Veritas in Temporis

[Shuren]

Veritas in Temporis

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Through crimson stars and silent stars and tumbling nebulas like oceans set on fire, through empires of glass and civilizations of pure thought, and a whole, terrible, wonderful universe of impossibilities... a never ending journey.

[Shuren]

With a sigh, the Games slid the last bit of his paperwork across his desk. It was a normal day on Gallifrey and a certainly busy one for the Lord President. Though he didn’t mind that at all; having seen wars and conflicts no matter which incarnation he was, he had come to appreciate any kind of normality he could get. But of course, that didn’t apply to travelling randomly with his TARDIS. “Let’s roll, Handles.” said the Games with a smile once he was inside. He walked around the console and adjusted the flight settings; only to stop several seconds later after noticing the TARDIS hadn’t even moved yet. He moved over to where Handles was and knocked on its head two times. He quickly used his sonic screwdriver on the Cyberman head to realize it was working perfectly fine. Perhaps it was his wording that had confused the thing. “Take her off, Handles.” he reinstated his words and received a reply this time. “Affirmative.” said Handles. “Gee, I should install a colloquial phrase databank on you.” thought the Time Lord as he walked around the console and activated the randomizer through the scanner after setting the flight time into an hour. Now his destination could be anywhere in anytime, but he would still have his break from his last encounter. He was feeling open to surprises and this was probably the best way to do it. Sliding his hands into his coat’s pockets, he nodded after glancing at the time rotor moving up and down and made his way to the interior. He paid a visit to the kitchen first, to prepare himself a cup of tea. Afterwards he went to one of the workshops to finally put a databank chip together for Handles so it could understand all of his commands. For about forty minutes, he worked non-stop. But once that was over, Handles’ voice would be heard inside the room. “Security breach imminent. Time fissure forming.” it said through the comm. By the time the Games had reached the console room, it would make yet another announcement. “Target vessel identified as friendly.” Upon hearing that, the Games instinctively raised his eyebrow, wondering how the Cyberman head had concluded to such a result. “How so?” he asked. Though the answer he was about to receive would only leave him more surprised.“Target vessel is identical.” replied Handles, as the sound of a TARDIS dematerializing echoed across the console room.

It was, just like Handles had said, his TARDIS disguised as its signature red telephone box. Soon after it landed somewhere next to the coat rack near the entrance the door opened and a man stepped out. “Oh, this is ancient.” he said, as he straightened his bowtie. Even though he was much older than the fifth incarnation standing across him in amusement, the Eleventh Games seemed to have softer features. He had light green eyes and light brown wavy hair that was stylized as a comb over parted in the right. He was wearing a blue coat that reached his knees and underneath it was a brown, tweed wool suit and matching pants. The latter was open in the front, revealing the saffron colored vest and plain, white, rounded collared shirt beneath it. “Rude. Who are you again?” said the Fifth Games in response, looking somewhat annoyed by the eleventh’s incarnation’s remark, deeming him ancient. Though he did like the idea that he had lived up so far. The eleventh incarnation, on the other hand, didn’t say a word. Instead he crossed his arms and made a facial expression as if he was saying “come on, man”. “Number six?” asked the Fifth upon this reaction, having no idea that he was far from wrong. “Eleven. Believe me, six has much better things to do.” said the Eleventh, thinking about how much trouble said incarnation was going through. “Why did we regenerate so much?” interrupted the Fifth, certainly doubting if it had been any good that he had acquired his current powers. All he knew was that he was able to regenerate indefinitely, without having to change that is. But apparently he had changed at least half a dozen times more. “Things… happened.” replied the Eleventh.

This was his predecessor’s first time interacting with a future incarnation. For him, it had already happened twice. And both times he had gone through enormous difficulties, not to mention the role Rassilon had played in both. There was no need for him to tell all that to the person who had just somewhat managed to block him from his thoughts. “Anyway, why are you here again?” asked the Fifth with a nod, after understanding that he wasn’t going to get a better explanation.“I was searching for some help with something. It’s basically a two-man job. Then I found your TARDIS as the closest trustworthy vessel and remembered the time we had interacted.” explained the eleventh incarnation. His face started to look worried for some reason, which would double with the Fifth’s next statement. “Fine, I’ll help you. What are we going to do next?” he urged before getting a reply that would mostly disappoint him. “I… uhh… don’t remember.” replied the Eleventh, while scratching the back of his head. “I just remember meeting you and being off to somewhere.” he continued, trying his best to remember what they did. “Are you kidding? How can you forget this?!” spat the Fifth, while motioning his hands around him and signing at their surroundings. “Well, obviously you weren’t paying enough attention either!” yelled the Eleventh, somewhat. His memories consisted of the Fifth’s so his attention right now and what he remembered were directly proportional. Except for the fact that for him all of this had taken place hundreds of years ago, so his brain could have also archived all the unused information. Luckily for them, after several minutes of mumbling on their own the Eleventh would remember what they were going to do. “Okay I remember now. There is this big marketplace on Earth, in London. Old Spitalfields. It’s always very crowded, but recently people just stopped going there…” he said, as he stood up from where he sat cheerfully. Yet, he couldn’t finish his sentence thanks to his past self cutting him midway. “That could be due to…” interrupted the Fifth, but the Eleventh didn’t let him continue same way he did. “…as if the whole place never even existed.” he finished, finally, forcing an expression of wonder and surprise upon his predecessor’s face. “Oh.” he thought, without actually saying anything. Well, at least they had a destination now. Moving over to the console, the Fifth quickly reentered the coordinates while the Eleventh reset the flight adjustments.

[Shuren]

The flight was going well until an alarm sound echoed inside the control room. The lighting changed and turned into a red as the interior theme suddenly changed into blue neon from copper. Both of the incarnations of the Time Lord looked around carefully until their gazes met. “Desktop is glitching.” remarked the Eleventh, somehow remembering this happening. Not only were they in close proximity of one another, the eleventh incarnation had also materialized his TARDIS inside the Fifth’s. So naturally the TARDIS was trying to compensate for both of them somehow. Another alarm went off shortly afterwards but this time the fifth incarnation seemed determined to put an end to it: he was feeling weirdly disturbed by this desktop theme, as it had reminded him of Rassilon. For his future self it could have been a nice change of scenery but for him those events were still fresh. Running around the console, he quickly stopped in front of the mechanical panel. “The friction contrafibulator.” he thought and quickly pulled a small lever down. The console room reverted back to its copper theme and the alarm was deactivated. “There, stabilized.” he said and tried to put on a smile, which lasted for a strong two or three seconds. The eleventh incarnation didn’t require any memories to understand the fake smile that his predecessor was using to try to cover up his newly surfaced depression. Instead of dwelling on that matter, as he knew it was going to turn out just fine somehow, the Time Lord checked his bowtie and initiated the landing sequence quickly. “And parked. London Borough of Tower Hamlets.” he declared while turning the invisibility feature of the Ship on. Afterwards the duo made their way towards the door and opened it. They were high in the sky, hidden from the sights of the people down below. They were right above the marketplace, which was quite big in size. Though there was something odd with it: of all the people that were on the streets, none of them bothered to even look in the direction of Old Spitalfields. “Ah, you see that? The people are just circling around the complex, unconsciously.” said the Eleventh, turning his head to his past self, who was examining the area curiously. And how could he not? He could figure out what was causing the humans to behave so strangely as if there was a giant gaping hole that prevented them from walking through the marketplace, but even then it was his first time seeing it being applied on such a wide area.

“A perception filter.” he said with a nod, and quickly returned to the console. He approached the scanner and using Handles made a scan. His eyes grew wider as he got the results, which he shared shortly. “Apparently there is a Nestene Consciousness trying to sprout.” he paused before continuing, realizing that he didn’t need to be reassured. “It needs to be blocked.” he concluded. The eleventh Games nodded in agreement. “Blimey, we are going to need a phial of degenerative potion.” The eleventh incarnation scratched the back of his head; he knew that the Fifth, currently, didn’t know how to brew the potion he had mentioned. So he had to do it all by himself, not to mention how tricky of a potion he was going to make. He could use some help even though he didn’t essentially require any. “That’s not all.” said the Fifth in a more surprised tone than before. “Handles scanned a humanoid lifeform inside the marketplace.” He finished his sentence with a questioning look. It would be impossible for a regular human to take notice of a perception filter without being mad aware of its placement. However, the person wasn’t identified as a human at all. So naturally there was something interesting was going on. “Alright. How about this? You investigate where exactly the Nestene Consciousness is located at, where it transmits the perception filter from and who it is down there. You let me know what you find out and I’ll travel with the TARDIS to end the Nestene. Afterwards I will pick you up and we will go our separate ways.” suggested the Eleventh, to which the Fifth agreed with a simple nod. He kneeled and grabbed an earpiece from under the console, so they could maintain their contact.

As the Eleventh made his way towards the interior parts of the Ship after taking the stairs from the main console level, the fifth incarnation would simply jump outside from the door. Luckily nobody really noticed him, and he landed softly by slowing his descend through the exertion of his regenerative powers, used as propellers in the opposite direction. He was standing in the middle of the entire site now. Taking out his sonic screwdriver, he slowly pinpointed the source of the perception filter. Or at least tried to, since it took him twenty minutes to realize that the filter was the entire cover above him that acted as a roof. Finding the creativity of this impressive, he continued to scan for the Nestene’s activity. Eventually he discovered that the creature was, despite being hundred meters below the surface level, quite ready to emerge and begin an invasion at full scale with its plastic pawns. He needed to act fast and relay the information to the eleventh incarnation. But just at that moment a rumbling noise came from the other side of the market. Quickly making his way towards it after confirming the humanoid being he had scanned earlier was in the same direction, the Fifth made a slow approach, as he got closer. He was curious to see what kind of a creature he was about to find out. What he was about to see was far from extraordinary; nonetheless it was sufficient enough to surprise him. It was a woman. Just a regular woman. She had stumbled upon one of the nearby boxes and fell down along with other things. She was shorter than him, had wavy brown hair and seemed to be in her twenties. She was wearing a simple light green shirt (that wasn’t revealing at all) and skinny jeans accompanied by pale red flat shoes. As the Time Lord made his presence clear, the girl stood up from where she had fallen. “Sorry. I was just looking for… shoes.” she said as she dusted herself off. She continued as the Games raised an eyebrow. “I heard there were shoes on sale!”

[Shuren]

The Time Lord stood there motionlessly, baffled because of what he had heard. He didn’t know what was so wrong about this girl in front of him: the fact that she had somehow made her way through the perception filter or the fact that she had not been recognized as a human despite clearly being one. He could have thought about the possibility of the scanner being faulty, but that couldn’t have possibly been the reason. Coupled with Handles’ monitoring, one could say the scanning function had neared perfection. There was definitely something that caused this girl not to be identified as a human, and the Games was pretty sure that it had something to do with this unusual vibe she was getting from her. His thought scattered away when the eleventh incarnation spoke to him through the earpiece. “Hey, I inserted the degenerative potion and set everything up. There will be an explosion in about three or four minutes. Be sure to get out.” said the Eleventh. The fifth incarnation had linked his sonic’s readings with the TARDIS, so anything he found out would also be seen by his future self. And it appeared that he had used his time very well; the destruction of the Nestene Consciousness was about to occur just before it could spread out and begin invading this vulnerable planet. “Also take your earpiece off. Or it’ll fry your ear. They don't even go down silently, do they?” added the eleventh incarnation before switching his own earpiece off. Complying to his request, as he knew the high pitch noises of the dying Nestene Consciousness would make his earpiece explode, the Fifth took it off and threw it away. Afterwards he turned around to face the girl, who had gone back to searching for shoes.

“You need to get out of here, this place is going to blow up soon.” said the Fifth Games after patting her on the shoulder. Of course, he would need further explanation to make his claim credible. But it turned out that it wasn’t going to be necessary, as plastic figures started to crack the ground and emerge much like zombies. The ground started shaking and cracking. The pseudo-invasion that was about to happen had begun earlier than the Games had anticipated. Seeing that the girl simply nodded. “Ah okay.” she said in agreement. “We have to get to Katie! We can be safe that way too.” she added, before rushing into the group of Autons that had emerged. She simply ran without coming into contact with any of them but still maintaining a steady course. “There is somebody else in here?” thought the fifth incarnation. Knowing he was the immortal one around, he realized that he was almost obligated to help. “Okay, let’s go get her quickly.” he yelled from behind her as he started to run behind the girl. Catching up to her shortly, together they ran until they stopped at the other side of the marketplace. They were in front of a shop opening that had the sign “square pie” above its entrance. And next to it was a hut. A small metallic hut that was painted to look like it was made of wood, though the Games could feel the material very well. The girl quickly opened the hut and stepped inside. The Games did the same; though unlike her he would take a moment to check his surroundings. “What is this place?” he asked as he turned around himself. The interior wasn’t really big, at all, leaving him disappointed as he was used to stepping inside his TARDIS in such situations. There were several panels that he didn’t know of and a small opening on the ground in the middle, with two chairs on both sides of the hut. The doors closed by themselves after he directed his question. “It’s Katie. I told you we would be safe.” replied the girl in return, and pressed on a button that started to shake the hut.

As he couldn’t see the outside, the Games thought they were being shaken by the ground, the Autons or possibly the explosion that was destroying them. So instead of questioning that he decided to address this ridiculous situation. “This is Katie?!” he exclaimed sarcastically. That moment he realized that he had misinterpreted the girl’s words. She had said that they needed to get to Katie, not get her. He would also try to understand why a person would name a hut Katie, but he was too busy trying to keep his balance. “Okay this is a misunderstanding, you need to let me out.” he said before falling to the ground. “Sure!” said the girl in response. The shaking stopped and the ground settled. “Go out, we should be in London now.” she continued, getting a weird out expression from the Time Lord in return. Taking her word, the Time Lord opened the doors and stepped outside. There was only one problem: they weren’t in London. They were in Dublin instead, but of course he didn’t know that since he had never been there before. So he was naturally prompted to ask. “Where… are we again?” he said in confusion while looking around. They were on the back courtyard of a big facility, surrounded by tall but not threatening walls on the top floor. The girl soon joined him as well and came to notice her mistake in entering their destination to the hut. “Oh shoot! I must have travelled to my previous location rather than the coordinates. I’m sorry, we are in Dublin.” she explained. This bothered the Games: he had no earpiece or nothing that he could use to communicate with his future self or Handles. For now, he seemed to be stuck on his own. Unless the girl could use that weird hut again. “Can you take me back?” he asked, seeming very impatient about hearing the answer, which wouldn’t really do any good. “I can’t, it has to recharge. It will take about an hour or two.” said the girl while looking down. She was also quick to notice how restless and annoyed the Time Lord looked right no. It was as if he had missed and opportunity that was inside the palm of his hand. She wanted to cheer him up somehow. “But don’t worry, I’ll give you a city tour.” she said with a smile and poked the Time Lord’s shoulder. Normally, the fifth incarnation wouldn’t really be the type take up such an offer. But not doing so would also lead him to dying of boredom in a planet that always seemed to be slow. To him at least. With a nod, he followed her lead and walked towards the building.

[Shuren]

After entering the building and taking the transparent elevator, it wasn’t very hard for the Games to notice how big it really was. The building had more than 20 floors, and each floor also seemed to be very wide. It was possible to see specific labs for different purposes on each floor. So without a doubt it was a corporation that was established for scientific purposes. But just to be clear, the Time Lord was going to ask the girl. “What is this place?” he said, still looking around to gather every small detail he could spot. Despite being impressed with everything around him there appeared to be two problems: one, some of the experiments his eyes caught a glimpse on were more advanced than Earth’s technology at this time period. Not more advanced than the girl’s hut, but still. Two, they were heading towards the front exit. “It’s the main building of my research facilities.” replied the girl. The Games believed that anything was possible at this universe, but from the appearances he could comment that it was questionable for a person in her twenties to own such a facility. Again, her family could have been rich but in that case she definitely wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of going elsewhere to but shoes on sale. “Your?” he asked, his voice reflecting a tint of doubt in his tone. “Yes. I founded it, thanks to my savings and whatever family wealth that was left to me. We research and develop new technologies. Somebody needs to pace the world up a bit, right?” replied the girl cheerfully.

