The Last Time Lord and The Impossible Girl Classic Edition

by Smaug25

The Doctor and Clara Oswald. The Hybrid. They will laugh, cry, love but most of all, run. They shall run from the beginning to the end of time and beyond, and if anything tries to stand in their way, their worlds will burn. *STORY BEING RE-WRITTEN*

55. Utopia

Utopia

Torchwood Three, Cardiff
1st May 2008

It's always so strange, coming back from the dead. Though this one really beats the cake, standing in the shadow of a giant goat demon. Did I mention that it hurt? Because, oh my lord, did it hurt. It took me longer than I anticipated to come back, days really, but I did come back. I found myself pale and cold in the Morgue, completely naked (IANTO!), but I was glad that it worked. It will take a lot more than a goat demon to kill me. I mean that literally, by the way. After being shot, stabbed, dismembered, hung, drowned and shot by Daleks, big boy Abaddon is just a walk in the park. Even in that pale, cold post dead (Kind of) state, I was able to give Gwen Cooper another one of my reassuring, smug smirks. It was a strange feeling of calm when I quickly healed back into my prime, returned into my signature clothes (Minus the World War Two coat), embraced a shocked yet relieved Toshiko Sato, kissed the gorgeous Ianto Jones, and then Owen Harper. It wasn't his fault what happened, not really. I think he struggled to realize that, but when I just said, "I forgive you", that is when he bought it, and he let his own tears shed. It wasn't their fault, none of them. It was all just a trick, what they saw, all the illusions telling them to open the rift. Anyway, moving on. After all that, I got back into my outstanding great coat, and after Ianto, Tosh and Owen left for some tasty coffee, I checked over the last of the Abaddon evidence, and a very puzzled Gwen was sitting in my office room, her black jacket arms crossed together.

"What's happened to the rift?" Gwen asked in that strange yet amazing Welsh accent of hers.

"It closed up when Abaddon was destroyed, but it's gonna be more volatile than ever." I explained with a breath.

Gwen nodded at that, but it seemed like a bigger question was on her mind. It didn't take her very long to ask. "The visions we had. We all saw people we loved." I nodded at her, and she asked with a blink, "What did you see?"

"Nothing." Was my immediate response, and I'm still not sure if it was the truth or a lie. And that was all that I needed to say. Or what is it all that I wanted to say?

"Jack, what would have tempted you?" Gwen asked, and that made me put the evidence down to look up at her. "What visions would have tempted you to open the rift?"

Alice. Rose. Gray. John. Maybe, or maybe not. I decided, yet again, to make my answer very simple. "The right kind of doctor." I answered as I stood up from the desk. "Or the perfect teacher." I added, and I could see a million different questions racing across Gwen's face, but she never spoke them, or at least, I never heard them. I just walked out of my office and into the main area of the Hub, calling, "Where are they with those coffees?" The answer came in something that I was beginning to doubt would ever return. It was from the jar. I specialized that alarm myself, a little high-pitched ringing mixed with a whining, and when it started to blare, only for myself to hear, I found my own heart rocketing out of my chest, but I was momentarily afraid to believe it. I walked over to the jar, and the hand inside, the Time Lord hand, had the faint glow of light that was there for a second before it faded. Then, up above me on the ground of Cardiff, I heard it. The wind suddenly rushing, a continuous loop of whining and groaning, and before it stopped, I had already jammed the jar into a large black bag and disappeared out of the Hub before any of my friends could notice. Sorry, boys and girls. It's time to run.

TARDIS

"Cardiff!" The Doctor and Clara declared in unison as the TARDIS landed, but all they got in response was the most disgusted expression they had ever seen on Martha's face.

"Cardiff?!"

"Don't diss on Cardiff!" The Doctor retorted as he and Clara raced around the console, messing with some of the controls, beginning to feel the ship give a very low vibration that they could barely feel. "You see, the thing about Cardiff is that it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California on the San Andreas Fault. But the rift bleeds energy, and every now and then, we need to open up the old girl's engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"A pit stop?" Martha deducted with a puzzled yet curious squint of her eyes.

"Exactly. It should only take 24 hours." Clara said as the Doctor drew the monitor over for the pair of them to see, but they instantly blinked at the strange readings the monitor was showing.

"24-"

"No, sorry." The Doctor interrupted Martha in a mutter, and it made Martha blink. "Rift's been active recently, it should only take…oh, we're nearly there." The Doctor realized with a blink. "Okay, it should only take a minute." He added with a bewildered shrug to Clara, who just returned the shrug as she carried on messing with the controls and the Doctor stayed put at the monitor.

"Hold on a minute." Martha interrupted suddenly as Clara did a full circle of the console and returned to standing beside the Doctor. "They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you two?"

The couple nodded with a slightly guilty look on their faces. "Bit of trouble with the Slitheen." The Doctor said as he began clacking away at the monitor. "Long time ago. Lifetimes." He muttered as Clara gave out a sigh.

"I wasn't even immortal then." She added with a small sad look that quickly vanished upon a bump of the arm from the Doctor, to which she returned.

"Oi." The Doctor whined, making her giggle. Then, just as the TARDIS beeped out the declaration of fully restored power, the Doctor flicked on the outside view, and the monitor showed a man in a World War Two coat, a large black bag on his back, and a blend of desperation and relief on his face as he ran harder than ever towards the box. It was quite a long while since they saw him, but they didn't even need to use his name to remember him. But in that instant, just like it did so very long ago when he came back to life, the Doctor's instincts flared up beyond his control and began screaming at him, and without a single moment of realization or self-control, his left hand grasped the dematerialization lever and pulled it down. Unfortunately, it was too late, for Captain Jack had already dived for the TARDIS, disappearing from the outside view and then, without warning, the TARDIS began to tumble and groan and whine all around them, the console and the machinery beginning to spark and whine in protest, but the TARDIS herself did not listen to her own agony.

"What's happening?!" Martha demanded as another spark erupted over their heads, the Doctor having to wave away a tiny puff of smoke from the monitor. The symbols on the screen were going utterly wild, and its readings was making the Doctor look at it in frightened astonishment.

"We're accelerating…into the future." He managed to say, but the continuously flickering symbols made him speechless for a short moment. "The year 1 billion. 5 billion." He quickly added before blinking again. "5 trillio-no, 50 trillion?! What?!" He exclaimed, the ever-changing dates making Clara's eyes widen, whilst Martha frowned in puzzled fear. "The year 100 trillion?! That's impossible!"

"Why?!" Clara asked, her hand unconsciously grabbing his own as her gaze flickered between him and the screen. "What happens then?!"

It took the Doctor a moment to somewhat calm his manic mind, and he managed to answer aloud, "We're going to the end of the universe."

Malcassairo
100,000,000,000,000

Run! You've got to keep running! Was Padra's thought as he kept on running, the sweat building up all over his tired and protesting body. Was that footsteps? His mind questioned, hearing something scuttle about over the rocky, barren surface of the planet, but Padra did not look back. The Silo should be in this direction. But why can't I see it? He wondered for a moment, jumping over a large rock and a tangle of dead, prickly plants, looking behind him, but he could barely see in his current position. For what felt like the millionth time, he looked up above him, but there was nothing. No stars, no moons, no planets. Nothing. It should have sunken in by now, but every time he had fruitlessly checked, he found that dread was burrowing deeper into his mind, continuing to play tricks on him. There was another scuttle to his left-No, right!-and he glanced around in all directions, but there was nothing. In the blur created by his ever-spinning head from all the looking, he just saw the light of a torch flame, but what really caused him to stop and actually focus was a loud thud of a form landing, and it was definitely in front of him. He stopped in his movements before recoiling back a step, his hands outstretched and his face bearing a single expression of pure begging. The figure was one of them, the monsters from the dark, yet they didn't look that much different from himself. Human, yes, but their teeth was filed into fangs, the hair and clothes unkempt, and one of their hands carried a weapon, this one carrying a sort of improvised flail. The eyes however almost looked black, but it wasn't from any natural color. This was from pure blood thirst, from pure starving hunger, and he was the target. "I…I just want to go." He pleaded in a whimper, but the creature did not seem to even care, for its expression remained bloodthirsty yet somehow equally impassive. "I just want to go. Please, let me go!" He pleaded again after gulping a knot in his throat, but the creature spun around, its head looking off to the torch light he had seen mere seconds before, yet now it was a bit farther than he first thought.

"Human!" It called out into the echoing dark, and an answer came from one of its many hungry kin.

"Human!"

The fear Padra possessed now evolved into terror, and with whimpering gasps for breath, he dashed away, and the creature, for the moment, remained still as its head tilted off into a different direction, and, "Human!"

Run, idiot, run! Padra thought as he sprinted off as fast as he could, ignoring the ever-growing protests in his muscles and legs, for very quickly the scuttling in the dark turned into the thunderous stampede of an approaching horde. The hunt had begun again.

The Laboratory, Silo 16

"Chan-Professor-tho?"

The girl's small and meek, almost mouse like voice entered into the blurry Professor's mind, and he shook himself out of his small daze to glance over at her, across the messy, wire and control panel filled room. "Yes?" Professor Yana asked, walking over to see the blue insect Humanoid girl, Chantho, staring at a screen with furrowed worry. "What is it?" He asked, putting his hands into his waistcoat pockets to stare at the screen over her shoulder. The screen was the ever spinning, ever working scanner, and it was picking up life readings on the surface of the dead planet. There was a solitary signal, seeming to be moving quickly in the direction of the Silo, and there were many more readings, almost like a large cluster of bees, and they were following the solitary signal.

"Chan-movement on the surface-tho." Chantho muttered, and Professor Yana gave a sigh.

"Another Human hunt." He said before shaking his head in pity. "God help him." He said before moving away to pour himself a steaming cup of coffee, which he was admittedly not looking forward to tasting again. Ah well. Beggars can't be choosers.

"Chan-should I alert the guards-tho?" Chantho asked, her worried eyes leaving the screen to follow him, but Professor Yana just waved her question away dismissively.

"No, no, we can't spare them." Professor Yana said as he picked up the filled cup. "Poor beggar's on his own. One more lost soul dreaming of "Utopia"." He remarked, earning a stare from Chantho that was both worried and admonishing.

"Chan-you mustn't talk as if you've given up-tho." She said, and Professor Yana readily agreed with a fervent nod.

"No, no, indeed." Professor Yana said as he held the coffee cup up in front of him like a toast. "Here's to it. Utopia." Then, he took a drink from the cup, swirled the coffee in his mouth for a moment before swallowing with a small frown. "Where it is to be hoped the coffee is a little less sour." He remarked before putting the cup down, earning a small smirk from Chantho, the little claw-like appendages on her head moving in an out with every little movement of her face. "Will you join me?" He asked, but she shook her head politely.

"Chan-I am happy drinking my own internal milk-tho." She answered, and his face scrunched up in disgust at the image. "Chan-apologies for the image-tho." She muttered, and Professor Yana just shrugged a little in response.

"Well, I suppose I had it coming." He remarked lightly.

The conversation was broken by a short, whining beep from the speaker, making them look up as a male voice came through. "Professor Yana?" The man was the Silo's Lieutenant, and de-facto leader, Atillo. "I don't want to rush you, but how are we doing?"

There was a small moment of awkward silence in the room, Chantho's fingers playing a little at her white lab coat whilst Professor Yana's hands went back into his waistcoat pockets, his right hand unconsciously patting and stroking the small, golden pocket watch, whose chain hung from pocket to pocket. Coupled with the black trousers and the white, ever so slightly puffy shirt with the black double loop tie, it completed the university lecturer look, it's style from a time period long ago, its name lost to time. "Err…yes, yes, working, yes, almost there." Professor Yana answered in a slight stutter, his uncertain gaze flickering over to an equally uncertain Chantho.

"How's it looking on the footprint?"

"Err…it's good, yes, fine. Excellent." Once again, Professor Yana looked at Chantho with an almost helpless shrug, so Chantho stepped in for her associate, her speech much more certain and confident than his.

"Chan-there's no problem as such. We've accelerated the calculation matrix but it's going to take time to harmonize-tho. Chan-we're trying a new reversal process. We'll have a definite result in approximately two hours-tho."

"Well then, keep up the work, and good luck." Atillo's voice sounded before the whining beep repeated itself and the speakers went silent.

There was a moment of silence in the room, and Chantho looked over the many equipment to see Professor Yana leaning against a pillar, his eyes closed tight and a very apparent struggle to even breathe. It's that noise in his head. Chantho realized with a pang of pity, and she made her way over, her face furrowed in concern. "Chan-Professor-tho?" She called, but he did not seem to hear her. So, with a hand on his shoulder, she tried again, her voice clearer this time. "Chan-Professor-tho?"

Professor Yana shook out of his stupor to look at Chantho with a feigning expression of reassuring joy. "Yes, yes, working, yes-"

"Professor!" Chantho blurted, and her missing use of her own name in her words made Professor Yana stop in his tracks with wide eyes of surprise. "Chan-breathe-tho." She muttered, and with accompanied hand motions, Professor Yana relaxed and took deep breaths. She could tell by the relief in his eyes that the noise in his head had been temporarily shoved away. It wasn't permanent, but it was the best she could do.

"Thank you." He said after a moment before clapping his hands down at his sides. "Still, no rest for the wicked." He quipped, but there was no moment for any form of smile or laugh as one of the computers seemed to be bleeping out a form of notification. "Which one is that?" Professor Yana demanded lightly, him and Chantho scuttling about until Chantho arrived at the noisy computer, which unsurprisingly was the surface scanner.

"Chan-it's the surface scanner, Professor-tho." Chantho replied, and Professor Yana made his way through the room to stand beside her. "Chan-it seems to be detecting a different signal-tho."

To the Professor's eyes, Chantho was right. The single Human was still running for his life from the horde, but there also was a solitary…square. Just a square. There was also another signal just beside it, like another person, but it was unmoving. Standing still, or worse. Was the Professor's thought. "Well, that's not a standard reading…" Professor Yana trailed off in his words as suddenly, three more signals appeared beside the square and the solitary signal, and he exchanged a glance with Chantho. "It would seem something new has arrived."

---

The TARDIS landed with a thud, and a tense silence fell into the large room, the trio all staring up at the time rotor column with shaky, uncertain eyes. "Well…we've landed." The Doctor said aloud, but his voice was a mere mutter of fear.

