● A dimension Away,
With The Valeyard

The Valeyard growled as he held his head. He stood in his TARDIS, with a face he still didn't understand. His 12th regeneration, his 13th and last face. A face of a man he had been forced to save back in Pompeii. He still didn't know what his soul was trying to tell him by giving him this face. At the moment it didn't matter.

His brain was burning, changing and rewriting itself. He was a Time Lord. He was aware of all possible turns his life could have taken yet this was different. It was as if he was being erased and something new was recorded. His mind filled with a history that never should have happened. Someone was rewriting his own personal history.

The world, specifically his world, ALL his worlds, were changing. All his work was being undone. The trillions of planets he had conquered, the countless galaxies he had destroyed, all that death and destruction done in the name of the greater good... it was all being unwritten.

They couldn't attack him directly so they were going after his past. The sheer act should tear the universe apart, but yet it was soley centered on him. He couldn't track it though. What was the cause?

He remembered a moment. A very proud moment of his. In it he was given a gift by his closest friend and former lover... the Master had forgiven him. Forgiven him for the death of their son, but her forgiveness was conditional. She gave him an army. An army of Cybermen made from the bodies of the dead. An unstoppable army that he could use to save every last world in the universe, and destroy every single threat in it. He could save... everyone. No more Daleks camps, no more Daleks. He could purge the universe of evil. He stained his already blood soaked soul so that the rest of the universe could live in peace... and it was all being undone.

This moment was different now. He still remembered it, had a faint taste of it, but it was fading. It was being replaced by some idiotic fantasy of rejecting the offer. Of clinging to false nobility and prioritizing that over the lives of innocent people.

He was not a traveler, or a hero, or even a warrior. He gave all that up a long time ago. He was a general, and his army had saved the whole of creation... only it hadn't. It was so hard to cling to. To remember everything he had done to protect so many.

He now remembered himself rejecting the gift. What actually happened was just a faint echo in his head. However even then, that moment was a symptom of something else, not the cause. What was the cause? What lead to that moment?

Then he saw it... something was horribly wrong with his past... Donna... she was still there. She was going on adventures with the Doctor for decades after he lost her... how? What changed? What kept her alive? That one little change was enough to alter the Doctor's whole life. That face that traveled with her... it hadn't even died young. Her mere existence so altering the entirety of his life... but it was somehow more then that.

There were people with him, a lot of people, but he couldn't see them, something was clouding his vision.

The Valeyard looked up at the control console and put the pieces together.

"Is it you?" he asked the empty room. "My old friend? Are you hiding something from me? Or did you cause this?"

The TARDIS gave a hum, which echoed about the room.

The Valeyard sighed. "So the last of my friends has finally betrayed me. Even you can't see the good I'm trying to do... Well, I won't let all I am fade into nothing."

He began running around, flipping switches and turning Knobs. "I won't go quietly. In fact, I'll do what I always do in these situations... I'll rage." He held his hand over the leaver... and hesitated. "A controlled explosion in time and space would be enough to splinter my reality into it's own universe. You're the only source powerful enough to do that... it's either my life... or yours." He rested his hand at the leaver, looking up at the crystals inside the clear cylinder. "You should have learned by now what happens to those that cross me. Goodbye... sexy..."

He pulled the leaver and casually walked towards the door, as the ship began to scream. Fire began to erupt from the floor and sparks shot out of the counsole.

The Valeyard could hear the mechanical screaming and steeled his heart from it. She was the one that betrayed him.

He stepped out of the TARDIS just in time for it to explode in golden flames. The fire shot into the sky and consumed the vacuum of space. The planets were fine, he made sure they would be, but as he felt his mind clear and his true past reassert itself he knew he had succeeded. They were in a pocket dimension now, with a sky of golden flames for all of space. That might make it harder to travel for the common folk. He should upgrade their ships again... if he should even bother.

This dimension was still dying. All he did wad delay the inevitable. In order to repair it he had to stop the source of the distortion.

The Valeyard examined the swirling spirals of fire in the sky as he thought about his next move. He would have to build another time machine. He could probably rig something up from his time agents to allow him to break into the other dimension... he would have to find it though and that would be a headache.

The Valeyard sighed, putting his hand to his head. The monster, formally known as the Doctor, didn't even pause in his convictions. "I'm sorry Donna, but now I'm coming after you."

