Author's Note: No post tomorrow, because I'm going to be driving long distances with no break. There should still be an update on Thursday, though.

Enjoy!

Mindy Hannah staggered as fast as she could, back to where she'd last seen the Doctor and Fernor. But every step made her head throb even more, until all thoughts were being consumed in the fire raging within her.

All thoughts… except…

"Gotta tell Fernor," Mindy said, through gritted teeth. "Gotta… tell…"

She was losing all knowledge of who she was. Childhood memories wiped away. Personality and quirks erased and brushed clean. She was being hollowed out and emptied, and she didn't remember enough to know… why…

"Gotta tell!" Mindy cried. Struggling onwards, repeating those most important thoughts in her head, to make sure she didn't lose them. "Cybermen… time rupture… hell goddess returns… universe destroyed… dimensional… bomb…!"

"Mindy!"

She felt arms around her, stopping her from dropping to the ground. She looked up into the eyes of a face she couldn't remember.

She didn't know who this was.

"Have to… tell Fernor," she said. Could already feel the information slipping away from her, burned out with everything else about her. "Cybermen… across the galaxy. Draining solar energy. Time rupture. Universe destroyed. It's… that bomb. The Major's. It'll… it'll…"

Mindy cried out.

"I'm here, Captain Hannah — it's me," said the man Mindy didn't know. "What do you mean, time rupture? What's going on?"

Mindy told him.

About what the Cybermen were doing.

How the bomb would crack open the galaxy, and a gateway to time, itself.

All points in time, across the universe, burned away to nothing. To resurrect the Goddess.

"And… and what about that girl?" said the man Mindy didn't know. "What's she…?"

"Empty," said Mindy. Empty like her own mind, now being burned away. "No Glory. No… whatever-her-name-was. Nothing left in her, except the Weapon."

"Just like the Doctor said," the man muttered.

"But not for long!" Mindy insisted. "Please — you have to tell Fernor! Glory isn't in that mind right now. But she will be, when our universe dies. The death of our universe will collapse all others, and bring her back to life!"

"What?!"

"That… other one…" Mindy struggled for the man's name. "…the one who can't die — what's-his-name — he's trying to stop it. Convince the Cyberplanner that none of this is logical. But… even if he does…"

"It's only a matter of time before the Weapon tries again," the man Mindy didn't know muttered. "When we're not around to stop it. Yes, I understand."

"Only one hope," Mindy pleaded. Feeling everything slipping away — even the world, growing dark around her. "Give… the Emperor… the… signal…"

Then she lost everything there was left.

As the fire ripped through anything remaining of her mind.

Mindy Hannah screamed.

As she died.

Fernor held Mindy's limp body in his arms. He could already feel the fires inside his own mind, trying to consume him, too. The Doctor had tried to give him some help. But even that was starting to go.

Fernor thought through what Mindy had said.

Remembered what the Doctor had told him — about how the Weapon's programming was derived from the wishes of numerous psychopaths, over the years, who'd tried to destroy or rule the universe.

Mindy was right.

The Weapon was unreasoning, unthinking, unrepentant and unfeeling. It had been programmed for destruction, so that's what it would do, until the end of the universe.

And as for Jack's plan…

Even if the Cyberplanner did snap out of this and save the universe — what then? Humanity would be defenseless against the Cybermen, just as they had been before Jack and the girl ever showed up.

"One galaxy… to save humanity," said Fernor, setting Mindy down on the ground, and closing her eyes. "To save the universe."

He raced off, to find Major Pelor's body.

"She'll have had a comms link on her, to the Emperor," Fernor muttered, rummaging through the dead Major Pelor's pockets. Trying, through the pain, to remain brave and calm in the face of imminent destruction. "Time for your finest hour, Fernor. Time to be a hero."

"Majesty," said one of the soldiers, racing into the room. "A response from Major Pelor's comms link."

The Emperor was up and on his feet in seconds.

Running after the soldier, grabbing up his own side of the comms.

It was a man's voice. Shouting, "Hello? Emperor? Majesty? Anyone reading me?"

"We read you," said the Emperor. "This is Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick. Requesting Major Pelor to report on…"

"She can't," said the voice on the other end. "She's… dead, your majesty. Everyone… else… is dead."

The Emperor and those around him exchanged looks.

Major Pelor and her team — the last hope for the human race in the Cyberwars. If they were dead…

"The Cybermen… all across the galaxy… their plan will destroy humanity! They're…!" a cry of pain, from the other end. The person trying to hold himself together. "We've… lost, your Majesty. Everything… everyone… is lost."

The Emperor felt numb.

As he realized… that was it.

"I… see," said the Emperor. He still hesitated. Even after knowing what this meant… what he had to do… his duty to eliminate the Cybermen… still…

A whole galaxy.

Destroyed at his command.

All those lives, wiped out in an instant.

"There's nothing… anyone down there can…?" the Emperor checked.

But the other end of the comms link dissipated into static, and the signal was lost.

The Emperor handed back the link.

Then stepped away.

"Your majesty," said one of the soldiers, kneeling down before him. "Defender of Humanity, Imperator of Known Space. What do we do?"

The Emperor hesitated.

"I need to think," he said, heading off the command deck. Thinking of that final solution… the complete destruction of the Tiberion Spiral. The deaths of all those innocent people, on worlds not yet invaded by Cybermen.

