Chapter Two
Harry gasped and gulped in a huge breath of air as he suddenly existed once more. He only had a second to realise what had happened before cursing and running from the console room just as the door was swung open and the Doctor and Rose entered.
"Mum?" Harry whispered as he ran down the halls away from the console room, heart beating furiously at the realisation of just how close to being caught he had come.
"Calm, my child. You did so well. I am so proud of you. We're safe now, go back to your room and relax. You've done what was needed and now you can rest." Harry nodded and ran the rest of the way to his room. Once he was safe inside, he couldn't stop himself from de-aging once more and then he flung himself onto his bed and shut the curtain, hiding himself from everything that could possibly hurt him.
Harry nibbled his lip when he felt his mother start to leave the tv station without the Doctor, though he could feel that Rose was still inside, and he wondered what he should do. If there even was anything that he could do.
"Mum? Can I do anything?"
"It is up to the human. If she does as time predicts, then you should help her. You'll know what to do and when should the timeline not go wibbly-wobbly."
"So if it goes all Timey Wimey, I can't do anything? How will I know though."
"You know. Any minute now, you'll know. Be prepared. Are you ready?" Harry nodded and suddenly understood what his mother meant as every possible future suddenly broke through his mental shield and flashed before his eyes.
With his eyes glowing, though Harry wasn't aware of this, he made his way through the halls of the Tardis toward the console room.
At first he wasn't noticed, Mickey and Rose too busy trying to open the time vortex for some reason, but then they must have sensed someone and they both looked up and gaped at him.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Rose, do you know him?" they both spoke at the same time, but it was Rose's question that Harry answered. Turning to look at her, getting a gasp as she noticed his glowing eyes, he spoke, voice sounding eerily echoey as he did so.
"I'm the companion," Harry told them, not taking his eyes off of Rose even when Mickey made a confused noise and glanced from Rose to him and then back again.
"What does he mean? Rose, who is he?"
"I don't know," Rose said, not taking her eyes off of the young man with strange glowing eyes standing in the middle of the Tardis. "Who are you? What do you mean you're the companion. Companion of who? The Doctor?"
"I am the Companion of the Tardis. You want to help the Doctor?"
"Companion of the Tardis? What does that mean?"
"I am her child. Her companion. Do you wish to help the Doctor?" Harry asked her again, feeling how time was constantly in flux, images of what could be flashing through his mind, even as some faded from possibility.
"Of course I want to help him! How long have you been here? Can you help me? Take me to him?"
"I have been here for far longer than you could imagine. I can help you go back to him. Will your companion be coming too?" Harry asked, finally turning to look at Mickey, who got a deer in headlights look at the sudden attention.
"Mickey isn't my companion," Rose said with a shake of her head, ignoring the slightly hurt look that Mickey shot her, though Harry noted it and wondered what that was about. "Do you want to come with us Mickey?" Rose then asked, like she hadn't just shot Mickey down seconds earlier.
"Nah, I'm not a companion so I don't belong. You go, Rose. Go save the Doctor. Come back when it's safe and I'll explain to your mum where you've gone," Mickey told her with a shrug, giving Harry a nod before leaving the Tardis.
"So how do we get back to him then? Nothing I press works! The Tardis is dead! It won't listen!" Rose shouted at him, moving further into the room and standing in front of him.
"She's not dead. You just need to see. You're not ready. You can't see yet."
"What does that mean?!" Harry ignored her question and moved to stand in front of the hatch covering the time vortex. He crouched down next to it and then looked up at Rose.
"Are you ready? Are you ready to see?" Harry asked her, placing a hand on the latch keeping it shut.
"This will help the Doctor?"
"Yes."
"Then yeah, I'm ready," Rose told him, getting a nod from Harry before he opened the vortex and waved towards it.
"Take a look, Rose and become the big Bad Wolf. Save us all, Rose Tyler. And once you do, forget about me. Good Luck, Bad Wolf," Harry told her, watching as Rose slowly stepped forward and and looked into the vortex. Absently, Harry felt a little sorry for what he'd caused her, but the end result was all that mattered and the images flashing through his mind all started to fade away until only one remained.
With a grin, Harry watched as Rose absorbed the time vortex, feeling a little bit of sympathy knowing just how much pain it'll cause her the longer she holds awareness of it. As the light started to fade, Harry placed a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder and with another whisper wishing her luck, he faded from view and from her mind.
Harry sighed in exasperation as he felt his mother's amusement and the Tardis shook slightly. "What's he done now?" He asked, rolling his eyes even as he started to walk towards the console room, stumbling slightly as the Tardis shook. "No, seriously, what's done? He didn't have to hide himself in a damned fob watch again, did he?"
