The Matter of Terra

"What do you mean one of the other worlds?" asked Stacy.

"Well," said the Doctor, "I'd heard of Terra Prime in the annals of the Time Lords even before your future self mentioned it to me. Terra Prime is another world--not merely an alternate universe or another planet but another world. There's really no better way to explain it. An account from my home planet Gallifrey's distant past says that there were several worlds that used to intersect, each containing a number of alternate universes. They included my and the red-haired Betty's world, your and the brown-haired Betty's world, and Terra Prime. Your world seems to be one that tends more towards what your people would consider normal. Terra Prime is a world on the other side of being. There, things that aren't part of the "normal" reality of your world and can be ignored by those caught up in it, like good, evil, and true love, are indisputably real and manifest. It is a very beautiful and dangerous place. It is a world defined by magic and other forces that simply don't make sense in our frame of reference. My world is somewhere in the middle--it is defined by science, like yours, but it is closer to Terra in spirit, and our science is not quite your science.

"At any rate, the legend says that once a Hero from ancient Gallifrey tried to cross into Terra and come into contact with the source of magic. Even in those days our people feared magic because of our war with the Xorin, beings of unspeakable evil who weilded magic. He did not see magic as evil, but because our people feared magic so much and he was so eager to embrace it he was quick and eager to rebel, not thinking of the consequences or spiritually prepared. As a result, he unleashed a great evil. The source of magic in your world and mine became somehow corrupted, although in Terra they were somehow able to stave off that corruption. Rigid barriers were set up between the worlds to prevent the evil from destroying it. Your world lost all its magic and slowly began to spiritually die, so that people lost their faith in goodness and love and cynicism began to set in, but ours did not die so fully. At least, that's what the legend says. Your future self tells me that some of this was true and that when Scott Chen brought your world's Betty to my world, he made a hole in the barriers and let the evil out, and now the only way we can repair this is to return to Terra. I was hoping we could go to Gallifrey and research more into its ancient history first so that we would be more prepared and see if there were other accounts, but we may not have a choice."

1. Just then, the TARDIS consoled stopped moving up and down. "That means we've landed," said brown-haired Betty.
2. Just then, a hulking monster with obsidian armor charged into the room.

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