● In the Dimension to the left.
Gallifrey,
With the Original Doctor.

The Doctor gulped as he stood before the council of Gallifrey.

"Doctor." Rassillion growled his chosen name, "You stand accused of the highest crime against our planet's doctrine. Not only multiple counts of vast manipulation towards the Timestream, for your own selfish desires, but also telling non-Gallifreyians your true name. For these crimes you are sentenced to forced regeneration. In the hope your next face views your actions as the crimes they are. Do you have anything to say on your behalf?"

The Doctor stood silent a moment then stood tall, looking out at the crowd who gathered to see his execution. Most of them wanting to see him escape, but he had something to protect, "I am guilty. Guilty of believing I could ignore the cruel indifference Gallifrey has become compliant in. I have witnessed other worlds and seen the terrors inflicted on them. At first it was a game. Flaunting our beliefs for no other reason then I could... but I see now. It is our responsibility to act... those with power should protect those without. Otherwise, what is the point of having such gifts."

Rassillion sneered, "Doctor! That sounds dangerously close to a desire to start a riot." The man looked to someone in the audience.

The Doctor turned his own eyes to look... to see his mate in the stands. The Doctor sighed, understanding the threat, "I am guilty." The Doctor insisted, "Now let's get this over with."

Rassillion raised his mechanical glove, pointing it at the man, and clenched his fist.

The Doctor screamed as he felt himself die... yet no one took his place. He collapsed to the floor, dead. Not even the slightest trace of regeneration energy.

The last thing he heard, was his mate screaming his name.

No one could figure out what happened to his regeneration energy. Why had he died? Yet they didn't have time to think on it... as the sky burned regeneration gold.

● New York,
With the 11th Doctor

Amelia Pond, a name out of a fairy tale, and true to her name she became the girl who waited. She waited so long to go off on her adventure.

She had only been a girl when the Doctor first met her, just a little girl. There was a crack in her wall that wasn't in the wall. It had been a crack in the very fabric of the universe. Two points in time and space that should never ever have touched. The Doctor fixed it of course, and later fixed the event that caused it to begin with but it would take a long time to get around to that, especially from the little girl's point of view. The Doctor promised her, he promised her five minutes and failed to keep the appointment... by twelve years.

When he got back the little girl was all grown up... And had been waiting all those years. He took the woman with her, how could he not? He was responsible for who she became... Eventually he began to think of her as a daughter.

He'd never tell her that though as it would be all manner of disturbing for her seeing as she used to have a crush on him. They were friends and he did love her, but as a parent would love their child. He was responsible for her (how many times was he going to say that?). He'd do anything for her... except let her go.

It was obvious the pain was unbearable to her. She loved her husband more then anything... and she kept having to watch him die. He usually came back though. Something always brought the man back. The man who died refused to stay dead. He always came back to her, always, but not this time... this time she would have to go to him.

She accepted it, without hesitating. It wasn't clear if the angel made of stone could really send her to him but there was a chance, a sliver of hope, that was all she needed.

Weeping Angels were a temporal predator. They eat time, stealing it from other intelligent creatures. Old ones would suck the very time from you stealing the rest of your life, but a young one, like this one, would send you back in time and feed off the leftover time energy. They were wily creatures that turned to stone when you saw them as a defense mechanism. But every moment you weren't watching them, they were coming for you, and they could be frighteningly fast.

It sent Rory to who knows when but the odds were good it would send Amy there to. So, without a second thought or a moment's doubt, she made up her mind.

"Melody." Amy reached back and grabbed a woman's hand. Her daughter... who was somehow older then her and married to the Doctor, time travel can cause some major headaches. "You be a good girl, and you look after him." Referring to the Doctor standing nearby.

"You are creating a fixed point," The Doctor cried. "If you do this I'll never be able to see you again!"

"Raggedy man," refering to his appearance when she first saw him as a child, in clothes torn to shreds. Part of her always thought of him as that. As the 'Raggedy Doctor' she dreamed would come back for her as a child. She never told the Doctor (as for him it hadn't happened yet and she assumed he would do that after she died as a way of saying goodbye. Time travel could get confusing as hell and rather depressing) but when she was a child waiting he came back to her, only once, and only to tell her a story.

