The Black Guardian grabbed her by the hand, his form growing bigger and his face growing more and more luminous, as he laughed in triumph.
"It's always best when the toughest ones break!" the Black Guardian said. "And you, my agent, will spread chaos throughout eternity and beyond! You will…!"
Then Romana cried out.
And Seo's grip on the Black Guardian's hand tightened.
"You poor, pathetic idiot," Seo told the Black Guardian, a hard glare on her face. "Didn't anyone ever tell you? My sire took away my powers. That means, unless I'm hooked up to a TARDIS or holding the Key to Time… the power of my hands doesn't work."
"What?" The Black Guardian stared down at their clasped-together hands. "But I can feel the power! I can feel…!"
A powerful wind swept through the chamber, as if from nowhere.
"We're in an unstable area of space-time," said Seo, "caught in a time loop created by one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe. And I am holding onto someone connected to that artifact." Her voice dropped. "You're not feeling my power. Your feeling its power. The power of the Key to Time."
"Impossible!" the Black Guardian shouted, trying to shake his hand free from Seo's grip.
But for some reason, he couldn't.
"Nope, you can't break this handshake," Seo confirmed. "In fact, you probably can't even leave this room, anymore. Wanna know why?" Her voice dropped. "Because I know my past-self. Better than anyone. And if there's even a sliver of a thought, in her mind, that we're the same person, she'd never let you take my right hand. She'd use any power at her disposal, to stop you. Even…" with a glance over her shoulder, "the power of the Nightmare Ring."
The Doctor glanced back, too.
He remembered what he'd seen, back in the Dalek base, in the Pleiades. He remembered the way time had felt shattered and scarred, after the Daleks had used the machine.
And he knew that the Nightmare Ring, as it appeared, now, looked exactly the same as the Nightmare Ring he'd seen, in the future.
Broken in exactly the same way.
"Romana, we need to take shelter!" the Doctor said, grabbing Romana and yanking her away from Seo. "Now!"
The Nightmare Ring was powering up. Full blast.
The girl, inside, looked terrified, as she realized the Nightmare Ring was already broken. And she knew… this was all going to go very, very badly.
Seo, still gripping the Black Guardian's hand, didn't look frightened.
She stared into his eyes. Her own were hard and cold.
"Imagine feeling time tearing itself apart, around you," Seo said. "I'm guessing, even if you control half the universe… that'd hurt. It'd hurt a lot."
The Black Guardian struggled to break free from her.
But found, to his horror, that he was already too weak to do anything.
"Let me go, you speck of ephemeral dust!" the Black Guardian roared. "Or I will hunt you down to the ends of creation, and wreak a terrible vengeance on you!"
His words lashed through the air like whips.
Seo didn't even flinch.
"My right hand is me," Seo told him. "And… you know what? This is what I'm like. Underneath the sweetness, the hope, the love and smiling and warmth and sunlight… I'm still that bitter, angry, merciless little girl who lost her daddy." She dropped her voice to a growl. "And I'm going to really enjoy watching you suffer."
Then a burst of fractured time ripped out of the machine, shattering the air around them. The Black Guardian screamed, as he crumpled and deflated, his coherence torn, as his ability to manifest in the lower dimensions broke up…
And then vanished, into the screams of time.
Seo, now clutching air, gritted her teeth, trying to stumble to safety. But every step was sluggish, her eyes burned with pain, and with a heaving, coarse breath… she collapsed.
Romana jumped up, from the spot the Doctor had found for them to hide, beneath the machine — where the fractured time couldn't reach them.
"No!" Romana cried, trying to run to Seo.
The Doctor grabbed Romana's arm, to pull her back to safety. "Romana, she knows what she's doing! She must! She survived it, before, remember?"
Except… the last time she'd survived it, back in the Dalek base, Seo had been hooked up to the Nightmare Ring — in the eye of the storm. Now, she was standing directly in front of it.
"I promised Narvin that nothing would happen to her, Doctor," Romana said, as she ran out into the maelstrom. "And that's a promise I intend to keep."
Romana felt herself almost torn apart, as she waded through the chaotic and scarred time winds. She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to hold together, as she struggled to walk… and then, dropping to her hands and knees, crawl… towards Seo.
She grabbed Seo by her arms.
Seo looked up, weakly. She could barely keep her eyes open. She mouthed a surprised, "You?" before her head sagged from the strain of keeping it upright.
Romana pulled, again. Not willing to let go.
Then, next thing she knew, the Doctor was beside her, helping her lift Seo and drag her to safety. Around them, the Daleks screamed, as they were shattered apart by the chaotic time winds.
