The Power of a Name Dr Who-Multi-Crossover Series 4

by sbbigsteve

Series 4 - "Time Lord Vindicant" He took the Name of the Doctor. And the Name took him. Now he faces his greatest challenge as the Cracks in the Multiverse herald a threat that can devastate all Reality. To save the worlds and friends he cares for, he must unravel the mysteries of the Cracks and his origins. For only then will he know the true Power of a Name... His name.

15. Episode 6 - Nemesis Rising

Episode 37 - Nemesis Rising

I don't think I've ever been so frightened before.

It's silly. Completely silly. I mean, look at what I've done. Look at all of the life-threatening situations I've been in. All the foes I had faced. Daleks. Cybermen. Weeping Angels. Harry Dresden's driving.

But I was nearly frightened out of my wits by this.

The Master.

The bloody (literally) Master.

With most threats, the danger they posed to me was always counterbalanced by my Time Lord intelligence. They could be bigger, stronger, or faster, but I was always smarter.

Not here. Not against him. The greatest personal foe of the Doctor with all of his experience and intelligence. Enough to certainly outsmart me, I knew. Here, against him, none of my usual advantages could be employed.

And that was terrifying.

"Doctor!"

Korra snapped me out of it. I had to think, fast. We had only seconds before the Master acted… however he was going to act. I had to do something.

Anything.

So I asked a question.

"Why do you want my TARDIS?" I fidgeted with my hand a bit. Since I was actually quite nervous and frightened, it wasn't playacting as much as I would have liked.

The Master looked at me with interest while, from behind, his mechasuited forces were lined up and ready to attack us. "A very intelligent question," he said. "But not an answer I am inclined to share."

"It's not just about traveling into those extra dimensions, is it? This isn't just an escape from the Time War." I stepped forward. I motioned behind me, sweeping my hand toward Korra. "It's not about them either. Just a means to an end."

"Oh yes." The Master smiled in that smug little way at me. "How disappointing. When the Sontarans told me the Doctor had opposed them, I thought it meant my old friend had found his own way out of the time lock. Instead it was just you. The pawn who thinks he is the King."

"Oh, King's a bit much," I answered. "Queen. I mean, the Queen piece does all the fun things on the board."

The Master kept his hands behind his back. "This is checkmate, little pawn."

"That's funny, because I don't see the King anywhere," I responded. "And you never answered me. Why do you want the TARDIS?"

He chuckled at that. "You ask that as if it matters to you. No, that's not how it works pawn."

"So what's the plan?", I asked. "What's your grand scheme this time, eh?"

"I intend to kill your friends one by one until you give me that TARDIS," the Master answered.

"Of course. The old hostage gambit. Bit of an old canard there, isn't it?" Yes. Flippancy and irreverence. I had to keep that up to hide the fear I felt.

The Master frowned at me. "Do you seriously think that this display is working for you? I can best the real Doctor. You are nothing but a fraud, and whatever you think you're getting by this behavior, all you are accomplishing is to annoy me."

At that, I nodded. "Oh, yes. I've been told I'm not a real Time Lord before. And I acknowledge I'm not the original Doctor. But you know what? That doesn't matter. I know what you are. I know what you intend." I took in a breath to steel myself. "And I know that I have to stop you."

I met the Master's eyes. It was hard to stare them down. To see the malevolence, the megalomania, surging within them. "Take them!", the Master ordered.

The mechasuits started firing bolts of electrical charges. Stun weapons. I watched the others begin to fall. Varrick and Zhu Li. Tenzin. Jinora jumped into the air with her airbending and threw out a gust of air toward the nearest mechasuit. It staggered slightly before returning fire with pinpoint accuracy. The stun blast brought Jinora down.

Korra would have been hit as well if Asami hadn't intercepted the blasts with her armored suit, which made her invulnerable to them. The repulsors in her hand gauntlets disabled a mechasuit while Korra pinned another one with her earthbending. Katara kept close to them, shielding them from behind with jets of water that absorbed and conducted away the stun blasts. The three continued to stand together; Korra shielded by Katara and Asami from stun attacks while she launched counterattacks from their midst.

Mako and Bolin avoided the shots at them and counter-attacked with their bending. Mako twisted and threw a fireball directly at the Master.

The Master nonchalantly twisted to avoid it while pulling out a device from his belt. I was reaching for my sonic disruptor at the same time. We had our respective devices ready at the same moment.

Which is the only reason Mako wasn't killed instantly, as the Master leveled his tissue compression eliminator at Mako to use it. My sonic disruptor triggered a kinetic burst with enough energy to not only tear the weapon out of the Master's hand, but to send him flying.

A moment later my body seized it. I'd been struck by the electric stun weapon.

I turned as I was falling. I watched Ikki dodge one stun blast and get taken by another. Meelo was still up, but against these numbers, that wouldn't last long.

My eyes focused on Katara, who was standing with Korra and Asami as they fought. Her eyes met mine. Despite the paralysis I managed to mouth one word.

Go.

Katara nodded and pressed her finger on something in her hand.

VWORP VWORP VWORP.

The TARDIS materialized. Not around me. I hadn't triggered the remote, obviously. I wasn't going to do so that close to the Master and I certainly couldn't now.

Katara, on the other hand, hadn't been so close. And she had her own remote.

Oh, don't look at me like that. Normally my Companions don't carry a remote because in general the devices require a Time Lord's mental power to trigger the signal. I had to put a lot of work into making a secure one for someone without Time Lord mental power. I had invested in said work after we started running into the Master's plans via the Crack. It seemed reasonable to give my Companions the ability to get into the TARDIS and get away with my ship should something befall me. A better idea, certainly, then risking my then-unknown enemy from getting the TARDIS.

My fidgeting hand as I asked about the TARDIS had been the signal to Katara to be ready to use it. And my hand motion toward Korra had told her whom I wanted her to bring with her.

In my paralyzed state, I watched the TARDIS appear around Katara, Korra, and Asami. And just as soon as it materialized, it began to dematerialize again. That was my doing; I had programmed the TARDIS to get away, far away, if Katara had ever summoned it, for the obvious reason that in those cases I was going to be indisposed and needed to have my Companion taken care of.

The fight, such as it was, lasted only a few seconds more. Nobody got away. Even Kuvira was stunned just like we were.

"Your orders, Master?" The voice from one of the mechasuits had become dull and mechanical. Some sort of mind control system secretly installed, I imagine. To ensure the Master that Kuvira's legions could become his legions at his command.

The Master walked up to me and looked down at me. Our eyes met. Disgust and irritation were visible within his. "Take them. We will return to the camp."

Several moments later a metal hand gripped me around the waist and picked me up. It hurt. And I was already hurting. The Master was facing me as I was lifted. "You have only delayed the inevitable," he said. He went over, picked up his TCE, and walked toward the edge of the crater.

Despite everything, I felt relief. Katara and the others had gotten away.

There was still hope.

---

"We've got to go back!", was the first thing Korra insisted upon the TARDIS materializing around them and whisking them away.

Before either Katara or Asami could add agreement or dispute, a hologram of myself popped into existence nearby. "If you're seeing this message, Katara, then something has happened to me. You have used the remote to return to the TARDIS. If I am dead, well…"

"You're not," Asami said. "At least, you weren't when we left."

"I see." The message's interactive response triggered another line. "If I am held captive or kept unavailable, what is the nature of the threat?"

"You called him 'the Master'," Katara said.

The hologram took only a second to pluck the proper response from all of those I'd recorded. "That is not good. The Master is one of the most dangerous beings in existence. He is a fellow Time Lord, with all of my intelligence and many years of experience in using it. He is undoubtedly plotting something that will pose a significant threat to whatever world he has appeared on."

"So what do we do?", Korra asked the hologram.

"You must get help," the hologram replied. "You will find the telepathic circuit bundled beneath the main activation lever. Use it to find whatever assistance you can. But be cautious with the circuit and don't overuse it, or you will burn it out." My hologram nodded and gave them an encouraging smile. "Good luck, everyone." It winked out.

The trio looked at each other. "He never used the telepathic circuit around us," Asami said.

"You hold it and the TARDIS takes you where and when you're thinking of," Katara answered.

"So we can get help." Korra's expression brightened. "Enough help to save the others and stop the Master. There are a lot of people out there who would help us rescue the Doctor."

Katara nodded. Despite everything she allowed herself to smile. "And I know just where to start."

---

Vehicles from the Earth Empire Army were used to carry us back to their main camp on the outskirts of Republic City. With the exceptions of Varrick, Zhu Li, and myself, everyone else was put in full restraints while we were placed in handcuffs, so even as we finally overcame the stunning and regained movement there was nothing to be had for that movement. As soon as I could move I found I had been divested of my sonic devices. It would have been silly to hope I hadn't been, really.

I was one of the first pulled out of the camp. An Earth Empire officer with a dull expression on his face ordered that I be escorted to a building at the edge of the camp. It was an estate of some sort, with a stately courtyard when not full of mechasuits and Earth Empire troops in helmets. I mean, they didn't go with the marble and the multinational-styled flower garden at all. And the poor turtle-ducks in the pond looked completely lost around all of that armament.

Not that the troops seemed to notice. They were staring around blankly. It made me bristle; the Master had turned them into nothing more than automatons.

I was brought to the patio overlooking the courtyard and freed. They directed me to sit in a chair and hovered over me afterward. I could look out from the patio and see the others being put into a group in the courtyard. There were already other Airbenders and Air Acolytes there as well; I recognized Bumi and Kai, and I even saw General Iroh seated with them in restraints of his own. Pema, who was not tightly bound, threw her arms around her tightly-restrained husband while little Rohan wept in fear in her lap. Prince Wu, unsurprisingly, was weeping as well.

And they were all surrounded by mechasuits. Larger mechatanks stood at the corners of the courtyard to provide even more intimidation. Lines of other soldiers were present here and there. A small army, altogether, to keep us all prisoner and protect the Master.

There were footsteps near me. I turned my head and faced the Master as he sat down. Two of his mesmerized Earth Empire soldiers stood at attention behind him. He started tapping his hand on the table. There was a steady rhythm to the tapping, like the beating of a drum. "Now." He visibly forced himself to stop. "You have caused me some aggravation."

"Only some?", I asked.

"Some," he repeated.

"What do you know about what's been done to me?", I asked. I couldn't keep the insistent tone from my voice.

"Oh, much," he said. "But that knowledge is of little importance at the moment."

"Why do you want the TARDIS?"

The Master didn't react immediately. After a moment he snapped his fingers. A frightened-looking man came into the room with a bottle and glass, which he filled to the top for the Master. The Master took a sip, showed some enjoyment, and showed the servant off with a wave of his hand. "Don't they work so much better this way?", he asked me. "Quiet. Obedient. Accepting their places."

"How many of them have... what? Neural override chips? Auto-hypnotic loyalty programming?"

"Some, yes," he conceded. "Others followed willingly. Once they saw what I could give and take away. Like I said. They know their place."

"Let me guess," I pondered. "This is the part where you try to talk me into thinking you're not a bad fellow because you're just trying to get them to stop killing each other or bringing order to chaos or some other thing like that. It's a story I've heard from plenty of civilizations, and it usually means the same thing; an excuse for domination."

"Now my dear friend... the man whose identity you have assumed so callously... he sees them as children to be coddled," the Master continued, as if my retort wasn't worth even slight rebuttal. "It's a tragedy. A waste of effort. If he only put his mind to it, Humans would be on the path to being one of the most powerful species of the universe. All they need is the right direction."

"Your direction?"

The Master took another sip before smirking at me. "Even you should have felt it by now. You've become something like us. Surely you understand what I mean? We are their natural superiors, pawn. Their natural place is accepting our leadership."

I frowned at him. "They have a right to decide their own future."

The Master laughed at me. "Oh, that's just that tiny bit of Humanity left inside of you. It keeps you thinking small." He seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Do you actually miss it? Being Human?" When I didn't answer he settled his eyes on me. Which I found disturbing, frankly. "Or is the block still working?"

I still didn't speak.

"I could possibly release it, you know," the Master commented before sipping more of the wine. He finished with a little flourish and set the wine glass back down. "If you want. You would have your Human memories again."

I had been told, many times, that the best way to unlock the box in my mind was to have the one who put it there open it. If the Master was the one who had done so, which I doubted at the moment, then it might work.

Of course, that required me to trust the man. Not something I considered prudent or in any way wise.

"Fine. You don't want me in your head." The Master sneered at me. "It doesn't matter, of course. You're my prisoner. I can attack you mentally if I ever choose. But I don't think it's come to that." He sniffed at the wine again before taking another slow drink.

"How did you get out of the time lock?", I asked.

"You refer to the lock on the War?" The Master seemed to ponder my question. "I had my ways. And you haven't made it easy. Had I acquired your TARDIS from the Cybermen or the Zygons, I wouldn't have even come here. I wouldn't have needed to manipulate that fool Xuandi or Kuvira."

I "ahh"ed his revelation. "So you were behind Xuandi learning how to use the vortex manipulator."

"He was rather eager."

"And you didn't warn him about what changing a Fixed Point in Time could cause?", I inquired. Well, demanded. It was very... demand-ish of me.

"I didn't particularly care," the Master answered. "I imagined either you would stop him, or he would succeed and this world would be annihilated. Preferably with you on it. Retrieving your TARDIS would have been so much simpler, then."

"What's so special about her?", I asked. "Is it her ability to travel between the different cosmoses?"

The Master answered only with one last drink. "It amuses me. After all this time for you. And you're still so, so very ignorant." He set aside the empty wine glass and folded his hands on the table across from me. "Have you ever stopped to wonder 'why', pawn? Why this all happened to you? You were taken, a lowly and insignificant Human, and granted the gift of becoming a Time Lord."

"Of course I have," I retorted.

"But did you ever really investigate it? See why you just happened to be left with an intact TARDIS like that?"

I had, indeed, investigated, and I said so. The Master laughed. "Oh, very good. They were very good to hide it."

"Hide what?"

The Master seemed to consider his response for a moment before leaning back and becoming silent.

"What would be hidden on my TARDIS?", I demanded. "Does it have something to do with why you want it so badly?"

"No. No, I think that information is too precious to let you know." The Master shook his head. "Suffice to say I will render the issue irrelevant." He looked out the window toward the courtyard. "I think we are ready to begin." He gestured with a hand.

A man entered wearing an Earth Empire uniform. Unlike many of the others, he didn't seem to be completely mind-controlled, simply reserved. Self-controlled. He had a fine dark beard and matching mustache, hair well cut, looked great. Probably ended up on some of Kuvira's propaganda posters, I could imagine. If she were willing to show someone other than herself, anyway.

"This is Major Zhengfu," the Master said.

"Lord." Zhengfu nodded. He looked to me and narrowed his eyes with hostility.

"Do I know you?", I asked. "Because you look rather cross with me."

"The Major is the last of Xuandi's Dai Li. And you happened to get his leader killed." The Master nodded to Zhengfu. "You may begin, Major. Await my instructions on when to cease." His eyes flashed with bemused malevolence when he looked back at me. "And start with one of the children. The one with that tattoo on her head, I think. Yes."

I glowered at him, for as much good as it would do.

"Of course," Zhengfu answered.

The Major left, going out the main patio door to the courtyard. He issued orders and the enthralled Earth soldiers obeyed.

A line of mechasuits was formed on one side of the courtyard, facing the wall. Zhengfu walked up across from them and inspected the grounds. He moved his arms and began Earthbending away some topiary and gardens, creating an open area.

He made one last gesture, and a single pole of Earth shot up from the ground, maybe six feet high.

I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

Which meant it was confirmed a moment later, when Zhengfu motioned to the others. Two of his troops reached down and picked Jinora out from the group. She struggled a little and was given a blow to the back of the head in reply. They dragged her toward the pole.

"My demand is simple," the Master said. "Recall your TARDIS."

My glower turned into a glare.

"Don't take me for a fool," the Master continued, responding to my intended complaint. "Your remote system can reach it anywhere. And until you do, you and I will sit here and watch as Major Zhengfu executes your friends. One… by one... by one." He looked back to the courtyard with a wicked grin on his face. I looked back as well in time to see Jinora being tied to the pole. A muzzle was placed over her mouth as well. There would be no Airbending with her breath.

"What are you planning?", I asked. "What are you planning?!"

The Master ignored me and waved a finger through the window. Zhengfu noted the gesture and answered with a nod. He brought hand up and curled his fingers into a hand signal.

The mechasuits lined their flamethrowers at Jinora.

I swallowed. "Please," I pleaded. It was involuntary. I knew there was no mercy to be had. Not with the Master. But I had done so anyway.

"Her fate is in your hands, pawn," the Master remarked. "Summon your TARDIS now. Or I will have her burned alive."

My mind raced with my hearts. I had to think of something. Anything. I needed to buy time for something to happen.

But just as much, I knew I couldn't give him the TARDIS. The Master, with that kind of power at his hands? It was about the worst thing that could happen. Definitely near the short list of Very Bad Things. There was no telling what horrible consequences it would have.

More horrible than watching people I knew, people I considered friends, be burned alive?

I forced myself into action. I had to say something, do anything, to buy precious time. "I'll…."

"Too late," the Master remarked.

Zhengfu was already making the next gesture.

Great plumes of flame came from the mechasuits and enveloped the area where Jinora was held and tied.

"JINORA!", Tenzin and Pema screamed together. Kai added a pained "NO!".

I could see it. So real. So visceral. The screams of the brilliant young Airbender as she thrashed on the pole while enveloped in flame. I had to watch Jinora suffering one of the most horrific ends a being can suffer.

I found I was shouting "NO!" myself… before I found myself staring in wonderment.

Despite the image in my head, not a single flame actually touched Jinora.

A moment before the flames could reach her, they were stopped. Stopped by a shield. A familiar one.

A familiar pink one, just as the pink saber that sliced through Jinora's bonds.

But how did they… oh.

Molly Carpenter was now standing beside the pole, towering over Steven Universe and Connie Maheswaran. She looked… fairly worn down, I think, ragged and thin. But not as bad as she could eventually get. Her hair no longer had dye in it, so it flowed out to its natural blond. Her ragged clothing was a contrast to the bright shirt and jeans on Steven and Connie's elegant dark blue training suit.

And if they were here, that meant…

Before the flames had even ceased, others ran around or jumped over the flames and attacked. The central suit was thrown backward by a powerful punch from Garnet. Amethyst formed herself into a wrecking ball to go under the flames and took the legs out from under one of the mechasuits. Energy from Pearl's spear took out another one of the firing squad mechasuits.

There was a familiar sound. A bit of a snap with a bit of a hiss, and a purple energy blade directed my attention to the wielder, who threw the blade forward and guided it until it cut the flamethrower hand off of one mechasuit and then a second. The blade returned to its owner, and when I saw her face, my hearts leaped with joy.

Janias!

But it would be wrong to give her all of the credit. Even as her purple-bladed lightsaber had done its work, a green blade was busy slashing through the last mechasuit on the firing line. As it fell away I saw a young tan-skinned Human woman standing over it, lightsaber moving back into a ready position.

I recognized her too. Kerra Holt.

Zhengfu was shouting orders and the entire courtyard became abuzz with activity. Like an anthill that had been kicked over. I glanced at the Master's features and saw a blank expression. Or rather, one blanked only because he was clearly holding back rage.

"They're all mind-controlled," Janias shouted to the others. "Don't hurt them if you can help it!" She used the Force to throw several Earth Empire soldiers back onto the ground. Kerra ran behind her and deflected a boulder with the Force before using a similar blast of energy to drive the soldiers back.

"We'll handle them." Asami's voice was coming through the external speaker on her armor suit, which landed near the two Jedi. It had been repaired from the damage taken in fighting Kuvira.

Not surprising, given that a moment later a second armored suit landed beside her. I recognized Tony Stark's armored suit easily, the red-and-gold color scheme contrasting to Asami's dark red-and-black and lacking the Future Industries gear logo. "I'll get this side, you get the other one," he said.

"Right."

Asami and Stark turned and stood back to back. Their left shoulder plates moved and shifted to reveal a launcher underneath that spewed out a barrage of darts. Several ranks of the controlled Earth troops fell in place. Stark turned and sent a missile into the right leg of a mechasuit, knocking it down. Asami's repulsors battered another until it fell over. Before it could get back up Kerra Holt ran over it and sliced the cockpit open. She made a gesture from her hand and the machine went still.

Jan's lightsaber flashed again, taking out the weapon of a mechasuit moving to attack Molly and the children. She turned, reached out with the Force, and pulled the weapons off a second. It was quite impressive, and I felt my jaw drop a little. Jan had definitely been "working out", if you may, and moved with a grace and power that she hadn't yet acquired during her time as my apprentice.

"Woh, look out!" Amethyst's cry of alarm brought attention to the looming mechatanks. Which were far more agile and powerful than usual as they effortlessly kept up with the Gems. One caught one of Garnet's punches and sent her flying back into Pearl. Amethyst's whip caught the arms of the machine together. It strained for several moments before tearing itself free and firing at her. With a plasma beam.

The Master had upgraded them, obviously.

And two more were approaching Tenzin and the others with raised weapons.

"How useless," the Master mused. "You can still save some of them if you cooperate…"

There was a blur of blue and red and one of the mechatanks went flying backward into the far wall of the courtyard. My hearts skipped a beat from surprise and then joy, joy that matched my grin.

After all, who wouldn't grin with joy when they saw Superman showing up to save the day?

Kal-El wasted no time in dealing with the other threatening machine. He delivered a punch that rocked the machine completely off its treads. Heat vision beams sliced away the particle weapon arm cleanly. With the threat clear, I could see Steven, Connie, and Molly at work freeing the others.

And in the chaos, I hadn't yet paid enough attention to see that Korra had indeed joined the battle against the mechatanks. She raised a wall of solid rock to protect the Gems. When one of the mechatanks blasted through it anyway, Korra created a cyclone of air so powerful it blew the machine onto its back. Amethyst's whip lashed out and grabbed the other one. Garnet grabbed it with her fist and sent an electrical charge up the whip and into the mechatank, which began to spark as the charge overloaded its systems. This gave Pearl and opening to run past and use her spear with pinpoint accuracy on the vital linkages of the machine's limbs and controls. The precision of her strikes wasn't just that of an expert fighter, but an expert engineer who knew precisely what to hit to bring the machine down.

I felt something on my hand just then. I briefly glanced down and noticed a familiar creature. A creature carrying my sonic screwdriver, no less, and placing it into my hand.

And given the appearance of that particular hairless fellow, I had ample warning about what happened next.

The Master's guards cried out as a blast of water slammed into them and smashed them against the glass hard enough to crack it. The guards around me turned to respond. I rose quickly and brought the sonic over. The sonic easily detected and shut down the neural override letting the Master control the poor fellow. I turned my head in the same direction to see a figure in white duck an earthbent figurine thrown by one of my captors and effortlessly make her way into grappling range. A low roundhouse knocked the attacking Earthbender off balance and was effortlessly and gracefully turned into an uppercut that sent him flying.

"Ah, thank you," I said.

"No big." The smile on Kim Possible's face was the sort you'd find from a particularly competitive athlete who had just done a routine act of athleticism with excellence. I had already noted she wasn't in her usual garb, instead being clad in a white suit with blue markings and trim. An advanced battlesuit, I imagined.

Katara stood beside her, the water flowing around her hands pointed at the Master.

"Hey!" Ron appeared at the door in his usual dark suit and pants. He threw something at me; I knew it to be my sonic disruptor the moment I caught it with one hand. "Good job, Rufus!"

Rufus was still at my feet from having delivered my sonic screwdriver. The naked mole rat nodded and made a happy chittering sound that sounded like "uh huh!"

