The Doctor had seen devastation. More than he really wanted, that devastation was often caused by his own actions .Even so, the Time Lord was no stranger to coming upon a new place and seeing it in ruin. He was, however, not used to arriving in a Dalek Camp to discover that the entire facility had been practically leveled, and the prisoners set free.
This was the fourth such camp that the Doctor had landed his TARDIS in, but he knew that more than a dozen of the Dalek’s camps had been destroyed within the last two months or so, and all of them were now in virtually identical conditions to this one.While the locations had certainly varied, the rescued prisoners and Dalek computer systems all reported the same thing. A streak of yellow and red would surge through the camp, tearing the Daleks to shreds in a matter of seconds, before he would then gather all the prisoners and release them from their shackles, then pause in front of the group for a few moments to give them instructions on where to travel in order to be rescued, and then, he would disappear in a flash. And each time the prisoners were rescued, they all described him the same way: he wore a yellow suit of some kind, but he looked like a blur, so they couldn’t make much out beyond the fact that he looked human and had red glowing eyes.
Whoever this person was, he could move fast. As the Doctor approached one of the lifeless Daleks, which almost looked aflame in the deep orange sky of the strange world he had landed on, he could tell that it was exactly the same.Whoever this speedster was, he had somehow moved so fast that he actually was able to rip the Dalek apart.Based on the descriptions of the survivors, as well as the little footage that existed, the Doctor had surmised that the man in yellow, Reverse, as he apparently wanted to be called, was vibrating his body so fast that he was able to separate the Dalekanium armor at the molecular level, allowing him to simply rip it apart like wet newspaper or a bad teabag.
After a few moments of looking around, the Doctor decided that there wouldn’t be any more information that he could glean from this site any more than the others, he turned on his heel and walked back to the TARDIS.He stepped inside and shed his long overcoat, tossing it on the coral-like pillars that ran up to the ceiling.His sneakers made light clanging sounds on the grating as he stepped over to the console and fiddled with the controls, looking at his screen.
“So…” he mused, “he moves fast enough that he can literally vibrate a Dalek apart.They can’t even shoot at him properly, he just dodges their shots.”He looked up from his screen and up into the Time Rotor in the center of the console.“So what kind of being moves that fast?There’s got to only be a handful of species in the universe capable of such speeds, much less ones that look human…” he trailed off.“But if that’s the case,” he added in a whisper to himself, “then why can’t I think of any?”
He looked back down at the screen, which showed a still image taken from the Dalek computer systems from the 5th such camp that reported an attack from Reverse; an image that showed the speedster running through the camp.The original image was all blue, but the TARDIS had been able to clean that up, and the Doctor could make out the yellow jumpsuit and red lightning that seemed to be Reverse’s trademark.“What are you?” he asked the screen, as if he was expecting an answer.
“No, no, no,” the Doctor chided himself, snapping out of his relative trance as he walked around the console.“I can’t just stare at images of where he’s been and hope to figure out who he is!I have to track him down!”He stopped his orbit and stared up into the ceiling.“But how do you track someone who can move so fast that they actually pose a threat to the Daleks?”He jogged back over to the screen and started to fiddle with the TARDIS controls again.“Maybe there’s some sort of radiation signature?No, the Daleks would have figured that out ages ago.Electrical disturbance from that lightning he emits?No, there was no signs of electrical disturbance in the systems of the Dalek camps.”His typing and adjustments became faster.“Maybe there’s a pattern to his traveling?”He pulled up a map of the universe and had the TARDIS highlight the places where Reverse had already been, but no pattern was revealed.
As he slammed his hand on the console in frustration, one of the levers seemed to move of its own accord, flipping into position.With a thud, the TARDIS began to wheeze and groan as it took off, the Doctor looking up into the Time Rotor once more in confusion.“What?!”He quickly began to mess with the controls, trying to figure out where the TARDIS was taking him, or if it was being controlled by something.Neither attempt was fruitful, and the Doctor was forced to sit back for the ride.When the TARDIS landed with yet another thud, the Doctor looked up at his beloved ship.“Where have you brought me, old girl?” he asked the TARDIS softly.
His question was answered in its own roundabout way when he heard a voice in the distance outside the doors shout “EXTERMINATE!”Running over to the doors, the Doctor threw his coat back over his brown pinstripe suit and threw the doors open, looking out into another Dalek camp, but this one was still functional.For the moment at least.
