"We're clear," the Doctor announced as the movement of the time rotor slowed. "Come along, Nyssa." He moved toward the interior door.
"What now?" she asked.
"If we're going to stop Omega, I have one or two things to get together."
On Gallifrey, the occupants of the computer room waited nervously, watching the monitors for any sign that Omega had noticed the departure.
Deep within the Matrix, a fierce battle was taking place. Borusa and Omega fought mind against mind, each constructing barriers and attacking the other's defences as they struggled for supremacy over the virtual space. Omega was the stronger of the two, having spent millennia trapped in a universe shaped only by his own thoughts, maintaining his identity through sheer force of will, but Borusa did not need to win, only to distract and delay. He led Omega on a merry chase, building a maze to frustrate the former Time Lord.
It was working. For now.
The Doctor worked quickly to assemble the device he needed, having entrusted Nyssa to monitor their progress. She had followed his directions and used Thalia's device to input new landing coordinates once they'd arrived at the Arc of Infinity.
"We're almost ready to materialise on Earth," she called to him from the console.
"Good. Nearly finished," he said, not looking up.
"What will that do?" she asked, only after he began fitting the device's enclosure together. She'd held off on asking until he'd finished the fiddly bits that might require concentration.
"Omega's using a fusion booster to build up energy to transfer. If we can attach this to his equipment, it'll knock it out of phase, feeding the power back through the system," he replied, verifying that it turned on properly. The TARDIS' landing chime sounded. "Ah, excellent timing." He traded devices with her, handing her the phase modifier and taking the tracker as the TARDIS shuddered back into normal space. Switching Thalia's device to fine tuning mode, he turned to his companion with an amiable smile. "Let's go out and see where we are then."
The TARDIS scanner showed that they had landed on a small bridge over a picturesque canal and indeed, that was the scene that met them when they exited the ship. The dense city they'd landed in was beautiful. Elegant older architecture on narrow, tree-lined streets contrast with late twentieth century automobiles and low canal boats. Several pedestrians and bicyclists gave them startled or confused looks as they passed by, but none stopped to question the pair of time travellers about their mysteriously appearing blue box.
"Oh, it's lovely," Nyssa said, somewhat surprised. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but this was unusually pleasant.
Turning in a circle with one hand inside his coat to draw out his hat, the Doctor took in the view. "I believe we're in Amsterdam," he said, eyeing the canal and a sign in a nearby shop window written in Dutch. Something about that struck him as odd, but he couldn't place it, and they were working against a deadline. He unfolded his hat, placed it firmly on his head, and set off down the sidewalk at a hurried pace, tracker blinking in his hand. Nyssa had to jog to keep up with his longer legs.
They chased the signal through the city, passing clumps of tourists taking photographs, outdoor patio cafés, street markets, and an ever-growing stream of commuters as the work day wound to a close. The Doctor was so focused on the device readout that he didn't realise they'd circled the same block twice until Nyssa pointed it out to him. He stopped in his tracks and frowned.
"According to the tracker, we're nearly on top of the antimatter signal," he said, looking around. They'd entered a quieter neighbourhood, a large house with well manicured grounds to their immediate left, sitting adjacent to a park. The tranquil splashing of an elaborate fountain and twittering birds largely masked other sounds of the urban environment. He held out the tracker and swept his arm in a slow arc, parallel to the ground. Nyssa watched the readout on the display. The device registered antimatter strongest just ahead of them in the street, but there was nothing there that they could see.
"Could Omega have some sort of cloaking technology with him?" she wondered.
"It's possible, but I think we're missing something obvious."
The Doctor waited for a car to pass and then wandered out into the street. He circled slowly, coming to a stop finally in the centre of the traffic lane. He shook the tracker, striking it firmly against his other hand and frowned. Then, he bent down, lowering himself slowly into a crouch, eyes fixed to the display. A wide grin spread on his face and he sprung up to return to Nyssa on the sidewalk.
"I should have realised! We've been quite literally on top of him," he said. "Omega's ship is hiding underground."
"How do we get to him?" she asked, searching their surroundings for any likely access points and finding none in evidence.
"Hm." The Doctor looked thoughtful and began his own visual appraisal of the street. His expression brightened as he spotted a gardener up ahead. "Perhaps we can ask."
