Stellar Collision

Chapter 35

So, I thought it best to include a 'trigger' warning here. The second part of this chapter talks a lot about suicide and depression. -Ruinous79

********************************

The TARDIS, An Hour Later

They were all sitting around in the TARDIS's kitchenette, which had fortunately gotten a bit bigger to accommodate a group of four. The small bistro table had been exchanged for a counter height dining room table now. Jesse and Dayle B were having strong coffee. Dayle A and the Doctor were having tea. They were all in dry clothes but were still trying to get warm.

"So you're saying you were dead, and then you just weren't anymore?" Dayle B asked dryly. Hers was the expression of a woman that had seen just about enough crazy for one lifetime. She sipped her coffee and raised a cynical eyebrow.

"It's a bit more complicated than that." The Doctor explained. "A bit... well, more timey-wimey."

The others responded with very similar annoyed expressions. "Timey-wimey? Is that a technical term you learned at the Time Lord Academy?" Dayle A asked smirking.

The Doctor stood and began pacing, rubbing his hands together. "Well you see, that orb that Jesse threw at the Tregannon was more than just any ordinary bomb. It was a Gallifreyan weapon that was used quite often toward the end of the Time War. It makes sense that Arc could have gotten his hands on it, seeing that he masqueraded as a Gallifreyan General for some time. His knowledge of Time Lord weaponry would have been extensive, frighteningly so."

"So the orb that I threw, what was it then?" Jesse asked impatiently.

"It's called an Anti-Time Sphere. Just a smidgen of anti-time contained within an electromagnetic explosive device." The Doctor rejoined them at the table, leaning forward. "Anyone hit with an Anti-Time Sphere is simply erased from history. As if they never even existed." The Doctor folded his hands on the table and raised his eyebrows, looking around at them to see if they got it.

Dayle B was confused. "The fuck?"

Jesse was impressed. "Fuck yeah!"

Dayle A was stunned. "Fuckin crazy..."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "All three of you seriously need to consider expanding your vocabularies."

"So that means he never could have killed you!" Jesse exclaimed eagerly.

The Doctor grinned. "Exactly." He crossed his arms.

Dayle B shook her head, making a 'time out' gesture. "Hold up. If that horrible creature never existed, why do we all remember it? Why would we have been in the woods in the first place?"

Dayle A nodded her agreement. "And why am I still all screwed up? You get brought back from the friggin dead without a scratch on you and I feel like I've been hit by a bus. Seems legit." She was definitely pouting a bit.

"The Anti-Time Sphere has a localized effect. Anyone being hit by the device is erased from the timeline, any action they'd recently taken undone. But, that effect is only localized to about an hour before detonation. Anything else they might have affected beyond that is still moored to the original timeline. The device was developed to cause only confined temporal destruction. Otherwise the web of time itself could be irreparably damaged."

He hopped up, "Now, I think it's time we get the two of you back to your apartment, and back to your lives." He patted Jesse and Dayle B both on their shoulders and headed off to the control room.