"Doctor…is this…" Clara was unable to finish the question, but the Doctor guessed and answered it for her.

"No, it's not the last planet." He gave a little breath to try to calm himself, and it only worked for a small moment. "But whatever planet it is, it is one of the last."

"So, what is out there?" She asked.

"…I don't know." He admitted finally, and they heard a small little snort from Martha.

"Say that again. That's rare." Martha remarked, but they did not emote at her words.

"Not even the Time Lords came this far." The Doctor added, and those words made Martha fall silent. Then, the Doctor tore his gaze away from the column and down to Clara, who after a small moment repeated his action, looking back at him. "We should leave." He muttered aloud, and Clara's eyes seemed to be echoing his words in silence. "We should go. We should really, really…go." He finally said, but Clara did not nod. Instead, the pair of them, in unison, let their grim, fearful and uncertain expressions melt into bright grins as they looked at Martha.

"Come along." They said, and Martha grinned back as she followed them out of the TARDIS doors.

The sight that greeted them was the planet beyond. But it was only rock, dust and dead little plants. A barren landscape, almost like a quarry, yet it looked completely and utterly dead. Their grins faded a little at the admittedly not unexpected sight, but the next sight they saw was of a tall handsome man in a World War Two coat lying sprawled out on his side a few feet away from the TARDIS, the big black bag still clinging to his unmoving back. "Oh my god!" Martha exclaimed, rushing over to kneel beside the man, checking immediately for a pulse. "Can't get a pulse." She muttered before she suddenly got an ingenious idea. "Hold on. You've got that medical kit thing." She said, rushing past the couple without waiting for a response as she dove into the TARDIS, closing the door behind her.

The Doctor, who with Clara's help had been slipping on his brown overcoat, was back to holding her hand, even as they both shivered a little at the cold air. But their gaze remained on the motionless figure, and they gave a little smile at the sight of him, even as their eyes were sad, the Doctor's almost stricken with guilt. "Hello again." They greeted, even as the man gave no response, his left hand lying on his own chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The Doctor apologized after a moment, mentally arguing with Clara for a moment that she would not be apologizing, for she was not at fault. After another quick second of staring and mental bickering, Clara had consented, even as her sad gaze returned to the figure.

"Here we go." Martha muttered as she exited the TARDIS, one of her hands carrying a large bag. "Get out of the way!" She demanded to the couple, who immediately stepped back, their eyes briefly filled with fright before they calmed down as Martha just knelt back down beside the man. "It's a bit odd, his getup. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two."

"I think he came with us." The Doctor spoke aloud.

"How do you mean?" Martha asked as she took out a pair of stethoscopes. "From Earth?"

"Must have been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS." The Doctor answered, briefly glancing back to the blue box with a sniff. "All the way through the Vortex. Well, that's very him." He quickly added, and Clara giggled a little.

Martha blinked after she used the stethoscope to check for the man's heartbeat, even as the confirmation was clear that there wasn't one. "What, do you two know him?" She asked.

"Old friend of ours." The Doctor answered. "Used to travel with us, back in the old days."

"But he's…" Martha trailed off, glancing back to the dead man's face for a moment before looking back to the couple. "I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dea-" But before Martha could finish, she was interrupted from two hands grasping at her shoulders, and she screamed in fearful shock as her head whirled back around, just in time to see the man gasping for breath. "Oh, so much for me." Martha remarked after she calmed herself, placing her hands on the man's arms to steady him as his gasping grew calmer until it became simple breaths. "It's all right, just breathe. Just breathe deep, I've got you." Martha reassured.

Once he had finished his gasping, Captain Jack opened his eyes to look at Martha, and another of his signature grins was lighting up his face. "Captain Jack Harkness." He greeted, his eyes flickering down to Martha's lips for a second as he touched her chin with his free hand. "And who are you?"

Martha, for a moment, seemed to blush a little at his effortless flirting. "Martha Jones." She greeted back.

Captain Jack chuckled in response. "Nice to meet you, Martha Jones."

"Oh, don't start!" The TARDIS couple interrupted with a groan.

"I was only saying hello." Captain Jack returned with a roll of his eyes, whilst Martha just shot the couple a small, meek smile.

"I don't mind." She said as she helped Captain Jack to stand up, only letting go once he was properly steady. Then, Captain Jack stared at the couple in a blend of relief, joy…and a touch of bitterness. They just stared back with those first two emotions, but the last, barely there, was guilt.

"Doctor. Clara." Captain Jack greeted, and they nodded in return.

"Captain." They greeted in unison, and to Martha's own surprise, Captain Jack was not taken aback by their synchronized speaking.

Captain Jack smiled softly. "Good to see you."

"And you." They returned the smile. "Same as ever."

"Although," The Doctor started as he scratched his left ear, "have you had work done?"

Both of Captain Jack's eyebrows shot up in response. "You can talk."

The Doctor blinked at that, but after a small moment, he understood. "Oh yes, the face. Regeneration." Then, he blinked. "How did you know this was me?"

"Aside from the police box, Clara clutching your hand kind of gives it away." Captain Jack responded, and the Doctor slowly nodded at that. "I've been following you two for a long time. You abandoned me." Captain Jack accused, his voice much more serious in that moment than mere seconds before.

"Did we?" The Doctor responded with barely a change to his expression. "Busy life, moving on."

Yet when Captain Jack saw Clara's expression, she seemed more apologetic, not just to him, but to the Doctor too. Was I only half right then? Hmm. Upon that thought, Captain Jack lessened the serious accusation to a sadder curiosity. "Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf." Both of the couple's faces grew a little grim at that name's mention, but Captain Jack had to carry on with his thought. "I saw the list of the dead and…it said, "Rose Tyler"."

Then, in an instant, the grim was gone from their faces and they were shaking their heads with bright grins. "No, it's okay. She's alive." Clara inputted, and Captain Jack's eyes widened.

"You're kidding!" Jack retorted, but they shook their heads again.

"Parallel world, safe and sound!" Clara returned.

"And Mickey! And her mother!" The Doctor added, and a beaming grin stretched across Captain Jack's face as he bounded over.

"Oh yes!" He exclaimed, wrapping the pair of them in a hug, the trio grinning and giggling like mad.

Once they parted, the four of them started to walk away from the blue box, (After the Doctor locked it, of course), when Martha finally asked, "So…how did you meet them?"

Captain Jack thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, and looked at her with a raise of his eyebrows. "Ladies first." He simply said, and Martha raised her eyebrows back at him in response before relenting.

"Hospital." Martha responded. "They went in, him pretending to a patient, then we're on the moon surrounded by rhino heads."

Captain Jack blinked. "The Judoon?" He asked, and Martha nodded.

"Yeah. They, the Judoon, were playing hide and seek with a blood sucker."

"Oh." Captain Jack muttered aloud. "A Plasmavore."

"Yep." The Doctor and Clara responded in unison.

"But how about you, mister?" Martha asked with a slight glare up at a grinning Captain Jack. "How did you meet them?"

Captain Jack gave out a sigh, but it was more of a nostalgic sigh than anything. "World War Two." He answered, before brushing his coat a little. "Where I got my one true friend." He quipped, making them chuckle. "We got off on the wrong foot, my fault, but in the end, we saved the world from a bunch of people yelling, "Mummy!"" He quoted, cupping his hands over his mouth to modulate his voice, and the single word made the Doctor and Clara laugh. "We traveled around, stopped a Slitheen from tearing apart Cardiff, I got to ride Santa's sleigh, flirt with said Santa, hanged out with two gorgeous women and a potato." The last few lines made Martha blink repeatedly in confusion before Jack added in a low whisper, "I also saw them hook up."

Martha let the other lines slide for now, instead asking, "Really? How?"

"Santa." The Doctor and Clara interrupted in unison, making Martha and the Captain look over at them with a frown. "Yes, we could hear you. We're right here."

"Spies." Captain Jack mouthed to Martha when they looked away, and she snorted out a little laugh. "So, on our last adventure, we were on a space station fighting these creatures called the "Daleks"."

Martha shivered a little at that. "Yeah. "Exterminate"."

"Oof." Captain Jack muttered aloud. "Sorry you had to meet them." He added before getting back on track. "Then, when the fight is over, they leave, and I'm left stranded on this space station in the year 200,100, ankle deep in Dalek dust, but, lucky for me…" Captain Jack pulled his right sleeve down to show a wrist pad to Martha, "I had this. You see, I used to be a Time Agent, and all of us used these. It's called a "Vortex Manipulator". Those two aren't the only ones who can time travel." Captain Jack said, pointing to the couple, and the Doctor paused to give Captain Jack a mocking look of offence.

"Oh, excuse me, THAT is not time travel." The Doctor retorted. "It's like we've got a sport's car and you've got a space hopper."

"Boys!" Clara interrupted sternly, and they looked down at the ground in childish shame. "Continue, Captain." Clara said, and Captain Jack's smirk returned.

"So, I thought the 21st Century was the best place to find them, except I got the co-ordinates a little wrong." Then, Captain Jack blinked. "Well, really wrong. I arrived in 1869, this damn thing burnt out, so it was useless." He said, giving a stern flick to his wrist pad.

"Told you." The Doctor retorted, earning a flick on the cheek from Clara. "Ow."

"Did she do that back then?" Martha whispered to Captain Jack, and he nodded.

"Yeah, just…well…with the ears." He whispered before sniffing. "I had to then live through the entire 20th Century waiting for a version of you two that would coincide with me." He said aloud, motioning over to the couple.

Martha frowned deeply. "But…that makes you more than a hundred years old." She pointed out, and Captain Jack grinned cheekily.

"And looking good, don't you think?" He asked rhetorically with a chuckle. "I established myself at the time rift because I knew you'd both show back up to refuel. And I finally get a signal on this," He pointed to his black back bag, "and…here we are." He finished, motioning to the dead landscape.

Martha, whilst she didn't understand every detail of it all, did her very best to keep up. Once Captain Jack had finished speaking, Martha asked, "How come you two left him behind?"

The response was not what she, or even Captain Jack had expected. The couple just stopped walking, making them stop, and the Doctor just seemed to be staring ahead, whilst Clara had her head looking down, almost in shame. When she glanced over to Captain Jack, she just said, "Honestly, I wasn't awake when we left."

Captain Jack blinked at that, whilst the Doctor just muttered, "It was just me, and I didn't leave you behind. I ran."

Then, they resumed their walk, and Captain Jack just stared after them with silent concern, wondering what the answer was. His train of thought was broken when Martha tapped his shoulder, and they resumed their walk. "Just to let you know, I also hate it when it's a touchy topic." She whispered, and Captain Jack gave her a small smile.

"Everyone does." He agreed, him and Martha catching up with the couple who had stopped at a little bank slope. Beyond them was another small stretch of landscape before it dropped off into a large chasm in the ground. And yet, it looked strangely enough like an abandoned city, made entirely out of the ground, complete with bridges and earth-made huts, but not a soul was to be seen.

"Is that a city?" Martha muttered aloud, and they all nodded.

"A city, or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration." The Doctor answered.

"And they even had roads." Clara added, pointing to the side of the chasm, with large pathways erected out of the walls, and they could have been the size of at least one or maybe even two vehicles, if this planet's population even had vehicles. "There was life in that city, but it's all gone now."

"What killed it?" Martha asked, and the Doctor sighed.

"Time." Was his answer. "Just time. Everything's dying now. Not from conquest, or self-eradication just…time. All the great civilizations have gone. And this isn't just night." He added, looking up to the dark sky, and everyone followed his gaze. "All the stars have burned up and faded away into nothing."

"This planet must have an atmospheric shell." Captain Jack also added with a shiver. "We should be frozen to death."

"Oh, me, Clara and Martha, maybe." The Doctor responded, looking over to Captain Jack with a glance. "Not so sure about you."

Captain Jack returned his glance before they both shared a little smile, but the moment was broken when Martha asked another question. "What about the people? Does no one survive?"

The answer, at first, was a sigh. "Eventually, no one does." The Doctor answered grimly.

"Well, he's not doing too bad." Captain Jack inputted, pointing past them and down to the land just by the chasm, where a single man was running as fast as he could, almost running away from…a horde. A horde, all carrying torches and running after him.

"Human! Human! Human!" They were calling, and their faces slowly frowned until Clara spoke.

"Is it me or does that look like a hunt?" Clara asked rhetorically, before she let go of the Doctor's hand, both of them starting to run.

"Come on!" The Doctor ordered.

In an instant, Martha and Captain Jack sprang after them, running down the small bank and straight after the lone man running for his life. Immediately, the adrenaline rushed to the Captain's head, and he began to laugh aloud. "Oh, I've missed this!" He gasped.

"I bet you have!" The Doctor and Clara called out in unison as they raced after the man, earning another cheeky grin from the Captain. For a moment, they all glanced behind at the oncoming horde. They all looked Human, yet more of an unkempt ferocious tribe, and they were eyeing all of them like they were just sacks of flesh, ready to be eaten.

"Cannibals!" Clara called out through a gasp as they got closer to the man. "If the constant licking of lips means anything!"

The horde seemed to get even closer still, all snarling out the same word over and over again. "Human! Human! Human!"

But in an instant, Captain Jack overtook the trio and managed to bring the man into a protective hug. "Get off me!" The man protested, but Captain Jack did not listen.

"I've got you! Now get behind me!" That single order made the man, Padra, blink in surprise, but he had no time to comprehend it as Captain Jack shoved the man behind him towards the Doctor, Clara and Martha, before he reached into his pocket to pull out his revolver, aiming straight at the swarm of cannibals.

"Jack! Don't you dare!" The Doctor called out immediately, and Captain Jack in response aimed the weapon up into the sky, and he fired three shots. The loud, echoing blasts made the entire horde screech to a halt, surprise and fear upon their faces at the Captain's warning shots, and they all seemed to be gathering up into a watching group, waiting for a chance to reveal itself. All they did then as they waited was hiss and growl at the group, itching and struggling to remain in the same spot.

"There's more of them!" Padra spoke up, making everyone but an alert Captain Jack glance at him. "We've got to keep going!" He said before taking a breath.

"We've got a ship nearby!" Clara responded. "She's safe! She's not far…" But her words were cut off as the very path that they took, the path to the TARDIS, was now blocked off by a new part of the horde, all rushing towards them with the same deadly intent in their almost black eyes. "There goes that idea!" Clara retorted. "Anyone else got any ideas?!"

