Tetrapyriarbus was a rather small planet and was overpopulated by four million Tetraps. Due to the temperature of the sun they didn't have good soil for growing anything. And because the planet was classed as dangerous for visitors and traders, it made the food shortage even worse. Because the Tetraps were boar-like Bat creatures, they didn't live in houses but cave systems. The biggest cave system was a prison for the entire planet. It was mostly empty because not many Tetraps committed crimes. Though there were a couple of humanoids there, in which The Rani was one of them.
After she refused to help the Tetraps with their food shortage, The Rani was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to kill Urak the Tetrap. Afterwards she was taken to the prison and put in the smallest, darkest, escape proof cell ever, where she stayed for well over forty years with only herself for company. And that made her snap. She thought she could be strong and smart enough to beat them.
But the solitude was too much and it sent her halfway to crazy town. Especially when a life sentence was virtually an eternity for a Time Lord. So, with great reluctance and desperation, The Rani eventually agreed to help the Tetraps despite hundreds of the BatBoar creatures dying over the years. The scientist Time Lady set up an S.O.S to lure people in and was lucky enough to have it answered.
The TARDIS materialised a mile and a half from the prison in what appeared to be a town square. The door opened and The Doctor, Jaime, Leela, Alexia and John all exited the Time Machine.
"It's too quiet," John commented, on edge. "Many things about this are not good." He added with a grimace.
"Nonsense. They'll be hiding from the hot sun, that's all." The Doctor contradicted.
John glared at the Time Lord. "No, there's more to it then that," he argued back. "You don't know them like we do!"
Ignoring the arguing from both Doctors, Alexia looked up at the sky. It was the palest blue she had ever seen. In fact it was almost white and there didn't appear to be any clouds in the sky. When she looked around st her surroundings she noticed everything had a dusty quality to it. And when The Doctor strayed away from the TARDIS she saw the dust get kicked up. It reminded her so much of those famine struck countries in Africa where everything was dry and dusty.
Hearing a low moan beside her, Alexia looked around to find an extremely pale faced Jaime leaning against the TARDIS and wincing as if she was in pain. "Jaime?" She put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Jaime shook her head. Literally everything was being thrown at her that was causing her senses to go haywire. "This planet is a bad place tae be." Is all she said before throwing all her shields up in self protection. She caught John looking at her and felt he was worried. She nodded silently, telling him she was okay.
"Doctor!" Leela called urgently, her brown eyes narrowed suspiciously as her hand twitched towards the scabbard holding her knife.
The Doctor, John, Jaime and Alexia saw what was bothering Leela. There were a dozen Tetraps approaching them and some appeared to carry blaster weapons.
"Trouble and lots of it." Jaime uttered, her danger senses going haywire.
The Sevateem warrior heard her and pulled her knife out in readiness. She would likely kill them all if she was given the chance.
"Don't be so rash, Leela." The Doctor warned his companion.
"Doctor?" Leela questioned, looking over at him.
"Put your weapon away." The Time Lord ordered and Leela begrudgingly put her knife back in her scabbard.
Sensing her apprehension and foreboding, J.D moved towards Jaime and took her hand. Meanwhile, Jaime had felt her mum's worry and with her free hand took a hold of her mother's hand.
"More humans." One of the BatBoar-like Tetraps were heard to utter.
The Doctor, being his usual madcap self, said something about greeting them and walked towards the Tetraps, ignoring calls not to by John. "Hello, I'm The Doctor." The Doctor introduced himself with a big grin. Sadly he found himself being rudely pushed back towards his fellow Time Travellers by a blaster wielding Tetrap. "Okay, okay!" He said, holding his hands up. "You didn't happen to come across a witch of a Time Lord by any chance?" He asked. The question was ignored.
"Humans. It has been a very long time since Tetrapyriarbus has welcomed visitors." The lead Tetrap told them. "You will follow me."
The Time Travellers couldn't really decline his request to follow him, as all the other Tetraps had quickly surrounded them with their blasters held in a threatening way. So they walked to places unknown.
"Doctor, where are they taking us?" Leela asked, feeling very threatened and highly strung.
