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This felt hopeless, traveling alone. He wanted to bring Ruby but knew she couldn't come. This wouldn't be fun for her; she'd only want to stay home more after seeing what the doctor would do for the people he cares about. How merciful he had been, until now. He would tear apart universes to find Rogue, though he won’t admit it out loud, or even to himself until the aftermath. It was hardly a conscious thought, he wasn’t even aware of what he was willing to do, what he was about to do.
He didn't know where to start. He tried to hack the tri-form in hopes there would be a trace of a location, but nothing. After days of getting nothing from them, and practically begging the TARDIS to run more and more tests, trying to scan the universe for where he might be, the Doctor remembered he literally has Rogue’s ship, he can track his last known whereabouts and see where he might go-
Not only was the physical ship a mess, so was all of the data it held. No folders, super disorganized. Information was all over the place, but also, most of it was lazily written and stored. So many misspellings of simple words as if he was half asleep when putting data in. The Doctor laughed to himself at this.
Either way, the ship should have information on Rogue, where he’s been, where he’s from. He knew the Doctor would look through the information on his ship, it was in the way he said his last words, ‘Do what you must.’ Though it felt too intimate, the Doctor knew it was necessary.
The most the doctor could find on Rogue is that he’s from one of earth's colonies in the 51st century, nothing more, so that's where he’ll go.
“Have you seen this man?” ended with heads down, pretending they heard nothing. After hours, the Doctor found a merchant, trading information for food.
“That’s Thane’s boy, he hasn’t been around in a long time. Once war broke out, he left with a friend, and no one has seen him since.”
‘This must’ve been who he traveled with,’ the Doctor thought to himself. A twinge of jealousy struck through his core.
“Is Thane still around?”
“Nah, he was one of the first to go, firing squad.”
“I’m sorry.”
The man shakes his head, “We’ll all move on, keep livin’ regardless.” He gestures to the picture of Rogue, “How d’ya know ‘em?”
“He’s a close friend. He, uhm,” it’s always difficult informing families or close friends what has become of their loved one at his hands. “He went missing, I'm trying to find him.”
“I wish you the best. Bring him back sometime.”
“Thank you, I will.”
Back in the TARDIS, there was a beep from the dash. Thinking it was maybe Ruby, maybe another distress call, just like he's been dealing with for weeks, months, the Doctor ignores it. It’s been so long since he’s felt so tired, so helpless. Was this even worth it? The Doctor felt selfish as he lay down on his human mattress for the first time in what felt like centuries. Nearly forgetting that Rogue himself asked the Doctor to find him, nearly forgetting the fear in Rogue’s eyes as he fell to god-knows-where, The Doctor felt selfish on this mission to find a man he had just met.
After staring at the ceiling of the TARDIS for what felt like hours, he heard a faint whisper, “Doctor… Doctor…” Sitting up, listening intently, the Doctor couldn’t pinpoint where it might be coming from.
“Doctor…” Rogue?
Standing, dizzily, where was this voice coming from? Door opening, the voice not getting farther, the Doctor stumbled through the halls of the TARDIS.
“Doctor...” This went on for several minutes until the Doctor was running through the endless tunnels, scanning every room, slamming doors, trying to find where this voice was coming from. “PLEASE, I JUST-” a sob slips out from him, “I’m sorry, please.”
Turning one corner after another seemed pointless; the TARDIS never ends.
“Doctor... Doctor...” Running for 15 minutes? 3 Hours? Time was irrelevant until he found his way back to the Bridge, a face appearing in front of his out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of him.
“Find me.”
As the Doctor jumped backwards from Rogue’s face, he simultaneously jumped forward out of his bed. He awoke from his dream hyperventilating, drenched in sweat. The TARDIS always had a habit of communicating with him and other passengers in unconventional ways, and though this may have gotten his attention, was there no gentler way to wake an old man from his well needed rest?