"We're close to the Silo!" Padra answered. "If we get to the Silo, then we're safe!"

The Doctor and Clara exchanged the briefest of nods before they called, "Silo?!"

"Silo!" Jack nodded.

"Silo for me!" Martha agreed. Without another word, the entire group began to run again, even as their bodies started to protest and ache, but they couldn't listen. They ran down more banks, over large rocks and dead plants until they reached a large vehicle road, and at the very end of it was the Silo itself. A large metal tower surrounded by large flashlights and armed guards, along with a steel gate right next to it. As the group got closer and closer, the guards took notice and aimed all of their rifles up at them, but did not look like they would immediately fire.

"It's the Futurekind!" Padra called desperately as they all drew to a stop by the gate, the horde getting closer and closer with each passing second. "Open the gate!"

"Show me your teeth!" One of the guards demanded. "Show me your teeth!" There wasn't any moment to look puzzled by that order. They all listened and obeyed, opening their mouths wide to show the guards their teeth, and after a small moment, the guard nodded fervently and stepped back. "They're Human! Let them in! Let them in!" He ordered, and the guards opened the steel gate in fast haste, allowing the group to rush inside and finally take a breather as they watched the guards close the gate. "Close! Close! Close!" The same guard ordered repeatedly, but just before the gate closed, he pointed his rifle out towards the horde that were all in close view, and opened fire. None of the shots hit the horde, as the gun was aiming directly at the ground, but the repeated spray of bullets made the horde screech to a quick halt yet again.

A dreadful silence fell over the Silo entrance, the Humans and the TARDIS group all staring at the blood hungry horde, whilst said horde stared in dark longing at the Silo occupants. Then, a single member of the horde stepped forth. Unlike the rest, this one had black tattoos on his face, and whilst everyone was snarling and hissing in animalistic fashion, this one was just smiling, and it was a deadly calm smile. "Humans." He called, but all the Silo occupants did was stare back in defiance, puzzlement, or fear. "Humans." He called again before taking a shaky breath. "Kind." He said with a small twitch of his head as he patted his chest with a gloved left hand. "Kind make feast."

"Go back to where you came from, Chieftain." The guard called. For a moment, it seemed like the horde leader was going to listen, but he just stood there, staring with unblinking eyes. "I said: Go back!"

"Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down." Captain Jack muttered.

"He's not our responsibility." The Doctor retorted.

"And I am?" Captain Jack slowly shook his head with a slight exhale. "That makes a change."

"Kind watches you." The Chieftain called with an unnerving grin. "Kind hungry." Then, without a word, the Chieftain gave out a growling cry, and the horde…relented, all starting to scuttle away, glancing back and snarling even as they continued to walk away. "Kind starving." The Chieftain muttered in farewell, the grin dropping into a thin line before his eye twitched once and he turned to walk away.

Only then did the guards relax and lower their guns, and one of them walked away from the gate, motioning for the group to follow. "Thanks for that." Clara said, and the guard nodded in return.

"Let's get you all inside." He said as Padra almost rushed to walk alongside the guard.

"My name is Padra Toc Shafe Cane." He introduced with a shaky breath. "Tell me, please, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Oh yes, sir. Yes, I can." The guard answered confidently, but the TARDIS group just shot each other puzzled looks.

"What the hell is "Utopia"?" Clara muttered to the Doctor, but he just shrugged in response.

---

The short, whining beep came once again over the speakers, and whilst it did not deter the Professor and Chantho from their work, they did acknowledge it by quieting down a little. "Professor, we've got four new Humans inside. One of them is calling himself a doctor."

Professor Yana blinked with a frown. "Of medicine?"

"Of everything, he says."

Professor Yana blinked before his eyes flared up and he instantly dropped the wires he had finished connecting. "Oh-ah-a scientist?!" He gasped, looking between Chantho and the speaker. "Chantho, just-just-just-"

"Chan-go-tho!" Chantho interrupted, almost pushing him towards the entrance.

Professor Yana had a brief moment where he shouted, "I'm coming!" before he darted out of the large doorway, closing it shut behind him.

---

"I'm sorry, sir, but my family were heading for this Silo." Padra said in haste to the group's new arrival, Lieutenant Atillo, a dark-skinned man with thin unkempt hair on both his head and his chin. "Did they get here?" He asked, leaving the Lieutenant no room to speak. "My mother is "Kistane Shafe Cane", and my brother's name is "Beltone"."

Atillo thought for a moment before he gave his chin a light scratch. "The computers are down, but you can check the paperwork. Creet!" He called, and out from around a corner filled with puffing steam came a little boy, no older than 10 and with scruffy blonde hair, who was carefully holding a pad with many papers on it. "Passenger needs help." Atillo said, and Creet nodded in understanding before moving over to Padra.

"Right. What do you need?" Creet asked, but the rest of the conversation was drowned out to the TARDIS group as Atillo turned towards them.

"What did you say earlier, a "Big blue box"?" Lieutenant Atillo asked.

"She looks like a box." The Doctor responded, him and Clara standing beside each other in front of the Lieutenant. "A big blue box. I'm sorry, but we really need her back. She's stuck out there."

"Oh, and she's made of wood." Clara added, making Atillo blink. "Says "Police" on it."

Atillo cocked an eyebrow for a moment before he shrugged. "Well, we're driving out for the last water collection, so…I'll see what I can do." He reassured, and they nodded gratefully.

"Thank you." They said in unison, and he just nodded before walking away.

"Come on." They heard Creet say to Padra as he flicked the papers back into place and began to walk out of the room.

"Sorry, how old are you?" Martha asked, her and the trio behind her walking to catch up.

"Old enough to work." Was Creet's answer, but all Martha could do in response was frown as Creet continued to walk. "This way." He said to them, and they all followed, down more stairs and around more corners until they arrived at a very long hallway, filled to the brim with people of all ages. Some were very young children, crying out into the crowded hallway. Some were people huddled on the floor, wrapped in blankets and torn clothes, others were scuttling about, their heads looking down, only coughing or breathing in deep grunts. The TARDIS group could barely hear themselves as they all shuffled on through, and the few words they could catch were from Creet calling, "Kistane Shafe Cane!", or "Beltone Shafe Cane!"

The more they walked, the size of the huddled mass started to fluctuate. Some parts of the long hallway were crowded almost to the brim. Other parts had barely any people in it, due to either machinery all over the walls, or open doorways where a guard stood silent and ever watching. "It's like a refugee camp." Martha muttered.

Captain Jack took a sniff, smelling the almost overpowering smell of…well…many clustered lifeforms in one place. "Stinking." He whined, then immediately blinking at some puzzled looks from the people, almost bordering on glares. "Oh, sorry. No offence." He said, quickly taking back that single word, and the puzzled looks faded away.

"But don't you see what this is?" The Doctor asked the Captain with a beaming grin. "It's the ripe old smell of Humans. And you all survived." He added, his voice going up a slight pitch before he blinked with a sniff. "Oh, you might have spent a million years evolving into clouds gas and another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. The fundamental Humans. But here you are at the end of everything. Indomitable!" He exclaimed, making Clara jump a little and he laughed as he threw an arm around her shoulder. "That's the word! Indomitable! Ha!" Clara jumped again, and she flicked his nose in mocking defense. "Ow!" He whined, but before Clara could admonish him, they felt another pair of arms from a laughing form wrap around them both and they were pulled squealing into Captain Jack.

"Oh, I missed this!" Captain Jack exclaimed, before to Martha's astonishment, he planted a kiss on both of their lips.

"Jack!" They whined, and he just laughed as he let them go and strode a couple of steps ahead of them.

"Is there a Kistane Shafe Cane?!" Creet called again, him and Padra still in front of the group. But this time, unlike the whole time they spent walking the hallway, they received a response.

"That's me." Someone called out, a woman standing up from her spot on the floor beside a younger man.

"Mother?" Padra called before a beaming grin of relief spread across his face, and he raced over to wrap the two in a hug.

"Well, it's not all bad news, eh?" Martha asked.

"Oh." The Doctor and Clara droned out, immediately moving to a large charcoal door and pressing their hands against it.

"I wonder what's on the other side, hmm?" The Doctor asked Clara, and she took out her sonic and used it on the control panel by the door. Nothing happened, and Clara frowned. "Deadlocked?" The Doctor asked, and she nodded. "Captain." He called, but got no answer. The two of them rolled their eyes and looked up and down the hallway, before they spotted Captain Jack moving up to a young, and admittedly very good-looking man, and immediately shaking his hand.

"Captain Jack Harkness." He greeted with his signature smirk. "And who are you?"

"Stop it!" The Doctor and Clara interrupted in unison, and Captain Jack quickly darted his gaze between them and the man before setting his face into a childish whine.

"Give us a hand with this." The Doctor added, and Captain Jack moved over with a huff, Martha moving in to stand beside them with a curious gaze.

"It's half deadlocked. Can you override the code?" She asked, and Captain Jack just grinned at her before rolling back his right sleeve to use his Vortex Manipulator.

In a very short minute, Captain Jack unlocked the door, and the Doctor stood right in front of it. "Let's find out what's here."

In an instant, the door slid open, and what greeted the Doctor was no floor of any kind, and with a loud gasp, just as his foot went off the edge, Clara, the Captain and Martha grasped onto him tight and pulled him back. "Idiot!" Clara admonished, still clutching onto him as Captain Jack moved to stand in front of them with an arm held up.

"How did you ever cope with him?" Captain Jack asked, and Clara just shrugged.

"Oi!" The Doctor whined, but that was all he could say before their attention went back to what was beyond the doorway. It was the silver-grey surface of a very large rocket. And connecting it to the walls were very long pathways, surrounded on both sides by handrails, almost as tall as Clara and Martha.

"Now THAT is what I call a rocket!" Martha grinned, all of them clutching onto the sides of the doorway, staring up and down the rocket, their vision filled with small blinking lights that lined the walls of the massive room.

"So, they're not refugees. They're passengers." Clara deducted.

"Going to…" Martha trailed off with a blink and a squint of her eyes. "Hold on. Padra wanted to know if they were going to…"Utopia". Is that…"

"I think so." The Doctor answered with a nod.

"Doctor, do you recognize those engines?" Captain Jack asked, pointing down to the bottom of the rocket, and true enough, it's engines did not look remotely like engines. They looked more like giant pipes if anything.

"No." The Doctor answered. "Then again, there isn't much to recognize at the end of the universe."

"And whatever this is," Captain Jack nodded to the rocket, "it's not pure rocket science."

"But it's way too hot." Clara complained. "Can we-"

"Sure!" Everyone agreed, stepping back from the doorway so the Captain could close the door, and they breathed a little sigh of relief, feeling their skins starting to cool again.

"But if the universe is falling apart, why is everyone scrambling to get to this…"Utopia"?" The Doctor asked.

Then, out of nowhere, an old man came walking up to them, a bright yet awkward smile on his face as he pointed between them all. "Hello!" Professor Yana beamed before he blinked. "Which one of you is "The Doctor"?"

"That's me." The Doctor answered with a squint, and Professor Yana immediately clutched his hand with a laugh.

"Good! Good!" He exclaimed, tugging a now bewildered Doctor to follow him.

"Good!" The Doctor repeated, glancing back at the others with a blink, and they quickly moved to follow him. "It's good apparently!"

---

"Chan-welcome-tho!" Chantho greeted to the TARDIS group as the gleeful Professor guided them into the laboratory.

"Hello!" The Doctor and Clara greeted, whilst the Captain gazed around the room with raised eyebrows, and Martha's eyes widened at the sight of all the unrecognizable machinery.

"Now this is the gravitissimal accelerator." Professor Yana rambled, letting go of the Doctor's hand and pointing to a piece of machinery in the room. "It's past it's best but it works." He added, patting the machinery affectionately before moving away to a large box-like computer. "And here is the footprint impellor system. Do you know anything about endtime gravity?" The Professor asked, watching as the Doctor slipped on his "Brainy Specs" and exchanged a puzzled glance with Clara.

"A little bit." The Doctor answered as he looked up. "What's your name?"

"Oh-uh-a-Yana." He stammered a bit before giving a sniff. "Professor Yana."

"Well I'm the Doctor, as you know." The Doctor returned before patting Clara on the head. "This little thing is Clara."

"Oi!" Clara bit back, but their exchange was cut off by them rolling their eyes as a man spoke up at the room's entrance.

"Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?"

"Chan-Chantho-tho." Chantho answered as he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Chantho."

"Stop it!" The Doctor and Clara interrupted, and he gave them a sultry smirk.

"Can't I say "Hello" to anyone?" He asked, and Chantho gave them a shy smile, and may have blushed at the Captain's greeting.

"Chan-I do not protest-tho." Chantho inputted, and Captain Jack gave her a wink.

"Maybe later, blue." He said, and Chantho just giggled a little under her breath, but everyone heard it regardless. "So, what have we got here?" Captain Jack asked, moving to place his large black bag beside a wooden table before moving to join the TARDIS couple, gazing around at the machinery in the room with a blend of puzzled bewilderment and impressed wonder.

"Name's Martha." Martha quickly greeted, shaking Chantho's hand.

"Chan-Chantho-tho." She returned.

"All of this feeds into the rocket?" Clara asked, and Chantho moved back over to rejoin Professor Yana, whilst Martha's attention was now focused on the Captain's black bag.

"Yes, except without a stable footprint, you see, we're unable to achieve escape velocity." Professor Yana answered, rubbing his forehead with his hand for a moment. "If only we could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think?" He asked, looking between the Doctor and Clara. "Any ideas?"

The Doctor and Clara blinked at that, looking around the room but they failed to find any kind of satisfactory answer. "Well, err, basically, sort of…no." They finally said, and Professor Yana's face filled with a sort of childish disappointment.

"Nothing?" He reiterated, and they just shook their heads.

"We're not from around these parts. Even I have never seen a system like this." The Doctor answered with a sigh. "Sorry."

"No, no, I'm sorry." Professor Yana returned with a small sigh. "It's my fault, there's just been so little help."

But the moment was cut off as Martha called out with a gasp, "Oh my god!" Everyone, even Professor Yana, thankful for the change of attention, moved over to join Martha who had unzipped the Captain's bag, and was holding up a metal glass jar filled with bubbling water and…a hand. "You've got a hand?!" She demanded to Captain Jack as she placed the jar down on the table. But as the Doctor looked at it, his jaw instantly dropped as he sat down on a nearby brown couch, Clara moving to sit beside him. "A hand in a jar?!" Martha continued to demand, but all Captain Jack did was just shrug. "A hand, in jar, in your bag?!"

