Hello!

Just talking a short break from writing 'A Life with Rose', because it's mostly set and I don't want to forget this one. It actually came to me in a dream. I was dreaming from Zeta's point of view.

Just goes to show that I really am becoming: A) too Doctor Who obsessed (if there is such a thing). And 2… no, B) too book obsessed. I dream book ideas and I think in writing format. I even think 'she thought forlornly' after I have a sad thought!

Anyway, not very many instantly recognisable characters in this chapter. But just hang in there; it's just the prologue after all. And if you do know who everyone is, then bloody good on you!

Enjoy!

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Madness

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They say that some become inspired, some run away, and some… some go mad.
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Zeta. That was to be her name once she had passed the initiation test. She had already locked away her real name; it was never to be told again. Names were dangerous things.

Zeta had always hoped that she would be one of the lucky ones who would be inspired. She was beautiful, and brighter than the average Time Lady. She glowed brighter than Gallifrey's two suns. She was only young, a child, a Time Tot.

And yet everyone had such high hopes for her. Because she was not like others of her kind. They could tell that even as a babe, she had been able to see the time lines better than anyone before. She could almost bend them to her will. A power that strong could be dangerous.

That was why she had been taken from her parents. They had to coach her to use her especially strong gift. The gift of the Time Lords was not cast over lightly. The girl had to be moulded into exactly what they wanted and needed. So, she had been raised by a Matron in the halls of the Lord President's country home.

Despite how harshly she was treated and how strictly they tried to keep her in line, her life on Mount Cadon was brilliant. She never did like the rules, and often she would sneak out to see her friends. Theta lived right next to her; he was a sweet adventurous boy. He could run so fast, it seemed he never stopped. And Koschei, whose father owned estates on Mount Perdition. The three of them would run through the long red grass of the mountain slopes, laughing and living the true life of a child…

Until she would be caught, and dragged half screaming back to her prison of a home. She could still see the sadness that would fill Theta's eyes as he saw her pain. And she would always remember the haunting sight of Koschei. She could see a little part of him die and fill with hatred and disgust as he watched her being taken captive by their own kind.

She missed them. The both of them had been initiated into the Academy a few months before. Life had been so horrid without them. They say that when Theta had looked, he had run. It didn't surprise her in the least. She was so excited and scared about tonight. Because it meant she was going to see them again.

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So there she stood, in her long black initiation robes, only eight years old. They christened her and called her forth. Her hands shook as she took tiny steps towards the Untempered Schism. She hoped that she would be inspired. That she would have the courage to stand there, strong and proud. That she wouldn't lose her mind to it… She was so young… so naive.

She finally came to a stop, standing upon the Seal of Rassilon. A gasp was drawn from her lips as she lifted her head and looked. Before her stood a tear in the fabric of reality, the Time Vortex exposed to her. She watched, entranced, as the blues swirled together. For a moment she could see everything. All that was, all that is, and all that ever could be. Billions and trillions of years, all of time and space pouring into her head. Then a torrent of gold energy leapt out at her.

And the madness took her.