Back in the courtroom, the Inquisitor was pacing agitatedly up and down, trying to ignore the amused look of the Master on the Matrix screen and the worried stares of the jury.
"My lady, you must compose yourself," insisted one juror. "We must maintain a certain decorum and dignity."
"Blast decorum and dignity!" bellowed the Inquisitor furiously. "We have intruders running around the Matrix causing who knows how much havoc! The case prosecutor has proven to be a renegade and this whole trial has been made a shambles. The situation cannot possibly get worse!"
"Ah, but that is where you are mistaken, madam," grinned the Master on the screen. "For you, the situation is about to get considerably more distressing."
The side-doors to the courtroom suddenly swung open and Maxil, commander of the Chancellery Guard, strode in. A humourless and zealous man, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the Doctor's current incarnation, due to a coincidence in regeneration, though the commander's personality was a complete contrast to the Doctor as Maxil was overly obedient to the letter of the law and could be extremely ruthless when necessary. However, in this moment, his normally calm expression had given way to one of considerable alarm.
"My lady, we've just received an urgent message from Arcadia. The High Council has been deposed and placed under close arrest."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed the Inquisitor.
Maxil nodded solemnly. "It seems that footage from this trial has been leaked to every Time Lord citizen in every city, specifically that referring to the High Council's actions against Earth. The people are protesting at this injustice and insurrectionists are now running amok on Gallifrey!"
"Thank you, Commander, that is the news I'd been awaiting," said the Master, satisfied that the leak he had arranged had succeeded in causing the mayhem he had wanted. "Listen carefully, all of you. I have an edict to deliver. Somewhere the Valeyard and the Doctor are engaged in their squalid duel. With luck, they'll kill each other, but that is a mere coincidental occurrence. What I have to impart is of vital importance to all of you. Now that Gallifrey is collapsing into chaos, none of you will be needed. Your office will be abolished. Only I can impose order." To make the point, he held up the Matrix box before the horrified members of the court. "I have control of the Matrix. To disregard my commands will be to invite summary execution."
The Inquisitor and the rest of the court members could not believe their ears. Anarchy had descended on Gallifrey and now this loathsome renegade was in a position to seize complete control of the Time Lords. Things had indeed gotten worse. Unimaginably so...
"Now that you've purged that from your system, can we get on? Load the cassette," said Glitz impatiently, leaning against the console of the Master's TARDIS, as the evil Time Lord began connecting the Matrix memory bank into the main controls. Such a contemptuous remark would normally have meant death for Glitz, but so good was the Master's mood, he simply gave Glitz an amused expression regarding the conman's small-mindedness.
"You really are the archetypal philistine," the Master chuckled as he finished plugging the data bank into the console. "Moments such as this should be savoured."
He flicked a switch on the console, activating the data box. Suddenly, the two men found themselves flung back against the walls of the control room by a powerful forcefield and the air started to shimmer as powerful waves of energy began to emanate from the box right into the control room.
"Wha? What's happening?" Glitz managed to splutter, finding himself unable to move as his speech becoming more slurred by the second.
The Master realised in shock what was going on. "A booby-trap," he managed to say. "The device is generating a time bubble, freezing us in time!"
No sooner did the Master manage to force out these words, than he and Glitz became as still as statues, unable to move at all as the time bubble expanded through the whole ship, freezing it in a single micro-second of time. The two criminals were trapped in limbo, condemned to perpetual imprisonment within the Matrix.
Once again, the Master had been outwitted by the Valeyard...
Back in the chamber of the Time Vent, the Doctor was tinkering like mad with the circuits of the particle disseminator, trying to find some way to shut it down before it could deal out its deadly energies into the courtroom. But so far he had no luck, as he kept coming against various failsafes to ensure that the mechanism remained operational. No sooner did he shut down one circuit, another would switch on to take its place.
"You are elevating futility to a high art," mocked the Valeyard as he watched the Doctor's seemingly fruitless efforts with amusement. "There's nothing you can do to save those monotonous law-abiding fools."
But the Doctor remained undeterred in his labours. "If you could compile this monstrosity, it follows that I should be able to unravel it," he said steadfastly.
The Doctor returned to his fiddling and there was a display of sparks as he managed to short-circuit one of the weapon's components. But as he continued with his attempts, he was unaware that the Valeyard was carefully and discretely flexing his wrists, gradually loosening the ropes keeping him prisoner...
Having just witnessed the Master's defeat and imprisonment on the Matrix screen, the relieved members of the court had just started discussing plans about returning to Gallifrey in order to help restore order, when the main doors burst opened and Peri and Mel charged breathlessly in.
"Disconnect the Matrix!" shouted Mel imperatively.
The Inquisitor was taken aback by this unsubtle entrance. "We cannot switch off without the Keeper, and he's not present."
"Then get out of here, quickly. Your lives depend on it!" cried out Peri in earnest. Such was the distress in her voice, that the jurors jumped out of their seats and hastily made their way to the doors.
Suddenly, the Matrix screen exploded and through the smoking hole, deadly waves of charged particles began to flood in, shaped like triangular snowflakes that glowed an intense blue. One unlucky Time Lord got struck by one such molecule and with a short scream of abject terror, he was instantly disintegrated.
"Oh no, we're too late!" said Mel despairingly as everyone ducked their heads, frightfully trying to avoid meeting the same horrible fate as the ill-fated juror.
Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the lethal ions began to move away from the court members and fly back from whence they came. Everyone looked on in amazement as the last energy bolt disappeared through the gaping hole left in the Matrix screen.
"What... what happened?" stammered one Time Lord in relief.
Peri grinned. "The Doctor happened."
"Eureka! And you said it couldn't be immobilised," said the Doctor in triumph. Just a few seconds ago, he had finished rewiring the particle disseminator, and upon throwing a switch, caused the whole contraption to burst into flames.
The Valeyard began to look worried. "What have you done?" he demanded.
The Doctor looked smug. "I induced an anti-phase signal into the telemetry unit. The whole system should self-destruct."
"You blundering imbecile!" roared the Valeyard. "You triggered a ray phase shift! All that virulent energy will be drawn away from the courtroom and back into here!"
Before the Doctor knew what was happening, the Valeyard finally wrenched himself free of his bonds, grabbed hold of the Doctor and threw him over the railing, causing him to land right next to the open time vent. More dazed than hurt, the Doctor saw the Valeyard dash over to the disseminator machine, just as the glowing triangular particles began flooding through the machine into the chamber.
"No, it's too late!" hollered the Valeyard as he watched all his hard work come apart. Filled with insane rage, he charged at the Doctor and grabbed him, shoving him towards the edge of the time vent.
"Don't be a fool!" protested the Doctor as he fought to keep his balance. But the Valeyard, consumed with hatred, was beyond all reason now.
"You have ruined all my plans. But if I'm to die, than so must you!"
Arms locked in mortal combat, the two Time Lords tethered perilously on the threshold of the vent. For one ghastly second, they hung there, then with a final effort, the Valeyard threw all his might on the Doctor and they tumbled right over the brink and into the open mouth of the vent!