"But that…that-that's my hand!" The Doctor whined, and Captain Jack just shrugged again.

"I said I had a Doctor detector." Was his simple answer.

"Chan-is this a tradition amongst your people-tho?" Chantho asked in puzzlement, her and Professor Yana staring at the hand in bewilderment.

"Not on my street!" Martha answered, looking again between the hand and the Doctor. "What do you mean, "That's my hand"?! You've got both of your hands, and I can see them!"

"Um…long story." Was the first part of the Doctor's answer, his eyes blinking at the hand. "I lost my hand, Christmas day, in a sword fight."

Martha huffed at the Doctor's answer. "And what, you GREW another hand?" She asked sarcastically, but the Doctor just nodded without looking at her.

"Um, yeah, I did." Martha's gaze turned into a glare, and he just smiled with a wave. "Hello."

"Might I ask, Doctor, what species are you?" Professor Yana asked.

"Time Lord. Last of them." To the Doctor's surprise, and disappointment, neither the Professor nor Chantho reacted in any way to that answer other than a blink. "Heard of them? Legend or anything? A myth maybe?" The Doctor asked again, trying to ignore Clara's growing smirk as the Professor and Chantho looked at each other for a moment before just shrugging dumbly at him. "Aww." The Doctor whined. "The end of the universe is a bit humbling."

"Chan-it is said that I am the last of my species too-tho." Chantho inputted, and the Doctor and Clara both blinked at her.

"Sorry, what was your name?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, my assistant and good friend, Chantho." Professor Yana introduced for her, and she bowed her head in greeting. "A survivor of the Malmooth, and this was their planet, Malcassairo…until the ravages of time took over." The Professor added grimly, and Chantho's briefly sad look accompanied his words.

"That chasm outside, was that your city?" Clara asked, and Chantho nodded.

"Chan-the conglomeration died-tho."

"Conglomeration!" The Doctor exclaimed, making Clara jump a bit. "That's what I said!"

"You're supposed to say, "Sorry"." Captain Jack interrupted, earning a little glare from Clara.

"Oh yes. Sorry." The Doctor quickly said, and Chantho nodded in return.

"Chan-most grateful-tho."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Captain Jack asked Clara.

"That was my line." Clara said, but Jack just smirked.

"Who's to say I can't join in?" Was his question, and the Doctor and Clara just squinted their eyes at him, but they didn't exactly say no to him either.

"You grew another hand?" Martha asked slowly, and the Doctor and Clara both looked at her with a funny expression on their faces.

"Martha, you all right?" Clara asked, and Martha just gave her a brief glance before resuming her stare on the jar. "Doctor, would you mind?" Clara asked him, and he stood up from the couch to stand beside Martha.

"Martha, it's fine." He reassured with his right hand outstretched. "Honestly, it's fine."

Martha's somewhat uncertain gaze flickered between the Doctor and his hand before she hesitantly shook her with her own. "That might be the weirdest thing I have seen in my life." She said after a moment, and the Doctor just chuckled before rejoining Clara at her side, just as she stood up from the couch.

"So, what about those things outside?" Captain Jack asked the Professor, quickly changing the topic. "The Beastie Boys. What are they?"

"Well, we call them the "Futurekind", which is a myth in of itself." The Professor quickly admitted before taking a breath. "The myth is that if we don't reach Utopia, they are what we will become."

"And Utopia is?" The Doctor asked.

The Professor just looked at them as if they were completely mad. "Oh, every Human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?"

"We're a bit like hermits." Clara answered, her and Captain Jack briefly sharing a silent snigger.

"Hermits united." The Doctor continued, picking up on their silent exchange. "We meet up every ten years and swap stories about caves. It's good fun." He admitted before blinking. "For a hermit." He added before he and Clara looked at each other. "Anyway, um…Utopia?"

With a silent, beckoning finger, Professor Yana led the TARDIS group over to a computer and brought up the Gravitational Field Navigation System. All it was to the TARDIS group was a swirling mass of green lines against a blue background, except for one point up to the right top corner of the screen, where a single red dot was blinking on an endless cycle. "It all started by an endless signal, a call from this point, far amongst the stars." Professor Yana explained, pointing briefly at the red dot. "Over and over again, it just said, "Come to Utopia"."

"And where is that?" The Doctor asked, him and Clara the closest to the screen, Martha and the Captain having to look over their shoulders.

"Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness, out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter reefs."

"The same signal. An advert, maybe, or…" Clara trailed the sentence off, and looked at the Professor. "What do you think it is? What do you think is out there?"

All the Professor could do was shrug in response. "I have no idea. It could be a colony, or a city, some sort of haven. Perhaps it's the last of Humanity, scattered throughout the night." The Professor took a breath before looking away from the screen and onto the faces of the couple. "The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago, to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Or perhaps not." The Professor added grimly before shaking it off. "But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

The Doctor and Clara instantly grinned at that question and nodded fervently. "Oh yes." They returned their attention back to the screen, refocusing on the singular red dot. "That signal, Clara, doesn't it look like it's modulating, hmm?" The Doctor asked, and she nodded. "If it's not automatic, then maybe someone is out there."

"But how are they all going to get there?" Clara asked, and the Doctor just grinned with a little chuckle.

"You see what this is?" The Doctor asked, pointing to the computer itself. "It's a navigation matrix. They can fly without the stars to guide them. They just need a precise point of destination, and it figures it all out, co-ordinates, travel route, everything. This whole flight has been pre-planned. All they just need to do is leave." The Doctor finished, and Clara had a brief moment where she smiled until she began to frown.

"So why don't they?" The Doctor didn't know the answer, and Clara guessed, "Can they leave?"

"Honestly…I'm not sure." The Doctor answered. His gaze flickered over to the large console right beside them, and a long black cable, the neighbor to a large silver-gray cable, was running away and out of sight. "Maybe it's the cables. Not able to provide enough power for what they want." He spoke into her mind, seeing her nod a little at his theory. Then, they both turned to look back at Professor Yana, but to their surprise, his eyes were shut dead tight, almost as if he was trying to block something out of his head. "Professor?" The Doctor called, but the Professor did not seem to hear him. Standing up straight, the Doctor called clear and loud, "Professor?"

The Professor's head shot back up, and his beaming smile returned, but not only did it not reach his eyes, it seemed like he was seeing right through everyone, as if they were not even there. "Yes, I, that's enough talk, now. There's work to be done." He rambled, moving past them, his hands flying aimlessly on one of the computers. Strangely enough, all he really was doing was checking if the heating and conditioning units were stable, but he just didn't seem to notice.

"Are you all right?" Clara asked, her and the Doctor exchanging a quick glance, even as the Professor barely gave them a glance back.

"Yes, I'm fine, but…busy."

Clara gave the Doctor a look, to which he nodded, and she followed him with a sigh. "Yana." She called, and the absence of the title made the Professor stop and turn to look at her. "That rocket's not going to fly, is it?"

The Professor looked as if he was about to retort to that, but after glancing at Chantho and around the whole machinery filled room, he just responded, both in fear and in pleading, "We'll find a way!"

"And all of them, outside, they don't know? You haven't told them, have you?" Clara reiterated her question, and the Professor gave a sigh and sat down on a nearby chair.

"Well, it's better to let them live in hope."

"Quite right, too!" The Doctor agreed enthusiastically, making the Professor look up at him with a bewildered blink as the Doctor began to move around the room, following the trail that the black cable was leaving until he arrived at a little conjunction and spotted the problem immediately. The cable was to carry the appropriate amount of power, but to make it work properly, the small black box at the intersection needed a small boost of cordless power, and they only had so much power to go around. "And I must say, Professor Yana," The Doctor started, slipping the coat off before tossing it over to Clara, who caught it effortlessly and watched as the Doctor stood in front of the Professor with the black box cable in his left hand, "no matter how new or different the science is in any time frame, a boost reversal circuit must be a circuit which reverses the boost. So, I wonder…" He muttered as he pulled out his sonic and used it on the black box, "what would happen if I did this?" Moving his sonic into the palm of his hand to free his fingers, he flicked the tiny lever on the black box, and without warning, the lights in the room flared up in brightness, the machinery all turned on to a new, faster speed, and an alarm began to blare. But by the overwhelmingly relieved, surprised, and bewildered expressions on the Professor's and Chantho's faces, it was not an alarm of danger. Rather, it was the alarm signaling to all the passengers that they must now board the vessel bound for the new world.

"But how did you do that?!" The Professor demanded in a gasping exclamation.

"Doctor, if you may?" Clara asked knowingly, and the Doctor just sent her a beaming grin before turning his gaze over to the Professor.

"Oh, while we've been chatting away, we forgot to tell you: We're brilliant!" The Doctor boasted before giving out a chuckle, just as the speakers crackled back into life.

"All passengers prepare for boarding. I repeat: All passengers prepare for immediate boarding. Destination: Utopia."

"Now then, Professor," Clara started as she moved over to stand beside the Doctor, watching with a smirk as the Professor struggled with speechlessness, "how may we be of assistance?"

Silo Control Room

"All passengers prepare for boarding. I repeat: All passengers prepare for immediate boarding. Destination: Utopia." Atillo called into a microphone that stood beside a white retro computer. Very retro. Atillo corrected in his mind as he pressed the power button on the mic before moving away, his hands going wild on the massive console panel walls that lined the room, flicking switches, turning dials, lifting levers, until he heard a ringing. The ringing came from the black wired telephone, also retro just like computer, and he paused his progress to move over and answer the call, blinking a little as the flashing golden lights flared into his eyes for a moment. "Yes?"

"The troops have returned from the water collection, sir." One of the guards reported. "And they have brought the blue box with them."

"Good." Atillo responded, holding back a small, relieved sigh at the message. "Get the truck and the box inside the Silo, and lock up entrance. We're leaving for Utopia."

"Yes, sir." Came the answer.

Atillo hung up the phone and moved over to the microphone and pressed the power button. "All troops report to the Silo. I repeat: All troops report to the Silo."

---

"Excuse me! Coming through!" Martha called, her and Chantho moving through the little wave of people inside the long hallway, their arms full of circuit boards as they made back for the Professor's laboratory. "Excuse me, coming through-oh!" Martha gasped, bumping straight into a young kid with scruffy blonde hair. "Sorry, I…oh, hello again." She greeted, recognizing the kid from when they first arrived into the Silo.

"Hello again, miss." The kid greeted.

"Name's "Creet", isn't that right?"

"That it is, miss." Creet nodded with a polite smile.

"Who are you with, Creet?" Martha asked. "Got any family?"

The kid, without losing that childish gleam of awe in his eyes, just shook his head. "No, miss. There's just me."

Martha's warm smile turned into sadness for a moment. "Well, good luck." But before Creet could leave, Martha asked one last question. "What do you think it's going to be like? In Utopia?"

Creet's wondrous smile seemed to grow brighter as he answered. "My mum used to say the skies are made of diamonds."

Martha laughed, her own smile now devoid of the brief sadness. "Well, good for her." She said before nodding her head in the direction of the rocket entrance. Well, one of them anyway. "Go on, off you go. Get your seat."

"Goodbye, miss Martha." Creet bowed and almost ran off for the rocket entrance, Martha and Chantho exchanging a small smile before they resumed their path.

As they walked, they noticed that the number of people at this end were quickly growing smaller in number, until they were the only ones walking in their part of the hallway. Using the moment to her need for a quick conversation, she looked at Chantho. "Chantho, how long have you been with the Professor?" She asked.

"Chan-17 years-tho."

"Blimey." Martha muttered with a slight exhale of breath. "Long time."

"Chan-I adore him-tho." She admitted, and Martha's eyes widened as her eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh. Right. And does he-"

"Chan-I did not insinuate it like that-tho!" Chantho retorted, almost shyly, and Martha, after a moment of blinking, slowly shrugged it off.

There was a small moment of silence between them, and Martha suddenly found a puzzling thought in her head. One that she had to get the answer to. "Do you mind if I ask, do you have to start every sentence with "Chan"?"

Chantho looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Chan-yes-tho."

"And end every sentence with…"

"Chan-tho-tho." Chantho finished for her.

"So what would happen if you didn't?"

Chantho suddenly stopped walking, and Martha stopped as well, watching as Chantho looked at her as if that mere thought seemed like an order from a mad man. "Chan-that would be rude-tho."

"What, like swearing?" Martha asked, her voice adopting a very mischievous tone that seemed to make Chantho afraid. But a more…shy and flushed afraid.

"Chan-indeed-tho." She answered, and when the glint in Martha's eyes grew, she knew she had said the wrong answer.

"Go on. Just once." Martha ordered in a low, teasing voice, and Chantho immediately felt her embarrassed flush heating more by the second.

"Chan-I can't-tho!" Chantho pleaded, but it was meek, and Martha did not buy it.

"Oh, do it for me."

In a low voice, as if wanting only Martha to hear, Chantho whispered, "No." Martha and Chantho burst out laughing at that moment. Martha from just the sheer incredulity of the moment, whilst Chantho was laughing like a kid had just done some very naughty…and managed to get away with it. And they were still laughing and giggling and whispering nonsense as they walked back to the entrance of the Professor's laboratory.

---

"Professor Yana?" Atillo's voice rang through the speakers again, and made the Professor pause in his current work.

"Yes?"

"The last of the guards are about to enter the Silo. Would you please check that the outer defenses are still functioning for us?"

"I'm right on it." Professor Yana called, hearing the speakers crackle as he turned to the Doctor and Clara. "Ah, you've got the co-ordinates and coding set up already?" Professor Yana asked in a moment of disbelief, and they just shrugged.

"Yeah." They answered in unison, and he blinked before motioning them over to a glass panel atop a computer with his hand, otherwise known as the "Neutralino Map".

"I will need you two to insert the appropriate plugs into the correct sockets. Each one has a number code on both the socket and plug."

"On it." They said in unison, moving to stand on either side as the Professor moved over to a large computer set just beside them.

""Outer Defenses"?" The Doctor quoted, and the Professor briefly looked at him as he check over the little black buttons on the computer's adjacent panel.

