CHAPTER 29

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EVERYONE KNOWS HARRIET JONES, DON'T THEY?

"Harriet? What are you doing here? I thought that you said that you were going to be busy giving a speech for most of the morning," Molly said in a surprised voice as Harriet suddenly arrived in her office unexpectedly.

Harriet gave her a warm smile as she said, "Yes, I did but then the oddest thing happened. Suddenly the speech was canceled at the last minute and rescheduled because of security concerns and that's left me with that rarest of all things in this job, Molly. I actually had an entire morning all to myself just to do what I wanted for a change. That hasn't happened in . . . well, I actually can't remember the last time to be honest."

Molly raised her eyebrow at her and smirked as she said in a sarcastic voice, "And so you decided to use this unique opportunity to come in here and do more work? What a wonderful idea."

Harriet shrugged and gave her a sheepish grin as she said, "I honestly couldn't think of anything more constructive to do."

Molly sighed and said in a disappointed tone, "Really? Nothing else came to mind? Nothing at all?"

Harriet frowned at her as she said, "I get the feeling that you have something specific in mind."

Molly rolled her eyes as she said, "Oh, I don't know. I just thought that maybe you could have used this sudden time off for the first time in forever to finally ask Max out on a date."

Harriet groaned as she said in an indignant tone, "Yes, that's what I thought you were going to say. Molly, I've already told you before . . ."

"Yes, I know. You're old enough to be his mother. That time in your life has already come and gone. Blah blah blah. You should really consider suddenly becoming young again as your second chance to have the life that you should have had the first time around. Not many people get those, you know? Maybe Rose was trying to give you a gift by making you young again permanently. Maybe it was her way of trying to make that whole business with the Sycorax up to you."

"And what makes you think that I even want a second chance?" Harriet asked as she began to look uncomfortable.

"Don't you? You told me once how angry that you were when you were thrown out of office the first time that you became Prime Minister because you 'looked tired' whatever that means. You had basically devoted your entire life to politics with the goal of eventually becoming the Prime Minister one day to the exclusion of everything else that you could have possibly done with it including marriage or children. You thought that making the world a better place was worth any possible sacrifice that you might have to make. Then just because you had a brief falling out with the Doctor in a single moment he turned your entire life upside down by using your years of service in public office against you. The hypocrite actually used your age against you when he's centuries older! I can definitely see why Koschei can't stand the man myself. If I ever have the chance, I'll . . ." Molly said in an angry voice.

Harriet immediately interrupted her as she said in a voice filled with an undercurrent of anger that she didn't even bother to conceal, "He didn't do it out of malice, Molly. The Doctor had his reasons for what he did even if I don't happen to agree with them. He thought that I had gone too far and that I needed to be replaced for that reason. I still think that I was doing the best thing for Earth at that moment because the Sycorax could have easily returned one day and tried the same thing all over again once the Doctor wasn't there. What would we have done then? I think I was proven right when the Daleks actually did attack while the Doctor was gone and would have completely subjugated this world if not for my foresight in coming up with a way to contact him. As for my personal life, I chose the type of life that I wanted a long time ago and never looked back. And to be honest, I really don't feel as if any of this is any of your business."

Harriet regretted the words as soon as she said them especially when she saw the hurt look on Molly's face. She had grown more than a bit tired of Molly constantly trying to bring them together though, and it had finally made her erupt in anger at last. She hadn't meant to talk to her that way however because she considered her a close friend and knew that she was only trying to do what she thought was best for her.

"Yeah, you're right. I . . . I overstepped my bounds. I'm sorry," Molly said in an apologetic tone as her face turned red in embarrassment and she began to look upset.

"Molly, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that to sound the way that it did," Harriet said as she put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Molly instantly pulled away from her though as she said, "You're right though. It is none of my business and you're my boss so this is clearly completely unprofessional, isn't it? Don't worry, Prime Minister. I won't talk to you about anything personal ever again. You have my word."

"Molly, that is not what I wanted and you know it. I want us to be able to talk to one another about almost anything. There are certain matters though that I think should clearly remain out of bounds. I know people these days believe in sharing everything about their private lives, but I've never been that sort of person. That doesn't mean that I suddenly want us to stop being good friends however. I just think that some things should stay private," Harriet said in an exasperated voice.

"Uh, huh. Okay. Got it," Molly said in a detached tone as she basically ignored her while she typed up a letter.

Harriet immediately found herself wishing that Marissa was there so that she could take her back in time and completely undo this conversation. She would much rather have made that boring speech instead.

