Untold Knowledge (Doctor Who x Genius Fem! Oc) [Book 1]

Chapter 121: The Sound of Drums

Martha walked into the hide-away-hole with their takeaway food in hand and Echo at her side. "How was it?" Jack asked as he and the focused Doctor were using the laptop.

"I made sure no one saw us. No worries so far." Echo answered as she went over to her lover, gave him a kiss as greetings and sat next to him as they shared their food.

"Anything new?" Martha asked when she gave Jack his portion.

But he shook his head. "I've got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing."

She shook her head. "Yeah, I meant about my family." she clarified.

"It still says the Jones family was taken into questioning. Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo." the Doctor informed as he fed his Echo a chip.

Martha smiled with relief. "He's not as daft as looks." Her smile then quickly faded as realization set in. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?"

Jack nodded with mild delight. "Nice chips."

"Hell yeah, they are. We went to Sybil and I's favorite place. Never disappointing. And they're free. I saved the owner's ass a few years ago." Echo agreed.

He then looked to the munching Time Lord with intellectual desire. "So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?" he inquired.

"And who is he to you? Like a colleague or..." Martha added, hoping for answers to be properly given.

"A friend, at first."

She nodded with slight surprise. "I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something."

He gave her a noticeably taken aback expression. "You've been watching too much T.V." making his girl nod as she ate another chip.

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack commented curiously.

Echo snorted in a deprecating manner. "Perfect to look at, maybe."

"And it was. It was beautiful." the Doctor agreed as he delved into his memories of old. "They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the continent of Wild Endeavor, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords; the oldest and one of the most mighty races in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch." As he spoke of his lost home, Echo rested her head on his shoulder as she remembered everything he described. "Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. Some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation." Images flooded his mind of when he, too, experienced such happenings. "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, some would go mad." He then shook his head to dispel his thoughts. "Brr. I don't know."

Martha smiled a bit at knowing more about his home planet. "What about you?"

"Oh, the ones that ran away. I never stopped." he said as though it should have been obvious, not a speck of shame anywhere to be found.

Just then, Jack's bracelet like device beeped unexpectedly. "Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it."

Echo raised her brows with immediately intrigue. "Let's patch it through to the laptop. Could be useful."

As he got to work as told, Jack felt internal sheepishness overwhelmed him. "Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't exactly told you."