THE GALLIFREY CHRONICLES, A NEW WAR

Author note Chapter 12 is now up. Beta read by Forestwater please review.

Disclaimer If I owned Doctor who I would bring Romana back


Emmaline pushed open the TARDIS door and stepped inside; the Doctor was pacing back and forth and muttering to himself, but when he saw Emmaline stopped. "What is it, Emmaline?"

The absence of her childhood nickname was not lost on her. "Why is it that you don't want spend any time with me?" she asked, hurt.

"Of course I want spend time with you." He sighed and scrubbed at his face with his palms. "How are you feeling?"

She ignored the question, walking around the console until she was facing him. "I told you what -"

"We don't need to talk about him right now."

"Why not? Why are you still denying what he is like?" she demanded, her body flushing with indignation and pain. "I can't believe you. You always ran away from us. Why did you always choose them over us? Did we really mean so little to you?" The accusations flew from her mouth with no attempt on her part to stem them.

He looked down. "My world is dangerous. I have many enemies, and that's not something you needed to see. On Gallifrey you were -"

"Safe? Is that really what you were going to say?" Emmaline said. "You abandoned me! I was just a little girl, and you had the cruelty to leave me alone?" She took a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm, at least until she'd gotten out what she'd wanted to say. "You know, all those years I thought it was me that you were running away from, that you hated me or at least didn't want me." She laughed bitterly. "Do you really wonder why I'm so messed up?" She turned and stormed out, unable to hold her tears back any longer.

"Emmaline!" he called, but she was gone. "It was never like that," he said to himself. He knew the real reason why he had never come back; he had seen enough. Emmaline, Romana, and Gander looked and acted like a family, and Emmaline didn't need him. Neither did Romana.

That's bull. And you're a coward. Don't you realize what you did?

The thought suddenly crossed his mind. He had left Romana - the woman he had loved, or thought he loved - alone and pregnant, and Emmaline - his beautiful, smart, spirited daughter - had suffered as a result. It was true that she didn't need to see his world, but despite his intentions she already had, and that was all his fault. He thought about how he had lost his other daughter, Jenny, and how it had been because of Emmaline that he hadn't gotten to know her until it was too late; he couldn't let himself accept another child with the knowledge of how he had betrayed his other children. He'd been an idiot, and now he was going to abandon whatever family that was still alive?


Emmaline ran down the long winding corridors of the Citadel as the tears fell down her face.

He didn't want her.

She didn't stop running until she reached the CIA. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she stood facing the large door. It had been months since her forced return to Gallifrey and Bainbridge's attempt on her life. He had mostly left her alone since that day -- apart from the horrible looks he gave her -- however her nightmares remained and Gander had done his best to shield her from the things going on in Gallifrey. It was still a dangerous place with Bainbridge in power.


Gander looked up from his desk seeing Emmaline standing there. It was then he could see the tearful despair upon her young face, a face that had been deprived of the innocence and hope it had once had, and should still. He did not have the words to make anything she had been through okay. Saying sorry didn't seem to really cut it anymore. She covered her eyes with her hands.

Gander stood up, heading towards her and gently taking her hands away from her face. She started to sob. He couldn't make out what she was trying to say, and led Emmaline to the sofa, where he held her until she managed to calm down. Eventually she spoke. "I had a gift . . . no, it was not a gift." She shook her head. "It was a curse. Ever since I stared into the untempered schism it chose me to know when a decision had been made, to see things before they happened, but I don't know what's real anymore. The Time war, was it real? I need to know." At this, she held the lapels of his shirt and stared into his eyes. "If you love me, and if you ever loved me . . . if I'm a daughter to you, please tell me. Did the Time war happen?"

Gander always knew this day would come when Emmaline asked that question, and he always thought he would have the right answer, believing Emmaline would be better off without the Doctor. The guilt of what he had done overwhelmed him, over his part during the war.

"Daddy," Emmaline whispered. The whole room started to spin as more memories started to resurface. She couldn't make sense of what was real or not anymore, and she wasn't sure she wanted to understand.

