The road less travelled...

Title: Time After Time 10/Lots
Author: katherine_b
Rating: G
Summary: Have you ever wondered what happens to those the Doctor leaves behind?
Spoilers: Major plot spoilers for The Five Doctors and The Trial of a Time Lord
Characters: Donna and the Doctor (Six) plus assorted Classic!Who people

Chapter IX

“You always were the best at guessing games.” Will arches an eyebrow. “Is it still 'no'?”

Donna is about to stand up when she sees something in Will's eyes that stops her. “What haven't you told me?”

“Oh, you should have seen it, Donna!” Will gets out of his chair and crosses the room to stare out of the window as the moon rises between the mountains. He gives a soft chuckle, but for some reason, she thinks it’s an effort for him. “He looked so wonderfully flabbergasted! He clearly had no idea what Councillor Flavia was going to say when she began to speak.”

“What was it?” she asks eagerly. “You were there?”

“Oh, yes!” Will laughs out loud. “She began by saying that the Council had exercised its emergency powers to appoint him to the position, effective immediately.”

“Well, he's done it before,” Donna says lightly, although she has to suppress a shaky sigh. “He shouldn't have been that surprised.”

“We both know he doesn't remember that time.” Will turns back to face her, his face solemn. “Only those of us who were there can recall it.”

“I know.” Donna heaves a shaky sigh. “I suppose I keep hoping – never mind that though,” she goes on brusquely. “What did he do?”

“He appointed Councillor Flavia as his deputy until he returned and then got into his TARDIS.”

“He told her he would travel to Gallifrey that way,” she says knowingly.

“Yes.”

“And,” Donna isn't be surprised by her knowledge, although she can’t help the way her hearts sink, “he never arrived.”

Will smiles, his face only just visible in the darkening room. “You know him so well, Donna.”

“As do you.” Donna chuckles softly. “I wonder what his companions thought about that.”

“They were probably as surprised as the Councillors,” Will admits with a grin. “Flavia and the others are furious.”

“His life has almost come full circle.” Donna smiles somewhat sadly. “He fled from Gallifrey in the first place after you three went to the Academy and now he's running away again. They're going to want him back.”

“Oh, they do!” Will smiles. “That's one of the reasons Flavia wants you to come back to work in the President's office – because, if he ever comes back, they believe he will seek you out.”

“He never has done in the past.” She gives a sad sigh, but nevertheless rises from her chair. “Why should he start now?”

* * *
“But why?” Donna demands desperately. “Why am I being expelled from the Citadel? What have I done?”

“You have begun to question the authority of the Time Lords.” The words come evenly from the man at the centre of the judgement panel, to which she has been summoned. “You can no longer be trusted to assist members of the High Council.”

“But why send me out of the Citadel?”

“Your home is outside the Citadel,” the man on the right reminds her. “Why should it be problematic for you to return there?”

“You haven't given me a proper explanation for my expulsion.” Donna glances suspiciously at the panel. “Is it only the High Council I'm not trusted with?” She rocks back on her heels. “I suppose it doesn't have anything to do with the rumours about the Doctor being summoned to stand trial?”

“Enough!” The chairman turns to the guard standing behind Donna. “You will escort her out of the Citadel.”

“Yes, sir!”

Donna feels the sharp point of a staser in her ribs and decides not to bother arguing any further, although she can't help feeling that her instinct is correct and that somehow the Doctor's trial is behind this. Turning, she leaves the room without another word, the guard's boots echoing along the hallway ahead of her.

As she follows him along the hallway, another guard taking his place behind her, she thinks back to the rumours she heard about the Doctor being returned to Gallifrey. At first, she had dismissed the suggestion of a trial. After all, considering how often he has saved the planet, or even the wider Universe, why would they want to do that to him?

And besides, he had been tried for interference before – tried and found guilty, forced to regenerate and exiled to Earth as punishment.

Why put him through that again?

What she really can't understand, though, is why the Time Lords would find it necessary to evict her from the Citadel.

Do they really believe that she could somehow help the Doctor?