By the time she had finished her sentence, they had already arrived at the ground floor. Stepping outside they exited the building and started walking on the streets of Dublin. “That’s quite impressive. Even that ‘Katie’ of yours. I wouldn’t ever imagine seeing a vessel like that. Especially not here.” remarked the Games, hiding his tabs about the girl’s vessel for now. He wanted to ask her how she had even come up with the mechanics of her hut. Since it seemed to be using materialization and dematerialization in space for travelling, he could say anywhere in space was within her reach. Much like it was with his TARDIS. On the other hand, he also knew that the physics and engineering science hadn’t developed on Earth that far yet. After passing through busy streets, the Games continued. “You are from around here then?” he asked, all the while listening to the people around him. A traveller like her could be from anywhere but there were several things he had noticed on his way that indicated this was, in fact, her very own dumpster. “Yeah, this is my hometown basically. How'd you figure?” replied the girl. “You seem to know your way around. Plus, you have quite the accent.” nodded the Games. He had noticed the slight expression of the local dialect by just being around people. It was also easy to notice that the girl wasn’t any different. Plus, they had gone through some confusing alleyways. He wouldn’t expect a stranger to find his way around at all. “Well, I grew up here. Can’t really help it!” said the girl with a laugh. Several minutes later they arrived at a park. It was situated on a river and had a wonderful location due to being en route to the botanical gardens. The river running through seemed to be creating a lovely riverside walk for people. Plus the fine selection of trees, a beautiful flower garden, the pedestrian bridges made it a pleasant place to be at. In front of them was a small sign with the name of the park on it. It stated “Griffith Park”.

As they entered and started walking along the river, the Time Lord realized that he hadn’t even asked the girl’s name yet. “So then, what is your name?” he asked, immediately trying to fix his mistake. “Caitlin Serana Bell. I know, it’s a lame name.” replied the girl. The Games couldn’t help but like her name. And there was a simple reason for that. Despite having seen the name Serena quite a number of times on Earth, the name Serana was unique as it was also of Gallifreyan origin. It wasn’t a popular name but his people would still occasionally use it. “Oh it’s a wonderful name. I like it a lot actually.” he stated, while preparing himself to hear the counter question. “Thanks. What’s yours?” The Games didn’t reply for a moment. He tried to decide whether to take the long approach in explaining his title or just skipping directly towards the introduction part. He decided to do the latter. “Oh, I’m the Games.” he replied. “Not very trusting are we?” laughed Caitlin, not particularly minding him not giving his name. Though he wouldn’t expect him to do so after asking her name either. “It’s not that. My people tend to use aliases as they progress further with their lives. It’s like a promise you make to yourself, which you try to hold always. It's a cultural thing.” said the Games in response, which made Caitlin stop from walking. She continued soon, however. It was just that what the man right next to her had said sounded very very familiar to what she had been told about his mother. She decided to share that. “My father told me that… that my mother used an alias when they first met, quite like you. She later came up with a surname to live here.” she explained. The Time Lord’s response was almost immediate. “Really? What was her surname?” Caitlin waited several seconds before answering her. For some reason she was trying to examine all of his facial expressions, as if she was trying to deduce what he was going to think next. “Deranger.” she said quickly. This made the young man burst into laughter. It wasn’t his fault, Deranger didn’t really sound like a surname one would prefer to use. “That’s… quite a surname. Did she like making people insane?” he asked jokingly. “Not really. I was told that it was a derivation from her title.” replied the girl.

[Shuren]

The Games, for the first time, started to seriously think whether Caitlin was an offspring of a human and a Time Lord. Or in this case, Time Lady. Because he did know of a renegade Time Lady who had ran off from Gallifrey. She had committed a crime against the High Council after her request for a new regenerative cycle was denied. Since she didn’t want to take her punishment, she had gone into hiding. Nobody ever found out where. And in time, her records had gotten messy too. At least that’s what the Games had thought when he had the chance to take a look at her file, randomly. But one entirely and almost irrelevant thing connected all of these together: the said Time Lady was known as the Ranger. For her, such a ridiculous surname actually reminded her of her home, which pretty much justified her reason for choosing it. “I see.” he remarked shortly. He was going to try to get more information on Caitlin’s mother, to become sure. Though in several seconds he found out that he didn’t need to put any effort into that. “She died two years after my birth, in an accident. My father said she could normally survive anything but even that had a limit and it was the end of her time.” continued the girl with a nod. She had just recently found a regenerative factor inside her body as well, but never activated it. Instead she had modified it accordingly so she would just heal without changing her DNA. Even then, she didn’t know what the limit was that had caused her mother to die. She could only assume that she, too, had the same limit.

“Your mother… doesn’t sound like she was from this world at all.” commented the Games, trying to keep it calm after hearing about what was so obviously a regeneration. At this point, Caitlin stopped once again. She looked around to see there was nobody in their close proximity and got closer to the Time Lord in order to whisper. “She wasn’t. She was from a far away planet called Gaffilrey. Or at least that’s what my father heard. My mother never really liked talking about it, he said. Mentioned it only once. Can you imagine?” she said silently. “I never told this to anybody before, for some reason I feel like I can share it with you though. A total stranger! You must think I’m nuts, eh?” she finished with a laugh, her tone also returning to its regular volume. Though she seemed a bit more cheerful now, the Games was the opposite. “Caitlin, let’s sit down for a bit.” said the Time Lord calmly, leading them to a nearby bank. The girl looked a bit anxious about this but she complied and sat along. Afterwards, the Games looked around and carried on. “I know where your mother is from.” he explained and turned his head to face Caitlin. “I’m from the same planet. Gallifrey.” The girl stood still for a minute, as several questions flooded her mind. First of all, he had never really asked the Games what he had been doing at the marketplace. She had arrived there with her vessel, so the perception filter hadn’t applied to her. But what about him? How had he appeared there, also knowing there would be an explosion after their departure? Not to mention how unfazed he was after travelling with ‘Katie’. Sure, he had said the name of the planet wrong but it was also highly possible that her father had mentioned it incorrectly. He had heard it only once, after all.

“How?” That was the only thing she was able to utter, her eyes fixed on the Time Lord’s. “I was investigating the unusual inactivity at the Old Spitalfields Market. I arrived with my ship, found out the hostile alien activity, and I put an end to it. That’s why I was there.” Reasoned the Games briefly. And in all honesty, that was more than enough for Caitlin to believe in him. She couldn’t really put it into words; there was just a different aura around him. He was different than ordinary people. To indicate her belief, she nodded. “I can take you there, Caitlin.” said the Games suddenly, slowly placing his hand on the girl’s left forearm. This offer was most definitely unexpected. But considering all she had achieved in her life it was also unnecessary. “No, no. My home is here. My friends, my work… everything.” she explained and gently pushed the Time Lord’s hand away. The Games felt disappointed at this. A clever person like her was choosing a planet so very much below her level over Gallifrey. “But you clearly don’t belong, do you? I mean, this is a level five planet and you invented a machine that can teleport anywhere. That’s way beyond Earth’s technology of this era. And you are only in your twenties too. That sort of intelligence-” he spoke, but he was cut off mid-sentence. “Forties.” uttered Caitlin, receiving only an expression of confusion from the young man. “What?” She straightened her back and sat properly once again. “I’m forty six years old. I slowed down my body clock so I wouldn’t age.” The Games had nothing else to say. And the truth was, neither did Caitlin. She had slowed her body clock down but she also knew that even without doing so, she would age much slower than her peers. Just like it had been the case with her mother, as she was told. Perhaps she could live a hundred years and by then most of the things that tied her would have long become dust. Not that she had lots of things to tie her to this planet anyway. “I... guess I really don’t belong here.” she declared silently and leaned back.

[Shuren]

“Alright, take me to Gallifrey.” spat Caitlin after several minutes of dead silence that embraced both of them. Hearing that the Games sported a smile, knowing the girl had finally accepted her Gallifreyan ancestry. Yet there was still one problem that seemed to be present. Or rather, not present. “I will. But first you need to get me to London. My ship is there.” said the Games. Without his TARDIS there really wasn’t a way he could take anybody, even himself, all the way over to Gallifrey. “Okay.” Caitlin’s reply was short, though what she did next was enough to make the Time Lord question her actions. She had started running all of a sudden in the direction they had come from. “Where are you going?” asked the Games. “Back to my labs. We need Katie to return to London.” replied Caitlin. Her answer had conflicted with her previous statement, and realizing this she stopped. At that time the Games had already got up and closed the distance. “But you said it had to recharge.” said the Time Lord, feeling amazed. Compared to his TARDIS, Caitlin’s vessel was very primitive. Though somehow she was able to charge it enough for a one-way trip in a short amount of time. For the current era on Earth, it could revolutionize travelling. However, it could also lead to quite grave consequences. He had to warn her about “Katie”s potential sometime. “Oh, yes. But not if I put the entire building’s power into it!” said Caitlin with much excitement. “I didn’t want to halt all the other work within the building. Plus, giving a tour is very fun!” she explained, so the Time Lord wouldn’t have to question why they hadn’t done so from the beginning. The duo rushed back to Caitlin’s building. Once they were inside, the girl took out her cell and made a call. As the other person picked up, she spoke.

“Candice, please shut down all the labs for two minutes and reroute all the power to my office please. Thank yooooou.” Ending the conversation with somewhat of an exclamation, the girl continued leading the way as they took the stairs. As they advanced towards the top floor, each level of the building shut down one by one. Caitlin’s personal quarters, on the other hand, was almost overflowing with energy. Or at least that’s what it looked like once they were there. The duo entered the small hut, the Games just standing at one corner hoping it would all go smoothly while Caitlin had occupied herself with entering the coordinates. “Right, here we go!” she yelled, and pressed a button, making the Games wonder where she had gotten all of this positive energy from. Maybe she was simply excited to be travelling to a different planet that inhibited her equals. The humans were so much inferior, after all. That aside, the hut started to shake and dematerialized. Several minutes later it would make its appearance back in London. They were presumably several hundred meters away from the Old Spitalfields Market, which was gathering lots of attention due to the explosion that had occurred. The fire department, the police, civilians… Some were busy working with the disastrous incident that had happened, some were devastated that their favorite marketplace had gone through what they thought was an attack and some just didn’t care, as if there still was a perception filter. It’s how humanity was, in a way. “We are back in London. Finally.” uttered the Games as he stepped out. “Katie” had been parked on the side of a dark alleyway, the perfect place for it to gather no attention whatsoever.

“What are we going to do now? Hope your ship is not too far away from here.” asked Caitlin as she followed the Time Lord outside and locked the hut’s door. “Oh don’t worry, that’s the easy part.” said the Games with joy and took out his sonic screwdriver. He used it on the air, signaling his future self to come and pick him up. Several seconds later, his red telephone box materialized several meters in front of them. “That’s your ship?! It’s barely enough to take both of us in at the same time. I don’t want to be squished by you!” shouted Caitlin, urging the Time Lord to sign her to keep it quiet. Afterwards he simply patted on her back as an encouragement. “You won’t be. Just go inside.” he said, and stepped inside himself after leaving the door narrowly open. Seeing the lights coming from the interior made Caitlin raise an eyebrow; this didn’t seem like a ship, but it didn’t seem like an ordinary phone box at all either. Slowly she approached the TARDIS and opened its door wide to step inside. Once she had, she found herself awestruck. “Oh my god.” she spoke silently. “How is this possible? It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!” she yelled and took a moment to go outside again and run around the phone box before entering it once more. “Is this an illusion or some sort of trick?!” she demanded to know. The Games, who was standing at the console level speaking with the eleventh incarnation turned around to reply after his own discussion with the latter regarding the incidents that had occurred had come to an end. “No, it’s actually a concept we call dimensional-” he said, but he was cut off by Caitlin. “…transcendentalism?” said the girl, as if she was asking a question “Sorry, just a wild guess. I ramble like that sometimes! That would make a good name though.” she continued while scratching her head. The fifth incarnation seemed surprised by this while the eleventh was basically unfazed. “No, you were correct the first time.” said the Games. “Uhm… Excuse me for a second. Do enjoy the view.” He turned around to face his future self. “Hey. This is…” he said. This time he wasn’t cut off, but instead he had had his sentence finished in perfect synchronization. “Caitlin. I know.” replied the eleventh Games, with an audible tone. This gathered Caitlin’s attention, naturally. “How does he know me, Games?” she demanded to know, curious about how a total stranger she had never seen before could know her name. Had he been spying on them? It seemed like the only possible explanation to her. But if that was the case, why hadn’t he used the TARDIS to come get them earlier? “Long story, I’ll explain it all in a bit.” replied the Fifth in return.

[Shuren]

The Eleventh continued once he had his predecessor’s attention back. “Listen, this will sound very bothersome but… you can’t take her to Gallifrey right now.” His words surprised the Time Lord, prompting him to immediately ask. “What? Why?” Although his tone was lower, so Caitlin wouldn’t hear them this time, an expression of disapproval and disappointment could still be sensed from his tone. “Gallifrey… well, your Gallifrey will undergo two major threats in the future. And the first will occur the next time you are there. You can’t risk Caitlin’s safety by taking her there. You need to travel until you know you can return.” explained the eleventh incarnation. “That doesn’t make any sense. How can I can ever go there again knowing my return will start a disaster. This is just not… fair. I promised her.” said the Fifth, his attitude still the same. “You will know. And you will keep your promise. Just not now. Trust me.” The Eleventh Games placed his hand on the Fifth’s shoulder, though this had little to no effect. “How can you be so sure?” asked the fifth incarnation, angrily. But the man didn’t respond. Instead he walked down the opposite side of the console level leading to one of the open spaces on the lower level. As he made his way towards his TARDIS, the Fifth Games realized that his future self was anticipating Caitlin’s arrival so he had moved his Ship elsewhere to allow the girl more space for wandering around. He opened the door of his TARDIS and peeked inside. By this time the Fifth had also joined him, but was strictly staying outside without even looking. “Are you done interrupting your past yet? I’m starting to get bored!” A voice came from the inside, which the Fifth identified quite fast. Despite sounding slightly different and without an accent, he could say that it was Caitlin’s, who was waiting inside for the eleventh incarnation to be done with what he had to do and return. “Yes, yes just a tiny bit left until I’m done.” he replied before closing the door once again. “You just have to be patient.” As he had made his point, the Fifth Games nodded in agreement. “Alright. I’ll take her elsewhere then. Perhaps be a runaway for a while.” he suggested, before coming into a realization. “This wasn’t a two man job was it? You just needed to patch up your past and my present.” he said, eying the Eleventh’s gaze. “Good observation. That said, it’s time for me to go now.” said the eleventh incarnation. Just as he had expected, his past hadn’t disappointed him. Having seen through his acting and white lies required some skill to say the least. “Okay.” said the Fifth, extending his hand for a handshake. “It’s good to know that my future is in safe hands.”

To his surprise, however, his future self refused his gesture. “No need for that. We will meet again.” he lied. It was true that they were going to meet again, he could certainly remember it having happened. But the real reason he had refused a handshake was because of him fearing a possible occurrence of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. He didn’t want a dangerous energy to discharge by two temporal versions of the same person coming into contact. “Once things start to become problematic, I’m afraid.” He finished before his predecessor could ask when they would encounter each other again. Seeing the worry in the fifth incarnation’s eyes, knowing he already had a lot on his plate with everything going on for him psychologically, he reassured him once again before stepping inside. “Don’t worry, you’ll handle it. She will help too.” The Games returned to the console level, where Caitlin had sat on one of the nearby comfy seats, as the eleventh incarnation’s TARDIS dematerialized. Pulling down a lever, he dematerialized the TARDIS as well as it entered the Time Vortex. Watching the time rotor move up and down with absolute joy, Caitlin couldn’t hold her question for too long. “Does your ship have a name?” she asked. “Yes. It’s called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It can travel anywhere in time and space. As for that guy, he was-” The Games had thought it was to be expected that the girl would ask about the eleventh incarnation next. However, his intention of saving her from the trouble would also be countered by her initiative of coming to a conclusion on her own. “You from the future?” This kind of spooked the Games as he wasn’t expecting the girl to guess a correct answer like that. First she had named the dimensional transcendentalism concept correctly and now she had made a deduction that was unnaturally fast. “…yes.” he muttered. He wanted to know how she had come up with that, which was sensed by Caitlin. “Given how he knew me, I guessed he had spied on us. Though if that were the case, he would have helped earlier too I believe. That was the only explanation I could come up with until you said this… TARDIS, could travel in time.” she explained. Receiving nothing from the Time Lord and feeling like the atmosphere between them was getting colder, Caitlin laughed to break the tension. Yet, it would barely affect the Games. He took his sonic screwdriver out and used it on the girl. He scanned her from tip to toe and flicked his screwdriver to extend its claws. Taking a look at the readings, he would surprise the girl as much as he was. “You are not normal.”

