Title: Shadows Fall
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: gen
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: R
Table: VRD challenge - Black, 5_prompts
Prompt: Darkness on the edge of town
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Tenth Doctor, unfortunately. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor looked around him, trying to be wary, even though he wanted to rush into whatever situation might be waiting for him. Hadn't he learned often enough that he shouldn't do that? he chided himself, trying to force himself to relax.

The town he was looking at from the safety of the Tardis doorway was suspiciously dark and silent; he'd expected to see lights shining from windows, or people walking around in the streets. But there was nothing and no one; there wasn't even a sign of life.

He didn't want to think that this was yet another planet that had been decimated; he'd seen enough of that, and it was something that he never enjoyed finding. It always meant that there was some trouble to deal with, usually in the form of Daleks, Cybermen, or something worse.

What could be worse? he asked himself, shuddering at the thought of his two ancient enemies. There weren't many beings in the galaxy who were worse than those two, though there were some he could think of that came very close.

Of course, there were the Vashta Nerada. Another shudder followed the first one; they were an enemy that he'd run into far too often, and a few of those times, he'd only managed to escape by the skin of his teeth. Yes, they were indeed just as bad as the other two.

Could they have struck here? The Doctor surveyed the street worriedly, hoping that his burgeoning fears wouldn't become fact. This was how the Vashta Nerada operated, all right; slowly creeping through a town, taking their unsuspecting victims unawares.

They worked best at night, really; the darkness was their friend. If people couldn't tell what was merely a shadow and what was part of the Vashta Nerada, they wouldn't stand a chance. And then the predators would have an easy kill.

He hated to think of yet another place being vanquished by the Vashta Nerada, but it looked as though that could very well be the case. Of course, he shouldn't jump to conclusions -- but he shouldn't discount any possibilities, either.

There was always another possibility, one that he never liked to consider if he could help it. This could be some new plot of the Master's to draw him into a situation that would put him at the other man's mercy, and possibly result in his death.

Or at least in his regeneration, the Doctor thought grimly, shuddering again. That was one thing that he wanted to avoid at all costs -- he loved this body that he was in, and he intended to keep it for a very long time. No one was going to force him to give it up.

The Time Lord frowned, squinting as he fixed his gaze on a pool of light cast by a street lamp. Was it just his imagination, or were the shadows around that light steadily growing? It almost looked as though they were moving ....

He wasn't going to emerge from the safety of his ship to find out if they were, he told himself, taking a cautious step back. If he had any sort of indication that those shadows were the Vashta Nerada, he wanted to be able to slam the door and get the Tardis out of here.

If he did that, then he would be leaving the people on this planet -- if there were still any left -- to certain death. But he'd found out by bitter experience that there was no way to defeat the Vashta Nerada; all he could do was run from them.

That was all anyone could do where those creatures were concerned. As much as he might regret it, he wasn't going to sacrifice himself needlessly attempting to fight monsters that he was well aware couldn't be defeated -- at least not by the weapons in his arsenal.

If the Vashta Nerada had already taken over this planet, then all he could do was get away as quickly as he could. There was no hope for any place that they had already attacked; he could be fairly sure that there were no survivors.

Squinting into the darkness again, he laid a hand against the door frame -- and then stumbled back into the ship with a gasp, slamming the door and bolting up the three steps that led into the control room. With the press of a button, the ship shimmered into the timestream.

The Doctor leaned over the console, gasping and closing his eyes to shut out what he had just seen. The shadow that had seemed to be creeping closer to the ship hadn't been a shadow at all. It was the Vashta Nerada, without a doubt.

He had almost seen the malevolence directed at him; he shouldn't have been surprised by it. Those creatures had been after him for a while now; they hated him as much as his other enemies did, seeking his destruction in any way that it could be achieved.

It should have been obvious when he'd first landed the Tardis and peered cautiously out of the door. The darkness that lingered around the edge of the street, the unusual hush -- it should have told him from the first that he was too late.

And he shouldn't feel so guilty about it, the Doctor told himself fiercely. It wasn't his fault. As he'd been told far too often for comfort, he couldn't save everyone. He wasn't some omniscient being with the power to save the entire universe.

But he wanted to. He wanted to be able to save any planet that was threatened by any sort of monster, especially the ones he knew well and was prepared to deal with. He wanted to be able to vanquish those monsters, sending them scurrying back into the darkness.

It simply wasn't possible. He was one man -- and one man couldn't pit himself against every monster out there and hope to win. He had to rejoice in the victories he could achieve -- and accept the defeats, even when they made him feel guilty.

He should have known when he'd seen that darkness creeping up from the edges of the town, around the street lights, the Doctor told himself, closing his eyes and remembering those encroaching shadows. He should have known. He should have been able to do something.

There was nothing he could have done, a stern voice said in the back of his mind. The Vashta Nerada had obviously gotten there before he had. He hadn't been there in time, but that wasn't his fault. There was no way that he could have known.

He couldn't continue to blame himself. Every death in the world that was caused by his enemies wasn't his fault. He was only one man; he couldn't be in all places at all times to save the world from those who would attempt to destroy it.

The Doctor drew himself up to his full height, a grim expression on his face, his hands clenched at his sides. He had failed this time -- but the next time darkness threatened a part of the universe, he would do his best to battle it, no matter what the cost might be.

***