long moment before finally clearing her throat, startling him out of his absolute focus so that his head jerked upward, his glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose, and those impossibly large brown eyes of his staring owlishly over them at her. She offered a smile and held up the bag of food containers in her hand. “Thought you might be hungry.”
There was a beat of pause and she saw him about to deny it, but as if on cue, his stomach gave an audible growl of agreement. “‘Spose so,” he answered and swiveled his stool around to unfold from where he’d been hunched over. She let her gaze travel him up and down as he grabbed his suit jacket from where it had been draped over the table. “How ‘bout we go out?”
“Yeah? Whatcha thinkin’? There’s that little pizza shop just round —“
“I was thinkin’ something’ more along the lines of that little cafe on Pradador Three,” he offered, his head tilted in exaggerated thought. “Assuming Pradador Three’s still got all those nice little shops and cafes in this universe, of course.”
It took a half a moment longer than it should have to register what he was saying, and he must have watched it dawn across her face as a toothy grin started to stretch across his. Her head snapped to the corner of his lab where an other-worldly, grey cylinder that had stood for months now. In its place was a blue police box, the chameleon circuit finally capable of shifting it to the form they both knew so well. By the time she looked back at him, he was grinning ear to ear. “Fancy a night out?”
“It’s ready?”
“She’s ready,” he answered and took the bag of food from her, tossing it over towards the table. “Been waitin’ on you for her first trip out.”
“You better,” she laughed as she turned to the TARDIS, taking the ship in. At least from the outside, it looked identical. A choice, she imagined, but one she wholeheartedly agreed with. He moved with more hop in his step than their recent long hours should have allowed him and she stopped. “Everything's up and running, right? We’ll be back by morning?”
“We’ll be back in five minutes as far as this lot knows,” he answered with a wink and pushed the door open for her, stepping back so she could enter first. Well, probably not first. They’d both been in and out of the control room working on it since he had gotten the dimension stabilizers online and the tiny space had blossomed into a very plain version of the control room she used to know. A pocket dimension, he’d explained once. That’s how it was bigger on the inside, and while their work - okay, his work with her attempts to help under close supervision. It had been the first time she’d actually done any real mechanical work on the TARDIS - had been centered in the control room, he’d explained that the TARDIS was growing the rest of the ship. The engine room, the library, and even a swimming pool that he’d admitted was always at the TARDIS’ whim and often ended him drenched when things went awry. It certainly wouldn’t be the same TARDIS that the other Doctor had taken to get he and Donna back to their world, but it would have echoes. Maybe more than that, depending how close the personalities of what was, in a way, mother and child lined up.
The Doctor followed her in and the doors snapped shut behind them. Her gaze swept the control room and then followed him over to the panel, not missing how those long fingers ghosted over the metal there. Rose shook her head, Sarah Jane’s and her laugh coming to mind before she moved to join him. “So why Pradador Three?” she asked as he keyed in their coordinates.
“Oh, they had those nice little shops with the pastries you liked. Whatcha-call-its.”
“That the technical term?” she teased and he flashed her another grin.
“Very technical.”
“Thought we were goin’ for dinner?”
“Pastries can be dinner. Since when can’t pastries be dinner?”
She snorted. “Gonna have to do a bit more runnin’ than we have been.”
He turned, his expression suddenly more serious than she’d been expecting. “You’re alright with that?”
The meaning struck home. It wasn’t like they’d lived what anyone would call a quiet life in the last few years of living in Pete’s World. There’d been aliens and tears between words, constant threats looming with what it all meant. They’d worked on the TARDIS and provided insights to UNIT that no one on this world could have had. They’d barely stopped, but there was no running like the running that you did with a Time Lord in his TARDIS. If she didn’t want it, if she wanted a nice night in with sandwiches and a semi-decent night’s sleep rather than popping off to all corners and fitting days into just a few minutes… well, now was the time to say so. And he was offering it, not because it’s what he wanted, but because he loved her.
Rose pursed her lips together, holding that impatient gaze of his for a long moment before the smile cracked through and she reached forward, snagged him by the lapels, and pulled him into a kiss. “Allons-y,” she murmured teasingly and she felt his own smile break free as he stole another quick kiss before pulling away.
“Allons-y!” he shouted as he threw the switch and the TARDIS wheezed to life, hurdling them through time and space. Rose and her Doctor.
