THE CHOICES OF A TIME LORD

Author note This is the final chapter please review. Thank you to Crazy Blue Wild Faerie for beta reading the last few chapters of this story for me.

Disclaimer The BBC still owns Doctor who, despite me asking if I can own Doctor who.

"So, are you here to help me or stop me?" she asked bluntly. The Doctor remained silent, not even looking at her. "Doctor? You can't go back and change things. Whatever happens must always happen."

"There is so much loss-

"Loss and pain, are what defines us. Now please Doctor, I have to fulfill my mission, regardless of the consequences for myself."

"All right," he walked away towards his TARDIS. As the TARDIS disappeared from sight Erisa walked towards her TARDIS.

Erisa glanced in the mirror: strawberry blonde hair, piercing blue eyes. "Oh," her face fell, "I can't be a blonde," she whispered. "That will have to go," she muttered, "The freckles never go," she groaned. Quickly she turned towards Sally who was looking in awe of the TARDIS.

"Its a TARDIS," Erisa stated, "Time and relatives dimensions in space."

"Right, yeah bigger on the inside," smirked Erisa. As she slightly looked down on Sally, she thought: 'This was never going to work." Erisa was beyond working with mere species such as humans, but if the Doctor was here things would go along much smoother. She had tried to be more like him, but she felt so much pain inside her that she wanted to scream. Instead she had to hold everything inside.

She thought back to her life on Gallifrey. Long before traveling with the Doctor, there had been something between her and Commander Maxil. He hadn't been a commander back then, only a chancellor guard.

He was still cold and distant, but despite that she had felt drawn to him. Even when he kissed her, it had no meaning. It was more of a kiss of ownership and she had seen in his mind the coldness of him. It seemed to go on forever.

She had not felt love for him it had merely being pity, and the need to reach out to someone. The relationship -if you could ever call it that- had never been about love. Time lords didn't 'do' love, because duty and responsibility came first. However it didn't stop her wanting, needing someone to love her. It could have something to do with failing the Emotional Detachment class or despite having two hearts she was in fact half human, bringing with it human emotions.

She seemed to swing between human emotions, to how a Time lord would think or reason. However, strange as it may be most Galifrean children were born with two hearts, but not Erisa. She had only the one heart, but she could live hundreds of centuries with just the one heart. It had never been known if she could even regenerate, but after she had being injured whilst travelling with the Doctor, she did in fact regenerate and grew the second heart.

Then there had been Damon: he had been the best friend she had, loyal and dependable. He was always there for her, no matter what she had thrown at him. Had she treated him badly? Yes, she probably had. She had loved him, and when he had kissed her, it wasn't rough like Maxil; he kissed her softly and she thought she could be happy with him. However it had all changed, when the Time Lords had forced her out of Gallifrey for a time, dumping her on the Doctor. She had despised the Doctor at first, hating what the Time Lords had done forcing her to leave her home planet, because of her wild child antics.

She was an out-of-control Gallifrean child. Even the mere Time Lady Title, had an effect being wasted on her, and made Gallifrey look like a foolish planet according to the Time Lords. In time she had fallen in love with the Doctor, but then he received the message that it was time for her to return to her education, and a life back on Gallifrey.

Being back on Gallifrey had been difficult. Going back to the Academy to continue her education was hard too, but the hardest thing had been to look into Damon's eyes to tell him she could not be with him. Her hearts grieved from the pain as she saw the pain in his eyes...

"Why ?" he asked her. She couldn't give an answer, nor could she tell the Doctor how she felt for him.

"I waited for you, for four years, and then you give me no explanation whatsoever!" his voice was also tainted with pain. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't even tell him why, she just watched him leave, as she hid her face in her hands as sobs wrecked her whole body. In one moment she lost Damon, and she lost the Doctor too. She couldn't even tell him her true feelings, and when she said goodbye to the Doctor she felt the pain rip through her body, wanting desperately to tell him not to go, but she couldn't the words wouldn't come. The pain of those moments was still felt even though it had been centuries ago.