"Mainly it's just automatic lasers, life scanners. We coded it all to work if the Futurekind gets too close to the entrance. That's why we have guards with guns and brains there as well. Just to give the horde a chance to back off." Professor Yana explained.

"What about the big lever?" Clara asked, pointing to the lonely black lever at the top of the panel.

"That's the power lever." The Professor answered with a shrug. "Everything needs an off switch, do they not?"

The Doctor and Clara just shrugged at that as they continued to work, pushing at the black strings that hung all over the glass panel, until one black string got a little close to Clara's face, and she paused. "Hold on." She sniffed at it, and blinked in bewildered puzzlement at the Doctor. "This is…food. It must be." She whispered, and with a blink, he followed suit, taking a string and sniffing it.

"You're right. It's-"

His words were cut off as the Professor cleared his throat and clapped his hands to his sides. "Everything is in working order. Very good." He then rushed over to the entrance, and pressed a button on the door console for the microphone. "Lieutenant, you there?"

"Always am, Professor."

"Well, everything is in working order, and functioning properly with the defenses."

"Ah, very good. I shall call the last of the guards to join everyone on the rocket."

"Very good indeed." The Professor agreed before letting go of the button and moving over towards Captain Jack, who was working by the main console in the room. "The power paths for the footprint are all right, Captain?" The Professor asked.

"Just about." Captain Jack answered with a flick of a switch. "Just waiting on Chantho and Martha with the extra circuit boards."

"Ah, good." The Professor answered as he almost rushed over to the Doctor and Clara with a little spring in his step, pausing only when he saw their faces bearing frowns as they stared at the Neutralino Map in amazement. "Is everything okay?"

"This…this is food." The Doctor muttered with a black string in his hands as he looked at the Professor, and the Professor nodded in response.

"Gluten extract. Binds the Neutralino Map together." The Professor reiterated as he picked up a cup of water and leaned against the wall, allowing his weary body a moment's reprieve from all the running and the fussing and the work.

"You built this system out of food and string and staples?" The Doctor asked, and when the Professor just blinked in almost flustered embarrassment, the Doctor sent Clara a little smile as they chuckled at the wordless answer. "Professor Yana, you're a genius."

The Professor gave a little scoff, but it wasn't bitter, just disbelieving. "Says the one who made it work."

"Oh, it's easy coming in at the end, but…you're stellar. And I don't often say that because of Clara, really, and…well..." The Doctor shrugged with a blink for a moment before blurting, "because of me."

Clara sniggered and the Professor smiled after he took a sip of the cold drink. "Well, even my title is an affectation." The Professor admitted. "There hasn't been such a thing as a university in…oh, well over a thousand years. I've just spent my life jumping from one refugee ship to another."

"You would have been revered if you were in a different time." Clara said, and the Professor just chuckled. "No, I meant that. Revered and admired, not just on a planet, but in a galaxy. Maybe over many galaxies." Clara added, and the Professor chuckled lightly again.

"Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse." Professor Yana quipped dryly, and they laughed. "Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little bit, just once."

"Well, you've got it now." The Doctor said, and the Professor smiled as he drank the rest of the water, but the couple noticed that the smile was a little bit too…sad. "You all right?"

The Professor smiled as he put the empty cup down on a nearby table. "Oh, I think so. As long as they all get to Utopia, safe and sound."

""They"? Why not you?" Clara asked, but the Professor didn't respond to that question.

"It's the footprint, isn't it?" The Doctor asked, and a small glance from Professor Yana was enough of an answer. "It can't be activated on board, it has to be done here. You're staying behind."

The Professor did not object or find offense from their deduction. Instead, he just nodded. "With Chantho." He added with a little exhale of breath. "She won't leave without me. Simply refuses."

"You can't mean that." Clara responded, briefly stopping her work to look at him with an expression of concern. "You can't give your life just so they can fly. You should join them, really." She urged, but Professor Yana shook his head with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry, Clara, but I'm afraid I am too old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep." He said with a reassuring smile, but all it did was make the couple grow even sadder, until the moment was cut off when the door opened.

"Doctor! Clara!" Atillo called, his head poking through the doorway as everyone halted their work to look over at him. "We have found your blue box."

"Ah! Good man!" They called back with beaming grins.

"Can you bring her in here, please?" Clara added, and Atillo promptly nodded, opening the door as far as it would go, large enough to squeeze a single vehicle through it, or a big blue box. It took a little bit to get the TARDIS into the back of the room, the group having to move wires and table suspended computer terminals to clear a path, whilst Atillo and his men brought the blue box into the room. Once the door had closed and Atillo left with his men, the Captain, Clara, the Doctor and the Professor put everything back into place before Clara unlocked the TARDIS doors. "Well, Professor, this is just an aimless stab in the dark, but we may have just found you a way out."

With that, she patted his back, before she, the Doctor and the Captain raced into the TARDIS, leaving Professor Yana alone for a moment. Despite being alone in the room, he felt as if he…wasn't alone. And it definitely was not silent. And he could hear it again. That same noise. Over and over again, yet now, after all these years, it seemed to be getting…louder. Almost closer. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. Professor Yana did not know when he sat down on a chair, but he suddenly felt as if he was incredibly weary, and he needed a moment to catch his breath, feeling his ears filled with a light ringing as a side effect of the noise. He did not even notice the trio racing out of the strange blue box, all helping to draw out a large silver cable, which they plugged into the power box, and the lights in the room grew just a little bit brighter.

"Extra power!" The Doctor exclaimed, brushing his hands together as if to wipe off dust from his palms before he cocked his head at Clara with a smirk. "Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting?" Then, he wrapped an arm around Clara's waist and raced across the room to another computer with her, glancing back to the Captain only for a moment. "Jack! You're in charge of the retro feeds!"

"On it!" Captain Jack responded as he raced back to the main console of the room, just as the laboratory door slid open, and Martha and Chantho both walked inside.

"Oh, am I glad to see her again!" Martha exclaimed with a grin as she looked at the TARDIS, before she and Chantho quickly moved over to Captain Jack. "Extra circuits, sir?" Martha asked with a gleam in her eyes, which Captain Jack eagerly returned.

"More for the spar. And quickly." Captain Jack ordered, and Martha just cocked an eyebrow at him before she wordlessly did as she was bade, her and Chantho placing the circuits onto a nearby computer, and she began to slot them in one by one.

"Chan-Professor-tho." She muttered, moving over to the old man, immediately earning concerned looks from everyone else. "Chan-are you all right-tho?"

The Professor, sitting on the chair with his eyes shut tight, opened them briefly to give Chantho a reassuring smile. "I'm fine. Just need a moment." He reassured with deep breaths, and Chantho gave him a soft smile before resuming her work.

The Doctor and Clara exchanged a small glance before moving to stand before the Professor. "You don't have to keep working." The Doctor said, but the Professor just shook his head. "We can handle it."

"Oh, it's not that. It's just a headache. Just…just noise inside my head." The Professor explained, having to rub at his forehead with a hand, and he started to feel the noise fading a little as he continued to breathe. "Just constant noise."

The Doctor, with a frown, squatted down and looked up at the Professor. "What sort of noise?"

The Professor gave a little exhale as he blinked wearily. "It's the sound of drums."

The Doctor blinked in moderate surprise, but continued to ask, "When did it start?"

"Oh, I've had it all my life." The Professor admitted with another deep breath. "Every waking hour." Then, the Professor closed his eyes for a moment, took another deep breath, and finally, to his own relief, the noise faded away and he relaxed with a sniff. "Still…no rest for the wicked, eh?" He quipped lightly as he stood up and walked away, not seeing the Doctor and Clara exchanged a small, concerned look in regard to the old man.

Just before Professor Yana could grab another mug of water, the commlink computer crackled into life, but all that came through was Atillo's voice, distorted with static. "Profe…Pro…"

Professor Yana placed the empty mug down before he could fill it and moved over to the computer, quickly typing in "ATILLO" before pressing the enter key. "I'm here! I'm here!" He called, watching as the static filled screen flared up with green for a split second before Atillo's face came into clear view.

"Professor, are you getting me?" Atillo asked, and Professor Yana nodded fervently.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here! Now all you need to do is connect the couplings, then we can launch." Before Atillo could respond, the screen flared up into static, and Atillo's name disappeared into a white space with a thin, blinking black line at the start of a new sentence. "Oh, God save us, this equipment!" Professor Yana cursed, already feeling the Doctor and Clara at his back.

"Something the matter?" The Doctor asked, and Professor Yana looked at him over his shoulder.

"It's this bloody equipment. Needs rebooting all the time. Give me a moment." He muttered as he retyped "ATILLO" before pressing the enter key, and after a moment, Atillo's face re-appeared.

"Are you still there?"

"Ah, present and correct!" Professor Yana answered with a grin. "Now, prep your man so you can send him inside. We're just about finished with the safety system, so give us one minute." Professor Yana reported, and Atillo nodded before disappearing off screen.

""Safety system"?" The Doctor and Clara asked, just as the Professor stood up from the seat at the computer.

"Ah, well, um…in order to finish the footprint, we need to fix the couplings underneath the rocket." Then the Professor just gave a sigh and wiped away at the sweat from his forehead. "The problem is that the room the couplings are in is flooded with stet radiation. The entire chamber."

""Stet"?" The Doctor quoted, and the Professor nodded. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't want to." The Professor warned before taking a breath. "But it will be safe enough as soon as-"

"Chan-Professor-tho!"

The Professor grinned cheekily with a wink. "As soon as they have finished." He continued before moving respectfully past the couple and towards Chantho, Martha, and the Captain, all standing by the finished computer panel with relieved smiles on their faces. "Everything all right?" The Professor asked.

"Chan-the radiation system is up and running-tho." Chantho reported, and the Professor clapped his hands once in approval.

"Very good." He complimented before inhaling. "Now, we will need you three to keep all the dials below the red zone. Keep the radiation as low as possible." He said, and the three nodded before moving back onto the computer panel, whilst Professor Yana moved back to the Doctor and Clara. "We are nearly there." He said, almost squealing in ecstatic glee, receiving chuckles from the couple in return as he moved back onto the seat. "Okay." He muttered, retyping "ATILLO" before calling, "Lieutenant?!"

Atillo's face re-appeared, and behind him was the form of a man placing a large white protective lab helmet on, completing his head to toe protective outfit of pure white. "Are you there, Professor?"

"Yes, we're still here." The Professor replied before clearing his throat. "Now, send your man inside."

"And good luck to him." Atillo added before turning away. They heard the sound of a large metal door sliding open before quickly sliding shut. "He's inside." Atillo reported as he re-entered the screen before he pressed a few buttons and the screen quickly switched to a different view. It was of the coupling room, a room made entirely from metal and filled with a burnt orange light, humming with the sound of the rocket just above the room. In the center of the room were five upright cylinders, the upper half a metal weight that upon completion would drop down, surrounded on all sides by a metal rod. And all of the cylinders were capped with a lid that required a code to open. So, the man in the white protective gear walked around to stand behind the cylinders, before looking up to where Atillo was watching, as said man spoke into the computer again. "All right, Professor, the codes."

"Codes." The Professor scoffed before his eyes widened as he jumped out of the chair in shock. "Codes! Oh shit!" He cursed, dashing about the room whilst everyone looked at him in concern.

"Professor?!" The Doctor and Clara called.

"The codes!" The Professor exclaimed again, chucking up papers upon papers into the air as he dashed about the room. "Codes, codes, codes, codes-aha!" The Professor exclaimed with glee, picking up a little notepad as he rushed over to the computer. "I got it!" He beamed as he sat back down, flicked through the pages until he reached a page with four written codes. Then, with a little groan, he retyped "ATILLO" and cleared his throat. "First code: 077623250." He called into the computer.

"077623250." Atillo repeated to the man inside, who inputted the code into the first cylinder and the lid opened with a hiss. Then, the man reached a hand inside the cylinder and seemed to be clenching his jaw and grimacing, as if he was struggling to win tug of war.

Then, an alarm sounded, and the Professor immediately looked back over to the safety trio. "Naught.2. Keep it level!" He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Captain Jack called back, and quickly, the alarm switched off.

Back inside the coupling room, the man let go of whatever was inside the cylinder, and the metal weight slammed down onto the floor, and he pulled his hand out before closing the lid. "That's one down." The Professor muttered. "Two to-" The Professor was interrupted as another alarm started to blare, but this time, the screech of warning was of a higher pitch than the one before.

"Jack, what are those levels doing?!" The Doctor demanded as he and Clara rushed over.

"They're going erratic!" Captain Jack reported, him, Martha and Chantho scrambling over the many switches and buttons on the panel to no avail.

Then, as if to add to their plight, the lights in the room flickered, and Chantho gave a startled gasp of fear. "Chan-we're losing power-tho!"

Professor Yana immediately called into the computer, "Lieutenant! Check the main power supply! We're losing power at this end!"

"I've sent men already!" Atillo responded before he called to the man in the chamber. "Jate! Get out of there! Get out!"

"Keep those levels stable!" The Doctor ordered, him and Clara rushing over to give them a hand, watching with growing concern as the dials continued to jump around frantically like ecstatic children.

"We need to override the vents, and force the levels down!" Captain Jack exclaimed.

"Professor, is that man out of the room?!" Clara called as they fruitlessly continued to work.

"He's already out!" The Professor answered, but everyone jumped as Captain Jack gave out an ecstatic gasp.

"I've got it!" He exclaimed, wrenching out a power cable from both the power unit and the safety panel, the ends already sparking and crackling from the exposed wires inside.

"Jack, what are you doing?!" Clara demanded.

"Jump starting the override!" Captain Jack responded.

"Don't! It's going to flare!" The Doctor ordered, but Captain Jack ignored him and slammed the two wires together. In an instant, the violent and lethal volts of electricity invaded the Captain's body, and his muscles and nerves all seized up, and he began to scream in agony, his form writhing back and forth on the spot as the crackling electricity worked like mad, before he promptly dropped dead to the ground, the cables disentangling themselves from each other and falling also like dead bodies to the floor.

"Jack!" Martha gasped, her and Chantho rushing over to the dead man, whilst the Professor also moved over with a hand over his horrified mouth, watching as Martha tried to resuscitate the dead Captain.

"Chan-don't touch the cables-tho!" Chantho warned in a pleading tone, reaching out with a timid hand to push one the cables as far away from the other as possible.

