Finale Special - The Promise of the Name

(Titles by YouTube User RetroTARDISProductions)

I've heard it said that journeys don't truly end unless we choose to end them. There is something to that, I suppose. One can choose to start a journey to destination and decide to keep going.

We don't always get the luxury of such choices, though.

And so here we are. At the end of my journey. My final tale, you might say.

I had tried to begin it alone. But my TARDIS had refused that; she insisted I bring along someone. That someone was Eskarina Smith, the only female wizard of the Discworld, who had unlocked the secrets of time travel - at least by the rules of reality on the Discworld and its quantum variability field - and who had, at various points in her life, been an ally of mine in my journeys to that strange and wonderous world.

This was her first time off the Discworld, though. At least to my experience.

"So Rassilon created you," she said upon my run through of the facts. "He created you as a quantum duplicate to fulfill some plan involving the Cracks."

"Yes."

Esk let my words sink in for a moment. "So you want to face him. You want to stop whatever he's planning because it looks like he's going to cause damage to other worlds."

I nodded. "Quite a lot of damage, I think."

"Right." Esk walked around the control panel in thought. "So to do this right, you want to find... yourself?"

"No." I shook my head and sighed. "I'm not the original Doctor, Esk. That name, it's... it's a promise you make. The promise and the name go together."

Esk looked at me as I said those words. Her next question was obvious. "What's the promise?"

I swallowed. Those words were hard to forget. "Never cruel, never cowardly. Never give up, never give in."

"Hrm." She considered my words. "I think I like that promise."

I smiled thinly at her. "I thought you might."

"Well, we know what we're doing next then? Do you know how to find this Doctor?"

"I'm not sure yet," I said. "But I'm hoping a new acquaintance was able to come through for me."

"And this acquaintance would be?"

I smiled at her. "A robot dog."

That caused her to raise her eyebrow. I had to chuckle at the reaction even as my hand gripped the activation lever.

We were off to London.

As I said before, Esk had never left the Disc. So London was a new experience for her. Quite new indeed. Buildings as tall as the Tower of Art back in Ankh-Morpork were towering everywhere. Traffic zipping about the streets, flashing signs and lights and all the whizbangs and geegaws of early 21st Century Earth, all out of the experiences of a resident of the Disc during the Century of the Fruitbat. Or the Century of the Anchovy, for that matter. "So this is Roundworld", she murmured to me.

"Well, that's a little non-specific," I noted. "Technically every planet is a Roundworld. It's the Disc that is special."

Esk kept looking around as we approached our destination. She looked somewhat out of place in her flowing red wizard robes. "And what are we doing here?"

"We are trying to find the Doctor," I said. "Or rather, we are waiting for him. If he got my message he should be about here…"

We were standing in front of the Royal Museum. That is, the one where he had been made an official curator by Queen Elizabeth. Crowds milled about, entering and leaving as they always did. Curious looks were sent our way; if we tried to enter I already anticipated being challenged by the wary security guards.

"Are you sure he got this message?"

"Honestly? No. But I want to make sure," I replied. I scanned the crowd again. There was no telling which incarnation of the Doctor might show up.

"I don't feel comfortable standing out here like this," Esk said. "We are getting far too much attention. Are you certain you don't want me to make us invisible?"

"Quite certain," I said. "You haven't quite perfected that spell."

"I've gotten so much more practice, though!"

"Genua. Century of the Aardvark. Duchess Leniselle's Banquet."

Esk's face soured. "It wore off!"

"After a week," I retorted. "Do you realize how hard it is to go about life when you're invisible? Especially when it's your clothes that are invisible too?"

Esk huffed and crossed her arms.

"Excuse me?"

We turned to the female voice that was speaking to us. She was an elderly woman, although she appeared to have kept some of her natural brown hair without it going quite gray yet. She had on a coat and trousers that fit the brisk air.

I felt my jaw drop a bit. This… was something I hadn't expected.

"I believe you left a message with my dog," said Sarah Jane Smith. "I thought we might talk about it. I'm Sarah Jane Smith."

Esk looked at me. "Doctor?"

That caused Sarah Jane's eyes to focus on me. Intently.

Bugger. I hadn't thought of that potential complication yet. I held my hands up. "No, I'm not him, I need to see him though," I answered. "Miss Smith, the fates of entire universes are at stake here. I must find the Doctor, immediately."

I watched her she looked me over quickly. "Well, I suppose you have some explanation that I could find useful. Please, if you'll follow me."

We walked away from the museum. As we moved along the road Esk looked out at the vehicles moving about. "Horseless carriages," she mused. "How novel."

"Well, they are after people stop burning fossil fuels to power them," I noted.

"You've never seen automobiles before?", Sarah Jane asked Esk.

"I have not, ma'am," she answered. "We don't have any back on the Discworld."

I admit to some amusement at that thought. Given the quantum variability field of the Discworld, there was no telling what might happen when - and given Humans and Dwarves it was very much when, not if - someone came up with the idea. And I don't count what Ridcully and the wizards did to Vimes' coaches during that whole Koom Valley affair.

Sarah Jane led us to the parking area where her car was. There was a tarp in the back compartment that was covering something… something that I fully anticipated given our circumstances.

"K-9, please come out," she called out.

K-9 emerged from under the tarp. "Yes, Mistress?:"

"This is the man who gave you that message?"

K-9 looked at me directly. The robot dog nodded. "Affirmative."

Sarah Jane nodded and looked back to me. "Well, sir, I suppose you should tell me what this is about. You say universes are in danger?"

"Yes," I replied immediately. "Terrible danger."

"And you need the Doctor to help you stop it?"

I nodded. "It's connected to Gallifrey."

She took notice of that. "You could try to wait around for a sign of him to come up."

"Pardon the pun given your history, but time is definitely not on our side here."

She looked at me with some curiosity. "I see." Sarah Jane started to think about something.

As she did, I looked to K-9 while I pulled out my TARDIS remote. "K-9, you have the TARDIS base code, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Can you transmit it into my TARDIS? I could use it to locate the Doctor."

"I am afraid that is not possible. The base code I possess requires the Doctor to directly link his TARDIS to the transmitter for interaction."

I forced myself not to sigh or groan. Of course there would be further complications. "Well, still..." I used the TARDIS remote to summon it to about four or so meters away. With a snap of my fingers I opened the door. "I could still make use of it, possibly."

"Affirmative." K-9 promptly levitated his way into my TARDIS to upload the other TARDIS base code.

Sarah Jane looked over my TARDIS. Her eyes twinkled a bit. "Well. I can see why she calls you the Doctor."

"My name was taken from me," I told her. "Everything I was had been locked away deep in my mind so I lost all prior identity. He was something I could live up to."

That won me a sympathetic look. "There are worse examples," she agreed. "So... 'Doctor'... you need to find my Doctor to deal with this threat you're speaking of?"

"Yes. Since K-9 hasn't been able to pass the message on, I was hoping you could help."

Sarah Jane shook her head. "I can't find the Doctor for you," she said. "But I think there's someone who might be able to help you."

"Ah?" I folded my arms. "You're thinking about those UNIT fellows?"

Sarah Jane shook her head at that. "No. Not UNIT. Someone else. I've only met her once or twice, but she knows things about the Doctor and his TARDIS that even I don't."

I thought about that for a moment. And then I realized just who Sarah Jane was talking about. "You think she can help me?"

"If anyone knows how to track the Doctor down at a specific point in time, it's her," Sarah Jane confirmed.

"Excuse me?" Esk looked to both of us. "Just who are you talking about? Doctor?"

I smirked. "The Doctor's wife," I answered. I nodded to Sarah Jane and offered her my hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Smith. My best to you and your son."

"Thank you… sir." Sarah Jane gave me a small smile as well.

After thanking K-9 as well, I began to walk away. Esk ran up alongside. "The Doctor's wife? Who are you talking about?"

"Exactly that. His wife. Come along, Esk." I smiled thinly. "We're due at the largest library in the universe."

I spent some time getting some necessary equipment ready. When I was done I checked to make sure Esk was ready and VWORPed us to our destination. As we stepped toward the TARDIS door I looked to Esk. "You've been refining that protective field spell, right?"

"Quite a bit, yes."

"Good. Because we'll be needing it very soon." I opened the door and stepped out into a control area for a massive computer. A dormant automated figure remained still nearby. I looked about and found the ports I needed. "This will take just a moment," I said. "Have that field ready. And don't let them cut us off from the TARDIS, okay?"

Esk nodded. "What is this place?", she asked.

"The Library," I answered. "An entire planet converted into one big library. The Librarian would love to have visited, I'm sure. But the things here… they're not too nice about things like visitors. Or, well, anyone made of flesh, that is."

"I can sense something," Esk said. "There are things living here."

"Yes. Vashta Nerada. 'The Shadows that Melt the Flesh'." I ran the sonic over the port I was choosing and started hooking a device up to it. "Normally they feed off carcasses and such, lay their eggs on wood and all that. But on this planet there are no carcasses and a whole lot of paper made from wood."

"It's hard to believe their young could survive the process," Esk noted.

"Hard to believe? Sure." I turned another port into a power source for my little gadget. "But true. And they're going to want to eat us the moment they sense us, so do keep an eye out." I looked back and gave Esk my "serious business" face. She nodded in understanding and changed her grip on her staff. I returned to my work.

After I was done I stepped back and took in a breath. I let my fingers find the sonic's control button and raised it to point at the device I had applied. The sonic screwdriver whirred happily.

And the holographic access device came alive with blue and green lights. They blinked and such, the kind of thing you expect from a gadget like that, and after several moments they projected a light stream that coalesced into a single human form. A woman with long, curly blond hair, dressed in a beige suit and with a look that spoke of confidence and curiosity in equal measure. "Well… hello," she said. "And what do we have here?"

"Professor Song," I said respectfully. "My apologies. But I needed to ask you something of vital importance."

"Ah. Right to business,, are you?" River Song looked me over. I noticed her expression change when she saw the TARDIS.

"It's mine, not his," I said, hastily. "I'm… well, it's a very complicated thing, but you might say I'm a bit of a fan."

"So it seems." She eyed the sonic in my hand. "You're a Time Lord."

"Human turned Time Lord," I answered. "That's why I'm trying to…."

As we spoke I noticed the shadow showing up toward the end of the hall. It was new. And there was no light to project it.

"Doctor…", Esk remarked. She held up her staff and projected a field with it. "It's those Vashta Nerada you talked about."

Something went click in Professor Song when she heard that. I didn't react openly, not that it would have mattered either way. "You're not the Doctor," she said in a low and oh so dangerous tone. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but if you think I'm going to let you bring harm to him…"

"No! No, that's not it!", I insisted. I held my hands out. "Professor, this is an emergency. I need to find the Doctor. The fate of this universe and so many others may depend upon it…"

I looked over and saw the shadows building. If they got through Esk's shield we would have only moments to flee or we would be picked clean to the bone. That mental image was not very welcome. And Esk couldn't keep the field up forever. If I couldn't get River to work with us...

I swallowed, hard, and put my eyes back on River's. "Professor Song, please. I swear to you, I'm looking for him to get his help. I don't want any harm to befall him. But Rassilon must be stopped."

River seemed to ponder me for a moment. And then Esk, who was exerting great effort to keep the Vashta back. And then me a bit more. She took in a breath and nodded. "One moment." She flickered a moment and became completely still.

I looked back to the growing shadows pressing on Esk's field. There were more of them. And they were getting closer as Esk shrunk the field to better control it and keep any from getting through.

River started to move again. "All right," she said. "Please explain."

I did. I tried to be concise about it and make every detail crystal clear, and to do it quickly given Esk was starting to strain herself. Given River's shifting expression, I felt I was making progress. "That is why I need to see the Doctor. He is the only one who can help me. K-9 gave me his TARDIS base code but unless I can initiate a connection from my end to find him..."

"Unh." Esk's voice betrayed strain. "Doctor, I don't think you… unh… know how hard it is to make this force bubble. I can't hold it up much longer."

I nodded, although I knew she couldn't see me. I kept my eyes on River. "Please," I said. "Please help."

There was nothing for another moment. And another. A couple more painful moments passed us by.

And then River drew in a breath and looked ahead to my TARDIS. "Link your TARDIS to his. This is the best way to find the Doctor." She seemed to concentrate for a moment. "I'm loading the necessary code to remotely connect your TARDIS with the Doctor's TARDIS. You'll find it in your holo-device's memory. Combined with the base code that K-9 gave you, it should let you through."

"Thank you, Professor," I answered respectfully.

"Take care of him," River insisted, and rather fiercely to. "I'm holding you to that."

"Of course." She disappeared from sight.

I carefully removed the device from the ports on the wall. No sooner had I done so, Esk let out a cry of exhaustion and faltered. The shield wobbled further. One more failure like that and we would be claimed by the Vashta. So I grabbed onto her and pulled her toward the TARDIS.

Being grabbed and pulled jostled Esk to the point that she lost focus. The force bubble she had generated faded from existence and the Vashta rushed in.

It was… rather closer than I had imagined. The shadows of Vashta Nerada were right on my heels when I crossed the TARDIS threshold, I snapped my fingers with my free hand and the door swung closed just before the first motes of Vashta could get inside.

Esk looked up at me. She looked winded; sweaty brow, frazzled hair, that sort of thing. "That was too close," she said.

"Ah, I've had closer," I answered. "That time they were chasing me and Harry and everyone else through Undertown in Chicago. That was so much scarier." I went to the TARDIS controls and found an attachment for the device I'd plugged into the library computer. My TARDIS immediately recognized the code inside and the display screen informed me all was ready to connect my TARDIS to the other one.

"Will this really work?", Esk asked me

"Well, only one way to find out for sure," I replied. I reached for the TARDIS control. A tingle of excitement surged through me, head to toes and fingers.

I was about to meet the Doctor.

After all of this time I would actually meet the Doctor.

The questions all jostled about in my head. Would he approve? Disapprove? Would he be understanding or revolted?

Would he find me worthy?

"Doctor?" Esk looked at me. "Are you okay?"

That jolted me out of my little reverie. "Huh? Oh. Yes. Yes, quite okay. Esk, may I ask a favor of you, though?"

"Certainly," she replied.

"For now, until I have a chance to talk to the Doctor, please refrain from calling me by that title. I don't want confuse or upset him.

"Then I should call you…"

I thought on that for a moment. "Professor. Being Visiting Lecturer on Quantum Wibbly and Chair of Temporal Irritation Studies fit that title, yes?"

Esk nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Excellent. And that way there is no confusion," I said happily. I took in a breath to settle myself and pulled at the lever.

We ended up on an alien world. I stepped out of the TARDIS first and saw the flora of this specific planet out a nearby window. Around us it looked like a facility of some sort. Research base, I suspect.

"Where are we now?", Esk asked.

"Not quite sure." I double-checked the coordinates with the help of the sonic. "Perseus Arm, coreward of Earth, I'd say."

"Alright."

I smiled thinly. Esk was still rather new to the whole astrography thing. "Same galaxy as Earth," I clarified. "Not that it narrows much down given how many stars are in a galaxy alone." I turned away from the window and found myself smiling.

There was a second TARDIS in the room. Looked the same as mine as well. I drew in a breath and forced my nerves to steady. My hand reached into my pocket and took out the sonic screwdriver. "Well, he has to be here somewhere," I noted. "Let's go find him."

"I have a very bad feeling about this place, Do… Professor," Esk said, catching herself in the process.

"It does look rather empty, doesn't it?", I asked. I held out the sonic and scanned. The life signs were varied. We had to look further into the facility. We followed gunmetal gray walls with occasional lit-up panels with the occasional darkened room visible through a closed port. "I wonder what went wrong?"

"Probably the same thing that happened to him," she remarked.

Nearby was a body. Or rather what was left of one after being set on fire. I wrinkled my nose at the faint smell of burnt flesh. "Former Human from the look of things," I noted.

"Gods, I hope he was already dead when they burned him," Esk remarked.

A sentiment I could agree with, certainly.

"I wonder what did this?", I mused. I bent over and scanned a nearby piece of debris from the broken garden. There were some skin cells from it that would let me find a genetic sample to confirm the species we were facing. If it was one and not some bloody maniac or maniacs with a flamethrower.

There was a faint noise in the distance. It sounded on the animalistic side. But given the pitch… "Well, that isn't concerning in the least, is it?", Esk asked rhetorically.

I checked the genetic sample. Not only did I not have a result, the genetic structure was bizarre. It was more a construct than a natural genetic sequence. I thought about that. "Looks like we're dealing with genetic engineering. Oh joy."

"That would be?"

"Someone playing with the basic building blocks of life. Imagine, for instance, if a wizard were trying to give human characteristics to a dwarf? Or a troll?"

Esk blinked at that thought. "I think I remember hearing something about that…"

"With magic, yes. They don't use magic. They take the biochemical building blocks of a living being and mix and match individual genes." I shook my head. "It has some uses, mind you. Fixing congenital conditions. That sort of thing. But it's been used badly so often I wonder about how useful it actually is."

"Right. So… you know who they are?"

"Not at all. Not yet anyway…"

There was another sound in the distance. More persistent. Someone was running. No, maybe two people. I pulled my sonic disruptor out of its harness under my jacket. "This way, come on!"

We moved at a brisk pace of our own, following a corridor toward the interior of the structure and passing more of the locked off rooms. The steps seemed to be growing louder and louder as well. We were drawing closer.

Given the direction of the other runner or runners, I turned us into an open door. We left the corridors and entered what looked to be a biochemical lab. A ransacked one, granted, with broken metal tables and beakers and such.

Interesting. But for the moment, not relevant to what we were doing.

