AN: Not much to say about this chapter except IT'S HERE! And was originally going to be a tiny bit longer but that will instead be a mini chapter of it's own.


"So you and Clara are immortals..." Johanna summarised as they paced the coliseum's walkways. Inside the stadium were a hundred floors for seating all surrounding a great circular pit of red sand. The air was hot and smoky. Above, the ceiling rose to a point and no outside light could enter. Instead the ways were lit with torches and braziers. Most burnt orange but Ashildr noticed some burning blue and green on the higher levels. There was even fire above them, great burning disks that hanged by chains. A local ushered them into a row of stone seats. There were people standing around the pit below them and people looking down on them all above. They were good seats nonetheless. From here nothing obscured the pit but smoke and waving flames. They passed a hooded beaky alien cooking heating food by torch flame. They bumped into him on passing and Ashildr talked him out of a skewer a meat before they continued towards their seats. Ashildr tugged at the chewy meat with her teeth and after the first bite went back for many more.

"Blimey! You go native fast." said Johanna as Ashildr wiped the grease from her lips.

"It's good meat." Ashildr returned, "Tastes like chicken. You want?" she asked, pointing the sticks end to her in offering.

"I'll pass thanks. Do you ever get tired of it?"

"Of meat?" she asked in confusion.

"No," replied Johanna with a chuckle. A solemn gaze returned, "of immortality. I mean I'm what...38? Sometimes I feel tired of life. Tired of failing. Tired of losing. For that to go on for ever and ever... Some people might call that hell."

The meat suddenly sat sickly in her stomach. " We've known each other mere weeks Jo. I've told you nothing of my failings or my loses."

"No you haven't, that was more projection on my part. Still. You claimed to have lived for so long. I can guess." Ashildr could see the pity in her eyes. Right now it was frustratingly unwelcome. Family. It always came down to family. You can get new ones, and I don't remember the old. What is it with mortals and breeding?! "Have you ever failed at something so bad Ashildr that the idea of getting a second chance seems so undeserved."

"...Yes" Ashildr answered hesitantly.

"Did you ever get that second chance? What did you do with it?"

I spent the past three hundred years with her. She wanted to say. And I will have failed again when she has to go back. Instead a chorus of drums pounded out from the pits circumference and the crowds roared in anticipation.

"I think they're bringing someone out now." said Ashildr but her voice was barely audible over the noise.
"What? I can't hear you! I think someone's coming out now!" said Johanna and Ashildr shook her head before focussing on the show below. Opposite them the crowds were stamping their feet, their limps painted and raised and they were throwing taunts. Below in the pit an iron gate was raised and the first competitor greeted the crowd like a true showman. He was male, or so their foreign eyes presumed. A mass of muscle painted in black and gold under light armour which served more for decoration than protection. From a clasp on his waist he with drew his weapon of choice. With a quick flick of his wrist the whip uncoiled and lashed against the sand with an electric crackle. He repeated this motion, each crack earning approval from his half of the stadium.

Another entered this ring. They caught a glimpse of light blue before their view was blocked by a passing salesman.

"The Black or the Blue?" he asked of them. Upon his broad shoulders was a wooden yoke. Hanging from either end steel buckets of paint. In one was black, the other blue but in the darkness of the coliseum they both looked the same.

"We're not avid supporters of either side." Ashildr told the salesman and then he passed. They were the only unpainted ones. Around them every one wore a markings made of the blue to match the second competitor. His whip was much more modest, simply a chain with iron hook on the end. "They both have whips," Ashildr observed, cleaning her skewer and leaving herself with a small pointed stick. "They're going to be dancing around each other's strokes. Not quite what I was expecting."

"There's a third competitor." said Johanna as the crowd cheered in unison. Whilst Ashildr had been poking her nails with the twig a humanoid had entered from up a stairwell in the crowd. He or she was clad in armour, head to toe with only the face exposed. On either side a guard escorted him, batting back the flailing arms of onlookers carrying mixed intention.

"Is this what the Time Lords came here for?" asked Johanna, for the competitor was a Time Lord if the armour could be believed, "to compete?"

"No." replied Ashildr still pondering. Too many had lost for that to make sense. "He's not even-"

The first crack of the whip stunned them both to silence whilst the crowd cheered. "...armed." Ashildr finished. The electric one looped the Time Lords leg and flipping him to the ground and there they let him be, both parties circling him like predators. Blue waited for him to be on his feet before making his move. Again aiming for the feet, drawing out the fight. The hook caught on his armour and again he was floored.

