Kaal managed to find a war hammer and a mace in the pile of junk that lay strewn about the room, and Aryn had gotten hold of a shield and a wand. "How's a wand going to help you?" I asked, amused she would even have taken one.

"I don't know, but it's better than nothing," she shot back.

"But you don't even have magi—"

"Shut up! Are all of you ready?" Neville asked, his hand on the doorknob. All three of us nodded, ready to do whatever we could to survive. He yanked the door open, surprising the two remaining Daleks. Green bolts of magic shot towards them, bouncing harmlessly off their metal bodies.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" they screamed as they made their way to us. I activated my sonic and aimed it at the first one's eyestalk. Kaal bounced towards the second one, his war hammer coming down on its domed head. I heard a crack, and saw that he had indeed just split the dome. Aryn gaped at him, at a loss for words. Kaal threw a grin back at us. The Dalek was still operational though, and he shot Kaal in the stomach. He fell to the stone floor, clutching his stomach and groaning.

"Don't worry, Kaal! You'll just be in the other reality; we'll be there soon!" I told him, wasting seconds in meeting his eyes. He gave a weak smile and closed his eyes. Instantly, my defenses were back up. "Aryn! Use your shield and see if you can direct some magic into the crack in the Dalek's dome."

She nodded, slowly making her way forward. Neville had been shot by the Dalek I was trying to take out. He was trying to continue fighting, but his wand wasn't working against the creatures.

"Help Aryn," I whispered to him, hoping he would just go and help her deal with the one Dalek. "I've got this one." He looked at me with something that looked like worry, then nodded. "Don't worry about me," I added, more for his benefit than my own. He didn't bother to acknowledge the words; he just ran to Aryn and hid behind the shield with her. The shield was actually holding up rather well; must be the magic it was imbued with. I concentrated on my own Dalek, my sonic at the ready. I dodged a shot, then used my sonic on its eyestalk. It went crazy, trying to fire all over the place, but I managed to keep it mostly aimed around myself. I wondered if I should do my trick. It would probably be for the best. I slipped quickly into the Dalek's mind, planting thoughts of betrayal and subterfuge in its mind to turn it on the other Dalek. I went back just as quickly, and saw that my efforts were not in vain as the Dalek I was fighting turned suddenly to the other and blasted it. The combination of Neville and Aryn's efforts with the swift shot from the other Dalek rendered the third Dalek lifeless. Then it turned towards me again. "You—must—be—EXTERMINATED!" it screeched, getting ready to fire a bolt of energy at me. Without warning, the ground below the Dalek opened up and it fell, screaming the entire way. I stared at the hole in the stone floor for a moment, shocked at the outcome. But how—? Neville; Neville had used his wand to make the stones disappear. Aryn was trying to help ease him to the floor. The shot he'd taken was causing him to slip away fast.

"We'll see you on the other side," I promised him, gripping his hand tight. He coughed, gave a weak smile and closed his eyes. He was gone. I looked up at Aryn, her face etched with pain.

"Chancellor, what are we supposed to do now?" she asked, her voice thick with sadness. It almost sounded like she was on the verge of crying, but trying to hold it back.

I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to quietly stop Aryn's heart so she could pass to the other reality. I'd be following right after, but that all halted when that woman showed up again. "What is it?!" I shouted, my anger swallowing me as I threw a fierce glare at her. "What do you want from us? We've already gotten rid of the Daleks, so there's nothing else to defend ourselves from," I snapped at her. She smiled wickedly. My fury started to consume me, and as I reached out to grab her, she forced us asleep.

As I woke in my TARDIS, I could hear Neville and Kaal talking. They had been discussing my TARDIS, and Kaal had been telling him about everything that had happened at the base on Hoth. My eyes caught the silver columns and the blue and green organic-looking interior. Still like it was before. I was trying to notice if there was any detail about my TARDIS that was off, but nothing seemed to be amiss. I pulled myself up from the floor, making my way to the console to see that everything was in order.