Striding over to the middle aged man in dark coveralls tending to a hedge, the Doctor put on a friendly smile and greeted him cheerfully. "Hello, I was wondering if you might help us. My friend lost her ring in the street; we think it may have rolled into a drain. Is there any way to get below the street level nearby?" The man stared at the Doctor blankly.
"Ik begrijp het niet," he said.
The Doctor was taken aback. He ought to have understood the man, and the man, him, thanks to the TARDIS' translation circuits, but he didn't. He had a strong suspicion of what the gardener had said - the context made it pretty clear and a couple of the words sounded similar to a few languages he did know - but it wasn't being translated for him. That was troubling; had his altered biology disrupted the operation of the translation matrix as well? And if he wasn't speaking Dutch, what had he used to speak to the man? The Doctor thought for a second and realised he'd unconsciously slipped back into speaking Trakenite with Nyssa since they'd departed Gallifrey. With no one left in the universe to speak her native tongue, he'd asked her to teach him so that she could hold onto that small piece of her lost culture. In return, he'd taught her English and enough Gallifreyan that he'd had to learn to watch his use of more colourful phrases while making difficult TARDIS repairs. She'd giggled quietly for days once after she'd overheard him mutter something particularly rude about a gravimetric quantizer that refused to cooperate.
He apologised and tried repeating himself in English.
This time, the man nodded with comprehension and told them in a heavy accent that there was a maintenance stairwell behind the fountain that lead to an underground crypt and pump rooms. "I doubt you'll find anything down there; if your girlfriend's ring fell in the street, it's most likely in the sewer by now. You'll never get it back."
The Doctor smiled apologetically. "I've got to try. The ring had sentimental value, you see," he said with as much youthful earnestness as he could produce to sell the lie. He thanked the man, promised to obey his admonition not to touch anything electrical, and they went to find the stairs.
Though the crypt had long ago been repurposed for the more prosaic task of housing pump equipment and gardening tools, it retained some of the solemn character of its former occupation. The Doctor withdrew a torch from one of his pockets and handed it to Nyssa as they descended. He held the tracking device out like a lantern, using it to guide them. The signal lead to an ordinary pump room, where the sound of the heavy machinery operating inside made normal conversation difficult.
"This is it," shouted the Doctor over the din, "the fusion booster from Gallifrey!" He went over to an unassuming-looking device attached to a wall. "Of course," he said. "I should've realised. We're below sea level here, all the better to maintain pressure for the fusion conversion. Quickly, Nyssa, hand me the phase modifier."
She handed him the sabotage device and held the torch so that he could see to work. With the noise from the pumps, neither of them heard the Ergon exit Omega's TARDIS until the creature fired its weapon, missing the Doctor only because he'd chosen that exact moment to bend forward to inspect his work.
Startled, Nyssa screamed and dropped her torch. This distracted the misshapen bird-like creature long enough for the Doctor to charge it, hitting the creature's side hard enough that he forced it to drop its weapon. Nyssa scrambled to retrieve it while the Doctor wrestled with their attacker.
"Nyssa!" the Doctor cried, rapidly losing ground to his opponent. The creature was much stronger than he was.
She picked up the weapon and aimed it steadily. "I can't fire without hitting you, Doctor, you've got to move!"
The Doctor dropped all of his weight to one side suddenly, wrenching the creature around and into the line of fire. Nyssa took the shot he'd given her and his assailant abruptly disappeared. With nothing to support him at that awkward angle, the Doctor fell to the floor.
"What was that?" Nyssa asked, coming over to help the Doctor to his feet again.
"An Ergon. One of Omega's less successful attempts at psychosynthesis, I believe." He took the weapon from her and examined it suspiciously. "Now that's interesting. It was armed with a matter converter."
"It's left a door open; we'd better move before it closes," she said, interrupting his thoughts.
"Yes, of course," he agreed.
Together they entered Omega's TARDIS.
Inside the ship they were met with Omega himself, an oddly forlorn sight in a battered exosuit slumped in a chair that was positioned on a dais in the centre of the room. The figure lifted a hand weakly toward them when they entered.
"Drop the weapon, Doctor." Omega's deep voice was still powerful even if his body was not. "Drop it or the Earthwoman dies." Another limp flick of a wrist and an interior door swung open, revealing a familiar young woman slumped on a bench in the other room. Next to her were two young men, similarly unconscious, but all three were obviously still breathing.
