A Man out of Time

[The First Doctor]

Open To: The First Doctor, Jenny (who is, I believe, still in this TARDIS), Amy, and Rory. The Archivist, if she wishes to join in the madness later. The Eleventh Doctor and Susan, eventually (things need to get put right at some point).

---

The Vortex

The blue lights of the time rotor flashed and strobed up and down, casting a balefire glow across the orange dome of the console room. As they did the engines howled and roared, laboring harder than they ever had before.

The Doctor rubbed his hands together gleefully as he circled the console, familiarizing himself with the unaccustomed layout. He appeared to be an old man with long silvery hair, wearing a black Edwardian suit coat and cravat and checked pants. A broad grin stretched his mouth, and good humor danced in his eyes. "There we go," he said to his two unwilling passengers, "Galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero center."

[Amy Pond]

It all happened so fast... The Doctor that Amy knew and loved popped out to have a look around, and then he was followed by Susan... And then, the younger but older looking Doctor started messing with the control panel, and WHOOSH - they were gone, leaving Amy's Doctor and Susan Foreman behind in 1896 London with the Daleks.

"I'll find you, Archivist," he said, "For both of me, I'll find you."

"Umm... Doctor? Why are we leavin' yuir granddaughter and tha Doctor that WE know behind?" Amy asked. She was not frightened, nor angry - just confused. After all, the two Doctors were really the same man, and Amy was determined that this older looking one was just as much her best friend as the one they just left behind - he just didn't know her very well, yet.

"I mean... Didn't the other you just say somethin' about that message causin' tha end 'a Time?" Amy asked, a little worry showing through her confusion.

She remembered meeting a woman who had called herself The Archivist - Rory had been there, too... They'd gone to see The Beatles' rooftop concert in London together, back in the 1960s, and The Archivist had given Amy a notebook that detailed the first date she'd had with The Doctor back on Galifrey - she thought she still had it with her, probably carefully tucked away underneath her pillow on the bunk bed she shared with Rory, here on the TARDIS - but, Amy thought she had best keep it to herself... for now, at least. She really didn't want to encourage the end of Time to come about...

[The First Doctor]

"Umm... Doctor? Why are we leavin' yuir granddaughter and tha Doctor that WE know behind?" Amy asked.

The Doctor looked up from the controls, an expression on his face that looked for all the world like he'd forgotten she was there and wasn't pleased to see her. Then he steepled his fingers, and smiled.

"I mean... Didn't the other you just say somethin' about that message causin' tha end 'a Time?" Amy asked, a little worry showing through her confusion.

"And that, my dear," he said, pointing a finger at Amy, "is precisely why I left my granddaughter with me. Because what we are doing is dangerous. And if I've become..."

He bit his words off. Amy was a future friend, and he wouldn't run himself down to her. Even if he was dead set against becoming that man. He forced a smile. "Whatever I'm doing there, I'm sure it's safer than what I'm doing here."

He began to pace, one arm behind his back, the other gesticulating. "And what are we doing that is so dangerous, hmmm? Simply put, we are violating multiple Laws of Time - even more so than when I will cross my own timeline in my past. I am travelling into my own future - the Undiscovered Country, so to speak - an act that even the greatest of the Time Lords feared."

He stopped, and smiled. "But!" he held up a preemptory finger. "Even the greatest of the Time Lords lacked something I now have! A TARDIS, my TARDIS, from my future! Encapsulated within, I may voyage into that vast, uncharted land and behold the future yet to come!" There was a glint in his eye. "And maybe, just maybe, a young man filled with the fires of youth may learn to change the future created by the deeds of an old man with caution chilling his bones."

The Doctor strolled around the console once, examining the controls again. "And so, we begin where it all began. On Gallifrey. The Shining World of the Seven Systems." He looked concerned, just for a moment. "If any power in the Spiral Politic can track her, it will be there. And, if I am still travelling freely some seven hundred years from now? Why, the Council must have seen fit to pardon me at last..."

[Amy Pond]

It was hard to believe that the Daleks were 'safer' than whatever this Doctor had in mind...

