Death, her breath black mist and her eyes empty pits. And the Lords of Time gave themselves twelve chances to cheat her will. Then they set her loose within the Great Web, and let her reap.
-The Book of Rassilon

Immortality was a curse, not a blessing. The phrase seemed to be a favourite of Rassilon's and Rose was growing tired of it.I get it, I get it. Now shut up about it.

Sick of reading, she slammed the book shut. It was late, and she wondered where Sarah was. She'd probably done the sensible thing and gone to bed hours ago.

Though she thought of making her way to her own room, Rose found herself stepping through the little archway that led into the console room instead. Romana was there, her head under the console, a toolbox by her knees.

Rose crept across the floor, peered into the box. Neat, compartmentalised, and she bet that Romana actually knew what she was doing under the console too.

"You couldn't hand me the Zeus plugs, could you?" asked Romana.

"Um, yeah, sure." She spotted them immediately, passed them under the console. "You got the parts you needed then?"

"Mmhmm." There was a click, a buzz and then Romana's head appeared. "Thank you." She stood, brushed herself down and closed up the toolbox, every tool in its place. "Can't sleep? I'd have thought those tedious volumes would have left you dozing hours ago."

"I…" Pull yourself together. "I was going to go get some sleep. There was just something I wanted to ask you first."

"I'm not sure I could explain things any better than the books. Though it's not as though they explain it very clearly anyway. Besides it's all a bit metaphysical for my taste."

"It's not about that."

"Oh?"

"It's about the Doctor. Before, I mean. When you knew him before." Romana waited patiently, Rose forced herself to go on. "He told me that he always had to leave everyone behind. Cause he'd outlive them, but you travelled with him, and you're one of his people. Why did he leave you?"

"He didn't. I left him." She took in Rose's expression. "It's not that surprising, is it?"

"I…I don't know. I'd never really thought about it, before. I just…" She wished she'd never started this. "I don't know what I thought. I know I never thought about leaving him. We got split up all the time, but I always thought he'd find me or I'd find him and it'd be okay. We'd still be together."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

She took a deep breath. "I miss him."

"If he finds you, you'll never miss anything again," she reminded her.

"Aren't you frightened?" asked Rose.

"Not particularly," Romana told her. "Not yet anyway."

Morning. A quick breakfast and all three were in the console room. A quick lesson on the controls of the TARDIS whilst they were in flight, for Romana had no qualms about teaching them such things. Not when she was well-aware of what might happen to her, and how very resilient the more ephemeral races were.

"We're landing," she noted. Flicked the switch that controlled the scanner. A flat picture, appearing to one side of the room from nowhere. It showed a desolate world with a dark sky, pierced by a striking array of stars.

Sarah frowned, the landscape seemed familiar. "I think I've been here before."

"Karn?"

"Yes, that's it. We were sent here, the Doctor and I, ages ago. And there was this Sisterhood that tried to burn the Doctor alive."

"Yes, well." Romana smiled. "Let's try to be diplomatic, shall we?"

"You've been killing my people."

Brother Lassa felt the rage flow through him, embraced it, revelled in the power it gave him. He had been right about the Doctor; the Krillitane had needed his wisdom. Their plan had given them the potential to become gods but they had lacked the mental resources to utilise it. Even the Doctor had needed time to understand.

But beyond those first few minutes, the Doctor had kept his wisdom to himself. Gone on without Lassa and his brothers. Cast them off, forgotten them.

But now he would know what they had become. And he would share his wisdom, his genius, willing or not.

The Doctor shrugged. "Not so much killing as putting out of the way. You see, they weren't being very nice, Mr. Finch. They weren't being very nice at all." He leaned in, whispered in Lassa's still very human-looking ear. "I don't like people who aren't nice, Mr. Finch."

"I don't care what you like, Doctor," Finch said, his voice equally low. He could feel the Doctor's breath against his skin, cool and alien. He could feel what the Doctor was, that this was only a part of him standing here. The rest, surely occupied in the building of a strange empire that Lassa could not comprehend, fractured through time.