That suddenly made her realize that she hadn't heard from Marissa in quite some time now. She couldn't help but wonder exactly how her attempt to resettle the people of that alternate reality on the 'new' Earth had gone. Surely she hadn't run into some sort of trouble there had she?

She knew that was a stupid question when she asked it. Of course they had. Time Lords or at least the ones that she knew anyway seemed to have an almost uncanny predilection for getting themselves into trouble.

"Molly, have you heard from . . . ?" Harriet started to ask Molly.

Suddenly she was interrupted as an all too familiar voice shouted from the doorway to her office, "Molly, I'll be making a very important speech to the entire world very shortly now, and I do not want to be disturbed for any reason. This broadcast is of the utmost importance."

Harriet and Molly's mouths both dropped open in shock as they realized that it was yet another Harriet!

"What the?!" Molly said as she looked from one Harriet to another in stunned disbelief.

The Harriet in the doorway now looked at the Harriet next to Molly with open suspicion as she said in a wary voice, "Hello. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister."

Harriet looked more than a bit uneasy herself as she said, "Yes, I know who you're supposed to be. That's more than a bit impossible however since I am Harriet Jones."

The other Harriet now looked more than a bit skeptical as she said, "I'm not sure who you are but you are most certainly not me. Molly, I think you should alert the guards. Obviously she's an alien posing as me and up to who knows what."

"Or you are," Harriet said as she prepared for what she was convinced was soon to be her mysterious double's imminent attack by activating the miniature distress signal that she kept in her pocket at all times.

It would immediately send out an encrypted message to Marissa that she was in trouble and needed her assistance as soon as possible. Hopefully she should be here any moment now. That is if Mari wasn't already in trouble herself of course.

Molly seemed to instantly forget all about what Harriet had said to her just moments ago as she immediately became protective of her and said to the other Harriet, "Just calm down. Maybe neither one of you is an alien. I mean this could be some kind of time travel thing, right? Maybe one of you is the Harriet of the near future or maybe a Harriet from an alternate reality that's very similar to this one. One of you could have slipped through a crack in time and popped up here without even realizing it. People go through time fissures and temporal rifts all of the time."

She suddenly grimaced as she said, "I have definitely been around Mari way too long. That actually made sense to me."

The Harriet in the doorway shook her head in an obstinate manner however as she said, "Well, it doesn't to me. She's obviously an imposter sent here to take my place, Molly. Call the guards immediately or I'll do it myself."

"Maybe I'm the one who should call the guards," Harriet suggested as she moved towards the phone on Molly's desk.

"I don't need that one anyway. I brought my own," The other Harriet said as she pulled a cell phone out of her jacket pocket.

"Well, then. I suppose we'll just have to see who can get through to them first won't we?" Harriet said as she suddenly picked up the phone on the desk and began to call for security.

"Wonderful. And how are they going to tell who's who exactly? They'll probably just wind up taking the both of you away until they find out for sure, and I'll wind up filling in for you and answering phones . . . again. It'll be just my luck if we have a major invasion happen soon afterward again too," Molly said with a sigh.

The Harriet by the doorway shook her head as she said, "Oh, I really wouldn't worry about it, Molly. You see I can easily prove that I'm the one and only Harriet Jones."

"Oh, really? And how are you going to do that exactly?" Harriet asked in an intrigued voice.

The other Harriet suddenly pulled what looked to Harriet to be an early version of a sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and aimed it at Harriet as she said with a sinister smile, "By showing everyone what you really look like, my dear."

Before Harriet could even try to move away from it the screwdriver activated and instantly Harriet's perception filter/shimmer began to sizzle and spark as it started to overload. Harriet cried out in fear now as the device finally broke down completely, and her current much younger appearance was suddenly on display for the entire world to see as the illusion of her original self that the device had been maintaining around her faded away in a single instant.

"Now who will they believe is the real Harriet Jones, hmm? Everyone knows what the real Harriet looks like after all and she's certainly not a young woman, is she?" The other 'Harriet' said with an evil smile.

"You're the alien," Molly said in horror even as her heart fell when she heard the sound of rushing feet rapidly approaching them.

The guards would never believe that Harriet was the actual Prime Minister. She had never told anyone but her closest friends about having been made young again.

"Who are you?" Harriet asked the imposter even as she hurriedly wracked her brain for some way out of this situation.

"My name is The Leader and I'm afraid that my shimmer is far better than yours. These stupid apes will never see through it in time to prevent my plan from succeeding. You were supposed to be making a speech all morning, Harriet. I'm not sure why you're not there now, but you'll soon wish that you were. They'll never believe that you're who you say you are. You'll be lucky if you ever see the outside world again," The Leader said with an arrogant smile.

