FIRST OF THE FALLEN
BY JACOB MILNESTEIN

Taken from "The Other: Tales From The Dark Dimensions" Volume I, Issues 1 - 4
First published in the UK by Vietnamese Wallflowers from July 1997 to June 1998
All "Doctor Who" characters owned by BBC Worldwide Ltd.
All "New Adventures" characters owned by Virgin Publishing Ltd.
All "Books Of Magic" characters and Poision Ivy owned by DC Comics Ltd.
Estella Calohan and all other charcaters owned by Vietnamese Wallflowers

Text and "Other" characters (C) Vietnamese Wallflowers 1997 & 1998

For more information please email jamie.calohan@bigfoot.com or visit the
V/W homepage at;
 
 http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/1650/index.html

   When he had first awoke he had found himself sprawled across the floor of his 
study. His head was dazed and his memory disjointed, it was like waking from a 
thousand-year slumber.
   He unsteadily drew himself up and leant against the large oak wardrobe. Gently, he 
prized open the doors and pulled forth a change of clothes to his current blood stained 
costume. 
   Suddenly something caught his eyes. He turned to face the small object and picked 
it up with dirt covered hands. It was a packet of cigarettes, the majority of them gone.
   A name surfaced from the shadows of his memory.
   "Eumi." He whispered, his voice cracked with despair.
   Then suddenly he hit him like the reawakening of repressed memories. He looked 
up at the low ceiling, images exploding before him.
   "I've been here before." He whispered.

   "No," Said the Doctor, looking slightly anxious. "I wish I could. The trouble with 
the Cybermen is that one can never be sure."
   There was a whirring, grinding noise from behind the small group and the Doctor 
froze.
   "Time Lords no doubt." He said, his voice full of irritation. "Well, I'm not going to 
be running around sorting out their mess."
   He frowned deeply.
   "Doctor?" Polly whispered quietly. "I think you should see this."
   The Doctor turned round and joined Polly, Ben and Jamie and his jaw dropped.
   "It's the TARDIS, Doctor." Jamie said, looking astounded.
   "Yes, yes, Jamie, I'm quite aware of that." He said and moved towards the blue 
police box. 
   He scrutinised the writing and noted that it was all backwards. 
   The front door of the backwards TARDIS slowly opened and a young female, 
dressed in a flowing Victorian dress with hair reaching her feet staggered out and fell.
   Jamie caught her in his broad, Jacobite arms.
   "Are you alright, lassie?" He asked, her disorientation and pale face striking a chord 
in the young man's heart.
   The Doctor peered into the girl's face.
   "Who are you?" He demanded. "And why have you copied the design of my 
TARDIS?"
   The young woman looked up at him.
   "I am the Doctor." She whispered weakly.
   "That is preposterous." The Doctor replied, pulling the girl to her feet.
   She was young, roughly around Polly's age.
   "Don't you recognise the dress?" She asked.
   "No." The Doctor stated, then pause, reconsidering. "Should I?"
   "It's Victoria Waterfield's." She paused and frowned. "Oh, I forgot you haven't met 
her yet have you?"
   "How can you be me?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.
   "You're familiar with the hermetic concepts of God being the masculine aspect of 
humanoid life and Sophia being the feminine." She paused. "Well, that certain 
principle sort of mucked up my regeneration."
   "Ach, she talks just like you, Doctor." Jamie smirked.
   "Oh dear, oh dear, this is serious." The Doctor said, ignoring Jamie. "Can you 
remember what regeneration you are?"
   The female Doctor shook her head.  
   "Do you know your other half is?" Jamie's Doctor asked.
   The female Doctor shook her head again.
   "Then we have got ourselves into a pickle, haven't we?" He said, moping his brow 
with an old hanker chief.
   Jamie smiled enthusiastically.
   "So I suggest you come with us, young lady." The Doctor finished, obviously 
somewhat troubled.
   The other Doctor smiled gently.
   "Your TARDIS is just as bad as mine." She replied. "Besides you know I can't do 
that, it's be far too dangerous," She paused. "For all of us. It's probably for the best if 
I try and find myself alone."  
   The original Doctor looked crestfallen.
   "Maybe this time I'll pay attention to what the TARDIS is trying to say." She said 
and kissed him on the forehead. "Goodbye, Doctor."
   Then slowly she stepped backwards into her TARDIS and faded into the shadows.
   
   The man perched himself on a wall looking into the courtyard of Cambridge 
University and finished his bottle of whiskey. 
   Reaching into the deep pockets of his velvet jacket he drew out a handful of jelly 
babies and began throwing towards the small congregation of birds that looked, 
expectantly, up at him.
   "Sorry," He muttered, removing his Mad Hatter style top hat. "This is all I've got."
   Suddenly he became aware of presence behind him.
   "Hallo." Said a warm, comforting voice.
   He span round to face the voice's owner and promptly off the wall. 
   From his askew position he was able to make out the frame of a slim, twenty 
something girl with bright multi coloured hair and brighter patchwork trousers.
   "I'm Estella." She said, extending her hand out to help him up. "Are you one of the 
new lecturers?"
   A frown creased the man's brow.
   "What?" He asked, his speech slurred slightly.
   "I asked if you were one of the new lecturers?" She repeated, the smile remaining 
on her face as if it were stuck there.
   "I suppose so." He said, slowly. "I'm a doctor of sorts."
   "And what sort of sorts would those sorts be?" She asked in a playful tone.
   The man assumed the look of one playing for time.
   "I'm, er, Doctor Foreman and I know many sorts of sorts if you care to sort them 
out for a while." He said trying to sound dignified.
   The girl's smile broadened
   "I don't think you're Doctor Foreman." She said, looking the stranger in the eyes. "I 
think you're Doctor Seuss." 
   She laughed slightly but the man remained silent.
   "You're pissed aren't you?" She remarked, regaining her sensibilities.
   The stranger arched his eyebrows.
   "You had to take a degree to work that out?" He asked in an impolite tone.
   Estella turned her nose up at him and lit a cigarette.
   "Give us one of them." The man said, and she was sure it wasn't a question.
   She sat down next to him and tossed the packet of Marlboros towards him.
   "What are you teaching?" She asked coldly, not liking the way the stranger spoke to 
her.
   "Depends on what you're learning." He replied and lit a cigarette with an ancient 
book of matches.
   Her eyes danced downwards, taking his dress code in.
   "You're a bloody goth aren't ya?" She asked, grinning.
   The stranger looked downwards at his ill treated Victorian clothing and for the first 
time noticed that he had choose a selection of varied shades of black from the 
wardrobe. He smiled ironically.
   "Not intentionally." He replied, stroking the rough stubble on his chin.
   Suddenly a searing pain struck his temples and his face contorted in agony. For the 
second time that day he fell of the wall.     
   "What's wrong?" Estella asked in a panicked tone.
   The stranger rolled around the floor, shouting disjointed sentences and punching out 
at the air as if in the grips of an epileptic seizure.
   "The trouble with the Cybermen." He shouted out, attracting the attention of both 
students and lecturers alike.
   His face was a portrait of pain and suffering as the seizure engulfed the very fibre of 
his being before a grim peace settled over his troubled brow.
   Estella looked down at the fallen stranger and within a short while she had made her 
decision.

