Chapter 4
The Eighth Doctor's TARDIS landed in Manhattan. He walked outside to the night air, somewhere in an alleyway trying to get his bearings for where exactly in the city he landed. It was roughly about 9 o'clock which was at the height of the working person's fun and games. Theatre was in session, restaurants were serving the best meals that money could by, celebrities were out in force. The streets were filled with small time vendors peddling their wares in the lower side and in uptown they were dancing and passing out hundred dollar bills like an average person lends one dollar. "New York, New York…" the Doctor smiled as he strolled towards the nightlife of the town.
He loved the gathering of people doing such fun things like these. It was nice not to see them all running in terror from some horrible monster or plague threatening to end them all. The fine suits and some that were dressed in the more modern style clashed with the Victorian Era clothing that he was dressed in, but he still felt stylish. Such was the life of the Doctor.
However much fun he was having though, he knew that he was here for a much more sinister purpose. There was a war deep in the heart of space/time and he was one of the many battling in it. Unfortunately, that meant that the combatants weren't going to allow him any safety zones in which to make plans. He tried stay away from Earth as much as was possible to avoid such things following or trying to destroy it. On Gallifrey, much had happened that would make Earth as viable a target as any other. Sometime back, the Master was brought back from death to fight. His keen and ruthless mind made him, what the Council of Time Lords thought to be, the most ruthless warrior next to the Doctor himself. This idea didn't sit well with President Romana who fought with all her persuasive ability to keep him out of the conflict. She pointed out to them that the Master was more than likely to sell them out than as to fight beside them. The Council knew that she had been captured by the Daleks and spent many years imprisoned and tortured. Her return was nothing short of a miracle, but this put her far too close to the situation to think rationally. The Council decided that she needed to step down as President so that someone could take her place that would be far better suited to the task of war. She fought for her position as long as she could, and while she was proven to be right about the Master once the Cruciform was lost to the Daleks, the Council still felt she was better only as an advisor rather than leader. It was too much for her, the Council had already followed through with it's plan and resurrected Rassilon, the father of the Time Lords. Romana left and decided that the only way she could really be of help was to fight on the frontlines.
The war only escalated after Rassilon was reborn. Time Lords were resurrected and killed in droves. TARDISes were on assembly lines ready to be put into action. That was to say nothing of the Daleks using anti-time weaponry on TARDIS technology leaving things to come out of destructive forces. The Could've Been King being the worst of it. This creature was the distillation of all those split moments where someone almost rose to power. In the wake of other such decimations he gathered the Army of Meanwhile and Neverweres. These were people that never had the chance for life or were somehow removed from existence. Under the command of the Could've Been King they had the chance to fight for a life that they believed they were owed. Neither aligned with Time Lord or with the Daleks, they would kill anything in their path with weapons forged from the wreckage of ships. Their was armor made from the scraps of destroyed Dalek shells. These creatures were dangerous at best as an army.
However, not all the Neverwere's and Meanwhiles were counted amongst the army. They knew that their chance to be born into a real existence could be handed over by the Time Lords. All they would have to do is merely be brave enough to ask. Most of these weren't that brave, however. The Time Lords would kill them almost immediately upon appearance if they weren't taken by surprise. On occasion there would be one or two that would bleed through that was put to some use. One such was let to go about his own devices to keep the Doctor distracted. It's because Rassilon knew what the Doctor had in his possession and he knew to fear it.
The Doctor was in possession of a device called the Moment. The Moment was more than just some technological advancement in weaponry. In using it, it would literally steal a moment of time, drawing a great deal of energy and when it exploded a vast amount of space near to Gallifrey and the Dalek armies would go up in flames, any one within that group would have very little time to materialize before it became a void. Not so much as a desert in space, but a place where time and space no longer applied. The Doctor knew several planets would be destroyed, but they were occupied planets by the Daleks. Whatever life forms had existed in that area before the war were either wiped from time, killed only in this time, or they fled and became nearly extinct. The worst part was that he knew all the Time Lords were going to be wiped out. He couldn't be for certain that it wouldn't erase them all completely. He was fairly certain that if it did, then no one would ever have to live this nightmare again. No more worlds dying, no more people suffering psychic backlash from the war.
