.cybermen and ships.[open]

[the valeyard]

The TARDIS had landed right in the middle of a large ship on its way to Arcadia. He had visited said planet many times before. By now it was home to various human and other alien colonies. It wasn’t really the planet the ship was navigation towards to what caught his attention though. It was what the ship was carrying without the knowledge of its captain.

Only a few feet away from where his TARDIS had lander there were about a dozen coffins, all carrying inside of them about a dozen frozen cybermen. The creatures were in deep hibernation, but could be awaken at any minute. It was clear that these foolish humans had no idea what was so close to them. What they were taking to their future home.

He doubted that the person who had taken the cybermen into the ship even had any idea what they really were. The information he had gathered led exactly to that conclusion. They apparently belonged to some rich lord who had inherited them only months before the trip. The fool believed the coffins to be simply valuable artifacts. Coffins like those of the Egyptians carrying simple mummies inside.

He began to wonder about what to do with such important information. He could allow the humans to continue taking the dangerous aliens to their new home. But he couldn’t be certain that they would ever awake once in the planet. It could take centuries for them to discover how the complicated mechanism of the coffins worked.

It would be more interesting releasing them and maybe helping them conquer the ship, then converting the passengers into new cybermen. Help a dying race per say. The colonist in Arcadia would let a ship they believe carries their love ones only to discover the surprise inside.

He smiled before returning to his TARDIS. He needed to make some preparations before moving on with his plan. For once cybermen couldn’t be trusted. He needed to have a way of escape if they decided to turn on him. Thankfully he had his own tricks to accomplish that, plus weapons capable of taking a cybermen down with a single shot. They were little gifts for him from the Time Lords during the Time War.

Finally ready he returned to were the cybermen were being kept set on to awakening one of them. The Cyber-Controller. As the Cybermen stepped away from the coffin he smiled. “I have an offer for you.”

[The Tenth Doctor]

He was alone...again. That seemed to be the trend with him these days. Pick up a human companion, watch said companion come to some terrible end, travel on his own for a little bit, and then pick up a new companion, only to repeat the bitter cycle all over again. The Doctor couldn't help it if he always needed someone by his side. If he hadn't found Rose during his last incarnation, who knows what would have happened to him. She had turned him into a better man. His previous self had been born in battle. Having people by his side to help protect kept him from delving deep inside of himself.

But now the loneliness, bitterness, and years of innocent people dying because of him were starting to catch up to the Doctor. In his moments in the TARDIS, he couldn't help but think of all of the people who had set foot in the TARDIS with him, and now all of them were gone. All of them had someone else that they needed to look after. Every one of them seemed to think that the Doctor could handle looking out for himself. But how wrong were they to think that. He didn't travel with humans just because he needed someone to talk to. They helped him out in so many other ways.

The Doctor had spent too much time moping around in the TARDIS by himself. He had to go somewhere...anywhere. So, he set a her to take a path to nowhere in particular, and when she did re-materialize, he had no idea where he might be. It would have been a simple manner to check the scanner, but where was the fun in that? He would find out where he was soon enough.

The Time Lord rushed over to the TARDIS doors and swung them open. He peeked out, and the Cybermen standing there were the least interesting view in sight because there was someone else there with him; someone else that was much scarier than any metal man could be. But now was not the time to let that definite fear at seeing the other Time Lord shine through. Instead, the Doctor gave a cheery, "Oh, hello!" and stepped outside of the TARDIS. He shut the doors behind him. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Carry on. You won't even know that I'm here." The Doctor leaned up against the TARDIS and folded his arms across his chest.

[the valeyard]

It wasn’t easy coming to terms with Cybermen. Their egos were as bad as those of Davros and his Daleks. Frankly he wouldn’t want to be in a room were these two species ever met on bad terms. Which he knew would be in the only way they would ever meet. But finally after much talking and convincing them he didn’t want to be “upgraded” they were getting somewhere.

The Valeyard had explained his plan and idea. He would help them get to the planet and let the roam free around the colonist. He on the other hand would be able to take anything he wanted from the planet, any weapon or machine without interference from his Cyber allies. He doubted the cybermen would keep their side of the bargain. But that didn’t bother him much. He had his own way and tricks that they didn’t know.

He could easily turn on them and end their existence if he so wished. He had taken some ideas from an old friend, the Rani, to remote control his TARDIS from a short distance. In case he had to make a quick escape he had the upper hand against the cybermen. They didn’t even know who he was or who he had at one point been. If they knew of his relationship with their old time enemy, the Doctor, they would have shot him in an instant.

They knew about him been a Time Lord though, which meant they were still in a high alert. “Now we can begin to work…” The Valeyard stopped talking when a familiar sound filled the room. The sound of a TARDIS materializing and since there weren’t that many Time Lords running around the universe these days. He could guess who it was. He just hoped it wasn’t the brightly dressed ones it the one with the umbrella.

As the doors opened neither of this two came out. Instead came the one he remembered to be the Tenth regeneration, one that unfortunately already knew of his existence then. Another irritating one, well, all of them were that. Why couldn’t he meet the first body and end the Doctor’s existence right there? Even if it meant he would cease to exist too now that the Time Lords were gone and wouldn’t be able to control that paradox.