"I've no idea," the Doctor cheerily answered her. "I don't think they want to speak to us."
"They're takin' us tae prison," Jaime answered Leela's question. "That's where it's all happenin'."
They were taken to the prison, much to Leela's surprise, and it did make her wonder how the Pale Female knew. Once inside, another Tetrap approached them with a device and scanned them. The scanner gave the BatBoar a confirmation that they only had two new humans. The rest were an unknown species they would need to figure out later. The Tetrap had the two humans separated from the rest of the group but that just caused a riot with everyone else.
Things were soon calmed once they were threatened with being shot st. Except for Leela, who pulled out her knife and attempted to kill the nearest Tetrap. As for Alexia, despite being terrified, she tried to stop Leela from doing something reckless, only for the poor companion to get zapped by a Tetrap's hypnotising ray. Leela fell to the floor all stiff and wide-eyed.
In the resulting chaos, her daughter was suddenly standing next to her. "Calm down," Jaime spoke up. "I know you're scared but you got tae get past that."
Confused, the woman looked around as she noticed something odd. "What happened to everyone?" Alexia asked. "Why aren't they moving?"
A little grin appeared on Jaime's face. "I froze time, but I cannae do it for long. I need you tae distract her long enough for us tae rescue everyone."
Alexia had almost forgotten why they were here in the first place. It was The bloody Rani again.
"That includes giving her your fruit…" Her mum's eyes widened at this. "I'm not sure when you got them but we'll talk more when this is over." Then in a blink of an eye, Jaime disappeared from beside her and Time was moving again, chaos resumed.
Seeing what happened to his companion, the Doctor tried to check on her, but he was rudely threatened with a blaster attack.
"Enough!" The lead Tetrap growled. "Take the two humans to the processing area and put the unknowns with the others."
Jaime watched as her mum and Leela was taken down a corridor, then herself, John and The Doctor was forcefully pushed down a different corridor.
"You know, I could have sworn I felt a manipulation of Time just now!" The Doctor commented and gave Jaime a hint of a grin. She just grinned back and shrugged her shoulders.
"What did you do?" John asked her.
She looked around before replying rather discreetly in Welsh. "I just put a plan in motion." She told them. J.D raised a surprised brow and then the Scots-girl smiled when she felt waves of surprise wash off The Doctor and John. "Just got tae work with the other people they've captured." She had a funny feeling they were all going to be in for a big surprise.
"What do you have in mind?" The Doctor also asked in Welsh.
"Be silent." One of the blaster wielding Tetraps spoke up and rudely poked at The Doctor's back with his weapon. They did as they were told and remained quiet the rest of the way.
Finally they were stopped outside a cell and were pushed inside once the door was opened. When the Half-Time Lord saw who they were sharing a cell with, his eyes widened. "Well isn't that just Wizard!" He uttered sarcastically. "You followed the S.O.S call as well?"
The Doctor furrowed his brows and looked at John. "Do you know these people?" He asked. "They look a very odd pair." He looked back at the pair in question. "Especially the one who looks like a brightly coloured patchwork scarecrow."
The 'brightly coloured scarecrow' in question angrily jumped to his feet. "Odd?" He loudly exclaimed. "Odd! That's rich coming from a buffoon like you!" He fired back.
The Doctor's blue eyes widened. "Me? A buffoon?" He replied and an argument between him and the rainbow scarecrow began.
That set off the Byronic looking fella who had been sat beside the scarecrow and he joined in the argument. Then just for the hell of it, John also joined in on the arguing.
Meanwhile, a completely unimpressed Jaime stood back as she watched the Fourth Doctor, the Sixth Doctor, the Eighth Doctor and John-David argue.
In another part of the prison, a still hypnotised Leela and a still terrified Alexia were brought into the processing room. Yet it looked more like a lab used for experiments.
"More humans for you to use." The Tetrap said and left the room, locking the door afterwards. The female across the room just grunted an acknowledgement as she carried on working.
