A.N: Happy New Year's! I'm back, with another installment,ready for the new year!
Thanks go to: Kate's Master, jumanji, Dory Shotgun and Faith Lynn- You guys Rock!
Hope you Enjoy!

1(3) In a Million, Chapter 2
Homecoming.
By Starlite1.

"Well don't blame me!" Adrian snapped, slamming the door open and ignoring the fact it nearly

broke Anita's nose on the rebound.

"Who ever said we were!" Senka retorted, his voice squeaking uncomfortably.

"She certainly was!"

"Just because she decided to waltz off, dump us for that…" Senka breathed in, trying to steady his vocal chords, "that's still no reason to take it out on us!"

"She had no reason to take it out on us either!" Anita exploded, angrily dropping her bag to the floor, "And yet here we stand, having this stupid conversation!"

"Points for observation! Question is what are we going to do about it?" Adrian rebutted.

Senka threw his hands up in the air, "How should we know? And frankly, should we be worried?"

"What do you mean?" Anita demanded.

He shrugged, "Shouldn't it be her choice whether or not she comes? She's taken on monsters, alien armadas…

Anita drew a shuddering breath, "Yeah, but still fobbed us off!"

"Not denying it!"

"Glad we got that bit over and done with!"

"So am I." Stated the Doctor, coming in from the basement, "We could hear you downstairs! What on earth happened to cause this racket!"

Adrian's eyes darkened, "Just our dear sister deciding we're not worth the time of day…"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, arms folding over his chest, "Right, so where is she?"

Anita waved her hand, "Glassgow, Missisipi…I don't know! She went home with her new bosom buddy, waltzing off into the sunset as though we weren't even there! Not so much as a goodbye!"

"Right…Did Rose agree to this?" The Doctor asked skeptically.

"Under duress." Rose grumbled, coming in from the car, "Not as though she gave me much choice in the matter…"

"Suppose there's not much that we can do at the moment…" The Doctor mused,

"Looks like there might be trouble brewing, in more than one place in the universe."

"So you're saying we'll have to leave her here in this time zone?" Anita demanded.

He nodded, "There's little else we can do…"

"Are we just going to head straight off?" Rose asked her husband.

"As I said, we don't have much choice in the matter. Something's making a right mess for us to clean up. But I think one night here before we leave would be wise. Give you lot a chance to recover before we go ploughing head first into danger once more." He smiled slightly, "Anyway, your grandmother would kill me otherwise."

IOIOIOIOI

Vetoing unpacking, the trio headed towards the kitchen to find Jackie sitting with a cup of tea, dirt smeared over the front of her shirt and jeans, gumboots discarded carelessly by the door.

"Help yourselves." She told them, indicating the pot, "Where's Josie?"

Exchanging wary glances, Anita answered, "Off with her new mate."

Jackie glanced up from the cup, surprised, "You're kidding."

"We've just had a huge tiff over the matter." Adrian added, re-boiling the kettle and setting out a plate of biscuits.

"Make sure you get some tim-tams." Jackie reminded, "Well, that's definitely a change of circumstances."

Anita sighed, "It feels…wrong without her here."

The sound of rustling leaves came from the bench, where Mordrid was awakening at the sound of the voices around him. He seemed to glance around, swirling around in search of Josie.

"Oh dear…" Jackie murmured, glancing as the plant became forlorn, sinking back in his pot, "He's been dreadfully excited the past few days…Still, nothing we can do about it now apart from get on with things. Now tell me about school…"

Relieved to be once more in neutral territory, they began their retelling of their adventures.

It was to this conversation that Rose walked in, exhaustion visible in every aspect of her bearing,

"So what's this about plastic chickens?"

Adrian blushed red, Senka muttered something incoherently whilst Anita simply rolled her eyes,

"The last adventure we managed to have before…the grinch came."

Rose raised her eyebrows, "Love the metaphor."

"We decided to switch all the teacher's dinners for plastic ones. Only thing is we could only get plastic chickens. So we waited until Thursday-"

"-Chicken night." Senka explained.

"And we made sure some of our mates were on serving duty. We switched, and Voila! Chaos!" Adrian said.

"Majority of the teachers found it hilarious." Anita added.

"All but the maths master Wimperton." Collectively they shuddered.

Rose smiled, "Sounds like you've been busy. But that's still no reason to leave your bags in the entryway."

Anita pursed her lips, "Uhm, just out of curiosity, would it be all right if I stayed on the TARDIS?"

"Why?" Rose asked in surprise.

She shrugged, "It's just without Josie here, it doesn't seem right to be in her room…"

"And your room in the TARDIS is just as comfortable as up here." Rose concluded.

Anita simply nodded.

"As long as you have your phone, I can see no problem with that. Just make sure you check it up with the Doctor, all right?"

IOIOIOIOI

The awkwardness caused by the absence of one of their party only became more apparent at dinner. Despite the delicious meal they had, any attempt at conversation quickly fizzled, and the majority of the meal passed in silence.

