Title: Introduction

A small boy, just a little too old to be called a baby, looks around him. His father doesn't pay much attention to him right now, engrossed in a conversation about establishing a stable time loop upon one of Gallifrey's moons. Boring, the boy thinks, decides it's just the right moment to try something out. He starts to fiddle with a bracelet on his wrist. After a few attempts, it opens. The boy takes it off, and Time blossoms around him.

He notices what looks like his and his father's shadows moving around, but he knows they come from the past of his timeline and so he ignores them; he's aware exactly how Gallifrey's turning under his feet right now; he sees delicate blue lines, indicating possibilities, future timelines, non-existent yet, and it's wonderful and terrifying at the same time. He feels dizzy - he isn't supposed too look at the future, that's why he should wear that bracelet, he's too young to control his time sense, he-

Oh.

The timelines merge, and in a few moments they become one, and the boy knows something important has just - will - is happening. He turns his head, and walks away from his father to see where his future is leading him, and there isn't a single one version of him who doesn't do that, and if it feels dangerously like a fixed point, the boy doesn't care.

There's another child sitting under a lone tree in the square they're on. He's got blonde hair, which glitters like gold, and is just doing something with his own bracelet... And not for the first time, it seems, as he's far too skilled at this and there's no hesitation in his moves.

The device falls off his wrist, and the fair-haired boy raises his head, looks him straight in the eyes, and smiles.

"Hello," he says, and they are standing just next to each other, even though they didn't notice moving. "I've been waiting. I'm Theta."

"Hello," the other boy replies. "I'm Koschei."

They both laugh and then they run, together. Their parents will find them soon, but it doesn't matter. Their timelines are one. They'll meet again.