"Oiy! So you're an alien?" Neville asked, walking up to me and the console. He looked like wanted to poke me, and he did so with his wand. I shoved it out of my face.

"Yes," I growled. "I'm not in the mood to have people poking me right now! We've got other problems to deal with." I positioned my monitor so I could see what was going on outside. The other three crowded around it with me, taking in the sight of my planet coming ever closer to Earth.

"So that's Gallifrey," Aryn murmured, her hand rising up and touching the screen. I averted my eyes. "It looks so desolate."

"That's what it became after the war; fields and ravines filled with desolation and the scars of war." I held back tears, then shook my head from my thoughts. I had to focus. I looked up at the screen and grabbed my keyboard. "I wonder if I can bring up a closer view of what's happening on Earth regarding all of this."

"Trying to pinpoint the location of its orgin?" Kaal asked, going into technical mode.

"Yes; now if I can just—" My fingers flew over the keyboard, hoping to zoom in on the events that were unfolding. Kaal was over to the right, working himself on a triangulation algorithm so we could get a better point of origin.

"Got it!" he shouted, transferring his solution to the screen. I added my own bit of programming, and soon we were looking at a room that had the Master and the Lord President and his council in it. I gasped. I saw myself there, along with my friend. "Where's the Doctor?" I said, looking in the room for him. "He should be there; the Lord President said he'd be there." I knew what he looked like now, and I couldn't see him anywhere. "Where is he?" I said, starting to panic. "He's supposed to be stopping this from happening!" I froze as I heard the Lord President speaking.

"You are diseased; albeit, a disease of our own making. Sorry, Master, but we are done with you." The Lord President stepped down from his spot and started walking towards the Master.

"No!" I shouted. "No, you can't kill him!" It was then I decided I needed to be down there. If the Doctor wasn't there, someone had to be. "I've got to go; Kaal, take charge of the TARDIS. I've got a world to save." He nodded, handing me his blaster and taking my place, getting ready to transfer me to the room.

"But what about us?" Aryn asked, her face filled with fear.

"Don't worry; I'll be back. You'll be fine; Kaal knows this TARDIS almost as well as I do by now. I'm ready," I said to Kaal. He nodded and activated the transfer beam. In a matter of seconds, I was in between the Lord President and the Master. "Stop!" I yelled, looking at the Lord President. He blinked, as if he couldn't believe I was there.

"But you—who are you?" he queried, looking hard at me. He glanced behind himself, and I saw myself there. This was a wild chance I was taking, crossing my own time stream. Time would start to unravel soon if I didn't get this done quickly.

"It doesn't matter," I said, faking my confidence. "I'm here to stop you; you wouldn't listen before, but you better listen now. This has gone on long enough, Lord President; you will not take this man's life into your own hands. I will not allow it. You've had your time; now you need to go back." I stood tall, facing Rassilon head on. His eyes narrowed.

"You wouldn't kill me," he said quietly, smirking as he talked. "You don't even know me."

"Oh yes, I do, and don't bet on it," I snarled, shoving the blaster in his face.

"Well, you're obviously one of us, but no one I remember."

I gritted my teeth. I so wanted to tell him, to shove in his face the fact that I escaped from him and his mad band of Time Lords. I was desperate to sever the link that had brought him and the rest of the planet here, and that meant killing the Lord President. "I can kill you, breaking the link and sending you back from where you came," I bit off, my anger and rage towards him growing by the second.

"Or you can kill the Master; the link is in his head, after all." I shook my head and thrust the blaster against his chest and pressed it. He cried out, clutching one of his hearts. I then shot the other heart. No one made a move; they were all too shocked at my actions. The Lord President fell to the ground, his blank eyes staring up at the ceiling, his hands still covering both hearts. I felt some pity; after all, had he not gone through with his disgusting plan, this would never have happened. He wanted to be immortal, to try and become one with everything in the universe. And the rest had become drunk on his words.