—-
Pradador Three was exactly where and when he expected it to be, which was certainly a good sign for the first trip out in the freshly regrown TARDIS. The Doctor had briefly weighed taking her out on his own for a test flight. Just a hop to the moon and back. It would have been quick and easy and a safety precaution that was entirely unnecessary. No, the TARDIS was a living ship, her consciousness fully capable of providing enough information to calculate if all systems required to fling them through time and space were operational or not. A lifetime ago he might have done it on instinct, so used to the TARDIS being his only lasting companion among the stars, but so much had changed in the last few years. He found he didn’t want to bop in and out on his own. He didn’t have to be alone anymore, and, while it had taken some time and a great deal of effort on both of their part, he’d grown very comfortable in that reality that they lived day in and day out. Sure, it came with roots that still left him feeling restless and often a little jittery, but now that they could travel again, they’d do it together. Rose wasn’t just a companion - not that she ever really had been, truth be told - she was it. Even the TARDIS herself seemed to agree. No other human had ever been able to bond with a Time Lord’s ship before, but this TARDIS had allowed her to as they built her up together. He still wasn’t sure if it was remnants of her time as the Bad Wolf or if it was an extension of his own feelings towards her, but it was, without any question, their TARDIS now. Strange how right felt.
“It’s just like I remember it,” Rose’s voice cut through his thoughts as they pushed through the busy market space, humanoids and aliens of all kinds haggling and purchasing all round them.
“A few changes. Take a look there,” the Doctor answered, pointing between two exceptionally tall females with long necks, spotted skin, and lashes that curled out several inches from their base. Beyond them, where a collection of open-air booths sat in their own universe, a much larger, more permanent building had taken their place. It didn’t feel too modern next to the rest of the market, with open windows and sloped roof made of the same material as the market booths.
Rose’s nose wrinkled a little. “Think the pastries are still in there?”
“Only one way to find out.”
She grinned, slipped her hand in his, and they were off. They dodged between different species, the excitement of travelling again for the first time in several years filling them both with more energy than they had right to have after the exceptionally long week.
Inside was much like the outside: a collection of food and shops and booths selling trinkets from all over the galaxy. Pradador Three had long since become a melting pot of cultures and a place known for all of their little delights. Rose had loved the pastries - and how could she not? Filled with fruits and creams only found on this moon and nowhere else - but something else had caught her eye the last time they’d been there. He’d barely noticed it back then. Why would he? Women and their… ah. There it was. Diagonal to the pastries and one row back. Just as it should be. Thankfully Rose had spotted the vendor they’d come for, already perusing the options and sorting through the credits he’d procured before entering the market proper. He took the moment to slip away unnoticed.
The Doctor kept a side eye on her, always making sure that he could appear perfectly distracted should her attention swivel over on him. There was plenty to keep it as the shop owner provided samples, explaining the fine ingredients used to create the treat. A small smile touched his lips as he watched her expression that had been so very, very tired recently light up. Before he knew it, he’d stumbled into the booth he’d been aiming for.
“Looking for something special?” an old, tiny woman with magenta eyes and black hair - streaked blue as if that might be how her species greyed - asked. She sat on a hover stool behind the old wood of the booth, her intricate cloak that was draped loosely over the crown of her head the same colour as her eyes mixed with greens and yellows. She lifted a bony hand, golden bangles striking together to give off a musical tone, and swept it out over the rows of jewelry. “From all corners of the galaxy. This blue would suit you nicely.”
The Doctor’s dark eyes flickered to what might have been a tie pin the same colour as the TARDIS. Interesting. He wondered if she might have a low-level empathic trait that allowed her to find pieces that suited interested parties. He offered her a charming smile. “Not for me,” he clarified. “My… friend -“ oh, now that word just didn’t feel deep enough when connected to Rose - “and I were here some time back. She saw a ring. Gold, bit glowy with dusting of diamonds worked into it band and -“
“Forgive,” the woman said with a dip of her head, “but I do not have such a ring.”
“Never?”
“Not ever. Perhaps on the other side where the silver merchant sell? Some of their rings appear gold…”
The Doctor felt his chest tighten in disappointment. “Maybe so,” he answered, knowing full well it wasn’t theirs. Just because he wasn’t actively focused when she’d seen it didn’t mean that his mind hadn’t logged the details way back in a corner to be accessed later if need be. No. This might be Pradador Three, but it was still Pete’s World. Pete’s Universe, more like. Things were different in the tiniest and the biggest of ways.
