The History of the Time War: The Could've-Been-King

As you change events, you change other things, too. Things that happened suddenly can’t. Most of the time, they either fade into the Void or spin off into a whole new universe. But sometimes things that happened once just can’t happen. Sometimes the possibilities that led to them become too remote. The events that allow them to be dwindle away to none, until they are finally left adrift in the Void, an effect without a cause. These impossibilities are legion, but alone, each trapped in its own bubble of not.

All except one. What if one of those impossibilities was Time ruled not by a race, but by one being? Let’s say some immortal creature managed to master all the secrets of time travel and made itself King of Time. Then, in a moment fraught with potential, this creature meets someone like the Gallifreyans. They, too, have learned the intricacies of Time, and suddenly, there is conflict. Maybe this was the First Great Time War. Outnumbered, outflanked, and eventually outgunned, this mighty entity is forced into temporal impossibility. Suddenly no roads lead to the King of Time. No universes exist where it ever was, and so it floats in the Void, a Never-Was. But unlike the others, this Never-Was understands the Void, at least enough to break into some of the other Never-Were’s bubbles. It unites them, promises a road back to reality. It dangles the ultimate carrot; they could exist again. This is the Could-Have-Been King.

And he doesn’t exist, which can put a serious damper on one’s plans of conquest.

Enter the Time War. Both sides are locked in a struggle for survival. One by one, the rules go out the window as each side grows more desperate to exist. The first rules to go are, of course, the least important. Later, though, the players get serious, and start taking risks. The Could-Have-Been King is an experienced temporal strategist, capable of considerable guile and cunning, with a powerful motivation. It wants to exist again. It doesn’t get much riskier than that. And so, as the war grinds on, someone contacts His Never Majesty, and he begins to ooze in through the cracks of time.

The impossible occurs.

What does that mean, exactly? Playing with the idea of rubber time, where Time Lords can travel in phone box sized palaces, where does possibility end? At what point does wibbly-wobbly become shattery-wattery?

In this case, it’s all about cause and effect. His Never Majesty is all effect. The causes of his existence are gone, wiped out of the universe. He can be anywhere, anywhen. And since he is an aberration of the Laws of Time to begin with, he isn’t bound by them. He can be simultaneous. He can bounce back and forth through time at will, with no regard for the “causal nexus” that binds his opponents. He shreds reality wherever he goes. He is paradox unbound, running loose in creation.

And he has help. Imagine an opponent capable of existing at three times at once: past, present, and future occurring in the same instant. I don’t mean different incarnations at the same point in space-time, as with the “Three Doctors” and “Five Doctors” incidents. I mean one entity from one point in it’s timeline existing at three or more different points in the continuum at once. It can watch you exist, working your way through your own personal causality until you get to the end. It gets to see all your weaknesses. What’s more, it can act. When you are at your weakest, it can strike. It can, in one smooth stroke, create a weakness in your childhood, create the best conditions to exploit it as you pass through adulthood, and spring it on you when you least expect it. It takes no time at all for such a creature. It happens all at once.

And suddenly Meanwhile is very, very scary indeed. Meanwhiles are the silent killers in the Time War. Unseen stalkers, they live across your existence, striking exactly when you are least prepared to defend yourself, using your whole life as a weapon against you. No one is safe. Once such creatures are unleashed, they would be nigh impossible to stop.

So why was there a universe left after the Last Great Time War? Once the Could-Have-Been King and his forces come out, how does reality stand the strain? Not very well. Remember, this is the last thing the Doctor mentions before he says the war became hell. Maybe the only thing to do is Time Lock the whole thing. Turn the war into a massive loop, then pinch the loop off from the rest of time. Don’t let anything in or out. Not ever.