FIC: Finally Free

[lindenharp]

Title: Finally Free
Rating: G
Characters: Ninth Doctor
A/N: 100-word drabble for DW100, prompt #216: Free

 

He ran because he wanted freedom.   Snatched Susan and stole the TARDIS, setting course for adventure.  Gallifrey didn’t catch up to him until his second life.  They tossed him in a cage: one planet, one time. 

They relented, but kept their hook in him.  Do this task.  Fix this problem.  Come home and fix another.  Come home and be President.  (A gilded cage is still a prison.)  Come home and be condemned.  Come home and fight for us.  Die with us. 

Now he is completely free.  Their summons will never snare him again.  Freedom tastes like ashes in his mouth.

 

Comments

[time-converges.livejournal.com]

Wow - the last line gave me chills.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you. When I write a drabble, I usually start with a concept and a last line.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I like it...did you read "The Last Dodo?" there's a passage in it that your drabble reminds me of.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

No, never heard of it.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

It's one of the new 10th Doctor novels. Wasn't bad, and a good read for a plane ride. :)

[memorae.livejournal.com]

I liked that very much.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Oh, that last line. Talk about a killer punch!

Very nice work :)

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I do some of my best work when I'm trying to avoid what I really should be writing. :-)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ooo, yes. That last "permanent exile" really stuck, and now that it's too late to go home, he'd probably give a lot to go back.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Remember Ten's nostalgia about Gallifrey in "Gridlock" and "Sound of Drums"?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. From a planet he couldn't get off of fast enough.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Well, you notice that it's the planet he's nostalgic about, more than the people. He rhapsodizes about the orange sky and the silver trees.

I think that if the Doctor could shape the universe to his liking, Gallifrey and the Time Lords would be restored. He'd still wander Time-Space with his companions, having adventures and righting wrongs. And once a century or so, he'd go home, and walk in the red grass under the silver trees.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The planet never pushed him around and took his companion's memories.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* There's a line in "The Last Dodo" about how while the Doctor can't forgive the Time Lords for some of the crap they did to him, he still misses them. In the BFA's, it seems like Seven and Eight have kind of made their peace with them. (Seven wonders if it's time he returned home at the end of Project: Lazarus.)

[lsellersfic.livejournal.com]

Simply excellent drabble.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. This is Nine. Really well done.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I especially appreciate that remark coming from someone with such a cool icon.

[nina-ds.livejournal.com]

I picked up that icon very early in my DW days on LJ, and I have NOT been able to find out who made it to give them appropriate credit, but it's just too good not to use, and I'm willing to prostrate myself before the artist if s/he comes forward. No luck yet.

Nine is still my definitive Doctor. He wasn't my first, but he's the one with whom I connected at a visceral level.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

Great work - it really encapsulates his bitterness and his loss.

[rose-cat.livejournal.com]

This is just...well...awesome. It left me breathless.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Love the icon. I have been owned by several gray tabbies -- the incumbent is a youthful 16.

[rose-cat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome :)

I made that icon myself, amazingly. It's Rose, after whom I named my blog. She's a teeny weeny six-pounder and is 13 this year.