And remembering the words he'd just heard…

We've… lost, your Majesty. Everything… everyone… is lost.

"I need to think!" the Emperor said, again. Heading into his imperial chambers.

And locking the door.

"See? Am I clever or am I clever?" the Doctor beamed, tramping out of the forest, carrying Pelor's bomb. "One very nasty bomb — disabled! A bomb, by the way, which was interesting. Because it was actually more like a planetary bomb than an interdimensional one, and certainly wouldn't have been able to crack open…"

The Doctor trailed off.

As he noticed the grim look on Fernor's face.

And the comms link in his hand.

"Ah," the Doctor said. Setting down the disarmed bomb. "Except you've already called up ol' Porridge and given the command to blow this galaxy sky high, haven't you?"

"I…" Fernor clutched his head, in agony. "Mindy… told me the plan. It's across the whole… galaxy, Doctor… the Cybermen are preparing to end the universe. They're…!"

He doubled over.

"Yes?" the Doctor said, kneeling down by Fernor. "What are they doing? What's the plan? Who's really behind all this?!"

Fernor tried to speak, but whatever the Doctor had given him was wearing off.

And the end was rushing forwards all the faster, because of it.

"Fernor, don't die on me, now!" the Doctor said, grabbing him up by the shoulders. He fished in his pockets, frantically, for anything else he could use.

But it was too late.

And Fernor knew it.

"TARDIS," the Doctor urged, trying to get Fernor back to his feet. "Got to be something in there I can use to…!"

Fernor pushed him away.

"No time," he gasped. Tumbling back down to the ground, no longer able to stand. "Gotta… tell you her plan."

And so he did.

Everything he knew.

And everything he'd worked out.

By the time he was done, even the effort of thinking was making him break into a sweat.

"What?" the Doctor stared at Fernor, utterly incredulous. "I'm sorry, but… a galaxy wide time rupture… caused by that thing?!"

The Doctor pointed at the disarmed bomb, lying not far off.

"Even if the bomb had been constructed the way I assumed," the Doctor argued, "it'd never be able to crack a big enough hole to the vortex to do what you're talking about. Collapse dimensions — definitely. Nearly destroy the multiverse — absolutely. But end our universe, across every point in time and space, in a massive fireball of entropy and destruction? From that thing? Rubbish!" He scoffed. "For a disaster on that scale, you'd need an explosion the size of…!"

The Doctor stopped himself.

Eyes fixed on the comms link, in Fernor's hand.

"…the size of an entire galaxy," the Doctor whispered. Suddenly filling with dread, once more. "Oh, dear. It was all a set-up. To make you blow up the galaxy."

Fernor couldn't quite follow the Doctor's words, anymore.

He could feel everything ebbing away from him, in a horrible surge of pain and fire and… burning.

Like his very soul was being seared out of him.

The Doctor grabbed for the comms link. "Hello?" he cried. "Come in! Anyone! Don't blow anything up, yet! Do you hear? If you destroy this galaxy, the whole universe is at…"

But the comms were dead.

"Fused when that Cyberman shot Major Pelor!" the Doctor said, tearing off the back of it. "Only functional enough for one single transmission!"

He threw it away, jumping to his feet.

"Oh, you clever, clever hell goddess!" the Doctor muttered, pacing the forest. "And here I was, thinking you were gone and Seo was empty! While you were in there, taking control and making sure things worked out perfectly to plan."

Fernor shook his head. "Glory… is gone. The girl… is empty."

"Oh, no, she isn't," the Doctor replied. "She wanted me to think that, so I wouldn't stop her. But this…" He gestured at the comms, and at Mindy's body. "This couldn't have been programmed in ahead of time. It's too precise, too deliberate, too based on factors that only sprung up at the last moment."

He spun around, and kicked the trunk of one of the fallen trees with his boot.

"Stupid Doctor!" the Doctor berated himself. "Stupid, stupid! So obvious, and I missed it! She knew you lot had a galaxy destroying bomb. She knew she was just delaying the moment you used it, by fighting on your side. She used that knowledge to her advantage, so she could destroy everyone and everything around her — and she won't even have the energy to get back to her own universe, by the end! Destruction for destruction's sake!"

Fernor breathed, heavily.

Pain visible on his face.

"But… that's impossible," Fernor wheezed. "She couldn't have known… we'd… blow up…"

"Of course she knew you'd blow up the galaxy," the Doctor muttered. Face going dark. "Because, when she first landed in this time… Jack told her so."

His mind racing.

"Jack," said the Doctor. "First the Activator. Then returning her to just the right people, at just the right time. And now… this."

Fernor couldn't follow any of this, anymore.

His whole world was dropping away from him, smoldering like embers in a dying fire.

With one more loud, agonized wail, Fernor curled in on himself.

And died.

The Doctor tried to get Fernor back.

But it was hopeless.

Fernor was dead.

And the Doctor knew it.

"Nothing I can do, now," the Doctor decided, getting back to his feet and adjusting his bow tie. "Better get to it. Take down one last hell goddess. One last time."

He reached for his sonic… then remembered it was with Jack.

So instead, he straightened his bow tie, again. As he ran off towards the city.

"You might have fooled me once, Glorificus," the Doctor said, "but now… I know your game." He sprinted, even faster, wind flying through his hair. "And for Seo's sake… I'm going to stop you."