A story of adventure and love. Of pirates, space whales, and a man that would wait 2000 years for her. All she had to do was be patient and he promised he'd come back for her one day... and he did and all her adventures came true. Even the man who waited for her, Rory Williams, her husband. She waited for her Raggedy Doctor for so long, but not nearly as long as Rory waited for her. She refused to be without him. Perhaps this was the day the Doctor visited that little girl. She quickly spun around taking her eyes off the Angel to look at the Doctor and tell him with all the sincerity of her heart "Goodbye."

"No!" The Doctor jerked his sonic screwdriver forward and Amy felt herself being grabbed by an invisible force. As the Doctor pulled his arm back, Amy flew towards him well his other hand jetted forward with an open palm. Amy couldn't resist looking back and saw the weeping angel thrown into a portal just as the Doctor caught her. The portal instantly closed the moment the angel was through.

Amy stared at it a second before her own palm crashed against the Doctor's face. "What have you done?" She broke out of the Doctor's grasp "Bring it back!"

"I can't," The Doctor insisted.

"BRING. IT. BACK," she commanded.

"It burnt up in the Time Vortex, there's nothing to bring back." He got slapped again. The Doctor and Amy stared at each other for several moments, then Amy slowly sank to the floor crying and hugging her knees. "I can't bring it back..." he admitted then hesitantly added "But I might be able to bring Rory back."

"H-how!?" Amy demanded. "Just a moment ago you said-"

"There is no way to go through time and physically get him but... I'm about to purposefully do something that goes against every sense of ethics ever conceived by any sentient species. It will be an offense to not only time itself but whatever deities are out there.. and it will have consequences that will literally outlive time itself. I will do this if you ask, but only if you ask."

"Do it." Amy ordered not even waiting to hear what it was.

The Doctor looked at her, saw whatever he had to say wouldn't matter in the slightest, and turned towards the grave. "Get me a shovel."

It took over an hour for the group to reach the coffin.

"You're going to have to look away." The Doctor ordered

"No I want to-"

"Amy," The Doctor cut her off. "I've only ever done this once and never to someone who's been dead this long. This won't be pretty, and I'm not doing it with you watching,"

"Come on Mommy dear," River helped turn Amy's back as well as her own. She didn't exactly want to see this either.

The Doctor opened up the coffin and found the bones of his friend Rory inside. The last time he did this had been an accident. He'd been overcome by grief and refused to accept what happened. This though... this was different. This was deliberate. This was evil and selfish to the extreme. He wasn't even doing this for Rory. The Doctor knew what the afterlife was like and doubted Rory minded it there. This was purely so the Doctor could keep Amy by his side.

He laid the tip of his screwdriver on the skull and switched the setting, channeling his internal Chakra. He hadn't really used magic since he was a child. He tried to avoid it... magic was only preformed by priests and prophets for Time Lords... and he long since given up those roles.

Slowly flesh began to grow as he reversed the corpses timeline. It quickly began to pick up speed at the rate it reverse decayed. The body suddenly started working again as it grew the face of an old man but the Doctor didn't stop. He continued to make the man age backwards until the face was back to the Rory he remembered. Then he locked it. He pulled all the energy he could into freeze Rory into this moment. If he simply let go of the Time stream Rory would just die again but if he locked his body in this moment Rory would live... forever. The Doctor became to scream as his own muscles began to spasm. He could feel his own pathways bursting around his veins.

Suddenly Rory gasped awake as the Doctor let go of his time stream. The Doctor collapsed on top of him. Rory suddenly looked around as his mind pieced together where he was.

In that moment, something felt wrong, or rather, new. The Doctor looked up at the sky as it flashed a yellow flame before setting... did he do that? No this is just the moment things differed from the whole... whatever that means. Not even the Doctor knows what he means half the time.

The Doctor looked back at the former corpse as the young man opened his eyes. He looked at the man on top of him and spoke, his voice weak. "Doctor... what have you done?"

The Doctor looked back at him and could respond with only, "I'm sorry," before passing out.

###

The Doctor groaned opening his eyes. He was in the medical bay of his time machine.

"She told me what to do," River said, throwing a pair of surgical gloves away that were covered in orange blood. "I was able to grow you a few new organs and replace the damaged ones, with a little help from the TARDIS."

"Thank you," the Doctor mumbled.

