Peri glowered angrily at the jurists. "You're just a load of big phonies, aren't you? You're supposed to be upholding the law, yet you're happy to stand by and let the Doctor get murdered!"
"We cannot interfere," reaffirmed the Inquisitor impassively.
"Well I can," said Mel fiercely before she began to dash for the door. The Keeper moved to trip her up as he did with Peri earlier, only to yelp in pain as Peri ran forward and stamped down hard on his foot, before snatching the Key of Rassilon from around his shoulders. Before anyone could stop them, the two girls had darted out of the courtroom and straight across the reception area to the stained-glass door set in the wall. Hurriedly, Peri inserted the key into the access panel and as the door began to slid open, the two girls leapt into the brilliant white light of the Matrix. Seconds later, they found themselves being deposited in the same alleyway where the Doctor and Glitz had first arrived.
"Okay, now we're here, where do we start looking?" asked Peri frantically as she took in their gloomy surroundings.
Keeping her eyes and ears open, Mel became aware of the faint sound of horse hooves clip-clopping down the street. "Let's try down there," she said decisively and they both ran past the dingy buildings towards the source of the sound. Reaching the end of the street, they were just in time to see a large horse-driven wooden tumbril go past them, with the Doctor standing passively on the top, flanked on either side by guards.
"Doctor!" Peri cried out, but the Doctor made no indication that he heard her as the death cart turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Aghast, Peri and Mel ran breathlessly after the cart.
The cart's death march continued on until it finally drew to a halt in the the main courtyard, right next to a large scaffold, upon which was a large guillotine. It was a fairly primitive, but nonetheless effective, form of execution, with the sharp end of its cruel blade glinting in the light of the gas lamps, ready to spill the blood of a Time Lord. Preparing to disembark from the cart and meet his fate, the Doctor cast a final reflective look about the darkened vicinity of the Fantasy Factory.
"It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done," he mused. "It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
At that very moment, Peri and Mel suddenly came running into the courtyard, practically sprinting over to the cart.
"Never mind the big Hollywood heroics," gasped Peri. "You're not finished yet, Doctor!"
"Go away, the pair of you, go away!" hissed the Doctor urgently, his eyes darting back and forth nervously.
"That trial was an illusion!" exclaimed Mel.
The very moment Mel had blurted this out, the guards, the scaffold and the death cart all blinked out of existence! For a comic second, the Doctor hung in midair, before falling to the cobbled ground in a most unseemly heap.
"Ow! You've ruined everything!" grumbled the Doctor as he scrambled to his feet.
"Hey, we've just saved your bacon," said Peri, feeling a little stung by the Doctor's ingratitude.
"All you two've done is keep me from a confrontation with the Valeyard!" sighed the Doctor.
Mel was puzzled. "But you were on your way to..."
"To an execution block as a result of a bogus trial and my noble act of self-sacrifice," completed the Doctor irritably.
"You mean you knew that trial was an illusion?" gaped Peri. "You were just playing along the whole time?"
"Precisely," confirmed the Doctor.
"But how did you know in the first place?" asked Mel.
"Because of you, Mel," explained the Doctor rather loudly. "In your evidence you testified you'd heard me deny the charge of genocide, but you weren't even there. You hadn't been inside the courtroom at that time. And with your extraordinary ability of total recall, you wouldn't have made such an elementary mistake." He turned his attention upwards to the night sky and raised the volume of his voice, in order for his unseen opponent to hear him quite clearly. "The Valeyard overestimates his own cleverness. Like all megalomaniacs, he is consumed with his own vanity!"
The Doctor gave a satisfied sigh and began to make his way to the Factory entrance. "There, that should inflame his bloated ego. Come on."
"Hang on, where are we off to now?" asked Peri.
"To find Mister J.J. Chambers," replied the Doctor as he bounded purposely up the balcony stairs with his two companions in tow, unaware that at that very moment, sinister eyes were watching them...
Inside the comfort of his TARDIS, the Master had been watching the Doctor's near 'execution' on the scanner screen with considerable amusement and he gave a satisfied smile as he watched his arch rival enter the Fantasy Factory, closely followed by Peri and Mel.
"Excellent, everything is proceeding exactly as I calculated it would," said the Master. He turned to Glitz. "I want you to rejoin the Doctor and lead him to the Valeyard."
"No chance!" scoffed Glitz. "You don't catch me going near no more quill pens again. I'm just going to stay here till I can... get back to my own kind... and some... honest... thieving..."
But Glitz's protest trailed off as his eyes became transfixed by the small shiny jewel that the Master had thrust in front of his face. Glitz's mesmerized eyes followed the movement of the jewel as it began to swing back and forth on its thin cord in a captivating manner.
"Splendid, splendid," said the Master, believing that Glitz was now completely under his hypnotic control. "Listen to me. Are you listening, Sabalom Glitz?"
"Not really. I was just wondering how many grotzits this little bauble cost you," admitted Glitz as he greedily snatched the jewel from the Master's hand. Exasperated, the Master crossed to the control console and pulled out a large old-fashioned chest from underneath.
"Perhaps this will appeal to your crass soul," he said dryly as he opened the lid of the chest to reveal a veritable treasure trove of gold, diamonds, rubies and all other forms of valuable stones and metals! Now Glitz really was mesmerised as he drank in the glittering contents of the chest.
"Oh, truly a wondrous sight for a connoisseur such as myself," he said with a greedy smile as he knelt down and began to run his hands over the treasure before him. "There isn't a living creature in the universe I couldn't bribe with this little lot."
"Yours, if you follow my orders," stated the Master as he then slammed down the lid of the chest, just narrowly missing Glitz's fingers!