(Ruinous Time): Inherit The Earth

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A young girl- blonde and well dressed in her sunday best, sat next to her mother- a single widower. It was Easter, and though the Tyler’s weren’t particularly religious they did make sure to attend the usual Easter sermon with everyone else in their neighborhood. Difficult for a little girl to sit through, the Pastor read off a quote from his bible-

“At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means…”

“My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!?” cried out the Doctor in anguish inside his TARDIS, looking upon the burning ruins of planets left in the wake of the Time War. No Time Lords, No Daleks. Even those who had bravely assumed their roles hoping to bring the conflict to an end; even the slaves conscripted under occupation with the promise of lighter conditions for participation; even the refugees. Gone.

The Doctor would spend some time alone wallowing in his anguish; at times stabbed in his hearts with survivor’s guilt too great to bear.

In the universe, there was darkness now. Darkness meant not evil, and indeed in this case it didn’t. It was much more sad- it was empty. And so the Doctor at various points took a tour, sometimes just looking after the ashes finished burning; at times trying to warp back into the war to save something or someone who didn’t deserve what he had done.

But it all came down to the same problem- No one was allowed to survive but him. Nothing could be redeemed from that darkness- not even him.

And as he finally realized the useless weight on his shoulders that he would not be unburdened from, he turned his attention back to the one place in the universe that had not been touched by the Time War at all- Earth.

In another story you will have heard about the Doctor finding out that there was no redeeming the darkness of the Time War, but perhaps redeeming the life he had left from it. But this is not that story.

This is the story about how while the Time War never touched Earth, it’s aftermath did. After all…

“ And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” the Pastor finished quoting the Bible, taking a breath before looking over the full congregation, then asking out. “What does that all mean to you and me?”

The young Rose Tyler shrugged her shoulders.

Years later, the Doctor and Rose were 30 years in the past playing in a two person Punk Rock band opening for the Clash at the Marquee Club. Did Rose Tyler know how to play Drums before she got on stage? Not in the slightest; but through a handy streaming service from the future, the skill was being beamed into her head from the TARDIS wirelessly.

The Doctor was up front and center stage with a Gibson Melody Maker, singing a punk version of The Who’s Substitute and winking at the crowd with the line I look pretty young but I’m just backdated.

As she played and sang backup vocals for the Doctor, she wondered if the Doctor was receiving a skill streamed into his head too or if he already knew how to play.

After their set, the Doctor and Rose sat at the bar watching the Clash tune up. The Doctor nursed a beer as Rose picked safety pin barrettes from her hair. As they did, another patron at the bar elbowed the Doctor and tried to engage in conversation.

“Pretty interesting night, great set by the way.” he said, smiling towards the stage without looking at the Doctor. “If you hurry, there’s still time to give Sid Vicious some lessons.”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed in annoyance. He made conscious efforts not to do so around Rose- often he tried to just let himself enjoy moment to moment, but it was hard to do so in the presence of a Time Agent.

“I suppose you know who I am.” The Doctor’s hands balled into fists with a pick wedged into the knuckles, threateningly jutting out like a spike.

Rose looked over, the man having finally caught her eye. He was in a very formal getup, and she silently chided herself for not having noticed it before.

“We do. We’re here because-”

“Save it” said the Doctor.

“You don’t under-”

“I said, ‘save it’” said the Doctor again, now a little tension in his voice.

The man looked furious, but when he got one hint of the Doctor’s fury he backed off. Instead he left a memory card on the bar counter, and put his hands in the air.

“I’ll leave you alone, just… take a look at that. If I’m willing to provoke the fury of the Last of the Time Lords to bring it to you, then at least respect that it’s important enough to me.” he said before he threw down a small smattering of bills to cover the bar’s tab.

That night after Rose had gone to bed, The Doctor opened up the chip’s contents and viewed them on the TARDIS viewing screen. His hands balled in rage, and a tear came down his face as he watched. At one point in the night, or what Rose assumed was night, she got up and happened by the Doctor.

Instantly she hugged him. He was paralyzed by emotions- fear, rage, pity, sadness. But most of all, guilt. And in that embrace, she took his far hand in both of her’s and attempted to open his fist. Feeling her hands on his, the Doctor hung his head and silently gave in, letting her hand open his fist.

Now knowing he would be okay, she accepted his request when he gently kissed her forehead and asked her to go back to bed. As she obliged and climbed in, Rose realized that she had not at all attempted to see what caused the Doctor such distress.

The next day The Doctor opened up the TARDIS doors and walked out onto a battlefield between the Ood and Time Agents from Earth. Both were powerful forces, capable of having a Time War of their own if they so chose; and both rose from the aftermath of the Time War.

He left Rose behind to see what he had seen.

Earth knew of what and who the Doctor was. Sure, sometimes they misinterpreted the Doctor, but they understood what The Doctor stood for. The Ood had heard about the Time War, and heard about the fear and destruction it wrought. They understood that humanity was the Doctor’s pet project; and that by advancing to the point of time travel and having some dominion over time and space they were allowing this race ruled by their passions to cast a shadow over the universe.