Of course, strictly speaking, neither was the thing that nearly killed us.

The creature erupted from the metal closet where it had been hiding in ambush. I saw a figure of pinkish-brown flesh with wings spread out. Bat-wings, to be precise.

Of course. Genetic modification.

Krillitanes.

I had expected the Krillitane - identified in the half second before it attacked - to attempt to claw at us or what have you. But instead it opened its mouth and a plume of flame lashed out at us. I threw Esk to the ground in a flying leap. Heat baked the back of my head from the flame; the tips of my hairs were singed in the process. "Bugger it all... come on!" I scrambled off of Esk and got up in time to bring my sonic disruptor around. The resulting deflector screen caught a second blast of flame from the Krillitane's snouted mouth.

Esk had been dazed only momentarily by my jumping onto her back. She turned and brought her staff up. A bolt of solid energy came from it and slammed into the snout of the bat-like Krillitane. The energy expanded, covering the snout and forcing it closed, and I felt the air grow chilled as the energy hardened into a block of ice. The Krillitane tipped forward from the new weight on its snout.

"What is it?!", Esk demanded as she clambered back to her feet. The tip of her robes were on fire as well, forcing her to stamp them out.

"It's a Krillitane," I answered. "They modify themselves with the genetics of other species to take traits and capabilities they desire!"

The Krillitane glared hatred at us and lunged. I caught it with a full blast of the sonic disruptor and sent it flying into the far wall, breaking even more of the lab equipment in the process. I grabbed Esk by the arm and pulled her toward the door opposite of where we came in. We got to it just as the Krillitane stood up and started smashing the block of ice on its snout against the table top. A big, solid crack appeared in it on the first blow.

I went to work with the sonic screwdriver on the door lock. Esk was watching my back, which is why she didn't go to engage the creature again. I heard another blow, and another, and then a shattering noise; the block of ice. The Krillitane screamed rage at us and...

"There we go!" I finished my override of the door's security lock. It slid into place and latched itself shut. Not half a second later flame bathed the inside of the door. There was a solid thunk from the Krillitane throwing itself against the door. But it didn't budge.

"Let's keep going," I said. I took in a breath and pointed to our left, toward the sound of running at the periphery of my hearing.

We continued our own pursuit of the running feet. Which as now being joined by another inhuman shriek.

Another Krillitane. Brilliant.

After going out the other exit of the lab we entered the living areas of the facility. Mostly support, things like adjuncts to the mess hall and little shops with consumer goods.

By timing, we wound up in the actual mess hall just in time for a young woman to enter from the other end. Dark hair down past the shoulders (or rather further back given she was running), brown eyes, a bit short and thin. Her clothing was definitely Western, early 21st Century Earth.

In the back of my mind, I found her face in my memories. Not as someone I knew, but knew of. A name came to my mind.

Clara.

Clara Oswald.

My eyes widened and I stopped.

She saw me. Registered my presence and Esk's. But that was only for a moment. She turned and yelled, "This way!" before moving to the side of the door.

This allowed the Doctor to enter.

The Doctor. After all of this time.

My eyes went right to his face. A face I had seen in my dreams for years now. That boyish face. That chin. This was the Doctor in his Eleventh (really Twelfth) form. I believe you lot would know him as Matt Smith's Doctor. He had that bowtie - always good - and a purple suit jacket a few shades darker than my own.

I swallowed as his eyes met mine. He glanced slightly downward. Undoubtedly to see the sonic devices I held in my hands. Surprise came to his face for a moment.

Before either of us could speak, there was a cry of "Doctor, the door!"

Clara had to say it. I can't blame her for saying it. It was the smart thing to do at the time given, well, you'll see.

No, the blame lies with me and me alone for my immediate, instinctive reply of "Getting it!"

Just as the Doctor said the same thing. Further surprise came to his face upon realizing what I said.

It was not the meeting I had been hoping for, I can say that.

So... yes. I gave myself away. What can I say? I've gone by the name for years. My mind was entirely wrapped up in trying to figure out what I was going to say to the Doctor. How I would explain. That was where all of my forethought was focused. Everything else was running on automatic.

The look on his face said it all. Surprise. Bewilderment. Suspicion. After all, he was out of regenerations; I couldn't be a future version of him. Or so he thought, anyway. Clearly I was an imposter. Which wasn't something entirely unique, admittedly, but it usually meant trouble.

Oh. Right. Trouble. Like the kind we were still in.

The Doctor and Clara were being chased, after all. Hence the running.

I saw something move behind him. I jumped forward. "Get down!" I brought the sonic disruptor upward as the creature stuck its head through the door.

I got the deflector field up right in time to avoid ending up crispified.

There was a loud, inhuman shriek. A plume of flame erupted from the mouth of the Krillitane now at the door. The flames met my deflector and flowed around it. I moved toward the creature while the heat of the flames came around the deflector and started baking me. "Get back!", I shouted, to them and to it, as I drew closer and the flames licked ever closer to me. "Esk! A hand!"

I was in just the right range for Esk to help me throw the thing out. She effortlessly conjured another field to catch the flames, a flat one that kept the flames from continuing to singe my hair. I swapped to setting 4 and triggered a kinetic charge that blasted the creature out of the door. I turned my head and saw the Doctor already at the controls, his green light-tipped sonic screwdriver whirring away. The door slid shut before the creature could recover.

Looking at it through the clear portal of the door, I watched it continue to belch flame at us until it had to stop. Presumably an issue of fuel for the fire. "Why did it have to be Krillitanes?!", I blurted out. "Seriously… they breathe fire now! That's just unfair!"

"It's a new modification they've added and it's a nasty one," the Doctor said. His eyes remain focused on me. "So, sonic technology and weaponry, Time Lord reaction times… who are you?"

I knew I had to be careful in how I replied. "Someone who needs your help, Doctor," I answered. Best to appeal to his best instincts.

That drew a curious look from him. "Really? You look like you can handle yourself, and your friend is…"

"Might I suggest we lock the other door first?", Esk pointed out. "Before these creatures come in that way?"

"Good idea," Clara agreed.

I nodded and went over to said door. WIth my sonic out and whirring it took me only a few seconds to trigger the door's secured close mode. We would be safe inside. At least for the moment.

"Purple?" The Doctor looked at my sonic and held his own up. The two were about the same size. Mine didn't have the "claw" thing at the end though. just a solid light diode.

"My favorite color," I answered.

"Obviously." The Doctor crossed his arms. "Now. Explanations, please?"

I nodded. "Right. I need your help to stop Rassilon from destroying the Multiverse."

That got his attention. Quite strongly. "Rassilon?", he asked. He sounded incredulous. And concerned.

"Yes. He's… he did this to me," I said. "He made me a Time Lord for some plan. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I know it involved sending me out into the Multiverse with a TARDIS that could shift to other sixth-dimensional coordinates."

I had expected that to be questioned. But the Doctor didn't seem to be phased by any of it. He went right to business. "It can't just be the Time Lock," the Doctor observed. A look came over his face. I drew in a breath; was this before or after he knew that he had saved Gallifrey? Had I just messed up his future timestream? "It's something else, something more." He looked me in the eye. I knew I was being judged and that everything relied upon what I said here and now.

A decision was clearly made. "You answer to my name," the Doctor noted. "So let's start with that. What is your name?"

I answered him. My Human name first. I noticed Esk paying attention. That was no surprise. I already knew she would learn it.

"And you decided to just… use my name?" He frowned at me. "Let me guess. Act of melodrama, hrm? Claiming you're me just to sound cool."

I winced. He had me pegged. "Yes, at first," I admitted. "Then I wanted to live up to it. To your example, to the promise you made. And after that, the block in my mind started doing its nasty work. I couldn't remember my own name. And then the family and friends I had as a Human. It was all taken from me."

"And so all you had left was my name." The Doctor's disapproval was evident. "And so you thought you could be me."

I almost denied it. But I couldn't. Thinking back, I had so very much wanted to be him. The charge was accurate.

"Now look at where that's gotten you." The Doctor was keeping his arms crossed. It gave him a sterner look than his usual manic giddy boy routine. His eyes went down toward the sonic disruptor in my hand. "And of course you can't help but see that fancy Time Lord technology and think of using it as a weapon."

That stung. It stung enough that I defended myself. "This isn't a weapon," I retorted. And there was real heat in my voice, both in defense of the sonic disruptor and of the fact that the charge wasn't actually wrong. My mind slipped to that armory within my TARDIS.

"You altered the sonic technology to increase energy capacity," the Doctor remarked. "No need to do that unless you're looking for brute force."

"Or maybe I wanted to save the sonic for precision work, like it's meant to be used." I held up the sonic disruptor. "This is a tool. If you think this is a weapon because of how it might get used then the same applies to the sonic screwdriver. And just about every other tool in existence, come to think of it."

"Excuse me." Clara stepped in. "But I would like to remind everyone that we're surrounded by fire-breathing bat people who want to kill us!" She looked at the Doctor.

He looked ready to disagree but thought better of it, replying, "Good point. She's got a good point."

"Yes, she does," I agreed.

I looked about. The Krillitanes were at both doors now. And they were clearly trying to burn their way through, although it was plainly evident they couldn't. I mean, it was so evident that even they would have to… know…

"Look at that," the Doctor said. "They know it won't work, so why…?"

"...are they still trying to burn their way through?" My brow furrowed. "They're just wasting fuel, unless…"

"...they're doing it to distract us," the Doctor finished, clearly satisfied to have the last word.

"I think that's rather obvious now…"

We turned to Esk, who was staring up at the ceiling. The metal there was starting to faintly glow red and orange.

Oh. Of course.

"Doctor, might I suggest we continue this conversation elsewhere?" I reached into my pocket for the remote to the TARDIS.

Before I could retrieve it flame shot down near Esk. She stumbled backward into us while a Krillitane jumped down. In this close proximity the claws of the creature was as lethal as the fire it could breathe. Flames flickered from its mouth as it orientated on me.

I didn't have time to get the TARDIS summoned. I brought up the sonic disruptor and used the deflector setting to generate a shield, again catching the flames before they could roast us all. After a moment the flames let off. The Krillitane had exhausted its fuel supply for the moment. It couldn't set us on fire for a while.

Of course, it could still slice us to tiny bits with its claws. So our situation hadn't improved that greatly.

Esk extended her hand. Octarine light lashed out and enveloped the Krillitane. It froze in place. Given the warped feeling I got from it… Esk had actually frozen it in time. Brilliant.

The Doctor looked at her in completely surprise. "How did you do that?"

Esk smiled widely at him. "I'm a wizard. It's what we do."

"She grew up in a world surrounded by a powerful quantum variability field," I explained. "And she has the ability to utilize the same."

The Doctor blinked and looked at me. "You mean she can do magic. She has magic."

"That's what we call it," Esk answered. "He's the one always going on about quantum variability fields."

"It's what they are!", I answered defensively.

"It's semantics," the Doctor pointed out. "The stuff is magic. And you should know how unreliable and dangerous such…"

Before our discussion could continue, another Krillitane descended from the ceiling. And a second was coming up to the exit.

"We should get out of here," Clara said.

"Good idea." The Doctor looked at me. "If you can protect me while I…"

"...open the door? Certainly." I didn't have time to make any snarky comment about how my sonic disruptor was going to save all of our lives and was a tool. I think I managed some smugness that this time I got in the last word, though.

Anyway, there was no time for that. I had to get it into position to stop a slash from the claw of the attacking Krillitane. I used a kinetic burst to drive it back. I applied a narrow-beam high frequency sonic disruptor beam to the second Krillitane. But just because they looked bat-like didn't mean they were bats; the Krillitane didn't seem too phased by it. I mean, it staggered backward, but I had used the same attack to utterly disorientate Red Court vampires before.

Esk had only so much strength in her for powerful magic and she had used up good chunk of that already. She turned to a lesser use of her abilities, making the ground under the Krillitanes slick with a light oil. The first one, recovering from my kinetic burst, tripped.

A fourth Krillitane came through the ceiling now. This one decided he - or she I suppose - was no longer planning to play around. The moment the creature landed flame erupted from its snouted mouth. Esk barely got her shield up in time to stop it.

The other two moving attackers created their own, forcing me to move up and block them with my sonic disruptor's deflector setting. Flames again roared in my vision and the heat, even with the deflector, was suffocating. It felt like I would bake. "We can't keep this up forever!", I yelled back.

"I've almost got it."

"What's taking so long? The security permissions aren't that complicated!"

"I modified them with a rotating cypher key, it changes every other second."

"Oh. That's… well, that would be more impressive if it wasn't going to get us fried to death!"

"Hold on, almost there… Clara, the door!"

Clara pulled at the door and, with effort, it slid open. "Out! Everyone out!", the Doctor called.

Esk and I backed up side by side to the door. She went first and our fields overlapped, blocking more of the heat. Which was fine by me, as I felt like I had sunburn. The pure heat of the Krillitane flames had been unbearable.

Once I stepped past the door the Doctor's sonic screwdriver whirred and the door slid closed, blocking off the flames of the Krillitanes. "So, what were you two up to?", I asked. "With the Krillitanes, I mean?"

"It was the usual sort of trip for the Doctor," Clara noted. "We were supposed to be going to some tourist trap planet in the 35th Century…"

"Unexpected visits, they happen," the Doctor noted. He looked from Clara to me. "The Krillitanes are here for genetic samples. This is a repository for several different species."

"Ah." I nodded. "So, we need to stop them from getting those samples?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, I already handled that. What we need to do…" He was clearly noticing something past me. "...is run."

I turned back just long enough to see the Krillitanes coming down the far corridor. The four of us began to run the other way, toward the outside of the structure. That was the right way to go anyway - our TARDISes were that way - so there was no loss for us in the matter. Esk sought to buy us time by using magic to leave another slick of oil behind us. I could hear the screeching of falling Krillitanes behind us.

"Woh, wrong way!", the Doctor shouted. He made a right turn instead of the left turn he had started to make. When I got to the hall in question a quick glance told me why; another pair of Krillitanes were converging on us from that direction. Esk pointed her staff toward the floor below them and with an effort of will generated an ice slick that they ran into at full speed. The results were expected; a tangle of wings and limbs..

With the Doctor in the lead, we continued down the next series of halls, passing by quarters and labs and janitorial closets, the works. The shrieks of the Krillitanes echoed around us from, it seemed, all directions. But they never quite managed to cut us off.

"Do you know the way to get back to the TARDIS?", Clara asked him.

"Um… this way, I think," he said, taking a turn to the right. We followed to keep the group together.

It turned out to be a detour, frankly, but at least we evaded more of the Krillitanes in the process.

"Here we are!", the Doctor crowed. Ahead of us was a door. I could see one of the TARDISes beyond it. "See, I knew where we were going the whole time!"

We rushed into the room. And stopped at the door.

There was a Krillitane with us, on the other side of the room at the door. He or she or it or whatever had gotten clever and gone the long way around. It stood in the middle of the room, stacks of papers and other detritus around the TARDISes to block our way… and most soaked from the amber-colored contents of what was presumably the can the Krillitane was tossing to the side.

And I could swear there was a sneer on that snouted face in the moments before it breathed fire all over the room.

Everything in the room caught fire. Everything. The flames were licking at the ceiling. Even here, at this distance, I thought I was getting singed. We would get roasted if we tried to force our way through.

There were shrieks behind us. The Krillitanes appeared further down the gray hall. We were trapped.

"Doctor!" Clara looked at him. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm thinking, all right!", he insisted. "I'm thinking…" He turned his head toward me. An idea had popped into his head. I'm pretty sure I knew what idea it was too.

It was the one I was about to do.

I held the sonic disruptor toward the flames and activated good old Setting 4HD (Harry never did find out I named it for him…). The resulting kinetic pulses were perfectly modulated to stamping out fires. As if you were dumping salt or earth on them. The flames receded as I swept the disruptor from left to right, clearing a path for us to the TARDISes.

The Krillitane who had set the flames shrieked in rage. It prepared to blow fire at us directly before it was enveloped in a bolt of octarine light, courtesy of Esk. It froze in place.

I got us to a central location between the two TARDISes and spun the disruptor about to clear the flames from our vicinity. Instead of being baked, we were simply getting tanned.

I could have left it at that. But given our earlier discussion, this time I couldn't help myself. I held up the sonic disruptor to the Doctor's face. "Tool," I said, quite emphatically.

The Doctor's expression implied a bit of, I don't know, grudging respect maybe. "Your TARDIS is linked to mine now, yes?"

"Yes."

"Um… we should probably go," Clara pointed out. The Krillitanes behind us were in pursuit, shrieking and quite ready to burn us alive or rip us apart, whichever pleased them the most.

"Follow, then." The Doctor unlocked his TARDIS. "This way Clara!"

"Esk!" I unlocked my TARDIS as well. She charged in behind me and slammed the door closed just as the first Krillitane started to breathe fire at us. I ran to the TARDIS controls and confirmed the link to the Doctor's TARDIS. Where and when he VWORPed, we would follow, or so was what I set up anyway.

Granted, I hadn't expected the Doctor's TARDIS to materialize inside mine.

Or, more accurately, for mine to materialize around his.

But that is what happened. It appeared beside the opening leading to my library/swimming pool. Esk stared at it. "How did he…"

"Very carefully," I answered.

The door opened and the Doctor stepped out with Clara. He was taking the moment to straighten his bowtie. I found I was doing the same with my tie. He looked my TARDIS control room over. His eyes met the wall with all of the pictures and drawings and moved on to the shelving where I kept some of my little mementos of failures and misadventures. "Interesting," he murmured. He and Clara walked side-by-side down to Esk and myself. "Looks like a standard TARDIS, nice theme for the control room. I'm surprised it's not purple."