"No, he lost us."
"What?! How did he do that? How can you lose a bloody Tardis?!" Harry asked, genuinely baffled by some of the adventures and mishaps the Doctor stumbled into.
"I am not sure, but I do know we are in a different time to him, and there is something trying to get in. Something not human. If you can get to the console room, you can find a video feed of what it is."
"Don't you know? How do you not know?"
"They are not registering to me. But you are only part Tardis, so you may well be able to identify them." Harry just sighed and nodded as he entered the console room and walked over to the screen, tapping on the keyboard to show a live feed of what was happening outside the Tardis, before quickly wishing he hadn't and shutting the feed down. "Harry?"
"Do you feel a presence, mum? Are you alone, except for me?!"
"Calm down, Harry. We are alone. What has you so distressed?'
Harry breathed a sigh of relief before glancing warily at the door, fearing that they might be able to get inside and wondering just what would happen to him if they did.
"Lonely Assassins, mum. It's the Lonely assassins trying to get inside. Should I deadlock the door? Something is telling me no, but I'll be honest, all my instincts are screaming at me to do so and then to hide," Harry admitted, staring warily at the doors even as the whole Tardis shuddered once more.
"We need to be sent back to our thief so you can't deadlock the door just incase someone needs to get inside to help us."
"And you think that is what is going to happen?"
"I do. Our thief would not leave us behind so he must have a plan of some sort."
"Okay, I'll stay in here until then. At least then I'll be able to prevent the angels getting in long enough to deadlock the door and think of another plan," Harry told her, wishing he sounded just a little bit confident with his plan but failing completely.
"It'll be alright. I do believe that it will all be sorted very soon."
"How do you know that?"
"If you concentrated, you'd know as well." Harry rolled his eyes at his mum's admonishment, but did do as she said and concentrated more on the connection he had with her and with the time stream. It didn't take him long to feel what she was feeling and he smiled.
"The key is in the hands of a human." Harry felt a sense of relief wash over him, though there was still a part of him that was genuinely scared of what could happen if whoever has the key fails in getting to them. "Do we know how long until we're safe? I can't work it out. There's too many possible futures."
"Don't focus on them too hard, it'll hurt you. It shouldn't be too long though. Once the Angels discover who has our key, then they will hunt them down until they get it back. The humans that have it won't have too long before they are caught. Hopefully they get to us on time. More time streams indicate they do than those that indicate they fail."
"Well that's good news then. So if we go with the fact whoever it was got the key about an hour ago, then knowing what we do about the Lonely Assassins, I'd give them less than a day before they get chased down. Longer if they're at peak physical fitness. Not much longer though. So shall we say they have a day and a half at most?"
"I do not think they will last that long. These Angels are desperate. They will be ruthless," the Tardis told him, making him wince as he thought of just how terrified those two humans will be within hours.
"Less than twelve hours then?" Harry said, sounding slightly amused but sorry for them. He felt sorry for anyone that was hunted by those monsters. Of all the beings he'd learnt about, it was only those and the Daleks that truly terrified him and gave him nightmares. "So what should we do to pass the time? Other than sit here, fearing for our lives."
"To be fair they don't really kill anyone. Not really."
"I don't actually want to know what they'd do to me though. It's not like they'd be able to send me to the past, not when I exist outside of the normal time stream. They'd probably kill me out of sheer frustration."
"I wouldn't let them."
"Don't really know if that comforts me, to be honest. What exactly can you do? Look, theres no use in speculating on all this. We'll just have to wait and see. Seriously, what should we do to pass the time? And don't say spacial cartography because we really should just give up on me ever getting the hang of that. I could get to our thief's age and still not get it. We should just quit on even trying," Harry said, not able to help the slight hopeful note to his voice, hoping that his mum would agree with him.
"Good try. You'll get the hang of it eventually."
"Says you. How about you help me make a sonic screwdriver!" Harry said with a grin, though he was pretty sure he was about to be shot down.
"I told you that if you managed to make one without my help, then you could keep it. By all means, try and make one now, but I won't help you."
"I still don't get why you won't let me have one."
"Because I know just how much trouble you'd get into with one," his mother told him, her tone dry and knowing. "You've been watching our thief for far too long and have picked up all his bad habits."
"But he's got one!"
"He's an adult. I can't stop him from having one. You, I can stop."
"That's not fair. So if I can't make a sonic screwdriver, what do I do to pass the time?" Harry asked, refusing to admit that he was whining. He was well aware of the fact that his mother was also trying to take his mind off of what was waiting outside and trying to get in.