It wasn't long after being left on Gallifrey, her father had died in a war. Then her life was thrown into chaos once again. She had been entrusted into the care of the President which so happened to be Rassilon. Gone was the freedom she enjoyed, and now she had guards guarding her every move, reporting to the President everything she did and said. She longed to escape, but she was often lumbered with idiotic Guards such as Kelner, who was nothing more than a corrupted , power mad Time Lord, one she certainly didn't trust. But there had also been Andred, although he never rose to her little games. She did however have a mutual respect for him and at times counted him as a friend, someone she could confide in.

"Was this the Doctor's TARDIS?" Sally asked interrupting Erisa thoughts.

"Yes."

A sudden flash back hit her of that first day she stepped into the TARDIS. She was so very young, so naïve. Not even out of the Academy, her hair was a bleached pink, she wore combat trousers, and a simple cropped t-shirt. He had glanced up at her, but she had looked down at him, and in those few days picking fault with everything he said or did.

"Well at least I am not a regenerate," she exclaimed proudly "Oh, how many times did you have to repeat the Academy? Three times was it?" She retorted smugly.

"Twice," he glared at her, "Look, its no good, this isn't going to work." The Doctor finally said to her.

Frowning at him, she said, "Well that's not very fair, you aren't even giving me a chance. You know before I met you, I was even willing to be the perfect companion. I was maybe even willing to be impressed with your regenerate life style." Looking down at him, for her it was so simple he had chosen the path of being a regenerate. Why would anyone when you had this beautiful planet? Why would someone leave to see all the evil out there?

He looked up wondering if she was trying to be funny or mocking him, but she had stood there glaring at him giving him a not so good look.

Erisa had already decided it was going to be a complete nightmare being stuck in this TARDIS. She never even wanted to come, being uprooted from her life to be what, a regenerate? She had heard stories of the Doctor her whole child hood, she didn't get the fascination that the girls in the Academy had with him. She certainly wasn't impressed with him on her first meeting with him. She smiled to herself, as she realised how quickly her opinion of him changed.

"Were you two together?" Sally asked.

Erisa smiled sadly. "Yeah, I guess we were, in the future anyway."

She remembered the first time she realised she loved him. She felt such despair and guilt. Why did this have to happen? It had never occurred to her she could fall in love with him; after all she had loved Damon didn't she? But it didn't stop her falling for the Doctor. She realised when exactly her feelings for the Doctor had changed, after he had rescued her from the Cybermen, men of metal. She had been minutes away from being converted. She had never been so pleased to see anyone in her life. But it had been the day she had regenerated for the first time and it had being a difficult regenerate. The Doctor had shown such concern for her and he had taken care of her. He had explained it as a Traumatic regeneration. Traumatic had been right, she only had the one heart and she had undertaken five different personalities during this first regeneration.

Sally looked at her, puzzled by the phrase.

"Love, it's very different on our planet its much deeper. There is an old saying on Gallifrey: use actions not words. It means we show our mate, the one we are bonded with, that we love them, because words can be cheap and have no real meaning. The person we get bonded to has to be another Time Lord. It's frowned upon to date a completely different species and its forbidden to form strong friendship with another species," Erisa shrugged. She was guilty of forming strong friendship with lesser species in the past. This was why as soon as she got home she would be punished for it, if there was a planet to get back to.

"This Doctor, who was he? " Sally asked.

"You knew him; you used to travel with him Sally. You used to travel with the Doctor in a different world."

"When was that?"

"Before Time was changed. The Doctor was tricked by the Black Guardian into changing time."

"Who was he?" she asked again.

"This amazing Time Lord from Gallifrey, he took me away in his TARDIS and showed me the universe. I fell in love with not just the traveling, seeing all those planets out there, but I fell in love with him, but I never ever told him. I wonder if I told him in the future..." her mind wandered of.