“There you are!” Rose called from a couple of booths over. “Come over here! I don’t remember this one. It’s a fruit that’s ‘sposed to be good for ya, but tastes like those fancy chocolates Mum likes! We should take some home.”
“Thanks,” the Doctor murmured as he smiled back at the blonde woman who he loved. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he made his way over to her. “Oi, sure, if you want to be the one to tell her we’re off travelin’ again.”
Rose’s smile faded just a little and he was sure she was picturing the same thing he was: Jackie Tyler in full rant mode about galavanting all across the galaxy and risking her daughter’s life. The fact that it was a decision they’d made together wouldn’t matter in the slightest. “Well,” the daughter in question said after a moment, “not like they were going to make it back anyway.” She reached into the cloth to-go bag, took out a donut hole-sized pastry, and popped it into her mouth. She quirked a dark eyebrow at him, offering a second pastry out to him, and laughed around the mouthful of sweets as she snapped it away when he made a go for it.
“Oh? I see how it is,” he chuckled.
“Yeah, just like it,” she said as she grabbed another one and held it up to pop it in his mouth too. Her smile softened as she looked up at him and he felt his single heart flutter a bit in his chest. “So, you over there looking at some sorta fancy space rings?”
He blinked innocently at her. “What would I be doing that for?”
“Oh who knows,” she teased, thumbing what he could only assume was a bit of the powdered frosting from his lips before stealing a quick kiss and dropping her free hand back into his to start further into the market.
The Doctor tightened his fingers around hers, the smile never leaving his face. Intellectually he’d known just how much he’d missed this, but even he’d underestimated how utterly right it felt, even when things didn’t always work out exactly as planned. He had her, and she had him. Everything else was just a tangible symbol of what they already knew that could be figured out in time.
—-
“It can never be just a date with you,” Rose teased as the engines quieted, the TARDIS settling into place. “Always have to have an ulterior-universe-saving-motive, don’tcha?”
His lips quirked up at the corners as he bounced his way around the control console, still giddy with energy that they hadn’t had to run off on this trip. “Oh yes, saving the universe one pastry at a time. If only it were that easy.”
Rose rolled her eyes good naturedly at him and moved to link her arm through his as they started for the door. “You think the answer to the tears are out there though?” It wasn’t like the thought hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind, even if they’d all hoped to find both the answer and the solution a little closer to home. After the other Doctor had left with Donna and the TARDIS, they’d all assumed that the rift had been - like he said it would be - closed and sealed up. For good. But then debris started to drop through at random intervals, then the occasional crossover either by accident or intent. It became obvious that, even if they might not have a pathway directly between the two universes that they had been traveling through, not all the tears were sealed. In fact, if the sheer number of incidents were anything to go by, they were increasing. And despite the advanced technology that Pete’s World had compared to the one that she had been born into, humanity was still mostly confined to the Earth. There was no galavanting across the galaxy looking for answers. Until now. It didn’t hurt that they had a spaceship with a personality and likely as much of a knack for finding trouble as its predecessor.
“Weeeeeeell,” the Doctor drawled out as the doors swung open to let them out into the early evening air, the TARDIS tucked away in the alley a block down from the little terrace house that they rented. “Just about four years of beatin’ our heads against every dead end we could find, I can think of worse theories. It’s a big universe out there, Rose Tyler, and somethin’ is causing these tears.”
“And if this TARDIS is anything like her mum, she’ll take us right to the source.” She reached into her jacket pocket, fishing around for the key to their place. Her fingers touched it and she pulled it out just in time.
“Not lookin’ forward to explaining how we got to the center of it when we do.”
Rose snorted at that. “You’re not the one that’ll get an earful.”
“Sure your mum thinks I’m due for another slap.”
“I mean, not for that.”
He stopped halfway across the street. “What for then?” he demanded, all indignant obliviousness that was sometimes endearing. Most of the time. At least when she didn’t have to come up with excuses to keep her mum off their backs.
Rose dropped her hand into his and yanked him out of the way of oncoming traffic. As soon as they reached the curb, he hit the brakes again and it was clear that she either had to fill him in on what he’d been missing or lie to him. She loosed a sigh. “It’s nothing.”