   The backwards TARDIS drifted aimlessly through the time-space continuum. 
   The other Doctor sat silently in her favourite armchair in the TARDIS's auxiliary 
control room. 
   She stared at the control panel and watched as the old, worn TARDIS floated 
through an infinite amount of times, multiversies and realities. She watched her past, 
present and future flow together like a river aimlessly heading unto the sea. She 
smiled.
   "What would I say if I could see myself now?" She said to herself, remembering her 
first face.
   For what was not the first time in all her regenerations she found herself lost, 
drifting through unknown territory. It was just like when she had first fled from 
Gallifrey, so long ago. She was alone, cut off from her former selves. The only chance 
she of redemption that was even remotely within her grasp was her other self, and if 
she did not find him then it was all over. Checkmate. 
   
   "Susan?" Said a weak voice from the corner of the room. "Susan, what happened?"
   Some candles flickered into life.
   "It's alright now, Doctor Foreman." Replied a disembodied voice.
   Doctor Foreman rose from seat he had been sprawled across in a rather unsteady 
fashion.
   "I am the Doctor. Not Doctor Foreman just the Doctor." He said in an arrogant 
voice.
   "Well earlier you said you were Doctor Foreman." Said the voice, becoming a tad 
defensive.
   The Doctor imitated her speech.
   "Well now I'm just the Doctor." 
   "God, you're a piece of work ain't you?" The voice shouted and Estella stepped out 
of the shadows and into the candlelight.
   "I try my best." The Doctor replied.
   She looked at him with disdain. It was not usual for her to feel so antagonised by an 
individual but this Doctor Foreman managed it with ease.
   "Where am I?" He asked, looking about the candle lit room as if he were inspecting 
it.
   "You're in my room, at the university." She replied and lit a cigarette.
   "I mean what year is it?" He demanded and held his open palm out towards her.
   "Buy your own you fucking bastard." She replied, blowing smoke in his face. "It's 
nineteen ninety-eight and you're in Cambridge." She paused. "Now may ask you a 
question?"
   He smiled grimly.
   "Please do, but if you're going to ask me what the meaning of life is don't be 
offended if I reframe from answering."
   "Who are you really?" She scowled.
   "Who do I appear to be?" He replied.
   "Don't play games with me." She shouted. "And if you must know you appear to be 
an intolerable bastard!"
   "How very perceptive of you." He smiled. "All you need to know is that I am 
simply the Doctor, any more than that and you start getting haunted by my own 
personal demons."
   "Is that a sign of concern?" She taunted him.
   "No." He replied. "It was a statement. Now what function do you perform at this so 
called university?"
   She stubbed her cigarette out and lit a jostick.
   "I'm a student." She said, sitting down in a brightly decorated wicker chair.
   "A student of what?" He asked, slightly interested.
   "Anthropology, art and philosophy." She replied.
   "I don't suppose you've come across the hermetic school of thought in your 
travels?" He asked.
   "Vaguely." She replied.
   "Good. You may be able to help me after all." He said, a broad smile forming on his 
face.
   "Who says I want to help a bastard like you?" Estella replied in an attempt to offend 
him.
   "Because I know you can't resist a challenge, Sarah Jane." He said, calmly.
   Estella slammed her fist down the arm of chair, nearly breaking the fragile weaving.
   "My name is Estella, get it? Estella. Not Sarah Jane, not Susan but Estella." She 
shouted.
   The Doctor remained quiet for a moment.
   "You're just as persistent as Sarah Jane though." He said, his face and voice taking 
on the mannerisms of a child planning to antagonise his over worked mother.
   Estella sighed.
   "You really are completely fucked up aren't you?" She said.
   "Well, you've got to be completely modern now days haven't you?" He replied.
  
   "I don't even know I'm looking for." The Doctor said to herself. "But it's more than 
likely I won't like myself."
   She paused and looked down at her idle recorder.
   "I think maybe I'd quite like to exist without my so called other half, after all 
there's nothing he knows that I don't."
   She smiled to herself and twirled around in a little dance.

   The alarm clock bleeped out it's electronic ultimatum as the LCD screen flashed up 
the number four.
   Estella slept in her bed whilst the Doctor remained brooding in the multi coloured 
chair, a halo of cigarette smoke above his head.
   "The Tower of Babel." He muttered to himself. "Mythological birthplace of all 
known languages on Earth. If something has the power to separate then surely it has 
the power to reunify." 
   Suddenly he leapt to his feet. Estella woke with a jump and looked at him.
   "What is it?" She cried. "What's the matter?"
   "The Babelogue!" The Doctor shouted with enthusiasm. "The Babelogue contains 
all beginnings and all ends, it is the final resting place of the ashes of Ariel, the lost 
archangel."
   Estella rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
   "What about it?" She said, her tone slightly agitated from lack of sleep.
   "If I can cast Ariel's ashes in a specific formation then they can be used as a sort of 
tarot. It will divine where my lost femininity is and possibly even show me a course 
that will lead straight to her."
   "So you're going to go running off after your big sister, or whatever she is, looking 
for some sort of mythological funeral urn that may or may not exist and no one knows 
where the last place humanity left it is." She said, her voice tinged by sarcasm.
   The Doctor turned to face the window, looking at the street lamps of Christ's Piece.
   "Of course I'm not." He smiled. "We're both going."
   Estella glared fiercely at him.
   "You must be out of what little mind you have if you think I'm going anywhere 
with you." She smirked.
   The Doctor moved forward in a fluid motion and grabbed her by the wrists.
   "I'm afraid you don't have much choice. I need a woman's intuition and you're the 
only candidate." He said, his voice tinged with urgency.
   Estella looked in his deep eyes.
   "You're insane." She whispered.
   "Not yet." He said and pulled her towards the staircase.
   
