Location: Edges of the Kasterborous Constellation galaxy
Beyond the comprehension of any charted map, in the Kasterborous constellation, a storm of space-time opened—a knot in the fabric of existence where every second could repeat or undo itself, where every breath was a sentence. Centuries later, this place would become known as the Battle of the Medusa Cascade.
The Daleks sought to use the Medusa Cascade as a base of operations, as its energy could power killer swarms and warships with almost infinite strength.
Amid that chaos, the Doctor—in his eighth incarnation, the War Doctor—ran through explosions, adjusting a temporal field generator that barely contained the enemy advance in his old Type 40 TARDIS. His face bore the desperation of someone who had sworn never to be a soldier, yet whose hands were stained with blood.
Every second, the skies tore apart with the roar of Daleks and the detonations of Gallifreyan battle ships. Time itself seemed to shatter into fragments, jumping forward and backward like broken glass.
Among the chaos, a man in a torn war cloak ran toward the heart of the storm. His name was not his true name—he was the Aegis, and though he did not know it, this was the last time he would run at his side.
Beside him, barely visible among flashes of energy, was the Doctor, fighting as always to save even what already seemed doomed.
They had fought side by side at the Massacre of the Nestene, when the Daleks attacked the Time Lords' allies, sending swarms of nanoviruses that devoured living matter and metal alike, exterminating the Autons within minutes. The massacre made it clear: the Daleks knew no bounds, and no race was safe from their brutality.
He later defended the crystal towers of Minyos Prime under relentless fire. Each city had been fortified with technology granted by the Time Lords, but the defenses could not hold forever. That was the first time he resented Aegis, for in the middle of battle he had closed the evacuation vortex, trapping hundreds of innocents, while also sealing access to the Daleks. They did not speak for years.
In the Trench of Non-Existence, on a world where the laws of physics twisted and the trenches did not always exist in the same instant as those defending them, he led young soldiers, teaching them to resist against all logic. Thanks to him, they survived more time cycles than anyone could have imagined.
And before the fateful Skull Moon, they had shared a glass of brandy in the gardens of the Citadel of Gallifrey.
But nothing he had lived through had prepared him for the paradox that finally awaited, carrying with it the echoes of all the fronts he had fought… and survived.
"Aegis, fall back!" shouted the Doctor through a screen, holding his sonic screwdriver as if he could hold the entire universe with that small device.
Aegis barely smiled on the other side of the screen. He had been a fan of Doctor Who in another life, on another world. An ordinary man who dreamed of impossible adventures. Now, at the heart of the Time War, he had discovered that dreams could turn into nightmares.
"Not this time, Doctor. If you fail here, everything breaks. I can contain the paradox."
The Medusa Cascade vortex twisted around him, a swirl of light and shadow distorting time and space. Silver ships of the Time Lords emerged from the temporal mist, deploying the Rassilon Anchor, while swarms of Daleks descended from the edges of the whirlpool.
Their metallic voices echoed like an infernal choir, and from their fleets emerged biomechanical drones that devoured living matter and metal alike.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
Aegis activated the portable controls on his wrist, linked to his Type 91 TARDIS hidden in low orbit. The plan was suicidal: by deploying the Rassilon Anchor within himself, he would chain the loop to his own timeline and disappear with it.
The Doctor understood instantly.
"No! That will erase you from history, from all histories…" His voice cracked, which was rare. The Doctor seldom let himself break in the middle of battle.
Aegis stepped forward, facing the swarm of Daleks. The paradox crackled around him, a fissure of white fire expanding through the stellar whirlpool.
"Someone has to do it. And, honestly, I've always wanted a big entrance in this series." He winked, as if speaking to an invisible audience.
"Not this again… I never understand what you say. This isn't a game, Aegis."
"No, it's not, Doctor." He replied calmly, though his voice carried a note of restrained pride. "Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame."
Then Aegis opened the temporal gates of his TARDIS. A surge of energy enveloped the Daleks and Aegis alike. The universe trembled.
The Anchor began to deploy its strands of energy, seeking to weave a temporal prison around the Dalek horde. But screams erupted across every frequency. Battle ships were pierced, soldiers trapped in loops where they died again and again, never reaching a true end.
On the other side of the vortex, a certainty fell upon all: few ships would escape that hell.
Then the temporal anomaly collapsed in an instant.
When the dust settled, Aegis and his TARDIS had vanished. The Doctor remained silent, knowing that an echo had been trapped beyond time, frozen in an impossible loop.
"Time later, scattered among the abysses of time and space…"
In the void between realities, something stirred. A blue spark traced along the rusted walls of an old Type 91 TARDIS.
Aegis opened his eyes, gasping as if emerging from an eternal sleep.
"Where…?" he murmured, looking at the console that crackled before him.
The paradox had yielded. The sacrifice had pulled him out of the end of the War and hurled him to the beginning of something new. His TARDIS roared, extending its gears as if it too were breathing for the first time in centuries.
Aegis placed a hand on the console and smiled weakly.
"Looks like my story isn't over after all."
With one last pull of the control lever, his TARDIS emerged in the same universe where the Doctor was about to meet Rose Tyler.
Aegis had returned.