"Where are we!" The unexpected passenger repeated, snapping at Tyro.

"You're in my time machine." He responded, trying to get his head around the situation. "We're travelling through time hence the wrooooaoh urrrgh!" He waved his hands around, trying to imitate the TARDIS.

"Right, sure." She shouted back angrily. "Just who are you!" The girl demanded, protectively hugging her baby tightly to her chest.

"Tyroankandra." Tyro replied, still quite shocked at the sight standing in the doorway. "But you can call me Tyro. And you are?"

"Alex." She replied, dumbfounded. "Bit of an odd name isn't it? Tyro?"

"You can talk!" He huffed back, despondent. "Alex is a boy's name, isn't it?"

"You don't spend a lot of time around people, do you?" Alex replied bluntly.

"Well," Tryo cocked his head to one side. "Now you mention it, I've really only met one human properly." He paused sadly. "We went shopping. And she died two hours later."

"Great! Even better. I'm with a time travelling murderer."

"I didn't kill her!" Tyro shouted back quickly. He pointed to the carcass of the robot slumped in the corner. "He did!"

"Oh, that's fine. Your robot friend did it. No problem." She rolled her eyes, one hand stroking her baby's' back.

"Not my friend." He replied, losing interest and turning back to the TARDIS console. "He was trying to kill me."

"Look, will you stop messing around?" Alex continued, stepping through in to the console room. "Where are we? And who are you?"

"I told you. It's a time machine." He stroked the console fondly. "My time machine I suppose, technically. And I'm Tyro. I'm a Time Lord. An alien." He stepped towards the main TARDIS doors. "I really shouldn't do this, but I doubt there is any other way to prove it to you."

With that, Tyro flung the doors open, revealing the twisting vortex of time they were travelling within. Alex stood dumbfounded by the console, watching all of time and space flew past the doors. After what seemed like forever, Tyro slammed the doors closed.

"This really isn't a photo booth, is it?"

"No." He smiled.

"And you can travel in time?"

"Yes."

"So where are we going?"

"What?" He snapped his head around to look her straight in the eyes.

"We're in a Time machine. Where are we going?"

"Nowhere!" He exclaimed. "I'm taking you home."

"You can't do that! Tease me with a time machine, then drop me back off to finish the shopping."

"I can." He nodded. "And I have to. I told you what happened back there." He gestured to the inactive robot. "Someone is after me. It's not safe."

"Fine." She sulked. "But can you at least hold Lucy for a bit? I left her pushchair outside, didn't occur to me I'd picked the extra-large booth. Been carrying her for hours."

Alex stepped closer towards Tyro, ignoring the rather terrified look on his face and handed the small child to him.

"Support her head." She advised, stretching her arms.

"Er, hello?" Tyro said quietly, looking at the small life in his arms, tufts of light hair sprouting from her head. He got nothing but a gargle in response.

"Choocey choocey coo?" He ignored the grin that was emerging on the young mothers face.

All of a sudden, the console room was filled with a glorious noise, the sound of a baby laughing.

"She's never done that before!" Alex beamed, leaning over her child, who seemed to be reaching out to Tyros' waistcoat. "I think she finds your sense of fashion as funny as I do."

"Or it's the badge." Tyro suggested, trying to gesture towards the yellow pin on his chest, emblazoned with a black smiley face.

"Yeah, you keep thinking that" Alex teased, taking Lucy back in to her arms. "I suppose if you're not going to show me the future or whatever, the least you can do is get me back before the shops close."

"Yeah, maybe." Tyro bit his lip. "Might want to try a different shopping centre though. " He started working at the controls once more. "I may have had a slight accident with a toy car, a Frisbee and my metal friend over there."

"I thought he wasn't your friend?"

"You know what I mean."

All of a sudden they were both cut off by the TARDIS as the klaxon started up again.
"I told you, it's fine!" He snapped at the Time Rotor, before pausing and addressing Alex. "Hold on, it's not you its whining about." He looked to the monitor read out. "Something's locked on to us."

"And that isn't good?"