   The large gothic doors slammed shut behind her, her eyes dancing across the ornate 
Victorian decoration.
   "What the hell is this?" She whispered, more out of awe this time than anger.
   "If you'd have studied temporal physics instead of art you would've worked it out." 
He said, preoccupied by the typewriter like controls of the console.
   "So this is where you live then?" She asked, her eyes still transfixed by the inner 
sanctum.
   "I don't live anywhere." The Doctor replied. "I'm in exile."
   She pushed upon a door at the end of the control room and entered a darkly lit 
cupboard.
   There was a candle or two lighting her way and seeing as the Doctor seemed to be 
ignoring her she crossed the threshold of the room, her senses dancing along the rows 
of coloured garments.
   She paused and her eyes settled upon a large patchwork frockcoat with a small cat 
broach on one of the lapels.
   Reaching down she pulled the coat up from the dusty chair where it rested and 
pulled it on over navy blue Slingbacks T-shirt.
   Smiling to herself, she stepped back into the control room and twirled round in a 
vague attempt to attract the Doctor's attention.
   Eventually he looked up, his face creased in a deep frown.
  "Who's coat is this?" She asked, forgetting all the obvious little questions about the 
TARDIS that he had expected her to ask.
   "One of my former incarnation's," He muttered. "Very astute personality, shame 
about his wardrobe."
   This new reference to the Doctor being more than one person left Estella at a loss.
   "Oh," She said, slinging her Kangol hat over the time rotor. "This it's, like, your 
brother's then is it?"
   She finally began to take in the size of the TARDIS' control room.
   "So what is this then?" She asked, flicking her carton of cigarettes open.
   "It's me TARDIS." He replied, solemnly.
   "Oh." Estella said, her finger in her mouth. "And that would be?"
   "It's a philosophical anomaly." The Doctor replied.
   "Real over the rainbow shite, huh?" She smiled.
   The Doctor slammed his fist down on the side of the console and leant back against 
the railings.
   "I'm so sick and tired of explaining this to people like you that I'm not even going 
to try." He said, his voice tense. "Believe what you will. My name's Lewis Carroll, 
you're Alice and all this is Wonderland."
   She smiled sweetly.
   "And does Wonderland move?"
   "Have you listened to a word I've said?" The Doctor cursed, his voice near braking 
point.
   "Not really, what with not liking you and all." She replied, her sweetness almost 
infuriating.
   "So why are you here?" He asked, his mood becoming increasingly foul.
   "Because you dragged me down the fucking street," She paused. "And because you 
need me. You said so yourself."  
   He looked up at her. 
   He didn't need to say anything, his expression said it all. She had seen on her 
father's brow many times, the one fluid expression that said;
   Like fuck I do.
   She leaned across the railings and looked into his misty eyes.
   "So where are we heading, Doctor?" She smiled, her face a perfect portrait of irony.
   "Where ever the Babelogue is." The Doctor replied and smiled.
   Genuinely.   
  
   The TARDIS lurched violently.
   A moment elapsed but eventually the Police Box reinstated itself in the centre of 
London's nervous system.
   A sudden push and one of the battered doors slowly opened. The Doctor stepped 
forth, looked down the street and then quickly headed in the opposite direction.
   Estella aimlessly meandered after him.
   "What are you looking for?" She said, cupping her hands together.
   "I'm looking for a man." The Doctor said, turning a corner.
   Estella smirked.
   "Well, there's plenty of them about." She smiled.
   He paused and turned to face her, an all consuming scowl obscuring his features.
   "A specific man." He said, the words sounding unfamiliar through the fog of his 
accent. "A man called John Constantine."
   Estella waved her hands in a winding up gesture.
   "And you know this Constantine?" 
   The Doctor frown deepened by several fathoms.
   "I knew one of his colleagues." The Doctor replied, trying to shroud his lame 
excuse in mystery.
   "And he was?"
   "A powerful practitioner of magic. I think he was called Mister E or something." 
   Estella yawned.
   "Mister E, how original, besides I could have done some bloody conjuring tricks for 
you if you'd only asked."
   The doorway of Ed's Easy Diner dawned.
   "He'll be here soon." The Doctor said adamantly.
   
   Two or three hours and numerous cups of black coffee passed until a dishevelled 
thirty-something with dirt coloured blonde hair and a trenchcoat to match sluggishly 
entered the room.
   He paused, his right hand cupping a lighter as he popped a Silk Cut cigarette in his 
mouth.
   The Doctor turned, almost falling from his seat in a rather uncomical manner.    
   "You," He said, his finger pointing in the man's direction. "You're John 
Constantine."
   The Doctor made his way across the room.
   "Jesus, where'd you come from?" Constantine spluttered.
   The Doctor smiled.
   "Here and there." He replied as Constantine sat himself down a few seats away from 
Estella.
   "So what can I do for you?" He asked, stirring a milky cup of tea with a plastic 
spoon.
   "I need help." The errant Time Lord stated.
   Constantine arched an eyebrow.
   "Yeah, I noticed." He replied.
   The comment didn't seem to register and if it did the Doctor never allowed it to 
show.
   "It's about the Babelogue." He said, strategically.
   Constantine jerked his head up and nearly choked on his tea.
   Feet against tiles and Estella moved over to join them.
   "So when's the wedding?" She asked, her ever-present smirk growing.
   The Doctor looked at her as if she had just interrupted an incredible important 
conversation, which in fact she had.
   "Well, you both seem equal in the badly dressed stakes so I figured you'd be getting 
to know each other a tad better very shortly."
   Constantine waved his cigarette in her direction.
   "She with you?" He asked.
   The Doctor nodded slowly.
   "I get lumbered with birds like that sometimes." Constantine said, almost to himself. 
" 'Spose I should introduce you to Doctor Occult if it's the Babelogue you're after."
   He stood up and dropped a handful of change across the unhygienic counter.
   The Doctor nodded and the three of them made their way to the exit.  

