Death by extermination was not a pleasant one.

Eva screamed as the first shot hit her, and screamed again when she was pulled back alive. She screamed the second time, as well, as she did in the third and the fourth. By the fifth time, the only thing she could do was cry.

She lost count of how many times she was shot before her necklace took her away, but she was in too much pain – both emotional and physical – to be aware of where she appeared.

What she was aware of was two people speaking next to her.

"Well," a voice – a male's voice – started, "where do you want to go next?"

"We've only just returned to the TARDIS," a female voice replied. "Must we leave again so soon?"

"But that's the beauty in travelling," the man said, sounding like he was repeating something that he said many times before. Through her haze and pain, Eva could hear other sounds coming to life in the background.

She wasn't entirely sure why, but they comforted her.

"You can pick any place and any time you want," the male voice went on, and something started to sound familiar about it – the tone spoken, the words said. "Anywhere in the whole of time and space. Tell her, K9."

The next voice that spoke was a metallic one and Eva tensed, anticipating another shot only for it to never arrive.

"Mistress."

Something was wrong. The voice that spoke, though somewhat similar to the Daleks' in its metallic sound, wasn't quite right. Whoever – whatever – just spoke, it wasn't Daleks coming to attack her.

"K9?" the man asked, confused. "What is it?"

"Mistress," the robotic voice repeated, and Eva forced herself to open her eyes.

She was laying on a floor. It was odd that she didn't notice it before but, then again, it wasn't the oddest thing that had happened to her. In front of her, she could see a large white device of some sort, grounded in the floor, though it was too big for her to identify.

The main thing she noticed, though, was the small robot in front of her, in the size and shape of a dog.

"Mistress?"

"K9."

The name left Eva's lips before she could stop herself, every muscle in her chest and throat protesting against the movement of air through her lips. The metallic dog moved closer, his cold nose touching Eva's cheek.

"Mistress!"

"K9?" the male voice asked again, and Eva could hear footsteps next to her, followed by a shocked gasp. "Eva!"

No. No, not him. Anyone but him.

"Doctor?" the female voice asked. "Doctor, what is it?"

"Romana, I need help," the Doctor said. "I think she might be wounded –"

A hand reached out to touch Eva's shoulder, making her jump away. She let out a yelp of pain as she was now sitting on the floor, her hands carrying most of her weight as she slowly moved backwords.

"No," she muttered. "No. Stay – you stay away from me. Stay away!"

"Eva?" the Doctor asked, shocked and confused. "Eva, what's wrong?"

"You – you tried – and the Daleks –"

"Doctor, step back," the female voice said, and suddenly there was a woman crouching before Eva. "Hello."

Who was she? Eva knew that she knew this woman, but she couldn't place a name to that face. Her face was turning fuzzy the more she tried to focus on it. Brown, curly hair, travelling with the Doctor – the Fourth Doctor at the same time as K9… was it Mark II? He looked like Mark II, but Eva wasn't sure if she could trust her eyes anymore. Not with how out of shape the world had become.

"My name is Romanadvoratrelundar," the woman went on. "But you can just call me Romana, if you'd like."

"Wait, why is she allowed –"

"Shh!" Romana hissed towards the Doctor, turning her attention back at Eva. "What's your name?"

"E- Evangeline Miller," Eva replied shakily. "But – but everybody just calls me Eva."

"Eva," Romana repeated. "That's a lovely name." Eva let out a small smile, which Romana took as a sign to go on. "Eva, if you don't mind me asking… what happened?"

"I – D- Daleks," Eva stuttered. "He – he locked me in a room with D- Daleks!"

Understanding dawned on the Doctor as Romana turned to look at him, horrified.

"You locked her in a room with Daleks?!"

"It was a long time ago," the Doctor defended. "Several hundred years ago, two regenerations."

"That doesn't justify it!" Romana replied. "What were you thinking?!"

"I got him killed," Eva muttered. "That's what – that's what he said. That I got him killed." She turned to look at the Doctor. "I got you killed?"

"No," the Doctor said sternly. "No, you didn't. He… he thought that if you'd have told him what was going to happen, he would have been able to stop his regeneration from happening but –"

"But I can't," Eva whispered. "I… I can't tell you what's going to happen. It's… there are rules, and…"

"I know," the Doctor said, taking a hesitant step towards Eva. "I understand it… but he didn't."

"What's going to happen?" Romana repeated. "But how could you possibly…" Her eyes widened as she turned to look at the Doctor. "Doctor… is this the Omniscient?"

"Eva," the Doctor corrected. "Her name is Eva."