"Wouldn't have thought so." He replied. "Going to have to change the co-ordinates, try and lose them. Hold on!"

They both grabbed hold of the console, Tyro with one hand, operating levers with the other.

"It's no good!" He shouted, over the ever increasing volume of the alarm. "They're still following us, matching our every move."

"But why!" Alex cried back, trying to keep Lucy from crying, despite the noise.

"Well, someone's probably trying to catch the TARDIS, either to capture us, or destroy us. Knowing who's after me, I'd probably go with the destroying option. Blown to bits across space and time."

Alex looked straight at him, terrified, before kissing Lucy gently on the forehead and turning away from him.

"Oh." He said, extending the word whilst stroking his stubble chin. "That's why people don't like pessimists."

Axelle looked out to his class of five students, although he wasn't sure if he could count Lorendria. Even with the standard Gallifreyan requirement for much less sleep than most species, he could tell she had not rested for days, perhaps even weeks. He too had been much the same since Tyronkandra and Suress had both vanished, seemingly within hours of each other.

The first thing he had done, of course, was speak to the High Council, but they were not concerned. As no capsules had been registered as missing, they put both down to some kind of academy prank. Perhaps they had gone out in to the wasteland, they had suggested, or even gotten themselves killed in a game such as Eighth Man Bound. Axelle had to admit it was a possibility, he had seen himself Time Lords manage to completely wipe themselves out playing the 'game'. Yet whilst he had suspected Suress had taken part, he very much doubted Tyroankandra would have. The boy was like himself, living very much in the past, rather than the future.

Either way, the old Time Lord knew something was not right.

"Lorendria!" he called to the Time lady, as the class filled out for another day. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

"Yes Mentor?" She replied politely, unable to hide the anguish in her eyes.

"What is troubling you, young one?"

"Nothing Mentor. Just Tyro and Suress." She lied.
"You forget I have known you your whole life, child." Axelle replied kindly. "As I have your two friends. I am too concerned for their safety." He paused. "But you know more, don't you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"As I said, I know you." His voice lowered to a whisper. "What have you seen?"

Lorendria stepped back, shocked he had asked such a question.
"You know I cannot answer that, Mentor. I am bound by the Oath of Patrex."

"I know, I know." He smiled. "But it is well accepted in our society that gifted individuals such as yourself will sometimes be unable to hold such a burden on their own."

"I can cope." Lorendria snapped, knowing she was lying to herself as well as her mentor. She turned her head away from him. "I already have a confidant." She admitted, not that he had been any help. As soon as she had left the Archivists' chamber, Lorendria knew she should have spoken to Axelle. He would have given her advice, rather than just listened. He would have helped.

"Ah." Axelle finally replied. "In that case, there is nothing I can do for you. Whereas one confidant is just about accepted, I know you cannot risk telling anyone else." He cursed silently in his head. He knew why the rules and etiquettes were in place, but sometimes swore they did more to hinder their society than help it.

"However this ends," he said as Lorendria left the room, "I do hope it is for the best, for all of us."

"We both know that can't be the case, Mentor." She replied sadly.

"Still following us!" Tyro shouted, as the TARDIS buffeted her passengers from side to side.

"Can you at least make the journey a bit smoother?" Alex shouted over the noise of the engines. "This is the last cardigan I have that doesn't have baby sick on it, and I'd rather like to keep it that way."

"She's doing her best!" Tyro defended his ship, a hand on her console. "But we have just flown from the ancient past of Metebellis 3, all the way to fifty-first century Earth, to the destruction of Klom and back to Earth in the time of the Vikings, without so much as a pit stop." He stopped for a breath. "I think you need to cut her some slack."

"Right, sorry." Alex said sarcastically. "Sorry I upset your girlfriend."

Tyro stopped what he was doing, and looked straight at her.

"She's not my girlfriend. Shes my ship." He paused and gave a wink. "Besides, early days yet!"

The young mother shook her head in disbelief.

Tyro swept around to the opposite side of the console, the chord of his headphones swinging as he went.