"Thank you for that, Ron." I swung the sonic disruptor and pointed it at the Master. "Now, you and I are…."

I stopped speaking.

The Master was staring at me. Not angrily. Not even quietly. Just… staring. As if I were nothing.

Something was wrong.

I brought my sonic screwdriver up. The tip lit up with purple, there was a whirring…

...and the Master and his wine glass faded from sight as sparks erupted from underneath the table.

"A hologram," Kim said with a frustrated frown on her face.

"I'm not surprised. Evil geniuses love that trick," Ron added.

As he said that, I was swinging the sonic disruptor over. I used it to shatter the glass with a burst of kinetic energy. "Everyone out!", I shouted. "Everyone get…"

That was when the bombs went off.

---

There is a reason why the Master is the most dangerous of the Doctor's foes. He's brilliant. He takes every strength of the Time Lords and uses it to full effect.

So of course he had been ready for the eventuality of my TARDIS being used to gain allies. The entire interrogation had been done by remote with a holographic stand-in just for that purpose.

And just as obvious, he'd rigged the place to blow up.

We were jumping out of the broken patio window of the mansion when the blast went off behind us. I hit the ground hard, Katara to one side of me and Kim on the other. Ron, being a bit slower in general, was caught by the blast wave and hurtled into the courtyard. His arms cartwheeled in mid-air and he let out a frightened shriek as he flew toward a remaining marble statue.

Everyone noticed him. Korra was the first to react, bending air to catch him and bring him safely to the ground.

A moment later, bombs began to erupt from underneath us. "There are bombs seeded across the courtyard," Kal-El reported. "We need to get these people out of here."

I forced focus on my mind and let it go to work. "Lin, Su, Korra, Kuvira! We need a platform!"

There was a look of mistrust on Suyin's face, undoubtedly from my calling upon Kuvira, but there was no time for anything else as another bomb went off within feet of where the Gems were picking up Earth Empire soldiers. She gestured to her sons and they joined the others. With six Metalbenders on the job, they began tearing metal from the various mecha and forming it into a shielded platform that everyone else jumped upon. Kal-El, Asami, and Stark flew about to get others.

I looked about. Major Zhengfu was gone as well. Whether he had slipped away or had been a hologram all along, I couldn't say.

An involuntary shriek from Connie followed another blast that showered hot earth over her and some of the others. Steven's bubble caught the rocks before they could do any harm. Molly was nearby, sending magical energy into the ground in efforts to hex the remaining bombs. I ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm. "The Master will have shielded them," I urged her. "The hexes won't work!"

Molly looked at me with eyes that flashed with… anger. After a moment the anger faded slightly and she didn't resist in my taking her to the platform, where she jumped on.

By this point, everyone who couldn't fly was on the platform. "Everyone hang on!", Kal-El instructed. He picked the platform up and carried us off the ground. Lin and Su reached out and used their bending to create rails for everyone to grab hold of, which proved most useful for catching Ron. And Amethyst, for that matter.

Below us, the last of the bombs went off in sequence. The entire estate was engulfed in destructive energy and flame.

"Where do we go now?", Bolin asked.

"You'll see," Asami answered, flying over us. She and Stark were scanning the skies.

I looked to Katara. "Where's the TARDIS?"

"Hidden," she answered. "We're going to it now."

"Ah." i took a breath in relief. "So, how did the telepathic circuit work out?"

"Asami and Stark managed to get two last trips out of it," she answered. "It's how we got everyone."

"Good, good." I looked over the side. Republic City was still empty below, or at least mostly so. I thought I could see some of the Earth troops in the open parks and squares.

Kim changed rails to move closer. "Was that guy with the hologram the one who gave Drakken the Autons and left you a chess pawn?"

"He is," I answered.

"He seems pretty nasty."

"You have no idea, Kimberly Ann," I said. "He's a rogue Time Lord. But unlike myself and the original Doctor, he went rogue to conquer other worlds. All of the cunning, the intelligence, and the knowledge of a Time Lord bent to domination of other worlds."

Ron gulped. "That sounds like serious bad news."

"It is." Garnet stepped up toward us. Unlike the others she wasn't bothering to hold onto the rails and still kept perfect poise.

"You can see something?", I asked her. "With your future sight?"

"This 'Master' is going to come for us," Garnet said. "You need to be prepared." She extended her right hand. I recognized the invitation for what it was and pressed my hand to hers.

This time I was more careful about it. Instead of an uncontrolled burst of images I was ready to connect to the future sight within Garnet, flowing from the part of her that was Sapphire. With that sight I saw the Master doing… something to the TARDIS. Wiring. Machinery. My poor TARDIS having her engine exposed and hooked up to something.

And the new spirit portal Korra had made. It made an appearance in the vision as well. It also had machinery of some sort near it. A glowing power source. Energy from the TARDIS erupted and met it. There was a greater and vibrant shift of energy that went from yellow to brown to red and gold…

….and then Republic City was engulfed in energy. And Omashu. And Ba Sing Se and the Fire Nation Capital and the Water Tribes' cities and the Air Temples…

And the entire planet, ultimately, and the energy still spread from there.

We terminated the handshake. I took in a breath.

if Garnet's future vision proved true... once the Master acquired the TARDIS, he would literally erase the entire world.

Which meant I needed to find out how to stop him.

I needed to think of a way to outsmart the Master himself.

---

I suppose I couldn't be too surprised of where we ended up.

The Sato Mansion wasn't as empty as I thought it would be, though. As we flew over it I spotted a glow of red come our way, which became a human shape coated with flames. It got close enough to see us before turning back.

I looked up to Stark as we began to descend. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Reed and his family volunteered to stay behind to guard your ship," Stark replied.

"Should I be on the lookout for anyone else from your world, then?"

"No one else was available."

I made a "hrm" sound with my throat while Kal-El brought us in for a gentle landing at the side of the mansion. The door to the underground level opened up and admitted us. Inside was Asami's new lab, the one I had kitted out, now being tended to by Reed Richards and his wife. Ben Grimm stood to the side of my TARDIS.

I felt my hearts skip a second. A part of me had doubted I would ever see my lovely girl again. But there she was, fine as always.

...and still under threat from the Master. Especially considering what Garnet's visions showed me.

Kal-El let us down gently near the entrance. Asami and Stark landed beside us, prompting the automated machines to come up and begin removing Asami from her armor. She was wearing a dark red full body suit below it. She looked at the others and smiled. "I'm so relieved you're all okay."

"Wow, look at him." Bolin eyed Ben Grimm and held his hand up to his mouth while leaning toward Mako. "He's made of rocks."

"I heard that, kid," Ben grumbled, arms crossed.

Bolin brought his hands up in a gesture of placation. "Woh, hey, I've got nothing against rocks. I'm an Earthbender, rocks and I have a long history of working together..."

Mako sighed. "Nice save, bro."

Reed was busy looking over the holographic table. "Is it just me, or is the holographic emitter about twenty percent lighter than it should be?"

"Well, not all of the technology comes from your world," I remarked, walking up to him. I extended my hand. "Good to see you again, Reed."

"Doctor." He extended his hand too. Literally, by about four extra feet. I shook it as I stepped closer. "Your friends said something about this 'Master' being one of your people?"

"Yes." I nodded.

Reed nodded and looked pensive. "Given your intellectual capabilities, he may be the greatest threat we've ever faced."

"Ooh, don't let Victor here you say that," I answered coyly. Of course, that thought made me think of the idea of the Master meeting Victor von Doom. The results of such would either be amusing... or absolutely horrifying. "Thank you for coming."

"When your Companion Katara told me this Master was after your cross-dimensional ship, I knew something had to be done."

Behind us Katara was getting to work helping with the wounded among the Benders. Everyone else was tending to group up in various ways. Steven and Connie were in a lively exchange with Ikki and Meelo, for instance, while Kerra was discussing something with Korra and Pearl.

Janias had been exchanging words with Jinora, but she soon came up to me and gave me a hug. "When Korra and the others told me about what happened, Cami and I were horrified," she said.

"Is Cami back home?"

"Yes." Jan nodded. "It was for the best. The girls needed someone to watch them and... well..." She smiled a little. "She's expecting anyway."

"Oh? Having more? Congratulations," I said. "Still going to name her after Korra or Asami?"

Asami blushed a little from where she was standing beside the tank. Stark was out of his armor as well and had joined her in looking over something. A scan of the mechatanks, I presumed.

Janias laughed. "Well, my second was Molly, so... we'll have to decide, I guess."

"Ah." I nodded. And blinked. "Wait. You already had...?"

She smiled at me. "Don't worry, you were there. Will be there."

"Ah." So it was further down my timestream. Presuming that whatever happened with the Master didn't screw that up, anyway. "Well, that's nice to know."

For a moment the smiles remained. But Jan's expression turned serious. "I'm worried about Molly," she said. "She's..."

"...grieving," I finished for Jan.

"I could tell. But it's more than just that."

I nodded and indicated the TARDIS. She followed me to it, weaving through the others with me until we stepped in the door. Jan closed it while I began working on the controls. "What's wrong?", she asked.

"She thinks she helped Harry commit suicide," I said.

Jan's jaw dropped open. "What?! Harry..."

I shook my head before resuming my work. "Harry's not dead. He... it's complicated."

"Then we should tell her." I felt a frustrated look come to my face and Jan noticed it. "What? You can't? Why?"

"I'm..." I sighed. "I'm not sure, Jan, because it might influence some events to come. Molly's going through a rough patch in her life that is going to have consequences. Necessary consequences. If she doesn't go through them..."

"...you're afraid you'll change what's coming," Jan finished. "Right." She let out a breath. "Well, that's not easy. After all these years I guess I've forgotten about all of the complications your traveling can cause."

"Tell me about it," I sighed.

"And speaking of that, what are you going to do about Katara? She seems better."

"What is there to do?", I asked. "It's all her choice right now. As soon as she's ready to move on, she will."

"Ah." Jan nodded. "I'd offer her a place if she were interested."

"I think I know where she plans to go," I noted. "Assuming I'm right, anyway."

"Of course." Jan walked closer. "So what are you doing?"

"Programming the TARDIS to shift to halfway across the galaxy, and follow a random multi-dimensional flight path for the next 24 hours," I said. "And to renew it if I don't send an all-clear with my control."

"To keep it out of the Master's hands?", Jan asked.

"Precisely."

"But we'll be stranded here..."

"I know." I nodded. "But we must keep her away from the Master. At all costs."

Jan's expression showed concern. "He's really frightened you, hasn't he?"

"Yes," I admitted. "Yes he has. He has put bone-chilling terror in my very being."

"Why?"

I kept working in silence for several moments. Jan put a hand on my shoulder to get me to turn. "Why?", she insisted.

It was a good question. Not one I enjoyed contemplating, mind you. "Jan, in all of our travels, what would you call my greatest advantage?"

"Having Companions to help you?", Jan suggested with a bit of a grin. It made her look younger. Not that she looked very old; while clearly in her early thirties now, she still looked almost the same as when she was my Companion.

"Touchè," I allowed, smirking. "Other than that, though?"

Jan thought a moment. And made an "Ah" sound. "You always had an advantage in the mind," she said. "But you don't against the Master."

"Exactly." I swallowed. "And I don't know if I can beat him, Jan. I honestly don't."

"I understand that you're scared," she remarked. "But I think you can do it. Especially with the rest of us helping."

"That gratifies me to hear you say that," I answered. I flipped a final pair of controls. "Alright. Now to send her out." I led Jan from the TARDIS and turned back to it. "Sorry girl, but you need to be protected," I said to the TARDIS as I lifted my sonic screwdriver and let it whir happily.

Nothing happened.

I frowned. I checked the screwdriver. I tried again.

Nothing happened again.

I stormed back in and brought over the sensor screen. When I saw the result of the scans I was making I moaned and put my hands to my head. "No. No no no, he couldn't have."

By this time Jan was joined by Korra and some of the others. "Couldn't what?', Korra asked.

"The Master's done it," I sighed. "He's blocked my TARDIS from leaving."

There was silence. "Can't you fly it?", Katara asked.

It wasn't optimal, but I double-checked that too. With some of the others in the TARDIS I flew the TARDIS into the air. Very, very carefully.

We made it to about 10,000 meters before the engines started to shut down. I quickly reversed course before we began to fall like we had back on Terra in the Inner Sphere. Katara looked at me. "But how did we get out before...?"

"He was later coming, remember?", I pointed out. "He must not have had the means to erect the field over Republic City. But he's done it now." I swallowed while guiding us back to a landing in the underground lab.

When I stepped out of the TARDIS everyone was watching. "What's wrong?", I heard Steven ask. "Why did you try to leave?"

"I was testing something," I replied. "The Master has trapped us here. I can't get the TARDIS out."

"So no matter what, we have to fight," Kal-El noted.

"Exactly," I said. "So we'd better prepare."

---

A short time later, we had everyone seated or standing near the holotable. I stood at one side of it with Asami and Pearl while Reed and Stark were at the other. Varrick and Zhu Li were behind us. The designs of the mecha-units were showing on the holotable. "Going from our armor scans, the Master has significantly upgraded the suits Varrick developed for Kuvira." Asami indicated several parts of the machines. "The materials are stronger and provide more protection. The flamethrowers draw fuel from what looks like a renewable energy source instead of the limited reservoir of flammable oils that were meant for the design."

"Judging by these figures, it would appear they've been equipped with some form of hyperspatial tap source," Reed speculated.

"They have," I confirmed. "It's an older form of Gallifreyan technology that existed before the Eye of Harmony was discovered."

If Reed was curious as to what I meant, he didn't let it interfere with the question he was already considering. "I'm surprised the Master has found the means to build this kind of technology given the technological infrastructure of this world," Reed answered.

"We Time Lords are a resourceful bunch," I reminded Reed. "And when you're devoted to conquering the universe, or multiple universes, you learn how to make these things work."

"But he still had limitations," Stark pointed out. "He didn't install those particle cannons on the smaller mechasuits, just on the tanks."

"At least, he hasn't yet," Ron said from where he was seated between Kim and Bolin. "You never know with those evil geniuses, you know?"

"I don't think he can," Pearl observed. "The kind of particle weaponry we saw needs a larger volume than you could mount on these suits."

"Lady, I don't know how many evil geniuses you've fought before, but take it from a pro, they always find a way," Ron insisted.

Kim sighed and rested her face in her palm. "Ronnn..."

"I've been dealing with advanced technology for over six thousand years," Pearl retorted. "I know there are limits to these kinds of things better than you do."

"What if he used something more like a blaster?", Kerra asked. "Blasters are handheld in my galaxy."

"A possibility." I frowned. "The Master has been utilizing Cracks for his own purposes for some time. Relatively speaking. There's no telling what technologies he might have acquired."

"This is just boring," Amethyst protested. "I say we all just go out, find this 'Master' guy, and pound him into a pancake."

Ben pointed his thumb at her. "I'm with the gemstone. Let's go clobber 'im."

Amethyst laughed at that and grinned. "I like the way this guy thinks."

I almost snapped at them over it, but for a moment... well, out-thinking the Master was a dicey proposition. What if we were to just go for the blunt solution? Would he have planned for it as well as planning for more sophisticated strategies?

Well, more accurately, was the risk great enough that we could dismiss the thought that he planned for the "It's Clobbering Time!" plan over... well, an actual plan?

"With a foe like this, we need a plan," Garnet answered from where she was standing. "And we need to know what he can do."

"If we know where he is, I can sneak up and listen in," Molly offered.

"We can, yes," Sue Richards added. She was standing beside her brother. I wondered who had been left with babysitting chores.

"Since we're here, can't we find out more about what we do know?", Bolin asked. "I mean, just in case we don't learn anything else?"

I held a hand up to try and forestall further discussion. That's the problem when you have a group like this; everyone's used to speaking. Not that I'm against it, but it did contrast rather heavily with the briefing I'd given my allies for the battle at Chichen Itza. "Yes, getting back to that..."

"Each suit has a series of weak points that the armor can't effectively protect," Pearl noted. She generated a white stick from her gem and held it over the hologram. "Here, here, here, and here. Any number of attacks can disable these suits if they are made at these points."

"How did he get it down to so few anyway?" Varrick looked upset. "I can't believe he was able to correct for the other ones."

"Yes, well, Time Lord," I noted. I looked to Reed.

"Excuse me?" Kuvira raised a hand. "Can you tell me how he's won the loyalty of my army? Something seems wrong with them..."

Suyin glared Kuvira's away. In fact, quite a few people were hostile toward her. I sighed and pointed to a part of the schematics. "Neural overrides," I said. "Essentially, devices in the mechas and in the helmets that force the wearer to obey him and shut down any brain function that might foster resistance."

"So my people just didn't turn on me?", she asked. "He..."

"...he enslaved them," I finished for her. "Complete mind control."

Kuvira... actually looked horrified at that. She, who had build re-education camps to compel dissidents to accept her rule, or punish them for not doing so.

"Are you actually upset about him doing this, or just that he didn't do it and make them follow you?", Suyin asked nastily.

Ouch.

Kuvira didn't retort to her old mentor. "I... I never imagined. Don't you understand, Su? I just wanted to help our people. I wanted to lead like you could have, like you should have. I..."

Suyin crossed her arms. "You wanted power. You wanted control. And because of you, our world's being threatened by a madman."

I sighed and spoke up. "Please, Suyin? Now is not..."

Before I could finish, a red light came on the controls for the holotank. "Perimeter alert," JANET's voice stated. "Perimeter alert."

Asami hit the control. The holotank shifted to show a camera rigged to her mansion. It zoomed in on the distant road. Asami's eyes widened.

For good reason.

A solid rank of mechasuits was advancing up the road and hillside toward the Sato mansion.

Dozens of them. Hundreds.

Backed by dozens more of the mechatanks.

The air buzzed with what looked like rotor-lift combat drones tipped with small blaster weapons. They buzzed like a swarm over the ranks of mecha suits.

And behind these ranks, behind this swarm, a vehicle could be made out. A vehicle carrying a large cannon. A cannon just like the one Kuvira had built, with other machinery arrayed on it and vehicles coming along the sides of the main one.

The camera zoomed in on the platform beside the cannon, where the Master and Major Zhengfu stood side by side with more helmeted and obviously controlled soldiers manning the gun's controls. The Master was still in the same Gallifreyan suit. A similar suit was now worn by Zhengfu.

"That's a lot of robots," Steven gasped.

"Way lots," Ron agreed.

"He's coming for her," I said. "He's coming for the TARDIS." I looked back toward the others. "And we have to stop him."

---

"We need to take out the cannon," I said, making the initial priority clear.

"An attack from the air would be the quickest way," Jan observed. "But with those flying machines getting there will be hard."

"I can clear a path for the rest of you," Kal-El offered.

"And I'll give you cover," Johnny added.

I nodded at them. "That alone might not be enough. The Master will anticipate such an attack."

"Then I'll go by foot," Kerra said. "It won't be hard to sneak up on it."

"And even easier if you have someone to hide you. Molly?"

Molly gave me a sullen look but nodded. She and Kerra ran toward the exit of the underground property.

"Even if we can get to the cannon how can we disable it?", Tenzin asked.

"Asami and Stark should be able to easily," I noted. "If not either of them, do what you can to disable the vehicle and keep it from aiming."

Even as I spoke, Stark was finishing his armor up sequence. Asami had gone in first and was already in her suit. The roof opened above them and they flew out, followed by Johnny Storm, the Airbenders, and Kal-El.

I made further calculations in my mind. Having Sue Richards or Molly Carpenter veil the TARDIS may have helped some, but not likely much. The Master would know how to track it. There was little point in trying to hide it, therefore, and every point in doing what we could to keep the Master's forces back.

"The rest of us can form a defense around the mansion," I said. "Let's go."

"Where do we go?", Connie asked eagerly.

For all of their training, the last thing I wanted the kids doing was getting involved in a fight like this. "Guard the TARDIS," I instructed.

"But we can…"

"He's right," Garnet said, cutting off Steven's protest. "Guard the TARDIS."

"I'll stay with you and help," Katara offered.

I nodded at her. On top of placating Steven and Connie, this had the added advantage of letting us use the area as a medical ward for the injured.

Sue Richards provided us the means of getting to the surface quickly with invisible platforms. We all spread out with the Richards' and Grimm on one flank and the Beifongs on the other. The Gems and Jan stood in the middle with Korra.

The mechatanks and mechasuits were still advancing on us. The drones above them moved to intercept our flying allies. A pair of drones were melted to scrap by Johnny's flames and another fell to Kal-El's heat vision. Asami and Stark continued on with the others.

And that was when everything went wrong.

The cannon fired. And when it did, it fired a beam of ruby energy that struck Kal-El head on. He let out a cry and, as if a switch were flipped, plummeted to the ground.

Asami turned away from Stark and flew downward to help him. She landed and used repulsor fire to drive away a couple of mechasuits that were hitting on him. With my spyglass I watched him weakly grab onto her back before Asami flew back into the air and toward us. Johnny kept up a steady stream of fireballs to keep the drones from effectively pursuing.

"What happened?", Asami asked when she landed beside me with Kal-El. He let go and went to all fours. "It's like he lost all of his strength."

I scanned him with the sonic screwdriver. The results made me shake my head. "Red wavelength solar radiation," I answered. "The weapon permeated his cells with it."

"And what does that do?", Korra asked.

"My powers," Kal-El said weakly. "Red sunlight… takes them away…"

I checked the concentrations. At that level, even with exposure to yellow sunlight… it could still be hours before he was back in full shape.

Ten seconds. That was how long it had taken the Master to remove our biggest asset from the field.

"There must be a Crack on your Earth," I told Kal-El. "The Master learned of your weakness with it." I turned to the others. "Someone get Kal-El inside! He's in danger out here!"

"I've got him." Lin helped him up.

"Here they come!", I heard Mako shout.

The first groups of mechasuits was entering range. From our side fireballs began to fly out from Mako's hands and Pearl's spear. Janias reached out with the Force and threw back a couple of them before they could use a flamethrower weapon on her.

"IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" Ben Grimm charged ahead. Flamethrowers from two of the suits did nothing to his stone-hard flesh as he closed the distance. One mighty punch and a mechasuit's leg came off. He reached over, grabbed the other, and began twirling the mechasuit around him until he threw it into an approaching mechatank.

Huh. I suppose fighting mechanical foes was old hat for the Fantastic Four.

Reed stretched out and used his limbs to impede the forward movement of a mechasuit beside Ben. Sue's arm shot out and invisible force slammed down on another mechasuit. She swung her arm another way and threw another mechasuit inward, where it met a pillar of smashing earth drawn up by Bolin. Bolin rushed ahead and gestured downward with his arms. The driveway in front of him fell apart and turned red as rock heated into magma at his will. He threw it up and forward until it swamped one of the mechasuits.

Even before the magma cooled, Garnet was running over it. Her gauntlets flashed into existence and smashed the weapon arm of one of the mechasuits. It flailed away from her and lost a leg to Amethyst's whip. Mako threw a fireball that knocked it back. The Beifong twins moved up on their flank and used their bending to send slabs of earth into a mechasuit until it recoiled. Korra and Suyin moved ahead side by side. Suyin swept an arm out and brought the ground out from under the mechasuit. An Airbending assisted jump put Korra high enough to twist in mid-air and bend a solid lance of flame that she drove down into the joint of the mechasuit. Another mechasuit loomed over her but had no time to act before Asami's repulsors blasted it away. Asami moved in, grabbed Korra with her free arm, and the two slammed into a mechatank with enough force to topple it, after which a beam of flame from Korra's palm joined the repulsors on Asami's palms to dismantle the machine's weapons. They spun around each other, back to back, flames and gusts and repulsors and chest-beams blazing, blasting a hole in the ranks of the Earth Empire.

