Alex stood in the cemetery in front of the headstone. As far as headstones went it was quite ordinary; gray, rounded edges, and neither too large nor too small. Yet this headstone was quite possibly the most important headstone that had been laid to rest inside the last century. Though the majority of humans did not have senses capable of noticing the degree of importance, Alex had no such issues. To him it was for all intents and purposes a flare like no other; a swirling, pulsing, veritable maelstrom of colour and light.

For the headstone was the sole existing testament of a Moment without equal. All the other testaments were rather of non-existence… Standing testament with the absence of things. This Moment was special, for it had redefined Earth's future to an unprecedented degree… It had made it free. No longer was Earth's path laid out for it by higher powers, it was completely and utterly free. The strange thing was that as Alex looked around there was no evidence of this, in fact it appeared to be quite the opposite. Whereas by the lessons taught to the Time Lords all of Earth should have been suffering from incredible degrees of temporal flux as the shockwave caused by its unbinding rippled through time Earth's timeline had actually stabilised. Why this was Alex had no idea, but then again he did not particularly care enough to be interested in it.

His musings (NOT Brooding… NEVER Brooding) were interrupted by one of the, if not the, most bizarre sounds you'll ever hear. A rasping whir echoed across the compound as a small whirlwind appeared a few meters behind him, kicking up dust and leaves with no regard whatsoever. The only visible acknowledgement Alex gave to the new sound's presence was a small and, if truth be told, rather bitter grin.

As the sound grew in intensity a light appeared in the air near the top of the whirlwind followed shortly after by, what was revealed to be, the rest of the Police Call Box. The noise stopped almost immediately following the solidification of the Box and ten seconds after that the door opened before shutting again shortly after..

"It was my fault."

Alex didn't even turn around to see who, if anyone, had left the box. Instead he had simply started talking, you'd assume to thin air if you didn't know him. But Alex never talked to thin air, he never used two words when one would do, everything he did was part of a plan everything action had a purpose… Even if he himself wasn't aware of it at the time.

"After I regenerated I left the watch off. No need to keep it on after all, the regeneration had fixed all the issues and there was no point wearing such a gaudy watch when a slightly modified biodampner would be more than sufficient. I never thought anyone or anything could be that foolish, I still have trouble accepting that those… things… had the nerve to break one of the oh so few laws of existence. I'd have never believed that they, in their sanctimonious 'greater good' would use magic of all things to violate a mortal's free will."

There was silence for several moments across the cemetery before a new voice rang out over the graves.

"And then?"

Alex turned to face the source of the voice. The sight that met him wasn't all that far out of the ordinary, and yet many beings would turn and run at the merest inkling that they'd meet it. A man stood before him, wearing a tweed jacket with accompanying bow tie. However, despite how young the man's body and face appeared his eyes spoke of age. However old Alex's eyes may have been the eyes of the man in front of him made him look like a child. In fact the same rang true for everything about him, he possessed an almost identical air, his stance was the practically the same and his words carried the same wisdom and power as Alex's… Except moreso, oh so much more.

"It escalated."

Alex's reply was flat and short, nothing else followed and nothing else needed. Those two words, echoing back the final conversation between the two, told the man everything. Strangely enough, despite the incredible level of devastation that resulted from things 'escalating' the man did not seem to be upset or angry. In fact his response was to sigh before giving Alex an understanding, and slightly sad, smile.

"Want a lift?"

Alex took a deep breath before running a hand through his hair as he turned back to the headstone. His head moving about in obvious contemplation before abruptly spinning back around to face the man in the bow tie.

"Absolutely."

The man stepped to the side pushing open the door to the Police Box.

"After you then."

The man paused before continuing.

"Any preferences?"

Alex walked to the door before turning around and walking in backwards as he responded. His voice rather subdued before taking on a rather teasing tone at the end.

"Second to the right, straight on 'till morning… And... Back in time for tea."

The man chuckled as he followed Alex into the box.

"Breakfast maybe. Tea? Not a chance."

Alex snorted as he replied.

"Whatever! I bet you've just forgotten how to park properly. I could a better job in my sleep!"

"Oi!"

The door to the Police Box closed, muffling any further barbs and idignant responses and the Box quickly disappeared in the manner as its arrival. The cemetery returned to its quiet state with only a few leaves flapping in the wind bearing evidence to the presence of Alex and the man with the Blue Box.

Right then... I apologise for the ridiculous delay but life seems to be conspiring to do everything in its power to keep me from adding new chapters to this.

The result being I now have ~30k words sitting in the one word document that need to be chapterised and re-read as well as several additions/changes to previous chapters...

As such I've decided that I'm going to finish this story, along with any modifications/cleanups of previous chapters, and get started on the next one before posting anything. This snippet is the tail end of what I've completed with not all that much left till the end. Just a quick jaunt before returning home and cleaning up his mess. However... Due to the recent changes in my Uni schedule it won't be all done until ~end of Nov.

At anyrate... Thank you all for your (hopefully) continued patience... And as always, reviews/advice/spotted screwups are appreciated :D

Keeper of Storms