Left unchained, Alexia didn't bother to explore her surroundings. As soon as the Tetraps left the room she hurried to Leela's side and tried to shake her awake. "Come on, Leela. Come back!" She uttered, forgetting how the Doctor and then genius' were woken from their hypnotic slumber. She didn't know if she could make Leela snap out of it either.
"Out of my way." The familiar voice of the female grumbled and Alexia was pushed aside by her.
Noticing who the female was, Alexia took several fearful steps back, watching as she waved some sort of instrument over Leela.
Immediately she noticed that the Sevateem warrior looked less stiff than she was several seconds ago. This time Leela's eyes closed like she was actually asleep. "What did you do?" Alexia demanded despite being scared.
"Took away the effects of the Tetrap hypnotism. She'll waken in a few minutes." The female answered.
"Why? Why would you do that?" Alexia asked.
"Because I like it best when they struggle!" Came the reply.
Alexia shuddered as she watched The Rani return to her two subjects. And one of them she recognised as the Sixth Doctor's companion, Peri Brown. Both of them were currently under The Rani's spell. She had to stop the Time Lady from doing some serious damage to the two humans. So Alexia turned her attention to The Rani, noticing several things different about her. When she last saw the Time Lady on Lakertya her dark brown hair was short, styled and well looked after. Now it was longer than ever and just a wild unkempt mess. She wondered how long The Rani had been here in Tetrapyriarbus?
"Rani?" Alexia called, carefully approaching the Time Lady. "Rani!" The Rani seemed to be ignoring her. "Rani, are you okay?" She asked and rolled her eyes soon after the question. Here she was, about to have her blood extracted, asking one of the worst Time Lords in Gallifreyan history if she was 'okay'.
Almost as if she'd heard Alexia's thoughts, The Rani turned to her, eyes narrowed. "Do I know you?" She asked, moving close to Alexia.
The woman shook her head, her heart pounding fearfully. "I wouldn't think so, no." She replied. "How long have you been here?"
The Rani stopped and frowned at the question. How long? She knew exactly how long it had been. "1,513,728,000 seconds, 25,228,800 minutes, 420,480 hours," the Scientist Time Lady answered. "17,520 days, 2,502,8571 weeks, 575,5619 months and 4…" The Rani suddenly screamed in pain and doubled over, clutching at her neck.
Alexia rushed to her side in order to help her, but The Rani stood up and pushed her away. "I must get back to work." She said, turning away, but not before Alexia noticed there appears to be a collar around her neck.
"What is that?" She asked. "What have they done to you?" She worried about the mentality of the Time Lady, because if she had her maths correct, then 575,5619 months was 48 years. The Rani had been on Tetrapyriarbus for 48 years. Had they kept her in prison for that long? "Do you even remember who you are?" Alexia continued to ask. But The Rani just ignored her and turned back to her test subjects. "Rani? Do you remember The Doctor?" Alexia asked, noticing a slight hesitance in the Time Lady's steps. "If you remember The Doctor then maybe he can help you." A faint groaning was heard from the other side of the room, which meant Leela was waking up, so Alexia went to check in the warrior.
The Rani watched Alexia do this, her eyes narrowed in thought. The name 'Doctor' did sound familiar and she was sure she'd seen that female before. She just couldn't think where.
Back in the cell, the Doctors continued to argue. And it only made Jaime more angrier. It was ridiculous that this had to happen every time. She didn't care if it was personality clashes, or some other silly excuse. It had to stop.
With a snarl, Jaime slammed her fists together, causing a shockwave in the cell. The three Doctors and one Half-Time Lord were blown to the ground with cries of surprise. "SHUT UP!" She roared loudly and this time they groaned and put their hands over their ears as pebbles and dust dropped down from the ceiling. "Really, just keep your gobs shut for now." The Scots-girl told them and then looked at the Fourth Doctor. "If you must know, Doctor, they're your future selves." She told him.
Eyes wide, Four looked at Six and Eight. "What?" He boomed out. Actual surprise washed off the Fourth Doctor.
Then Jaime turned her attention to J.D, a scowl on her face. "And why the bloody hell were you arguin'?" She demanded.
He had the good sense to feel embarrassed as his face blushed. "Sorry," he apologised, standing up with a grimace. "Force of habit."