"Well, I can't make everything purple," I replied.

"Okay." Clara held a hand up. "I'd like to go over this again."

"Certainly," I answered.

"You're also called the Doctor," she asked. "But you're not the same as him." She held a hand toward the Doctor. "And you have a Human name."

"I was once Human," I answered. "Then Rassilon opened a hole in space-time and made a quantum duplicate - me - and turned that duplicate into a Time Lord. I woke up on a space station with no memory of how I got there."

"Oh." Clara nodded. "Well, that's a lot to take in. What are you doing here? This Rassilon, isn't he one of the Time Lords?"

"He's the leader of the Time Lords," the Doctor replied. "And he's gone completely mad. Whatever he has this man doing, it's bad news."

"I'm still determining the process, but I believe it may have something to do with the Cracks that have been appearing between this cosmos and those I have traveled through," I replied.

The Doctor looked intently at me. "Cracks, you say? Cracks in the Universe?"

"Well, Multiverse, yes."

"And they all link to this particular location in sixth-dimensional space-time?"

"That they do." The Doctor walked around me and inspected my TARDIS controls. He ran the sonic over them, undoubtedly to learn more about it. I turned to follow and continued.

"Hrm. I see you've got quite the setup. Looks like a modified Type 40. Much like my own." He turned toward me and asked, "Tell me everything. And I do mean everything. Nothing left out."

I nodded. After taking a breath I began to go into the details. All of them. I told him about my beginnings. About Jan and Cami. About how I lost my memory.

And I told him about Katherine. The Time Lord Triumphant and what came afterward. The invasions of the other races of his cosmos into the ones I traveled in.

I watched his reactions - and Clara's - to my tale. About the highs and lows. My mistakes. And where I had succeeded. I saw a variety of emotions showing. Bewilderment. Discontent. Outright irritation when my antics deserved such. A deep frown when the Time Lord Triumphant's rise was described. Interest in how I had to face his usual foes.

"And you stopped them all?" He nodded. "That's rather good to hear."

"Yes." I dwelt briefly on those desperate fights.

Unburdening myself to the Doctor felt strange. But it felt right. He deserved to know this. I had used his name after all.

He was particularly perturbed to hear me discuss the Master and what he attempted.

As I finished my story, I found myself gripped by uncertainty. How would he react? How would the Doctor judge me?

Everything in my future, maybe everyone's future, was riding on what the Doctor decided.

No pressure, eh?

His eyes were sad when he finally looked at me. "You shouldn't have done that," he said simply.

I nodded. "I know."

"I'm not a role model," he insisted. He was in pure scolding mode at this point. "I'm not someone to live up to. How could you want to be me? To have my life? That was foolish. You were being a fool."

I replied to that with another nod. "It was an act of melodrama followed by a desire to emulate you. And then it all.. well, it went wrong. And by the time I realized that, the name was so… it had become what I was. I tried to live without it, for months, but I went back to it. It was what I had become, who I had become. And… well." I took a moment to think on how to put my next sentence. "Using your name, making myself think like you, act like you… I became you, in so many words."

The Doctor nodded. He drew in a breath. "And I wish you hadn't."

I breathed in. I had been worried he would not react well. It was… disappointing, I suppose. I had hoped I could persuade him to see my good intents, to see what I had done. But he was right. I had been a fool to take his name. Now I just had to hope he would agree to work with me.

That was when I noticed that, for the first time, a small smile had cracked across his rigid and thoughtful expression.

"An entire galaxy," he said. "You spent your regenerations to heal an entire galaxy."

I nodded. It was still one of my proudest moments.

He answered that with a nod of his own. "Good job," he said. His voice was low, but no longer evincing disapproval or sadness. "That was good."

"Thank you."

"You've made mistakes," he continued. "Horrible ones. Alright. I've been there. We all make mistakes. Just so long as you learn from them, right?" He looked at me intently, seeking the right answer.

I answered with a nod. "Yes. Yes, we must learn from them. Though it is often a harsh lesson."

"Yes, it is." The Doctor looked into my eyes at that point. He was studying me. Carefully. Closely. I felt like he was seeking out the slightest imperfection, the slightest flaw, that had yet to reach his attention. "Well." He spent a moment, allowing that word to hang between us. "That answers my immediate questions. Now we move on to business."

"So Rassilon made you a Time Lord." Clara held a hand toward the TARDIS. "He gave you this TARDIS and sent you out to travel these other dimensions? Why?"

"It has to do with the Cracks. That I'm sure of." I went over to the display and showed what K-9's scans had revealed to me. "Look at that."

"Tethers. Energy conduits," the Doctor noted. "To support a cross-dimensional tunnel of great proportion. Rooted in this sixth-dimensional location - 'cosmos', as you call it - and connecting to this other location."

"My home Earth," I clarified.

"Yes. Metaphysically solid." The Doctor shook his head. "Whatever he is planning, it's not good. All of that energy…"

"I've seen visions," I said. "An associate who can view potential futures. She showed me energy erupting from the Cracks. Wiping out whole worlds. Whole galaxies, in some cases."

"Right." The Doctor nodded. His jaw set. "I can see that. And whatever he's doing, the backlash from it will probably wreck this entire universe in the process."

I swallowed. I hadn't thought about that entirely. But it made sense. "The Daleks thought that would happen. They called me 'the Destroyer.' Thought it was my fault."

"Well, that's the Daleks," the Doctor opined. "They didn't have the whole picture, just a piece of it. And they were probably jealous that they weren't the ones who are threatening to rip apart reality."

Esk held up a hand to get our attention. "This conversation has been quite interesting. But it's clear we need to start working on this. So what do we do next, Doctor..s?" She caught herself toward the end there. Suddenly having to refer to us in plural was novel, I suppose.

"We do something I didn't think was possible," the Doctor answered her. He looked at me. I knew what he was about to say and I nodded in agreement even before he said it for the benefit of the others. "We find out how to access Gallifrey in its pocket universe and we put a stop to Rassilon's plot."

"Well, that doesn't sound hard at all," Clara remarked, smirking. She was being sarcastic of course, but in a good way.

"Oh, it'll probably be a bit difficult," the Doctor replied, amused at her.

"Quite," I agreed. "Definitely the work of… what, a day?"

"Hrm." The Doctor's grin widened into sheer confidence. That confidence made my own grow. A task that seemed impossible, but looking at the Doctor I knew that it was hardly impossible. I knew we would make it work.

Was this how I had made my Companions feel when I grinned the same way?

The Doctor gave his reply to my question. "Maybe half. Certainly less than a day with the two of us."

Esk grinned at us and looked to Clara, who was starting to grin too. "You have a plan," she said to, well, us maybe. Definitely the Doctor. I was getting something of an idea myself now that I was thinking about it.

"Of course." The Doctor nodded at me. "Let's go inspect your engine room, shall we?"

"Of course. Right this way, Doctor," I replied.

I felt a profound thrill. The Doctor was here. He was going to help.

I knew it wasn't over yet, but I couldn't help it. The two of us, working together? I knew we could beat Rassilon. I knew it.

We had to get to him first, though.

Allow me a moment to try and express my giddiness.

I was working with the Doctor.

I was working with the Doctor.

There. I think that about does it. I mean, I managed to avoid squeeing or something like that.

Barely.

Anyway, the Doctor and I went off toward the engine room. "Well, the library looks nice," he said to me. "And the swimming pool."

"Thank you. I should think you'd like the hot tub."

He gave me a look. "Hot tub? You've got a hot tub?!"

I smiled and nodded. "It's good for the bruises. Especially when you've fallen off a skyscraper."

"So unfair," the Doctor sighed. "Wait. A skyscraper?"

"Yes. Had a powerful quantum-locked entity wrecking a city. I fell off the skyscraper. Rough landing."

"Yes. I imagine it was." We walked beyond the next room. "Is that… you have a garden in here?"

"Certainly," I answered.

"Interesting idea," he mused.

"I thought so. Plus it has had other uses."

I received a nod in reply. We continued on our way to the engine room. He briefly glanced at my TARDIS' Eye of Harmony but said nothing about it. Looking back, he asked, "So… isn't the door supposed to be here?"

"It is," I replied.

"Oh?" He concentrated a moment. A laugh came from him. "Oh, ha! Yes. Misdirection circuit. Rassilon didn't want you in there."

"No, he did not," I replied.

"You beat the circuit?"

"And the compulsion not to challenge it," I answered. "Took me a bit, though."

"Yes." He gestured onward. "After you, sir. She's your TARDIS, after all."

"Thank you, Doctor." I stepped ahead of him and opened the door to the engine room.

Inside we made our way to the device Rassilon had placed on it. "Well, this looks interesting, doesn't it?", the Doctor asked. "Trans-dimensional beacon, certainly."

I nodded in agreement. "And tied into the TARDIS systems to record what I've been doing."

"Probably uses a subspace data transmitter to enhance the data flow."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be better to piggyback a data feed along the beacon's trans-dimensional signal?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, too much signal loss."

I furrowed my brow as I considered the issue. "But a subspace data transmitter would run too much risk of corrupting the data in the stream… unless…"

"...you jacket the stream with a quantum sheath field from a secondary transmission system specifically keyed to…"

"...a transdimensional channel tuned to the energy states of the interdimensional tunnel, as is formed by the Cracks!" I grinned widely. "Of course, why didn't I think about that?!"

The Doctor smiled back. "Oh, it's an easy thing to dismiss. The transmission system is both complex and delicate, Rassilon put a lot of effort into making it work as well as it does."

"Brilliant!", I shouted. "And this means that if we attach a signal tracer tuned to the transdimensional channel…."

"...we can determine the exact location of Gallifrey in relation to the interdimensional tunnel."

"Yes!" I laughed. "And here we are, finishing each others sentences."

The Doctor nodded at me. "Great minds, that sort of thing."

"Yes, I suppose. So, I'll handle isolating the channel if you…"

"...assemble the tracer from some parts I have lying around," the Doctor finished. "And we'll be on our way in no time!"

"Ha!" I brought a hand up out of enthusiasm. "Let's go, eh?"

The Doctor gave my hand a look. He shook his head. "What… what's this?"

"Hrm?" I wiggled my hand. "High-five? That sort of thing?"

"No. No, I don't… I don't do that sort of thing."

"Oh." I shrugged a little and started to lower my hand…

...and he promptly slapped his palm to mine, a wide grin on his face. "Ha! Fell for that one didn't you!" The Doctor clapped me on the shoulder. "Alright, let's get to work!"

I laughed back and gave him a shoulder clap. "Let's! Gallifrey awaits!"

We worked intently over the next hours. Isolating a specific transdimensional channel is trickier than you lot might think, you must understand. I was still only partially done when the Doctor returned from my material stores and his with the tracer. He finished assembling it while we exchanged advice and observations on our work.

And maybe we raced each other. A bit. Just a bit.

….okay, maybe he crowed a bit when he finished the tracer first. But it was just in the excitement of the moment, mind you!

While I hastened to finish my work, he attached the tracer to Rassilon's device. It was tricky work to avoid any countermeasures Rassilon might have placed upon it. "So," he said suddenly, "quite an interesting lot you've dealt with over your travels, I hear."

"I would say so, yes," I answered. "Ancient genocidal AIs. Extradimensional mental parasites. Hive mind bunnycats who used to channel energy from driving adolescent Human girls mad with despair. And an extradimensional entity shaped like a triangle, of all things."

"Sounds quite interesting," the Doctor replied. "You've been busy."

"Yes. And that doesn't count all of the entities and species from your cosmos that came through the Cracks," I said.

"Yes, you said that before."

"Had some interesting adventures there as well. And I caused some confusion with them whenever they heard my, that is, your name."

The Doctor chuckled. "Oh, I can imagine."

"The Sontarans were particularly perturbed," I pointed out. "And the Zygons never saw it coming."

"Zygons, eh? I'm guessing it was one of the splinter factions after the loss of their homeworld?"

"Given how aggressive they were? Yes. They tried to bond themselves to normally-sentient gemstones to improve their shapeshifting and gain the other abilities of the Gem species. Put a stop to that, I did."

"Sentient Gems, you say? Sounds like the other sixth-dimensional locales have a lot of interesting things to them." The Doctor went quiet for a moment - presumably focused on work - before asking, "What about the Cybermen? They've been a bother as of late."

"They tried to conquer a cosmos in the 31st Century Human Western calendar," I replied. "There was a faction there who made willing cyber-converts, a bunch of crazy human technology worshipers called the Word of Blake. I put a stop to it, of course. It was a cosmos I had some good memories in, couldn't let them ruin it." As I said that my voice faltered a bit. I found myself thinking about Katherine.

The Doctor caught that, of course. "Let me guess. The home cosmos of the Companion you lost."

"Yes," I answered simply. "Katherine."

"It'll always hurt," the Doctor admitted. He stopped working for a moment and looked back at me. Our eyes met. "I… don't blame you for how you felt. What you did was wrong. But I'm not sure I would have done any better in that situation."

I nodded in reply. And thanks.

We left each other to finishing our work.

Clara and Esk were back in the control room as we finished up. Clara was looking over my little wall with all of the drawings and such on them. "He seems to be popular with the children," Clara noted.

Esk nodded. "He likes to be a crazy uncle," she answered. "And they love him for it."

Clara smiled at that. "My Doctor can be that way. Sometimes." She reached for the amethyst necklace. "And this is…"

"Katherine's," Esk answered simply.

Clara pulled her hand away. "Right." She nodded. "The Companion he lost." For a moment she continued looking over the pictures. "He's not actually the Doctor. I mean, I don't see my Doctor having these sort of shrines on his TARDIS. He has that perfect memory, he wouldn't need it."

"Or he doesn't want a visual reminder of the things he's left behind him," Esk pointed out. "Your Doctor is a lot older than mine." Esk looked back to the wall. "It's easy for him to have these things now. But what happens when he's exhausted the time he can spend with these people? After a few more centuries, maybe he'll be just like your Doctor…"

"Probably." Clara must have been thinking about what bits of memory she had from all of those lifetimes spent with the Doctor in all of his lives, undoing the damage inflicted by the Great Intelligence.

At this point, she evidently chose to change the subject. "And what about you, Eskarina?"

"What about me?" Esk laughed. "The Doctor, my Doctor, loves to be cryptic about it. He talks about 'spoilers'."

"Oh?" Clara grinned. "He must have met your future self, then."

"Likely," Esk answered. "Given we're both time travelers."

"Oh?" That won Clara's interest. "Really? You have a time machine?"

"Not quite," Esk replied. "It's an effect peculiar to the world I come from."

"That 'magic' you do," Clara said. "That's what it is?"

"Yes," Esk answered. "I can use it to shift myself through time. I'm still working out the kinks, though."

"Well, I can imagine how that might be a problem," Clara answered. "Good luck with that. It's rather…"

At that point she stopped speaking, given the Doctor and I were coming back to the control room. "But the hyperdimensional drift," I asked. "We're going to have to account for that too."

"It won't be hard," the Doctor answered me. "I've got the calculations we used to shift Gallifrey stored in my TARDIS."

"But aren't they only about ninety percent complete?"

"Ninety-two point one percent," the Doctor corrected, sounding jovial as he skipped around to his TARDIS' door. "But that should be sufficient for our purposes. The tracer will supply the necessary gap in our data."

"It's still going to be quite tricky," I reminded him.

"Of course." He smirked. "That's part of the fun, isn't it?"

Oh, he had me there. "That it is."

"What?", asked Clara.

"Gallifrey's pocket universe," Esk answered her. "The Doctors have to account for hyperdimensional drift moving it off of the coordinates their systems establish. The drift can be extremely short in scale and will make it hard, if not impossible, to accurately fix ourselves to Gallifrey's location."

"Ha!", the Doctor shouted. "Not impossible at all, Miss Smith. Just extremely hard!"

"Oh, well, so long as it's only hard," Clara answered. "I'd hate for it to be impossible."

"Impossible is for Thursdays," the Doctor answered. "This is a Tuesday!"

"Tuesdays are interuniversal crises for me," I answered. "So far, this fits." I moved away from the door to the Doctor's TARDIS and toward my own controls. "I'm getting telemetry from our tracer."

"Good!", the Doctor called from his TARDIS. "I'm relaying the calculations to you now!"

Said calculations showed up on the monitor as I swiveled it over to my position. They provided me with critical data I needed to augment the results of the tracer we were running on Rassilon's gear. I had partially re-activated it. Of course, that had its own drawbacks.

Namely, Rassilon would know we were coming.

Oh, Rassilon wouldn't see everything we were doing, but the very fact we were keeping him blind would undoubtedly alert him to what was happening. And it wouldn't be hard for him to figure the rest out. He would know the Doctor and I were coming and would prepare accordingly.

So the Doctor and I had prepared as well.

"I've got coordinates!", I crowed. "Ready when you are, Doctor!"

"Right!" The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS. "I've been waiting to try this. On my mark!"

"Ready!"

He returned to his controls. I couldn't see him start working for obvious reasons; I was busy maintaining our fix on Gallifrey's location in the interdimensional spaces, linked to our's by the tunnel Rassilon had created. As soon as the Doctor was ready…

"Eskarina, Clara, in here!", the Doctor cried out.

"Go!", I added, briefly looking at Esk. She nodded and joined Clara in entering the Doctor's TARDIS. I was alone.

More moments passed by. I kept the fix I needed. All I was waiting for was the Doctor's sign.

It didn't take long to come.

"Geronimo!"

I pulled back my activation lever and added my affirmation. "Tally ho!"