The idea is laughable.

But it wouldn't the first time that something so crazy was right

And if that's the case, she can't possibly let them send her away and leave the Doctor to the dangers that the Time Lords present to him.

For a moment, she remembers each time when the Doctor has come back to Gallifrey, how he has found friends who have helped him out of tight places. She can’t help wondering if there’s a way for her find similar assistance.

She knows that, if Councillor Flavia were still alive, she would never be in this position. Since the Councillor's death, however, the High Council has been taken over by Time Lords who have no sympathy for either the Doctor or herself.

“This way, ma'am,” the guard says sternly as Donna momentarily hesitates.

“Where are we going?”

“The Great South Doors.”

“But my home is via the Northern exit,” she objects, stopping dead. “How am I meant to walk half-way around the Citadel without dying, considering the dangers that are out there?!”

“The Council is not concerned by such matters.”

“No?” She takes a half-step towards, and the guard steps back, perhaps wary of an attack. “Well, I am!”

And with that she ducks down a passage that, she knows from experience, twists and turns in the most complicated manner.

“Stop!” The voices of the guards are clear, and then there is a buzz from one of the stasers as the deadly bolt hits a wall near her head. “Halt! Come back!”

“Not a chance,” she mutters to herself, taking a quick left, then right and left again. Even with the support that the guards will immediately summon, as she continues to duck along the passages in an unpredictable pattern, she thinks it will be a while before she's found.

She finds herself outside the entrance to the Chancellor's office, the place where she has spent so much of her employment. The room is unaccountably empty, but she doesn't have time to wonder where the secretary is.

Ducking inside, she uses Borusa's old voice-activated lock to open the passage between this room and the one-time Presidential office. A new office was created when Borusa took over the position, now such a long time ago, and Donna is relieved to remember that this room has been locked up and more or less abandoned ever since.

Securing the secret door, she remembers when she was last here, with Theta’s hand resting lightly on her shoulder as they hurried away from the threat of the Sontarans. None of them could ever have imagined at the time that the greatest danger Donna ever faced on Gallifrey would come from the Time Lords themselves.

The office is dark and silent when Donna arrives, but she knows the location of the light controls and turns them on at a low level, sinking into the chair behind the desk. She stares around at the lead-lined walls with their various cogs and wheels, incredibly thankful that Theta ordered the room to be decorated in this way. It may once have prevented the Vartans from reading his thoughts when he masqueraded as their ally, but now it means that no one on Gallifrey will be able to detect her location.

On the desk is a small screen that, she knows from experience, provides access to the Matrix. She is thankful to remember that this is a secure connection, created for the President, which is completely undetectable from other places in the Citadel. Relieved that she isn’t going to be cut off from all information, she switches it on and mentally requests a search through the Matrix that will bring her any information about the Doctor.

“They say the Doctor will manage to escape again, as he always seems to do,” one of the newest members of the High Council is murmuring to another as they sit on long benches that seem to over look a large room.

“Escape?” The other man chuckles. “How can he possibly escape? The Inquisitor will find him guilty and there can only be one consequence of that finding. The execution is likely to take place immediately the trial is concluded.”

“You seem very certain that the Inquisitor will find the Doctor guilty.”

“She has her instructions,” his friend says darkly. “She knows what is expected of her.”

“No!” Donna stares at the figures on the screen, all strangers to her, and horror grows inside her at the thought that the Doctor has been brought back only to face a farcical trial and his death.

The question is what can be done to alert him. “The trial,” she mutters to herself, hoping to find any information in the Matrix. “Where is the trial being held?”

The image on the screen changes, showing a large space station that is vaguely familiar to Donna from her work with the various Presidents due to their dealings with the Celestial Intervention Agency. However she feels her hearts sink at the realisation that, while she is a fugitive, it will be impossible for her to get aboard and contact the Doctor.

She can’t help wondering, though, if there’s any way she can help him here on Gallifrey.