The Doctors also gained their feet shortly after, but Jaime also felt curiousness and suspicion washing off Eight and Six. "Who are you?" Six asked her, eyes narrowed. "What are you?" He could sense there was something Time Lord about her but she was also human. And when he looked at the young male stood beside her, he was also the same way. "And you. What exactly are you?" He asked.
John rolled his eyes. "Brash as always, Doctor." He replied, exasperated.
"What!" Six squawked this time. "Brash? Me?"
He was about to cause another argument until the Fourth Doctor intervened. "ENOUGH!" He shouted. "This is Jaime, our daughter," he explained to Six and Eight who had waves of shock washing off them. "And this is John, our brother." Four nodded at the Half-Time Lord.
Six and Eight were even more shocked. "No, it's impossible," Six uttered. "Ridiculous."
Eight was quiet, thinking. If she only had half Gallifreyan DNA, that meant she had a human parent. But that didn't explain how he had a Half-Time Lord brother in John!
"Aye, whatever," Jaime spoke up and looked at Eight. "And you couldnae be more wrong. I was born human to a human parent and conceived by a human." The Eighth Doctor blushed, yet he wondered how she knew what he was thinking. "It would be handy if you actually remembered us." The Scots-girl told them.
"Remember?" The very brash Sixth Doctor continued to squawk. "I…" He halted when memories suddenly came to Mind. "Oh!" He seemed to mellow down a little and grinned. "Of course! Both of you are only half of what we are, but you're immortal. And you…" His attention was on Jaime. "Not only are you Half-Time Lord but you're a Psionic Manipulator and you call yourself The Omni." Grinning, Jaime was pleased that Six was now on the same page as everyone else. Now that just left Eight. "Come here my dear." The Sixth Doctor said and Jaime found herself being pulled towards him, brightly coloured clothing filling her vision as he hugged her.
It didn't take long for the Eighth Doctor to gain his memories. And when he did he gasped and his eyes widened. "Ohhh, now I remember!" He stated, his hands on his head.
"Makes a change from forgetting." J.D commented.
"You regenerated, that's why you look different." Eight said to the Scots-girl and then he looked at John. "The reason why you're only Half-Time Lord is because you're a Metacrisis."
Smiling grimly, John really hated to be reminded how he was 'born'.
Feeling a sudden wave of worry mixed with excitement, Jaime pulled away from Six, frowning at him. "We're here because of The Rani!" The Sixth Doctor realised. "That…woman…most likely has Peri in her sights."
"And Fitz," Eight added. "The Tetraps are hungry and they'll be wanting their plasma."
The Fourth Doctor nodded, also worried. "Leela's only just came aboard the TARDIS and I'm sure she would have put up a stink, but she was zapped by a Tetrap." He pulled his Sonic Screwdriver from his coat pocket. "We need to find a way out of here."
He used his Sonic to scan the door in a bid to open it, though because his Sonic was an earlier version it didn't register anything wrong with the door when it failed to open. Because the Sixth Doctor didn't use a Sonic it was up to the Eighth Doctor to try opening the door next. All he got was a scrambled signal. Then it was John's turn and it turned out the door was deadlocked, even though the door was made out of rock.
"How are we supposed to get out of here if none of our Screwdrivers work on that door?" Six moaned and sat down next to Jaime, looking rather forlorn.
"Says the one who didn't carry a Screwdriver!" John snarked which caused Six to scowl and sprang back to his feet.
"There is an alternative," Jaime spoke before another argument could break out. She'd been sitting, waiting for the Doctors to finish working out how to escape. She had her own plan in motion after all.
"Oh? What do you have in mind?" The Eighth Doctor asked.
She could tell she had everyone's attention. "I open a Portal." She told John and the Doctors. "And that gets us out of this cell and straight tae where The Rani is."
"But we don't even know where in this prison The Rani is." Four argued. And it did make him wonder what type of Portal his adopted daughter could open.
"That's simple," Jaime replied and stood up. "My ma's Watch is electronic, programmed by me. If I looked for it in my Mind I'd know where it is. Then I could link the Portal from here to the Watch."