VWORP VWORP VWORP

My TARDIS shuddered and shook slightly as I propelled her into the interdimensional spaces along the tunnel between my home cosmos and the Doctor's cosmos. Energy buffeted all around us and threatened to throw the TARDIS off course. But that wouldn't happen. I knew her. I knew how to fly her now. She was more than a match for this.

Slowly a more normal space-time began to form about us. A pocket universe hidden away in the ether between the dimensions.

On my screen, dark starless space began to replace the rippling golds and blues and greens of the interdimensional tunnel. A familiar planet, brown and red in appearance, faded into view as the tunnel's colors faded out.

My hearts skipped a beat.

We had done it. We had arrived.

Gallifrey.

….of course, this meant we were likely to be detected. It would have been impossible to avoid detection coming in. And that meant Rassilon was going to act.

My TARDIS shuddered as a capture beam lashed out from the planet's surface and seized her right where she finished emerging from the interdimensional tunnel. I had been given no chance to avoid this. Just as the Doctor and I suspected would happen.

We had less than a second before we would be captured.

Half a second before it was too late, I felt energy surround me and whisk me away.

My control room was gone. The Doctor's TARDIS control room was now surrounding me. His TARDIS was also VWORPing now. "Stealth circuits engaged," he said to me. "Well done."

"Just in the nick of time," I said back.

"Rassilon will suspect something, of course," the Doctor pointed out. "So let's not disappoint him!"

I nodded in agreement. No, I wouldn't disappoint him. It was time to confront him. Time to face the man who duplicated me and did all of this to me, who made me his pawn, and who even now risked the existence of my home world and every world I had come to love in my travels.

And most importantly, it was time to end whatever he was planning, before he caused more suffering.

The Doctor's TARDIS landed on the outskirts of the main capital city of Gallifrey. We stood at the door to it to look outside. It was somewhat surprising to see how much of the environment looked to be arid wasteland. The handiwork of the Daleks, possibly. The mood of the place wasn't helped by how dark it was; aside from light from the city the sky was pitch black. No sun, after all. And no stars. Or even moon.

Tents were gathered about the base of the capital. The Doctor pointed to them. "They're still rebuilding from the Daleks," he noted.

"Well, it does give us refugees to blend in with," I noted. "but we're not exactly dressed in the local fashions."

"Your friend Esk is close enough," the Doctor noted. "As for us…" He went back into the TARDIS and went below the controls. When he came back up, he had faded brown cloth rolled up in his arms. He tossed one piece to Clara and another to me. I let it unfold, revealing a cloak. "Some Leemavin pilgrim cloaks," the Doctor noted. "Just the right about of raggedness and poor quality to pass muster, I say."

I forced myself not to gag at the stench on the cloak. "Right," I said hoarsely before laying it over my jacket. Oh, Edna would be so upset to know what I was subjecting her masterpiece work to.

"We don't have much time," the Doctor noted. "Rassilon will realize we're still here soon enough. We'd better get going."

"So, where are we going?", Clara asked.

"Presumably, to that," Esk answered for us, pointing up.

We looked upward. Above the city there was some sort of array, sticking out of the main central structures. It was pointed skyward and already seemed to be crackling with energy that lit up the sunless sky. "Well, that looks impressive," Clara remarked dryly.

"It looks like bad news," I remarked.

"Quite bad," the Doctor agreed. "Let's get going."

We started walking over that rough, rocky ground, our way illuminated only by the silhouettes created around us from the distant lights of the city. As we walked nothing was said. There was nothing to say right now. Not yet.

Toward the end of the long walk we were entering the refugee settlement. Occasionally there was an armed guard, in the red armor of the Gallifreyan military with what looked to be a slug-shooter rifle. The Doctor's sole reaction to them was to warn they were dangerous. Presumably Rassilon's subordinates then, willing or otherwise.

The people in the camp… well, I had seen war refugees before, and they fit the same. Hungry, tired, lost. Desperation in all eyes, some tinged with defiant hope and others with pitiful despair. That wasn't new.

But to see this here? Even here, on Gallifrey? On the homeworld of one of the greatest species in all of Creation?

I could see the anger in the Doctor's eyes. In his posture. It took only a moment to realize just how deeply this wounded him. He had saved these people, he had found a way to spare them destruction without risking the Daleks burning the universe, but the suffering of the war continued.

And given the crackling array above us, it wasn't hard to guess who was responsible. All of the resources put into that device. Into the energy needed to, well, to create me, to turn me into a Time Lord, to build the specialized dimension-traveling TARDIS I had been left with.

Not only was Rassilon dooming many worlds and places with his ambitions, he was also prolonging the suffering of his own people.

Another thing he would have to answer for.

We ran into our first difficulties at one of the entrance gates to the city. It was manned by military personnel and it was evident that they were keeping it blocked off. They certainly wouldn't let us in the way we looked, with or without the stinking pilgrim cloaks. "So, what now?", I asked the Doctor.

"I'm thinking." He took in a breath and looked about. "Hrm. There's a grate over that way - to my right - that leads to the underground. But that would mean going through the Cloisters. Not exactly a safe route."

"Any other options?", Clara asked. "Because I think I've lost my sense of smell since putting this thing on."

"Oh, it's not that bad, you should have seen - or rather smelled - the fellows I got them from," the Doctor noted. He kept looking around. "Hrm. A window facing outward from that structure. We could climb up to it."

"I don't like it," I said. "Too open. We'll be seen."

"Alright." The Doctor nodded and looked back at me. "And what are your ideas?"

I contemplated the issue for a moment. A grin came to my face and I turned to Esk. "Esk, what was that you said earlier about your invisibility spell?"

Esk gave me a look. "Oh. You want to use it now," she said, arms crossed and smile sardonic.

"Invisibility spell?", the Doctor asked, sounding rather disbelieving. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

"Oh, not at all. It works rather well. Too well, given what happened last time."

"Oh, I've handled that," she protested. "The formula lacks the thaumaturgical strength to impose invisibility beyond 24 hours. A standard use should only be twelve, at most. Probably just a couple of hours when divided among four people."

Clara was both intrigued and curious on the matter. "And you're sure it will work?"

"Well, it worked last time," Esk said to her, looking at me sweetly. "Although some people complained about the duration."

"I was invisible for a week," I retorted.

"Because I miscalculated the…"

"Perhaps we should have more doing the thing and less arguing," Clara noted. I followed her eyes and saw that yes, we were attracting a small crowd.

"Right." The Doctor nodded. "Magic or not, we need to get started. Are you ready?"

Esk nodded.

"Then start with me."

I tried to stop him from going first. On principle. But he made it pretty clear he was going and that was that. I sighed and gestured for everyone to follow me until we got to a private point in the camp on the other side. Once we were there further ideas were given and Esk was left to cast her magic. She whispered incantations in old Morporkian and other languages, a hodgepodge that turned her voice into a chorus.

Within a few seconds she faded from view. Clara faded next, then the Doctor.

Suddenly everything around me seemed to fade slightly. Colors lost vibrancy. My Time Lord senses went a little haywire as they felt my body shift out of phase with the rest of normal reality… or at least normal reality inside a pocket universe. I could see the others again. Esk was leaning against Clara. "Is she going to be okay?", Clara asked.

"You have no idea how hard it is to mold a phased field to not cause us to fall through the planet," Esk answered. "It took me several paperweights and Simon's favorite chair to make it work."

"So, it's not invisibility-invisibility, it's 'phase out of tune with normal space' invisibility," I asked.

She smiled thinly at me. "Yes, quite."

The Doctor nodded at her. "Ah. Quite impressive," he said. But it was clear he was still a bit… put off, I suppose? It's not surprising. Time Lords went out fo their way to stamp out anything approaching "magic" a long time ago, and all have a bit of contempt for it. "How long do we have?"

"We have to stay within twenty feet of each other for the phase field to keep working. Otherwise it will weaken and disperse, and we'll be back in normal space." Esk rubbed at her sweaty forehead. "We have about two hours before it degrades."

"Two hours." The Doctor looked back up at the array above us, still crackling with energy. "That sounds about right. Let's go."

Now that we can move unseen, we all followed the Doctor into the city.

As expected, the city still showed battle damage from the Dalek attack. Homes and other structures had yet to be repaired, explaining the large number of refugees outside of the city. The luckier members of Gallifreyan society milled about in those red suits with the head-pieces at the back, the ones that were tapered thin at the neck and spread outward by the time they got to the top of the head. Armed soldiers patrolled the streets still.

More than that, it was clear that we weren't quite as invisible as planned. Every time we drew to the best-dressed of the Gallifreyans, they seemed to stop in place and look around. They were Time Lords too, and undoubtedly could sense that our phase field was in the vicinity. We could only hope that the sensation remained too general for them, or any sensors, to focus on.

"This is all damage from the Dalek attacks," Clara noted. She had knowledge of the Time War, after all. "Shouldn't it have been repaired by now?"

"Rassilon and the Council clearly had other priorities," the Doctor mused unhappily.

"Me," I muttered. "And whatever they had in mind for my existence."

The Doctor gave me a sympathetic look. "It's not your fault," he said. "None of this is."

I knew he was right. But it still… hurt, I suppose.

Because of the damage in the city we had to detour around the plazas and streets on our way toward the central structures. We made it to the base of the tallest building and found the entrance blockaded by soldiers. Furthermore, the door was controlled by a lock. Even if we could interact with it in phase, we would alert the guards if we used it. "Alright, so what's our next plan?", I asked.

The Doctor looked upward. "We take one of those," he said.

I looked up as well. A military hovercraft of some sort was flying overhead and coming to a landing in a nearby structure. "And we'd better hurry," I noted. "We'll be out of time soon on the field."

"Right," Esk said. "And I'm not sure I can form another one so soon after this one."

"It's no fuss." The Doctor smirked. "I have plans just in case we do become visible again. Come along, we're going this way."

The Doctor led us to the tower near the central building. This one also had secured entrances, but not guarded ones. Our sonic screwdrivers quickly beat the lock on the one door and granted us entry. Within the halls and rooms all conformed to the best tastes in Gallifreyan architectural design. It was really quite marvelous

"So where do we find the stairs?", Clara asked.

The Doctor and I turned back and looked at her. "What makes you think there are stairs?", I asked. "This is Gallifrey. Time Lords don't need stairs."

"Well…" Clara crossed her arms. "I mean, you, I mean they, were at war, right? And there's no telling what can happen to power. You can't just rely on lifts all of the time. Stairs make sense."

"I have to agree," Esk chimed in. "High technology and magic is all fine and good, but simple solutions as a backup are always the smart thing."

"Yes, but…" I looked to the Doctor, who was smiling. "There are stairs, aren't there?"

The Doctor laughed. "Of course there are." He winked. "This way."

"Ah, so now I look like the arse, isn't that nice…", I mumbled.

The Doctor led us to the stairs. We started going up them.

And up. And up.

And up.

We had burned through most of our time remaining getting to the top of the building. We emerged and found the military's park for its anti-grav vehicles. "Now this may be the tricky part," the Doctor confided.

"We can't hide it," Esk said. "I'm sorry, but it'd just be too much to shift that thing's mass into the phase field with us."

"Oh, I know," the Doctor answered. "That's why I said this would be tricky." he found the nearest one and started working on it. "Deadlock seals, so no using the sonic to gain access. Fortunately there is more than one way…" The lights on the controls came on. "...to steal one of these things."

"Impressive," I noted.

"Just something I picked up during the War," he replied. His face grew more somber as he did. Presumably that occasion wasn't exactly a good memory for him.

We piled in. I took the co-pilot seat and looked over the controls. Much simpler than a TARDIS, but that's not surprising. These were meant for normal Gallifreyans to pilot, after all. I looked back to see Esk and Clara secure themselves into the rear seats for passengers. The Doctor flipped several switches until the engines rumbled to life. They weren't too loud, although they weren't very soft either. I looked forward again and saw my display included the targeting for the gun. "So." I looked up at the energy crackling around the array pylons above. "I'm sure blowing that thing up is not a good idea."

"It's not," the Doctor agreed. "Capacitor overload, it would cause a lot of devastation in the city. And these people have suffered enough."

"Do we blow a hole into the building?", I asked. "I can't imagine roof access will work very well."

"I'd rather not." The Doctor reached over with his sonic. It whirred to life, green tip lit up and all, and the gunner console suddenly went dark. "We don't need that at all."

"Ah." I nodded. "Good. I wasn't very comfortable with it." I drew in a sigh. "Of course, I doubt I'll be comfortable if we smash head-first into the building instead."

"That's why I'm not going to do that either."

"Oh." I thought about it. And I laughed. "Young ladies, please sit up as far as you can."

"What? Why?", Clara asked.

"Because," I answered, "we're going in arse-first."

Clara and Esk exchanged worried glances and very quickly scooted their derrieres up as far as they could.

"Attention Hopper 21, you are on an unauthorized flight," a voice said over the comm system. "Identify yourself or you will be shot down."

"A bit slow, aren't they?", the Doctor noted while angling our craft. "Here we go! Geronimo!"

I almost made a comment about how he'd just done that when we were working our way to Gallifrey. But I never got the chance. The hopper lurched backward and picked up speed. Within seconds the entire thing shook violently as it plowed through a window and wall. We were jostled about roughly for several seconds until the Doctor killed the engines. Both doors were clear for us to slip out of. "Out, everyone!"

We followed him out of the crashed vehicle and dashed toward the nearest hall. The Doctor led us to a set of stairs. As we started going up, soldiers ran behind us, weapons at the ready.

"The phase field is going to start to lose cohesion any minute," Esk warned.

The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out and scanning. "Just another two floors up," he said. We followed, all of us moving as quickly as we could. I got to the top of the flight of steps just behind the Doctor and followed him into the adjoining halls. It was a shame, really; all of this lovely Gallifreyan architecture and I had to focus on other things.

We entered what looked to be a large control room. A few technicians were on duty doing checks. We moved toward one of the controls. "Good, we're not too late," the Doctor noted. "I'm going to shut down the system."

"I'll help you bypass security." I moved to another control and started operating it. "Bypass started. I'm isolating the other stations."

"Beginning power-down process."

As we went to work, I felt a thrill. We were doing it. All of that sneaking about,all of that tension, and we were almost done. Soon we would have Rassilon's whole system disabled. Then we could retrieve my TARDIS and maybe find someone who knew what was going on. I already knew at least one Time Lady was sympathetic to my cause.

I might never have realized something was wrong if not for Esk. "Doctor?", she asked. "Or Professor if you want."

"Professor?" The Doctor looked at me.

I shrugged. "I asked her to call me that until I'd explained things to you."

"Ah."

"This is important!", Esk insisted. "Something is wrong. These people… they don't feel… right."

I pondered that. My brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

"They don't feel alive, Doctor," she answered.

I looked up from the controls. The displays showing my progress.

My easy, completely and wildly successful progress.

The Doctor looked over to me as I looked to him. Yes, he had realized the same thing. "Trap," we said together.

The displays all shut down, and with them the technicians disappeared, now revealed as holograms. From each door a host of guards entered in, led by a Gallifreyan in the full regalia of a member of the Council. He stood just outside of the circle they formed around our assumed controls. "We know you are here, Doctor," the man proclaimed. "By order of the Lord-President of Gallfrey, you are under arrest. Reveal yourself."

Clara swallowed. "Well… they can't hit us, right? We're out of phase."

"We won't be for much longer," I pointed out. My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plan.

"Eskarina, this phase field you're creating." The Doctor went up to her. "What if you were to compact it? So that it only worked on you and Clara? Could that buy you more time?"

Esk thought quickly. "Well, yes. Twenty minutes at least, perhaps more."

"Good."

"So we go visible," I said. "And hope they don't just shoot us."

"They don't," the Doctor assured me. "Rassilon will want to talk. And gloat. He does that. Loves to gloat. No matter which regeneration."

"Ah." I nodded to Esk. Worry was written plainly on her face. She did not want me to do this. "He's right, Esk." I handed her my sonic disruptor. "Here. Hold onto this."

"If they try to kill you, Doctor, all bets are off," Esk warned.

I gave her my best sigh and she rolled her eyes. I watched her focus. She began to fade from my view. So did Clara. Everything else began to shift back to normal color. The guards all looked rather bewildered at the way we simply faded back into view, without any clear technological assistance. The Councillor looked from the Doctor to me with some surprise. "So which of you is the Doctor?", he demanded.

Well, there was only one way to respond to that.

"I am," the Doctor and I said. Together. We looked at each other and grinned.

The Councillor furrowed his brow in bewilderment mixed with profound irritation. It was really quite amusing. "The Lord-President will sort you out," he finally growled. "If you try to flee, you will be shot dead. If you talk, you will be shot."

I almost asked "Where's the fun in that?", but the look in the man's eye kept my tongue in check. No, he would follow through on that threat just to keep his authority.

There was nothing to be done for it. We were marched out of the decoy control room.

A lift bore us several floors up to near the roof, probably the second-to-highest level or something. We were taken through adjoining halls until our arrival at the center of the structure.

The room inside was not large, but it was quite full with more Councillors like the fellow at our backs. I looked over their faces; all looked pensive and irritated.

And then my eyes found a familiar set of brown eyes… and the graying head of light brown hair and matronly sadness that went with them in my memory.

My unknown benefactor.

Our eyes met. Guilt and sadness rippled from her visage. She pursed her lips and swallowed. I lowered my eyes to break the contact.

I instead found myself facing the scarred man in the central chair. He was dressed in the red finery of Gallifrey, complete with the crest behind the head. His face was burnt and scarred as if it had been exposed to excessive energies, the kind you barely survive. Eyes glared hatred at the Doctor especially. His arms rested on his large chair's arms. The left hand was covered in a gauntlet of silver.