"Tegan!" Nyssa exclaimed, recognising her friend immediately.
The Doctor dropped the weapon.
"It's too late, Omega. You can't transfer now," he said. "You must return to the other universe."
"It is you who are too late," Omega replied, "I have all the energy I need. I shall transfer and cease to be antimatter!"
He raised his arms and hundreds of lights on the panels behind him lit up in unison. His chair began to shake and the gentle hum of his equipment grew louder until it filled the space. Then, suddenly, warning alarms sounded, adding to the cacophony, and the lights in the chamber turned blood red.
"What have you done?!" Omega demanded angrily.
A bank of electronics along the wall exploded, showering them all with sparks and bits of shattered glass. The Doctor moved to shield Nyssa with his body and the two stumbled back from the dais.
"Omega! You don't even have a complete biodata imprint to work with, the transfer will never work! Go now, please, while you still have a chance," the Doctor shouted at him.
"I must transfer!" Omega ignored the Doctor's pleas, and the TARDIS shook violently as the Arc of Infinity shifted.
"Get down!" The Doctor hurled himself to the floor over Nyssa just in time. There was a tremendous burst of light followed by the concussive force of a pressure wave as all of Omega's transfer equipment exploded. Dust and debris filled the air for a few moments and then all was silent.
Coughing and ears ringing, the Doctor rose to his hands and knees, pulling up Nyssa to check that she was all right before turning his attention to anything else. She was frightened, but alive and unharmed. Waving her hands in front of her face to clear away the particulates, she peered over at Omega's prone body.
The figure in the black and gold exosuit stirred, and Omega's manic laughter carried across the room. "Yes, Doctor. I live." The Time Lord climbed unsteadily to his feet and fumbled with the melted helmet of his suit.
"It's not permanent. It will fail, revert to antimatter. The bond was never completed." The Doctor had regained his own footing and approached the dais.
"Oh, wasn't it?" Omega taunted, and removed the helmet using both hands.
Nyssa gasped. The Doctor took a step backwards in surprise. The ancient and powerful Omega now wore the face of Tegan Jovanka.
"What have you done?" the Doctor asked.
Omega sneered at him using Tegan's mouth, stripping off his gloves as he spoke. "You gave me little choice, Doctor. Denying me access to your biodata by changing your form was clever, but ultimately unwise. When Hedin failed to provide me with a replacement, I had to make do with what I had available. This Earthwoman came charging in here, looking for her companion, and I discovered she was known to you. That made using her rather fitting, don't you agree?"
"Tegan is human! Their bodies aren't capable of sustaining a Time Lord mind. Even if you've completed the transference properly, you'll burn through that body in a matter of hours," he argued.
"You're wrong, Doctor. I have life again. And if this body fails, I will make another. You've destroyed my TARDIS, but I can replace that as well. Expect me on Gallifrey soon." And with those parting words, Omega left the ship.
The Doctor immediately stooped to hunt through the debris.
"Doctor, quickly! Omega is getting away," Nyssa called to him from the doorway.
"Help me find the matter converter. I can't stop Omega without it."
"I'll find it," she insisted, coming back and urging him toward the door. "You follow Omega; we'll catch you up."
Giving Nyssa a pained look, he obeyed, and exited the ship to chase after Omega.
Working efficiently, Nyssa located the weapon they'd liberated from the Ergon amid the tangle of wires and broken equipment on the floor and hurried to clear a path to the other room where Tegan had been. The blast had thrown the interior door closed and a section of the ceiling had fallen in front of it. Prying the door open, she checked on her friend and the two young men. They roused when she prodded them, but seemed extremely confused, as though they'd been drugged. Only Tegan truly responded normally, snapping to coherence at the shock of seeing her old friend's face again.
"Nyssa? Is that really you? What are you doing here?" she asked, amazed.
Out in the late afternoon sunshine, the Doctor's pursuit of Omega continued.
He'd nearly stumbled over the gardener's body as he came up out of the crypt and discovered that Omega had changed clothes with the man. It was hardly the most inconspicuous disguise he could have chosen, and spotting a short brunette woman wearing oversized men's coveralls hadn't been difficult. His superior height was an advantage as well, allowing him to close the distance between them. He was thankful that they'd prevented Omega from using his biodata; he doubted it would have been quite as easy chasing himself through Amsterdam.
