I don't own Doctor Who, only the Guardian.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The Guardian walked into the console room just as the Doctor hung up the phone. "Well?" She asked, toweling her wet hair. The Doctor's last attempt to take them to Poosh had landed them in that swamp on Metabelis Four, where they were chased by some odd form of swamp monster. Needless to say, the Guardian was not happy about all the swamp water she had to wash out of her hair.
"Rose called," his voice was hard, and it made the Guardian wince. Two months, and he still hadn't forgiven Rose.
"And what did she want?"
"Something about UFO sightings and strange happenings at a school in London."
"What is it with aliens and London?" The Guardian asked. She tossed her towel to hang on one of the Y-beams.
The Doctor chuckled and shook his head. "I have no idea, Amadahy."
"So, do you want to investigate?"
"Nope."
She raised one eyebrow. That was definitely not like her husband. "Because Rose asked you to?"
"Yep." He moved around the console, flipping switches. "What do you say a trip to see Shakespeare? He's a brilliant one."
The Guardian followed after him, pulling the lever that was the brakes. "Mickey told me about the same thing. And I told him we would investigate it."
"Later," the Doctor typed something into the monitor and upbeat music began to play. "We've got a time machine. We have all the time in the Universe."
He pulled her into his arms and tried to start dancing with the music, but for once the Guardian didn't want to dance. "No, Eltanin, we're going. I may not like Rose, but Mickey asked for our help."
The Doctor sighed and released her, walking back to the console. "Fine." He knew as well as she did that Mickey wasn't asking lightly. The young man had called a couple of times to see how the Guardian was doing, but he had never asked them to investigate anything, despite a few incidents that they knew UNIT had taken care of.
"Next stop: London."
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The Doctor walked into the physics laboratory of Deffry Vale School. It had actually been the Guardian's idea to go undercover. At the time, he had thought it was a good idea. But now, looking over the collection of barely interested teenagers, he was starting to wonder if it hadn't been such a great idea after all.
"'Morning, class. Are you all sitting comfortably?"
There wasn't much of a response, just like yesterday. And this was an entirely new class. He hid his grimace by glancing at his notes. "Okay, time to see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"
Only one boy raised his hand. He was also the only one who appeared interested.
"Your name?" The Doctor asked.
"Milo."
"Right then, Milo? What's the answer?"
"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge."
"Correct," the Doctor glanced at his notes again. "I coil up a thin piece of micro wire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this: how do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?"
Once again, Milo's hand was the only one that came up. The previous Guardian's term 'pudding brains' came to mind, but he stopped himself from saying anything other than "Anyone else care to answer?"
No one's bored expression changed. "Go for it, Milo."
"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and voltmeter."
Correct again. The Doctor nodded, actually impressed. So Milo was one of the students getting this school record results.
Time to see what else Milo knew.
"Tell me, Milo, true or false: the greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."
"False." The boy responded back far too confidently and quickly.
Okay, that was a 50-50 chance. "What is non-coding DNA?"
"DNA that doesn't code for a protein." Milo responded just as quickly as before.
Now the Doctor frowned slightly. "What's sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and eighty-three times five?"
"Three hundred and twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifteen." Still no hesitation.
That should be impossible.
"How do you travel faster than light?"
"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty-six point seven recurring."
The Doctor blinked. Now that was impossible. As much as he hated to admit it, Mickey the Idiot seemed to have been right.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The Guardian slammed her tray down on the canteen table and all but collapsed into the chair.
"Having fun?" The Doctor asked her, grinning.
She glared at him before turning her attention to the food, which she ate quickly, not even questioning it. Except for the chips. Those she left on the tray, just like the Doctor had, she noticed.
'So?' She asked him.
'Boy in class this morning had knowledge way beyond planet Earth.'
'As in?' She looked around the quiet canteen, spotting Rose making her away towards them with very little subtlety.
'He knew how to travel faster than light.'
The Guardian blinked. That was almost as impossible as her own encounter this morning. 'I—'
"Two days." Rose's voice interrupted.
The Doctor ignored her, while the Guardian shot her a small glare.
Rose either didn't notice or ignored her. "Two days, we've been here."
"Well, I'm thanking Mickey." The Guardian responded. "I nearly had a student out-hack me this morning."
The Doctor frowned, leaving forward. "What?"
She nodded. Somehow, she had been able to get a spot as an advanced computer sciences teacher, which was amazing considering how closely the school guarded its computers. That itself was suspicious.
"A student displayed technical abilities beyond planet Earth, just like yours." She spoke more to the Doctor, since he actually looked interested. "I challenged him to a hacking battle. He would try to hack into my computer, and I would defend it."
The Doctor started smirking, clearly thinking he knew how this was going to end.
"He nearly won."
The Doctor's grin disappeared. "But that should have been easy for you!"
She should have been able to defend her computer and hack into his at the same time. Instead, a 13-year-old human had nearly beat her at her own area of expertise.
