Author's Note:

Hello! **waves** Not sure whether anyone ever actually reads these author's notes, but here I go anyway, just on the off-chance (there will be an exam later, by the way!)

Thanks to everybody who sent me birthday wishes, very kind of you all :) Also, thanks very much for all those who told me that I'm not rushing things or updating too fast, that is a big relief.

To Guest: Thanks for the review – yep, the Master has not really changed all that much, except that he has now added Tejana to the list of the things he wants. And he can't see why he can't own the Universe and her as well :)

To sailormajinmoon: Thanks for telling me how much you love to read my stories – I always love to get your reviews XXX

To Geraldine: Thanks for the birthday wishes, very glad you liked it!

To silentnight: Great to get your review and it's good to know my updating speed suits you OK! :)

To beautifulspace: You have no idea what a buzz it gives me when I get a new reviewer on this story, since they tend to be few and far between at this late stage in the series. So thanks so much for stopping by to give me some feedback, much appreciated!

WARNINGS: OK, **BIG** warning this time. This story has been busting to be an M-rated story from the very first moment I began it and I have finally given in and just changed the rating. So everyone please note, this is no longer T-rated, but is now M-rated and this chapter reflects that, with some relatively explicit sexual content (well, explicit for me, anyway). So, if that's likely to bother you, best if you don't read it, OK, because I would hate to offend anyone.

That being said, I hope everyone still manages to enjoy it **fingers crossed**!

- Chapter Sixteen -

"This is my timey-wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff. Also, it can boil an egg at 30 paces, whether you want it to or not, actually, so I've learned to stay away from hens. It's not pretty when they blow."

- The Tenth Doctor, Blink

"Wow, you're incredible, you know that?" Theta exclaimed, staring at the small device on the work-bench in unfeigned delight. "So simple and yet so perfect. Why on Gallifrey has no-one ever done this before?"

Drax straightened up and removed the magnifying ocular from his eye. "Probably because no-one's ever had any need for it. You're the first one to ever think of the concept."

The two of them were standing in one of the laboratories set aside for student experiments and scientific exploration. The table in front of them was littered with a variety of tools and materials, while all around them, other equally untidy work-benches held the odds and ends associated with a dozen different half-completed experiments. Currently, however, they were the only ones in the room, since everyone else had promptly headed off to the Refectory in response to the dinner bell.

"Yeah, but I could never have built it without you," Theta said, his voice full of honest admiration. "It's amazing."

Drax gave a modest little shrug. He had many failings, but an over-inflated ego wasn't one of them. He had never been particularly good at accepting compliments, even from his friends. "It's nothing, really. I'll show you how to do it if you want."

"Absolutely! That would be great! You never know when it might come in handy!" Theta agreed enthusiastically. "Have you decided what to call it?"

"Well, officially, I suppose it's a 'Rhondium Sensor', since it detects a build up of rhondium particles." Drax's face lit up in an impish grin, his eyes sparkling with laughter. "But I prefer to call it a 'timey-wimey' detector."

Accustomed to his friend's endearing brand of idiocy, Theta couldn't help grinning back. Drax was very rarely serious about anything, which was probably why he failed so many of his classes, despite his undeniable brilliance. "Timey-wimey?"

"Yeah, you know, when things are temporally out of whack."

"Timey-wimey," Theta echoed in amusement. The nonsensical phrase was typical of Drax, but he had to admit, it definitely had a ring to it. "I like it. Right, a timey-wimey detector it is! So how exactly does it work?"

Drax lifted the complex little device and set it on the palm of his hand. "Basically, it goes 'ding' when there's stuff," he answered. "Any kind of impending temporal disturbance or fissure."

"Seems straightforward enough," Theta said, stretching out his hand to take it.

Unexpectedly, however, Drax held it out of his reach. "So, when are you going to tell me what this is really about, Thete?"

"I...er...don't know what you mean," Theta replied, taken by surprise. Drax normally bumbled his way so cheerfully and obliviously through life, he hadn't expected him to ask any questions at all. It was one of the reasons why asking the other young Time Lord for some technical assistance had seemed like such a good idea.