In a strange, yet unsurprising contrast, the Doctor and Clara just shot each other a shrug and a sigh, watching with some puzzlement as the power in the room returned in force and the radiation levels of the coupling chamber returned to nominal levels. "Of course he would do that." Clara muttered to the Doctor, who just shrugged again at her as they moved slowly over, the Doctor pocketing his "Brainy Specs" as they watched.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Professor Yana muttered apologetically, but Martha seemed to either deny or ignore his words, as she continued relentlessly on trying to revive the Captain.

"Lucky our other man got out." Clara muttered to the Doctor as they thrust their hands into their pants pockets. "The chamber is flooded with lethal radiation, yes?"

The Professor nodded dejectedly. "Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing!" The Professor spat, but the TARDIS couple barely emoted at that exclamation.

"Martha, leave him." Clara ordered gently, moving over to pull Martha off the floor, wrenching her mouth away from the Captain's own lips.

"You've got to let me try." Martha pleaded as she tried to resist, but Clara just shook her head.

"Just listen to me, and leave him alone." Clara ordered not unkindly, and Martha, after a moment of struggling, relented, and relaxed her struggling arms, allowing Clara to let her go.

"It strikes us Professor," The Doctor started with a sniff and a barely contained grin as he looked down upon the dead Captain, "you've got a room which unless you're inhumanly careful, no man can enter and live. Is that correct?"

"Aside from being lucky?" The Professor remarked before nodding with a snort. "Yes."

"Well, I think we've got just the man." The Doctor said, and once Captain Jack shot up with a loud gasp, and looks of utter bewilderment crossed over the Professor and Chantho's faces, the Doctor and Clara grinned at them.

"Now, Professor, might we borrow your code book?" Clara asked as Martha began to giggle. It was mainly a giggle of surprise, and self-admonishment.

"Hold on." Captain Jack said as he drew a breath. "Was someone kissing me?"

Martha laughed, whilst Clara rolled her eyes, despite the grin, as she moved over and pulled the Captain back onto his feet. "Come on." She ushered in an order, her, the Doctor and the Captain all racing from the room, downstairs and through long hallways until they reached the control room, seeing the Lieutenant and the other man, Jate, no longer in his protective gear, all staring at them in puzzlement. "Lieutenant, Jate, get on board the rocket!" Clara ordered.

"But the chamber's flooded!" Atillo protested. "The couplings haven't been fixed!"

"Trust us." Clara interrupted. "We've found a way of tripping the system. Now run! Both of you! Get on board the rocket!"

Atillo and Jate exchanged a quick glance before they relented, and with a word of farewell, they raced from the room. As the Doctor and Clara prepped the chamber door to open, after taking a moment to quickly figure out the many buttons of the wall panels, they turned to look at Captain Jack. To their astonishment, he had shredded most of his upper clothes, leaving him down only to a white shirt with braces over his shoulders, his beloved coat and button up shirt draped over a nearby chair. "Hold on, what are you taking your clothes off for?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm going in." Captain Jack answered as if it was obvious.

"Well, by what could have happened to the poor man, the Stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh." The Doctor retorted, and Captain Jack just shrugged with his signature smirk.

"Well…I look good, though." He responded, making his way past the TARDIS couple, not needing to see them rolling their eyes at him. But before he moved into the room, he paused and turned back to look at them again. "Doctor, how long have you known?" He asked.

The Doctor's gaze became…tired. Maybe even a little bit guilty, but it was just…tired. "Ever since I ran away from you." The Captain watched as the both of them smiled apologetically, and all he did in response was to send them a smile of reassurance, even as the Doctor said, "Good luck."

The Captain gave a wordless nod before he slid the door open, stepped inside, and slammed the door shut. In an instant, his body felt as if it became a battleground in the flooded chamber. All of the radiation tried to invade through his skin and attempt a lethal attack, but his…unusual state had also heightened his healing, which fought back with a vengeance against the radiation. To anyone else, he looked completely fine. To the Captain, his skin was boiling and sweating, but he didn't feel any pain. Strange. This room looks more…red than it did on the computer. Captain Jack thought. However, just as he finished thinking that one point, the heat in the room became so unbearable for a split second that the Captain let out a gasp. "Oh, fuck me!" He cursed, having to shake his arms, and his healing subsided the heat just enough to make it bearable, but it did not stop the sweat from almost completely soaking his shirt.

"You all right in there?" Clara called through the door, and the Captain, with a breath, turned around with a nod and a thumbs up.

"It's really hot." He said simply, and the Doctor and Clara exchanged a look with each other before looking back at the Captain through the large glass pane in the door.

"In any other circumstance, we could say that you are a sight for sore eyes." The Doctor remarked, and Captain Jack looked down at his sweat soaked shirt with a grin. "But you've got a job to do." The Doctor added with a gleam in his eyes, him and Clara nodding to the couplings behind the Captain.

"Hm?" The Captain muttered before he got the message and blinked repeatedly, clapping his hands together as he pointed at them. "Right." He said as he cleared his throat, moved around to stand behind the second coupling, and looked back up to the Doctor and Clara. "Code?"

"All right." Clara said as she held up the notebook and cleared her throat. "605056259."

The Captain quickly inputted the code into the lid, pulled it off with a hiss and saw underneath not only six little green lights, he also saw a black handle just a couple of inches bigger than his own hand. Both ends of the handle had two thick extensions that were held in slots outside of the handle, both pointing to the Captain and to the doorway. On the same ring outside the handle, there were two more, pointing to the Captain's left and right. "Okay. Simple enough." The Captain said as he grasped onto the handle and began to pull. In an instant, he began to struggle as the handle came out in a snail's pace, and he found himself exhaling a breath and began to groan a little. "Okay, I take that back." He heard the TARDIS couple laughing at him, and he shot them a grin as he pulled the handle up clean, spun it and pressed down, the extensions sliding into the different slots cleanly, and the large metal weight slammed down, allowing the Captain to close the lid. "All right, next code?"

Clara cleared her throat and peered back onto the notebook. "935592282." She called and the Captain quickly inputted it into the next lid.

"Jack," The Doctor started, "when did you first realize?"

"Earth, 1892." The Captain said, as he lifted the lid up, taking a small moment to breathe. "Got in a fight on Ellis Island. Man shot me through the heart, then I woke up. Did not even have a bullet wound." The TARDIS couple cocked an eyebrow at him, and he shrugged. "I thought it was kind of strange, but then it never stopped." He added as he grasped onto the black handle and tried a different technique of wiggling it about to loosen it. "Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War One, World War Two, poison, starvation." Captain Jack listed before he squinted. "Stray javelin." He added, and the couple audibly winced, to which he just shrugged. "In the end, I got the message. I'm the man who can never die." The Captain groaned out, realizing the hard way that his new technique had failed miserably, and the black handle was still a bastard to pull out. "And all that time, you knew?" He asked, more pointedly to the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded. "That's why I ran away from you. It's not easy even just looking at you, Jack, because you are wrong."

The Captain just snorted at that with a half glare. "Thanks."

"You are. I can't help it." The Doctor retorted, and Captain Jack blinked at him with a small frown. "I'm a Time Lord, it's instinct. It's in my guts. You're not an immortal, Jack, you're a fixed point in time, a fact, that was never meant to happen." Captain Jack blinked again, as the Doctor ran a hand through his unkempt hair. "Even the TARDIS reacted against you, tried to shake you off. We flew all the way to the end of the universe just to get rid of you."

"So…what you're saying is…hold on." The Captain had to pause for a moment as he pulled the handle straight up, twisted it and slammed it down, before closing the lid with a sigh of relief. "So, what you're saying is that you're prejudiced?"

Clara burst out laughing at that, whilst the Doctor just sniggered despite the little puzzled blink his eyes gave off. "Huh. I've never thought of it like that."

The Captain gave a small, evil smirk at the Doctor with a quick and flirtatious raise of his eyebrows. "Shame on you." He remarked before moving to the fourth cylinder. "Next code?"

Clara cleared her throat as she peered back onto the notebook. "755623378."

Captain Jack inputted the final code and pulled the lid off. But before he moved onto the final handle, he paused and looked up. "Doctor, last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination, and I came back to life." The couple's gazes turned tired and sad at his words, even as the Captain grasped onto the last black handle and started the final struggle. "What happened?"

"Rose."

Captain Jack blinked with a frown at Clara's answer. "I…I thought you sent her back home." He muttered, and they just shook their heads.

"She came back." The Doctor said with a small sigh. "Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex itself."

Captain Jack let out a groan, both from the answer and from the unmoving black handle. "What does that mean, exactly?" He asked, his voice grunting with the struggle.

"No one is meant to have that power, Jack." The Doctor answered with a small gulp. "If a Time Lord did that, they would become a god. A vengeful god. But she was Human. Everything she did was so Human. She brought you back to life." Then, the Doctor just gave the Captain a sad smile. "But she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever." The Doctor exchanged a glance with Clara before he leaned against his side of the door. "That's something, I suppose. The final act of the Time War was life."

"Do you think…" Captain Jack almost asked before giving a little groan against the black handle. "Oh, come on." He muttered before inhaling a breath and glancing back up to the TARDIS couple. "Do you think she could change me back?"

"No." The Doctor answered simply with a shake of his head. "The TARDIS has a safeguard now. Anybody who tries to absorb the Time Vortex ever again, they will just…atomize. And Rose lost that power. I had to take it from her."

Captain Jack nodded almost dejectedly at that answer before Clara cut in. "She's gone, Jack." The Captain looked up at her with a little frown of puzzlement. "She may be alive on that parallel world, but she is trapped there."

"I'm sorry." Captain Jack immediately responded in apologetic sadness, and they returned it with a small sad smile. "I went back to her estate, in the 90s. Just a couple of times." He reassured when they looked at him accusingly. "Watched her growing up. Never said, "Hello", of course. Timelines and all." He added through a groan as he felt the handle finally move just a little before it got stuck into a snail's pace again.

"Jack," Clara started to ask with a blink, "do you really want...to die?"

"I…" Captain Jack went to respond before he gave out another grunt against the black handle. "Oh, come on, you." He muttered with clenched teeth.

"Jack." Clara called with a little drawl, and he glanced back up to her.

"I…I thought I did." He said with a blink before shaking his head. "I don't know. But seeing this lot," He started with a nod to the whole Silo complex around them, and he could see the TARDIS couple beginning to grin at him, "surviving out here, well…that is just fantastic." He beamed, and the Doctor and Clara both returned the grins as the Captain pulled the handle straight up, twisted it and slammed it down with a sigh of relief as he closed the lid. "Right, final code?"

Clara cleared her throat and peered back down onto the notebook. "224879271."

The Captain quickly inputted the key into the lid of the final cylinder, opened it, and started to lift the final black handle. "You do realize that you could be out there, somewhere?" The Doctor asked, and the Captain gave a little smirk at that.

"I could go meet myself." The Captain suggested, and they smirked back at him.

"The only person you're ever going to be happy with." The Doctor quipped, and Clara and the Captain laughed.

"This new regeneration, it's kind of cheeky." Captain Jack said with a little chuckle. "I'm jealous of you, Clara." He remarked, earning a unified laugh in response.

---

"Well, I think we've got just the man." The Doctor said, and once Captain Jack shot up with a loud gasp, and looks of utter bewilderment crossed over the Professor and Chantho's faces, the Doctor and Clara grinned at them.

"Now, Professor, might we borrow your code book?" Clara asked as Martha began to giggle. It was mainly a giggle of surprise, and self-admonishment.

"Hold on." Captain Jack said as he drew a breath. "Was someone kissing me?"

Martha laughed, whilst Clara rolled her eyes, despite the grin, as she moved over and pulled the Captain back onto his feet. "Come on." She ushered in an order, her, the Doctor and the Captain all racing from the room.

"What…" The Professor tried to say, but he found himself speechless as he looked between Martha, Chantho and the open doorway. "How did he…"

"No idea." Martha answered with a shake of her head as they moved over to the computer, and found themselves rolling their eyes as Martha took the seat. "Hold on." She muttered as she typed "ATILLO", and the computer reconnected, but the image still remained the grain field of static.

"Chan-must have lost the picture during the flare-tho." Chantho inputted.

"Doctor, Clara, Jack, you there?" Martha called.

"Receiving, yeah. He just went inside." The Doctor's voice responded.

Martha's eyebrows shot up in surprise, whilst the Professor and Chantho just looked completely alarmed. "And still alive?"

"Oh yes."

"He should evaporate." Professor Yana blurted out in astonishment. "What sort of a man is he?"

"I've only just met him." Martha answered simply. "The Doctor and Clara travel about through time and space, picking people up."

"They…" The Professor trailed off in silent confusion, his mind suddenly racing about at a million miles, and then…it all stopped. The room grew deadly quiet as he felt himself taking a couple of small, hushed steps back. Was just him, or did the room feel like it was…pounding, as if the walls were reverberating a deep drumbeat, its source so far away and yet so very close. In the silence, he could almost feel the aftermath of each drumbeat humming across the walls, unable to hear his own breathing or his own singular heartbeat over the constant noise. 1. 2. 3. 4. It hummed against his mind, or…was it on just the walls of the room, playing tricks on the man. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. In a small moment of silence from the noise, he could barely hear himself ask aloud, "They travel through time?"

The Professor managed to hear Martha's response, but it felt like she was miles away from himself. "Don't ask me to explain. That's the TARDIS, that box behind you."

At that, the rest of what Martha could have said was washed away as the drumbeat returned, but now it seemed like it was accompanied by…voices. He could recognize some of them, belonging to his newfound friends and Chantho, but there were others he could not recognize, yet he felt like he should have. "That's the TARDIS." Martha's whispering voice echoed around him as he found himself turning around, coming to a stop as he saw the large blue box in front of him. Is…is it…breathing? He found himself asking, almost feeling a distant rhythmic pulse from the strange machine, and yet he could not take his eyes off of it. "Time travel. That's the TARDIS." The voices continued to whisper to him.

"Sports car of time travel, he said." The Professor barely heard Martha saying to Chantho, and then the Doctor's voice had floated through into his mind.

"I'm a Time Lord."

"Time Lord." The Doctor's voice repeated in his mind.

As soon as those words were spoken, it seemed like the drumbeat started to get a little…closer, and just a little bit faster. 1. 2. 3, 4. 1. 2. 3, 4. 1. 2. 3, 4.

