The Time of Change

The Doctor's Story

With my eyes on the Angel, I apply pressure to his hand. The Doctor rubs his eyes. "Once upon a time," he begins dreamily, watching me with a tired, disheartened gaze, "there was an alien. He was around a hundred years old and very crabby. Inexplicably depressed and self-ostracized, he hated to be around other people. He loved the planet he was on, but he was not satisfied. There never seemed to be any color in his life—it was all in black and white. His mother and father loved him very much and did all they could to make him feel better. His older sisters and younger siblings adored him, always asking him to assist them with something so he would feel needed. Everyone loved this man, despite how intolerable he was, and to him, it made no sense. As a child, he had always known the name he wanted for himself, and although he was not the same gentle person he had been, he still picked that name because its promise was what he built his life on. It meant the healer; someone who helps. He considered this decision his first step. All he ever wanted to do, deep down inside him, was help, but because of his innate sadness and desolation, he did not know how.

"Eventually he realized that he had to get away. In order to stop hurting people he loved, he needed to remove himself for a while. Also, the higher-ups of the planet weren't extremely fond of his sharp mind and bad attitude. So, he stole a time machine, picking up an orphaned girl from his planet just before he left. She had experienced some trauma that affected her mind in such a way that she became convinced that the alien was her grandfather. Upon understanding it would be best to bring her along to keep her safe and to keep him company, together they set off to everywhere. A while later, they landed on a pleasant planet called Earth and made their home there until two humans discovered them. The alien, his surrogate granddaughter, and these two humans ended up becoming friends and travelling together.

"Then one day, after the humans had gone, the alien went into the future to find a better machine and attempted to make a getaway, but he was stopped by a woman. A beautiful woman, she was, with magnificent, shocking clear blue eyes. Her face was the kindest he had ever seen, so full of life and hope. She steered him away from a sabotaged machine and pointed him toward the one that would soon become his home. All she would tell him was that she knew him well and that he would see her again. And indeed he did, not long after that, when she appeared for a brief second to die in his place.

"Over the years, as he changed and morphed, he kept meeting this girl again and again, each and every time growing to care for her impossibly more deeply. No one had ever understood him the way that she did. But every time they would meet, she would not be with him long before she had to die. He began to dread the next moments he would see her; he could not bear to be the cause of her pain. When she did show up again, however, he was so happy she was there, if only for a short time. He would laugh with her, joke with her, and talk to her as if it were the most normal thing for them to do, as if they had always known each other. Nothing gave him the feeling of being with that woman. With each change of his appearance, she never seemed fazed. All she did was comment on his new body, expressing how wonderful he looked. He had finally found the color he had craved all his life.

"Oh, but then the war came. It was a terrible war that destroyed his home planet and everything he loved and held dear. He had not returned since he first left, but he came back to aid in the defense. The group of people to which he belonged, who were the government of this planet, decided to fight instead of work out a solution, and soon the entire world was in flames. People were dying every day from the menaces that invaded. The unhappy alien felt more helpless than ever before as he walked the decimated avenues of what used to be his life. A sense of rage washed over him, and he knew what he had to do. There was only one option left, or else everything would fall apart. You see, the group who controlled this planet also controlled every other planet, every galaxy and constellation, and every black hole that formed in neglected corners. They were the overlords of the universes. To save everyone else who had lived, was living, or would live, this alien had to make the ultimate decision. He had the means to do it, and certainly the power and the mind, but he had to choose. It was the choice that changed it all: let the rest of the galaxies, universes, and solar systems die due to the invaders who set fire to his reality, or sacrifice his entire species.