Violations of the Laws of Time
The Warking re-entered the cell and looked to his previous self, the glare had met him from across the hallway.
"Ah, Lord Doctor we have a problem," the Warking sauntered in as the bio membrane closed behind him. "What do you remember of the Last Day?"
"You rescued Narvin from the Dark Tower, shot Matthias and escaped with the Moment, then returned to our ancestral seat at the House of Lungarrow surrounded by the ghosts of our forty-four cousins you killed Narvin and that Commander… I can't seem to remember her name… Then Rassilon transducted in, you fought him. The confrontation that should have happened at the end of the Old Time occurred, we killed Rassilon and then you activated the Moment."
"You this and you that… but we killed…" the Warking trailed off, curious. "You disassociate yourself from everything that transpired that day, except for what happened to Rassilon."
The eleventh Doctor screwed his eyes shut in annoyance; he clearly hadn't meant to make the slip.
"So why are you here violating the First Law of Time?" the Doctor asked looking pleased with himself for a barb.
"I saw Innocet,"
With that simple statement the Doctor was speechless, after all Brax didn't count as one of the Cousins of Lungbarrow and Innocet was the only family member who actually loved him at all.
The Doctor's mouth was suddenly dry and his mouth opened and closed, he was speechless, the Doctor had first fled Gallifrey when he informed the Prydonian Cardinal that the House of Lungbarrow had illegally loomed a replacement Cousin leaving Innocet trapped in the House while it rotted for nearly seven centuries.
The eighth Doctor had herded Sarah, his tenth self and the others into the far corner. Once they were all there he pulled out a sliver of metal.
"A statenheim remote!" the tenth Doctor called out in surprise. "I've always wanted one!"
"Yeah well…" the eighth Doctor shrugged and smiled as he closed his eyes and the TARDIS took form in front of them. The six time travelers entered the time ship, all but two unsure as to what they'd find. They'd all seen the different versions the Doctor could use, but that didn't prepare them for the warehouse sized steampunk heaven they found themselves in.
They passed through the massive double door and looked up to see the Seal of Rassilon overlooking them, at the side of the doors the wall was marble with Greek-esque columns. The walls were lined with cabinets and bookshelves, there was another level to the room to the left of the centre was a single armchair with a table and bowl of jelly babies, a bit further on was a table on which rested a gramophone and at the centre of the room was the TARDIS control console. Hexagonal, wooden and covered in switches and flashing lights, a blue glass cylinder contained the Time Rotor, this lead into a metal cage joining six heavy metal girders that enclosed the console and the raised dais it stood on. On the far wall was a massive portrait showing forty five people, in the painting was one individual that Jack recognised.
"Doctor, who is that a painting of?" at Jack's question the tenth Doctor fell silent and gazed at the floor while the eighth Doctor put his hand into his pockets and stood beside him.
"That is the family portrait of the 423rd generation of the House of Lungbarrow, my own family," the Doctor's tone implied mixed feelings. "Innocet was the only one who ever loved me, well I suppose Quences did in his own way, Arkhew seemed pretty ambivalent but the rest of them hated me…"
Trailing off the Doctor returned to his other self at the console, pressing buttons in a calm and controlled manner he pulled down an old fashioned television set.
"Ah ha!" the eighth Doctor called. "Doctor, would you say that this is the Captain's time trace?"
"Yep" the tenth Doctor popped his 'p'.
"Right, there's nothing we can do here, but if we return to the present we'll know what we'll find," the eighth Doctor began pressing controls as the Time rotor moved up and down the eighth Doctor smiled and headed to his armchair. "Anyone for tea?"
They'd been silent for hours, Mace sat in the middle as the two versions of the same Time Lord paced the cell, thankfully the silence was interrupted when the noise of TARDIS engines filled the room. The two Time Lords looked in shock as a blue box begun to take shape, once it'd materialised fully Sarah, Mickey, Martha, Jack and the eighth and tenth Doctors came out, the eighth Doctor held a large leather tool chest.
"Okay that's interesting…" the eighth Doctor had caught sight of the Warking, the two versions of the same incarnation stood before each other. "Do either of you know why we're all together?"
A haunted expression passed before the Warking's eyes, facing his future self was one thing, but facing a version of himself from before the war was another, it took all of the Warking's willpower not to break down and tell the eighth Doctor all he needed to stop the war before it began. Time's to be there for Romana so Gallifrey stayed strong, prevent the Pandora Devastation, not to go to the Nekkastani ship in the vortex and inadvertently rescue Davros allowing him to rebuild the Dalek race after it'd been destroyed with Skaro.
"No," the Warking grated out, though none of his other selves believed him.
"Well, this is one hell of a violation of the First Law of Time," the eighth Doctor idly said as he began to open the tool bag. After some rummaging he pulled out a strange device with a tube on the end.