I swallowed. Rassilon.

Beside and in front of Rassilon, about a meter away, was a dome of faint green light. Within the dome was a figure on his knees. Energy was in mid-crackle around his head and body and it looked like half of his skull was exposed by it. More energy was trapped mid-crackle around his hands, as if he had been generating it at the moment he froze.

My eyes widened in realization.

It was the Master.

Frozen in time.

"That explains that, I suppose," the Doctor mumbled. He had noticed the same.

Most of the guards didn't stay. A handful moved to between Rassilon and us. Everyone watched in silence as Rassilon looked us over. "Well." He folded his hands together. "Here we are, at last. Gallifrey's most disappointing son..." He glared at the Doctor.

And then he looked at me. The glare went away. An expression of bemusement and intense satisfaction replaced it.

"...and Gallifrey's greatest tool." He smiled at me. "It is fitting that you should be here at the end. To see the wonder that you have wrought."

I swallowed. Everyone was looking at me. I found the attention… uncomfortable. "And just what have I done?"

Rassilon's satisfaction grew so thick you could probably have cut it up with a knife. Assuming you could stand being so close to it given the ego tied to it. "Why, shouldn't it be obvious, Human?" He raised his hands and spread them. "You have become the salvation of Gallifrey and her people. Because of your travels, we will finally be freed of this limbo that the Doctor cast us into."

"It was either this or burning the planet," the Doctor retorted. "And I couldn't do that. It's not like you had anything better in mind."

Rassilon snarled at him. "Do not think I have forgotten your role in condemning Gallifrey to remain behind the Time Lock, Doctor. You will face the appropriate punishment in due time." His eyes journeyed back to me. "And you. Here you are, returned to us, your purpose fulfilled. The purpose for which you were given the gift that you so nearly squandered."

"Squandered?", I asked.

"Four regenerations, and you wasted them all," Rassilon spat. "All on a petty fantasy of emulating this disgrace." He motioned to the Doctor.

"So I should have emulated someone else? Maybe him?" I indicated the Master with my hand. "Because he's not exactly the best candidate."

"He is a rabid beast," Rassilon agreed. "But he still served his proper purpose. Unlike this traitor." He spat at the Doctor. Literally. Every word was laced with contempt and rage. "This disgrace to our people that you dared to try and emulate. By doing so you placed the entire plan in jeopardy."

I expected more spittle and rage. But Rassilon asserted control over his burnt, scarred face. A thin smile came to him instead. "But as you succeeded regardless, I am of a mind to be merciful."

I swallowed. "Your plan. You caused the Cracks. Or rather, you caused me to cause them." I let my mind think through all the facts and what he had said. What was now evident from seeing Gallifrey. "You used me as a… a surveyor. I traveled, and you used my TARDIS' navigational data to strengthen the links that maintained the interdimensional tunnel bridging my cosmos to yours. The results were the Cracks."

Rassilon grinned with what looked like the pride of a father.

That prompted me to continue as the whole thing came together in my mind in all of its horrible truth. "When you took me, the tunnel was just… just a small thing. Just large enough to accommodate the quantum scanning system you used to duplicate me. And the transmat beam that deposited me and my TARDIS on that Sith space station." I swallowed. "But now… with all of the cosmoses I've visited… all of those tethers you've been able to make… the tunnel is larger. Much larger. Much easier to use. And you're going to bring Gallifrey through it."

"That's not all, is it?", the Doctor asked. "There's more to this than removing Gallifrey from the pocket universe."

Rassilon merely kept smiling, inviting me to continue. As if I were a pet bidden to speak. And I did, if just to give vent to the thoughts in my head. "Yes. It's not all. The Master… the Master knew of the plan. He knew my TARDIS could do the same for him that it was doing for you. He was going to make his own Eye of Harmony from a dimensional disruption. Just as you plan. But… you're going to use the tunnel, aren't you? Gallifrey's pocket universe shifting through it will cause a massive release of energy. It'll tear through all the dimensions linked to the tunnel and destabilize it. Across six dimensions of space-time. And for maximum effect with the disruption, used upon a central location in the sixth dimension of reality." I swallowed. "My Earth. My homeworld. You're going to sacrifice it as the focal point of the disruption. You'll capture it at the moment of the disruption as the basis for your new Eye of Harmony."

The Doctor paled. His voice became shaky. "That… the backlash… it would…"

"It would ripple backward through the tunnel," I continued. I knew I was just as pale. My voice quivered as the full and awful implications rippled through me and sapped at my strength. We had already known that whatever Rassilon was planning would cause massive damage to their old home cosmos. But we'd never imagined it could be anything like this. "Your home cosmos, Gallifrey's… it'll be torn apart across all dimensions. The entire universe in all five dimensions shattered. The disruption will follow the tethers, the Cracks, and will explode in all of the other cosmoses as well…."

My hearts quailed. The future visions Garnet had shown me. That was what was going to happen. That dimensional disruption would rip my flimsy seals on the Cracks apart and disgorge massive amounts of energy into each of those cosmoses, propagating along the fifth dimensional axis in each. Every fifth-dimensional iteration - every alternate universe of each, if you wish - would be shattered, broken, by what happened, and the immediate solar systems hosting the Cracks reduced to loose subatomic constituent particles.

The destruction… I thought my mind would fail from the sheer scope of it. Trillions of beings would die in a flash of light. Trillions times trillions times trillions would be destroyed in the following hours as their universes were ripped apart at a fundamental level by the dimensional disruption Gallifrey's passage would cause.

Oh, a few universes might survive, if they were protected by powerful enough beings. I could imagine the Q, for instance, saving their home cosmos. The Living Tribunal, the various high level beings like the Highfather of New Genesis, Madoka Kaname, Blind Io and the Gods of the Discworld, the Capital G Judeo-Christian God of Harry's home cosmos (or whatever you want to consider him or Him to be, I try to avoid contemplating these sorts of things) or the Faerie Queens acting in concert, they might save their home cosmoses. Or at least most of each. A few others, certainly.

But most of those cosmoses I had visited? Instant, complete, unavoidable destruction. Everything wiped out. Nothing left.

The same with my homeworld. The family and friends whom I had just recovered in my memories such a short time ago. That other… me. They would exist forever suspended at the moment of death. And the energy from their perpetual demise, from a dimensional disruption of that magnitude… oh my, the sheer energy. It was many, many orders of magnitude beyond what the Master had been planning to accumulate when he was going to destroy Korra's Spirit World portal, and her world, for his Eye of Harmony.

"All of that energy," I muttered.

"Indeed." Rassilon's smile turned manic. "All of it for us." He laughed. "With the first Eyes of Harmony, our people became Time Lords. Now… now we will be as beyond that as Time Lords are beyond amoeba. With the power of our new Eye of Harmony, we will ascend beyond all limitations. We will hold Creation as our own!" Rassilon became so caught up in the moment he raised his arms and opened his hands. His voice reached a mad crescendo. "We will be Lords of all Reality!"

The Council, most of them anyway, began to cheer. It was clear they were entirely enthralled with the idea of that amount of power. Power with which they would never again be assailed.

My benefactor applauded. Fear was on her features. Fear and shame and guilt.

The Doctor spoke up next. His voice was harsh, deservedly so. "You would slaughter countless peoples, destroy all of those civilizations, all of those worlds... you're no better than Davros and the Daleks! I did not fight the Daleks to see our people become just as evil!"

"I am superior to Davros and his abominations!", Rassilon raved. "Never again will such creatures threaten our people! We will never die! Never! NEVER!" He pointed an accusing finger at the Doctor. "For you, my first act upon our ascension will be to arrange your final end, Doctor! You will, at long last, pay for your defiance to this Council!"

Rassilon's head turned to face me. His voice lowered when he spoke to me. The mad gleam in his eyes lowered intensity. "As for you. Your purpose is fulfilled. Had you proven yourself a proper Time Lord I might have granted you a share of this power. Alas, you are unworthy." A small smile returned to his grotesque face. "But I am not without appreciation. For accomplishing the purpose, for your services to myself and the Council, I will grant you rewards. You need but bow and swear your loyalty to me and you will be given a new set of regenerations to replace those you so carelessly squandered." Rassilon's smile was vicious. "I will even spare the two Humans you brought with you. Even the one using that detestable 'magic' you so enjoyed." He spat "magic" with venom.

"How generous," the Doctor remarked drolly. We gave each other a worried look. Rassilon knew that Clara and Esk were here. There would be no surprises from them.

"Oh, I am not done," Rassilon purred. Well, something like a purr, anyway. That sort of evil satisfaction that seems to go with purring when spoken low and smug. "And I will grant you an even greater favor. Below us, in this very tower, lies the Extraction Chamber. I will grant you one use of it. To retrieve one whose loss cut so deeply. To undo your greatest failure."

I stared at him. And I swallowed, if only to avoid saying the name I knew he would say.

Not that it mattered. Rassilon kept speaking.

"Give me your loyalty, bow to me as your leader, and I will return to you the one you call Katherine."

I stared at Rassilon. And I dwelled on the situation.

Everyone knows how these things are supposed to go. The villain tempts you with something you want, just so long as you do as requested. And everyone knows that of course you don't go for it because either it's a lie and a trap or because the price is too high, no matter how much you may want something

By those criteria, the answer to Rassilon was obvious.

And, quite possibly, something with the only outcome being my destruction alongside the Doctor's.

We were outnumbered. Under guard. Esk and Clara had no element of surprise. For all I knew, Rassilon and the other Councillors could actually see them. Our chance of winning this was fairly small, as such things went. And if we failed, it would all be for nothing

It hurt to think it. That everyone I knew and respected and loved was fated to die, or worse, and that I had no hope of saving them. It looks so much easier when it's a show, or a book, and the heroes are in these situations. Where the obvious choice is to reject the villain's offer and stand for what's right.

It's so much easier than what it actually is to look into Rassilon's mad eyes, to see the utter devotion in his Council and to know there is no help there. Nothing but one scared Time Lady who would never actually stand against him. To know that you are alone and that resistance is simply going to get you killed. That if you accept the inevitable then, at least, you can get something back. A consolation prize, maybe, but that can be tempting in comparison to the yawning pit of oblivion.

Time was running out. I had to make a decision.

So I did.

I turned and looked at the Doctor. I held a hand up, as if to give him a handshake. He looked at my hand and then my face. Stony resolve had set in where boyish mischief and excitement was usually found. It took him several moments to begin reacting by bringing his hand up toward mine.. But as he did I pulled my hand back. He gave me a fierce look and grabbed my arm before I could finish pulling it back all the way. He pulled me close. "Don't you dare," he whispered. "You can't. She'd hate you."

"I know," I answered softly. "But we can't win this. She's the only one I can save."

"She will never forgive you."

I swallowed. "I don't want her to. I won't deserve it."

"Don't…"

I turned away from him and pushed his arm away. I turned back toward Rassilon. I felt the lump in my throat as I swallowed and took a step forward. The guards tensed up. I felt disgust as I forced the words from my mouth. "Very well. I will bow."

Rassilon grinned wickedly. "Of course you will," he said. "You recognize your limitations, at last." He gestured. "Let him pass."

I lowered my head and stepped closer. The guards shifted to let me through. I didn't move much further than them, just a couple of steps, after which I went to my knee.

Rassilon gave me a self-assured look. It was the look of a man who had gotten what he wanted.

And then he looked up to his guards. "This is a trick," he said. "Kill him."

Well well. After all of that, that's how Rassilon was playing it.

Not that I could protest. He was right, after all.

It's not like it would shock you. Seriously, how could I ever accept a deal like that? How? To a creature like Rassilon? Sure, this way I might die, but compared to living in a reality he was constructing? Sometimes it's not about the calculation of what can be accomplished and what appears impossible. Sometimes… it's about doing whatever you can live with.

Even if it means you don't survive it.

I brought my arms up. As I did I curled my wrists to free the objects I had quietly slipped up my sleeves.

Sonic screwdrivers. Plural. Mine and the Doctor's. He had passed it to me during our "talk".

I might yet have died. But raw energy lashed out from nothingness and sent the guards to my side flying into each other. I heard shouts; Esk and Clara had made themselves truly known.

Now to play my part. I brought the sonics up and pointed them ahead of me.

And yes, I'm sure you already figured out what I was doing with them. I wasn't exactly hiding my best shot in the room, was I?

The stasis field holding the Master would ordinarily take a few minutes for a sonic screwdriver to override them. But I had two on hand, linked and helping each other to shut the whole thing down. They whirred in happy tandem.

Rassilon had just enough time to scream "STOP THEM!" at us. And then the stasis field went down.

I'm not sure whether the Master was fully aware while he was in the field. He immediately returned to the work he'd been at before. Energy in the form of lightning crackled from his hands and enveloped Rassilon. The leader of the Time Lords screamed in rage and agony as the energy enveloped him. Lightning crackled over the Master's form as well, revealing bone and such beneath.

His right eye turned and focused on me. I knew he recognized me. I thought I saw him nod. For a brief moment I wondered if he would lash out at me next, to avenge the defeat of his plan.

But he didn't. The Master had bigger fish to fry, I suppose. Literally fry, too.

I stood up and threw a sonic back to the Doctor, who caught it in mid-air and turned to use it to disable the rifle of one of our guards. The other guards were sprawled out; courtesy of Esk's magic or my sonic disruptor in the hands of Clara, I would guess. A number of the Council were likewise disposed. "What next?!", Esk shouted over the din of chaos in the room.

"We stop the transfer," the Doctor said. "This way!"

Ordinarily remaining guards might have stopped us. But they were too busy trying to get to the Master and through the energies surging about him in order to save Rassilon. We rushed out into the hall; Clara ahead of Esk and myself and the Doctor in front. "You had me worried for a second!", Clara shouted.

"I had to get close," I answered. "But I suppose Rassilon thought it a bit obvious."

"He would have killed you anyway," Esk remarked.

"Most likely, yes," I agreed. As I ran a thought came to me. I moved past Clara and joined the Doctor as we rounded a corner and found a spiral staircase leading down a floor. "The Extraction Chamber. Where is it? Because if I can…"

"No." He stopped and put a hand on my shoulder. "I know better than anyone the temptation you're feeling right now. But the Extraction Chamber only exists to temporarily pull someone in at the end of their timestream. You wouldn't be saving Katherine's life. And you couldn't just quantum duplicate her in that state. She wouldn't even have a heartbeat."

I swallowed. "But she'd be alive."

"She'd have to go back," he continued. "Trust me. It's not going to work the way you think it is." He looked away. "Besides, we don't have time to go that way when we've only got minutes before Rassilon's machines begin shifting Gallifrey to your home cosmos. And once we shut that down, the connection will snap shut, and the Extraction Chamber wouldn't be able to lock onto Katherine's final moments."

I will admit my severe disappointment. I felt pain in my hearts. So close. So close to getting her back. The things I could show Katherine, that I never got the chance to show her…

But the Doctor was right. We were running out of time. Rassilon might survive the Master, after all, and it would be all for nothing if we didn't stop his machines. Untold, unfathomable numbers of beings could die in the next several minutes if we didn't get to that array's controls and shut it down.

"Right," I said. "No time. Let's keep going."

"This way." The Doctor checked the sonic in his hand and led us onto the next floor.

A quick dash down a hall, then another, and we were in a large control room, two-tiered, with lots of Gallifreyan control panels and wiring and such about. A couple of technicians were on duty but quickly fell away from the controls upon our arrival. "Get out of here!", I shouted at them. "Go!"

"The charging is almost complete!", the Doctor shouted, pointing to the master display. It was showing over four-fifths of the charge was already gathered. Once it hit full…

...once it hit full, Gallifrey and the surrounding pocket universe would hurtle down the interdimensional tunnel. And all of those universes would cease to be.

"Right. Let's do something about it." I started walking toward the controls to join the Doctor.

"And about the guards that are undoubtedly coming," Esk reminded us.

"Clara!" I turned to her. She was still holding my sonic disruptor. "Setting 4 is kinetic bursts. Setting 16 is thermal pulses. Setting 42 is a deflector screen to stop anyone from shooting you. Oh, and Setting 21 is neurological disruption, should give them a headache."

She eyed my disruptor and looked at me again. I was answered with a nod.

"I'll get the primary charge line!", the Doctor shouted. "You can handle re-directing the existing capacitor charge to buy time!"

"Right!" I nodded to Esk. "Just give us a few minutes!"

"I'll give you all I can," she promised. She pointed toward the only way in and out of the room. Any moment more of the guards would probably be showing up.

I had other things to worry about. I went to work with my sonic on a nearby panel. I was trying to force the array to discharge energy into the atmosphere, and in as harmless a manner as possible given the population.

But the power flow kept coming. I turned slightly. "Maybe I can isolate the power stream from here!"

"The main charge line is locked behind a quantum rotating encryption barrier, I can't access it."

"How fast is the rotation? Ten milliseconds?"

"Five!"

"Oi." I made a face. "Alright, what about the power stream? I'm trying to isolate it, if we can divert that power stream into the defense systems or something..." I focused on the display in front of me. My sonic whirred as it operated, its tip shining green light over the controls and letting me access…

...wait, green?

I chuckled at the realization. I'd handed the Doctor my sonic screwdriver, not his, and now we were using one another's. Which probably explained why I was having trouble with it, I wasn't use to this model's interface.

"Switch!", the Doctor shouted.

I turned and, with little thought, tossed his sonic toward him. My sonic came sailing toward me at the same moment. I snatched it out of mid-air and turned back to my work. Once again proper purple light was showing. My mind briefly pondered what it must have looked like; the two of us simply turning and exchanging our screwdrivers on such short notice with no effort at all.

