THE CHOICES OF A TIME LORD

Author note Chapter 4 is now up, please review. Thank you to Coolgo for reviewing.
Disclaimer Well I do own a lot of Doctor who items, does that count ?

Earth

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, as he looked around, it was worse than he imagined; the whole city had been destroyed, cars had been burnt out, homes charred, blackened, turned to ash.. and shops long since destroyed, and he could see the Daleks going up and down the streets from a distance patroling, it seemed to be some kind of Dalek camp. Maybe it had been the best thing to leave Erisa back on Gallifrey she would be safe with the future Doctor. He had seen the way she had looked at the future him at first it had been like she hated him, but at a second glance he had seen how both of them looked at each other. As he walked around hoping not to be noticed. Suddenly a voice behind him was heard, "You will identify," The Dalek screeched. "At once, identify." but the Doctor remained silent, knowing he was in real trouble, as more Daleks turned up.

Back on Gallifrey

"Arrest the Doctor and Erisa. If they resist, kill them." Ordered Commander Maxil. A deep moody look was evidently on his face. It seemed had been made worse since the day she rejected him. Showing her true colours to even him. Erisa wasnt the perfect little Time Lady that everyone assumed her to be on the surface she was beautiful, but deep down she could turn on you like a ravenous wolf, sometimes without warning, at least that's what Maxil's experience was with her.

On Gallifrey Time Lords didn't marry for love, and although he claimed to love her, she however didn't feel the same way, and refused to marry him, something that angered him. He felt at the beginning she had lead him on used him for her own means then when she was bored of him just dropped him like he was a piece of gabbage or yesterdays news.

For the Young Chancellor Guard personally trained by Maxil, it was his first day, fresh out of the Academy, and out to impress. There had been very clear punishments for Time Lords who would deliberately set out to warn their younger selves of events that were to happen, and try to alter time. Erisa, according to the high council, had been a part of it.

He would follow all protocol, capture, and interrogate, but he would not kill, he would not be corrupted like those who were desperate for power, but as he fired the shot that hit Erisa, she instantly fell to the ground. The Doctor caught Erisa, as she fell, in the distance he saw the Chancellory Guard.

Running towards them "I didn't mean to." Stuttered the young Guard, as the Doctor grabbed his gun, he threw it across the floor, anger in his stance.

"I don't know what they teach you in the Academy these days, but if you can't do a simple duty without waving a gun around, then what can you do? Can you make Tea?"

"Tea, Sir? " Asked the Young Guard.

"Yes, they don't teach you anything useful in the Academy do they?"

"Is she going be okay?"

"Yes, no thanks to you." snapped the Doctor as he attempted to scoop Erisa up in his arms.

"Sir, I have my orders."

"Would you care to explain to the high council, about you shooting without issueing any kind of warning?"

"No, Sir, but if I dont follow my orders Commander Maxil will have me shot."

"Well, thats all right, I will have him shot. Now step out of the way, unless you really do want me to tell the high council of your delibrate mistake." At that the young guard stepped back allowing the Doctor to get past.

The Doctor carried Erisa through the citadel and stepped into the vast and magnificent city. There was a strange feeling in the air but everything looked normal. The twin suns were out as they shone over the mountains, but there was silence; there were no birds in the air singing, no Time Lords going through the city, and no sound of the Galifrean children singing. "Doctor" Erisa mumbled slightly but her eyes remained closed. He placed her on the lush red grass, "Erisa." He whispered, as he brushed the hair out of her eyes. Her eyes suddenly flicked open feeling the atmosphere in the air herself. Her eyes widened with fear. Something was wrong. She could feel it, but she could not grasp what it was.

"What happened?" She asked Ten.

"Don't you remember?" He asked, as she pulled herself up from the grass.

"I was in the room with the Lord President, and the chancellor. No, I was going to the room." She looked at the future Doctor.

"You were shot by a stun gun, but I got you out of there." Taking her hand, he helped her up. "I thought I was going to lose you." He said softly.

"What happened when you lost me in the future?" she asked inquisitively.

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor replied, with a sad look in his eyes.

"Please tell me," Erisa asked in a gentle tone.

"I carried the guilt with me; I was never quite the same after you had gone, and you were always in my thoughts. I cannot lose you." his voice became barely more than a whisper.

"I love you, Doctor," she whispered before she kissed him before realizing what she was doing. "I- I'm sorry" she stuttered clearly embarrassed, she didn't understand why she suddenly had feelings for this future Doctor.

Ten wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her back. He knew he shouldn't, he was breaking all the rules just to be here yet alone to kiss her. "Erisa I love you too, in fact, I never stopped even after the day I lost you." His eyes seemed be full of pain at that last word.

