Author's Note:
Hello, here I am, as promised - been a while, I know. However, I have been caught up in a bit of a new project, writing a 10/OC fic called "Extraordinary", so if anyone would like to go and check that out, I would be much obliged. Also, I had a few plot hurdles to iron out in this one. However, they always come to me if I take some time out, and all is good and I'm bursting to go again now.
But big thanks to the wonderful folks who dropped me reviews since my last update: GuesssWho, EDZEL2, MayFairy, SawManiac211, Aietradaea, MountainLord-92, TheWickedHeart, gallifrey calls now, sailormajinmoon, irishartemis, Push to Shove, Guest, Geraldine, Imorgen, Marzipan, Zeroko, Theta'sWorstNightmare, BeautifulSpace (x 2) and cheesysockTejana.
To guest: Apologies that it took so long to update, hopefully the wait was worth it :)
To Geraldine: Oh dear, more apologies. As above, I hope the wait was worth it!
To Marzipan: Thanks so much for the review, glad you liked the 'Phantom of the Opera' moment!
To Zeroko: Welcome, lovely to have a new reviewer, I appreciate the feedback very much.
To BeautifulSpace: So sorry to hear about your lovely Nanna, Jacques Elizabeth, passing away. I hope you are starting to feel a bit better now and I'm very glad your friends are showing you love and support, that's terrific. Thank you very much continuing to read my fics when you are in such a tough time, that is very kind of you. XXX
To CheesysockTejana: Thanks so much for the review and the compliments, very pleased you are enjoying it :)
- CHAPTER TWENTY SIX -
"Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door,
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before.
'Relax,' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'"
The Eagles, Hotel California
In the end, during that tiny, pivotal heartbeat of Time, when everything stretched out and seemed to run in slow motion, the decision was not so hard to make after all.
Because, in the end, it didn't come down to morals, or ethics or doing her duty by the Universe. It didn't come down to how she felt about Borusa or Lord Oakdown. It didn't even come down to how she felt about her father and whether he would approve of her actions.
In the end, the one crystallising, deciding factor came down to how much she loved the Master.
For nine centuries, despite all the evil he had done, all the violent, murderous, abhorrent acts he had performed, he had still somehow managed to hold on to part of his soul; clinging somewhere deep inside to the essence of what had once made him Koschei, the brilliant, charismatic boy she had just danced the steps of Otherstide with so perfectly.
But if she allowed him to kill his father, if she allowed him to perform this most reprehensible of all acts, no matter what the reason, she knew with a cold certainty that the last little bit of his scarred and damaged soul would shatter and be lost forever, consumed by his own hatred. Koschei would be gone, fallen into an eternity of darkness, and there would be nothing left but the Master.
No matter what the cost, she couldn't allow that to happen; couldn't allow the man she loved to destroy himself in that way.
So she threw down every single one of her defences and opened herself fully to the psychic link, with an intensity she had never attempted before, embracing the primal potency of the collective of Gallifreyan minds surrounding her, drawing from them the fulminating energies of the Eye of Harmony, the source of all the power of the Time Lords. For a few brief, revealing seconds, her consciousness shone like a blazing star within the link, leaving no doubt in all the surrounding minds as to exactly who and what she was. And then, obeying an instinct she didn't even know she possessed, she pushed with all her strength, striking out at the minds of the Time Lords standing on the dais and physically thrusting them aside to safety.
She had little opportunity to be careful or selective about her targets. Caught unaware by her onslaught, the entire group of majestic and imposing senior Time Lords scattered and tumbled like a collection of nine-pins struck by a bowling ball, many of them falling backward into the arms of the astonished crowd. Drained by her extreme effort, Tejana fell weakly to her knees in the middle of the dance-floor. Seconds later, the lethal chandelier plummeted to the ground with a stunning crash like nothing anyone had ever heard before, the deafening noise shaking the very foundations of the elegant ballroom. Shards of shattered crystal flew through the air like lucent daggers, lethal debris raining down on the suddenly screaming crowd.