"I've got the power stream diverted, but secondary systems are picking up additional power." I checked the charge level. Ninety percent. Oi. I shook my head. "Rassilon's designed this too well. We're not going to stop the charging sequence in time."

"I don't think we have any other options."

I frowned. My mind raced. If we couldn't stop the charge, if Rassilon's device was going to trigger, then maybe…

We looked at each other at the same moment. "We alter the channel!", we both cried out.

He started first. "Modify the array's emissions…"

My voice matched his in pitch and excitement. "...and direct them toward a different subdimensional coordinate…"

"...and instead of shifting Gallifrey down the interdimensional tunnel…"

"...we shift it laterally into a new subdimensional strata…"

"...and the pocket universe's own subspatial structure will absorb the shift…"

"...and stabilize the entire system, causing the tunnel and Cracks to dissipate harmlessly!" I laughed. "It's brilliant!"

The Doctor laughed like a schoolboy. "Oh, we've got it"

It wasn't a mental link or anything. Rather, our minds were simply operating under the same principles. We saw the same data with the same set of desired outcomes and therefore we came to the same conclusions.

There was the sound of gunfire. I briefly glanced over and saw a Galllifreyan soldier, alone among other fallen ones, spraying… whatever it is those weapons were shooting at Clara and Esk. Esk used a magic field to absorb the shots, much to the surprise and consternation of the soldier, and Clara countered with a kinetic burst that sent him flying out of the room. "Any time, Doctor!", Clara called out.

"We're on it!", we answered in tandem. I returned to work at a nearby console and the Doctor found another one. "I'm re-aligning the dimensional vector…"

"...altering targeting protocols…"

"...re-synchronizing to account for the hyperdimensional drift…" I glanced upward at the charge meter. Ninety-six percent.

We were almost out of time.

"Altering emission protocols…"

"Re-distributing power…"

Ninety seven percent..

"Calculating for new dimensional strata."

"I've adjusted the command protocols for the array," I declared. "We should be good on this end."

Ninety eight percent.

More gunfire. Esk gasped from effort as more energy from her blocked off our attackers. I heard the sonic disruptor discharge. Loudly. Clara must have found Setting 27. Literal sonic waves, that one. Useful against bats. Not so much against Time Lords or Gallifreyans though.

Something on one of the panels got my attention. "We may have a problem," I said. "The interdimensional skein is about ten percent more energetic than expected. We may cause damage to this pocket universe if we shift."

The Doctor looked at me and then the main display. I looked at the same.

Ninety-nine percent.

I swallowed. If we got this wrong, one of two things would happen. Either Rassilon's plan would prevail… or the aforementioned skein's energetic power would de-stabilize the pocket universe that Gallifrey was located in, ultimately resulting in Gallifrey's destruction.

"So it's come to this," the Doctor observed.

"Yeah," I agreed. I recognized the look in his eyes. Here we were, about to potentially doom his people to save the universe. Multiple ones. It wasn't quite the same choice he had faced with the Moment. But it was too close to comfort.

But we didn't have time to do anything else. If we didn't act, Rassilon would win in the end.

The Doctor's hand went to the controls at the same moment mine did. "Ready here," he said.

"Shift calculations complete, system ready."

Our hands hit the switches together. Power thrummed about us as the array went into operation.

One hundred percent.

For one terrible moment I could see our failure. I could see worlds wiped out in a flash. Universes collapsing. I could imagine those I cared about - Jan and Cami and the Carpenters and Korra and Asami and Tenzin and Sheppard and Liara and Garrus and Steven and Connie and Katara, their families, everyone, really quite the list when you throw in my Human counterpart and his circle of family and friends - anyway, I could imagine them all devoured by an energy utterly impossible to resist. I could imagine universes collapsing under the strain of a dimensional collapse.

The entire room shook. Everyone, even our attackers, fell to the ground from the sheer ferocity of it. As the rumbling died down I pulled myself back up to the displays. Hope and fear warred within me; had we done it?

My eyes fell on the system indicators.

The dimensional shift had worked. Exactly as planned.

We had done it. Rassilon's plans for ruling all of Reality were thwarted.

The Doctor and I had saved our cosmoses, and so many more, from utter destruction.

…of course, given the violent shaking and the nasty feeling I felt in my gut, we still had to save Gallifrey.

A look at the displays confirmed the bad news for us both. The shift had not been smooth. The energies that resulted had undermined the stability of the pocket universe the Doctor, in his various times, had hidden Gallifrey in. We needed to get it out, preferably somewhere attached to real space, and soon.

"I would suggest using the array," I said, "but it is fried out. We blew every capacitor in the system."

"We'll need to return to our TARDISes," the Doctor responded. "We find yours, we go to mine, right?"

"Sounds fair," I agreed.

At about that moment Esk and Clara came up to us. "They stopped," Esk said. "What did you do?"

"We hijacked Rassilon's array to shift Gallifrey out of the tunnel laterally," i answered. "We're in a different subdimensional strata now."

"Unfortunately, the shift has also structurally undermined the pocket universe I hid Gallifrey in," the Doctor continued. "So we need our TARDISes or we're going to lose the whole planet."

"Which means we need to find your TARDIS," Clara said to me.

"Oh, that's simple," I answered. I took out my TARDIS remote.

"Wait, what's this?", the Doctor asked, eying the remote.

"It's my remote," I said. "I put it together some time ago. It sends out a signal to the TARDIS, she homes in on my location and materializes around me." I grinned. "Cool, huh?"

"Oh, clever," the Doctor agreed. "Gave it a bit of a try myself, but my girl's temperamental, doesn't like being called about. But how did you…"

Before he could finish or I could answer, since I imagined the question, Clara cleared her throat. "Planet. Being destroyed. Soon, I take it?"

"Oh, right." I held up the remote. "Alright, here we go." I sent the command.

Nothing happened.

I frowned and rolled my eyes. "Of course. Quantum isolation field."

"Of course it is," the Doctor chuckled. "Maybe your girl doesn't like you calling her about either."

"My TARDIS is a sweet young lady and comes when I call," I replied defensively. "She likes traveling." I pocketed the remote. "We'll need to find her. Anyone have any ideas?"

"I can help."

The unexpected voice caused us to turn toward the door. The guards were all gone. Now only the Time Lady from my broken memories was standing there, in Gallifreyan finery. She looked at us. The Doctor gazed back silently. "Hello, Doctor," she said. She walked up. "Rassilon had your TARDIS taken to the lower levels and its data examined. It aided his… plans."

"Why didn't you stop him?", the Doctor asked. Not angrily. If anything, just a little sad.

"Fear is a terrible thing," was the only reply she gave. I got the feeling that she meant more than her own fear at the consequences of opposing Rassilon. The Time Lady reached into her robe and pulled out a scanner. "I have loaded the authorization code to release your TARDIS." She handed it to me. Her head turned toward the Doctor. "It is good to see you."

"Yes," was his answer.

I wasn't about to get involved in a discussion like this, stakes or not. Their gaze broke at the same moment. "Go," she said. "The other councillors have fled. I alone remain, and I have ordered the guards out of your way. Please, save us from Rassilon's madness."

We nodded at that. And we left her to fulfill that promise.

The planet still shook here and there while we raced down the stairs. I checked the scanner frequently to make sure we got off on the right floor. We met no guards.

"So how do we stop this?", asked Esk. "Restoring stability to an artificial pocket universe sounds rather difficult."

"It can be," I noted. "But thankfully we have the tool used to make it."

That prompted Esk's next question. "We do?"

"My TARDIS," the Doctor answered. "With both of our TARDISes working together we can re-stabilize the pocket universe."

"Now that sounds difficult."

"This is what being with the Doctor is like," Clara said to Esk. "Always doing the difficult things and making them work."

I can imagine Esk eyed me with a smirk given her next words. "Yes, a challenge I have been made to face before."

I felt a grin at that. But there was no time for banter. No, I just had to go around this corner, then down the hall, and here would be the room where my TARDIS was waiting.

"DOOOOOOOCCCCCTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!"

Yes, I know that's a lot of letters, but I was trying to capture the essence, the spirit, of the enraged shout coming from further down the hall. The Doctor and I looked that way and saw a battered man in robes still flickering with flames on the edges, covered in horrific burns that had to be fatal. I'm talking about the kind of burns that expose blood vessels or such. He looked more like some sort of horror monster than a normal being.

I shouldn't need to tell you who it was, either. The crazed and overdone scream sort of gave that one away.

Rassilon raised his left hand toward the Doctor. "DIE!!", he screamed. Energy surged through his power glove.

I acted before anyone else could. I threw myself forward and got in front of the Doctor, knocking him to the side in the process.

You hear about these things. About people who jump on grenades or explosives without protection, and do it so instantly that it's hard to imagine they acted out of a rational thought. A drive to protect so strong that it overwhelms the instinct of self-preservation as an instinct of its own.

And that's what I had just done. By throwing myself in front of the Doctor, it was I who would take the hit from Rassilon's glove. A weapon that could vaporize other beings with a gesture and a surge of power. And the only protection I had against its enormous lethal power was a magically-enchanted vest.

I half expected to die right there. To simply… cease. Disintegrated in a puff of smoke and ash like others Rassilon had killed with the weapon.

Instead there was an explosion of sorts when it struck me. The energy was… I can only say agonizing, but even that doesn't do justice to the feeling that resulted. Energy erupted over my chest and wrapped around me. I flew backward, past the Doctor, and slammed into the wall.

Rassilon screamed. His glove began sparking, like some sort of feedback had overloaded it. Given his already existing injuries I can't imagine it did him any good.

Having Esk blast him with enough pure energy to send him flying into the far wall was probably more than enough to ensure that he was going to be regenerating.

But I had more important things to be concerned with. For one thing, I was still in a bit of pain. The other bit was mostly a big question.

One that the Doctor asked as soon as he looked at me.

"How are you still alive?", he asked. "That should have disintegrated you."

I grimaced and looked down. There was a massive black mark on my jacket now, with much of the middle burnt away to reveal what was underneath.

Even as I shifted, the ash did so. Because that's what was on my chest. A lot of gray and black ash. My ice blue collared shirt was fairly intact under it, much to my surprise.

As I shifted, and more ash spread out from the movement, I started chuckling. "Oh, ha ha, how so very interesting!"

"What do you mean?"

"The vest," i said. "Molly - a friend mine - is like Esk here. Somewhat. Has magic and… unh… such." I grimaced from the pain in my torso. "She laid defensive enchantments on my vest. To make it… resistant to attack. Protection."

The Doctor considered that. "Oh, yes. The latent energies of this 'magic' interacted with the energy from Rassilon's gauntlet. Mutual feedback." He glanced down to where Rassilon was sprawled out on the floor. And glowing gold. He was starting to regenerate.

"Yes." I braced myself as Esk and the Doctor pulled me to my feet. We looked closely into one another's eyes. I could see the realization in his eyes. Confirmation in my own thoughts. And he knew that too. "Well… unh… let's get going, yes?"

"Yes."

The pain in my body was slightly debilitating, yes. I was at the center of a major and volatile interaction of inherently hostile forces of energy. Because of my obvious issue in moving Esk refused to leave my side. She remained, supporting me with her shoulder as we entered the room that the Time Lady's scanner was directing us toward. The interior was a science lab of sorts. My TARDIS stood silently in the middle of the viewing area. A nearby panel was playing what looked to be records from my travels. Or rather had been playing, the image was frozen on the sight of myself and the Doctor with Esk and Clara, just after the Doctor had materialized his TARDIS inside mine. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it on another panel, the one controlling the quantum isolation field or whatever other thing had blocked the TARDIS from coming to me. We would be able to leave now.

I snapped my fingers to open the door and hobbled in with Esk's continued help. Once we got to the panel I nodded. "I'll be fine right here." I winced. "I'll need you on that end."

"What?"

"I need you to co-pilot," I said. "And you'll need to be quick about it." I started working the section of the controls I was at. "I'm locking on to your TARDIS, Doctor. It's right where we left it." I reached over and yanked back on the activation lever. My TARDIS VWORPed her usual, lovely VWORP and took us away from her captors.

"Clara, stay here," the Doctor said. "Give him any help he requires." He moved toward the door.

"But… won't you need mine?", Clara asked, turning toward him.

The Doctor looked back at us after opening the door. His TARDIS was about a meter and a half away. "I'll be fine," he insisted. "Just worry about this side of things!" He closed the door as he left.

"Clara." I gestured to a station on my left, just as Esk's part was to my right. "I just need you to keep an eye on some knobs and switches, alright? I'll tell you when to hit which."

Clara looked me over. Concern was written plainly on her features. I shook my head. There was no time for worrying about my health. We had a planet to save. "Okay, so I…" She stepped up to the panel.

"First, hit this one… no, this one…" After I made that gesture I turned toward Esk. "You've got that lever on the three-quarters position, right?"

Esk double-checked. "Three-quarters," she confirmed.

"Good." I swallowed and tried not to grimace again. I'd taken quite the whopper from that blast. Damn Rassilon.

I shook my head. I needed to focus on the task at hand. With my hands on the controls I followed the Doctor and his TARDIS into orbit.

The Doctor's face appeared on the nearby monitor. "Okay everyone!" He clapped his hands together for a moment. "I'm relaying to you the incomplete calculations I had for creating this pocket universe. We'll use our TARDISes' own fields to reinforce and repair the pocket universe's structure."

"Ready here," I said. I nodded. "Assuming coordinates now. Reading calculations…"

Sometimes it's a shame that I just can't show you lot the imagery. I think the imagery of this would be more exciting. The TARDISes whooshing about Gallifrey as space warped about them. Dramatic camera cuts to the interiors of our TARDISes, one showing the Doctor rushing about his controls as dramatic music played, other cuts to how I was directing Esk and Clara on what controls to hit while I worked my own.

More music, of course. Music is always good for these bits. I mean, how can I compete with music? I suppose I could add musical sheets to the side, but I imagine not everyone could actually play along, you know?

"Doctor, are you seeing this?", I asked.

"I am," he confirmed. "The pocket universe structure is stabilizing."

"Still, over the long term, I'm not sure it'll stay that way. I don't think this strata may have been the best place for it."

"They can handle that, trust me," the Doctor assured me. "This will work for now. Are you ready?"

I put a hand on the activation lever. "As ready as I can ever be."

The Doctor nodded. And he smiled at me. "It's been a pleasure."

"Likewise."

We pulled our levers at the same moment. The Doctor's cry of "Geronimo!" was matched by my "Tally Ho!".

Our TARDISes shifted time and space and did their final work. The pocket universe stabilized around us even as we shifted back to normal space.

And I took the moment to really let that sink in. We… had won. Despite the danger, Rassilon had been defeated. We had saved, well, just about everything I imagine. Not just the universes that would have been destroyed, but those that would have ended up at the tender mercies of Rassilon and his dream of becoming "Reality Lord". Or "Lord of all Reality."

I let out a sigh. It was done. I had saved everything I cared for from annihilation.

I let the TARDIS sit itself down and snapped my fingers. Sunlight poured in from outside. A green lawn was outside, and a tree. North American species.

"It's a… lake?", Clara asked. She walked to the TARDIS exit. "Where are we?"

I smiled at her and hobbled toward the plank leading to the door. I kept one hand on the railing to steady myself. I felt a warm smile come to my face. Old memories, memories of a past life, remembered this place. It remembered fond things of my past.

"Don't worry, Clara, it's all fine. The Doctor will be here any moment," I said. "I gave him the coordinates."

"Why are we here?", Esk asked me. She stepped up to me.

I turned and faced her. I opened my mouth to begin to speak. But I didn't.

There was no point in pretending any more. No more need to be strong.

I collapsed against the railing.

The truth was, I had barely managed our heroic saving of Gallifrey. Withstanding the growing pain in my body, which had now nearly disabled my left leg and was busy moving through my chest... that had taken everything I had. But I didn't need to hold out anymore. I could let go.

Esk yelped in surprise and grabbed me as I went down, bringing herself down with me to give support. I let out a pained, shallow breath as we ended up on our knees. "Doctor!" She held me close. "Doctor, what's wrong?!"

"I wanted to see it," I told her. "I mean, this is the Earth from the Doctor's cosmos, so it's not the same I knew growing up. But it's… still the lake behind my grandparents' house. I have a lot of memories here."

Esk looked at me intently. Ah. She was starting to understand. Clever girl.

I turned enough to be able to stare outside. It was just like I remembered. No drought to suck the lake away…

When I did so, Esk grabbed my ruined shirt and pulled it open. Underneath she found the blackened mark from the impact of Rassilon's gauntlet. Her hand went to my ruined and charred skin. Horror showed on her face. "No," she muttered. "What is…"

"The vest… didn't stop it," I said. I had to gasp for air. My lungs were caught up in the wave of pain now. "Just… absorbed and re-directed some of the energy."

"What are you saying?!", Esk demanded. "Doctor!"

I looked at her. Directly in the eyes. With Clara hovering over her as well. I swallowed and sighed. "The effect of the glove wasn't entirely diminished." I sucked in a needed breath. "Just weakened," I explained.

"Doctor, what are…"

There was no getting around it. I had to be honest. Esk deserved that much.

I raised my right hand from where I had kept it hanging. She saw that and gave me her hand. "Esk." I swallowed. "Esk, I'm sorry. The vest bought me time, that's all."

Esk stared at me. And I could see, in that look in her dark eyes, that she knew.

I could tell given the tears I saw forming in those eyes.