"Rory told us what you did," she informed. "About ripping his soul straight out of heaven."

"He'll never be able to go back there now." The Doctor informed, "I don't even qualify for the level of immortality he's got."

"Why?" The Doctor turned his head to the other side to see Amy looking at him intensely, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you there'd be consequences... you're the one who didn't want to hear what they were."

"You're blaming ME for this. For god's sake Doctor, or should I say for 'Doctor's sake.'"

"I'm not a god." The Doctor looked away.

"You literally just reanimated my dead husband!"

"You asked me to!"

"I know! I know but... Doctor... what the hell are you? I've seen you do some messed up stunts before but this. I really don't know anything about you do I? Not when you have secrets like this."

"You know what matters."

"I don't even know your NAME!"

"... Alex," The Doctor answered.

"... Come again?" Amy blinked

"My name... is Alex."

"Talk about a let down," Amy joked.

"Name's are very precious to Time Lords, you could even call them sacred. Only family and the closest of friends can use it and only with permission. To speak your name to anyone who isn't a Time Lord... it's a major offense. Even if I found Gallifrey they would never let me go back to it now."

Amy's eyes widened. "Then why the bloody hell would you just blurt it out like that!?"

The Doctor weakly took Amy's hand. "Because we're family. I don't care if I never see Gallifrey again as long as you stay with me."

Amy stared at him a good long while before asking, "What's your last name?"

The Doctor smiled awkwardly. "Macedon."

"Macedon..." Amy repeated, "Alex Macedon," her eyes suddenly widened, "As in 'Alexander' of Macedon!? YOU'RE Alexander The Great!?"

The Doctor flinched, "I... was young and frankly stupid. I highjacked a TARDIS, not this TARDIS a different one, with... a friend. We were only around 12 when it happened so neither of us knew how to repair the damage. We were taken in by a king who thought we were gods and... I fell in love with the Earth. I was stuck there for years though and saw so much beauty... and so much pain. When I was older I thought I could help them. I thought a united global government would solve so much... and I could only think of one way to make it happen. The people I conquered where happy under my rule... or so I thought. Being poisoned kind of opened my eyes.

"It couldn't kill me with my Time Lord physiology but it did leave me bedridden for some time. I realized I couldn't force people into my idea of a better world and left. When my advisers asked who should rule the kingdom in my stead I jokingly said 'to the best'... yeah didn't think that through either. My advisors covered up the fact I didn't die, on account of I didn't want anyone thinking I was a god, and civil war broke out... I spent the next few centuries travelling with my childhood friend... things got complicated quickly."

Amy stared at him for a moment. "I take back what I said about that being a let down"

The Doctor smiled. "Will you stay with me, Amelia?"

Amy studied him for a moment as if genuinely confused by the need to ask. "Of course, Doctor."

● With The 12th Doctor,

"This is wrong." The Doctor could feel it. Even if he couldn't see it, he could feel it. A change in the Timestream. A fracture... a birth? He felt... different, as his mind flooded with memories of a world that should have happened, but for some reason didn't. He remembered it all so clearly yet he knew it wasn't what actually happened in this reality.

He remembered refusing Missy's gift of Cybermen... of losing Clara... of meeting Bill... of Missy beginning to come around to his side of all things.

He remembered this, yet knew it wasn't real. According to his reading at the TARDIS console... he did not exist... and the universe seemed to get along fine without him...

They were supposed to go somewhere today. A test for Missy. See how far along she had come in kicking the habit of horrific atrocities and general evil for recreation... didn't seem like that would be a good idea at the moment.

"Heroism called on account of rain!" Missy hollered as she stepped into the control room.

"Doctor!" Nardole quickly came in behind her. Trailed by the darked skinned woman, Bill Potts. "Please tell the Queen of evil she can't get out of her trial that easily."

"I'm afraid she can," the Doctor near growled, "Spacial distortions in the Time Vortex. Now I might be an idiot, but not even I'm stupid enough to try to pilot the TARDIS through that. Not to mention how idiotic it would be to go sailing around a brand new history without knowing anything about it."

Missy stuck her tongue out at Nardole.

Bill rolled her eyes before looking at the Doctor, "So what, exactly, is going on. Because 'Spacial distortions', that could mean anything."

Missy scoffed, "It means we're in another universe."