[Shuren]

“What? What do you mean?” asked Caitlin, urging to know what the Games was saying. She had merely made assumptions on this and that and being considered abnormal because of it seemed absurd to her more than how confusing it was. Before she got a reply, the Time Lord used his sonic on the console. All of a sudden the duo’s surroundings shifted and merged into a brighter room as they transported into one of the laboratories within the TARDIS. Grabbing several cables and seemingly running it along the girl’s spinal cord, chest, head and some other parts, the Games quickly made his way to the monitor and activate it. “I need to run some tests. Stay still.” he said after glaring at Caitlin over his shoulder. And she did. She didn’t move a single inch even though not knowing what was going on was killing her. Two rings rose above from the ground, each being about 4 meters in diameter. Caitlin was standing in their middle as they started to turn round and round in different directions around her, all the while projecting a blue colored light on the girl. “Amazing.” remarked the Games after several minutes. He had several documents opened on the screen now, displaying various information about Caitlin’s body. Though this remark of pure amazement soon triggered Caitlin’s ready-to-explode curiousness. “What is it?! Please don’t keep me in suspense!” she shouted while breathing heavily. The rings running around her stopped and slowly integrated back into the floor. Turning around, the Games let out a sigh knowing what he had to do. He was hoping that he could show the girl everything rather than telling her about it. But now that he knew they couldn’t go to Gallifrey, he had to make sure Caitlin understood the terminology. Signing her to sit as well, he took a seat on a nearby chair. Caitlin did the same with a stool she found and waited for the Games to begin. Unlike what she expected, however, the Time Lord started with an explanation: an explanation of his planet, its origins, inhabitants and their physiologies, the story of its people and the story of his own. Once he was done, which didn’t take as long as he thought it would, since Caitlin was following along brilliantly, he went on with what he thought was so different with her.

“You are a human-Time Lord hybrid. You’re like a regular Time Lady in some ways, inferior in some others and superior in the rest.” he said. Although it was highly unlikely to encounter one, it wasn’t impossible for a human-Time Lord hybrid to come into existence. However Caitlin truly wasn’t like any other of her kind. “First of all, you also have a regenerative cycle within your body. Normally undergoing one of those would rearrange your DNA completely. But your mechanism is a bit different. Your regeneration would, from what I can see here, heal your wounds but not change your DNA.” explained the Time Lord. Although it was a common trait among hybrids to possess the ability to regenerate, the girl somehow had the healing mechanism only. If she engaged in regeneration, she wouldn’t change at all. And from the looks of it, she had managed to find that out herself without actually experiencing it first hand: she hadn’t grown a second heart yet. The second heart would be grown during a Time Lord’s first regeneration. Although the Games found having only one heart utterly disgusting, he concluded that it was a minor detail. “Yes, I made it that way actually. I didn’t like the idea of changing. I quite like myself as I currently am, so I modified my regenerations after discovering my cycle!” said the girl, confirming the Games’ thoughts. How she had managed to modify her own body to that extent was beyond him, but he didn’t question it. He felt like he was open to any surprises nowadays. Yet, there was one issue that he had to address. No matter how it seemed like she had small vanity issues much like his third incarnation, Caitlin’s only mistake was her lack of understanding on her physiology. “Thing is, Caitlin…” started the Games while leaning back on his chair and crossing his legs. “…many people think that Rassilon inserted these with such qualities to limit us Time Lords. Sadly, that’s not the truth. The alteration of the DNA sequence is a protection. The repair mechanisms decay the DNA each time, that’s why it’s reorganized all over again with each regeneration. To minimize that risk to zero.” he said. He turned around on his chair to face the screen behind him again to glance at the display. “As you might have figured out we have a set of twelve healthy regenerations. For you that should be five or six. Any more and you would theoretically die during the process.”

Hearing that suddenly worried Caitlin. She had always wanted to expand herself, unconsciously aware that the world she had been living in was restricting her. Now that she had the means to do so, the only thing she feared was death. Or more accurately, dying too soon. “That sounds bad. Can’t we fix that?” she asked, hoping what she was about to hear next would comfort her somehow, at least to an extent. And it actually did. “Maybe we can. I lifted the limit for myself. So it’s doable. But you are not a pure Time Lady so… I don’t know. We can certainly try though.” The Games finished with an assuring nod, the last thing he needed was having to give psychological support. Especially when he was just newly recovering from his predecessor’s trauma. “Moving on, you somehow managed to elongate your body clock. You age even slower than a normal Time Lord. I’m impressed.” said the Time Lord with a smile. Given perfect conditions, Caitlin could outlive several incarnations of a normal Time Lord when it came to aging. Again, the Games wondered how she had managed to do that but that wasn’t his priority for the time being. “Well thank you!” replied the girl with a slight bow. Though her happiness wouldn’t last very long, since the Games was only getting to the most interesting part.

[Shuren]

“And the most crucial part… your brain and genetic coding.” he said while standing up from where he sat. “What about them?” asked Caitlin with curious eyes, watching the young man take his sonic screwdriver and use it on the air. Soon a projection of a brain appeared between them. Though it was different: Caitlin had seen a human brain before, and had even examined it thoroughly in fact. What she saw in front of her had subtle but noticeable differences. “See, your brain has almost the same capacity as a Time Lord’s. But the way it functions is entirely different. You have this ability of… remembering from your ancestral DNA. Like, there are archives of knowledge accumulated by your ancestors inside your genes and when you see something foreign you just access the piece of information you need. Unconsciously.” explained the Games before using his sonic screwdriver again. Doing so revealed a white colored path on the projection. It was an extra connection of some sort.

“Not only that, you also seem to possess the ability to derive that knowledge even further by combining it with others and tying them together. So in a way, you can possibly understand anything without having prior experience on it that would otherwise be required. An intuitive aptitude, as one could say. It’s what makes you the genius you are.” he finished and gave Caitlin several moments to process everything in. Though unlike his anticipations the girl’s main problem with these new findings would not be her brain’s difference from other humans, but rather what she could do with it. It just didn’t make any sense. “But how can I have an ability? To be honest I didn’t have the slightest idea that something like that could be the reason for my intellectual capabilities until this moment. And you say I don’t even know when I’m using it.” she spat, somewhat annoyed that her intelligence could be what she could consider ingenuine. “That’s the problem Caitlin. You don’t really seem to be able to control it. Unlike having total control over your ability it’s more like you have sparks that activate it.” The Games’ reply triggered another possibility in the girl’s mind: what if she could control those sparks instead? “Can I train or something, to have better control?” she asked, full of hope. “Most certainly. You are now aware of your ability so you will be more conscious of how it works the next time you make use of it. The more you are exposed to the universe, the better you will be able to control it.” answered the Games. His response made Caitlin smile and stand up from her seat as well. “That should be all for now.” Said the Time Lord, concluding their discovery session with a small flick of his sonic that deactivated the screens and displays he had used. Caitlin on the other hand used this time to detach all the cables and cords that had been running around her body. “Grand! Let’s go to Gallifrey now, we are going to have a whale of a time I bet!” she remarked in joy. All these delays had made her even more interested in going there. However, she was far from realizing the weight of the Games’ encounter with his future self. Slowly walking over to the girl, the young man looked down before speaking.

“About that…” he said and faced Caitlin, as she turned around to do the same. “…uh, we can’t really go to Gallifrey now.” Being caught off guard with that piece of information, the girl’s expression slowly became more and more… blank. “What? Why?” Even though there were lots of clever lies he could tell her, so she wouldn’t think that travelling with him was too dangerous, the Games decided to be truthful instead. Lying to her at this stage of their companionship could also have greater influences to what they would become in the future. “I learned just recently that there are… will be some events going on there. I simply can’t risk your safety. I know I promised you and I will keep it, just not today.” he said, his face sporting an expression that could be called a disappointment. “That’s a bummer.” replied Caitlin. As late as it was, that made the Games realize that the universe had much more to offer than just Gallifrey. Not being able to go there had felt like their journey’s end, but actually it was just the beginning. “But, I can still take you to other planets.” he muttered with a grin. What he said didn’t really surprise Caitlin, since she had figured out that if there was a habitable planet out there, there could also be many more. Nonetheless, to keep the excitement flowing she played along. “…other planets?” she asked rhetorically. “Well of course. It’s such a vast universe we live in, there are many fantastic places to see and discover. I have seen lots but… so far none with this face.” Smiling, Caitlin suddenly turned around and ran towards the exit of the lab they were in. “What are we waiting for then?” she yelled happily, with the Games running after her since he didn’t want her to get lost inside the TARDIS.

[Shuren]

*two and a half years later*
The Games and Caitlin ran through one of the many corridors within the spaceship they were in, in hopes of finding the TARDIS. Even though there seemed to be no end to it, they eventually found the red telephone box standing at the end of the corridor on their right. “Did you really have to press that button?!” asked the Games, as the sections behind them quickly started to seal off and burst into flames. “In my defense it was quite big and very red!” replied Caitlin, quickly opening the door of the TARDIS and going inside. The Time Lord didn’t lose any time to make his way towards the console. “That was fun!” commented the girl, as she sat on one of the nearby seats around the console level and crossed her legs. This was soon met by the Games’ somewhat sarcastic expression. “Was it? It appeared more troublesome than fun to me.” he said. “You know what they say. Everything has a price.” They had been travelling almost non-stop for a solid one a half years now. They had already managed to solve the decaying problem of Caitlin’s modified regenerative cycle. As for her intuitive aptitude, she had gained a fairly good control of utilizing it, being able to even fly the TARDIS without any help now. Yet, there was something small that bothered the Time Lord. He hadn’t been able to pinpoint it, but his consciousness was almost screaming at him to notice it soon. While he was thinking about those, Caitlin had already stood up and appeared right next to him. “Sooooo… where to next?” she asked with a poke on the Time Lord’s right cheek, after which he took a step back. “Who knows, Caitlin? Who knows?” said the Games, as he configured the scanner to activate the randomizer.

“Randomizer?” “Yes.” confirmed the Time Lord and pushed a lever down, making the TARDIS take off. To their surprise, however, their flight would last awfully short. “Well that was brief.” The Games returned to the scanner and tapped on it several times. It didn’t show where they were exactly, but the coordinates were different from their previous location. “Are you sure we travelled at all? With such a short trip, I bet there isn’t anything much to explore or learn about.” said Caitlin, looking disappointed. Even if that was the case, she wanted to go out and take at least a glimpse at their new location. It broadened her mind every time she did so, or that’s what she chose to believe in. “Yes. The environmental checks indicate that we have travelled.” Confirmed the Games. Afterwards, the duo shortly went outside. They were standing in the middle of the dark; the open door of the TARDIS illuminating whatever the light from the interior hit. Taking out his sonic screwdriver, the Time Lord used it to activate the lights. Revealing the chamber they were in, he seemed to have triggered an alarm along. Though it ceased to bother them further, two creatures appeared. They were both bigger than them in size, had seven limbs, whose arrangement made the creatures heptaradially-symmetrical. “What are those?” whispered Caitlin as she watched them flail their limbs silently. They were staring at them, and she could feel the creatures doing the same. For a brief moment, she turned around to look at the Time Lord and recognized a sign of terror upon his face. “I don’t know.” The Games was feeling terrorized. By the mere fact that he was unable to recognize the species that were standing before them. “I’m pretty sure you are aware that I know almost every possible creature we can encounter, one way or another. But these two… I have never seen their kind.” he explained before continuing to try to communicate with them.

“Who are you?” As if the creatures were deliberately trying to surprise them even more, they gave out nothing but gibberish mumbles the duo couldn’t understand. “I can’t believe this.” uttered the Games under his breath. “What happened?” urged Caitlin, but before she got an explanation she figured out what had happened. The Games had told her how the TARDIS could translate every language there was out there, with three exceptions: Circular, Modern and Old High Gallifreyan. Those three would automatically not be translated. Other than that every language the inhibitants of the TARDIS were exposed to would be understood by them naturally. “For the TARDIS not to translate… they must be ancient.” remarked Caitlin, as she took several steps towards the creatures. She looked them with awe, feeling that they were remarkably inspiring. “Maybe they know some other ancient languages.” suggested the Games and started to ask the same question or a similar one in ancient languages he knew of. “Swabol re wux?” he said first, using a language that was used at the oldest galactic trading route. He didn’t receive a passing reply. “Tur cin teith?” he tried second, this time showcasing a dead language that used to be spoken by many others well before he was even born. But again to no avail. “Sum iea qulygo?” he spoke third, and continued with the other languages he knew. As he continued, Caitlin had sat on the ground, watching the movements of the creatures. She figured a certain pattern in their actions, and made a mental note of it. She progressed further while the Time Lord gave up using words and decided to utilize his telepathic powers instead. He failed to get a successful result, yet coincidentally at the same moment Caitlin managed to crack their language using her intuitive aptitude. “I did it. I can understand what they are saying… with enormous difficulty nonetheless.” she said with happiness, also bringing a faint smile on the Games’ face.

[Shuren]

“Brilliant. Ask them what they are.” Caitlin did as she was told and asked the question, making noises that could not be understood. Apparently she had also managed to speak their language. The creatures replied in a similar tone. “They say they are Septuarins.” The Games stood frozen. Septuarins were basically one of the more scary units of the Gallifreyan folklore. One used to scare kids and teenagers, to be precise. “What does that mean Games?” asked Caitlin when she failed to get any reactions from the Time Lord. “It’s complicated Caitlin.” said the Games, as he took several steps forward. “Septuarins are, as far as I had known until now, mythical creatures from legends. They are said to be the messengers of annihilation. And one particular aspect to their unique physiology is how they can induce their own characteristics on others.” he finished.“So they manipulate your personality? That’s evil!” commented Caitlin, unconsciously leaning her body back as if she had been disgusted by the piece of information she had been presented. Though soon she would learn that it was only the tip of the iceberg. “It’s more than just that. They perceive time differently than others and strive for a deterministic universe where free will is exercised by not affecting the outcome of events.” The Games took a short pause as Caitlin turned around to face him. She was still crouching, but her interest had been piqued beyond any comparison at that moment. “In the stories, they are portrayed as beasts that are said to have remembrances of the future. Interacting with them for too long would enable somebody to know their future before it happens. It makes their life a collection of fixed points in time. It becomes a life without possibilities or chances.” explained the Games, not being able to help himself but remember his memories as a child in the House of Dorian. His mother would often tell the story of “the Enraged Time Lord” to get him and his siblings to be good children. It was the tale of a Time Lord who had turned his back on Gallifrey and vowed revenge, seeking the help of the Septuarins to do so, yet becoming their plaything in the end. A shiver brought the Games’ senses back as he urged to return.

“We better go. Now.” he turned around and walked towards the TARDIS, feeling quite sure that Caitlin was following. He was wrong. “But we just arrived! I want to learn more about them. Only a bit wouldn’t hurt.” said the girl. She had already reverted back to her previous position and started talking to the Septuarins in their language. The Games couldn’t understand what they were talking about, but he didn’t like the idea of allowing Caitlin to harm herself like that. “That’s insane, why would you risk your future like that? Come on, let’s go.” he said with a more serious tone, but the girl didn’t listen to him. Instead, she disobeyed in an equally serious manner. “No. I will learn more.” she said and continued talking to the creatures. This not only angered the Games, but also worried him. There she had gone again, for some reason blabbering about learning more. Had he perhaps heard that unusually a lot lately? “Don’t you understand? The more you talk to them, the more you will see into your own future. That’s dangerous foreknowledge!” His tone was not only cold now, but also loud. He had tried to be more intimidating on the girl, in hopes of having her come back with a feeling of submission. But instead she just pretended that he hadn’t said a word. Annoyed and angry, the Time Lord decided that he had had enough. Walking towards her quickly, he stopped behind her and extended his hand. “Caitlin…” he uttered as he gently grabbed the girl’s right arm. This made Caitlin glare at him over her shoulder, displaying a mad expression upon her face. “I SAID NO!” she yelled. And following her exclamation, she continued yelling in the Septuarin language. This made both of the Septuarins extend their long limbs and hit the Games. He was instantly sent away flying, and only managed to stop once he hit the TARDIS first and the walls of the chamber second. He tried to stand up, but could only lie down on the ground for several seconds, whizzing in pain. His ribs had suffered several fractures, as had his skull. His right arm on the other hand had been broken in two different places, and his right leg three.