Ahead of me the line of mechasuits fully crumbled, exposing the mechatanks and their particle weapons. Janias was already racing ahead, lightsaber flashing, and she moved with superhuman speed to begin slicing through the nearest tank as the mesmerized pilot tried in vain to shoot her. The tank beside it could provide no succor; Kuvira was wielding the metal plates on her suit with deadly accuracy, slicing free exposed hydraulic lines with her Metalbending. Beside her Pearl moved with eloquence, her spear raised and the fire of the enemy particle weapons missing given the poise and agility she showed. Her spear slashed through one spot, then another, and a third, and within seconds the mechatank was flailing and starting to falter.

And what was I doing during all of this, you might ask? I was, honestly, trying in vain to use my sonic disruptor on the machines. The Master had deadlocked them. Each and every one of them.

But I got an opening regardless. One of the mechatanks was thrown clear by a powerful cyclone from Korra's arm. As soon as it hit the ground I ran over and clambered onto it while the pilot inside was still recovering. I spotted the external hatch release for the cockpit control and pulled it with enough force to pop open the hatch. The Earth Empire soldier within initially didn't react to me. Neural overrides do have a deleterious effect upon response times, you see. I had just enough time to reach down and pull him loose from his harness. He cried out and I realized why when I saw the holes in the back of his neck. I'd just yanked him free from the neural override. "Wha…?"

"Get clear!", I shouted, pointing to the mansion.

The soldier looked at me and frowned. "But you're…"

"Do as he says, Private!"

Kuvira's voice rang out from nearby. Pearl was already moving on from the mechatank that they had just taken down, but Kuvira was taking the moment to look our way.

"Ma'am!" The soldier saluted and jumped off.

With that done, and Kuvira returning to the battle, I looked into the cockpit. I used the sonic to short out the neural override - the Master hadn't bothered deadlocking that, at least - and promptly took the seat and secured myself. The mechatank rocked as it was impacted by another tank - I didn't see who'd caused that - but I was not unduly affected in my efforts despite that. I used the pneumatic system to close the hatch manually and began to stand the machine up.

The Master's upgrades were not very evident with the controls. There were no control panels, no HUD display over the faceplate for the suit. I had visual through the circular port and a variety of controls before me. A flex of my hand moved controls that ultimately transferred to the digits on the corresponding hand on the mechatank. I used this to stand the machine up . As I did so, I spied a line of mechasuits coming up on Asami and Korra while they continued their rampage among the mechatanks. I used one control to turn the mechatank and move my arm to raise the corresponding arm, on which the particle cannon was mounted. I found the trigger was a pressure switch against my palm and pressed it. A bolt of sky-blue energy erupted from the muzzle and blasted the ground away from in front of the mechasuits. Korra whirled about and swung her arm toward them, creating a wave of earth that took the unbalanced suits off their feet entirely.

"Hey rock guy!" I turned while searching for a new target. Amethyst ran up behind Ben and shouted, "I need a lift!"

"C'mere, squirt. Time to show these yahoos the Benjy Fastball." After punching the leg out from a mechasuit he brought his right arm back and opened his palm. Amethyst jumped into it and formed herself into a glowing purple ball. "Batter up!", Ben shouted before he threw Amethyst towards the mechatanks.

Amethyst became a purple blur and slammed into one mechatank so hard she tore its limb off with the impact. She hit the one behind it and knocked it over. As she ricocheted in the air she returned to normal and lashed out with her whip. It grabbed the arm of the mechatank as it went backward while she generated a second one with her free hand. This one she used on the other arm of the tank. This balanced her when she reached the full length of her whip. A jovial laugh later and Amethyst was using those whips as a slingshot, throwing herself back at the mechatank hard enough to knock it over. Ben jumped up on it afterward and ripped the hatch off. "Alright, party's over!" He tore the pilot out, a bit too roughly if you ask me, and tossed him gently (well, relatively speaking) to the side.

While blasting away at another mechasuit, I took the time to check the air battle. With Kal-El down Stark and the Airbenders were fully occupied with the aerial drones the Master's army was employing. The Airbenders lacked weapons to directly destroy them, but it was still something to watch Tenzin artfully twirl around one and use a blast of air to send it careening into another. Jinora threaded the needle between two of them and caused them to shoot each other. Ikki and Meelo darted in and out of a formation, prompting the machines into more friendly fire while Johnny melted them to scrap with fireballs. Opal and Kai circled each other and generated a powerful funnel cloud to hold another group in place for Stark to blast from the sky.

With a check to the battleground again... I felt a surge of excitement. We were winning.

...which was really the first sign that everything was about to go terribly wrong.

The cannon fired again.

This time a beam of pure blue shot up the hill and straight toward the flank to my right where the FF and the Gems were still taking out another rank of mechatanks.

I felt myself gasp with relief when invisible energy stopped the beam before it could hit Ben and Garnet. The beam lasted for several more seconds before ending, and I heard a loud cry of agony as it did.

"Darling!" Reed stretched himself from a disabled mechasuit to where Sue Richards lay sprawled out on the ground, spent from her effort in shielding from the cannon blast. He pulled her back from the fighting.

"Get Susie clear!", Ben shouted. "I'll keep these yahoos off... urghk!" Two particle beams from mechatanks hit Ben and sent him rolling backward. Mako and Bolin moved up to his defense, fireballs from one and lava from the other knocking back one of the mechatanks.

But just one.

But my allies weren't done yet. "Pearl, Amethyst, now!"

Garnet fell back behind the brothers with her fellow Gems. I moved to their aid, using my commandeered tank's cannon to blast away the cannon of another tank moving to engage the brothers. When the three Crystal Gems met behind that cover, they...

...danced?

I was too busy firing to notice more than a couple bits of the movements; Pearl's elegant, ballet-like movements, Garnet's swaying steps, a bit of chaotic shoulder shifting from Amethyst. There was a sudden surge of light from my side, after which...

...well, you don't see that every day.

I knew about the whole "Fusion" thing from Steven and Connie's playful and accidental fusing on Kraknardaaplikuiuspinralakoolis. But now...

The fused trio - I was later told their mutual form is known as "Alexandrite" - lunged back into the fray with almost bestial fury. One arm had a whip like Amethyst's, another a spear like Pearl's, and the two purple hands were covered by Garnet's gauntlets. And each limb lashed out with its weapon; mechatanks and mechasuits alike fell before the fury of the creature. "Hyah!", she cried, Pearl's spear whirling about in a circle cut that slashed off the legs of an entire line of mechatanks. The gauntlet fists sent individual mechasuits flying and toppled mechatanks with each punch. Amethyst's whip, now sized up to Alexandrite, whipped around one mechatank and turned it into the mace of a flail, smashing other foes with it like they were toys.

With the FF out, things had been looking down. But now the Gems, in their fused form, were ripping through the enemy army with terrifying speed. The others cheered and renewed their own attacks with increased vigor. Korra moved across my vision, bending flames to topple a mechasuit, and Asami was busy blasting a mechatank down until Lin and Suyin could tear the pilot out. Mako and Bolin met another mechatank left damaged by Alexandrite's rampage and brought it down with a series of brilliant attacks to its weak points.

And then there was an explosion. It came from behind the enemy. I stepped back for a moment and pulled out my spyglass to look through it. What I found was the cannon was now burning. Flashes of green brought my eye to where Kerra was using her lightsaber to finish wrecking the vehicle while more colorful bursts of energy and figures in the woods distracted the nearby soldiers. Molly's handiwork, no doubt.

"It looks like our alternative attack worked," Asami said from beside me.

"So it does."

"Then why don't I feel like we're winning?", Korra asked.

"Because," Jan said, walking up on a mechatank and looking skyward. "We're not."

I followed Jan's eyes, looking over the battlefield where Alexandrite and the others, even Ben Grimm, were continuing to push the Earth Empire troops back. I looked beyond where Stark, Johnny Storm, and the Airbenders had completely disrupted the groups of aerial drones.

I looked up and saw the giant airship. Earth Empire green. The massive symbol of the Earth Empire had been replaced by Gallifreyan script.

And it also had a big cannon. And multiple other devices.

I noticed that just as it aimed toward us.

"Behind me!", I shouted to the others. Korra and Jan got in the shadow of the mechatank while Asami flew skyward.

The shot struck my tank so hard it made me feel like I was the one being hit. The mechatank lost all power and flew backward with the blast until it demolished the fountain outside of Asami's mansion.

With the weapon disabled I popped the hatch and stood up in it. I looked skyward as more drones descended towards us. The massive airship was disgorging them in heavy quantities, armed with lighter versions of the particle weaponry on the mechatanks and far sturdier than the drones the others had taken out.

Stark and Johnny broke off to go after them first. Both heroes recognized that the Airbenders, in their wingsuits, were no match for the firepower coming down; they would have to defeat this foe.

The airship fired yet again. This time, not the main cannon,but one of the secondary weapons on the frame. A missile launcher, by the looks of it, and then by the looks of the contrails that twisted through the air and began pursuing the two heroes. Stark and Johnny pulled away from each other and tried to evade their respective foes.

This meant the Airbenders had no aide as the larger, more powerful drones fired into their numbers. I heard cries come from them. Ikki took a blast to the back and plummeted toward the ground, to be saved at the last moment by one of the newer recruits. Jinora and Kai rotated around each other, trying to blast apart their formation with another of those mid-air cyclones. But the fire was too thick. A shot took Kay directly in the shoulder and tore apart the wing of his suit, sending him falling as well.

And the drones moved on, past the overwhelmed Airbenders, and toward the ground. I held up the sonic disruptor to shield myself as particle beams lashed out across the ground, striking our bending allies on all sides. Flames, rock, and metal lashed up to meet the foe in turn. Jan jumped from my downed mechatank, landed on one of the drones, and used her lightsaber to slash through it before jumping to another, and a third. She would take down six before being forced to hit the ground and start defensive deflections with it. Nevertheless she grabbed one with the Force and threw it into the fountain with enough force to knock it out. I would have reason to be thankful for that later.

Mako and Korra, seeing that tactic, sought to emulate it. They threw themselves into the air on flames and started landing on the drones as well, destroying quite a few. Then there was a blast of energy, and a cry. Mako began to fall and Korra jumped after him, calling his name.

"I've got you bro!" Bolin bent the earth upward in a slide to catch his brother's fall just as Korra generated air to soften his landing. "There, we... ahh!" He ducked to avoid a drone trying to shoot him, spinning away to another footing like he was back in the pro-bending arena. As he moved his arm reached out like he was a discuss thrower and a stone ripped from the ground flew up and slammed into the particle weapon on the drone's body, smashing it.

It was a shame he couldn't get the one behind him before it shot him.

I ran over and shielded him from further attacks while he lay groaning. Korra brought Mako over for me to protect as well. "What do we do, Doctor?!", she shouted. "There are so many!"

"Alexandrite!", I shouted. "The airship!"

"We... I will bring it down!", the large Fusion declared.

The only reason we weren't overwhelmed on the ground had been because Alexandrite had been tearing apart many of the newcomers while barely noticing their attacks. Now she directed her attention toward the Master's flag airship. She started by throwing one of Pearl's spears toward it. A pulse of repulsive energy formed around it just before it struck, sending the weapon spinning into the ocean. Alexandrite growled and two of her arms, one from each shot, shot upward with Amethyst's whips. These attacks didn't seem to trigger the airship's active projectile defenses and the whips wrapped around it successfully. She started trying to drag it down.

As I watched through the spyglass, one of the other devices on the airship shifted over. It looked like a tuning fork of sorts. This struck me as odd until...

Oh no.

"Alexandrite!", I shouted. "Get clear! You have to get..."

When the tuning fork began to emit energy, my spyglass quickly confirmed what it was.

After all, I'd been the one to use it before.

It was the same disruptive wave I had once used to defeat the Zygons. The Zygons, that is, who had implanted Gems in their bodies for the powers. The wave I had accidentally discovered and in doing so had harmed two of the Gems.

Alexandrite let out an inhuman shriek as the waves came down upon her. Her grip on the whips tightened for a moment and she flailed, throwing another spear at the Master's airship. Its main cannon shifted and fired a bolt right into her arm, knocking one whip loose.

And then Alexandrite became engulfed in light. Four Gems emerged from that light, forming independent humanoid figures, and fell to the ground helplessly.

I saw Johnny Storm fly overhead then. The missile behind him was almost on top of him, literally above him, but just far enough away to...

...to blow itself up, or rather, to suddenly erupt in a massive plume of white. It fell on Johnny. And where a flaming human figure had once been, now there was just a blue-clad blond-haired young man who's arms cartwheeled wildly before he slammed into the ground.

The cannon fired again. This time, at the Gems.

It might have destroyed them if Ben Grimm hadn't moved up with a giant slab of concrete to cover them with. The blast broke it apart. I heard him cry out from under it. One of his arms was still sticking out of the pile, not moving, when the dust started clearing.

The winds picked up suddenly. I looked over and saw Korra's eyes glowing white as she shifted into the Avatar State. Energy surged and flames erupted from her arms as she pointed them skyward, lashing out at the Master's flagship.

It was about then that I realized that, in all of the confusion, I had forgotten one crucial fact.

The Earth Empire mechasuits were still attacking.

I was rudely reminded of this when a particle blast from one of the mechatanks remaining slammed into my deflector's shield. The deflector erupted in sparks and was thrown from my grip from the sheer power of the blast. I was left defenseless.

There was movement before the next shot could come at me. Stark was suddenly between us. The blast caught him in mid-air and before he could right himself he flew into me and we both went sprawling until we landed near Korra. My head spun violently from the impact. I tried to stand, to do something, while my eyes fell on Asami desperately fighting off the mechasuits attempting to get behind Korra. There was a blast of particle energy and she too went flying.

I yelled a warning at Korra, but she was too focused on trying to bring down the Master's airship.

And then the cannon on the ship thundered again.

With the Avatar State, Korra must have deflected the shot somehow. Or minimized it. It may be why I survived. It sent me flying again. I remember the pain filling my body even before I hit the concrete of Asami's broken driveway. I remember all senses seeming to leave me. My mind was drowning in pain and nausea and sheer shock. My hearts beat like drums, in a rhythm that threatened to down out my senses.

I managed to banish the darkness long enough to see the cables descending into Asami's underground lab.

After another splotch of darkness, I saw my TARDIS held captive within them as the cables moved skyward.

I turned my head and saw fallen comrades. Stark. Johnny. The Gems. Suyin and one of her boys were sprawled out and bleeding.

Korra? Where was Korra?

There was more fire. The mechatanks were shooting into the underground lab. I think.

I couldn't fight it any longer. My mind fell back into the black.

Everything was darkness.

---

I felt that I was somewhere familiar.

"Well, what have we here? Looks like you've gotten roughed up a bit."

I looked up and found a hand being held down toward me. I took it and allowed the benefactor to help me up. "Up against the Master, I see," the Tenth Doctor said to me. "Hope you're feeling up to it? He's rather the tricky sort."

"It feels impossible," I muttered. My head hurt.

"Well, he's not unstoppable," Ten pointed out. "Rather egotistical. Has a bit of a weakness when you mess around with his so-called brilliant plans. Gets all angry and upset. Doubly with you since he's got such a low opinion of you."

"What I haven't figured out yet is what he's doing, exactly," I said. "Clearly he knows something about what's been done to me. He knew to consider who my allies could be."

"Yes, well..." Ten looked directly at me. "...maybe you should think on that some more. Maybe there's something you missed."

"I have, but it's behind the block..."

"And how much effort have you taken into breaking that?" Eleven walked in now. "Because you're running out of time."

"It's a block in my bloody mind, it's rather hard to deal with," I retorted. "Every time I focus on it, all I get out of it are fragments and headaches that cause me to faint." I turned away from them and sighed.

"So that's it then?" Nine was staring me down. "You're just going to give up?"

"Of course not," I scoffed. "But I've got bigger things to concern myself with. The Master has us on the ropes. He's taken the TARDIS and his plans will destroy this world. I have to stop him."

"We know," Ten said. "And that's why you need to know what he's after. And to do that you need to think."

At that I sighed and put a hand to my head. "All right. Think. Fine." I crossed my arms and did so. I pushed and prodded at the block to no avail. From there I shifted my thoughts elsewhere. I began to put together pieces in my mind. The Master's knowledge of where I'd been and the allies I could potentially call upon. The things that have happened to me before. Facts about the TARDIS. And finally... that vision from Garnet. Something from the TARDIS interacting with the spirit portal and wiping out the world. Something that clearly wasn't just the Time Vortex.

I ran these facts again and again. All angles were considered. All possibilities.

"Well, look who's using their brain," Nine remarked proudly.

It had something to do with my TARDIS' special abilities. Something, perhaps, in its very nature, related to why I was created or programmed or whatever. Something more than just the normal functions of the TARDIS to suggest the Master's interests even before he crossed through the Crack.

But if I really had something like that in the TARDIS...

...where was it?

"Why?", I asked. "Why would something like that..." I stopped mid-question. That was a bad question.

"You mean 'who'," Ten said. "Who did this? And then you can ask why."

"Yes," I agreed.

My mind flashed back to something that had happened me some time ago. When Liara was on vacation. I had been bored and VWORPed out to find something to do, just to collide with a dimension-hopping starship on a different fifth-dimensional track. The TARDIS and the jump point of the Starship Aurora had interacted in some sort of faulty manner, trapping us in a pocket of pseudo-real space-time while we were within the matterless void of interuniversal spaces.

I had always assumed that my ship's dimensionally transcendental field interacting with their interuniversal jump point drive had triggered the event and the collision that caused it. But what if it was something else?

And then there was what happened inside the bubble of fake space-time. Dimensional rifts kept forming. Rifts carrying with them beings from places I had visited before. Firebenders of the Red Lotus, Red Court vampires, a drug-addicted troll of the Discworld, Darth bloody Malgus, even Pinkie Pie.

And now I had the Master showing knowledge of where I had gone before.

Pieces. Pieces of a puzzle I had been trying to solve since just about the time I could remember. They were all here. And now I had more of them. Enough to begin forming an image.

"And if I'm going to discover 'who'," I said to the Doctors, "I need to find out 'what'."

I focused for a moment. This was my mindscape after all. My brain. My thoughts could control it.

The formless area I usually met the Doctors in disappeared in favor of my TARDIS. The control room. I leaned over the communications panel. "First place I checked," I told them. "Nothing here. Well, nothing yet anyway. The DTI hadn't played with it yet."

"So you didn't buy that whole 'we just fixed it so you couldn't say we damaged it' excuse, eh?", Ten asked.

"It was rather sloppy of Lucsly, wasn't it?", I agreed. "He really shouldn't have been the fellow who was there. Too blunt." I held open the communication panel. Buried deep within it was a transceiver. Very advanced technology. "31st Century. Federation Temporal Agency technology. Not surprising, the FTA doesn't like me any more than DTI does. Can't say I'm surprised, the TARDIS does rumble a bit going through their temporal defense grid but it's never stopped me before."

"But this isn't what you're looking for, is it?", Nine pointed out.

"No. Sorry. Random thinking, I'll be needing this shortly," I commented before closing the communication console. "What I'm looking for isn't here, is it? It's somewhere... well, it's somewhere I don't go often."

For form's sake I moved through the TARDIS. The library, living area, spare rooms, etc. I traveled somewhere I rarely went.

I stepped out onto the catwalk with the others. We were greeted by someone else. "Took you long enough," the War Doctor said.

I squinted when looking at him. Had to through the intense glow nearby. I turned and faced the origin of the light.

"The Eye of Harmony," the War Doctor said.

"The power source for your TARDIS. For all of them," Eleven said.

I nodded and swallowed. "A star caught at the moment it was about to collapse into a black hole. I know. I've... for lack of a better way of saying it, I've always known." It was just one of the many things that had been planted in my mind by the process of becoming a Time Lord. "Are you suggesting the Master seriously intends to release the Eye of Harmony? He'd have to be daft."

"Well, no. Knowing him..." Ten shook his head. "...he's got something nastier in mind."

"But this... this alone doesn't explain what's going on," I pointed out. "There's something more."

"Yes." Eleven gestured toward the next door. "Let's move on. Whatever you think is here should be behind that door."

I looked to the door and swallowed. I... well, honestly, I didn't go in there. I didn't need to. I didn't want to.

"What's the matter?" Nine looked at me. "You look like you're terrified of it. It's just a door."

"I... I can't," I muttered. "It's not something I can..." I felt something within me shudder. My hearts were picking up.

"You know what's back there, it's just the engine room," Eleven pointed out. "Nothing to be afraid of."

"I know." I took in a breath and swallowed. "I know, but I..."

"You need to do this," the War Doctor said. "You need to know what's behind that door."

I drew in a breath. I took a step to the door. The blinding light of the Eye of Harmony seemed to grow ever brighter as I approached. My legs grew stiff. My arms threatened to grab the nearby railing and hold me there. It was like every part of my body was in revolt. It didn't want to open that door.

Wait. No. Not my body.

My mind.

"Wh... what...?", I croaked, taking another painful step. "It's..."

"You can do it!", Ten urged. "Come on!"

"You're supposed to be me now, so get it done!" That was a new voice. I saw Three out of the corner of my eye.

Another painful step. "You're almost there," Five urged.

My arm reached out and I felt my hand grab the railing. The limb refused to move. I put everything I had into forcing the hand open. "There you go!", the Second Doctor urged.

"Right you are!", the Seventh agreed.

"Fight it!" That was the Eighth. "I know it hurts, but you must!"

I cried out as I took another step. Just a few more...

Now the Fourth was here. "Keep at it!"

"You're doing fantastic!", Nine said.

"Don't stop now!", the Sixth insisted.

Another step. And another. And... I fell to a knee. Whatever force this was, whatever this represented, my mind was straining against a powerful force trying to bar me from that door.

The TARDIS engine room. The room I had never entered. The place I had never dared to go. What did it represent here, in my mind?

Could these be my long lost memories? The original me, locked away? Or was it something else? Some sort of knowledge that my "creators" had needed to lock away from my conscious mind?

One last step. One more. I needed to take it.

"You're here," a voice urged me. "You've come too far to quit."

I looked up. The First Doctor stood beside me. He took my hand.

"What if... what if I don't like it?", I asked him. "What if it's another burden?"

"Maybe it is," he said. "But it's something you have to face. You know that. We all know that."

I looked behind me. Every incarnation of the Doctor, all twelve that I knew of, were present on the catwalk, bathed in the bright light of the Eye of Horizon, yet plainly visible in their own light.

"You made us," he continued. "You took our Name. You brought us here. Now finish it. Finish this, Doctor."

I swallowed. And I focused.

My hand pressed to the door. I felt for a moment like my body - or mind - would fly apart. I gathered every erg of willpower to push the door, and it didn't seem enough. It simply wasn't...

And then it opened.

And I was enveloped in white light.

---

The other Doctors were gone. It was just me. Alone. In white.

I heard distant screams. An American voice, a familiar one from my dreams, pleading for mercy. Pleading for the pain to stop.

Just through the white, I thought I could see the outline of a humanoid bound to a chair, crying in agony as energy rippled over him. I couldn't quite make out the build...

"You're finally here."

The voice was in the distance. I focused, felt pain in my head, and could only make out brief glimpses. Hair. Light brown, tinged with gray. Soft, sad brown eyes.

The woman's voice echoed again. "It has taken you a long time."

"Who are you?", I asked. "What are you?"

"A fragment. A whisper. Here for the day you needed it. For the day you began to discover your true purpose."

I tried to concentrate. But I couldn't focus on the face. Not of the woman speaking. Not of the figures by the chair.

