Disclaimer: Young Wizards and Doctor Who and affiliated characters, objects and ideas are property of Diane Duane and the BBC, respectively. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes. No infringements of any copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.

A/N: Time Lords are aliens who live on the planet Gallifrey. They maintain the timelines from outside of the multiverse. Then there was the Time War and Gallifrey went boom. For Young Wizards background, browse through the Errantry Concordance.

"The guys in Europe have found the major accelerant for the macrotemporal instability." Carl jumped, took in Tom's grim expression, and put aside the thin communications device. He got up and stalked towards the kitchen, stopping to glare at the fridge.
"No, Kit hasn't shown up with any replenishments," added Tom, eyeing the overflowing recycling bin before stepping into the kitchen himself. The phone beeped loudly; Carl swept his hand through the empty holder before accepting the handset from Tom.

Carl's Manual was open on the cluttered table, shimmering as information slipped in and out of its pages. Running along the bottom of the pages in a deep mauve, an urgent warning had appeared:

The gate to Gallifrey has collapsed. Macrotemporal state to be determined. Please check your local timeline status on page 3. All current timeslide users are advised to abort immediately...

There was a sudden silence from Carl. Tom cast his eyes toward the binders of temporal theory and data, his expression tightening. Traditional Gallifreyan Constructs cycles I-III, presented by A. R. Davidson. Tresiach-level temporalspatial fluctuations at 10-0-11-0-0 0-2 JD 2452668.59168 to 2453033.59168. A Brief History of Time (annotated).

"So we're on our own then," said Carl levelly into the phone. "We hold up our end of the timeline, the Powers keep up theirs, and we hope to hell that our universe can take care of itself without the Time Lords."

"The general plan in a nutshell, yes," replied the accented voice through the receiver, loud and clear in the silent kitchen. "Most of the stabilizers at the Crossings are online, according to the Stationmaster. Also, a few hours ago our friends UNIT in London received a...survivor. They're helping him through regeneration trauma as we speak. We're hoping he can help us retranslate our archives on Gallifreyan temporal spell circles after our timelines...reconfigure."

"Right. Thanks for the heads up, Nina. We'll pass along word to Nita and Kit."

"Go well, Carl. And you, Tom." The line clicked, and Carl's cellphone rang. Tom held his hand out for the handset.

On the table, several binders stopped existing. The mauve advisory abruptly disappeared. Tom walked over to the closest remaining binder, and ran a finger along the title. It read Time Management Studies Vol. II: A. R. Davidson et al.

"Hey Harry. It's Tom. Could I speak to Nita for a sec? And if you could put on an extra pot of coffee, that'd be great."