Title: Slow Burning into Out "Something's wrong," Ace said, breaking from their huddle - cuddle - and darting off to recalibrate and put her own special touch on the explosives. Even high-and-mighty wars like this one, occassionally descended into shoving matches whose outcomes were determined by things going 'boom.'
She'd wanted to help. Wanted to help him.
President Romana had wanted the War restricted as much as possible - if the Time Lords started letting the Gelph and others fight, who could know just what the Daleks would recruit or create for their side. But Romana had allowed her old friend to bring in one of his other friends.
She'd wanted to help, so he let her. Let her rejoin him, even though a Time War was no place for a plain normal human, let alone for the singularness that was Ace.
She had been there at the fall of Arcadia with him. She'd felt outright redundant watching it unfold and infold; but the Doctor knew that, if she hadn't been there, if he'd been alone, he would've gong mad...might "have gone Dark Side" as she put it, referring to a movie she'd seen just before he'd come back for her. Or was that another Companion's remark? the Doctor briefly wondered, last week's temporal memetic concussion space-mine still affecting him, a bit.
"Ace?" the Doctor asked. "ACE?"
"Moment, Doctor," not saying Professor - that was another Doctor; she knew they were the same, and she liked Nine...but she also liked him more than him. 'Nothing personal.'
Done. Heading back, to him.
She didn't get far enough fast enough.
Traditionally, Time Lords didn't say 'my heart(s) broke.'
Intellectually, the Doctor knew why humans had such phrases. Particularly now, as the not-very-distant-at-all sound of detonations rending material wrenched his hearts even in here.
His eyes burned with the fire of what was left unto him, even as the fires around him all extinguished.
Ace/Nine
"Something's wrong," Ace said, breaking from their huddle - cuddle - and darting off to recalibrate and put her own special touch on the explosives. Even high-and-mighty wars like this one, occassionally descended into shoving matches whose outcomes were determined by things going 'boom.'
She'd wanted to help. Wanted to help him.
President Romana had wanted the War restricted as much as possible - if the Time Lords started letting the Gelph and others fight, who could know just what the Daleks would recruit or create for their side. But Romana had allowed her old friend to bring in one of his other friends.
She'd wanted to help, so he let her. Let her rejoin him, even though a Time War was no place for a plain normal human, let alone for the singularness that was Ace.
She had been there at the fall of Arcadia with him. She'd felt outright redundant watching it unfold and infold; but the Doctor knew that, if she hadn't been there, if he'd been alone, he would've gong mad...might "have gone Dark Side" as she put it, referring to a movie she'd seen just before he'd come back for her. Or was that another Companion's remark? the Doctor briefly wondered, last week's temporal memetic concussion space-mine still affecting him, a bit.
"Ace?" the Doctor asked. "ACE?"
"Moment, Doctor," not saying Professor - that was another Doctor; she knew they were the same, and she liked Nine...but she also liked him more than him. 'Nothing personal.'
Done. Heading back, to him.
She didn't get far enough fast enough.
Traditionally, Time Lords didn't say 'my heart(s) broke.'
Intellectually, the Doctor knew why humans had such phrases. Particularly now, as the not-very-distant-at-all sound of detonations rending material wrenched his hearts even in here.
His eyes burned with the fire of what was left unto him, even as the fires around him all extinguished.