continuum_of_drs (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
continuum_of_drs) wrote2008-11-20 05:15 pm
continuum_of_drs) wrote2008-11-20 05:15 pm
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“Asleep again,” One sighed, closing the door and looking keenly at his assembled other selves. “He can’t take much more of this, though. If we don’t do something about this alternate once and for all—and soon—his mind will give out completely and he will die.”
“Taking us with him,” Nine muttered darkly.
“Not to mention a great chunk of space-time, Nexus or no Nexus,” Four reminded them.
“This is all your fault, the pair of you!” Two rounded on the latest incarnations in a rare show of genuine anger. “If you hadn’t let him go on that fool’s errand of a mission, if you hadn’t told him about that wretched Time War business in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
“It wasn’t me what told him, it was another alternate!” Nine protested.
Six rolled his eyes. “Pah! Alternates!”
“The place is lousy with ‘em,” Ten added. “Each one worse than the next, and Rassilon only knows why they’re all here!”
Three snorted. “Don’t be too sure about that.”
Two shot him a glare that would have liquefied him on the spot and rendered the entire debate academic had such a thing not been impossible, even for Time Lords. He then returned his gaze, more or less unchanged, to Ten. “That doesn’t excuse your more or less giving him your blessing to run off and break the Laws of Time, like some kind of potentate!” he huffed.
“And if I hadn’t, he would have driven himself mad with guilt and closed his mind off completely! You try imagining someone who used to be you wasting away!”
“Rather like he’s doing now?” One interjected pointedly.
Five spoke up for the first time that evening. “What d’you suggest we do, then?”
“Try the manipulator again,” was Ten’s immediate answer, which was responded to by a chorus of objections. Someone else suggested a Zero Room. A suggestion to contact Lord Rassilon himself was quickly squelched. Eventually Seven cut through the babel with three quietly spoken words:
“Let him go.”
A beat of mental spluttering gave way to the verbal equivalent.
“What’re you talking about?”
“What d’you mean, ‘let him go?’”
“We can’t do that, he’s dangerously unstable!”
Ten stared intensely at the inscrutable little man. “You know more than you’re letting on. You always know more than you’re letting on. Feel like sharing any of this wisdom, or are we just going to have to stumble after you?”
Seven just smiled that smile that used to drive his companions barmy and wasn’t doing much more for the tempers of his other selves. “As long as he remains in the Nexus, his timeline remains flexible.”
The others nodded. After a tick, Nine provided the “So?” that Seven was clearly waiting for.
“So,” Seven concluded, “Releasing him into the Nexus decreases his proximity to us and thereby also the strain on his alternate here. He’ll have a chance to reach whatever mental stability he can, and his timeline will remain unsolidified.”
“Arrant nonsense!”
“Out of the question!”
“He’s already tried to kill!”
“That was here, though,” Four pointed out thoughtfully. “It’s much more difficult to do so in the Nexus.”
Silence. Eventually Six gave a gusty sigh. “As much as I hate to agree with a man who never has the decency to remove his hat,” Seven scowled at this, but Six continued, ignoring him, “he’s right. There’s nothing else for it.”
“The Nexus’s got a funny way of sometimes turning things out for good, anyway,” Ten said, scruffing a hand through his already wild hair; the others suspected he attempted to convince himself of this more than anything else.
“Are we in accord, then?” Seven asked.
There were various All rights and Very wells and Let’s get on with its from the others, until eventually all eyes came to rest on Two, who glared hotly at the others.
“I can’t believe you’re going through with this foolishness! Very well! But on your heads be it when this whole thing ends in disaster!” He turned and stormed from the room.
“So be it,” Seven murmured quietly.
“Taking us with him,” Nine muttered darkly.
“Not to mention a great chunk of space-time, Nexus or no Nexus,” Four reminded them.
“This is all your fault, the pair of you!” Two rounded on the latest incarnations in a rare show of genuine anger. “If you hadn’t let him go on that fool’s errand of a mission, if you hadn’t told him about that wretched Time War business in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
“It wasn’t me what told him, it was another alternate!” Nine protested.
Six rolled his eyes. “Pah! Alternates!”
“The place is lousy with ‘em,” Ten added. “Each one worse than the next, and Rassilon only knows why they’re all here!”
Three snorted. “Don’t be too sure about that.”
Two shot him a glare that would have liquefied him on the spot and rendered the entire debate academic had such a thing not been impossible, even for Time Lords. He then returned his gaze, more or less unchanged, to Ten. “That doesn’t excuse your more or less giving him your blessing to run off and break the Laws of Time, like some kind of potentate!” he huffed.
“And if I hadn’t, he would have driven himself mad with guilt and closed his mind off completely! You try imagining someone who used to be you wasting away!”
“Rather like he’s doing now?” One interjected pointedly.
Five spoke up for the first time that evening. “What d’you suggest we do, then?”
“Try the manipulator again,” was Ten’s immediate answer, which was responded to by a chorus of objections. Someone else suggested a Zero Room. A suggestion to contact Lord Rassilon himself was quickly squelched. Eventually Seven cut through the babel with three quietly spoken words:
“Let him go.”
A beat of mental spluttering gave way to the verbal equivalent.
“What’re you talking about?”
“What d’you mean, ‘let him go?’”
“We can’t do that, he’s dangerously unstable!”
Ten stared intensely at the inscrutable little man. “You know more than you’re letting on. You always know more than you’re letting on. Feel like sharing any of this wisdom, or are we just going to have to stumble after you?”
Seven just smiled that smile that used to drive his companions barmy and wasn’t doing much more for the tempers of his other selves. “As long as he remains in the Nexus, his timeline remains flexible.”
The others nodded. After a tick, Nine provided the “So?” that Seven was clearly waiting for.
“So,” Seven concluded, “Releasing him into the Nexus decreases his proximity to us and thereby also the strain on his alternate here. He’ll have a chance to reach whatever mental stability he can, and his timeline will remain unsolidified.”
“Arrant nonsense!”
“Out of the question!”
“He’s already tried to kill!”
“That was here, though,” Four pointed out thoughtfully. “It’s much more difficult to do so in the Nexus.”
Silence. Eventually Six gave a gusty sigh. “As much as I hate to agree with a man who never has the decency to remove his hat,” Seven scowled at this, but Six continued, ignoring him, “he’s right. There’s nothing else for it.”
“The Nexus’s got a funny way of sometimes turning things out for good, anyway,” Ten said, scruffing a hand through his already wild hair; the others suspected he attempted to convince himself of this more than anything else.
“Are we in accord, then?” Seven asked.
There were various All rights and Very wells and Let’s get on with its from the others, until eventually all eyes came to rest on Two, who glared hotly at the others.
“I can’t believe you’re going through with this foolishness! Very well! But on your heads be it when this whole thing ends in disaster!” He turned and stormed from the room.
“So be it,” Seven murmured quietly.