Hardly having composed himself, still dressed in his same clothes as the day before, and maybe the day before that, he shot out of bed, holding onto furniture for support. He wasn’t quite recovered from his interrupted REM sleep.
Walking as fast as he could in his disheveled state, the Doctor found his way to the Bridge of the TARDIS a lot faster than in his dream. Searching for information on the dash was easier this morning than it had been in the months prior.
‘Chuldur located: Year 43 billion, four hundred and... ’
It took a second for the cogs in his brain to function and process this properly.
“Wh- Yes, YES! We’re going there,” the Doctor, nearly hysterical, pushes buttons on his dash, pulling levers. He’s actually going to find Rogue, actually. As much as he thought this mission would take longer, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up by himself.
-
This dwarf planet seemed, not even abandoned, but... empty? No matter how exhausted, he felt too close to his goal to rest now. Chuldur were detected here, but where were they?
-time skip because its 2am and i wanna go to bed-
-he’s found the Chuldur on the planet, and he’s sneaking up on them-
Chuldur were not easy to sneak up on, not because they’re perceptive (god knows they’re not), but because being in close proximity to them, especially multiple of them, could easily end in death, except no one will know your dead because they are playing as you, dressed as you. The only way one would know for a fact you are dead is if they see your real body dead. Even then, of course, there will be suspicions.
“I can’t believe that ‘Doctor’, sending us here with no way to return, nowhere to go. God knows where we are, when we are... We might as well die now, there's no point in living life like this here.”
“Y’know what I can’t believe? Is that you couldn’t kill that ‘Ruby’ girl.”
“Yeah right! I can’t believe you couldn’t tell that she wasn’t me!”
“You know what *I* can’t believe?” The Doctor interrupts as he comes out from his hiding spot.
“*I* can’t believe that the machine you sent you here was so faulty...”
The looks on each Chuldur’s faces could be described in 3 words: Surprised, confused, and angry as could be. Thats... 7 words I guess...
“I was promised that you’d be sent to another *dimension* where no one could find you, and where you could never return or hurt anyone ever again... Lot of good that did.”
“How did you...”
“Find you? It was quite easy actually.” The Doctor was the only one who could tell he was lying, of course. “Again, faulty machinery. Maybe due to the fact that the tri-form was only supposed to hold one or two beings and you lot... were a bit much?” He thought out loud to himself.
“Now where is he?”
The Chuldur looked at each other confused, then back at the Doctor, “Who?”
“C’mon, we all know you aren’t actual owls... What do you mean ‘who’? Rogue. The man sent here with you. How long have you been here?”
“We’ve only been here... a few months? I’m not quite sure, its not like we just have CALENDARS just LYING AROUND!”
“Calm down,” their ‘leader’ hissed, obviously not excited that the Doctor had shown up. “He’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Not sure, some ‘time agency’ showed up, took him while he was... held prisoner... and they refused to take us with them. So we’ve just been here.”
“Time agency? How long ago was that?”
“A week ago? Days seem to be longer here than on earth though, so I’d say a few days.”
“Any other information you can give me about this ‘time agency’?”
“Yeah, like we’d tell you anything!” the upset Chuldur snarked.
“Shut UP!” the leader hissed once more. “What would we get in return?”
“In return?” The Doctor laughed out loud, “You murdered *how* many people just in that night at the party? And how many people before that? How many people would you have killed before you felt satisfied?”
The Doctor was met with silence.
“Thats what I thought.” Swiftly turning on the balls of his feet to return to the TARDIS, one called after him.
“So you’re just going to leave us here?”
The Doctor didn’t turn around, reply, or show any sign of remorse. He knew leaving them was wrong, but it’s the price they must pay for all they’ve done.
Finding the Time Agency wasn’t going to be difficult. The Doctor knew right where to find it. He’s met many agents, fought some, traveled with a few, he’s even been asked to join more times than he can count.
For most people, just simply escaping the agency is near impossible, let alone breaking in AND out. But the Doctor isn’t most people. Even without rest, he knows this’ll be a piece of cake.