Panting with exertion in the centre of the dance floor, her brow dripping with ice-cold sweat, Tejana could hear Lord Oakdown's voice rising over the uproar, shouting for calm and she knew that he was still alive. But she was given no chance to feel relief at her success. The invisible Master's fury swirled around her like a black tide, his rage and betrayal beating around her head like vulture's wings. Before she could reach out to him, to try to explain, he was gone, surging through the room in an unseen cyclone of violence, his temper exploding into a childish rampage of sheer destruction.
At the other end of the room, the other enormous chandelier also came crashing down, crushing dozens of young Time Lords beneath it, trapped as they were in the press of the crowd and unable to run.
As if on cue, all the lights went out, enveloping the vast room in an inky, fear-laden darkness. Uncontrolled panic swept through the gathering, with hundreds of people shrieking and pushing and shoving in a vain attempt to reach the doors. Tejana could hear cries of pain all around her and she guessed that many of the students were being trampled in the swelling chaos.
A hand shot out of the darkness and seized hers, wrenching her to her feet. "RUN!" someone yelled in her ear. With a shock, she realised it was Theta.
"What about Melana?" she shouted back, terrified that he had abandoned her young mother in the swirling melee.
"She's safe! I've left her with Millennia and Rallon!" he returned, dragging her along with him as he ran. "Come on! It's nearly midnight. This is your only chance. You need to get to the Adytum!"
Golden explosions of light were breaking out everywhere all around them now, like campfires glowing in the darkness. To Tejana's horror, she recognised that it was artron energy – injured Time Lords were regenerating all around the room. The sudden realisation was like a slap in the face. Despite all her efforts not to affect the causal nexus, this timeline was twisting and bending beyond repair, right in front of her eyes. She may have managed to save Lord Oakdown, and probably Lord Borusa, but there were many here she had been unable to help. Apart from the Time War itself, she had never seen such carnage and pandemonium. Accustomed to the unchanging, stagnant order that usually reigned on Gallifrey, the Time Lords had no idea how to deal with a catastrophe on this scale.
"The President!" someone shouted. "The President's been hurt – he's regenerating!"
Sure enough, a golden glow of artron energy was emanating from the wreckage of the dais, demonstrating that even Lord President Drall had not escaped entirely unscathed from the Master's fury.
Theta didn't stop to look. He just kept hauling Tejana determinedly towards the servant's exit. Unexpectedly, another set of warm, strong fingers twined around her free hand, and she realised belatedly that Koschei was also running with them, ruthlessly punching and kicking people aside, working in perfect tandem with Theta to force a pathway through the milling crowd. Immediately, Tejana saw the logic of what the two boys were doing. None of the other Time Lords had even thought of the servant's exit. They were all streaming towards the other doors, like a horde of panicked sheep.
At last they made it. Hurriedly, Theta moved to activate the door panel, only for Tejana to stop him.
"Wait!" she said urgently. "You two should go back. This has been a big enough disaster already. There's no point you getting into any more trouble over me."
Koschei pulled her roughly around to face him. "No chance, sweetheart!" he said in a hard, tense voice. "I've got no idea what just happened, but whatever the hell that thing was back there, I've got no intention of tangling with it! And as for you, we all saw what you did, when you manipulated the psychic link. Only a pure-blooded descendant of one of the Great Houses could do that. You're not a Shabogan, you're a Time Lady. And believe me, I'm not letting you out of my sight until I get an explanation."
"Not only that, to manipulate the link with that level of power and precision, you have to be a very experienced Time Lady," Theta added. "You're not just any traveller, Kat, you're a time traveller. That's why you were too afraid to tell me how you knew so much about us, because you come from Gallifrey's future. You've broken the Fourth Law of Time."
Gallifrey doesn't have a future, she wanted to shout, stung by their evident disapproval. So ironic that these two, who would eventually become the greatest renegades Gallifrey had ever known, should be so quick to censure her actions. But midnight was getting steadily closer and she didn't have time to argue with them. So instead, she bit back her resentment and said coldly, "Yes, well done, children, you're both right, I am a Time Lady. I am a descendent of one of the Great Houses and I do come from the future. However, I didn't choose to break any of the Laws of Time. I came here unknowingly, through a crack in time, just like I told you, Theta. And now I need to get back the same way, to try to repair the damage I've done. But I have to do it alone – I need you two to stay here and keep out of trouble."
Theta shrugged. "Not happening," he retorted stubbornly, turning back to the door controls.