"This Human will serve our purpose. It must be done. For our survival."

I blinked. That voice. A face with it. I tried to focus on it but couldn't.

"You were delirious with pain when I touched your mind," the woman revealed. "The transformation nearly killed you, as it had killed so many others."

"The transformation."

Pain shot through me again. That chair. It seemed so familiar, the more I thought about it. But the memories were...

There was more. I thought I felt... something. A distant voice at the edge of my thoughts, urging my attention.

"We are running out of time," the woman said. "Your friends endeavor even now to awaken you. You are needed to save their world."

"There is something in here that the Master wants," I said. "Something in my TARDIS. In my engine room. The room I..."

It was almost horrifying to think of it. After all of this time, in all of my travels, I had never gone into that engine room. No matter how many times I'd searched the TARDIS, or explored it, or simply been checking up on things. I had just... never imagined it. Like it had never been there.

"A misdirection circuit," I muttered. "Why didn't I think of that? Of course. It's a misdirection circuit backed by a hidden mental compulsion should the circuit ever fail. I don't think of the TARDIS engine room, and if I ever tried my mind would be compelled to ignore it further. The Master must have known. It's why he couldn't tell me. It might have undermined the compulsion."

"Yes. You could not be allowed to discover what was within the engine room." The woman lowered her eyes. "Had you discovered its purpose, you would have ruined the entire plan."

"What plan? What plan are you talking about?"

"I am but a whisper," the woman replied. "I do not recall it myself. But I know it is terrible in scope. That it is wrong."

I nodded. My mind started moving. In the distance, the voice was getting louder still. "That's what it is, isn't it? This... this 'plan' you speak of. That's what the Master's looking to accomplish, isn't it? Was it his plan? Wait, no. I don't think so. Not the way he's talking. He simply knows what it is. That it's something in my TARDIS and it has something to do with the Eye of Harmony and my TARDIS' sixth-dimensional capability."

"You must stop them," the woman urged. "For the good of us all. Their plans cannot be allowed to come to pass. The power is too great."

"Power?", I asked. "So that's what this is about. Power. The Master is looking for power, looking for power to..."

My eyes widened.

Could that be it? Could it really be it?

Could he do something like that?

And I knew this mysterious being was right. I had to stop the Master. I had to stop him now.

Which meant I needed both a really good plan and a lot of luck.

"Doctor!"

It was the voice again. And this time, it jolted me awake.

---

I woke up and found myself looking at a very worried Avatar Korra. Faint pain in my head mixed with the sensation of my hair being wet. "Korra?" I smiled and sat up, putting my arms around her.

This was apparently enough of a surprise that she lost her concentration and the water fell from my cranium and down my back. "Woh."

The mental image of that cannon on the Master's Airship shooting her came back. "You're okay!"

"Well, yeah. I was more worried about you. That head injury looked bad."

I released the hug and looked around. We were in the drawing room of the Sato mansion. Wing Beifong was the nearest to me and was still unconscious. The bloodied bandage on his forehead didn't look good. Beyond him I saw a weary-looking Tenzin laid out in a chair with a cast on his leg. Other wounded Airbenders were laid out in the room. "Where is everyone else?"

"Salvaging what we can from Asami's lab." Korra frowned. "The Master's forces did what they could to wreck everything before we drove them off." She looked at me and those bright blue eyes turned sad. "We failed. We couldn't stop the Master from making off with the TARDIS. I'm sorry, Doctor."

"It's not your fault," I said. "He outsmarted me. He played everything right." I turned in the couch that I had been laid out on and stood up. "But it's not over yet. I think I know what he wants."

"Whatever it is, it can't be good," Korra said.

"It most definitely isn't," I confirmed. "But I may know how to stop him. Tell me... has anyone see Katara or the children?"

Korra shook her head.

"Ah. Good." I smiled at that. "Very good. I need to get to Asami's lab and see what everyone has scrounged up. We have some work to do."

"Do you think we can beat him? He knows all of our weaknesses," Korra pointed out.

"Oh yes he does," I agreed. "And that's why we're going to win! Now come along! Work to do, the Multiverse to save, all that sort of thing!"

With Korra following me, I took off for the lab.

I knew what the Master was doing. I knew what he was trying to accomplish.

I knew he had to be stopped.

And, most importantly, I knew how to actually stop him.

---

The damage to Asami's underground lab hadn't been as bad as I had feared. I had gathered everyone in it now and set myself to going through all of the intact equipment. "I do apologize, no time for a proper meeting or what have you," I said to them. "'Time of the essence', that sort of stuff."

Mako asked, "Korra says you have a plan?"

"Something of one. I need to finish this first." I indicated the device near the wall. "And while I do so, let's discuss our options."

"Well, Kal-El is feeling better." Asami was out of her armor.

"It might take me a few more days to be to full strength," he admitted to us all. "But I'll do what I can."

"Good," I said. "Because this is going to be a multi-step plan. Professor Richards, that screwdriver if you don't mind?"

Reed reached across the room and handed me the screwdriver, allowing me to begin prying open one of the destroyed pieces of technology. "Have you given any thought on why the Master wants your ship?", he asked me.

"You might say I've slept on it," I replied, still working. "And I think I know now. It's about the Eye of Harmony."

That got me puzzled looks from the others. "You mentioned this before," Reed noted. "What is the Eye of Harmony?"

"The original was the source of power that turned the people of Gallifrey into the civilization that led to us becoming Time Lords," I explained. "You take a star about to collapse into a black hole and capture it in a specialized time field at the moment of collapse. This state becomes permanent and releases tremendous amounts of energy at a constant basis."

There was quiet. "Yo, Stretcho, you okay?", I heard Ben ask.

"That… sounds utterly impossible," Reed managed. "But if it's true, then the amount of energy involved…"

"It is beyond compare," I confirmed for him. "A projection of the Eye of Harmony is what fuels TARDISes. They're…. they're part physical pieces of the original Eye, part duplicates. Well, even that's not accurate, but that's as good as I can manage for an explanation."

"And the Master wants this… facsimile that's in your TARDIS," Reed said. "Presumably to use its energy for a larger purpose."

"Something like that," I stated. "And it's not going to be pleasant for this world. Now…"

There were newcomers through the door. "Where's Steven?!", I heard Pearl cry out.

"Safe enough within the TARDIS," I replied. "Which is just where I need him, and Connie, and Katara." I looked back to them. "Thanks for joining us. Pearl, might I get some help? I need the transceiver assembly over in the corner, please."

"What plan do you have now?", Kerra asked.

"A decent one. Decent. The Master will see it coming, of course, and that's the point."

"You want him to know what you're going to do?", she asked with some evident confusion.

"No. I want him to think he knows what I'm doing by playing along with his expectations. Then I want to spring my real plan on him when he's exposed and unable to counter." I smirked at that thought. "So, while I finish this and make sure of some things, why don't I lay out the plan?"

"Yeah, because I've got to hear this!"

Varrick's voice boomed through the lab, startling several people.

"Where were you when we were getting attacked?", Lin demanded.

"Staying safe, of course," he answered me. "I'm not exactly a fighter, you know?"

"Right," I conceded.

"But, if you give me an hour or two, I can get this baby operational," Varrick declared, leaning against the Mark I.

"Then get to work," I said in response. "While I lay out the plan."

I did so. It was a splitting of forces that was unavoidable; one group taking to the air and going after the Master's Airship, the other slipping into Republic City via its underground level and getting to the spirit portal that way. And the final group...

"Now yer talkin'," Ben declared, slamming his fists together. "Big Blue and I'll get their attention, don't you worry. That Master you keep talkin' about is goin' to get a clobberin'."

"Meanwhile Miss Sato and I will lead the attack on the airship," Stark added. "Although I'd feel a lot more confident about that if we hadn't lost so many of those Airbenders of yours to the first fight. A lot of them were badly hurt."

"There's still enough of us to help." That was from Kai. He was in clothes left by some of Mako and Bolin's family while his wingsuit was being repaired, presumably by an Airbender too injured to keep fighting.

"I don't like putting you in harm's way," Kal-El said. "Many of you are children."

"We're not just kids!", Meelo shouted. "We're Airbenders!"

"Yeah, and Grandpa Aang was just a kid when he beat the Fire Nation and saved the world!", Ikki added.

"They're not much younger than Bruce's usual recruits," I pointed out drolly.

Kal-El gave me a weary look. Stark, for his part, just shrugged.

"Now just let me finish this," I said, "and we'll be about ready."

"It looks like you're building some sort of communication device," Reed observed. "But what kind of signals will it read?"

I smirked. "The kind that an FTA agent would want to have to listen in on me, that's what."

I left them to plan at that point, focusing on my work. I hooked in the power source I needed and used the sonic screwdriver as a control, flipping through channels until I found the right pattern. I brought the receiver up to my mouth. "Katara, if you can speak, do so. If you can't, please tap the microphone twice."

Everyone was watching and awaiting a response. Finally there was a pair of taps.

"Okay, understood. Listen, I need you to examine, if you can, what the Master has done to the TARDIS and to let me know. Tap twice for saying you can't and three times for saying you can."

Another moment passed. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Good. Give me an update whenever you can. Keep Steven and Connie with you but don't hesitate to hide them temporarily if you feel endangered.

Another pair of taps. She understood.

"Good show," I said into the microphone.

"They're okay, oh thank goodness," Pearl sighed.

"We'd better finish getting ready," I said. "They're going to need us soon enough."

---

So, the players. I should probably make clear who would be doing what.

The remaining Airbenders, led by Opal, would be joining Asami and Stark in going after the Master's main Airship. Meanwhile the FF, Kal-El, Korra, and the Gems would be taking the ground and thus face the bulk of the Master's remaining forces alongside most of the Benders who weren't staying behind to heal their wounds.

Which, of course, left me, Jan, Kerra, Molly, Suyin, Opal, and Kuvira. Sue Richards kept us invisible as we approached the outskirts of the city in what vehicles were left on Asami's estate grounds. Molly took over veiling duties after that, leaving Sue to join the rest of the FF for the ground approach while we slipped into the underground levels.

The Equalists, the Triads, Xuandi. Every one of these groups had used these tunnels. We were no different. An old Equalist rail car greeted us upon our arrival at one of the lower levels. "I'm surprised you still haven't put a subway down here," Molly said to the others as Suyin and Kuvira prepared to propel us forward on it.

"I had thought of that," Kuvira revealed. "After…"

"...after you conquered the Republic, you mean," Opal finished for her, scowling. "Let me guess. You would have used the slave labor from all the re-education camps you were going to open?"

"I opened those camps to give bandits and anarchists a second chance," Kuvira insisted.

"But you ended up sending innocent people to them," Suyin retorted. "People whose only crime was to speak out against you."

"And what about the Firebenders and Waterbenders you locked away in those camps?", Opal added.

"That was a temporary measure to deal with possible spies." Kuvira sighed. "Or it was supposed to be."

"How could you have fallen so far?", Suyin demanded. "How could you become such a monster? Nothing I…"

"I was trying to be you, Su!", Kuvira shouted.

Opal and Suyin stared at her. "What…?"

"You were always so in control," Kuvira continued. "You knew what was needed and how to get it done. Nobody questioned you. And Zaofu prospered. I wanted that prosperity for the entire Earth Kingdom. When you wouldn't take charge, it became the only choice I had left. To try and lead like you."

"I…" Suyin frowned. "I never threw anyone into camps!"

"No. You just threw out anyone who wouldn't behave," Kuvira pointed out. "I thought I could do better. I thought I could convince people to become better."

"It's not always that easy," I pointed out, joining the conversation.

"So that's it?", Opal demanded. "You think you only need to say something like that and we'll forgive you?"

"I just…"

"You hurt us too much," Opal insisted. Anger was on her face when she added, "I'll never forgive you."

"Could you please do this later?!" Molly frowned at them. "My veil can keep some sound in, but that screeching is going to be heard if you keep it up!"

The three went quiet for a tense moment. When it seemed that the tension was building to a verbal response of some sort, there was a beeping from the device I had with me. Which, at that point, provided a thankful distraction. "Ah, hello?", I said into it, eager to continue the distraction.

"Doctor?"

"Katara! Ah, good. Tell me, how are things?"

"I got Steven and Connie into the Garden Room," Katara explained. "We're safe for the moment."

"Good," I answered. The Garden Room was where I kept the kind of things you keep in a garden. For scientific or culinary purposes, of course. "Can you tell me what the Master has done with the TARDIS?"

"He's attached something to the TARDIS controls. I couldn't tell what. When I looked outside I saw the spirit portal Korra created and some sort of machinery that I have never seen before."

I nodded. "Okay. Katara, I'd like you to wait for my signal, and then I want you to do what you can to shut down his devices."

"Yes, Doctor."

"Good. I'll hear from you soon." I lowered the transceiver I'd cobbled together and returned it to my pocket. "We should get going," I said to the others. "Timing will be everything."

Without a word, Kuvira and Suyin began to pull us along with their Metalbending.

But that wasn't the only rumbling we heard. There was more from above.

The battle had begun.

---

How do I describe the battle? I mean, the tactics were fairly common. Reed had effectively been put in charge, but in practice he directed the efforts of his immediate family and provided suggestions. In much the same way, Garnet directed her group's activities and Kal-El, as usual, used his speed and power to aid anyone who needed the help. Lin was in effective charge of her nephew and the Fire Ferret twins.

And Korra… was Korra, which meant throwing everything she had at the other side and fighting with ferocity that never seemed to relent.

The Master's main Airship, flanked by smaller ones, descended to join the battle. The air portion of the fight began at about that time. Stark and Asami led the Airbenders into the growing number of drones. Repulsor fire and other weapons were joined by cyclones and blasts of air calculated to knock drones into each other or back into the airships. "There are people on board, they're victims too," Asami pointed out. "We can't just shoot them down."

"[We might not have a choice." Stark jinked away to avoid a drone. He reached his hand out and blasted it with his repulsor to down it. "I'm relaying targeting points to you. We should be able to force them into landing."

"I'm ready."

"Sending the weak points now."

They swept away from the formation of Airships and turned back toward them. Both watched the indicators on their suits line up the shot. In one motion both revealed missile launcher weapons protected by their shoulder armor and triggered them. The storm of missiles lashed out and struck one of the escorting airships. It began to plummet.

"Yeah!", Stark crowed. "Now on to the next one."

"I'm on… watch out!"

Asami shifted her mid-air course and slammed into Stark. Both went flying out of the way of a large burst of energy from the main airship and its large cannon. By the time they righted themselves another wave of drones was moving in for the attack.

---

In the underground we continued to walk our way through quietly. I kept the sonic up and passively scanning for any mechasuits or individuals ahead of us, but we were clear all the way to east of downtown. Given Molly's earlier outburst, the Beifongs and Kuvira had kept quiet. But there was no mistaking the frustration and anger there.

But I had other things on my mind. Primarily the lack of obstacles.

The idea that the Master was going to ignore this approach was… well, not at all something I could find reasonable. It was the third and most concealed approach vector toward the crater, and the one he knew I would favor for my own path. He had to have something down here.

I pulled out the spyglass and held it to my eye. I used every enhanced imaging mode I had in it to spy into the darkness ahead.

We were coming up to the end of the tunnel. Beyond was one of the larger underground areas, presumably housing sanitation pumps or some other part of the city infrastructure, that would take us even closer to our goal.

As I cycled through the image types, though, I made out the figure of a man standing at the exit. I zoomed in, filtering to low visibility magnification and enhancement, and watched a green-tinged outline of the man.

Major Zhengfu.

But what got my attention wasn't the appearance of the Master's apparently-willing number two man on this world. It was that his eyes were obscured by what looked to be… goggles.

I swallowed. "Molly, your veil… does it also hide heat?"

"What?", she asked.

"Does it obscure the heat our bodies give off into the atmosphere", I asked. My voice was insistent, and for good reason. "Because he's using infra-red goggles."

From Molly's reaction, it's safe to assume the answer was "no". Admittedly most of the things she would need to veil from wouldn't have goggles like that and tended to rely on basic, if enhanced, senses.

Zhengfu's arms reached up suddenly and made a pulling backward motion.

The stone and mortar above rumbled and the supports for them came free from Zhengfu's bending.

Suyin and Kuvira were moving us along ever more quickly now, but I could see we weren't going to get free of the tunnel before it collapsed. I reached for the sonic disruptor and hoped that the deflector shield would be able to resist the collapsing tunnel.

"Hang on!", Jan shouted. She held her arms up and I could sense she was calling upon the Force, using it to stabilize the ceiling above us as we continued on. Kerra did the same.

Opal took it upon herself to be our offense. She went to the front of the car and threw punches into the air, sending currents of wind at Zhengfu. He moved to dodge them while continuing to making pulling motions that tore out more of the ceiling above us. When I looked up, through the falling stones, I could see what he was wrenching free; a major lateral support column.

And to make things worse, Opal was having to divert from attacking to using her Airbending to blast falling stones from the railway lest we be derailed.

I started to calculate if together we could at least keep ourselves in a pocket within a cave-in, then dig our way out. But even if we survived, the time it would take, and with none of us wounded at that...

But before we could get buried like Zhengfu planned, Kuvira suddenly jumped free of the car. She turned toward it and, with every erg of energy she could muster, used her Metalbending talent to send it flying down the rail.

Zhengfu cried out in surprise and barely jumped in time to avoid getting run over. We barely stopped in time ourselves; it took everything Suyin had to keep us from not just slamming into the stop barrier but from demolishing it. Opal and Jan even flew free from the impact and rolled to a stop further ahead, saved from serious injury by their respective gifts being applied to lessen the impact.

But we were safe, at least. For the moment anyway.

Of course, Kuvira was now in the collapsing tunnel, and even without Zhengfu actively tearing it further apart it was still raining stone and metal around her.

"Come on!" Kerra held her hands up and kept the debris from crushing Kuvira for the moment, allowing Kuvira to draw closer and closer to the exit.

A large rock slammed into Kerra's ribs. She cried out and doubled over. Zhengfu, recovered from his leap, advanced on her and was stopped by Suyin lashing out with a strip of metal from the rail car that knocked him off-balance.

And as Jan was still recovering from her tumble, that meant there was nobody to help Kuvira.

She was within five feet of the exit when the tunnel exit completely collapsed from all of the damage.

I pulled my sonic disruptor over and keyed the neural shock setting. Zhengfu cried out from the disruption it caused in his brain and doubled over. He was helpless to keep Suyin from knocking him out with a well-placed blow.

Molly was rushing to Jan's side while I went to Kerra's. She nursed her side a bit as she stood with my help. "She's still in there," Kerra said. "She's hurt."

"We don't have time to help," Suyin insisted. "We have to keep going."

"The entire tunnel is still unstable and may collapse further." Kerra looked at Suyin intently. "If we don't get Kuvira out now, she's going to die."

Suyin's face turned hard at that moment. There was no way to see what emotions were roiling within. Satisfaction? Guilt? Anger?

"If we don't stop the Master, we all die," Opal pointed out.

"I'm not leaving her behind," Kerra vowed. "She saved our lives."

"She's the reason we're in this mess in the first place!", Opal shot back.

"Both of you stop it!" Molly stepped up with the others. She looked at me and then back to the debris. "Either help her or don't, just don't stand there arguing about it!"

Kerra stood a little higher and pulled free of me. She brought her hands up and focused on the rubble covering the tunnel. "Some of you should go on with the Doctor," she said. "I'll be fine."

"Says the young Jedi with broken ribs," I pointed out.

"I'll stay with her," Jan offered. "Together we can dig her out quickly."

I looked to Jan with a frown on my face. Truth be told, I didn't feel much different than Suyin. I had repeatedly warned Kuvira of the road she was on, and she had ignored me. She had contributed to this situation. And even she would know that her life couldn't be measured against her entire world, and any worlds beyond threatened by the Master's plan.

Jan's eyes focused on me. She could sense what I was thinking. And it wasn't hard to see what she was thinking. What she was urging me to decide.

"Opal," I said. "Help Kerra where you can."

"But you need..."

"Kuvira will answer for what she's done, but not this way," I finished. "She doesn't deserve this."

The look on Opal's face told me she agreed with that statement only in that she felt Kuvira deserved worse.

But she took up a place beside Kerra. Suyin used Metalbending to fully restrain Major Zhengfu and we went on our way.

Hopefully those above were doing better.

---

But they really weren't.

"Kai!", Jinora cried out, seeing her crush take a glancing particle blast to the side. Had it been a direct hit it probably would have killed him. Just like the fall from thousands of feet up would kill him. Jinora twisted in mid-air, sent a small cyclone to scatter the drones surrounding him, and flew to grab Kai from the air.

In all that she might have gotten hit herself, but the drones behind her melted under the flames coming from Johnny Storm's hands. "Come on, everyone, over here!", he shouted, sending out repeated blasts of flame that were more intended to get enemy attention than to destroy them.

He succeeded. And probably regretted it when he had over a dozen of the things trying to shoot him from the sky.

Asami came up behind one of the other escort airships and directed repulsors into the engines. The shot succeeded and the airship stopped maneuvering. She might have had a chance to damage the balloon but the drones were hot on her tail as well, forcing Asami to dodge and evade in mid-air.

"Now I really wish Rhodey could have come," Stark lamented, dealing with his own foes.

"The Master must have converted Omashu into his own personal weapons factory," Asami said.

"You aren't sure? It looks pretty obvious to me," Stark pointed out.

"I knew there were irregularities in Kuvira's economic reports, but she was covering up a lot of data."

"Maybe I should hire her for the accounting department." Stark flew past Asami. "Ever see what happens when two repulsor beams hit?"

"No! Unh!" Asami took a glancing blow and was forced to ascend.

"Follow my pattern. On my mark, shift back downward and fire in beam mode at twelve degrees down angle to your left, distance of at least one hundred feet."

Asami didn't question him, wisely. She knew Stark had the experience edge in this work. She maneuvered herself appropriately while Stark moved to take advantage of his instructions.

"Mark!"

Asami twisted in mid-air, avoiding a drone's shot in the process, and fired her repulsors at the angle Stark specified. Her repulsor beams met his at the rough hundred meter mark between them. The repulsor energies reacted violently to each other, sending out a shockwave that knocked out the anti-grav drives on every drone within a hundred meters.

With the opening briefly provided in the cloud of aerial drones, Stark flew on to the damaged escort airship and carved a gash in its balloon with his repulsors. It started to descend.

The air shook a moment later. The main Airship's primary weapon was firing.

---

The blast that resulted from the cannon shot caught Ben and the Gems just as they were finishing off a pair of mechatanks. All four went flying. The same explosion sent debris flying that caught Reed in the forehead while he was trying to restrain a nearby mechasuit for Bolin and Mako to subdue. He fell limply to the ground.

"We can't win this with that cannon operational." Kal-El looked up from the broken remains of two mechatanks and shot upward. He might have gone even faster, but he was being cautious.

For good reason. He felt the energy just before it would have sapped his powers and moved downward in mid-air. "They've equipped the Airship with a red solar radiation shield, I can't get near it!" He looked toward the cannon and the beams of his heat vision seared upward.

They might have worked if the Airship's hull and weapon hadn't been given a reflective heat coating. The heat vision beams accomplished nothing.

"Heat shield... argh!" Kal-El was shot in the back by several of the drones. He wasn't really hurt by them, but he was still a bit weakened by the earlier exposure to red solar radiation and the shots were enough to stun him and cause him to fall.

Garnet looked upward. "Amethyst, Pearl!"

"We're ready, Garnet!", Pearl answered.

