They stood in silence for a very long time. The Doctor was the one to finally break it.

"Is she here?"

"What?" Raston watched as the Doctor slowly approached him, staring him straight in the eyes.

"Is she here?" the Time Lord repeated. He already knew the answer, but he could pretend that he didn't. Felicity was watching the exchange closely, the wind blowing far too gently for the danger that was all around them.

"No," Raston said slowly. "The Warden was the one who informed us that the Time War was to be time locked, but we didn't get the message until a few hundred years ago, after the prison had been completed. I didn't know that a member of your species had survived outside of it. We were instructed by the Warden-"

"Romana," he said softly.

"What?"

"Her name is Romana," he repeated. Felicity stood from her leaning position against the tree to take the Time Lord's hand. He didn't accept, nor did he push her away, but instead looked at her sadly. He was always sad, but it never showed on his face, not like this. She could almost feel the sorrow radiating from him. It was as bright as a star.

"Ah, yes. We were instructed by... Romana to create the prison that is in the center of the planet, for the purposes of containing the Nightmare Child. However, Romana said in her message that the creature was meant to be trapped in the Time War, though it had disappeared without a trace. Since the message, we have been living our lives as best we can."

"That doesn't make any sense," the Doctor stated. Romana had been the only Time Lord to know what he was going to do before he did it and still she had stayed behind to protect her people.

A brief, sudden memory flashed through his mind. He remembered watching Davros' ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child, when the sky was dark as blood. He remembered the instant when the ship could never have been retrieved, when every living thing on board was doomed. There had been a strange flash of light that had shown brighter than the twin suns, engulfing the sky and turning it to white fire. The creature had been there one moment, then it was gone. They had all assumed that it had temporarily retreated, but now he knew the truth. "Dalek Caan..."

He was silent for a moment, thinking. "The Nightmare Child is... We don't even know what it is, really; we just know that it's.. But if she designed the prison, then she must have worked out what the Nightmare Child really is-"

"LIFEFORMS DETECTED."

Felicity almost jumped out of her skin as a Dalek, whose color was not orange or blue, so she assumed it was a regular Dalek, descended from above them, aiming its gun at her head.

The Doctor quickly moved to stand between the Dalek and his two companions. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE US, DOCTOR."

"I'm not even moving, you giant paperweight," he said, staring up at its eyestalk, anger simmering under his skin. The wind was still calm, trying to defy the charged atmosphere around them.

There was an odd sound to his right, like the shifting of gears and the arming of a weapon. "Stand back."

The Doctor's gaze drifted to Raston, who was standing beside him. His right arm had changed drastically; the Doctor recognized it as the weaponry that would eventually evolve into the type of weapon that a certain Captain chose to carry around. It looked odd, since it involved his entire arm literally opening up like deadly flower petals. It was an odd sight, especially to Felicity, to see the man that she had thought a human suddenly turn into what he claimed to be.

"Raston, don't!" Felicity was trying to pull him back, but he refused to budge. The Doctor hadn't moved a muscle either. He always viewed himself as the least important being in any situation like this. Everyone else was always more important to him. She understood his reasoning, but she didn't have to like it.

"Raston, you don't want to do that. It can kill you in an instant," the Doctor said. He could hear its cry of 'Exterminate!' already.

"I'd better make this shot count then!" His husband would have to forgive him.

"No!" The Doctor lunged at him, but it was too late. He fired.

Felicity screamed. The blast flew into the sky and the android's body fell, lifeless. The remains of his head drifted like snow onto the ground in front of her. The Doctor stared, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"A FUTILE EFFORT TO REMAIN IN CONTROL OF ONE'S DEATH," the Dalek concluded, unmoved by the android's suicide. It aimed its gun at the Doctor. "EXTERMINATE!"

Suddenly, the body on the ground lit up like a Christmas tree, flashing red. The sound of a recording began playing from the android. "PROTOCOLS ENGAGED. SYSTEM ACTIVATION. ATOMIC DETONATION IN 60, 59, 58, 57, 56..."