"Sorry, what?" Rose said.
"You missed a spot." The Doctor replied. Those were literally the first words that he had spoken to Rose since they landed.
Rose glanced down at the table she was supposed to be wiping. "You eating those chips?"
The Guardian shook her head. "They taste wrong."
Rose took one off the Doctor's plate and tried it. "I think they're gorgeous! Wish I had school dinners like this."
Just then, the head dinner lady stalked over. "You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting." She snapped at Rose.
"I was just talking to these teachers." Rose faltered. "They don't like the chips."
Which was saying something, especially for the Guardian lately. She was eating practically everything around, including nibbling on a few of the Doctor's odd concoctions in the TARDIS's kitchen. Of course, she knew the reason—or reasons—for that. She could feel their presence in her mind. She hid her small smile. Her world was less empty now.
The head dinner lady turned to them. "The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance." Her attention shifted to Rose. "Now, get back to work."
Rose hurried off, followed by the head lunch lady, just as a black teacher walked over to a nearby table full of students.
"Melissa." The Guardian could hear him as he spoke to a young girl. "You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me, so it's time we moved you up to the top class."
The Guardian looked over at the Doctor. He was closer, so he could hear as well.
'That doesn't sound good.' He said to her.
'No.' She looked around the canteen, an unmistakable feeling of being watched striking her.
There. Standing on the balcony above was the headmaster, Mr. Finch. He seemed to be watching the lunchroom with a predatory gaze.
The Guardian tightened her jaw. Whatever Mr. Finch was, he was not going to harm any more of the children in the school.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Cell phone in hand, the Guardian walked into the teacher's lounge. Mickey had just called to tell her what he had found so far—over forty UFO sightings logged by the army three months ago.
The same time that Mr. Finch arrived with twelve new staff, several of whom were now clustered in one area of the lounge.
Even more concerning, Mickey had been on the phone with Rose when Mr. Finch's kitchen staff had come through with several barrels of the chip oil, and it had spilled on one of them. Apparently, there had been a lot of screaming, which the head cook had tried to pass off as normal for the woman in question.
No wonder the chips taste wrong, if that was what its concentrated form could do.
The Guardian joined the Doctor as he stood speaking to one of the history teachers. He smiled and put his arm around her waist, as she did with him. She was glad that they had chosen to join the school's staff as a married couple. At least they could be open about their relationship, unlike the time they had tried to go undercover a month ago, when they were investigating a series of suspicious disappearances in the Dundra system.
Their attempts to pretend at not knowing each other had not gone over well.
Well, she hadn't had any troubles. The Doctor on the other hand….
'Oi!' He scolded. 'Can I help it if I am obsessed with my wife?'
'Focus.' She replied, but smiled as she focused on the history teacher, Parsons.
"Yesterday, I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy—in cubits."
"That is impressive," the Guardian commented. How many people in this time period even knew what a cubit was?
"And this wasn't the first of this kind of thing," the Doctor informed her. "This is all since the new headmaster arrived?"
Parsons nodded. "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teachers you replaced, and that was just plain weird."
"How so?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, it wasn't so strange for the computer sciences teacher, Mrs. Smith. He played the lottery all the time. I mean, we were surprised that he actually won something, but not like the teacher you replaced, Smith."
"How's that more weird?" The Guardian asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight."
The Guardian smiled. "It must have been her night."
Parsons started to reply, but Mr. Finch chose that moment to walk in, followed by a middle-aged woman that the Guardian recognized from the Doctor's memories.
'Amadahy, it's—'
"Excuse me, colleagues," Finch said. "A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith."
The Guardian smiled, feeling the Doctor's excitement. There he was—the man that he had been before she regenerated.
"Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak." He chuckled. "Don't spare my blushes."
Finch left, and the Guardian relaxed. Ever since that moment in the canteen, Finch's mere presence was enough to make her tense.
Sarah Jane looked around the room for a moment before walking over to the Doctor and the Guardian. "Hello."
The Doctor was silent, too excited about meeting Sarah Jane Smith again to speak in a civilized manner.
The Guardian smiled, but didn't offer her hand to shake, since it was wrapped around the Doctor's waist. "Hello."
"And you are?"
"Allegra and John Smith."
"Married couple?" Sarah Jane glanced at the wedding and engagement rings that the Guardian wore, though only because the humans would think it strange for her not to be wearing them.
She hated the way rings felt, having far too many memories of being struck by ringed hands to make wearing rings of her own enjoyable, so she had originally refused when the Doctor offered to give her an engagement ring like humans wore. She still took these rings off as soon as she reentered the TARDIS every evening.
"Yes," the Doctor finally said. "Just."
"Congratulations." Sarah Jane smiled. "John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name."
"Common name." The Doctor shrugged.
"He was a very uncommon man." Sarah Jane smiled again, but this one was nostalgic. "Well, it's nice to meet you."
"And you." The Guardian replied.
"So, have you worked here long?"
"Our second day."