"You heard him," Koschei agreed. "When it comes to trouble, we wrote the book. Now let's get out of here!"
Before Tejana could protest any further, the door slid open and her two companions forcefully ushered her out into the corridor beyond.
"We can take a transmat tube to the Records Room," Theta said, leading the way at a run. "And from there we can work out how to get down to the Adytum."
Tejana followed close behind, trying her hardest to keep up with his long-legged stride. However, she was still light-headed from her psychic exertion and it wasn't long before she stumbled and almost fell, only to feel Koschei's arm slip around her waist, steadying her on her feet again and urging her onward.
"What the hell is an Adytum?" he demanded in her ear, as the transmat tubes at the end of the passageway came into view.
"It's an ancient crypt, dating back to the Old Times, located directly below the Records Room," she explained breathlessly. "It's where the next crack is due to manifest, at midnight. We don't have much time."
However, just as their escape seemed certain, everything went terribly wrong. Ahead of them, with shocking suddenness, three men in the red uniform of the Chancellery Guard emerged from the transmat tubes and levelled their stasers at them threateningly.
"HALT!" their Captain barked. "All three of you are under arrest, in the name of the High Council of Gallifrey!"
Theta screeched to an undignified stop, with Koschei and Tejana almost cannoning into his back as they tried to halt their momentum.
"Don't even think about trying to get away!" the Captain warned. "Or my men will fire at will."
Regaining his balance, Koschei thrust Tejana protectively behind him, before facing the Guard with all his customary arrogance. "How dare you interfere with us? I'm the Heir of Oakdown. I could have you busted down to traffic duty in the Citadel for this. Now, let us pass!"
"Ah, but perhaps the Heir of Oakdown is not aware that he is associating with a renegade and a traitor," another voice suggested smoothly. Tejana flinched as Castellan Rannex also appeared from inside the transmat tubes, his formal magenta robes flowing magnificently around him. "We've been hunting this woman for quite some time. But I knew we'd catch up with her eventually. How fortunate that Lord Borusa suspected that something untoward might occur at the Otherstide Ball and ordered extra security."
"I'm not a renegade!" Tejana spoke up, with a haughtiness that easily matched Koschei's. "And I had nothing to do with what happened at the Ball."
"Yeah, if it wasn't for her, Borusa and the rest of the High Council would have been crushed under that chandelier!" Theta agreed, stepping forward to stand beside his friend, screening Tejana completely from the Castellan's view. "I don't call that being a traitor."
"That's not for you to decide, Lord Theta," Rannex snapped. "Nor is it for me. I have my orders. If you and Lord Koschei surrender the woman peacefully, I will allow the matter to rest, with no further consequences to either of you. If not, I will ensure that you are both punished with her, no matter what your rank and station." This last was directed at Koschei, with a cold and contemptuous glare.
Theta and Koschei exchanged a glance, their eyes narrowed. For just a few seconds, Tejana caught a fleeting glimpse in their faces of the two dangerous men they were destined to become, too determined and obstinate ever to give up, even though they knew it was a battle they couldn't possibly win. Then they each simultaneously dropped into a fighting crouch.
"Come and take her," Koschei snarled.
Terror clutched at Tejana's hearts. If she didn't reach the crack before it closed, everything she had done here would be remembered, permanently altering the fabric of Time, becoming an indelible part of Gallifrey's history. If Theta and Koschei rebelled against Time Lord authority for her sake at this early stage in their careers, the entire history of the Universe would be at risk, whatever the ultimate outcome. She had to stop it happening, no matter what it took.
"No!" she yelled at Rannex, putting her hands on their shoulders, silently commanding them with all her strength to stop. "Castellan, please! They're just boys, not much more than children, playing at being heroes out of a misguided sense of loyalty. They don't know what they're doing. I'll go with you quietly, just let them go."
Theta's head swung around to her, his blue eyes blazing with fury and frustration. "What are you doing? They'll kill you, Kat! For breaking the Fourth Law of Time, they'll execute you without trial!"
"If that's what has to happen, then so be it," she said in a fierce undertone. "But I won't take you down with me, do you understand? Your timelines are too important for that! Now, as a senior Time Lady, I'm ordering you, stand aside!"