Seven Daleks were in a small group, spread out slightly in a clearing in the camp.Rain pelted down as an electrical storm raged overhead from dark clouds.Even the Doctor’s overcoat wouldn’t do much good for very long.But what was interesting was that the seven Daleks weren’t aiming their gunstalks at him.Instead, they were looking away from the Time Lord at some unseen enemy.Unseen, that is, until a streak of yellow wrapped in red lightning burst onto the scene.Starting with the Dalek to the Doctor’s far left, the lightning consumed each and every one of them, leaving each Dalek torn apart like their counterparts in the other camps.
The Doctor watched as Reverse did his work, efficiently eliminating the Daleks in the span of two seconds before he suddenly found himself face to face with the man himself.Reverse appeared right in front of the Doctor, his face mere inches from the Time Lord’s.In that moment, the Doctor realized that the survivors were not exaggerating when they said he looked like a human blur.The sudden appearance of Reverse in such close proximity startled the Doctor enough that he stumbled backwards a couple steps, and in the slick mud from the thunderstorm, were it not for the TARDIS being right behind him, he would have fallen on his back in the mud.
Reverse said nothing, just stood there, staring at the Doctor with his glowing eyes while the Doctor breathed through his teeth, eyes half closed to keep the insistent water from blinding him.“Who are you?!” the Doctor demanded, shouting in order to be heard above the rain.
“The Daleks have been trying to figure that out for a long time,” Reverse said, his voice just as distorted as in the recordings recovered from the Daleks.Somehow, Reverse wasn’t shouting, but his voice carried enough that the storm didn’t seem to effect him.It had to have been something to do with whatever he was doing to his vocal chords, the Doctor decided; the way he was vibrating them, he had to be compensating for the storm so he didn’t have to shout.“And you see how that’s turned out for them so far.Are you sure you want to try and figure it out yourself?”
The Doctor steeled himself and pushed up off of the TARDIS back onto his feet.“I demand to be told who you are!” the Doctor shouted once more.
“You want to know who I am?” Reverse asked, a smile clearly on his face.“You’ll have to catch me first.”With that, the man disappeared in a flash of red lightning.
The Doctor could certainly run, but obviously not that fast.Luckily, he didn’t have to.Instead, he turned and ran inside the TARDIS, throwing his coat back in its spot.His suit jacket was soaked, but he opted to ignore that.He worked the controls of the TARDIS, which began to groan once again.
Several dozen miles outside of the camp, Reverse skidded to a stop, which kicked up mud beneath his feet in a wave that cascaded away from him.He turned to look up at the source of the strange groaning noise that he had heard, only to discover the strange blue box flying through the air towards him.Rather than be perplexed by such a phenomenon, Reverse just smiled.“Well then.Let’s see what you’ve got.”Once again, Reverse turned and ran, red lightning blasting off of him in a trail that anyone could see in the darkness of the perpetually stormy planet he had found himself on.
The Doctor, on the other hand, wasn’t looking for the lightning.Rather, he was looking for the disturbances in the air.Now that he had seen Reverse in person and had managed to be on the same planet as him (he would have to remember to thank the TARDIS properly for that later), he had been able to calculate the air displacement the man created when he ran.Disturbances that the TARDIS could track, though it did so with protest.The stormy air made flying through the atmosphere a hazard, even more than it already was in a ship that disliked flying in such a manner as it was.While nothing was sparking or exploding at him through the console yet, the Doctor could feel the TARDIS’s protests in the grating beneath his feet, and in the way the controls responded.
Reverse was still ahead of the TARDIS a good mile or so, but that didn’t mean he was lost.The Doctor saw his opportunity coming up on the screen.A cell of clouds that had been building up electricity and were getting ready to release another lightning bolt right in his path.But with how fast Reverse could apparently react, the Doctor’s timing would have to be absolutely perfect.Tying a piece of twine around one of the levers on the console so that he could keep control of the TARDIS, the Doctor ran to the doors and opened them up, reaching into his pocket to bring out his sonic screwdriver, which he aimed at the clouds above.He waited for one second.Two seconds.Three seconds.With a short burst from his screwdriver, the clouds released a massive bolt of lightning that the Doctor actually had to shield his eyes from.