"Detonation? He's going to blow up!" Felicity yelled, grabbing the Doctor's arm, eyes blurred with tears. "He's going to explode, Doctor! We have to go!" The Dalek scanned the body and took off for the sake of self preservation, meaning to inform the rest of the Daleks what exactly was actually happening. "Coward."

"He's not blowing up," The Doctor said as pain spread over his face, coming to the same conclusion as the fleeing Dalek did. "He's activated the bombs. All of them. Every single fake power plant across this planet has a bomb identical to the one we found in Babylon. Every android on this planet will be destroyed, along with the Daleks and any entrances to the prison. That was the metal sound I heard from beneath the ground, doors shutting the prison off from anything and everything."

"But why would they do that?" Felicity demanded, choking on her own voice.

"45, 44, 43, 42, 41..."

"It's the last resort," he said. "To keep the prison safe. It's the only thing that can keep the Nightmare Child caged, so that it doesn't destroy any other planets or civilizations. But this one is the price." He looked down at Raston's body. "Logically, they would never be programmed to attack their own kind. Therefore, any attack at all would be from an enemy, giving reason to set off the bombs. This planet barely has any animal life... Romana chose well." A look of sorrow graced his features. "Those bombs will take out everything, the Daleks, the Progenitor device, all of it. That Dalek went to inform the others, but by then it will be too late."

"26, 25, 24, 23..."

"Let's go," the Doctor said softly, turning away and heading for the TARDIS. "There's nothing we can do in twenty-three seconds." Felicity didn't budge an inch. She instead stood over Raston's body with tear-filled eyes. The Doctor turned back for her and she finally followed as the countdown hit eighteen.

xxxxxxxxxx

The planet below was dotted with craters. Felicity stood at the open TARDIS doors and watched the explosions. They were everywhere. She could see them from above, small and yet so very huge. The Doctor was behind her, fiddling with the controls. He didn't care to watch. He was busily doing scans on the planet's surface, confirming that there were no more Daleks and that they'd all perished in the explosion.

"Well he did it," the Time Lord confirmed. "No paperweights left."

"Yeah," she replied hollowly. He approached her and gently shut the TARDIS doors. She didn't protest, just wiped her face dry. It was too dangerous to go back now. The Doctor had mentioned something about the prison shutting itself down and emergency protocols, but she was only half listening.

"At least he didn't feel it," she said, looking up at him with glassy eyes. He smiled sadly and hugged her. She always did this. It was one of the many reasons he enjoyed her company. They broke apart and Felicity sauntered over to the far stairs, which had become her favorite place to sit when the TARDIS was stationary.

The Doctor ascended the few steps in front of him, aiming to go anywhere that wasn't here, but he couldn't quite reach out for the panel. He instead tapped a hand on his leg, as if trying to decide something. After a long moment, he spoke. "She was my friend."

Felicity raised her head from the spot on the floor she had been so intently staring at. "Who?"

"Romana," he said, watching the girl's reaction closely. There was a sadness in his eyes that was unmistakable. Occasionally he turned into an open book, with yellowed pages written in invisible ink.

"I thought so," she answered. He was finally volunteering information about his planet, but she wished that it wasn't under such sad circumstances. He was always so sad. He didn't need any more reminders than he already possessed. "He said she was the President?"

"She was. For a while, anyway, until Rassilon not-so-quietly took his position back in the middle of the War."

"Who is Rassilon?"

They sat floating in space for hours and he told her about his planet. He told her of all they had accomplished and lost. He told her about the Time War and the Time Lock, the Academy, the Time Lords, Gallifrey, the Daleks, the Nightmare Child, and his terrible choice.