"Oh, you're new, then." She dropped her voice a little. "So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." The Doctor grinned.
Sarah Jane shrugged. "Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here."
The Guardian smiled. "No, there's not."
Sarah Jane had to move on then.
"Good for you, Sarah." The Doctor muttered.
'I think we should invite her to join us.'
After a moment, the Doctor slowly began to nod.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
That night, the Guardian watched Sarah Jane break into the school. She followed the woman through the darkened corridors, careful to remain unnoticed. Having traveled with the Doctor, Sarah Jane was far more vigilant than most humans, so the Guardian actually had to try to be more stealthy than already came naturally.
As they neared the storeroom where the Doctor and the Guardian had hidden the TARDIS, both women heard something screech down the hall.
The Guardian frowned. The sound resembled that of a bat, but it was too big. And the tone was wrong.
Sarah Jane opened the storeroom door and walked inside. The Guardian followed her, but leaned back against the door. She watched the woman back away from the TARDIS in shock.
"He's told me a lot about you, Sarah Jane." She spoke just loud enough to be heard.
The woman spun around. "Who are you?"
"I'm known as the Guardian."
"A Time Lady?"
The Guardian nodded, even if that wasn't true in the strictest sense. Few species had actually heard of the Immortals, since they were so rare. To the rest of the Universe, she was a Time Lady, even if her own people had never considered her such.
"So, that man was the Doctor? He's regenerated?" Sarah Jane whispered.
"A half a dozen times since you last met him."
"You're really his wife? Is he happy?" Sarah Jane asked, tears in her eyes.
The Guardian smiled and nodded, thinking of the particular piece of information that she had yet to share with him. "Yes. He is."
She laughed. "I can't believe that he's here. After all these years."
In the distance, they heard a man scream.
"Okay, now I can!"
The two women smiled and ran out of the storeroom, going in the direction the scream had come from.
They met the Doctor and Mickey outside of a cupboard, where the Doctor was berating Mickey for screaming.
"It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended himself.
"Like a little girl?"
The Guardian bent down and looked at the packages on the floor. They were dozens of vacuum-packed rats.
Rose joined them and did the same thing, only she voiced her findings aloud.
"It was dark! I was covered in rats!"
"Doctor, leave him alone."
"Thank you, Dee." Mickey looked over at her as she stood. The young man hadn't been too certain about her when he saw her for the first time, but it seemed that he had finally accepted her as the Guardian.
"Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose asked.
Sarah Jane spoke up. "Well, obviously they use them in biology lessons. They dissect them."
"Who are you?"
The Guardian frowned at the hard tone in Rose's voice. "Rose, this is the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane, Rose is our assistant for this particular adventure."
"He never mentioned her."
The Guardian caught the hurt look in Sarah Jane's eyes. Apparently the woman had missed her emphasis in Rose's temporary state. "Considering that you only traveled with us for a week before the Doctor left you, he hardly would have had time to, especially with your constant nattering." She really was getting sick of this human. "Now can we focus?"
"Yes, thank you, Guardian." The Doctor kissed her.
'Thank you for handling Sarah for me.'
"Anything for you, darling." The Guardian said, responding to both of his comments.
He turned to the trio of humans. "Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office. I was going to, but then Ricky here had to get scared."
"Mickey," the Guardian and Mickey corrected at the same time.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Hand-in-hand, the Gallifreyans led the way to the headmaster's office. When they reached it, the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the door.
'Allow me,' the Guardian put her hand on his shoulder to push him out of the way. She glanced into the office, her eyes widening slightly since no one could see it. Thirteen large, bat-like creatures hung from the ceiling.
She pulled out of the doorway. "I think I know what those rats where for."
"What?" Rose asked.
"Food." She opened the door a bit wider so that the others could look inside.
"No way!" Mickey ran down the hall.
Sarah Jane and Rose followed him, but much slower. The Guardian shut the office door, her and the Doctor both flinching when they heard noises like one of the creatures had woken up. They jogged a little to catch up to Rose and Sarah Jane.
The group found Mickey in the school yard.
"I am not going back in there!" Mickey nearly shouted when he saw them. "No way!"
"Those were teachers?" Rose shook her head.
"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse." The Guardian said.
The Doctor picked the explanation up. "Thirteen. And we have thirteen bats. Come on!"
"What?" Rose exclaimed.
"'Come on'?" Mickey repeated. "You've got to be kidding!"
The Guardian remained silent, her hand slipping to her stomach for just a moment, moving it before anyone noticed. For once, a part of her didn't want to walk right back into danger, especially if one of those creatures had woken up.
"I need the TARDIS to analyze the oil that Rose was told to get. If even she did."
"I got it!" Rose pulled the small jar out of her pocket.
The Guardian took it from her and slipped it in her own jacket pocket, ignoring the teenager's glare.
"I might be able to help you there," Sarah Jane said. "I've got something to show you."
They followed her to a silver car parked in a nearby car park—one that was off the school grounds. Sarah Jane opened the back hatch to reveal a very futuristic metal dog.
