8. Encounter Again
Three months passed since Tory stays at London.
Tory admitted, she feels a little strange in living everyday with Jackie. Wake up, have breakfast, go to school, study, make friends, go home, have dinner, sleep. Somewhat different from her life with Nancy, where she mostly looked for food and survived. But she couldn't deny that living on Earth is very comfortable and pleasant. It reminded a little of her old life at Gallifrey.
Before leaving, the Doctor has created some convincing fake documents for her, after finds out about Tory's plan to blend in. Jackie is happy to assist Tory in the selection and registration process for the nearest school. The process wasn't as difficult as Tory had feared. During these three months, Tory used the alias "Tory Smith" at school and everyone thought Jackie was her aunt from distant family.
Just like at Gallifrey, Tory didn't have many friends at school. She has tried several ways to make lots of friends. But unfortunately, not all students want to accept her. Especially since she managed to answer all the questions from history teachers about the history of the Roman Empire completely, even though none of students managed to answer correctly. She had heard boys call her "unusual" and Tory realized she was making the same impression just like the students at the Academy. But she cannot do much, so she's accept it.
Within three months, Tory tried to process the facts about Gallifrey and facts about Harriet Jones now. Honestly, Tory is still not happy that the Doctor made Gallifrey gone forever. She knew that the Time War was terrible, she still remembered that. But destroying their planet isn't the correct solution. Whatever the reason is. It was the same with Harriet. She disagreed with Harriet's action, but took her position as Prime Minister? That's too much.
She wasn't mad at the Doctor anymore. But she still couldn't forgive him. Maybe one day she will, but not now.
Right after she opened the flat door, Mickey came to greet her. "Tory. Good to see you here," he greeted her as Jackie sit at the sofa. "Sorry for suddenly come here, but I need your help."
Tory glanced at them. "Is it something to do with aliens?"
And with that, she decided to infiltrated the school Mickey mention for investigation. She already in there for two days and she can tell there're some alien activities doing. From the teachers behaviour to her classmate knowledge beyond normal. Just a time before she's expecting an alien appearing at her.
But she's certainly didn't expecting an alien that she already knows suddenly appearing at her physic's class.
"Good morning, class. Are we sitting comfortably?" The Doctor grinned at them, mainly at Tory who still stared at him with wide eyes. He cannot stop grinning at that.
She asked him via telepathic. What are you doing here?
Same as you. He replied while writing on the board. "So, physics." He put the chalk down. "Physics, eh? Physics. Phyyyyyyyysics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics. I hope one of you is getting all this down. Okay, let's see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"
A boy raised his hand.
"Yes, er, what's your name?"
"Milo."
"Milo! Off you go."
"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge."
"Correctamundo!" He remarked. "A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again. Question two. I coil up a thin piece of microwire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this. How do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?"
Everyone, except Milo and Tory, looks so bored. Milo raised his hand again.
"Someone else. Ah, what about you?" He pointed right at Tory. "Yes, you. Please answer."
Tory gave him a deadly glare, but he knows she really didn't mean it. "Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter," Tory replied, adding in his mind. Try ask more question at Milo.
"One to you and one to Milo. Right then," he looked at Milo. "Milo, tell me this. True or false. The greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings."
"False."
"What is non-coding DNA?"
"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."
"65.985 X 5?"
"329.915."
"How do you travel faster than light?"
"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of 36.7 recurring."
The Doctor glanced at Tory. How...?
This time, she grinned at him. Interesting, isn't it?
At lunch, the Doctor asked her to sit with him as they're eating chips. Rose, disguised as a dinner lady, wiping the table.
"Two days," Rose commented.
"Sorry, could you just," He pointed at the table. "There's a bit of gravy. No, no, just, just there."
"Two days, we've been here."
"Blame your boyfriend. He's the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth."
Rose staring the duo. "You two eating those chips?"
"It's really good," Tory admitted.
Rose agreed. "I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this."
"It's very well behaved, this place," the Doctor stated.
Rose took the chips to her mouth. "Mmm."
"I thought there'd be happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones." He looked at the girls impressively. "Huh? Huh? Oh, yeah. Don't tell me I don't fit in."
A dinner lady - Jackson, as Tory recall - approach them.
"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting," she pointed out to Rose.
"I was just talking to this teacher."
The Doctor greeted. "Hello."
"He doesn't like the chips," Rose continued.
"The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance," Jackson insisted. "Now, get back to work."