The Doctors stared at her while John grinned, pride and adoration washing off him.
"That is actually quite smart," Eight uttered. "That is literally out of this world!" Four and Six agreed with their future regeneration. "Well, go on. What are you waiting for!" He egged her on. "Do it."
Smiling, Jaime closed her eyes and stretched her Mind out to find the familiar signature of her mum's Watch. The Doctors and John watched on and waited for what seemed like a long time to them. Finally, Jaime opened her eyes again, held her hand out and a Portal opened up where the cell door should be.
In the processing room, Alexia was doing her best to hold back Leela, trying to stop the Sevateem warrior from attacking The Rani. She explained the situation they were in and what was happening. And then Leela attempted to go for the Scientist Time Lady, but Alexia stopped her, while a wide-eyed Rani watched on.
"Why must you hold me back?" Leela asked, confused, yet angry. "If she is an enemy of The Doctor then she must be dealt with."
Alexia nodded grimly. "Yes, I realise that," she replied. "I don't exactly know what's going on, but The Rani isn't acting like her usual self. I don't know if she's faking or not because I can't Mind Read like my daughter can." Alexia let go of Leela and looked back at The Rani. "Maybe once The Doctor gets here he'll figure out what's wrong with you. If there's anything wrong with you."
But The Rani just brushed off her concern. "I don't need a Doctor, I'm perfectly fine. So just stay back and let me get back to my work." She said, turning her attention back to the unconscious Peri on the operating table.
"Do something!" Leela said to Alexia. "A warrior would not stand back and let somebody be hurt."
Alexia shook her head. "I'm not a warrior. I'm just a parent flying through Space and Time and getting into all sorts of trouble." She said. Although she did remember that her daughter had told her to cause a distraction in any way she could. That included the peach-like fruit she had. Just as she was thinking about it, there was a sudden loud beeping. "What?" Confused for the moment, Alexia realised it was coming from her Watch she wore.
"It is beeping!" Leela marvelled. "Should it be doing that?"
"I don't know, this hasn't happened before!" Alexia frowned, wondering why she was getting the urge to press a button on the number pad. She reached towards her Watch, only to pull back seconds later, feeling fearful. Something wanted to make her press it. Suddenly a hologram appeared from out of the Watch and Alexia stared at it in disbelief. "What the hell is this?" She exclaimed. "What, are you Princess Leia now?" She said to the hologram.
"Mother, you need tae press the button tae activate the GPS. Once you've done that we'll be with you shortly." The Jaime Hologram spoke.
"Oh…okay. So that was you in my head?" Alexia asked.
"Aye, it was. There was no need tae worry." Came the reply.
With a faint nod, Alexia pressed the button she was meant to press on the number pad and heard a beep. Then the hologram disappeared. Alexia let out an exasperated sigh. "I honestly don't know how she does it." She said.
"Who is Princess Leia?" Leela inquired.
Chuckling sheepishly, Alexia tried to figure out how to explain a Star Wars character to somebody primitive like Leela. And that thought gave her a good idea. "Princess Leia is a warrior…like you." Alexia answered and she saw Leela's brown eyes brighten.
"We always make the best warriors," she preened. "We almost share the same name. What did the warrior Leia do?" Leela seriously questioned.
Groaning, Alexia thought about how she should answer that question.
Luckily she was saved from answering any type of question when a Portal opened up near the door. Leela gasped and went for her knife, but Alexia stopped her. "No, it's okay. Look." She nodded at the Portal and they watched as three versions of The Doctor and two Half-Time Lords stepped out of the Portal.
"Doctor!" Leela cried out and rushed over to the Fourth Doctor where he fussed over her.
"Rani! I should have known, you despicable disgrace." The Sixth Doctor shouted, glaring angrily at The Rani. "What have you done to Peri?" He hurried over to where his companion lay on the table and tried to wake her up.
"Fitz!" The Eighth Doctor cried and went to help his companion.
Jaime watched as John went to help the Sixth Doctor with Peri, running a Sonic over her unconscious form, then she approached her mum when she felt her worry. "Are you okay?" She asked with a frown.