She had almost died today. To a Dalek, of all things. There was a part of him that was unsure about her, not because she had ever done anything wrong, of course. Her timeline was still as unstable as the day he'd met her. He had no idea if she could influence other timelines, but he had no intention of ever letting her try. She was still unaware that she possessed this strange trait and he wasn't about to tell her. Such an ability could be easily abused, if not by her, then certainly by others. She knew the dangers of messing with fixed points in time, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do it anyway if someone or something she loved was threatened.

Felicity listened quietly, only asking a question here and there. Mostly, she let him talk. Before, she wasn't entirely sure why he wouldn't speak of his planet. Now she knew. She briefly wondered just how he dealt with the burden, but immediately answered her own question. A thought flitted across her mind, wondering just how many people he would have to save before the guilt lifted even a fraction.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Doctor, I want to go home."

The Time Lord's head snapped up from where it had been busily spotting the precise buttons to press to take them to their next destination. It had been only a day since Mesopotamia and he had feared that this was going to happen. She had never asked to go home before. He knew she missed her parents, but it would entail so many explanations and stories at this point and he knew she didn't want to deal with their disapproving frowns. He didn't want to deal with their disapproving slugs to the face.

"Okay," he said, changing course by reaching across to spin a whirligig. A million things whizzed through his head, all having to do with the words 'don't' and 'go'. Instead, he set course for Leadworth. "Home. I can do that."

"Not stay home," she clarified. "I just want to call and talk to Mum."

"With my doctorate in jiggery-pokery, I can fix your mobile so you can call her from here," he suggested, inexplicably relieved, pausing in the flipping of switches and the pressing of buttons. He acted like he wanted a response to the doctorate comment, but she didn't dignify him with so much as a giggle.

"It's back in the school," she said a bit sheepishly. "I think it's in my locker."

"The TARDIS has a phone too, you know," he said, then immediately thought about it. "Then again, perhaps that's not such a good idea. She would expect you to be calling from your own mobile." Felicity nodded. "I could always re-route the call using the TARDIS's-"

"Home," she insisted gently.

"Right," he said, pulling a lever to his right, losing yet again. "Home."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Hello?" Amy's voice was warm and familiar on the other line.

"Hi Mom," Felicity said quietly. The Doctor had parked the TARDIS in a little used janitor's closet inside the school. Felicity had done quite a bit of sneaking around, getting to her locker and then creeping to the loo to phone Amy. As it was, she was trying not to cry. It had been four years since she'd heard her mother's voice, after all.

"Felicity, what are you doing calling me from school? You're going to get in trouble! Do I have to take your phone away from you?"

She would say that. "No Mum, I'm sorry, I just..." She trailed off. The bathroom was not the proper place for a phone conversation, she decided. It echoed in here. She hated places that echoed; they always felt far too empty. "I thought I felt sick, but I'm okay now."

Felicity could hear the change in her mother's voice, now laced with worry. "Are you sure you're alright? Your voice sounds different. Do you have an upset stomach? I can come get you if you don't feel well."

"No, I'm fine. Mr. Richards just announced an English test on the stuff we've been studying, I guess I got nervous," she lied. Nervous about a test. She could fight aliens on other planets in the future but she couldn't come up with a better excuse than that.

"Well alright, just get back to class, okay? Don't let your teachers see you talking on your phone."

"Okay, thanks Mum. I love you." She wiped her eyes of the tears that were silently threatening to fall.

"I love you too, Liss. See you when you get home."

Her mother sounded so... normal. The woman had no clue whatsoever about where her daughter had been for the last four years. Felicity wanted to say more, so much more, but kept herself quiet. "See you. Bye."

"Bye." Click.

xxxxxxxxxx

Felicity snuck back to the TARDIS silently, mobile in hand. She had been worried that he would leave her and was relieved when the blue box was still sitting comfortably in the closet. The Doctor didn't say a word when she walked back in, just began pulling this and that, getting the TARDIS ready for takeoff.

"I didn't tell her," Felicity said finally, putting the phone in her pocket.

"I didn't think you would," he replied with a knowing smile.

She smiled back, scaling the steps. "Alright," she announced. "Let's get off this rock!"