"K9!" The Doctor grinned and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, scanning the dog. "What happened to him?" He asked Sarah Jane.
"Oh, one day, he just—nothing." She shrugged. "And I couldn't just get him repaired. It's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro."
The Guardian nodded. "The technology inside of him could rewrite human science. You did the right thing, Sarah."
Sarah Jane smiled at the name the Fourth Doctor used to call her.
"Why does he look so...disco?" Rose asked.
The Guardian turned to her, since clearly the Doctor was back to ignoring the girl. "In the year five thousand, K9 was the latest style. Just wait. Give it ten years and your cell phone will be strange too."
Something moved in the darkness. The Guardian shuddered a tiny bit, and she took a deep breath before looking around. On the roof of the school, she could just make out the form of a human and one of the bat creatures.
She laid a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Darling, there's a chip shop just down the street. We should take K9 there. We're too exposed here."
The Doctor straightened and nodded.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
"You look incredible." Sarah said quietly to the Doctor as they sat at a table in the chip shop, K9 on the table between them.
The Doctor didn't look up from the metal dog. "So do you."
A part of him regretted pulling Sarah into this. It had been over thirty years for her since he left her in Croyden, as he thought he had been called to Gallifrey by the Time Lords. He had no regrets about going, even if he had nearly been executed again, because that particular incident had resulted in him becoming the Lord President. And that introduced him to the Guardian.
Speaking of, the Guardian… He looked up to see her waiting at the counter for her order of chips.
"She's beautiful."
He looked over to see Sarah smiling at him.
"How did you meet her?" She asked.
He shrugged. "I became the Lord President to avoid execution. Her job on Gallifrey was to keep the Lord President alive."
Sarah's eyes widened, but she was silent. A minute or so later, she said quietly, "I thought you'd died."
He looked up from K9.
"I waited for you," she continued. "And you didn't come back. And I thought you must have died."
"I nearly did." He replied just as quietly.
"But in the end, everyone else died." The Guardian joined them, sitting beside the Doctor. She took his hand and squeezed it lightly before releasing it.
'I can do this for you, Eltanin.'
'Thank you.'
He focused on K9, but listened to the Guardian explain everything.
"Sarah, our people were at war with the Daleks. A war bigger than you could possibly imagine. In the end, we were the only ones who survived. The two of us and one Dalek."
"But… how?"
"I'm not sure how I did." He felt her shrug. "I just remember waking up in the TARDIS, newly regenerated, my last memory of the War."
"And you?"
The Doctor took a deep breath. "I was the one who ended it." He didn't look up.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The Guardian watched the devastation form in Sarah Jane's expression. So the woman was able to figure out what that meant for the Doctor, even if she didn't know about the Time Lock.
The Doctor straightened as K9 came back to life, his head and tail perking up. The three at the table stood, with Rose and Mickey joining them.
"Master." K9 said haltingly.
The Guardian smiled when the Doctor grinned. "He recognizes me!"
"Affirmative."
"How have you been, K9?" The Doctor rubbed the metal dog behind his left ear.
The Guardian exchanged a playfully exasperated glance with Sarah Jane and pulled the jar of oil out of her pocket. "Darling, there is a possible alien invasion of Earth in progress. We really should stay on task."
"Right." The Doctor took the jar and opened it, about to stick his finger in it.
"I wouldn't touch it," Rose interrupted. "That dinner lady got all scorched."
"I'm no dinner lady." The Doctor replied coldly.
"You don't hear that too often." The Guardian quipped as the Doctor took a sample from the jar—with his bare fingers—and smeared it on the probe in K9's head.
"Oil... Ex-ex-ex-extract…. Ana-ana-analyzing..."
Mickey chuckled. "Listen to him, man. That's a voice."
Sarah Jane shot him an offended glare. "Careful. That's my dog."
"Confirmation of analysis." K9 said suddenly.
The Guardian nodded, taking one of the chips she had bought. These tasted far better than the ones at the school. "That was a lot faster than I expected. Especially with this one having fixed him."
The Doctor turned slightly. "Oi!"
The Guardian smirked and stuffed a chip into his open mouth. "Focus on the metal dog."
"K9, what is it?" Sarah Jane asked, also smiling at the exchange between the two Gallifreyans.
"Substance is Krillitane Oil."
The Doctor stiffened. "Are you sure, K9?"
The Guardian laid a hand on his back. 'Eltanin, what are the Krillitanes?' For once, this was a race she had never heard of.
"Affirmative."
"Is that bad?" Rose asked.
"Very." The Doctor straightened and began pacing. "You can't even imagine how very."
"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane spoke.
"They're a composite race, an amalgam of the races they've conquered." The Guardian answered, picking up all the stray thoughts from the Doctor as he seemed to be trying to figure out how on Earth to handle the information.
He spoke a moment later. "But they don't take bits of culture, like you lot have, they take physical aspects. They pick the best bits from the races they destroy. That's why I didn't recognize them, the last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us, except they had really long necks."