He offered the Doctor one last chance, for he was not a capricious creature. "Let us in," he said. "Let us share. Join. There should be no discord in Heaven."

"No, I don't think so. Cause I've got my own ideas, and really, to be honest - and I do try to be honest - they're much better than yours. I'm fixing things. You…all I've seen you lot do is sweep in on innocent worlds and glut yourselves till there's nothing left. So that's going to stop. Right now."

"It will not."

"Actually, yes, it will. You've had your warning. In fact, you've had two warnings, which really was very, very generous of me. But that's all you're getting." He stepped away, raised his hands. "You're all going home."

"What can you do to us, Doctor? We are your equals. And there are a great many more of us than there are of you." And Lassa no longer stood alone, but those brothers who had shared his victory on Earth stepped from the shadows, clothed in their human forms and surrounding the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned. "Just a big family reunion, isn't it?" He spun round, checking they were all there. "That's just great. Cause it saves me a bit of time, and I've got so much to do. Universe is a big place and all that."

One of the Krillitane broke rank, stepped forward with a snarl, teeth bared. The Doctor didn't even look at him, pointed a finger. "Go home," he whispered. The Krillitane vanished.

"What have you done?" demanded Lassa.

"The problem is," said the Doctor, "that you lot were just a bit too keen with the whole being a god thing. So you go get all these nifty powers and you've got all this potential just sitting there, inside your heads or the tips of your fingers and none of you know what to do with it. You think the same thoughts you've always had, do the same things you've always done. Just bigger and more destructive and deadly. And I just can't allow that."

He pointed to another Krillitane. And it too disappeared. "So me, being oh-so-much smarter than any of you, is left to work out what all these things are that you can do now. Then, of course, I have to come and find you before you find out, and stop you doing something truly terrible to creation."

Another Krillitane gone. "I'm quite fond of creation. I just want to make it a bit better. And that's not as easy as it sounds, and it's certainly not made any less complicated by you lot flitting around destroying my good work." And another. "So you're all going back to the world you've come from and you're not getting off of it. You'll stay there, harmless and out of the way until I decide what would be best for you." He smiled, waved away another Krillitane. "But don't worry, Mr. Finch, you won't remember, and you'll be very, very happy. Promise."

A final careless wave of his hand; the deed was done.

There was a welcoming party. Three sisters, each carrying a flaming torch, wound their way down into the desolate valley where the TARDIS had landed. Romana led their little group to meet them, using her own high wattage torch to pick out the way along the path.

"Bit primitive, aren't they?" said Rose. "Thought you said this lot were like the Time Lords."

"They are," Romana told her, keeping her voice low. "In here." She tapped her temple. "But they eschew technology in favour of developing the psyche and its natural powers. At least that's what I've read; I've never been here before." She glanced up at the sky. "It's only a few billion miles from home."

The three Sisters glided to a halt before them. All draped in ruby red robes that glittered with gold, their faces painted pale save their brows and cheekbones, displaying red and golden images of flames.

The first Sister gave a slight bow before she addressed Romana. "Time Lord, we were not informed of your arrival."

Romana gave her most charming smile. "It's just a passing visit, I'm afraid. I spoke to your leader a few days ago and just thought it might be polite to pop in and say hello personally. This is Rose and Sarah, by the way."

"Humans," said the Sister. "And I remember this one. She was here with the…with him many decades ago. Come then, if it is as you say the High One will wish to speak to you."

The way to the shrine was not so very different from the route Sarah remembered, though they approached it from a slightly different direction. She looked up at the cliff tops, saw the castle there - though, once, it had been a hydrogen plant and, indeed, the world had contained a thriving civilisation - and its crumbling towers. She hoped that no-one lived there now.

They passed the guards, still and silent, and their guides led them through the deep cut passages in the rocks to where the Sisterhood of Karn lived. There, in the shrine, more Sisters were waiting, and at their centre sat the oldest of their number - though she looked no older than Romana herself - and a woman that Sarah remembered well from her last visit to this world.