"Oh, come on! You ask me to help you build an early-warning device that can detect cracks in the space-time continuum before they happen, and you don't think I'll wonder what you're up to?" Drax scoffed. "There's no way you'll ever find a temporal disturbance like that on Gallifrey. So this has to be part of some kind of prank you and Kos are cooking up, right?"

Theta shook his head in denial. It wasn't that he didn't trust Drax, but it wasn't his secret to share. Kat had seemed so utterly terrified of getting into trouble over her discovery of the crack and, whatever happened, he didn't want to lose her trust. For some reason, which he hadn't yet been able to identify, that was extremely important to him. He still wasn't sure why he felt so protective towards the tiny Shabogan servant girl, but he did, and unless it became totally necessary to tell anyone else about the cracks appearing on Gallifrey, he intended to stick to his promise to keep it to himself. So much so, in fact, that he hadn't even told Koschei, the best friend he usually shared absolutely everything with. Under those circumstances, he was hardly going to blurt the whole thing out to Drax, even if the other boy had helped him more than he would ever know.

"No, it's nothing to do with Koschei, I promise," he assured him. "And it's not a prank. It's just something I want to do for...um...for extra credit in Borusa's class."

"Extra credit...riiiiiight!" Drax replied, obviously not believing a word he had said. Which wasn't all that surprising, Theta thought wryly, considering how bad he was at lying. "Well, I guess if you won't tell me, I'll just have to pretend to be as surprised as everyone else when you pull off whatever stunt you're planning. It hasn't got anything to do with that creepy eye-changing trick of Koschei's, has it? Because that was just weird."

Theta frowned, not understanding what he was talking about. "What eye-changing trick?"

"That gag where he changes his eyes from blue to brown. Hasn't he shown you yet?"

"I haven't seen much of him over the last couple of days, to be honest," Theta replied.

The more he thought about it, the more he realised it was true. He really hadn't seen a lot of Koschei lately. He'd been so busy trying to find out some more information about the cracks in Time that he hadn't noticed his friend's absence as much as he usually would have. However, looking back, it was almost as if Koschei had been avoiding him. But that didn't make sense – they'd had a bit of an argument last night over Theta wanting to take Anzor on, but nothing too serious. And it wasn't as if Koschei could possibly know he'd been keeping secrets from him. So why on Gallifrey would he feel the need to stay away? Unless he was sulking again. Perhaps Theta had inadvertently offended him in some other way. He couldn't think of anything in particular he had done, but that didn't necessarily mean much - Koschei could be really touchy and competitive sometimes, often about the smallest things.

"Yeah, well, he really freaked me out when he did it to me," Drax was saying, unaware of Theta's sudden preoccupation. "I nearly wet myself. We were playing Sepulchasm in the common room last night and I was winning for once. Next minute, he just sort of collapsed on the table. When he sat up, his eyes had this burning brown ring around the iris. Then he said, 'Ana!' and ran out of the room at light speed. I haven't seen him since."

Theta was thoroughly confused by now. "Who's Ana?" he queried.

"Search me," Drax responded. "I thought you'd know."

"No idea." Theta's frown deepened. "But there seems to be a lot of really strange things going on around here lately."

Cracks in Time manifesting on Gallifrey; the mysterious attack on Anzor, which he couldn't regret, but which bothered him nonetheless, a constant, niggling worry steadily boring away in the back of his mind; and now Koschei behaving so oddly...

And there, in the centre of it all, the strange little servant girl, who behaved like no servant girl he had ever known before, suddenly appearing from nowhere to join the staff of the Academy. Coincidence, perhaps...but he had always been taught that there was no such thing as coincidence.

Drax suddenly doubled over with laughter and slapped his knees in glee, startling him out of his thoughts. "Speaking of strange, did you hear what happened to Ushas?"

"Ushas? No, what?"

"Ha, it's a wonder she didn't find you to vent her spleen," Drax said with a malicious chuckle. "I mean, I've seen her angry before, but right now, she'd make an erupting volcano seem quiet and peaceful! Somehow, she managed to get stuck in a localised time loop in her room. Talk about a classic prank! I wish I'd thought of it! Apparently the loop activated when she walked towards the door to go to her Quantum Physics one-on-one with Cardinal Lenardi. And instead of leaving the room, she just kept repeating the walk to the door, over and over again. It was hours before anyone found her. Only, by then, she'd completely missed her exam. Odds are, she'll have to repeat the entire semester. Old Lenardi's not one to take excuses. The only reason he'd ever accept for missing an exam would be if you were dead, and then only if he was in a very good mood. Being stuck in a rogue time loop just doesn't cut it."