"What're they doing here?" Rose asked, her eyes wide.
The Guardian closed her own eyes in dread as she realized. "The extra classes! The deadlocked computers! They're doing something to the children!"
The other four people in the shop looked at her with equal horror.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
While the Doctor and Mickey loaded K9 back into Sarah Jane's car, the Guardian ended up taking a few moments to talk to the woman alone, since Rose had tagged along with the two men.
"Guardian, you said the Doctor told you all about me. Did I do something...wrong?"
The Guardian shook her head. "No, of course not."
Sarah Jane sighed, though not really with relief. "Then… why did he never come back for me?"
The Guardian was silent for a moment, as she searched through the memories she had seen. "The Doctor hates endings. He hates to see things die. You're human, Sarah. You age, and one day you'll die. And he can't bear to watch that." She smiled sadly. "The Doctor runs away from time, from loss. I'm the only one who has been able to catch up to him."
"Because you can also regenerate?"
The Guardian nodded. "It's the gift and the curse of the Time Lords."
Then, faintly, she heard a familiar voice exclaim, "Time Lords."
She looked up just in time to see a Krillitane swoop down from the school roof. "Get down!" She dragged Sarah Jane to the pavement, careful not to fall on her stomach. The Krillitane passed over them close enough that it could have grabbed them if it wanted to, but instead it just flew away.
'Amadahy!' The Doctor ran over and helped the Guardian up. "Are you alright?" He pulled her into his arms.
"Yeah. But Finch knows what we are."
The Doctor nodded stiffly as Sarah Jane stood.
"Was that a Krillitane?" She said.
Mickey and Rose joined them. "It didn't even touch them," Rose commented. "What did it do that for?"
"It wanted us to know that it knew."
"Knew what?" Mickey asked.
The Guardian pulled one of her guns out of her jacket, surprising Sarah Jane. "That we're coming."
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The next morning, two Gallifreyans and three humans watched as hundreds of children arrived at school.
"Sarah, go to the Maths room." The Guardian took charge. "I don't care how you do it, but get those computers open so I can get to the hardware inside." She turned to the Doctor and pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and handed it to Sarah. "You may need this. Rose, go with her.
"Mickey, I want you on surveillance. If you see anything, call me or Rose. Sarah, could he borrow the keys to your car? We may need a getaway, since the Doctor moved the TARDIS last night."
"Of course." Sarah Jane tossed Mickey her keys. "You can also keep K9 company."
"What're you going to do?" Rose asked.
"The Guardian and I are going to have a word with Mister Finch." The Doctor responded grimly.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
They found Mr. Finch beside the swimming pool. The two species, Gallifreyan and Krillitane, stood on opposite sides.
"Who are you?" The Doctor spoke first.
"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?"
"The Doctor."
"And the Guardian. Since when did Krillitanes have wings?" She asked. The Doctor had told her everything he remembered about them the night before.
"It's been our form for nearly ten generations now." Finch replied lightly. "Our ancestors invaded Bessan, and the people there had some rather lovely wings." He smiled darkly. "They made a million widows in one day. Just imagine."
"I don't have to." The Guardian responded flatly.
The Doctor flinched and he took her hand. He didn't have to either. He had seen all of the Weapon's massacres through her own eyes, and a couple of them personally. The major difference was that she left no one alive, so that no one was left to deal with the horrifying memories and the guilt of surviving.
"And now you're shaped human." The Doctor stated.
"A personal favorite, that's all."
"And the others?" The Guardian asked.
"My brothers remain in bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath. And what of the Time Lords?" Finch asked, changing the subject. "I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and chaos. Except for her."
The Doctor stiffened, his hand tightening around the Guardian's. "What do you mean?"
Finch chuckled. "All the Universe knows about the Guardian. The 'hope of the Time Lords'. The ultimate Weapon against the Daleks. And yet it seems that she failed. The Time Lords are all but extinct, except for you. And her. I wonder how that happened? It seems the Warrior and the Weapon were really cowards at heart."
The Doctor didn't even try to stop her as the Guardian pulled out one of her guns. A part of him wanted her to shoot Finch for his words.
"This plan of yours is going to end." The Guardian said calmly, firmly.
"And yet you don't even know what it is. How can you stop it when you can't even break into our computer systems?"
"I don't need to. What are thirteen more lives to me?"
"Fascinating." Finch breathed a laugh. "The Time Lords were peaceful to the point of indolence, and yet they managed to create you—a being without conscience."
The Doctor felt the Guardian flinch in his mind.
"Would you declare war on us, Weapon?"
"No, I will if I have to." The Doctor responded for her. "I used to have so much mercy. But I'm old now. You just got your one warning." With one hand on the Guardian's back, he urged her out of the room.
Behind them, they heard Finch shout, "But we're not even enemies. Soon you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you will join us—I promise you!"