"Pardon ye? Why would ye need ta be pardoned?" Amy asked, opting to not panic (as per usual). "Wot'd ye do, Doctor?" Amy asked - she didn't sound at all upset or accusatory; instead, she sounded intrigued.

"An' ye've never wanted ta go ta Gallifrey - though, I must say, I've been hoping ta see it one day... It sounds amazin'," Amy said with a glittering smile and excitement burning in her eyes as she took a few steps closer to The Doctor at the console.

[The First Doctor]

"Pardon ye? Why would ye need ta be pardoned?" Amy asked, opting to not panic (as per usual). "Wot'd ye do, Doctor?" Amy asked - she didn't sound at all upset or accusatory; instead, she sounded intrigued.

"It is a long and sordid tale," the Doctor answered, "and I normally would not delve deeply into the unsavory details." He paused. "But, since you and your - husband, I believe? - are coming with me, it seems only fair to tell you something."

He took a deep breath. "Not that long ago, not for me anyway - less than a century, really - I..." He shrugged. "I was the leader of an attempted rebellion against the High Council. When I realized that I couldn't bring about the change I wanted through murder and bloodshed, I tried to stop it. When that failed, I warned the High Council."

A pause.

"And then I ran."

"An' ye've never wanted ta go ta Gallifrey - though, I must say, I've been hoping ta see it one day... It sounds amazin'," Amy said with a glittering smile and excitement burning in her eyes as she took a few steps closer to The Doctor at the console.

"It is, I assure you, almost the platonic form of tedium. We have raised ritual to an art and stasis to a religion." He smiled. "But, if you've never been there, I suppose it is worth a look."

The pitch of the Time Rotor changed, slowed, and stopped. "And, in fact, it appears that we've arrived. Shall we see how little my homeworld has changed, in the six hundred years since this iteration of the TARDIS left it?"

He twisted the door control, turned, and stopped cold. Beyond, through the doors, was nothing. Just the cold, star-speckled endless blackness of space.

[Amy Pond]

The Doctor had mentioned how he had tried to use murder and bloodshed against the Gallifreyan High Council, and how it hadn't worked out the way he'd planned - Amy surmised that the moment he was referring to was the moment he must have had a 180 degree change of attitude towards violence, which he still held to today.

Then, he said that he had warned the council and ran - which Amy assumed was the point in time in which he stole the TARDIS (though, Idris would claim that SHE was the one who stole HIM).

"So, now ye want ta go back there again, an' yuir hopin' that they'll give ye a pardon? What if they don't?" Amy asked cautiously before venturing outside. She wasn't really looking forward to being arrested, just in case the other Time Lords weren't feeling very forgiving today...

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors, revealing not a planet with red grass and golden skies, but instead: nothingness. Just Space.

"Umm... Doctor? Is tha TARDIS on tha fritz again?" Amy asked. She knew virtually nothing about the Last Great Time War, but she had heard her Doctor say - more than once - that he was the last of his kind.

[The First Doctor]

"So, now ye want ta go back there again, an' yuir hopin' that they'll give ye a pardon? What if they don't?" Amy asked cautiously before venturing outside.

"I am not hoping they give me a pardon," the Doctor said. "I am taking a calculated risk. Your version of the Doctor is easily some six or seven hundred years older than I am. If I am still wandering free after that length of time..." He shrugged. "Then it would seem reasonable to assume that I am a free man indeed."

He opened the door and stared, shocked, into the endless black void.

"Umm... Doctor? Is tha TARDIS on tha fritz again?" Amy asked.

The Doctor stared, shocked. By the time he turned to face Amy, though, a mask of casual curiosity was firmly in place. "No doubt there was a simple and easily rectified error. Allow me to check the coordinates - this particular layout is unfamiliar, so no doubt I transcribed a digit." He didn't sound as if he believed it.

Crossing back to the console, he checked the controls. "No, they were entered correctly." He turned and looked out the door again, then checked the console again. "What could have happened?"

He was silent for several moments, as he examined a number of instruments. "This... this is unbelievable. These controls indicate that there has never been a planet here..."

He stood for a moment, chin in hand, lost in thought. "What could be going on here..?" He glanced to one side, shooting Amy a glance that was part concern and part interest. "Quite a mystery, eh? I wonder if it is tied in with those dah-lex that my older self is dealing with? Perhaps we should look into this as well, while we search for the Archivist."