“I need to learn more.” whispered Caitlin to herself in a barely audible tone. Though she also knew what was about to happen next. The Time Lord’s injured body parts had been engulfed in golden yellow regeneration energy, healing the damage his body had received. Soon afterwards, he was able to muster enough energy to stand up. Looking up at Caitlin, he noticed that she had gotten ready before him: she was ready to command the Septuarins to attack him once more. But before she could, a Dalek energy blast hit the girl squarely on her back, making her collapse on the floor after screaming in agony. The same happened to the Septuarins. “What the hell?” The Games rushed to check Caitlin. She didn’t seem to be regenerating, which actually bothered him. He had identified the energy blast that had hit her and the Septuarins as the trademark shooting of the Dalek Gunstick. Yet, it hadn’t been lethal. Clenching his fist, as he knew Daleks didn’t have the verb spare in their dictionary, he took and offensive pose while checking his surroundings. His hands were covered in his regeneration energy, ready to be shot, However, that wouldn’t be necessary. “Good riddance eh?” said a voice from afar, its source getting closer each second. As the lad made his appearance from the opening across the other side of the chamber, the Games relaxed his posture. It was none other than one of his former companions, Gray.

[Shuren]

“What did you do to them Gray?” asked the Games, completely ignoring the fact that his friend happened to be there. Instead, he seemed to be more focused on the Septuarins as well as Caitlin’s situation. “That’s not a nice way to greet somebody, man.” replied the young man, jokingly. Though his relaxed attitude would soon vanish after seeing the Time Lord’s serious, almost angry expression. “Chill, okay? I just knocked them out. I don’t use the extermination setting unless it’s a Dalek.” he explained. Not that the Games wouldn’t believe Gray but just to be sure, he placed his index and middle fingers on the girl’s wrist to check her pulse. Figuring that she was only unconscious and nothing else was wrong with her, he let out a sigh and stood up. “I didn’t know you had another setting than the extermination duo.” With a smile, he briefly hugged his former companion. He was quite sure that it hadn’t been the same for him, but for the Games it had been long years since he had last seen of the young man. “Anyway, what are you doing here?” While the appearance of his friend, as well as its timing, had been very convenient, the Games knew that there was one thing that made Gray travel at all. Yet, he was unable to make a connection between that particular reason and the current situation they found themselves in. “I could ask the same to you.” replied the young lad.“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know? Dude, we are inside a spaceship that’s laying a huge force barrier outside. Oh, and it’s crawling with Daleks. All waiting to penetrate the defenses.” explained Gray. That cleared up the questions the Time Lord had inside his mind. Though he had no idea how the Septuarins could have anything that could attract the Daleks, them being messengers of annihilation made it sensible for the latter group to have made an arrival. He guessed that was a title the Daleks would willingly fight for. As for Gray, as long as the Daleks were present, so was he. But from the looks of it, his temporal shift had somehow brought him inside this spaceship directly. “Who’s the chick?” he mumbled, glaring over the motionless body. “That’s Caitlin.” answered the Games. “Aaand what’s her deal?” Gray wasn’t stupid; he knew that for the Games to have a companion, it would have to be a person of extraordinary qualities. Otherwise, there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t be able to do himself. At least that had been his experience from his previous travels with him. “She is a very unique hybrid: part human, part Time Lord.” “Hahahah, that’s a fucking rare combination.” laughed Gray at the end of his sentence once more. He had heard a tale from the Games about a one-way metacrisis human-Time Lord hybrid. That person had ended up dying, as his intellectual capacity hadn’t been enough to cope with that of a Time Lord’s. Yet, this unconscious girl was different. She had genes that allowed her to be a hybrid. Not to mention she had been one for the entire duration of her life. A perfect middle ground for both species, to say the least.

“Even more so. She is a genius. She has the ability to understand complex mechanisms without requiring training. An intuitive aptitude as I call it. She even decoded those creatures’ language, as a lingual extension of her ability.” continued the Games, just as Gray had started to wonder if being a hybrid was all she had to offer. “Yeah, but… why go crazy all of a sudden?” he asked calmly. “She is the opposite of crazy, really. But given the circumstances I’m actually surprised she didn’t snap before. Being clever isn’t easy; she can look around her and connect things. Things I can’t figure myself. It’s a lonely feeling, Gray, having everybody around you being so annoyingly slow.” He looked at Caitlin’s face and extended his right hand to caress it. But before he made contact, he retracted his hand back. “Caitlin used to have poor control over her ability. We trained as we travelled to improve it, and she did. She eventually perfected her control but ultimately became well aware of her own capabilities as well. She had even been talking about learning more at a disturbingly increasing rate.” finished the Games, now looking at his friend instead. Meanwhile, Gray had listened everything with a weirded out expression. And how could he not? All the things the Time Lord had explained reminded him of his younger self. Back when he was unable to control his anger; so much so that he couldn’t tell if he had really blocked the Dalek inside his head. “That’s a hunger, Games.” he uttered. “What?” questioned the Time Lord, fearing the fact that it was someone very damaged that could relate to Caitlin’s condition.

[Shuren]

“She has a hunger. The same way I do. You see, I have an unusual capacity for hatred. For her, that’s being clever.” Taking a short pause, Gray walked towards the Septuarins and kneeled next to them. “I used to be different before I met you all those years ago. After blocking the Dalek inside my head, I was in a continuous search for fighting. The more I killed, the less difficult it became for me to kill. It almost became instinctual.” He spoke as he used his left hand to scan one of the Septuarins. Their genetic data had an entry within his databanks, which was surprising. But he wasn’t going to complain about it. “How did you fix that?” asked the Games, making the young lad laugh in response. Once it was over, he would continue. “I didn’t. You can’t fix something that is coded in your very DNA, man. I did, however, overcome that instinct by sheer willpower. I still do. It’s a constant battle inside my conscience. But in the end the better side suppresses the other… or something like that.” He made his explanation in such a confident way; as if what they were talking about had been so obvious from the very beginning. “So it’s not a permanent fix.” reassured the Time Lord, to which he received a nod as a no. And to his surprise, that wouldn’t be all. “It takes only a bad moment to snap. Just one bad moment. That’s why you ought to keep an eye on her.” explained the young lad. He knew the conflict he was talking about very well. Even though he had gotten rid of the Dalek that had been placed inside his head for good, it had become a part of his nature to be violent.

“And you too, apparently.” commented the Games, thinking that this revelation also meant Gray had to be put in check from time to time as well. Though unlike what the Time Lord thought, he was different from Caitlin. Being aware of his situation and having accepted it had made it unbelievably easy for the young lad to move on with his life in the right direction. “Don’t be stupid, dude. I do the same thing every day. I slay the Daleks. You two, on the other hand, travel. You discover. You learn. She learns. At least I know if I’m doing the right thing or not, she doesn’t. That explains precisely why she attacked you, don’t you think?” The Games nodded silently. “Yes, I see your point.” he replied. “So what are you gonna do about it?” asked Gray. This took a sigh out from the Games. There were lots of options to choose from but at the same time most weren’t just viable. “Not sure. But I’m certain I’m nearing the end of my time with her. Too bad, I wanted to show her so much more.” Gray sensed a slight sadness, or more accurately disappointment. Although he didn’t know what, he was certain that it was an indication of a predicament that restricted his friend’s courses of action. “Why can’t you?” “My eleventh incarnation said we would meet again once things started to get problematic. I think this is it.” And in all honesty, the Games couldn’t think of a more problematic situation than this current one. For sure he could just wait for the Eleventh to come and let him know it was time, yet that was not how he wanted things to go. “Don’t you guys have solutions for things like these in Gallifrey?” said Gray, unaware that part of what the eleventh incarnation had said involved the Games’ planet as well.

“He also said Gallifrey would be facing a major threat the next time I headed there.” informed the Games, which, for Gray, made his presence inside this spaceship more sensible. He could guess that this wasn’t the first of his random travels either. “Ah. You have been delaying your return, haven’t you?” The Games nodded as a yes, making Gray wonder how long it had been since he had started travelling. “I still have lots of things to do. But I don’t think I can let her come along anymore. Not like this. I will leave her somewhere safe and pick her up once things settle down.” Caressing the girl’s hair once, the Time Lord placed his hands beneath Caitlin and lifted her. He walked to his TARDIS while carrying her; if anything he was certainly not going to leave her inside this eerie spaceship with the Septuarins. “God knows when.” commented the young lad, knowing from experience how erratic travelling with the Time Lord could get. They entered the console room and the Games placed Caitlin on one of the nearby seats. Afterwards, he took the Ship off. “Doesn’t matter. You will be coming along.” said the Games in return, surprising his friend. Gray was about to open his mouth and speak, but the Time Lord could already guess what he was intending to say. He would probably try to tell him how I couldn’t come along and needed to travel very specifically instead. He was well aware of his cause and his determination; Gray would even travel to the ends of the universe if he had to. But that literally wasn’t a problem. “I have a time machine, Gray. I can always drop you back here, whenever you want. I can’t see a drawback.” he said, not letting the young lad have the first go. Extending his hand, he waited for him to shake his hand. “What do you say?” Gray looked at the Games first, then at the moving time rotor, and then back at him again.

“Alright then.” he said and gave him a solid handshake. Minutes later, the TARDIS landed inside a white corridor. The Games was the first to exit, followed by Gray. “Where are we?” The young lad continued to look around in mixed feelings of wonder and suspicion after asking his question. The corridors were bright due to the sunlight, and extremely silent. Though it wouldn’t be correct to say empty, since there were rooms with inhabitants everywhere as well as people walking back and forth through the entire area. They were all carrying an insignia of a green moon on their uniforms, from which Gray understood they were inside a hospital since that was the universal symbol for hospitals. “Sisters of the Infinite Schism. It’s the greatest hospital in the universe. Couldn’t think of a better place to leave her.” replied the Games. After making sure Caitlin was placed in her unconscious state safely, that being not just for her but also for everybody around her, the duo returned to the TARDIS and left. There were lots of things they had to do.

[Shuren]

The Games continued his travels with Gray, and Holly, a human they met during one of their journeys, and eventually returned to Gallifrey. There, he learned of a prophecy called the Return, which apparently was causing his timeline to come to an end. The core belief of the prophecy stated that justice would prevail when “he” returned and that “he” was one of the only two left of his kind, trying to return to his home planet to defeat his only enemy and take back what was stolen from him. After thorough investigation, the trio learned that the prophecy referred to the return of Rassilon. This shocked the Games beyond belief, since he thought he had killed Rassilon as his fourth incarnation, and caused his metabolism to make him regenerate without control. The Sixth Games gathered a council of all of his previous incarnations and took their advice. Together they came up with a plan: they intended to open an untempered schism and enter the Time Vortex, so they could merge with it and use its power to erase Rassilon from time altogether. Though during their fight against him, it was Holly that went into the Time Vortex. Gray followed after her before the untempered schism closed. Holly emerged with the Vortex’s powers but before she could effectively end Rassilon, she decided to rescue Gray instead. Gray on the other hand was stranded in his own past, and was joined by Holly, who lost her powers right after arriving at the scene. Together they watched a child Gray plea for help to a stranger, with the stranger sadly refusing to help, which would inevitably cause Gray’s parents to fail escaping from the Dalek camps. Surprisingly that person turned out to be the third incarnation of the Games. Vowing revenge on the Games because of this, Gray and Holly returned to Gallifrey using Gray’s Temporal Shift. They joined Rassilon, who had used the opportunity to steal a Battle TARDIS from the Cloisters. Together they escaped and formed an army that held strong forces, like the 501st Cyber Legion. Their joined armies waged war against the Gallifreyan Army, whereas Gray was leading the assault on Gallifrey itself. As the Time War raged, the Gallifreyan forces ultimately started to dominate, which forced Rassilon into fleeing. Unlike him, however, Gray’s own army of Daleks was holding up well since they found a way to bypass the Sky Trenches and as such Gray continued to fight on the fields of Gallifrey.

The fight was progressing fiercely above Gallifrey. Countless Dalek ships were constantly making their ways from the main fleet to Gallifrey’s orbit, trying to enter the planet by passing through the Sky Trenches. Though that had proved itself to be quite impossible, the battle between the Gallifreyan Army and Rassilon’s allied forces in space was still enough to take its toll on both sides. At one moment the main fleet, itself, closed in on the planet. This urged the Games to make an appearance; to show them this kind of approach wouldn’t work. Plus he could just feel who was going to be there waiting for him. And he wasn’t surprised. Hundreds of Daleks, waiting right outside the Sky Trenches, some constantly trying to break through and failing. In front of them was Gray, who happened to be standing still. The Games and Gray stared at each other; they were both standing on one side of the aerial defense layer. The reason for the enemy party’s presence was quite clear for the Time Lord; they were waiting for a chance to make an ambush. Little they did know, however, that one of the improvements the Games’ previous incarnation had made to the Sky Trenches included letting the firepower out from the inside. Not only that, any particular beam that passed through it would be empowered by the Sky Trench. Though they could not control that in the past, it wasn’t the case anymore. The Games was hovering in the air by constantly releasing regeneration energy from beneath his feet. Standing all alone, he raised his hand and swung it down. Immediately after that, countless beams of energy fired from down below. The Daleks that were hit would disintegrate due to the strengthened status of the attacks. Seeing that he was the one being ambushed now, Gray quickly signed to retreat. Yet, he couldn’t help but yell his lungs out in anger.

“I’m going to kill you, you bastard!” he shouted at the Games. After this, both he and the Time Lord moved closer to the Sky Trench. Several seconds later, they were separated by about a meter only. Despite having lost so many soldiers that day, the Games could figure out why Gray was trying to get revenge. Having lost his entire family himself, he could relate to the feeling. And that was precisely why he wanted Gray to redeem himself the right way. “Listen Gray. Just listen and think! I had already met you before I came across you as a child. If I had saved you I would have altered your future and never met you as you were then. It would have been a paradox!” he explained desperately. He knew he was partially at fault for not trying more, but it was definite that a paradox of that intensity would be dangerous not only for him but for the entire reality. “I don’t care!” yelled Gray. “But you should! You do know that time travel needs to be delicate and precise. I didn’t have a choice. But you do. You can put a stop to this madness. Countless people are dying in the heart of the battle every second and you can end it.” “I said I don’t care!” he yelled once again. There wasn’t even a single second of consideration before he said those words. It was as if he was doing it reflexively, which obviously angered the Games as well. “Then you are lost!” he declared, before turning back and returning to the surface.

[Shuren]

*later*
“Lord President.” The door to the Lord President’s office squeaked open with that sentence. It was one of the Castellan, a high-ranking Time Lord who oversaw the Chancellery Guard and served to the Lord President, directly. This particular one was a female with pale skin that seemed to be in her early thirties. Though she was well over five hundred years old. “Yes Greyana?” replied the Games, signing the girl to come in. She did so upon his command, also pulling a familiar face from behind her. It was Holly; Greyana was holding her left arm with her hand, though she didn’t have to because her arms were restrained. “This woman surrendered an hour ago. She apparently said she had intel and that she would share it with you only.” explained the girl. “I see. You can release her.” said the Games after several seconds of silence, surprising Greyana greatly. “…My lord! She is a war-criminal!” she objected. Not only that but she was also concerned about the Lord President’s well-being. Who knew what could happen once this woman was released? Though the Lord President thought differently on the subject. He looked at the girl in the eyes, and spoke slowly. “Was I not clear, Greyanavoresimabora?” With that said, Greyana had no other options. She had served the Games for a while now, and she knew it wasn’t a good sign when he used their full names instead of the shorter ones he came up with. “…as you wish, my lord.” she said and released Holly. Afterwards she slowly walked towards the exit and let herself out. “What are you doing here Holly?” asked the Games, not seeming to be angry or surprised, but rather curious about this visit. Not to mention the fact that she had surrendered on her own probably signified a situation of changing sides. “I left. I couldn’t stand being with them anymore!” said Holly, her voice giving hints of fear and tiredness.