Suddenly, the Guardian whirred around and shot the wall just over Finch's shoulder. As he looked in shock at the new tear in his jacket caused by the energy bullet, the Guardian said darkly, "I didn't miss. That was your one warning from me."
GD~GD~GD~GD~
As the Doctor led her through the corridors, the Guardian was shaking from how close she had come to killing Finch. But that would have thrown off their plans. Since Finch still thought they would join the Krillitanes when they discovered the bats' plans, the Krillitanes wouldn't attack yet. If she had killed Finch…
All bets would have been off.
The Gallifreyans walked into an IT classroom to see Rose and Sarah Jane glaring at each other, Sarah Jane fuming.
"Is it true?" Sarah Jane snapped when they walked in. "Did Rose really try to save a Dalek?"
"I didn't know!"
"That is a conversation for another time," the Guardian replied that the same time that the Doctor said "yes".
The Guardian whirled around to glare at him. "We do not have time for this. Any of this! I need to get inside those computers, and figure out what the hell the Krillitanes are doing to these children."
A klaxon sounded, and an announcement was heard. "All pupils to class immediately. And would all members of staff congregate in the staff room."
The Guardian immediately moved over to the head computer and began typing every code she could think of. A moment later, she heard the other three turning to their own tasks.
The Guardian was so focused on breaking through the encryption on the software that it surprised her when green alien symbols appeared on the black screen. She looked around to see that all the computers and the screen at the front of the classroom had the same program up. She froze, recognizing it. She dreamed of it.
It was always a part of her nightmares. At least, the ones caused by memories.
"You wanted the program? There it is."
"What is it?" Rose asked.
The Doctor frowned. "Some sort of code."
"It's the Skasis Paradigm."
The Doctor spun around to face her, his expression reflecting her own horror.
"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked.
"The god maker," the Guardian replied. "The universal theory. Legend has it that if you crack the equation you have control of the building blocks of the Universe. Time and space and matter are yours to control."
"What, and they're using the kids like a giant computer?"
The Guardian nodded. "Yes, but I even I couldn't crack it." She glanced at the two humans. "A hundred years of my life was dedicated to this task. That's the whole reason my training included computer systems and coding. The Time Lords wanted that power." She frowned. "But if I couldn't crack it, what makes the Krillitanes think that human children could?"
"The oil!" The Doctor said suddenly. "Their learning power is being accelerated by the oil."
The Guardian's eyes widened. "A conducting agent to make the kids cleverer?"
"But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them." Rose said.
"What's fifty-nine times thirty-five?" The Doctor asked, not looking away from the program.
"Two thousand and sixty-five." Rose replied without hesitation. "Oh, my god..."
The Guardian glanced at the girl. "Exactly."
"But why use children?" Sarah Jane asked. "Can't they use adults?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's got to be children. The god maker needs imagination to crack it."
"They're using their souls to break the code." The Guardian felt sick.
"Let the lesson begin."
Everyone spun around to see Mr. Finch had entered the room.
"Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the Universe and improve it."
"And what's your idea of improving the Universe? Giving it the face of Mr. Finch? I knew a man who would have tried something like that, but I'm a bit old-fashioned. I like things as they are."
Finch's chuckle was colored by disbelief. "You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."
"What, by someone like you?"
Finch smiled at the Guardian's question. "No, someone like you, Doctor."
The Guardian glanced at the Doctor. Power like this… it would turn a Time Lord into a vengeful god. No one could wield the power of the Paradigm for good, especially not someone with darkness like the Doctor's.
"The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a god at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilizations you could save. Perganon, Assinta—your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords reborn."
"Doctor, don't listen to him!" Sarah Jane cried.
Finch turned his attention to her. "And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting, Doctor. So many good-byes. So many endings."
The Guardian flinched. He must have heard her say that to Sarah Jane the night before.
"I could save everyone." The Doctor turned to the Guardian, his eyes excited. "I could save them."
Them. His family. Her family.
She moved over to place her hands on either side of his face, to pull him down to rest his forehead against hers. 'Eltanin, no.'
'Why, Amadahy. You could have that second chance with your daughter. We could save our families.'
'At what cost?'
She felt him stiffen.
'Our families are dead. Kateri has been dead for eight hundred years. Bringing them back to life is not worth your soul. And that would be the cost—no one can have that power and not be corrupted eventually.' She took a deep breath to help her control her tears. 'Everything ends, Eltanin. But in those endings are new beginnings.'
Just as soon as this was all over, she was going to tell him about one such new beginning.
Slowly, the Doctor nodded. "Well, Finch, I'm afraid that I'll have to say no."
The Guardian grabbed a chair and threw it at the screen at the front of the classroom, shattering it. "Out!" She yelled to Sarah Jane and Rose.
Finch screamed for his brothers.
The four of them ran through the corridors and down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, they met Mickey and a boy of about thirteen.
"What is going on?" Mickey asked, seeing the now-undisguised Krillitanes coming down one of the corridors at them.