"So Marissa was right. You really weren't dead after all," Harriet said even as she heard several guards about to come into the office.

"Of course not. I can never truly die. I am eternal. Even Time itself cannot control me. Soon I will be the one who controls it instead as it follows my lead. The very rules of Time will be mine to reshape as I see fit and I will be a true Lord of Time. Don't expect your precious Master and Rani to stop me either. They're otherwise occupied I'm afraid," The Leader said with a malevolent smile.

"What did you do with them?" Harriet asked with concern even as she realized that her last hope to stop the Leader was gone now.

Marissa was never going to answer her call for help.

The Leader never responded to her because the guards chose that moment to suddenly arrive in force.

The Leader now played the part of Harriet to the hilt as he said in a concerned voice that was a perfect recreation of Harriet's, "This young woman just walked into my office and started claiming to be me. She actually believes that even though that's completely preposterous of course. She obviously needs help. She should be taken to a hospital for treatment right away. Do try to be gentle with her though. I'm sure that she really means me no harm. The poor thing is just a trifle bit confused I think."

"Of course, Ma'am," One of the guards said in a respectful manner as the others slowly moved towards Harriet.

Molly was about to open her mouth to say something when Harriet warned her in a low voice, "Don't! They'll just take you away too."

Behind the guards' back, The Leader gave Molly a sinister smirk as if daring her to say something. Molly immediately gave Harriet a look filled with sorrow even as Harriet gave her a reassuring smile in return that completely surprised her.

What was she up to?

None of them had seen what Harriet had yet. Shehzadi and Max had just arrived and were standing right behind the guards who hadn't yet become alerted to their presence. Maybe she was still going to make it through this after all.

It's definitely a good thing that Mum insisted that I redirect all of her calls to my phone just in case while she was gone. She probably knew that something like this would happen. Shehzadi said to Max telepathically.

What are we going to do though? They'll never believe that it's really her. Max replied back in a worried tone as he saw the guards rapidly closing in on Harriet.

There's only one thing to do. I just hope that I can actually pull this off. Shehzadi answered as she began to concentrate.

Pull what off? Zadi? Max asked in confusion.

Then he watched with surprise as the guards suddenly stopped and shook their heads as if they were momentarily confused. When they had cleared them again they looked at Harriet with new found respect.

"Yes, Ma'am? What did you need?" One of the guards addressed Harriet as if he knew exactly who she was.

The Leader looked more than a bit shocked and just stood there in stunned silence even as Shehzadi winked at Harriet.

Harriet smiled in triumph now as she said, "That woman thinks that she's me and has been causing trouble. Take her away immediately. I think you should probably take her to Torchwood because I believe I saw some alien technology in her pockets."

"That's completely mad. I'm obviously Harriet Jones. Everyone knows me and what I look like," The Leader said as he desperately continued to hold onto his stolen identity.

"Yes, they do and that's why we know that you couldn't possibly be her. You're much older than the real Harriet Jones," One of the guards said as they began to move towards the Leader now instead of Harriet.

The Leader dropped his act completely now and practically hissed at Harriet as he said, "What have you done?"

"Let's just call it my secret weapon," Harriet said smugly as she discreetly gave Shehzadi an appreciative look.

The Leader immediately pulled out his sonic screwdriver and it instantly directed an intense sonic blast towards the guards that caused them all to quickly grab their heads in momentary agony before they all passed out onto the floor in rapid succession. The Leader now looked at Harriet in triumph as he aimed his sonic at Shehzadi next now that he finally saw her and Max in the corner of the room.

"It was you, wasn't it? You're the one who recently became a Guardian, aren't you? You're growing more powerful by the moment I see. I'll just have to get rid of you right now along with everyone else in this room while I still can, won't I? I can't take a chance on any of you stopping me now when I'm so very close to succeeding," The Leader said with a maniacal gleam in his eyes.

"Succeeding at what exactly? Care to tell us what you're up to before you finish us off? I'd also like to know what happened to my mother and sister too while you're at it," Shehzadi questioned him even as she tried to come up with a way to stop him.

If only her powers still weren't so completely and pitifully unreliable right now. Maybe she could try to change his sonic screwdriver into a plastic prop or something. Not that she had ever done anything like that before. Still it might work if she concentrated hard enough just like turning air molecules into Vortex shielding had worked for her days ago.