"But, Doctor –"

"Whatever you're about to say, don't," the Doctor cut her off. "I don't know where in her timeline she is. These events might not have happened to her, yet."

"Doctor, you can't possibly entertain the thought of letting her stay here."

"I can and that is what I'll do," the Doctor snapped. "Eva had always been by my side. When the Time Lords exiled me to Earth, when the people of our race turned their backs on me, she was there. She's staying, and that's it."

"Well… if you insist," Romana frowned. "But on your head be it."

Turning back to a very confused Eva, the Doctor carefully reached out his hand to help her stand up.

"I know you're scared," he said, "and you have every right to be. But I promise I won't hurt you." Eva hesitated for a moment before accepting the offered hand, leaning on the Doctor as she stood up. "We need to take you to the Infirmary Ward," he went on. "Make sure you're not hurt. It's a miracle the Daleks haven't killed you, truly."

But they did, Eva couldn't help but think. They killed me over and over again. And it was all because of you.

The one person – the one constant she had since she arrived in this universe… and he left her for dead.

"You should probably get some rest, too," Romana added. "I assume you've had quite a stressful day."

"I'm fine," Eva said. "I'm not tired."

All three people in the room knew that this was a lie. Eva was more than tired – she was exhausted. She couldn't remember the last time she slept or ate anything, and she was certain her body was starting to regress back to how it was before her time with the Master.

"Let's go somewhere," she said all of the sudden. "I haven't been anywhere special with you in ages. How about Barcelona?" she asked. "You've been talking about it for ages. Time to make true to your word, Scarfy."

A smile found its way to Eva's face as she let go of the Doctor's hand and raised her foot to take the first step towards the Console. Overwhelmed with fatigue, her body didn't seem to be able to hold her weight, making her knee buck under the pressure.

The Doctor only just managed to catch her on her way to the floor before she was lost into the world of unconsciousness.

EMH

When Eva woke up again, she felt significantly better.

She was still twitchy, her muscles aching from the events of the past few days as well as the multiple deaths she endured, but she was more refreshed than what felt like an eternity.

Logically, she knew it wasn't an actual eternity – had it really been only three days since she was with Twelve? – but it sure felt like it was.

The Doctor smiled as she walked back into the Console Room, and Eva had to fight the urge to flinch at the sight of him.

"So," he told her with a smile. "Where do you want to go?"

"I… I don't know."

Truth was, Eva didn't wat to go anywhere. She wanted to stay in the TARDIS, where it was safe and secure. It was a strange feeling, and one she had never experienced before this very moment, but she thought her last trip justified it.

"What about you, Romana?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at the Time Lady. "Do you have a preference? Some place you heard about at the Academy but never got to visit?"

Even though she knew he didn't have malice intent, Eva couldn't help but feel as though the Doctor stabbed her right through the heart. She might have not gone to the Academy, as both of them had, but she would reckon she knew just as many planets as they did. Not to mention the extensive amount of interesting historical events she could recall from her degree – she really should make some time to finish that bloody degree…

"Well," Romana's voice pulled Eva out of her thoughts. "Atrios always seemed like an interesting place to visit."

"Atrios?" the Doctor repeated thoughtfully. "Do you know, I've never actually been to Atrios."

"Nor to Zeos?" Romana questioned.

"Where?"

"Atrios' twin planet," Eva supplied. She may not be a Time Lady, but she knew the planets she saw on the show. And this was definitely one of those.

"Atrios and Zeos," Romana nodded. "The twin planets on the edge of the helical galaxy. Didn't they teach you anything at the academy?"

Eva frowned. Hadn't she just proven that there was no need for one to go to the Academy to know such facts?

"Yes, but we're not going to Zeos," the Doctor said.

"No, we're going to Atrios," Romana replied.

"So far it doesn't seem like we're going anywhere," Eva muttered impatiently. "Will either of you get on with it already?"

"Right," Romana said, turning to the Console as the Doctor crouched next to K9.

"Atrios, K9," he said quietly. "Atrios. I wonder what the inhabitants are like there?"

"Interesting, I reckon," Eva commented with a small smile.

"Oh, really?" the Doctor asked, standing up and smiling at her. "And how would you know?"

"Well, you're going there, aren't you?" she asked. "Bound to be interesting."

"I've got the coordinates," Romana said. "Doctor, would you give me a hand?"

"Yes, of course," the Doctor said, turning away from Eva and leaving her with only K9 for company.

"Mistress," the tin dog said, and it almost sounded to Eva as though he were relieved that she was in a better state than their last encounter.

"Hey there, boy," Eva said with a smile, brushing a hand over K9's metal head. "You won't leave me, won't you?"