"Still locked on!" he growled. "How are they even doing this? As soon as we change course, so do they. Any kind of co-ordinate lock would take a few seconds to reconfigure at least." He frowned. "They literally know where we are going as soon as we do."

"Like they're reading your mind?" Alex suggested.

"Don't be so stupid!" The Time Lord snapped. "How could anyone…" He trailed off, his brown eyes lighting up instantly.

"I've got it!" He exclaimed.

"Do enlighten us." Alex said drolly, turning young Lucy to face him.

"They're reading my mind!"

Suress walked around the black console of his TARDIS, wearing a lock dark cloak he had found discarded in one of the nearby rooms. It wasn't too far a departure from his Dromenian robes, but the instant he had regenerated the Time Lord had felt uncomfortable wearing them, not to mention the large gash where the Archivist had attacked him.

He approached the back wall of the console room, where one of the roundels had been removed, and a large device plugged in to the circuit behind it.

"You can run, Tyro." Suress sneered. "But you won't be able to hide from me. Not with this." He kneeled over the piece of equipment. He had read about them, but never seen them in action. The Telekinetic Interception Circuit was said to be used by the Celestial Intervention Agency, a group that was only ever rumoured to exist. As soon as he had seen the TIC interface controls on his new console, Suress knew his first plan of action.

Luckily for him, he still retained enough in-depth memories of Tyro in order to feed the pattern from his own mind in to the TIC. Things had been a bit shaky to start with, but a little bit of jiggery pokery later, and the circuits had pinpointed Tyro and his TARDIS exactly.

The device had the ability to pinpoint brain patterns throughout the Time Vortex, and hone in on them. Once a link was established, it configured itself to the specific capsule that the target was traveling in, using the pilots' thoughts as a link to the navigational systems.

Now, it was just a case of catching up. Every time the TIC made a positive lock on, Tyro would change his destination. Of course, the TIC followed immediately, but Suress knew he would have get Tyro unless he caught up. But, he also knew that Tyro was much more likely to stop running than Suress was to stop chasing him.

The one thing Suress hadn't planned for, was what was going to happen when he did catch up with the renegade. He knew that the Archivist was not concerned either way if Tyro lived or died, but every now and again a memory would jump forward that made Suress doubt if he could end a life. He had spent hours trying to work out how to kill Tyro only once, and make sure he didn't regenerate. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought of 'borrowing' a Chancellery guard staser before he left, and knew he could not return to Gallifrey, or to the Archivist, until the job was done. He would have to find a way though, he told himself. Even if he could kill Tyro the first time, he wasn't sure if was going to be able to do it on another eleven occasions.

The concept was particularly daunting as he knew that until the Archivist was satisfied with his work, this life was the only one he had.

"Got to do something to shake them off!" Tyro shouted with frustration. "But can't stop moving. If I stop thinking, I can't fly her!" He slammed a fist on the console, before rubbing it tenderly. "The perfect trap."

"Can't I fly it?" Alex saw the look on Tyros' face and quickly corrected herself. "Her. Can't I fly her? They can't read my mind, can they?"

"They can." He frowned. "If I'm right, I'm being used as a link to the TARDIS navigation controls. If you take over, the link will swap to you. As long as you are aware of where we are going, they can came after..oh." his eyes lit up once again.

"What?" Alex asked shrugging as she shifted Lucy in her arms.

"I've been very very stupid." He smiled, stepping closer. "What we need, the only way out of this," he continued, rambling, "we need someone with no conscious awareness, no knowledge what so ever." His smile grew in to a wide grin. "And we've got the perfect little person right here."

"Oi!" She snapped. "I'm not stupid you know. And I'm not that little either."

"Not you." Tyro continued, tickling Lucy under her chin as she reached out for his smiley face badge.

"You know what I have seen." Lorendra sobbed, sat in the Archivists' chamber. "I need to know what I can do, how I can stop it."

"You know I cannot help you child." He replied coldly. "The gift of foresight is yours, and therefore that burden is also your own. I was only ever here to listen."