“Not if she wants to take my head off over it.”
“Honest. She’s just a bit ol’ fashion sometimes. Well, you know. We’ve been here four years, traveled together before that, and --” He was staring at her blankly and she could have kicked herself for letting it slip, because he was going to make her come out and say it and it wasn’t even his fault. “She thinks we should be engaged or somethin’ by now.”
She could practically see the gears turning, but he still looked so incredibly confused. Despite the logical side of her brain reminding her that she knew him, she knew he wasn’t going anywhere no matter what he did or didn’t say. The reminder didn’t get her far as she felt her temper flare to push aside the embarrassment and she dropped her hand from his as she started forward towards their front door. “Forget it. It’s stupid, really.”
“No…no, not stupid. Just didn’t think Jackie’d be looking for it, is all. We don’t really do that much.”
That stopped her again. “Do what?”
“The whole -” he flapped his hand around as he tried to come up with the words - “engage, marry, for all the lives… thing. I mean, I’m over 900 years old. Your mum does remember I’m not human, yeah? Bit of a different way of doin’ things.”
“But you did tell me you had a family on Gallifrey,” she pressed. Not just a family. A granddaughter. That had been a bizarre discussion to have with the love of her life that had never looked that much older than her, even when she’d first met him.
“Bit odd in and of itself,” he muttered in a tone that told her she wasn’t ready to go down that particular rabbit hole. “But no. It’s exceptionally rare for two Time Lords to bond for life like that.”
She forced a breath out through her nose, desperate to steady the frustration she hadn’t really been ready to feel on the subject as quickly as possible. “Right. It’s just Mum being Mum, that’s all,” This was not how she wanted to end a particularly lovely evening that they’d had out.
He caught her wrist, stopping her momentum and she finally turned to meet his gaze. “I’ve never been particularly known for keeping to Gallifreyan norms,” he answered, his tone strangely serious without the world imploding around them. “I’m with you for as long as you’ll have me, Rose. When you bonded with the TARDIS I… Well I thought you knew that.”
She found herself lost in those eyes for a long moment. “Oh,” she managed a little breathlessly. She had and she hadn’t. He’d made it very clear that day at Bad Wolf Bay that he wanted to be with her the rest of their lives, but the day he’d taken her into the TARDIS and helped her form a psychic link with it the way he’d always had… she hadn’t realized. It made sense now that he was stumbling his way through it. He’d shared with her a link that would be forever for them, and wasn’t that what promising to spend your life with somebody was?
Rose blinked, realizing she was still just staring at him and his expression had become just a little tighter with each passing moment of silence. She let a small, teasing smile touch her lips again. “And good thing too, because you’re stuck with me, mister.”
A relieved, goofy grin lit his face and pulled a laugh from her. Well, she hadn’t expected to find this out, but that was how they stumbled into things: halfway by accident. In the years following the metacrisis they’d had to find a way to navigate all that they’d been through and the questions they had following it. They’d gotten there, but they were also getting there. Maybe that’s just what life was: always something new to find out and figure out. At least it was never boring when the two of them were involved.
Rose snagged his hand again, tugging him towards the door. She had every intention of pulling him through it, up the narrow stairs to the top floor, and straight to their bedroom, but almost as soon as they entered she heard a familiar voice from back in the dining nook on the ground floor.
“Not sure when exactly they’ll be back, mind you,” Jackie Tyler said. “Rose seemed to think they’d be working late. I sent her to his lab with some of those tiny sandwiches they both like. Not that he’d ever say thank you or anything of the like. I saved his life once, I did. Christmas Eve a few years back. He was on death’s door and I got him a spot of tea. Right as rain. Never a thank you one.”
The usual banter of the subject was filed away immediately as both Rose and the Doctor froze instantly, the door still halfway pushed open and they hadn’t even made it more than a step past the threshold. It was a miracle that the door itself hadn’t squeaked, but one wrong step on a loose floorboard would let both Rose’s mum and whoever the hell was in their home know they were there before they knew exactly what was going on.
The Doctor shot her a pointed, silent look and Rose nodded, digging into her pocket for her cell phone. No messages. Okay. That meant that no one had been there long. How and why Mum had managed to get into their place while they weren’t home would be tabled until they knew everything was okay.
