Well, everyone, here is the chapter you've been waiting for, when Hero goes bad-freakin-ass! Hahaha

I can't resist adding one final cliff-hanger, however... Hope this chapter is as exciting for you to read as it was for me to write! :)

Disclaimer: ... yeah.

"Well..." the Doctor managed, his grip on my hand tightening slightly, "this is... unexpected..."

"Hmmm..." I still felt a strange amount of calm as I wiggled my legs absently, contemplating the vast whiteness below us and the vast cavern around and above our heads.

"I hope..." the Doctor began, but was cut off as whatever force was holding us up jerked our bodies up and down as if to get our attention. "Force field," the Doctor gasped, massaging his chest where the pressure had been greatest. I coughed, trying to get my breath back.

"WELL, DOCTOR, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF OUR JUSTICE? IS SHE... JUST AS YOU REMEMBERED?" This time the metallic voice sounded a bit more sardonic than before, and I frowned slightly.

"Not really, mighty DakTar," the Doctor replied, twisting his head back and forth in search of a speaker, "For one thing, she's a lot bigger than she was before," I snorted quietly as I tried not to laugh. "And, well, she is older and far more experienced than when I sent off into the universe."

There was another of those uncomfortable, grating laugh sounds and the alien continued, "DO NOT INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE, DOCTOR, IT DOESN'T SUIT YOU. THE TIME FOR YOUR SENTENCING HAS COME, AND YOUR... NEWEST COMPANION IS READY FOR OUR PURPOSES. SHE WILL PROVE USEFUL IN YOUR PUNISHMENT."

The Doctor grew agitated, his grip on me still tight and protective, "You will not touch her, she is a member of my species, the Time Lords, and I will not allow you to harm her, do you understand me?"

The alien (aliens?) laughed again, and I felt pressure pressing against me, pulling at our clasped hands.

"No!" I cried, in spite of myself, though perhaps less out of concern for myself and more for the fact that the Doctor was once more getting pulled away from me. With a shout the Doctor twisted himself forcefully in the air towards me, straining with all his strength to reach out his other hand and keep me from moving away. The strain on my hand was painful, now, and I cried out again.

The Doctor met my gaze momentarily, his eyes deep and dark, and then we were yanked completely apart and my hand stung. In the blink of an eye we were hovering some twenty feet from one another, both struggling to get free of the invisible force fields around us.

"THE MAN KNOWN AS THE DOCTOR IS ON THIS DAY AND HOUR FOUND GUILTY OF MISUSING HIS POWER AS A TIME LORD BY BREAKING UP OUR EMPIRE AND SCATTERING US TO THE CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE. HE WILL BE PUNISHED WITH THE MAXIMUM ALLOWANCE DICTATED BY OUR RULES OF HONORABLE JUSTICE. HIS SENTENCE: COMPLETE ISOLATION FROM OTHER LIFE FORMS, FROM HIS LINEAGE, FROM... HIS PEOPLE."

"No!" the Doctor cried, and for the first time since I'd first laid eyes on his youthful face I could see real fear and despair written on his features. "Look," he shouted, "you can do whatever you want to me, banish me to the place between spaces, let me not ever see the light again, but please..." His voice broke, and he looked straight at me. My blood ran cold.

"THIS IS THE BEST WAY FOR YOUR PUNISHMENT TO BE AFFECTED PERFECTLY. THE CHILD IS THE LAST FEMALE OF YOUR SPECIES, YOUR LAST HOPE FOR REPOPULATION. SHE SHALL BE ELIMINATED."

I couldn't breath. The Doctor shouted something else, his thrashing growing more desperate, but there was a rushing in my ears that prevented me from understanding his words.

"So this is it," I muttered, "this is the final test. Will I die with honor."

"REMOVING LIFE FROM A CHILD OF THE TIME LORDS IS NOT AN EASY TASK FOR US, DOCTOR, BUT BELIEVE US WHEN WE SAY THAT WE'VE RESEARCHED THE PROPER METHODS. REGENERATION SHALL BE AVOIDED."

Regeneration?

There was a flash of light that came out of nowhere, striking me straight in the chest. I couldn't scream, there was no breath left in me after the collision, but I felt my left-side heart shudder and stop. It felt like a solid lump of lead, thudding dully into death against my lung. I shuddered back in the air; if I had been standing I would have fallen over. Distantly I heard the Doctor's anguished voice calling my name. As a slowly raised a hand to touch the skin that had been hit, time seemed to slow almost to a stop.

Heat.

Blistering heat enveloped my entire body, burning in my chest and my legs and my face...

"What..." I looked down at myself, at my hands, and saw bright streams of light emitting from my skin. Throbs of pure energy and... what sounded like the TARDIS somewhere... pulsed through me, and I raised my head in the slow motion that was my current reality, and looked across the bright white abyss to the Doctor. He looked almost calm, his face composed, his lips parted slightly as he looked at me glowing like I was on fire. He looked deep into my eyes, nodding his head almost imperceptibly, and spoke directly into my mind.

"Let go, Hero, try and regenerate."

"What... what is happening to me? Will I die?"

"Let the change happen, it will save your life... Hurry!"

All at once the heat inside of me exploded tenfold and I screamed, feeling like I was exploding from the inside out with TARDIS energy. As my own internal light nearly blinded me, I found that I wasn't in pain, exactly, but almost like I was being stretched, pulled, from my body. As everything around me and in me pulsed, I saw another bolt of light from whatever the DakTar had used before to shoot me. It arched towards me slowly, time still slipping by at a snail's crawl. In a flash I realized all of it, that I was about to change just like the Doctor had when he was younger, to survive, and that this second bolt of light was going to make sure that process didn't happen, that when I died completely the Doctor's last hope of his species surviving would be gone along with me. He would be utterly and completely alone, and he was about to be forced to watch my death.

Righteous anger rose up inside me, not for the first time in the past few days.

But this time, I had something I could do about it.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" I cried, raising my glowing arms and laughing wildly as pure golden energy shot from them like a laser and deflected the beam coming at me in one smooth movement. Then I waved my arms gracefully around me like I was dancing, casting the glittering energy all around the Doctor and I in an incredible sphere of expanding light.

"SHE PASSES! SHE PASSES!" came a metallic scream from all around me, and everything when blinding white. I laughed again, fainter this time, feeling some of the energy drain out of me and leaving me feeling weak. Then almost at once, everything went black and I felt the sensation of falling down... down... down... into someone's strong arms, and then into unconsciousness.