The Doctor shuddered back, as he felt power blaze through him. He doubled over, clutching his head.

"Doctor!" Romana cried.

But when she reached out, to catch him, she began wavering into and out of existence, again.

"I'm fine!" the Doctor said, standing up straight. "Fine." He gripped the console, tightly. The TARDIS began convulsing, the ambient light around them growing and dimming, at random intervals.

"What…?" Romana said.

But stopped, as she realized… whispers and ghostly figures had suddenly appeared, from nowhere, whizzing around the TARDIS console room.

"You can see it, too?" the Doctor asked. He broke into a wide grin. "Brilliant! I thought it was just me."

"Doctor, can you explain precisely what is happening, here?" Romana demanded. "What did you do?"

Before the Doctor could answer, though, a sudden flood of images and sounds and jumbled memories flickered around them. The Doctor and Romana could see the Daleks shouting about TARDIS linkups, could see the Nightmare Ring flickering into and out of existence, could feel the straps and restraints around their arms and legs — as if they really were being restrained.

Which, of course, they weren't.

They could hear the shout of Seo's voice: "I won't let you start the Time War by destroying the Time Lords' ability to time travel!"

"Pearl Harbor," the Doctor muttered. "Of course. So that's what they're up to."

He winced, as he felt sudden, stabbing pain in his head. But clung to his TARDIS, and allowed the connection to flow through him.

"Pearl what?" Romana said.

"Pearl Harbor! On Earth!" the Doctor said. "Don't you see, Romana? The Daleks don't have to break Gallifrey's time lock! Seo's a TARDIS killer. Link her up to every TARDIS, across time and space…"

"And every single TARDIS would die," Romana realized. Horror crept through her, and she shuddered. "We'd enter the Time War, without a single time ship to our name."

The TARDIS juddered and bucked, nearly throwing the Doctor and Romana against the back wall.

"But why are we seeing all this?" Romana asked, over the noise of the creaking and groaning TARDIS.

The Doctor began to laugh. "Because the shields are down, Romana! If she's targeting every TARDIS across time and space, that makes mine first — and with the shields down, Seo can adjust the focus and swamp my ship."

"But… this TARDIS is still alive," Romana said. She was already feeling better than she had in months.

"Because Seo's rooting the power through me!" the Doctor said, with another laugh. "Oh, that clever, clever woman. Tell Narvin this one's a keeper!"

Romana cleared her throat, annoyed that the Doctor wasn't answering her questions.

"The younger-her drank my blood!" the Doctor said. "That gives both of her a link to me… however tiny. Blow that up, with a psychic amplification field, strap her to a tool like the Nightmare Ring… and she can actually interface with me and my TARDIS, at a distance."

The TARDIS' lights flashed, as Gallifreyan computer code flickered across the monitors, almost too fast to read.

"And, if these readings are to be believed," the Doctor said, rounding the console and peering at them, "she's using the TARDIS' computer capabilities to hack into the Dalek ship."

"To do what?" Romana asked. "Destroy it?"

"Oh, no, I'm guessing she'll be up to the same thing she wanted to do, when I first met her," the Doctor said. "She won't use her right hand, for fear of killing me — so she can't alter reality. But she can give the Daleks a little taste of her memories."

"What?" Romana said, honestly confused. "Doctor, will you please start making sense?!"

"The power of the left hand, Romana," said the Doctor. He flipped a few switches, and raced over to the other side of the console. "Those Daleks will never have felt anything like what Seo's about to transmit into their minds."

"Transmit into…?" Romana felt her mind spinning. "You mean… she's actually trying to change the Daleks?"

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor cried. "So we'd better hope we materialize, soon!"

"Why?" Romana asked.

"Because she's done one of the most beautiful, inspiring things I have ever seen," the Doctor said. "And that means… the Daleks are going to kill her for it."


"I happened!" Seo told the Daleks, a little louder. Her left hand now glowed with purple energy. "Thanks for the gloat, Black Guardian. I'd never have thought to use the Doctor as a buffer, without you."