"Keep going!" The Guardian yelled, pulling out one of her guns. She shot on of the creatures in the center of the forehead. It dropped the floor, dead.
She turned to see the Doctor waiting for her. "What the hell are you doing?"
He grabbed her hand as soon as she was close enough. "I'm not going to leave you."
The Guardian rolled her eyes, though a part of her was touched by his concern. The part of her that was not frustrated at him for putting himself in danger.
They ran to the empty canteen, followed rather closely by Finch and several Krillitanes. The Doctor ran for the doors on the other side of the room, but they were locked. Finch and the three remaining Krillitanes stormed into the room before he could sonic it open.
"Are they my teachers?" The boy asked.
"Yep." The Doctor responded.
"Mine were worse." The Guardian offered. She'd far rather deal with Krillitines than her instructors.
"We need the Doctor alive." Finch instructed his brothers. "As for the others? You can feast. The Guardian should be especially tasty."
The male Krillitanes began swooping in, quickly joined by the females, who came out of nowhere. Everyone dived under tables, except the Guardian and the Doctor. He tried to fend them off with a chair, while she stood her ground, pulling out a gun for each hand. As a Krillitane dived for her, she crouched and rolled away, coming up just in time to shoot two of the attacking bats.
Ten to go.
Finch screamed in fury.
Hearing something behind her, she spun around and shot yet another Krillitane.
Nine left.
She too easily fell into a rhythm—the deadly dance of the Weapon. Turn, shoot. Roll, shoot. Dive, shoot.
She could hear her instructors' voices in her head, as clear as if they were shouting at her right then.
"You must make it look effortless. Never let them see your weakness."
"Shoot faster. Last longer. Fight harder. Die better."
She absently noted that the Krillitanes' numbers were down to five.
Then a laser beam brought another bat down, unconscious rather than dead. The Guardian turned to see—
"K9!" Sarah exclaimed.
"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress." The metal dog replied.
"Run!" The Doctor shouted, pointing towards a door.
The humans ran, followed quickly by the Gallifreyans. Finch continued to scream behind them.
"K9, hold them back!"
"Affirmative, master. Maximum defense mode."
They ran down the short corridor and ducked into the Doctor's physics laboratory. The Doctor sealed the doors with the sonic screwdriver.
The humans all looked at the Guardian with a mix of shock and horror, Sarah Jane especially. She looked away. No one on Gallifrey had looked at her like that, and neither had anyone in her adventures with the Doctor, up until now. Most of the people they encountered had heard of the Weapon, so they weren't surprised by what she could do.
This was the first time anyone had seen what she was capable of without already knowing a little.
"Where did you learn how to do that?" Mickey asked quietly.
The Guardian sighed. "Hell." She glanced up at Sarah Jane to see a flicker of sympathy in her eyes. She turned her attention to the pacing Doctor. "Assets?"
He suddenly turned to her, his expression lighting up. "The oil! You said that it burned the Krillitane yesterday?"
The Guardian gestured to Rose. The girl nodded. "Scorched her. She was screaming like someone had thrown acid on her."
"Of course!" The Doctor exclaimed, his face lighting up. "They've changed their physiology so often that their own oil has become toxic. Rose, how much was there?"
"Barrels of it."
There was a massive bang as the Krillitanes began battering on the door, their claws ripping through the metal.
"We need to get to the kitchens." The Doctor grinned.
"Just like with the Slitheen." The Guardian returned his grin, then turned to Mickey. "We're going to free the children and get them out of the school."
The Doctor began pacing again. "Bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?"
Before the Guardian could reply, the young boy went over to a fire alarm and smashed it in with his elbow.
"You are brilliant." The Guardian said to him before they run into the corridor. There were Krillitanes on both sides of the narrow hall, but they were in agony, making it easy to slip by them.
Once they were outside the canteen, the Guardian and Mickey divided from the rest of the group. The fire alarm stopped.
"Quick!" The Guardian said to Mickey. "There's a main classroom. That should be where the master computer is."
They found the students staring at their computers, typing rapidly.
"Okay, listen everyone. We've got to get out of here."
The students didn't respond, even when Mickey waved his hand in front of their faces. The Guardian found an empty computer and listened to the headset. She dropped it as she recoiled from the sound.
"The Krillitanes have put them in a trance, the sort meant to increase their creativity, while drowning out all natural criticism—that little voice that tells you you're not doing something right. It also cuts out distractions, tiredness, but it drains the life right out of them." She shuddered. "No wonder so many students are getting ill."
"So how do we stop it?" Mickey asked.
"By shutting down the program." The Guardian hurried over the main computer.
She began typing rapidly, hoping against logic that this computer was less guarded than the rest of them.
Suddenly, the computer sparked and the screen went blank.
The Guardian looked around for Mickey to find him behind her, having literally pulled the plug on the program. "You're a genius."
The kids slowly woke up, looking around.
"Everyone out!" Mickey shouted.
The Guardian added, "now!"