Reverse, on the other hand, was not so lucky.While he had passed beneath it harmlessly, he wasn’t fast enough to not be caught in the blast when the lightning struck the ground, sending him flying into the air and skidding into the mud with a grunt.As he got up from the ground, body still vibrating, he looked up and saw the TARDIS come into a controlled skid of its own into the earth, coming to a rest about five yards in front of him.
The doors opened, and the Doctor smiled smugly.“Well?I caught you.”
“You cheated,” Reverse said, standing up and speeding up his body’s vibrations, which caused all of the mud to fall off of his body.
“Who are you?!” the Doctor demanded for a third time.“Tell me your planet’s name, galactic coordinates, and species designation as dictated by the Shadow Proclamation!”
“I do not recognize this… Shadow Proclamation as any sort of authority over me,” Reverse said.“Not like that’s going to matter for much longer.I don’t often stick around long enough for any sort of grand police force to make any sort of difference.”
“Why are you doing this?” the Doctor asked, his voice still loud so he could be heard over the storm, but no longer shouting in anger.
“The Daleks have been allowed to rampage across the universe without consequence for too long.I’m just doing what you won’t do, what you’re not fast enough to do, Doctor.”The Doctor was genuinely surprised.How had this man, whom he’d only just met, know who he was?“You seem surprised,” Reverse continued.“You didn’t think that I would just start destroying the Daleks without doing my research?I accessed their computer database in the first camp I attacked.I know all about you, Time Lord.”
“Oh, well, congratulations!” the Doctor shouted sarcastically.“You think that makes you better than me?!”
“I think that it doesn’t matter who you are or what I am.We both want the same thing: for there to be no more Daleks.”
“That isn’t an excuse for genocide!”
“Is that what you tell yourself when you find yourself facing the Daleks?Is that why you have had them in your grasp so many times, only for them to slip away?”
“That doesn’t give you the right to decide who deserves to die!”
“Then what gives you the right, Doctor?Because it seems to me that you make that decision all the time.”Lightning struck behind them, and Reverse turned to look in the direction it had come from before looking back to the Doctor with a grin.“Sorry.I’d love to stay and debate philosophy with you, but I’ve gotta run!”Without another word, Reverse turned and began to do just that.
“Oh no you don’t!”The Doctor shut the TARDIS doors again and began to give chase, the box soaring through the air once more.Only this time, Reverse was much farther away, and the TARDIS was having trouble keeping up.The Doctor kept his eyes on the screen, following the disturbances in the air, and slowly, the TARDIS began to close the distance.Five hundred meters.Four hundred.Three hundred.Just as the box came to be about one hundred and fifty meters away, Reverse suddenly surged forward in a burst of speed that put nearly fifty miles distance between him and the TARDIS and then he just disappeared.His air disturbances were instead replaced by an alarm from the TARDIS that a temporal rift had appeared, and then just as quickly disappeared.“No no no no no!” the Doctor shouted, slamming several controls on the TARDIS, which again made it skid to a halt on the muddy ground.He grabbed the screen and stared at it long and hard, hoping that the readout would change.The evidence was undeniable, however.Somehow, Reverse had actually run fast enough that he had opened up a rift in the space-time continuum which he was able to escape through.A rift that had closed just as fast as it had opened, and therefore, the Doctor couldn’t track to its destination.At least not in time to maybe stop Reverse before he could do any more damage.
Still, something that Reverse had said resounded with the Doctor.Did he truly decide who deserved to die?It was true that the Doctor had had to do many horrible things in the name of saving other people, but wasn’t that what Reverse was doing now?For that matter, why did the Doctor care what Reverse did?He was truly doing the universe a favor by eliminating the Daleks and rescuing their prisoners.So what was it?Why was the Doctor so hell bent on bringing the speedster down?
As he took off his pinstriped jacket and loosened his tie so he could go change, only one thought crossed his mind, one that he tried to bury, but no matter how hard he tried, it would not go away: He was jealous of how good a job Reverse was doing.He was actually saving far more people with his powers than the Doctor was ever able to.
In an attempt to clear his mind of the thought, he pulled his tie off over his head and flicked a switch, which filled the TARDIS with music as he disappeared into its depths to find a clean dry suit.
