Chapter 3

As Ace entered the Tardis she cast a glance around again, and for the second time saw nothing familiar about Rick's Tardis, nothing here remotely resembled the white interior of old that the Professor had called home...

This place looked cold with its unearthly turquoise glow, only the familiar low hum that filled the vast console room confirmed this was indeed another version of the Tardis...

"This," Rick said as he stood in the middle of the console room, "Is my Tardis – not as you recall it, but we always redecorate after regeneration...What do you think of it?"

But Ed gave no answer as he stood beside the console looking intently at the controls.

"I feel as if this ought to make sense," he said after a long pause.

"But it doesn't, because you can't remember," Ace told him, "Your memory was wiped after you were separated from the power core."

He looked at Ace and struggled to remember all she had told him.

"I was trapped in this power core -"

"No, you chose to enter it, because it was the only way to keep you alive after you got wounded saving the Earth."

"I saved the Earth? That was rather brave of me!" And then his smile faded, "Shame I can't remember any of it, I'm starting to think I must have been quite a hero back in my Time Lord days."

"And you're still a Time Lord," Ace reminded him, "But after the battle, after your companions died and you were left wounded, you entered the power core and the Tardis kept you alive. You were there for a century. And now you know, you know what you came here to find out, so let's go home now!"

And she held out her hand, but Ed ignored the gesture and turned back to Rick.

"You're right, I need to know everything."

"Of course you do," Rick agreed.

"No, you don't!" Ace said as her voice rose in panic.

"Yes I do. This is about my life, not yours!"

Ace blinked away tears.

"And what about us, and what we have together? Don't you know that could all change if you let him mess about with the time line?"

Ed gave a sigh.

"This is about me, my past, and I have a right to know. Please remember that, Ace."

And she fell silent, looking on with a rising sense of dread as she knew for sure the situation was now completely out of her hands – she could no longer influence him, because his mind was made up...

For a moment the Tardis interior was silent save for the low hum of the living machine as if the ship was listening carefully as the two Doctors stood in the eerie turquoise glow and faced one another.

"So why did you come back here?" Ed asked him, "To change the future? Does that mean you won't regenerate and I'll never exist?"

"No," replied Rick,"You will exist one day, when my lifetime is over, you are my final regeneration – but it will happen much later."

"And we will never meet!" Ace said.

Ed glanced at her. She was standing at the back of the room, away from both of them, watching the scene unfold with a worried look in her eyes.

"I don't think it will stop us meeting," he told her, "I'm going to be very careful about what changes, it's my time line too."

Ace briefly smiled.

"That's a bit better, you sound more like a Time Lord now!"

"I still don't know exactly what that means," he replied, and he turned away from her again, looking into the eyes of the man in the leopard print coat, his own former self.

"I want the power crystals," Rick said to him, "They mean nothing to you now – they're harmless toys you keep in the maze. And that's something else I wanted to talk to you about – that maze, full of amusements... Do you recall how it came about?"

Ed thought back but found no recollection.

"I think the Tardis created it for him, back in the days when he was a hologram," Ace said, "To keep him busy while he was locked in the power core."

And Rick laughed as he shook his head.

"Oh McShane, your thinking is so simplistic! Of course the Tardis created the maze for his amusement – but I created the blue print before I regenerated and became him, and my idea for a maze had reasons much darker than you can ever imagine."

Ace shivered as she met his gaze.

"Darker?"

"I drew up plans for a program for the Tardis to create worlds within worlds that invading enemies – should they enter the Tardis – would become trapped in. A maze where only I knew the exit. And the games rooms, they were traps, cells with self sealing doors that can only be opened if the prisoner solves a puzzle – but of course, the door would then lead on to another trap, another locked room."

"So why did the Tardis change the maze into something so harmless?" Ace asked .

Rick indicated to Ed.

"For him, the Tardis altered it to amuse her sleeping prince while he was trapped in the power core."

"And it was very nice of the Tardis to do that!" Ed said defensively.