"Mistress."

Eva smile brightened. "Good boy."

It wasn't long before the Doctor and Romana managed to get the TARDIS to materialize at their destination, and Eva moved to stand beside them as they parked it in space.

"There," the Doctor said. "We should be in parking orbit over Atrios. Let's see where we're going, shall we?"

"Why not?" Romana asked, turning on the scanner only for empty space to appear before them.

"Er… guys?" Eva asked. "That's not supposed to happen, right?"

"That's odd," the Doctor muttered. "That's very odd. Wouldn't you say that was very odd?"

"That's very odd," Romana agreed.

"I wonder what went wrong?"

"With your driving?" Eva joked.

"Oh, hush."

"Better check the coordinates," Romana offered.

"Zero, zero, six, nine," the Doctor read out. "That's exactly what you gave me. Are you sure?"

"Quite sure," Romana replied. "Something's gone astray."

"No, no, no," the Doctor said thoughtfully, "just a minute. There may have been a time shift. Let's take another reading."

He pressed a few buttons – Lord help Eva if she had any idea what either of them did – and Romana looked at the screen once more.

"Zero, zero, eight, zero, one, zero, zero, four, zero," she read out.

"Zero, zero, eight, zero, one, zero…" the Doctor started as he retyped the data. "What a lot of zeroes. There it is!"

Eva looked at the scanner again to see that, indeed, there was a small cluster that could be read as a planet, if one knew to look for one.

"That's the planet?" she asked.

"Well…" the Doctor said. "Well, it's something, anyway."

"But it's millions of miles away," Romana added.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed.

"Also," Eva added, "we said Atrios and Zeos, right? As in two planets. Why is there only one on the scanner?"

"Do you know what I think?" the Doctor asked. "I think something's gone wrong. Something fairly serious."

"The Black Guardian?" Romana asked.

"Well, it could be a coincidence," the Doctor replied.

"Never ignore a coincidence," Eva commented. "Unless you're busy."

"That's a ridiculous exception to the rule," Romana said, turning to look at the Time Jumper. "I mean, just because you're busy doesn't mean it's any less important!"

"No, it isn't," the Doctor agreed. "There's only one thing to do."

"Listen, why don't you take us in on manual?" Romana suggested.

"I think I'll take us in on manual," the Doctor agreed, "with circumspection."

"Right," Romana nodded, and the two Time Lords turned back to the Console, leaving Eva clueless once more as to what they were doing.

"Care to explain what you're doing?" she asked after a few moments.

"Why?" Romana asked. "It's not as though you'd actually understand."

"Romana!"

"What?" the Time Lady asked, turning to the Doctor. "It's true. She's only human, after all, even if not completely."

"How do you know that?" Eva snapped. "You've said odd things about me before, but how do you know that?"

"What's it matter?"

"It matters because obviously, you haven't met me before," Eva replied. "You didn't recognize me when you saw me, but you recognized my name. You knew they call me 'The Omniscient'. And you know I'm not completely human. How?" she repeated. "How do you know me, without knowing me?"

"Eva…" the Doctor said, moving to stand between the two women. "You know we can't tell you that. It's still in your future."

"What is?" Eva questioned.

"Spoilers."

Eva sighed, turning her back at the two as she waited for them to be done with whatever it was they were doing.

She honestly couldn't wait for all of this to be over, and for her to jump away to a different Doctor with another companion. With all that she knew Romana for less than a day, she didn't care much for the woman.

Judging by the way Romana had been treating her since the moment she arrived, she wouldn't be surprised to find out the feeling was mutual.

EMH

"Well, there's still no sign of Zeos," Romana said some time later, "but I'm picking up a reading for Atrios' twin."

She let out a low whistle as she looked at the reading, making the Doctor turn to her, and Eva to look up from where she was definitely not sulking.

"What's the matter?" the Doctor asked.

"Look," Romana said, turning the screen towards him. "Radiation levels you wouldn't believe."

"Good heavens," the Doctor muttered. "You could fry eggs in the street."

"But that means…" Romana started.

"What?"

"There must be a huge nuclear war going on down there."

"Not at all, no," the Doctor was quick to dismiss.

"Well, what else could it be?"

"I don't know," the Doctor shrugged. "Probably someone giving a huge breakfast party."

"Really?" Eva asked, unable to keep the residue of anger out of her voice. "Is that seriously the best you could have come up with?"

"Think positive," the Doctor said, looking between the two of them before finally settling on Romana. "Why do you always assume the worst?"

"Because it usually happens," the Time Lady replied simply.