[Amy Pond]

So... They had gotten to the right place, after all... But, it seemed they were looking for a planet that never existed - which made everything infinitely more confusing.

"But, it HAD to exist!" Amy protested. But, she remembered her Doctor having told her that he was the last of his kind, and that it was a long story. He said that it was a bad day, and that lots of bad stuff happened - but that was all Amy knew.

::Wot's it called, again?:: Amy thought hurriedly. ::Oh, right... Foreknowledge... Or 'Spoilers', as River would say,:: she thought, smiling at the thought of her quite 'impossible' daughter.

Amy also had foreknowledge of The Archivist - and, she was very much looking forward to seeing Seren again. Hopefully doing so wouldn't wind up unraveling Time...

"Quite a mystery, eh? I wonder if it is tied in with those dah-lex that my older self is dealing with? Perhaps we should look into this as well, while we search for the Archivist."

"Ye know, I wouldn't put it past those Daleks... I bet they had a hand in this: 'tha case o' tha missin' planet'," Amy said, a hint of conspiracy in her voice. "They're tha most evil race in all o' existence - least, that's wot tha other You told me - so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were responsible." But, Dalek or not, Amy was very curious to learn what happened to Gallifrey - and why The Doctor was the last Time Lord.

"At any rate, Doctor, ye can count me in on this - just let me know know I can help," Amy said, making her intentions clear. She wasn't going to try to stop him, and in fact, she was pretty sure that she was almost as eager to solve the Gallifrey mystery AND find The Archivist as The Doctor was!

[The First Doctor]

"But, it HAD to exist!" Amy protested.

The Doctor perched a pair of spectacles on his nose, and peered at the controls again. "No, no, this is quite clear. According to these readings, Gallifrey never existed."

He drummed his fingers on the console. "Quite a mystery. It is the sort of thing that could result from a temporal attack of some sort - destroying a person or even a planet before it even existed." He paused, lost in thought. "But what could do that to the Time Lords..?"

"Ye know, I wouldn't put it past those Daleks... I bet they had a hand in this: 'tha case o' tha missin' planet'," Amy said, a hint of conspiracy in her voice. "They're tha most evil race in all o' existence - least, that's wot tha other You told me - so it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were responsible."

"That stands to reason, yes," the Doctor agreed. "I suppose that is why he was willing to cross our timeline - no doubt, he was attempting to 'head them off at the pass'." He looked... sad. Sad, and a little angry. "And to think I called myself a coward." He shook his head. "No wonder I was distracted. I was trying to save Gallifrey."

"At any rate, Doctor, ye can count me in on this - just let me know know I can help," Amy said, making her intentions clear.

"Wonderful, my dear." He brightened. "No doubt, I remembered that I would be handling this part, leaving myself free to concentrate on finding the Archivist."

His fingers drummed on the console again. "But where to search..? If Gallifrey is gone, where would I be able to find her..? Ah!"

He began setting the controls. "Aberaeron! The very first place - off Gallifrey - we ever visited together!"

With a whooping, grinding sound, the Time Rotor roared to life.

[Amy Pond]

Amy grinned and braced herself for the inevitable rough churning and whirling of the TARDIS as they began to fly through the Time Vortex.

"Aberaeron? That sounds sort o' Welsh," Amy commented with curiosity. "What's this Aberaeron place like?" Amy asked, not recalling that particular locale having been mentioned in The Archivist's narration of their first date.

And, she really hoped they managed to bump into Seren - and not just for The Doctor's sake, either. Amy had really enjoyed her company and was looking forward to another encounter with the Time Lady.

[The First Doctor]

"Aberaeron? That sounds sort o' Welsh," Amy commented with curiosity. "What's this Aberaeron place like?"

The Doctor laughed. "That, my dear, is because it is in Wales. It is a delightfully exotic seacoast town on the English side of the Irish Sea. Why, it has green grass and blue skies."

He looked over at her, and grinned. "Of course, I suspect that lacks a certain exotic quantity, when seen from your perspective. But! Exotic, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. I dare say that, had I been able to show you Gallifrey, you would have found our grass and trees to be equally exotic."