Plates were cleared away without comment, and quickly the trio decided to depart for bed.

"You lot want to come down?" Anita asked quietly as they reached the entryway.

They paused for a second, "Better than staying up here…" Adrian finally agreed.

Opening the door to the basement, they filed down the rickety stairs, the darkness unnerving as it enveloped them. Cautiously they continued onwards, the stairs creaking ominously below them.

Suddenly, Anita froze, tense as a rabbit.

"Ouch!" Adrian complained, crashing into the back of her.

"Shut up!" She hissed.

"Why-?" He was interrupted by the all too familiar wheezing, groaning sound echoing through the basement, "There is no way-"

Practically jumping down the last steps, they came to rest at the entry to the cavernous room. Senka gasped as an ethereal blue light washed over them, dancing across their faces as something remarkably familiar solidified beside their TARDIS.

"Just making sure I'm not insane," Senka began, his voice shaking, "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"Either that or we're all going insane…" Adrian replied, his eyes not leaving the now solid object before them.

Instinctively, they stumbled backwards as the door opened. The eyes of the woman who stepped out locked on them, "When?"

"What do you mean?" Senka asked nervously.

"What's the date? Day of the week, year…"

"June the first, twenty twenty-seven." Senka said, "A Tuesday, if you were wondering."

"Thanks, Senka." She replied, gazing over their faces wistfully, "That makes it just over a week before Jack and Lucy get engaged. Looks like I might have just made it."

"Okay, we've answered your question. Now you can answer ours." Anita said in puzzlement,

"Who are you?"

Violet eyes locked on her own with an unnerving familiarity, "I'm sorry for being so rude. Josephine Romana Sigma Tyler at your service. Now where am I?"

IOIOIOIOIOI

"Dad," Adrian said from the door of the living room, "We've got a problem…"

At this, the Doctor dropped his book, "What do you mean, Adrian?"

Slowly, the trio entered the room, accompanied by the woman.

The Doctor's eyes widened, "And you would be…"

"Third regeneration." She stated simply, pulling a charm from beneath her shirt, and showing to him,

"The Necklace Uncle Jack gave me for my birthday last year. Actually originally belonged to Her Royal Highness Queen Ishitakita something or other of Porussia. I could never remember her full name, but still a rather remarkable woman, even if she did tend to ramble on a bit…" taking a seat across from where he had sat barely moments ago, she said bluntly,

"Jack and Lucy are going out, and at the moment Jack has a ring in his pocket. Mum is the Bad Wolf, and you three are the Sage, the Protector and the Flame respectively. Oh, and if you need more convincing…" She leant across to whisper something in her father's ear.

The Doctor stared at her in shock, the tip of his ears reddening considerably, "Right. I think you've proven your point, Josie."

She sighed, "No one's called me Josie for years. Now days it's simply Jo."

"At least that will make things simpler…" he mused, resuming his seat, barely paying attention as the trio did the same, "So why are you here?"

She leant forward in her chair, "To try and stop time going off the rails."

"You do know the dangers in crossing your own time line?" he asked her in annoyance.

"Considering someone's already playing around in my history, I'm on a different regeneration, and I'm not dealing with myself, they're already pretty much eliminated. As long as I watch my tongue, this shouldn't create a paradox." She retorted, "Things have been changed, and the future's not pretty."

"And you know this how?" He demanded.

She tapped her forehead, "I've been seeing both time lines for years. Only thing is I only just realised what's happened."

He nodded, "So basically, you're here to warn us of what we need to know, try and get history back on track and head back to your family in the future in time for tea?"

She winced, "If you can call what I have in the time line I've come from a family, then yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

She gazed at him sorrowfully, "The split happened around this point in time. I take it school broke up yesterday?" At Anita's nod, she continued, "I should be here. That means this is the point where things are starting to be set in motion, all heading towards a massive shift in time."

"Care to elaborate on the main differences?" The Doctor asked.

She shrugged, "Time line one, the one we should have followed, the Z'Keth and their allies are a major threat to the safety of the universe. Time line two, the one I came from, The Z'Keth Alliance are overrunning the universe. Time line one, My daughter celebrated her ninth birthday the day I left, and my husband and I are preparing for our tenth wedding anniversary. Time line two, my husband and daughter are dead. Her siblings were never born, and I am in this body. Time line one. Anita and Adrian have three children and are currently expecting twins. Time line two, she has just miscarried for the ninth time."

"Us! Married?" Adrian exclaimed, eyes shooting towards and equally shocked Anita.

Meanwhile the Doctor had paled visibly as she had spoken, picking up on his future daughter's

unease, "Rose?" He asked hoarsely.