"Empirical poppycock," the Doctor huffed. "Where's your joy in life? Where's your optimism?"

"It opted out."

"Optimism," K9 said. "Belief that everything will work out well. Irrational, bordering on insane."

"Oh, do shut up, K9."

"Oi!" Eva snapped, more of the anger seeping through to her voice this time. "Be nice to K9!"

"Listen, Romana," the Doctor said, ignoring Eva. "Whenever you go into a new situation you must always believe the best until you find out exactly what the situation's all about, then believe the worst."

"Ah," Romana said, starting to understand. "But what happens if it turns out not to be the worst after all?"

"Don't be ridiculous, it always is. Isn't it, Evie?"

"Don't call me that," Eva said. "That name is reserved to people who don't ignore me."

"And I have?" the Doctor asked, confused.

"You tell me."

"Still, nuclear war," the Doctor went on, keeping his eyes on Eva questioningly. "It's always difficult walking into these situations. You never know who's fighting who."

"Or why," Romana added.

"Oh, don't be daft," Eva huffed. "If anything, that is the only unquestionable part in everything that is happening here. I mean, even I managed to understand that. And we all know I'm only human."

"Well, if you're so clever, why won't you tell us the reason, then?" Romana asked, growing less patient by the minute.

"The reason?" Eva repeated. "I don't think I can tell you all of it, but even I can see the obvious.

"Which is?"

"Well," Eva said. "It's got to be something to do with the sixth and most important segment of the Key to Time, don't you think?"

If Eva said she wasn't pleased by the fact Romana looked like she wanted to hit herself for not figuring it out herself, she would be lying.

EMH

"Doctor, look," Romana said a few long moments later, "something's approaching us from the planet surface."

"A welcoming party, do you think?" the Doctor asked, looking between Eva and Romana before deciding to talk to the only one aboard his ship that wasn't likely to snap at him at the moment. "K9? K9, what do you make of that?"

"Missile identified. Nuclear warhead."

On second thought, maybe he should have been snapped at. The only good thing that came out of K9's response was that the two women by his side finally stopped looking at each other murderously, choosing to focus on the more immediate danger.

"What?" Romana asked.

"Oh, bloody hell," Eva muttered.

"Let's get out of here."

"No, no, no," the Doctor quickly said. "Wait. We'll dematerialise at the last moment. Let whoever's shooting at us think they've hit us. Always confuse the enemy."

"And never run when you're scared," Eva added, making the Doctor look at her.

"That seems like a clever one," he said quietly. "I should write it down."

"Do that later," Eva said sharply. "Which part of nuclear warhead don't you understand?"

"Right," he said, shaking himself out of his thoughts, "link that tracer in. I want to land as close as possible to the sixth segment. The less time we spend on Atrios, the better."

"Right," Romana nodded. "Ready."

"Standing by?" the Doctor made sure, looking at the two of them. "K9, how long to impact?"

"Three," K9 said, making all three of them look at him fearfully, "two, one."

"What?" the Doctor asked, him and Romana exchanging a quick look and barely managing to pull the levers in time to make the TARDIS dematerialize without impact.

Eva could almost feel her heart skipping a bit in the time between K9's words and the TARDIS's landing.

"Okay," she said, her voice shaking. "That was a bit too close. Let's not do that again, yeah?"

"I think it's safe to say that all of us are in favour," the Doctor replied, and Romana nodded. "Should we head outside?"

"Do we have much choice?" Eva countered, making the Doctor smirk.

"Oh, you know you love it," he said.

"Course I do," Eva told him, a mischievous glint to her voice. "Still here, aren't I?"

Neither of them saw the look on Romana's face as they walked out the door, taking in the scenery.

"Oh, no," Romana sighed, looking around her.

"No, no," the Doctor quickly said. "Don't say it, please."

"What shouldn't she say?" Eva asked.

"Don't say what?" Romana asked at the same time.

"Don't say 'another underground passage'," the Doctor replied, sending Romana a meaningful look.

"Well," the Time Lady sighed, "I wonder how deep we are this time?"

"Yes," the Doctor agreed thoughtfully, looking around. "K9? K9, are you still sulking in there?" he asked when no answer came. "Come on out. No water or swamps. It's quite safe."

As if someone heard the Doctor speaking, the entire passage shook as something – probably a bomb – hit the area from above.

"You just had to talk, didn't you?" Eva muttered, pushing away from the wall she fell towards.

K9 immediately let out a series of incoherent sounds, turning the attention of the three towards him.

"What did he say?" Romana asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, crouching next to K9 and lightly hitting his nose. "What did you say?"

