Earth 1, The Caribbean

Nikki didn't believe him. That much was obvious. After she'd told him to take his Chronos suit off, she'd systematically dismantled it, putting each piece through a rigorous set of tests, looking for the supposed malfunction.

He'd given up trying trod tell her that he'd felt him in this head, forcing him to go back on board the jump ship. That he'd tried more than once to go back to the fight.

''Nonsense'' she'd been brusque, not even looking at him.

Now he had nothing to do but to sit around watching her. He was fully clothed but felt naked without the Chronos suit.

''Could I at least go out for a while?'' he'd been almost pleading by the time she'd got to the point of checking the functions of what had been his leg armour.

''Certainly not'' she said. Although she wasn't going to say it to his face, she was beginning to wonder if the problem was with the occupant rather than the suit. Whatever might have gone wrong between them, he had once been friend and partner to one of those he was supposed to hunt down. Well, she was getting an idea of how to deal with that.

So he simply sat about and brooded. Nikki might not realise it but he had just as many reasons to want revenge as Savage did. When Caspar and Dronon had pulled - yanked - him into their new timeline his memories had been vague and confused at first. He could remember being happy, being somewhere he really liked, where people took His orders and there was a beautiful woman at his side. Someone had forced him to leave, had knocked him out and basically kidnapped him.

''Clunky'' she announced, when she had finally finished with the Chronos suit foot sections. That was a word she often used for Time Master technology. '''I'm going to have to rework most of this.''

''Is there anything I can do?'' he looked ahead to more days of sitting around and didn't like the idea.

''Well'' at least she was thinking about what he asked this time. ''''Increasing your physical strength would be useful.' I'll arrange for equipment to be sent in.''

She made a quick call to someone called Lucy. Within three days a complete set of gym equipment appeared in the room next to his quarters.

He worked out while Nikki got to work on the upgraded version of his armour. Scenarios from the previous timeline kept drifting into his head. He remembered the incident with the Time Pirates - the time when his ex-partner and he had been on different sides. He recalled being dumped in the middle of nowhere, the cold, the hunger, the loneliness that were gradually destroying him. his old memories ended at the point when the Time Masters had rescued him - his life appeared to jump to the point to when he'd first met Caspar and Dronon, his new rescuers.

Finally the upgraded Chronos suit was ready. Getting into it made him feel like himself for the first time in weeks. And he actually went outside - to a training area where Nikki encouraged him to test the suit to its limits. He had to admit that she'd done good work. Even Savage seemed impressed.

While Chronos was doing a speed run along the training ground - enhanced by the servo-motors in his leg sections - Savage took the opportunity to ask Nikki a question.

''I've considered that possibility'' she replied. ''I've installed an over-ride system in the helmet. We can take direct control of the suit and its sensory functions if need be. We could even knock him out if he attempts to change sides.''

''Excellent'' he said, looking forward to bringing his new weapon into action. One way or another, these so-called Legends wouldn't know what had hit them.