Who: The Doctors What: Thirteen tells Ten about who they really are When: Lunch Time Where: The Loft Rating: low (spoilers for end of 13’s season)
“Go Fish.”
Thirteen looked up over her cards as she sat across from her Tenth regeneration as they played Go Fish at The Loft. She had invited him out because she wanted to have a chat. She didn’t exactly think his TARDIS should overhear it, though she had to wonder if the TARDIS knew instinctively. Sometimes The Doctor wished the TARDIS would be more talkative like when it occasionally took on a humanoid body.
“Do you have a three?”
While she waited, she added. “Back home, I went back to Gallifrey, you know.”
–
“Go fish,” he said, triumphantly. He had willingly agreed to play Go Fish with The Doctor at the Loft because he honestly had nothing else to do for lunch that day. And he was intrigued by the other Doctor, he liked her. He better, right? If he was to become her in a few regenerations. “Did I tell you I have a ward?” he asked, as he studied the cards in his hand. “Do you have a ten?” he asked.
“His name is Magnus and he is…. a demigod if I am not mistaken.”
He tilted his head as she mentioned Gallifrey, and his attention was pulled from Magnus Chase and the card he’d requested of her. “How was Gallifrey?” he asked, genuinely curious.
–
“A demigod huh? We have a few of those around, I think. The one who runs the forge is brilliant if you end up needing a part of the TARDIS, let me tell you.” The Doctor found Leo quite helpful.
She handed over two tens. “Have any ones?”
“Gallifrey…” She paused, her expression sobering a little. “It was on fire. The Master… Well, he had a hand in it. But it was there I learned something important. About us.”
–
“Yes, I have heard there are a few around,” he said. “This particular one seemed very excited about living in the TARDIS.” Not that he blamed Magnus. He was rather fond of living in the TARDIS as well. …perhaps that was why he continued to live in it. That, and it was his. And maybe hers? It was a little confusing. Though he would not mind if she owned it, too. Not in the slightest.
“What did you learn?” he asked, studying the other Doctor for a moment. “Why was it on fire? …what happened?” He put down his cards for a moment, forgetting about the game just then. He wanted to hear more about Gallifrey and the Master and what they really were.
–
The Doctor sobered a little more and there was a slight hesitation. It was probably clear she didn’t like what she was about to say. The truth was a part of her felt a little guilty for telling her younger self, but then, she also knew he deserved to know - they all did.
“The Master burned it all down. He was light on the details of what he did to them, but he said he made them pay.” She tried not to think too hard on what he had done to their home. Even now with her new memories, she didn’t want the Time Lords to all perish for retribution.
“As for us… We were found by a woman as a child with no memory. But she discovered we had a habit of regenerating. Regenerating any number of times.” Which considering she wasn’t supposed to exist, being the 13th regeneration and all, explain some of it. “She did experiments and harnessed our ability. And thus the Time Lords were created. She was the one who put a limit on regeneration. Only for us, it wouldn’t happen. So every cycle, when we’ve reached the end, they’d erase all our memories of all our past lives.” She paused, then added. “We’re much older than we know and we’ve been many more people too.”
–
“Why?” he asked. “He wanted everyone on Gallifrey to pay? But he didn’t go into specifics?” Of course, knowing the Master, that made sense. The Master was never one to really go into detail about why he did things. He just… did. That was one thing he was exceptionally good at. Doing for the sake of doing, he didn’t think he owed anyone any explanation.
Then, when she explained about the two of them – who they were – he seemed to forget about the Master and Gallifrey for a brief moment.
“We…” He wasn’t exactly sure how to process this information. “There’s more of us than we realize? I mean… more…” He sighed softly. “There’s been more than thirteen or so of our regenerations?” he asked. He had accepted that there were three regenerations past his – and he knew he was the tenth. She was the thirteenth.
But to have more than that? Before him? He was finding it a bit hard to wrap his head around.
“Did she tell you how many?” he asked.
–
“There’s no way of knowing. Not really.” And that bothered her, even if The Doctor was used to losing some memories from time to time. They only had two brains, after all. “But I met one of us. At the time, I thought she came after me since we’ve never been a woman before that we remember. Except she never recalled me. Now that I know what I know, I think she was older than all of us.” She’d been a lot more jaded too, though The Doctor was still processing that part.
–
He was silent for a moment, processing what she had told him. It was a lot to take in, really, and it would be nearly impossible to process it all at once. Knowing him, he would compartmentalize for a while. That’s what he did. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be processing the information at the same time. “Would have thought I’d remember being a woman before,” he muttered.
Then his eyes widened slightly, and he looked a bit excited. …overly excited. “Was she ginger?” he asked.
Asking the important questions, he was.
–
“No!” She answered with the exacerbation of someone who, too, wished she had been ginger. She understood the desire quite well. Though she did recover. “We were of colour though, and that’s new for us. Or… well, I suppose it isn’t considering. So maybe we have been ginger at some point.” There was a lot they didn’t know. “I’ve thought about trying to find some of our memories, but I don’t want to lose the ones I’m making here.”
–
“Why can’t we ever be ginger? Is it that hard to ask?” He didn’t think it was too much to ask, honestly. Being ginger was one of his goals and it never seemed to come to fruition. Which was a tragedy, really. “I don't want to lose the memories I’m making here, either,” he admitted. “I like getting to know you, and the fact that people like Jack, Ianto, and Martha are here. …then there’s Kimiko and Magnus.” All of these were important people to The Doctor, and he didn’t want to lose those people.
“Though I would prefer to not look like Kilgrave from Jessica’s universe.”
–
“I’m afraid I don’t know who that is, but from the sounds of it, that’s a good thing.” She wondered who she shared a face with - it was bound to happen after all. Maybe one day the Dome would show them all
“Then it’s agreed. No trying to figure it out unless we have to for some reason.” It seemed like a reasonable solution, at least at the moment. “And we share anything if we remember it.”
She looked at him as if to say ‘deal?’
–
The Doctor took a moment to consider what she had offered, then nodded. "Yes, I will share whatever I remember with you," he agreed. "I will not try to search for answers, but if I do find an answer, you will be the first person I tell." It was only fair to tell her first. He didn't want to remember something and keep it from a future regeneration.
That wouldn't be fair in the slightest. She had never hid anything from him, why would he hide something from her?
Not that he had anything to hide from her, currently. She knew everything he did.
"Do you have an eight?" he asked, continuing the game.