The second Scorch stepped out of the door, it was as though she'd thrown a switch on her demeanor. She moved like a dragonfly on fire, spinning about and talking.

"The lo-los in the rockets aren't going to be able to wait the full two hours," she said, her Texan accent thickening. She pointed at the soldiers in front of the computers. "Start scanning or radaring or whatever it is you people do here and see if you can find out exactly how the Krize are going to start their planet-wide alchemical tests. From there we can try stopping it. Start seeing where the satellites and other bits of space junk are. Maybe we can keep them from dropping on any major cities." Turning on the spot, she faced Colonel Mace.

"Still like the hat. Soldier Man, this is the Doctor. Irritating but useful upon occasion."

"Yes, we've met," Colonel Mace said. He didn't sound very proud of the fact. The Doctor seemed puzzled.

"We have?"

"Oh, it must be too early for you," Colonel Mace said acidly. "Just my luck I'd meet you out of order. Are you responsible for her?"

"No one is responsible for me…Colonel?" Scorch said, her sentence ending in a question. "I think that's your rank. Best guess." She spun again. "Gregory, how's that coffee doing? Oh, and I would love a shot of whatever alien diseases you happen to have lying about. Need to try and control my energy levels. Thanks." She snapped her fingers and pointed at the Doctor.

"Consultant, the usually over-cautious Krize are willing to alter a planet's structure while the Rahki who have planned everything out so far are simply ready to burn it. Why?"

"If you burn down a city, it stays burnt and lots of people die. It also produces immediate results, useful for a scare tactic. If you change the gravity, you can change it back no permanent damage done, but it takes a while to work."

"Doctor, if I may speak with you both," Colonel Mace interrupted with an extremely forced politeness. "As commander of this base I have the right and need to know exactly what is going on."

"Your planet is in danger of being crushed and/or burnt because of a genetic experiment that could potentially end time as we know it," the Doctor said casually. "What else do you need?"

"I can see you don't change with time. Unfortunately," Colonel Mace snarled. "Doctor, you may still be on the payroll as a consultant, but that's all you are."

"Oi!" Scorch snapped. "Sanders! If you haven't got something useful to add, keep your mouth shut!"

Colonel Mace glared at her. "We were on a diplomatic track until you showed up and started insulting everyone in sight, and as far as I understand it you are what everyone is fighting over. What makes you think—?"

"Think?" Scorch said, looking him in the eye. "I don't think, Colonel Sanders, I know. There are two ships up there, mortal enemies. With luck they might start firing on each other, but that's highly unlikely. They know I'm here, and they might start raining fire from the skies, or crushing us under our own weight, but they won't finish it. It's too big of a risk, because I am volatile, and if something happens to set me off this whole planet will become the center of a temporal black hole." Faint dashes and forks of light started to twine around Scorch's arms, growing brighter as she continued. "Races, centuries, inventions, soldiers, medicines, people, wars, all bleeding across the temporal boundaries into each other. Nothing can escape that, and neither the Rahki nor the Krize have any wish to be nearby if that happens. So if you would do me the great kindness of shutting up, standing back, and in general not irritating me, I and the planet would be very much obliged."

Scorch turned to the side and walked over to the Doctor, the multi-colored lightning she'd just had dancing around her fading. "How would someone start to change the atomic structure of anything from such a distance?" she asked, her voice quieting.

"I liked the light show," the Doctor said so only Scorch could hear. "Something you learned at TORCHWOOD?"

"You get bored," she said simply.

"Find out about the 'temporal black hole' while you were there too?" the Doctor asked. She shrugged in response.

"Sounded plausible. Is it?"

"I don't know, but I'd rather not find out," the Doctor said. His tone shifted. "I've never seen you quite so…"

"Irritated?"

"Defensive."

"I happen to like this planet, and the current universe, and I don't really want Sanders in my way."

"Is that his name?"

Scorch studied the Doctor for a moment. "When you have a chance, look up the fast food chain called KFC. Oh, I just remembered!" She turned to look at Colonel Mace.

"Sanders! Get one of your secretaries to take a note: on May 13th, 2011, you're gonna need to make sure you've got one of your teams over in America. Dinky little county in Northern California called Lake County. In it there's an even smaller town called Kelseyville. It's got a high school, and that evening you'll need to show up at the high school after…oh, let's say 9:30?—and clean up the bodies."