For a long moment they hesitated, and she thought that they were going to refuse. However, the ingrained submission to authority was still strong in them at this point, and at last they obeyed, reluctantly moving back to allow her clear passage through to the waiting Guard.
"Castellan, they've done what you asked," Tejana said, stepping away from her companions with her hands in the air in clear surrender. "Now give me your word as a Time Lord that if I don't resist arrest, they will not be punished for this."
"You have it." Rannex inclined his head with smug condescension, as if the outcome had never been in doubt. Tejana had to control the sudden impulse to slap him soundly across the face. "Lord Koschei, Lord Theta, you will return to your quarters immediately and remain there until further -."
All at once, the Castellan's supercilious voice cut off in mid-sentence and his eyes rolled back in his head as a mighty metallic thump rang out in the passageway. Startled, Tejana watched him crumple to the floor in an ungainly heap. Before any of the Guard could react, there was another series of mysterious thumps behind them, and they all fell unexpectedly senseless to the floor.
A new face emerged out of the shadows behind the transmat tubes. With a shock, Tejana recognised Maerl. As she stared in astonishment, he was joined by Fionnula, Dyoni and Salome. Each of them had a grim, satisfied expression on their faces, and each of them were holding a heavy cast-iron frying pan in their hands, weapons which they had obviously just put to very good use.
Tejana's knees went weak in relief. She had no idea what they were doing here, but she couldn't recall ever being so glad to see anyone in her life.
"Frying pans!" she said with a peal of delighted laughter, thinking back to her own spirited defence against the Slavetakers on Mnemosyne using Mother Hulde's frying pan. "Who knew, right?"
Fionnula frowned in disapproval at what she considered to be inappropriate levity, her manner as brisk and business-like as ever. "Wherever you were going, Kat, you must hurry!" she said. "This will not stop them hunting you, it will only delay them."
Tejana met her gaze squarely, her sudden burst of relieved mirth fading away. The Head Housemaid's face was calm and cool, as if she had just sorted out a particularly trying domestic problem in the kitchen, rather than taken down Gallifrey's Castellan and a detachment of Chancellery Guard. Time was steadily ticking away, but Tejana knew she couldn't leave without finding out why the servants had suddenly decided to take action.
"Why did you do that, Fionnula?" she asked. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because you made us realise that we can't go on as we have been," Fionnula responded gravely. "We need to stand together and take care of our own. And that's exactly what we're going to do from now on."
Tears sprang to Tejana's eyes. "That's great, it really is. But you must know by now that I'm not one of your own and I never have been."
"You made us feel pride in who we are and what we do," Fionnula said firmly, in a tone that allowed no dispute. "No Time Lord has ever done that. You will always be one of our own, Kat. I don't pretend to understand whatever it is you're doing, but I know enough about you to trust that you are no traitor. Whatever you are doing, it's for the good of Gallifrey. And so we will give whatever help we can to speed you on your way." Then, as Tejana opened her mouth to reply, she added gruffly, "No more talk, child. You and the young Lords must not dally. There will be more of the Guard here before long."
"She's right, Kat," Theta said urgently, coming to stand beside her. "We have to go."
Dyoni hurried forward and gave Tejana a tight, emotional hug. "Goodbye, Kat. I know we probably won't see each other again. But thank you for everything."
Then Salome followed suit, whispering a shy "Good luck!" in her ear.
Lastly, Maerl moved towards her and, with some hesitation, held out his hand. Tejana took it, unsure exactly where they stood after their earlier argument in the kitchen. "Thank you, Maerl," she said sincerely. "I'm sorry I implied that you had no courage. I was wrong."
He gave her a funny, lop-sided smile, his serious grey eyes suddenly dancing with humour. "Looks like I found that fainting robin to help back into her nest after all," he joked, referring back to the Emily Dickinson poem she had quoted to him.
Tejana grinned back at him, suddenly liking him after all. "Yeah, I guess you did. And this particular robin is very grateful! Take care of Dyoni, won't you? And most of all, be happy!"
She took one last look over her shoulder at the small, disparate group of friends she had never expected to make, as if to memorise what she knew would be her final glimpse of their faces. Then she followed Theta and Koschei into the transmat tubes and disappeared.
