Author's Note: If you're wondering what stories they're telling when they're telling stories about the Doctor in this chapter... I've listed them here, in order!

Luke (1st time): "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", 3rd Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, Season 11 of Classic Who

Alison: "The Bringer of Death", by me. (Except that events didn't exactly happen that way, if you've read the actual story...)

Luke (2nd time): "Masque of Mandragora", 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, Season 14 of Classic Who.

To reply to Guest, by the way, it's not really a reference to anything specific. Glory has heard about the Time War, and because he played a big part in it, the Doctor - but she wasn't actually there herself. She's not referring to something the Doctor actually did, she's just going by rumor and hearsay. Probably from the Doctor's enemies. And, of course, because she's Glory, she probably only cared about hearing about all the death-and-destruction parts of the war, and might have even attributed certain actions to the Doctor.

As you can see in this story and the Seventh Segment, Glory has a really skewed perception of the Doctor.

Anyways.

Enjoy!


Martha's World:

Alison was pulled away from the others, when she got to the labor camp. All her possessions stolen from her. She was stripped. Given a cold shower, a gray uniform, and a shelf inside a cage, to sleep on.

She didn't know what happened to Luke.

They put her to work, on an assembly line. Made her work long hours, twisting caps onto cylinders that came down a chute. No bathroom breaks, no chance to catch her breath, and almost no food.

By the end of the day, her hands ached. Her back was killing her. And her feet felt so heavy, they dragged along the ground with every step.

So this… was slavery.

When Alison had been free, outside the labor camp, she'd seen the Toclafane and the UFC — the middlemen. She'd blamed them.

But this was courtesy of the Master, himself. No one else she could blame this on but him.

She wished she knew where Luke had gotten to.

Alison tried speaking to the people around her, sometimes. Hoping they'd lift her spirits. Make her feel better. But they were even more worn-down than she was. Their mindset even more defeatist and weary.

They had no hope.

What was there to look forward to? Who was there to believe in?

"There's… someone out there," Alison said. "Her name… it's Martha. Martha Jones. My friend, Seo, she says — Martha knows how to save the world."

Then tried not to think about Seo. Gunned down in the street.

"How?" asked the labor camp residents.

Alison hesitated. She knew that Martha's plan was to tell stories. That Martha needed everyone to help spread her message throughout the world. It seemed utterly ridiculous. But if Seo was gone, and Buffy was dead, and the Toclafane were there to stay…

Then Martha's plan was all they had left.

Alison didn't know the Doctor. But she'd heard Buffy, during this journey, talking about him. Telling Alison and all the survivors they encountered about all those impossible things the Doctor had managed to pull off.

If he could do all that… then maybe… just maybe…

"Let me tell you a story," Alison said.


It wasn't just that the work was menial, degrading, ongoing, and repetitive.

It was that the entire strategy was fundamentally flawed.

"But wouldn't you get more efficient workers," Luke argued, "if you treated us well?"

He was beaten for that.

It didn't make sense. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, using certain need-based incentives would be more than enough to make people actually want to work here. After all, out there, people had to hide from Toclafane, fight for food, and could only just barely manage to survive.

While labor camps weren't pleasant, they certainly did provide shelter. Protection from the Toclafane. Food for those who were hungry. Clothing. Even medical help (to a degree).

So why were these UFC guards employing so much brutality and violence? Why not just tell them that if they didn't work, they wouldn't be offered these particular needs and comforts?

"The UFC wants us to remember we're prisoners," one of the other workers explained to Luke. "Slaves. Even more so than they are."

"So, it's not a motivation tool," Luke said. He frowned. "It's a psychological need to assert dominance, due to a fundamental insecurity about their own self-worth — or their worth in the Master's eyes, rather."

The others around him just blinked at him, blankly. Then pretended they hadn't heard.

Luke wished he knew where Alison had gotten to.

But he didn't.

Once known as being one of the cleverest people in the world, able to outsmart the Slitheen and the Gorgons and all sorts of alien monsters, and now… Luke was stuck in a labor camp, building weapons in the ruined remains of his world. A slave of the tyrant who'd killed his mum.

Seo was gone. Buffy was probably dead. He'd lost Alison. There was no one else to believe in, now. No one… except…

The one person his mum always believed in.

Luke had never met the Doctor. But his mum had told him stories. Stories about the enigmatic time traveler who'd whisked Luke's mum away, when she was young, taken her out into the stars.

So Luke gathered the other workers together, despite being weary and tired and worn out, and told them the same.