"Oh my God..." sighed Johanna as the two took turns administering lashes. Soon one side would simply lash at the ground, instructing him to dance as the other dealt the harming blow.

Ashildr leaned back in contemplation, her eyes seeking occupation in her stick rather than the fight below. I've seen worse, she reminded herself. At least they gave him armour. She found herself recalling those that decorated the exterior. But they'll kill him eventually anyway. Her eyes turned to the upper levels where the flames burnt blue and green. Up there the onlookers were fat and well groomed, contributing little to the rambunctious cacophony of cheering. Where I need to be...

"We should help him."

"What?" said Ashildr at Johanna's suggestion. "No!"

"No?"

"No, that's what I said. We're leaving this alone it's not for us to get involved in."

"But...What does it take for this to be something you'd get involved in. That's torture down there. Pure, cruel torture."

"It's also a TIME LORD down there. A group of people me and Clara are not eager to mix with." Another crack reached their ears and the two flinched in their seats. The hoard around them stamped their feet gloriously as the chain whip came away dripping red.

"Is that all it takes for you to cower away?! You're immortal Ashildr! What's the point of your life if you don't save people."

Ashildr snapped, "What is it you want me to do? What physically do you want me to do? Do you want me to charge in there, enrage the crowd by halting the fight and putting us all in danger?"

"No you could-"
"Or theres always the more peaceful route. I could find a way to meet the people on top. Get all the paper work to put a stop to this but by then he'd most likely be dead."

"But it's wrong..."

"I know. But it also can't be helped. Not by us. Not in this moment." The silence fell thick between them. Around them was an orchestra of cheers and electric snapping. The Time Lord was losing armour with each lash but they had given him space to dodge their strikes, presumably to draw out the fight. Now he danced about the sand trapped in a hellish play.

"I'm getting a headache." said Johanna massaging her brow so's to avoid the show below. Ashildr was beginning to feel a pain too, but nothing she couldn't ignore.

"Make your way back to the TARDIS then. I'll start asking question. I'll be back with you as soon as I have what I need."

Johanna rose to go and Ashildr did likewise. They were some distance apart when Ashildr turned back. She watched as Johanna walked lower and lower, thankfully undisturbed by spectators, as she followed the route they took to enter. The walkway guided her underneath their level and, now out of sight, Ashildr set her tasks for the floors above.

Stairways were located behind the seating bay and were mostly void of people now the fight had began. She ascended flight after flight until she lost count. Eventually the stairs came to a halt and she walked out onto a balcony lit with flickering blue. Leaning over the railings she saw the fighters had become much smaller. She could only make out one warrior by the electric crackling through his whip. So engrossed was she in the downwards view she did not notice the figure behind her until his hand was on her shoulder and she jumped with a gasp.

"The only pink things in this stadium fight below in the sands" He hissed as he turned her. He towered over her at seven foot, on his head were three scaled crests of dark blue and his eyes were small black and full of accusation. "Who are you to think you belong up here." He was pushing on her shoulder. One quick shove and she would be over the rails and falling.

"I have business with the Time Lords," He lifted her off her feet and she grabbed onto his scaled arm. "Important business. The last thing you want to do right now is kill me and anger some very powerful people."

"Time Lords are amusing," he punctuated, "They die over and over again. I've seen it a hundred time. If your business is so important I'll send you over this edge and you can crawl back with a face less offensive to my eyes."

"When did I say I was a Time Lord. I am not a Time Lord." she argued and he shrugged.

"Then die and don't come back at a-"

"Caboll?" a voice called and his grip on her lessened. "Caboll? Is that you? What are you doing with that child?" To their right the stairs had curved and they had not seen his approach until he was a few metres away. Like her assailant, the new comer was tall and dark in scales, dress in silks and sandals whilst Caboll was simply a brute in his attire.

"My job Master Stonn. This Time Lord escaped the lower vaults." he answered dutifully with his eyes downcast.

"Did she?" he replied doubtfully, "That can't be so. Every being in this stadium can see plainly the last Time Lord is down in the pit as we speak." Master Stonn came closer and leaned over the rails with a pair of binoculars to see that the fight was indeed still going on below. "Yep he's still going," he confirmed, and pocketed the item in a side pouch. "But who are you if not a Time Lord? You look a lot like they do."