She left. Rose walked away from the table. "See? This is me. Dinner lady." She gestured at her clothes to the duo.
"I'll have the crumble," he said.
"I'm so going to kill you," Rose stated, sounds quite happy.
"So... how are you been?" He asked her after not speaking for a moment, observing a male teacher walked and talked to three students at front. "Living here? With Jackie."
She observed as she took a chip. "Good," she confessed. "It's quite... well, normal. And peaceful. I kinda like it." She stared at him. "What about you?"
"Good," he immediately replied. "Quite good. Me and Rose got a chance to meet Queen Victoria." He smiled.
"Let me guess, Rose make a bet so Queen Victoria said 'I am not amuse' and wins?" She said without looking at him.
He pouted. She chuckled at that reaction. "You know I'm THE Historian, right?"
"Yeah." He stopped smiling, remember her yelling at Christmas, how he already messed up the future history by his own consent.
That event still stuck inside him, a painful reminder of what he had done. How reckless and naive he become at that time, not even considering her plead and let his furious took over his judgement. He shouldn't do that, but he knows he cannot change that. He already bring Harriet Jones down as a prime minister. And even he tried to fix it, it will be a paradox. And he rather avoid that.
He decided to asking another question. "You've got anything else while here?"
She shook her head. "Not much, sadly. Other than what I told you. It seems like they want to preparing the students for something."
She glanced at the principal above. He looked at her with serious glare. She replied it with the same glare.
As the school's bell ringing, signing all class to be over, Tory and Kenny walked at the corridor talk about some interesting projects they come up during classes. As they walked into a stairwells, the principal stood not far from them.
"Can I talk to you, Tory?" He asked her. "Don't worry, Kenny, you can walked away to your class."
Tory gave Kenny a nod and he leave, seems nervous.
"Is there something I can do to you, Mr. Finch?" Tory walked to him.
He silently observed her before speaking, "At lunch, you were talking to Mr. Smith, the temporary teacher. You two seems know each other. Am I right?"
"He was my teacher at my old school," Tory replied, still looking him. "Is there a problem with that?"
For a while, they just looking at each other intensely. The silence atmosphere surround them clearly make it more intense. But none of them showing their weakness in their face. They look relatively calm, but deep down, know that there's some hidden intention.
"Nothing," Mr. Finch said. "I'm just curious. That's all."
She looking up-and-down at him. "I see. Then can I go back to the class?"
"Please," he smiled, let her to go. Tory smiled in gratitude before leaving.
While they walked away, their expression turn darker and serious, pondering each other true motive.
At night, they began their investigation more freely at the school. By 'they', Tory means the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey. The Doctor told her to stay inside the TARDIS, afraid something wrong might happen. Despite Tory gave him a remark how she can take care of herself, he still forced her to stay. After some arguing, Tory agree to stay inside.
That, and she's just plain tired.
She decided to writing at her diary, something she had done since she's arriving here. The Doctor suggested her to write everything that she knows so she can remember things she forget. It did helping her to remember stuff, but not much, which frustrate her. She just want to remember, why her brain cannot cooperate for that?
Just after she's about to finish, she suddenly hearing the TARDIS's cloister bell ringing.
"What..?" She stands up and walked to the console, checking the source. "What is it?"
From the monitor, she saw a middle-age woman looking at the TARDIS, incredibly shocked. She recognized her as Sarah Jane Smith from research she had of the Doctor's companions. Sarah Jane stepped backwards, reaching for the knob, and leaving.
Tory walked outside the box, wanting to stop her, and reach the door, when the woman seems more suprise to see her, before looking at her left, where the Doctor stand still.
"Hello, Sarah Jane," he greeted her softly.
"It's you. Oh, Doctor," she looked at him. "Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it... you've regenerated."
"Yeah. Half a dozen times since we last met."
"You look... incredible."
"So do you."
"Huh. I got old." She shrugged before looked at him sharply. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn't resist," he answered. "What about you?"
"The same." They laugh. But then, Sarah Jane lost her smile and starts talking, near to cry. "I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died."
"I lived. Everyone else die," he solemly said.
She looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Everyone died, Sarah." He glanced at Tory. "Just me and her, now."
Sarah Jane stared at Tory, didn't believe the girl near her is actually a Time Lady. "I can't believe it's you." She said to him. And then, a scream echoed. "Okay, now I can," she stated as they rushed to the voice.