The Leader seemed to almost know what she was thinking as he said, "You'll never be able to do anything to me in time to stop me. Your powers are still far too weak. You actually had to use your mental abilities as a Time Lord to hypnotize those men didn't you? That tells me everything that I need to know about the efficiency of your Guardian powers at this moment."

Shehzadi decided to do her best to bluff her way through this and made her hands glow with power (which was about all that she could do on a consistent basis) as she said, "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you."

The Leader only laughed however as he said in a defiant voice, "You should never try to lie to an expert, child. A true master of lies can see through any deception no matter how well crafted and yours isn't even close to being convincing."

"I'd say that was a good thing personally," Harriet said more to Shehzadi than to The Leader.

"Not when that lie may have been the one thing that would have kept you all alive. Now that I know that Shehzadi is still completely unskilled at using her abilities and quite capable of dying at my hands I no longer have to worry about any of you anymore. Don't worry, Harriet. I'll arrange for everyone to think that you died with honor once I'm through using your identity. There's no reason to tell them the truth is there? Hold still. This won't take long I assure you. Unlike the one carried by your Doctor, this sonic device is quite deadly to living beings and is extremely efficient at disposing of them," The Leader said with a wicked smile.

"I'm sorry, Mum," Shehzadi whispered in a mournful tone even as the tip of The Leader's sonic began to glow and sparkle with deadly energy.

At that very moment on the other Earth Marissa suddenly stiffened and her eyes widened as she said, "Something's wrong with Shehzadi."

"I've been telling you that for years now, Ushas. That's the least of our worries right now though. I'm much more concerned with regaining control of the TARDIS and getting us back to Earth in time to stop that even more annoying version of The Doctor," Koschei said with a frown.

Marissa immediately glared at him as she shouted, "This isn't funny! I feel like something's happening to Zadi!"

Koschei immediately became completely serious as he said, "Why? Are you in some form of mental contact with her?"

Marissa shook her head as she said in an anxious voice, "No, I . . . I just know. I know that she's in trouble. It's not logical in the least bit but I know that it's true."

Koschei couldn't help but smile as he said, "The Rani I used to know could never have admitted such a thing. Her entire world was based on logic and reason."

"That was before I was human obviously because their lives are anything but logical at times. It's nice to know that I may not have to be as worried about losing that side of myself as I previously thought. I just wish that I had found that out some other way instead," Marissa said as she began redoubling her efforts at freeing her TARDIS from The Leader's control now.

Lissa's growing sense of unease at the events unfolding before her now threatened to turn into a full scale panic as she realized that Shehzadi might be about to pay the ultimate price for her failure to warn her parents about what The Leader had been about to do. She knew that it was important to safeguard the timestream and not to risk altering her own history with her knowledge of what was to come but that easily came a distant second to protecting her sister.

After several moments of intense internal struggle, she finally came to a decision. She had to take the risk of having her entire future be completely erased from existence. She was not about to let Shehzadi die if she could possibly do something about.

This time she was going to take a stand no matter what came of her actions.

"Mum, move aside. I know a trick or two about this old ship that not even you've learned about. Not yet anyway," Lissa said with a sly smile as she strode over to the completely dead console and began manipulating the controls on it with the ease of an expert.

"Lissa, don't. You're not supposed to interfere. You're completely violating the Laws of Time," Marissa warned even though on the inside she was secretly cheering her daughter's selfless actions on.

Lissa shrugged as she said in a completely unconcerned voice, "I'm the daughter of two of the biggest renegades in Time Lord history. Breaking the rules just kind of runs in the family doesn't it?"

Lucy now joined them at the console as she said to Koschei with a warm smile, "She's definitely your daughter alright."

Koschei shook his head as he said, "No. She gets this self sacrificing nature of hers entirely from her mother."

"Oh, I don't know. That's not what the Doctor said when he told me about how you saved him from Rassilon by driving him back into the Time Lock. I'd say she gets it from both of you actually," Lucy said as she hugged him.

"I just wanted to kill him for myself," Koschei said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Right. Tell me another one," Lucy said in an unconvinced tone as she chuckled at him.

"You might as well give up now, Lucy. He's never going to admit that he loves the Doctor like a brother and has ever since he first stood up for him against the other children at the Academy who looked down on him. You might as well try to get him to admit that he's not the most handsome man in the universe. You'd have about as much luck," Marissa said with a smirk.

Koschei actually looked wounded as he said, "Are you saying that you don't agree with me about how unbelievably good looking that I am?"