As he dashed past yet another person who gave him an alarmed look, it occurred to the Doctor that he might need to invent a plausible explanation as to why he was pursuing a woman through the streets. If stopped, his intentions might be easily misinterpreted. He needed to catch up with Omega, now, preferably somewhere where they did not have an audience.
Nyssa consulted the tracking device in her hands. "The magnetic shield is in accelerated decay now. We must hurry," she reported.
Tegan glanced over at her friend in concern. "What happens if we can't get to Omega in time?"
"He'll revert to antimatter," she said, leading the way through the park.
"And then what?"
Nyssa didn't answer her, but the look on her face said enough. Tegan started to jog faster.
"Give it up, Omega, you can't continue like this," the Doctor said, having finally cornered his quarry at the end of a pier along one of the wide canals.
The ancient Time Lord's resemblance to Tegan was fading fast; the body was deteriorating rapidly, enormous sections of skin bubbling and dissolving back into antimatter. Omega's shielding was mere minutes from total failure. "I warned you this would happen."
"Things could have been different. I would've brought greatness and innovation to Gallifrey again, if you hadn't allowed your fear and hatred of me to poison your minds against what I was offering!"
"We didn't hate you, Omega," the Doctor said, genuine regret in his voice. He could sense the deep current of hurt and betrayal that lay beneath the righteous anger of Omega's words. "Perhaps things could have gone differently, if you'd reached out to the High Council openly, rather than conspiring in secret to seize power."
Omega laughed bitterly. "You don't believe that any more than I."
The Doctor looked away. "Why couldn't you have been content to survive as you were?" he muttered, more to himself than Omega, because he knew that it was an unfair question to ask. Omega had once been a scientist and explorer, and he had lost everything in his quest for knowledge. His enduring legacy was the Time Lords' mastery of travel throughout all of time and space, but he'd paid dearly for it; even the universe which he'd been born into had rejected him.
Omega answered it anyway, his rich voice flat with exhaustion. "It was time to come home, Doctor. Time for rest, to find peace. But now it's over."
"Doctor!"
Nyssa and Tegan came running up the cobblestone embankment, interrupting them. Nyssa tossed the Doctor the matter converter. He caught it and aimed it reluctantly at Omega.
"I can expel you, or destroy you, Omega. It's your choice." His voice was firm. "You're endangering the whole of the cosmos by your mere presence here. This universe can no longer be your home."
"What you offer is worse than death. And if I am to be denied life, then all must perish with me," Omega raised what was left of his chin defiantly. The air around his body began to shimmer faintly.
"Don't do this Omega," the Doctor tried one last plea.
"What's he trying to do?" Tegan asked.
"Willing his own destruction," the Doctor answered. "Nyssa, get Tegan away from here."
"What? No!" Tegan protested, but Nyssa's steel grip on her arm won out.
"Farewell, Doctor." Omega closed his eyes and the scent of ozone boiled off of him.
The Doctor pulled the trigger.
Tegan was beaming at them both, having just explained that her cousin Colin would be released from hospital in a few days and his parents had arranged with the consulate to get a temporary passport issued so that he could fly home to Brisbane afterward.
"Excellent news," agreed the Doctor.
"And what about you?" Nyssa asked her.
Tegan laughed. "Me? Oh, I'm fine. I'm indestructible."
The Doctor cleared his throat and clasped his hands loosely behind his back, signalling that it was time he and Nyssa were off. He was trying to be polite, but there was still business to conclude on Gallifrey and he was already very tired. After which, they would need to see about reversing his chameleon arch trick; he was not especially looking forward to enduring that painful experience again.
He'd deliberately avoided mentioning his transformation when giving his brief summary of the events leading to their chance meeting in Amsterdam. In light of how certain events had played out, that information felt oddly private to him, something that he and Nyssa alone had shared. Still comfortably in sync with him, Nyssa had respected the omission when Tegan had pressed her for more details without his asking her to.
"It's been marvellous to see you again, Tegan," he said warmly. He was genuinely glad to see her happy and well after their rather abrupt parting of the ways at Heathrow.
"Indeed. I've missed you. I wish you didn't have to go back to your job," Nyssa held out her arms to hug her friend goodbye.
"What job? Didn't I tell you? I got the sack." She laughed again. "You'll not be getting rid of me that easily this time."