Then, she thudded her left hand flat against the Nightmare Ring.

The Nightmare Ring blazed with purple energy.

"But I've got two hands," Seo said. "One for sharing, and one for sacrifice. And you know what?" Her eyes were thunderous. "I'm sick of sacrificing my life and my happiness for two races who think they're the only beings that matter in the whole goddamn universe!"

A burst of purple energy shot through the Daleks, and they all began shuddering and spinning out of control.

"You can't feel anything but hate?" Seo shouted. "Well, have some of my emotions! How about my fear that your war will destroy the planets I love? How about my guilt at all the people I've killed, and the shame I feel when I know I can't bring them back? And here's the sadness I feel when I think about all the orphans your war will produce, and all the pain and fear you'll inflict on others."

"THIS… IS NOT… SHOULD NOT…!" the Daleks cried out, trying to get control of themselves.

"And while I'm in the mood to share," Seo shouted, over them, "have some of my love! My happiness! Those moments when I sit back in a sunlit meadow, hearing the birds chirping on a planet I've rebuilt, and I'm overwhelmed with this beautiful sense of… peace."

"THAT… IS NOT…!" the Daleks tried to say. "THERE CANNOT… BE PEACE… UNTIL…!"

But they were sobbing, inside their casings.

"That last one feel kind of confusing for you?" Seo said. "Let me tell you something about real inner peace. It's that moment when you feel the whole world around you, all that life and energy and time, so tangible and alive that you can practically taste it. And you sit down, and know… that you're a part of it. You realize your place in a far grander, far more complicated ecosystemical machine. You feel… content. Happy. At peace."

"NO! NO! THERE IS NO WORTHY LIFE EXCEPT DALEK LIFE!" the Daleks insisted.

"That's the thing neither you nor the Time Lords seem to get!" said Seo. "We're all a part of this universe! All part of a larger balance of intergalactic life. You Daleks can't storm out and randomly commit acts of genocide, any more than the Time Lords can sit back and 'observe' those acts without caring enough to stop them. We're all part of this, together, and if we want any hope of survival, we need to stop threatening Time Wars and start trying to get along! Take responsibility and—"

"That's a lie!" came a shout, to Seo's right.

Seo glanced over, and saw her younger-self. Tears now streamed down her face, as she frantically tried to reject everything the purple energy had shown her.

"It's a lie, all of it!" the girl shouted, again. "You're not me! You can't be me! I don't have a future! Nothing matters!" A tear rolled down her cheeks. "The people I killed can't mean anything. They just… can't!"

Seo felt her heart go out to the girl.

"I'm so sorry," Seo told her younger-self, softly. "But you're wrong."

"No! No! No!" the girl screamed, desperate to reject it all. "I can't deal with that! Guilt! Consequences! Everyone hating me, blaming me for what happened like it's all my fault! I can't… can't…!" She broke down into sobs. "Please," she begged Seo. "Tell me it's a lie. Please! I'll do anything!"

It was as if the girl's interruption had somehow broken the spell over the Daleks.

"THESE EMOTIONS ARE LIES," the Daleks decided. "THERE IS NO WORTHY LIFE EXCEPT DALEK LIFE. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'INNER PEACE'. THE ONLY PEACE THAT EXISTS WILL OCCUR WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT EXCEPT THE DALEKS."

Seo struggled to regain control. "No, don't listen to her! Listen to…!"

"EXTERMINATE!" cried the Red Dalek.

"EXTERMINATE!" cried all the other Daleks, as they opened fire at Seo.

Seo opened her mouth, desperately commanding them to stop. None of them were paying any attention.

But as the extermination rays travelled towards her… they froze, in midair.

So did Seo.

And so did everything else, across the entire universe. Every comet. Every planet. Every solar flare about to burst, every child laughing, every man sitting up and stretching after a long nap.

Frozen, in time.

Except for two people.

They landed, inside a blue police box, onboard the Dalek ship.