"She did it to stop you going mad!" Rick told him sharply, "You would have lost your sanity trapped in the core, with your mind inside the power grid for a hundred years! It was a distraction, the old girl found my blue prints and used them to distract you, she turned them into a harmless toy!"

And then, as Jayden Drake walked into the console room, Rick glared at him.

"I told you to watch the monitor! Where have you been?"

"Tardis bathroom," he replied, "Sorry Doc but I had to go!"

And Ed stared at the man in the Edwardian suit who wore a metal eye patch.

"Do I know you?" he wondered.

Ace drew in a slow breath, looking away as she recalled how close they were yet to become, how Jayden would be Ed's best friend, before the battle for Earth that cost him everything...

"I don't think so," Jayden replied, "Have we met before?"

"Not exactly," Rick told him, "He is me after I regenerate. Except that I'm hoping that won't happen for a very long time once I take the power crystals."

"He needs them to give the Tardis extra power so he can rescue his virgin wife from a dying planet – and then he plans to change the future," Ace said, "If he changes his future he doesn't regenerate. Where does that leave you?"

And Ed fell silent while Jayden went back over to the console and kept his eyes fixed on the monitor, watching a faraway planet as he continued to listen to the conversation around him.

"Did you hear me, I said, where does that leave -"

"Yes Ace I heard you!"

As Ed turned towards her she saw a look of resignation about him – he knew he couldn't turn away from this now, and Ace wanted to run out of this strange Tardis and away from the whole situation, run and keep on running until she felt an echo of the Cheetah people stirring in her blood, run until she found the blue police box with the small white interior, the place she had once called home, a place where she felt safe where nothing could tear at her heart because the Professor would not allow that to happen.

But the Professor was not here...

"We can walk away from this," she said again.

"No, it's too late for that. I'm sorry Ace but I can't pretend I don't know the truth."

She looked down at the floor of the console room as tears stung her eyes. She had never been one to give up on anything, least of all on someone she loved – and she wasn't giving up now, but she knew there was nothing left to say that would change his mind.

"I just want the crystals," Rick said, "And then I'll be on my way."

Ed took a step closer.

"The crystals? I recall nothing of how I obtained them, but I know they belong in the maze. You can't have them."

Ace looked up, feeling a sudden surge of hope as she heard an echo of the kind of strength she would have expected from Ed back in the days when he still remembered he was the Doctor.

And the other Doctor in the leopard print coat looked at him for a moment and then shrugged.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but as you insist on being awkward about it I'll have to make a point to you.."

And he went over to the console, tapped in a numerical sequence on a keypad, watched as a small screen flickered and then scrolled with activated commands.

"What have you done?" Ed asked as suspicion crept into his voice.

Rick was still leaning on the console as he looked up.

"I've just tapped into your maze and made a few adjustments. In other words, I now hold all the aces."

And his gaze shifted to Ace and he smiled as her eyes widened.

"What are you talking about?" Ed demanded.

Rick stepped back from the console.

"I've just reconfigured the maze via my own Tardis blueprints. Your Tardis is the house and garden and maze all unfolded, but here the damage to the ship is yet to happen and my commands went into your database and rewrote the entire maze. I hold the keys now. If you want them back, give me the crystals. If we can reach a bargain I'm willing to give you something extra for free, too."

Ed laughed as he shook his head, and the the look in his eyes changed to a gaze of pure steel.

"I won't do a deal, I don't know what I was like as a Time Lord, but I get the feeling I would have given in to nothing and stood my ground! Cancel those commands and get out of here, leave me and Ace alone. The crystals are in the maze. If the Tardis set it all out, the Tardis owns them now. I don't remember anything of my life before but I do feel that is the likeliest scenario. So I can't help you."

"You have little choice in the matter. I have to change the future for both our sakes. If you could remember your past, you would agree with me."

"But my memories were destroyed."

Rick smiled as he held up a computer chip that glowed as it caught the eerie light.

"What if you could get those memories back?"

Ace drew in a shocked breath.

"No, you can't do that, you'll kill him, he can't remember it all again -"

"Tell me how I could do that," Ed said, and Ace looked on in horror, feeling powerless to stop a bad situation from becoming worse.