"What bodies?" the person madly scribbling down the instructions asked as Sanders glared at Scorch.

Scorch winked at him. "My first ones." She turned back to the Doctor. "No, that wasn't the all-important thing I still need to remember. So, alchemy from space."

Scorch didn't react when her vortex manipulator buzzed. Two longs, one short and a long. She had an incoming call, and it wasn't hard to guess who from.

She glanced at the Doctor, who was busy convincing Colonel Mace not to bring the missiles on line. Scorch smiled very briefly. She'd love to stay and listen, but this was her chance.

Tapping the shoulder of a nearby soldier, she said, "You wouldn't happen to have a bathroom around here."

The soldier gave a short, nervous nod. "Door right over there miss."

"Danke," Scorch said, walking towards it and hoping it was a single.

It was, and Scorch swiftly locked the door and leaned against it. She took a deep breath, choosing her emotions carefully before she flipped open the manipulator.

"What the hell do you want Julie?" she snapped.

"You," Julius said bluntly. Scorch gave a harsh laugh.

"What, a kiss wasn't enough for you?"

"Don't be crude; you know exactly what I mean."

"Oh, is the brave officer embarrassed?" Scorch taunted. "Don't be. Everyone else is passing me around like a second-rate whore; you might as well join the party! Bring a six-pack for yourself."

"You brought this on your own head, Trouble," Julius said, biting out the word. "That is your name, isn't it? The one you used to introduce yourself when we first met. Do you remember? TARDIS smoking and sparking from the damage she'd taken, the Doctor missing…"

"A lying officer with an army hiding behind a hill."

"What sort of pictures ran through your head until he finally called? A broken, bleeding body, gasping out his last alone as he kept believing you, of all people, would save him."

"Shut up Julie," she said shortly. "This isn't why you called."

"Then why did I call?"

"To offer to pick me up, promising simple death rather than a long life of who knows what."

"And?"

"No. I'll find a way out of this, I always do."

"Oh, of course!" Julius said condescendingly. "Your Doctor is here to save you now; everything will be all right."

"You know I didn't bring him here," Scorch accused. "I don't want him here. Bad enough the planet is at risk, I don't need him dying in the process. You're the ones that pulled him into this mess; I'd be much obliged if you'd get him out of it."

"Can't do that Trouble. His own curiosity brought him here. Just like the Institute."

Scorch inhaled sharply as a sharp pain danced up her spine. Harsh, flaming, sparking pain. It spread through her body swiftly as a mental picture of the Doctor's body, laid out as if dead, came to her mind. "How did you know about that?" she hissed as she wrestled her emotions down.

"Oh, we're everywhere. Did you know that he looked through the files on you? He knows what you are."

Katie felt her hearts stop. "He what?"

"Certainly," Julius said, sounding surprised. "Why wouldn't he take the opportunity to check up on you? He knows exactly what you were made for Trouble."

The air started to crackle and spark with energies that Scorch struggled to hold on to, her shifting emotions playing with her body chemistry and making things difficult. Julius kept talking. "That's why he's here; he has to save everyone from you. But who's there to save him from you, Scorch?"

There was a blinding flash of light as Scorch discharged. Multi-colored lightning flashed up to the ceiling, leaving black marks behind. Scorch marks.

What else would she leave them on?

Tap tap tap

"Kathryn?" Tap tap tap "You all right?"

For a few seconds, Katie couldn't speak. Then Scorch swallowed hard and said in a clear voice,

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine Doctor. I'll just be another minute."

Scorch waited a few seconds and then snarled into her wrist strap.

"Alright you bloody manipulative bastard. You've proved a point, but I've still got an hour and thirty minutes to find a way out of this, and I'm sure not going to come running to you for my execution. I have a life I want to live, Julie, and I'm not letting you get in the way."

"I'll be looking forward to your call," Julius said calmly.

"Don't count on it."

"I'll be sure not to gloat too much when it comes."

Scorch came whisking out of the bathroom and instantly called over to the people watching the Krize ship. "You're going to be getting some interesting readings soon, let me know what they look like when they show. Anyone keeping an eye on the planet itself? We're going to need to ship people outdoors."