Ohica stood, spoke, her speech stilted with formality. "I lead the Sisterhood. Who are you, Time Lord? Why are you here? We have no interest in Gallifrey now."

"My name is Romana, and I'm not a part of the Gallifrey that you know. You responded to my message, do you remember me?"

Ohica nodded. "The Doctor has not returned since he first changed your civilisation. He had little interest in us, though less disapproval than his last visit." She shot a look at Sarah, for a moment her eyes were frighteningly wide.

"Then we must speak alone," Romana said.

"As you wish." Ohica led her from the chamber. Rose, determined to follow, was waved back by Romana.

As they disappeared into the tunnels, another Sister approached Sarah and Rose. "You have the freedom of our home, but do not approach the flame." She pointed to a great flat part of the rock wall, a metal door bolted shut over part of it.

"Why? What is it?" asked Rose.

"Sacred," the Sister told her before turning away.

Rose was about to insist on a less cryptic answer when Sarah pulled her away. "It's just what they said, a flame. And it makes their Elixir of Life, gives them immortality."

"Like the Time Lords," murmured Rose.

They were alone now, the Sisters drifting past them as though they were not there, continuing with whatever tasks they had. "Wonder what she had to say to Ohica," said Sarah. "I didn't know about any message."

"Neither did I." Rose spoke quietly. "They can't have gone far, and I'm not happy about being kept out of the loop like this. I want to help the Doctor and I can't do that if I don't know what she's planning to do."

Sarah nodded. "Alright. But she's not exactly an open book. What can we-?"

"Come on ." Rose's hand slipped into Sarah's, and she pulled her into the tunnel that Romana and Ohica had entered. "You've been here before," Rose murmured as they approached the first junction. "Which way d'you think?"

One tunnel looked much the same as another, but eventually the sound of voices guided the pair to their target. They crept carefully around corners, backs to the wall, determined to get as close as possible.

Rose stopped, fingers squeezing Sarah's hand, a signal to stop. They crouched, they listened. It was Ohica that was talking, her voice carrying mild irritation.

"Speak softly," she said. "He has sent his spies out through the time-lines and we fear we may not be able to shield against them all."

"I'm surprised you think you can shield against him at all. Your Sisters never felt my TARDIS materialise. I doubt the Doctor will announce himself."

"We have some protection."

"As Gallifrey had protection?"

Silence. Rose strained to see what was going on. Caught a flicker of movement. "If it is ordained, we accept our fate."

"Oh, what rot," snapped Romana. "Pull yourself together. This a Time lord we're talking about, no different to any other Time Lord, even if he has got hold of some things he shouldn't have. Is this how you reacted when Morbius invaded your world?"

"The old enemy," murmured Ohica. "But the Doctor is no ordinary Time Lord now. We cannot touch him. Morbius could be put in a dispersal chamber, atomised, his followers arrested and tried. He did not have the Doctor's power."

"That doesn't matter. The threat is the same: annihilation. You understand what will happen better than anyone. Should the whole universe become as stagnant as your Sisterhood?"

"You insult us."

"Nothing changes here. Nothing ever changes. And that's the path the Doctor's on, because he wants to stop the pain and the sorrow of living."

"The Doctor brought us change."

"And?"

"We are an ancient order, Time Lord. Change did not come easily to us, but at that moment it saved us. I know my mind, and I know he would take the sacred flame from us because it would have no place in his creation. Life would not be protected or cherished. My Sisters and I have retrieved what you asked, though we did not understand why."

"You sensed nothing from it?" A flutter of worry.

"We did not. It was as it appeared to be."

"May I?"

A soft rustling of cloth. A mechanical noise. Rose glanced at Sarah, questioning. Sarah's reply was a shrug.

"Thank you, Ohica. I won't forget this."

"Nor will you long remember, should you succeed."

"There's no alternative. Besides, I remember dying before and it wasn't too bad."

