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At this point in his life, the Doctor was ancient. It didn’t matter that he had lived the time in his Confession Dial on repeat. He felt every one of those four and a half billion years. When one is aeons old, one can develop a certain relationship with the Universe. Time Lords had always been able to see Time; they had always had the ability to see the Universe. It’s why the Fisherking had called them ‘vein curators.’ The Doctor was really no different, in the end. Oh, he helped out when he could, which was more than a lot of other people, but most of the time he left the ‘cleaning up’ to others. Occasionally, he checked in from afar, but often, he didn’t even do that much.
He thought that Charlie would never use the Cabinet. He thought he had made his intentions clear should that ever happen. He felt it – like a physical reaction: two species being wiped out of existence. No different than when he had used The Moment. He thought that since he was in the TARDIS, he would be protected from such things, but no. He felt it as every Rhodian spirit tore through and destroyed every Shadow Kin as they did the bidding of their Prince.
He was glad he was in the TARDIS, because the experience literally knocked him off his feet. He grasped the console in an attempt to stay up, but he felt it as the Shadow Kin’s planet was destroyed. That felt so much like Gallifrey that he lost his grip and collapsed to the floor. He lay there for a long time, unable to move, paralysed with the knowledge that two more species no longer existed in the universe.
He breathed slowly and softly at first. Just to test if he still had the ability. Once he could move again, he sat up slowly. He knew what he had to do, he just wasn’t sure if he had enough of his own strength to carry it out. It was easy to find the source, so he knew the exact time and place to be. Rather than going to the school, he programmed the TARDIS to materialise in Charlie’s bedroom.
He was dressed a bit more casually this time. He was wearing his black hole-filled pullover with his black hoody and blue jacket. He stepped out of the TARDIS and immediately walked towards the window. Watching over Earth from this vantage point gave him something to do while he waited for Charlie to return home.
He was surprised to see that Ms Quill seemed to be with child. He would have to check in on her, if she would let him. Well, no. He should check on her anyway. Even from this distance, he could see the scar on her face. He waited patiently for them to enter the house and for Charlie to make his way to the bedroom.
The Doctor wasn’t sure what sort of greeting to offer Charlie, so he kept it low-key. “Nice view.”
Charlie wasn’t in the mood for visitors and certainly wasn’t in the mood for the Doctor. He had sent Matteusz away, which the other young man didn’t like, but Charlie just needed to be alone right now to process everything. He was supposed to die. He didn’t. Quill said he’d have to live with the sacrifice. He refused to think that just because she no longer had the Ahn or that she was pregnant that she should suddenly understand these things.
The Doctor’s voice washed over him and it took him a minute to reply. “I don’t know. I don’t think I know anything any more.”
The Doctor nodded once and turned to face the lad. His hands were in his pockets so the red lining of the jacket was visible. “I know what you did. And I told you I would blame you if you used it. I thought you understood that you can’t just avenge one genocide with another.”
Charlie’s voice was a combination of exhaustion and resignation. “I was supposed to die.”
The Doctor huffed softly. “Yes, I know that feeling.”
Charlie moved toward the window. He looked out, trying to see whatever good the Doctor saw. He had a sudden flashback to when the Doctor had arrived during the dance. He murmured. “The Great Destruction of the Universe.”
The Doctor’s ears perked up at that. “Hmmm?”
“The Shadow King. That’s what he called you. ‘The Great Destruction of the Universe.’ Why?”
The Doctor bit his lip and turned to look out the window again. “Theorise.”
“You couldn’t have destroyed the whole universe, because it is still here.”
“How do you know it’s the same universe?” He had rebooted it, after all. Some days even he wasn’t sure it was the same universe. But it was more of a trick question. “Fine. I’ll help. Think of it less as a literal statement and more as a title.”
Charlie frowned. “Well, they’re evil. They destroy. They’re monsters. You stop the monsters. It’s what you do. So, from their perspective you destroy everything they like.”