"We were together, in my future?" Erisa asked, looking at the Doctor.

"Around the time in my 8th regeneration, at some point of travelling with you. I fell in love with you, but never told you I should..." the future Doctor continued babbling on and on.

"Doctor, please shut up." She interrupted, as she pulled him closer to her, kissing him for the third time that day, as the Doctor continued to kiss her. And for that moment he became indifferent about the time lines being messed up. He just wanted to be with Erisa, but he knew if he did not stay on top of his mission to save Gallifrey,to save his people and the girl he loved, there would be no Erisa, or Gallifrey for that matter.

"Don't go," she whispered. She had an overwhelming feeling if the Doctor left she would never see him again and she loved him; she knew that much. It did not make sense, but then hardly anything of this whole situation made sense. How could the Doctor not understand the time lines? How could he even stop something major happening? It did not work like that, it really didn't. Time Lords ruled time, but it didn't give them the right to mess time up, or to control it. All Time Lords know Time itself governs the fixed points, and will attempt to correct any event which tampers with it. Although there were times things could be changed and people could be saved, but sometimes there were fixed points in time that whatever happened must always happen. If Gallifrey was destroyed in her future then maybe that was a fixed point in time, and she would still die.

"I have to, I am breaking rules just by being here." Her words from earlier echoed in his mind.

"As Time Lords, we rule time so we understand it all, and right now there is this invasion taking place, because when you changed time, the Daleks did not come to Gallifrey, you never met your companions Rose, Donna, Martha, Jack and Sally. Then the whole world just changed around you, the Daleks invaded the Earth instead."

A brief flash back hit the Doctor.

They had to open the void to destroy the remaining Daleks. "Hold on," he shouted as Erisa clung on for her life, but then a Dalek whizzing past made her lose her balance. He grabbed hold of her hand, but he could not keep a hold of her and she fell through the void with the Daleks. The last battle of the Time War.

"Can I come with you? Please Doctor?" And, he wanted nothing more to keep her with him, but she wouldn't be safe. He always destroyed people. The inner voice in his head shouted, "coward" at him.

"I will be back for you, I promise." Erisa watched Ten leave wondering if he would return. The cold air around her felt so wrong as she looked up at the sky the inner voice inside her said, "some-thing's coming to Gallifrey, something worse than you could possibly imagine". Erisa sighed. "What could be worse than the Time war?" she thought silently to herself. As she walked up the small mountain towards her house even the mountains looked strange today they were normally copper coloured, ruby and emerald , but today they were dull and lifeless a slight rusty brown and in places black, or was it a vision? When she glanced back, for a mere second, Gallifrey looked like it was on fire. She blinked, and then everything looked normal again. "I'm going crazy." she mumbled, as she walked into the house. She walked through the dim lit hallway into her own room the room design was pretty much the way her own room was like on the TARDIS, mostly pink with a lace pink throw on her bed, with most of the décor being pink. Everything seemed be pink, well apart from K9 he had been a some what gift from the Doctor after travelling with him.

He had become almost like a companion to her after she was forced to return home by the Time Lords. She never understood why, she was nothing to the Time lords. Throwing her coat over her chair, her mind went else where. Once this house had been so full of life with her dad, brother and sister, but they were all gone now. She was the only one left. Her mother had died when she was just a baby. Erisa had never even known her; and her brother and sister left Gallifrey so long ago she didn't know if they were dead or alive. Her father had died in a war it wasn't aTime war but a war neverless.

The Doctor had been her only family left, but not close family, they were in fact fifth cousins and deep down she had always loved him. A single tear suddenly trickled down her face. "Oh Doctor," she whispered. "you cant leave me again," remembering the time he left her back on Gallifrey. She had been forced to return to the Academy and then finding out her father had died and the Doctor not once came back to see if she was okay. Those memories still hurt. She pretended she didnt care, but the fact was she cared very much.

In her mind, she could see what could occur with both Doctors, how time would twist and turn. She understood time a lot more than the other Time lords, it was her gift. She could see everything that could be, every moment in history, past, present and the future. She also knew she had somehow to persuade the high council to act. She had seen if they did act then the things she saw right now could change.

"I have to persuade the High council, but will they listen?" she said out loud. "What do you think K9? Will the high council change their mind?"

"Insignificant data to form possible hypothesis regarding Time Lord council."

"Hypothesis what?" Erisa asked looking bewildered.

"I cannot tell regarding matters of The high council."

Erisa sighed. "Never mind, forget it K9."

"Forget, all knowledge of the High council of Time Lords deleted from memory banks. Memory erased."

Oops, thought Erisa.

Suddenly a blinding white light surrounded the room. Erisa covered her eyes from the bright light.