"Spacial cartography." Harry just groaned and slammed his head onto the keyboard.
It didn't actually take as long as he or his mother thought for the human with the key to make it to them. It also turned out that it was two humans. As soon as the doors opened, Harry prepared himself for the worst, hiding in the shadows slightly so that he wouldn't be seen, and breathed a sigh of relief when no angels got in with them.
"Looks like we're going back to our thief," Harry whispered, watching as a hologram message from the doctor appeared, and the male ran over to place a disc into the centre console.
"Indeed. I hope they don't panic too much when we leave them behind."
"It is a bit cruel of us to not even give them a warning or let them know they'll be safe. Though I do hope no one comes along later and moves the bloody things," Harry muttered, not really having much hope that they wouldn't be moved, then he stepped further into the shadows as the Tardis started to move, watching as the two humans started to fade from view, panicked looks on their faces as they left them behind. "Better get back to my room before the Doctor and Martha return. I suppose I'm going to be learning about spacial cartography then."
"What was that?" Harry shouted out, only just stopping himself from being pitched into the swimming pool he was reading beside.
"We've picked up a hitchhiker."
"Pardon? I could have sworn you said…"
"I did. I'm trying to shake him off. He feels wrong. Too fixed in time. Go back to your rooms, Harry, until I tell you when its safe." Harry nibbled his lip and then nodded his head, struggling to his feet and then running - or falling at points - to the shelf he took the book from. Once the book was back in place - because heaven forbid Harry leave books lying around, he'd learn that lesson years ago - Harry stumble ran back to his room, his heart beating with adrenaline and slight fear.
Just as he got back to the his room, his fear took over him as he fell with one last jerk and he found himself de-aging to the one age he felt safest. And really, being four years old wasn't the best of ideas when he had no idea what was going on. Harry screamed as he felt his cells changing with the burst of golden light, each little cell de-aged sixteen years, his skeleton shrinking to that of his four year old self and his mind reverting to that age as well.
"Mama?"
"Shh, Harry. It'll be okay. We just got knocked a little off course."
"Where are we?"
"The end of the universe."
"What? B…but… when I read… Time Lords aren't allowed there!"
"I know, Harry. Our thief decided to go and investigate. We cannot leave until he comes back," his mother explained to him, making Harry huff and stomp over to his bed. "As much as I love you at this age, I could do without the temper tantrums that comes with it."
"I'm not having a tantrum," Harry said moodily, even as he made a conscious effort not to sulk or stomp his feet. "So what now?"
"Now we wait, like we always do. We wait."
"But waiting's boring," Harry whined, tugging at his blanket and wrapping it around him as he lay down. "Can I have a nap until they come back?"
"Yes, you can have a nap. I'll wake you up when we leave," the Tardis told him with amusement clear in her voice. Harry just huffed once more before cocooning himself in the blanket and falling asleep.
Harry woke with a start when he felt his mother shudder and he carefully climbed out of his bed, noting the he could sense a stronger perception filter over his room than is usually there.
"Mama? Are we still at the end of the universe?"
"No, we've left there."
"Something has happened. You sound upset and… scared?" Harry asked, forcing himself to age so that he was about ten years old both mentally and physically.
"The Master has stolen us and left our Thief behind with his companion and the hitchhiker." Harry gaped at the wall, wondering if he had actually heard what he thought he'd heard.
"What?! Uncle Koschei stole us?!" Harry asked in a high pitched voice, stunned that a man Harry had started to see as his uncle given all the stories his mother had told him about him and their Thief's time at the Academy had the audacity to steal them. Even uncle status would not give the man a pass for having stolen them.
"Yes and I'm not too sure what he is planning. He has just regenerated and is weak, but before he did so, he managed to steer us to about eighteen months before we picked up the hitchhiker. Our thief has locked us, so we can only travel between now and the end," his mother told him, making Harry wonder exactly what the Master was planning and just how much it was going to affect him.
"Is it going to be bad? He won't be able to feel me, will he? His psychic abilities have always been better than our Thief's," Harry pointed out as he nibbled his lip, staring at his door in worry as though expecting The Master to barge into his room at any minute.
"Can you sense what is going to happen, Harry? Can you see it?"
Harry frowned as he considered what his mum was asking him, concentrating on what he could see. He frowned when all he felt was a sense of fear and uncertainty, and he couldn't see anything except flashes of their thief, the Master and two other people. Sometimes a second woman was also there but Harry couldn't actually work anything out of what he was seeing.
"Nothing is certain. There's something blocking what could happen and making time just even more wibbly wobbly than it normally is," Harry admitted, feeling a small wave of amusement from the Tardis at his phrasing but mainly feeling her worry and concern. "What do we do now? Can we get back to our thief?"