"Yes." I swallowed to keep the nausea in check. "Some of the energy from Rassilon's glove still got into my body. Enough to… unh…" I winced. I couldn't help it. "...enough to… begin tearing apart my body, cell by cell."

"So… you're…"

I nodded. I swallowed to whet my throat so I could speak again. Because she deserved that, at least.

"Esk, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Despite myself, I felt a tear come to my cheek.

"I'm dying, Esk."

Dying is painful.

...well, okay, let me be more exact. Having exotic energy meant to disintegrate you ripping you apart on a cellular level, inflicting increasing amounts of organ damage? That's the actual painful part. It just happens to be how I was dying.

I tried to pull myself up. I wanted to see the lake. I wondered if it was the same as my home Earth's was. The same dock on the neighbor's property we were always allowed to go out on. I could remember throwing bread to fish, swimming in the lake... all sorts of things.

I made it only around the corner of the railing before my strength failed me. My body was too weak. I couldn't make it. I rasped out a sigh and leaned against the railing. Pain continued to surge further and further across my torso and down my legs.

Esk's eyes were flowing with tears. "No," she said. "No, this... this can't be true. We... we can save you. That medigel stuff, where did you..."

"It won't work," i said to her. "Medigel can't repair cellular disruption of this kind."

"Then maybe..."

"Nothing I have can fix it, Esk." I looked back to her. I felt horrible for her. Sad. I'd... been hoping to take her along, truth be told. After this was done. Take her and finally show her those other worlds. Get her to fill out the journal she'd given me on her deathbed for her younger self.

But now... that didn't look likely.

Death. We all live with it. It's the end result of life. Well, usually, some exceptions I've seen applied... and even those exceptions may not be truly exceptional... urgh, I'm rambling, aren't I? No time to ramble.

I was going to die. That was it. My body was being torn apart at the cellular level. I didn't have anything that could change that fact.

I admit to some hope when I heard the VWORP VWORP VWORP outside my door, though. The Doctor was here. Maybe he would know a way...

His voice was coming from outside as I stepped around my TARDIS. "...knew I carried the two right," he was saying before he looked into the TARDIS. He laid his eyes on us. His chipper expression went away immediately, replaced with a sort of embarrassed somberness. "Oh," he breathed. "I was afraid of this."

Clara stepped up to him. "His cells are being disintegrated... or something. Isn't there something you can do?"

The Doctor's face told me his likely answer. But he was dealing with intense, hopeful looks from Clara and Esk. He couldn't just say no. He had to try. I know he had to try because it was how I would have felt.

He came up and knelt beside me. He scanned me with the sonic screwdriver. "That energy... I'm... sorry, friend." He put his left hand on my left arm out of sympathy. "I'm sorry. This sort of energy, you don't just remove it from organic matter. Any cure would kill you just as much."

"I... imagined so." I grimaced. My left heart was starting to go into slight spasms that would only grow worse as it fell apart at the cellular level. "That's fine. I..." I swallowed. "I'm just glad we stopped him. We stopped Rassilon, we saved all of those worlds... we saved Gallifrey."

"We did," he answered me. He forced a smile to his face. "I wish I could do more."

"Just..." I looked up at Esk. "Make sure Esk activates Emergency Protocol 1 before that tunnel completely closes. My TARDIS will get her home."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, of course." He drew in a sigh and put his sonic back in his pocket. "This is... well, look at me, I'm all tongue-tied now. Usually I can ramble but..."

"There really isn't anything you can do?", Clara asked him.

He shook his head. "This sort of damage, you don't just fix it with a cool toy. I don't have access to anything that could fix it."

"But... we can't just give up on him!", Esk demanded. She glared at the Doctor. "There must be something you can do! Some... some way to keep his body from falling apart!"

"I would have needed to get to him the moment Rassilon's weapon began affecting him," the Doctor answered. "And we were a little busy at that moment."

"That's not good enough!", Esk screamed. "You... you've got to save him! You're the Doctor, the original Doctor! He wouldn't give up, you shouldn't either!"

I drew in a sigh. My left arm wasn't working so well anymore, not with the pain starting to go into my shoulder, so I raised my right and touched her shoulder. "Esk." I forced myself to breathe. That was starting to get even harder. "Esk, it's alright. He's done all he can. We've all done all we can."

"No we haven't!," she shouted. "You.. you can't just give up! Not like this! Not after all of this! You've got to want to live! To travel, to see more of the wonders you always talk about! To be there for the worlds that need you!"

I nodded at that. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the cold embrace of death myself, after all. I just wanted the pain to end, and I had calculated the issue and knew there was nothing to be had for it. I was going to die and we had no means at our disposal to prevent it.

But I wasn't accounting for Esk's stubborness. She ran over to my memento wall and grabbed a few things. She brought them back. Drawings, mostly. A little TARDIS box that Maggie Dresden had made for me for Christmas. "Look at them," she said. "Think about how they'll take it when you don't come back. If... if they find out you've died."

I nodded. I knew they wouldn't take it well. Indeed, I thought back to Kari in tears, insisting I shouldn't go. I'd never get to tell her mothers how accurate her Force-granted insights had proven, I suppose.

She held up a picture of Maggie riding on my back while Mouse was protting alongside, tail mid-wag. "You promised you'd protect her, remember? You told me that. That you promised Harry you'd protect his little girl."

I frowned. "Esk. It's not about giving up. It's about accepting that there is nothing... we can reasonably do to stop this. My body's already... lethally damaged... and it's getting worse."

She shook her head furiously. "There has to be a way!" Esk stood and looked at Clara. "I'm right, aren't I? There has to be a way to save him!"

Clara swallowed. "I... suppose, yes." She looked to the Doctor. "Are you sure there's nothing else?"

"Nothing I have access to. Nothing plausible," he insisted.

"No. That's where you're wrong." Esk walked back up to him and stood beside Clara. "Doctor, there has to be something."

Oh, they were putting him on the spot. He looked rather put-upon. Cornered. Every rational point of his brain had made the same calculation mine had. And he hated it about as much as I did. "I can't save everyone," he said. Disappointment, shame, it was all there. He looked me in the eye and his voice was deeply apologetic. "I... wish I could. Rassilon designed that glove to be immediately fatal to Time Lords. He didn't want us regenerating if he chose to kill one of us."

Esk bit into her lip. "Well... maybe someone..." Her eyes lit up. She turned toward the controls and ran over to them. I turned my head and, with pain seeping into my right heart now, with my breath becoming more and more shallow from the damage to my lungs, I watched her frantically operate the communication station. I'd shown her a bit of it on an earlier meeting, so she knew, among other things, how to access the temporal beacons.

And I knew, I just knew, what she would do next.

She accessed all of them. She lifted the phone from the controls and held it up. "Whoever is out there, whoever can hear my voice, please pay attention! I need help! Please! I need your help!"

I swallowed. I already knew what she would say next.

I'd already heard her speak it.

"Please! He's dying! The Doctor is dying! I need your help!" Esk looked back to me. "I can't save him myself. I don't know how. But... but I know someone out there must know! All of the people he's helped, someone must be able to save him! Someone, please answer!"

"Esk." I shook my head. "Esk, I appreciate..."

"No." She looked back to me. Her eyes flowed with tears. "No, listen. Someone out there can help you. All of those worlds you've been to, all of the friends and allies you've helped, the lives you've saved, someone will know how to save your life. Someone will be there for you... look, see? See?!"

I couldn't quite see the controls from where I was lain out. The Doctor did, though. As did Clara. "That's... a lot of callers, isn't it?", she asked.

From what I could tell, from reflections and such, the board was lighting up. Esk was getting answers. A lot of answers.

"See?", she said, looking directly at us. "Look at them all. They're calling to offer to help. They want to save you, Doctor. Please, we can't give up."

"That's... quite a lot of people," I heard Clara say.

The Doctor... I honestly thought he was about to cry. He looked down to me, eyes bright with unshed tears. "You... well..." He stopped talking for the moment. "That's... truly remarkable, isn't it? You've done a lot while going around being my doppelganger, haven't you?"

I nodded at that. As I did, the cellular degeneration started going into my right shoulder and into my neck. My right hip was already flaring with pain.

There was pain in his eyes. The Doctor had already clearly been saddened by my imminent demise, but I think it had suddenly grown more painful for him.

Then I remembered. The War Doctor. The Meta-Crisis Doctor. He'd already had his twelve regenerations. This was his last life. When it was done, he was done. And the Doctor would no longer be.

Maybe... maybe if things were different, I might have taken that mantle for him? Carried his name, his cause, even after his life ended? Was that the thought in his head? That I was a legacy that was now being snuffed out?

I'm not sure. But it was clear he was affected by Esk's work.

"Doctor, maybe we can get you to one of your healer friends," Esk continued. "Korra for instance. Or that boy you told me about, with the healing saliva. Or maybe those doctors who rebuilt your right heart. Someone has to be able to save you. Someone..."

Esk froze. Her face paled. Her eyes widened. I turned my head to follow where she was looking.

There was a figure at the entrance to the TARDIS. A very tall figure.

A very tall figure with black robes.

Oh, and a scythe rested in the crook of his right arm. In his left was a very tall hourglass object of sorts, split into fourteen segments. Only the bottom two had any sand left in them.

Death.

The Doctor blinked. "Well." He swallowed. "Don't exactly see that every day."

"Anthropomorphic personification of death," I murmured. And sucked in a breath of air for my dying lungs. "From Esk's world. The TARDIS... he can appear in here."

"Oh."

Clara was staring. "Um... is he going to hurt us?"

"He's only here... for me," i said. "He collects the dying... he doesn't kill."

Death didn't speak. He simply nodded. He was being patient. But, of course, he could always afford to be.

There was a flash of light beside Esk at the controls. I forced myself to smile even as my throat began to burn. The cellular degeneration had gotten that far now. "Cat", I rasped.

She was in the "Geek Princess" shirt and matching pink skirt. She looked down at me with those hazel eyes brimming with sadness. "My poor Doctor," she said.

"Who is this?', the Doctor asked.

"My TARDIS," I replied. I grunted afterward. Slip from the pain, that sort of thing. I felt a macabre interest in how it would feel when the cellular degeneration finally got to my brain. I could already feel it tickling its way up my spine too.

The Doctor blinked and looked back. "Your TARDIS can do this?"

"Yes."

For a moment his sad demeanor softened. "Oh, that's... actually, that's pretty cool."

"Cat" leaned down next to me. "My Doctor. Look at me." I did. "I was asked to give you a message. You need to see this."

"It's a bit... late..."

She only smiled at that before standing up. And then the form shifted.

My benefactor stood in our midst now. Projected through my TARDIS' systems.

"Friend of yours?", I asked the Doctor.

"You... could say that," he replied in a subdued tone.

The Time Lady looked down at me. She wasn't alone. Another familiar figure stood beside her. The man from some of my dreams; the one with the pretensions to being Sigmund Freud or something like that. But his face... his face was so familiar to me now. Like it had been in my memories even further back. I simply couldn't place it.

He smirked and made a noise toward the Benefactor. When she turned her head he held out a sheaf of paper and pointed to an item on it. I couldn't see what it was. He said something to her in a hushed tone and looked to me. I thought he was smiling a bit. He nodded at me and mimed tipping a non-existent hat in greeting.

"I knew I would not get the chance to speak with you," she began. "Not... as much as I would have preferred. I wanted to express my sorrow to you. I did all I could to stop Rassilon's plan but... I am not brave nor powerful enough to do what had to be done to stop him. I could not stop him from turning you into his tool. I could not save your past life from being suppressed. All I could do was try and give you guidance. I wanted to give you inspiration. A standard to set yourself to, so that you would not simply be Rassilon's creature." A thin smile came to her face. "So I made sure to give you the tools of the Doctor. His sonic tool. His psychic paper. A wardrobe that would remind you of the Doctor in his incarnations and inspire you with his example." She shook her head. "I never meant to harm you. I never realized how reliant you might become on the Doctor's identity. I can only apologize for that, and ask your forgiveness."

I swallowed. The pain was up through my throat now. And I was chronically short on breath. My left heart was barely pumping and the right was becoming erratic. It wouldn't be long.

The Benefactor smiled at me. And I mean a warm, friendly smile, genuine in its friendliness. "What astounds me most is what you have accomplished. I had the chance to observe your deeds. You did good and you did ill, and the good was of greater weight. I could not be more proud. You were created for a terrible reason but you have risen above that. Because of you, the name of our people is honored and respected among the peoples of the other cosmoses, all on the weight of your good deeds. Your actions, your legacy, has redeemed the title of 'Time Lord'. Gallifrey is honored to have adopted such a worthy son."

I felt pain in my eyes. My vision began to blur.

But I could still hear her speak.

"For your service to the people of Gallifrey, for your redemption of the worth of the Time Lords, you are to be rewarded. For you have proven yourself worthy of the title 'Time Lord', and all of the privileges and responsibilities that title entails."

I watched as the TARDIS control panel opened up to the heart of the Time Vortex. Golden light began to erupt from it. Esk backed away in startlement. Clara stared, wondering what was happening next, and the Doctor...

...the Doctor was smiling.

A stream of golden light came from the compartment. It flowed through the air toward me even as my vision blurred. I gasped as the back of my head lit up in pain. The cellular degeneration was finally reaching my brain.

I felt the light enter me. Warmth filled me. The pain was still there, though, and it was getting worse. If I weren't so tired, I think I would have been outright moaning from it by this point.

And then, just like that, another sensation drowned out the pain.

It was one I had not felt in a long time. But I remembered it. I remembered that feeling of pins and needles filling my chest.

The feeling spread, and where it went the pain of the cellular degeneration faded. I started to lift myself off of the ground.

"Wait!" Esk ran up and grabbed me. "Doctor, no! You're too weak!"

I tried to force her off. For her own good. But I wasn't strong enough yet. "Esk, please, I need distance..."

"I'm not..."

Before she could finish protesting, the Doctor took her by the arms and pulled her away. "He's protecting you."

"I don't need his protection!", Esk shouted.

"Doctor, what's going on?", Clara asked.

"Let me go! I won't let him die alone!"

I stumbled out the entrance to the TARDIS. The sensations of pins and needles were taking away all of the pain.

"He's not dying," the Doctor told Esk. His voice was urgent and also quite happy.

I looked back in time to see Esk looking at the Doctor like he was mad. "What?!", she demanded.

"He's not dying," the Doctor repeated. "He's regenerating."

Golden light began to fill my vision. The blurriness disappeared. I could see Esk and the Doctor and Clara standing at the exit of my TARDIS. I could see his TARDIS in the grass nearby. I drew in several breaths. I needed the air.

"What..." Esk looked from me to the Doctor and back to me. "What's going on?"

"I'm regenerating," I said. "They... they gave me a new set of regenerations."

The Doctor smiled and nodded. "Yes. Now, don't try to fight it. It's tempting. But let it come. It's rather less destructive that way."

I nodded. I winced a little. The energy was greater than either of my previous regenerations. But it was necessary. I could feel it repairing my body's cells. The leftover energy of Rassilon's glove that had been killing me was dispersed as the regeneration took hold.

"But..." Esk shook her head. "What does that mean? What does regenerating do to him?"

"It saves his life. Extends it. Gives him a nice new body and everything, maybe tweaks a bit with the personality." The Doctor chuckled. "It's no big deal. I've been through twelve myself."

"So... he'll live?", Esk asked. "Just like before?"

"No, not at all," I said. I took in another breath and smiled. "It's... it's not quite that."

Esk's expression darkened. "So... what? So you still die, but some new fellow takes your place?"

"Oh, not quite that either," the Doctor answered for me. "No, he'll keep all his memories, a lot of his personality. Everything that matters. It's more of a cosmetic change."

I thought on that. It was more than that, honestly. The Doctor himself was proof of it. Eleven was not like Ten who was not like Nine who was not like Eight (or the War Doctor who came between them). There were changes. Enough that Ten hadn't wanted to regenerate, had wanted to remain "himself".

It made me wonder. What would it be like? Was Ten's depressed comment true? Was it more like dying and having some other bloke take over my life, memories included? Or was it what the term implied? A regeneration. A new beginning.

Yes. That's the way it would be. That's how I would take it. A new beginning. A change. A chance for... for something new and exciting. Seeing the familiar with a new perspective. That sort of thing.

Maybe that was just denial that it could be like those other, harsher possibilities. Fair complaint, that. But... that's how I would take it. That's how I would view what was happening.

I smiled at Esk. I kept my voice warm and I spoke to her with as much kindness and friendship that I could muster. "Esk, I'm still going to be me. It's not... it's just a change. I'll be a little different, sure. But it'll still be me." I smiled at her. I felt tears in my eyes. "And we're going to go places. All sorts of places I've always wanted to show you. The Crystal Spires of Minbar, the Spirit Lights of the South Pole at the Glacier Festival, the Rings of Carina... We'll see them all."

Esk still had tears in her eyes. "That's a promise?"

"It's a promise." I took in a breath. It was almost time. "And I promise something else. I won't forget... me. This me. I won't forget when I was here. I'll remember first meeting you, and you'll remember it to, and I'll remember all of our adventures together and all of the things I did... I will never let those memories go. I will remember everything."

She nodded at that. "I believe you."

"Good."

The Doctor nodded at me. "It's time."

"Yes. I know." I took in a breath. "Goodbye Esk. I'll be with you in just a minute."

By now golden light was gathering on my hands and circling about my neck and about my ankles. The pens and needles sensation inside of me peaked. I'd never this way before. Not even with my prior regenerations.