“Just let me ring her and see where they’re at,” Jackie said from the room that emptied out into the tiny garden that they’d contemplated landing the TARDIS in prior to playing it safe and landing in the alley. Well, at least their instincts were still sharp, even if Jackie’s weren’t.
Panic was palpable between them, but there was no way to get rid of it or even silence the phone in time to stop the ringing. Do You Want To by Franz Ferdinand sounded off, somehow louder than it ever had before from her phone. The upbeat song bounced off the hardwood floors, the carpet put down doing nothing to damper it, and she instantly heard the telltale sound of a chair scooting across the dining nook floor. “Rose, sweetie, is that you?”
Rose could have killed her in that instant. “Yeah, Mum,” she answered, trying to play it like she had no idea anyone else was there. “Whatcha doin’ over?”
“Oh, just popped by for a chat. We haven’t talked in forever.”
“I saw you when you dropped the sandwiches off,” Rose answered before she could stop herself.
“Yeah,” Jackie answered, her voice drawing closer, “but you know how a mother is. Well, guess you don’t. Not yet. Oi, Doctor!” she greeted as she rounded into the hall. “You’ve got some colleagues in there. No idea what colleagues know you ‘n not Rose.”
“ Mum !” Rose hissed, motioning for her to come closer and desperately hoping she’d catch the vibe in the room. She only about halfway did, but at least she was moving forward as she grumbled loudly about not understanding what all the fuss was about. The Doctor moved past her and inched his way between the Tylers and whatever threat there might just be in the next room.
“Oh, what’s all this fuss?” Jackie demanded. “They said they were your friends!”
“Mum, who do we know in this world besides our family and UNIT that’d come ‘round without warning?” Rose snapped and saw his hand at his pocket. The only thing he had there was the sonic screwdriver he’d put together from scratch. Unless the enemy was mechanical, it wasn’t going to do them much good.
Footsteps echoed and everyone tensed. Rose pulled her mum back behind her, kicking herself for going along with the Doctor’s no gun policy for their home. If this went badly and they lived through it, she’d at least have leverage to push back on that.
Two figures appeared down at the end of the hall, passing from the kitchen and moving past the stairwell. A man and a woman. The man was young and fit, looking much more like a soldier than any UNIT scientist that might know the Doctor and not her. His clothes were bland and might fit in anywhere - which, to her training, made them stand out even more - and his blond hair was slicked back in a tight style. His eyes were sharp, focused on her, and she saw his hand hovering like he was ready to pull a weapon at any time.
The woman was petite, a bit older, and her dark, curly hair was braided from temples back to the nape of her neck to keep it out of her way. If Rose had thought the man’s eyes were intense, those grey eyes were fixed on her Doctor, and she already had the weapon drawn. It didn’t look like anything that UNIT had access to. “Don’t move.”
“What’s all this about?” Jackie howled, looking around, but Rose shook her head at her and hoped beyond hope she would know better than to try to bolt and grab her daughter along with her.
The man pulled a small device that was similar to the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver from his pocket and swept it over then, pulling it back up to view the readouts. “Negative. Single hearts show that… Wait.”
The woman looked over at the readings without dropping her weapon. “Traces of the Time Vortex on you both, but there’s only partial Time Lord DNA on that one. Unless….” Her steely gaze snapped to the Doctor. “You’re using a chemlian arch.”
“I’m really not,” he answered carefully.
“Close the door. All three of you, inside.”
“Wait just a minute now!” Jackie said loudly.
A quick look to her Doctor confirmed what Rose’s instincts told her. She reached out to her mum and laid a gentle hand on her arm. “Let him handle this.”
“Handle what, exactly?”
Rose didn’t answer, but instead turned to the Doctor who had his head cocked to one side curiously. “Look at you. No one I know from this world. Shouldn’t be from the other. Of all the tears between universes, that one’s shut off at the spigot.” He took a step forward, hyper-focused and took a deep breath as he did. “Those clothes - costumes, really - and that air about you. No…No. Yes .” His eyes somehow managed to widen a fraction more and he tipped up on his toes in anticipation. “You’re Time Lords. That means --”
“Doctor,” the woman cut him off sharply, “I am Darkel and this is Chalmirraflexon. We have been tasked by the High Council to bring you in. You once loved this planet. Please do not cause their inhabitants any harm as we apprehend you.”