"He saved planets, rescued civilisations; he only ever took the best with him," that's when it hit her .Sally wasn't a mere human and Erisa shouldn't be looking down on her because the Doctor only took the best with him. But Erisa wasn't the best was she? She knew his first impressions of her was arrogant, childish, self-centered and a spoilt brat. She in return thought he was callous, boring, strange, loopy and she couldn't see what she could possible learn from him. She had been wrong. They were complete opposites, maybe that's why their friendship worked so well.

"But, what about-" Sally started to ask.

"He is the Doctor, just not my Doctor. Its a future version of him."

"So this other Doctor, why did he take me?" asked Sally.

Erisa shifted uncomfortably. 'It couldn't be could it?' she thought silently to herself. But Erisa sensed it deeply that Sally Sparrow, there was much more to her than even the Doctor was currently seeing. The meaning, however, was blocked to Erisa, which wasn't right because as a Time Lady, Erisa saw time sometimes more clearly than a lot of the other Time Lords. It was a gift, but a gift Erisa had pushed until she could see much more than she should, pushing forward to hundreds of centuries ahead of time. She was as guilty as the Doctor in messing with time, because the Time Lords ruled all manners of Time they understood it all. However what Erisa was doing was reaching forward in all these different time lines. Now it made her wonder why she had been able to see through all possible futures so easily when years ago it had been impossible.

"And I am sorry, but it's all up to you now."

"But, what do I do?"

"You are going to travel in time to stop the Doctor from changing the Time line because-"

"Because why?"

"There are cracks. In the universe now, and I have reached forward in time right up to the 21st century. Some are tiny...some are as big as the sky. Through some I saw worlds and people and through others I saw silence...and the end of all things. And it's coming Sally: The Silence. I tried to reach forward to the 22nd century, and you know what I saw... nothing; there was just the darkness, and the never ending silence. What do you think nothing looks like Sally? I can tell you, it looks like the end of the universe. That's what it is. The silence is coming; the never ending silence, only you and the Doctor can stop it."

"Stop what? Stop it how?"

"The universe is cracked, and every moment, past present and future is going to crack on one particular you and the Doctor can prevent the end of the universe."

Sally was about to ask what she could do, but Erisa had disappeared, the TARDIS started to smash into the Time vortex and sparks flew everywhere. Sally closed her eyes bracing herself for the crash as time started reverting backwards. The Daleks started vanishing and the city started going back to normal, Gallifrey back to how it was.

The Doctor was standing at the console, "I thought I'd take you to see the Last Moon of Poosh!" exclaimed the Doctor, unable to contain his excitement. "The thing is, when you're standing on the moon you can see these fantastic swimming pools where the water is a brilliant emerald green in the morning, and a lovely shade of purple once the sun is up in the afternoon. There are loads of pools, at least three good ones, but my favourite is called 'The Midnight Ocean': it has a lining along the bottom of sparkling diamonds, and the pool itself is made of gold! Oh, and the sides of the pools are lined with palm trees and pink sand. But anyway, diamonds and gold! Can you imagine?"

"Doctor!" cried Sally, as she threw her arms around him. Relief filled her: he was back and so was she. However why did she still remember it, if it now no longer occurred

"What was that for?"

"Because, you are back."

"Well I haven't been anywhere," said the Doctor scratching his head. "Are you okay?" he asked his companion.

"Fine," she replied.

"Erisa," she whispered.

"What about her?"

"I saw her, she told me."

"That's impossible she's trapped in the void!" he said sternly.

"She told me, warned me. She told me: 'The silence is coming,' and only we can stop it. She said every world, and every moment will crack."

The Doctor tried to make sense of it all. He didn't doubt what Sally told him; there had always been something about his young companion that he couldn't quite put his finger on, how they kept meeting over and over again. But for Erisa to break through the walls of the void to send a message, it could only mean one thing: that the walls of reality were breaking down. That meant not just one world, but every world out there was in peril.

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