THE LAST TIME LORDS OF GALLIFREY

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Beta read by Sunnykisses

Donna stood in front of the Doctor, her hands on her hips. "Right explain Space man."

"Donna, I did what I needed to do to save your life." The Doctor was bewildered. He walked away from her, running a hand through his messy hair. "H-How can you stand here without your mind burning up?"

"Braxiatel." Donna answered plainly. She was confused on why the Doctor was so terrified. She was fine, right?

"Brax? What did he do to you, Donna?"

"He made me like you," Donna fidgeted. "A Time Lord." She wasn't used to not being in control.

"What do you mean he made you a Time Lord? You can't just become a Time Lord, it takes years, Donna."

"He had that device…thing."

So why set it to Time Lord not human? The Doctor thought to himself.

"Why didn't you use it?"

"I didn't think it would work." He groaned. "Granted, Brax has better equipment than me." He hated when Brax always had to have everything better than him; not just equipment but success and love. Everyone always looked up to Irving Braxiatel, no matter what he did.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a brother? He's quite handsome."

"Brax, handsome? Hardly." scoffed the Doctor.

"Oh." A smile crept up Donna's lips. "You're jealous."

"I am not jealous. We just don't get along. It grew worse after Romana."

"Aleena's mother?"

"Yes. We were together once. She was my best friend and Brax took her from me, filled her head with nonsense about being president. She refused to leave Gallifrey and all the while he seduced her."

"But he loved her?"

"She was very good for him. I saw it eventually. I suppose time was what did it; I left her on Gallifrey after what happened to her . I shouldn't have. She had been abducted for twenty years by the Daleks. Brax nursed her back to health and by the time I came back for her she was pregnant. It was the the begining of the Time War that I first saw Aleena after she was born, she was so tiny. I had forgotten how tiny babies were, especially due to the curse that made our people infertile, a Time Lord baby was a miracle in itself."

"So you were happy for them eventually," Donna concluded. The Doctor nodded, looking away.

He remembered the day coming back to Gallifrey he had it all planned. He was going to ask Romana to marry him and he knew she had asked for him and she wanted to talk to him about something important. He had wrongly assumed she wanted to talk to him about the same thing.

The Doctor slipped open the door to Romana's office. Brax had told him that Romana was asking for him on a matter of urgency and he was eager to go home and see her again. Romana was always close in his heart. He hoped that Brax was a good friend to her while he had been gone. He knew it was wrong to leave but obviously she wanted to rekindle their releationship or so he thought.

He stood there in shock to what greeted him.

Braxiatel was kissing Romana passionately, they hadn't heard the door open. His arms moved down her waist as she deepened the embrace.

"I love you so much." he mumbled against her mouth, placing his hands around her cheeks and pulling back. He stroked the skin below her ear with his thumb. She looked into his deep, dark eyes.

"I love you too, Braxiatel."

The Doctor had slipped out the door by the time the word's left her mouth. He slid agains the floor outside her office and put his head in his hands. Brax had given her what he hadn't. Right now he hated his brother with everything he had. He had not just been her friend, he had helped himself to her.

it did not matter that she was practically glowing in his light. It was wrong, so wrong, but if Romana loved Brax, did he have the right to be selfish and take that away from her? She had been through so much, surely he could not be that selfish and with that he walked away, back towards his TARDIS.

Braxiatel finally stirred after a long rest. His daughter was sleeping contently in his arms. He listened to her soft breathing and gently stroked her hair. Then, he carried her to her room, placing her in the old battered cot which had being passed down through the generations on Gallifrey. It had once been his cot, the pine was now scratched and the frame now fading as the mobile Gallifrean toy hung over the cot.

Aleena started to cry but the mobile Gallifrean system began to play the melodies of Gallifrean nursery rhymes that even Brax had forgotten and soothed her back to her rest.

Brax watched her for a moment after her eyes closed. She was so beautiful, just like her mother. He leaned over and kissed her head softly.

Donna and the Doctor stayed with Brax and Aleena for a few months. They witnessed as Aleena started to sit up and eat solid foods, although the first few time most of it didn't end up in her mouth.

"Aleena, nice mashed banana." The Doctor cooed, attempting to feed her but she pushed the spoon away, sinking her fingers into the banana and flicking it against the wall. She erupted in a fit of giggles.

"No, Aleena, food goes in mouth." The Doctor sighed. Brax had almost domesticated him; he hadn't so much as stepped into the TARDIS during his whole visit here. It was beginning to get under his skin. He needed the adventure.

Aleena looked up at him with her wide blue adorable eyes, the way she did when she knew she was doing something wrong. The Doctor smiled and stroked her pudgy cheek with his thumb. Of course, that's why he stayed. For her.

"Problem?" Braxiatel strolled into the room.

"Your daughter refuses to eat banana."

"That's my girl," said Braxiatel ruffling her hair. "She likes pears."

"But pears are disgusting!" The Doctor was mortified.

"No, Doctor, pears are good." Brax answered slowly, lifting Aleena up in his arms. "Dada," He smiled. at her first word as he carried her in the play room for her to crawl around.

It was hard now to keep her out of anything now that she could crawl. Aleena was curious about everything—apart from what a banana tasted like.

"No, no, no. We're settling this." The Doctor lifted Aleena up as she wiggled. He took her to the kitchen, determined to sort this banana issue out.

"This is a banana, nice banana." He held up the ripe, unpeeled banana. Aleena frowned. "Now this, this is a pear, bad pear." He held up the green pear. "Which one do you want?" Aleena grabbed for the pear. The Doctor sighed, ducking his head as Brax chuckled in the background.

"What are you doing to that poor baby?" asked Donna as she came into view.

"Teaching her bananas are good; she is too much like her mother. Stubborn beyond belief." Brax answered before the Doctor could. "If only she was still here with us."

"What exactly happened to her?" Donna asked cautiously, taking the pear. She began to slice it up for her and Aleena to share as Brax let his brother tell the story. The Doctor looked grumpy and sat back, unpeeling his favourite food. After chewing for a while he began.

"It was a Time War, Romana had regenerated into a harder person, she thought it's what Gallifrey needed, but the people revolted and brought Rassilion back, the most ruthless president Gallifrey had. He had a plan all right, he was going to make Gallifrey the only creation in existence and when I knew that I had to stop him.

"She wouldn't come with me even when I pleaded with her. Brax had already taken Aleena from the war; Romana wouldn't allow her to grow up in a Time War, a war she knew she couldn't win."

The Doctor remembered what happened when he got to her.

Romana was there when he arrived; green striking eyes her black short cropped hair, nothing like the Time Lady he had once was cold towards him.

"Please come with me, we are losing," he begged, eyes pleading. He walked towards her but the look on her face made him stop.

"Go, run away Doctor, I am not a coward like you. Always running away from life, never owning up to your mistakes." She glared at him.

"I came here for you. You have a daughter who needs you, Romana, just come with me!" His voice was urgent.

"She has Brax, Gallifrey has me." She brushed the thought aside and pressed a small object into his hands. It was the moment.

The Doctor stared at it in horror. "Everyone will die." He whispered.

"It's the only way," Romana kissed him softly, surprising him. He wasn't sure if it meant anything to Romana or if it was more of a goodbye kiss.

"Romana, please." he repressed, pulling back. He knew it was pointless to continue but he still needed to try, for conscience's sake.

She shook her head sadly and left the room.

"I killed Aleena's mother. I killed Romana. And for that, I don't deserve any peace."

When the Doctor looked around Brax had slipped out of the room without anyone realising..

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