The Arbiter filled Rose in quickly on what little he knew of their adversary. Cessair was notorious for her crimes, of which there were many, but her renown was for her ability to escape any and all punishment no matter how careful her captors were. Caught, tried, and convicted in several galaxies and during several different time periods, she was as slippery a criminal as they came. Her brutal methods of escape and the often disastrous consequences of her many cons had earned her a reputation during the Arbiter's early years. At some point a few generations before he'd met Elizabeth, Cessair had disappeared and everyone had breathed a sigh of relief believing that perhaps she had finally been neutralized.

"Let me implore you again, do not go alone." He pleaded with her as he finished. "We can fly to a hospital and have Elizabeth seen to and be back here seconds after leaving."

Rose sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You admitted not an hour ago that this type of TARDIS is nearly impossible for one person to fly accurately. Why do you think I'd believe you can do it now, unfamiliar as you are with her systems, under duress, with lives on the line? No Arbiter – I'm going after him." Rose looked up and let her expression fall into the hardened lines she'd developed during her long separation from the Doctor, a time he still knew very little about because she'd never had the heart to tell him. "I counted six men back there along with Cessair. I've handled double that with a breakfast spoon."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Have you really?"

Rose didn't bother to mention that she'd used the spoon to create an electrical circuit into a puddle she'd made by purposefully overflowing the toilet and electrocuted the men… "I've done a lot of things, whatever I've had to do." Rose checked the settings on the weapon he'd handed her one last time, thankful that the symbols had translated from the incompressible swirls of the Time Lord's native language into ones she recognized from their time with Jack. Apparently the TARDIS could translate it if she, or the author, really wanted her to and the message was simple enough. "I need to get out there before the trail runs dry."

"Scan for non-human life forms. Cessair might look human but she's masking her true appearance." He advised.

Rose couldn't help smirking. "See, there's that bit of Spock I'm always talking about." She brandished her damaged sonic. "Luckily I made him put that as the third setting."

"May I ask what the first two are?"

Rose smiled fondly at the device. "Unlock and signal jammer."

"Practical." He admitted. "Is there nothing I can do to convince you not to go?"

Rose shook her head. "If a million Dalek fleet and certain death didn't stop me from rescuing your son a lousy silver colored con artist is hardly going to."

The Arbiter gave her a hard look. "You seem entirely too comfortable with a weapon and going out into combat for a mere shop girl from London. Tell me, where did you acquire these skills? Is my son's life so fraught with conflict?"

Rose hesitated but the look of fear and concern in the elderly man's eyes finally loosened her tongue. "He doesn't know much about the time we were separated, when I was locked in another universe. He hasn't asked because he's afraid he made a mistake letting the TARDIS bring me back here and I haven't pushed because," Rose checked the knife in her boot and made sure her improvised wire garrote was secure in the sleeve holder. "I haven't pushed because it would break his heart to know the truth." Rose looked back up and held the Arbiter's eye. "I was gone far longer than he thinks and Pete's World, that's what we call the other universe, was not peaceful. There were no Time Lords there, no Shadow Proclamation, no rules or conventions of any kind. Earth survived because no one noticed us and when they did start to pay attention, well, it got ugly. Very very ugly. Even across the Void I was connected enough to the TARDIS she translated for me. At first I was the only chance we had for diplomacy. Later I was the only chance we had to survive." Rose looked away again. "Things had settled by the time I was yanked back here, but the damage had already been done. That universe no longer looks anything like this one, it's diverged too far to be recognizable. There was very little left for me to leave behind."

The Arbiter nodded. "So it was more than a few years?" He looked her over carefully. "How old are you, girl?"

Rose smiled sadly. "Forty-seven."

His eyes grew large. "Did Theta do something to slow your aging? Or something in the other universe?"

Rose let out a long breath. "No. Truth be told I have no idea why I am the way I am, or how long it will last. I do age, and change, so its not like what happened to Jack – which is a story for a much later time. It's probably tied to the TARDIS in some way but I haven't wanted to worry the Doctor. He'd think he needed to fix it and frankly I'd rather he didn't. Not for my sake but for his. Any extension to my forever is means he will have less time alone." The rotor glowed brilliantly for a moment and Rose smiled at the ship. "Not that he'll ever really be alone again. We've taken a few measures to insure that."

"The child?"