“What happened?” Upon the question, Holly shifted her eyes. She didn’t want to look the Games in the eyes. The Time Lord wondered, was this guilt? If so, what had caused it? “Gray… changed, Games. He is not the same person I met. He used to blow up, but he would still care. Now he is just mindlessly angry.” spoke Holly slowly and let out a sigh before she continued. “We were at the War Council Rassilon had gathered. He asked each of his commanders to choose a planet to start his invasion. Gray naturally chose Gallifrey. But he wasn’t the only one. Then Rassilon said that only one commander could claim a planet. And Gray… he…” She took a pause and gulped. “He killed that man. His own ally, without even breaking a sweat! It was senseless killing… He was so cold!” The Games’ eyes grew wider as he heard the news. His friend that had once ripped open his chest to check if he had a heart was slowly but gradually becoming heartless. “I see. And this intel you were talking about? At this point, one could even say that we don’t even need that sort of tactical advantages.” The Time Lord spoke with something that could be called pride, since they really did have the upper hand at the moment. He also wanted to change the topic since the other one seemed to be taking a toll on Holly. “Rassilon fled.” uttered the girl. “What?” “You are right about what you said, Games. He was losing and he did what he is the best at: he ran away.” The Games was surprised to hear that. Of course, like before it was normal for Rassilon to get away once the circumstances turned out against his favor. Yet, he hadn’t expected him to give up easily like that. “Interesting. That means nobody is in charge of the main fleet anymore.” he remarked. With Rassilon gone, they would be able to take out the biggest portions of their army. If anything one thing they required was constant leadership. And with that taken away, the Gallifreyan forces could just put pressure on them until they crumbled down. “That’s not all.” interrupted Holly, gathering the Games’ attention once again.

“I think Gray found a way to bypass your sky defenses.” What Holly said was impossible. Or that’s what the Time Lord thought about the Sky Trenches he had worked so much on. Nothing could penetrate them. So how could anybody be able to get past them? “I don’t know how he does it, I really don’t. But he is planning to attack with everything he has got in twenty four hours.” The Games was further shocked by the girl’s explanation. Having no other choice, he sent a notice to the headquarters. After all, they needed to defend their planet and the civilians; they could take out the enemy fleets without leadership later on as well. Afterwards, he stood up from his desk and walked next to Holly. He was standing close to her, which made it easier for Handles to materialize his TARDIS around them. Holly seemingly cheered up a bit by this; it had been a while since she had last stepped inside the console room. And travelling after all those depressing moments at Rassilon’s side sounded exciting to her. Though that wasn’t what the Games had in mind at all. “You won’t be safe here. Since you defected, they will be looking for you everywhere. I’ll return you home.” he said. It was true that Holly had made the right decision, but that still didn’t change how she had sided with Rassilon. Of course, he could understand that from her point of view it was nearly impossible not to have done so. But that didn’t change anything for him. Several minutes later, they were in London. The weather was nice, but darker. It had been several hours since the attack of the Autons and the streets had seemingly recovered: the Games was leaving Holly back where they had first met, on the same day. “Take this with you.” he said as they both stepped outside, and gave the girl a small, round disc. “What is it?” Holly asked, examining the disk. “It’s a portable time lock. Something my predecessor developed. If you are in danger, just press this button and it will put a protective temporal barrier around you. It will also send a signal to me, so I’ll be there to help. And no, daily situations don’t count.” Holly nodded and looked at the Time Lord. Her eyes would shortly tear up. “Games, I’m-” she began, but was cut off. “Don’t. I’ll see you again, with or without that time lock’s signal. Until then, just live your life eh?” The Time Lord had understood what she was about to say. She was probably going to apologize for causing so much trouble. But to be fair, it was his inability to save Gray as a child that had caused all of this. And that was his burden and his alone. With a smile, he patted on the side of Holly’s left shoulder and returned to his TARDIS. “Later.”

[Shuren]

It was difficult to say the least, for the Games to try and find a weakness inside a defense system he had so painstakingly developed. With all the improvements in mind, it still seemed impossible for anybody to penetrate them. Later on, it occurred to the Games that it really was impossible for anything to get past through, so much so that the only way to get inside was not going through the Sky Trenches. In other words, one would have to just appear within the surface. Thus, he made the proper preparations for the incoming assault. Just like he had expected, and what Holly had told him, Gray and the Daleks appeared on the fields of Gallifrey within the expected time interval. From the fashion of their arrival, it was quite apparent that they had incorporated the Vortex Manipulator with their own Temporal Shift. The battle began and both sides clashed. The Games was also fighting: while it was uncommon for a Lord President to be participating in the front lines, the Time Lord felt like not fighting with the powers he had would lead to needless sacrifice of his soldiers. He fought for hours, yet he was unable to locate Gray. Just when he had made his way to a hill to get a better view of the battlefield, standing on a pile of broken Daleks and dead Gallifreyan soldiers, he felt the space behind him start to shift. Before he could react, two beams pierced through both of his hearts from behind. He screamed in pain before falling down on the ground, his chest bleeding uncontrollably. “Well, well, well… The immortal Games, huh? Not too shabby when you are actually dying though!” exclaimed Gray, who was gushing with joy. “How did you-” The Games began to speak, but was cut off before he could finish his question. “Rassilon told me. He told me to either poison you or go for both of your hearts. He also said the latter would be more painful.” explained Gray with pride, and kicked the Time Lord in the head. It seemed that Rassilon had told him about their physiology. While the Games was invulnerable to most attacks and wouldn’t require to go through a complete change like a regular Time Lord, there were still exceptions. Some attacks could kill a Time Lord straight away and cancel regeneration; like drowning, poisoning or having both hearts damaged at the same time. While this didn’t apply to him, experiencing one of those would force him to go through a regular regeneration and change entirely.

“This doesn’t… change anything. I know that Rassilon fled.” said the Time Lord, breathing heavily. Deep inside, he could feel the regeneration that would change him starting, but he was holding it back for as much as he could. As for what he said, Gray was left unfazed. “So? I don’t need his portion of the army; I only need mine. My troops are still doing fine, mate. As long as I am active as their commander, they will wreak havoc. And while we are here, we might as well start with the Capitol or Arcadia.” he said with a grin before punching the Time Lord in the face again. “That’s… what you want then?” asked the Games, doing all he can to be able to look at Gray in the eye. “Precisely. Utter annihilation wherever I go. My kind of universe, don’t you think?” Afterwards, the young man kicked the Time Lord in the head for the last time, before turning around and walking away. “I… see. I only wanted to see how far you would go…” uttered the Games, making Gray stop. “What?” asked the young lad, as he turned his head around. Why would his depths of belief concern a dying man? “I’m… sorry.” Grunted the Games. He mustered all the strength he had to pull out a laser sword and run towards the young lad. With all of his might, he stabbed Gray in the stomach. He looked at him in the eye, and continued to breathe heavily. Gray on the other hand sported a disgusted expression; the fact that he had though such an attack could inflict serious harm on him was despicable. Little did he know, however, that the laser sword the Games had used had special qualities that canceled out Gray’s self-replicating energy matrix. By the time he had realized that because of the bleeding, which wasn’t supposed to happen, it was already too late. Looking at the Games, shocked, he yelled in pain when the Time Lord struck his abdominal area again with the laser sword before pulling it out and throwing it away. “You… you had that all along?!” asked the young lad, angrily. He was now lying on the ground among dead bodies, holding his abdomen with both of his hands. “Yes.” uttered the Time Lord, who was in a similar position. They were facing the opposite sides, with their heads being only centimeters apart from one another. “Why didn’t you… use it before?!” To think of it, there had been several instances they had fought since this whole war had started. With this weapon the Games could have easily made him vulnerable before and put an end to the war. “I wanted to… see for myself. That you had really lost… your humanity.”

Gray was shocked to hear this. All this time, the Games could have killed him. But he had not done so only because he had felt responsible for Gray’s actions. So much that he had only attacked once he was certain that his wrong behavior went beyond his childhood trauma. “In the past… you fought Daleks for the sake of people. But now… you are leading them… on a battlefield. You… you changed.” he said, speaking with great difficulty. His rhythm of breathing was getting worse each second, but even then he was able to hold his regeneration off. “It didn’t have to be this way, Gray.” he uttered. “I… think it did.” replied the young lad. His response made the Time Lord somewhat angry. “No. It didn’t. You used to tell me… about suppressing your anger… your desire to vanquish it instead of being consumed by it… You have become what you feared the most.” Feeling angry himself, Gray exploded. “What about you then? Eh?! You used to be… an inspiration! And… and what a fucking monster you turned out to be… just to achieve your ends…” He finished his sentence before making a low inarticulate sound because of his pain. “I think we… both had our fair share of mistakes, mate.” There was a silence for a while. Or whatever the sounds of distant fighting could be called. Not much later, however, that was disturbed by a small laughter. “I only regret one thing… you know? I regret that it took me so long to realize…” said Gray, his voice sounding very forced. His breathing had sped up and he was clenching his fists above his stomach. “Realize… what?” asked the Time Lord. “That you and me… we weren’t so different after all.” replied Gray. He took one last breath and looked at the orange skies of Gallifrey for one last time before closing his eyes. A slight smile was left upon his face. As life faded away from Gray’s body, the Games’ hands and face started to glow. He was no longer able to hold his imminent regeneration back. “In the end, I guess we really were alike.” he uttered, with a tear escaping his left eye. Not much later, he started to regenerate into his seventh incarnation.

[Shuren]

After regenerating the seventh incarnation decided that it was enough that he had been travelling randomly and decided to settle down for a while. Though he succeeded at that, certain events kept him occupied and thus he couldn’t find it in himself to stay at one place any longer. As he fought various enemies throughout his incarnations, the Games eventually cleared everything that stood in his way and returned to Caitlin. However, by that time he was already in his tenth incarnation. Parking his TARDIS just outside of the hospital, the young Time Lord stepped inside and made his way towards the corridor. Even though his fifth incarnation had checked Caitlin in several hours ago, it had been years for him. As much as stepping inside the same building to continue from where he had left off made him feel nostalgia, he was also experiencing a nervous state. He wasn’t the same man Caitlin knew, after all. But as far as he could remember, she wasn’t the same person he knew either. After several minutes of walking through the corridors and searching the right place, the Games entered the room that was on the far end of the twenty-second floor. The girl was still asleep, so he decided to sit down next to her and wait. He waited for an hour and a half before she woke up. “Hey.” he greeted softly, his eyes meeting the wondrous gaze Caitlin was exerting. “Who the hell are you?!” asked the girl, prompting the Time Lord to share his identity quickly. He actually expected this kind of reaction; there was a strange man sitting very close to her after all. “Calm down.” he said, but before he could tell her who he was Caitlin had already started with her plotting.“Oh no, no. I get it. You must be the one who knocked me down!”

“What?” exclaimed the Time Lord, trying to hold his laughter at the idea. Though this reaction didn’t soften up the mood. Instead, Caitlin seemed angrier than before and somewhat more demanding. “And Games… where is he? He has some explaining to do.” “Caitlin…” The Games reached for the girl’s hand to give her an assuring pat, however she reacted at this rather quickly again. “Stay away and tell me where Games is! I need to know! And how do you know my name?!” Even though she was unaware of it, the Games could see how Caitlin was being controlled by her ability. Even a simple piece of information like his location had made her go crazy with the urge to learn. It was as if she was being poisoned. “I never realized her desire to learn more had advanced to this stage.” he thought silently. “I am the Games.” said the Time Lord reassuringly. Yet, his revelation would be taken as a material for laughter. “Ahahahahahaha!” The girl laughed before stopping momentarily to look at the man. It was then that she understood he wasn’t trying to be ridiculous. “Wait, you’re actually serious.” she acknowledged his identity, but she was still waiting for a proper explanation. “I regenerated. Well, half a dozen times since we last met.” said the Time Lord casually. “Wow. How long have you been away?” This made the Games think. He had been away for a long while, though he hadn’t stopped once to check how long it had been. After a quick calculation, he replied. “Roughly twelve hundred years. But considering that I checked you in here just a couple of hours ago, I would-” “I missed it all…” His words were cut off by Caitlin. The girl was overwhelmed with the feelings of regret and sadness, that she wasn’t able to witness anything the Games had. She wanted to see new places as well as faces, especially the ones that belonged to the Time Lord. “I was in quite some trouble myself. I didn’t really-” he tried to speak again but was cut off once more.

“Still, you should have taken me with you. I missed it all!” Caitlin’s attitude was persistent, though she had no idea what he had been going through. His sixth and eighth incarnations had spent their entire lives fighting different wars, whereas his seventh and ninth tried to somewhat recover from the aftermath. He had even committed genocide as his eighth incarnation: it was the most peaceful one among the last four, however in a situation where the entire universe was at risk, he didn’t have another choice than sacrificing one planet. He would often tell himself it was all for the greater good, but that still didn’t justify what he had done. “Yeah, but see-” started the Games, but was interrupted. Deciding that this was going to be the last time Caitlin didn’t let him speak, he did the same. “I wanted to see all of-” “CAITLIN!” yelled the Games is angrily, his eyes glowing yellow. This successfully put the girl in her place and made her shut up. “During our travels I never thought that your gift was also a curse. The more you learn, the more you want to learn. And there is no end to it.” The Time Lord stood from his seat and walked towards the window of the room, opening it. Looking outside, he continued. “It changes you, Caitlin. Do you remember why you are here?” he asked. “Not really. I only remember exiting the TARDIS and… Huh… that’s weird. Nothing else comes to my mind.” stated the girl. It seemed that unlike Gray, Caitlin’s ability actually took over her. She wasn’t in control, to the extent that she couldn’t retain her memories after losing it. “We had discovered the Septuarins. Despite my warnings about their dangerous nature, you continued to talk with them and risked your own timeline. Moreover you commanded them to attack me.” He paused and turned back to face the girl.

“I had lots of time to think about it. I came up with a solution to fix that.” Caitlin’s expression changed after hearing this. It shifted to show more annoyance. “I don’t want you to fix it. Nothing is broken.” “Don’t test my patience. My word is final.” After hearing that the girl realized there was practically nothing she could do to stop her at her current state. She liked learning and didn’t want to give up her ability. Glancing at the open window. She jumped from her hospital cot and rushed to the window. She threw one of her legs over and looked down. “Before you do that, do you wonder what happened to the man that knocked you out?” said the Games, stopping the girl’s movement. He wasn’t going to question her rationality at this point, believing that none was left. Her urge to learn was taking over her again, making it more desirable to have Caitlin fall from twenty-two floors and waste a regeneration for nothing than losing her ability. “He was a very good friend, to say the least. I was lucky to have him there. We travelled after we left you here. But similarly to how you are losing to your eagerness to learn, he lost to his own anger and did terrible things.” The Games didn’t more an inch from where he was. He didn’t want to alert her senses and make her jump down, at least not until he finished what he had to say. “In the end, I killed him. I killed my friend.” Caitlin’s eyes grew wider as she heard the words come out of the Time Lord’s mouth. Her face showed the slightest hint of hesitation as she looked down below once again. “I don’t want to go through that again.” Though the Games had intended this to be a warning, the girl took this as a poor threat that displayed a weakness. So she jumped outside. She fell and fell until she hit the ground, horribly disfigured. And eventually her regeneration restored her back to perfect health, enabling her to run away towards the city. Meanwhile the Time Lord made his way to the TARDIS to get to Caitlin as soon as possible.

[Shuren]

Caitlin was a clever girl. Cleverer than the Time Lord had guessed, in fact. He was expecting to find her eventually but several months had passed since she had made her last appearance. It was as if she had disappeared from the surface of reality. She simply wasn’t the girl he had met all those years ago; she was using her intelligence for evil and self-gain. Though there was still one trait Caitlin hadn’t lost: she liked gloating every now and then. Knowing that, the Games settled down next to the Hospital. He knew that rather than finding her, the girl would find him when she thought it was fine to do so. And she did. Six months after her escape from the hospital, the Games received a signal from Handles regarding the sighting of Time Lord DNA on the outskirts of the city nearby. He made his way there, to a hill that stood above the others around it. Caitlin stood on top of it. She seemed… different to say the least; the aura she gave was dark and disturbing. The Games could feel a disturbance when he set his gaze upon her, as if her being was going against the rules of creation. “Long time no see, Caitlin. I see you have been up to quite some mischief.” he commented. Afterwards, the girl initiated eye contact with the Time Lord, letting him see that her green eyes were no more. They were bright purple instead. “Yes. Thanks to you opening my eyes, I now hold all the knowledge in the universe!” exclaimed Caitlin and raised her hands and her head. With this motion the space around the duo started to bend and spin. Knowing that this was unlike anything he had ever seen or heard of before, the Games lost his calm and his balance. “What… did you do?” he asked, terrified. Falling to the ground as he felt dizzy, the Time Lord tried to regain his composure as her received an answer.