"What?" Bill smiled, "Seriously?" She looked eagerly at the Doctor.

"Bit more complicated then that." The Doctor tried but Missy interrupted.

"We didn't fall into another universe. Another universe splintered off the one we used to be from. It's known to happen with time travel on occasion."

Bill looked between them, "Well, fancy a look around? Before we head back I mean."

Missy groaned before looking at the Doctor, "Would it kill you to get competent eye candy? I mean honestly, what are they teaching kids in schools these days?"

The Doctor picked up a stack of index cards and started flipping through them. That's when Bill started to get worried. The Doctor only looked through those things when he had bad news to give and didn't know how to say it without sounding insensitive.

"Doctor," Bill walked up and snatched the cards from his hands, "Just tell me. Can we get back?"

The Doctor slowly curled his fingers, "No... because there is nothing to get back to. Where we think we came from is currently in the process of disintegrating on itself. It will be gone in a next Vortex Cycle."

Bill started to nod, far too slowly, as her eyes widened and panic became evident on her face.

Missy helpfully supplied, "We are just echos of the old universe. Random anomalies that echoed into this reality due to our real counterparts closeness to the event. It likely means we tried to save the universe and failed. What you THINK we are is actually just ghost remnants of the old universe. The real you is dead in the other reality and likely never existed in this one."

"Actually, I don't think that's helping, thanks." Bill snapped, taking deep breaths. "I need to sit down." Before quickly walking up the stairs to a one of the Doctor's lounge chairs.

The Doctor sent a glare at Missy, before shaking his head, "Should have stock to the cards."

"There is no nice way to tell someone the universe has ended!" Bill yelled at him.

Nardole spoke up, "Anyone concerned how I am handling this?"

The Doctor looked over at him, and with all the sincerity he could feel in his hearts, he answered, "No."

###

It had been a week. Space had returned to it's normal black and the Doctor sat calmly by Missy. Who didn't look particularly happy about their predicament. Bill and Nardole were off somewhere deeper in the TARDIS.

"No." Missy glared. "I refuse."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter," The Doctor smirked. "Besides, I thought you would be thrilled to learn you're legitimately immortal," he teased.

"I am NOT an angel!" Missy glared. "Do you have any idea how humiliating that would be! I would need to get a harp and one of those ridiculous white robes. Not to mention a fluffy cloud to sit on!"

"You've been watching too much human television," The Doctor scolded.

"Well whose fault is that?!" Missy's glare never left her face. "It wasn't enough you had to turn me good. You had to turn me into a literal Celestial. Shame on you, Doctor."

"It's not my fault."

"Of course it is. How much you want to bet whatever splinter the universe was directly your fault!"

The Doctor frowned. "I suppose it is rather likely isn't it?... Bill is rather excited about being an angel," he not so subtly changed the subject and Missy decided to allow it.

"Of course she would be," Missy scoffed. "You've granted a mayfly near immortality. I'm sure that will work out wonderfully."

"I did not!" The Doctor insisted.

"Says the Elder God to his Celestial." Missy snarked.

The 12 Doctor sighed, "So you figured that out did you?"

"Your not the only one who has been researching this place." Missy huffed. "Whatever triggered the splitting of the universe merged with you at it's conception. Meaning every living organism in your TARDIS, just before your regeneration, echoed back into this universe. You're legitimately part of it and will only grow in power as this Universe grows up... meanwhile your pets and myself, we became your Celestials. The servants of a god."

"Your not a servant." The Doctor insisted. "I would never want that of you."

"We are extension of you though." Missy sighed. "If something does manage to kill you, we'll die to."

The Doctor sighed back. "You did miss something in your research... I'm not the only Doctor. Not only did I merge with this universe at it's conception, but all my faces, even the ones I haven't had yet, splintered off from me. There are dozen of 'Elder Gods', each guided by a different conciousness of my incarnations... that might not end well."

Missy scoffed, "As if any of you could be a threat to this universe. You're all to chipper and goodie goodie."

"All my faces have gone through a low point. Where our long lives weighed on us... true immortality... might just break some of them..."

"The fact they have their companions is not as large a consolation as you might think. All those traveling with each of my incarnations, at the time of regeneration... they are out there as well... as a new race of Celestial, growing into their power... immortal... it won't be long before they lose their perspective of humanity, just as Jack had... and Me... she was a good girl until Time distorted her view of life. The same thing will inevitably happen to Bill... and all my former companions.