A pause, as he adjusted a dial. "When I reunite you with my older self, after he has dealt with the dah-lex and restored Gallifrey, you simply must insist that I take you there. In fact..." he produced a leather-bound book, with the words Five Hundred Year Diary stamped on the cover in gold leaf, "I'll even make a note to myself to do just that."

---

Aberaeron
Wales
August 8, 2006

There was a griding, roaring sound as a blue police box materialized on the corner of High Street, just opposite the police station. The door opened, and a white-haired old man in an Edwardian suit stepped out. He turned back to say something to the red-haired young woman that stepped out after him, and frowned at the sight of the box.

"What is this?" he asked, touching the police box. "Why hasn't the chameleon circuit activated?"

[Amy Pond]

Aboard the TARDIS

"That, my dear, is because it is in Wales. It is a delightfully exotic seacoast town on the English side of the Irish Sea. Why, it has green grass and blue skies."

Amy decided that she must have spent waaaaaaay too much time exploring alien worlds, since she had so easily confused a town in Wales with another planet... Oops.

Amy laughed good naturedly and turned a little pink in the face. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Good one... Ye got me there, Doctor," Amy confessed, feeling a little silly - but the feeling quickly passed as The Doctor spoke of the exotic qualities of Gallifrey in comparison with Earth.

"When I reunite you with my older self, after he has dealt with the dah-lex and restored Gallifrey, you simply must insist that I take you there. In fact..." he produced a leather-bound book, with the words Five Hundred Year Diary stamped on the cover in gold leaf, "I'll even make a note to myself to do just that."

Amy grinned from ear to ear when The Doctor spoke of his intent to bring Amy to his homeworld - after his other self restored it, that is - and she watched with a childlike awe as he produced a beautiful leather-bound book that seemed to be his diary.

"So, ye use yer diary like a day-planner, then?" Amy asked, intrigued. "I love it! I absolutely love it! Ye've got a diary... an' River's got one..." she babbled, not realizing that this version of The Doctor may not yet be familiar with her daughter. "I want one too..." Amy decided aloud. When they found the other Doctor again, she'd have to ask him if he could get her one just like River's... and the other Doctor's...

"An' I absolutely cannot wait ta see Gallifrey," Amy added, nearly squeaking with excitement, as she rushed forward and gave the man a quick hug - she couldn't resist.

---

Aberaeron, Wales ~ August 8, 2006

Amy followed The Doctor out of the TARDIS, and as she was locking its doors behind her, The Doctor asked why the chameleon circuit hadn't activated.

"Umm..." Amy uttered, nibbling on her lower lip for a moment while she sifted through her many memories of him that floated around in her mind, trying to remember what he had said about that particular piece of equipment.

He had said: "It’s camouflaged. It’s disguised as a police telephone box from 1963. Every time the TARDIS materialises in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyses its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand-mile radius, and then determines which outer shell would best blend in with the environment. And then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963."

Amy thought how best to word it... how to tell The Doctor that his TARDIS was quite the independent lady and would always do whatever it was that she wanted to do - and that was why the TARDIS didn't always take him where/when he wanted to go, but rather where the TARDIS thought he needed to go.

"Well... Tha thing is... It is activated," Amy began, pausing a moment to sort out what she ought to say - and what she ought not say...

"It's just that tha TARDIS seems ta prefer tha look o' tha blue box," Amy clarified with a slight shrug. She realized then, too, that she preferred the look of the blue box. In fact, she absolutely could not imagine The Doctor's TARDIS looking any other way - it was something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue... It was how she had remembered him back from nonexistence at her wedding reception.

"It's a good look," Amy said reassuringly, giving the TARDIS a loving pat with her hand.

"Anyway... We're here. Where do we start?" Amy asked The Doctor, ready and eager to assist.

[The First Doctor]

"Well... Tha thing is... It is activated," Amy began, pausing a moment to sort out what she ought to say - and what she ought not say...

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow. "Really? It would seem to me that she is utterly failing to blend in with her surroundings, which is the entire point of having a chameleon circuit."