Rose managed to joined. "Did you hear that?" She noticed Sarah Jane. "Who's she?"
"Rose, meet Sarah Jane," Tory introduced. "Sarah Jane, meet Rose."
"Hi. Nice to meet you," the woman shake her hand at hers. Tory can tell she seems tense. "You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger."
"I'm not his assistant."
"No? Get you, tiger."
"Oh, dear," Tory murmured, knowing what this conversation is going. And she doesn't like it at all.
They find Mickey in one of the classrooms, surrounded by a load of vacum-packed rats.
"Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell on me."
"Oh, my God, they're rats." Rose picked one of them from the ground. "Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats."
"And you decided to scream," the Doctor concluded.
"It took me by surprise!" Mickey defended.
"Like a little girl?"
"Doctor, he was probably scared and shocked fo find these at a classroom," Tory justified, titled her head. "Any normal human would react like him."
Mickey beaming and the Doctor just making a grumble noise.
"Hello, can we focus?" Rose told them back to the issue. "Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?"
"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons," Sarah Jane reasoned. "They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?"
"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore," Rose argued. "They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages?"
"Anyway," the Doctor cut it, "moving on. Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office."
"Come on." Tory grabbed Mickey's hand as they walked at a corridor. From behind, she can heard the two woman talking.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?" Rose asked, suspicious.
"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor."
'Oh. Well, he's never mentioned you."
"Oh, I must've done. Sarah Jane. Mention her all the time," the Doctor said.
"Hold on," Rose remarked. "Sorry. Never."
"What, not even once?" Sarah Jane asked, disbelief. "He didn't mention me even once?"
"Are woman these days can be this... jealous?" Tory whispered to Mickey, getting upset of hearing them arguing.
Mickey shrugged. "Depends of each people."
"I hope I will never be like them," Tory replied as they arrived outside the headmaster's room.
The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver. "Maybe those rats were food."
"Food for what?" Rose wondered.
He opened the door, and peeked inside. There are some strange noises coming from there. The Doctor's eyes are fixed on the ceiling. "Rose... you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school? Well... they do."
Tory eyes wide open as she saw some bat-creature hanging at the ceiling.
"No way!" Mickey yelped as they running away, as fast as they can. After a while, they managed to get out from the building.
"I am not going back in there," Mickey panted. "No way."
"Those were teachers," Rose commented.
"When Finch arrived, he brought with him 7 new teachers, 4 dinner ladies and a nurse," the Doctor recalled. "13. 13 big bat people. Come on."
He began to walk back. "Come on? You've got to be kidding!" Mickey protested.
"I need the TARDIS," he remarked. "I've got to analyse that oil from the kitchen."
"I might be able to help you there. I've got something to show you," Sarah Jane suggested as she lead them to the parking area. She open her car's boot and the Doctor recognized what's inside.
"K9!" He cheered. "Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Historian, allow me to introduce K9. Well, K9 Mark III to be precise."
"Why does he look so... disco?" Rose pondered.
"Oi!" He protested. "Listen, in the year five thousand, this was cutting edge. What's happened to him?"
Sarah Jane shrugged. "Oh, one day, he just... nothing."
"Didn't you ever try to fix him?" Tory asked her as she keep looking at K9 with fasinating eyes.
"Well, it's not like getting parts for a Mini Metro," she argued. "Beside, the technology inside him could rewrite human science. I couldn't show him to anyone."
"Ooh, what's the nasty lady done to you, eh?" He cooing at him. Tory giggled, understand the Doctor's doing.
"Look, no offence, but could you two just stop petting for a minute?" Rose argued. "Never mind the tin dog. We're busy."
Tory replied, doesn't bother at that and focus at the Doctor. "Let's fix him, shall we?"
"I thought of you on Christmas Day," Sarah mentioned as the Doctor and Tory working on K9 at a coffee shop nearby. "This Christmas just gone? Great big spaceship overhead. I thought, 'oh yeah, bet he's up there.'"
"Right on top of it, yeah."
"And Rose?" She asked, hesitated.
"She was there too. With me and Mickey," Tory replied, eyeing the blonde girl for a while.
"Did I do something wrong?" Sarah Jane inquired, "because you never came back for me. You just... dumped me."
"I told you. I was called back home and in those days humans weren't allowed," he reasoned.
"I waited for you. I missed you."
"Oh, you didn't need me! You were getting on with your life."
