I obviously don't own Doctor Who and its characters.

He was running out of breath. He wasn't quite sure how much longer he would be able to run, but he needed to know.

"Koschei, wait!"

He they had done something to his friend. Koschei had never looked so strange; he looked terrified yet his face had another emotion. Theta couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the look made his stomach cringe.

"You wouldn't understand."

Koschei had come to a halt and had now turned to face his long-time friend. He practically collapsed onto the red grass and held his head in his shaking hands.

"I saw it. Everything," he said. "All of time and space."

Theta sat down next to him, horrified. They were so young, and already the Time Lords had forced upon Koschei the age old initiation tradition of looking into the time vortex. He had not yet gone through the ceremony, though he was older than Koschei, as they had not thought he was "ready" to enter the Academy yet. He had heard so many stories in his years that the delay seemed to be a blessing, and even more now than ever before.

"It was awful. You wouldn't believe half the things I saw, things I wish I never had." Koschei's voice had turned low and sullen. "You... you destroyed Gallifrey."

"I... I what?"

"Apparently there's going to be a war one day. It's hard to believe that this could all be gone one day."

Theta looked down at their sparkling city in the distance below. He loved Gallifrey; he couldn't imagine the idea of it perishing, especially by his own hand.

"And we..." Koschei continued.

Theta looked back to him; this whole situation had been enough to exhaust him as it was, and he wasn't sure he could handle anything else weighing on his mind.

"We weren't friends anymore. Enemies more like."

He could see the tears in Koschei's eyes now.

"I don't want that to happen."

"Neither do I," Theta said. "But you know what?"

"What?"

"Time can be rewritten."