"It's just that tha TARDIS seems ta prefer tha look o' tha blue box," Amy clarified with a slight shrug. "It's a good look," Amy said reassuringly, giving the TARDIS a loving pat with her hand.

"It is a preposterous look," he disagreed, glaring at the TARDIS as if he might intimidate it into cooperating. "But I suppose there is little enough to be done about it at the moment. I'll have to fix that, when I get a spare moment." He grasped the door handle. "In fact, it shouldn't take long. Maybe I should..."

"Anyway... We're here. Where do we start?" Amy asked The Doctor, ready and eager to assist.

"Eh?" the Doctor said, looking around, "What's that? Oh, yes. Yes." He pointed across the street at the police station. "We start there, with the Guard Office. If the Archivist has been back here, Inspector Jones will know about it. He was a decent enough chap, when we visited last. And it's only been about thirty years, relative time for him, so I doubt he'll have been promoted away from here yet."

Clearly, this "young" Doctor didn't have a clear handle on how humans aged.

---

"Are you daft, young man?" the Doctor claimed. "Retired? Nonsense. I knew him, less than thirty years ago!"

The police constable at the front desk - a thin, balding young man with piercing blue eyes and a prominent Adam's apple - rolled his eyes. "Right, grandpa. Thirty years ago. He retired last year, full pension. Now, who are you again?"

"The Doctor," he answered. "I assisted him with the 'monster' case."

The PC tapped at his computer. "Ah, yeah. Here you are. Yeah. I remember my folks talking about that. Kinda weird, really." He thought for a moment, then scribbled something down on a post-it note. "Here's his address. I'm sure he'd love to meet you again, and your granddaughter."

[Amy Pond]

Amy smiled sweetly and didn't bother correcting the constable. It was just easier for him to believe that she was The Doctor's granddaughter - they had just stopped here to gather information, and they had obtained the address for the now-retired Inspector Jones.

"Thank ye, Constable," Amy said politely, before turning to The Doctor and softly saying, "Thirty years o' work is normal for Humans, ye know..." Then, with an adventurous smile, she added, "Now, c'mon - let's go pay a visit ta Inspector Jones!"

[Jenny]

Jenny had been exploring the inter corridors and rooms of the TARDIS while they had been waiting on Amy to return. She even found the pool, which she stood and stared at in disbelief. There were so many rooms that she had lost complete time of time. But time could not truly be lost. This blue box proved that. Time could always be found.

She had found her father again, as odd as the meeting might had been and as unwelcome as his intrusion into her mind, forcing his memories into hers she was more content then she had been in a long time. She wasn’t sure if she even liked what her father had become or not. He was altogether new and strange. But she would give him a chance.

Jenny grinned slightly to herself as she turned around to head back to the TARDIS’s main console room. The TARDIS made a sudden shutter and Jenny grabbed ahold of nothing. Mostly it was there was nothing to grab ahold of. By the time the TARDIS had stopped Jenny had found herself not standing next to a large expansion of water, but instead treading it. For an instant she couldn’t breathe her lungs caught off guard by the intrusion of the water that filled her mouth and nose.

She didn’t panic, but instead broke the surface and sputtered for a brief moment before she made her way to the pools edge and grabbed ahold of a small metal ladder that gave the pool easy access. Hosting herself out Jenny was less than amused as she spied a towel and grabbed for it. Twice more the world seemed to turn under her feet and twice more Jenny found herself on the ground as she tried to run back towards the control room.

Soaking wet, fully dressed, and vigorously drying herself with a towel she found her way back to it, only to discover that it only contained Amy and the older version of her father that she had glimpsed before. She watched as Amy and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and Jenny made a mad dash for the door, dropping the towel in the process and opening it and sticking her head out. “Hey! What’s going on?” Jenny called out after them as she looked after them in confusion.

But they didn’t hear her. Torn as to what to do you step out of the TARDIS, closed the door behind her and followed them to a building across the street. She watched as they walked through the doors into the building and she followed suit. Stepping up behind Amy as the two of them talked to the man behind the desk. “What, is going on? Why are we here?” Jenny asked. “This doesn’t look like a…” she was about to say space ship but thought better of it.