Title:(Almost) Everybody Wants to Rule the World Universe
Author:A. X. Zanier (lon_dubh on LJ)
Fandom:Doctor Who
Pairing:N/A
Rating:FRK+
Disclaimer:a) The characters and basic story ideas of Doctor Who are the property of others including, but not limited to Russell T. Davies and the BBC. Any additional characters or story ideas are mine. I make no money from this intellectual exercise. b) This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any opinions or views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the author and are used for story-telling purposes only.
Summary:What went through the Doctor's head when offered godhood?
Song:Everybody Loves Me, Baby by Don McLean

(Almost) Everybody Wants to Rule the World Universe

The Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm... The God-maker. The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control.

"I could save everyone...."

"Yes."

"I could stop the war...."

Change the outcome. Undo the irrevocable damage he had wrought to the universe. Rebuild everything. Prevent the Daleks from ever becoming. The Cybermen unknown, and not just in this universe, but all of them. The manipulation of the Master never to be felt. Gallifrey whole and unharmed; the Time Lords returned to their glory.

Even as the first vague thoughts formed, he saw the whole of it. Possible futures pouring forth in every glorious detail in his mind. He could see all that could be in perfect detail. To know, not just what would be, but what could be. To see every path, every outcome. Every wrong choice as well as every right one.

The whole of time and space in his mind.

His curse and his salvation.

He could do so much with the power. A change here, an adjustment there and the multiverse would glow, sparkle with the joy and beauty that he would bestow unto it.

Should he wish it, there would be no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, no death. There would be only light and life and joy evermore.

Sarah Jane's pained voice intruded on his vision of utopia. "No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss -- they define us as much as happiness or love."

The future he saw cracked, splintered, the light turning to gray. Endless life becoming simply endless. Joy and tranquility beset by entropy and stagnation. Perfection crumbling to dust as nothing ever changed.

"Whether it's a world or a relationship," she continued, every word unraveling that future just a bit more, "everything has its time and everything ends."

Ah, his brilliant Sarah Jane, his voice of reason in this sudden attack of madness.

Only humanity could see into the heart of the matter so clearly even though they lacked true understanding of the real meaning. Humans were so wise and so yet so naïve at the same time. They had such potential, potential he would never see fulfilled should he take this Faustian deal.

No, he had chosen another route. A longer, more heart wearying one, but the best of the options nonetheless. He would help them where he could, ease them over the rougher patches, and show the few who joined him the wonders of the universe. But change them... That he dare not do or risk everything he sought to achieve. It had been for them most of all that he'd risked all... lost all in the Time Wars. Saving them from the Dalek's genocidal hatred even at the cost of his own people.

Humanity persevered against all odds, against the darkness, and brought a shining light to the universe. He chose to be near them just to bathe in that light. No matter how dark it seemed to be, that light shone through.

They gave him hope.

The few tattered remnants of that possible future fell away like ashes upon a stray breeze.

To take the offer, to become a God and recreate the universe in his image would be to destroy all that humanity was and would become.

He would never allow that to happen. Was that not why he'd taken up the mantle of Earth's Champion not so very long ago?

With a soft snarl, he grabbed the nearest chair and hurled it into the screen displaying the Skasis Paradigm, destroying it.

That was answer enough.


Everybody Loves Me Baby

by Don McLean

: One, two, three, four!

Fortune has me well in hand, armies 'wait my command
My gold lies in a foreign land buried deep beneath the sand

The angels guide my ev'ry prayer, my enemies are sick or dead
But all the victories I've led haven't brought you to my bed

CHORUS:
You see, everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now the purest race I've bred to be to live in my democracy
And the highest human pedigree awaits the first-born boy baby
And my face on ev'ry coin engraved, the anarchists are all enslaved
My own flag is forever waved by the grateful people I have saved

CHORUS:
You see, everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now, no man is beyond my claim when land is seized in the people's name
By evil men who rob and maim, if war is hell, I'm not to blame!
Why, you can't blame me, I'm Heaven's child, I'm the second son of Mary mild
And I'm twice removed from Oscar Wilde, but he didn't mind, why, he just smiled

Yes, and the ocean parts when I walk through, and the clouds dissolve and the sky turns blue
I'm held in very great value by everyone I meet but you
'cause I've used my talents as I could, I've done some bad, I've done some good
I did a whole lot better than they thought I would so, c'mon and treat me like you should!

Because everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Yeah, everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?