"You were my life," Sarah Jane glanced at Tory who keep fixing K9. "You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next, or with what doesn't happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles, and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?"
The Doctor just looked at Sarah Jane. His mind recalling all adventures he and Sarah Jane did together, before he dropped her off. Then, his mind recalling the last time he and Tory spoke at Christmas.
Truth to be told, he actually doesn't want to come back. Because if he did, then he will facing Tory. He cannot bear the though of her hating him so much, despite he already knows it might happen. He deserved it, after all. But Mickey and Rose insist to investigate this case to no end, so he had no choice but to do so. Similar case for Sarah Jane as well. He cannot bear the though of her getting older and one day she might be...
He slowly asked her. "All those things you saw, do you want me to apologise for that?"
"No, but we get a taste of that splendour and then we have to go back," she simply answered.
"Look at you, you're investigating. You found that school. You're doing what we always did," he cannot resist to smile.
"You could have come back."
"I couldn't," he replied quietly.
"Why not?" Sarah Jane can only shook her head sadly when he focused om K9, and not her question. "It wasn't Croydon. Where you dropped me off, that wasn't Croydon."
Tory stared at her. "Where was it?"
"Aberdeen."
"Right," the Doctor understand. "That's next to Croydon, isn't it?"
"You're really terrible at piloting the TARDIS, aren't you?" Tory murmured, sounds confused and disappointed.
"Oi!" He protested, which make Sarah Jane chuckled at his respond.
At that moment, K9 actived back.
"Oh, hey. Now we're in business."
"Master."
"He recognises me," he cheered. "K9, I want you to introduce to my little sister, the Historian."
"Affirmative," K9 replied. "Hello, Mistress Historian."
"Hello too, K9," Tory smiling before glancing at Rose. "Rose, give me the oil."
Rose gave Tory the sample. "I wouldn't touch it, though. That dinner lady got all scorched," she warned.
"Don't worry. You know how taugh I am," she reassured her. He took the oil using her pointing finger carefully as K9 puts out a sensor for her to smear it onto.
"Oil. Ex-ex-ex-extract ana-ana-analysing."
"Listen to him, man. That's a voice," Mickey remarked.
"Careful. That's my dog," Sarah Jane said.
"Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil," K9 concluded.
"They're Krillitanes," Tory muttered seriously.
Rose looked at her. "Is that bad?"
"Very," the Doctor replied. "Think of how bad things could possibly be, and add another suitcase full of bad."
"And what are Krillitanes?" Sarah Jane asked.
"They're a composite race," he began. "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries, people you've invaded or have been invaded by. You've got bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever. The Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognise them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."
"What're they doing here?" Rose inquired.
He and Tory stared at each other eyes, knowing. "It's the children. They're doing something to the children."
Rose, the Doctor, and Tory walked outside the shop for fresh air.
Rose immediately asked. "How many of us have there been travelling with you?"
"Does it matter?" He added.
"Yeah, it does, if I'm just the latest in a long line." She sighed and keep continued. "I thought you and me were. Then Tory came. I obviously got it wrong. I've been to the year five billion, right, but this? Now this is really seeing the future. You just leave us behind. Is that what you're going to do to me? What you're going to do to Tory?"
He's about to object Rose's questions when he realized what she's saying has a point. She's not talking about her or Sarah Jane, but she also consider Tory's choice back at Christmas. "I don't age," he slowly revealed, "I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you..."
"What, Doctor?" Rose wondered, feared of what he implied.
He just stared at her, almost heartbroken, despite Tory stand beside him. "You can spend the rest of your life with me and Historian, but we can't spend the rest of us with you. We have to live on. By ourself." He hold Tory's hand spontaniously. "That's the curse of the Time Lords."
Then, a strange voiced hissed. "Time Lord."
The Time Lords looked up, noticing a giant bat swooped down. Tory used her power to send it away by force. It success to make the giant bat flied away.
Mickey and Sarah Jane rushed to them. "Was that a Krillitane?" She asked.
"Yeah," Tory said, her legs a bit unsteady. "They've been spying on us."
"You're okay?" Rose helped her to stands up.
She nodded. "Yeah, just a side effect. I'm still not used to using my power. Still makes me tired."
That's also what she's been trying to do while staying. She hasn't manage to used her full power like at Christmas or during Daleks's invasion at the Academy. It seems her power isn't strong enough to used without her emotion getting haywire. She's also got tired if using it too much or too forced. So far, she can make things "heavier" and "lighter" and create a small force field of herself.
