By this time, what little composure Ian had left completely crumbled and the old schoolmaster was sobbing in abject grief; weary, he determined to fight on. Taking a deep breath and drawing himself up to his full height, he started to launch into the Doctor again as Susan moved to get between them.
"Grandfather! Mr. Chesterton! Please! With everything else that has happened today, this is no time to dredge up past hurts. Miss Wright wouldn't have wanted it this way. And we also have to figure out who that man is." She pointed to the prone figure of the Eighth Doctor. His brow had started to twitch as though he were dreaming. It was at this point that one of the other men stepped forward, his brow creased in concentration; gaze locked on the motionless figure on the floor. He was short and had dark hair that was short and somewhat curly and was just beginning to grey on the sides where it stuck out from under panama hat complete with a red paisley hat band. In his hand he carried a black umbrella with a red question mark for its handle and he was dressed in a smart, cream-colored linen suit. Ian stared down at the little man through his tears ready to turn his attack on the little fellow who's gaze now transfixed him. The little man cut him off.
"Another question that I have that I want answered-"
"If it's answers you want Ian, so be it."
The little man looked at Ian, locking him in a steely gaze. The old schoolmaster felt all of the anger and frustration of the last few days and past several years suddenly drain out of him and as it faded he was at a loss as to a reason why. As it continued to fade, he seemed to forget why he had been upset or that he had even been upset at all. He was completely captured by the gaze of the strange little man who's blue, no wait, green, or was it grey?-Ian wasn't sure-eyes of the man seemed to hold a universe of knowledge and the schoolmaster seemed to lose himself. In the space of mere seconds, Ian had gone from desperately irate to the calm at the eye of the storm. Ian could feel the little man's presence in his mind and that's when he saw it all-the unfolding story of the Doctor's lives...
He saw the Doctor's flight from Gallifrey with Susan and the numerous adventures he had over the centuries with various companions. Ian relieved all the adventures that he and Barbara had with the Doctor and how the old man's travels had continued long after they had returned to their own time. The Daleks had returned to haunt the Doctor and the scenes played themselves out and that's when he saw them. Great hulking metal creatures that looked roughly like men were invading the Earth's South Pole in the year 1986 as the Doctor battled the insidious Cybermen; the fight that had triggered his first regeneration into his second incarnation. He heard the words of the Doctor's then companions, Ben and Polly, echo in his mind,
"Ben, do you remember what he said in the tracking room? Something about 'this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin?'"
"So he just gets himself a new one!?"
"Well, yes..."
Ian also saw the Daleks continue to haunt the Doctor after his regeneration as well as the returning menace of the Cybermen and a host of other evils. He heard the Doctor's second incarnation say to Polly,
"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought..."
Every detail of the Doctor's lives played themselves out and Ian saw it all and the Doctor's reason for what he did. He had seen the Doctor, his Doctor change into the form of the Second Doctor with a mop of untidy jet-black hair. He saw this form forced to stand some kind of trial for blatantly disobeying the non-interference policy of his people, the Time Lords. The words of one of the judges rang clearly in the schoolmaster's mind,
"The time has come for you to change your appearance, Doctor, and begin your exile..."
The Doctor was sentenced by the Time Lords to exile on Earth and his new and third form was tall and somewhat a dandy. He had a hawkish nose, prematurely white hair and he was possessed of a penchant for frilly shirts and velvet smoking jackets. He saw the time the Doctor's then three incarnations were brought together to battle the Omega crisis and he heard each of them make some comment,
"So what are we going to do?" asked his then companion, Jo Grant.
"Well at least we can watch that thing in comfort and then we can send in a report and see what they have to say about it."
Then Ian heard the Second Doctor speaking with a military sergeant, he thought,
"Doc, I think the strain's been a bit too much for him. Well, what are we gonna do now?"
"Keep it confused; feed it with useless information. I wonder if I have a television set handy?"
Also, with the Omega situation, Ian heard the First Doctor address his two later selves,
"Oh, so you're my replacements; a dandy and a clown."
The Doctor's adventures in his third body continued and Ian saw that after the Omega crisis, the Time Lords pardoned him and he soon gained a new companion. She was a beautiful dark-haired girl called Sarah Jane Smith. Ian saw the Third Doctor's life end as a grief-stricken Sarah Jane kneeled beside him, his body destroyed by the power crystals in the Chamber of the Great One on Metebelis 3;
"A tear Sarah Jane? While there's life there's..."
The Doctor's appearance changed again into an even younger man who had brown curly hair, bright blue eyes and child-like innocence framed by a battered old fedora and a ridiculously long multi-colored scarf and bohemian clothing. Ian saw Sarah continue to travel with the Doctor in this, his fourth form, which Ian noticed seemed to be his longest life to this point. Ian saw Sarah leave, saw Leela and the fight to save Gallifrey from invasion by the Sontarans. Ian saw the Doctor trying to escape the President's office during this adventure and heard him say,
"Even the sonic screwdriver won't get me out of this one..." Leela stayed on Gallifrey and the Doctor then traveled with the Time Lady Romana in search of the Key to Time before she, too, changed her appearance. He saw the two Time Lords stop over in Paris, France and heard them talking,
"Where are we going?" Romana asked.