Theta's lips twitched as he imagined the proud and haughty Ushas stuck doing the same thing over and over again for hours, getting absolutely nowhere. All at once he understood why Drax thought it was so funny. As far as fitting punishments went, it couldn't have happened to a nicer person. He was only sorry he hadn't been there to see it.

"So? Why would she want to yell at me about it? I didn't have anything to do with it."

He wasn't quite sure why he was bothering to ask. These days, since the debacle of last year's Otherstide Ball, Ushas took any opportunity to yell at him. Sometimes she yelled at him when there was no opportunity at all.

"Maybe not, but she thinks your little servant girlfriend did," Drax smirked.

Theta's head shot up, his amusement dissolving into acute wariness at the snide comment. "Kat? Why would she think Kat had something to do with it? To set up such a perfectly localised time loop, you'd need an expert knowledge of Infinite Regression Mathematics, as well as access to some pretty fierce technology. A Shabogan like Kat wouldn't have the faintest clue how to do it."

Even as he spoke, he was aware he was trying to convince himself as much as Drax. In the back of his head, alarm bells were ringing wildly.

Again, another strange happening. And, again, there was Kat, right in the middle of it.

Drax shrugged. "Yeah, I know. Millennia already told Ushas not to be so ridiculous. But, according to Ushas, Kat was the only one in the room just before it happened. And you know what's she's like - once she's got an idea in her head, nothing short of a super-nova will get it out. All the same, I wish I knew who did do it! I'd like to shake them by the hand!" Carefully, he set the rhondium sensor back down on the work table. "Anyway, getting back to this thing, how about we give it a test run?"

"What?" Theta said abstractedly, his mind still wrestling with the worrying enigma that was Kat. "Oh...yeah. Sure. Sounds good."

"Like I said before, it's not as if we'll pick anything up here on Gallifrey," Drax commented, twiddling with a small dial on the front of the device. "But at least I should be able to evaluate the energy levels."

An almost imperceptible hum filled the air as the device activated, setting Theta's teeth on edge. Just then, a faint clucking sound reached his ears. Absorbed in the rhondium sensor, Drax didn't appear to notice. But Theta glanced around, puzzled, to see where the noise was coming from. Behind them, he saw the work-bench belonging to Gomer, a tall, thin senior student who had a reputation for taking his research extremely seriously. There was a fluffy brown chicken in a nesting box sitting on the bench. Theta remembered it was a test subject in a series of meta-biological experiments Gomer had been running, attempting to artificially stimulate increased egg production amongst the Academy's chickens. Strangely, it seemed the hen could also sense the temporal vibrations emanating from Drax's device, since she shifted uneasily and fluffed out her feathers.

Then there was a tiny and wholly unexpected 'ding'.

"That's weird," Drax said.

Forgetting about the chicken, Theta hurriedly returned his attention to his friend. "What?"

"Well...the sensor's actually picking something up. It's very weak, so I'm not quite sure..." Drax frowned and gently shook the device. "Nah, it has to be some sort of glitch. Maybe if I increase the energy levels it will even out."

He twisted the dial even further to the right. In the background, the clucking noise got louder, as if the hen was getting even more distressed. But this time Theta didn't even bother to look around. If Drax was really picking up another crack brewing... both his hearts clenched in horrified excitement at the possibility.

"Well?" he prompted.

"Not sure," Drax responded. "The results are still inconclusive. Maybe if I turn it up to maximum..."

And again, he turned the dial, twisting it all the way around, as far as it would go. But this time, the cackling from the hen was so loud, neither of them could ignore it. They both swung around, only to see the beleaguered bird frantically hopping up and down, flapping her wings in a flurry of crazy movement, as though someone had shoved a red-hot poker underneath her.

"What the hell..?" Drax murmured, staring in astonishment.