Time Lord? The Professor muttered in his mind, feeling himself gulping down a little knot in his throat, not able to feel his own eyes beginning to sting with a loose tear, as if the sudden use of the word in this state made him feel…at home. Like he had finally found something that he had lost for so long. Time Lord?

"We are Time Lords." Another voice spoke in his head, almost distinctly arrogant for just a small moment before it disappeared again.

"Time Lord." Another voice spoke, but this one made him feel…scared. It was deep, one reserved only for a monster, so why did it seem so familiar to him?

The Professor could not tell how long time was truly passing for him in this state. Maybe it was getting faster, or the Professor spent too long listening to the repeating voices and the beating of the loud drums. But after a short moment, in some almost relieving yet damning silence, he heard the Captain's voice float through into his mind. "Last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks."

Daleks?

"Daleks. Our true enemy." The arrogant voice returned for a moment.

"The Daleks are endangering the entire universe." An authoritative female voice spoke, that was both wise…and out of patience.

Daleks?

"You are a Time Lord. You are an enemy of the Daleks!" The deep, booming voice exclaimed in his head, and the Professor flinched a little at the enraged voice.

"For the Doctor's oldest acquaintance, you're…friendship with him is inconsistent." Came another voice. This one seemed like it was a growling man, diabolical yet utterly mad. But Professor Yana found himself growing afraid of that one voice.

There was a part of his mind that was screaming in protest. Something that sounded like, "Don't know where", but the rest of the thought was cut off as the terrifying voice gave a cold, snarling laugh.

"Why are you so afraid? I just want to talk." The voice drawled out, and the Professor flinched with a sharp intake of breath.

Then, in another relieving moment of silence, the Doctor's voice floated back again. "The final act of the Time War was life."

"Time War." Came the booming voice yet again, dripping with anger, and…an almost pleased form of bloodlust.

Time War? The Professor asked in his mind, and then…

"The drums." Came his own voice, distant yet so very close, no more than a whisper, but it sounded so…strange. "The drums." The voice repeated, and the Professor realized that the drums had now picked up in just a little bit more speed. 1. 2, 3, 4. 1. 2, 3 ,4. 1. 2, 3, 4. 1. 2, 3, 4.

"Time War." The arrogant voice returned. "Our species shall ascend, and survive this "Time War"."

"Your friend is the only one that can stop this War." The wise and authoritative female voice whispered.

"Your words are hollow." The snarling, terrifying voice snapped in his mind. "My children are perfectly capable of fighting a race of pompous senators, all afraid of change. With or without me, they will emerge victorious, and I, the proud father that I am…will be so very pleased."

"No!" Came a voice so like his own, but it sounded…younger, and so very afraid. "Don't take me to him!"

"You will become the plaything of the Dark Lord of Skaro now!" The booming voice snapped back.

"This new regeneration." The Captain's voice flooded through again, and it made the Professor give a little shiver, but he did not know why.

Regeneration?

"Regeneration." Captain Jack's voice echoed in his head.

"The Doctor would save me." The voice whispered in a whimpering, pleading tone in his head. "The Doctor would…"

And then, another voice spoke. This one was somehow even more nerve wracking than the growling man. It sounded like someone quite young, but his voice was already cold, full of rage, and indifference. "Doctor no more."

In an instant, Professor Yana gave out a whimpering sob, and the room seemed to race back into focus. All the noises of the machines returned, and the drums subsided, just as he heard two pairs of footsteps moving over to him. "Chan-Professor, what is it-tho?!" Chantho demanded in pure concern, and the Professor found himself blinking, even as he finally felt the river of fresh tears down his cheeks, and he gave a sniff to try to bring himself back to the present.

The first thought on his mind was… "Time travel." Professor Yana gasped out, and it made Chantho and Martha stop with a blink as they glanced at each other. "They say there was time travel back in the old days. I mean, I never believed." The Professor added with a little huff before he shook his head. "But what would I know? Stupid old man." He added in a berating tone with a sniff, sure to see the sad smiles on the young girls faces. "Never could keep time, old me. Always late, always lost. Even this thing never worked." He added, pulling his plain golden pocket watch out before shaking his head and gazing back up into a blurring distance. "Time and time and time again, always running out on me."

The response that came…it rather puzzled the Professor. It was a rather simple question, and it came from Martha. "Can I have a look at that?"

The Professor blinked and looked at her. She flickered her gaze down to the pocket watch, and he just shrugged. "Oh, it's-it's only an old relic." Those ironic words made him blurt out a little chuckle. "Like me." He added. Nevertheless, he held the watch up to Martha's gaze, and for a moment, he thought he saw something flicker in her eyes. Something like…recognition, and maybe…Is that fear? No, it can't be. It's just a-

"Where did you get it?" Martha asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Hmm?" The Professor thought for a moment, and…his eyebrows furrowed a little as he thought it over. "I…I was found with it."

"What do you mean?" Martha asked with a blink.

"An…I was an orphan in the storm. A naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation, abandoned, with only this." He explained, giving a little nod to the watch.

"Have you opened it?" Martha asked, and the Professor shook his head vehemently.

"Why would I?" He returned with a flickered gaze down to the watch. "It's broken."

"How do you know it's broken if you've never opened it?" Martha returned.

Professor Yana put the tips of his fingers along the edge of the watch face and tried his best to tug, to rip it off even, but nothing happened. It just stayed put. "It's stuck." He tried to explain with a sniff. "It's old. It's not meant to be. I…I don't know." He finally said with a shake of his head. Martha, without a word but with a gentle hand, took the watch between two fingers and turned it around so the watch face was looking upwards, no longer sideways. For an instant, her eyes widened in shock before she seemed to restrained them back into control, and it just made the Professor frown at her. "Does it matter?" He asked.

Martha's gaze flickered up to his, and she shook her head. "No, it's fine." She answered, but her words seemed a little too…quick for the Professor to truly believe. But before he could say anything against that, Martha just shook her head again with a smile. "Listen, everything's fine up here. I'm going to see if the Doctor and Clara need me, okay?" But she was already gone before he could give a response or before Chantho could even say something against her reasoning.

Before the Professor could think on it any further, he felt Chantho's hand upon his arm and he looked up at her. "Chan-Yana, would you please take some rest-tho?"

"Yes." He muttered, Chantho barely able to hear it as he nodded slightly. "Yes, of course." He said, and without another word, he moved over to sit on the sofa, and his eyes fixed back onto the watch…before they briefly flickered up to the hand in the jar. The hand of the Doctor.

"Time Lord."

---

"Ha!" The Captain gasped as he pulled the final handle out, twisted it and slammed it down, closing the lid of the connected final coupling with an exclamation of glee. "Yes!"

"Good! Now, get out of there!" Clara ordered, and the Captain raced out of the chamber, threw his other clothes back on as the Doctor grasped onto the wired telephone and pressed a single key on the dial pad.

"Lieutenant, everyone onboard?" He asked.

"Ready and waiting." Was Atillo's response.

"Stand by. One minute to ignition."

"Ready to launch. Outer doors sealed." Atillo reported, and at his words, the Doctor hung up the phone and an automated male voice began to call out through the Silo around them.

"Countdown commencing. T-minus 60, 59."

"Come on, come on." The Doctor muttered as he flittered an ecstatic gaze over to Clara. "Get it all know, eh?"

"Oh yeah." She nodded as she, the Doctor and Captain Jack all raced around the control room, inputting various codes and flicking switches and levers and pressing buttons, all but Clara barely noticing Martha sprinting into the room. "Martha!" Clara beamed in greeting. "Nearly there! You see, the footprint is really a gravity pulse! When it stamps down, the rocket will shoot up!"

"It's a bit primitive!" The Doctor inputted with an echoing grin. "But it's inventive! However it will take all of us here to keep it stable!"

A little beeping alarm started to screech, but Martha, a look of anxious fear on her face, slammed it off before she turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, it's the Professor." She said, and before the Doctor could ask, Martha carried on in her nervous, trembling ramble. "He's got this watch. He's got a fob watch. It's the same as yours. Same writing on it, same…everything." Martha finished, and when she stopped speaking everyone looked at her. The Captain in puzzlement, Clara in wide eyed bewilderment, and the Doctor in disbelief…and fear.

"Don't be ridiculous." The Doctor whispered out in a little tremble, but Martha just shook her head.

"I asked him. He said, he's had it his whole life."

"So?" Captain Jack called. "He's got the same watch. Who gives?"

"It's not just a watch, Jack." Martha bit back. "It's this…chameleon thing."

"No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor interrupted with a fervent shake of his head. "This-this-this-this thing, this device, it rewrites biology. Changes a Time Lord into a Human."

Those words made Captain Jack stop, and he too looked at Martha with eye widening astonishment. "You're absolutely certain?" Clara asked. "It's the same watch?"

Martha nodded, and the Doctor gave a little trembling, snarling groan. "Can't be." He muttered. For a brief moment they were interrupted as a loud alarm started to blare through the room, forcing the Doctor and Clara back into action as Martha watched, her gaze flickering between all three of them.

"That means he could be a Time Lord." Captain Jack said, barely heard over the alarm. "You might not be the last one, Doctor!"

"Jack, keep it level!" Clara called back.

"But…that's brilliant, isn't it?" Martha asked with blinking eyes.

"Yeah-yes, it is, of course it is." The Doctor responded with a little stutter. "Brilliant, fantastic, yeah. But he can't be! They died, the Time Lords, all of them, they died!"

"Not if he was a Human." Clara muttered out, sharing a glance with the Captain, but everyone heard her.

"What did he say, Martha?" The Doctor asked, but when Martha did not respond at once, he moved over straight into her face and screamed, "What did he say?!"

Martha, for a brief moment, just like Clara and the Captain, found herself speechless at his outburst, before in a muttering voice, she answered, "He looked at the watch like he could barely see it, like that perception filter…thing."

"What about now?" The Doctor retorted with a trembling breath. "Can he see it now?"

---

The Professor's eyes never tore away from the golden watch as he sat, the whispering voices back as the room drowned out into silence. A silence filled only by the four drums, but now, they had picked up a new speed, and sounded so very close. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

"The TARDIS. The Time Vortex." The Doctor's voice repeated in his mind.

"Regeneration." Came the Captain's for a small second, echoing off until it was gone.

"The drums." Came his own voice in his head. "The drums, the drums."

"The drums." Professor Yana muttered to himself in a whisper, so low that Chantho could not hear. "The drums." For a small second, he heard a man laughing in his head, it's tone pleased and silken smooth. Suddenly, he felt…calm, and ecstatic, and pleased, and…angry. So very angry.

"Time lords." The terrifying, growling voice returned. "No matter how many times you change, your arrogance will remain forever steadfast, and yours you mask in the veil of madness, and fear."

"No." Came his own voice in his head, full of such rage that the Professor almost felt his hands beginning to shake as his finger started to stroke the tiny button, which with one press would open the watch. "The drums. The never-ending drumbeat. Open me you Human fool. Open the light and summon me and receive my majesty."

Majesty? Majesty. The Professor wondered. What kind of majesty? For a second, his eyes flickered up to the Doctor's hand, and as if hypnotized, his gaze remained on the hand in the bubbling liquid, and the voices from the watch intensified in his mind.

"For old times' sake, release me, Doctor. Release me." Came the silken smooth voice so close from the watch that it was almost flowing through Professor Yana's ear.

"I never liked this planet, Doctor." Another voice in a different accent spat in venomous hatred in his mind.

"Destroy him, and you will give your power to me!" Came another voice, echoing as if in a large cavern, before it faded away, and Professor Yana felt his jaw set into a grim, all of his thought and focus now back onto the watch, not even remembering his dear friend Chantho, who was still in the same room.

---

"13. 12. 11. 10." The computer continued to announce, the Captain and Martha watching with barely contained agitation as the Doctor and Clara quickly grabbed two keys and inserted them into two separate keyholes in the panel wall.

"If he escaped the Time War, then this is the perfect place to hide. The end of the universe." Captain Jack inputted, but the Doctor or Clara gave no response to his comment. Instead, it was Martha, her eyebrows furrowed in memory.

"Think what the Face of Boe said, his dying words." Martha inputted, and her eyes slowly widened. ""You are not alone". "Yana". He was meaning-"

"2. 1." Martha was cut off by the computer, watching as the Doctor and Clara turned the keys and the rocket fired into life. The control shook and trembled around them from the force of the liftoff, and the coupling chamber filled up with a tremendous light that forced them all to turn away, their ears pounding and protesting from the noise of the rocket engines. But in a small moment, the Doctor and Clara exchanged a glance. They had heard Martha's last words, and it had clicked in their minds. Yana was an acronym. Then, to Clara's shock, the Doctor's eyes widened in horrifying realization as his Time Lord instincts kicked in. He could sense it. Barely, for his senses were untrained and poorly maintained throughout his long life, but he could feel it. There was now two Time Lords on this planet, and they did not need to speak aloud as to who the other was. The only question left with the Doctor was who exactly was this Time Lord? Was he friend…or worse?

Once the rocket had flown far enough away that the noise had quietened into silence and the rumbling of the room ceased into a calm stillness, Clara immediately took the phone and dialed the last number. "Lieutenant, have you done it? Have you achieved velocity?" There was static for a moment, and she had to take a shuddering breath to calm herself. "Lieutenant, have you done it?!"

The static came to a stop, and Clara held back a small sigh of relief. "Affirmative. We will see you in Utopia."

"Good luck." Clara responded before hanging up. But before anybody could move, the door to the control room slammed shut and the lock clicked into place, everyone throwing their bodies against it as the Doctor and Clara whipped out their sonics to open the door, whilst the Captain busied himself on the door's control panel.

"Get it open!" The Doctor ordered in a voice of fear and agitation. "Get it open!"

---

The old man did not even feel or hear the rocket lifting off from the dead planet's surface. Nor did he see Chantho's smile of awe filled relief at the sound. Instead, he had found himself no longer sitting on the sofa, now standing in front of the large blue box, the watch held up in his hands as he gazed down at it. Without another wasted second, he pressed the top button and the watch flicked open. The life of Professor Yana was washed away in the flood of golden Time Lord energy. His form instantly turned from the bumbling old man into something…new, and yet equally old. And his name…ugh, the man suddenly felt like screaming in frustration. He could almost put his finger on it, but it was not enough. Without another thought the man's conscious dived into the deep pit of his memories, all acquired from the hundreds of years of his long life…or is it lives? A part of him asked as his eyes drifted up and he saw one of his memories projected into his vision. He no longer saw the large blue box in front of him, but instead, he saw a large and expansive room, impressive in look, gothic in inspiration, with a button and lever covered console dead in the center. On the other side stood a man of Asian descent, who moved to stand beside a metal pillar and knocked one of his hands against its side. The control panel in response flickered and flared into life, and he heard himself give out a breath of almost impressed recognition.

