Going through the yearbook, Lila sees more pictures of the class, there's Theodore's father, with his famous pearly whites flashing in some of the pictures, there's… Romanadvoratrelundar with him and they seemed like good friends.
Made Lila wonder what the girl thought of him when he stolen the TARDIS from the scrapyard. If she thought similarly like the Council.
Seeing the robes worn by the students, if anyone saw them, they'd get interesting thoughts.
Continuing reading the yearbook, Lila started noticing discrepancies in the pages, almost didn't notice them right away, but when she did, she started noticing missing pages. She found edited pages, too, like something removed from them, and she noticed there's an empty spot beside Theodore's father in one photo.
Something about it, it looked as though Theodore's posing in the photo, but it almost looked like he was with someone in the photo.
The discrepancies continued with a row of individual photos of the students in the class. Lila counted one row, seeing there's at least ten students in each row of sixteen, but as she went down the rows, she noticed on the row with Theodore's father and Romanadvoratrelundar, there's a missing student.
It wouldn't look like it if someone glimpsed at it, but with the row sandwiched between the other rows, it's apparent that someone removed a picture of one of the students.
Bizarre, but with the stringent way the Council worked, perhaps it's a student exiled, and it made Lila curious what they done to receive such a punishment.
Putting the yearbook back in its spot, Lila opted to go through others, out of curiosity, and randomly grabbed one of the recent ones, flipping through it out of curiosity, before stumbling upon a photo of David's father.
Saw the family resemblance in the black and white photo with Mackie. Seeing him, well, at least he wasn't exiled, so that's something, but it only served making Lila even more curious, why he left Gallifrey.
She flipped through until she found an embedded message underneath Mackie's class photo with him chomping on a wooden pipe, probably added in during production, and she's able to read it.
"To my old friend, wherever you may be."
Don't know who he meant, but it's anyone's guess. Everyone's accounted for, that much she knows. A little odd seeing a teenager using a wooden pipe like the one used by Sherlock Holmes, but here they are.
As she's putting the yearbook back in its rightful place, Theodore popped up in her head, asking her to come back to the TARDIS, and she did as he asked.
Walking through the aisles, Lila's footsteps echoed, it's serene seeing so many books covering everything under the sun. Mathematics that's beyond the scope of something like Algebra. Engineering that would've taken centuries on Earth to attain, at best. Science books of different subjects, scientists back home would've salivated at the thought of obtaining one of the books for their own studies.
All these books, if they ever ended up on Earth, the respected fields, they'd clamor for every one of them, greedily like they're Smaug, and what follows afterwards, Lila doesn't know, but hopefully helps further the chances of the invention for commercial replicators.
The thought of pushing buttons and having a dish replicated in seconds sounded delicious right about now, trying something that's beyond the budget of a librarian, without spending a penny, even more divine.
Well, only a thought, as Theodore says, they can't just bring something back with them, even if replicators would've made things easier in some regards, but that's wishful thinking.
Perhaps at one point, they'll naturally have replicators, hopefully, soon, and doesn't cost a second mortgage.
Finding her way back to the TARDIS as Layne popped out of, covered in a black substance with Theodore following behind.
"How's our patient?" Lila inquired how it went fixing the TARDIS, which Layne remarked that he's shocked that it even worked, much less without blowing up into pieces, the way it's mangled.
Theodore responded that he did his best, but it wasn't like he had access to the actual parts, to which Layne snorted as he said that he's fortunate he kept the parts for his own collection.
Otherwise, the repair's a success.
A good thing that Layne knows his way around the machine, because there's things even Theodore wasn't aware of, and Layne responded that he isn't surprised, since the Council made swift work of destroying everything except what Layne kept.
"Otherwise, it's in a better condition than I expected," said Layne as he wiped his hands with a wet rag.
Despite the state it's in, it's still better than the others he saw before their destruction, and that says a lot.
The TARDIS received the vital repairs it needed with Layne's help and the tools he used.
What would've taken hours, took only thirty minutes, which Layne contributed to the advanced state of the tools he used.
As apparent, the humans' tools they would've used weren't adequate for fixing something like the machine.
"That's it, then?" Lila looked towards Theodore as he nodded, wiping down his face with a wet rag.
He answered that they won't have any problems getting around or worry about the conductor coils breaking.
Layne's tools and knowledge helped upgrade the TARDIS and made it even better than his father could've imagined.
Still some quirks, but that's expected, otherwise, it's light and day.
"Hey, if it means we don't have to steal from the Daleks again, I'm good," Lila waved her hand as she mentioned that with the repairs, it meant they won't risk their lives stealing from Daleks.
It's kosher, nobody liked Daleks and Daleks stole from everyone, it's only fair.
Even then, Lila didn't want another marathon trying to get away from a group of irate Daleks wanting their heads for stealing dark matter from them.
Nodding, Theodore says that they don't, but if they want to act naughty around the Daleks, they can do it without worrying about the TARDIS breaking down on them.