The clucking grew more and more piercing and the hen's movements more and more jerky. As he watched, startled, a premonition of disaster shivered through Theta's brain. "Drax," he said urgently. "I think you should turn it..."

But before he could complete the sentence, there was a loud, moist sound that sounded like 'Thwack!', only a lot more repulsive, and the hen exploded in front of their eyes, pieces flying in a dozen different directions around the laboratory.

"...off!" Theta finished with a groan.

A small click echoed through the room as Drax numbly returned the dial to its original setting. After that, there was no sound at all, just a cloud of soft, brown feathers floating down around the two stunned boys, as the pathetic remains of the hapless chicken drifted lazily to the floor.

"Um...Drax?" Theta's voice fell into the silence like a rock into a pond.

The other boy cleared his throat. "Yeah, Thete?"

"You just blew up Gomer's chicken."

Drax slowly turned his head towards him, his eyes wide with shock. "Yeah, I kind of noticed that," he croaked, his tone tight with suppressed panic. "That wasn't meant to happen! And Gomer isn't exactly known for his sense of humour."

The two boys exchanged an alarmed glance, both of them visualising Gomer's retribution descending on their heads. Then, as if by common consent, they simultaneously headed for the door as fast as they could, with Drax only pausing for half a second to sweep the prototype rhondium sensor safely into one of his capacious pockets. There was a momentary struggle as they both tried to get through the exit at the same time, the resulting collision catapulting them out into the passageway in an undignified tangle of arms and legs. Quickly regaining his balance, Theta straightened his jacket, shoved his hands nonchalantly into his pockets and began to saunter away, while beside him, Drax plucked a betraying feather out of his hair and whistled a casual tune as he walked, both of them endeavouring to look as if they hadn't been anywhere near the experimental lab all day.

"Um...Thete?" Drax muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, Drax?"

"For future reference, I think it's probably best if you don't use the timey-wimey detector anywhere near chickens, OK?"

"Yeah, thanks," Theta said dryly, rolling his eyes. "I'll make a note of that."

"Right," the Doctor said in a determinedly cheerful voice as he surveyed his two unlikely companions, both so incongruously dressed, one as a Roman centurion, the other as a seventeenth century Hussar officer. As far as assistants went, it could be worse, he supposed, even though he couldn't help feeling he was in the middle of a fancy dress party. Considering the desperate situation they were currently in, beggars couldn't be choosers - he would take all the help he could get. "So...looks like we're a team now. Teams are cool. I haven't had a team in ages. 'The Doctor's Team', I love it! We can be the D-Team!" He ostentatiously straightened his bow tie and gave them a theatrical wink, before adding in a very bad American accent, "I just love it when a plan comes together." Both Hart and Rory stared back at him blankly. The Doctor sighed in exasperation. "Hannibal from the A-Team? No? Blimey, why doesn't anyone ever get my jokes? Oh, never mind. Just out of interest, how did you two manage to calibrate the wrist-strap controls to the locks of the Pandorica?"

Rory pulled out the sonic screwdriver. "You gave me this."

"No, I didn't." Reaching into his own pocket, the Doctor produced an identical screwdriver and waved it at him as proof that it had never left his possession.

"Yes, you did," Rory insisted patiently. "Look at it."

Cautiously, the Doctor took a step closer, raising his screwdriver to touch the one in Rory's hand. A small bang made Rory jump and a shower of sparks skittered down on to the floor of the cavern.

"Temporal energy. Same screwdriver, at different points in its own time stream," the Doctor said, taking an involuntary step backwards and almost colliding with Hart.

As he did so, there was a similar bang as the Doctor's jacket brushed against the vortex manipulator on the ex-Time Agent's wrist. Unexpectedly, another fountain of sparks fizzed from the Doctor's pocket, accompanied by the acrid smell of burning tweed.

The Doctor gave a yelp of dismay, dancing up and down and slapping wildly at the smouldering material, trying to put the sparks out, while Hart swore graphically and pulled his wrist away.

Finally satisfied that his jacket wasn't on fire, the Doctor fished gingerly inside his smoking pocket and produced another vortex manipulator, identical to the first. "Looks like the screwdriver isn't the only thing crossing it's own time-stream today," he said wryly. "I have no idea how that got into my pocket."

