When Theta first met Jip, she was a small fury filled red-head who socked a boy in the nose for pushing Theta into a wall. He thought he'd finally made a friend. Until he tried to introduce himself and the other student said she didn't associate with snobbish rich children of Time Lords and stomped away. Theta dropped his extended hand and blinked stupidly at the girl's back. The House of Lungbarrow was a large house, but hardly rich by Time Lord standards.

Theta thought about the girl all day. He almost asked someone around him about her, where she'd come from. But he had no one to ask. As far as everyone else at the Academy was concerned he was a freak. He wasn't to be spoken to, unless others wanted to be bullied too.

Fortunately, he got his chance to find out more about her later in the day.

Torvic, the boy who had pushed Theta earlier, suddenly came into view as he was sitting outside under a tree. His nose and left eye were a dark purple color, and Theta thought his nose might be a little crooked. He was surprised the girl had actually left a mark. Torvic was much bigger than either of them. Theta had tried hitting him back before and he barley even flinched.

The older boy's hands shot out and then Theta's feet weren't on the ground. He looked down. Torvic's fists were holding him up by his second hand school robes. Theta's breath quickened in fear.

"Now that your girlfriend isn't here, how should we settle this, Lungbarrow?"

Theta kicked his legs out uselessly. He took a deep breath, accepting he was going to have to take a beating for this to be over. "Um, are you asking for pointers on bullying?"

A hard punch to the gut left him breathless.

"No, I'm asking which finger you want me to break." He sounded far too happy about this.

"..N-none of the-" another punch and Theta thought he might never breathe again.

"I'm giving you a choice, here. If you don't pick one, I will."

Torvic dropped Theta when the only response he gave was more gasping and a hacking cough.

Theta immediately tried to run, one hand on his stomach and the other clawing at the ground as he kicked his legs for the leverage to get up and run. Then there was a weight on his back and hands holding his right thumb tightly and then a sickening snap. Theta screamed.

"Get off him!" Theta heard somewhere behind him. He dimly wondered who was defending him this time. He felt the weight on his back disappear and curled into a ball, holding his right hand close to his chest.

Theta flinched when he heard a sharp slap echo through the air. Everything went quiet and he fought to open his eyes through the tears he hadn't realized were there.

The girl was there, her head to the side, eyes locked with Torvic. Theta could have sworn her eyes were glowing red. He gasped when he saw the girls fist shoot out lightning fast to connect with his bully's stomach and sending him a good few feet away from them. Theta stared in shock at Torvic's limp form in the grass. Was it possible for someone so young to be that strong? Then the girl turned calmly to him and offered a hand. He stared at it for a few seconds before taking it with a wide grin.

"That was so cool! How did you do that! Wait!" he yelled as she scowled and dropped her hand. "Sorry," he started more calmly at the girl's tense expression. "Um, I mean, thank you. No one ever defends me, I wasn't trying to be rude.." he trailed off at the puzzled look in her eyes. Theta coughed like he'd seen his father do when things got too quiet, like he could clear the air of the stillness. Theta didn't think it worked very well in this situation though. "I'm Theta Sigma." he told her, sticking his unbroken hand out for her to shake.

She stared for a second before gripping his forearm in a strange hand shake. "You can call me Jip."

Theta smiled big, not caring about the hand shake other than to wonder where this girl had come from, where she'd learned it. "Nice to meet you Jip."

The red head gave a small smile. Theta thought she looked beautiful.

Theta met Koschei at dinner, later that night. Theta didn't know anyone, didn't have anywhere to sit. He saw Jip sitting with a boy with raven black hair and took a chance. He sat next to the boy, across from Jip, with a soft smile. "Hi," he said to look from one to the other, eyes finally stopping on the boy, he held his hand out. "I'm Theta Sigma."

The boy frowned, shaking his hand politely before reaching out to grab Theta's bandaged finger. Theta screamed. The boy dropped it instantly and turned to scowl at Jip. "Some hero you are, his finger's broken!"