"But I know they are both alive!" She insisted. "If we can find them now, then what I saw might not happen."

"Foolish girl." The Archivist scolded. "You know that is not our way. You saw what you saw because that is what must happen."

"But I only saw glimpses. Maybe there's more I've not seen."

"Then that is the will of Time." He replied quietly. "We Time Lords do not question Time, you know that." He signalled for her to stand. "You have seen what you have for a reason. That cannot be changed, and neither can future events. You should be thankful for your gift, rather than greedy for more." He walked her to the door. "We all know what happens when we try and take advantage of our privileges for personal gain." He ushered her out of the door. "Good night young one."

"Good night." She replied, keeping back the tears she could feel welling up. Composing herself, she head away from the Archivists' quarters and back towards her own.

Back inside, the Archivists' mind was hatching yet another plot. Lorendria had been a great asset in unknowingly letting him manipulate Suress, but he knew there was still more she could do for him. A thin smile spread across his face as he purposefully made for the door.

Further down the corridor, Axelle slowly poked his head around the corner, watching the Archivist leave, slowing moving out of sight.

"Interesting." He muttered quietly to himself.

"Will it hurt her?" Alex said, concerned as tyro lifted Lucy in a silver high chair.

"No." He gave her a reassuring smile. "Not at all."

"you're sure?"

"Positive. And that's coming from Mr. Negative over here." He put an arm around her. "I promise, she'll be fine. Lucky I found this back there." He put a hand on the back of the high chair, Lucy firmly strapped in. "Really will have to have a sort out."

"So what happens now?" Alex asked, watching the TARDIS monitor as it switched to yet another destination Tyro had programmed in.

"We need to connect her to the TARDIS." He explained. "With me, the telepathic link is enough, but Lucy's going to need some help."

"You're not plugging her in to that thing!" Alex shouted. "You didn't say anything about that!"

"I don't need to." He replied calmly, taking the large headphones from around his neck. "I told her these would come in handy. Didn't think it would be this soon though."

Tyro circled the console, running his eye over every panel.

"You can travel through the deepest realms of time and space," he shook his head at the Time Rotor. "Yet I can't find a headphone socket when I need one?"

"Is this it?" Alex piped up, pointing straight at a small 3 millimetre hole in the console.

"Perfect!" Tyro exclaimed, giving her an unexpected hug. Lucy sat in her highchair, giggling.

Plugging the headphones in to the console, Tyro swept back to Lucy, placing them over her head gently, adjusting the band so it was at the smallest it could go. Even so, they were perched rather precariously on her head, not helped by her trying to look up, to find out what they were. Alex perched herself on the floor next to the highchair, keeping her child distracted.

"Now I just have to filter out my telepathic pattern." Tyro muttered, placing himself over a bank of sliding switches. He fiddled with two, pushing one up and the other down. As he did, a slight humming started in his head.

"Can you hear that?" Alex questioned.

"Yeah, it's me." He confirmed. "It's a psychic field, blocking our telekinetic activity feeding trough to the console."

"Ow!" She exclaimed suddenly. "Does it have to be so loud?"

"Afraid so." He shrugged. "Otherwise this whole thing is a bit pointless really."

"I don't even know what the point of it is anyway. You never did tell me why someone's after you."

"Long story." He paused. "I probably won't tell you about it later."

Tyro swung back to the navigational panel, giving Lucy a quick smile, before tapping in a new set of co-ordinates.

"Now, with any luck, this should lose them." He turned to the baby. "Now Lucy, I need you to concentrate, ok? For all intents and purposes, you're now flying a highly advanced time machine."

She giggled at him, pointing once again towards his smiley badge.

"Fine." He smiled. "Whatever keeps you happy. Setting co-ordinates…now!"

The Time Rotor groaned, the pitch of the engines changing as the TARDIS changed course. Tyro was coping with the humming of the psychic field in his head, but knew Alex couldn't stand it much longer. He had to be quick.

The console room shuddered as they were hurtled towards their new destination, Lucy giggling the whole time. Tyro watched in amazement as the Time Rotor seemed to respond to her, moving with her laughter.