"Don't used it too much," the Doctor told her as he helped. "We don't know how much it will drain your body."
She simply nodded. "I know, I know."
The next day, they return back to the school.
"Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this." The Doctor gave the screwdriver to Sarah Jane. "Mickey, surveillance. I want you outside."
"Just stand outside?" Mickey asked.
"In case something bad might happen," Tory added. "You never know."
"Here, take these you can keep K9 company." Sarah throwed Mickey her car keys.
"Don't forget to leave the window open a crack," the Doctor reminded.
"But he's metal!"
"I didn't mean for him."
"Rude," Tory muttered.
Unbother by her comment, Rose inquired. "What're you going to do?"
The Doctor grabbing Tory's left hand, looking serious. "It's time we had a word with Mister Finch."
At the school corridor, their gazed meet at each other, paused a moment. Mr. Finch looked up and saw the Doctor leaning over the stairwell, holding Toey's shoulders, looking down at him and making no attempt to disguise the fact that he knows. After giving him a hard stare, Mr. Finch went on his way and the Doctor continued on up the stairs, still keeping Tory at his side.
Eventually, they got into the swimming pool, stand at opposite ends of the pool.
The Doctor asked first, "Who are you?"
"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?"
"The Doctor."
"The Historian," Tory replied, eyeing him. Her memories of Krillitanes is quite different of the current one. "Since when did Krillitanes have wings?"
He grinned. "It's been our form for nearly ten generations now. Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day. Just imagine."
They start to walk carefully at the same side of the pool.
"And now you're shaped human," the Doctor remarked.
"A personal favourite, that's all."
"What about the others?" Tory wondered.
"My brothers remain bat form. What you see is a simple morphic illusion. Scratch the surface and the true Krillitane lies beneath," he answered, looking between the man and the child. "And what of the Time Lords? I always thought of you as such a pompous race. Ancient, dusty senators, so frightened of change and... chaos. And of course, they're all but extinct. Only you two. The last."
"This plan of yours. What is it?" The Doctor asked, didn't want to think about that last statement.
"You don't know."
"That's why I'm asking."
"Well, show me how clever you are. Work it out."
"If I don't like it, then it will stop," the Doctor claimed.
The two of them facing each other closer. "Fascinating," he admitted. "Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor? And ready to put her into this?"
"I'm so old now," he remarked coldly, hate how the man in front of him dared to threatening Tory, threatening his little sister. "I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it."
He and Tory turned back when Mr. Finch said, "But we're not even enemies. Soon... you will embrace us. The next time we meet, you two will join with me. I promise you."
Tory urged the Doctor to walked away, didn't want him to even consider what Brother Lassa just said. She knows he did that on purpose and she would not let it happen. At all.
"Let's just check on Sarah Jane and Rose," Tory concluded as they walked to where Sarah Jane and Rose currently inside and meet an unexpected sight.
Rose and Sarah Jane laughed. The both of them.
"How's it going?" He asked. Yet, they keep laughing. "What? Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these."
They still laughed even louder. Rose even pointing his face, like saw something hilarious.
"What?" He asked, so confused. Tory just shrugged, doesn't get it either. "Stop it!"
Just as the Doctor keep working with his sonic at the computer, a voiced speaked from the loudspeaker. "All pupils to class immediately. And would all members of staff congregate in the staff room."
"Doctor?" Tory urged him as she saw the kids clambour to get inside.
Noticed this, Rose said, "No, no, this classroom's out of bounds. You've all gotta go to the South Hall. Off you go, South Hall!" They walked away and Rose shuts the door.
The Doctor, with his sonic at his teeth, ripped a handful of wires out of a computer and hanging them around his neck as he run the sonic screwdriver along the back of the computer. Sarah Jane watches him, looking slightly anxious.
"I can't shift," he stated.
"I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!" Sarah Jane claimed.
"Anything except a deadlock seal. There's gotta be something inside here." He glanced at Tory. "What're they teaching those kids?"
"Usual education," Tory admitted. "But far more advance and more high-level."
"You wanted the program, there it is." Sarah Jane pointed out to every computer in the computer lab, also displaying the code, including the large screen at the front of the room.
Tory stared at it, doesn't know. "Some sort of code..."
But the Doctor knows. "No... no, they can't be... the Skasis Paradigm. They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm."
"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked.
"The... God-maker. The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control."
"What, and the kids are like a giant computer?" Rose inquired.
