Until We Burn | Dr Who

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Sound of Drums

By the time the Doctor returns, I have gotten enough of it out of my system to sit upright again. My eyes and throat are sore but I manage to hide most evidence of my breakdown. He still knows. Of course he knows. He spares as no glances, no words, just goes right back to the laptop.

It isn't long before Martha returns with a few plastic bags. "How'd it go?" I quietly ask.

She has also been crying but does well to hide it. Sniffing, she shrugs. "I don't think anyone saw me. Anything new?"

Jack heads over to help her with the bags, holding up his vortex manipulator for her to see. "I've got this tuned into the government wavelength so we can follow what Saxon's doing."

"Yeah, I meant about my family."

The Doctor looks up, accepting a parcel of chips "Still says the Jones family were taken in for questioning. Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo."

She grins. "He's not as daft as he looks." Then, shuddering, she slumps into a motheaten chair by the fire. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?"

"Nice chips," Jack praises.

I pick at mine, my appetite failing even more when the Doctor joins us. He tries one. "Actually, they're not bad."

Silence falls. Catching Jack's eye, Martha tilts her head in the Doctor's direction. He clears his throat. "So, Doctor... who is he? How come the Ancient Society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"

She nods, adding, "And what is he to you? Like, a colleague or..."

"A friend, at first."

"I thought you were gonna say he was your secret brother or something."

Pausing, he looks up from his dinner. "You've been watching too much TV."

Jack chuckles, tossing a chip into the air and catching it in his mouth. "You know, all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect."

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was. It was beautiful." With a long sigh, he kicks his feet up on the table. "They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems... and on the continent of Wild Endeavour, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude... there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords - the oldest and most mighty race in the universe - looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere. Only to watch."

As hard as I try, my gaze is drawn to him, as if by some magnetism, like gravity. I can still see the planet clearly in my mind as he describes it.

"Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families at the age of eight, to enter the Academy. Some say that's where it all began, when he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism - it's a gap in the fabric of reality, through which could be seen the whole of the Vortex. You stand there. Eight years old. Staring at the raw power of time and space. Just a child. Some would be inspired, some would run away... and some would go mad."

I find myself playing with the ring again. Right, left, daring to remove it just for a second before it falls again. I stop at the feeling of him watching me.

He shrugs and settles back in his chair with a mutter, "Oh, I don't know."

"What about you?" Martha gently asks.

Tossing another chip into his mouth, he scoffs, "The ones that ran away! I never stopped."

A beep catches our attention. Jack offers an apologetic grimace and flips open his vortex manipulator. "Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it."