What neither knew in the rise of their higher sentience among time and space was that the Doctor lived. Hiding in guilt and agony, the Doctor did not directly guide either race; and their evolutions into what they had become horrified regular inhabitants of the universe.

And so without Time Lords and without Daleks and without The Doctor, the Universe changed under their machinations. The Ood were brutal in their ascendancy, fearing a race that ascended under the ideology of the Doctor would bring the destruction the Doctor brought via the Time War.

For their part Humanity met that brutality in kind. It was not evil, but empty. Their only goal survival. And thus, as humanity struck back they were forced to believe in those actions, those strikes; abandoning some of the things they had learned from The Doctor. They were forced to cast themselves as a people who would kill for ascendency in the emptiness left behind the Time War. And because they followed those who would kill, many died on the path.

The Ood and the ascended humanity- the people of Tomorrow playing marbles with the population of other planets.

This escalated in attacks, chaos in time, advantages gained and lost. Until one day…

It was a shock to suddenly have heard of a Dalek skirmish in an underground bunker with a Time Lord. It was a shock to have dug through humanity’s archives and found out about a new Doctor in a skirmish with the Slitheen which hadn’t been there the day before.

At first, humans didn’t know how best to respond to it all. The Doctor hadn’t shown himself in all this time, in all this new history. Was he ashamed of them?

Eventually the decision was made to put their own feelings aside and issue a warning. And so, an agent met The Doctor after a punk rock concert in 1975 to issue a warning of what the universe had become with a clear message- “Stay out of it.” They were sure that at the very least by giving this message the Ood would leave the Doctor alone in kind.

The Doctor looked around, staring at dead bodies distort and come back to life with horror. Collateral damage and timeline damage was abundant. He watched innocent people fleeing and then start to burn; then distort and be perfectly healthy and continue to flee before beginning to burn. But each time they were brought back to health, they remembered. The Doctor saw it in their eyes, a slight bit more horror or exhaustion or fear each time.

Physically fine, but mentally breaking. He watched parents giving up but pushing their children on. He watched burning, again. Not evil burning, but empty burning; from a lack of a home or a life to be able to occupy the space anymore.

And looking at all this, the Doctor’s hands balled again with rage.

“Damn you… Damn you all!” he screamed, halting the battle while they all froze and turned to look at him.

The sky above the battleground went dark, pitch black. Nobody understood why, and some suggest that it may have been the Doctor pulling out some Time War technology. Others that the Doctor landed when he did because he knew it would become black. One thing was for sure, this black was evil.

The leaders of both sides approached him with a stolen bravado-he was the last Time Lord, but he was the only Time Lord. They may not have regeneration, but they had time travel. What could he do that they had not already seen?

Before they could speak, the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver back at the TARDIS behind him and activated a short pulse, throwing a switch inside. Instantly, all the thousands of soldiers on the battlefield began flailing their arms without any motor control. Confusion and panic was in their eyes as they spread out- some as far as 6 feet from one another, to avoid injuring one another with the wild, erratic thrashing. The Doctor had loaded up Rose's drum streaming program and streamed it to all the soldiers on the field, a technology they were helpless against because it was pre-Time War technology, its origin somewhere among the blackened cinders.

"Do I have your attention?" he asked the armies leaders with fury. "Good."

In his rage at watching what the universe had become in his absence, the Doctor had a million scenarios running through his mind- a million Moments, if you will. The futility had pushed him to a new breaking point, and he was prepared. The Humans and the Ood read it on his face and their expressions dropped, seeing now how useless their ascendance in science were in the last face of the Time War.

“Doctor! Don’t!” called out Rose from the doorway to the TARDIS, having finished the warning from the Humans.

She ran out onto the battlefield and in front of him, turning around and putting her hand on his chest to stop him.

“You blame yourself for the Time War, you blame yourself for not getting involved and letting the universe get this bad. For death and destruction and pain. You were the survivor and yet you hadn’t passed on your own lessons to the next generation.” she said gesturing outwards.

She took a deep breath and doubled down on her resolve. “But you’re forgetting something.”

The Doctor hung his head. It was easy for her, wasn’t it? To see these things. “What?”

“You’re forgetting to take into account how these people feel. Just like they’re not taking into account how the other side feels. What they fear.” She looked him in the eye.

Instantly, the Doctor’s fists unballed, and he hugged Rose this time.

“They’re not going to forgive me for this. For letting them become this, Rose.” said the Doctor. It was at this moment the soldiers got back control and froze, fearful.

“That’s okay. You need to start forgiving yourself first before you can begin to make a difference.” she said embracing him back.

Seeing the embrace, the Ood and Humanity silently put down their weapons, trying not to provoke his fury any further. Instead they waited until he left and began to discuss what it meant that he had visited- that he was watching now. They left peacefully, both resolving to keep a closer eye on history now and learn from what the Doctor would come to do.