"Yes." He paces around. "And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil. That oil from the kitchens, it works as a, as a conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer."
"But that oil's on the chips. I've been eating them."
"What's 59 x 35?"
"2.065," Rose replied and realized. "Oh, my God."
"But why use children?" Sarah Jane asked. "Can't they use adults?"
"No, it's got to be children. The God maker needs imagination to crack it," he explained. "They're not just using the children's brains to break the code... they're using their souls."
"That's awful," Tory murmured.
"Let the lesson begin." They turned around and saw Mr. Finch enter the room. "Think of it, Doctor. With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."
"Oh yeah? The whole of creation with the face of Mister Finch?" He mocked. "Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."
"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."
"What, by someone like you?"
"No... someone like you." He stated. "The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a God... at my side. Imagine what you could do. Think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta... your own people, Doctor, standing tall. The Time Lords... reborn."
"No one meant to have that power," Tory stated seriously, knowing such a power can corrupt someone, knowing and afraid of what her power can do.
"Doctor, don't listen to him," Sarah Jane agreed.
"And you could be with him throughout eternity," he claimed, observing Sarah Jane, Rose, and Tory. "Young, fresh, never wither, never age, never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us."
"...I could save everyone."
"Yes."
"...I could stop the war."
"No," Sarah Jane declared. "The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends."
"But that doesn't always be a bad thing," Tory continued, eyes looking down, realizing. "Because... everything begins again. If we cannot move forward... then nothing can be start."
And that's the issue. She knows she cannot forgive the Doctor for his decision of destroying Gallifrey. But she also knows she cannot stay like that, she needs to move forward as well. Because that's what the universe demand. And that's also what her parents and Orion want for her. Move forward, not dwelling in the past.
The Doctor just solemly listening to them, and he already made his decision. He throwed a chair at the big screen, smashing it. "Out!"
They dashing outside as fast as they can and encounter with Mickey and Kenny at staircase.
"What is going on?" Mickey asked.
Three Krillitanes went their way along the corridor to them. The Doctor and the others run in the opposite direction. The Krillitanes separated at the end of the corridor, only one pursuit them.
They run into the canteen hall, try the doors on the other side, but they're locked. The Doctor reached inside his coat for the sonic screwdriver, just as Mr Finch coming through the doors, followed by several Krillitanes.
"Are they my teachers?" Kenny asked.
"Unfortunately, yeah." Tory commented.
"We need the Doctor and the young girl alive," Mr. Finch ordered to his brothers. "As for the others? You can feast."
The Krillitanes swoop down on them. The Doctor tried to beat them off with a chair while Tory tried to used her power. The others scream and try to duck out of the way, when suddenly, one of the Krillitanes is hit with a beam of red light and falls to the floor, dead.
"K9!" Sarah Jane cheered.
"Suggest you engage running mode, Mistress."
"Come on!" The Doctor and others run as K9 keep shooting at the Krillitanes. "K9, hold them back!"
"Affirmative, Master. Maximum defence mode."
The doctor shut the doors using his sonic screwdriver before running with others. They managed to get inside the physic laboratory, when an idea strike.
"It's the oil. Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil. That's it! They've changed their physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them," he declared. "How much was there in the kitchens?"
"Barrels of it," Rose replied.
The Krillitanes are battering at the door. They can see the claws ripping at the door.
"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens." He turned around. "Mickey..."
"What now, hold the coats?"
"Get all the children unplugged and out of the school." He said. Mickey nodded as he left. "Now then, bats, bats, bats. How do we fight bats?"
Kenny walked over to a fire alarm, breaks the glass with his elbow and sets it off. The Krillitanes winced and quail at the sound. The Doctor beamed and flings open the door, the Krillitanes are in too much distress to hurt them. He and the others quickly run past.
"That was pretty smart," Tory admitted, earning a blush in Kenny's face. He never got a compliment at a girl around his age.
The Doctor and others walked down a corridor and K9 emerges from a doorway. "Master."
"Come on, boy," he called him. "Good boy."
K9 trundled along with them into the kitchen.
The Doctor tried his sonic screwdriver on the barrels of oil. "They've been deadlock sealed." He tried at another barrel. "Finch must've done that. I can't open them."
"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser, but my batteries are failing," K9 claimed.
"Right," he nodded. "Everyone out the back door. K9, stay with me."
While Rose, Sarah Jane, and Kenny walked outside, Tory stop walking and simply looking at him and K9. "You better get out of here alive, okay? You and K9."