   "Some island near Nicaragua got firebombed." Marly mused, flicking through the 
morning's paper. "They saw that Poison Ivy had something to do with it."
   Doctor Occult's cold eyes cold almost have been looking through her.
   "Apparently she wiped out most of the company who blasted it as an act of 
revenge." She continued. "So the Batman sticks her in Arkham only for her to escape 
this morning."
   Doctor Occult remained quiet and it occurred to Marly that he was looking through 
her.
   "So how are the Astral Planes been recently?" She said, continuing her one sided 
argument.
   Finally he looked up at her.
   "As always they are equally balanced between order and disorder." He replied, his 
voice a calm, monotone whisper. 
   "And Rose?"
   The form in the chair blurred, a strange distortion of light filled Marly's eyes and 
she soon found herself looking at a slender woman, her hair cut in a neat, raven black 
bob and the faintest smell of perfume.
   "I'm fine." She paused. "Thank you, Marly."
   Marly sighed and returned to her newspaper. 
   "I don't think I'll ever get use to you two doing that." She said, more to herself than 
anyone else.
   The serene quiet was disrupted by the sound of footsteps.
   Constantine opened the office door, two mismatched strangers behind him. 
   Instantly Rose sensed the disruption of the primary stranger's karma.
   She glided from her seat, passed Constantine and stood facing the cold-eyed man, 
the palm of her hand dancing against the skin of his cheek.
   "You're lost." She muttered quietly. "Your feminine half.your reason has been 
snatched from you."
   Constantine smirked as the Doctor faked mock amazement.
   "Really?" He said, his voice drenched with the venom of sarcasm. "I suppose you 
figured my closet homosexuality out as well, did you?"
   The words didn't even touch her.
   "It mends." She whispered to him. "I lost myself too.once."
   The light blurred again and Doctor Occult was sitting in the chair at the other end of 
the room, looking out from under the peak of his hat.
   "What brings you here, Constantine?" He asked.
   John smiled, the stubble on his chin standing out. He waved an unlit cigarette in the 
Doctor's direction.
   "These people are looking for the Babelogue." He remarked, holding his lighter up 
to the cigarette.
   Once again Occult looked towards the strange Doctor and his companion.
   His voice was compassionate yet also distant.
   "You believe the Babelogue can reunite your two separate halves?" He asked.
   The Doctor remained unshaken.
   "Well that was the general idea." He replied in his muffled Mancunian accent.
   A dark figure stepped from the shadows of the corner of the room, another face with 
dull, white eyes and another trenchcoat.
   "Fuckin' hell," Constantine smirked. "This is turning into a right little cosy 
meeting."
   Occult looked towards the latest stranger.
   "I do not believe the three of us have been together for some time." He reflected.
   The room dulled to a silence, the ceiling of the room clouding with cigarette smoke.
   Estella leant over the desk till she had Marly's attention.
   "Are we the only sane ones here?" She whispered.
   Marly turned, her grin broad like Alice's Cheshire Cat and in one simple gesture she 
nodded.
   
   The parallel TARDIS drifted out across the seas of time and space.
   Inside the tall figure of the other Doctor sat in a chair of high Gothic origins, 
contemplating both her past and her future.
   The control panels hummed reverently, as if in respect of her contemplation and 
eventually she rose from the old Gothic armchair and gracefully made her way to the 
secondary control panel and opened the gaudy plastic flip top from a record player.
   Pulling the needle upwards and placing a round lump of vinyl onto the turntable the 
deep saxophone of Courtney Pine dripped out into the room, filling every room with 
it's sound.
   Numerous images leapt to life as she stood, hands upon hips, high above the control 
panel, gazing from one screen to the next until finally something caught her eye.
   The Babelogue.
   Cross referencing several of Terra's different mythologies she came up with a 
relatively comprehensive account of the angel Ariel's life and death, it's ashes finally 
finding peace in an urn fashioned from the bricks of the Tower of Babel.
   Suddenly her eyes fixed upon one solitary fact and she let out a gasp.
   "It'll kill us both." She whispered to herself and hurried over to the other side of the 
room.

   The Doctor had the look of a man who had waited for far too long.
   "So do any of you actually know where I can find it?" He asked, seated on the edge 
of the desk.
   The Phantom Stranger's piercing eyes fixed grimly on the Time Lord.
   "The place where the Babelogue is located is beyond the jurisdictions of any of us, 
Doctor." He said, his voice a cold authority in the crowded room.
   The Doctor's face crumpled into a frown. 
   "So where is it?" He reiterated. 
   The Stranger paused and finally continued.
   "The Babelogue is located deep within the Garden of Eden." He said, calmly.
   "Christ's sake," The Doctor said, both his form and voice rising. "Can't anything be 
simple for once? I mean, why is everyone so concerned with playing these stupid 
games?"
   Estella punched him in the arm, scowling like a mother at her child.
   "Calm down, will ya." She whispered. "You've got your little time doodar, I'm sure 
we can find it in that."
   He looked at her, still frowning.
   "We're not talking about mortal realms here, we're talking about the ethereal 
Garden of Eden as stated in the Holy sodding book, you can't expect the TARDIS to 
find the birth place of creation if some deity in all it's infinite wisdom has chose to 
hide it, it'd be too much of a risk." He stated, placing his palms upon her shoulders.
   She shrugged away from his grasp.
   "Control yourself, Doctor." The Phantom Stranger warned, his voice as stern as 
Estella remembered her father's had been.
   "I can take you to Queen Titania and King Oberon of the Fair Folk." Doctor Occult 
said, searching for a reaction in the Stranger's face. "They will have the key and the 
doorway that will lead you to Eden, but they will ask a favour of you."
   The Doctor looked at him.
   "Don't suppose I have much choice do I?" He said, half to himself.

   Within a quarter of an hour Occult, Estella and the errant Time Lord were deep 
within Faerie.
   It was totally unlike anything the Doctor had seen.
   Fields of unpolluted green grass and skies of the lightest blue.
   Estella, at first hesitant, was now leaping through the fields yet still the Doctor held 
back.
   "Don't be alarmed." Whispered a kind voice from behind his shoulder.
   He turned and found himself looking at the defiant woman who had greeted him in 
the office.
   "Where's Occult?" He demanded.
   Rose smiled gently as she slowly began to walk.
   "Doctor Occult is an aspect of me and I of him." She paused and looked him in the 
eye. "My name's Rose by the way."
   She began walking again, onwards towards a large crystal city.
   "I am travel in two aspects so as to help people with psychological problems and of 
course, to make it easier when walking through the more subtle realms." She paused. 
"Where as the Doctor here is meant to be but one, I have no sexual imperative."
   "I think now would be a good time for us to meet your little friends." The Doctor 
muttered.

   The reverse TARDIS, trapped between time and space; between infinity and 
hyperspace shuddered violently.
   Whatever was causing the attack was not registering on the TARDIS scanners.
   The female Doctor attempted to keep her balance but failed.
   Not since her encounter with Sutekh had her TARDIS been assailed by such 
powerful psychic forces.
   Eventually she managed to stabilise the ancient time/space machine and the 
monitors flickered with images of hideous, bat-winged monstrosities, clambering 
across the fading blue outside walls.
   Talons the size of human heads clawing through the artificial wood, a hideous 
howling emerging from their mutilated lungs.
   She attempted to materialise the machine in the nearest safe place yet the demonic 
hybrids had seized control of it's mass.
   She was alone in a godless vacuum. 

   High above normal and even Gallifreyan reality, a woman strode through the 
Garden of Eden. 
   Her hair was a flowing stream of fiery red and her clothes made of leaves and other 
floral entities. 
   She paused and bent down to converse with one of her half-plant, half-animal 
hybrids, patting it affectionately.
   Behind her the angel's urn shuddered slightly.