"The Tardis has a device called the Chameleon Arch," Rick explained, "It is capable of modifying the biology of one species, so the cells register as another. So I could hide my Time Lord identity for a certain amount of time whilst my consciousness, my Time Lord essence and memories, are contained separately within a pocket watch. And over the centuries I have used it, but as a cautious man I would never have allowed one set of memories to be stuffed into one watch. Therefore I made a copy of my memories, just in case the watch was damaged. I've transferred the copy into a device in the Tardis lab and modified it further, to ensure you get just enough back to remember who you are and some of your past. I can't hand it all back to you because the separation from the power core caused damage that can't be repaired – so I had to reduce it to an amount your damaged mind can accept. At least if you do this you'll be the Doctor again."

Ed stared at him.

"You can give me my memories back?"

"It won't be perfect but you will remember who you are."

He turned to Ace.

She blinked and a tear ran down her face.

"If you do this," she said, "You'll remember things you'll wish you never knew! I don't want you to go through that kind of pain!"

Ed went over to Ace and took hold of her hands, they stood together at the back of the console room as he looked into her eyes and spoke to her softly.

"I can't be afraid of my own memories no matter what I've been through," he told her, "I'm sorry Ace but I'm going to do this, and you can't talk me out of it."

She gave a quiet sob and he let go of her hands.

Ace looked up and glared at the man in the leopard print jacket who stood in the middle of the room looking on.

"If you hurt him I'll kill you!"

"That temper of yours, it never did get any better did it, McShane," he replied casually.

"I want my memory back," Ed said to him, "And then, maybe, we can talk about the power crystals."

And Jayden looked up from the console.

"At last," he murmured, "An end to the bickering... between you and yourself!" And then he turned his attention back to the monitor.

Ace blinked to clear her vision, then she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and saw Ed was following the other Doctor out of the console room, down the corridor, and she was gripped with a sudden fear that if she stayed behind, something terrible might happen to him.

"Wait!" she called, "I want to come with you!"

And she hurried from the console room to catch up with her Time Lord lover and his former self.


Ace caught up just in time to see them enter a doorway down the corridor, and she followed on quickly, aware that in this version of the Tardis all doors looked the same and it would be very easy to get lost...

She stepped into the room and looked around in surprise.

It was a vast laboratory, the room was white and the walls decorated with roundels like the Tardis of old she recalled with such fondness, and in the middle of the room was a second, smaller console that looked much like the controls in the main console room.

"I don't remember the Professor having a lab."

"He didn't," Rick said, "This is mine."

And then he gestured to a reclining chair at the back of the room.

"Take a seat, Doctor. I'll get this over with as soon as possible, I'm keen to be on my way."

Ed sat down, and Ace caught a startled look in his eyes as Rick hit a button and the chair unfolded, becoming a table.

"What are you doing?" Ed sounded suspicious as Rick wrapped soft restraints over his writs and secured him.

"The procedure might give you a bit of a jolt, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Or maybe you do. Maybe you're planning to get rid of him so you can get your hands on the crystals!"

Rick looked up at Ace and laughed.

"McShane, your boyfriend is my future self. Give me one good reason why I would kill myself?"

And his question had her confused, but only for a moment.

"What would you care?" she asked him, "It wouldn't matter if you're planning on changing the time line!"

Ed gave a gasp as he raised his head and looked at Ace.

"I hadn't thought of that!"

"I can assure you both I have no plans to risk my own future regeneration – my very last regeneration – I am an impulsive man at times but I am not stupid. I wouldn't risk my own future!"

And Ed breathed out slowly, trying to push aside the panic that was threatening to over take him as he thought about how he had been tied down.

"I hope I can believe you," he said nervously, "I want to. After all, you're me, who can I trust if not myself?"

"I'm still not happy about this," Ace said in a low voice, and she went over to the table and stood beside it and looked down at Ed.

"You can still back out."

"No," he told her, "I've made my mind up now, lets just get on with it. I want my memories back."

Rick lowered some heavy computerised equipment and switched it on, then slid the chip into the machine and added a code sequence.