Bored by all the kissing going on between Amy and Rory, little Amelia tugged insistently on the sleeve of the Doctor's jacket. "I'm thirsty. Can I get a drink?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "Oh, it's all mouths today, isn't it?" Then, as John Hart gave a lecherous grin, he added quickly, "And if you make one single salacious comment right now, Captain, you and I are going to have a serious falling out."
Hart merely raised one eyebrow in a look that spoke volumes, his grin wider and more suggestive than ever. "Wouldn't dream of it, Doc," he smirked. "Wouldn't dream of it!"
Before the Doctor could reply, the PA system sprang into life again with an audible click, and the Chaos-Master's voice sang mockingly: "Welcome to the House of Fun, now I've come of age...welcome to the House of Fun. Welcome to the lion's den, temptation's on it's way...welcome to the House of Fun..."
"A song by the group 'Madness'," the Doctor remarked loudly. "How very appropriate!"
The Chaos-Master laughed, the psychotic sound echoing around the room, disturbing enough even to break the passionate embrace between Rory and Amy apart.
"Oh, please tell me that isn't..." Rory began.
"It is," Hart said curtly.
Rory groaned. "I asked you not to tell me that!"
"Time to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea, Doctor," the Chaos-Master taunted. "Over and out!"
The PA system fizzed into silence again. Everybody looked at each other blankly.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hart growled.
The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know. But at least he's stopped singing. For a minute there, I thought he was intending that to be the next torture. And believe me, I had more than enough on board The Valiant."
But Amy was staring past him, back the way they had come. "Doctor..." she said in a trembling voice. "The Daleks..."
The Doctor whirled around and saw the weapon on the nearest Dalek twitch, as if it was fighting its way back from a deep sleep.
"Out!" he yelled, grabbing little Amelia's hand and running for the exit. "OUT, OUT, OUT!"
Once they arrived in the corridor outside the Records Room, it was easy enough for Tejana to grab a lantern from a store cupboard and then to locate the concealed entrance to the passageways leading down into the ancient crypts beneath. For a few precious seconds, she hesitated on the dark threshold, remembering with distaste the tangle of icy catacombs that led to the Adytum. Then, knowing she had no choice, she took a deep breath and plunged through the doorway, deep into the claustrophobic shadows, keeping her mind focused by concentrating as hard as she could on retracing the route Co-ordinator Engin had shown her and the Doctor so long ago. Getting lost in here was definitely not an attractive option. Just as she remembered, the walls of the passageways were hewn out of pure stone, imposing and ancient. The air smelled stale and was freezing cold, every breath she took visible as a little white puff of condensation.
Theta and Koschei followed closely behind her, each of them also holding a lantern.
"Wow!" Koschei murmured in awe, as they went deeper and deeper, down into the very gutrock of Gallifrey. "This must lead right under the lowest parts of the Citadel. I had no idea this was even here."
Tejana didn't reply. In the future, he would know how to find the Adytum well enough. The reason Co-ordinator Engin had brought her and the Doctor down here in the first place was in an attempt to find the Master, who had been using the Adytum as a secret base from which to sabotage the Matrix. She couldn't help shivering, her hearts as cold as the icy air, as she had a sudden acute memory of the rotten, corpse-like figure they had found back then, sitting on a chair in the old crypt, apparently dead. Her past, his future. Was this why the Master had chosen this as his hiding place, because in his youth a girl named Kat had shown him the way down here? Yet again, the impossible timey-wiminess of her situation made her head ache. Just by being here, just by being out of her own time-line, she was bringing to pass things that in her Universe had already happened.
All at once, she felt a desperate longing for her own time-line, where she and the Master and the Doctor shared a common past, and she didn't have to hide her knowledge of what they would one day become. However afraid she was of jumping into the crack without the Master's help, it suddenly seemed immeasurably preferable to staying here.
"It's two minutes to midnight," Theta said. "How much further?"
As he spoke, Tejana saw a familiar archway looming ahead of them, opening on to the gloomy chamber beyond.
"We're already here," she replied.
Suddenly aware of the danger of the awakening Daleks behind them, the Doctor and his friends raced towards the entrance to the Pandorica room, running together in a tight, compact group.
