Hearing the Silurian woman's pleas not to find the strange man, how he'll hold it against William in a bid to entice a favour from him, a favour that'll be more than what William asked for, and the way she phrased it, it sounded like the strange man never forgets, either.
"How do you know?" William questioned how the woman knew all this and she revealed that her love begged for the strange man's help, in a desperate bid to save her.
A Sontaran death squad found out where she and her love lived, they already took over areas of the county before reaching their home, and their friend tried stopping them, to no avail, and paid for it with his life.
The woman tried to do everything her military training prepared her for, but the death squad was merciless, they were wise to the Silurian ways, old and new, that nothing she could've done stopped them.
It was then, she received a fatal wound, slowly dying in her love's arm, amid the destruction of their home.
Crying, begging, her love cried out, until a strange man appeared before her, unscathed by the burning pillars behind him, and her love begged for his help.
Something she'll soon come to regret.
The strange man accepted her pleas, somehow stopping the Sontaran death squad in their tracks, preventing them from continuing their insurgency in the home.
Her love couldn't think much less respond, holding her as she's barely consciouses, in a cruel twist of fate, her love was shot by a Silurian soldier that suddenly appeared, a platoon of Silurian picked up the Sontaran on their scanners, and came to fight them as they often did.
The consequence was her love ended up in the crosshair of the Silurian shooting at the stunned death squad, unable to react as the Silurian swarmed them, killing them effortlessly.
Still weak, the woman couldn't do anything but watch as her Silurian comrades whisked her away to safety, amid the burning rubble of her former home.
The Silurian platoon put her in a medically induced coma, when they brought her out of it, immediately, she demanded answers, and none of the Silurian knew about the strange man.
One told her that they didn't even know the Sontaran were active until their scanners started pinging of their whereabouts, too detailed to be the work of their own scanners, there were precise coordinations that their scanners couldn't pick up, or even a leak among the Sontaran, from one of their spies, that they thought it was a trap.
Only when they gotten close, did they see the markings of a Sontaran death squad, did they go into action against them.
Unfortunately, humans weren't part of their mission, their only mission was to deploy and annihilate the death squad.
Sent the poor woman into a crying fit as she's unable to withhold her emotions, having lost her sole friend from the war and her love.
Once she recovered and the Silurian platoon discharged her, dispersing back into space, it left a pit of sorrow in her, as she's forced to return to her former home.
There was nothing left of her home, everything burnt up, that she couldn't even find a remnant of her friend and her lover, that there was nothing of them to remember by, only the memories that slowly become distant as years gone by.
"I found him myself, eventually, almost wished I'd killed him when I had the chance," the woman angrily spat as she held back the tears of frustration as William sat and listened to her story on how she tracked down the strange man, wanting to kill him for what he done, but she couldn't go through it.
It was though the strange man knew this and plainly told her, "It was inevitable. If she did not die that day, she would die another, in your arms."
Cruelly, the strange man played them for his own amusement, giving them help at the expense of her friend and her lover's life, simply because they never explicitly said how they wanted the following events to unfold.
"Why did he appear?" William wanted to know why the strange man came at that exact moment that the woman was dying.
Finishing her wine, resting the empty glass on the table, the woman looked towards him as she bitterly tells him, "He wanted me!"
Forgetting herself, the woman finally told William her name, Liliana, before explaining how the strange man informed her that he didn't initially come to their aid out of kindness, he wanted Liliana, her help.
It was bad timing that the death squad invaded when they did, which Liliana didn't trust the strange man's explanation.
"What did he need help with?" William wanted to know more as he sees a waitress come around the table, switching out the empty glass with a full one, before departing.
With it in her hand, Liliana said, "He wanted to know where you were. I told him I didn't know, but he didn't believe me. He said 'I know you know where he is, indirectly' and he… he did something… I don't know… but it he figured it out, anyway."
Holding the glass in her hand, for a moment, Liliana went quiet, only when William prodded her, hearing his brother singing one of his numbers to the adoring crowd.
