Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, places and things belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. Although I am incorporating the Doctor Who universe into this, none of the characters from Doctor Who will be making an appearance. This will take place entirely within the world of LOST. Reviews are, of course, welcome, whether you liked the story or not.

The Time Lords' plan to destroy the entire universe terrified him. What would be the point of existing if there was nothing left to explore or experience? Destruction at the hands of the Dalek would be preferable in his opinion. He wasn't alone in that thinking; another Time Lord felt the same way. Jacob hoped that he could find this other Time Lord and together they could stop this insanity.

The Doctor, as the other Time Lord was known to call himself, had a fondness for the human beings on Earth so Jacob set out to reach Wales, England in 1936, believing he would encounter The Doctor there. Somehow the other Time Lords found out what Jacob's plan was and they attacked him. Jacob ended up in the city of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War.

***

Carthage, 146 BC

"This is just lovely," Jacob sighed, exiting the TARDIS to survey his surroundings, mostly ruins. The TARDIS was currently in the form of yet another ruin.

Then he saw a man kneeling over something and, curious, he went to see if perhaps someone needed help. "Hello there, I mean you no harm."

The man looked up at Jacob with tear-filled eyes. "If you've come to kill me then do it and get it over with."

"I'm not here to kill you," Jacob said as his eyes landed on the form of a small boy with dark hair lying dead on the road. His son, Jacob surmised since the man and the boy both shared similar features. "I am sorry."

"You're not a Roman soldier so who are you?"

"I'm a...traveler." Jacob knew there was nothing he could do; the boy's death was fixed in time as was the destruction of Carthage. It just didn't seem right to walk away from the man and leave him there in mourning so Jacob extended his hand. "I'm Jacob. What's your name?"

The man stood and accepted the hand that Jacob was offering. "Ricardus."

"Are there any other people left in Carthage, Ricardus?"

"None that I have seen. I should have died with the rest of them. I should have died with my son."

Jacob put a comforting hand on Ricardus' shoulder. "You were not meant to die here. Come with me. There is nothing more you can do."

Standing up, Ricardus looked around. "Where did you come from?"

"It's a long story, but we've got nothing but time, my friend."

Jacob helped Ricardus carry his son to the cemetery and dig a grave next to his wife. Although Jacob wanted to get out of there before the other Time Lords showed up, he thought it would be too cruel to suggest they just leave the body. He had seen enough death to understand the need to grieve and to bury the dead.

"Thank you."

"Now we have to go. My enemies will be here soon and you don't want to be here when that happens."

"Go where?"

"I'm...not from your world. I'll explain everything, I swear, but we really do need to go." The familiar sound of a TARDIS floated through the air and Jacob grabbed Ricardus' hand, pulling. "Come on! We have to go!"

Taking one last look at the final resting place of his family, he followed Jacob. They were running though to what, he didn't know. It looked like just a bunch of old ruins. And suddenly before him there were more old ruins. My mind is playing tricks on me. He continued to follow Jacob, mostly because he had nothing left in Carthage. If he ended up dying, so be it.

The last thing he saw before the flash of white was two of the ruins colliding. Ricardus had one last thought, that he would soon join his wife and son in the afterlife.

***

The birth of the Island

Two things surprised him when he opened his eyes; that it was pouring rain in the afterlife and that his head felt like it was going to split open. Sitting up, he looked around for Jacob but didn't see him. He didn't see much of anything with the rain coming down so hard.

"Ricardus, are you here? Ricardus!" Jacob was yelling, hoping that his new friend was safe and somewhere nearby. He wasn't entirely certain himself what had happened other than the other TARDIS had collided with his own and the time vortex had become uncontainable for a brief moment. Now he searched for the other man, afraid of what exposure to the vortex may have done to him. He also worried about where the other Time Lord was but for the moment he focused only on finding Ricardus.

"Jacob?" Ricardus thought he heard his name being called but he couldn't be sure. It may well have been just more of the ringing in his ears. At least the pain in his head was subsiding, along with the rain. A few more seconds and the sun burst forth, revealing the lush foliage of the jungle. Now he was more certain that he was dead. "Isabel? Jared?" He called for his wife and son, hoping that he was going to rejoin them in the afterlife.

***

2007, The Island

Long after the sun had set and the rest of the camp had gone to sleep, Richard lay awake in his tent thinking about how he had come to be where he was. Jacob had explained it to him but Richard still didn't fully understand. Somehow, the two TARDIS ships, possessing some form of intelligence, had become this island. Samuel, the other Time Lord, was stuck on the island, unable to move through time since he had been inside his TARDIS when it collided and the island was created. Jacob, however, could leave the island and travel through time but he couldn't leave Earth.

When the TARDIS became the island, they created a chamber deep beneath their new form. Within the chamber was a wheel that allowed the island to be moved. The island's exit was the point where the collision initially occurred, now known as Tunisia, though where in time the exit opened up seemed completely random. There was another exit, one which did not involve moving the island. Deep in the temple that was formed on the island there was a box, only about four feet square on the outside but, like any TARDIS, much bigger on the inside. That box could transport Richard and Jacob to any place and time on Earth except for Carthage. All of Carthage's past was time-locked by the TARDIS so that the city's destruction and the island's creation could never be undone.

And Richard, having been exposed to the time vortex, was now eternally ageless. He would never grow old, never die, never see his wife and son in the afterlife. He had been spared and condemned to spend eternity on this island. For a while he hated Jacob for this. In the beginning he kept to himself, refusing to speak to Jacob and, after a hundred years, engaging him in a physical fight at one point in the hopes that Jacob would kill him. That didn't happen, of course.

***

44 BC, The Island

"Jacob, why are you doing this?"

"Samuel, stay out of it. This is between me and Ricardus."

"How do you expect to save humankind if your own companion wants you dead? It's always the same, Jacob. They corrupt and they destroy. Let this world destroy itself so we can finally be free."

"You're wrong, Samuel, and I'm going to prove it."

Jacob left the temple and headed to the beach where Ricardus was waiting for him. The other man had challenged Jacob to fight to the death though Jacob knew that the only death Ricardus wanted was his own. That, unfortunately, was not to be. Ricardus' death was also now fixed in time and this was not the time or the place.