The Doctor nodded once. “I’ve done worse.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I once was given a choice. I did what you did.”
“You committed genocide? How? When?”
“In your time, I’ve faded into the stuff of legends, which is how it should be. So the stories about me are woefully incomplete. There was a great war. The Last Great Time War. Between my people and the Daleks. The Daleks had learned time travel and they would have gone across the whole of time and the whole of the universe in order to destroy anything that wasn’t like them.”
It was somehow easier for Charlie to talk about these things when he didn’t see it as directly relating to him. “Like what the Shadow Kin was going to do to Earth. Like they had done to Rhodia.”
The Doctor offered a sardonic chuckle. “Bigger. Much bigger. The Daleks would have destroyed the whole of creation, given the chance.”
“So you stopped them? Destroyed them. Committed genocide. How?”
“I had a box. It was called The Moment. The Daleks had surrounded Gallifrey. They were about to destroy the planet and all of us. The box was designed to destroy whatever was around it in a burning fire. It would then create a time lock around that single moment. It was never to be used – not really. But imagine everyone and everything burning for the whole of eternity. All was caught in a single moment of being destroyed, but never allowed to die.”
Charlie frowned. “That’s terrible.”
The Doctor nodded. He could feel his eyes getting hot with the need to shed a few tears, but he refused to let them fall. He had gone back and changed that. Charlie would have no such choice. “Yes. I was supposed to be caught in its blast as well. Instead, I survived, somehow. Knowing that I destroyed all of my people and all of the Daleks.”
“So you had to live with what you did. It’s how you know that genocide for genocide never works. What do I do now?”
The Doctor took a step near Charlie and rested his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “You and Ms Quill really are the last of your species now. You can either let the weight of what you did consume you. Or you can live on in their memory and honour.”
“I committed genocide twice. You should be angrier with me. I did the opposite of what you said to do.”
“And like I said then, I do blame you. I do hold you accountable. But I think you’ll find that living with what you have done will be punishment enough.”
Charlie nodded once. “We’re not quite the last. Quill is pregnant, though she hasn’t revealed how it happened. And she’s had the Ahn removed.”
“That would explain the scar. I am certain that didn’t come without a price. Clearly she was willing to pay it.”
“What do I do, though? She can’t be controlled now.”
“No she can’t. But the funny thing about choice. You might find that she is willing to protect you because you are the last of her kind too.”
“I can’t imagine that would ever be the case.”
“Then you two are doomed to fail each other.”
With that the Doctor left Charlie to his own thoughts. He went to check on Quill, who didn’t let him examine her as thoroughly as he would have liked. But he got enough information. He left her, as he had last time, with instruction. “You understand better than Charlie does what he is about to go through because of your background. Help him.”
Quill scoffed. “Why should I? Until now, I’ve been his slave. And with the use of the Cabinet, he is prince of nothing.”
“Because you are free. Now you do have a choice. And because if you fail to choose correctly while you live on this planet, you make an enemy of me.”
Quill swallowed thickly and her hands went protectively around her swollen belly. The Doctor shook his head and frowned. “Don’t be an idiot. I would never make a living vulnerable creature pay the price for the parent’s crimes. Not if there was another way. And right now, there are plenty of other ways.”
Quill nodded. He was right. She was a soldier and she understood the order he was giving.
With that, the Doctor left her to return to his TARDIS. Charlie was still standing before the window; he hadn’t seemed to move at all. The Doctor didn’t address him, but Charlie spoke aloud. “I’m not a prince any more.”
The Doctor paused and turned to face the youth. “No. But you have an opportunity. Just as Quill has freedom because she had the Ahn removed, you have freedom because you’re no longer bound to the rules of being a prince.”
He then entered the TARDIS and started the dematerialisation sequence. Both Charlie and Quill had a lot to adjust to. But the Doctor just had to believe they would be all right. Besides, if worst came to worse, Quill had his number and understood when to use it.