"Well, I never." The old voice spoke, in a strange accent, the name that man could not put his finger on. But he distinctly remembered being dressed in black and wearing black gloves with large black shades over his…changed eyes. "The TARDIS really likes you."

TARDIS! A part of him screamed in relieved recognition. That's the name of the old blue box. But who was the pilot? I know him, more than anyone, but what is his name, or should I say…the name he chose?

With that thought, he dived out of that memory and straight into the arms of another, finding himself smartly dressed yet trapped within a horrific mess of a cell, staring into two pairs of eyes. One he could not recognize but the other…it was the small man, the one with the umbrella. Then, he heard himself speak, the form with the silken smooth tone, but now it was of pleading, begging even. "I implore you, it's time for a truce. Let's make a pact. They have me, but it was only a game, an intellectual challenge! I played fair! I never tampered with the rules!" Then, he felt himself give out a little sigh before pressing his face against the bars of the cell, looking up into the short man's eyes. "For old times' sake, release me, Doctor."

Doctor? Doctor. That's right. I do wonder…what form is he on now? But…what is my name, or rather…what is the name I chose?

For the last time, the man leapt out of the memory and straight into another one. In this memory, he saw a carpark, in the sun, and a man was standing in front of him, largely stocked with a hat on his head and a cigar in his mouth. He also felt like he was clad once again in full black with matching gloves, but his eyes carried no shades. "Who the heck are you?" The man asked through the mouthful of the cigar. "Well?"

"I am usually referred to as-"

"Chan-Professor Yana-tho?"

The man felt himself wanting to snarl at the unwanted interruption of his memory, feeling himself getting pulled out of his expansive mind and back into his natural body, his eyes staring up at the doors of the TARDIS. Turning around, he saw the…bug creature, and found himself furrowing his eyebrows as his eyes squinted in accusation at the girl. She knew about the watch, and she did nothing. Well… In that instant, the memories of Professor Yana's life properly restored themselves into his mind. Everything all up to this Silo, the rocket to…"Utopia", and…the Kind. Well then, if she denied me my return to glory, then she shall be punished. Without a word, the man moved straight across the room to the control panel for the Silo's defenses and pulled a lever, one he knew that would momentarily trap the crew of the TARDIS inside the control room, the delayed time necessary for him to regain all of his bearings.

"Chan-but you've locked them in-tho!" Chantho blurted out in terrified shock, but the man just gave a smug smile at her, even as it trembled with all the rage he felt against the little creature.

"Not to worry, my dear." He retorted in a tone that blended smooth silk with forceful bluntness. "As one door closes, another must open." Then, he grasped the large black lever at the top and lifted it, allowing the outer defenses to fall. He could almost picture the animals outside growling in surprised glee, just before they would sprint forth towards the Silo's entrance.

"Chan-but you must stop-tho!" Chantho tried to protest, but the man brushed her aside with a growl as he continued to switch off every form of defense, the lights in the room growing dimmer, most of the computers switching off as he did so. "Chan-but you've lowered the defenses! The Futurekind will get in-tho!"

I will kill you, girl, if you continue your little "Chan"s and "Tho"s, I swear it! He promised, moving over to the far side of the panel, aimlessly switching off every button on his relentless path. Now, what is my name?! Sending his mind back into the interrupted memory, he felt himself jumping out of a large vehicle, NO, TARDIS, before slamming the door shut as he began to walk across the carpark, before being interrupted by the voice of the stocky man with the cigar.

"Who the heck are you?" The man demanded, and he turned around to look at him with squinting eyes. "Well?" He reiterated.

The fist of his old self clenched in irritation before he just took a small breath, the ghost of a proud smile crossing over his face. "I am usually referred to as "The Master"."

"Is that so?" The man retorted, taking a step forward to stand before him.

"Universally."

For a moment, the man found himself pausing as he sighed in relief, cutting the memory of as he repeated his chosen name in his mind. The Master. It has been too long since I have said it.

"Chan-Professor-tho?" Chantho's meek voice called, and the Master barely retained the urge to snarl at her interruption, moving back to deactivating the defenses as fast as he could. "Chan-I'm so sorry, but I must stop you-tho." The Master blurted out a laugh at her audacity, giving her a brief glance before…he paused and turned back, now registering the gun in her hand, pointed straight at him. "Chan-you're destroying all our work-tho."

For a second, the Master spotted the crackling, exposed cable on the floor, but one part of it was draped over a nearby computer, and his hand discreetly took a hold of it. No, she won't fire. Her hand is trembling, no, shaking. Her fear is too strong. "Oh." The Master breathed out before a small smile of pleasure crossed his face as he began to draw the cable up from the ground. "Now I can say…I was provoked." The Master snarled, his right hand gripping the end of the cable, pointing the crackling wires at Chantho, and the girl gave out a cry of terror, taking two steps back as her blue face was bathed in the flickering yellow light. The Master began his slow, calculated advance on her, even as all the rage he had in his two hearts started to flare up into a blood lusting scowl on his face. "Did you never think, all those years standing beside me, to ask about that watch? Never?" He asked, but Chantho failed to answer, and it only irritated him all the more. "Did you never once think, not ever, that you could have set me free?"

"Chan-I'm sorry-tho!" She cried in a whimper, and he restrained the urge to roll his eyes at her. "Chan-I'm so sorry-tho!"

"You, with your "Chan" and your "Tho" is driving me insane!" The Master spat out and it made her flinch back another step.

"Chan-Professor, please-"

"That is not my name!" He interrupted in an exclamation of pure, venomous rage, and it silenced the creature. The rage on his face quickly turned into a cold smile as he continued his stalking advance on her. "The "Professor"…was an invention." He said, using to his full potential his silken smooth tone, and watched with pleasure as the cold, terrifying realization seemed to drown itself through the girl's mind, making her freeze on the spot. "So perfect a disguise, that I had forgot who I am."

Chantho blinked, and she completely forgot that she was standing still for far too long as her grip on the gun slackened just enough. "Chan-then who are you-tho?"

The smile stretched into a grin, and as if wanting to share a deep, dark secret, he whispered it just loud enough for her to hear. "I…am…the Master." And without warning the girl, he shoved the cable straight into her face, watching with relived delight as she screamed and cried at the electrical onslaught before collapsing to the ground, and the Master tossed the cable away contemptuously. Without a backwards glance, he moved over to the laboratory door, just able to hear the distant yelling of the TARDIS trio and the onrushing horde of the Futurekind, before he closed and locked the door. Then, he crossed over to the Gravitational Field Navigation System, pressed a single code and took out the co-ordinate map that the screen was displaying, which shut off as he took out the transparent green wired card. "Utopia." The Master spat in amused condensation, before he thrust it into his pocket and moved over to the table, his eyes fixed upon the Doctor's hand. As he reached his own hand out to caress the jar in a faint gesture of welcoming comfort, the Master heard four bodies slam against the laboratory door, but one voice managed to waft through amidst the screaming and crying from the Kind.

"Professor!" The Doctor's voice called, and in any other moment, the Master would have smiled in delight at the voice of his…Friend? Enemy? Frenemy? But for right now, the Master's rage had overrun his mind, and, admittedly, a tiny amount of fear. "Professor, let us in! Let us in!"

"Us"? The Master questioned for a moment before remembering the other one. The woman. Clara. I wonder…who are you?

"Professor, Professor, where are you?!" The Doctor screamed in terror.

"Doctor no more." That dreaded voice spoke in his mind, and the Master shook it off.

No! That is not the Doctor! Ignoring the voice, he took the jar off the table and carried it into the TARDIS. In an instant, he felt the air of the…odd looking room change into scorn, disdain, and distrust. And that was putting it lightly. The Master ignored it, moving over to the console and placing the jar down, before taking the large cable that had been inserted into the console and unhooking it, drawing it out and out before tossing it back onto the laboratory floor, his eyes darting up to see the gun in Chantho's hand-What? The Master thought, seeing her weak form glaring a deadly fire up at him, and before he could move, she pulled the trigger. A beam of light blue energy shot out and impacted onto his body, doing no outward damage, but on the inside, he felt all of his organs beginning to rapidly shut down, one of his hearts bursting into pieces of crimson, and it took all the Master had in him to not scream in agony, only restraining it to a cry of pain. Just as he found himself stumbling back into the TARDIS doorway, one of his hands clutching onto the right door for support, he heard the laboratory door slide open and two figures rushed inside, before coming to a dead stop. He looked up, and saw…Oh, hello, old friend. He found himself unable to stop the small smile at the sight, and even blinked at the woman standing beside him. Clara Oswald. Who are you? He wondered for a brief moment, watching as they stared at him in wide eyed agitation. And is that fear? Then, he saw their limbs beginning to twitch, and without another doubtful thought, he slammed the TARDIS doors shut and locked them together, just as he heard the two bodies slam up against the doors exterior face. He had just a few seconds to grasp onto the railing and heave himself up over to the console, almost able to hear the Doctor, or was it Clara, trying to unlock the door with a key. Or that little toy of his. Once he reached the console with gasping breaths of pain, his left-hand clutching at his chest for some vain form of comfort, he flicked a single switch that activated the deadlock seal. "And locked." He gasped out, watching in relief as the golden regeneration energy started to glow from within his own hand, and looking down, he saw his other hand echoing the same energy. There was a small moment where he managed to enter the period of regeneration grace, removing the pain just for a moment so he could stand upright, his back facing the console and his front facing the doors, before the grace period ended, and the pain quickly returned, yet he kept himself upright, his jaw and fists trembling as he tried his best to channel all the pain in his body back into his venomous rage, which could distract his mind for just enough time. "Killed by an insect. A girl. How inappropriate." He spat out, having to hold back a grunt as he continued. "Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, then so can I." With a deep breath, he let his expression of pain relax into a smile as he declared this form's last words aloud. "The Master reborn." Then, his arms shot out and the regeneration energy surged through his body, and it became too much. The pain of the blaster shot, and the pain of the change, the bones shifted into a brand-new form, it made the Master let out a bloodcurdling scream, the pain overwhelming his mind before in an instant, it was over.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Darkness.

A form shifting on metal.

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

A memory of an old man, trapped against a grandfather clock. Then, a deformed creature was merging into his body, and in the blink of an eye, the old man was younger, his white hair and beard shorter and the color of a raven. Then, he spoke his first words aloud in gleeful triumph. "A new body, at last."

"A new body." The same voice repeated in an echo around the man. "A new body."

1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Then, he awoke. The Master's eyes slowly opened, and he was staring up at the ceiling of the Doctor's TARDIS, his vision blurred from the impact of his head against the floor. He could hear and feel the old ship pulsing with the mechanical, whirring breath around him, but other than his own breathing, there was only silence. Except for…with a sniff, the Master placed his hand on top of the jar containing the Doctor's hand and heaved himself up off the floor, clicking his back with a small groan. Then, his head gave a little jolt of whiplash, and the Master gave out a long exhale of golden regeneration energy, the wisp floating in the air in front of his own eyes before it faded away. In that moment, the Master finally took a look around the entire console room. Coral. Unkempt. But so very familiar. Oh yes! He realized, finally letting it sink in. It's his TARDIS! The Doctor's TARDIS! The thought seemed to wash away the post regeneration ache, at least for now, and he gave out a gleeful, maddening laugh, dashing around the console as if Christmas had come early, before he realized that the Doctor would still be here, still outside. With a blink, the Master found the button that would activate the microphone to the outside and slammed his hand against it. "Now then, Doctor!" The Master called before pausing. "Oh, new voice." He realized, pinching two fingers against his throat. Younger. Male. I might even be taller, and a bit thinner. Then, his hands went to his hair, and found it was just a bit shorter than his last form. Is it? A part of him asked. It feels thicker, yet shorter. Or is it longer, but thinner- "Anyway." He quickly said, refocusing his mind. Now wasn't the time to try out his new self. He would do that later. "Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me?" He asked, not entirely surprised by the bitter anger that still lay in his voice as he shook his head with a smile. I don't think I've had this much fun in so very long.

"I'm asking you, really, properly, just stop! Just think!" The Doctor retorted back.

Is he begging? The Master thought with a touch of puzzlement. Nah, he's just lying. If I step out there right now, he would take me straight back to Gallifrey, to await trial by Lord President Romana. Or…was it Lady President, or was it…no, I'm pretty sure Rassilon was the Lord Presi-

Shut up! Another part, a gleefully mad part of him snapped back, and his mind returned to the moment. If…that man is going to be begging whilst using the Doctor's name, then I might as well make him do it properly. "Use my name." The Master ordered.

"Master…I'm sorry." The Doctor's voice came back after a small moment of silence.

HAHAHAHAHA! The Master laughed in his mind at the hilarity of it, not believing it for a second. "Tough!" He snapped back, and he began to dash around the TARDIS, faster than he had ever run before, flicking switches and levers and he started the liftoff sequence. Got to get out of here. Got to run. A part of his mind was singing before, just for a moment, the console began to spark, and the ship gave a rumble at…something. "Oh no, you don't!" The Master snarled, knowing who was responsible, and maybe what he was doing, but his mind was dashing about too fast for him to care. As he got the ship back on course, he paused his relentless pace and gave a mocking wave and a grin to the doors of the ship. "End of the universe! Have fun! Bye bye!" Then, after slamming the exterior microphone button again, he continued in his relentless pace around the console before drawing the monitor over to check the destination. Let's see, we could go to…oh. He realized as his mind, in a rare action, slowed down to a calm crawl, recognizing the space-time coordinates as…Earth. Specifically, London, 2008. In that moment, his smile returned, but this time it was…relieved pleasure. Well then, Doctor, knowing you, I shall be seeing you again very soon indeed.

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AN: Heeeeeeeyyyyyyy, here he is. XD Now things are about to get a little bit more…interesting to say the least. Anyway, as always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you wish. :)