The image of the space station zooms in again, back into the room containing the large benches, and Donna starts at the sight of a man with curly blond hair and a brightly coloured coat. Facing him across the room is a figure in black with silver highlights on his large collar that identifies him as the prosecutor, or, in the proper terminology of Gallifreyan law, the Valeyard.

“Doctor,” Donna murmurs, reaching out to touch the screen. She hesitates over the two men for a fraction of time before her finger comes to rest on the blond man, who is staring at an image of himself that shows on a screen of the Matrix that has been installed in the court room. His image is sitting staring at nothing and whistling.

“I don’t remember that!” he cries suddenly.

The Valeyard turns to the Doctor with a sneer. “That is your defense now, is it? Amnesia, forgetfulness.” He turns to the Inquisitor with a deferential gesture. “This is a tactic, Sagacity, because the Doctor knows what the Matrix will show.”

“Is that your defense, Doctor?” the woman demands.

“What?” Donna can clearly see the confusion on the Doctor’s face.

“Amnesia,” the Inquisitor reminds him.

“No,” he protests.

Donna crosses her arms on the desk and rests her head on them with a weary sigh, letting the words from the courtroom play over her, including footage of events that the Valeyard seem to believe will help to condemn the Doctor. However the Doctor himself is quick to object.

“No!” he exclaims, leaping to his feet as the Valeyard stops the film. “That is not me!”

“Oh, yes, it is!” the Valeyard insists. “You were overcome by terror, Doctor. You had interfered yet again, and this time your one aim was to escape unscathed. You! You only! Your friends didn't matter.”

“No!” Donna herself exclaims aloud as the Doctor echoes her denial. “He wouldn’t do that!”

“You realise the Matrix of Time cannot lie,” the Valeyard says nastily.

“Can’t it?”

The Doctor’s response is muted and causes Donna to frown, even as the Valeyard restarts the film.

She can’t help believing him, that he genuinely doubts that this behaviour is something he would ever do. She, too, has her doubts, because although the Doctor has become somewhat different from the Theta she remembers so fondly, her glimpses of him over time cannot persuade her that he is the man being shown in that footage. He is many things – unpredictable, spontaneous, surprising – but she has no reason to consider him cruel or to believe that he would gleefully torture his companion, as the footage shows him doing.

She turns her mind to an event she knows has been falsified in Gallifreyan history – the assassination of the President, now so many epons earlier.

“Footage of that event,” she demands of the Matrix, leaving a small window open to show the action in the courtroom.

Watching the record of the assassination, she stares at the figure of Chancellor Goth behind the President, and a shadowy figure that is visible on the very edge of the image. The events are as she has always imagined – that Goth would fire a shot and the President would die – but now it seems as if Goth’s shot was aimed at this strange figure on the edge of the screen, rather than at the President himself.

She replays the footage countless times, remembering when she was told that Goth was being painted as a hero who died while trying to save the President from death at the Master’s hands.

If this is the history being presented to the citizens of Gallifrey, and if she has memory of Goth alive after the events of the Matrix show him dead, then surely that is proof that the Matrix may be interfered with.

The Doctor’s voice draws her attention back to the courtroom.

“It was never like that!” he is objecting as another reel of footage comes to an end.

“How can you be certain?” the Valeyard demands. “You have no clear memory of the incident. And as we all know, the Matrix never lies.”

“I wonder,” the Doctor remarks quietly.

The Inquisitor’s voice reveals her impatience. “May we continue? I do grow tired of these constant interruptions.”

“But it was never like that,” the Doctor objects.

“Enough, Doctor.” The Inquisitor speaks firmly. “The Matrix does not lie. It cannot lie. You are aware of that fact, so why persist in these silly statements.”

“But it can,” Donna says aloud as she stands up from the desk. “It does. And if I can prove it, then the Doctor must be cleared of all charges, no matter what orders the Inquisitor has received!”

She lets herself out of the office, forgetting all about the guards who will be hunting for her, and manages to arrive unchallenged at the Archive.

Here, too, new staff have been appointed since she was dismissed as assistant to the High Council. There are no friendly smiles as she appears, only looks of mild curiosity.