"It's mine. I lent it to the Princess," Hart spoke up, his voice curiously flat. "I guess that proves she was definitely here. And that something bad happened to her. She'd never allow it off her wrist unless she had no choice."

The Doctor blinked in puzzlement. "The Princess?"

"It's what I call your daughter," Hart replied. His face was as hard and as impassive as ever, but there was something tense about his eyes that made the Doctor suspect that he wasn't quite as indifferent to Tejana's fate as he seemed. "Because that's how she acts - haughty and proud and absolutely arrogant, just like a little princess."

"So, in other words, she's a Time Lord," the Doctor shrugged, unperturbed by this description of his daughter. "Hopefully, if she's with the real Master, she's safe enough for now. And, believe me, that's another thing I never thought I'd say. If this wrist-strap belongs to your current time-line, where did the one you're wearing come from?"

Hart gestured over his shoulder to the now-empty satchel lying abandoned on the ground. "From that bag over there."

The Doctor held out his hand. "Then it belongs to a friend of mine. I'll take it for now, if you don't mind. You can have this one back, since it belongs to you."

To his surprise, Hart didn't argue, but swapped the two devices over without protest, carefully ensuring that they didn't touch in the process. "So, what's your friend doing with my wrist-strap in the future?" he asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied. "If we find her, you can ask her."

"Oh, don't worry – I will."

A sly, knowing grin played around the corners of the ex-Time Agent's mouth – a grin that annoyed the Doctor far too much, although he couldn't have said exactly why. Something about the idea of this man even talking to River just irritated him beyond bearing. He turned back to Rory. "The fact that you have my screwdriver means it was me who gave it to you. The me from the future. Which means I've got a future. That's nice." Then, behind Rory, he suddenly noticed the grey, statue-like figures dotted around the cavern and both his hearts sank. "That's not."

Rory's gaze followed his and he gave a grimace, particularly when his eyes fell on the tortured, ossified shapes of the other Roman soldiers. "Yeah. What are they?"

"History has collapsed." The Doctor walked morosely over to one of the petrified Nestene duplicates and examined it up close, just as Hart had done before him. "Whole races have been deleted from existence. These are like after-images. Echoes, fossils in time, if you like."

"Er...what does that mean?"

"Total event collapse. The Universe literally never happened."

Hart gave an exaggerated sneer, one eyebrow raised sceptically. "You're kidding, right?" But then, one look at the Doctor's grim and unrelenting expression appeared to convince him otherwise. "Holy shit, you're not, are you? So, why are we still here? What's keeping us safe?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Nothing. We're at the eye of the storm, that's all. We're just the last light to go out."

"I had to ask, didn't I?" Hart groaned. "What is it with you Time Lords? Don't you ever have an ordinary day – you know, the kind that doesn't involve sinister spaceships, or evil duplicates, or the end of life as we know it, or the total collapse of the Universe?"

"Not often, no," the Doctor replied seriously. He could remember having a similar conversation with Nasreen Chaudhry just after the Silurians had dragged Amy down under the Earth. You act as if this is just every day to you... Not every day, more like every second day... "Ordinary days are just so...well, ordinary, really."

Amy. Turning in a circle, he looked all around the cavern, but she wasn't anywhere there. Suddenly, he realised he hadn't seen her since he climbed out of the Pandorica. A cold feeling of anxiety rose in his chest.

"Rory, where's Amy?"

The look of sheer desolation on the young centurion's face more than confirmed his fears.

"She's up on the surface," Rory replied bleakly. "I killed her, Doctor."

Without waiting for permission or encouragement, the Master drew Tejana deeper into his kiss, deeper into the pleasure of his mouth. Despite the overwhelming shock of his revelations, she didn't pull away, unable to deny herself the comfort of his embrace, her hearts still screaming in pain that she had let the Chaos-Master use her as he had. For the first time since arriving on Gallifrey, she felt warm and secure and protected, as if nothing could possibly harm her. Opening her mouth to his, she returned his kiss with equal fervour, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

"I've missed this," he growled, nuzzling at her soft throat. "It's been hell watching you, remembering just how damn good you feel, but not being able to touch you..."