The Neverwere here on Earth knew the Doctor had the Moment too. He knew that using it was so dangerous that the Doctor wouldn't use it while he was near here because he feared killing all the precious humans he often protected. No, the Doctor would never try that. The perfect place to take him, and in such a busy city that it would be hard to do anything that wouldn't put people in the crossfire. The Doctor would have to be very careful or risk losing the entire city to this creature.
The Neverwere called himself Ramaus. He would've been born on the planet, Skaro during the thousand year war. He would have been Thall, had he had the chance for life. There were things he knew instinctively, like a deep rooted hatred for the Daleks. It was as if he'd truly live all those years ago, but it made him bitter that he hadn't. Ramaus didn't trust anyone, but knew that he didn't wish to be part of an independent army such as that of the Could've Been King. There was no joining the Daleks, so the Time Lords were a far superior group. They could use their advanced technology to see in an alternate timeline where he'd been born. From there they could assess if he was worth using. Most weren't, which is where the Could've Been King was a superior choice. He trained his soldiers to be fearsome. Some were fodder, but those that weren't were elite killers. He wouldn't take the risk of being chosen as fodder.
The Doctor only knew to chase Ramaus thanks to a warning handed down from Romana. She was at the Battle of Starlight, a large offensive that took place around a sun. The Time Lords were the victors thanks to Romana, but it wasn't without loss. During the battle, Ramaus showed up. Romana spotted him first and noticed that he carried the seal or Rassilon. She pulled him into the TARDIS and noticed that he came with a purpose. He was there to retrieve something in which Romana had taken from the Chancellor of High Council and Rassilon wished it back. Romana had taken the Great Key. This key use was for the De-Mat Gun; the most powerful weapon in the Time Lords arsenal. It could be used to erase anything from time and space. No memories of the object or person would remain. Knowing that the Time Lords were considering options that would not only end the war, but much more besides, she felt it best to leave with it. She couldn't allow them to power the De-Mat Gun. It wasn't bad enough that the Time Lords were changing into the power hungry and war mongering group that they fought against, but Rassilon himself couldn't be trusted with that sort of power again. Not that he couldn't have remade the key and the gun. Even for the Time Lords, there was too little time to consider building such things.
Ramaus looked at her with such contempt, "Lady Romanadevoratrelundar, I have been instructed to take back the Great Key to Gallifrey. As a Time Lady, you are bound by duty to give it to me so that it might be returned to its rightful place."
"As a true Gallifreyan, I must decline! There are too many losses within this war. It's easy to end it, but where would it stop?"
"The choice isn't yours, milady. Lord Rassilon commands it!"
"Lord Rassilon can build a new one if he's so desperate, or has he forgotten that he's the one that built the Great Key in the first place?" She shook her head slightly and under her breath she muttered, "Your influence on me still astounds Doctor…"
"I must insist!" His gruff voice echoed through the control room.
"That doesn't matter to me!"
"You're time as the President of Gallifrey is over, Lord Rassilon demands it."
"If Lord Rassilon demands it, then have him come and take it! Right now the Daleks are about to detonate that star and we'll all be killed if it goes up! We've got a short time to make it through this barrage of fire and make sure that when that sun goes up it takes out who we want it to and not our own troops. Would you like to help, or are you going to go on about items that have no bearing in saving your life."
"Fine, finish your battle! But know this discussion is far from over."
When the battle was over, Romana looked rather relived. The TARDIS fleets left rather quickly after depositing a small store of time bombs within the sun to speed of its natural processes and cause it to go nova. It took some grand maneuvering by Romana, but she did the job. As the sun went up, the TARDIS fleet started to dematerialize into the vortex. Unfortunately, not all were able to leave as the black hole formed. It ripped up ships violently and anti-time weapons started to destruct as they were pulled in. It managed to shrink the black hole, but it created several other abominations along the way. There were time eddies that formed around the black hole. Anyone that came into this area of space would forever be stranded.