Romana ignored them.
Just kept carrying Seo to safety, with as much persistence as she could manage…
On the planet Atrios, a 4th incarnation Doctor and a 1st incarnation Romana both jumped, as their makeshift segment to the Key to Time finally burst into flames. And the time loop unravelled.
Not far away, on a Dalek battleship, the air nearly exploded, as the time loop unravelled and the full force of the temporal scarring billowed out, across the ship.
"Inside!" the Doctor urged, as they arrived at their hidey-hole, beneath the machine. "Quickly!"
They only just had time to get in, before time fractured around them, splitting and then unsplitting, then splitting again, creating a familiar interference pattern across the walls.
The same pattern the Doctor had seen at the Pleiades Dalek Base.
Then, in a few seconds, the air cleared. The fracture receded into temporal scarring. The destructive time winds disappeared.
Romana and the Doctor caught their breaths, as they looked down at Seo. She was slumped against one of the supporting struts of the Nightmare Ring, her eyes closed, her mouth open — but not a single breath passing through her lips.
"Is she going to be all right?" Romana asked.
The Doctor bent down. "She isn't breathing." He took out his sonic screwdriver, began buzzing it at her. "Perhaps if I…?"
In response to the sonic, Seo suddenly jerked and gasped, coughing violently. She still didn't open her eyes.
"Am I dead?" Seo muttered. "Is this Hell?"
The Doctor tucked his sonic into his pocket. "Well, considering we're in the middle of a Dalek battle ship, alongside a broken, time-fracturing machine and your evil past-self — I think that's a matter of opinion."
Seo snapped her eyes open and sat upright, suddenly. Then groaned, doubling up, as her body ached from the effort.
"You're both… still alive, then?" Seo gasped. "I did it? I beat him?"
The Doctor beamed. "The Black Guardian? Oh, yes, you chased him off for a good few years, I'd say. And as for Romana and myself…" He scanned them both with the sonic screwdriver. Checked the readings. "Yep. Very much alive."
Seo leaned back against the support strut, with a sigh of relief.
She looked like she was about to pass out.
"In that case, I have a few words to say," Seo gasped out. Struggling to force the words from her mouth. "Lady President of Gallifrey… Romana… dvorat…"
Seo trailed off, unable to get the rest of the name out.
Romana leaned down, to hear her better. "Yes?"
"Your planet is full of corrupt, decadent, self-important jackasses," Seo breathed, "who are about to plunge this universe into an eternity of warfare and devastation, and who sat back and did nothing to prevent the Shadow's genocides. You… should be… ashamed of…"
She trailed off, gasping too much to get the words out.
Romana leaned back, again. "Charming."
"Be fair, Romana! She has just nearly killed herself, to save you from the Black Guardian," the Doctor pointed out, "and to save Gallifrey from the Daleks. Maybe you should hear her out."
"I think it may be wiser for me to get back to Gallifrey and sort out this mess," said Romana, emerging from the hidey-hole, "before the Daleks take the destruction of this battleship to be an act of war." She glanced up, at the Nightmare Ring. Pointed to the unconscious girl, just to the right of its center. "And, of course, we have to put her back where she belongs."
"Hand her back to the Shadow," the Doctor said, emerging to stand beside Romana. He sighed, with disgust. "I know Seo said this was towards the end, for her younger-self. But you know that, if we put her back, we're just allowing her to kill and murder, all over again. She won't even remember what happened, here, today."
Romana hesitated.
Then fixed her expression to the one typical of Time Lords and high politics.
"But we are Time Lords, Doctor," Romana decided. "We uphold the web of time, even when that web has horrible consequences."
Seo, eyes still closed, again, muttered, "Arrogant, corrupt do-nothings."
The Doctor glanced at Seo, then at Romana, as if to say, 'Seo has a point.'
Romana folded her arms, with a sigh. "Something in her past turned her from a genocidal maniac into someone willing to take on the Daleks and the Black Guardian, for the sake of a Time Lady she disapproves of and had never met, before," said Romana. "It's an event that the younger-her hasn't encountered, yet. If we don't put her back where she belongs… do you want to risk having her skip that crucial moment, and remain a genocidal maniac for the rest of her life?"
The Doctor tucked away his sonic screwdriver. "Well. I suppose you might have a point."
He looked down at Seo, but she was already out, cold.
No more words of criticism, for now.
"Give me a bunk up," the Doctor told Romana, preparing to climb up the Nightmare Ring and fetch the girl. "I'll bring her back. After all… I've already grown quite chummy with her stepdad."