One hand was firm at her back, holding her hard against him, while the other slid inside the open fastenings of her dress and cupped her breast, in exactly the same way his younger self had caressed her earlier. But the Master's touch was not gentle and exploratory as young Koschei's had been. It was possessive, sure in its ownership, confident in the ability to arouse her. With her eyes closed, Tejana could almost forget that the body pressed so closely against hers belonged to a time long before she was even born, could almost make believe they were back in their bedroom on board their TARDIS, with everything the way it should be. Almost, but not quite.

"This isn't right," she tried to say, stabs of pleasure shooting through her as his fingers tightened on her, heat pooling deep in her belly. "Young Koschei..."

"Wants you just as much as I do," the Master finished, his thumb circling her ruched nipple until she cried out at the erotic sensation. "You belong to me, Ana, every part of you. Your body? Mine. Your mind? Mine. Your thoughts and feelings and emotions, your pleasure and your pain...all mine, to do with as I wish. It doesn't matter what incarnation I'm in, that will always be true now, even this far back in time. And you want this body, I can feel it. I can feel the desire rising inside you like a flood. You want me inside you."

She couldn't argue with that. She did want him – not just because of the fierce attraction she felt towards young Koschei, not just because she had missed the Master's touch, but also because she needed to somehow cancel out the filth of what the Chaos-Master had done to her. She wouldn't have been able to explain it if someone had asked her, but just being in the real Master's arms was making her feel clean and whole again, instead of dirty and degraded.

"Yes!" she said fiercely. "I want you! Now!"

In one smooth movement, he swept her feet out from under her and lowered her to the ground. She could feel the hard marble beneath her, the cold of the stone seeping through the back of her dress to chill her skin. Then all she felt was searing heat as his body covered hers, his mouth hungrily seeking her lips all over again. The room seemed to spin around her, and she could almost hear the Otherstide music playing once more, as a vision burned across her brain of the two of them making love in the middle of the huge, shadowy ballroom, where so many of their people had danced the ancient story of the yin and the yang of the Universe. She could see her slender body, writhing under his hands; she could see the darkness of his hair against her pale skin, moving and shifting as he pleasured her. The psychic link between them seemed to pulse with anticipation, and she wasn't sure whether the haunting image came from his head or hers. She could feel his hungry arousal as well as her own, hot and almost painful in its intensity, taking her to new heights as he lifted her skirts and his hands and mouth ruthlessly explored her body, his tongue lapping, sucking, probing...

"Now," she urged, teetering on the edge of the void, unable to wait any longer as the storm of sensation raged through her. "Now!"

He heard her, the sexual tension coiling madly between them, sharp and bright with need as he rose above her.

"This is where you belong, Ana," he snarled, his eyes dark with intent, ringed with burning brown. "This is where you'll always belong. Here, beneath me, waiting for me to fill you. And this is where I belong..." With that, he flexed his spine and drove inside her, making her arch her back with a shattered moan of pleasure. "Inside you, in the place that was made for me. Amin tel'Seldarine...amin b'ara."

Yes, she cried out to him silently, feeling that instant of perfect unity as their minds merged as completely as their bodies. I will always be your haven...always be your home!

He tightened his hold on her, withdrew and thrust again. And again. Over and over, until she was beyond any kind of rational thought, beyond doing anything except allowing her body to receive him. Deeper and deeper he drove into her, his breathing harsh and fractured, desire etched into his face - the desire to take her, the desire to conquer, the desire to own. He wanted, demanded and took; and in response, she gave everything she had, the heated friction mounting, layer after layer, until the exquisite tension finally snapped and the tide of passion rushed through her, sweeping her up and swirling her away. And in that same moment, she felt the white-hot explosion of his release, searing simultaneously through her mind and her body, until there was nothing left in her consciousness except for him and the pleasure he felt in her.

Then everything changed. Before she could even regain her sense of self, it was as though a door had slammed shut between them, brutally separating their minds, even though their bodies were still intimately entwined.

The Master was gone.

Disoriented with shock, Tejana forced her eyes open and looked up into the face of the man who held her. To her horror, a pair of dazed navy blue eyes stared down at her in blank confusion.

"Kat? What the hell just happened?"