The Last Great Time War: part II

The Horde of Travesties

The Warrior and Preda looked in shock at the serene utopia before them. While temporal storms had ravaged the countryside around them, somehow the people there managed to triumph over impossible odds.

Gleaming spires reached into the azure sky, while children ran and laughed in the streets. No building had a single scratch or spot anywhere. Neither was there a single speck of dirt or piece of litter on the ground. The Thanatos anomaly was gone. Instead of a ragged wound where the blood and guts of eternity spilled out, there was a vibrant rainbow. There was no indication that this had ever been a military colony. The threat of the Daleks and of the looming cancerous hole in the sky stretching forth its tentacles to consume the world were forgotten.
People rushed out of their homes to greet the Warrior and Preda and give them a hero's welcome. They lined up on the sides of the streets waving flags. All of them were smiling, all of them were perfect. They started singing, all perfectly in sync and on key.
An intense feeling of security and well being emanated from the people. The doubt, suspicion, and even alarm that the Warrior and Preda would have felt were squeezed to the backs of their minds.

"This place has grown up wonderfully since I was last here," said Preda, as they walked into the town square.

"Indeed," said the Warrior, who failed to notice that the people had formed a circle around them.

"Attention everyone," shouted the head of the colony. They all fell silent immediately, and every single one of them turned and looked at him at the exact same time.
"Let's all give the Doctor and his lovely companion a warm welcome! May they find rest from their toils and happiness in our lovely abode!"

The tiny, suppressed sparks of doubt buried in the Warrior's and Preda's minds grew into flames.
"We really must be going," the Warrior said.
"We'd love to stay longer," Preda said, "but we don't have too much time. There's a lot we have to get done, and we wouldn't want to intrude on your hospitality."

"Nonsense," said the head of the colony. "Stay and relax! Leave your worries and cares behind! Here, you'll never have to worry about anything ever again!"

The people surrounded them on all sides. The circle was only about thirty feet wide, and growing smaller.

"We really must be going," the Warrior said.

"Stay, I insist," said the mayor, reaching forth and grabbing his hand.

The Warrior felt something pulling on his timeline, trying to rip it apart. To consume it.

"Nn-n-n-n-o-ooo!"
The Warrior fought back with everything he had. The monstrosity was not going to steal his future and his past away.
As soon as he freed his hand, the Warrior and Preda saw the truth of what was around them. The city was only ash. The citizens were worse than dead. They were assimilated into living paradoxes, twisted and tied broken timelines from the most mutilated stretches of history that had learned to grow and perpetuate themselves.

They resembled the things and people that the timelines originally belonged to, but heavily distorted and mangled. They would shift from babies to adults to corpses and back again as they lurched, oozed, and crawled forward, each stage twisted altered in horrific ways. The ghastly temporal zombies sang with a chorus of demonic voices like a choir from hell. The horrific Travesties reached out with their shifting and rotten appendages to seize and devour them.

The Warrior pulled out his communicator.
"Get us out of here, NOW!"
He and Preda fired shot after shot and hurled grenade after grenade, but it only slowed them down and made them angry.
Just as it seemed to be the end, the Travesties turned away. About twenty War TARDISes materialized above them. More tried to, but failed.
The ravenous living paradoxes leapt into the air with astonishing speed, seizing hold of TARDISes and biting into them. Most were shaken off or destroyed by atron pulses and de-mat cannons, but a few broke in and started feasting on the temporal energy within.

"Clear a path," Preda ordered. The remaining War TARDISes cut a swath through the sea of distortion just long enough for Preda and the Warrior to run as fast as their legs would carry them back to the Warrior's TARDIS. Once they were inside, the Warrior ran to the console and flipped and pulled controls to get them as far away from Terminus as they could.

Illustration compiled from those by Stephen Gammell, found on the Internet.
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