Jip glared at the boy. "He was like that when I got there," there was a pause, "And I'm not a hero! I just hate bullies." Jip stabbed viciously at her food before looking up again with rage in her eyes. Theta noted they were brown this time and once again wondered where she was from. "Next time, I might have to kill him."

The other boy took this with calm indifference and before taking a bite of his own food said, "You can't do that. You're too impulsive. You'd get caught."

"A girl can dream, Koschei." Jip said finally, frowning down at her food. "Why does he get to live? To spread fear and hatred? And why do we need to put up with it? Because some snobbish Time Lord family thinks their son is the next Rassilon?"

Theta found himself staring down at his plate, a deep frown on his face. After months in the Academy of being bullied, he couldn't help but agree with Jip. He didn't like it, the hatred that was growing for the people around him. Everyone just stood by. Everyone except Jip.

"Don't think so much," were the words that snapped him out of his thoughts, "They're the problem, not us."

Koschei's words stuck with him, and that night, hidden in a barn where Torvic couldn't find him, he promised himself he'd never stand by when other's were being hurt.

Water in his lungs, up his nose, in his eyes, burning everywhere, can't breathe, can't breathe...

Helplessness. Rage, red, hatred, adrenaline, white, shaking hands grabbing the first big rock he sees, strength he didn't know he had as he swung the rock down onto Torvic's head, a crack and a splash, red, red, red, blood in the water, blood on his hands, his robes..

And he won't move, Torvic won't bloody get up, one last trick on him as he goes to his grave. He'll make him move, he needs to move. MOVE!

Theta sat up bolt right in bed, shaking so much and breathing so shallow he thought he was dying.

"It doesn't have to be you," said a female voice. Theta scrambled out of his makeshift bed, finally realizing he was in the barn again.

"What?" Theta asked dumbly, startled to see a woman was standing over him. She was beautiful. Long black hair, pooling around her shoulders and down her back. Black robes that made her look elegant yet strong. But there was a darkness surrounding her. Theta took an involuntary step back, making the woman smile widely at him in a way that should have looked calming. "Who are you?"

"I see a fire in you, young Time Lord. Enough to swallow worlds-"

"What are yo-"

"Enough to swallow up that boy's body."

Any blood left in Theta's body soon drained out at those words. She knows..!

"I didn't mean to! He was killing Koschei! I had to-"

"Shut up."

Theta's jaw clicked shut.

"You made a choice. A choice while you were engulfed in fire, and ice, and the danger of a dear friend. But you've marked yourself."

"M-marked myself?" his voice came out small and cracking. Dread was filling the room and Theta couldn't seem to shake it.

"As Death's Champion, young Time Lord." her face held sorrow, but her eyes were so still and expressionless that he didn't think he could trust any emotions he got from her body language. "Now you have a choice to make."

Theta stood completely still. Death's Champion. He'd heard the legends, read about them in school when he should have been doing his classwork.

"No! Anyone but me! You can't take me, I won't do it! I won't kill for you!"

Death shook her head sadly. "Then you must choose."

"Choose what?" he asked through clenched teeth. Death's face lit up.

"Oh, there it is!"

He froze. His fists were balled up at his sides, face pinched in an angry scowl. Was that her? "Stop!"

"That's not me," Death said smugly.

"I'm not stupid, I know you're doing this now I said STOP!" Theta hated this. He hated feeling trapped. That's all he ever was; trapped. Trapped in the city, in the Academy, in this barn, and now in emotions he never wanted pulled out in the first place. Something in him snapped. "STOP!" And Theta pushed. The anger left him instantly and his knees gave out from under him. Death stood over him.

"Choose."

He was breathing in hard pants. He knew what she wanted. Someone else.

Theta stayed there, on his hands and knees before Death, for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. There was no way out of this.

Finally, he said the name he'd been thinking of all along.

"Koschei."