The children stood and hurried for the door. As soon as they could, Mickey and the Guardian made their way to the next classrooms, to see that those children were also awake and making their way to the exits.
They followed the kids to the schoolyard, urging them further away from the school. Moments after they were clear, the building exploded.
'Eltanin!' The Guardian shouted in her mind, looking around for him.
'I'm okay.'
She breathed a sigh of relief. 'All of you?'
'Except K9.'
The Guardian looked down at the sadness in her husband's voice. He had lost an old friend that day.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Sometime later, the Doctor and the Guardian stepped out of the TARDIS as Sarah Jane walked up.
"Care to take a brief trip with us?" The Doctor asked her. "Just for old times' sake?"
She started to shake her head.
"Sarah, we need to drop Mickey and Rose off." The Guardian added. "Besides, we have a surprise for you."
After a moment, Sarah Jane smiled and walked inside, where Rose and Mickey were waiting. "Oh! You've redecorated!"
The Guardian hurried over and flipped a few switches. The time machine dematerialized, then rematerialized a moment later. "Powell Estate. Off you go."
Rose and Mickey made their way out, Rose staying as far away from the console as she could when she walked past it. Sarah Jane followed them, but only to look outside.
"I don't believe it..." She turned to the Guardian. "I never thought the TARDIS could fly so smoothly!"
"I actually passed my pilot's test." The Guardian smirked.
The Doctor shot her a mock glare, then cleared his throat. "Right. Sarah, your surprise is just behind that door."
Sarah Jane smiled curiously and hurried over to the door leading to the rest of the TARDIS, almost looking twenty again. The Guardian set the coordinates for the park again and took the TARDIS back.
"K9!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "But you were blown up!"
The Guardian joined the Doctor as he leaned against the console, watching Sarah Jane reunite with her dog. She wrapped her arm around his waist, and he did the same to her.
"You replaced him with a brand new model!" Sarah Jane turned back to them, tears in her eyes. She hurried over and the Doctor released the Guardian to give her a hug.
"You know, it's daft, but I haven't ever thanked you for that time." She said as they walked back towards the door, K9 following.
"Something to tell the grandkids." The Doctor replied.
Sarah Jane smiled sadly. "Probably someone else's grandkids. There never was anyone for me. Good-bye, Doctor."
"Oh, don't say—"
"Doctor," the Guardian broke in quietly. "Say it for her." She could tell that the human needed that closer, even if they would no doubt be seeing her again.
"Please." Sarah Jane begged.
The Doctor sighed and looked at both women. "Good-bye, Sarah."
They hugged one last time, and Sarah Jane and K9 stepped out of the TARDIS.
The Guardian turned to the Doctor. "Just a moment." She followed Sarah Jane outside, calling to the woman as soon as they were far enough from the TARDIS.
"Yes?" Sarah Jane turned back.
"How do you feel about telling those stories to a couple of godchildren?"
She looked confused for a moment, then her eyes widened. "You mean… Of course! It would be my honor!"
The Guardian shook her head. "It would be mine."
The two women hugged once more, and then the Guardian walked back to the TARDIS.
"What was that about?" The Doctor asked her as soon as she walked in.
The Guardian smiled. "I was asking her how she felt about being a godmother to a couple of Time Children."
The Doctor blinked. "What?"
"You do remember what Time Children are?" She teased, enjoying the look of shock on his face. "Infant Time Lords… or Ladies… or in this case, one of each."
"You're..." Tears formed in his eyes. "Amadahy?"
She nodded, understanding his hesitance. After everyone they had lost, it seemed foolish to hope. And yet… She pulled his forehead down to hers, and placed one of his hands on her stomach. Then she opened her mind, allowing him to connect with their tiny twins. Once they were born, he would be able to form his own bond with them. But for now, it had to be done through her.
She felt his shoulders shake as he felt the presence of their son and daughter, and she smiled.
Both of their families had ended when Gallifrey burned.
But here, in the out-dated, type-40 TARDIS, their new family had begun.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Getting this episode in a day early, since I'm staffing a youth camp this week and may or may not get time tomorrow.
They're having twins! Yay! But don't worry-this fic is not about to get domestic. And, the twins will have a massive impact in why things go the way they do in Series 2. Meanwhile: MORE FLUFF!
Also, I think this is the first time we've ever seen the Guardian slip back into "Weapon Mode". Well, not full "Weapon Mode". None of the Krillitanes would have survived if she had gone all the way.
Oh, and did anyone catch the reference to the Master? When I got to that line, I immediately thought of "The End of Time" and HAD to put that in.
Next time, we have another Series 2 episode (it's actually really fun to imagine how Nine would react to some of the situations that Ten is put in), but this one actually does have a connection to the Series 1 story arch.
Review Notes:
NicoleR85-The events of Series 2 will occur. How I handle them will be a bit different. Also, River and the Guardian's relationship... well, I haven't seen a fanfiction yet that gives her this relationship with the OC. (Let's just leave it at that...)