Rose shook her head. "No, this entire situation is unexpected. But," Rose moved towards the control console. "The TARDIS and I are linked, have been since I looked into her heart. We grow closer and closer as time goes on and at some point I suspect she and I will mingle to the point there's not really a distinction." Rose flicked several switches, ignoring the shocked expression on the Arbiter's face. "The Doctor still hasn't realized any of this," Rose continued as she manipulated several of the external sensors to show the guards outside the TARDIS clearly posted to capture anyone that emerged. "We thought it best to give him a few years of peace before he tries to stop the inevitable."

"The idea of losing yourself to a TARDIS at some indeterminate point in the future does not frighten you?"

Rose turned, her eyes glowing slightly golden. "I already gave myself to her, a very long time ago. I made that choice and so did she and while the process is slow it cannot be reversed. She could not leave half herself in the other universe and so I am here. Together we will do what we have always done, stronger for our link than we ever were apart." Rose flicked another switch and the Arbiter watched the monitor as a slightly green smoke flooded the area around the TARDIS.

"What did you do?"

"I vented the aft stabilizer's waste line." Rose blinked and the golden light left her eyes. "It's not deadly but it will give anyone within 1000 feet a pretty bad headache, once they regain consciousness that is." Rose yanked open a panel and grabbed a breathing mask. "Now, any more questions or can I go about with the rescue part of the plan?"

The Doctor woke up in a mine shaft with a splitting head. The Ogri was placed right in the middle of the only exit, a glowing and rather effective door for an impromptu prison. Cessair herself stood on the other side, looking human still and resplendent in a silver toned dress that he expected had cost more than the mine.

"You don't look like the Doctor." She said it with a long suffering sigh. "Time Lords – so unpredictable, always changing their faces. Of course, I can change mine as well." She smirked and her face did ripple and shift, going from the human looking woman he'd first met near the standings stone so long ago now in his timeline to the silver alien he'd defeated and back again. "Sadly however I'm limited to pigmentation. What a clever way to hide it would be."

"Rather a dodgy business regeneration." The Doctor answered instead of pretending not to know what she was talking about. Being in his timeline she would remember the Time Lords as more than myth – had tangled with them more often than he knew he'd bet. "Not something I'd do just to hide in plain sight."

Cessair laughed, her head tipped back and her eyes wild. "Oh but you don't have to hide from yourself, Doctor. I, however, am limited. While I may be able to cobble together a primitive time travel device, I am more restricted in my movements. I don't have the benefit of temporal grace to keep from collapsing existence were I to meet myself." Her voice turned bitter. "No matter how I'd like to warn her about you."

"You have never been a fool Cessair." The Doctor acknowledged. "Thank you for at least respecting the laws of Time if nothing else."

She shrugged, the movement looking odd in the formal lady's dress. "I simply haven't found a way around them yet. I will. If you lot have, it cannot be impossible."

He didn't try to explain – it would just be easier to deal with the Reapers. Instead he looked around the small mine shaft he was being held in. "Tell me, what is a lady like Cessair of Diplos doing owning a mining equipment supplier in 19th century Cardiff?"

"I own more than the factory you found." She smiled wickedly. "I own the mine – in the name of my late husband of course."

"Of course." The Doctor conceded. "Did you let the man live a week after the wedding?"

"Three. I rather liked him." Cessair's eyes glinted with mirth. "I must find my amusement where I can, Doctor. Trapped here as I am my options are limited."

"Mind explaining that bit – how you got to this time?" He crossed his arms and leaned casually against the back wall of the shaft, ignoring the lingering pain in his head. His body was already healing the concussion, another few minutes and it would be gone.

Cessair smoothed her skirts. "The Megara were fairly obvious in their methods of punishment – death, imprisonment- all so uninspired. They had a marked preference for inanimate object transformations that was well known and I planned accordingly. You and your little friends were only gone a few hours before I'd reversed the process. But my lovely little hyperspace ship was gone, and with it a great deal of my power." She sneered. "Humans were evolving, changing. Most no longer believed in my pagan goddess and there was little hope of restarting my operations at any significant scale. So, I spent years building the necessary equipment to send me back in time to when I could once again rule as I should."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, how has that worked for you?"

Cessair actually looked disappointed. "Not terribly well I'm afraid. The power source failed and instead of 2000 years I managed 200. Just far enough back I cannot locate all the necessary components to try again and not nearly far enough to be as I wish to be. It is a pity."

"Undoubtedly. But you seem to be making do."