"Doctor, what is that?" Colonel Mace asked.
"A molecular phase disrupter," the tenth Doctor said in response. As the eighth Doctor moved to the edge of the bio membrane and began to slice at the strands.
"Why aren't we getting into the TARDIS to leave?" Jack was looking around is the eleventh and tenth Doctor's were having a little council of war while the Warking had entered the TARDIS and returned with a sword with which he began to cut areas his predecessor had weakened.
"This ship is controlled by Zygons and is being used as a colony ship, but eventually they'll want to settle a planet like Earth and I can't let that happen." It was the tenth incarnation who had spoken.
"There are two of the you's to come, ask them,"the Warking could see her again. Innocet leant on the wall next to him, she looked to the later Doctors.
"Did you ever count how many newly loomed cousins were on Gallifrey?" the Warking stopped to look at his future selves.
"I have absolutely no idea," the eleventh version said as he walked away from his tenth incarnation who was already giving a glare that would have killed him over and over again.
"How old are you know?" the Warking began to advance on him.
"I'd say 1,200 years or so, but more likely 6,000 odd give or take a few centuries," eleven admitted.
"A few hundred years then and in all that time you never once counted, not ever," the Warking was furious now.
"115,392" the tenth Doctor said a cold glare of hatred directed against his elder self. "The Bureau of Loomographic records is available to our TARDIS as a Presidential privilege. How could you forget something like that?!"
"I moved on," the eleventh Doctor said back with as much venom as he could.
"Where, where can you me now that you can forget something like that!?"
"Spoilers…"
"No, stuff the First Law or whatever childish way of saying it you've got, I want to know why you can forget something like that!?"
"I don't know who you are,"everyone in the room turned to look at the younger version of the eighth Doctor who'd stopped cutting them out during the argument. "Either of you I haven't the faintest idea, and you Warking, what about the Matrix, why couldn't you save anyone?"
The two versions of the same incarnation once more faced each over.
"Rassilon locked the Matrix in a loop, the data was irretrievable, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to do anything without Narvin's access codes…" the Warking trailed off.
"Brax…Innocet…Patience?" the eighth Doctor asked his eyes filled with fear and loss. "And has it happened yet?"
"First Law of Time," the Warking said before he turned back to the others.
"Then you can stop it," they all turned to look at the eleventh Doctor.
"What?" it was the eighth Doctor who had spoken.
"I thought that history couldn't be changed?" Sarah asked as the others tried to stay out of the brewing argument.
"Time can be rewritten," eleven said in an offhand manner, only to be met by the fury of all three of his past incarnations.
"WHAT!"
"No it can't,"
"How dare you," however the most resounding was the Warking's low voice dripping with menace and anger. "How dare you, you can't rewrite time, not one line. You don't have the right."
"How dare you, you destroyed Gallifrey," Eleven shouted back looking to his other selves for support yet receiving none.
"You are a Time Lord; you have responsibilities, whatever you say about the Last Day, I was the Time Lord when none of our people could remember what that meant. It was up to you to enforce the laws and protect eternity not meddle with it!" the Warking seemed to be drawing in break ready to say something even greater.
"Isn't that what we've always done?" Eleven asked hopefully.
"No," the eighth Doctor stepped forward. "As a matter of fact we've always enforced the Laws, by preventing history from changing and maintaining its natural flow. We never willingly break them."
"I concur," the tenth Doctor spoke and looked at his feet.
"As Ordinal-General, I the Lord Doctor 423rd of the Brotherhood of Kithriarchs of the House of Lungbarrow do hereby excommunicate you from the House of Lungbarrow." The Warking stepped forward to finish his judgement. "You now have no family, and no protection, while still a Lord of the Prydonian Chapter you no longer have any cousins."
Time Lord Character List and recommended reading.
Arla - OC, one of Clara's echoes as seen in Invasion Of Time and Arc Of Infinity
Narvin - As heard in the Gallifrey audio series he was initially a diehard conservative but has become Romana's staunchest supporter.
Romana - Former companion to the Doctor and President of Gallifrey, for information see Gallifrey audio series
Matthias - see Gallifrey audio series.
Darkel- Inquisitor in Trial Of A Time Lord and Gallifrey audio series.
Rassilon
Patience - See novel Cold Fusion
Maxil- See The Arc of Infinity
Brax- Irving Braxiatel, see Gallifrey Audio series and Virgin New Adventures
Salyavin – See Shada audio adaptation.
Rani – See Time and the Rani
Magnus – See the War Games and Timewyrm Exodus
Neeloc – See Gallifrey Insurgency
Thalia – See The Arc of Infinity
Janaetis- See Gallifrey audio series
Ruatha – See VNA Blood Harvest and VMA Goth Opera
Innocet – See VNA Lungbarrow
Vansell – See Audio stories from Big Finish
Damon – The Arc of Infinity