Colonel Mace gave Scorch a surprised look. "It's been barely half an hour; you said two."

"I also said that they weren't going to wait that long."

"Bit impatient for a Krize though," the Doctor said, obvious questioning in his voice. Scorch gave him a quick look.

"Let's say I have a hunch that they're going to be applying pressure soon."

The Doctor gave her an open look. "They called you didn't they."

"Oh, look at the smart one showing off as usual!" Scorch said a bit sarcastically. "Yeah, I got an offer a minute ago. Not surprised by it. I'm expecting the Rahki to send me a message too, though they might ship it out by Jahra." She glanced at Colonel Mace. "Don't think that just because you're UNIT you've escaped the body swappers."

"What on Earth are you talking about?"

Scorch grimaced. "That's right, you don't know. Then again, you might. Never know. Of course, I suppose this whole room could be made of you by now."

"If we have an information leak that you know about—"

"It's not a leak; it's a gaping hole, if it exists. Don't worry, they don't care. See, the Rahki make a living creating clones that they call Jahra. Insta-life recorders. Trade the original person out, let the Jahra live, retrieve the Jahra and stick the original in the ground or whatever a race does for their dead."

Colonel Mace gave the Doctor a look. "So even he could be one."

"Nope," Scorch said, shaking her head. "The Doctor is the only one I don't siphon life and energy from on contact." She leaned in conspiratorially. "In case you missed it Sanders, that was a warning to not forcefully remove me from the room."

"Why is the Doctor the only safe one?"

"Don't know." Scorch turned to the Doctor, an angry spark in her eyes. "He knows, but I don't think he's telling, are you Doctor dear?"

The Doctor's eyes widened just a touch, his expression the one he used only when he was properly surprised and worried. "Where did you hear that?"

"The Krize. Makes sense really," she said, her tone signaling a deep hurt. "Have to come save everyone from me, but first you look for any other way out. So you left. Running as usual." Her laugh held no humor. "Why am I not surprised?"

Scorch turned away to sit down at one of the computers. She picked up a set of headphones, making eye contact with the Doctor, obviously sending him a message. She let the headphones snap over her ears and turned to the screen, pulling up an image of the Earth from space and locating the different satellites.

"Ick," she said, grimacing. "Don't like the way those are lined up. Never realized we had so many."

"Sir, there's a signal coming out from the Krize ship," one of the many soldiers called. "It's not communication, but they're bouncing it off of our satellites, using them to spread the signal around the planet. Judging by the current speed, we have about two minutes before it's finished circling."

"Oh, that's clever," the Doctor said, leaning over Scorch's shoulder as she pulled up the information on her own screen. "Don't have to spend as much power, makes it last longer, but still effective."

Scorch frowned pensively and clicked her teeth. "Doctor," she said slowly. "If, as you hypothesize, this marvelous signal is going to turn all our iron into something heavier, would it affect only pure iron, or would anything containing iron be affected?"

"I suppose it would depend on how much iron," the Doctor answered. He raised his eyebrows, understanding why Scorch was asking. "Oooh…Now that's…"

"Inconvenient," Scorch filled in for him.

"Extremely." The Doctor glanced at the room around him as if sizing something up.

"And messy," Scorch added nodding. "Really, really messy." She turned in her chair to look at Colonel Mace. "Sanders, off the top of your head, how many skyscrapers would you say the U.K. has?"

"Dozens," he answered. "Why?"

"How many of them would you say used steel for the main structure?"

"All of them."

"How fast can you evacuate those buildings?" the Doctor asked, his voice worried.

"Evacuate?" Gregory asked. Scorch had nearly forgotten he was still there. "To where?"

"Anywhere that the structures are made solely of wood/and or brick," Scorch said. "Outside away from buildings would be the absolute best. And then you might want to find some way to stop trains, land planes, get people out of cars, and otherwise move people away from anything made out of steel."

"Steel?" Gregory asked. "I though you said they were aiming for iron."

"Guess what steel is primarily made of, Ambassador Boy," Scorch said blandly. She shook her head incredulously. "Doctor, I don't think the Krize are playing by their own rules anymore. Forget changing gravity!" She looked up at the Doctor. "This planet uses steel for everything. Nothing's going to be able to support itself. It's all going to fall in. Everything is going to collapse."

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