Chapter Text
Every single choice in the universe, in all the universes, affects the timelines. What is, what could be, what must be. Some choices are fixed, the fate of the universe depends on them and every instance before them leads to one person making one choice, the only choice. Others are constantly in flux, like little lightbulbs flickering on and off throughout of all time. Most choices don’t affect a single moment of a single day, the universe simply evolves to accommodate the choice, but some choices break off into parallel universes and history is changed in a blink of an eye.
Example number one. A small choice of no consequence.
On the morning of her daughter’s wedding, Sylvia Noble wasn’t sure whether to wear her pearl earrings or her mother’s glistening emerald earrings. The heirloom had been passed down for a couple of generations now and Sylvia was cautious of wearing them. Only the grandest of occasions would entice the beautiful studs from Sylvia’s jewellery box. She chose the pearls. Her reasoning would be that she would be able to give Donna the emeralds at the reception as an extra wedding gift. Her daughter would finally be married and such an occasion deserved to be rewarded. If Sylvia Noble had believed her daughter’s wedding was important enough to wear her emerald earrings then absolutely nothing of consequence would have changed. Her husband would have smiled softly at her and kissed her hand like she was Helen of Troy herself. He knew the importance of those earrings in the Mott family. Sylvia would have blushed, and perhaps she would have been kinder to her daughter, but at the end of the day Donna Noble would still have been standing in the street opposite a strange skinny man in a suit and an odd blue police box.
Which brings us onto example number two. A choice that can change the course of time itself.
We know the outcome of choice number one. The DoctorDonna. The mind wipe. The Time Lord Victorious.
“But we had the best of times. The best. Goodbye”
The sound of two hearts breaking.
“No! No! Please! NO!”
Begging for death over life.
“I don’t want to go!”
The end of an era, of a man who still had more to give.
A timeline born out of a single word, a single choice.
That word?
No.