Somewhere deep in the museum, the Doctor heard a clock strike twelve, the long bell-like chimes reverberating eerily through the deserted galleries.
And right at that moment, directly in front of the fleeing companions, a glowing line began to trace across the doorway, blocking their only exit as it slowly formed into the shape of a malevolent grin.
"STOP!" the Doctor roared, bringing them all skidding to a halt. "KEEP BACK!"
An abysmal grinding noise tore through the air, and the fissure began to widen into a gaping, greedy mouth, spilling tendrils of white fire on to the floor in front of them, where they writhed and danced like maddened snakes.
"What the hell is it?" Hart demanded.
"Another crack in Time," the Doctor responded tersely. "You wanted to know what took Tejana, Captain? Well, you're looking at it. If we get any closer to that thing, none of us will ever have existed."
Rory stared in dismay at the twining tentacles of lurid white fire, backing away from it as far as he dared. "Been there, done that! Never want to go there again, thanks."
"Wait a minute!" Amy interjected. "Tejana got taken by a crack in Time? When did that happen?"
"Back at the Underhenge. Don't worry, I'm going to get her back," the Doctor assured her grimly, his eyes dark with purpose. "Just as soon as I defeat the Chaos-Master, stop the TARDIS from exploding and repair the damage to the Universal space-time continuum."
Behind them, there was a loud humming noise, like a large generator powering up. All five of them whirled around simultaneously, only to see the eye-stalk of the lead Dalek beginning to lift.
"Re-store!" came the metallic, monotonal voice, sending chills down each of their spines. "RE-STORE!"
"Maybe you'd better add getting out of here to your 'To-Do' list, Doc!" Hart suggested, his useless laser pistol still held comfortingly in his hand, as his gaze rapidly switched between the pulsating crack blocking their escape route and the lethal threat of the slowly resuscitating Daleks. "Right now would be good!"
More manic laughter poured from the PA system. "So which will it be, Doctor?" the Chaos-Master jeered. "The devil? Or the deep blue sea?"
The Adytum, when they entered, wasn't anything special – just a small, round, empty room carved from the foundation stone of Gallifrey. But the temporal pressure building there was phenomenal. Even without the timey-wimey detector, all three of the Time Lords felt it as soon as they walked through the archway. The air felt thick and difficult to breathe, as though it turned to treacle in their lungs.
"One minute left," Theta said, turning anxiously to Tejana. "It's nearly here! Are you still sure you want to do this, Kat?"
"I have to!" she said. "There isn't any other way!"
"But what about your friend... you said you had a friend who could guide you safely home through the network of cracks! Where is he? Why isn't he here?"
Tejana swallowed hard, determined not to let her pain and sorrow at the Master's desertion weaken her resolve. Obviously, in his rage at what he considered to be her betrayal, he had decided to abandon her to her fate and carry through with his plan to gain control of Gallifrey without her. She had probably been mad to ever hope that she could mean more to him than the opportunity to rule the Universe.
"He's not coming," she replied dully. "I have to do this alone."
Before Theta could reply, a hand closed on her upper arm like a steel vice. "Oh no, you don't, my beautiful Ana," a hard, familiar voice rasped. "Because you're not going to do it at all."
Looking up, she saw that young Koschei had hold of her. He was smiling - a cold, implacable smile - and his eyes were no longer navy blue, but a hypnotic whiskey-brown.
At the same moment, the crack arrived like a roar of thunder, bursting into life in blazing glory as it split the opposite wall in half. Refulgent white light swept through the Adytum, reaching towards the three Time Lords in a hot, enticing embrace.
Theta fell back in shock, his arm up to shield his eyes from the blinding glow. But Koschei held his ground, both hands now shackling Tejana's arms, holding her back from the crack in an unbreakable grip.
"Don't do this, amin mekhil!" she begged, struggling against him, desperate to reach the crack. "Let me go! Please, don't make me fight you!"
"Koschei, what in the name of Rassilon are you doing?" Theta yelled incredulously. "KOSCHEI!"
But the Master ignored them both completely. Relentlessly, step by step, he began to back away from the crack, dragging Tejana with him.
"You're my wife, Ana," he snarled. "You belong to me, body and soul. Fight me all you like, but you are never going to leave! Not ever!"