Marissa smiled as she said, "Oh, I definitely agree with you beyond a doubt. You see? I'm just as self deluded as you are I'm afraid."

As Marissa kissed Koschei, Lucy shared a secret smile with Lissa as she silently thanked her for her actions. Marissa had been completely distraught only moments earlier and now she was filled with renewed hope once again thanks to her. She could only hope that Lissa's actions didn't result in her saving one daughter at the cost of another one however.

She quickly pushed such dark thoughts aside however when she saw the TARDIS suddenly become filled with life once again as light quickly illuminated the darkened Console Room.

"The Leader is currently trying to impersonate Harriet Jones in order to carry out his newest plan at taking over our Earth. He should be in Harriet's office right now and so should she if her people got my message in time. You see I was kind of bending the Laws of Time already even before this," Lissa said with a bit of a naughty smile.

"And what message might that be exactly?" Marissa asked suspiciously as she began to rapidly dematerialize the TARDIS and head straight there just as fast as she could.

"I may have slipped away from the Console Room earlier and left a voice mail for one of Harriet's security team posing as a concerned citizen who overheard a possible threat against her at the speech she was supposed to make today. If I know Harriet, that means that she'd go straight back to her office to work some more once they rescheduled that speech for some other time. Hopefully that means that Harriet would have returned just in time to expose The Leader's plan before he can make that special broadcast of his to the entire planet. You do not want that to happen. Trust me," Lissa explained as her smile rapidly faded into worry.

She remembered the story of how The Leader had briefly started an interstellar war when she was still a child all too well. It had caused humanity to become the pariahs of the galaxy for a long time to come and caused those aliens already secretly on Earth to distrust the human race more than ever before which had only made her mother's job even harder.

It hadn't done wonders for Harriet's career either.

That was when Marissa began to become rapidly concerned once more herself as she said, "What if that confrontation didn't go exactly as you hoped that it would somehow and Shehzadi became involved in order to protect Harriet?"

Lissa nodded as she said, "Then I would be responsible for endangering her in the first place by trying to bend the rules a little in order to help Harriet since I knew that you couldn't, and it would be my job to fix it before it was too late. No matter what the personal cost to me might be."

"In for a penny in for a pound," Lucy said with a shrug.

"Pretty much, yeah. I screwed up big time, Lucy. I should have known better than this after a lifetime of having it drilled into my head never to tell anyone their own future, but I just became so tired of keeping secrets after seeing what it was doing to everyone," Lissa agreed with a resigned look on her face.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up over it, Lissa. What's done is done. You tried to do the right thing. That's what matters," Koschei said as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.

Everyone else in the room especially Marissa suddenly looked at him in stunned surprise as he said, "What?"

"Well, I'll say one thing. You're definitely not Harry Saxon now," Lucy said with an approving smile as she saw him continue to try to comfort Lissa.

"At the risk of giving out yet another spoiler, Mum always said I was able to bring out the best of Dad better than anyone that she'd ever known. He never could stand to see me upset," Lissa admitted to her with a small smile.

"That's not exactly a spoiler, dear. I've known that since the day that you were born," Marissa said with a reassuring smile.

"So what? What father wouldn't do whatever he had to in order to make his daughter smile again? It doesn't mean a thing. I'm still just as ruthless as I ever was when I have to be," Koschei said with a disapproving frown.

"Of course you are," Lucy said with a grin as she kissed his cheek.

"This never leaves this room and it especially never gets to the Doctor. Am I understood?" Koschei demanded in an almost frantic voice.

"You can count on me, Dad. I've had more than enough of telling secrets lately," Lissa said in an emotional voice.

"It's going to be alright," Koschei immediately reassured her in a gentle voice as he began to sense for the first time just how upset that she really was.

She was already blaming herself for Shehzadi's possible death.

"Hurry up, you old pile of junk! Hurry!" Marissa said in a low voice to the console as she mentally willed her ship to move even faster.

She knew that Lissa would never forgive herself if anything had happened to Shehzadi.

Meanwhile back on Earth The Leader smiled in triumph as he stood over the prostrate bodies of the only four people who might have been able to stop him in time. In moments he would have finally succeeded in conquering this world at last and have two Earths to start off with as the basis of his new Empire.

The third time it seemed was definitely the charm.

He couldn't stop smiling even as he secretly linked the Valiant's computer to the video equipment in Harriet's office and let it take complete control over it. The Valiant's computer now followed The Leader's every command once more after he had reprogrammed it while having secretly slipped back on board her recently. The Brigadier and the other blundering apes on that ship hadn't had a clue that he was even there much less what he had just pulled off right under their very noses.