"Of course," he said with a promise. He would not abandon her.
"You better be," Tory said before going out, hoping this will turn okay.
At the end, it turns out to be okay. The Doctor and K9 managed to defeat the Krillitanes by exploding the building using the oil, killing the Krillitanes. But in order to do that, K9 must stay so it can happen. They lost K9, despite the victory.
The Doctor and Tory managed to find the remaining of K9 at the school building. He got destroyed, but still can be fixed. So the duo worked to fixing and upgrading K9 for Sarah Jane. But they decided to keep it secret, to suprising Sarah Jane.
Which is why, they invited her to come inside the TARDIS.
"You've redecorated," Sarah Jane realized.
"Do you like it?" Tory asked.
"Oh, I, I do. Yeah. I preferred it as it was, but er, yeah. It'll do."
"I love it," Rose said.
Curious, Sarah Jane decided to ask her. "Hey, what's 47 x 369?"
"No idea," Rose admitted. "It's gone now. The oil's faded."
"But you're still clever. More than a match for him."
Rose smiled. "You and me both," Rose noted. "Doctor?"
"Er, we're about to head off, but... you could come with us," he offered.
She looked happy, before shook her head. "No. I can't do this anymore," she declined softly. "Besides, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead. Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own."
"Can I come?" Mickey suddenly asked. "No, not with you," he gestured to Sarah Jane. "I mean with you." He gestured at the Doctor. "Because I'm not the tin dog, and I want to see what's out there."
"Oh, go on, Doctor," Sarah Jane stated. "Sarah Jane Smith, a Mickey Smith. You need a Smith on board."
"Okay then, I could do with a laugh."
"Don't be rude to him," Tory muttered.
"I'm not! Really!" He argued.
Mickey chuckled at that. "Rose, is that okay?" He asked her.
"No, great. Why not?" Rose stated, holding herself not to upset.
"Well, I'd better go." She said and stand close to Rose as they keep talking. Tory didn't hear the rest as the Doctor make some gesture to come with him outside the TARDIS.
They stand with silence. No conversation for a while until the Doctor began. "Historian... there's something I haven't told you much. About Gallifrey. About... what I did back then."
Tory didn't say anything.
"What I did was terrible, very terrible. But you need to know." He keep going. "You deserved the truth. You can be angry with me. I deserved it. And if you don't want to come with me, then..."
She raised her left hand, prompt him to stop talking. "Look," she sighed deeply. "I know you had your own reason for doing it. And there's more to see. But the thing is... I don't want to know. I don't care." He glanced to her, not expecting her to said that. "But that doesn't stop me for being upset with you, whatever reason you had that made you think destroying Gallifrey is the only chance." She looked at him. "You can tell me the truth, but not now. Not when I'm still not capable of forgiving you, despite I should be. Because it will hurt both of us. So keep it until I'm ready, okay?"
That's the only think she can said about her own reasoning. She cannot say more, because it will hurt more. And despite she cannot forgive the Doctor, that doesn't mean she hate him. She never capable of hating him.
The Doctor slowly nodded, about to say something when Sarah Jane walked outside the TARDIS.
"It's daft, but I haven't ever thanked you for that time," Sarah Jane stated. "And like I said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world."
He looked at her, smiling. "Something to tell the grandkids."
"Oh, I think it'll be someone else's grandkids now."
"Right. Yes, sorry. I didn't get a chance to ask," he seems awkward. You haven't...? There hasn't been anyone...? You know..."
"Well, there was this one guy. I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow," she simply replied with laughed and the Time Lords smiled softly. "Goodbye, Doctor. Goodbye, Historian."
"Oh, it's not goodbye."
"Do say it. Please. This time. Say it."
The Doctor looked at Sarah Jane before finally said. "Goodbye... my Sarah Jane."
He lifts her off her feet in a big hug, before let go as Tory hugged her as well. As she let go, she and the Doctor go back inside the TARDIS, a secret smile on their face as they prepared K9 to her.
"Thank you," he told her softly, despite still guilty.
"Don't be," Tory told him before walking to the console as they strike to a new adventures.
Note: Tory will not known the full reason. For now, at least. It will require some time for Tory to accept. Remember, Tory cannot usually forgive someone who made a huge mistake and it took times until she did. Tory did tried her best to not be like that, as she promised for Nancy. But I can said that she eventually will find out the reasoning and finally accept it.