The Fall of Arcadia (Book ONE)

Chapter 13- Part one.

"It's gone, Theta, it's really gone. Mama, Papa, cousin Electra, Nana Willow. They're all dead." I wept, burying my face in his shoulder. "I wasn't there to fight, I could have saved them!"

I felt him pull me onto his lap and stroke my back soothingly, rocking my back and forth. "No, you couldn't my brave little Dragon. What happened that day had to happen and you couldn't have changed one line of it. God knows I wish I could. I lost Arianna that day"

I looked up at him, shocked. "Ria? Little Ria?" He nodded, his own eyes filling with tears. Arianna, or Ria, was his baby sister, only 14 when the war started. They were as close as I was to my twin, except without the madness barrier.

"She was shot down by a Dalek and another got her right after. No chance of Regeneration. She was saving me at the time." He looked up, trying not to let his tears fall, but I made him look back down at me and one fell free, breaking the barrier.

"My Darling, that wasn't your fault. Don't you ever believe that Ria's death was your fault. If anyone's, it was Rassilions for starting the War in the first place. Is that why you did it, end the War?"

"Yes. She died fighting a War that had nothing to do with her. 60 years old, and killing. How many more would have been brought up to do that if I hadn't have stopped it?"

"You did the right thing. No More." I whispered, seeing words on a wall from after I was hidden. I felt him flinch.

"Do you know how many children were on Gallifrey that day? 4.6 Billion. And I killed them."

"To save the infinite amount more in the rest of the universe, Legacy! What you did that day, you did without choice, and no one can blame you." I cried, not able to contain my grief at his guilt.

"But I can, because I did it. I had the choice to let the War wage on, or kill so many innocent children alongside the Daleks. And even then some survived. I don't deserve to be Gallifreys Legacy anymore, I never deserved it in the first place." he shook his head, tears still falling.

Gallifrey had a tradition, one similar to Akha-Tens Queen of Years. The Gallifrey Legacy, once one dies, the next child born, be they male or female, continues the Legacy. My Doctor was the last one.

"I don't deserve the ability to see the future, or to have you, but we make do with what we have and save the people we can. And if anyone deserves the title, it's you, my Darling." I told him, cupping his cheek.

"What do you mean, you don't deserve me? Seraphina, I love you, more than the universe itself and I always will. I don't deserve you with all your kindness and compassion. You could have anyone you want, but you've chosen me, and that makes me the happiest man alive." I stared at him, then pulled him by the lapels of his stripey pyjamas into a kiss.

We pressed deeper and deeper into the kiss, pulling away breathless and rumpled about 5 minutes later. "I love you too. I love you as much as my human heart can manage and when I get it back, with all my second heart too."

He kissed me again, rolling me onto the ground and kissing my neck, trying to find my weak spot. Which he did and made me squirm. I guided his mouth back to mine and wrapped my legs around his waist. Then I flipped him over and started trying to find his soft spot, his pulse.

He growled and slipped his hands up the back of my shirt. I shivered at his cold hands but tangled my own into his soft brown hair. How long have I been waiting for this? How many nights at the Academy did I wish that he had chosen me over his studies or that I had married him, not Amara Phillips.

I pulled away a moment later, breathless. "Not here" I muttered, still sitting on top of him.

"Hey, sorry. Too soon?" he asked, sitting up and wrapping his arms around me. I hadn't realised that I'd undone the buttons of his pyjama shirt and his stomach and chest were showing.