Now he laughed in gleeful anticipation as he said to the computer, "Begin transmitting the hypnotic signal over my words as soon as I start speaking. The pathetic pudding brains of this planet will soon obey my every command without question. After all everyone on Earth already knows and trusts Harriet Jones, the valiant hero who helped save the Earth from the Daleks and nearly died in the process. That's partially the reason why she regained her old job as the Prime Minister in the first place. Who better to use to completely enslave them? Now with a little help from me they'll gladly follow their oh so noble Miss Jones into battle without hesitation if she reassures them that it's all for the good of humanity."

"As soon as you are ready to begin, you will be able to break into the middle of every television and radio transmission on this planet. I will also be able to simultaneously use Harriet Jones' own special subwave network to break into and play your speech live over every computer and mobile device with a camera," The Valiant's computer informed him.

"Excellent. Let the domination of this world begin," The Leader said with a wicked smile as he started his transmission.

The Leader now mimicked Harriet's voice once more as he said, "People of the Earth, I am transmitting this message as a dire warning to all of you before it's too late. I have just learned that there are several aliens on this world who have disguised themselves as the leaders of every major country on this planet and are attempting to silently take control over all of us without us even being aware of it. I only just found out about this plan myself when I was almost killed and replaced by one of these invaders. We must put a stop to this immediately by any means necessary. We will force these intruders from their positions of power and regain control over our world and then once we do we will take the fight straight to the ones who are responsible for this insidious plot against it. It will take us a while to create and mobilize a proper space defense but we will have to in order to safeguard our planet from any future incursions by the true enemies behind all of this. I will bring you more news as to their identities shortly once I have learned more. I warn you. Do not listen to what anyone else says but me. I'm the only one that you can trust to tell you the truth now. I'll be back in contact with you shortly with further information. Until then, good luck to all of you in taking back our world."

The Leader smirked as soon as he ended the broadcast. Even now he could see via the Valiant's transmissions to his cell phone that his newly mesmerized servants were currently leading several attempted uprisings against every seat of government on this pathetic mudball.

Sooner or later he would gain absolute control over this planet just as he once had the Earth of his own reality and then he would have two Earths under his control. That was when he would build them up into a force to be reckoned with using Gallifreyan, Dalek, and Auton technology that would allow them to rampage across the entire universe in a search for the non-existent alien masterminds in charge of the fake invasion plot that he had just planted in the middle of billions of people's minds.

Too bad for him that it wasn't exactly going to go according to plan.

The Leader suddenly cried out in surprise as he was hit from behind and knocked out cold by Shehzadi. He had never even known that she was there.

Maybe that was because he had just been the victim of a little mental tampering himself. Shehzadi had actually made him think that he had killed her and the others so that she could find out what he was up to and put a final stop to it once and for all.

In reality she and the others had been silently standing there watching him the entire time.

"Shouldn't you have done that before he made that transmission?" Molly pointed out as they watched the chaos on The Leader's phone in concern.

"And what if I hadn't found out everything that he was up to in time to stop it? This was the only way of making sure that I knew about all of it. The Leader's too tricky to leave anything to chance," Shehzadi said with a determined look.

"Since when did you become a natural leader? I guess you're right though. Any plans on how to stop all of this though before it's too late?" Molly asked in an anxious voice as they continued to watch the ever growing chaos over the phone.

"Yeah, I'd like to know the answer to that one myself. You heard what The Leader did. He put a hypnotic command in those people's heads that they could only believe Harriet. They won't listen to anyone but her now and that includes our Harriet since she doesn't exactly look or sound like herself anymore now that she's younger," Max said with concern.

Shehzadi smiled at him reassuringly as she said, "Don't worry. I already have it all planned out."

"Is there any way that I can help, dear? Perhaps I can fake my older voice just enough to convince them that it's actually me and we can do an audio transmission to fix all of this," Harriet proposed.

Shehzadi shook her head as she said, "Don't worry. I have everything I need right here. You'll talk to them just as you are, Harriet."

"That won't know that it's me though. They'll never recognize me looking like this," Harriet said in dismay.

"Why can't we just use the Leader's shimmer and have Harriet fake her voice?" Max asked.

Shehzadi shook her head as she looked at the shimmer and winced while she said, "Yeah, well we could have but I may have . . . broken that when I hit him. No wonder my hand hurts so much. So it's either this or nothing."

"Will they still listen to me like this though?" Harriet asked.