Which meant they were going to form their fused form Opal, whom I am assured is quite the shot at long range. Thus it was a good thing that Opal Beifong was with us (or rather with Kerra) as that would have caused some confusion. Although given their usual attitudes I'm surprised the two can manage a quantum state merger like that. Or however it works when it's all Gems and not a half-Human Gem fusing with a full Human.

So they did their thing and soon the tall, four-armed humanoid figure was looming over the battlefield and looking up toward the large Airship. When the crew swiveled the tuning fork weapon toward her, Opal - the Gem, not the Beifong, obviously! - did a fancy cartwheel and backflip, scrambled up one of the surviving skyscrapers, and pulled out her weapons with her spare hands. Which formed into a bow.

And I suppose mixing a spear with a whip could somewhat make one think of a bow. But no, it's not my logic, don't ask me how it works. Please.

Opal jumped off the skyscraper to avoid the tuning fork's anti-Gem emissions and took a shot at the airship from mid-air. It was all very impressive looking. Very impressive indeed.

Unfortunately the cannon got in the way.

Or rather the cannon's next blast, which hit the energy arrow fired by Opal in mid-air. The two energies collided and detonated with enough force to send an expanding sphere of a blast wave outward. It caught Opal with enough force to send her plummeting straight into the ground. Kal-El, Johnny, the drones, everything flying within a certain radius went, well, flying uncontrollably from the impact. Even the Capital Airship was forced upward by a dozen feet or so.

But it was still intact.

"We've got to do somethin' about that airship!", Ben shouted.

"Between the escorting drones and the escorting airships, we can't get through!," Stark answered him.

Ben looked back to Susan, who was trying to help her injured husband by applying a bandage to his bleeding forehead. "Suzie, we need Stretcho's smarts, and fast!"

"He's out cold, Ben," she answered. "I'm not sure he'll wake up any time soon."

"Oh, what a time for Reed to take a nap..."

"Korra!" Garnet's voice echoed over the battlefield, and reached Korra where she was helping Mako and Bolin fight off another mechatank. "You need to go after the main Airship! Before it destroys us all!"

Korra could have protested she couldn't fly (Well, not effectively, Firebending rocketry is an inexact science), but she was already in agreement. She broke away from that fight and started using a combination of said rocketry and the nearby buildings to ascend toward the Airship.

Apparently the Master, or whomever he had in control of the Airship, had thought the same. Because when Korra got to the top of the buildings and looked up, she found the cannon pointing directly at her.

It fired a second later.

---

Now, I know you lot want to find out what happened to Korra. Don't worry, you will. But first things first.

We were climbing up through the access areas for the city's water distribution network. "We're almost there," I mumbled to the others. "Look at the damage on the pipes. Shock damage from the fight with the Colossus."

"I'll take you word for it," Jan answered.

After another flight of stairs we were confronted with a heavy metal hatch. I stepped aside and allowed Suyin to rip it free so we could continue. As soon as we were going through, I took out my communication device. "Katara, can you receive instructions? Two taps for no, three for yes."

After several seconds, there was…. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Alright. Wait five minutes, then follow these instructions. Go under the TARDIS controls and remove that command circuit I showed you. It should force the power systems to lock down and keep the Master from doing anything with the Eye of Harmony. Two taps if you understand."

Another few seconds. Tap. Tap.

"Excellent. Good luck." I put the comm back into my jacket pocket. "We're almost there. Jan, do you have any feeling on how Kerra's doing?"

"She's gotten Kuvira out. She's alive but badly hurt," Jan answered.

"Good. If you can, please inform Ms. Holt to get Kuvira to the surface and out of danger before joining the others. Kuvira's done all she can and she and Opal will be of assistance above, I'm sure."

Jan focused. Even if it wasn't telepathy per se, the Force did allow Jedi some mental communication. Imagery, concepts, that sort of thing.

In the meantime, we continued on our way.

---

Now that I've gotten that part out of the way, I'll return you to the surface.

The cannon fired right at Korra.

And as it did, something else plowed into her and pulled her out of the way of the blast. Korra and her rescuer ended up rolling to a stop on the roof of a nearby building. She faced said rescuer and…. I can only imagine the multitude of feelings she must have felt.

Zaheer looked back at her. "Avatar Korra, you're welcome."

Yes. I can imagine that mix of confusion, disbelief, and perhaps a bit of anger, all mixed up on Korra's face. "Zaheer. You're out?"

He was presumably rather unflappable about it. "I was released, yes."

"By who?", Korra demanded.

"Him."

Zaheer motioned to the south. A number of mechasuits and armored men were coming in, accompanied by biplanes in the air, and led by a man in a red uniform.

Korra's eyes widened. "The United Forces."

From what I know, she could faintly hear General Iroh barking in the air. "All units, proceed to the enemy's flank!"

Above them the biplanes exploited the drones' focus on the AIrbenders and on Asami and Stark. They flew in close to the escort airships and Firebenders harnessed to their wingtips began sending out plumes of flame and barrages of electricity into the airships.

There was a roar in the air. The biplanes were joined by a dragon that poured flame into the damaged engine of one of the airships. Lord Zuko held an arm out and poured more flame into the wounds on the airship's balloon, destroying more of the support structures that gave the balloon structural integrity.

"We have to destroy that main Airship," Korra insisted. "I need a way up there."

"I can take you through their defenses," Zaheer offered. "Do you trust me?"

That was quite the question to ask. Given the whole poisoning thing, I mean. But given the assistance he had provided in helping Korra get through that spiritual block, I'm not surprised that Korra only took a few seconds before accepting his help.

On the ground our allies were rallying. Garnet battered a mechasuit down with a flurry of punches. Amethyst sailed over her head and used her whip to grab another. Garnet grabbed the whip and sent an electrical charge through it and into the mechatank. The tank sparked and shuddered, but it was still functioning and bringing a weapon arm over toward them. A bolt of lightning caught it before the pilot could aim at the Gems; Mako was standing atop nearby debris and bending lightning into the mechatank. His attack put them over the capacity of the tank to take the lightning. Its systems shorted out and it fell, crippled.

Nearby a mechatank menaced Sue Richards as she guarded her unconscious husband. It battered and fired upon Sue's forcefield without effect, save the strain it put on Sue. Above her, Lin and Wei Beifong swung in on their metal lines and landed on the mechasuit. Their cables became cutters, slicing through exposed hydraulics. The mechatank's mesmerized pilot twisted an arm to try and get them off. This exposed him to a counterattack from Sue, who slammed the mechatank with a solid cylinder of invisible force that knocked it on its back. Lin and Wei swung away as it fell backward and Ben Grimm jumped onto the tank's chest to rip the cockpit hatch off and remove the pilot.

Another mechatank was challenging Pearl and Bolin. Both jumped out of the way of a particle blast. When Bolin landed he slammed his hands towards the ground. His will heated the earthen components under the streets into lava. The molten mass erupted through the broken street and created a pool of superheated rock around the mechatank. It became mired in the lava, which had the side effect of slowly destroying its treaded feet.

With a push of his arm Bolin created a bridge of solid earth leading high over the magma. Pearl rushed along the earthen bridge and jumped off at the tip of its ending. She flipped in the air with that elegance she is quite capable of and brought her spear down on the exposed portions off one of the joints. She moved about the mechatank with precision, hitting its weak points in rapid succession with all the skill of a practiced surgeon. Once the mechatank was slumping she jumped free and landed on Bolin's earthen bridge.

"Alright!" Bolin cheered. "Now we… look out!"

His Earthbending formed an earthen shield above them that absorbed the cannon shot. Or rather, weakened, as enough energy got through to throw both backwards. Pearl started to cry out as the disruption field from the tuning fork emitter focused on her. Bolin rushed in and grabbed her to try and get her to safety.

Unfortunately, this left them surrounded by mechasuits.

There was a great rumbling of the earth. The mechasuits were suddenly upended by massive chunks of earth tearing out of the ground.

"Ha. Still got the touch."

With the tuning fork's emission having ended, Pearl was cognizant enough to step free of Bolin, who was grinning madly at the sight of their savior.

Toph Beifong had her arms crossed. "Oh, it's you," she said. "Who's your friend? I've never felt someone like that before."

"How did she do that?", Pearl asked. "She looks like she's blind. And far too old a Human to be in a battle like this."

"I am blind," Toph said dismissively. "And I'm not too old to kick your butt."

"That's Opal's grandmother Toph," Bolin explained. "She's the creator of Metalbending."

That confused Pearl for a moment. "Opal's grandmother? That doesn't make sense, we don't have… ohhhh. You're talking about that young lady you were standing with earlier, aren't you?"

See what I mean about name confusion?

"I thought you said you were too old to fight these days?", Bolin asked.

"Yeah, well, when I got back to the swamp Zuko's uncle contacted me from the Spirit World and said both worlds were in danger. Old Iroh asked me to get everyone I could to help. So I did."

Said help was now evident by the arrival of others to the fight. Mechasuits threatening Lin's back were swept away by a tide of water summoned from the nearest canal by Tonraq and Senna, Korra's parents. Garnet was saved from a shot by the mechatanks by a surge of water turned to ice, courtesy of Kya, while Korra's cousins Desna and Eska used their water pouches to barrage the tanks with sharp bolts of ice. While the lead tank tried to endure this attack Garnet jumped past its arm and delivered a punch with her gauntlet that knocked the tank over. General Iroh rocketed over her head on self-made flame-jets and generated a powerful burst of flame on his way to the ground that melted the weapon off a mechasuit.

Wei looked up from where he'd fallen, hurt, and found water shining on his head. He looked into a set of blue eyes. "Aren't you…?"

"It'll be alright," Katara - old Katara that is - assured him. "Let me tend to your wounds… in a second." She lashed her arm out. The same water flew outward and struck an approaching mechasuit's viewport, after which it froze. This bought several seconds in which Amethyst rolled in - literally - and disabled the suit with a blow from her whip. Old Katara drew more water from a bottle and looked back to Wei. "Now, hold still, I'll have you healed in a moment."

"Look out!"

Amethyst ran in, lifted both healer and patient, and kept running… until the shot from the Master's Airship exploded behind them, sending all three flying. "Is everyone okay?", Amethyst asked.

Katara grimaced as she stood. "I'm not as young as I used to be," she sighed. I admit that I felt a deep pang of sympathy when I heard that; I was so used to adventuring with her younger alternate-timeline counterpart that I forgot just how fragile she could become in old age. But with nary a further complaint, Katara returned to the task of healing Wei.

Of course, this incident only reinforced that the Master's Airship needed to be taken down. Which is why I will resume Korra's part.

In a moment anyway. First things first.

---

We emerged from the sewers through a broken pipe exposed by the spirit energy blast. Water still flowed under our feet and into the remaining spirit vines laying upon the ground.

In the near distance I could see my TARDIS, flanked by mechatanks, and another machine near the spirit portal. It had an energy source of some sort and included an array of arms that reached into the portal. I imagined a set of wires also leading into my dear TARDIS. My expression hardened at that.

Well, there was also the issue that our exit had required going through running water. Which grounds out certain types of magic, such as, oh, Molly's veils. So we were completely visible upon our emergence and got the immediate attention of the nearest Mechsuits and troops as our reward. Jan jumped into action first. With the numbers so weighted against us, Jan eschewed the more cautious approach and pulled her second lightsaber from her belt as she dashed forward. With a purple blade coming from each hand Jan became a whirling cyclone of purple light, slicing and weaving through the mechasuits. The plentiful metal left from the ruins of the Colossus and its internal structure gave Suyin more than enough ammunition to begin knocking mechasuits about.

Molly's hand settled on my shoulder. Her veil re-asserted itself. "There's so much energy around here," she said. "I might not be able to keep you fully hidden."

"Let's go as far as we can," I answered.

With Jan and Suyin covering our sides Molly and I, again invisible, ran as fast as we could over the vines. We approached the TARDIS from behind, which would at least give me a good first shot at disabling her captors. I pulled a couple of overload capacitors from my jacket. Had to get a bit creative with the mecha all being deadlock-sealed.

Molly's veil meant we arrived unnoticed. Which wouldn't continue for long, I imagined, so I needed to get everything done now. After planting the overload capacitors on the two mechatanks I walked past the TARDIS to inspect herr from the front. There were indeed cables hooking my TARDIS into the Master's other machines.

The Master stood at the controls of the machine beside the Spirit Portal. He was operating them. Earth Empire soldiers were standing at his sides and more were nearby.

A wave of nausea came through me. But I did nothing like the cry that came from behind me. Molly cried out and collapsed.

Our veil was gone.

The Master chuckled. "Well. Zhengfu failed after all. I must say I'm not surprised. You have acquired quite the gathering of allies, pawn."

As I had suspected, the Master had anticipated all of my strategies. In other words, things were proceeding according to plan.

The troops leveled weapons at me. They looked to be primitive particle rifles. "You used Xuandi's old holdings to build all this, eh?"

"Oh, yes. All Kuvira cared was that I sent a steady supply of machines to her."

"And you kept the really good ones for yourself and suborned the garrison she left."

When I received a reply, it was full of contempt. "So this is how you seek to gain time for yourself? Petty questions?"

I shrugged. "Well, I'm rather the curious sort, I must admit."

That prompted another bemused chuckle. "Yes. That is what was counted on, you know."

I blinked at that. "You mean…?"

"Even with your memories blocked, some facets of your personality would remain," the Master pointed out. "Curiosity was one of them. It was a prerequisite, in fact."

"I see." I folded my arms. "Does this have something to do with whatever is hidden in my TARDIS' engine room?"

The Master turned toward me. A devilish grin was on his face. "Well well. Putting it together, are we? That misdirection circuit was quite an annoyance, I must say."

"What's in there?", I asked.

"Everything I need to become the most powerful Time Lord in creation."

"Oh. That's all." I sighed. I had been hoping for a more specific reply. "Multiversal domination then?"

"I will rule the empire I have always deserved."

I stopped speaking for the moment. I looked over his machinery. My mind made calculations.

Suddenly I felt disbelief nearly choke me. And then horror completed the job. "The Eye of Harmony," I said, almost so low as to be a rasp. "You're going to make your own."

The Master's grin was my reply.

Of course, to do what he was saying….

He would have to destroy this world in the process.

---

Above our heads and a distance away, Zaheer was carrying Korra through the swarms of drones, using his unique Airbender flight abilities to throw them off with the wake of his passing. Korra used her free arm to throw fire and gusts of air where she could to help. The drones were adjusting to the situation; they had identified Zaheer and Korra as a primary threat and were concentrating on them.

"Your left!", Korra shouted, giving Zaheer just enough time to avoid a shot. He twisted and twirled as more of the attack craft sought them out. "We need some…"

Before she could finish that thought, red beams lashed up and sliced through several of the craft ahead of them. Kal-El flew up near to them, just outside of the solar radiation field that would nullify his powers further. "Allow me," he said. He looked back to the gathering drones ahead.

And he took in a deep breath.

I admit I've never seen him do that one, but I know he's got the power. That "arctic gale" scale of breath not only threw the drones off-course and scattered them, it froze vital components and caused structural damage in the process.

Zaheer quickly exploited the resulting gap to fly Korra further up, almost to the main Airship. As they flew upward air currents bore Jinora and her siblings up toward them. "Zaheer!", Jinora cried out, surprised.

"He's on our side now," Korra answered.

Jinora nodded. "We'll try to keep them off of you!" She and the siblings peeled away. They flew towards pursuing drones, manipulating the air currents they were bending around them to throw off those attackers.

"It looks like there are more," Zaheer noted. Ahead of them the Master's Airship was disgorging another group of them.

"Where is he getting them all from?", Korra sighed.

"Hold on," Zaheer said. "I'll try to…"

"We've got this," Asami cut in, flying beside them. Stark came to the other side.

"Targeting systems locking on… now!", Stark shouted.

Their shoulder plates shifted out of the way to allow sets of small missile launchers to lock into place. The missiles were basically large darts, but the Starktech warheads inside packed quite the punch. Missiles erupted from both and corkscrewed ahead of them in the air. Where they found their targets, the resulting explosions blasted the drones apart or otherwise damaged them so heavily as to send them crashing downward.

Asami and Stark split away and carried on attacking the reinforcing drones. A red streak flew past them as they got to the Airship. "I'll hold them in their launch bay!", Johnny shouted before sending roaring flames toward the ports the drones launched from.

With the way clear for the moment, Zaheer flew Korra up to the top of the airship. She landed on one of the support beams for the balloon and righted herself.

"It's up to you, Avatar Korra," Zaheer told her. "I'll keep them off your back."

"Thank you again, Zaheer," Korra answered. I can imagine her face as she thought through her options and decided on the best way to destroy the ship.

While Korra prepared, Zaheer turned and flew on to engage aerial drones coming up behind them. His unique Airbending flight let him disrupt them by picking up speed and knocking them about with the air he was displacing. He turned about, came at another, and this time his hands moved as he went by, creating a blade of air that sliced the drone in half. This broke his flight for the moment, but only a moment, after which he was off again for another run at the others.

In the meantime, Korra had made her decision of the appropriate tactic. A way to take down the Airship without harming the mesmerized crew inside.

Her blue eyes glowed with ethereal power as Korra called upon the power of the Avatar State, of Raava, and went to work. She thrust her arms skyward.

Far below, the waters of the rivers leading into Yue Bay heeded her power. Water flowed skyward, a sight that caught the attention of many not immediately engaged in combat. Even the Master and I would note it during our discussion.

When it reached Korra it swirled about her. She began wrapping the water around the Airship. Around its main cannon, around the weapon that was tormenting the Gems, around the bay from which the aerial drones were being launched, around the engines. Everything. And the water kept coming.

Once she had finished wrapping the airship like this, she reached out with her will to bend the element further; by taking out its heat. Water froze to ice in an instant. The engines coughed and died. The launch bay door froze in place. The weapons stopped working.

And the extra mass of the ice removed the buoyancy that kept the Airship afloat. It began to descend from the sky.

But Korra wasn't done. She gathered her will and threw herself into the air on a funnel cloud of air. She used the same to take hold of the Airship. To drive it, firmly but gently, toward the ground. It started to come down near the park, where her Bending pulled up entire portions of the earth to form a landing platform and cage for the craft. Her Airbending formed a cushion of Air that softened the landing to ensure the crew wasn't unduly harmed by the impact.

The Airship came to a rest on the cradle Korra had created. She flew herself free of it with her FIrebending. More motions of her arms turned the cradle into a full cage and, in the process, pierced the balloon in so many places it would never go aloft again.

And with all of that done, Korra drew in a breath, made a respectful gesture with her hands, and dismissed the Avatar State.

Asami flew down to join her. "Kal-El is going after the remaining escort airships," she said.

"Good. Then we can…"

Korra stopped in mid-sentence when the bright orange light erupted from beside the Spirit Portal. "We'd better get there," she said to Asami.

"Hold on to my waist," Asami answered. When Korra had finished that grip Asami triggered her repulsors and lifted off into the air. It would be harder flying with Korra holding on, true, but it would get them both where they needed to be, and quickly.

Which turned out to be a very good thing…

---

"Bravo." The Master's slow applause was mocking in its tone. "Yes, pawn. That is precisely what will happen."

"But it's not their star you're going to take," I continued. "It's not possible for it to become a black hole. You're on to something else."

The Master checked his instruments. "It won't be long now." He looked toward the spirit portal.

"You're... you're using something in my TARDIS to do this," I continued. "Something from the engine room. It'll let you create another Eye of Harmony."

"It contains the seed I need, yes," the Master said. "But a mere collapsing star? There are greater sources of power."

I looked over the instruments. I considered that. If he wasn't looking to make his own Eye of Harmony, then what was...

The Spirit Portal.

Of course.

"No, you're not going to use a collapsing star," I agreed. "You're going to create a multi-dimensional disruption event. You'll tear this world and its adjacent dimensions apart and capture the destruction at the moment of its peak."

The Master began to laugh. "Oh. It's good to see that Time Lord brilliance wasn't entirely wasted on you, pawn."

My mind raced. That kind of energy, that specific kind of energy... it wasn't just artron energy like the Eye of Harmony created. It would be even stronger, even more potent, the kind of energy you created when you began tearing down or building up entire dimensions.

The kind of power that could literally make its wielder, or wielders, into Gods.

And yes, I meant the capital G in that.

"You wanted Kuvira to overload the spirit cannon," I charged. "The energy release would not only re-open the Crack, but widen it. Enhance it. Enough to become what you needed."

The Master flipped a switch. The device attached to the Spirit Portal began to surge with energy, sending bright orange light everywhere. I could feel the energy begin to surge from my TARDIS. "Don't worry," he said. "You won't die here. Not yet. I want you to see this. It's only fair. You made this all possible."

A voice from the past echoed in my head, metallic and evil and shrieking.

You are the Destroyer. You are responsible for the tears in the dimensions. You will bring about the collapse of our Universe, of all universes. You are the one! You! You! You!

The Supreme Dalek's parting words and now the Master's. They both chilled my hearts and begged further questions. Questions I needed answered. "What are you talking about?", I asked. "I didn't cause this!"

"That's the beauty of the plan," the Master replied. "You are just the pawn, sent out onto the board to move about until you had fulfilled your purpose. And now I will reap the reward."

The Master. With power like that.

Truly the stuff of nightmares.

I looked around. Jan and Suyin were still fighting the perimeter guards. Molly was out cold.

Time to play the ace up my sleeve.

I held up the communication device and hissed into it. "Katara, now!" I turned and used my sonic screwdriver on the mechatanks.

Or rather on the overload capacitors I'd placed on them.

Electricity arced through the giants, which slouched down and grew still.

Meanwhile I looked to the TARDIS. Katara should be done with the command circuit any moment.

Any moment.

The Master laughed at me and snapped his fingers.

One of his men opened the TARDIS door. Katara, Steven, and Connie were there, hands bound behind their backs and on their knees. "S-Sorry," Steven said. "Th-they found us."

I swallowed and tried to take a breath.

"Was that your plan?", the Master laughed. "Sleight of hand with allies hidden away in the TARDIS? Did you really think I would fall for such a thing? Is that how little you think of me?" He frowned at me and drew close. At a motion of his man two of his soldiers grabbed me. One ripped away the sonic screwdriver, the other found and tore the sonic disruptor from its harness under my jacket. "Though a Human, your Time Lord mind should have told you such simple trickery wouldn't work on me. The fact you thought it would anyway..." He shook his head and hissed, "I'm gravely insulted."

I couldn't speak. I just looked at his cold eyes. The faded blue made me think of a soul with all of its vibrancy, all of its color, sucked out of it.

I couldn't help but also notice that the Master's fingers on his left hand were tapping at his leg. Drumming out a beat. The drums in his head, driving him on like this.

And my friends, their world, they would be the victims of those terrible drums.

"I'm going to make you watch," the Master informed me with his voice turned to cold, frigid levels. "I'm going to make you watch me destroy this world and all of your friends and allies here. And then I'll make you watch as I conquer every world, every place, you have ever been to. Every being who has ever called you friend, who has ever given you aid, will die screaming before your eyes. And only afterward, only after you have seen me destroy every thing and undo every act you have ever done with that stolen name, will I let you die."

---

Patience, please. Yes, I know I've left you at a critical moment, but for sake of narrative I must establish things.

Kal-El met with Asami and Korra on the flight toward the crater. "The others are coming along as quickly as they can," he informed them.

"Maybe we won't need them," Korra said, holding onto Asami's waist and using her own Airbending to help facilitate their flight. "Look, there aren't many forces near the Spirit Portal."

"I'll go in first."

As he moved on Asami seemed to have noticed something on her display. "Wait, there's some kind of..."