"I'll be right here, I won't leave you," Ace said, and she gave his hand a squeeze.

"You'd better not leave me!" Ed replied, "I don't know what this will feel like. Will this hurt much?"

The question had been directed at Rick, who had turned on a scanner and was looking at the image of the internal scarring caused by the separation from the power core.

"Oh I am sorry, Doctor. You certainly did have some damage done when the Tardis put your mind back... but I'm hoping the memories I slide back in will stimulate the buried ones that still exists amongst the damaged cells. You see, this memory chip only has MY memories of the past – yours are unknown to me, so I'm hoping when you've gained more of an insight to the past you may recall some memories of your own regeneration too."

"Because you don't want to die and regenerate."

Ace had spoken accusingly, and as Rick met her gaze he laughed nervously.

"No one wants to regenerate, McShane. It's not a nice experience to go through no matter how often a Time Lord has done it."

"But is this dangerous?" she demanded.

Rick ignored her and looked down at Ed.

"Yes."

"What?" Ace said in alarm.

Rick was still talking to Ed.

"Yes, in reply to your question, yes this will hurt. Expect it to hurt a lot."

Ace was still clutching his hand.

"I won't let go," she promised him, "I'll be right here and -"

"You'd better let go, McShane. Unless you want to be hit by a power surge your human body can't handle."

"Let go," Ed said to her, and Ace let go of his hand and stepped back.

"But I'm not leaving the room," she promised him, "I'll stay right here, I promise."

Rick turned his attention back to the machine and made some final adjustments.

"Just look up at the screen, Doctor," he said.

Ed looked up at the machinery above him. A small panel illuminated purple and began to glow.

"Keep watching the light," he heard the other Doctor say, "Once it takes hold and the power gets flowing, you won't be able to look away...just don't fight it."

Ed drew in a slow breath as the glow of the machine seemed to tug at his mind. It was uncomfortable at first, but the pain was swiftly building.

"Don't fight it," he heard his former self say again.

And suddenly the light seemed to take over, drawing him in as a glow exploded behind his eyes and images flashed through his mind, fractions of memories, none complete but they were rapid and seemed unending.

Ace looked on in alarm as his body tensed and sweat ran down his face. A light had shot from the machine, sending a burst of glowing power through his eyes as he struggled on the table and gave a cry of pain.

"Stop it!" Ace yelled, "You're killing him!"

"No I'm not!" Rick told her sharply, "This is Time Lord technology, far beyond your understanding!"

"I know you're hurting him!"

Ace lunged forward, made a grab at the Doctor's leopard print jacket, pushing him away from the machine.

They struggled and suddenly Ace gave a squeal as her wrist was caught in a grip far stronger than she expected and Rick had her arm pinned behind her back.

"Stupid girl!" he told her, turning her back and forcing her to watch as the machine continued to pulse, "It's almost over. If I break the contact before its ready, I will kill him!"

And then his grip relaxed on her wrist.

"Do you understand me?"

She nodded and he let her go.

The machines light was fading out now, and as the power cut off and the light vanished, Ed's body relaxed and he breathed heavily.

"Is he all right?" Ace sounded panicked as she ran over to the table.

"He will be fine," Rick promised her, "he just needs time to recover."

And she looked at him sharply as he activated a monitor and pressed some buttons.

"I'm only scanning the results!" he told her, "One of these days you''ll come to realise I'm not a bad guy, McShane!"

"I didn't say that. I mean, you're the Doctor. You're another version of him, you're just different to the Professor, and you're nothing like Ed...and you turned up asking for the crystals, what was I supposed to think?"

Then Ace looked down at Ed and her eyes filled with panic.

"Ed?" she shook him gently, and said his name again, but got no response.

"I can't wake him up!"

"Let me show you what I've done," Rick said, and gestured to the monitor.

"Pay attention, McShane, it may save you another unnecessary outburst of temper...you see the area next to the scarring? The illuminated part?"

Ace nodded.

"What does it mean?"

"It means I have successfully introduced basic memories into his brain, enough for him to recall who he is. And hopefully I've also unlocked some of his own past, too – although I can't calculate the success of that until he wakes up."