She winced as they arrived at the part she had least wanted to talk about, "Unless you do something to get me back here, she will die before the summer is over. At that point the split in the time lines will become absolute, setting in motion events which will lead to Lucy dying days before she and Jack would have married in the first time line, Grandma having a fatal stroke, you regenerating into a madman and the Z'Keth overrunning time and space with no way to halt them."

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Wait, so what you're saying is someone's meddling around in your history to give the Z'Keth the edge?" Senka said.

Adrian looked up on her, "But to cause the split into two time lines, they would have to be from the future, the one where everything's right."

"So someone decided they didn't like you or the way things had turned out for their side, so they went back-"

"And found a key event from which they could orchestrate their eventual rise to universal domination? Why does this sound familiar?" Anita asked, shaking her head in disgust, "It seems someone has a Hitler complex, just with time travel added in."

Jo scrutinised her sadly, "You don't know how correct that metaphor is. There's a war coming, and no matter what I do or say here, it will arrive, and it will sweep us along with it."

"As if this day couldn't get any worse…" Adrian moaned, burying his head in his hands, "It was bad enough when you -our you- abandoned us to go off with Lady Grinch…"

Jo's eyes shot up, "What did you say?"

"Today when Mum arrived to take us home, you told her you were going home with you new mate…Pahana, I think her name was…"

"That's the point where I start to get the double memories." She stated flatly, "What did she look like?"

Anita shrugged, "She definitely has American Indian blood in her. Round faced, hair usually has braids in it, green eyes-"

Wincing, Jo interrupted her, "I was afraid you were going to say that. That's not the Pahana I know from the proper time line. Most beautiful brown eyes, though I don't believe she began at Scots until the beginning of second form. Just out of curiosity, have there been any dead animals around the school?"

Adrian shrugged, "Yeah. The few we found…" involuntarily he shuddered

Pursing her lips, Jo stood, walking over to the fireplace, "Pahana's a Hamassi operative. No other explanation."

"Hamassi?" Senka questioned.

Jo cringed, "Living vampires. Very adept at manipulating people mentally. Their food of choice is a combination of humanoid blood and spirit, although any living creature can keep it going until more…favourable food becomes available."

"Spirit as in alcoholic?" Adrian asked.

She shook her head, "Spirit as in soul, entire being…"

"As if the Z'Keth weren't bad enough…" Senka muttered, "Are they working in cohorts?"

"I wish I could tell you otherwise, but in the one I came from, yes. It looks like they were going to try and merge the two species. As for the other one, that's hazy."

"What fun! Being eaten whilst being drained of blood and having your soul ripped to shreds at the same time! What a wonderful experience!" Senka said sarcastically, pulling up short at the expression that came over Jo's face.

"You don't want to know." She stated flatly, biting her lip to maintain her composure.

He reddened in embarrassment, "Sorry…"

"Forget about it." She said with a wave of her hand, "It happened a long time ago for me, and it's about time I put it behind me. Back on track… Pahana. You said that I'm with her at the moment?"

Anita nodded, "Off in the world with a vampire. Now there's an alarming thought…"

Jo paused, "If I'm remembering right, then you're supposed to encounter the Hamassi for the first time these holidays anyway. At least now you three have a heads up-of sorts."

"So what do we do?" Adrian asked in frustration.

Jo sighed, "That's up to you, my dear brother. If I tell you any more than what I have already, the chances that it will create a paradox will increase exponentially."

The Doctor nodded, "You're right. Looks like I taught you well."

She smiled, "You taught us all well, Dad." With that, she made ready to leave.

"Oh, Jo?" He began.

"Yes?" She answered, turning to face him.

He stood, folding his arms, "How old were you when you regenerated?"

She halted, "First time, barely nineteen. Second time I was twenty-four. And that was five years ago…So I'm going well this year…So far."

He shook his head in astonishment, "And I thought four hundred was bad…"

"I guess I'll see you around the galaxy…" She said with a chuckle, "Hopefully this time around, things won't turn out so bad."

As she walked out of the room, something hit Senka. Ignoring the others, he ran out the room to catch Jo. Her hand was on the door as he sprinted into the entryway.

"Jo!" He called, ignoring her resigned look as she turned to face him.

"What's up?"

He inhaled, "What's happened to me in the future?"

"I've already said." She replied simply.

"You did?" He paused, recollecting their conversation, eyes widening as the realisation hit him like a SledgeHammer, "Oh."

Resignedly she turned once more, "Hopefully I'm going back to something other than that. But no matter what, just make sure you cherish every single moment, all right?"

He nodded, "Of course."

Chuckling to herself, she gazed fondly at him once more, "Don't look so shocked. Nothing happens just because I've said it will. It happens because of something much deeper."

"What?"

"You'll find out when the time's right, Senka. Until we meet again." And with that, she was gone.

IOIOIOIOI

A.N: Hmm... want to find out what happens next? Then PLEASE review! I Live on reviews, and I love to hear what you have to say! Constructive criticism, as always is welcome, and flames shall be used for making brownies!