"Beloved child of Gallifrey."

"Do you mean me?" asked Erisa. "I'm hardly that, I am nothing to Gallifrey."

"Yes, you child." the woman stood before her was, dressed all in white, looked beautiful and had a kindness in her deep blue eyes.

"Who are you?" whispered Erisa.

"Do you really need to ask?"

"Well, only a Guardian could..." she said, breaking off mid sentence. She had heard of the Guardians as a young child in the Academy, but she had never until today come across them.

"Do not be afraid Child, I know many things are concerning you right now. I will cause you no harm. I am the white Guardian, in the universe, there is also a Black Guardian. it is the Black Guardian, who has tricked the Doctor into altering time, but the universe is shaping and changing the time he's altered, and only you, child, can help the Doctor put things the way they were meant to be."

"And if I cannot?"

"Then the whole universe is in danger of disappearing for good. Now go child, before it is too late. One more thing child, beware of the Black Guardian. He will do all he can to stop your mission."

"But how?"

"Beware of the Black Guardian. Beware," was all she said before she disappeared.

Erisa walked out of her home as she stood within the city, something was not right, she could sense it so strongly. Something was coming to Gallifrey as the universe's around her started to spin, she fell to the ground as she saw the future visions flash before her very eyes. There were space ships, millions of them, a whole Dalek fleet, billions of Cybermen, war, destruction, and the end of everything. Erisa squeezed her eyes shut willing for the visions to leave. Finally she opened her eyes to find the visions gone. She stood up and walked into the palace. She was met by silence. This was wrong, it was so wrong there was no Guards within the citadel that wasn't normal she couldn't sense anything either. Her mind continued to wander as thoughts of the time she spent with the future Doctor consumed her, so much so she had not seen the other Time Lord coming as she walked straight into him sending files and paper crashing to the ground.

"Damon! I am so sorry."

"I'm not." He smiled at her, but that only made Erisa blush. it had been months since Erisa had seen him, and at one point they had been close in the Academy, but all that was in the past due to the different Time Lords circles they associated in they didn't get to see each other. He wasn't even allowed to approach her these days with him being just a lowly engineer within Gallifrey and Erisa merely now a student of the Academy.

Erisa, smiled sadly wishing things had being different. After forced to leave Gallifrey for a time she discovered a life out side of Gallifrey and returned to a very different person. In some ways she had treated him badly, but that never stopped her thinking what if things had been different and there had been a choice such a long time ago she could have had a life with Damon on Gallifrey. But having whole life times, stuck on Gallifrey, living a life of duty and responsibility, she wasn't ready for that; not when there was a whole galaxy out there to explore .and Gallifrey just wasn't big enough for her. Compared to the Doctor Damon would never be enough for her , and in that sense she had become far too big for her boots looking down at Damon and other Time Lords, almost like they were nothing. It could of being the loss of her whole family that had changed her or something much deeper that had seemed to change her into the person she appeared to be. So when she clearly had a choice all those years ago she chose the Doctor, to travel with him.

Erisa walked into the room where the high council was gathered. "He is out there trying to save the planet below us while you lot are sitting there observing the universe. How is that fair? How is it right?" She said, not noticing the president was there, nor the fact she seemed to intrupt something major.

"Not this again, Child come here," said the President hoping he would have more success than the Chancellor had. "We have told you we cannot interfere it was the Doctors choice to go, fully knowing the risks involved."

"My Lord President," whispered Erisa, kneeling before him. "I love the Doctor; I cannot sit back and let him battle Daleks on his own."

She was not sure which Doctor it was that she loved; her Doctor who had been her friend all her life and had shown her a life outside Gallifrey, or the future Doctor who seemed to carry the terrible burden of losing her in a future time war.

"No, child it's not fair," replied Chancellor Flavia. Looking over at the Lord President. Their faces displayed something. Was it sorrow? She suddenly felt uneasy like something had happened. Not noticing the guards that now appeared behind her.

"But, he is out there alone with no-one to help him. At least let me go help him."

The President shook his head "I admire your loyalty, but we were not able to be seen to interfere. It's everything we stood for."

"Stood for?" thought Erisa. Why were they talking in the past tense. "So tell me once all the Time Lords are dead, what will you stand for then?"

The president ignored her display and her questions, looking at her with a tiny bit of kindness. "We are sorry Child, but The Doctor will not be returning to Gallifrey."

"What- Why? Did something happen?" Erisa's hearts started to pound within her chest as she tried to steady herself. The room seemed to spin around her as she struggled to form the words. "Is the Doctor-Please, tell me," her voice was barely a whisper now, but she failed to grasp the words, but they echoed in her mind.

"The Doctor is dead.." the President said.

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