As Romana's TARDIS rematerialized she turned to meet with Ramaus again. Instead of the long and drawn out argument she was planning on having, she was instead knocked unconscious. Using a device that was given to him, he went through the time machine and found what it was he was looking for. His mission was to find the Great Key and return to Gallifrey. It didn't quite happen that way. By the time that he found the Key, Romana had woken up and had time to send a message to the Doctor who was already en route to help his former companion. Ramaus couldn't hope to defeat them both, but Romana would at least be easier to take on alone. He had to get outside of this TARDIS before the Doctor showed up and he could use the vortex manipulator to send him elsewhere.
He went into the control room and met with the Time Lady. She and he were at opposite sides of the control panel and he smiled at her as he moved closer to it. "Open the outer doors, milady."
"I don't think so."
"I do. You see, I'm on the side of the controls which could send us back into the pit you've just created. No escape for us. No way of knowing what would happen."
"You would die too."
"I've been dead, milady. It doesn't matter as much to myself as you. Let me out."
"I won't do it."
"Okay, better compromise then. Let me out or I will call Lord Rassilon and have him send the whole of the Gallifrey TARDIS fleet after you."
"They follow me into battle, most of them know to trust me."
"That pittance of fighters is hardly the entire fleet. Your loyalties carry only as far as winning a battle. They'd kill you in a moment if it got them further in the ranks. I'm offering you the chance to survive and fight another day." He raised the vortex manipulator, knowing that the Time Lords could've modified it with a communications device. She decided that she didn't care. In the end, she would rather get arrested by the Time Lords than to allow him to walk out.
Eventually he saw that the Doctor had arrived. The unmistakable Type 40 appeared on the view screen and she smiled. The angered look on Ramaus' face was indication that he didn't like how this was turning. If he displeased Rassilon then there would be hell to pay. Ramaus wouldn't face the music alone. He didn't like the idea of trying to teleport from inside a TARDIS with it's shields up. He preferred to be on the outside in normal space before he made the attempt. He was warned that it had never been tested inside a TARDIS, and not being a proper Time Lord himself he wasn't sure if it was true or not. He merely agreed that it wasn't worth trying to break barriers and ending up dead anyway.
He came to a quick decision and rushed her. Romana prepared to fight him, but instead he grabbed her around the arm and rammed her into the wall. She hit with deafening thud and slid down the wall. He ran to the panel and flipped the switch that opened up the TARDIS doors. The Doctor's TARDIS was on its way. He would soon be right on top of him. The Doctor opened his door with his sonic screwdriver extended. Not willing to wait for the Doctor to get nearer, he pressed buttons rapidly into his wrist mounted controls and jumped forward. The Doctor hit the button and a sonic wave hit the device causing it to short circuit. Ramaus cursed himself that he had done something sooner. But thanks to the artificial environments of the two TARDISes coming into contact with each other he was able to use that infernal device.
As he disappeared into the vortex entrance, the Doctor went towards his control panel and started to track the energy signature that was now bleeding from the device. It wouldn't be hard to find him now. He went back to the doors and looked into Romana's TARDIS. She was standing, looking rather rough around the edges. "Are you alright?"
"Yes! Don't let him escape!" The Doctor nodded and ran to the controls. He pressed the controls and started to follow in the wake of the energy signature. The Doctor made the situation quite different. The Doctor Protocols were put into place for just this reason. Whatever else you had to do, it was important to try and keep the Doctor busy until agents could come to deal with him or capture the Doctor and reclaim his TARDIS. The Doctor became aware of their enforcement after he managed to get the Moment into his possession.
The Doctor pulled out a small scanner and started to follow it to the source of the energy that he'd been tracking. He noticed that it was a fair distance from his location which meant trying to get there before he managed to make another hop. How long would it take to go to Gallifrey and come back with a group to arrest him? He feared not long enough. The chase was on, hoping he wouldn't become the chased in the meantime.