"It happened, just not the way the Doctor thinks. It was a war that was going on for centuries, with loss after loss. We have the power to change time and that's what we did. We kept reaching further back in history for deadly weapons Gallifrey no longer used. Both sides had started making a great big mess of time, and one day we had a chance to end it. And we took it. We created a false end to the war, and I suggested that the Doctor could be the Time lord would volunteer to report the results to the universe. It seemed Rassilion liked my idea a lot. I regret that day forever, letting the Doctor believe he was the sole survivor and for you letting you believe he was dead. They were afraid when they realized your power, and they took you away and gave you false memories. I did what I thought was right, but I'm starting to doubt it."

Emmaline got up. "You knew and you didn't tell me? What else are you keeping from me?"

It hurt Gander to see the betrayal in her eyes. "Nothing," he said.

"You are holding something back," Emmaline snarled.

"Leave it, Emmaline." His voice was calm and dignified but he looked away, and she knew he was keeping something from her.

"Tell me!"

He sighed and shook his head. "When the war started, you were just a baby. Romana had feared for your safety and for a time she let us raise you, but you were too young to remember. She never abandoned you. Romana loved you just the same as I do. I'm guessing that's why we have a stronger bond than you have with the Doctor."

"He feels like a stranger," whispered Emmaline. "Why doesn't he want me?"

"He does love you. Emmaline, he loves you very much, but it's this place."

"Mom always told me get any kind of power and it corrupts you."

Gander nodded sadly. He hoped that what he told Emmaline had satisfied her, even if it had not been completely true, but he had to protect her from knowing who she was. She was far too young to accept the truth right now.


Gander walked into one of the rooms within the palace. "So you are going to take him on for the presidency."

"You know I am, and I will win. That was mine until I was unfairly removed. Where's Emmaline?"

"Emmaline has been asking questions," Gander answered, keeping his voice as calm as possible.

"What kind of questions?

"Does it need saying?" Gander asked. "It's not like we didn't know that this day would come."

Romana sighed. "Maybe it's time to tell her the truth."

"No." said Gander firmly. "She's just a kid. Right need she needs stability, and to tell her could destroy her."

"You are wrong, Gander. She is smart -- maybe far too smart for her own good. Kids adjust and so will she. Emmaline will be fine, knowing she was not born a Gallifrean."

"Imagine what it's going be like, adding that to all the turmoil that's going on, for her to find out we have lied to her her entire life. She's struggling already. She keeps having nightmares, she doesn't eat, she's moody --"

"She's acting like a teenager," said Romana. "However, I take your point."


Emmaline leaned against the door. She had known deep inside that something had been kept from her, but she did not know what. She had trusted her Mom and Gander, but seemed that nobody on Gallifrey could be trusted. They were all as corrupt as each other. Turning away, she headed toward where she knew her father's TARDIS would be. "Dad," she said.

The Doctor looked up. "Emmaline?"

"I want you to take me to Cardiff." she said, looking at him.

"Does Romana know about this?"

"Just do it!" Emmaline shouted. "Just do one thing for me and leave me there if you can't stand having me around."

The Doctor shook his head. "This is where you belong."

"What, among all the corruption?" she hissed. "If you don't want to take me, I will try and get there myself."

The Doctor took her arm before she could move. "I didn't say I wouldn't. I made a mess of our relationship and I am so sorry, Emmaline. I . . ." Why was it so hard to tell his own daughter the way he felt? "I do want you with me. You are my daughter and I want to get to know you."

She turned away when he said that; biting her lip, she looked anywhere but at the Doctor.

"Emmaline, what's wrong?" asked the Doctor, sensing her distress. She threw herself in his arms and started to cry. He wrapped his arms around her. "I don't know if I am your daughter," she whispered.

"It's okay. Whatever it is, we can work it out together."

"I heard Romana and Gander talking. They said I was not born a Gallifrean."

"Well that's absurd."

She sniffed. "What if I was not born Gallifrean?"

"It wouldn't change anything. You are still my daughter." He kissed her forehead.


For the first time since being back on Gallifrey he was furious as he watched his daughter fall asleep on the sofa in the console room. He was tired of seeing all the corruption on Gallifrey, and his own daughter being stuck right in the middle of it! And every time he turned around there Gander was, interfering in Romana and Emmaline's lives where he had no place to. Emmaline was his daughter and he was not going to let the CIA mess up his daughter's life. He knew first hand what a bunch of snakes the agency had running the affairs of Gallifrey, and he would not stand for it!

Or was it that he was jealous that Gander had a bond with his daughter, something the Doctor didn't have, and something that was his own fault?

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