"Oh Tegan, that's wonderful! We'd love to have you back aboard the TARDIS, wouldn't we Doctor?" Nyssa's excitement at having her friend back bubbled out of her.
"Yes, of course." He attempted to look pleased, but the smile failed to reach his eyes.
She found him in the console room several hours later, after Tegan had gone to bed.
They stood opposite one another, the gently drifting time rotor dividing the space between them, uncertainty palpable in the air. It was the first quiet moment they'd had alone together since early that morning and so much had been left unsaid. The Doctor was fully himself again, a Time Lord in body as well as mind, the true depth of his feelings hidden from her once more. Though this was the normal state of affairs for them, the loss of their connection suddenly felt exquisitely painful to her, and she did her best to hide this newfound sorrow as she watched him. His shadowed blue eyes regarded her solemnly for a few moments, until he could no longer bear her open scrutiny and dropped his gaze guiltily.
Nyssa's breath caught in her throat. She closed the distance between them and reached out to touch his arm gently. He held perfectly still, as if afraid to make a move, lest he do something regretful. She knew him well enough to recognise his hesitation for what it was, a sign that he was feeling conflicted.
"Are you all right?" she asked him. He'd been subdued since Amsterdam. The confrontation with Omega likely weighed on his mind, she reminded herself. He'd done the only thing he could have under the circumstances, but that had never stopped him feeling guilty before.
He looked down at her and nodded, still not trusting himself to speak. The lie was obvious, but she let it pass without comment, instead lifting a tentative hand to brush his fine blond hair back from his face. He closed his eyes and brought up his own hand to cup around hers, leaning into her touch. Then slowly, like a man in a dream, the Doctor bowed his head to press his lips softly against the sensitive pulse point at her wrist. She shivered at the intimacy and they both sighed softly, the Doctor's breath a cool whisper on her forearm, hers warm against his chest.
Without saying a word, they were back to the essential question that had been hovering on both their lips since they'd ventured beyond the realm of ordinary friendship: now what?
Time, fragile and intricate, spun around them, weaving its infinite tapestry. He could taste it, sense the barely visible shapes of probability forming and reforming. Nyssa practically glowed with possibility; her delicate healer's hands would do incredible things, had done the impossible many times over already. Their future together was finite, he knew; he'd always known, though he didn't always want to see it. He could have this, could have her, for only a short while longer. His grip on her hand tightened slightly.
"You've not changed your mind?" she asked, the barest sliver of hope creeping into her heart even though she knew it would be wiser to brace herself for disappointment.
"No, I haven't." His voice sounded strange to his own ears when he spoke, thick as it was with rarely displayed emotion. It certainly might have been better if he had, but it was too late, he'd already made the mistake of letting himself care for her more than he ought to have. No point in pretending he hadn't now that the damage was done. He took a steadying breath; there was something he needed her to understand, if there was to be any hope for this ending less painfully than it had when he'd attempted it in the past.
"But I feel I ought to warn you, if we continue this... affair, it won't be the same." He frowned and wet his lips before continuing, holding her pale hand in both of his between them. "Though there are broad similarities in our physiology, Gallifreyan biology is rather different than Trakenite. While I am certainly capable of engaging in - and enjoying - activities like last night's, the profound desire for physical intimacy experienced so naturally by other species has been largely bred out of my people, and what little remains we are taught from a very early age to suppress, lest it interfere with our judgement." He was doing his best to keep his tone matter-of-fact and failing badly.
"I'm not saying we won't…" he swallowed the unspoken word and looked away, a little colour rising in his cheeks, "…again, however, I can't promise I'll be any good at recognising when you need more from me. I will try, but I'll probably need prompting." He smiled awkwardly at her.
Nyssa's serene grey eyes caught his. "I'll keep that in mind," she replied, her own mouth curling up slightly at the corners. She put her other hand on his shoulder to encourage him to bend down to her level. He bowed his head obediently and held carefully still in anticipation of her next move. The kiss that followed was gentle and lingering. When their lips parted, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. They remained like that, swaying gently to the tune of the slowly pulsing time rotor for some time.
a/n - Thank you for reading! Apologies and thanks also to Johnny Byrne, who wrote Arc of Infinity, and whose dialogue and story I have ruthlessly reworked. Reader feedback is lovely and always appreciated.