The 10th Professor's Adventures – Minisode 3
Sometimes peace and quiet is all that one hopes for in-between adventures in the multiverse. Sometimes you get a super villain, sometimes you get an errant child in charge of an empire, or sometimes you get something as simple as a child who had their cat run up a tree in fear. It isn't one to question what brings one to the next universe to see, to explore the possibilities. So, during one of their breaks in the void, The Professor found himself eyeing through one of his photo albums again, an elegant Number One emblazoned on the cover and on the spine to denote the incarnation, as he stared at the last page of the album. Lost in memory, he began to smile, remembering the simpler times, as Cynthia screamed in from another room. Without another word, The Professor dove out of his red chair running into the hallway, to check what was wrong, sending the album to the floor, and a single picture falling out of it. The Last Picture. A Man, with Brown hair, sitting in a red velvet chair, facing away from the camera, the walls a slight lime green in tone from the original console room, the doors open in front of the chair. Next to him, a small diner table, with a Sprite sitting on it, as the man overlooks the beautiful stitched up quilt like pattern of the multiverse....
The Professor lay back in his old chair as he watched what had become of his most favorite sites. There were certain sections of the multiverse he always came by to see, before going off to explore again. He could still hear Starbright yelling at him now, saying they were off schedule sometimes, or hearing bits and pieces of conversation as he wandered the halls on certain hours, like a memory or a phantom of the past. He slowly looked to his old shoes, setting them aside, as he lifted up his ankle, to see the slightly spreading cracked like pattern on it.
He had been careless. Since deciding on one fateful day to do more than just be a scientist, he was always careful, but he wanted to help others. He could remember now, this fantastic battlefield, that Starbright read in one of her books, and so off they went for study. He can picture the moment, him getting ready for another picture, ready for their research, when he saw it. This little child, barely older than 4 years old, holding a bear, staring. Just staring. At him? At her surroundings? He couldn't tell, not even now, rethinking about that moment, but that was the moment his life...his lives, changed forever. When he decided to help those who the stories don't talk about. The unknown.
It was on one of these adventures, as old as he was getting, he got careless. Walked right into a villain's trap and set it off, with a poisoned dart hitting him right in the ankle. And now, as he sat there, watching the quilt, he knew. Either old age would take him, take his original face, or the poison would, as he lost the fighting battle with it.
He eyed to the table, taking the Sprite off of the table and taking a drink before returning his gaze out the doors. “I don't regret it, you know.”
The TARDIS thrummed in response.
“I don't. Not one moment. If I could I would want to do it for the rest of my lives. Star would say it was for research, but no. It's meeting them. Meeting the people you don't hear about. You don't see in the pages or the pictures.”
The TARDIS whirled a bit.
The Professor chuckled. “Yes, Yes I know, I would have to be more careful....” He coughed, from deep within his lungs. After the coughing fit ended, he slowly sighed. “I am scared a bit, you know....But New Life is, just another adventure, don't you think?”
Slowly, he laid back in his red velvet chair, taking long breaths, before the breaths became raspy, troubled, labored. “Like following....” He took another breath. “The second star, wouldn't you agree?”
The TARDIS thrummed sadly, which prompted him to slowly extend his hand to the door, and rub it with his finger, slightly.
“Don't be sad, Old friend...” He spoke, getting more and more tired with each word. “I'll...I'll be.....alright...” With those words, The First Professor shut his eyes, and went still, as the doors slowly shut in front of him, and the TARDIS took off to parts unknown.
The Professor slowly picked up the final photo from the ground, staring at it. With a slight smile on his face, he returned it to the final page of the First Photo Album, and returned it to the bookshelf, making sure to clean the spines of the other photo albums as he eyed them over. “One decision, can make all the difference in a lifetime....” He spoke to himself, before giving a chuckle. “Well, Multiple Lifetimes, anyway.”
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