“-- Gallifrey stands,” he finished, the awe in his voice echoing off their walls like the women addressing him hadn’t just stated that she was trying to arrest him. “In this universe, Gallifrey stands.”
“Chal-a-mi-wha?” Jackie demanded shrilly. “What kinda name is that? Is this a prank? Some sorta office prank that they gotta go all the way with? Well, I’ll tell you somethin’, lady. I’m your boss’ boss’ boss’ wife. There’ll be none of tha’ around --”
Darkel moved, her weapon flashing to life in a streak of bright white as it struck Jackie. Rose screamed as her mother crumbled to the hallway floor, and she turned an infuriated look on the perpetrator. Before she could get more than a couple of steps forward, the Doctor stopped her. “She’s fine. Just unconscious,” he promised. His attention turned back to Darkel, even if his gaze had never left her. “I don’t know you, so there’s a better than even chance you don’t know me personally either. Whatever you think I’ve done, I haven’t. We’re not from here.”
“A clever tale to spin,” Darkel answered, her weapon fixed on him now and she thumbed a control. “Don’t think that I’ll simply stun you, Doctor. I know who you are. What you are.”
Rose risked a glance at him and she could see him working out their options in that clever mind of his. “Alright,” he said with his hands outstretched and visible. “Alright. What do you want?”
“You’ll come with us to face Time Lord justice.”
“And you’ll let them go?”
“Doctor!” Rose snapped and received only an outstretched hand intended to keep her from rushing forward in response.
“We have no use for the Human race in this time. You’re the one Rassilon demands must pay the price.”
“Rassilon. Right. He’s still Lord President then?”
“Indeed he is.”
“Alright then,” the Doctor breathed, risking a brief and pointed glance back at Rose who stood between him and her now-unconscious mother. He held out his arms dramatically, as if offering his wrists for handcuffs. “Then take me to the Lord President!”
----
They weren’t particularly chatty, not that that was any overwhelming surprise. To his relief, Rose didn’t try to jump in the middle of things just yet. That didn’t mean he expected her to sit around and twindle her thumbs once her mother came back around. Once she knew Jackie was safe, the Doctor couldn’t have stopped her from following him if he’d tried. Not with the TARDIS that she’d helped to build sitting just a ways down that would, like any good TARDIS, be able to return to Gallifrey almost on auto-pilot. No, she’d be along sooner rather than later. The Doctor just hoped he had things sorted by the time she got there.
Darkel and Chalmirraflexon shuffled him off towards a Mini Cooper that was parked against the opposite curb, opened the door, and shoved him inside. The Doctor stumbled a bit as he fell into the pocket dimension that was the inside of their TARDIS that they’d arrived in. Darkel’s TARDIS, he decided as she followed in and it gave a subtle but warm greeting. He took a look around, soaking everything in and trying to glean anything from his surroundings that might help him make sense of where Gallifrey stood in this world. Had the Time War even happened? If not, they very well could be at their peak. Perhaps his other self had only now taken off with his TARDIS and they had a more forceful reaction in this world than in his own. Or perhaps the Time War had happened, just as it had back home, and if so, had Gallifrey simply survived or had they won decisively? As much as it pained him, if it was the latter, they could be in for some very uncomfortable times ahead and decisions that he’d never thought he’d have to make again when it came to the Time Lords versus the universe at large. He remembered the final days at the outer edges of the Time Locked war. He remembered the extremes that the High Council had taken and how, after they had resurrected Rassilon, no action that would win them the war had become too extreme. The Doctor - the version of himself that to that day he hated to remember - might have agreed, if only they’d come to terms on what winning truly meant. In the end, everything burned. Time Lords and Daleks alike. They’d burned and he’d set the blaze. If the Rassilon that he’d known was the same Rassilon ruling over his homeworld now, there was a better than even chance he’d find the source of the tears that continued to open up in time and space between realities.
The TARDIS wasn’t staffed like it would have been at the height of the war, nor were there the scant few flying the empathic machine with haunted eyes and shaking hands that would have signified the end of the Time War in his universe. Neither did the un-introduced staff wear military uniforms. They weren’t any uniforms that he recognized, now that he thought about it, which likely meant they were with the Celestial Intervention Agency. Yep. That’d make sense.