   "Who would dare disrupt the king of the Fair Folk?" Oberon boomed.
   His eyes had settle on a dangerous animal like creature.
   " 'Tis the Lady Rose, my Lord." Robin Goodfellow replied, his voice an impish 
squeak.
   "Then by all means grant her entrance." Queen Titania smiled.
   "She brings visitors, Lady." Goodfellow grinned, running from the throne room.
   Oberon glared at Titania.
   "You dare to make a jest of my authority?" He snapped.
   The Queen smiled dangerously.
   "I'm afraid, dear Oberon that my sense of humour differs some what from your 
own." She replied.
   Goodfellow coughed, just loud enough to catch their attention as the three 
companions entered behind him.
   "Good day to you, Rose." Titania said. "Won't you please introduce us to your 
companions."
   Rose smiled hesitantly.
   "This is the Time Lord known as the Doctor and his young assistant, Miss. Estella 
Calohan."
   Titania arched her eyebrows.
   "A daughter of Calohan no less?" She replied coldly. "What is it you require?"
   "I require nothing, my Lady but the Time Lord and his companion seek passage to 
Eden."
   "Only recently did I direct a mortal on her way to the Garden." Titania mused. "I 
shall open the doorway to Eden for you yet you must know that you shall be in my 
debt, little man."
   "I'm afraid I don't have much to offer." The Doctor said, scratching the back of his 
head.
   Titania smiled again.
   "I shall call upon you when I require your services." She said, dangerously. "But for 
now, yes I shall grant you passage to the Garden."
   She produced a key from her crimson robes and stepped down towards an ominous 
oak door.
   Slowly she inserted the key into the lock and the door begrudgingly opened.

   Estella felt as if someone had hit her over the head with a very large metal pole. 
   She opened her eyes, the light of the sun over her head was blurring her vision, she 
turned her head to see a plethora of greenery 
   To her left the Doctor was sprawled out in a rather undignified position.   
   "Doctor," She whispered. "Can we go back to Cambridge please?"
   "No we can't," The Doctor whispered in return. "By the way, why are we 
whispering?"
   "Because I don't want to die yet." Estella replied.
   He turned and looked directly at her.
   "What makes you think you're going to die?" 
   "Because I'm still with you." 
   The Doctor frowned.
   "Thanks for your vote of confidence." He replied in a wounded tone.
   "Well you haven't really displayed any positive emotions since we met," She 
paused and smiled apologetically. "And after all, you're not the most likeable of 
people."
   The Doctor remained silent, vaguely staring at her.
   "Besides I still don't know you and probably as far as first dates go this isn't one of 
my favourites."
   He shrugged.
   "The feeling's mutual." He replied. "I've never liked art students."
   "Can we stand up now?" Estella commented.
   The Doctor smiled.
   "Yes. I think it's safe now." 
   The Doctor and his young companion slowly rose to their feet.
   Estella placed her hands on her hips and look out at the horizon, a thick tangle of 
beauty and complexity.
   A figure with clothing composed of the green and red hair that flowed to her feet 
emerged from out of the void of flowers.
   Her finger curled around a lock of her own hair.
   "So you are the mysterious Doctor," She smiled, her voice subtle yet chilling. "I 
have heard the darkness speak of you."
   The Doctor frowned.
   "And you would be?"
   She laughed quietly and Estella watched her nervously.
   "Poison," She smiled. "Poison Ivy."
   The Doctor was transfixed by her presence, his usual arrogance deteriorated.
   She leant in closer and closer too, her breath sweet upon his face.
   "You've lost something," She whispered in his ear. "Something which I posses in 
great quantities."
   Estella tried to force her back but her grip was unbreakable.
   "Whatever it is you're doing to him I want you to stop it right now." She said, trying 
to make herself sound convincing.
   Poison Ivy clicked her fingers together and the skies of Eden darkened.
   A flock of hybrid creatures descended and Estella snatched the Doctor's sleeve and 
tried to pull him back towards the TARDIS.
   It was a futile gesture.

   The female Doctor pulled a fistful of circuits out of the hexagonal control panel and 
sprayed forth a thin line of foam over it.
   She ran from screen to screen, flicking switch and pulling levers but nothing 
responded.
   Like her other half she was trapped yet while he was ensnared within his repressed 
sexuality she was confined to her TARDIS.
   "There must be a way," She said, franticly pulling her horn-rimmed glasses over her 
eyes. "There must."
   
