The Doctor

The Hero or the Villain

"Doctor! Doctor, please! We have to go back and help him!" Jeffropna screamed as The Doctor began to fly the T.A.R.D.I.S. to a new location. "We have to! I can't be apart of his demise!"

The Doctor stood behind the controls, a look of utter sadness plastered to his face. He wanted nothing more than to go back and help Benolajin. He would have done anything to help him from his fate but he knew better than anyone that he needed to stay out of it. He had meddled in too many timelines before that he had learned his lesson. The Doctor closed his eyes and forced his mind to clear. He could no longer hear Jeff yelling at him to go back. He could no longer see Elizabeth with her hand on Jeff's shoulder, trying to keep him calm. He was in his own world as the T.A.R.D.I.S. hurtled it's way through time and space. This was what had to happen. Benny didn't have to go back now. He could have waited until the war was over or he could have asked for The Doctor to bring him to when the war was over to see what he would be able to do to help his planet. Would his family have still be alive? Maybe he would have been able to help clean up the wreckage of the new war that had been threatening Benny's life in the first place.

But, no, Benny had asked to be brought to the current time of the planet. He needed to be with his planet in it's time of need. It needed him most. His family, his daughters, his friends, his people. They needed him. He wouldn't listen when everyone told him that if he went now he would either end up enslaved or killed. He didn't care. His mind was made up. His memories had somehow been able to restore themselves and he was not having anyone change his mind about going home. 

When he finally looked up, he saw that Jeff was in tears. He had learned to care for Benny. He, unlike any of Benny's previous watchers, had grown attached to the man. He knew him inside and out. He had been handpicked for the job after others had failed. But he had failed much worse than any of the others. He allowed Benny to restore his memories. They probably started out as the strangest dreams that he had ever had. Of course, the dreams were probably blamed on the food that he ate or eating late or both, which Benny had done on many occasions. It wasn't until Elizabeth brought up Charlotte having a husband or speaking about Earth as if it was not her home planet that Benny was able to recall his dreams and realize that they were actually memories pushing their way through some heavy spells and wards that had been cast upon him. 

Jeff was still screaming at The Doctor when he opened the doors to the T.A.R.D.I.S. He took a step out and let out a heavy sigh. He didn't like feeling as if he had just led a cow to slaughter. He needed to do something to try to clear his head.

"Doctor, why are we back here?" Elizabeth asked after finally catching up to him. Jeff was following behind her quietly. They were back on Zordon. "Why aren't we back on Earth? I feel as if I haven't explored at all."

"If you really want to go back, we can. But Jeffropna will have some things that he needs to take care of and I need a minute to clear my mind. I didn't want to do that!" he finally admitted. "I didn't want to bring Benny back."

"Then why would you?" Jeff spat bitterly.

"Because I know what it's like for your people to need you," The Doctor replied. He looked as if he was going to crack. He had been involved in moments like this before. This is not the first time that he had to sit on the sidelines as a fixed moment in time unfolds in front of him. He had gone through it rather recently when he and Donna had visited Pompeii. Seeing Jeff's emotions over what they had just done was like watching Donna witness what was going on. The only difference was that when he was with Donna, he was able to save a family from the destruction. There was absolutely nothing that he could do to help Benny.

"You didn't have to bring him to that time!" Jeff yelled. This fight was beginning to get them noticed as they walked around to a room that Jeff was supposed to report to if anything happened to Benny. "You could have brought him back when the war was over!"

"The man wanted to go down as a hero to his people, not as a coward," the Doctor said again. Elizabeth placed her hand on each of their shoulders. She wanted to comfort both men but was unsure how to actually do so without upsetting one.

"Jeffropna?" a woman asked. The look on her face was filled with shock. She knew that he wasn't supposed to be here. Everyone knew that he wasn't supposed to be back for a very long time.

He turned his attention to her for only a minute but quickly turned it back to the Doctor. "Tell me then, Doctor, what exactly does that make you?" he asked. "Are you the hero or are you the villain? You just brought a man, a man with an extremely high position, to his death. You just dropped him off like you didn't even care! So, before you leave as if Elizabeth and I meant nothing to you as well, tell me how you view yourself. Are you a hero for giving that man what he wanted even if it was going to possbily kill him or are you the villain for leading such a nice and well protected man to his death?"

He felt as if he was going insane. For once in his life when he wasn't going through a regeneration, he wanted to lie down and sleep. It was an extremely emotional day. Jeffropna, after explaing what had happened with Benny to his higher ups refused to look or even talk to him. Elizabeth still wanted to go somewhere with the Doctor but she needed to be with Jeff to try to help him recover from this ordeal. Until he was able to pass a number of tests showing that he was of sound mind, he would not be allowed to take on another case.

So the Doctor bid farewell to Elizabeth and walked back into the T.A.R.D.I.S. with no intentions of going anywhere. But, like most times that the Doctor faces harder times, the T.A.R.D.I.S. decided to have a mind of it's own of take off to a place that the Doctor hadn't even programmed in.

"Not again," he said as he pushed himself to a standing position when the T.A.R.D.I.S. landed. With another sigh, he turned and opened the doors. In front of him was a vast ocean. He had found a way here before, more than once to be honest. A confused look formed on his face.

"Oh, don't look like that," a familiar voice called to him. He turned to see himself and the face that he would never forget standing about thirty feet away from him.