I looked at the Master; he stared at me as if I was a monster. Perhaps I was. Perhaps, with this final act of treason against the Lord President of the Time Lords, I was now truly a monster and banned from ever coming to Gallifrey again. No matter to me; I no longer wanted to associate with them, not after what they'd done to my friend.

The Lord President, I knew, had been on his last regeneration. There was no coming back for him. He'd lived thousands of years already. His time was done. I looked at my friend, the other Chancellor. Her eyes were wide with disbelief. I motioned her forward. She came, tentatively. I grasped her hand in mine. "It's your turn now," I told her, laying my other hand on top of hers. "They belong to you." She was surprised, but then looked closer into my eyes. The light, the strength—she could tell it was me. I smiled at her.

"I need to go," I said, slipping my hands out of hers. She nodded. In a matter of seconds, she and the others from the council disappeared, along with every trace of Gallifrey. I breathed a sigh of relief. The Master was still behind me, angry.

"Why did you do that?" he barked, striding up to me. I turned around to meet him. Is this what he'd really become?

"I did it to save you," I seethed. "I didn't want to see you die again, and I couldn't bear to sit by and watch; I needed to save you." The Master scoffed at me. Had he really forgotten? "Don't you remember anything from before?" I asked, tensing as his attitude and persona were nothing like I'd seen before.

"I remember the Doctor—up until I killed him just recently." My jaw dropped.

"You—you what?"

"I killed him; I killed the Doctor," he said, a malevolent grin spreading across his face. "You know him too?"

My eyes stung. I couldn't cry, not now. "Yes, and I thought I knew you!" I said, forcing myself to hold back the tears. The Master's smile vanished.

"What do you mean, you thought you knew me? The Time Lords brought me back to fight in the Time War; no one but the Doctor and Tala knew me." I choked as he said my name. I couldn't hold the tears back any longer.

"Don't say that name," I said, wiping my eyes with my sleeves. "Don't you dare say that name again!" I wanted to be angry with him, I wanted to slap him for speaking my name aloud, but I couldn't. This was my best friend. His face wore a question, and with my last statement, he understood.

"But I didn't know—"

"Don't! Just don't, okay? I did what I had to, and I'm not going to do it again," I said, my tears starting to abate. I sniffed, trying to compose myself again. "Just promise that you'll be here for the humans, all right? Now that the Doctor is gone, it needs a new guardian."

The Master scoffed. "Why don't you do it?"

"Because I have other places to be!" I snapped, my eyes red from the crying. "You're the one who killed the Doctor; ergo, you are the one to replace him, Koschei. I'm not telling you again." The Master scowled, but nodded. "Are you going to be okay here?" I asked him.

"I guess; I don't have a TARDIS, though. How's that going to work?"

I shrugged. "I guess you'll have to use the Doctor's."

"But it's a type 40! How's it even still running?" he complained.

"Beats me; you'll either have to remodel it, or deal with it." I took one more look at him. He wasn't evil; at least, he never intended to be. It was just that the Doctor—Thete—was just so damn clever that it made the rest of us look like fools compared to him. And it made Koschei jealous. That was why they split apart as friends. I'd never taken either one's side; I was content to stay friends with the both of them until Thete decided to run off with a museum TARDIS. It was during that time that Koschei and I had become closer friends, and it was Koschei who told me I should marry Hazander. He'd been the one to introduce us to each other. Now it was all different; there was no more Hazander, no more Doctor, and Koschei was left to defend the Earth. Not the best of situations, but it was the best we could do right now. I gave Koschei a hug, which he didn't return, and bade him goodbye one last time. I tapped my wrist, activating the return signal. We could finally return Neville to his rightful place, and hopefully be on our way without dealing with any other witches or wizards. Looking back, I should have known that wouldn't be the case.