Author's Note:

Good afternoon, humans. Here is another chapter – this story is getting near the end now, so I might actually finish something for once, hooray for me. Thanks as always to the wonderful people who reviewed the last chapter – Bernice-Summerfield, Theta'sWorstNightmare, kie1993, MountainLord-92, SawManiac211, Lexy Summers, dryu, Imorgen, mericat, Writless, irishartemis and Aietradaea (x 9).

Big welcome back to Aietradaea – lovely to have you here, my friend!

CHAPTER TEN

Tejana saw her father's face as he stood in the doorway and, somewhere in the distant reaches of her mind, she knew he was angry.

Very, very angry.

She had an idea that she should know why, but she wasn't quite sure any more. Nor could she bring herself to care. Everything seemed to be a bit foggy and unclear. All the adrenaline that had brought her to this point seemed to have seeped away, leaving her inert and lifeless. She could remember screaming at the Master, but she couldn't recall what about. Something vital had snapped inside her, and her grasp on reality had ebbed away, like the elusive tide receding back down a sandy beach.

The room seemed to be choked with words, rebounding back and forth between the Doctor and the Master, but none of them made any sense to her. They may as well have been speaking an unknown language for all the impact their argument had on her.

Then the Master pulled her from the couch and into his encircling arms, hauling her hard against his body. Everything seemed so much better after that, even though he was holding her very tightly and the angry words kept coming, pressing down on her, sucking away her air, making it difficult to breathe. She wanted to yell at them both to stop, that they were hurting her head, but it all seemed like too much effort. So instead she closed her eyes and leant her cheek against the naked warmth of the Master's chest. To her relief, the white noise of their arguing faded away and all she could hear was the steady pounding of his double heartbeat under her ear, just as she had heard it so many times before, alive and comforting and strong, making her feel secure and protected. His hands slid down to her belly, cradling their child, and joy blazed in her soul. Even though she was a little confused about where they were and what was happening, none of that mattered - the three of them were together, she and Koschei and their child, just as it was supposed to be.

Dexter's panicked arrival barely even registered with her, enfolded as she was in her own idealised reality. Sheltered in the Master's arms, insulated from her grief and anguish, she was completely disconnected from what was going on around her.

But even her self-imposed isolation could not protect her from the great shadow that fell across the room, bringing the icy wind of death in its wake, its presence compelling her like a voice calling her name.

Moving like a sleep walker, the atmosphere clinging thick and gelid around her, she looked up and saw the huge skylight shattering directly above them. Her eyes widened and she stared, fascinated, as the spectacular fragments of rainbow-coloured glass hung suspended delicately in the air. It was beautiful, so achingly beautiful, the shining shards glowing like falling tears against the eerie background of the vermilion sky.

And then the Reaper appeared out of nowhere, hovering over her like a dark, impossible angel, its mighty wings flapping in a slow, hypnotic rhythm, the breeze of them gently stirring her hair. Its eyes were like fiery rubies, gazing sternly down at her, ancient and undying, emotionless and implacable.

In that one chilling, timeless moment, when their eyes met, she understood with every particle of her being that the creature was here for her. She had called it into this world and it had come. She had transgressed the Law of Time and now she would be punished. Strangely enough, despite the sure and certain knowledge, she felt no fear, no desire to run or to hide. Instead, a kind of peaceful tranquillity filled her. This was right, it was proper, it had to be. Somehow, there was a beautiful simplicity in the unchangeable inevitability of it. She could vaguely hear someone shouting in the background, but it meant nothing to her. Nothing existed any more, nothing except for her and the Reaper who had come for her, nothing but its compelling ruby eyes and the lulling beat of its enormous wings. As if in a dream, she tilted her head back, baring her neck to the dark creature, docilely watching it descend towards her and waiting for it to claim her.

But before it could take her, she felt strong hands lifting her and she was whirling through the air, out of the path of the oncoming creature. The sharp, unexpected movement seemed to smash through the numbed stasis of the room. The Reaper screamed in harsh, discordant rage and, in that single instant, the silence flew apart into a chaos of frantic action and sound.

"Look out!" the Doctor's voice bellowed and then the jagged shards of broken glass were raining from the ceiling, plummeting downwards in a deadly hail.

