Irving Braxiatel made his way back to his apartment. Honestly after how much trouble they had with Naomi or Lily as she was now going by, he was wondering how they were going to manage some of the whole settlements out there of hidden time lords. He stripped off his jacket and waistcoat and undone the cravat. He briefly wondered if he should cut his hair as he caught his reflection in the mirror.

Braxitel hadn't had this form for long before being the last of them to transform, didn't even really have time to really let himself settle into this incarnation first. He had noticed himself and the others so far had picked up a lot more human vernacular, but that was probably a good thing. He had quite enough of ancient time lords and really didn't feel like swearing by them for example.

Then there was his brother and Rose. He honestly couldn't be surprised that the two of them were together now. They were so close as children, and he always suspected they were soulmates. He remembered both her and Narvin as children always running around with his brother everywhere. Rose was always the playful and caring one of the twins while Narvin had always been more serious. Unless his sister was involved she'd always been able to get him to relax and take things a little less seriously. He was actually glad Narvin talked her into joining him in the CIA because he wasn't sure he liked the dark path he was going down without her.

Splitting Thete and Rose apart was probably one of the worst things their father ever did to Thete and that was saying a lot. Abusive a-hole that he was, both mentally and physically. He'd always tried his best to protect his younger siblings from him but wasn't always successful. She was probably the one thing that stopped his little brother from calming up and becoming so unemotional like their father wanted. He'd hit and punish the both of them for 'being emotional like a human' and could honestly say he succeeded somewhat with himself. The abuse had made him bury it deep and make personas within personas to hide under. Thete escaped that because he had Rose until he was eight, then only saw their father during the holidays afterward.

Brax finished changing into pyjamas and got into his bed where Bernice was still curled up where he left her and feeling miserable. She called in sick today and yesterday. She was going through 'generation sickness' as they called it when someone was going into the final stages of turning into a time lord. It was a play on the word regeneration. In order to regenerate, first you must generate. He cuddled up to her and will forever deny to anyone he enjoys doing so. "You're burning up. Your temperature is getting too high again."

"I feel like I've been hit by a bus," she complained.

"DNA being overwritten while your body grows a stronger and more dense muscular skeletal system, and a hyper fast nervous system does tend to do that. It's supposed to be much harsher on an adult than a child who is yet to go through puberty. It's why we expose children to the untempered schism at such a young age. Most of those children if not exposed will go through this anyway just by being on Gallifrey and it's thought to be kinder to do so at an age where they won't suffer as much. Did you drink the nutrition water I left for you?"

"Yes, and by the taste I probably really don't want to know what is in there," Benny complained.

"Yes, that would probably be for the best. Needless to say though it's rich in all the nutrients needed for your body to transition. I'm more worried about your temperature. I should probably get hold of Thete, he'll probably be able to get you something safe to take it down," Brax started fussing, it was very unlike him but there was something fundamental about the time he was human that had changed him. Maybe it's because spending time as a human so close after a regeneration he realised had gotten rid of some of that deep rooted self hatred of his human heritage his father instilled inside him.

"Don't you dare get out of this bed. You make a really nice ice pack," Benny protested and cuddled up closer, and deliberately shifted one of his hands to her forehead.

"Glad to be of service," he drawled sarcastically, "Seriously Benny we need to get your temperature down. Your body is largely human still, just with a few added extras to help you survive this and live longer. That means you still have the disadvantages of a human brain overheating until the process is entirely done. Come on let's get you in a cool bath," Brax replied as he got out of bed and picked up a mildly protesting Bernice and carried her into the bathroom. She was already only in her underwear because of how hot she was. So he just told the AI to make the water cool and deposited her in it.

"Bloody hell! Brax! This is freezing!"

"Actually it's only around my natural body temperature, it's just that your own temperature has spiked up to around 104.3F. Now if you'll excuse me one moment," Brax replied as he pulled out a communicator and put it to his ear like a phone waited a few moments until someone picked up then started talking, "Rose, hello. Are you still on Luna and is Thete there?"

'How come you didn't just call him? Yes we're still here.'

"You know him, I gave him a communicator but I have my doubts he'd pick up or actually remember to switch it on."

'Yeah okay you got a good point there. Give me a moment, I just need to stop him and Narvin trying to tear each other apart in a stupid macho male dominance thing.'

There had already been the sound of dogs growling and barking in the background, this was interrupted by two distinctly different sharp yelps then whimpers. A few moments later the Doctor picked up the communicator. 'What do you want?'