“Well, I cracked the Skasis Paradigm of course!” The Skasis Paradigm was a mathematical equation behind the way the universe worked and existed. Anybody who managed the unleash the equation could control the building blocks of the universe. “No! Caitlin the paradigm holds immense power, it’s never meant to be solved!” objected the Games. In his younger years, there had been times when he was tempted to solve the paradigm as well. Yet, he had respected the flow of time like his peers. “I don’t think so Games. On the contrary, I believe they call it the God Maker for a reason. Haahhahahah!” The girl broke into laughter. This brought an upset expression on the man’s face. He slowly stood up, as his mind accepted the resolution he had come up with. “You leave me no choice Caitlin.” The Games’ eyes glowed yellow and the air around him started to form a funnel. They slowly formed a sprout under him as he rose higher in the sky. He had initiated his connection to the Time Vortex, intending to reverse Caitlin’s exposure to the paradigm by modifying her past. “I’m sorry that it has come to this.” he said, his voice echoing due to him channeling the Vortex. However, things wouldn’t go as expected. The girl simply grinned and pointed her hand at the man. Afterwards the sprout he was standing on disappeared and his eyes lost their yellow glow, as the Games fell down to the ground. Hard. “What did… you do?” he asked, panting because of the fall. Before answering him, Caitlin clapped her hands together and sent out a wave of purple energy in every direction. Afterwards she spoke. “Oh I just blocked your connection to the Time Vortex. The same goes for your TARDIS. And all other TARDISes.” she explained. She had just sealed the Time Vortex, entirely. “But… but-”

“The Vortex is but a subdomain of the many areas of a goddess’ power. I won’t have anybody stand in my way or try to change my timeline. Not even you, Games.” Seeing no other choice but to attack her physically, in hopes of knocking her out and working out a way to fix all of this. But as he stood up and ran, his right leg ached in great amounts of pain, making him grunt and fall again. Something was wrong with his body, it shouldn’t have taken this long for his leg to get better. Disregarding that thought, he changed plans and decided to attack from the long range. He extended his hands and readied himself to send a blast of regeneration energy at the girl. Much to his surprise, however, nothing happened. It didn’t take him long to realize that his regenerative powers had also been nullified. With a psychotic laugh, Caitlin began to walk towards the man. At the heat of the moment, not being able to think of any other distraction, the Games closed his eyes shut and imagined. That moment a figure appeared behind the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. Surprised, Caitlin looked back to see who it was and immediately received a well-connected punch on her right cheek. She fell down and disappeared, only to reappear in front of the figure, furious yet also curious: it was none other than the Games himself. Having him lie behind her, how could it be that he was standing healthy, fighting her? The fight didn’t last long, as the girl simply warped half of his body. She turned around to finish off the injured Games as well, but he was long gone.

“Thank you Siegrain.” whispered the Time Lord, lying on the floor of his TARDIS. “And thank you, Handles. If you had left the brakes on while landing like I do, she would have noticed me leaving. I still prefer that rusty noise though.” His thought projection had successfully distracted Caitlin while he was using his sonic to make Handles materialize the TARDIS around him. Dusting his clothes off, he held one of the railings nearby and got on his feet. “Affirmative.” replied Handles. During the next few ours the Games found out that the TARDIS really could not access the Time Vortex. He also healed himself with medicine he had not used in centuries. Knowing he could not get help from his past or future selves, he decided to turn to the only person who would not even flinch at such a situation. He landed his TARDIS on Lothrim; a desolate world covered with ice and snow, located in a rarely-traveled portion of the outer rim territories, famous for being completely devoid of any life forms. After landing, he stepped outside to the cold. He was at the entrance of a cave. Making his way inside, he eventually stopped once he was near a fire and a person sitting in front of it. Parked to their right was a Battle TARDIS. Though the planet didn’t contain any life forms, there was one big exception for the time being. “I need your help… Rassilon.” The man turned around to face the Time Lord with a grin. “It was about time.”

[Shuren]

The Games stood silently, not knowing how to proceed. There stood right in front of him, his greatest enemy. And yet, he was there to plead for his help. Having fought against him almost all of his life, the young man knew that if anybody could come up with a solution without wavering it was Rassilon. Swallowing his pride, he decided to continue. “My friend cracked the Skasis Paradigm. And she might change reality for the worse.” Once he was finished, Rassilon nodded with his head as if he was agreeing. Although the words that came out of his mouth were consistent with his calm posture, the sarcasm behind them could be felt quite easily. “You are still so naïve, my Games.” he said with a poker face. “You bastard, don’t start making-” started the Games, obviously angry that Rassilon could conjure up enough selfishness to be mocking him. Though he was cut off before he could finish. “If she cracked the paradigm, she surely can find out where we are and eliminate us. Use your brain a bit, will you?” Standing up from where he sat, Rassilon walked over to his TARDIS after signing the young man to follow him. The Games did so and entered the Ship. It felt weird to be inside Rassilon’s vessel or to see him walk around the console, tinkering with buttons and settings. Suddenly the ground shook shortly, a sign of their departure. The Games wanted to tell him that it was futile to enter the Time Vortex, but he would soon find out that it wasn’t the man’s intention in the first place. On the corner of the console room, a Battle TARDIS materialized. The exact same one they were in, to be specific. Rassilon had just parked his vessel inside itself. “Now, even if she tries to see where we are she will be lost in an infinite loop.” He explained and walked away from the console.

“As I was saying…” said the Games and watched Rassilon make his way towards him. He stopped when the man was standing about a meter away from him, wondering why he was getting closer. Then out of the blue, Rassilon held the Games from his collar and threw him across the console room. Before he could get up, he pinned him down to the ground. “Desperate. That’s what you are right now. The fact that you came to me means you are helpless. Very very helpless indeed!” he yelled. Afterwards he gripped the Time Lord’s throat and started to squeeze it. “No connection to the Time Vortex, obviously. I take it not even your TARDIS can access it. Otherwise you would have changed the past. Screw the Laws of Time, you are the Lord President after all! If you can’t rewrite time, then who can?!” Rassilon’s obsession coupled with his joy could be seen easily from his face. He hadn’t been this happy in a long while, but even then that wasn’t all. He was going to get even happier soon. “But oh no. No no no no no, there is more. I can feel it. My dear Games… You have become MORTAL ONCE AGAIN!” As the Games gasped for air, Rassilon slightly loosened his grip on his throat. But that wasn’t done out of mercy; it was only to allow the young man scream loud and clear. “Aaaaaaaaaargh!” exclaimed the Games in pain as Rassilon slowly but consistently forced his hand through his ribs. He was, literally, going to tear him apart. “YES, YES! SCREAM! FEEL THE PAIN, MY LORD GAMES! FEEL THE PAIN AND SAVOR IT!” shouted Rassilon, savoring the moment as much as he was telling his subject to.

“You can’t… kill me.” murmured the Games under his breath, which urged Rassilon to stop and move his head closer to his lips. “And why is that?” he asked sarcastically. “Because I can guess why you are… here. Your mapping circuits are toasted, aren’t they? Without directions you just go around randomly. I mean, who in their right mind would come to a planet like this?” This made Rassilon stop his hand before it advanced further to damage anything crucial. Though what he said didn’t seem to have the impact he had expected on Rassilon. The man simply wasn’t interested. “So?” He raised his hand and started to let it descend upon the young man’s chest. “I have the spare parts that you need!” shouted the Games, stopping Rassilon’s motion. “All the better, my Games. I can retrieve them from your TARDIS myself!” declared Rassilon. But he was missing the fact that the Games had already thought of that. “You can’t, they’re hidden.” Rassilon looked at his nemesis angrily and slowly formed his hand into a fist. Then he started punching him in the face. He punched him countless times, until the Games’ face was filled with cuts and bruises. Once he decided that he looked miserable enough he let go. “What do you need?” he asked. He was sure that the Games had a plan in mind but had difficulties executing it. Besides, he wasn’t interested in holding his hand and helping him all the way out.

“I need a way to disable her from blocking me. I have a plan, but I can’t get close to her.” explained the Games as he stood up and straightened his back. He wanted to hurt Rassilon so badly, but unluckily for him he needed his assistance. As he glared at the older man with hatred, Rassilon took a moment to think. “Interesting. Is your friend a Time Lord?” he said after several minutes of consideration. “Why? I won’t tell you…” replied the Games. He didn’t want to reveal much about Caitlin and risk Rassilon doing something worse with her, like he had done with Gray. Though the reason Rassilon asked this was entirely different. “What I am going to show you does not work on Time Lords.” He made his way into the interior and walked through the corridors, with the Games following him. They stopped in front of a room that had a timer setting on its entrance. This was one of the rooms the Games used for training; he could set the timer’s value to something high, so one second outside would equal to the given value amount of seconds inside. It was a special room that manipulated the flow of time to squeeze long trainings into incredibly short times. After the adjustments were done, Rassilon lead the way and entered. They were in endless grass plains. But differently, although unknown to him for now, Rassilon had the ability to create anything inside the room.

[Shuren]

“In the Dark Times, long before the age of the Time Lords, our ancestors developed a way to imbue words with their combined senses. Soon with enough practice and prolonged exposure to the vortex, their language was able to make their dreams reality.” he explained as they walked away from the entrance. “Old High Gallifreyan once possessed the power to raise empires and destroy gods. That saying is not just some legend or a tale. It is the truth. We only forgot how to use it.” This amazed the Games. As a child he had listened tales and stories about their ancestors using only words to devour false gods. And now he learned that not only were they true, but he could also use the same power. “Is that why it doesn’t work on Time Lords?” he asked, momentarily snapping from his amazement. Rassilon shook his head to his sides as a no. “It is because the affinity to the language exists in every pure Gallifreyan. However, not every Time Lord can learn this language. You can, because you belong to one of the Oldblood houses. While it is common that a regular Time Lord can resist Old High Gallifreyan, it is very rare that he can utilize it.” Of course, there weren’t many left from the Oldblood houses like him. Rassilon and the Games were both among the few that had survived over the years. Of course, Rassilon had founded a great amount of the Time Lord civilization personally but that didn’t matter as long as blood rights were concerned. “What about hybrids?” asked the Games in a curious tone, without letting Rassilon take a hint. “Hybrids are not pure.” replied the man with a disgusted expression. Not only he thought that the Time Lords were superior to every other race, he found any offspring with another race simply unfathomable.

“So how does it work?” “It is easy. You combine your temporal, spatial and psychic senses and focus them all in one point. Afterwards you speak in Old High Gallifreyan. Let me demonstrate.” Rassilon snapped his fingers and made a metal plate appear several meters away from them. “ROAN!” he yelled and at the same time, the metal plate folded in two. “That wasn’t so… strong.” remarked the Games, feeling kind of disappointed. He had expected a bigger effect after all. “The form and strength of your Old High Gallifreyan depends on the balance of your senses. If you want to make your words stronger you have to increase the pressure on all of your senses. In a similar way one of them decreasing is enough to weaken it. My psychic capabilities have decreased over the years, that is why it was weak.” Hearing the man’s explanation, the Games decided to have a go himself. “ROAN!” he yelled and bent the metal plate into a spherical shape. He had failed to fold it precisely like Rassilon had, but he had displayed a greater power. “What does it mean?” He didn’t like using words he didn’t know, which disturbed him quite quickly. But the answer he was about to receive would make him question it. “Roan means bend.” The Games raised an eyebrow. Sure, it was a cool power they were displaying. But how could he stop Caitlin with the power to bend materials? “And how is that going to help?” Rassilon laughed at the Games’ insolence. He didn’t know yet but what he was teaching him was an actual language. And the words could hold more than just one meaning. “As you can see, we both bent the metal plate. However, in your case, what you are going to bend is the willpower of your friend. You will force your friend to stand down. It is obviously more complicated than what you just did.” He walked over to the metal plate and examined it. “You have to work on your balance.” he said once his inspection was over.


*later*

The Games exited the room and after him, Rassilon. Both of them had considerably longer hair now. But that was natural: while only several minutes had passed outside, the duo had been training for several months now. Swiping his ginger hair back once they were back in the console room, the Time Lord helped Rassilon fix the loop they had created before. As the Battle TARDIS dematerialized, the Games let out a sigh and glared at Rassilon, who was staring at a monitor somewhat blankly. He wanted to ask if everything was alright, though simultaneously he came into realization that from this point on they were back to being enemies. Deciding not to bother him or himself any further, he walked towards the door. “One advice before you leave. Use your head more often.” said Rassilon, urging the Games to stop. “What?” Rassilon rotated the monitor and showed it to the Time Lord. It was displaying a specific page that contained the security details. From what it seemed, the number of attempts to break the loop they had placed as zero. Nobody had attempted to bypass their precaution. “Your friend blocked the Time Vortex. It is an immense power. So much so that we had to create a loop to be safe. But apparently she did not even bother to stop you. Why?” Rassilon raised a good question. Although he didn’t receive an answer, he had made his point pretty clear. Obviously it wasn’t that Caitlin hadn’t bothered coming after the Games. It was that she couldn’t. The reason for that wasn’t that important; what mattered was the fact that her god-like powers had limits. Returning to his TARDIS briefly, the Games retrieved the items he needed before coming back. “As promised, your mapping circuits.” said the Time Lord, as he handed the circuits to Rassilon. Seeing Rassilon nod his head in approval, the Games extended his hand to the man for a handshake, but Rassilon refused. “Become less compassionate. I want to be your enemy.” As he spoke, the evil in his eyes returned once again. So the Time Lord took his leave and returned to his TARDIS. He had given Rassilon his ticket out of this wretched planet and found a way to get closer to Caitlin. Now he could finally execute his plan.

[Shuren]

Initially the Games had planned to use his connection to the Time Vortex to change Caitlin’s past ever so slightly, so she would never have found out about the Skasis Paradigm. But since that was out of option, along with anything that required him to use his powers, he had to take drastic measures. He eventually came up with an idea: he created a special regeneration that would rearrange Caitlin’s DNA in an unusual way and make her a Time Lady. Doing so would also make her forget about the Skasis Paradigm and lose her control over it. Though the latter would always remain in her subconscious, it would tackle the initial problem that brought up all of this mess: Caitlin’s hunger to learn more. Her hunger hadn’t just caused her to crack the Skasis Paradigm; it was also interfering with it, to the point that it limited her powers. The constant flow of knowledge into her brain was somehow not enough for the girl’s eagerness to learn. While she still retained great powers they were all lesser versions of what they could have been. So he made adjustments to the regeneration he had prepared to make sure when Caitlin changed, her intuitive aptitude would remain as a gift and not a poison. Since her brain was going to have a higher capacity than before, due to her Time Lady genes becoming more dominant, she would finally be able to enjoy being clever without going berserk. By the time the TARDIS materialized in its previous location, the Games had everything ready.

“Hello there.” said the Time Lord as he stepped out, his tone shifting to a more silent one as he observed his surroundings. He was on the same hill again, from before he left. And Caitlin was also standing at the same spot. But everything else was entirely different. The hill was encircled with large emitters. And the hill no longer seemed to be on the outskirts of the city; it was in the middle of it. All of the emitters were connected to Caitlin via magenta colored rays of light. As for the space around them, it continued bending without a stop. Not only that but the gravity of the planet had been lowered along with the friction that had been eliminated. That was probably how Caitlin was providing the emitters with an endless supply of energy. “Games. Where have you been? You missed so much. I made several adjustments you see.” Caitlin spoke without opening her eyes. Even without seeing him she could guess what the Time Lord was doing. So she took the liberty of clarifying. “These emitters will amplify my powers and send ripples of my greatness into every corner of the universe. And then to the next one. And the next one. It will never end until I become a constant. An absolute being!” Opening her eyes she looked at the emitters powering up. Then she set her gaze upon the Time Lord. “You look… different. How?” said Caitlin. She had noticed how the man’s attire was dirtier, or how his hair was longer. It felt like he had been gone for several months, yet only fifteen or twenty minutes had passed since his departure. With the Time Vortex out of his reach, how could he look like he had travelled in time? While these thoughts intrigued her, Caitlin eventually discarded them and made a motion of grabbing. That moment the Games froze. It felt like a big invisible hand was holding his entire body.