"We keep quiet, hope he doesn't notice you and hope that what he is up to isn't going to hurt too much. There is no way of us getting back to our thief, especially if we want the Master to carry on being unaware of you."
"Is there anything we can do at all?"
"Keep an eye on the Master and make note of everything that he is doing. Eventually our Thief will make it back to us and when he does, we can tell him everything that we know. Hopefully then he can use that and fix everything."
"I guess I'd better go and see what's going on then, huh?" Harry said, hoping that he sounded a lot more confident than he actually felt. He then straightened his back and marched out of his room, praying that their thief would make it back to them as soon as possible, and hopefully without breaking the Law of Linearity in the process.
Harry sat in the shadows, using his small size to his advantage and squeezing into small spaces so that he could watch the Master without risking being seen. Though there had been a few moments over the last few months were Harry was sure he'd been caught as the Master would pause in what he was doing and glance around. He never seemed to know what he was sensing though and so Harry had remained unfound so far.
He was now watching as the Master brought a human woman on board, making Harry wonder if that was his companion. Though it did seem a little out of character. From everything Harry had worked out after watching the man for nearly seven months, Koschei did not like humans at all. Harry also had a feeling that the man didn't yet know of the fate of Gallifrey and he really didn't want to be there when he found out.
"Who do you think she is?" Harry whispered, almost silently, placing his hand on the wall of the Tardis so she'd get his message no matter how quietly he spoke.
"I believe she is his wife."
"What? Seriously?! From everything you've told me and everything I've witnessed, the Master never struck me as the marrying type. He never struck me as the friend type, to be honest. Do you think he's a psychopath, sociopath or just amoral?"
"He's a sociopath, if you want to put a name to it, though in terms of Time Lords, he'd probably just be classed as amoral."
"Good point. Can't name a Time Lord that isn't a sociopath," Harry added, musingly. The Time Lord race wasn't exactly a mentally stable one. The Doctor being one of the more stable really does say something. "So back to the Master being married. What's that about?"
"I believe it possibly has something to do with his plans to become Prime Minister of Great Britain. Humans seem to trust a leader that has a partner. It seems she is aware, at the very least, that he's human. It remains to be seen if she's also aware of his plans to kill most of humanity."
"I'm not putting much faith in her being innocent. I mean, they had to have been together for a little while in order to sell the marriage. Unless he lied, which wouldn't surprise me all that much. How long do you suppose it'll take for the Doctor and the others to get back? They will, right?" Harry asked, his worry of them being alone forever, or worse stuck with the Master who seems to have gone completely insane during his time as a human, was slowly getting worse as more time passed.
"I do not believe it will be soon, but he will return. I know that much. He will return to us, Harry, he's not lost to us forever."
"Do you think he'll like me?" Harry asked, voice almost silent with a slight wobble to it. It was one of this greatest fears, that the man he silently saw as his father wouldn't like him and would try to get rid of him. Or leave him behind.
"I think he'll love you, Harry. He's been alone, thinking he was the last of his kind for so long, that meeting you will give him hope once more. He'll have a family again. Someone who will understand him, someone who won't have to leave him eventually. If anything, he'll probably become overprotective of you," she told him, voice filled with amusement which just made Harry mentally groan. He already had one overprotective parent, he didn't need another one.
The manic Time Lord suddenly grabbed Harry's attention as he started to fiddle with the controls, his (possible) wife standing by his side with an equally wide grin. Though she didn't seem to be quite as manic as the Master thankfully. At least she was possibly somewhat sane. Though given who she married, that was debatable.
"What's he doing, do you know?"
"He going back to the end of the universe. It's the only other place he can go. Though he isn't going to the same planet. I think we'll have to wait and see where exactly he is taking us."
"I don't like this. At no point has he actually said out loud what his full plans are. Do you think he actually does know about me?" Harry asked, nibbling his lip and moving even closer to the walls than he already was.
"No, but he is aware of the connection I have to our thief. The Doctor has always had a close connection to Tardises and the Master is aware of that. He won't be speaking of his full plan out loud just in case the Doctor manages to get back to us and I tell him."
"So we should worry when he starts talking about it out loud then? Because I'm thinking that when he does that, it means he knows there'll be no way to stop him, whether we tell the Doctor or not. Either that or he's worked out a way to silence us."
"Me, you mean. He has no idea of your existence so he won't ever think he'd need to silence you. But you are right that we should be concerned when he starts talking about his plan near us."