"It was like he knew you'd come, even before you even got the idea," Liliana scoffed as she took a drink from her glass, before resting it on the table.
Stunned, William listened as Liliana told him the strange man seemingly knew that he'd come looking for him, from what Liliana said, it was like the strange man knew that William would come after him.
Shaking her head, her veil wavering in the breeze, Liliana decried William's attempts at finding the strange man once more, but William pointed out that the strange man wanted him, and as she said, he can go anywhere.
"I don't know where you'd find him if he doesn't find you," Liliana promptly tells William that even if she submitted to his pleas, she didn't know where the strange man went after that, and if William truly wanted to find him, let the strange man find him.
Since, the strange man always knows things that happen before they do, it wouldn't take long, especially when he was keen on events happening now where William wanted to find him.
"Do… do you think he might've killed my mother?" William broached the topic with Liliana as she picked at her food, steak cooked in duck confit and seasoned mashed potatoes.
Resting her utensils neatly on the plate, Liliana looked up at him, before telling him, "I don't know, son, I really don't. If I had to give my educated guess, he would've just come to you if he wanted you, killing your mother, it just doesn't seem like he would go through that effort."
Truly, Liliana couldn't tell William for sure if the strange man was the cause of his mother's death, but she believed that if the strange man wanted him, he would've just showed up, not go through the effort of a convoluted plan that happened even before William was born just so William would track him down.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where he is, if he even is in the same universe as we are, currently, please, reconsider your efforts. I know how much it means to you, but that man, you don't want his help," Liliana gave one last warning to William, before waving him off, and he heard his brother finishing his last song of the show, forcing him to leave the table, and reconvene with his brother, matted with sweat from the stage light on his face during his show.
He asks what William found, but knew from his frown that his brother didn't find anything conclusive.
Unable to stay longer in the Rouge, the brothers left, forced to take the safest routes in Purgatory, while William's deep in thought, his brother comforted him, the best he could, though him smelling like a walking ash tray with a bourbon hilt wasn't helping.
"Why are you smoking, anyway?" William asked him in earnest why his brother picked up the vice, something their parents wouldn't have wanted from him, and he said that he did because it was the only thing that kept him sober.
The death of their mother started the chain of reactions, that resulted him taking a shine to smoking, it gotten worse when their father killed himself.
"So, that's why you started wearing those bomber jackets," William recalled that he didn't know Tom started smoking, because of the jackets he started wearing after their mother died, and Tom revealed that he learnt enough from the smoke shops that he kept it hidden.
When their father died and William disappeared, Tom had no reason to hide how disheveled he became when it happened, stopped wearing the jackets, and just smoked freely.
Sighing, Tom says he knows what William's thinking, but he made the decision, and he knows he will pay for it.
"You can stop smoking, you know," William pointed out that Tom has time to quit, but he let out a rattling laugh, coughing harshly, before telling William, "Ah, but who has the time?"
No luck finding out anything else about the strange man, Tom seemed to agree with Liliana, maybe it wasn't a good idea searching out a man who knew William existed even before he did, that wasn't just another variant in the ether.
"I need to know, Tom," William affirmed that he wanted to keep looking for the strange man. Liliana said it, the strange man planned this, he knew William's looking for him.
"Only if you're sure, Willy," Tom frowned as he followed his brother, catching looks by passerby who recognized him as the Devil, he gave them a cracked smile, showing his yellowing teeth at them, before trying to catch up to his brother.
However, the crowds thickened up, made it hard for him to traverse, and he tried calling out to his brother, but his voice hoarse from the singing.
Walking among the crowd, William's deep in thought, only when he was accidentally bumped into, did he realize that he separated from his brother, and tried to go back the way he came, unfortunately, the crowds's too thick, he couldn't get through.
Suddenly, William sees everyone halting to a stop, a freeze, no one moved, talked, silence.
"I… believe… you were… looking… for me… William… Hartnell…" William heard his name.
THE END…
TO BE CONTINUED ON "The Fate That Binds US"