"Is that anyway to talk to your favourite brother?" Brax asked.

'You're my only brother,' he quipped back.

"Yes well that's precisely why I am your favourite. I need your help."

'With what?'

"Bernice. She's going through generation sickness and her temperature has gone really high. I need something to help take it down."

'Her metabolism must be running super high then. Have you been making sure she's getting the right nutrients and high calories?'

"Nutrition wise she's been drinking the supplements I got from Narvin's TARDIS, but it's hard to get her to eat right now."

'Ok I'll be right there soon as I symphysise something to help,' he replied before hanging up.

Thinking Bernice was being unusually quiet he turned around to see her shivering too much to say much of anything. "Thete's on his way. He's better than I am with what is and isn't safe for you to take right now."

"B-b-bet-ter n-n-not c-c-come in h-h-h-ere," she stuttered out as she shivered.

"Nothing he hasn't seen before, why only yesterday—" Brax ducked laughing as he dodged the same rubber duck she had thrown at the alternate version of his brother. "Relax, I suspect he'll either send Rose in or knock the door. Actually I hope Rose does come; she has experience as a healer. Managed to save me from becoming a literal zombie once. She keeps saying she's better at warding than healing but she's a lot better at it than she lets on. Would have to be for Ohila to want her back so badly. Actually wanted Rose to be her successor as the leader of their cult believe it or not. Kept saying some superstitious nonsense about her being the golden wolf goddess from before time."

"Who's-s-s R-R-Rose?"

"Narvin's twin sister. I'm surprised you've met one of them and not the other. Don't worry she's the more likeable one that don't inspire people to punch them in the face. She's actually even for a child of the TARDIS, a very powerful empath. I often wonder if Narvin acts like such a huge prick sometimes to make up for it." He could see the question coming and just answered, "A child of the TARDIS is the title we give to time lords with a special subset of gifts. The main characteristic being able to communicate with an eleven dimensional being like a TARDIS. They do have other abilities that's characteristic to them, such as greater empathetic ability, they use their psionic energy differently to most people and use it on an instinctive level. Just like children often do, but unlike children they don't grow out of it and still do accidental magic throughout their lives. Some have more special talents and others don't. That depends on the individual really."

Benny was still shivering but was tiredly trying to wash the sweat out of her hair at least as she grabbed the bottle of her shampoo that she kept here. Now she thought about it, she actually had more of her stuff here than in her own place. Miles or Brax's apartment was bigger and a close walk to the university and he owned it outright. She had actually been considering asking if she could just not renew her lease next month and move here permanently, she spent most of her time here anyway.

She felt that she should be morning Miles or at the very least be apprehensive that it turned out he was Brax. The thing is she couldn't doubt that Brax loved her; she could feel it coming from him constantly through their new shared connection. Also Miles wasn't gone, not really. To her the only difference is he'd been acting from years of shared memories and inside jokes they shared. He really could remember the time at the collection even though it wasn't him, he'd pretty much shown her everything. Had nightmares about being in Pandora's thrall. She even managed to share one of those where he was screaming against Pandora, when she, not he, made Peter kill Jason. Pandora just happened to be using his body at the time.

Ultimately knowing her old friend wasn't the one who did that and actively thought against it made her give up the lingering resentment she held. Seeing it in his memory and nightmares was like lancing an infected wound that had been festering and letting the poison drain away so the wound would heal properly.

After all that timeline no longer happened. Brax made sure Peter never remembered it even in that timeline. Peter had forgiven him after everything he'd done for him, on and before arriving at Legion. Jason in this timeline didn't remember any of it. He had vague recollections of someone named Braxiatel being at their wedding and gave them the time rings, but that's about it. As it was Peter only existed because he was protected by the change that happened because he was outside of time inside of the Epoch base. So Peter didn't just watch his husband age and die, his father didn't even know him.

"Here, let me," Brax interrupted her thoughts to take over lathering the shampoo in her hair. For some reason her technique always bothered him for no reason he could explain. So Benny just let him take over this time because she really didn't have the energy and it felt kind of nice.

Before she knew it she was shocked awake from the slight dose she'd been in by cold water running on her head. "Fuck! Brax!"

"Not until you're well enough," Brax quipped back as he used the shower to wash the shampoo off. She just glared. "I waited as long as I could while I washed the rest of you. You were in such a stupor I doubt you noticed me taking your underwear off, or that I got you some fresh pyjamas."