Kal-El heard her and begin to stop. But it was too late. He struck a growing field of distorted dimensional energy and cried out as it tore into him, cell by cell. Asami and Korra managed to stop before they plowed into it. I'm thankful for this, because without Kal-El's enhanced Kryptonian form they would probably have been disintegrated. Korra used her Airbending to pull Kal-El out of the field before the effect became fatal. He was mostly unconscious when she brought him to the ground.

"We're too late." I imagine Asami said those words in a kind of "too horrified to be frightened" way. "The Master's already started his machines. We can't get through!"

---

Alright. Now back to the fun part. Namely, the Master vowing to slaughter anyone I've ever called an ally or friend just to spite me.

I stared at him and those cold pale blue eyes. I kept my expression stone-like to prevent any of the raging feelings I felt within from getting out and working to his advantage.

I did manage a question.

"Why do you hate me that much?"

The Master considered me for a moment. "Why shouldn't I?", he finally said. "You, who were given freedom no Time Lord has ever enjoyed before, just to squander it like this. You, the foolish Human who thought he could even approach the equal of the greatest of the Time Lords. Your very existence mocks and disgusts me."

"So you're jealous of my freedom, even as you insist I am but a pawn?"

"Of course. How great is the usefulness of a pawn who has been given freedom to do what the chessmaster wants him to?" The Master snapped his finger. The guards by the others readied their weapons. "So? Doctor. Which of them should die first? We have time before the process finishes. Choose."

"None," I answered. "I won't let you torment me like that. You're going to shoot them anyway."

There was the merest hint of a smirk on his face. "Kill the boy," he said. "We'll save the others for later."

They leveled their weapons at Steven.

"Steven!," Connie cried out.

"Don't!", Katara shouted.

Steven looked scared. I noticed him start to concentrate slightly. A pink bubble started to blossom around them.

But it didn't finish forming. Steven cried out in pain and slumped against the side of the TARDIS door, half-conscious. Of course. The same inhibitor field that had disabled Molly, who remained unconscious behind me.

Steven Universe was going to die.

And there was nothing I could do to save him.

The funny part was... I didn't need to.

The energy flowing from the TARDIS abruptly ceased.

The Master's eyes widened at that. All of the sudden, with the blink of an eye, his plans came crashing down. There would be no stasis field to contain the dimensional disruption. No new Eye of Harmony to empower the Master with the energies to become a God, Capital G included.

He stared at me, surprise and disbelief mixed with sheer hatred.

And despite everything around me, I smiled.

The Master had anticipated every stratagem I had devised. He had acted to nullify all of my most powerful allies. At every corner he had proven how fiendishly intelligent he could be, and how outmatched I was.

But he had a flaw. A flaw I had exploited, and had been exploiting since he came for my TARDIS.

His arrogance. His contempt for me and mine.

The Master hadn't just underestimated me, you see. He had also underestimated my allies. Underestimated them to the extent that he hadn't even accounted for them all.

Have you? Because if you have, you may have noticed an absence in my narrative as of late.

There was a shout from within the TARDIS. A foot crashed into the guard about to shoot Steven and sent the weapon flying, and a moment later the guard flew into his companion courtesy of a body throw from Kim Possible. Kim flashed a grin at us. "This scheme is over, 'Master'."

"Booyah!", Ron Stoppable shouted from behind her. "The work is done, Doctor!"

Rufus echoed that "Booyah!" from Ron's pants pocket.

By this point I didn't even want to hide the smile that had come to my face. "You accounted for all of my allies except them. The mere Humans,," I noted. "Hard to worry about a pair of unpowered Human teenagers when you've got to worry about Superman, after all."

The Master trembled with rage. "Kill them," he ordered. "Kill them all!"

I immediately threw myself into the guard to my right. I wrenched the sonic disruptor free from him and used it to absorb a particle blast from another guard. In the same motion I kicked out with my legs, turning on my back, and tripped up the other guard who had my sonic screwdriver. I used the link between my two sonic devices to pull the sonic screwdriver through the air and into my left hand. I held it out toward one of the machines - the inhibitor field emitter by my scans - and used it. Said field emitter erupted in sparks.

Which was when Jan and Suyin came from around the TARDIS and joined the fray. Jan deflected particle rifle shots with her lightsaber and swiftly dispatched, non-lethally of course, more of the soldiers. Suyin gestured with her hands and freed Katara, Steven, and Connie from their bonds, allowing Katara to begin bending a pool of water on the ground into water tentacles to tear away rifles from more of the soldiers.

The Master had been backing away for his mesmerized soldiers to deal with us. Now he turned completely and went to the controls of the machinery he was using. I ran towards him and had to weave and dodge my way through some of the soldiers that were trying to stop me.

When I got close enough I tackled the Master to force him away from the controls. We tumbled onto the spirit vines on the surface of the crater and rolled for a moment until I was leaning over him. My hands gripped the collar of his red Gallifreyan-style outfit. "It's over!", I shouted.

"You are correct," he said. "It is."

He didn't even need to show me that angry smile for me to know I hadn't stopped him in time.

---

Stark had joined Korra and Asami outside of the dimensional distortion field that had harmed Kal-El. "We need to get in there," Korra said to him. "Any plans?"

Stark considered this. He turned to them after several seconds. "Asami, if we give ourselves a couple hundred meters of space to gain enough speed, we should be able to fly through the field before it begins to damage our bodies."

"That sounds like a plan." Asami turned to Korra. "We'll bring it down as quickly as we can."

Korra nodded. "I'll be waiting with the others." She gave Asami a hug. "Good luck."

Asami nodded in appreciation of that sentiment before joining Stark in the air. They flew away and upward, getting the right angle to get through the dome at enough speed to avoid getting torn to pieces at a cellular level.

And then they made their run.

---

There was a buzzing sound in the air. A growing sensation of wrongness. I looked up and saw the device the Master had attached to the Spirit Portal increasing the energy it was channeling. "You're destabilizing the Spirit Portal further," I charged. "You'll..."

The Master's hands grabbed the lapel of my suit. He was no slouch in the strength department either and he easily threw me to the side, forcing me off of him. Instead of pushing his attack further, though, he kept running. Back toward the sewer exit my team had come from.

I picked myself up from the ground and ran to the controls for the Master's machine. They were erupting in sparks when I got there and I let out a growl of frustration. He had set it to short out as soon as the energy being channeled to disrupt the Spirit Portal had grown.

"It's going to blow up, right?", Jan asked.

"Blow up and rip a massive tear in the dimensions in the process," I answered. "Not as immediately apocalyptic as the Master's original plan, but it will still destroy the world." I tried to use the sonic on the machine itself. All that confirmed was that it was deadlock-sealed. "Bloody hell," I cursed. "There has to be some way to..." I looked back to the mechatanks and hated myself. Their particle cannons might have managed the feat I needed... but I had disabled them in the process of knocking out the tanks. I looked to the others and realized none of them had what I needed. The kind of energy I...

There was a roar in the air. We all looked up in time to see Stark and Asami slam into the ground and skid roughly over the vines, each going probably thirty feet of rolling and skipping before they managed to lose all of their momentum. I called out to them and held my hand up. They answered by flying over as soon as they could get their bearings. "That... doesn't look good," Stark noted.

"If it finishes it will create a dimensional disruption event that will disintegrate us all," I noted. "And cause such damage to the fabric of reality that the rest of the world won't last very long afterward."

"We've got to stop it," Asami insisted.

"It's a good thing you're here," I remarked. I pointed toward what I knew to be the main power source for the machine. "If you both put everything into your chest beam assemblies and fire on it, you should be able to disrupt the device and shut it down. It's going to take everything you've got left."

"Right." Stark sighed. "And just hope the arc reactors don't overload. Well, this looks to be fun." He motioned at it. "It'll work best if we both concentrate on the same spot."

"Everyone get clear!", Asami shouted. Everyone did so. Suyin made sure to grab Molly where she was still laid out unconscious.

By the time we reached a safe distance, which gave us a vantage point behind one of the Colossus' hands sticking out from under the vines covering the crater, Asami and Stark were at work. Bright blue beams were coming from the assemblies on the chestpieces of their armored suits, as if the reactors powering the suits were directly dumping their energy into the Master's powr source.

And even as they did, the Spirit Portal began to waver. It looked like the surface was rippling violently. The disruption effect had almost reached critical.

We were almost out of time.

"My reactor's almost to overload!", Stark shouted.

"We can't stop!"

"I'm not saying we stop, I'm just... Aaargh!"

Stark's suit became covered in energy. He fell to the ground. I frowned; he must have pushed beyond his safety overrides and overwhelmed his suit's capacitors.

That just left Asami.

I looked the other way and saw movement. Korra was running our way with some of the others behind her. "Asami!", she shouted.

"Find someone who can bend lightning!", I shouted to Korra. "It may be our only..."

I barely heard what Asami said next. But I did hear it. "Reactor to full possible output."

I could imagine the JANET system warning her of the dangers. But Asami knew it didn't matter. She had to make this work. She ignored the warnings. The beam coming from the armor suit's chest expanded and strengthened.

The rest of our allies moved to give what help they could. But it was too late.

The power supply finally went up. The blast knocked Asami backward and electricity arced into the machine bracing the Spirit Portal, which exploded violently. The Spirit Portal returned to normal.

But the explosions weren't just from the device. The first had come from somewhere else.

Namely, the reactor mounted in the chest-piece of Asami's armored suit.

Its destruction threw her backward and sent her flying into the ground, where she rolled several times before coming to a stop. She landed halfway between Korra and myself, and we both were in the lead to running toward her. "Asami!", Korra again shouted.

As I drew closer I could see what had happened. The reactor had gone up and turned Asami's armor chestpiece into a blackened char. Korra grabbed her and quickly found the emergency release along the side that disengaged the locks on the suit and caused the chestpiece to detach, allowing her to pull it and the helmet off. Asami's eyes were barely open and seemed to be looking distantly off... or looking nowhere at all.

Which was unsurprising when one looked at the mass of blackened flesh that was underneath the removed armor plate.

"Asami!" Korra reached an arm out and bent some water from her flask She settled it on Asami's chest. "I'll save you," I heard her insist in a low voice. "Don't worry, I've got you."

My mouth was dry. I started running the sonic screwdriver to see what the damage was.

And the damage... well, it could have been worse I suppose. She wasn't dead. Not yet, anyway. Just... mostly dead. Massive trauma to critical tissues and organs. The kind that you needed very advanced science to fix, and still in a narrow time span, and far longer than it would take me to reset the TARDIS command circuit and go get it.

Katara - Companion Katara, not Gran-Gran Katara - joined her and started to use water as well. After several seconds she shook her head. "Korra, I... I'm sorry, I don't think any of our healing can save her. There's too much damage."

"No!," Korra insisted. Tears were flowing down her cheeks now. "I'm not losing Asami!" She kept at it. Even as my sonic confirmed that there wasn't enough oxygen getting to Asami's brain. "Not now," she pleaded. "Please."

I felt a familiar feeling surge into my veins. An icy cold fury gripped me. It gripped me like it hadn't since... since...

Katherine.

Mako and Bolin had joined Korra at Asami's side. They looked up and directed their eyes on me. "You've got to save her!", Mako shouted. "Please!"

"C'mon, Doc, there must be something you can do!", Bolin insisted.

I swallowed. Seeing them there, fear and grief written on their faces. Seeing Korra's futile desperation and the tears flowing down her face as she did everything she could to save the one she loved. I turned my head and saw Janias looking at me intently. Connie and Steven were looking up at me as well, hope written all over their little faces.

My mind raced. There had to be something I could do. Some way to save her. I couldn't let her die, not like Katherine. Not after all of this. I couldn't let the Master do this...

The Master!

He was getting away. And if he got away, if he went back through the Crack... he could end up going anywhere. There was no telling what number of worlds he might still threaten. I had to stop him!

"Connie," I said hoarsely. I looked down at Connie as she stared at me, clinging onto hope. "I showed you my medical gear and how to use it. Please go get it and use it precisely as the instructions say. It may be Asami's only hope."

Having said that, I turned and started moving away. She called out, "Where are you going?!"

"I have to catch the Master before he escapes!", I answered over my shoulder. I pushed my body into as fast as a run as I could over the vines, on my way to that sewer entrance.

I knew where he was going. And I had to get to him now, before he fled and found another Crack to exploit. Otherwise this would happen all over again on some other poor world.

And I couldn't let him hurt anyone else.

---

Returning to the sewer, I ran on. I ran and ran and ran. It was all I could do. Run and occasionally scan with the sonic.

And all the while the thought was in my head. That the job was too much for the medigel, that the damage was too extensive. Far more even then the damage that Steven's spittle had healed on Katara in that underground tunnel beneath the Kindergarten.

I didn't want to think about those things though. I didn't want to face the fact that what I was doing, really, was running away from Asami's death. Because if I didn't, I would have to watch it happen. I would have to watch Korra's heart break and see everything we had accomplished measured against the loss of someone dear.

Asami. Poor, brave Asami. She did so much for those she cared for. For those she loved. And for her world. All of those dreams she had...

I didn't want to think about that. It just hurt more. And it made the cold fury grow.

I quickly made me way with the aid of scans to a familiar tunnel, and from there to a familiar place in the Republic City underground.

Xuandi's secret base.

Quick recap, if only because it helps with not thinking about Asami. The Dai Li leader and official King of Omashu had established it as part of his plan to kill Korra, Kuvira, and President Raiko, frame the Republic for the deed, and then suborn Kuvira's army and use it to conquer a Republic weakened by sabotage. He had, after our capture, brought me and Liara in response to the presence of a Crack in the dimensions that he feared could harm his troops.

Or so I thought at the time.

The Dai Li base was mostly empty now. Only mostly though, and what was there was the kind of advanced technology I thought I would find. The Master was already working on one board. I noticed what looked to be a portable battery device and... ah yes, a transmat. For safe transit through the Crack. The Crack that he had obviously re-opened.

Well, okay, not re-opened. But restored to the base three dimensions. That's the accurate description.

"So, you stopped the device," the Master said. "How unexpected."

"You continue to underestimate me and my friends," I pointed out to him. My hand gripped the sonic disruptor tightly and readied it.

The Master appraised me quietly. "So, who was the sacrifice?" An evil little smirk came to his face. "Don't try to hide it. One of your little friends overloaded the power supply for the destabilizer. And they didn't survive the experience."

Cold fury kept my expression frozen. "Asami was my Companion once," I rasped. "She was brilliant. She had dreams for this world. Visions of a greater tomorrow."

"Humans think they have dreams. But they're always the same pettiness," the Master retorted. "And there are always more where they came from, aren't there?" He looked at me. "After all, you found that out already. With those two girls you picked up at the start of your journey, the ones absorbed into that cyborg hive mind. And then there was that other girl, what was her name?" The Master made a show of thinking before his face shifted into a wide grin and he nodded. "Ah yes. Katherine. Dear Katherine."

I bit into my lip. "It's something in my TARDIS, isn't it?", I asked. "Something that lets you know what I've done before. A spying program or device of some sort."

"Something like that, yes," the Master remarked. "It was necessary for the work, you see."

"Whose work."

At that the Master shook his head. "Oh, come now. You can't be this stupid. Whom do you think?! What species could hope to create a Time Lord from a lowly Human and send him and a TARDIS off into the depths of space-time?" The Master nodded. "Oh, you know. You're just afraid to accept it."

I swallowed. He was right. I didn't want it to be that. To be them.

Think about it. Out of all of the Doctor's foes, out of all of his known universe, which group, which civilization, could reasonably grab a Human being, turn him into a Time Lord, and cast him and a TARDIS off into the Multiverse at large? Which of these suspects could put such a strong mental block on my mind that the finest telepaths of the Multiverse believed it couldn't be broken without their assistance?

The answer was obvious. Painfully so. Painful in a way that made you not want to believe it.

"The Time Lords," I said. "It... it was them."

It was not a question, either. It was a statement of fact.

The Master laughed at me. "Of course, you silly ape. You are but a pawn of my people. A tool meant to bring them power."

My mind raced. I tried to think of every single Time Lord who had done something like this. Who could do something like this. "Then who? Was it the military, was it some group, was it..."

The Master interrupted me with a laugh. "Isn't the answer obvious? Who do you think, pawn? Who do you think would have such ambitions for our people? The vision to cause such devastation and use it to the benefit of the Time Lords?"

I thought of the answer.

And suddenly my mind was somewhere else. Somewhere bright. Blinding. Agony filled my body. I could scarcely lift my head and I felt like I was barely remaining conscious.

A face looked down on me. A familiar one.

"Finally. One of you finally survived the transformation. You will be of further use to me after all."

The voice was from my dreams. About the chair. And it was more recognizable than ever. And the face... I could grasp it now. Grasp and hold the image. Compare it to my memories and knowledge.

A single name came to my lips.

"Rassilon."

I was back in the underground of Republic City. The Master nodded at me. "Yes."

"Rassilon... Rassilon did this to me?", I asked, my voice quivering.

The Master laughed. "Oh, yes."

My mind raced. After all of this time, i could see it. My dreams. The things I had learned. It was all coming together.

"Rassilon did this to me," I repeated. As realization and not a query. "Rassilon... what... why? What am I? Some scheme to get out of the Time Lock?"

The Master laughed. "Oh, it's so much more than that! No, knowing our illustrious Lord President, he already has a plan to deal with that. This is about so much more. His vision for the future of the Time Lords."

...and that was the moment when the Master shot me.

The weapon appeared in his hand. It must have been under the control console he was standing beside. I didn't have time to react before an emerald beam cut into my chest, right in the middle. It was a shot meant to knock out both of my hearts in one blow. A killing shot. I flew backward and landed on my back, sprawled out.

Of course, I wasn't actually dead. The Master, even if he knew about it, had yet again underestimated something.

Molly Carpenter's increased wizardly skills, to be precise.

The defensive enchantment on my vest had held. It had dispelled the energy of the beam sufficiently to keep the damage from becoming more than a bit of a burn. Painful, yes. I'd have to get some medigel on it soon. But nowhere near debilitating, nor fatal.

I decided not to wait. Couldn't afford it, the Master would realize I wasn't dying in imminent fashion. I held up the sonic disruptor and fired a broad-wave setting 4 kinetic wave. It knocked the Master back. I used the chance to sit up and scramble to my feet. He was getting up as well and fired a wild shot that my deflector caught. I could take a few shots now with that up, so I charged him and let two more be absorbed by the now-overloading deflector shield. This got me into range of the Master and I went on the attack.

Or, to put it more exactly, I punched him.

In the face.

He stumbled backward from the blow. His hand holding the weapon moved a bit out and I brought the sonic disruptor crashing down on his lower arm like it were a club. He cried out and dropped the weapon, which I kicked away. The Master stumbled backward and I continued to advance upon him until I could grab him.

As I did, I felt something stir within me. The cold fury was starting to boil now. Looking at the Master with the rush of combat flowing in my head. He struggled a bit, so I punched him again, as hard as I could. My knuckles filled with pain from the fierce blow. The side of the Master's face turned red with blood.

He laughed through it.

Something about the laugh triggered my thoughts of the past couple of days. The past week, really. He had directly instigated Kuvira's war on the Republic. He'd given her technology that prolonged the violence and caused more suffering. He attacked me and my friends, harmed us, threatened us...

...and now, he had killed one of us too.

My mind had that image now. Of Asami's unmoving body. Her green eyes staring into nothingness. Nothing going on behind them. I found myself saying her name. As if that could ease the pain I felt.

It couldn't, of course.

So I punched the Master again.

I saw Asami's wound. The terrible, blackened mass of flesh and suit fibers under her destroyed armor piece. I saw the scan results and all of the terrible damage that showed that, if she had been conscious, she would have been suffering excruciating pain.

Punch.

I thought of Korra's sobbing face and desperate attempt to heal Asami.

Punch.

I thought of the horror on Bolin's face, the disbelief on Mako's.

Punch.

The Master laughed. It jolted me out of my fury enough to see his bloodied, bruised face. The blackened right eye. A lip now turned puffy. Blood trickling from his nose. "Oh, this is delightful," he chuckled. "He would never do this. Not to me. Had I known I would get this reaction, I would have started killing your allies immediately."

Bastard! was my only response, and entirely in my head. Although given how furious my expression had become, I'm certain it was fairly evident.

"You can't bring her back of course," the Master chuckled. "I suppose Asami was fairly intelligent. For a Human, anyway. But she was still beneath us. Her life was meaningless. Her dreams petty. You're supposed to be a Time Lord now, and a Time Lord is far greater than anything Humans could conceive of. They are pets, at best."

"Shut up!"

"Or you'll what? Punch me again? Like a stupid ape?" The Master laughed. "You have a Time Lord's brain. You know how much greater we are. Better that Asami Sato be the one to die than I, or even you. Less of a waste."

The Master was goading me. Fueling my fury. I don't know why, but I felt it flare within me and I reacted. I could feel my face contort as I filled with rage. I brought my bloodied, bruised hands to his throat.

And I squeezed.

It was satisfying, too. Watching the Master gasp for air as I choked the life from him. As I felt my hands press against his windpipe and close it. The wheezing and gasping for air.

I wanted him to die. I wanted to choke the life out of him.

And then, through his chokes, he spoke again.

"Good." His face, turning purple even around the bruises of my beating, still curved into a grin. "Do it." Every word he spoke was rasped and scratchy. My grip on his throat made no other speech possible. "Do what the Doctor would never do. Accept that you are not him."

I didn't react immediately. My mind processed that statement. And that thought. The thought that I was not the Doctor.

It made me remember that I had once walked away from that name, and had not found another.

And from my past, a memory came. A voice.

Asami's voice.

"You're the Doctor."

And I remembered that time. When I had felt so lost and she had tried to make me feel comfortable. She had been the first to forgive me for not helping Korra against the Red Lotus. She had insisted that I was still the Doctor when I was too scared to take the name up again. And she had been the first to ask to join me in my travels at that time.

Asami had believed in who I was. Who I had become. She believed that I was the Doctor and, over time, had helped me to accept that again.

And as I thought about that, i felt my fury... not so much decrease, but slough off. I released the pressure on the Master's throat. He was in pain and looked at me, confused.

"I am not the Doctor you knew before," I told him. "But I have become like him. I took his name because it meant something that I wanted to live up to. And I won't let you take that from me."

I seized the Master by his collar and dragged him toward the wall. Specifically, toward the re-opened Crack in the Multiverse. "I'm not going to kill you, sir," I told him. "But I'm not going to have you trying this again. So I'm throwing you back."

The Master glared at me. His eyes widened as he realized what I was saying.

"Transmatting absorbs most of the energy from the Crack. You still have some, but not a lot," I explained. Just to do so, I'm sure he knew this already, what with him being a Time Lord and all. A sorry excuse for a Time Lord, yes, but still actually a Time Lord. "But if you got through physically? Your body will be full of the stuff. You'll set off every sensor even slightly tuned toward something like temporal energy."

"What... what are you doing?" The Master's throat was scratchy still.

I forced him to his feet to better my grip. "I'm throwing you back the hard way, Master," I answered. "Through the Crack. And with all of that energy on your person, there's not a place in the Universe you can hide from the Time Lords or the Daleks. They'll find you and drag you back into the Time War and right back behind that Time Lock. You can try to escape, of course, but to evade their detection you'll have to flee to the ends of the universe, long after most of the stars have long gone out. Of course, they might still come looking, so you'll need a way to reduce your signature. Good luck with that!"

The Master glared hatred at me. I returned it with a solid look. "Remember," I told him. "Remember that I could have killed you. I had you dead to rights. But I spared your life. Remember that. Because I may not be your old friend, but I hold to his code and his rules. That is why I use his name. And I'm not going to stop that over you. Now, do be careful with the landing. I'm betting you're going to have Time Lords rushing to find you the moment you get through, wouldn't want you having to limp while fleeing would we?"

