[32] time after time

[coolbowtie]

[Voice.]

[The Doctor comes on the line and it's almost hard to recognize that it's him. The usual cheery arrogance is completely gone, replaced by a maniac fear. He seems to be unsure of where he is or whom he is speaking to.]Hello! Is anyone there?! Don't just stand around, answer the bloody phone

Comments

[Phone]

[puzzlerprince]

[Even though he hasn't known the guy for very long, this is the first time Edward's heard the Doctor as anything but completely composed.]

What are you going on about, Doctor? Slow down.

[coolbowtie]

Ahh, Eddie.

[His voice sounds pained.]

There's been an accident... Someone's died... And the clock won't stop ticking... Ticking in my head.

[puzzlerprince]

An accident? What sort of an accident? Who's dead? What clock?

[coolbowtie]

The clock! Can't you hear it?! It's been bloody ticking nonstop. Can't shut it up.

[He hisses in pain.]

I don't know, someone's died and it's my fault.

[puzzlerprince]

Ticking? I can't hear any ticking.

[All he can hear is this guy breaking down. This is strange.]

I'm afraid I'm not quite following you, Doctor.

[coolbowtie]

Well, that's not unusual, is it?

[For a second, he's making fun of Eddie and it's business as usual, then the pounding in his head starts again.]

The clock ticking! Tick-tocking down... counting down until... the end.

[puzzlerprince]

Of what?

[coolbowtie]

Me.

[puzzlerprince]

You.

...you're dying.

[He repeats it once again, trying to make sense of all this. Some sort of an accident leading to a death supposedly at the Doctor's hands. And now his time is nearing an end? For a moment, Edward wonders if this is yet another of the town's games. Some kind of mental timer that winds on down until all who hear it die. But if that were the case, he'd have heard other panicked reactions like that on the phone. Whatever this is, it appears to only be affecting the Doctor. And no one else, right? Right?]

[coolbowtie]

No.

I'm going to die. On April 22 2011, at 5:02 in the afternoon.

That's how it all ends.

[puzzlerprince]

[So he knows exactly when he's supposed to die, then. Still...]

Question: Why should that frighten you? You're a Time Lord. You have the ability to travel wherever you want---whenever you want. You can easily avoid that date, can't you?

Though I suppose it hardly matters in the long run, now does it? Seeing as Mayfield's been so kind as to give you at least another six decades to mull things over. [Potentially more, if the decade itself is in a constant loop as well.]

[coolbowtie]

...You're right. Time is not the boss of me. I'm Time Lord Triumphant... But, no, no. It's a fixed point in time, last time I tried to change one, I killed my last body.

...I'm going to go back eventually. I always do.

[puzzlerprince]

...so this has happened to you before, then. Yet you're still here.

[coolbowtie]

I've died 10 times before.

But this isn't a death like that. This the end. The very end.

[puzzlerprince]

Ten...?!

And you're certain of this.

[coolbowtie]

Ten. I'm the eleventh.

...Yes. Amy... Rory... River... they saw it. Saw my end.