The doctor double-checked the computer. Sure enough, the Verlocs all had nanogenes, not Lambda. The Master fooled them too. Why? That was just what the Master did on slow weekends when he was bored. The Doctor decided not to wake them up just yet – but he'd leave a note.

"What about all these… people?"

The Doctor noticed the slight hesitation before Meg called the Verlocs 'people', but didn't comment. "I'll set the flight computer to fly to the Shadow Proclamation before waking everyone up, let the Judoon deal with them."

"Shadow Proclamation? Judoon?"

"The Shadow Proclamation keep Earth and other oblivious planets in a couple of galaxies protected. They don't seem to do a fantastic job of it, but there's only so many mercenaries – Judoon – to go around. Thankfully.

"Earth is an inhabited world with sentient life forms. The Verloc we met was supposedly infected – just being there was releasing a super-virus on the population to kill all but the .0001% of the population with natural immunity. That's against the law of the Shadow Proclamation." Shooting Meg was probably payment for the 'cure.' Or perhaps Meg was infected long before, and the dart was something else entirely. There was no way of knowing with the Master.

"Will we have to testify?"

Brought back to the conversation, he shook his head. "Won't be necessary. They can read the guilt in their prisoners."

"And if they feel no guilt? They're killers."

The Doctor frowned, seeing her prejudice against aliens. He'd witnessed the same in many humans. He didn't have much patience for it as it was rude, narrow sighted, and usually resulted in catastrophically bad decisions. She probably wanted them all to rot in stasis forever.

"They'll sort it. Trust me," he said with little hope she would.

Slowly, she nodded. "Okay."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I won't say 'no harm no foul,' and desperation doesn't excuse the attempt, but you stopped them in time."

The doctor came to a decision then. "So. Where to next?"

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere. Any time."

It was such a simple question, but the Time Lord smiling before her offered the universe, the possibilities staggered her. Suddenly Meg felt like a child again when the world was a lot bigger, and Papa had just asked the same question, laying a worn and heavy atlas in her small lap. The same giddiness muddled her thoughts as it did then. Where to? So many choices. The Game of Fate, and it was her turn to choose; she would close her eyes, open the atlas at random and lower her finger…

Don't think. Just choose. "Your planet."

Like flicking a switch, the light in his eyes went out, as if the magic keeping his corpse alive suddenly faded away, and Meg was standing before a zombie. She recognized that look from her mirror, and like him, she learned to hide it, because that look sucked all the good feelings from a room, alienated the normal people. The Doctor lost everything he loved.

He was just like her.

Cutting him off before he could tell her some half believable excuse for why they couldn't visit, Meg said, "Actually, maybe next time. Better idea. I've always wanted to go K2."

"Done." The Doctor took the reprieve and pulled a lever hurtling them into Vortex.

Too late to amend her choice again. She chose it because she was thinking of her parents. It was always on her Bucket List to summit the mountain, to make it so the game was played as it should be. But she always found some excuse not to go. It was really one of the last places on Earth she wanted to visit. Maybe that was why they ended up where they did…