"Think we've got them!" He finally exclaimed, gleefully. "No sign of anything locked on! Good girl!" He tickled Lucy gently as the warning klaxon stopped. "And you!" He stroked the Time Rotor, smiling. "Don't worry, didn't forget you."

"Is that it then?" Alex asked. "Can you stop that ringing?"

"Not yet." Tyro responded, hunched over a bank of buttons. "Just need to…perfect!" He returned to the sliding controls and moved them back, lowering the psychic field.

"Now I just need to apply her brain pattern to.."

"What!" Alex interrupted. "You didn't say anything about that!"

"Well," Tyro shrugged sheepishly. "I've taken a copy of her brainwaves. I can program it in to the TARDIS systems and use it as a kind of shield, keeping them out permanently. Otherwise, well, Lucy would have to stay there forever. And never age, which could be a problem. I'd have to keep finding new babies." He cocked his head to one side. "That's not the sort of reputation I want."

"Fine then." Alex sniffed.

"Thank you." He beamed at her. "I mean it. This will keep me safe, for a while anyway."

I hope so." She gave him a slight smile.

"Done!" He said, after a minute of two, and took the large headphones from Lucy. "Your little thoughts," he prodded her forehead gently "are now running through my ship!" He beamed. "A little bit of baby Lucy, preserved forever." She giggled at him again.
"Oh fine." He groaned, running over to the shopping basket he had discarded earlier and rummaging through its contents. A moment later he returned to her, a small badge in hand. "Careful of the pin." He warned, attaching the badge, identical to his own, to her little pink dress. "Perfect!"

"No!" Suress' scream echoed throughout his console room, as his scanners lost all trace of Tyros' TARDIS. "What's that fool done? He is merely prolonging the chase." He snarled. The Tyro he had known would have been an easy prey, but this was something different. The visual feed he had received from the Assassin Robot had shown a much more competent Time Lord, his ingenuity far surpassing his previous incarnation.

But Suress too, was a new man. His determination would have to match Tyros' ability to escape; he would have to keep upping his game until his task was complete.

With no warning the TIC gave a loud beep, confirming it was unable to lock on to its target. It beeped again however, a message being relayed to the TARDIS monitor.

TARGET LOST. NEW TELEKENETIC PATTERN FOUND. PATTERN STORED.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Alex smiled, Lucy back in her arms.

"If that's what you humans call it." He replied. "I've taken you home by the way. Didn't think the shopping centre would be too good an idea." He gestured to Lucy. "Think this one needs some rest too, long day."

"Thanks." She replied. "I might get a good night's sleep for once."

"Hope so." He paused. "I'm sorry I can't take you with me, that I can't show you all the things that you want to see, but this isn't that kind of trip."

"I know." The dark haired girl replied. "Having seen today, I think that's probably for the best." She made for the door, Lucy grinning over her shoulder.

"Oh!" Tyro stopped her in her tracks. "One more thing." He scurried to the TARDIS console and reached underneath it, producing a Polaroid camera. "Will save you a trip!"

"How old is that thing!" Alex laughed.

"Old." He shrugged. "Found it with the high chair. Not sure who this ship belonged to, but their stuff is certainly coming in handy."

He stood Alex against the wall and took her photograph, then Lucys'.

"And you!" Alex laughed, the three of them standing against the white wall of the TARDIS, Tyro taking the picture with his arm out stretched.

"Here you go." He handed her the three photos, keeping one of the three of them for himself. "Happy holidays! Where ever you end up!"

"Thanks." She said, hugging him with one arm, the other holding Lucy. "It might not be time and space, but it will do for us."

She headed towards the doors again, which swung open for her.

"Goodbye Tyro."

"Bye Alex." He beamed. "Bye Lucy." He waved. "And thank you."

The doors closed behind them, and Tyro made his way back to the console, firing the Time Rotor back in to life. As the engines began their usual groan, Tyro was sure he could hear Lucys' laugh echoing throughout the console room as he looked at the picture of the three of them, her little face smiling back at him.