Outside the ugly building, marked Sato - Harper Industries, Yasmin pulled the borrowed beige cricket blazer closer to her and shivered. She picked out the wilted dry stick of celery out of the front pocket and made a face. Why couldn't they stay in Cardiff? The Doctor looked around in dismay as much as her. North Middlesex wasn't a pretty sight. Ryan took in the large building before him and the grey streets that differed little from the clouds.

'Cardiff was better,' he said.

Bradley grunted in agreement.

'Come on then,' said The Doctor sardonically, 'let explore this pretty palace.'

They were stopped immediately at the entrance by a sharp looking receptionist with a heavy North West London accent who reminded The Doctor of a Venus Flytrap. She looked at the them with thinly hidden scrutiny,with polite mannerisms implying that the building wasn't open to visitors. Her eyebrow raised slightly at the psychic paper The Doctor produced.

'We already have a scientific advisor' she replied, 'Same branch as you.' She sneered at the affronted looks the visitors gave her. 'Dorothy Gale?' she spelt out each syllable. 'She arrived this morning.'

The Doctor's mouth dropped open and she beamed. 'Excellent! Well looks like a massive project then, needing more than one scientific advisor.' She held up her psychic paper again, hoping that it now read the supervisory department above Dorothy Gale. It seemed to have worked as the receptionist looked a little less unperturbed and spoke to someone else on the phone who instructed her to let the visitors through.

'Friendly, isn't she' said Graham deliberately within earshot.

'Hush now, I'm sure she gets enough compliments,' said The Doctor as they crossed the L shaped hall to a large terracotta panel made of marble housing a few lifts.

They waited in silence for the lift until it arrived and slunk in. 'Weirdos and Freaks' said the receptionist to herself in a singsong tone quite loudly. After the doors closed they erupted into laughter.

Minutes later, The Doctor marched purposely out of the lift making Yaz run after her.

'What's the big rush?' asked Yaz

'Everything is always a rush,' grinned The Doctor as she spotted the door labelled Mayumi Sato Harper. It was from a pair of clear swing doors leading to a half full laboratory full of mechanical equipment and chemical vials. She could already see the black leather jacket and ponytail. 'Ace' she laughed.

She strode in and immediately sensed something was wrong but pushed the feeling aside. Good old Dorothy Ace Gale, doing well for herself.

The woman in the leather jacket and ponytail turned to face her.

So that's what was wrong. Not the woman who definitely was not her old companion, but the psychic link between the two Time Lords.

'You!' exclaimed The Doctor.

The Rani, in her fake name badge, looked at her old friend and enemy up and down, clocking in her outfit. Then she sputtered out a spiteful chuckle.

'Least I'm not wearing a gimpsuit', muttered The Doctor.

'Excuse me?' said The Rani genuinely offended. She psychically thought up a harsh insult in Gallifreyen. The Doctor transferred back another thought about how tacky it was to shave your name on your head.

She caught look at the real reason why she was here. A slender and beautiful woman standing next to The Rani stared at the new visitor puzzledly.

'Hi, I'm The Doctor. You must be Mayumi Sato-Harper. This is my team.'

'Sorry, but what are you here for?' asked Mayumi. The day for her wasn't going well. She wanted things to go smoothly just for once and all of a sudden five strangers had turned up in her lab.

'Oh I'm Dorothy's colleague. Supervisor in fact. We've got quite abit to catch up on, do you mind if I borrow her for a abit?' Without waiting for an answer, she dragged The Rani away from the scene and left the rest of the team to speak to Mayumi.

'What are you doing here?' hissed The Doctor.

'Nice to see you too, alive and well.' replied The Rani

'You're supposed to be on-'

'House arrest. Yes, I got rather bored.' She turned to the Doctor 'and considering what you had to do back home, I don't think you ought to be talking about arrests.'

'You know I had no choice.' The two stood looking at each other for what seemed like forever.

'Is this the bit where you give me a hug?' asked The Rani, breaking the silence.

'Doctor', called Ryan from the other side of the room.

'In abit!' yelled back The Doctor. They both looked at Mayumi. The Doctor turned to The Rani. 'You're here for her, aren't you? Collecting brains again are you?'

'My ship's down. I need it repaired.'

'You could've asked me!'

'I don't even have your number.' cooed The Rani

Exasperated at the unexpected reunion, The Doctor decided to head back to her team. She turned to face The Rani again. 'You are not collecting anyone's brains under my watch. Not even the ones in the pickle jar. Is that understood?'

The Rani scoffed. 'I'm not here to dissect anyone. That's her job.' She indicated at Mayumi. 'Amongst many other talents, she really is quite amazing, for an ape.' She smiled wholeheartedly at Mayumi who smiled nervously back. 'See? She trusts me. It's awfully difficult to gain the trust of the truly intelligent.' She looked back The Doctor 'So maybe you should tell me what you're doing here with your little team of companions.'

'They're my friends,' asserted The Doctor.

'Tsk. I was your friend once.'

