Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, or the characters portrayed in this story. I'm making no money off of this. I wish I was with the amount of time I spend writing these things.
A/N: I really wish the new Doctor Who would bring back Romana, and that was the main reason I wrote this. And it was also to sate my Doctor Who craving because this hiatus with only specials every so often isn't cutting it for me. :(
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For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
For hurtling thousands of kilometers per hour through a planet's atmosphere in a burning pile of an escape pod, Romanadvoratrelundar couldn't quite fathom why she felt so cold.
Davros had been keeping her prisoner aboard the dalek station in the Medusa Cascade for...a while.
Lifetimes, outside of time. Outside of meaning.
Thought it would be amusing to have the daleks take her prisoner, again. Dalek Caan had agreed, likely finding it just as amusing. A dalek that found something funny...she never thought she'd live to see it. And now she truly wished she hadn't.
Davros had wanted to see her break. Cower at his wheels. And she'd wanted to die, die along with her people. Gallifrey was gone. But she wasn't about to give Davros the pleasure of seeing her pain.
Time Lady Romandvoratrelundar: The Last President of Gallifrey. Certainly not the title she'd hoped for.
And all for nothing because the daleks had survived. Their sacrifice meaningless.
Everyone. She felt nothing in her mind but the deafening silence. She was a failure. She'd failed her people. Failed the universe really. Davros was dead now at least. Romana wondered cynically just how long it would last this time.
She was getting close now, the pod was still coming in fast. Romana struggled against the immense g-forces to look out the small window of the escape pod.
Guess it was too much to ask that she land over water.
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"I have detected an unidentified object of extra-terrestrial origin, Sarah Jane. Just within the confines of Pitshanger Park."
Sarah Jane Smith stood from her spot at her typewriter, "What can you tell me about it, Mr. Smith?"
The Xylock pulled up a satellite feed of a spot just over the park and zoomed into a burning pile of wreakage.
"Preliminary analysis...seems to suggest an escape pod from the dalek station that you and the Doctor destroyed two days ago."
Sarah Jane paled, "Why is it just hitting ground now? Why not two days ago when the station was destroyed?"
"I can only assume that it maintained some sort of semi-stable orbit around Earth after the station's destruction and only recently broke orbit to descend to the planet's surface."
She nodded concern written all over her face, "Is there anything alive from the crash? A dalek?" Sarah Jane's jaw tightened, "Davros?"
"I can detect no dalek signature, aside from the dalekanium from the pod itself," Mr. Smith paused and continued his scan. "There is... something, Sarah Jane. A alien life sign. It is faint. The DNA signature is fluctuating, as if the creature's biological makeup is in a state of flux. I cannot seem to get a lock on it. But it is not dalek."
Sarah Jane grabbed her keys, "Tell Luke when he gets back from school, that I'll be back before dinner."
"Be careful, Sarah Jane."
"Always am." She smirked, "Mostly."