"Aye, I'm canny like," Alexia replied. "I'm not so sure about The Rani," she looked over at the Time Lady. "She's acting a bit off and I'm not sure if she's doing it on purpose."
Jaime looked over at the Time Lady with narrowed eyes.
The Rani was stood back, staring at the Doctors. But especially took notice in the Sixth. It was the bright clothing that somehow felt familiar. Yet she wasn't even sure she knew this man. She was trying to think, but faded memories came and went in a blink of an eye. "You seem to know me. Should I know you?" The Rani asked.
The Doctors stopped what they were doing and stared at The Rani, suspicion washing off them.
"Aye, you're right 'bout that ma'," Jaime spoke up. "She is bein' a wee bit off. Her Mind is fuzzy and full of confusion." She carefully approached the Time Lady. "She's definitely not puttin' it on."
"Well, yeah. She's been in this prison for a long time," Alexia spoke up. "About 48 years." She was given looks of surprise by The Doctors.
"How do you know that?" Four asked her.
"Because she told me," Alexia answered. "Except it was all in seconds, minutes and hours."
"That's some astonishing figures you worked out," the Eighth Doctor said as he continued to wake up his companion. "But 48 years is nothing to a Time Lord."
Yet Jaime shook her head. "Aye, it should be. Only it seems she's been in solitary. 48 years on her own. That's enough tae send anyone potty." She took a couple more steps towards The Rani, stopping when she felt that J.D was worrying.
"Be careful," he warned. "You never can tell with The Rani."
Faintly nodding her head, Jaime looked The Rani in the eyes. "Do you remember me?" She asked and felt confusion wash off her.
"No," The Rani replied. "Should I?"
With narrowed eyes, Jaime raised her hand and placed her fingers on the Time Lady's temple. The Scientist's eyes widened and gasped, followed by stumbling backwards into the wall. "No!" She panicked. "Stay away. You stay the hell away from me!"
As the Scots-girl tried to calm her, the shock collar The Rani was forced to wear was set off and she screamed painfully before falling to her knees.
"What was that?" Eight asked. "What just happened?"
Crouching over the Time Lady, Jaime used both hands to render her unconscious. When she stood and turned to everyone else she could sense that John was worried about her. Probably because he could sense her anger. Oh yes, she was very angry, pissed off. She had to push that anger back in order to stay calm and not worry John. "She's bein' controlled with a collar," she answered. "We need tae get out of here and that includes The Rani and her TARDIS."
The Sixth Doctor grumbled at this as Peri and Fitz both slowly stirred from their forced sleep.
Jaime ignored him. "I'm goin' tae open the Portal again. This time it'll lead out onto the town square. You need tae get tae your TARDIS' and if anyone tries tae stop you just buzz 'em with your Sonics. John, mum, you need tae gan with Six and Peri."
The Sixth Doctor huffed and Alexia was confused. "Who put you in charge?" He asked in his usual brash way. "We don't need a minder."
An angry glare was sent his way. "Jus' do as you're told, dad." Jaime snapped at him and the Sixth Doctor looked shocked before grinning dopily.
Alexia was still confused as Jaime walked past her to find an empty space to open a Portal. "Hold on, what about you?" She asked her daughter. "Aren't you coming with us?"
Jaime shook her head. "I'm goin' tae help The Rani find her TARDIS." There was a chorus of disagreement.
"Why would you even want to help her?" The Eighth Doctor asked. "After everything she did?"
The Scots-girl sighed. "Because she's been put through hell. And she's one of us." She answered.
Neither Doctor appeared all that keen to agree with her, but J.D grinned, knowing her for her empathy. He watched as she opened another Portal before approaching her. "You just be careful." He told Jaime and gave her a long kiss.
"Thanks!" Jaime replied and grinned. "Now go!" She ordered them and watched as the Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors ran through the Portal with their companions. They were followed by John. But Alexia didn't go through. "I'll be fine, ma'," Jaime told her mother. "I'll be back once I've sorted out The Rani and her TARDIS."
That was enough to convince Alexia and she gave her daughter a hug before stepping into the Portal to join The Doctors.