   Poison Ivy quickly coloured the Doctor's unbalanced mind, opening it with the ease 
of a deceptive Pandora. 
   Not even the Doctor's Gallifreyan metabolism could stand up to her powerfully 
feminine psychic powers, she had ensnared him in her Venus fly trap and she waited, 
infinite minutes, the time to inspect her prize had come.
   Estella felt helpless as Poison Ivy constructed her playground from the barren 
depths of the Doctor's psyche, altering the very soil the very soil they stood upon so 
she could replay and interfere in his memories.
   The scene around them gradually gained substance and Estella found himself 
entwined in tulips, unable to move while the Doctor lay sprawled out as the phantom 
like Poison Ivy gloated above him.
   The minutes stretched out and eventually the Doctor found his way to his feet.
   "What are you doing to me?" He demanded.
   Poison Ivy smiled coyly.
   "I'm reading you," She smiled and placed a finger up to her own lips. "I don't know 
if you're interested but I happen to know where you can find a certain," She paused as 
if to heighten the anxiety. "Master."
   The Doctor's face contorted with anger yet Ivy just kept on smiling.
   "It's so nice to know I'm not the only one who keeps grudges." She said in a 
detached tone.
   "How do you know about him?" The Doctor demanded.
   "I had a run in with him a year or so ago." She smiled. "The Parliament of Trees 
were silent as far as his crimes were concerned so I took things into my own hands." 
She smiled deviously again. "It would appear that we are not as different as you might 
have originally assumed, Time Lord."
   "Tell me where to find him." The Doctor shouted.
   The woman that was once Pamela Isley turned her back on him.
   "That is not my job." She said, her voice like ice.
   The Doctor moved forward aggressively and became trapped in the very tulips that 
had ensnared his unwilling companion.
   "Tell me about Ulysses, Doctor." She smiled.
   The Doctor's face looked agonised.
   "You have no right to interfere in my past." He said, his voice a broken whisper.
   Poison Ivy leaned closer.
   "All this from one who is so ready to interfere in the affairs of others." She said, her 
voice contemptuous. "One day, Doctor, your heart shall be laid bare before the entire 
of Earth, Gallifrey, Heaven and Hell to observe. 
    One day you will lose your mysterious visage, people shall know your name, they 
will know secrets that Lady Peinforte could not have begun to imagine."
   The Doctor looked her in the eye.
   "How do you know so much about me?" He asked, bitterly.
   Ivy made a gesture with her hands.
   "Those with secrets tend to look out for those alike." She replied cryptically. 
   "You know where the Babelogue is, don't you? The Doctor asked in a disjointed 
voice.
   Poison Ivy reached out and plucked forth a small funeral urn from the trunk of a 
tree.
   "Yes." She looked at him mercifully. "I do."
   Her fingers danced across the ornate lid, skin and dust mingling.
   Estella Calohan stepped forward and tried to sound confident.
   "Why are you doing this?" She asked, her voice trembling. "Why are you playing 
cat and mouse games with him?"
   Ivy's smile broadened.
   "Cat and mouse?" She laughed. "No my sweet princess, it's more of an insect and 
fly trap game."
   She emptied the contents of the urn out onto the soil and the flower chains that held 
the Doctor withdrew.
   He dropped to his knees, his jacket collecting dirt and his hands darting through the 
ashes in a search for the correct Cabbala Tarot formation.
   Ivy looked on disdainfully and turned aside.
   "Men are such weak creatures." She said, brushing her hair back with a single hand. 
"Do you know what the Garden told me? The first born child of Eden was an orchid 
made flesh, female flesh."
   The Doctor formed the ashes in the way that he had been instructed and glared 
down into the soil.
   "What do you see?" Ivy asked, already familiar with the sight that greeted him.
   The Doctor found himself unable to form the words, instead his face became the 
portrait of pain and suffering akin to one who had looked too deeply into the abyss.
   As he tried to find words to express himself the ground around him began to quake.
   Poison Ivy's brow creased, not even she could have foreseen the dire consequences 
of opening Ariel's Babelogue.
   The Doctor arose, tears streaming down his face and fell into the arms of his young 
companion.
   A voice like thunder shattered the silence.
   "Who hath dared to awaken the mighty Ariel, strength of the Hosts of Heaven?" 
   Ivy looked over at the Doctor, as he quietly wept and for a moment she thought she 
felt compassion.
   "I awoke you, archangel." Poison Ivy stated, trying to sound convincing and 
unafraid.
   A slow form began to swell above the ashes; a grotesque travesty of its former 
shape and inside it's once golden eyes was nothing but the deepest crimson of hatred.
   "You shall pay for your ignorance, mortal." The creature announced.
   From inside its intestines it produced it's misshapen flaming sword.   
   Poison Ivy turned to Estella.
   "Run, my sweet flower princess." She whispered.
   "But what about you?" Estella asked in terror, still clutching the weeping Doctor.
   "I told you to run." Ivy said, her voice adamant.
   The ground beneath them shuddered and the deformed angel advanced.
   Pieces of once fertile land broke open like the wrinkles of an ageing god.
   Estella pulled the Doctor along as fast as she could whilst Poison Ivy entered into 
her own damnation whilst a familiar, grinding sound engulfed the air.
   Just ahead of her she saw the familiar form of a mid-twentieth century Police Box 
taking place.
   The TARDIS was unlike her Doctor's one in the fact that the words were written 
backwards and clinging to it's out of place lamp was the first of several monstrosities.
   Its fierce red eyes focused upon the girl and lurched downwards carrying with it the 
intense stench of sulphur.
   The second creature had evidently jammed itself between the opening TARDIS 
doors.
   The creature's talons dug deep into her shoulders, drawing a slow trickle of blood.
   A half-full bottle of whiskey spilled from the Doctor's coat impacting with the 
ground.
   The creature rose up and circled the air, preparing for a second attack.  
   "Come on you little motherfucker, come on." Estella whispered.
   The creature screeched and darted forwards, close enough for Estella to snatch the 
broken bottle from the floor and slice open it's leathery face.
   Jack Daniel's and sulphurous demon blood splashed across her as the hybrid 
slumped forward, inanimate.
   The first creature relinquished its grip upon the TARDIS and screamed hellishly.
   Slowly the doors of the backwards TARDIS slid open.
   Knocking Estella to the ground, it struck out, slicing holes deep into both her 
clothes and flesh.
   She managed to pull herself free and forced both of her thumbs into the demon's 
eye sockets, forcing its eyes inwards and causing a fresh spurt of steaming, yellow 
blood.
   The demonic hybrid howled in agony as Estella managed to free herself.
   A thin, Parisian looking woman in a dress of flowing white ran from the bizarre 
alternate TARDIS and snatched the unconscious Doctor from the soil.
   She turned and glared at Estella, her frame outlined by a sudden explosion of white.
   "Are you coming or not?" She shouted, her tone urgent.
   Estella quickly darted away from the chaos of Eden and sprinted through the huge 
TARDIS doors, the hybrid close behind her.
   She turned and slammed the door control on the wall and the demon's leering face 
was blocked from vision but not from memory.
   Unlike the TARDIS she was familiar with the Parisian's counterpart TARDIS 
resembled the inside of a grand Gothic castle from some twisted adult faerie tale.
   Estella could count at least three different spiralling staircases, snaking up to their 
destinations.
   "It's so different." She muttered in awe, the glory of Gallifreyan technology 
washing over her.
   The other Doctor looked up from her control panel.
   "You mean this?" She smiled warmly. "This is my new control room, there are five 
of them in total, I just tampered with the reality circuits in one of the other rooms and 
voila."    
   She grinned as if this was the kind of thing learnt in primary school then, moving 
away from her control panel, she looked down at her fallen counterpart.
   "So," The Parisian Doctor mused. "This is masculinity." She paused and removed 
her glasses, turning to glance at Estella. "Have you read any Valerie Solanas?"
   Estella slowly shook her head.
   "She wrote some wonderful essays on how men are naturally inferior to women." 
She continued, still glaring at Estella's Doctor. "I wasn't sure at first but now I'm 
inclined to agree."
   Estella tilted her head and looked down at him.
   "I don't know." She sighed. "I think he's kinda cute." She paused then quickly 
added; "In an odd way."
   The other Doctor frowned. 
   "He's every single negative aspect of my existence." She stated. "He calls himself 
the Doctor but he's not, he's just another variation of the Valeyard."
   "Don't you think you're being a little hard on him?"  Estella asked. "If even a 
fraction of his wild ramblings are true then you're two halves of the same person so 
surely you need each other to balance yourself out."
   The female Doctor shrugged.
   "I'm not inclined to think so." She said with a certain lofty arrogance that Estella 
recognised as the Doctor's trademark.
   Estella Calohan looked around the magnificent interior of this new Doctor's 
TARDIS as the other Doctor busied herself at the console, one eye remaining on 
Estella.
   "How many different versions of you are there?" She asked, falling into a large 
Victorian armchair.
   The Doctor looked at her and frowned, as if she were trying to remember 
something.
   Eventually she shrugged.
   "I've lost track." She smiled and returned to the console.
   Estella's Doctor issued a groan and announced his awakening.
   He pulled himself unsteadily to his feet, eventually having to lean on Estella, his 
eyes taking in the contours of the new TARDIS.
   He thrust his hands deep into his pockets, searching for the pipe he had formerly 
used in his first incarnation and failed miserably.
   Estella smiled and handed him one of her cigarettes.
   The female Doctor continued to look at him with utter disdain.
   "So you're me then?" She sighed.
   The male Doctor grimaced.
   "So you're me then?" He mimicked.  
   The Sophian Doctor rolled her eyes.
   "This is not going to work." She sighed. "We're far too incompatible."
   The Doctor glared at her and muttered some obscure obscenity.
   "We're opposites, it's supposed to be like that." He stated, venomously, his eyes 
darting from one of the TARDIS to the other. "What the hell have you done to the 
TARDIS?"
   "Decorated it," She replied. "With better taste than yours most likely." She paused, 
searching for the angle of her defence. "Besides who said I need an opposite?"
   The Doctor scowled at her, the remark rolling around his head then suddenly he 
seized Estella by the shoulders and engaged her in a violently passionate kiss.
   Estella was left speechless.
   "There," The Doctor grinned smugly. "I don't need you neither."
   Suddenly the TARDIS lurched towards every single possible angle and all the 
candles were simultaneously snuffed.
   Both Doctors made a run for the console leaving Estella standing by the wicker 
chair.
   "Massive psychic assault." The female Doctor shouted, her eyes scanning the 
compact screens. "Do you remember that incident with Sutekh?"
   The male Doctor nodded and continued to play with the controls.   
   "This means we're in trouble doesn't it?" She shouted over to them.
   Her Doctor was the portrait of seriousness.
   "Yes." He said, his tone abrupt.
   The female Doctor turned her attention away from the control panel and looked her 
Valeyard counterpart in the eyes.
   "We never did really meet the Terrible Zodin did we?" She smiled.
   "No, we didn't." He replied calmly.
   The console began to explode with activity and the Doctor(s) returned to their 
meddling. 
   By now the type forty TARDIS was letting out intensely painful screeches and 
neither Doctor seemed capable enough to prevent it.
   "Well it can't be Sutekh." The Parisian Doctor shouted.
   "We nailed that git on Mars." Estella's Doctor returned.
   "So it has to be something more powerful." She continued.
   "More powerful than Sutekh?" The male Doctor questioned.
   "Of course it's more powerful than Sutekh." She snapped.
   The console's time rotor abruptly haulted.
   The TARDIS had landed.
   "Someone's playing games with us." The Sophian Doctor said as she looked up at 
the TARDIS ceiling.
   The male Doctor did not reply, allowing breathing space for an uncomfortable 
silence.
   "What did Ariel's ashes say?" She asked.
   The male Doctor refused to reply, he just stood stiff as toy and tall as man.
   "Come on," The female Doctor spat. "We won't get any answers out of him."
   She flicked a switch and the doors creaked open.

