It was much quieter now; the day was drawing to an end. After pulling together to help clear up the vast mess that is the result of all large parties, most of the Gallifreyans had now gone home. The tables and chairs were being tidied away by a team of large, robot-like wooden servants – the Drudges – who worked with monotonous efficiency. As well as Kerry, the Doctor and the boy, only a handful of Gallifreyans had remained; among them were Marcarstam (who had given to two youngsters permission to call him 'Old Marc', seeing as his full name was rather a mouthful), Valstrem, Flayden, the President and Vice-President Borusa. (Ronan was around somewhere, with the Chancellory Guard; if Kerry had been looking, she would have spotted him peering out from behind whatever he was hiding behind.)
The small company were watching the dazzling sunsets (each of Gallifrey's three suns went down about 10 minutes apart) and mulling over the day's events. Kerry was trying to sort something out in her head; something that Old Marc had revealed during the speeches to the people.
"How did you know about me going into the Caves?" she asked him finally. "You appear to have known even before we arrived!"
"I knew even before you were born that you'd come," Old Marc replied with some amusement. "I am a Foreseer; the most powerful on (or in this case, under) Gallifrey. I saw a prophesy that one day, a young, lonely traveller would disappear and be in grave danger, but that a young girl by the name of Kerry-Anne would rescue him from harm. You, that girl called Kerry-Anne, fulfilled that age-old prophesy when you rescued our young friend here."
"Young, lonely traveller…" murmured the Doctor to himself. "Hmmm…"
Old Marc appeared not to notice this, and settled back in his chair, caressing his playful inkwell. He gazed again at the spectacle of the sunsets, and it was a long minute before he spoke again.
"You will be remembered forever on this planet," he said, almost to himself. "You will go down in Gallifreyan history."
Kerry also sat back, thinking again. She had been called many honoured names in the last couple of hours, including 'Brave Rescuess' and 'Fearless Cave Destroyer'. This was all very well, but Kerry was unable to relax and enjoy her sudden popularity. She just could not get her head around one particular fact – though she had travelled back into Gallifrey's past, she couldn't understand how she was supposed to have fulfilled the Prophesy before she had been born. She was half afraid to ask in case she offended the Gallifreyans, who might think that she doubted what they were telling her. So she just sat back to watch the suns sink slowly down behind the horizon.
The Doctor too was deep in thought. This young, long-haired boy who had been the other half of this Prophesy had just been described as a 'lonely traveller'. Now the Doctor knew that this could just have been a figure of speech, but he himself had been called 'lonely traveller' many times before, and it just seemed odd that all the other Gallifreyan children had all seemed quite sociable, while this one lad had gone, alone, into one of the most dangerous places on Gallifrey. He had been like that once before…
"How old are you?" he suddenly asked the lad. Kerry and the others turned to look at him.
"Eight," replied the boy replied, looking non-plussed. The Doctor tried to cover his sudden awkwardness with another question.
"Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?" he asked.
"I want to be a Doctor when I grow up," confided the boy with enthusiasm. "And I want to travel in a TT Type 40 TARDIS!"
The Doctor suddenly looked like he'd been stung by some sort of intergalactic bee. He appeared to be having difficulty speaking. Kerry, alarmed, felt a sudden urge to ask the boy a question that most people ask on at least their second meeting.
"What is your name?" As soon as the boy had told her, an even stranger change came over the Doctor. His mouth hung open, his knuckles were white from gripping the arms of his chair, and he had apparently frozen solid. Kerry stared at him in alarmed concern as the Doctor sat motionless.
"Doctor, are you alright?" she asked him eventually. The Doctor snapped to with a jerk and leapt from his chair, shaking his hair into a blur and grinning.
"All this time I've been wondering how nobody's recognised one of their own blood – namely me – arriving on the planet!" he almost sang. "You didn't even blink an eyelid when you saw we'd arrived in a TARDIS!" A couple of the Drudges nearby paused to gawk (if a wooden-faced 'robot' can gawk) at this strange man dancing funny little jigs in front of a bemused audience. "Now I think I know why!" he was yelping, "It's because there's currently two of me on Gallifrey! All your technology is picking up both our identities, but only classing them as one! The earlier version, naturally!"
Then it dawned on Kerry just what the Doctor was saying. "You mean…" she murmured, looking from the Doctor to the boy and back again.
"YES!" screeched the Doctor, making everyone wince, and frightening Old Marc's inkwell so badly that it tried to burrow up the old man's sleeve. "Our young friend here is the 8-year-old version of me!"