"The fact they have no place her certainly won't help."

"Well all my incarnations got erased and ascended into elder gods... their current companions got erased when they ascended into Celestials. None of them were every born. Good thing they didn't have families or that could have gotten messy for the space time continuum. My former companions, the ones that were no longer traveling with me, still exist... but they never met any of my incantations in this reality.

"The 11th Doctor, for example, was supposed to regenerate into me just before becoming aware of the Clara Echoes. But that adventure never happened for him. Nor did any of the ones after. The universe completely reset without knowing any of us. Then they all wrote themselves back into a new history. None of them are really me anymore, of course. I mean they are, in the sense that were are all fragments of the same soul, but they all exist simultaneously instead of one after the other. Since this dimension was born a week ago, from my perspective, I haven't really had time to leave my own mark... want to help with that?"

Missy blinked. "Are you finally inviting me to do the good guy thing with you? Letting me out of this box?"

"Well you are a literal angel now." The Doctor smirked. "I suppose if the universe believes your reformation so should I."

Missy smiled, then sighed. "What about my other faces? Was I never born either?"

"From what I can determine, instead of not being born it's just your current regeneration that has been erased. You got splintered off him like I was from all my regenerations. Only it was solely you and all your other regenerations stayed as one person. Probably because only you traveled with me in this TARDIS... and the fact you ascended means you were most definitely an ally of mine when I was supposed to regenerate this time. It's why I know I can trust you... to an extent...

"You'll be happy to know, the current master is the first master, still out there living his life on Gallifrey, looking forward to raising his son well missing his mate. What happens after that I can't find. As you know, with the rip in the space time continuum Gallifrey is parked on, makes it difficult to look into the past or future of the planet. It's always in correlation with the Time Vortex's cycles. Making time travel near impossible as well."

"Since the universe is young, so is Gallifrey. It's only been a few months by the Vortex Calendar. The universe appears to have begun when I was executed, but instead of regenerating all of my incarnations splintered off into their own separate entities scattered across the cosmos, while my original face died permanently... Gallifrey isn't even aware that is what happened yet. They think it was a botched execution, where they accidentally killed the condemned."

Missy smirked. "Forced regeneration is an odd definition of 'execution' but seeing as Gallifrey didn't actually have a death penalty back then it was the worst they could do. I don't imagine a Time Lord dying on the block is very appreciated by the people." Missy shook her head. "Gallifrey may very well be destined to go through their little Civil War even without you... and Theta Sigma will die as she always does. Truthfully, I can't imagine a reality where our daughter lived."

"HE, was born a boy. You know how much of a chip on his shoulder he had about his gender."

"She got that from you. Your mutt blood confused her." Missy rolled her eyes.

The Doctor sighed. "Regardless, I hope he lives a full life, and doesn't involve himself in a war the worst of Gallifrey is destined to win. Hopefully, without me there, he won't try to destroy himself while following in my footsteps."

"... It wasn't your fault."

The Doctor stiffened, looking up at Missy.

"I realized that almost immediately upon regenerating. Each face gains a new perspective of our memories and I almost immediately started to... to miss my friend. I even felt my first taste of shame in thousands of years for turning my back on my mate... I'm happy to learn my current face will always keep my new perspective... I needed someone to blame after the death of our daughter. I could have blamed the council for their war but instead I took the less rational route... I want to start again."

The Doctor stared at her for near a full minute in silence. "Missy? You have no idea how much I want that to be true."

"Still you doubt me." Missy frowned. "Or is it you don't believe your worthy of forgiveness."

"Can't it be both?" The Doctor gave a sad smile.

Missy gently took his hands. "I forgive you, Doctor. Now it's time you forgave yourself. It is most unbecoming of a god to sulk so."

The Doctor groaned. "Is that going to be a running joke for you?"

"I appreciate the irony, is all. In the old universe there were entire civilizations that worshipped you while you screamed at them to stop. Now you're the thing you always hated. Excuse me if I still take a little pleasure from your misery." Missy smiled.

"I'm not a god," The Doctor insisted. "Even if I am one by technicality, I refuse to accept that role. I intend to help, like I have always done. I'm just, and will always be, a madman in a box."