About how, in the 70's, there had been another time when London had been evacuated and empty and abandoned. Dinosaurs had begun appearing in the streets of London, and no one could figure out why or how to stop them.

Until the Doctor and Luke's mum had shown up.


The Master burst out laughing.

"These humans!" he said. "They see one two-hearted alien, and, next thing you know, they just assume every alien with two hearts is exactly the same." He grinned. "Thick, the lot of them."

Rupert Giles, barely conscious, lying in a pool of his own blood, didn't answer.

"That the plan, then?" asked the Master. "Give your little slayer some target practice on alien life forms, so she can board the Valiant and go after me?"

Still no answer from Giles.

The Master kicked his prone form. "Useless," he muttered. "Honestly, don't know why I even bother. Should just slice you up and throw you out with the rest of the rubbish."

"Then why don't you?" Giles rasped, through blood-soaked lips.

The Master grinned. "Nu-uh-uh!" he sing-songed. "Not until I catch your sweet little Elizabeth." He leaned in, closer. Whispered, "What I've done to you is just practice for what I'm planning to do to her."

Giles surged forwards, trying to throttle the Master, but the Master kicked him back with ease.

"Still got some fire left in you after all," the Master mused, as he strolled out of the room. "Interesting."


The Toclafane had tracked down Buffy and Seo's car, a fourth of the way there. Buffy had swerved the car, then rolled it, purposely, so it landed in a ditch. Pulling Seo out of the wreckage before the Toclafane had a chance to fire.

Thank you, insane Doctor driving lessons!

They found cover in the ruins of Clowne. Sought out survivors — the resistance. People who could help them.

"We're friends of Martha's," Buffy said, helping Seo into the shelter. "We're here to help."

One of the survivors, thankfully, was a surgeon. He'd gotten the bullet out of Seo's leg. Buffy knew Seo would be walking wounded for a little while, but it'd only take maybe a day or two to heal.

Seo could heal remarkably quickly, when she wanted to.

The moment Seo could get back on her feet, she and Buffy set off, again. Headed towards Leeds. The endless English countryside stretching on, before them, and every second they delayed, every moment they waited…

Who knew what could be happening to Alison and Luke?

"There are towns we can visit, along the way," said Buffy. "Tell stories. Like Martha told us."

Just the way Buffy had been doing, this whole time. Not understanding how the plan was supposed to work, but it was the Doctor's plan, and she believed in him. Martha said it would fix this.

So… it just… had to.

Even if it was impossible.


"—at which point, every single vampire in the world began to glow golden," Alison explained to the crowd gathering nearby. "Razor realized that he'd just linked every vampire in a psychic singularity, and that the Doctor, by triggering the regeneration process in one, had triggered it in all of them. And you can't regenerate without a soul. So, in only a matter of minutes, the Doctor managed to wipe out the entire evil vampire army and save the human race." She grinned. "And that's the same Doctor who's going to save us."

They were all shocked. Floored. Not sure if they could quite believe it.

"I… remember when that happened," one of the men, nearby, chimed in. "There was this… mugger, or so I thought. Someone terribly strong, incredibly fast, with yellow eyes. Then he just… burned away, in an instant."

"That was because of the Doctor," Alison agreed. "And if we all use the countdown, and believe in him, he'll be able to do it, again. Just like he did, when Buffy believed in him in that cave, facing down the vampires. He'll be able to save us and stop the Master."

And Alison believed it. Because she had to believe it. Because it was all she had left.

Later that evening, Alison was lying on her shelf, nearly asleep, when she heard a voice, nearby. A voice that said, "Your stories. They're like the ones the boy tells."

Alison shot up, wide awake. "What… who…?"

But by the time Alison had asked, the man had already vanished.

And so began Alison's search for Luke.

Whenever she was off-shift, whenever she had a spare moment, whenever she could stand to take another few steps, she would go out. Searching. Asking if anyone had seen a boy telling stories about the Doctor.

And then, when Alison thought she'd searched all the sections and still hadn't found him, she ducked into a cage, and discovered… a familiar voice.

"…and when the moon went into eclipse," Luke was saying, "the Doctor wore a mask and pretended he was Hieronymous, summoning that ball of Mandragora energy. But when the ball came down, it consumed the Brethren, instead of…"

Luke stopped. Stared. As he spotted Alison, across the cage.

And despite being tired, worn out, hungry, and at the ends of their ropes, they both raced to one another, and swept each other up in a tight embrace.

Never wanting to let each other go.