She got out of the bath when finished and was embarrassed how weak she was. Brax helped her get dried put on clean knickers, a pair of pyjama shorts, and an old well worn soft T-shirt. "I'm glad you helped me with all of that, thank you."

"You helped me a few times over the last few months. It's my turn to help you. Also you have seriously been dating the wrong men if you don't expect the same level of care from your partner."

Benny didn't answer that. Truth be told Jason had been all about him most of the time. She didn't expect Braxiatel to be overly caring and concerned either. She was glad to be wrong although a little bit embarrassed about ever thinking that when faced with just how caring and affectionate he could be. She was still too hot so enjoyed snuggling up to him as he helped her back into bed.

There was a knock at the door to the flat. "That should be Thete. Benny, you really need to let go so I can answer the door."

"He'll just sonic his way in, I'm comfortable," Benny protested and held on tighter.

Brax smiled and kissed her forehead. "Sorry I really do need to let him in, deadlock seal." He managed to extricate himself from Benny and answered the door. The Doctor was on the other side with a bag of stuff, along with Rose who had her own bag. Narvin was hovering at the back holding yet another looking somewhat bedraggled, Rose no doubt made him help. Both him and the Doctor had visible bite marks that were rapidly healing on their arms any time their sleeves rode up. Peter was also there. He'd not seen Peter since turning back into a time lord. "Well I didn't expect this many people. Come in and excuse the mess."

"We've got medicine to help with her temperature, nutrition shakes, lots of high calorie and high protein snacks. Oh and a thermos of soup Lilly made, she said it's a special recipe her mother made as a child when going through generation sickness and in turn made for hers. She said she'll come around to check up on her when she's feeling up to guests, but right now she's spending time getting to know her son and reconnecting with her husband," The Doctor said as he put the bag down and directed everyone else to do so as well.

Rose however kept hers on her. "I've got everything I could. Wish I could have some elixir because it can be used to speed along the process. Next thing I'm doing is synthesising a replacement. There's a planet the White once colonised that got cut off during the war before they formed the Shadow Proclamation and fell to barbarism. It was actually a gallifreyan colony before that. They are very primitive there now, and I should have no problem getting what I need there. Anyway I'll go see what I can do for your mate."

"Zv r," Brax replied, pronouncing the 'r' as it's phonetic sound. Rose looked up at him from where she was rummaging through her bag. "The planet you mentioned. It's where we left Zaiden at Ohila's insistence that he was needed there, as well as the sisterhood later."

"The sisterhood made it out?" Rose asked.

"Yes, they left not long after you did. I was surprised they would leave the sacred flame, but they insisted they were following the wolf goddess or some such nonsense's directions as she reached through time to them," Narvin spoke up this time.

"I have no idea what they're talking about, they keep claiming I am the Wolf Goddess or some such nonsense and I didn't tell them to go anywhere, although I'm glad they did. I'll let you in on a little secret though since Karn is gone and it really no longer matters. The whole 'sacred flame of eternal life' thing is a load of nonsense Pythia made up because she didn't want Rassilon getting his hands on the real source of the elixir. It's just been a charade they've been putting on for millennia."

"Zv r," the Doctor mused for a moment. "Doesn't that translate from an obscure and ancient dialect of the White's language as Bad Wolf?"

"Yes it does," Rose replied trying to be dismissive. She went by the name Bad Wolf during the war. It wasn't just a name from when she had the power of a TARDIS inside her. All her crew had shed their old names and taken up renegade names then. She had intended to keep using the name Wolf at least but so far things hadn't worked out that way. "So where is Bernice?"

"Oh, though here," Brax directed and led Rose into his bedroom.

Peter was already in there sitting beside his mum and trying to coax her into eating a bar of dairy milk chocolate from 21st century England. "Oh come on Mum, you are burning so many calories right now just think, you can eat all the junk food and beacon sandwiches you like. You'll not put on any weight. At least that's what the Doctor told me when he told me about what you're going through."

"I really don't feel like eating anything Peter," she replied.

"Did he warn you that you may go through this someday?" Brax asked.

"Yes he did Irving. Also about how none of you know how my body will react if I do since there never has been a human-killoran hybrid that's gone through the process before. It's also likely because I'm a walking paradox that shouldn't exist in this timeline," Peter replied.