"Are you speaking philosophically or geographically?" came his reply.
"Philosophically."
"Then in that case, we're going to lunch..."
Ian saw Romana leave the Doctor when she stayed behind in E-Space and then saw him sacrifice his fourth life to save the universe from his arch-enemy the Master. The Doctor's body plummeted to the ground from a fall from a radio telescope and Ian heard the Doctor's broken fourth form say,
"It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for."
The Doctor's form changed again into his youngest yet of all his personas-a man with fair hair dressed in an Edwardian cricketer's outfit. This version had many adventures including the Death Zone Affair on Gallifrey when again, all the Doctor's personas were brought together to battle the criminal insanity of the then Lord President, Borusa. After the affair concluded he heard the Doctor's fifth self talking to his companions Tegan and Turlough,
"It'll soon be goodbye then," said Tegan.
"Will it?"
"Well, you're off to Gallifrey to be President," said Turlough, "I suppose your Time Lord subjects will find a TARDIS that really works and get us both home."
"Who said anything about Gallifrey?"
"You told Chancellor Flavia..." Turlough began.
"I told her she had full powers until I returned."
"You're not going back!?" Tegan exclaimed.
"You know, sometimes Tegan, you take my breath away!" The Doctor exclaimed as he clasped her arms and gave her a little shake.
"Won't the Time Lords be very angry?" Turlough asked.
"Furious!" said the Doctor.
"You mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people, in a rackety old TARDIS?" Tegan asked dubiously.
Grinning at the pair of them, the Doctor replied, "Why not? After all, that's how it all started!" Ian then saw the Doctor's fifth life continue on as both Tegan and then Turlough left him. The Fifth Doctor's life ended in a sacrifice to save his then companion, Peri, to keep her from dying of Spectrox Toxemia,
"Doctor, what's happened?"
"Ah, Peri," he said weakly, "I see Professor Jackij knew his stuff. Good old Jackij."
"Jackij? You got the bat's milk?"
"Contained an anti-vesicant I imagine. Interesting."
"Well, where is it?"
"What?"
"The bat's milk!" Peri almost screamed in hysteria, fearing for the Doctor.
"Finished...only enough for you."
In a near panic, Peri said, "There must be something I can do, tell me!"
The Doctor managed a weak reply, "Too late Peri, going soon. It's time to say goodbye."
Peri was sobbing; "You can't give up. You can't leave me now." She laid his head on the TARDIS floor and crawled away in her grief. The Doctor mused to himself, "I might regenerate, I don't know...feels different this time..."
The Doctor then changed again into another youngish fair haired man whose hair was a mop of curls and who wore clashing, mismatched, hodgepodge clothes. In his Sixth form, the Doctor was again hauled in front of the Time Lords to stand trial and near the trial's conclusion, Ian heard the Doctor's Sixth form leap into an angry tirade against lies concealed from him by his people; lies which had led to the destruction of Earth in the future;
"In all my travelings throughout the universe I have battled against evil; against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization; decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power-mad conspirators! Daleks! Sontarans! Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power! That's what it takes to be really corrupt!"
Lastly, Ian saw the Doctor's appearance change into his current form-the form now standing before him. The vision was also filled with all the seemingly heinous deeds done because the order of things in the universe had to be maintained-made right. Ian saw this; saw this and understood. It had to be right and that may mean that situations didn't always turn out pretty or pleasant or otherwise beautiful, but it had to be right-almost as painfully simple as a place for everything and everything in its place.
Ian saw everything through the Doctor's eyes; saw the Time Lord as he was; Time's Champion and as such he had special responsibilities. It was not that he wished to cause others, especially his traveling companions, pain and/or suffering, but such was the price that was exacted by the need to keep the tenuous fabric of space-time intact. Manipulation was also sometimes part of the Time Lord's game, but it was all for a higher and greater good that went beyond the Doctor, beyond the Earth, even beyond the universe itself. As the Doctor's seventh persona still had Ian locked in his steely gaze he became aware that beneath the rather tramp-like appearance that seemed to run through all of the Doctor's selves, there was an underlying sense of enormous power and glimmerings of a vast and incalculable intelligence that gleamed in the eyes of one who is as the same time serious, yet playful. Ian saw it all and then as quickly as it had started, it was over. The old schoolmaster looked from the Seventh Doctor to the First and back again. He still had trouble believing that these two men, that all the men in the room, with the seeming exception of the young man sprawled on the floor, were all the Doctor-Time Lord of Gallifrey.