"Master, radiation levels indicate nuclear warfare in progress on planet surface."

"What?" Romana asked, concerned. "How deep are we?"

"Four hundred metres below, master."

"Four hundred metres?" the Doctor repeated, thinking to how the place shook when the bomb hit. "They are taking a pasting. If it's like this down here, imagine what it's like on the surface."

"Surely nothing can live in this?" Romana asked.

"Not in a million years," Eva muttered. "The radiation levels alone…"

"Radiation levels are variable," K9 replied. "No sign of immediate life. The corpse on the left, however, is recent."

"What?"

The three of them turned to the direction K9 spoke of, only to see there was, indeed, a body lying next to them. Romana and the Doctor rushed to it, checking for chances of any life signs left.

Eva, however, stayed behind. She'd seen enough dead bodies for a lifetime, in her opinion, and could surely do without another one.

"You're right, K9," the Doctor said, examining the body. "He hasn't been dead. Shot, poor chap."

"At close range, from the front," Romana added.

"Yeah," the Doctor sighed. "Must have been one of his friends. Just goes to show, you can't trust anyone nowadays."

"Anyone?" Eva repeated.

"Well…" the Doctor started, only to be cut off as Romana went on.

"I don't think I'm going to like this place very much," she said.

"Neither am I," Eva said, for once agreeing with the other woman.

"Let's locate the sixth segment and get out of here," the Doctor told them both.

"I'm with you all the way," Romana said. "Through there," she added, showing them in the direction of a door nearby, only to find it won't open.

"Locked and lead," the Doctor noted. "What does that suggest to you?"

"Radiation, most likely," Eva said, walking past the body to join the two of them. "With a war of that scale on the surface of the planet, you can't expect all underground areas to be completely safe.

"Affirmative," K9 confirmed.

"Any sentient life through there, K9?" the Doctor inquired.

"Regret lead shielding will prevent effective analysis."

"Yes, it's well guarded," the Doctor said, nodding at the dead guard, "or at least it was. Perhaps the door's booby-trapped."

"Doctor…" Romana started.

"What?"

"Remember what we were saying about the Black Guardian?"

"Yes," the Doctor said, before a puzzled expression crossed his face. "What? 'Will you come into my parlour?' said the spider to the fly?"

"Very apt," Romana replied.

"Very creepy," Eva commented, rubbing at the goosebumps on her arms.

"I think we should tread very carefully," the Doctor concluded. "K9?"

"Master?"

"Could you make a hole for me in that door, K9? A little, little hole, K9. We don't know what's beyond there, do we."

The next few minutes passed very similarly to before, when the Doctor and Romana were talking technical in the TARDIS. Eva didn't quite understand what was going on, other than the Doctor's general plan of action.

And, knowing the Doctor, even the general plan was due to change at least half a dozen times before this would be solved.

"That's enough, K9, that's enough," the Doctor finally said. "Back up."

Moving closer to the hole K9 had created, the Doctor put his eye to it, looking through. Hearing footsteps, Eva hid herself behind a curve of the tunnel, seeing K9 doing the same and listening carefully to everything the Doctor and Romana said.

"Romana, there's a –" the Doctor started after a few long moments, turning around only to stop mid-sentence.

"There's a what?" Romana asked.

"There's a man standing behind you," the Doctor replied, glancing around to see Eva in her hiding place. He nodded once, almost unnoticeably, marking her to stay put. "Get your hands up."

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"We're travellers. We seem to be lost, actually." At the long look the man gave the dead guard, the Doctor added, "He's dead."

"You'll be shot for this," the man said.

"It wasn't us," Romana quickly protested. "He was like that when we found him."

And even though she was there and knew it was true, Eva couldn't help but wince at Romana's words. The man didn't seem terribly convinced, either.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes," Romana said at the same time the Doctor said, "No."

"No," Romana changed her mind accordingly, only for the Doctor to do the same, again at the exact same time.

Eva winced again, but stayed hidden as the man marked Romana and the Doctor to follow him, leading them away from the door and deeper into the tunnels. K9 quickly moved to follow them, only for another explosion to go off and a part of the tunnel to fall in his path.

He turned to find a different route, but Eva stayed, moving closer to the door.

"Hello?" she asked quietly. She knew there was a woman on the other side of the door – not just any woman but Astra, the Princess of Atrios. "Can you hear me? Hello?"

She was so focused trying to contact the Princess that she didn't notice the dark figure who moved out of the shadows to stand behind her until he hit the back of her head.

She only had time to see the doors starting to open before unconsciousness took over her and pulled her into the world of darkness.