And with that parting word, I threw the Master into the Crack. He let out a cry as he sailed through the air, just for it to cut off once he went through.

As I said, on the other end, the Time Lords would find him easily. He would have to flee to the dying universe of the far, far future, a few trillion years easy, and in that starless void he would have to hide by using a Chameleon Arch. Just as I had hidden from my own failures.

Which meant, of course, that one day a kindly old engineer and scientist named Professor Yana would meet the Doctor himself and... well, that's not my story to tell, is it? Best go find it elsewhere if you're interested.

Anyway, I still had work to do. First thing, make sure he didn't come back through. I checked the handful of boards in the chamber until I found what I was looking for. As I suspected, the Master had built something like my Crack-closing machines, but fine-tuned to the Crack in a way my method was not. The controls lit up and energy surged from emitters. Over the course of several seconds the Crack faded from view.

With that done, I walked over to the Master's discarded energy pistol and picked it up. With the machines here deadlock-sealed, it made the most efficient means of destroying the advanced technology thoroughly so that nobody could hurt themselves with it. I used the sonic to set the gun to blow itself up in about a minute and promptly left that place.

My work was done. Now I had to stop running.

I had to go back to the others. And I had to accept whatever had happened.

---

I was surprised by what I found when I returned to the others.

Everyone was gathered around where Asami was laying. Even Molly was standing again with eyes full of tears. Korra was on the ground beside her, hands hovering over shining water - right hand over her burnt chests, the other over her head to control the water lining her scalp. I recognized it for what it was; Korra was keeping Asami's brain from shutting down.

My mind flashed back to our first adventure. Korra desperately trying to save a brain-dead orphan, but the power not being enough.

History was repeating itself. The only surprising thing was that she had kept it going this long.

Kal-El reached down and put a hand on Korra's shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said. "But her heart isn't beating."

"No," Korra insisted, tears streaming down her face. "No, there has to be something! I can't lose her!"

"Korra, dear..." Senna went over and knelt beside her grieving daughter. Tonraq stood beside her. "I know she meant a lot to you, but you've done all you can."

Korra's answer was a choked sob. But for all she must have known that they were right - that there was nothing more she could do - she refused to stop. "Please Asami," she sobbed. "Please. Don't leave me. I... I need you."

And then to make matters worse, she looked at me. Those bright blue eyes, now bordered by the red from crying, tears flowing down her cheeks. and every part of her expression told me she was begging me to do something, anything, to save Asami's life.

I couldn't deny that pained expression. Not after everything we had been through together. I set my mind into motion. Options. I needed options.

If only my TARDIS command circuit didn't need to be reset!

I looked around at them all and considered the powers available. If some combination of them might be enough to work.

But it was the younger Katara - with her older prime timeline counterpart now present I had to differentiate - who suddenly looked up. Hope filled her expression. And she turned her head.

At first I thought she would face me. But she kept going. To another of those gathered here.

"Steven," Katara said. "Maybe you can do it."

Eyes turned to the bushy-haired young lad. He was crying almost as much as Korra at this point given his emotional sensitivity. "M-Me?", he asked. "But it doesn't always work. It didn't work when it was you."

"I know." Katara went over to him and knelt beside him. Since Steven was fairly short for his age, this put Katara closer to eye level to him. She took his hand. "But I think you can do it."

"I'm curious." Reed was leaning against Sue. Bloodied bandages were wrapped around his head, but he was awake and cognizant at least. "How could he help?"

"Steven has healing powers," Garnet answered.

"B-But they don't always work," Steven sniffled. "I haven't..."

"It's okay." Connie took his hand. I noticed she had been crying too, but it was clearing up as her expression became hopeful. "I know you can do it."

"So do I." Pearl nodded.

Amethyst added a "Yeah!"

And not to be outdone, Garnet nodded. "We have faith in you, Steven."

"Yes." Kal-El stepped up to him and knelt down beside Katara. He settled a hand on Steven's shoulder. "You're a brave young man. I know you can do this."

Getting encouragement from his guardians - and someone like Superman - just about did it. But I think it was the look of utmost faith that Connie gave him that ensured it. Steven stepped up, Connie beside him, and walked to Asami's side. His expression turned serious despite the tears and, well, the snot that covered his face from the crying I had missed.

It's... rather bizarre, I suppose, trying to imagine this dramatic moment revolving around an 11 year old boy using healing spit. But that is what it was. Steven licked his hands and, with the complete attention of those gathered, smacked the spitwads onto Asami's blackened sternum.

For a moment it looked like nothing was happening. Steven looked intently at it, as if he could will it to work, while we waited for a visible sign of some kind.

I checked the readings of my sonic. I blinked and looked again, just to make sure I could see what I was seeing.

But it was Janias who acted first. "It's starting to work," she said. "I can feel it." She got on her knees beside Korra and put a hand on Korra's right arm. "Korra, focus your power on it. Feel where it's healing her, and add to it."

Korra's hand moved over to that spot over the sternum from where she had been focusing further down. Steven's spittle shined brilliantly blue, brighter than ever before, and the light spread across Asami's chest and into her body.

We all watched, in rapt attention, to see if it would work. Korra looked particularly intent on the task even with the tears in her eyes. Asami's life was in her hands still, and Steven had given her the means to save her. For all that the constant fighting of the last day must have made her tired, she didn't show it, focusing her energy on her task.

There was a sudden gasp, an exhalation of air. Asami's eyes opened wide and her mouth opened with the gasp. I could hear her suck air into her lungs.

"It's working," Kal-El confirmed for us. "Her heart is beating again."

For a moment Korra kept at it. But Asami suddenly sat up, gasping again. She looked at us with wide eyes and tried to catch her breath. A pained grimace crossed her face. Evidently there was still some damage that would need further healing. But for the moment, that could wait..

Korra sobbed happily and threw her arms around Asami, pulling her into a hug. "I thought I lost you," she cried.

That prompted a surprised blink. Asami was clearly trying to gather the memories available to her. "I... was I dead?"

"Only mostly dead," I answered cheerfully. "Bit of a difference."

"You did it, Steven!" Connie gave him a hug that made him smile.

"Way to go!" Amethyst came up and gave him a pat on the back almost strong enough to knock both children over.

Pearl opted for hugging him too. "I knew you could do it."

"I'm very proud of you." Garnet's reaction was a playful tussling of his hair.

"How extraordinary," Reed said. "Perhaps you could let me have a sample...?"

"Reed, darling, don't ruin the moment," Sue said, affection in her tone.

Asami looked down and put a hand to her sternum. The skin was back to a more normal color, if red from lingering burn damage, and showed in patches from where the fibers of her suit had been destroyed by the reactor exploding. While she was smiling, it turned bewildered. "This... isn't water," she noted.

"No. It's spit," I answered, smirking.

Asami, for a brief moment, simply froze, processing the fact that someone had put their spit on her. After that moment passed she looked at me. "Spit?"

"Steven has healing spit," Connie answered before I could.

"Oh." Asami gave him a grin. "Well, thank you. You saved my life."

"Thank you, Steven," Korra added. Tears were still flowing down her face; tears of joy instead of the tears of loss and grief from minutes before.

And that prompted another group hug, Steven accepting one with Korra and Asami. Quite cute.

I visually scanned the crowd. Tonraq and Senna were relieved by their daughter's happiness. Mako and Bolin were smiling, the latter holding on to Opal's hand dearly. Kim and Ron were holding hands while Rufus sobbed happily in Ron's cargo pants pocket. Sue Richards planted a small kiss on her injured husband's cheek.

Applause started with Ben Grimm. "Good job, kids," he declared. Johnny added a "Woohoo!" that Amethyst tried to top, which in turn prompted a "Booyah!" from Ron and Rufus. As those calls echoed more hands began clapping until I found myself joining them.

When the moment was over more than one set of eyes looked at me. "Did you catch him?", Pearl asked me. "Or did the Master get away?"

"Oh, you might say I caught him." I slipped my hands, with their bruised and bloodied knuckles, into my jacket pockets. "He's back in our home cosmos. And given that I threw him bodily through the Crack and permeated him with the resulting energy signature, he'll be too busy running from the other Time Lords and the Daleks to cause us any more problems."

"So it's over," Asami said. She smiled widely. "We did it. We won."

"Yes," I said. "Congratulations, Asami. You saved this world and everyone on it."

A blush came to her cheeks as the others began cheering her. Korra helped her stand up and didn't let go once Asami was on her feet. As everyone took turns cheering again, I found I had a little itch in the back of my mind. I was forgetting something, wasn't I? Something was missing...

There was brief startlement from everyone at the loud, mechanically distorted scream that came over our head, after which a large mechasuit plowed into the ground nearby. Face first. We all stared and watched the machine, painted red and black, struggle to stand up. "Zhu Li, take a memo! The jet boots in the suit have insufficient range for prolonged operation!"

"Yes sir," said a second voice from within the suit.

Varrick was quick to make another note. "Also, this suit was clearly not built for two people."

"Which I pointed out to you before," she replied.

"Well, what did you want me to do?", Varrick asked. "Stay behind? I couldn't let you go into battle alone!"

A giggle came from Asami. "I never actually intended the Mark I to fly," she explained to Varrick. "It was just a test model."

"Yeah, but we had to try something, right?" Varrick raised a mechanical finger. "We'll need to make the next model a two-seater. Or maybe build it so that each pilot controls one half of the... oh, wait, coordination."

There comes a point, when you're just dead tired and have gone through the kind of prolonged crisis we had just endured, where you just... want to let it out. All of the tension and fear and terror, it gets all bound up inside of you, and you want to do something to vent it from your system. And while seeing Asami survive had given everyone a happy moment to celebrate... well, sometimes you want something a bit more, you know?

Seeing Varrick and Zhu Li trying to jointly pilot the Mark I? That did it. That broke through and provided the outlet I needed. Or rather, I suspect, that we all needed.

I started laughing.

And I mean laughing. Deep, rich laughter, the kind that you can barely control, and which works so well for getting all of those other pent up feelings out after the dust has settled and the crisis is over.

Behind me everyone else began to laugh just as loudly. No matter how battered or bloodied or bruised they were, it couldn't be helped.

Sometimes laughter is the best medicine.

---

The following days were a blur of recuperation from physical and mental exhaustion and making necessary repairs. The TARDIS command circuit had to be reset - always fun - while cleanup from the battles for Republic City took place. Several of the allies brought into the fight openly helped. Kal-El especially took great pleasure in assisting in the cleanup and rebuilding process while Reed provided an indisputable contribution to undoing all of the neural overrides attached to the Earth Empire soldiers by the Master.

It would be tough for them. Neural overrides are terrible things. But given time, they would recover. Jan and Kerra took the lead in starting that process, unsurprisingly.

And while they did, Ben and Johnny took great pride in spearheading the disarmament of the Earth army (by which I mean Ben pounded all of the mecha devices to scrap for Johnny to melt down for recycling into other purposes). Amethyst helped. Or I should say "helped" because putting her and Ben together proved a recipe for unnecessary destruction.

Asami, Stark, and Pearl restored power to the city by fixing the Arc Reactor that Kuvira's weapons had disabled in the initial invasion, with Steven and Connie as eager assistants. Varrick helped. Mostly. A bit. When Zhu Li could get him to stop fidgeting about their wedding plans, anyway.

Garnet took it upon herself to help clear out homes and prepare for the return of the city's population.

Once the TARDIS reset was complete I started taking people home.

The Possible family waved toward us when the TARDIS materialized outside of their house. "Thanks for your help," I said to them.

As expected, Kim's reply was "No big." Ron nodded and crossed his arms. "Yeah," he said, "it's just standard business for me and KP, saving the world and all."

"Of course," I agreed. "But are you sure you don't want to come back for the ceremonies? All of those medals to be handed out, you're due for them too."

"I've got enough already," Kim answered.

"Yeah, she's got so many she even needs an extra sock drawer."

Kim playfully elbowed him and said his name in that sort of rolled out playful-scolding way she did. She turned her attention to me afterward. "No, it's fine. I'm just glad we could help."

"Ah, well, it was good to have you along. Good luck with the senior year and all of that usual 'saving the world' thing."

I shook their hands and bid them farewell.

---

The next stop was Chicago. The lawn of the Carpenter house on a brisk November morning, with the sun just about to rise over the horizon. After we materialized I looked to Molly, who was staring at me. "Do you want to talk?", I asked. "Do you have something to say?"

I saw different emotions warring within her. Anger primarily, and she wanted to direct it at me, but it warred with other emotions and she couldn't quite do that. She seemed to settle on frustrated restraint. "Why didn't you save Harry?", she asked.

I closed my eyes and took in a breath.

"You could have stopped him from becoming the Winter Knight," Molly continued. "Or... or you could have saved him out on that pier! I know you were there! You had to know what was coming!"

I swallowed. A part of me wanted to just tell the truth. Let Molly know that Harry was alive, that he would be back.

But if I did that, her decisions would change. She wouldn't be in the position she needed to be in order to help him.

I felt my mouth go dry and it took me a moment to speak. "I tried," I admitted.

"What?"

"I tried to beat the Eebs to his apartment," I explained. "To prevent them from burning it. So he wouldn't have to become the Winter Knight." I settled a hand on the TARDIS controls. "The TARDIS jumped me ahead in time to stop me. She knew things had to progress as they did."

Molly's hands balled into fists. "So you're saying your ship decided to mess with Harry's life? That it decided to let Harry destroy himself?!"

Suddenly her mood shifted. I noticed it. She hadn't been intending to admit that part, but in her anger it had slipped out. I turned and faced her as she bit into her lip in self-incrimination. "I'm a Time Lord, Molly, remember?", I said. "I already knew."

I shook my head and sighed. "Harry did it. He arranged his own murder so that Mab could not make him into a monster. And he had you wipe the memory from his head so Mab wouldn't realize what he had done."

Molly turned pale. She didn't bother to try to deny anything.

"You did what he asked, Molly," I said. "You can't blame yourself. He would have destroyed himself another way if you hadn't. You couldn't have stopped Harry any more than I could have."

Her lip began to quiver. She stepped back toward the railing and closed her eyes as they welled with tears.

"Molly..." I swallowed. I could see the guilt written on her face. She'd been preparing to be angry at me and now I wish I'd let her. Instead she was turning it back upon herself. "Please. This was not something you could be blamed for. Harry did what Harry always did. He chose his fate. All we can do is accept it."

I said the words. But I knew they wouldn't be enough. She was young. In love. And now she had helped the man she loved destroy himself.

And I couldn't tell her he was alive. Not without wrecking the important events to come.

Damn you Harry. Damn you, was my thought. Added to with a And damn me too.

Molly started moving to the TARDIS door. "Why don't I take you back and let you talk to Jan?", I asked. "She would help you."

"I... I can't," she stuttered. "I..." There was a sniffle.

And then Molly ran out into the cold November air without any regard for the light clothing she was still garbed in.

I went to the TARDIS door as quickly as I could. "Molly!", I cried out. "Molly, you should go home!"

She didn't answer. And she didn't go into the house. She ran up to the fence and vaulted over it. Once she landed on the other end she shimmered out of view. A veil.

"Molly!," I cried. "Please come back!"

I wanted to say "Please come back! Harry's not dead!" But I stopped myself.

But she didn't come back. She was gone.

I sighed. And then I cried out in frustration and slammed the TARDIS door closed. I leaned against it and felt warm tears on my eyes.

Despite everything, despite all of my victories and accomplishments, despite defeating the Master himself, I was still powerless to help here. I couldn't save Molly from the fate that was coming. Not without causing even more problems down the road.

There was a knock on the door. I stepped away and opened it.

Michael Carpenter was standing at the doorway. "She left, didn't she?", he asked.

I sighed and nodded. "I tried to stop her."

Michael sighed. He didn't say anything else on that subject. "How are you doing?", he asked. "Would you like some breakfast?"

I almost turned him down. But I felt a bit hungry, and I don't believe in turning down gracious hospitality. Plus I was due to pick up Christmas gift lists anyway, and to give Maggie a checkup visit. So I nodded a yes and asked, "Thanksgiving yet?"

"Last week." Michael smiled faintly. But there was a bit of pain to it. "I even put aside a portion for Molly to take to Harry."

I nodded at that. "Yes. There are times I still see things and think about how much Katherine would enjoy seeing them..." I stepped out with him into the biting cold and toward his house, thoughts swirling in my mind.

"Michael," I asked as we reached the door, "you believe in second chances, right?"

He nodded at me as we entered. I could hear the sizzling of bacon and smell the egg yolk even before I found Charity's handiwork on the range. "Redemption is always available to those who seek it out."

"Yes," I said. "And that is a topic that has come to mind lately..."

---

Upon my return to Republic City, I went to the police headquarters. A mix of returned RCPD officers and White Lotus guards were manning the jail cells. Prisoners that had been transferred out were being moved in.

I found Lin and talked to her. She was quiet and did not indicate support, but neither did she indicate she would stop me. So I continued on into the cells. The uniformed men and women knew me and did nothing to impede my progress as I came up to one special cell. It had half a dozen guards and a door forged of pure platinum. I found Katara - my Companion Katara that is - standing amongst them. She looked at me and nodded. "It looks like the wounds have cleared up."

"Alright. Good."

One of the guards opened the door. I stepped in and looked at the figure in prison gray who was sitting alone beside the cell's cot. "Kuvira," I said.

The former ruler of the Earth Empire looked up at me. She looked utterly spent. And, of course, completely defeated. "Doctor," she said simply.

"You're feeling better?"

"I am physically healed."

I nodded. The kind of reply I was expecting. I went over to her cot and sat on it. It was not a comfortable confinement, that much was certain. The prison was formed of platinum sheets reinforced by wood, presumably a specialized cell just for Metalbending prisoners. It made me consider her likely fate. Would she wind up on Ghazan's old prison platform, to spend the rest of her life in a wooden cage breathing in sea air, loved by no one and hated and feared by the world she had struggled with?

It was not hard to take sympathy with the fact that someone so young was now going to spend the rest of a long life confined. And yet, I thought of her crimes as well. How many people would she have condemned to that same fate unless they swore to be her completely loyal followers?

"Bataar?", I asked.

"He's leaving me, obviously," Kuvira replied. I saw a tear form in her eye. "He was the only person to ever show me that much love. And I threw him away."

I said nothing.

"I can't even blame the Master," she continued. "I... I couldn't let anyone beat me. I couldn't let someone else have control of my life."

For a short time silence reigned. Which was fine, as I needed the time for my purpose. When I noted that a sufficient length had passed, I looked to her. "Well, you've got no future here. You've burnt every bridge. Even your followers are turning on you due to what the Master did."

"I wish they would just execute me." Kuvira looked up at me. "What's the point in keeping me alive when they're all afraid of me?"

"So you think death is the answer?" I shook my head. "No. Never. Death is never the best answer. Even when it seems to be, that's only because some poor fool already made the wrong choice."

Kuvira considered what I said for a moment. "Why did you come to see me?", she asked.

"Do you remember what I told you before? During that whole business with Xuandi?"

She looked at me. In truth, we had said many things. And I had given her repeated requests, and warnings, to change her ways. I had never realized she would have the Master whispering in her ear and goading her into doing what she did.

"Do you remember what I said about second chances?"

"That you didn't believe in them," Kuvira answered.

I nodded. "Right. Well. There's also something else you should know."

I was pushing her patience for indulging in word games. I could see that. But it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go, was it? "What?", she finally asked.

"Rule Number One," I answered. "'The Doctor Lies.' Because sometimes I do believe in second chances." I checked outside the cell's viewing slot and knocked on it to have the guards open it. "And I'm not the only one."

The cell door opened. I moved out of the way to admit some guests. Kuvira looked up at us and seemed confused.

"Kuvira?" I gestured toward her new guests. "I'd like you to meet Michael and Charity Carpenter. They're good friends of mine, and after I told them your story they wanted to talk to you."

"About what?", she asked.

It was Michael who answered her. "Redemption."

I slipped around Charity and out into the hall. The guards closed the door behind the Carpenters. Katara looked at me. "What are they going to do?"

"Talk," I said. "They're going to talk."

For a few moments we said nothing. Faint speech could be heard inside the cell.

"What are they talking about?", Katara finally asked.

"The future," I replied. "Best to leave them to it."

We turned to walk away. As we did, I knew I heard a sob come from within the cell.

It was almost wrong. Putting an orphan into a room with the kind of parents she would have prayed her whole life to have.

But it was also Kuvira's only hope.

---

The planet Celanon was one of many held by a scion off the powerful Sith family of Calimondra.

It was in one of the more remote, if not entirely unsettled, areas of that planet that I materialized the TARDIS. I opened the door and waited for my passengers to step out. "Here we are, Kerra," I said. "Same planet, just an hour after Korra and the others picked you up."

Kerra nodded and extended her hand. "Thank you." She looked to her fellow passenger. "Are you sure?"

"I am." Zaheer was wearing a dark suit more appropriate to this galaxy at this time now. "I have nothing left for me back on that world. But here, I can help you give freedom to people under the oppression of these Sith."

I nodded at that. "Good luck with that." I eyed Kerra and still wondered if this was the right thing to do. Zaheer was still an anarchist, after all, and I doubted he would be any more comfortable in the Galactic Republic than he was in the United Republic.

She sensed my concerns and nodded. "I know that you once did horrible things," she said to Zaheer. "But I believe you can make up for them here. It's better than letting your people send you back into a cage."

"Agreed." Zaheer seemed to focus for a moment. He lifted into the air and began to move about, testing his Airbending on this new, alien world.

"Be careful," I said to Kerra. I gave her a handshake. "And good luck."

"Thank you, Doctor," she answered. "I'm proud I was able to help you. If I might ask, though... what is your plan for Kuvira?"

"Nothing," I answered. "On the other hand, the Carpenters are approaching President Raiko and the other world leaders back in the Republic on the idea of sentencing Kuvira to exile as well. She'll return with them to Chicago and start a new life there."

"I think that's best," Kerra said.

"I'm sure there are some who disagree," I said. "Who think she should be more thoroughly punished for what she did."

"Sometimes justice isn't an eye for an eye," Kerra said. "Sometimes it simply comes down to reducing the amount of misery in the world."

"I suppose," I said. "Anyway, I will be going. Take care, and may the Force be with you."

"And may the Force be with you as well," she answered.

---

When I returned to Republic City, I didn't leave the TARDIS right away. I traveled deeper within instead. Past my armory, past side rooms and the Garden Room and everything else. All the way to the Eye of Harmony.

I had to focus just to recognize the door leading to the engine room. I took in a breath and stepped toward it. The force in my mind pushed back. It didn't want me to see the door. It wanted me to stay away.

"No," I breathed. "You're not hiding from me any longer. It's time to learn your secrets, Rassilon."

Step by painful step took me to the door. It didn't open. I held up the sonic to it and the adjacent control panel. It took me some work. Quite a bit of work.

And then it opened.

Inside was, well, what I expected. What my Time Lord brain knew should be there. The main engine of the TARDIS, tied to the Eye of Harmony, that shifted me through six-dimensions of space-time at my direction.

I looked about, trying to see if there was something out of the ordinary. If there was something...

...something that should not be here.

It didn't take me long to find the device. Attached to the main systems, taking power directly from the Eye. The power that the Master would have needed to form his own Eye of Harmony.

But it had more than just power siphoning off. It had data. Raw data, so much of it, directly coming from the TARDIS' systems.

"So that's how you knew so much," I muttered. I looked it over. "If the Master knows, so does Rassilon..." I took in a breath and looked over the device on all ends.

Here it was. A big piece in a puzzle I had always been trying to piece together. The puzzle of my origin.