Tejana fell to the soft carpet with a thud, unharmed but with all the breath knocked out of her. A heavy weight lay across her, pinning her to the floor. More screaming filled the air and a sticky warmth seemed to spread across her chest. With a sudden gasp of horror, she realised that the weight lying on top of her was the Master and she was covered with his blood.

"Koschei!"

The Master had watched the Reaper appear like magic in the air above them, but he had been unable to believe what he was seeing. A creature of myth, a dark fairytale sprung to life, right out of his earliest dreams.

There had never been much room in his childhood for make-believe or fairytales. His stern, autocratic father had seen to that. Everything had been about duty and responsibility, about bringing honour to the House of Oakdown and upholding the family name. But then, when he went to the Academy, he had met Theta and his friend had introduced him to a whole new world of imagination. He could still remember the two of them huddling together under a blanket in their dormitory late at night, avidly reading by torchlight from the books he was forbidden to bring home, stories about fantastical creatures like the legendary Reapers, the ghostly Eidolon, the vicious, mischievous Toclafane.

And now, in a surreal twist of fate, here they were, he and the Doctor, centuries later and on a different world, staring up at a real Reaper, hovering above them with death in its eyes.

In a flash of realisation, he saw that the creature's unnatural gaze was not fixed on him, but on the woman in his arms, its devastating hunger and desire heavy and palpable in the still air.

The Doctor's voice echoed in his head. Give Tejana back to me...she's the one causing the paradox.

He felt her small body relax against him. There was no fight in her at all as she gazed up at the approaching monster, acceptance of her fate in every line of her slender figure. So simple then...to save himself, all he had to do was to give Tejana to the Reapers and cancel the paradox. All he had to do was to throw her aside and stand back, allowing her to be consumed. Just one quick, easy action and this would all be over.

A split second before the Reaper struck, a split second for him to decide.

But his hands were still resting on the swell of her stomach. His child. His son, growing inside her.

And instead of hurling her aside, he found himself lifting her into his arms and swinging her out of harm's way, stumbling back behind his desk with her cradled protectively against him.

Somewhere behind him, he heard Dexter scream horribly, the sound trailing away into a choked gurgle. The Doctor gave a warning shout and the next thing he felt was a hot stab of excruciating pain as something struck his back hard.

Then he was falling forward into the darkness.

I'm too late! the Doctor thought in shock, watching the Reaper swoop down towards his daughter. I can't save her!

But almost before he could complete the thought, he saw the Master gather Tejana into his arms and drag her aside. The Reaper shrieked, a hair-raising, high-pitched howl of frustration, its beady scarlet gaze fastening instead on the unfortunate Miss Dexter, who still stood in its path, frozen with terror. Its clawed talons extended, reaching for her. In a blur of movement, it ripped out her throat while she still screamed, her eyes bulging in overwhelming fear. Then there was a blinding flash of light and Dexter was gone, vanishing into thin air.

At exactly the same instant, a tremor seemed to ripple through the field of hanging glass shards above them, like a breeze brushing across a corn field.

"Look out!" the Doctor roared, grabbing both Rory and Amy by the scruff of their necks and pulling them backwards towards the safety of the doorway. There was an ominous swishing, tinkling sound, and the glass began to hurtle to the floor, slicing into the carpet like a multitude of long, sharp swords.

A terrified cry from Tejana rang across the room. "Koschei!"

Whirling back towards the sound of her voice, the Doctor saw the Master sprawled across the floor behind his desk, with Tejana's tiny form almost hidden beneath him. For a moment, he couldn't understand why the Master was suddenly wearing a red shirt. But then, with a twinge of horror, he realised that one of the dagger-like shards of glass was embedded deeply in the other man's back. Blood was pumping freely from the dreadful wound, staining his white shirt a vibrant scarlet.

Having finished off Dexter, the Reaper rose into the air again like a great hawk. The paradox was still in place, its job was still not done. Lazily, it circled the fallen Time Lord and the woman he protected, preparing to strike again.

And, all at once, the Doctor realised the creature was not alone. Other dark shadows swooped and glided across the broken skylight, as more of the creatures landed on the roof, homing in at last on the persistent temporal disturbance calling to them from below.

So many of them, he thought in stunned despair. And there's not one damn thing I can do.