"I'm human. I suspect were not a common sight here."

"Not common at all. I've never heard of a human before. Well...Before a few weeks ago that is; when the Time Lord first arrived. Tell me. Do you per chance happen to be The Clara Oswald?"

Ashildr was caught in silence, barely managing to stumble out a sentence.

"I'm Ashildr her...Liason to the Time Lords in our affairs. Or I would have been. But then I found out you killed them all and used them to decorated your stadium. What am I to do now?"

"Right here, right now? I'd suggest staying until the games have finished. We do have much to talk about. Perhaps we can do so from the comfort of my balcony?"

"I'd like that," said Ashildr seeing no reason to object.

"What do you think about our games then?" he asked her politely as they walked the curved steps. Caboll followed them both with a reluctant hiss.

"I came here with a friend. She didn't approve."

"Visitors often don't," said Stonn. They approached his balcony where two plush sofas were pressed against the railing with a table in between them. There they sat opposite one another whilst Caboll dutifully filled Stonn's cup and hers. She was reluctant to drink, the first sip told her it was something vile and the first sip confirmed it. "Perhaps it's because we call them games when in reality what you see below is a display of justice."

"Justice?" questioned Ashildr, neglecting her cup. There was a sudden roar from down below and both she, Stonn and several other's peer over the balconies. She did not have the luxury of binoculars but the glow of regeneration energy was clear even at this height. The glow passed and a new figure flopped onto the sands. The Black warrior was swinging his whip in a celebratory fashion having dealt the killing stroke when Stonn tutted and lowered his binoculars.

"Such a shame," he told her, "I had such hope in the new comer."

"You make a game of regeneration. This is your justice? What did he do to earn that? What did two hundred do to earn that?"

"When they first arrived they only had two ships. Only two ships and two hundred people yet they still managed to hold the city hostage within the space of a day. Our computer systems were hacked, our defences taken away. They searched every street, every home. Families were separated as they made a catalogue of residents. They claimed to be searching for someone; a temporal fugitive, and all their scanners and fancy technology pointed them to my planet. To my city."

"And then you're people rebelled?"

"No. That happened later. Have you heard of the Temporal Isolator?"

"I know it's a weapon. I've never seen it used."

"It was used here. Whole streets at a time were frozen in the moment, no one could move. In theory that meant neither could their fugitive if she were hiding there, only she was never there. They unfroze the street and moved onto the next. Only every now and then one street would remain stuck in stasis. Our people could not move. Could not feed. Could not drink. We watched them waste away and still they did not find her."

"I'm sorry for what happened to you're people. Truly I am-"

"Your apologies are not needed. The people have had their justice." he said with a wave of his hand, "After tomorrows fight the last Time Lord will be dead and my city will be in a better position to move o-"

"Master Stonn!" called an approaching guard who promptly halted their conversation. He pushed forwards Johanna with each step, the woman's hand restrained behind her a bruise sported her cheek.

"Johanna?" said Ashildr.

"I'm sorry..." she replied.

"Would this be the friend you mentioned Ashildr?" asked Stonn as he reclined in his seat, "I do hope it's only the one. I've enjoyed these games but I'm eager to get back to work already."

Ashildr turned to him with a desperate expression, "Master Stonn, I assure you whatever my companion has done to upset it would not have been without good reason and I will see to it she face consequences myself."

"She was in the lower levels," the guard informed, "speaking with the Time Lord." Ashildr felt her panic rising and shook her head disapprovingly at Johanna.

"Send her back there in a cell of her own." commanded Stonn, " And take this one too."

"What?!" Ashildr exclaimed before Caboll joyfully hoisted her from her seat and fixed her in restraints.

"Ashildr I'm sorry your friend interrupted our conversation. Our meeting was always going to end this way. You see, my people have had justice, but not all of it. The people who have wrong them are in the grave but they still want to blame who brought them here in the first place. They came and stayed searching for your Clara. And you came too late!" Stonn nodded and Caboll dealt her a punch on the side of her head. She fell limp at the impact.

"Ashildr!" said Johanna, and a fist threatened her likewise.

"Get them both out of my sight. Tomorrow I want them fighting alongside the Time Lord."