What is this for? All of this data on the places I've gone. What possible use does it have for the Time Lords?

What was Rassilon's plan? What did it have to do with the Master's attempt to make his own Eye of Harmony with a dimensional disruption event?

"I need more answers," I breathed to myself. "But first things first..."

I found where the device hooked into the TARDIS engine controls and I cut it immediately. I would leave nothing to chance. I wouldn't let Rassilon seize control of my TARDIS away now, not at this critical juncture.

I would have to figure out the rest as time went on.

After satisfying myself with my examinations, I left the engine room and closed it behind me.

I could feel it. I was closer now. Closer than I had ever been before. Just a little more traveling and I would have all of the answers I needed.

But now, it was time for something of lighter fare.

---

A fringe benefit of being a time traveler is that visiting other times and places means you get to go home with not a moment having passed, if you so desire.

So there was no harm in the others staying in Republic City to help with the cleanup efforts, which they did as I have previously noted. They were also all present for a festive end to the entire thing; Zhu Li and Varrick getting married. We were all invited as guests, and even more beyond that.

I even went to the extent of fetching more guests, including Kim and Ron (and thus Rufus). And, of course, Cami and the children.

Meeting Molly made me think of her namesake, now living on the streets of Chicago and full of self-guilt and anger that I couldn't heal her of. She was Mirialan from being carried by Jan, although the genetics had lightened her green skin in comparison to her birth mother and her sister Kari. At only age 2 she was little more than a toddler. Thankfully, she was a well-behaved toddler.

And soon to get a baby sister given Cami's condition. I teased her that she looked ready to pop, which earned me a playful punch to the arm.

It was quite amusing to see Chrissy and Kari introduced to Tenzin's children. Amusing, except maybe Meelo's obvious crush on Kari, which was actually rather cute. Ikki and Chrissy got along splendidly. And I couldn't help but notice that Jinora and Connie had become friendly in the last two weeks. The delights of being bookworms transcends entire dimensions, I suppose.

The wedding was well enough, although some of the seating arrangements were questionable. Seriously, Lin seated beside Tenzin? Suyin and Bataar in different rows? And poor Ben Grimm went through three chairs before Lin just got tired of it and used Metalbending to make him a single chair.

Anyway, the wedding! No crossbows to be found, thankfully. Bolin did the ceremony with his customary diligence and looked quite distinguished. Zhu Li dipped Varrick for the kiss, much to the approval of the crowd.

And then we were off to the reception. Jazzy dance music played and everyone was having quite the time. "The rebuilding seems to have gone quite well," I noted to Kal-El. He swapped out the blue-and-red for a proper dinner jacket and appearance.

"When much of the workforce can manipulate stone like that, it helps," Kal-El pointed out with a smile. "President Raiko hasn't decided whether to try to rebuild the downtown area yet."

"Well, there's a big portal between worlds right in the middle of it," I remarked. "Bit of an obstacle for urban planning."

Kal-El nodded in agreement and took a sip from the drink he had picked up. "I'm proud I was able to help save this world."

"And I'm honored to have had you here."

"You've seemed a little distracted lately," Kal-El observed. "Has something happened?"

"Yes," I replied. "The Master was... forthcoming about some things. And because of that, I have begun piecing together a puzzle I have long despaired at solving."

"That's good to hear. I wish you the best of luck in that. Let me know if there is anything I or the League can do to help."

"Of course."

I moved on to Reed, who had just finished dancing with Sue. "Head alright?", I asked.

"Quite," Reed replied. "This is a very fascinating world."

"Many are," I mused.

Reed looked at me pensively. "The Master's plan was quite dangerous. And he's still out there."

"He won't give us any more trouble, on account of being chased near to the end of the universe," I assured Reed. "You needn't worry about that."

I didn't add "You should worry about what Rassilon is planning". Because it likely wouldn't have done any good.

There was a loud crash that drew our attention. And we were treated to Amethyst hanging from the top of a half-destroyed tree. "Oh come on, you can throw harder than that, Benjy!", Amethyst called out. "I want to see how far you can throw me out to sea." She jumped back down into Ben's open hand.

Sue sighed at that. "Ben, don't you dare cause any damage to this lovely island."

"Oh, don't worry about it Suzie," Ben protested. "I'm not gonna hurt anything."

He turned and threw Amethyst so hard she was a blur of purple.

"I'm not going out to get her this time," Pearl protested with her arms crossed. "She can swim back."

I walked further on to where Garnet was looking out over the Bay. "Enjoying the festivities?"

"I always like weddings," Garnet replied. "It's the closest Human beings get to Fusion."

"I see." I smiled lightly. "An interesting point of view."

"I hope you're ready, Doctor," Garnet said. "Because I don't think your work is over yet."

"It never will be," I noted. "But yes. The Master has left me with answers to some questions, and a few more questions to make up for it."

The night continued on. I briefly discussed Wu's plan for the Earth Kingdom with Mako. I ventured out onto the dance floor to teach everyone the Drunk Giraffe with much laughing and enjoyment and a few unappreciative jeers. I was quite pleased to see that Ron had the good taste to try it himself. Granted, it made his belt come loose and caused his pants to fall down (much to the amusement of all observing), but we pay prices for art, don't we?

After leaving the dance floor I found Katara - my Companion Katara - sitting by herself at a table. She was in a full-flowing blue Water Tribe dinner gown. I followed her eyes to see she was watching Korra and Asami talking in the distance. "So," I said, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling good," she admitted. "Better than I have in a long time." She turned and faced me. "And a lot of it has been because of you."

"Oh, come now," I said, shaking my head. "You deserve the credit yourself. You've had to overcome a lot."

"I would have kept wallowing in my own misery," Katara admitted. "I didn't want things to get better. It felt like that would be admitting I didn't love Aang as much as I did."

"I see."

"But I know that's not true." Her eyes teared up. "I have to accept that he's gone and move on with my life. It's what he would want."

I gave a nod in reply. "Agreed. But at least you've met new friends." I indicated where Steven and Connie were playing their string instruments - an ukulele and a violin - for the enjoyment of the other children.

Katara smiled at that and nodded. "I suppose. He reminds me a lot of Aang. And I would be lying if I said the two of them didn't remind me of what it was like when I met Aang."

"So you say." I sipped at a glass of something I'd picked up. It was a tad too sweet, but it went down well enough. "I bought you a house in Beach City," I confessed.

Katara looked at me with wide eyes. "What?"

"Nice little home. Across the street from the car wash," I continued. "Decent price for it. I went back in time a bit to set it up so that it's ready when we return the Gems to their proper time."

Katara stared at me a moment. "Why... how...?"

"It's something he does." Cami sat down near us. Despite her advanced pregnancy she had been moving around a bit, speaking with the others and letting the children touch her belly to feel for the baby. "He did the same for us. It's something of a retirement package for Companions who don't have anywhere else to go."

"Well, look at you," I said. "With all of that work, it makes me think you're ready to pop."

"Oh hush!"

"Pick out a name yet?', I inquired.

"We're still debating her name," Cami admitted. "It wouldn't feel right naming the baby for either Korra or Asami and leaving the other one out."

"Well, you could always do some kind of mixed name," I pointed out. "Kasami? Korsami? Korrasami, now that sounds..." My brow wrinkled. "...actually, that sounds horrid for a child's name. Never mind, bad idea, forget I mentioned it."

Cami nodded, giggling. "Definitely one of your worst."

"I admit it, I can cause some stinkers." I raised my glass to that and looked at Katara. "Yes?"

"You bought a house for me," she repeated. "In Beach City. By where the Gems live with Steven?"

"You do want to live there, don't you?", I asked. "Because that seems to be the place you were most content in our travels."

After a moment Katara nodded. "You're right. It is. But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"If I leave, you'll be alone," Katara pointed out.

"Oh, it'll be fine," I assured her. "I'll be fine. I'll check in, after all. See how everyone is doing. Make sure you're settled in."

Katara kept looking at me intently. "That's not all, is it? It's something the Master said to you."

Which was the truth. The truth that I did not want Katara (or anyone else here for that matter) anywhere near the situation when I ended up dealing with whatever Rassilon had planned. Because I knew that day would come. "Katara," I said softly, sipping at my glass. "You have been a faithful Companion. I'm proud to have brought you along and to have helped you come to terms with your grief. But we both know you've found a place there. A bond with Steven and Connie. They look up to you as someone who can guide them. Who can understand them in a way that their parents and guardians can't. It's better for you and for them that you let that bond grow. It's certainly better than running with me until there's something you can't run away from in time."

Katara mulled that over. "You want me safe," she said. "You're afraid of something that might happen."

"That's not the important part," I insisted. "The important thing is you. And you and I both know you'll be happier there. A group of people you like and a community for you to help protect."

It took me a few moments to see if my deflection worked. Katara finally nodded her acceptance. "Yes," she admitted. "I suppose you're right."

Jan walked up and joined us. I smiled at her. "Thank you for coming, Jan," I said, while Jan pulled her chair over to sidle up to Cami. "It was good to see you again, regardless of the circumstances."

"I loved working with you again, Doctor," she said. She looked to see where their eldest daughters were playing enthusiastically with the Airbender children. Plus Rufus, who always likes being the center of attention. "Now I just have to hope Meelo doesn't rub off on Kari."

I chuckled at that. "Well, she doesn't seem quite as susceptible to flatulence, if you ask me..."

"Oh, she'd better not," Jan vowed. "I had better not hear one..."

We all laughed at that and the conversation continued for a brief while. It ended when we all noticed Korra and Asami walking back to the reception. "They look like they have something to say," I remarked. "Come along. Let's see what it is."

The four of us walked up and met them just before they could get to where Tenzin was engaged in a heated discussion with Varrick. "Wingsuit gliding, that's a great idea!", Varrick announced. "It'll make a fortune."

"Varrick, I cannot in good conscience..."

"Actually, it can be made safe." Stark stepped up and joined them, a class of what I hoped was a non-alcoholic beverage in his hand. "You just need the right materials. Have you ever heard of...?"

I blocked out the rest of the conversation to put my focus on Korra and Asami. "So, you two look like you have a clue about what comes next."

Asami smiled at that. "After everything that has happened? We're both due for a vacation. Korra's going to show me around the Spirit World."

"Oh, that's quite the adventure," I noted. "Do be careful."

"We'll be fine," Korra promised. "We've survived worst places." She gave me a knowing look. "The Spirit World isn't any more dangerous than a city overrun by big bugs."

"Or those children-looking aliens with the sharp teeth," Asami added.

"Ah, touche," I said. "Point taken, everyone, point taken. Just... enjoy yourselves." I smiled and offered them a hug, which they took in sequence. "After everything that has happened, you two have earned it."

There were soft and oh so knowing smiles on the faces of Jan and Cami as they echoed with their own supportive views on the idea of the vacation. The subject of Cami's unborn baby and what her name would be was brought up. Asami was quick to suggest a compromise name. "Yasuko," she said. "That was my mother's name."

Jan and Cami looked at each other. Cami nodded with a tear showing in her eye. "Of course," she said. "That's an excellent idea."

The rest of the night went by at an enjoyable pace. More dancing, more music, keeping Varrick from breaking his neck when he tried that wingsuit hang-gliding plan, that sort of thing.

And we don't talk about how Ben Grimm nearly threw Amethyst into Aang's statue while proving the efficacy of the "Benjy Fastball". Hush hush.

---

As the night wound down I ended up standing where Korra and Asami had been talking before. I looked out the Bay toward the city's old downtown. Where once I had enjoyed the view of city lit up golden, now it had a somewhat haunting and ethereally beautiful look to it. The broken, vine-covered buildings, forever illuminated by the yellow light of Korra's spirit portal and the solid beam of light that pierced the sky.

"It is a remarkable view, isn't it?"

I turned to Tenzin and nodded. "It is."

"She has come so far," he said, with all the pride of a father in his voice. "I could never be prouder of Korra."

"Yes." I nodded. I thought on it, how Korra had gone from the headstrong and aggressive young woman who grabbed my TARDIS as it dematerialized to the wiser and calmer woman she was today. "And she still has so much time ahead of her. Room to grow even further."

"I can't wait to see what else she has in store for the world."

"It will be magnificent, won't it?"

"I think so." Tenzin smiled thinly. "And now she's going on vacation with Asami. It's been surprising to watch those two become so close after what happened with Mako."

"Love is love," I replied. "It makes them both happy. So, are they leaving tonight?"

"Tomorrow evening," Tenzin confirmed. "After they make all of the necessary arrangements."

"Ah, well, that's good to hear. They deserve the time away from fuss," I noted. "To think they've come so far together." And that it was almost lost, but the conversation was a chipper one and I didn't want to end that.

"You seem to have come down quite the road yourself," Tenzin noted. "You've changed over the last… well, you're a time traveler, so however long it's been for you. And I think it's been for the better."

"On the whole, it has been," I agreed. "I find that life brings change. We learn more, experience more, and the changes in our circumstances and those of the people around us can change us as well."

"it couldn't have been easy," Tenzin said. "Fighting one of your own like that."

"No. It was hard to face down a foe as smart of the Master." I drew in a breath. "And he may not even be the last Time Lord I have to confront."

Tenzin looked at me with interest and some concern. "Oh?"

"There are… indications, you might say, that there are other Time Lords that had their own agenda in this situation. I may yet have to face them.

"If so, I wish you the best, Doctor. If you ever need anything…."

"I'll keep that in mind." I took his hand. "An honor and a pleasure, Tenzin."

"The same, Doctor."

"Now…" I clapped my hands together. "It looks like everyone's ready to wrap things up, so I need to go start rounding people up."

I took some of the others home first, but with Jan and Cami, well, we couldn't help but make a detour through time. One day to the future, to be exact.

I materialized the TARDIS near the Spirit Portal at their request. Spirits floated about us, doing whatever it is that spirits do and without an apparent care in the world. The portal shined its bright yellow, nearly golden color into our faces.

Together we watched Korra and Asami appear on the lip of the crater. They were in the field clothes they typically wore with the addition of backpacks. Without any undue rush they walked toward the portal, basking in the light of the Portal more than the waning dusk sunlight. We were in the TARDIS and it was invisible so they didn't see us. There was no one present to influence how they acted. Just how they felt and what they wanted to do.

They stopped for a moment and gave each other meaningful, happy looks. They joined hands and continued walking until they were at the very edge of the sphere connecting the two worlds. They stopped and faced each other, holding hands closely. They reminded me, at that moment, of the prior day's wedding.

And maybe it was that, or maybe it was how close they had come to losing one another recently, or maybe just chance that caused Korra to decide to go further than just holding hands. I saw flickers of uncertainty across her face and a tentative movement.

Asami completed it by moving her head in as well.

They kissed.

It was a sweet kiss. Not overtly sensual, not the prelude to something more physical, just a full kiss that said "I love you and I love being with you" to the person you were sharing it with, and all the while they were saying the same thing back to you.

Jan and Cami cheered and gave applause. Which would have given us away if the TARDIS wasn't set up to prevent sound from escaping the threshold.

Shortly enough the kiss ended and they went through, off for their grand tour of the Spirit World.

"Well, there it is," I said, my arms folded as I stood at the entrance of the TARDIS.

"So you admit it?", Cami asked from behind me, her tone teasing.

"Admit what?"

The two started laughing riotously. "How wrong you were!", Jan roared. "'Oh, they're just like sisters to each other!'"

"Like sisters!", Cami wheezed. "Oh, Doctor, you can be so wonderfully oblivious!"

"Completely oblivious!", Jan cackled.

"Ohhhh-bliviiiious," Cami repeated, drawing out the word in a sing-song fashion.

I felt a burn in my cheeks while I laughed along. "Alright, oi, I was wrong about them, okay? I admit it! I was wrong!" Of all the things to be wrong about... well, I thought I could sleep on this one, you know?

The girls weren't about to let me off the hook that easily, though. "But you're the Doctor, and you're right about everything!", Cami teased.

"Except the ways of the heart, it seems," Jan added.

"Just keep it up, you two, just keep it up and maybe I'll forget to carry the two on purpose next time. And we'll end up on that Hot Springs planet you loved so much."

Their expressions turned playfully sour. "Oh, that's just playing dirty," Jan chided me.

"Completely unfair," Cami agreed. "I mean, look at me, I'm not in shape for a trip to the hot springs at all."

I cackled for a moment while setting in time-space coordinates to return us to the party the prior night.

---

Although it took some effort to get Meelo away from Kari, everything else went off properly and I got everyone home.

The last stop was Beach City. I materialized the TARDIS along the road at the base of the bluff that went up to the small town's lighthouse.

Looking at the entire thing… why is this place called Beach City? Does it include areas further inland? Because it's more of a village if you ask me.

Anyway, that's not important. What is important is that we all filed out of the TARDIS and faced the cozy little house across from Greg Universe's car wash.

"So you're going to live here now?!" Steven evinced his usual level of excitement at the prospect.

Katara shifted the bag of personal things she had accumulated in our travels to balance it over her shoulder. "That's right." She looked to me with a smile. "It's going to be strange. I'm still not sure how everything in this world works."

"Oh, ha, it's easy," Amethyst assured her. "You'll get the hang of it."

"It will be nice having you around." Pearl looked over the house. It was painted a lovely blue color with white trim - Water Tribe colors - complete with a garage. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, nice cozy kitchen, living room, and I had even ensured the installation of cable TV. And all paid for by a bank fund I had set up under Katara's name using my electronic money printing skills.

Oh, don't look at me like that. These worlds have fiat currency anyway.

"And it's such a lovely house," Pearl continued. And then her hand went to her chin. "Although... I think the rainwater diversion system on this structure could use a little work, it just seems so inefficient that way."

"The what?", Katara asked.

"The gutters," I answered. "They direct the flow of rainwater flowing down your roof."

"And look…" Pearl inspected the old flower bed beside the front door. "This should really be adjusted several centimeters to the left, don't you think? Because the lines it forms with the rest of the house look so... unseemly. Move it here and it lines up perfectly with..."

I sighed. I got the feeling Pearl was going to insist on re-arranging half of the house on principle.

Garnet walked up to her and put a hand on Pearl's shoulder. "I think we should let Katara decide on how her home should look."

"Well, yes, of course, but surely she won't mind a few suggestions?"

Amethyst leaned in toward Katara and whispered, in conspiratorial fashion, "If Pearl becomes too much for you, just let me handle it. I know how to deal with her."

"Well, I think it's great that Katara's going to live here now," Connie said. "There's still so much I'd like to know about her world."

"Oh, wait, does this mean you can come to Beachapalooza?!" Steven took her hand. "It's going to be great!"

"Beacha-what?"

"It's some talent show they do every year," Pearl explained. "Steven always loves to perform music there. And other things. There was that incident two years ago…"

"Well, I suppose I can see what it's about…" Katara looked to me. "How am I going to live here, though? Do you have work I can do to pay for food?"

I reached into my jacket and pulled out the relevant bank information. "I don't think banks were a big thing in your time, but you've seen them in our travels so I think you know how this stuff works, right? I got you an account, and some interest-bearing deposits… you should be set." As I said this, it occurred to me that Cami had been quite accurate to refer to it as a "Companion retirement package".

"Thank you." Katara accepted the package.

"I can help you if you need it," Connie said. "They do a lot of stuff online these days."

Katara blinked. "Online?"

"You never told her about the Internet?", Connie asked me.

"It's… usually not relevant in our travels," I pointed out.

"I'm going to have to teach you a bunch of stuff, then," Connie said to Katara.

Katara nodded and looked to Steven. "So now that I'm living here, maybe we can work on your healing powers."

"That would be great!", Steven agreed.

"And you can help out with his father too," I mumbled to Katara, low enough that only she could hear. "Poor fellow lives in that van, after all."

"I understand," she replied, nodding.

"So, how about a quick tour?", I offered. "I made the arrangements for furnishings and all, I hope they did it all right. And Amethyst, do be more careful here than you were on Air Temple Island, there are no Airbenders here to catch priceless antiques."

"They were just a bunch of cruddy old junk," Amethyst protested. "They look better with the cracks if you ask me."

I sighed at that and let myself chuckle. "I suspect, Katara, that you are in for quite the exciting time living in this sleepy little town."

"Yeah." Katara looked at me with a smile. "You'll still come and visit, right?"

"Of course," I promised. I reached back into my pocket and handed her another object; a temporal beacon. "The Gems already have one, but this one is just for you. If you need to talk, or need anything really… even a trip for old time's sake."

She accepted it and held it with the bank folder I'd given her. "Thank you for this," she said. "For everything."

"You're welcome," I answered.

And since that is how these things usually go, we hugged.

---

After the touring and a pizza dinner from the… well, the Pizzas' restaurant, not to mention the goodbye hugs, I returned to the TARDIS. For a moment I stood in the control room and looked about.

It had been quite a while since I'd been alone. I mean, that entire time with Liara traveling with me, and then Katara joining us. So much had happened.

"Well, it's just you and me girl," I said aloud. "And we've got work to do, don't we? I can't blame you for what's going on, I know. Don't be afraid of that. You're as much a victim of Rassilon's scheming as I am. And we've made something out of it, haven't we? And now…" I nodded. "...now I have to keep going…"

There was a knock on the TARDIS door. I walked up and opened it. Garnet stood at the entrance. "Ah, hello. Anything else?"

"She will fit in well here given time," Garnet said to me. "It was an excellent idea to give her a home in Beach City."

"Well, it seemed the one place she was genuinely interested in staying," I remarked.

"Yes." Garnet's eyes focused on me. And yes, I know she wears shades, but you get a feel for these sorts of things. "I need to show you something."

"What?"

She responded by offering her right hand. One of her gems, Sapphire's, glinted in the light of the TARDIS. I accepted it, knowing what would come next.

I saw images of Cracks. Images of Earths, multiple Earths, and other worlds being devoured in energy. I saw devastation and annihilation on a scale unfathomable to a rational being. So great and terrible that the mere thought of something like that happening could drive someone to the brink of madness if they weren't prepared for it.

Thankfully, I was. I pulled my hand away from Garnet's and swallowed. "I see."

"It is but one possible future," she informed me. "There are others for you. Better ones. You must pick which future you will take."

"And hopefully avoid the one that causes mass annihilation," I mused aloud. I let out a sigh. Again. Because sighing is something I do a lot of these days. "All right. Thank you, Garnet, for that warning."

She nodded and stepped away from the TARDIS. "I hope to see you come back," she called out. "I think you could use the company."

"You're probably right," I said in a low voice. I gave her a goodbye and closed the TARDIS door.

The future visions she had shown me told me something. They told me that the Master's plan hadn't been the real threat. The real threat was still there. It was whatever Rassilon was planning.

I frowned and clenched a fist. He had made me a part of this scheme. An important one, I surmised. But now I knew it. Now I could defy his compulsion and go into the engine room. He probably knew that too, and it would anger him.

Let him be. Whatever he was planning, I knew I had to stop it.

I had to stop the greatest leader the Time Lords had ever known. Me. A Human stripped of his mind and turned into a Time Lord by the very same man.

It seemed impossible. But impossible things, those are the kind of things I can do.

Not just me.

Him.

"I have to start there," I murmured. "He can help. I know he will."

I started manipulating the TARDIS controls. I needed to go off and resume my travels. Because somewhere out there, I would find the answers I needed.

I would find out how to go through whatever block had been put up and enter the cosmos of Gallifrey.

Because if I was actually going to face Rassilon himself, and the might of the Time Lords behind him, I needed backup. The best kind of backup.

I needed the Doctor.

"Come on, girl, there have to be answers out there somewhere," I mumbled. "And we have to find them."

I pulled the TARDIS activation lever and took the next step on my journey. A journey that now had an end point to it.

Gallifrey.