"How long will that take?" Ace said in a hushed voice.

She looked down at Ed, who was still unconscious, then she ran her hand over hair, it was damp with sweat but his breathing had now slowed to a steady rate.

Rick activated more controls on the machinery and then joined her, looking down at the unconscious Time Lord.

"I asked you a question," Ace repeated, "How long before he wakes up?"

Rick avoided her gaze, recalling Ace McShane as the only companion he had ever known who had the guts to take on a Dalek with a baseball bat. He silently hoped her bat and nitro nine had been left behind when his Seventh life had left her with Ed, because she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear...

"He will be absolutely fine once it wears off," he said dismissively, "I've activated the machine to keep him stable until he wakes. Now I think I'll go over to the lab console and play around with the reconfigured maze...would you like to watch?"

He had turned his back and walked away, leaving Ace standing beside the table as she looked down at Ed, who was showing no sign of waking.

Rick studied the controls and tapped in a sequence of numbers, then turned a dial.

"Any change to the stability of the planet?"

"None at all," Jayden replied, "That's why I thought I'd monitor it from here, plus I wanted to see what was going on with your memory procedure. What are you doing now, Doc?"

"I'm running a test program on the reconfigured maze – the power crystals ought to be capable of creating some three dimensional beings to tackle the traps..."

"What about our plan?" Jayden asked, "That planet won't stay stable forever."

"I know that." Rick replied, "I'm going to play back the simulation later – I think I should go back to the house and see if any of the crystals are located there – if not I'll shut down the maze simulation and and try and scan for the larger of the additional power sources -"

"Excuse me?"

Ace was still standing beside the table where Ed was deeply unconscious.

"Yes?" Rick replied, turning his head as he leaned on the console.

"You didn't answer me!" she said, "I wanted to know when he was going to wake up."

"And I told you," he replied, turning back to the screen, "When it wears off. He's had a massive shock today, not as severe as the disconnection from the power core, but still a shock. When he comes out of it he should be fine."

"Comes out of what?" she said in a hushed voice.

Rick gave a sigh and turned away from the console.

"It's nothing to worry about, he's just in a... slight coma, that's all."

Her jaw dropped as she stared at him.

"A slight coma?"

"I knew she wouldn't take it very well," he said to Jayden, who looked down at the screen even though there was no change in the stability of the distant planet, purely because he wanted to keep out of this potentially explosive situation.

Ace was blinking away tears.

"You've put him in a coma?"

"He's a Time Lord, McShane. It's not nearly as serious as it sounds."

Ace gave a sob as she leaned over Ed and tenderly kissed his cheek.

"I'll find a way to help," she said as more tears ran down her face, "It's going to be all right, I'll make sure of it, I love you."

Then she kissed him again, and turned away and hurried from the room.

"I wonder where she's going?" Jayden said, "Maybe you should go after her – she doesn't seem to understand about the coma."

Rick shrugged.

"Ace McShane is to me a distant memory from another life," he replied, "I'm sure Ed will catch up with her when he wakes. I'm going over to the house to see if there's any power crystals located there. Keep an eye on that planet, Jayden. And you might want to do it in the main console room – that monitor is much more powerful."

And then he turned away and left the room.

Jayden gave a sigh.

"What ever, Doc. I'm used to being stuck in the Tardis..."

And then he looked over at the other monitor on the secondary console, and watched as a Cyberman walked slowly down a steel corridor deep in the reconfigured maze.

He laughed and shook his head.

"I don't know how you did it Doc, but it looks real to me – I wouldn't want to get lost in there!"

And then he turned his attention back to the dying planet far away, watching for signs of failing stability.


Ace ran from the Tardis sobbing.

She had one thought in her mind as she ran:

She had to get to the maze before Rick did, she needed to talk to Barbara, to find out where the power crystals were hidden...

And as she ran towards the concealed entrance, she felt a sense of safety, knowing this was the place Ed loved so dearly, and she was sure she would take some comfort from being back there, because after all, there was nothing in the maze that could harm her, he had told her that enough times...