In the mind of the Eighth Doctor, a mental landscape slowly unfolded from the onslaught that had just ravaged his mental faculties. There was the sensation of falling, of tumbling endlessly through the vast wastes and reaches of outer space. The Eighth Doctor stopped his mental free-fall and tried to get his bearings. There was a problem with space-time. He didn't know what it was, but he had to find out and repair the damages. This was why the attack had hit him so hard in the TARDIS and had apparently also opened his subconscious to the astral realm that time dissected. His body had suffered ill effects but he would recover. And so, the Time Lord allowed his subconscious to drift across the vast and timeless wastes of the astral plane.
* * * * *
Gabrielle gathered up her pack and decided that this was a good opportunity to return to her scrolls that she had recently been neglecting. As she took out a new scroll and quill, she cast a glance up at the sky that stretched before both her and Xena on the road ahead that turned to Amphipolis. The path ran between tall palms that were vibrant green and in a weird way, she could have sworn that the green of the trees had begun to beat in time with her own heart. The curving path was grey like stone and began to writhe like a snake caught in a snare. It was then that Gabrielle became aware of a presence, dark and haunting and yet at the same time, teasing and taunting. Whatever it was she could tell it was old, very old; beyond ancient. She could feel barely concealed contempt closing in around her like the walls of a building collapsing in on her. All at once the sun and the sky flew away to nothing and the day turned into a twisted and hideous parody of a starless night as unmentionable things lurked about in the pitch-blackness, hissing and spitting and all of them calling out to her; some begging, some pleading and some demanding that she come to them, be with them and surrender herself to dark oblivion. The path was still there, writhing now ended, but she was paralyzed with fear.
"W-who's t-t-there?" she asked tremulously but there was no reply. There was a faint buzzing noise that was just starting to creep in on her senses and it seemed to fill her ears and her mind and it started to grow in volume. She looked again at the sky ahead of her down the path and she saw the ghostly image of an odd shaped device that emanated and unearthly and an unholy light. In the center of the object Gabrielle saw things the like of which she had never seen before and thought that she was for a moment staring into the very maw of Hell itself. A low rumble seemed to be coming from everywhere around her, which as it became louder, she recognized as laughter. Again she asked, almost screaming out,
"Who's there!?" There was no reply. The buzzing in her senses grew stronger;
"D-Dahak?" she said weakly. Again there was no reply. The buzzing in her senses was growing steadily worse, like garbled voices all in discord. She put her hand to her brow and shook her head to clear it. She heard another voice, faint at first but growing stronger and louder through the buzzing in her ears...
"Gabrielle? Gabrielle!" Xena grabbed the bard by both of her arms and shook her slightly. The younger woman came to with a start, the vague expression on her features vanishing as though arousing from a daydream. She looked around her for a second as though she wasn't really sure of her surroundings. The palms were still in their bright jade green foliage and the flora seemed more alive in a rainbow burst of colors the seemed to jump out at her in a concerted assault on her senses. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a wave of nausea passed over her. She gripped her staff, holding on to it as if her life depended on it, its wooden form cool and strangely reassuring to her and she focused her mind on that. Staring at her, Xena tried to reign in her concern for the bard and not to let it overly show on her face and let go of her arms. She didn't like what was happening. There were just too damned many shenanigans too close together for this to be the work of the gods but Xena forced herself to keep her mind open to the possibility. Ares filtered into her thoughts and she had to fight to keep from using the nearest tree as a punching bag. Gabrielle returned to her senses completely and tried to put what she had experienced into words;
"Xena, there's something here. It's not the gods, it's not Dahak, but it's here, whatever it is. Oh, I can't describe it...it's well, it's ancient; older than that even. It's," she paused for a moment searching for the word she wanted,
"It's completely evil and it's not of this world..."
"Not of this world? What is-what do you mean?"
"Something is happening in Amphipolis; you were right. The whole world is in danger."
"What is it? You saw something didn't you? What did you see? C'mon Gabrielle, I need to know." The buzzing had started to faintly intrude on Gabrielle's senses again, but she went on,
"Xena we have to get to Amphipolis and stop whatever it is that's going on. If we don't the world will be destroyed. They need our help!" The bard had begun to get excited as if there was a need for extreme urgency on their part. She tore away from the warrior's grasp and started to take off down the trail almost leaving Xena behind. The warrior easily caught up with her and reached out an arm to touch her shoulder. When Xena had Gabrielle's arm in her grasp the bard rounded on her angrily and shook her arm free;
"Will you let me go!" she screamed as she stepped back causing her blond tresses to fly wildly in the wind. At that moment Xena saw that the little girl had gone to be replaced by a beautiful and sensual, yet serious young woman whom she loved more than life itself. Gabrielle's reaction had stung her but the warrior didn't allow herself to show it.
"What do you mean they need our help?" The bard looked at her friend and tried to force an apology for her outburst and also explain what she meant as she began to walk away. The buzzing in her senses was almost to an unbearable point now. "They need our-" She didn't finish her thought. As she was turning away, the buzzing in her mind and ears overwhelmed her as the bottom dropped out of her reality. She collapsed in Xena's arms, oblivious to the cries of concern from the warrior.
