UNIT Headquarters

"What the hell are you doing here?" Scorch shouted at the Doctor as the door to the side room shut.

"Nice to see you too Kathryn."

"You aren't supposed to be here!" Scorch continued, ignoring his attempt at making peace. "I did everything I could to stop you from finding me!"

"The Krize gave me a call," the Doctor said. "I was told the Scorch Project was coming to a close and I couldn't afford to miss it."

Scorch snorted. "Of course. It would be them. Have to keep everything in sync. How'd they get your number? I know it hasn't been going through any sections of space."

"Julius planted a bug when we were on Beriin."

Scorch sighed angrily. "Should have known. Should have checked. Well, you've made your showing, now get."

"What?"

"I don't want you here," Scorch said, pronouncing the words clearly. "You are in the way. This fight is not yours. Today, it's all about Scorch and what is wrong with her. You have nothing to do with this."

"I think I do."

"Well you aren't always right, Doctor," Scorch hissed. The Doctor seemed puzzled rather than offended.

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Like what?"

"Your language. You're using Rahki."

Scorch made a face. "No I'm not," she said, switching to Atlantian. The Doctor just continued to look at her. She fixed him with a look of her own, then sighed. "Look, I don't care if the Rahki's original plan was for you to keep me stuck to your side. We parted ways, we're done. You don't need to feel responsible for my safety now, so leave."

The Doctor looked worried. "You know what you were built for?"

Scorch looked offended. "Of course not! But I got a Q&A session with my lead designer back at the Kurunathan Institute. You pick up a lot if you listen. Why would it matter anyway? You are leaving. Today is gonna be messy enough without someone like you in the mix."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "How bad are you expecting it to get?"

"Oh, don't play stupid," Scorch said acerbically. "You know very well that if I stay on Earth, it gets destroyed. If I go to the Krize, they'll execute me and the Rahki-Krize feud will blow up and start an interstellar war that might turn into a temporal war as well. If I go with the Rahki, then they get to finish whatever I was made for. I'm hoping that the Krize and the Rahki will blow each other up before either one gets me. That's the only reason I called the Krize."

"You called the Krize?" the Doctor asked in surprise. "How did you manage that?"

Scorch gave him a slightly disgusted look. "You may have been gallivanting around the cosmos for however long in your personal timeline, but I have spent the last two months rewiring and reprogramming everything TORCHWOOD Three has to, among other things, pick up interstellar communiques. When the Krize start moving away from their planet, people sit up and take notice. I knew I'd have to call them eventually, so I started putting pieces together until I essentially had their number. When I intercepted the Rahki's call that they were on their way for a chat, I sent an interspatial text to the Krize, and they came right when I asked them to."

"Find out anything about yourself?" the Doctor asked.

"Rumors mostly, none very good. Rahki are playing close to the vest, but I think they're cheating too. Hope the Krize have some kind of ace up their sleeves."

The Doctor gazed at her for a split second, and then asked, "How'd you get here from the 51st century?" Scorch lifted up her arm, showing the Doctor her vortex manipulator.

"The Time Agency was still running in the 51st. I got lucky; one of the agents was on vacation on Kurunathan. I jumped him and stole the manipulator. And no he's not dead or anything, he's perfectly fine. A few buttons later and I was in 21st century Cardiff. Right now, it's scrambling the signal I'm sending out, keeping the Rahki from getting their hands on me. Not sure how much longer it'll last. Battery's low."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned Scorch. Still holding the sonic, he grabbed her left hand, flipping her arm to look at the inside of it, then scanned again. He looked at the screwdriver for a few moments longer than necessary before speaking.

"You've got a chip inserted into your arm. It's part of the bone, only way you'd get it out is if you cut it off. Even then I don't think that would completely remove it. Odd, you didn't have this when we met."

Scorch jerked her arm away, the message clear though she didn't say the words. The Doctor was surprised at how much the move hurt, but didn't say anything about it.

"Did Randalls put it in at the Institute?" he asked.

"Must have," Scorch said. "My rock/transporter thing was burnt out and I wasn't carrying it, I didn't have the chip before that, and my arm has been sore ever since then."

The Doctor regarded her like a bug on a card for a moment before frowning for moment. "You look perplexed."

"I feel like I've forgotten something, but I have no idea what," she said, momentarily distracted. "I woke up feeling like there was something I should know, but don't. Oh well, it'll come eventually."

The Doctor smiled lightly at the quick glimpse of Kathryn before moving on to the next topic. "Last time you were in Cardiff, you were on the verge of overloading and nearly went insane. Two extra months couldn't have helped any."

Scorch swallowed and nodded, for a moment looking like the scared teenager she was before her shields were back up. "Yeah. I've been fighting it back, but the Cardiff Rift filled me to capacity. That's what the light show with the T.V. screen was. I had to make sure they knew how close to the edge I am." She held out her hand as if inspecting her nails. Instantly, multicolored sparks and rolls of light covered it. "It takes a lot of concentration, but I can keep it locked down. Only problem is that I can't go anywhere. I used up what I think was my last temporal trip to get here from Cardiff. If I go through the vortex again, I'll pop. Who knows what'll happen then."

"That must hurt," the Doctor said, empathetic. Scorch just gave him a look.

"No kidding. What led you to that brilliant conclusion?"

"Your pulse," the Doctor said, nodding at her jugular vein, which was pulsing as usual. "It's been erratic ever since I walked in, like you keep losing part of a heart."

"Energy destroys, Doctor," Scorch said seriously with a strained voice. "Even for a containment unit, energy destroys. I just get to be a lucky one that rebuilds as soon as it breaks, so while I'm torn apart on a cellular level, I get repaired so that I can have my cells ripped to pieces again. So yes, it hurts." She looked down at her vortex manipulator. "I've lost seven minutes talking to you, and I have a planet to save. If you'd leave—"

"Not a chance," the Doctor said, grinning. Scorch didn't seem amused.

"Can't resist a life-threatening situation, can you?" She sighed heavily. "Fine. I hacked this place a few times while I was bored. Seems you were a consultant in the seventies after an exile from your home world. You can pick that station up again. Frankly, you don't really understand what the risk is this time Doctor. The Earth burning is nothing compared to what could happen."

"Then tell me; what could happen?"

Scorch shrugged. "A temporal explosion."

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*