"Good. You have any questions about it you can ask me," Brax added. "Peter… I may not be the Braxiatel you grew up with on the collection, but I do have his memories…. I wanted to say I'm sorry about what I did even if it wasn't me who did it…. That Braxiatel wasn't in control of himself at the time and—"

"It's fine Irving," Peter interrupted, "I don't even remember it and it was all alright in the end. Jason was alive and well in this timeline. You made up for it by getting me out of the slave pits on Bastion, helping me through that, giving me advice and guidance when needed and I needed a lot of it after discovering that I'm gay. You protected me from Avril by blowing up that damned asteroid as it passed Legion. You were there for me when I was a teenager turning into a young adult. I'm glad you and mum are together at last because frankly it was getting that bad Ruth and Jack were plotting to lock the both of you in a room together. Since I don't have my actual Dad anymore, you're the closest thing I have to one."

"As much as I hate interrupting the touching moment you're having, I really need to see my patient," Rose interrupted.

"Of course," Brax replied and just clapped a hand on Peter's shoulder, "Bernice, this is Lady Rose of the Patrex chapter."

Rose snorted. "I'm no lady. Unlike him, I grew up as common as dirt. Just call me Rose. Now you two can wait outside and out of the way," Rose shooed the two men out then turned to Benny, "sorry about that. They can come back in later, just Brax would be hovering the whole time."

"It's actually surprising he's been so…. Well caring the whole time I've been sick."

Rose just smiled as she pulled a device out of her bag and attached it to her forehead. "He's a hard man to get through to but once you get in his hearts he'll do anything for you. He's always been like a big brother to me. I may have lost contact with the Doctor after going to a different academy, but Brax always made an effort to come say hello when we both had time off for the holidays. His biggest secret, he's all cool and hard exterior but inside he's all squishy, soft, romantic. Brax has more hearts than anyone I know, he just has to know someone is willing to accept them no matter what he does."

"I know that really, and I do love him, and I can no longer doubt his feelings for me. I guess it's just I've never had the best relationships and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop," Benny confessed.

"Don't worry too much Brax would catch the shoe even if he had to break several laws of time to do so. I have known Irving Braxiatel all my life, and I'm the same age as his brother. So a long time. He's had partners and romantic interests before, but I've never seen him this in love or taken with someone. Just try not to break his hearts. I'm not sure he'd survive it," Rose told her, as she read the readout on the device on Benny's forehead. "Your metabolism really is working overtime and your psionic energy is also working overtime to keep up. So that would explain the temperature and the exhaustion. If only I had some psionic silver, could make you something that would let you feel relatively normal. As it is, the best I can do for you is give you a nutrient drip because it's going to take more than just drinking the water."

"Do you all get this bad when going through this?" Benny asked as Rose rummaged around in her bag.

"Honestly no. That's why we induced it in children, children are still growing and bodies changing. It's not as hard on them. At most it's flu-like symptoms for a few weeks and lots of rest. We actually get to go home while we go through it as well. You're suffering from flu-like symptoms sure, but yours is extreme. It's not unheard of for gallifreyan adults to go through the process because they weren't caught when they were young. The adults have symptoms as extreme as yours but don't have as much bother because their bodies already stand up to using so many calories at once and high temperature. That's the two main concerns here, making sure you have enough calories and your brain doesn't cook in the process."

Rose managed to find a vain in Benny's arm and insert an IV port expertly. Benny winced slightly and said, "It's funny how medical technology can advance so much and yet it's largely the same basic process to give intravenous fluids and medicine as it was when the technique was first invented."

"And is still given in a place that hurts every time you bend your arm the wrong way," Rose replied as she pulled an IV pole out of a bag that was comically too small to fit one in there. She set it by her side of the bed and hung a bag of fluid on it, connected it up to her arm, then injected in a strange golden glowing liquid into a port on the bag.

"What is that glowing stuff?" Benny couldn't help but ask.

"Donated lindos since you won't be able to produce your own until probably a couple weeks from now, if my estimates of how quickly things are going are correct. Also a little artron energy mixed in. It will help boost your immune system and repair any inadvertent damage. Luckily we have a few time lords around to have enough to not affect anyone donating significantly until then. I've already hit up everyone but Brax to get some, will probably do so before we leave. That's what took us so long."

"What are lindos?"