“I need to speak to whoever is currently in charge of the Matrix,” she says to the person at the desk.

It’s only as he walks away that Donna remembers she’s a fugitive.

Swallowing painfully, she glances over her shoulder at the door before returning her gaze to the man she spoke to first. She can see his silhouette through the frosted glass, clearly in discussion with another person at the inner desk. After a moment, the second man rises and comes out to the desk.

“I understand you are enquiring about the Matrix,” he says slowly, and she can’t read the expression of his blue eyes.

“Partly.” She eyes the man up and down before deciding that she is going to have to take a chance if she’s to help the Doctor. “I would like to discuss some of the technical aspects of the Matrix. In private.”

For a moment, the Time Lord studies her in silence before nodding. “Very well.” He gestures in the direction of a door that leads to one of the small rooms off the central Archive. “Come this way.”

In spite of her misgivings, Donna leads the way into the small room and takes the seat on one side of the table, watching as the man sits down opposite her.

“What can I do for you?” he asks solemnly.

Sighing inwardly, Donna gathers her thoughts before she begins. “I have reason to believe that someone is tampering with the Matrix.”

There’s a moment of silence.

“You do realize,” the man says slowly, “that such a thing is impossible.”

“So I have heard people say,” she replies. “But I believe I know a way to test it.”

“Really?” The man raises an eyebrow. “And how would you go about something like that?”

She tries desperately to suppress her memory of how the Doctor looked after his visit inside the Matrix, and how close he came to dying there. “I want to go into the Matrix.”

There’s another long, painful silence before the Time Lord sits back in his chair. “Well,” he says slowly, “I have never had a volunteer before.”

“You do now,” she says with an attempt at a smile.

“I see.” He eyes her up and down again before standing up. “I shall have to discuss it with the Castellan.”

Donna’s hearts sink at this, but before she can say anything or object, the Archivist is gone and the door closes behind him with a solid click that suggests it has been locked.

Leaping out of the chair, she throws herself out the door, surprised to find that it is made of heavy iron that doesn’t even cause the sound of her fists pounding against it to echo.

“It was very unwise of you to remain in the Citadel, Donna.”

“What?” Donna stares around at the sound of the Archivist’s voice. “Who – how did you know my name?”

“The Valeyard left orders for everyone to be aware of any attempt you might make to assist the Doctor.”

The Valeyard.

Donna feels suddenly ill.

So the High Council predicted – perhaps using the Matrix itself – that she would try to get involved with the trial. They are clearly determined to keep her away, and she can’t help wondering if that means she might have been able to save Theta after all – not that she will have much chance now.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asks, trying to keep the traitorous tremor out of her voice – trying, she suddenly realises, to behave like the Doctor.

“Simply to ensure,” the Archivists says coolly, “that you will never interfere with the High Council and its dealings with the Doctor ever again.”

There is a sudden hiss and Donna looks around sharply, seeing as one corner of the room suddenly seems to be filled with fog.

“No!” she exclaims in horror, pressing herself against the far wall as she realises what they are doing. “You’ll kill me!”

“Those are the Valeyard’s orders.”

There is a soft click as he clearly turns off the communications device, and Donna stares as the room begins to fill with the deadly smoke. She knows that even her respiratory bypass won’t save her from the asphyxiating nerve gas that will cause her entire body to seize up.

It’s not so bad for me.

Words from a dream drift into her mind and she can only sigh at that imagined conversation, remembering the rapidly changing emotions that accompanied those moments when Donna saw the Sontarans in her mind for the first time.

She can’t help wishing fervently that the Doctor was here with her now, even if it meant them dying together.

Her mind still full of her imaginary adventures with the Doctor, she does the one thing she can at this moment to save her own life – she readies herself to enter a comatose state that might just last long enough to protect her from the worst effects of the gas. At the same time, she prepares her mind to prompt her body to regenerate as soon as she begins to regain consciousness.

She doesn’t know if either or both of those are enough for her to survive something that is designed to kill a Time Lord, but, in order to let her save Theta, she has to hope it’s enough.

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