“You know what? I don’t care.” While the Games was unable to even lift his pinky finger, Caitlin had so conveniently focused this hold over him mainly on the Time Lord’s torso area. If he focused enough he could muster enough strength to speak, which was what he needed. “The fact that-” continued Caitlin, before being cut off by a wave of wind hitting her from the front. “ROAN!” yelled the Games. “What… are you… doing?” Caitlin was clearly under the effects of the Old High Gallifreyan she had been exposed to. Somehow she was resisting the full effects, since he and Rassilon had theorized that after using the word ‘bend’ successfully, the subject would become a slave to whatever command was given. Perhaps this was due to her being half Time Lady, which meant Rassilon had given him partially wrong information. But it didn’t matter; the Games was able to move now. “I can’t… use my powers.” remarked Caitlin. “You can. But you won’t.” replied the Games. As long as he willed her not to, Caitlin wouldn’t utilize her powers. “You have gone too far.” he said as he walked towards the girl. “Besides… it’s ever so slightly but your powers are in a gradual decline. It’s not like you didn’t bother going after me, you simply couldn’t. But no worries, I found a way to force you back on the right track.” He was standing a meter away from the girl when he was done speaking. To show he was telling the truth, he showed his fingers to the girl. A spark of orange regeneration energy flickered around them. His powers were still weak, yes, but they were returning. With his point made, he took out a syringe that glowed bright orange.

“Extend your arm.” he commanded. As much as she tried to resist, the girl couldn’t help but do as she was told. “No! NO!!! Don’t do it! Don’t you see?! I can bring peace and order to the whole of reality!!! All the conflicts would cease to exist!! Is that not what you are working for Games?!!” she protested as the needle made contact with her skin. “What… what was that?!” Caitlin demanded to know, in horror that for the first time in a long while she was unable to figure something out. But the Games didn’t even utter a word. This was part of her punishment. “You can’t do this!” The girl protested again and this time received a proper response. “Oh but I can. I am the Lord President of Gallifrey and All Her Dominions. That includes the Time Vortex, which you damaged so savagely. Once you change and lose your control over the paradigm, everything will revert back to normal. The Time Vortex, my powers, the laws of physics you altered so casually… everything.” When he was finished, a bright yellow glow spread out of Caitlin’s hands. Then from her arms and lastly from her head. Understanding what was about to happen, she started crying. The idea of changing was what she had always feared the most; it was why she had altered her own regenerations in the first place. It was only appropriate that the Games’ solution to fixing her power crazy personality also acted as the ultimate punishment for her. “I hate you Games! I hate you!!” she screamed as her body started to glow more. The glow shifted from yellow into a swirl of bright rainbow colors. “Goodbye Caitlin.” uttered the Games silently and took a step back as Caitlin started regenerating. It was a painful one; the girl didn’t stop screaming since the beginning. And how could she? Her body was gaining more Gallifreyan traits: a second heart grew next to the first, her rib cage grew two additional ribs and her brain established new senses. As the regeneration neared its end, the effects of the Skasis Paradigm also started to disappear. The gravity returned to normal and the Games felt his connection to the Time Vortex return, as well as his own powers. The city around them vanished and the emitters ran out of energy as they were once again left alone on the hill. The regeneration ended several seconds after everything returned to normal and the Games looked at Caitlin: she now had blonde hair and lighter skin. She was also unconscious, which is why the Games lifted her and carried her to the TARDIS.

[Shuren]

After placing the girl inside the Zero Room, the Games waited for her to regain her consciousness. When she did after half an hour of lying still, she was greeted by the green light and signature sound of the Time Lord’s sonic screwdriver. “How are you feeling?” he asked as he moved his sonic along the girl’s body. “…different.” replied Caitlin. She felt like she was watching herself from a third-person view but that was mainly because of the regeneration. That wasn’t why the Games scanning her body either. “My mind is so clear… so light…” Caitlin paused to straighten her posture. She also noticed the unusual room they were in. Looking around helped her noticed they were in the Zero Room. It looked different from before but that was not all. For the first time in her life, Caitlin could feel being cut off from the universe. She had been here before but this was her first time experiencing something like that. “Everything from before just feels so… foggy.” She returned her attention to the Games, who simultaneously finished scanning her body and flicked his sonic screwdriver to check the readings. “Your brain had been under intense stress for a long period. That’s probably why.” said the Time Lord with a smile. He retracted his sonic’s claws and put it back into his pocket as he came closer to the girl. “This regeneration I prepared for you not only rearranged your DNA, but also changed its composition. You are only one fourth human now. The Time Lord genes will help you stay in control.” He signed Caitlin to check put her hand on her chest and so she did. Her expression changed as she felt two heartbeats instead of one. “The presence of the Skasis Paradigm cancels out the influence of your intuitive aptitude, while still allowing you to use the latter’s power… to a lesser degree than before but you’ll have to do with it. At least you won’t have to deal with wanting to learn more all the time.” One thing he didn’t mention was the risk he had taken: the regeneration could theoretically kill Caitlin during the process. But at that point, knowing how her predecessor had gotten, it was a risk the Games was willing to take.

“Thank you.” Caitlin hugged the Games and then stood up. Once they broke the hug, the Games led the way out of the room. Caitlin noticed that the corridors looked more different from before. They looked older and more complex. “Uhm.” muttered Caitlin, drawing the Time Lord’s attention on her. “Can I change before we go anywhere?” At this point the Games noticed how ragged and dirty Caitlin’s clothes had become. “Sure. You know where the wardrobe is. I’ll be in the console room.” he replied with a nod and proceeded in a different direction then she did. When Caitlin returned to the console room, the Games noticed how different her attire was. She was wearing a white plain shirt under a navy sweater. Under those she had light green skinny pants and dark red flat shoes. She additionally wore plain black frame glasses. But before he could comment about her appearance, the girl took the initiative to make a remark on the console room.“I… see you have redecorated.” She said as she gazed upon the console. The console room now consisted of a circular area, with a red-tiled ramp leading from the doors to a hexagonal platform. On the platform was a second, circular platform. The entire room was supported by six coral pillars arranged in a hexagonal pattern that met with the top of the time rotor at the room’s ceiling. There were also several black wires connecting to the time rotor. It was dim inside, illuminated by the glow of blue light from the time rotor column in the center of the room and the lights in the hexagons on the walls. However, the glow was made less noticeable as the Games flipped a switch to activate the other lights. “I have. Do you like it?” Caitlin took a moment to glance around more. In the end she concluded that she liked this coral theme. It looked more organic than before, which, for her, kind of emphasized the TARDIS’ living soul. It didn’t look like just a machine anymore. Nodding as a yes, she made her way next to the Time Lord.

“So, where are we headed?” she asked with a glamorous smile. “Well, I was thinking of letting you decide but… I believe it’s high time I fulfilled my promise to you and took you to Gallifrey.” Upon hearing this Caitlin let out a short scream of excitement. “That sounds awesome! Oh, can we go to your house?” Her proposal was… unexpected to say the least. After all, the Games hadn’t visited his house in centuries. But a promise was a promise and he was intending to keep it. Quickly setting the new coordinates he piloted the TARDIS. Their flight was brief but shaky. Caitlin was surprised given how troublesome it had been compared to their previous flights. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if they had stayed longer. Once they landed, the girl rushed outside to see the planet she had always wanted to see. Her mother’s home.

[Shuren]

“God above… so this is Gallifrey!” she exclaimed. The orange sky coupled with the breeze that cooled down the twin suns heating the planet had been everything she had imagined, and more. They were overlooking a river beneath them as they were on the mountain range. And far away from them was a city that looked just so lively. “Outskirts of Arcadia to be precise. Gallifrey’s second city. Also my hometown.” clarified the Games after closing the TARDIS’ door. “The scenery is awesome.” commented the girl as the Time Lord walked towards her. “Well, the view has always been good from the gardens.” The Games’ words made Caitlin turn around to him. She noticed they were in the gardens of a big manor. The architectural design seemed like a mix of a ranch and oriental house but it was way bigger. It had four floors after all. This was natural though; she was the one who asked to be brought to the Games’ house. And this was it. But oddly enough, the house seemed old and untouched. It had an eerie feeling as if nobody had been here for a long time. While she was thinking about these she noticed five mid-sized monuments near the entrance to the house. She ignored the scenery for now and made her way towards them, only to notice a different name written on each monument. “Almund, Rynde, Celesia, Luton, Owis.” she read them aloud. “Who are these people?” Though she received a reply, it was late. “Almund and Luton were my brothers and Celesia, Rynde and Owis were my sisters.” This surprised Caitlin. “You had siblings?” As the Games walked towards her from the other end of the gardens with a serious expression she had never seen before on this face of his, Caitlin realized: for some reason she had never considered the Games to have a family. It sounded absurd to her. How could such a traveller like him ever settle down? Maybe she was wrong about it, since it had only occurred to her now that it could also be the other way around. Maybe the Games was a stationary Time Lord but the circumstances had forced him to run away.

“Yeah, five of them. I was the oldest.” As the last bits of cheerfulness diminished from the girl, she turned her head back again to look at the monuments. Just as the Games was. Once he kneeled down in front of them she realized one more thing: these weren’t monuments, they were tombstones. “So… what happened?” she asked them, rereading the names silently inside her head and trying to memorize them. “I lived. Everyone else… died.” This particular answer made the girl look at the Time Lord, confused. “There was a Time War. Against the Enemy. My sisters were all working as either doctors or medics. My brothers and I, on the other hand, were sent to the field.” The Games knelt in front of the tombstones and examined the grass around them. He gently rubbed his hand to it and touched a thin layer of dust, bringing it back to his nose to smell it. From the outside, this action could seem dumb to Caitlin. Yet, it was one of the senses she needed to learn about. Now that she was more of a Time Lady, she possessed temporal senses that enabled her to deduct how old thing were by touching, smelling and sometimes even tasting. It had been a little more than a thousand years since the Games had last visited here. And the thin layer of dust from the surface of the tombstones confirmed it. “My brothers died in battle. My sisters suffered a similar fate, more or less. And my parents were killed during an ambush that took place outside Gallifrey, so their bodies were never recovered. Lots of people died. Along with all the members of my house. My old, noble house…” “You talk like your house has something more to it... like, it has a deeper meaning.” The man’s last sentence had woken a suspicious feeling within the girl. Was there something about his heritage that she didn’t know of? How more important could someone get? He was the Lord President after all.

“My house belongs to the Prydonian Chapter, which had the most political power. Probably more than all the other chapterhouses combined. Along with a few others it’s an “Oldblood House”, meaning it is among the founding houses. Most of them vanished throughout the years. Eventually my family was the only one left, so we were considered the protectors of the Prydonian legacy. But after the Time War I became the last surviving member of my house… the last oldblood alive.” He paused shortly to stand up. “Aside from the common Gallifreyan culture, each chapterhouse has its differences, unique customs and antiques. Oldblood houses are responsible with carrying the legacy on.” “That must be quite a burden.” she commented. “Certainly not a task to be carried out by a single person. But I try my best.” Even though the Games had never wanted to be bothered by such responsibilities, he basically had no say in the matter. In a society where he was the last of his kind, he would feel empty and alone if he didn’t try to carry on the remembrances of the old days. “Doesn’t matter, I guess.” Looking at Caitlin again, he tilted his head as a sign to move. “Come on, I have a lot to teach you. Gallifreyan history, your abilities, new senses.” Caitlin wondered what he meant by all of that. Though since she trusted the Time Lord, she didn’t question it. “Looking forward to it!” she said with joy, and followed the Games as he led the way.

[Shuren]

*several years later*

“Did you have to pull that lever Cait?” shouted the Games as he ran down the corridor. Next to him was Caitlin, holding a torch and running along the Time Lord, trying to keep up so she wouldn’t get squished by the giant boulder that was heading after them. “Well I assumed if I didn’t, you would!” she replied casually. The Games frowned at her response. “Why the hell would you think that?! Ugh, nevermind.” This was typical of Caitlin. Or at least, this incarnation of Caitlin. Though it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that her first incarnation was just as reckless. “Alright jerk.” said Caitlin with a smile and laughed. Knowing fully well that she was joking, the Games laughed as well. At the very same moment they approached a narrow gap on the right side of the corridor. Deciding to use this to their advantage, he grabbed Caitlin’s free hand and pulled her towards him. Together they entered the gap and let the boulder pass. “Seems like we are safe now.” he said, catching his breath. They had been running for a solid ten minutes now. But it wasn’t only because of that they felt lucky. Soon enough they heard a crashing noise. It was the boulder colliding with something, possibly a wall. Normally they would consider themselves lucky and just return to the TARDIS. But before they could, they heard a second collision sound, this being far louder than the first. The duo looked at each other with a surprised expression and without any need to speak, they both followed the path. Passing through the wall the boulder had demolished they entered a wide chamber. And in the middle of the room was the boulder, reduced into smithereens. “Wow. The boulder crumbled into pieces.” commented the Games as he approached them. “Yeah. But look. What’s that?” asked Caitlin, pointing at the hexagonal structure that was, in fact, an ancient sarcophagus.“No idea. A tomb, perhaps?”

“Isn’t it… I dunno… too strong for a regular tomb?” pointed out the girl. She was right, it wasn’t natural for some old tomb to be able to withstand a boulder of that size, let alone destroy it. “Let’s find out.” said the Time Lord, as he took his sonic screwdriver out and used it on the tomb. Though he did get absurd readings from his sonic, he also seemingly activated a mechanism within the structure. “I… didn’t do that.” The Games tried to stop the process, as he feared yet another trap was going to come after them. But that wasn’t going to be the case. The sarcophagus opened and revealed its inhabitant. “A woman?” Caitlin stood surprised, looking at the ginger woman emerge from the sarcophagus. “Ah finally. Thank you for letting me out. God knows how long I was stuck here. Days do pass quickly.” said the woman while dusting her clothes off. She looked at Caitlin first and then the Games, and smelled the air. They were indeed Gallifreyan like her, and after understanding that she continued looking at them almost as if she was expecting them to do something. They did, in the end, but something entirely different. “Sorry, just so we don’t have any misunderstandings. I wasn’t trying to get you out.” The Games was pointing his sonic screwdriver at the woman. Caitlin sighed at this. What was he going to do with a sonic, assemble a cabinet around the woman? “What… are you doing?” asked the woman, surprised. “Come on. You expect me to be familiar with someone I accidentally set free?” The Games didn’t change his position, which surprised the woman even more.

“Wait. You don’t know who I am?” “Should we?” said the girl while raising one of her eyebrows, signifying her doubt. “Well yes! Unless you live in a cave of course.” Caitlin wondered where the woman was from. Perhaps she was a celebrity from a far away planet. That would explain this constant need for recognition. “We do actually. Hermits United. We meet up every ten years and swap stories about caves. It’s good fun... for a hermit.” joked the Games under his breath. He received a judging look from Caitlin. “Can’t you just tell us your name miss?” After Caitlin’s request, the woman finally understood that the duo wasn’t joking. “I’m Ivydellaphecaterionhi, obviously. Now, can we get going? I have a lot to do to cover my absence.” The Games’ eyes opened widely as the woman walked towards him. “Oh… Yes. I’m sorry for the unpleasantness. Please lead the way.” He said apologetically and allowed her to pass. Caitlin noticed the change in his demeanor, so she waited until the woman was far enough from them to ask him what was going on. “Games, what’s wrong? Who is she?” The Time Lord cleared his throat and took a moment to speak. “She is the Architect. One of the founders of modern Gallifrey. She invented the Matrix, which over time indirectly allowed the Time Lords to access temporal and spatial travel…” “But?” continued Caitlin, wondering what his sudden stop meant. “These were all thousands of years ago. In the Academy we were taught that she had mysteriously disappeared and was ultimately assumed dead. Yet, there she stands.” Although it was hard to believe, it was the truth. The Time Lord had mixed feelings about this: what was he supposed to do with her now that he knew she was alive? Was the history that was being taught at the academy a lie? If it was, how many more lies were there?

[Shuren]

“There is a bigger problem.” Caitlin interrupted his thinking. The Games, in return, put an annoyed expression on his face. “Ugh, what? Do you have to go to the toilet again?” he asked. Caitlin smacked his left shoulder as a response. “No, you jerk. Didn’t you notice how she talked? It was like she had been put there recently. She was surprised you didn’t know her, as if you should have. Like a person who lived in her time period.” The Games paused for a moment. Caitlin was making a good point, the woman did look astonished that they were unaware of her identity. “She also said days passed quickly… I guess you are right.” he added to the train of thoughts. “How are you gonna tell her?” asked Caitlin, directing the big question. The Games had no idea. He didn’t like dragging things out at all, there was no fun in that. Though this wasn’t a situation where he wanted to pursue fun either. “Hey, good plan.” said Ivy, referring to the Time Lord. Once she had his attention, she continued. “I don’t know my way around here. Better that you lead the way.” With a nod, the Games glanced at Caitlin and stepped forward to go in front of them. As they advanced through the dark corridors, the woman decided to get to know her rescuers. “So then, who are you two?” she asked cheerfully. “I’m the Games. And this is my friend Caitlin.” The Time Lord’s quick response made the woman giggle. Or at least that’s how it appeared to look like, which wasn’t the case. “Funny title. Do you also have a funny title, Games’ friend?” The duo looked at each other. This woman talking to them was a pure Gallifreyan, she didn’t know much about the differences of being partly human. She didn’t even know what a Time Lord was, so it was better to keep her off that topic.“Nope! I prefer using my name.” replied the girl. “I see. Then you wouldn’t mind me asking which house you are from, hm?”

