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“Oh no,” someone says from behind Narvin. The voice is unfamiliar to him, but the tone is one he finds himself using often. “I can’t have one easy day can I? What are you doing here?”
Narvin turns to see a woman in CIA robes looking at him as if she hopes he will just disappear and she can get on with her day. He knows that look well. This woman clearly knows this Gallifrey’s version of him and does not seem happy to see him.
Narvin wracks his brain for a believable story even though he’s sure he’s been staring long enough for it to be suspicious by now. He still doesn’t even know who this woman is, or why she recognizes him. This Gallifrey seems to operate similarly enough to his own, but he still can’t rule out some of the CIA’s harsher interrogation methods being used if this interaction goes the wrong way.
“Was I really this dense,” she mumbles under her breath, just barely loud enough for Narvin to hear.
Oh.
The woman standing in front of him is him. She’s his next regeneration, or at least what it would have been.
The revelation feels like a punch to the gut. He’s staring at a future he’ll never get to have. Encountering one of his future regenerations when he can practically still feel his lives being stolen feels like some type of cosmic joke.
Still, he can’t stop himself from taking in every detail of her appearance that he can. He’ll never get to be her, he knows that, but just for a second he lets himself pretend that he actually has a future. She’s shorter than him, though not by a lot. Her hair is also darker and longer, though again, not by a lot. They have the same eye color.
Narvin has never been much of a fan of change, he quite likes his current body, but looking into the eyes of a future he won’t get to experience still hurts.
“Look, I don’t know why you’re here,” other Narvin continues when he doesn't answer. “But unless there’s some world ending catastrophe going on, I am too busy to deal with a paradox right now.”
“It’s, it’s not that,” Narvin finally manages to stutter out. “It was just a mix up with a broken time ring.”
The other Narvin raises an eyebrow at him. She obviously doesn’t believe him. She is him, she knows herself well enough to see through his lie. To his relief she just sighs and runs a hand through her hair before stepping back.
“I have a meeting to get to in two microspans, it should last no more than twenty. Be gone by the time I get back here and we won’t have a problem. Got it?”
Narvin nods and they part without another word.
“Narvin,” Leela calls out as he approaches their designated meeting point. “I thought we were going to have to come looking for you. You did not get yourself into trouble again did you?”
“No, nothing like that.” She tilts her head at his answer. Now that she has her vision back he really can’t get anything past Leela. At least Romana seems none the wiser to his emotional state, or she’s ignoring the tension in his shoulders and the slight shake in his voice. Either way, he’s grateful he’ll only have to field questions from one of them when they return to the Axis.
As they step back through the portal Narvin looks back, hoping against all logic to catch a last glimpse of this universe's Narvin. She isn’t there of course. It’s only been fifteen microspans and they’re in a completely different area of the Capitol. He sighs and steps through the portal. She’s not his future and she never will be. It's best if he just forgets about her.