   When Estella and the Sophian Doctor stepped out they were greeted by a sight that 
was without compassion.
   Sprawled out before them were vast fields of mass depravation. 
   Vaguely humanoid bodies contorted out of all context engaged in sexual acts that 
defied the rules of Terran physics.
   There were twelve massive erect penises standing in the background, each of them 
ejaculating their own particular poison into the ground beneath them.
   "I'm going to be sick." The female Doctor commented and promptly keeled over, 
emptying her stomach's contents onto the floor, allowing them to mix with the semen.
   Estella followed.
   "Where the fuck are we?" Estella asked, her voice dry and parched.
   The Doctor looked her in the eyes.
   "I really don't know, I've never seen anything like this before."
   From behind came the sound of boots upon soil and they both turned to face the 
Valeyard-Doctor.
   "We're in Hell." He said calmly.
   "I could've told you that." Estella said, spitting out the remnants of her last meal.
   The Doctor moved forward menacingly.
   "No, we're actually in Hell."
   "But Sutekh and Satan were both the same alien entity." His female counterpart 
protested.
   The Doctor threw his arms up in despair.
   "We're not dealing with some petty fourteenth century daemon that someone 
accused of being Satan or whether Sutekh was or was not Satan we're dealing with 
Lucifer, the Prince of Lies, the First of the Fallen."
   "Lucifer, as you so quaintly refer to it, is a psychological metaphor for humanity's 
guilt." The female Doctor said, crossing her arms in a sulking fashion.
   "Don't be so bloody na‹ve." The male Doctor said.
   An evil laughter filled the air.
   "Your counterpart is quite correct, you are in Hell."
   Estella and the two Doctors turned and glared into the face of true evil.
   Sitting upon a throne of flesh with hordes of mutilated demonettes was Lucifer, the 
Prince of Hell.
   "So," Smiled the beguiling fallen angel. "We finally meet, Doctor or," He paused 
and smiled. "Or should I say Doctors? This must somewhere between your twelfth 
and final incarnation is it not? An unbalanced period for a Time Lord so I am led to 
believe.
   There was silence from all before him.
   "Do not be alarmed, Doctor, I have watched your family very closely." He smiled, 
deceitfully. "Since your father left Gallifrey to the Master and eventually you, the 
black sheep of the House of Lungbarrow." He smiled his dark smile again. "You 
really are still quite in the dark about your history aren't you?"
   The Sophian Doctor stepped forward, her hands held tightly behind her back did not 
stop them from shaking.
   "Then you know of the dark times, of the Other?" She asked, her voice quiet, almost 
respectful.
   Lucifer threw his head back in laughter and the hordes of Hell did join him, from 
the meekest demon to the highest Rhymer.
   "I know every little detail about you, my dear Doctor." The arch-prince smiled, 
leaning forward. "I was watching you, Doctor when you were still with name."
   The Promethean Doctor stepped forward, the shadow of Lucifer's throne falling 
across his face.
   "Tell me," He said in a quiet voice. "Tell me who I am."
   "Tell you?" Lucifer smiled. "Tell you who you are? Didn't the ashes of Ariel 
explain this to you?"
   The Doctor looked away from the prince's glare.
   "They told me all that I wish not to know." He replied. 
   "Then how can you be sure you want to know your past?" The prince reasoned.
   The Doctor looked at him.
   "I need to know." He insisted. 
   Lucifer looked deep into the Time Lord's eyes and leant back against his chair.
   "I begin to question which one of us fell first." He said.
   A silent strength flickered behind the backdrop of the Doctor's irises.
   "I am not like you, Prince of Lies. I have strove to do good throughout all my lives, 
tried to help people, save them." He said.
   Lucifer rose up.
   "You are an exile," he countered. "An out cast. What did Milton say.Best to be a 
prince in Hell than a servant in Heaven.don't you think that somewhat applies to 
yourself, Doctor."
   The Doctor looked down towards his feet.
   "I never cared much for Milton, still a nice sentiment none the less." 
   Finally he looked up into the golden eyes of Lucifer.
   "What is it you want?" The Sophian Doctor questioned.
   'Stella looked fearfully around her, she had never seen either of the Doctors look so 
helpless.
   The Devil smiled relentlessly.
   "I want you, children of Ulysses." He said, coldly.
   "You want to buy their souls?" Estella asked.
   Lucifer smiled compassionately.
   "Nothing so base, my dear. I'm not some tempter of Fausts." He looked up in the 
direction of Heaven. "I seek knowledge, to be free of this." He threw his arms up in 
the air, his motion swooping across the geography of Hell.
   "You know I can never side with you." The Doctor replied, his tone apologetic. 
"Your ways are not mine."
   Lucifer smiled as if he had been anticipating this.
   "I thought you might say that." He sighed. "Which is why I brought along some 
insurance." He turned to his minions. "Bring forth our 'friend.'"
   Two daemons, much like the ones Estella had fought stepped out into the Hell fire.
   Alongside them stood a tall, Thespian man dressed in black robes. His hair was 
short, pushed back in a black wave.
   "So we meet again, Doctors." Said the figure, his accent strong and distinct.
   "You." The female Doctor whispered. "But you can't exist any longer, it's an 
impossibility!"
   "I beg to differ," The Valeyard smiled. "It is quite possible."
   Lucifer grinned his Cheshire cat grin again.
   "Please explain to your other self, comrade Valeyard." He purred.
   "That second rate adversary that you insist on carrying the blame for, the Master."
   The Sophian Doctor turned away.
   "Don't listen," She said, looking at her counterpart. "Whatever he says, this is not 
the way to remember our secrets."
   Lucifer's face contorted in anger.
   "Then kill him," The former archangel shouted. "Prove yourself."
   The Promethean Doctor smiled.
   "Get to the TARDIS." He whispered. 
   "You can't kill me, your morality will always prevent you from committing such an 
act." The Valeyard countered.
   The Doctor smiled.
   "I lost Peri because of you, Valeyard. Think about the centuries of festering away at 
the back of our minds and then ask if I could kill you. "
   The Valeyard backed away.
   "You're bluffing, Doctor." He sneered, yet the lines of worry had already began to 
manifest themselves on his face.
   "Do it, Doctor." Lucifer whispered.
   The Doctor turned to face him.
   "Please don't be so trite," He sighed. "I've heard this from a thousand psychopaths 
and megalomaniacs in a thousand universes and now you expect me to bow down to 
your every whim?"
   "Do not anger me, Time Lord." The Prince of Hades warned.
   "Goodbye, Lucifer." The Doctor said and turned his back. "I'm afraid I won't be 
joining you after all."
   "I am the prince of all evil, the master of deception and pain, the heart of all 
suffering. I am the God of your miserable little lives."  The former archangel shouted.
   The Doctor stood at the doors of the TARDIS.
   "Of course you are," He replied, patronisingly. "Call me when you've grown up."
  Quickly he slipped deep within the confines of the TARDIS and vanished.
  The Prince of Hell through his arms to sky and unfolded his wings.
  "I'll crush you, Doctor. Nowhere you go will be safe, I will wait at every corner for 
you and when you are at your weakness I will wipe you from the face of the 
multiverse."
   A small, decrepit man shuffled his way across the soil of Hades, standing at the left 
of Lucifer's throne.
   Deep beneath his calm, blue eyes an anger was leased.