As they're talking, Layne overheard them talking about the TARDIS with a look on his face. Theodore noticed this and asked what was wrong, but Layne said there isn't anything wrong, he noticed the word they used.
TARDIS.
It sounded like a word in their language, it meant, 'hope.'
When told it's an acronym, Layne replied that it wasn't coincidence that it spelled out that way.
"Perhaps there's a reason for it," Layne gave his guess.
Looking at the time, Layne noticed that the Council's about to let out, and he warned that if Theodore wanted to get out of here before they did, he'll have only twenty minutes.
He knew them enough that if they saw the machine, they won't be happy, and Theodore's aware of their displeasure.
"I'm kinda surprised you risked your neck fixing it, aren't you afraid of the Council getting angry?" Lila brought up that Layne showed no hesitation at helping them fix the TARDIS.
Nodding, his stiff braided beard bobbing, Layne said that it's better use of the parts, besides that, if it's his time, the Council's only going to strip them into nothing for their own uses.
It's better if they're used as they are and he even left blueprints, schematics, some of the tools, and spares for them to use if they needed.
He didn't want the parts going to waste, certainly didn't want the Council getting their way, and destroying the parts out of spite.
With his large hands in his stitched pockets, Theodore thanked Layne for his help, and the tiny Time Lord replied that he had to do it, someone would've gotten it wrong.
As they're talking, Lila's curiosity gotten the best of her and she inquired about the Time Lady she spotted in one of the yearbooks, Romanadvoratrelundar, never heard of her until now, but she seemed close to Theodore's father.
Sadness in Layne's aqua eyes as he said that it was a tragedy what happened to her, she was the apple in the eye for her father, but when she died, it broke him, so badly, he thought becoming the Prime was a lesser pain than losing his only daughter.
"What happened to her?" Theodore raised his brow as he asked about her, his father never spoke about her much, and he doesn't remember his uncle ever bringing her up at all, either.
A frown appeared on his face as Layne said that she died in an accident during her time at the university some years ago.
Nobody knew the specifics, but she died instantly in an explosion during a science project.
A tragedy, furthered that she married weeks ago before her untimely death.
"Ouch, what about her husband, what happened to him?" Lila inquired about her husband, the fact that his wife died weeks after the ceremony, it'd decimate most people.
There's a quizzical look on Layne's face before he said that he doesn't remember Romanadvoratrelundar's husband, at all.
All he knew, it was a tragedy.
"All I remember, Medikus was supposed to marry her, but he made a fool of himself," Layne thoughtfully said that Theodore's father, at one point, had a planned arranged marriage to Romanadvoratrelundar, but his foolishness made him illegible for it.
It's a first of Theodore hearing this as he's baffled hearing that his father almost married someone else, but Layne said that Romanadvoratrelundar's father ordered the marriage, he one of the nobles having that power, but Layne guessed Theodore's father couldn't handle the thought.
Not to say he didn't like Romanadvoratrelundar, but as a friend, nothing more.
"I didn't know Gallifrey had arranged marriages," Lila brought up that she wasn't aware that a society like it relied on something like that, but Layne said it wasn't common.
Romanadvoratrelundar's father thought it suitable for his daughter to marry Medikus, since he's part of a royal bloodline, he hoped to strengthen their own royal bloodline with the marriage.
With the Time War and the decimation of their forces, Romanadvoratrelundar's father did what anyone would in his situation, making sure the richest of bloodlines didn't die out.
Didn't work out as he hoped, but again, Layne doesn't know who Romanadvoratrelundar married, nor want to look for the answer, didn't make much sense to either two, but they couldn't get anything more from him, time ran out.
The Council's leaving from their latest session, so they must leave, and they did, at Layne's urgency, saying that they didn't want to stick around once the Council left the chambers.
The moment Lila stepped inside, she immediately noticed the changes in the TARDIS, and more when Theodore sent them home, for once, it didn't feel like Lila needed to say a prayer every time Theodore used the TARDIS.
Once the TARDIS disappeared from the library, the only one standing's Layne, and he took a heavy sigh before cleaning up the mess, before anyone noticed.
As soon as he finished, he sat at the counter, for a minute he waited, but when he heard no one else coming through the aisles, he reached down behind the counter, opening a secret compartment.
He brought out a book, stowed away, preparing to take it with him when he left with his collected scrolls and books.
Flipping through it, Layne stopped when he found a picture wedged in between the pages.
It showed an older Romanadvoratrelundar, around twenty-four, in her wedding robe and a man with black combed hair standing next to her wearing a similar robe, slightly older than her.
A look came over Layne's face as he sees the photo and he sat in silence looking at the unaltered photo.
"What have you done?" Layne only uttered as he looked towards the man in the picture, his cold eyes staring at the camera, even in the black and white, Layne sees the contempt in those lavender eyes.
THE END