A/N: Finally got another chapter done, so, only about three or four more to go now. Have I got you all stumped as to who the Sky Riders are?

CHAPTER TEN: PIECES OF A PUZZLE

The Doctor absently picked at his meal of potatoes, reconstituted vegetables and canned meat with a plastic fork. It wasn't the best meal he had ever eaten, not be a long shot, but he was thankful that Andre was giving him some of her hard-earned food. This was wartime, and with the only source of food being what others had left behind, he considered it a great honour that she was sharing with him. Didn't make it taste any better though.

If all had gone to plan, right now he and Brittany would be eating canapés and nibblies with the head of the New New York mafia. Instead, he was sitting in a basement-turned-bomb-shelter. And Brittany, well, wherever she was didn't bear thinking about. If those soldiers had hurt her, they would learn the true meaning of 'the Oncoming Storm'.

This war was not right. He knew that as soon as he had stepped out into the church. There was just a sense of wrongness around this whole situation, but he had no idea what was causing it. He was a Time Lord; he should be able to see what was messing with time, but he couldn't. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Still, he would find out soon enough, usually while in the capture of some alien menace. I always seemed to work that way. He just wanted it to happen already. Lately, everything seemed to be going pear-shaped, and that phrase sounded particularly nasty to the Doctor. So many unanswered questions. He hated unanswered questions. They always came back to ruin your life later.

First, there was that shade on Sydoriv. Something had opened that rift to the void, but that was impossible. All the link to other universes had been closed, so such a thing wasn't possible. And yet it had happened.

Then there had been the Thoraln and their mysterious 'Golden One'. The Thoraln didn't even have the technology to create gunpowder, and yet they had an interstellar spaceship. Things just didn't add up. And then there was the mystery of who was using mind-control on the Thoraln. The 'Golden One'? Or something more sinister? Who or what was the Golden One anyway? And what did it want with him?

Then, only a few days ago, there had been that business with the shadow. A flash of golden light and the they had been in the middle of some rainy Welsh forest, with a monster hungry for revenge after them. Again, gold. It must be connected somehow. So soon after the destruction of the dalek fleet, and already he was back in the think of it. Couldn't he just have some good, clean, danger-filled adventure? None of this intergalactic revenge stuff? Sometimes he wondered…

And now, there was this war. This war with the Sky Riders. Who were they? What did they want with Messaline? Why were they completely destroying the planet? What was the purpose of all this bloodshed? He had a really bad feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer.

He stabbed one of the boiled potatoes on his plate, and chewed through it thoughtfully. "So," he said after he swallowed, "you."

Andrea looked up from her own meal. "What about me?"

He stared at what he hoped was a piece of rehydrated asparagus, before turning to her. "How did you end up out here?" The asparagus had a strange fruity tang to it, kind of citrusy, so he washed it down with another bite of potato. "I mean, these Tigers can't be all bad can they? Why don't you just jump ship and bunk with them? You'd have a chance of finding your son, too."

Andrea twiddled her fork absently. "For all its dangers, it's safer out on the streets."

"Why? Surely all those soldiers with their military bases and weapons would be good protection."

She shook her head. "Can't you hear it out there? All that destruction? That's those military bases being pummelled into the ground. At first, the Sky Riders attacked at random, but now they know where the soldiers are, it's the military that takes the biggest hits."

Something exploded over their heads, and the already dim electric lights cut out, plunging the basement into darkness.

"That sounded like a close one," the Doctor announced to the dark room. Trying to work out what that liquid seeping through the tops of his black sneakers was. It smelt kind of salty.

A candle flared into life, casting eerie flickering shadows across the room. Andre held it up, checking for serious damage, while the Doctor decided it was prudent to get his priorities right, and checked his shoes. He jumped in fright when he spotted the slimy green things that had spilt across the floor.

"What is it Doctor?" Andrea queried, wondering what could have scared him. "What's wrong?"

He pointed at the floor, while simultaneously leaping up onto a chair. "Gherkins!" he exclaimed, pointed at said foodstuff. "I've got gherkin juice on my feet!" Andrea shook her head in disbelief, returning to making an inventory of supplies that had been damaged in the explosion.

The Doctor removed his trainers, socks and all, and tried to clean his feet on a piece of paper he had found in his jacket pocket. Admittedly, it was a very old and yellowing piece of paper, more like parchment, and it took him about half a minute to realise that it was actually the United States Declaration of Independence that he had, on numerous occasions, forgotten to remove from his pocket.

Looking very guilty, the Doctor returned the now wet document to his pocket, vowing to stow it somewhere safe once he returned to the TARDIS. He replaced his shoes and socks, decided that maybe it were best if h just lived with wet socks for a while.

Returning from her cataloguing, Andrea set the candle down on the floor and sank into her folding chair. "Didn't lose too much," she said, ignoring the Time Lord's looks of discomfort. "Five jars of pickled vegetables, three jars of sauce, two bottles of milk and half a bottle of water, on account of that bottle of water being only half full." She frowned at the ceiling. "I think the generator was busted though. I'm not really sure how to fix it."

The Doctor winked at her. "Oh well, it's lucky you've got me, innit? I'm brilliant with mechanical things. I'll get it up and running for you in the morning, how does that sound?"

"That's the best news I've heard in a long time," Andre admitted with a smile.

The Time Lord smiled back at her. "Oh, there's plenty more where that came from, trust me." He then grinned at the ceiling. "You Sky Riders better watch out, because I'm coming for you," he declared, brandishing a pencil rather wildly in place of his usual sonic screwdriver, "and this war will end, tonight."