"Doctor, I-"
"Yeah."
The two sat there, the last two of their respective races. The last of the Trakenites and the last of the Time Lords.
Alone in the universe.
"I'm... I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Nyssa said. Ever the font of empathy, her heart ached for the Doctor, yet she could not imagine the agony that rested on his shoulders. He had told her all of it. The Final Day... the Moment... Rassilon's Final Sanction. All of it. "I don't think you-"
"Two point four seven billion."
"...I'm sorry?"
"On Gallifrey. The children. Two point four seven billion."
"Oh, Doctor, you-"
"I counted. It was one of the last things I did." The Doctor was once more not looking at her, instead looking out at the stars. "Before..."
"What other choice did you have?" Nyssa asked. "If you hadn't, they would have been destroyed by the Daleks or by the Time Lords just the same." She remembered the Entropy wave, the one that had consumed Traken, seeing it happen. This, however, was far beyond even that.
"There should have been another way." The reply came and, just for a second, Nyssa thought she heard the echo of the voice of the man she had known. Her Doctor.
"Are you... are you sure they're all...?" Nyssa asked, her voice trailing off as she hesitated to finish the thought.
"I'd know." The Doctor said, looking at her again, bringing his finger to tap his temple. "It feels like there's no one. Just me, now."
"I see." Nyssa said quietly. The silence hung there for a long, long while between them. The Doctor once more shifted to sit and look out the window. "What will you do now?"
"I don't know." The Doctor said as he gazed out at the stars. "I just don't know, Nyssa."
"Umm... pardon me, Administrator Nyssa?"
"Jarac, yes? What can I do for you?" Nyssa asked, getting up and walking over to a young man who had poked his head into the room.
"Administrator?" The Doctor asked, turning and looking over with curiosity.
"There's a patient over in Ward Seven that Doctor Trizaxa wants you to take a look at." Jarac said. "Something to do with some sort of empathic trauma?"
"Yes, I'll be there in a few minutes." Nyssa said. Jarac nodded, eyes flitting between her and the Doctor for a moment before he withdrew from the room. Nyssa turned around and gave a small gasp of surprise as the Doctor stood there now, towering over her.
"Sorry... did he say 'Administrator'?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes. I'm the Administrator here on Lister Medical Station." Nyssa said.
"Hang on, hang on a minute... last I left you... what was it? Terminus! Lazar's disease! The Garm! What happened there?" The Doctor asked. "I mean, obviously you found a cure-"
"I did, yes," Nyssa nodded, "The Garm and I. Last I heard, he had gone back to his homeworld now."
"And Terminus, Inc.?" The Doctor asked.
"Gone." Nyssa said. "But that was... quite some time ago, now. More than twenty years."
"Thirty-sixth century! I should have guessed." The Doctor clapped his hands. "And now you're running this place."
"Right." Nyssa said. "Part administrator, part doctor. Doing what I can to help the ones who need it the most."
"I'm really glad to hear that, Nyssa." The Doctor gave the first smile she'd seen out of him since he'd arrived on the station.
"A moment, though... if you didn't know I was here, then why did you come here?" Nyssa asked. The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, then stopped, his face scrunched up in puzzlement as he pondered the question.
"I... I dunno, really." The Doctor mused. "Out of all the places and all the times in the universe the TARDIS could have taken me to, it brings me here. It's like there was something drawing me here, pulling me here to this time and place." Nyssa looked worried as she feared the man might be having another post-regenerative manic episode, but suddenly the Doctor's entire expression changed into a more exuberant one. "Nah, probably nothing! Big coincidence! Never mind! Things to do!" He clapped his hands together once more. "Didn't that man say something about empathic trauma?"
"Leader."
"Status report."
"The station was not alerted to our presence. They are not aware that we have arrived."
"Excellent!"
"I shall take the advanced forces and begin our efforts to occupy the rest of the station."
"No! We must not lose focus."
"Leader?"
"The Restoration Lattice is to be located before all else. Once that is finished, we shall begin the conversion process. Send out the Cybermats for reconnaissance."
"At once!"
"Here we are. Ward Seven."
"This is just the one ward?"
"Yes. Each one houses around one hundred and fifty patients of various species." Nyssa said as she and the Doctor walked down the corridor at a comfortable pace. The Doctor had switched out of the patient top and bottoms for a green v-neck shirt, black pants, and a pair of boots along with it, his hands in the pockets of those pants. "You're rather fortunate the lost property had clothing in your size."
"Not the first time I've taken clothes from a hospital. Or the second, for that matter." The Doctor said dismissively as they came to the door to Room 702.
"Alright... Mr. Borro Glonir. He's a Tenza. Have you ever heard of them?" Nyssa asked.