'You don't have any friends, Ushas' The Rani winced at her real name, 'You have experiments.' With that The Doctor beat The Rani to it as she re-joined the group including Mayumi.

The Rani returned to the laboratory hours after The Doctor had dismissed her under 'supervisors orders'. Noting that Mayumi lacked trust, she had agreed to disperse, keeping an eye on The Doctor's ancient ship from an open window of her home. Luckily chameleon settings ran on relatively low energy. The Rani was using hers as a parked Lamborghini which wasn't the best of choices as it caught the attention of the older companion, Graham. She heard snatches of conversation coming from the team. They ranged from questioning The Doctor about her punk rocker old friend to not understanding why they were here. The Doctor in her usual style gave her answers in short sentences, revealing nothing but the need to be here. She materialised the Tardis back into the building after making sure The Doctor would not return for the evening.

The Rani strolled into the lab, unsurprised at seeing Mayumi working alone. She had the markings of a late worker. A transferred set of test subjects lay on the tables, joined to a newly set up mass of wires and machinery.

'Oh, you're still here', remarked Mayumi.

'Sorry I'm late' The Rani apologised 'I was told to come back here to help with the volunteers.' She noted Mayumi's reluctance. 'My supervisor's great at physics, but I'm in charge of the biology division where we work. Is there anything I can do?'

Mayumi thought for a while before assigning her to final checks on the volunteers. The Rani nodded and began checking for vital signs on each test subject, reassuring Mayumi before she turned and went back to programming their bodies with simple codes. She felt sad, suspecting the true intentions of her current project assigned by an unknown client.

'You're wasted here' remarked The Rani as she took her time in rewiring a circuit to a sleeping volunteer. Before the person could murmur in pain, the Rani covered his mouth with her hand.

Mayumi sighed as she finished connected a wire without mistake to another volunteer. She busied over her laptop, keying in patient progress as she spoke. 'There's nothing much more I can do out there. I'm tied to this job until the day I die.' She ended her sentence with bored melancholy.

'I know a few places that would take you.' The Rani applied her fingers deftly to a pressure point in her volunteer's temple, sending him into a deep sleep.

Mayumi chuckled, unconvinced and unaware of The Rani's patient care. 'Really? Where?'

'Well I have a spaceship for starters.'

'Nice try at a sense of humour. You're in a UNIT offshoot. We all have spaceships here. Or parts of them.' She finished updating her patients bio signs and slapped the laptop shut, 'Besides, you're not the only one who's tried to recruit me. The Doctor's got some ties to UNIT itself. Says she can get me back in to something more challenging.' She noticed the patient sleeping soundly near Rani. 'That one usually has problems sleeping. What have you done to him?'

'I'm a biologist' shrugged The Rani. She placed her hand gently on Mayumi's arm. 'I may not have as much pull as The Doc-…as my supervisor.' She sincerely hoped she was pulling this charm etiquette off convincingly. 'But you're worth so much more than any of this and UNIT put together.' She made for the exit and smiled over her shoulder 'Let me know if I can help you.'

As she closed the door, The Rani walked to the end of the corridor towards the fire exit out of sight from the numerous security cameras overhead. She rolled up her left sleeve. Underneath was a gold bracelet covered from wrist to elbow which began to glow. She swiped her hand across her forearm which formed a pattern of energy which took shape in the form of an open doorway. She stepped in and held out her forearm. The energy trail returned to her, wrapping itself around her arm once again. As she was home, she didn't bother with the chameleon option and it glowed warmly through her lab coat which she discarded on a nearby chair placed next to a bookcase.

'So, when's she moving in?' asked the Tardis, in Reed's bemused voice.

'She needs a little more convincing.'

'It takes time' replied Tardis Reed simply, 'Though you don't have much left. 'Speshly with your energy source.'

'Which is me, yes I know' replied The Rani, irritated.

'So what's keeping you? Usually you have no problem in getting things done.'

'A..minor distraction.'

'A distraction? You don't usually get distracted babe.' The Rani closed her eyes at Reed's term of affection. 'Unless' continued Reed Tardis, 'Ah ha. You ran into him didn't you?'

'Her,' replied The Rani purse lipped.

'Wait, let me just get an update. Oh yeah. Hey nice incarnation, shame about the outfit, not much better than this one.' The console displayed the figure of a blonde curly haired man in a pastel patchwork coat and striped yellow trousers.

'Please switch that off. How much more energy do we have left?'

'Uh, babe it's your body this crib is linked to.'

'Reed, I don't have time.'

'Okay, okay. If you don't get Mayumi to separate you from the main bio circuit engine, you're not going last longer than a couple of weeks, tops. And that doesn't include the energy for your journey to sneak back home. And they're cottoning on to large sources of energy from your house identical to the blueprints of a new Tardis prototype. Which means we'll be in trouble either way.'

The Rani tapped through a communications list, speed reading through various details.

'You'll have to create a pretty big distraction to keep The Doctor off your trail.'

The Rani settled on one of her contacts on her communication screen. 'I'm working on it.'