"I do not understand you."

"That's terribly flattering." Three quick steps. "All right, you two, out you come."

"Oh, hello," said Sarah, standing and looking very surprised. "I think we took a wrong turn somewhere."

"A very wrong turn," agreed Romana.

Rose took a better look round the corner. A cul-de-sac, unremarkable and empty. "So where is it?"

Romana raised an eyebrow. "Where's what?" she asked, all innocence.

"Look, we know you-"

"Listen!" Ohica's eyes were wide. "The winds are screaming. You must go. All of you must go. Now. Quickly."

"Move," Romana ordered.

Rose and Sarah led the way back to the shrine, Romana and Ohica keeping pace behind.

"You said he would not be seen," said Ohica. "But his thoughts are here, drifting this way. A storm on the winds." She sat, raised her arms. "Sisters! We must form a circle. Quickly now, quickly." A glance to Romana. "We offer what protection we can to your flight, but you must go. Go now."

The bar was packed, but everyone was giving the woman in the black leather plenty of space, a wide-semi-circle of space, as she perched on her barstool and ordered another double of whisky.

She wore silver glasses, opaque lenses, hiding the fact that her eye-sockets were more than empty. Dark holes that one could die in should they stare too long.

Death was trying to get drunk.

She'd have been amused if she didn't have a very good reason for the attempt. She'd led a skilled chase, but he was close now and she was much too tired. Too tired to be childish and make a corpse of every patron in the bar; too tired to just keep running out of sheer stubbornness until he forced her to stop.

Instead, she'd picked the place were it'd end: a nameless bar on a rundown space station in the most uncivilised spiral of the Milky Way. Anonymous and inauspicious. She wouldn't give him an opportunity for grandiose gestures, and someone should remember this spiral the way it was meant to be.

"Get you a drink?"

"Piss off." Death didn't even bother to try and strike him down. He'd probably laugh and that'd put her in an even worse mood.

"Now that's not very nice," said the Doctor. "Just being friendly."

"I know why you're here, you jumped up little half-breed." She downed her whisky. "So quit playing your stupid games and get on with it."

The Doctor shrugged. "Have it your own way."

And then there wasn't a wide semi-circle of space at the bar anymore.

Behind him, the Doctor's TARDIS materialised.

He ran to her, fingertips running along her worn paintwork. "What is it?" he asked. "Have you found something? Someone? Oh, clever girl."

"What'll happen to them?" asked Rose, the TARDIS safely dematerialised and Romana sending them spiralling back in time, the Sisterhood lost in the wind.

"Rose, please, I'm trying to calculate co-ordinates." She didn't even look up from the console.

"Come on," said Sarah, guiding her out of the room. "Another cup of tea, I think."

"This is just so frustrating," muttered Rose as she sat down. Sarah clicked the kettle on, began the regular ritual. "I feel like we should be doing something. She's worse than the Doctor, there's barely even a chance to go wandering off."

"And yet we're still kept at arm's length whenever we ask about what she's actually going to do." Milk. Sugar. Stir. She handed Rose her cup of tea. "She's protecting us."

Rose took a gulp of tea. "I guess so. But I just wish that I could talk to him. Just…" She took a deep breath. More tea. "You'd think with all the life in the universe there'd be someone around for the big emergencies who'd be able to fix things like that." She snapped her fingers.

"Oh, I suppose someone in one of the upper dimensions will notice eventually," said Romana airily, breezing into the kitchen. "But by then it'll be much too late." She took a packet of biscuits from the cupboard - chocolate hob-nobs - and sat down next to Rose. "There's a lot of life forms that could interfere, and some that really should interfere, but I'm afraid nobody actually will interfere until their own existence is threatened. And virtually no-one with that sort of power bothers with this physical reality."

"So it's up to us?" said Rose.

Romana grinned, bit down on a biscuit. "Cheering thought, isn't it?"

And when she blinked, the image of the little girl in the mirror flickered behind her eyes.