“House Bell.” said Caitlin spontaneously. “Oh? Must be one of the new ones.” Back in Ivy’s time new houses had begun forming in every Chapter. With the people wanting to separate the founder houses of the newly established Gallifrey, they dubbed these new houses newblood. “Yes. Yes you could say that.” Turning to the Games, the ginger woman decided to ask the same question as well. “And you Games?” The Games knew this was coming. In all honesty, he didn’t like being questioned about his family unless there was a must. Plus, he didn’t know whether he should lie or not, since there was a high chance she would recognize his house. “Dorian.” he answered silently. “I see. You must be related to Geirr, right? He’s the only Dorian I know.” Ivy then wondered how much time had passed since she had been put in there. “What about my house? They must have been worried that I was gone for days.” She asked. At this moment the Games couldn’t think of any way to lie his way through. At least not cleverly. “Listen. I need to tell you something. The sooner, the better.” Caitlin understood what the Time Lord was about to say as he stopped and turned back to address the woman. “Games no!” she objected. “What are you two talking about?” Ivy was confused by the sudden change of pace in the duo’s synergy. “Ivydellaphecaterionhi. You are the inventor of the Matrix, but later on for unknown reasons you were demoted. After your disappearance the Matrix was used by Rassilon and the Other to suspend the Eye of Harmony in a permanent state of decay, which, with other developments, ultimately allowed them to access the Time Vortex. Because of your contributions to the Time Lord society you were given the title “the Architect” and honored.” He paused once he was done speaking to allow the woman to react. Caitlin also didn’t interfere. Ivy used this time to process his words while staring at him and the girl.

“You started normal but ended up ALL weird. What the hell are you talking about? Half of those things didn’t happen.” She objected, trying to make sense of everything. “He is talking about history. You think you have been sealed for several days but in fact, millennia has passed since you disappeared.” Caitlin nodded after concluding her sentence. “Geirr Dorian. You said he was the only Dorian you knew. That’s because he is one of the first Dorians there are to know. He is my paternal ancestor.” “So you want me to believe that Geirr is your ancestor?” Caitlin and the Games looked at each other, before the former replied to the question. “In a broad sense, so are you… probably.” “Hahahahah. That’s ridiculous.” Ivy had started to feel nervous, so she was trying to laugh it off. She started stroking her soft hair unconsciously, something she did when she didn’t know what to do. “You were so confident that I should know who you were. But I didn’t have the faintest idea until a minute ago when you told me your name. Which I remembered from my Academy textbooks.” added the Games. This was going to be followed by the real question. “So how long do you think I have been sealed back in there?” The Time Lord started to gather every single piece of information he had gathered from the tomb and from his knowledge over the Architect. Be it from the smell and taste of the ancient sarcophagus to the fact that she had witnessed the formation of Lord Presidency. “At least fourteen thousand years.” he murmured after a quick calculation. “Fourteen thousand years?!” yelled Ivy in shock. Even for a species that had a long life expectancy, that was a long time. Long enough to assume that everybody and everything she knew was long gone. She couldn’t stand the pressure and fell on her knees. “And… what about my family? My house?” she followed up, hoping at least her family had survived. It didn’t have to be people she knew, she just wanted relatives and a place she could call home. “House Caterion was one of the founding oldblood houses. Like mine.” started the Games, though once again he had difficulty continuing his sentence. Eventually he decided to continue his direct approach. “I’m sorry to tell you this but your house went extinct. They all did. We are the last oldbloods in existence.” Looking at him, Ivy’s irises dilated. And shortly after that she lost consciousness and fell back.

[Shuren]

*later*

About an hour later, Ivy started to regain her consciousness. Once her senses started to return she was greeted by the wheezing noise of the TARDIS. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around the coral control room. As the time rotor continued moving up and down, the Games walked around the console and maintained the flight. Meanwhile Caitlin entered the control room, seemingly having a fresh set of clothes now. That was when they noticed that Ivy was awake. “Where are we?” asked the woman, still inspecting her surroundings. “Inside my TARDIS, safe and sound. You have no idea how much trouble we had to go through to return here after you fainted.” explained the Games as he continued to fly the ship. “He’s right. We thought we could go back from the same path, but it was blocked. So we had to find a way to circle around and we eventually found a second path! Though it was filled with traps.” Ivy was glad to be away from that place. Especially after having spent much more time there than she could have ever anticipated. Though even then there was still one thing she didn’t understand. “What the hell is a TARDIS?” she asked, unsure if they really were referring to the vessel they were inside right now. Even if they were, she wanted to know what kind of vessel it was. “A TT-Capsule. Type 40. Plus some upgrades.” replied the Time Lord.

“They really did find a way to contain the Eye of Harmony.” murmured Ivy. She felt blank for a second, as if she was watching the current events from a third person perspective. “I can’t believe so much time has passed… I also can’t believe I fainted.” she added with a more audible tone. It was natural for her to feel that way. After all, she was the woman out of time. “So… we are the last oldbloods alive, huh?” She looked at the Games, who nodded to her question slowly. She could see that this particular topic pained the man but he was the only one who could clear the uncertainty in her head. “How did it… happen?” The young man knew this question was coming. He didn’t object to answer it, but he didn’t bother hiding his sadness either. While looking away at the lighting panels of the coral interior, he let out a sigh and then began to speak. “Mostly natural causes. More and more newblood houses began to appear, in every single chapter. And after a while, the oldbloods started to decrease in number. Most of them died out naturally. Yours included. Better than a tragic demise right?” Ivy relaxed, knowing her family led a good life. She felt good enough that she was able to stand up and lean on a nearby railing. Caitlin was doing the same on the opposite side of the room. “And yours? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“My house was wiped out during a Time War. My parents were murdered during a raid and my siblings died on the field. I was the sole survivor.” He paused and looked away for several seconds. “I’m sorry.” she said with a sad expression, even though she had no idea what a Time War was. “It’s okay. At least now I’m not the last oldblood anymore.” The Games smiled at the woman. Just like he had done with Caitlin, he intended to teach Ivy about the responsibilities of an oldblood. It was no longer his burden alone. “So, Ivydellaphecaterionhi… would you like me to update you on everything you missed?” Caitlin walked towards the woman, in an attempt to change the topic and lift the spirits up. The atmosphere inside the control room had gotten very heavy too quickly. “You can call me Ivy. And yes, please.” Caitlin grabbed Ivy’s hands and closed her own eyes. Now that she had more Time Lord genes, she was somewhat psychic and the Games had been training with her to make use of her abilities like this. She used them to give Ivy information about Gallifrey’s history after her disappearance, the wars, Rassilon and the Games. Once she was done, Ivy quickly pulled her hands back. She looked startled. “I was… right. I was right all along! The system was corrupt!” she declared cheerfully, before setting her sights on the Time Lord. Her expression changed into a disgusted one. “And you… so you are the current Lord President.” Though the Games knew that the reason she hated the higher ups of the Gallifreyan government was justified, he had expected her to, for some reason, go beyond a simple categorization. After all he had changed a lot of things ever since he had become the Lord President.

“I am. Is that… wrong?” He looked reassured and didn’t flinch while speaking. Why would he? He hadn’t done anything wrong. At least not on purpose. “I don’t know yet. But since you were kind enough to let me catch up I’ll do the same.” That said, Ivy closed her eyes. An almost invisible wave of violet energy radiated within the room and hit the Games and Caitlin. The control room started the warp as the trio’s surroundings changed. They were inside Ivy’s memory now.

[Shuren]

*inside the memory*

“I’m sorry, Ivy. The Council considers your article borderline treachery to the current establishment. So naturally there will be some consequences.” said the man in black Gallifreyan robes. He looked rather serious even though a tint of sadness or something that could be called regret could be felt from him. “Really now?” replied Ivy with a sarcastic tone. She was still sitting behind her desk, making herself comfortable. She knew who the man was; it was the High Council’s messenger, or something like that. They had worked together for years and become good friends, yet this time he was paying her a visit for a different reason. “Yes. They were strictly determined to banish you. But I managed to convince them to consider something else.” Ivy leaned forward on her desk and narrowed her eyes. “And what would that be?” The man put the document he was holding on the desk and slid it forward for Ivy. As she opened it and began to skim through the pages, he made his explanation. “A demotion. They made you the Supervisor of the Amplified Panatropic Computer Net within the Matrix.” he said. And he was right. It was a demotion that lowered her position several times. That’s why for the first time since they met, the man saw anger upon Ivy’s face. “That’s… simply ridiculous. I created the Matrix. This is an insult to my position as the Keeper.” Even though she wasn’t wrong, and it was her right to hold the position of the Keeper, there was nothing Ivy could do anymore.

“A position you no longer have I’m afraid. You were given a week to evict your office and your laboratory.” The man nodded and leaned forward to retrieve the document. But before he could Ivy pressed her right hand on it and didn’t let it go. “What about the temporal complexity problems? What about my work on the Eye of Harmony? What will happen to them?” she asked, now standing so she could apply more pressure on the document. But it was futile; the man eventually pulled the document back into his possession with enough force. “They will all continue from where you left off after the Council appoints a new Keeper.” he replied. With a regretful expression he turned around and slowly walked towards the door of Ivy’s office. “Listen to me Kalrune. This pitiful demonstration of power won’t change anything. Demote me or not, you do know that the system is corrupt as it is now. Lots of people have already read my article and they agree with it. They can’t hide that from Rassilon forever.” Ivy’s words made the man stop right in front of the door. “Yeah, I know.” he murmured silently before he turned his head back to look at the woman. “Sorry it had to be this way Ivy.” Afterwards the man exited the room. Little did he know that this would be the last time he would ever see his friend.


*the memory shifts to another one*

Ivy walked through the streets casually, making her way to her home. It had been a long day at work, though every single day had been pretty much the same for the last two months. She hated being yelled at by her superiors; and she hated having superiors while operating her own creation even more. They had put a Prydonian man to replace her as the Keeper of the Matrix, and ever since then the Matrix functioned differently. At least not in the way she had intended it to. Letting out a sigh she passed through an alleyway. Just as she was about to step onto the main street, six people suddenly surrounded her and knocked her out. She didn’t even have any time to react. By the time she woke up, all she could feel was a massive headache. “Ughhh. What happened?” she said as she tried to move her hands upwards to rub her eyes. But she couldn’t. She was restrained inside a containment field. Not only was she unable to move, she could also feel being on another planet than Gallifrey, since the gravity felt way off. She quickly scanned her surrounding to try to figure out where she was but before she could make any progress in the dark cave, several lights turned on and focused on her. She could barely see what was around her now but even then it was not difficult to notice the people standing in front of her. It was the Lord Chancellor, leader of the High Council, and behind him three cardinals on both sides. “Ivydellaphecaterionhi. Your treacherous article aroused unwanted attention on the High Council and risked its integrity. Moreover you continued to support the rebellious formations and even led them. What do you say in your defense?” said the man. Adjusting her head and sight, Ivy thought of what to say.

“Rebellious? Lord Chancellor, the current movement, as you call it, is to bring Lord Presidency back to what it was intended to be. Nobody wants to overthrow-” The cardinals cut the woman off by gasping at the same time. Though it was barely visible, this, and the woman’s words, put a smile on Lord Chancellor’s face. The only problem they could have right now would come into formation if Ivy had decided to address why she was brought on a different planet. But she hadn’t. She had sealed her fate. “So you do admit that you are leading a movement?” asked one of the cardinals. Ivy was “No! Of course not! We only wanted-” stammered the woman before being cut off again. “We? You mean your rebel group, perhaps?” asked another cardinal. “No, listen. I-” she began to explain, hopelessly. Yet it was futile. “We have heard enough! We will proceed to give you your sentence now!” exclaimed another cardinal. “You can’t do this! Just listen to me!!!” Despite her objection, the cardinals nodded in unison and the Lord Chancellor stepped forward. “You have been found guilty of the aforementioned charges. In the name of Rassilon, President of the Supreme Council of Gallifrey and All Her Dominions, Holder of the Wisdom, Preserver of the Matrix, Guardian of the Legacy of Omega, I, Lord Chancellor of the Supreme Council of Gallifrey, Jeldred of House Sarken, sentence you to die.” Ivy stood shocked, not that she could move otherwise but even if she could, she wouldn’t. Her life was going to end because she was pursuing the right way things should have been. She needed to get out of this shitty situation and she needed to do it fast.

[Shuren]

Soon enough, she came up with something. “No! Wait! You can’t physically harm or touch another Prydonian without consent. It’s against the law you passed yourself!” She struck back the Lord Chancellor with his own weapon. Or at least that was what she thought for a moment. “We know that. That’s why we are putting you in a timelock. You won’t be harmed, yet lead a fate perhaps worse than death.” replied one of the cardinals with a smug smile. With that, the last bits of Ivy’s hope of getting out of here were diminished. “No. No, no, not me. I haven’t been seen with those people, have I? Please, listen to me! They will find me eventually and my house won’t stand for it. Only then will it turn into an actual uprising.” she objected, though her objections were ignored. A sarcophagus started to rise from the ground around her, within the containment field. “Goodbye, Ms. Caterion.” whispered the Lord Chancellor. As the sarcophagus started to obscure the woman from view, she began her last pleas. “Please. Total social collapse! It won’t be the same when they find me. Ever! Please! Please, just listen to me!!!” Eventually the sarcophagus closed completely and Ivy stood suspended and out of sight. The cardinals and the Lord Chancellor left the chamber together. Now they had to discuss what to do next to make her disappearance believable.The trio came back to their senses after Ivy shared her memories with them.


*back in the TARDIS console room*

“Interesting memory Ivy.” commented the Games, at which Ivy raised an eyebrow. “Why am I sensing a hint of… sarcasm in your tone?” she asked. The memories she had shown them didn’t contain anything funny; in fact they could be considered quite dramatic. “Because you could avoid your punishment.” explained the Time Lord as he sat on one of the seats nearby the console. Caitlin happened to be behind him, so she used this opportunity to slap the back of the Time Lord’s head. “Hey! Don’t be a jerk now!” Though her warning seemed to have little to no affect on the man, as he didn’t change his relaxed attitude. “Well I had plans for introducing her to the High Council. But I never thought the Architect would get so daft under stress.” he said as he crossed his legs in a comfortable position. “Come on. I was threatened with death, it’s not even comparable to what you are saying. It’s only politics. How hard can it be?” Even though Ivy genuinely thought it would be an easy thing to master politics, having run the planet legally for so many years, the Games knew that was far from the truth. Anything the woman said sounded like an oversimplification to him. To make his point he needed to give an example, and he had the perfect one. “Okay. Then answer this. Do you know what time it is?” he asked with a smile. “Yeah, it’s uh… 3:40.” replied Ivy, though she didn’t understand the purpose of the question. As soon as she answered, the Time Lord made a buzzer sound with his mouth.

“Wrong.” he declared. This piqued Caitlin’s interest; she decided not to interfere but she knew if she had been asked the same question, she would answer the same way. Meanwhile Ivy made a confused expression and looked at her watch again. “I don’t… understand. It’s really 3:40.” Had the Games considered her answer wrong because they were outside of time? Even if they were, it was natural for the TARDIS to simulate a local time for their own timeline. “I know. But it’s still the wrong answer. The correct answer is ‘yes’. When you are asked a question you answer it specifically and leave it there. If they want more information, let them ask for it. Never volunteer anything. Same reason why they made assumptions so easily to frame and seal you.” Both Caitlin and Ivy let out an involuntary gasp. The former did it because she was practically amazed by the precise thinking whereas the latter had done it upon the realization that the Games was right about what he had said. “I guess I really screwed up before.” The Games nodded his head as a no as he stood up. “You just spoke the truth.” he said as he leaned over the console. “Yeah. That’s wrong isn’t it?” asked Ivy with questioning and slightly regretful eyes. The Games looked back at her to meet her gaze, and sported a comforting smile before speaking. “No, not wrong. Just very unusual in that place.”