   Through time and space the TARDIS drifted as it had done for so many centuries.
   "Where are we going now?" Estella asked.
   The Sophian Doctor afforded her a glance.
   "Home." She replied.
   "Back to Cambridge?" 'Stella asked, her hopes rising.
   "No, back to Gallifrey." The female Doctor stated, looking deep into her 
counterpart's eyes.
   "I'm not going to Gallifrey." He stated adamantly.
   "They'll summon one of us sooner or later." The female Doctor protested,
   "Fine." Replied the Promethean Doctor. "Let them summon you, I disown them."
   The female Doctor placed her hands upon her hips.
   "Could you stop being so bloody childish for just a minute?" His counterpart 
questioned.
   "No." He replied. "I can't."
   He sat down next to Estella on one of the many spiralling staircases.
   "Come on, Doctor it can't be that bad. I mean maybe she's got a point." She paused. 
"Do you want to know something really worrying?" She asked.
   The Doctor finally looked up.
   "What?" He asked.
   "I'm beginning to like you.despite the fact that most of the time you act like a 
complete bastard."
   He smiled and the TARDIS emitted its landing chimes.

   The three figures emerged, slowly stepping out onto the Gallifreyan landscape.
   "Jesus fuck, this is where you come from?" Estella asked in compleat awe.
   "'Fraid so." The male Doctor smiled.
   "It's changed a lot." The other Doctor said as she looked up at one of the gargantuan 
statues of Rassilon.
   A tall woman dressed in orange robes with auburn hair strolled up, her face smiling.
   "Hello, wormhole." She whispered affectionately.
   Both Doctors looked up at her.
   "Innocet?" The second Doctor asked.
   "Quite the same." She replied. "Won't you please introduce me to your new 
companion?"
   The male Doctor looked sceptical.
   "You've been monitoring us haven't you?"
   Innocet smiled weakly.
   "Unfortunately it was necessary, cousin. Your new regeneration," She paused. 
"You're new regenerations have caused quite a stir in the Capitol. Nothing of this 
magnitude has ever happened before."
   "Then I take it you know the consequences?" The Sophian asked.
   Innocet nodded, averting her eyes to the floor.
   An uncomfortable silence permitted the air.
   "Come," Innocet finally said. "There are things that you need to know. I will take 
you to the Matrix."
   "You've got access to the Matrix?" The Promethean questioned.
   Innocet smiled and held up the sacred key of Rassilon.
   "I was appointed Keeper aeons ago." She replied.

They entered the Matrix's sacred room and Innocet cautiously opened the door.
   "Isn't this breaking the rules?" The female Doctor asked.
   "No. Just breaking the rules a little, I'm sure you're quite familiar with the concept."
   Estella looked bewilderedly upon the strange sights that greeted her eyes, infinite 
chaos slowly merging into the coherency of Gallifrey's ancient prime city.
   "The Dark Times." The Sophian whispered.
   Suddenly in a leap of Lewis Carroll proportions they found themselves deep within 
the city.
   Before them was the sight of the first High Council, their attempts to bring fruition 
to the Loom clustered around them.
   A short man with white hair, stood before Omega and Rassilon.
   "My God." The female Doctor whispered.
   "So," A voice echoed all around them. "You wish to see the past, Doctor but he who 
stares into the abyss always pays the price."
   The voice belonged to the Valeyard.