“Doctor...” He tried to keep his voice smooth and emotionless, even if the fact that he was there could destroy his plans “it’s so good to see you again. Are you here on vacation too? Too tired of committing genocide around the world?” Oh, he wondered where he was on his timeline. Things got so interesting in those final days.

[The Tenth Doctor]

The Valeyard was everything that was evil inside of the Doctor. He was the one man who really knew about all of the dark crevices heading underneath that cheery smile of the Doctor's. Others sometimes got a glimpse of the Doctor's dark side when he was angry or unforgiving but they always thought those moments were the exceptions to the general rule of the Doctor being some kind of a hero. How wrong they all were. The Doctor rarely got thanked for saving whole civilizations and planets, and that was fine with him because, more often than not, he knew that he didn't deserve their thanks.

Two Time Lords meeting, no matter which two they were, was always going to turn into an interesting time, especially if they had known each other in the past and now were both in different bodies. He didn't know where the Valeyard was at his point in his timeline, just like the Valeyard didn't know what the Doctor had been up too lately. Thank God, because, as soon as the Valeyard found out that the Doctor had just tried to change a fixed point in time, the Doctor would hear no end of it from the other Time Lord.

Even the question about being tired of committing genocide, with no emotion in the Valeyard's voice whatsoever, was hard enough to take right now. "I do what I have to do," he said, leaving it at that. He could keep on singing that refrain to himself all that he wanted to; it didn't make dealing with all of the losses he had suffered any easier. He wasn't above lying to others but the lies he often told himself were even worse.

But there were more immediate issues at hand right now, like the Cybermen standing around who, thankfully, seemed more interested in what was happening between these two Time Lords than in trying to kill the Doctor. "And you...Throwing your lot in with the Cybermen now, I see. Although, I can't imagine why. But--" The Doctor pushed himself off the side of the TARDIS. "--I don't suppose you're going to tell me. Still it's worth a shot. What are you doing here, Valeyard?" Maybe today would be that one day that an evil mastermind finally decided to share their plans with him.

[the valeyard]

The Valeyard continued to look carefully at the Doctor. He needed to be careful around the other Time Lord. Already once he’d died at his hands and during their meetings he had ended in the losing end of things. This time he didn’t want that to happen again. Without the Time Lords around he was free to do whatever he wanted. Dying at the Doctor’s hands would be an embarrassing way to go after all the freedom he now had.

The Valeyard laughed at the Doctor’s words. He was always trying to find the good in his actions. Trying to keep his mind at rest probably from all the guilt he felt. He rolled his eyes, also keeping an eye on the cybermen who he knew was more than ready to shoot the Doctor on the spot.

Or completely terrified because he was in the room and it was alone. Of course that was if they were capable of feeling fear. He couldn’t tell anymore. If the Daleks who were also emotionless feared him why wouldn’t the Cybermen?

“Now Doctor you don’t have to explain yourself to me. I know you better than anyone else. You do things worthy of me after all I come from you.” The Valeyard took this time to walk around the room, hoping to walk closer to his TARDIS. The only weapon he had only worked with machines like the cybermen. Against the Doctor they would be of very little use.

“So where exactly are you in our timeline? Of course things work different now you’ve made different choices. But I think I still have an idea. You know I don’t really want to give anything away. River Song? Have you met her already? I crossed paths with her some years back, lovely lady.” She’d tried killing him, though he wasn’t sure if it had been because she knew who he was or because she wanted to kill someone.

“But I do like keeping an eye on you. Right after I came out of the E-Zone I almost crossed paths with the leather wearing you. You were with that lovely Rose girl. Too bad about what happened to her of course. But I always said you shouldn’t be allowed to keep pets around.” The Valeyard smirked. He’d used something similar during the Doctor’s trial. Making him believe with his stupidity and disregard for rules had caused the death of a companion.

[The Tenth Doctor]

They were just words. The Doctor had to keep on reminding himself of that. They were all distant memories. He couldn't let any of it get to him because he knew that's exactly what the Valeyard was trying to do; the other Time Lord was trying to rile him up. The Doctor knew very well that anger wasn't an emotion he could afford right now. Let the Valeyard talk about River--a woman who had known everything about the Doctor, even though the Doctor had known nothing about her. Let him mention Rose, who was now in the parallel world with the Meta-Crisis Doctor.

But losing Rose...Having Martha leave to take care of her family...Having to wipe all of Donna's memories of her time with him so her brain wouldn't burn up and kill her. And those were all just the most recent instances of his companions having to move on with their lives, either by their own choice or against their will. Maybe traveling on his own was for the best. He had been doing quite all right without a companion so far. Yes, it could get very lonely at times but that was a small price to pay for the fact that no human beings were having their lives turned upside down because of him.

No. He couldn't let himself start thinking like that. That was exactly what the Valeyard wanted. "Talk...Talk...Talk..." he said, making the appropriate hand gesture of someone who loves to blabber on and on. "That's all you do. I'm not the same man I was the last time you saw me, literally and figuratively. Words are just that...Words."

A lot of those words that the Doctor had just spoken felt like lies and maybe they really were. Maybe that was what happened when he ended up traveling on his own without a human with him to help keep him a good man. He had been a complete mess before meeting Rose; and he could very well be reverting back towards that state of mind now.

[Rose Tyler]

*I somehow managed to miss this reply, will reply as soon as I can.*