"It's a hormone a time lord produces in order to heal themselves by binding to other energies like artron and then uses that to heal the affected area. We regenerate when there is so much damage the lindos goes completely out of control and into overproduction and that confuses the body making it not really know what shape it's supposed to be anymore. It will extrapolate from the third strand of our TNA but that being unreliable means we change. Some people can control this though, but I've only ever personally met two who could on a conscious level. Anyway expending too much lindos on not healing yourself but instead on others can shorten the lifespan slightly of that incarnation. Or worse, kill them if something happens and they need them before their production levels are back to normal, but that's in extreme cases. The amount we're talking about donating isn't harmful at all anymore than it would be for a human to donate a safe amount of blood."

Rose pulled out another syringe and put this one directly into her IV port. "That one is a painkiller, and anti-inflammatory. Should bring your temperature down to non brain cooking levels. You can only have one does every six hours, the lindos should be introduced to your intravenous drip once a day, and you need to be on at least two bags of that fluid per day. I know you don't feel like eating but you really have to. We've brought just about everything we could think of that's high protein and/or calories. Mostly in snack form so if you're not up to eating a full meal maybe you can manage to keep taking snacks."

"Thanks for doing all this," Benny replied.

"Least I can do. We're going to head off to a planet where I should be able to get everything I need to help you get through this with less medical intervention, but first you gotta have some juicy gossip of things Brax got up to as a human I can tease him with," Rose said, as she sat down beside the bed.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Sometime later Rose left the bedroom and joined the assembled time lords (and Peter) in the living room. "She's asleep. I have her temperature down to levels where she won't be seeing pink elephants and even got her to take Lilly's soup and a few chocolate bars to add on some calories. She's burning through them fast, at least her psionic energy is making sure it takes away fat first. She should make it so long as she sticks to the treatment and takes in calories. I'd be much happier if we go to Zv r and get the element I need just in case."

"I'll do anything you wish to get her through this intact and with the least suffering possible," Brax spoke up, surprising everyone but Rose.

"Good then you will stay here and look after your mate," Rose told him. "Time machine, we can be there for ages and come back tomorrow. Don't worry I'll drive so we will definitely get back here in a reasonable time frame," she joked.

"Oi, I'm not that bad!" The Doctor protested.

"Narvin, will you come with us? Could use your…. skill set… to get the lay of the land so to speak," Rose implored to her brother.

"Fine," Narvin acquiesced. He looked over to Braxiatel. "I take it we are waiting for Bernice to generate before we start to set up for waking everyone."

"I would prefer it, yes. We can wake the nearby settlement of essential people for getting set up in the meantime but really as Rose said, I should be caring for my mate. I really shouldn't be going to KS-159 without her."

"The collection?" Peter asked. "It never existed in this timeline but the planetoid itself disappeared without a trace millennia ago."

"Yes well, that's because I materialised my TARDIS around the planetoid and set it slightly out of sync with reality to hide there. There's a huge rift right there making it the perfect place to set up a staging area," Braxiatel explained.

"Ok so we're all agreed then. We should leave for Kv r as soon as possible," the Doctor concluded and everyone agreed.

"Before we go anywhere though, Brax I need you to donate some Lindos," Rose said and produced a weird looking instrument. It had a large triangularly round cup on one side and a bottle on the other end with a square box with controls on it in between.

"You're giving her lindos?" Brax asked concernedly as he shook his hand and it began to glow.

"Yes, she needs them and artron at the moment to supplement her psonic core because it's working overtime right now. That reminds me, no shifting form for her until it's done or enough of her magic frees itself up to do so. She's on the verge of magical exhaustion as it is," Rose instructed as Brax stuck his hand in the cup. The glow syphoned into the machine and came out and into the bottle as a liquid. Once the bottle was full Brax removed his hand then he stopped it from glowing.

"You have written out the instructions for her medication?" Brax asked choosing not to show how much the thought of her not making it through this upset him. It didn't work, everyone in the room knew Brax too well to fall for it.

"Yes. The main medications are in the bag I left in her room. Make sure she gets the drip changed and to make sure she takes at least two doses of IV fluids a day, more if possible. Inject the lindos solution into the port into the bag of the nutrient drip to get them slowly once a day. If it's an emergency put a shot of it into her IV port. The painkillers the Doctor synthesised can only be given every six hours and inject it into the IV port on her arm directly," Rose instructed as she handed the bottle of lindos over to Braxiatel. "You can put this in the bag with the rest."

"The rest?" Brax asked.

"Yes. We've all donated. Even Lily and Ross. She's one of us now, and we take care of our own," Rose replied solemnly.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Big thankyou to everyone who has followed, favourited, reviewed or even botherd to read this story so far.