She waved a hand dismissively. "A petty cult once more – a few men who think more with their reproductive organs than their brains. Just enough to manage to live comfortably while I wait. But you, you could make it possible for me to return to the glorious days I long for in an instant." Her face turned predatory. "A Time Lord and his TARDIS. Such a magnificent short cut."

"I'd be happy to take you back to Diplos, but I'll not leave you here on Earth." The Doctor offered, generously in his opinion. "At least you'd be with your own people."

"My own people usually try to kill me within seconds." Cessair shrugged. "I'm disinclined to give them another chance, I'm sure you understand."

"Quite actually. Happened to me once." The Doctor offered in a tone laced with forced joviality. "Still, we can't quite leave you here to whatever it is you are up to with those men and this mine. What is it, by the way, the little plot you have cooking up?"

Cessair raised an elegant eyebrow. "Are most of your opponents that foolish that they just lay out their plan at your feet?"

"You'd be surprised."

Cessair laughed. "Oh Doctor at least you are amusing. I'd just kill you, but all that regeneration energy would likely be noticed by the ones you are traveling with that have locked themselves in your ship. And no telling how many times you'd have to die before it stuck. No – I'll keep you right here for now, safe and out of the way. By the time they find you, or you starve to death, I'll be well on my way to a new location with all the necessary supplies with me." Cessair smirked and blew him a kiss. "Be a good little man and stay put."

The Doctor watched her disappear down the shaft, her lantern taking all the light with her. The Ogri's slight glow was just enough to illuminate the dead-end in the mine shaft he was being imprisoned in and gave the Doctor enough information to know that any attempt to get past the Ogri would end badly. The silicon lifeform was massive in the tiny tunnel and surrounded by rock it was in something close to its natural environment. If he approached it, the glow increased and there was a threatening rumble from the large rock. The Doctor sat down at the back of the tunnel and tried to come up with another plan.

Thoughts of his mother were interfering with his escape planning and he ran a shaky hand through his hair. He'd known as a child that he'd have to watch her age and die. After his agreement to never contact them again when entering the Academy he had actually been guiltily grateful in a way, that he couldn't. Now there was a very real possibility she could be dying in the TARDIS at this very moment. That it was his action of bringing her here that might kill her….

Of course, the damage to her lungs was a more likely cause, but even that he could probably treat. The Doctor hung his head, the possible causes of his mother's death running around his brain in a frantic dance. Now that he had contact with her the idea of loosing her again was too painful and a very large and angry part of him insisted that no matter the cost he'd keep it from happening. She deserved a better life, a wonderful life, and a long one and Rassilon help him he'd make sure she had it.

But first he had to find a way out of this mine shaft.

The walls of the mine tunnel were rough, scrapped out of the rock by human hands and fairly primitive tools. There was a slight pitch to the floor as it angled deeper into the earth in search of the next coal vein and the Doctor at first thought nothing of it. But as his eyes adjusted to the lower light there were hints of things that ought not to be just in the edges of the rock. With one eye on the Ogri to see if it took exception to his movements he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the rock face.

There was a great deal of silica there – more than usual even on a silica rich planet like Earth. The composition was much purer than usual as well, almost as if…

The Doctor whirled around to stare at the Ogri. The ringless Ogri!

She'd been breeding the Ogri! The mine tunnels were just barely damp enough and if she'd practically flooded them… He scanned again and detected traces of river water contaminates that shouldn't have been there in the mud along the floor and the edges of the walls Yes! She had done. She'd found a way to breed more Ogri and if what he thought was true…

The wall tasted faintly of copper and he knew he was right. Not only had she been breeding Ogri, she'd found a way to manipulate the DNA, to combine it with human biology – she'd created an interspecies hybrid! Truly it was a masterful piece of work, especially considering her complete lack of access to any kind of technology that would have eased the process. She must have used a primitive extrapolator, likely cobbled together from specifically grown salt crystals and likely powered by hydro power from the river. Honestly she was brilliant.

And if she'd managed to graft Ogri DNA onto a human host, creating a sort of hybrid, it would explain the greater strength in the men that had captured him on the street. In hindsight there had been something odd about their eyes as well – a sort of glow that reminded him of the Ogri currently guarding him. Their skin had also been harder than a human's. But what other advantage could there be? It would have been devilishly hard to do, combine the two species. And what possible benefit could she find it?

The Doctor slumped back against the wall – more sure now what it was Cessair was up to, but no idea why. And no closer to getting back to the TARDIS and his injured mother. He just hoped Rose wasn't planning anything stupid.