I thought about everything in the moments I had left. Because I meant what I said to Esk. I was not going to forget this. I wasn't going to forget my first... life, if you will, as a Time Lord. All of the friends I made, the adventures I had. I wasn't going to forget the sights we'd seen. I'd remember them all. I'd remember what it was like, as me, being with them all. Jan and Cami, Nerys, Korra and Asami, Harry and Molly and Karrin, Liara and Shepard, Katara, Steven and Connie and the Gems, Seven, the EMH, Janet Peratrovich and when I was just the Human John Smith-Stevens... and more. Every being I had enjoyed spending time with. They all formed the tapestry of this experience. This... version of me, if you will.

And, of course, Katherine.

I would never forget them. They would remain a part of me. Even if I wasn't... "me" anymore.

I was weeping as I came to the end. Not out of sadness or fear or anything like that. Despite everything, despite learning the truth of what had been done to me, what I was, what I was intended for... it had all come out alright, hadn't it? I had done great and brilliant things. I'd learned valuable lessons. I'd saved little girls from ravenous vampires, brought powerful empires low, and I had even met the Meat. I took a little girl who was otherwise likely to become a murderer and tyrant and convinced her to instead grow up as a noble and kind young woman. I helped a young woman carrying the literal spirit of light for her world overcome her doubts and fears just as she had helped me overcome my guilt and shame. I helped the survivor of a doomed timeline learn to live with her grief and find a new start with new friends and family in her life.

All of those things. Done by me.

I started to laugh through the weeping. What would the next me do?

It was time to find out.

Time to change.

I threw my head back in triumph and let out another laugh.

And I regenerated.

Regeneration can be odd. It can make you feel odd. I mean, it is your body's entire cellular structure being re-assembled and rejuvenated and all of that. That has an effect.

My last regeneration didn't seem quite so odd though. Maybe because it was the regeneration that turned me into a Time Lord in the process? Either way... odd. Just odd.

Everything seemed off, I mean. Everyone looked a bit taller now. My face felt wrong, my insides... I patted at them. "Lungs. Lungs are working, good, no change there. No cushioning so I'm definitely not a girl now. Wasn't really interested in that. The weight, I mean. Lugging the..." For a moment I thought I was missing a finger on my hands, so I checked. "Good, all fingers... and legs, got to have legs, quite important yes..." My hands went up to my face. "My cheekbones. Where are my cheekbones?! Oh, come on!"

Wait. I'm being rude. Here I am, griping about the physical changes, and I'm not even reflecting upon the reactions of the others.

Ah, Esk. Dear Eskarina. So young still. I saw her when she was older and wiser and just as vibrant. Quite odd to see that and now see her here, I mean. More of a do-er, if you can believe that.

But she was all teared up. She stared at me like I was a stranger. And here I thought the Doctor and I had made it rather obvious that I was going to change appearance.

Wait. What did I look like now? Seriously, my cheekbones were totally off, and my face was too thin, and my clothes felt a bit too loose with the jacket hovering down about two-thirds of the way to the knee. Had I lost height?! No! No, that wouldn't do! I had to keep my height or I'd have to deal with Dresden and his joking over my height change! I had to be his height to make our partnership work! No, no no no, this wouldn't do!

Oh, the others, right. Clara was staring. I suppose it didn't mean that much to her, one way or the other. We'd only just met after all. And as for the Doctor...

He stared at me. Incredulity and a little something, I'm not sure what, showed in his face.

Wait, no. I did know this one.

He was jealous? I didn't think I looked that good, but...

"Oh, that's just not fair," the Doctor pouted. "That's not fair at all."

I blinked at him. "What? What is it? Do I have a second nose or something? A third eye? Wait, it can't be a third eye, I'm not seeing out of one..."

The Doctor held his hand up. "Look at that! First regeneration and he gets ginger! I've always wanted to be ginger!"

I stared. "I'm... ginger?" I started grabbing at my hair to try and confirm the color. Ginger? Why was I ginger? That makes no sense, I wasn't looking to be ginger. I mean, I suppose I wasn't opposed to it...

"Eleven regenerations and nothing. But your first try!" He shook his head and let out a chuckle. "So unfair."

"Does anyone have a mirror?", I asked. "I need a mirror!"

"Oh. Right." Clara reached into her pocket and brought out a little clamshell-whatever-you-call-them mirrors that ladies use for freshening up. She handed it to me and let me get a look. "You look a little older now," she added. "I actually sort of like it."

"That's because he got to be ginger!", the Doctor insisted.

I accepted the mirror from Clara and opened it to look at what I had become. Red hair, check, and not too vibrant a red but red enough to qualify as properly red, yes. Blue eyes, curious. Such light blue eyes, sky blue? No, maybe not sky blue... right, color sorting, not one of my strengths everyone. And the face. I found it familiar. Where had I...?

Oh.

I did recognize the face.

"Oh bugger," I mumbled. "Look at that, look at me..." I stared intently for a moment. Needed to take in all of the features I now saw.

"I'm... I look like a ginger Hugh Laurie now!" I shook my head and sighed. "I'm going to be such an arsehole. I mean, look... look at me." I gestured to Clara. "Don't I just look like I'm an arsehole now. No boyish looks, nothing dapper or dashing, I look like I should be walking around with a bloody cane. Bugger... wait." I frowned. "Why am I saying 'bugger'? 'Bugger' this and 'bugger' that. And 'bloody' too. Do I talk like that? Do I?"

"Well..." Clara shrugged sheepishly. "I think? I hadn't known you long."

I looked past her and the Doctor and to Esk. "Esk, am I that crude? Because I don't want to be crude. It doesn't feel right to say those kinds of things so often, I mean, really, I..."

I made myself stop talking at that point. Esk was staring at me and she looked like she had lost her best friend. Her eyes were intent on my face, on my eyes, as if she could see within me and know if it was the person she knew or not. Esk sniffled and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. I could see she was struggling with what to say. What to ask.

I sighed gently and I smiled at her. A small smile. Nothing overdone. I don't go for overdone theatrics, just too cheap. "Hello again, Esk," I said to her. "I'm back."

She was full of hope and fear as she asked, "The promise?"

I nodded. "I remember everything. I remember it all. Yes." I stepped up to her and took her hands. "Kraknaradaaplikuiuspinocka Nebula."

Esk sniffled again while her eyes betrayed her confusion. "Kraknarada-what?"

"Kraknaradaaplikuiuspinocka Nebula," I repeated. "Beautiful plasma stream crossfires. I'd love to show them to you. Just a quick hop to Kraknardaaplikuiuspinralakoolis."

That brought a smile to her face through the tears. She nodded. "It sounds wonderful."

"Oh, it is," I promised. "Quite wonderful." I spun around to the Doctor and Clara. "So, would you like to join us?"

The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "I'm afraid that it wouldn't be possible. Not now. You've got time to get back out of this cosmos, but once Rassilon's tunnel finishes closing, the barrier will be restored and my sixth-dimensional location will be cut off from the others. For now, at least. Certain... things must not be allowed through those barriers."

"Ah," I said. "Alright. I understand." I looked around again at the area. Old memories, yes. And I still had them. Regeneration didn't change that. "Well. I suppose Esk and I had better get going then. Got a lot to do on the other side."

The Doctor nodded. He followed us to the door for entering our TARDIS. "You did good," he said. "You saved countless worlds and species and people from destruction."

"We did," I answered. "I couldn't have done it without you, Doctor. Or Clara, and definitely not Esk." I gave her another reassuring smile and she returned it.

The Doctor nodded. "All of those worlds," he said. "All of those people. And you've been their protector. That's good. You've done good."

I nodded. "Thank you, Doctor." I offered my hand to him. "It was my pleasure to work with you."

The Doctor considered my offered hand for barely a second before accepting it. He smiled at me and nodded. "The same here... Doctor."

The look on my face must have been hilarious. I seriously think my eyes bugged out of my head. That's what it felt like.

He... he had just called me...

The Doctor chuckled at my reaction. He still had that smile although there was a new earnestness in his expression. "The name's a promise," he said.

I nodded. "Never cruel or cowardly..."

"...never give up, never give in." The Doctor nodded. "You keep the promise, you keep the name. That's how it works." He patted me on the shoulder. "Always remember that, Doctor."

"Yes." I put my hand on his shoulder in a similar gesture. "Yes, I will." I swallowed and gave him a pat on the shoulder myself. "Just for the record... Trenzalore can't be the end. Not for you. You'll win it. You'll beat them."

He nodded. "Well, I'll certainly do what I can." We clasped hands one last time. "Thank you."

Clara and Esk were hugging beside us. "Take care of him," Clara said. "If he's anything like my Doctor..."

"...he'll need it," Esk finished for her. "The same with yours."

"Oh, I intend to." Clara looked at the Doctor and smiled. He gave her a grin in reply. I had to grin at my own Companion and the sentiment she had expressed.

There was nothing more to say at this point. The Doctor and I exchanged nods as he and Clara stepped away from the TARDIS. I felt my hearts soaring as I considered what he had said.

The Doctor... had given me his blessing. As far as he was concerned, I was the Doctor too. Not the same man, obviously. But the same thing regardless. We both had the same goals. The same attitudes toward life, toward those who would end it. Sometimes our means and attitudes might vary a bit here and there, but they would never become completely divergent.

Never, so long as we both kept the Promise.

And I swore to myself that I would. I would make good on the trust he had just given me.

The Doctor returned to his TARDIS with Clara. I went up to my own controls. With a finger snap my TARDIS closed her doors. I set in new coordinates, back to the Earth that had been my home. I looked up from the controls to see Esk smiling at me. Dried tears still showed on her face. "Ready?", she asked.

"Of course. Kraknardaaplikuiuspinralakoolis, here we come." I nodded and pulled the activation lever.

Our trip to Kraknardaaplikuiuspinralakoolis gave me the chance to go through the sort of thinking you need after regenerating. Acclimating what you were into what you are now. Thankfully, this was only my first as a Time Lord, and the sort of regeneration sickness that occasionally befuddled the Doctor wasn't present. Perhaps it was from not having centuries and centuries of memories to acclimate. I'll find out one day, I imagine.

We spent some time there, watching the plasma streams meet and sent off explosions of color visible from the planet, and when the sight was over Esk decided to take some rest. It had been a busy day for her after all.

Me? I had other things to do.

Since getting my memories back, I had been too busy to really process those old thoughts and feelings. No chance to see the people I had cared for as a Human being. But now... now I had the time.

A change of clothes first. I looked over the purple jackets and... hrm. Purple. Nice color, don't get me wrong, but a bit too... I don't know. I didn't think I looked well in purple. Thankfully Miss Mode had given me a blue jacket as well, which I donned over a light light gray shirt and another pair of light gray trouser pants. And I picked up a pair of nice black shoes, padded for running but a bit nicer looking than the ones I used to wear back when I was... well, when I was the "First Doctor", if you will.

Now that I was ready and presentable, it was time to go visiting.

I didn't just walk up to them of course. I picked a span of time, various places, to stand afar and see them. Loved ones all, the family I was born into and the family I had chosen for myself. I would walk up, give a friendly wave and greetings appropriate for the time and place, and walk off, content that I had been given a chance to see them again. Given the length of times I chose to appear in, I can't imagine any of them ever even thought to discuss the ginger Englishman in the blue jacket. Why would they? I was just some bloke passing them on the street who seemed really friendly. Nothing special about that.

But I saved the most important visit for last.

I returned to Christmastime, 2013. The TARDIS was in stealth mode and out of the way. I walked into position in the parking lot I had arrived in and I waited in the brisk morning air. The sun had just come up within the last hour and a half or so, I judged. Winter solstice had just passed.

At about the right time someone came out of the doors to the building I was facing. I recognized him immediately.

It was the face I had seen in the mirror for thirty years of my prior life.

I let him get to his truck before approaching. "Hey, good morning and Merry Christmas," I said to him.

He turned to face me. A flicker of recognition came to his face. Undoubtedly from what my face looked like. "Good morning and Merry Christmas," he answered.

"Can I get some directions?", I asked. "I'm trying to get to the airport."

"Which one?", he asked. He inquired as to if I wanted the main airport of the area or a smaller airport that also serviced international flights that was much closer.

I picked the closer one. Just to do so.

"Yeah. Just go out to..." He gave directions like I imagined he would. A bit overly-detailed, perhaps, but he was clearly trying to resist the impulse to lay out every detail. I nodded in appreciation at that. It gave me a reason to smile. "...and you'll find it. I don't know what parking is like there, I haven't been to that airport."

"I'll find out well enough," I said. I stepped closer to him and offered my hand. "Thanks, mate."

I didn't expect what would happen when he took my hand. As our palmed pressed against each other in the handshake I felt a subtle thrum. I almost wanted to smile more. Despite the gulf of time and changes and two regenerations and, oh, being an entirely different species now... I was still close enough to him to cause quantum synergy. Nothing much, mind you. I could sense some of his thoughts, predominately that usual desire to just get home after another night at a security desk in an office building. And I'm not sure what he sensed from me. His brain might not be able to conceive, directly, the memories I had.

Although, ha. Given how those creative juices bubble away in his mind, maybe he would acclimate whatever he picked up from me in a creative way. He could end up writing it out as a story or some such. That would seem a reasonable thing, wouldn't it?

In those seconds, as I looked into his eyes, I found myself thinking about me. Us. I had been him once. But no longer. By quirk of fate, by something almost beyond imagination, I had been taken and made into what I was now. I was a Time Lord. I had the Multiverse at my fingertips. And now I was free of the forces that had created me. The future was open.

And that future was not here.

I can never go back home. I have faced that truth. I will be out here for many lifetimes to come.

With the box in my mind shattered by what transpired on Mogo, I would not again forget my old life and my old name. They are a part of me. They always will be. And I'll watch out for them. I can't help but do so.

But they won't be the major part in my life. Not anymore. This is his life now. Mine lies elsewhere, I can't encroach upon it. So I will set those old thoughts and memories into the past, where they belong.

Instead, I must look to the future and to the name I have taken. The life I have chosen to lead. A life of exploration and wonder. A life where there were monsters to defeat and innocent beings in need of someone to help them. To make them better.

The name I have chosen has power. It has the power to bring hope to those lost in despair. It can make brutal and terrible men fall to their knees in terror. It can rouse entire civilizations to do what is right and send armies in flight from utter dread.

It can do all of these things, and more, so long as the promise is kept.

Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up. Never give in.

And I will keep that promise until the last of my days.

Who am I?

I am, and always shall be, the Doctor.

Eskarina woke up from her rest and wandered into the TARDIS control room. It felt good to be refreshed after all of the things that had happened in the last day. All of that hope and fear and worry... it had been emotionally taxing.

The door to the TARDIS opened and the Doctor walked in. He was in a new suit. Esk felt a tinge of sadness at that. She could tell he was still, at his core, her Doctor... but at the same time, he was also clearly different from what he had been before. He was, in his own way, someone new, and he would never again be the Doctor she had known.

"Ah, Esk, good morning," said her Doctor. "You know, now that we're ready to travel, there's something I need to give you."

Esk looked at him with curiosity as he walked up the stairs toward the wall of the control chamber. He opened one of his trunks and went through various things. By the time Esk walked up to him he was standing up again and closing the trunk. He turned and presented to her a blue book. Esk took the book, still richly-colored as if brand new, and looked it over. "A journal?", she asked, noting that it was the same blue as his TARDIS.

"Exactly," the Doctor answered. "I got it from you."

Eskarina looked at him with some surprise. "From me?"

"From your older self," he continued. "She wanted me to give it to you. It seemed now was the appropriate time and all."

Esk looked back at the journal and opened the first page. She found a message there from herself.

You'll need every page, Esk. And you'll love every moment of it.

And remember, no spoilers!

Esk easily recognized her own handwriting. She stared at the book with some wonder. By the time she looked up the Doctor was pulling something down from the wall further down. "What do you think?", he asked.

"It's... a cane?", Esk replied.

He smiled at her and held it up. On the bottom was a purple light. His finger slid across the top of the cane and the light lit up, whirring as it did. "My new sonic cane," he explained. "More versatile than the disruptor." He swung the cane in his hand like it was a swagger stick before tapping it to the ground. "So, what do you think?"

"It looks..." Esk smiled and shrugged. "Dashing, I suppose?"

"Hrm. Dashing. I think I like that." With the cane in hand he skipped down the stairs. "So! We have a Multiverse out there." He went up to the controls and started hitting buttons and flipping switches. "Lots of places to go. Somewhere out there are beautiful sights waiting to dazzle us with their brilliance... and yes, some monsters that will want to eat us." He looked up as Esk descended the stairs to join him. The journal was still in her hand. His tone turned more serious as he continued. "There are children crying as their worlds are crashing down around them and people pleading for someone to show them mercy. It's a Multiverse full of wondrous beauty and terrible ugliness, brave heroes and treacherous villains..."

"Yes." Esk nodded. "And you. The Doctor."

"And me, yes." The Doctor looked over the controls and sighed before turning his sky blue eyes to look at her. "And you."

Esk answered that with a smile. "It's a big journal," she said. "I've got a lot of space to fill in."

"Yes," he agreed. "So. How about we get started?" He put his hand on the TARDIS control lever. "Off we go, then!"

Before he could pull it, Esk held a hand up. "Wait," she asked.

"Hrm?"

"One last time," Esk requested. "Just one last time. Say it... like you would have said it before."

The Doctor looked at her. "Oh. You mean the way... oh yes, i see what you mean."

For a moment, he seemed to consider Esk's request.

Her first answer was the smile he gave her.

The Doctor pulled the lever. And as the TARDIS began to VWORP away to their next destination, he gave Esk her answer.

"Tally Ho!"

The Story is over. The Adventure continues...