They hurtled through the Time Vortex without another murmur in his direction, but there wasn’t even a fraction of a moment in which there weren’t eyes on him. There was a wariness there, though not just of a stranger. No, Pete’s World’s Doctor either had done something truly terrible or had been set up so that everyone believed that he did. Finally, after five minutes of unending silence, the Doctor stepped as close to the forcefield holding him in as he dared without getting zapped back against the wall. “So,” he drawled out to the four guards that had remained with him after escorting him back: two on either side of the field with their backs to him and the other two standing across, their backs against the solid hallway and their eyes never leaving the Doctor. He wondered if they actually blinked. If he ever ran across the Weeping Angels again, he wanted those two on his side. “Care to fill me in on what you think I did?”
There was a flicker of emotion in response, but only a flicker. If he hadn’t been staring directly at the man he never would have seen it. Instead he stared directly at him, clear blue eyes fixed and dark blond brows hooded over them in a serious fashion. Right. Well. Worth a try, he supposed.
He felt it when they stopped, but no one in his line of sight moved. He was there for another unbearable amount of time waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and -- There. They were moving again. A shift of some sort that caught his attention, but then there was nothing again. Just more waiting and waiting and waiting.
Finally the door slid open down the hall and the Doctor popped to his feet, the rubber soles of his high tops giving off the tiniest of squeaks. There were three sets of eyes on him with that now, the fourth looking down the way at whoever was approaching. Another nameless somebody that had likely gotten middling grades at the Academy but had proven to take orders well enough strolled down the corridor, nodded wordlessly to one of the guards, who turned back to the Doctor. “Step back.”
“Oh, you do have a voice!” the Doctor cheered before he could help himself, but did as instructed as he watched the guard go for his staser at his side.
They moved him out of the holding area, through the control room, and out of the TARDIS. He saw the reason for the move after they’d arrived. Apparently he was deemed too dangerous to move on foot and they’d delivered Darkel’s TARDIS directly to the Panopticon’s central chambers. The High Council was not in session, but instead Rassilon stood in the center, dressed in his scarlet and gold robes with his high-back collar and partial headdress leaving him with the regal look that the Doctor knew he took great pride in. The ancient one of Gallifrey. The Time Lord that had founded Gallifreyan culture. He’d lived his lives. Again and again. And then they’d brought him back. There had been days that the Doctor had wondered just what that process did inside someone’s mind.
“Lord President,” the Doctor greeted, motioning a bit even though his wrists were still cuffed in front of him.
“Doctor,” Rassilon answered. “You changed your face. Perhaps we were closer to capturing you than we realized.”
The Doctor let the fractured piece of information bounce around in his mind for a brief moment before answering. “There’s been a mistake here.”
“Don’t bother. Darkel has already warned us of your lies. Thin and easily undone. You’ve grown careless, Doctor.”
“Then undo them,” the younger Time Lord offered, receiving a skeptical and calculating look from the Lord President. “Oh, don’t be like that. You and I both know that all you have to do is take a look. Not even a chameleon arch could hide my thoughts from you of all Time Lords.”
“Your attempt at flattery will not protect you.”
“But the truth will. Come on now, it’s quick and easy and I’m offering. I’d rather get down to the heart of all this.”
“Which is?”
The Doctor’s previously amused expression darkened a little. “The fractures between worlds that were supposed to close when the Reality Bomb in my original universe was reversed. That door may have closed, but you can’t tell me that you haven’t seen what’s been happening since.”
Rassilon stared at him for a long moment, looking strangely confused. He moved forward, waving off an advisor that tried to stop him. “The only reason I deem to entertain this is that I know you to be an intelligent man. Mad, perhaps, but always intelligent. Even madness should not have spun such a loose tale.”
“I’m not lying.” the Doctor answered firmly.
“Know that if you’ve laid a trap - or if he’s laid a trap - it will be the end of all of your lives, Doctor.”
Dark brows drew together. “If who’s --?”
But he didn’t have a chance to get the question out as Rassilon reached forward, his hand touched the side of the younger Time Lord’s face and the cool metal of his rings were the last thing that the Doctor knew before the connection was made through physical contact. It was two-way, and he heard a guttural scream that must have been his own as reality erupted around him in a single Moment, never to end.