My muse suddenly insisted I post this. I don't know why because the characters are Ten and Peri and even the author's note for this is TL;DR, but anyway... I guess my muse lost patience, I did finish this about ten weeks ago. If you are one of the five people ;) who wants to read these characters, please grab a tissue first.
Title: All That's Left of My World
Author:
eloriekam/
eloriekamRating: Teen
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Characters: Ten, Peri
Summary: He was callous in that tunnel because he didn't understand, and by the time he understood, he was too scarred to remember the conversation for long. When he recalls, he has to go apologize to her, because he was so very wrong.
Word Count: ~5150
(Long) Author's Notes: I got the idea for this story while watching the
Trial of a Time Lord discs last summer, and also deciding that Six is a rather underrated Doctor although my first impression of him wasn't that great. Six and Peri have an exchange in "The Mysterious Planet" (quoted and italicized material in the fic) that, to me, just begged for a post-Time War Doctor to go back and apologize to her for, because he can understand it after. Then, of course, Ten wouldn't shut up, then the two of them wouldn't shut up, so it's a bit before they actually get to it. A significant amount of time has passed for Peri, so her character development is YMMV. Ten is plucked from sometime post-JE. The first nine paragraphs (inc. italics) are some internal narration of Eight, Nine, or that other bloke. Also, I have to admit I made myself cry writing some of the material toward the end, so you may or may not need a tissue handy.
"This cinder we're standing on is all that's left of my world. Everything I knew." -Peri, 'The Mysterious Planet'
( And all he'd done was tell her that nothing lasted forever, at the same time believing in his heart that his ancient world and race could outlast it all. )