Author's Note:

Thanks so much to Babybluepineapple and Omniac for your reviews - seriously, you guys are what keeps me writing! So many people read without reviewing, so having wonderful regular reviewers like you is a real bonus. You make me smile!


CHAPTER EIGHT

Quickly and concisely, Tejana explained to the Doctor all they knew – the return of the Master's drums, the temporal disturbance which had caused the TARDIS to crash land, her discovery of the human remains in the manor and the advent of the megalosaurus.

As usual, the Doctor paced up and down restlessly as she talked, a scowl etched on his face as he realised the far-reaching and ominous implications of Rassilon's return.

"So he's back...and he's playing with the Web of Time, punching tiny holes in the space time continuum," the Doctor mused. "But why?"

"Why do you think?" the Master bit out. "He wants what he's always wanted, to smash the Time Lock and free Gallifrey."

"Yes, but these small temporal disturbances aren't going to help him do that," Tejana protested. "He'd need to generate a time slip on a massive scale – completely corrupt the causal nexus - and that's impossible."

The Doctor frowned. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" she queried.

"Unless he's managed to create a temporal manipulator," the Doctor said bleakly.

The Master shot him an incredulous look. "That would be hard enough on Gallifrey. But here on this backwater planet in the space of a few months?"

"This isn't just any Time Lord we're talking about," the Doctor returned grimly. "This is Rassilon, the man who managed to harness the raw power of a black hole to create the Eye of Harmony. What makes you think he couldn't build a temporal manipulator?"

He glanced over at Jack, Martha and Amy, who had all been standing silently as the three Time Lords talked, trying to follow the gist of the discussion.

"The first thing we need to do is to find him. Jack, has there been any significant disturbance in the Rift in the last three months? Any kind of drain, any sign of outside interference?"

The Captain shrugged. "None."

"He's not using Rift energy then," the Doctor surmised. "Pity. That would have been fairly easy to trace."

"What about a Rhondium Sensor?" the Master suggested thoughtfully. "If we can build one on a large enough scale, we should be able to detect a build up of delta particles next time he manipulates the Web. That should be enough to track him down."

"Brilliant! That's perfect! We'll boost the power using the Rift – we should be able to augment the range to cover the entire Earth!" the Doctor said, his face lighting up with enthusiasm. "We'd better get started. We don't know how much time we have before he tries to break the Time Lock."

"You're not going to work with him, are you, Doctor?" Martha demanded disbelievingly. "You can't seriously be considering allowing him anywhere near the Rift! Has everybody suddenly gone mad or is it just me?"

"We don't have a choice, Martha," the Doctor said seriously. "Believe me, if Rassilon gets his way, the Master is going to be the least of our problems."

With that, he turned away, his sonic screwdriver already in his hand as he prepared to cannibalise the Torchwood computer network. Tejana knelt at the base of Rift Manipulator, untangling some of the linkage cables. The Master shot the three humans a contemptuous look and then followed his arch-rival, his eyes playing curiously over the Rift monitors.

"Fine!" Martha snapped. "Whatever! Jack, I want a word with you...in private! Your office, please! Amy, why don't you make some coffee or something?"

Furiously, her head held high, she marched up the stairs to Jack's office, ignoring Amy's glare of pure resentment. Jack gave a deep sigh. He really didn't want to have this conversation, which was why he had never told Martha the full version of how Tejana had come to leave Torchwood. Now, however, it appeared that he was going to be unable to avoid it.


"So, why didn't you tell me the truth, Jack?" Martha demanded accusingly.

They stood in the centre of Jack's new office, a large messy room containing Jack's desk, liberally littered with papers, a sizable conference table, and a ratty old couch. The wall overlooking the floor of the Hub was completely made of glass, giving the occupants of the office a clear view of what was going on down below.

Jack's face was suddenly weary. "Would you have believed me if I had? Besides, I was hoping she would change her mind, get over this madness and come back to us."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, does it?" Martha snapped. "What on earth can she be thinking? He must have some sort of hold over her, it's the only possible answer."

Jack shook his head dully. "The Doctor says not. He says she's exactly where she wants to be."

"But it doesn't make sense! Not after everything that happened on The Valiant, the whole Year That Never Was!"

