Chapter One:

Falling

The Messaline night sky had to be the prettiest sky in the whole of time. Its purple color and bright stars accented the three moons that held the sky together.

The young lady that sat in her library didn't need artificial lighting, because the intensity of the moons was enough for her to read. Her fingers smoothed the creases in a student's paper as she read and corrected the work. After a couple of seconds she heard the gathering of energy and the landing of a ship. It didn't take a moment before she rushed out of her library and into the main hall.

In front of her eyes materialized her mother's space shuttle, and then the door opened. "I met an agent of time. He gave me this watch that is actually a vortex manipulator, and I programmed it into the shuttle. It's a big upgrade!"

Jenny's hair was down and long, creating a halo that shined against her skin and brightened her blue eyes. "So, pretty girl, shall we go somewhere?"

Her daughter laughed and hugged her mother, because she was never one for travel. Ever. "Mum, how in the world do you understand any of the technology you use?"

Jenny poked her daughter's nose playfully. "Professor," she emphasized, "how do you know anything you know? The human's call it a collective unconscious. That's too much of a mouthful, but the theory, from what I heard, it makes sense. A man from Earth, early Earth, came up with the theory." Jenny grinned. Then she noticed a sort of tire in her daughter and suddenly became very nervous.

The Professor quickly looked down, a sign of anxiety for the usually so confident and unruffled woman. "Actually, yeah, Mum. I can't figure it out, but I'm sort of… exhausted." Her eyes shined in the brightness of the room. Quickly, her tone changed: "Anyway, come on upstairs. I would love to hear all about your journey!"

The Professor had listened for hours as her mother told her stories, but when the sun rose, she made her way outside. She could feel the sleepiness in the air, but all the same, she continued on her way to the classroom. As she passed a particular alley-way she heard a distant shout. She cursed her mother for sharing memories and the need to run towards screams, but as a teacher, she would have anyway. Compassion moved the blood in her veins.

It was a human, one of the newest arrivals from the continuing planets that were forced to relocate, and he was arguing and violent. He had pushed the Hath, who didn't say anything. She knew this Hath and persistently started to break it up.

"Hey!" she shouted, getting their attention. She turned the boy around, but it didn't help. He shoved her. The Professor fell back, her head slamming on the wall of a building. It was concrete. She felt heat drip. Her vision swam and she let out one word: "Doctor."

Her stomach was churning and she threw up, her body unable to stop the convulsing. She felt the nausea, but her head wasn't hurting. Her clothes had changed, and she felt fear rise when she didn't hear her mother. The Professor opened her eyes to look around. The room was dull in color and a man sat in a chair across the room.

"It's left over," he said, a distant look on his face. "They went through your brain. You're an interesting thing, Professor. Falling through time. You even have time-stuff left over on your skin. It's embedded." Finally, this man looked up. "You have trial soon. You're related to the Doctor, even if you and your mum were accidents. This is very not good." His tone was cold, a deeper than just anger and disgust level to his manner of speaking, hatred. He looked haunted, too.

The Professor whimpered in pain as she tried to move. "Who are you?" she asked, giving up on moving. "Why—" Then her head started to burn, filling with knowledge she shouldn't know.

Gallifrey. Time Lords. Time Ladies. Propriety. Rules. Laws. Strict. Old. Knowledge. Wisdom.

"That answer any other questions?" He still hadn't told her his name.

The Professor cried out again, her breath harsh and sad. "Who are you?"

He shook his head. It was then she took in his features. Dark red hair, skin fair, but freckled. He had an apathetic expression, distant and uncaring. He was bruised, paler than what he would have been with proper outside light. The bruises were on exposed skin, but there was more. He had scars, knife marks it looked like, on his arms. A couple of fresh cuts on his face, but wouldn't scar were there, too. They were healing, but the Professor noticed it would take a while. He had long arms, long legs, and a strong torso. Or was he just absurdly skinny? The work of Time Lords.

The Professor had a disgusted look on her face, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by a cacophony of Time Lords. They rushed in, inducing her with medicine, before talking to her.

"You will remain silent," said one with the least amount of decorations on his shirt.

"You will listen," said another, second rank.

"We have reviewed your mind's records. As the granddaughter and only recipient of the Time Lord known as the Doctor, you will take his punishment. But as a breaker of rules, someone completely improbable, you will have consequences of your own. You will be taken to the Untempered Schism and made to look upon it—" here, the man in the chair made a coughing sort of noise, "—You will also be the Master's prison guard, taking care and finding proper robes. To do this, we must bind you two."

The man, identified as the Master, rose from his chair, fury in the air. Still, that did not sidetrack the three men.

The man with the most decorations on his shirt silenced him with a look. He waved his hand and the Master sat down, a scowl on his face. He looked back at her to continue sentencing. "Furthermore, you will be stripped of your title as Professor. You have not earned it here on Gallifrey. We have assigned you the name Delta." At the word assigned, the Master made another disgusted noise, and newly-named Delta was surprised he had not spoken. The man continued, "This bind will be done by Rassilon himself—" The name struck a nerve with Delta, and the man stopped speaking for a moment.

Delta's head started to burn once more. The name Rassilon was creeping into head. The very knowledge and legend of Rassilon that all Gallifreyans shared, and Delta's disgust grew. Still, more information started to seep into her mind, that of binding souls. This was a force bond, as well. She knew how painful that could be. Well, she didn't, but the power of shared knowledge was blatant.

It seemed the sentencing was done, because after Delta closed her eyes, she made her mind retreat to a resting place.

"A binding. Not just marriage, but a binding?" She could feel the anger washing off the Master in waves.

He sighed, hitting the chair with one of his limp hands. "I heard that thought. I'm not the Master anymore. Call me Koschei. They refuse to accept it, because Rassilon—" he said that name with such distaste "wants me to be cast out, alone. He puts me in a cell and bonds me with a part Time Lady!"

She sighed, hair tangled and mess behind her head giving her a headache as whatever the Jailors had given her stopped working. She wouldn't speak, not the dominant type, but how, exactly, did they expect her to be a prisoner's guard? This was going to be one helluva ride.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, these two come in Doctor Donna's Daughter, and I decided to put them on for a reason. Mostly because I need help with Koschei and Delta is a fun sort of lady. Tell me if you want more.