"I'll make sure of it. The same way that I did with the guards," Shehzadi said as she closed her eyes and reached out to the minds of every person on the planet except for the ones in the room with her.

She was sure that she had just enough control over her Guardian powers to pull this off. At least she hoped that she did or they might never fix this mess in time now.

"Shehzadi, why do I not like the sound of that?" Molly said just as Shehzadi suddenly smiled in triumph.

Shehzadi was more than a bit smug now (in fact she looked far too much like Koschei in that moment to the others) as she said to Harriet, "Go ahead. Tell them whatever you want. They'll listen without question."

Harriet hesitated for a moment and then finally said, "People of Earth, this is the real Harriet Jones. You will immediately disregard that earlier transmission. That was the actual attempted alien invasion and the person you were watching was an alien posing as the real me. You will completely disregard everything that they said as nothing but lies and forget that this entire event even happened in the first place."

Suddenly as Harriet and the others watched over The Leader's phone they saw scenes of the rioting people throughout the planet quickly stopping in their tracks and standing there with confused looks on their faces. It was obvious that they now had no idea what was happening.

Harriet looked more than a bit dismayed as she said, "Well, I didn't mean that last bit literally. I'm afraid I erased their minds of the whole thing without meaning to do so."

Shehzadi smiled confidently as she said, "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's finally all over with at last."

Molly looked at her suspiciously now as she said, "You still didn't say what it was that you did to get them to listen to young Harriet."

"Didn't I?" Shehzadi said a little too quickly with a much too innocent look on her face.

"Zadi, what did you do?" Max demanded.

That answer soon became apparent to all of them when a horde of reporters burst into the office with cameras and went straight towards Harriet with questioning looks on their faces.

"Believe it or not I'm Harriet . . ." Harriet started to say.

One of the reporters just looked at her with an exasperated expression as he said, "Yes, we all know who you are, Ma'am. What we'd like to know is what you can tell us about what just happened. No one who was involved in the mystery riots seems to remember anything. All that they know for sure is that you saved the day somehow. The rioters all remember your voice speaking to them just before they snapped out of it whatever it was."

Harriet looked at Shehzadi in shock as she now realized that her friend had somehow amazingly made all of those reporters and possibly everyone else on the planet accept the younger her as the one and only her. She couldn't even begin to wonder how that might complicate things for her in the future.

She didn't even know the half of it yet.

Another reporter now placed her microphone straight in Harriet's face as she said, "What our viewers want to know, Ma'am, is if you and Max Queen have set a date yet?"

Harriet's eyes widened now and she quickly looked at an equally confused Max as she said, "A date? For what?"

The reporter rolled her eyes as she said impatiently, "For your wedding of course. You are engaged to be married to him after all. The whole country's talking about it."

"What?" Harriet said in a strangled voice.

Harriet and Max now both turned red with embarrassment as they and Molly all stared daggers at a completely humiliated Shehzadi who looked more than a bit chagrined by the whole thing.

"That's low, Zadi. Even I would have never done anything like that no matter how much I want to get them together," Molly said with a disapproving look.

Shehzadi waved her hands in the air in dismay as she said, "Hey! I didn't do it on purpose. It must have just slipped out there in the telepathic ether while I was mentally convincing everyone that the younger you was the one and only you, Harriet. It's probably because it's a subconscious wish of mine. Don't worry. I'll fix it . . . somehow."

That was when Marissa's TARDIS finally materialized at last in the middle of the room in front of the startled reporters and Marissa rushed out of it to hug Shehzadi tightly with a look of relief on her face. Then in the very next moment she quickly gave Shehzadi a dirty look that she knew from far too much past experience could only mean trouble.

"Shehzadi, what have you done? What's this I hear about Harriet and Max getting married? And while you're explaining that, why do all of Harriet's biographies say that she first became Prime Minister in her early twenties now and list her as a life long friend of Lucy's? Well?" Marissa demanded.

Shehzadi looked anything but smug now as she said, "Maybe I had what happened on the Matriarch's World a little too much in my thoughts when I was in people's heads. I had to give them some kind of new history for Harriet though didn't I? It's not that bad. I mean it's not like I changed the actual events. They still happened the same way. It's just that no one but a select few of us remember it that way anymore. No big deal, right? Right?"

All of them gave her dirty looks now as Koschei said to Lissa, "Well, I never thought I'd see this day."

"It's all my fault. I did all of this. It never happened in the old reality, "Lissa said in despair.

"No, that's not what I was talking about although that's bad too and is completely your sister's fault by the way. What I meant was that I never thought I'd see the day when I actually felt sorry for Shehzadi. Maybe I really am mellowing out," Koschei said in a horrified voice.