"I can't say that I have, no." The Doctor replied.
"Empathic race. Like the cuckoo bird on Earth, they infiltrate the species of whatever planet or culture they find themselves in." Nyssa said. "It's not malevolent. They generally aren't supposed to be aware of their nature, Mr. Glonir, however was made aware of it due to an accident that damaged part of his brain. We've been working to heal him. The room is empathically shielded. He can't feel anyone outside of it." She slid her key card in the reader, the door to the room opening with a near-silent hiss. Beyond it, there was another patient room much like the one that the Doctor had been in. Within, there was a humanoid figure covered in scales sitting on the bed, looking to the pair of them as they entered.
"Administrator Nyssa?" Borro asked, his voice shaky as he rose from the bed, backing toward the far wall. "S-Stay back..."
"Borro... it's alright. Everything is alright." Nyssa said gently, raising her hands to show him they were empty. "Doctor Trizaxa wanted me to come and check up on you on my rounds."
"I... I know... but..." The Tenza shook his head, holding a hand up, palm facing the Trakenite in the hopes of stopping her. "I just... I feel so cold..."
"Have you tried adjusting the environmental controls?" Nyssa asked.
"That isn't what he means." The Doctor's voice got Nyssa's attention. She looked back to see his jovial tone had changed once more. He seemed... focused. "He's not cold, he's... feeling coldness."
"Y-Yes... yes, that's right." Borro nodded toward the Doctor. "I feel an emptiness... there's... there's nothing."
"Can I...?" The Doctor asked, hands raised up as if to touch the sides of Borro's head. The Tenaz looked at him hesitantly.
"What are you going to do?" Borro asked.
"Key in... let me feel what you're feeling. Please?" The Doctor asked. After a moment, the patient nodded and the Doctor approached him, gently resting his fingertips against Borro's temples. "My people have some psychic abilities. I can try to help mitigate what you're going through, if I can." Nyssa watched as the Doctor's eyes closed, as did Borro's.
"...so... so much pain... so much pain..." Borro said after a few moments, his voice sounding somehow distant but also pained. His panic was gone, but replaced by something else. "Such... anger... sorrow... despair..." The Tenaz's eyes snapped open and he backed away from the Doctor. "You... I... you..."
"I'm sorry..." The Doctor's voice seemed choked, hands shaking as he lowered them. "I..." He turned and quickly left the room. Nyssa walked over to Borro, gently touching his shoulder.
"Come on, let's get you back to bed." She said, able to see the stress indicators on him immediately.
"H-He's... he's in such pain, Administrator..." Borro said, his head shaking. "I've... I've never felt so much pain!"
"I'll do what I can to help him. You have my word." Nyssa said, helping him back to the bed. Once she saw that the patient was tended to (and spoke to the nursing staff before leaving him entirely), Nyssa left to follow the Doctor, having been pointed in his direction by some of the staff. She found him in a small crook in the lobby of the seventh floor, breathing deeply in and out as he rested his forehead against the wall.
"I shouldn't have gone in there." The Doctor said as he realized she was there.
"You couldn't have known-"
"No, I couldn't have." The Doctor said. "You said he was empathic. I should have listened. Should have left it alone, but I couldn't. I got involved again."
"Getting involved is what you do." Nyssa said. "Traken, London in 1666, Manusa. I can think of so many others where you got involved and you made things better. I'm sure there are plenty of others that I wasn't privy to."
"And so many others where I got involved and things just got worse." The Doctor said. "All across the universe, all across time, I get involved and things get worse. So, so much worse."
"It's not as if you choose for it to happen!" Nyssa insisted.
"But it does happen." The Doctor said, finally turning to her. "I turn up, and death seems to follow me no matter where I go. Taking everything. Everyone." She saw that look in his eyes, the one he'd sometimes gotten when they'd traveled together. She or Tegan or Adric would say something and the Doctor would seem like he was somewhere else entirely.
"You-"
"Freeze!" Both Nyssa and the Doctor turned to see none other than Commander Katoss and several of the members of Tactical Squad 81-A charge into the area, securing every entrance as they raised their weapons toward the Doctor.
"Administrator, please step away from Patient 1-0-0-8!" Katoss said, raising his personal firearm toward the Doctor as well.
"What is the meaning of this, Katoss?" Nyssa demanded.
"That man is a wanted criminal by Protector Command!" Katoss declared. "You are the Doctor! You were at Skull Moon! The people who were slaughtered there demand their vengeance, Butcher! TAKE AIM!"
The soldiers had their weapons trained on the Doctor, who stood stock still, staring blankly at the firing squad.
"Doctor!" Nyssa exclaimed.
"FIRE!"
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