An hour later, Bond's knuckles were pounding the face of the Prometheus in the suit. The Prometheus in military body armour slammed Bond in the back of the head and the MI6 agent skidded across the floor. He dived behind a nearby bank of equipment just as the black Prometheus let loose yet another blast from the particle cannon. The woman Prometheus showered the console with sub-machine gun fire. Bond exercised the better part of valour and kept his head down.

Outside the room, Prometheus' zealot army was engaged in pitched battle with UN troops, called in by Bond. Outside again, in the cold of space, a similar battle was ongoing with shuttles and probes going at each other. Bond couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw one of Prometheus' probes get taken out by the lasers from a passing Spitfire.

"Don't you worry, Doctor," the MI6 agent shouted into his intercom over the rattle of incoming automatic gunfire, "I can keep these fellows busy all day. You just make sure you have fun playing with your toys."

"I'm going fast as I can!" the Doctor shouted back. He was busy pulling wires out of a console in the next room. Wire pull. Blast with sonic. [May 10]. Re-connect wire. Scan with sonic. Hold sonic in teeth. Pathway re-route. [February 12]. Program debug. Scan with sonic. Sonic back in teeth. Re-wire stability circuit. [October 24]. Replace. Pull new wire-

Bond and the armoured Prometheus wrestled over the assault-rifle. Whoever got hold of it, the other would die in the very next moment. A blonde woman Prometheus levelled a gun at the pair. Bond twisted armoured Prometheus into the shot's path then pulled the now-limp body to the ground, rolled, rose with the gun, shot the blonde Prometheus. And another Prometheus. And a third. But then, his head was nearly taken off by the hit from a big, muscly Prometheus in a boiler suit-

Re-route wire. [August 16]. Scan with sonic. Explosion. Drop sonic. Pick sonic up. Finish scan. Sonic back in teeth. Re-program circuit. [May 30].

-Bond stepped out from behind his cover and whipped the rifle around at the big Prometheus. Except, that Prometheus wasn't there anymore. Not far away, to Bond's right, was a short, Indian Prometheus with a cocked G36. Bond dived behind another console just as the bullets began to rain down on-

Blast with sonic. Re-route stability circuit. [April 28]-

-the assault rifle fell silent. Bond poked his head out. The Indian Prometheus had disappeared. As had the black Prometheus, leaving the particle cannon rolling aimlessly on the metal floor. The suited Prometheus dived at Bond from behind a wall partition. As did another quite bulky Prometheus in a soldier's uniform-

Close down breakers 22-32. Scan with sonic. Close down breakers 33-45. Re-route circuit power. [December 1]. Done!

The soldier Prometheus disappeared. Only the suited Prometheus was left. It was clear from the face of his captive body that the AI was fully aware of what had happened to his duplicates. He slowly stood and wiped a sliver of blood from the side of his face.

And suddenly Bond realised that the AI was holding a small, metal box in his other hand. A box bearing a single, red button. Bond was experienced enough to know that such items were rarely good news.

"You cannot win. I have already seen future events," Prometheus raised the box up in front of him, "A human might say… my victory has already been determined by destiny."

Prometheus pressed the button. A high-pitched whirring noise sounded. Prometheus only just had time to look quizzically at the little box in his hand before Bond fired.

A crimson cloud flashed into being near the man's stomach as he wheeled to the ground. Bond stood over him, his Walther pointed directly at Prometheus' face.

"Destiny lied."

The Doctor stepped out of the shadows and shut off his sonic.

"Thanks for the help with the explosives," Bond nodded at the now discarded trigger-box. "Time to bring this to a finish."

"Wait!" the Doctor cried.

"He's locked into this body now, yes?" said Bond.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "I've isolated and removed all points in time that contributed to his creation. His online self has been eradicated from history – past and future. Only this instance of him is left."

"Good," said Bond and aimed his Walther at Prometheus' left eye.

"But you can't just…" the Doctor grabbed Bond's arm.

"What do you think this is, Doctor," Bond's voice had a steel to it the Doctor had never heard. "What do you think you're seeing? A revenge killing? An execution? Is that truly what you think is going on here?"

"Isn't it?"

"With respect, Doctor, maybe that says more about your mind than it does mine."