Lucy immediately shook her head as she said, "Naw. You're still the same heartless prick that you always were."

"Do you really think so?" Koschei asked in a hopeful voice.

Lucy laughed as she said, "Well, let's see now. Harriet and Max's whole lives are in absolute turmoil, Lissa's worried about having needlessly changed the future, the entire human race has been basically brainwashed even if it was in a completely benevolent way by Zadi, and she's in terrible hot water with her Mum. Yet all you can do is worry about yourself. I know so, Koschei. You're still as big of a prick as ever."

"Thank you. I was really worried for a moment there," Koschei said as he breathed out a sigh of relief while Lucy shook her head at him.

Meanwhile back on the Valiant, the Brigadier was still busily trying to figure out what had just happened and how somehow had gained control over the ship's computer again when he was approached by a young woman wearing glasses and dressed in a UNIT scientist's lab coat. She had large brown eyes and her long blonde hair was pulled back in a bun behind her head but it was the rest of her face that he couldn't stop staring at. She seemed so familiar to him somehow even if he couldn't quite place her.

"Yes? Can I help you, Miss, uh, . . . ?" The Brigadier asked her as he continued to wonder why she looked so familiar to him.

The woman smiled at him happily as she said in a jubilant voice that sounded perhaps just a bit too chipper for the Brigadier's liking, "I'm Gina, Sir. Gina Louise Cole. No relation to the former Mrs. Saxon before you ask. I'm UNIT's new scientific advisor."

The Brigadier looked at her in surprise as he said, "Really? What happened to the other one? Mr. Taylor, wasn't it?"

Gina nodded as she said, "Yes, good old Malcolm. He just suddenly retired, Sir. He said something about wanting to take a long cruise around the world using all of that new lottery money that he had just won. It couldn't have happened to a nicer man, Sir. Don't worry though. I'll be just as good as he was. I was at the top of my class especially in Genetics and Bioengineering."

The Brigadier looked at her quizzically now as he said, "Bioengineering? I wasn't aware that we had much use for that sort of thing at UNIT since we're not exactly in the business of creating new species."

"It could come in very handy one day, Sir. You never know when some alien like The Rani, only a much less friendly one, might show up and start causing trouble," Gina said with an odd look in her eyes that bothered the Brigadier even though she seemed to be pleasant enough.

"Gina? Is that short for anything?" The Brigadier couldn't help but ask even as he continued to unsuccessfully try to remember her face.

"Yes, Sir. It's short for Regina. It means Queen in Latin," Gina said with a small smile as if she knew a secret that no one else did.

The Brigadier nodded as he said, "Have we ever met before, Miss Cole? You seem very familiar to me somehow."

Gina smiled from ear to ear as she said, "Oh, I'm very sure that you'd never recognize this face, Sir. In fact I'm almost positive of it."

The Brigadier gave up trying to place her and finally said, "Very well then. Congratulations on your new job, Miss Cole. I hope that you'll enjoy it here."

"Oh, I will, Sir. I'm sure of it," Gina said with a grin that looked far too happy for the Brigadier's liking.

He instantly made a mental note to find out more about Gina later on even as he walked past her.

The Rani from The Leader's universe smiled to herself smugly as her test of the new perception filter that would hide her resemblance to Clara Oswald had proven to be a complete success. Not even the Brigadier who actually knew Clara had been able to tell that it was her, and the blonde hair and glasses had definitely helped to throw him off of the trail.

Now she would be able to blend in and hide away here at UNIT quite nicely until she was ready to begin her revenge on Marissa. She really shouldn't have been in such a hurry to leave her behind in the hands of the humans of the other Earth. Marissa of all people should have realized that she could have easily escaped from them and would quickly be able to create a working Transmat device with near unlimited range even from the most rudimentary of materials found on that world.

That mistake would one day prove to be an extremely costly one for her.

Until then though she had plenty of new experiments to perform and a brand new lab in which to perform them in on board the Valiant. Not to mention a whole ship full of completely unknowing potential test subjects. What more could an Impossible Scientist ask for?

Next: The massive fallout from this whole thing will be dealt with not only by a horrified Harriet and Max but also by Shehzadi as well. It seems that the Grace may not be too pleased with one of Shehzadi's first acts as a Guardian. She meant well though. Surely that counts, right? Also we'll find out the fate of The Leader and see more of what Gina is up to on the Valiant. Whatever it is I'm sure it's not going to be good for anyone much less Mari.