"Something happened between them on Gallifrey. I don't know what it was, but it changed everything. She's never been the same since," Jack replied heavily.

Suddenly, Martha's face brightened, an idea dawning in her eyes. "Maybe we can do something about that."

"What are you talking about?"

"The B67 compound," Martha said grimly. "That new batch that UNIT recently sent over can erase up to five years of a person's life, depending on the dose."

Jack stared at her in shock. "Ret-Con! You can't be serious! You can't give an amnesia drug to a Time Lord!"

"Why not?" Martha retorted eagerly. "I'm totally serious. Think about it, Jack! If we could erase her memory of whatever the Master did to her on Gallifrey, she would change back to how she was after we left The Valiant and she first came to work for Torchwood. Everything would be the way it was before."

"Ret-Con was developed to affect human physiology. It probably won't even work on a Time Lord," Jack argued. "And the Doctor would never approve, as much as he wants her away from the Master."

"The Doctor wouldn't have to know until it was too late," Martha replied determinedly. "Tejana's my friend. I can't just stand by and leave her with that monster. If the Ret-Con doesn't work, then at least we'll know we tried."

Jack hesitated. He knew in his heart that what Martha was proposing was wrong. To play god in that way, to use Ret-Con not to protect the secrecy of Torchwood and therefore the Earth, but to manipulate someone's life to suit his own preference, was an unforgivable act of arrogance. But the temptation was so great. To get Tejana back, to bring her home, to cut the Master out of her life like the filthy cancer he was...surely the end justified the means?

"Well?" Martha demanded. "Jack?"

He took a deep breath and nodded. "OK. We'll do it."


Wrinkling her nose with distaste, Amy fiddled half-heartedly with the coffee machine in the Torchwood kitchen. She had no idea how to use the stupid thing. The kitchen was like the rest of the Torchwood Hub, a complete mess. Obviously when the headquarters had been recently rebuilt, the kitchen facilities had not been high on the agenda. It consisted of a stainless steel bench, complete with a grubby sink which looked like it should belong in the Autopsy Room, the incomprehensible, disgusting-looking coffee machine, a beaten-up old refrigerator and a few chairs with half the stuffing falling out of their seats. A few lop-sided shelves were fixed to the wall, crowded with bizarre miscellaneous items, ranging from a bottle of stuffed gherkins to a glass sphere containing what appeared to be an alien cactus of some sort.

Torchwood, the last line of Earth's defence against alien menace, Amy thought sarcastically. If their kitchen organisation is anything to go by, my money's on the aliens!

She sighed loudly. It wasn't really the state of the kitchen which was bothering her. What was really bothering her was Martha Jones. Honestly, that woman had some nerve, ordering Amy in here to make the coffee, like some sort of servant. Where the hell did she get off? Just because she used to be a companion of the Doctor's ages ago, she acted as if that gave her some sort of precedence.

Amy had to admit that she was a bit jealous of Martha. Dr Smith-Jones was pretty, she was intelligent, she had an important job with UNIT, she obviously had an enduring bond with the Doctor, and she was close friends with both Tejana and Jack. She even appeared to share some sort of history with the Master, although it seemed not the good kind, from the dagger-like looks they kept shooting each other. All of this added up to Amy feeling somewhat insecure, which was a relatively new feeling for her and not one that she relished.

Crossly, she pushed some buttons at random, trying to work out where you were supposed to insert the coffee beans.

"Can I help you with something?" a polite voice asked.

Startled, Amy spun around to see a good-looking, brown-haired young man, dressed neatly in a dark suit, complete with immaculate white shirt and tasteful tie.

Assuming he was one of the Torchwood staff members she hadn't met yet, Amy smiled at him.

"You scared me!" she said. "I didn't hear you come in. My name's Amy Pond, I'm a friend of the Doctor's. You wouldn't know anything about making coffee, would you?"


It was happening again. Tejana put her hand up to her forehead, feeling the strange, glittering haze in her mind, the odd sensation of Time being out of kilter.

"There!" she said sharply. "Did you feel that? Another time slip!"

The other two Time Lords nodded, glancing up from the tangle of wires and components they were connecting together.

"That one felt close by," the Master frowned.

"Let's hope it's not a megalosaurus this time," the Doctor said ironically. "We could really do without that right now."