act33side

But they haven't.

The Doctor is being torn apart by these unsaid things, tormented by hesitation, pain, and guilt.

Perhaps I don't understand the Doctor as well as I thought.

I don't know how to ease the Doctor's pain. And if neither of us know what the Doctor is thinking...

Then the Doctor of Babel will always be alone, all the love and respect notwithstanding.

...Kal'tsit.

Yes.

I will explain to the Doctor in time.

Theresa puts her hand on the Doctor's forehead.

Under the warm surface lies a past that she cannot fathom.

<i>Civilight Eterna.</i>

<color=#000000>Originium must rewrite all.</color>

<color=#000000>Only then is there value in existence.</color>

From the emergence of intelligent life, to the lights in the cosmos and the maelstrom of the stars.

Originium will continue to replicate and transform, until even time ceases to exist.

This... is Originium?

Originium.

The first light before the Big Bang.

She said that only by covering every inch of the land in Originium, only by returning matter and time, tide and wonder, light and wailing, to the vast ocean of information...

Only then will we find change and advancement, and avert the fate that is the end.

Even though...

It is not a transformation, but a death.

<color=#000000>It is not an extinction, but a continuation.</color>

When was this memory...? The Doctor's emotion, pain, hesitation, and... fear?

Who was that... accompanying the Doctor in despair?

No, Kal'tsit said there was another—

The growth of Originium is silent, beautiful, calm.

All signs of life have been overgrown, civilization has vanished from this land.

But Theresa feels only fear and suffocation.

The memory is trembling, collapsing. There is a force somewhere, trying to fix an error.

The Originium in the memory continues to grow, even assimilating Theresa's consciousness—

'Theresa...'

Kal'tsit? Oh, yes, she was by my side.

'Theresa!'

She seems to see the Doctor, before her consciousness is fully absorbed by the nebulous Originium light—

Theresa!

What happened, Theresa?

What did you see?

I... I saw Originium.

It had assimilated the entire continent. The Doctor felt pain and anxiety over it.

Was that the Doctor's memory? No... a dream?

Give me a hand, Kal'tsit. The feeling, the noise and the wailing... I...

Theresa.

I told you that Originium once decided the distant future of this land. There were two choices.

We were too focused on tangible suffering, Catastrophe, Oripathy. Casting our eyes toward that future brought too much difficulty and too little meaning.

The Doctor chose one of them... the future that the Doctor spoke of to me, personally.

I could not forget that future the Doctor described. Never, in all these years.

But the other cold and empty thought has often shot up my spine in the middle of the night over the past ten thousand years.

I cannot speak of it.

But you can sense my anger with your power.

That means that Civilight Eterna exists outside of the boundaries of language.

So, Theresa.

If you saw a future that you are not willing to accept, I hope you, Civilight Eterna, can change the course. Only you can.

If you saw the side of myself or the Doctor that is strange to you...

Kal'tsit?

No, Kal'tsit, that's not what I meant—

—The Doctor's feelings toward Amiya, toward us, toward you, are sincere. That is the truth.

Trust the Doctor, and trust me. I will find the answer to what is tormenting the Doctor. And when—

Ugh...

Doctor!

Doctor... you're awake.

What happened to me?

You fainted as you were leaving the deck with Amiya.

Hgnh... where's Amiya?

A little shaken, but she's fine.

You're still in bad shape. What were you thinking?

<color=#000000>I want to cure Amiya's Oripathy. I want to change the present state of the Sarkaz.</color>

<color=#000000>I want to walk among this civilization that I helped create, to take in the vitality of new life, something that we once had, but have long since lost.</color>

<color=#000000>Even if...</color>

<color=#000000>Even if everything that we see, all that we know, all that we cherish, no longer exists after a millennium.</color>