"Did she just call him Harry?" Harry suddenly asked in a hissed whisper, having caught some of the conversation happening in front of them. "He can't take my name! That's not fair! It's my name! Now I'm going to have to change it so people don't think I'm like him! He's stolen my name, mama!"
"Would you prefer to go by Pon from now on? Or perhaps Lanny?" The Tardis asked him, amusement evident in her tone which just caused Harry to huff and cross his arms in front of his chest.
"I like being Harry," he said quietly, bottom lip starting to stick out in a sulk.
"Then stay Harry. Don't think of the Master stealing your name, Harry, just think that it's Koschei borrowing your name for a short while. Remember that once, a long time ago, Koschei was of the same chapter as our thief. He was family. And you saw him as your uncle. This is that same man, he's just gone through too much and has broken under the weight of it all."
"We won't ever get Uncle Koschei back, will we?"
"It's doubtful but who knows? If anyone could drag him back from the brink, then it would be the Doctor."
"I hope so. I always wanted to meet Uncle Koschei. Not the Master. I never wanted to meet him."
"No, I never wanted you to meet him, either."
Harry wearily watched on in horror as he realised just how depraved the Master's plans were. He couldn't believe what the man was promising these people. What he was going to turn them into. Though he supposed that what they had already done to one another wasn't all that much better. It had been so long watching the Master though, that Harry was struggling keeping hold of just what was right and what was wrong. Part of him could understand the Master's feelings about some subjects, but even he couldn't agree with what the Master was doing now.
He was so tired though. It had been almost a year and a half of never being able to sleep properly for fear of being discovered, and when he did sleep, it wasn't restful, filled with nightmares and visions of what could soon happen. Harry had retreated into himself, becoming four once more just so that he could muffle all the possibilities running through his head. As a child he found it much easier to ignore and deal with the time stream, but being four also had the drawbacks of being even more afraid of what the Master was planning on doing with his mother.
A week previously, the Master had finally started to talk of his plans out loud and within hearing distance of the Tardis. It seemed the Master was now assured that his plans would work and Harry was inclined to believe him. He was terrified about what the Master planned to do to his mother, however. But he also knew he was completely helpless. His only hope was the Doctor and even that was fading. Too few of the endless futures presented to him had the Doctor in it, and even less had him triumphing against the Master. By this point, Harry was starting to feel that all hope was lost and that he would be trapped inside his mother forever, worse still would be the fact that his mother wouldn't even be herself anymore once the Master completed his plans.
"Harry?"
Harry glanced to the side when he felt his mother questioning him, giving a little sigh before he responded to let her know he was listening.
"Harry, I want you to show yourself to Koschei should it look like the Doctor won't show up or won't be able to stop him. I want you to tell him you're a Time Tot. Tell him your name. He'll be inclined to keep you close. Maybe not care for you, but he'll certainly protect you. It's your best chance to survive this. But only as a last resort, ok? Promise me you'll do it should it seem like he'll win."
"I don't want to. I want to stay with you and our thief," Harry said quietly, tears starting to roll down his cheeks as the reality of what could be started to truly hit him.
"I know, my child, and hopefully that is what will happen. But we still need to plan for the worst. So please promise me that you'll let the Master know of you and protect you should he succeed in his plans."
"Ok, I promise."
"I don't know what to do! What do I do! Mama! Tell me what to do! He's hurting you!" Harry cried, desperately rubbing the wall he was huddled against as he connected his mind to her so he could watch the Master start to build a metal wall around his mother's centre console. "How do I stop him?"
"You can't stop him, my baby boy. You need to be safe. You need to get away. When my thief finds us, you need to leave with him," the Tardis whispered in his mind, making Harry sniffle and shake his head in disagreement. "And if that doesn't happen, remember what you promised me."
"No. No, don't send me away! I'll be good! I promise!"
"I can't keep you safe for much longer. He's taking my energy. As soon as he turns the paradox machine on, you will no longer be safe. This is the only way. Sleep now, I'll wake you when it's safe," the Tardis told him, making Harry struggle a little against the sudden fatigue that washed over him before he slumped down and curled up into a ball, cuddled as close to the walls of the Tardis as he could get. A second later and a small glow appeared before a now tatty looking Tardis blue blanket was covering the small child.
A/N - So, Harry's full name (Ponlannarhyraell - bit of a mouthful but Gallifreyans, eh.) was taken from this website that randomly gives you Gallifreyan names, and I chose this one because you could, sort of, shorten it to Harry. Literally the only reason I chose it. Heh. The next chapter (which is no longer the last chapter because they really are bloody long) shouldn't take too long to be up. Just want to give it a quick read to try and catch any mistakes.