Author's Note: Yep, we've got kind of a Bernice Summerfield crossover in this one, too!

Bernice Summerfield (AKA Benny) is an archaeologist. She works for Irving Braxiatel at the Braxiatel Collection. Peter is her son.

The other thing that you need to know (this gets explained later in the story, too) is that Braxiatel got caught up in some craziness involving alternate timelines and evil Gallifreyan monsters lurking in the Matrix, and, as a result, wound up with an evil alternate-self. The alternate-Braxiatel is still the same conniving, scheming Braxiatel that we know and love, but he wound up getting tortured by the Daleks and going kind of nuts because of it, and ended up turning people into Cybermen, wiping memories, unwriting people from time, and starting massive wars... just to get his way.

Benny and the others on the Collection got to watch the alternate-Brax quite literally go insane before their eyes.

The current Braxiatel, however, actually saved Peter from slavery and helped him get back on his feet. Peter trusts him. Everyone else is wary that he'll go mad, one day, like the other Braxiatel did.

I think that's all you have to know...

Anyways, enjoy!

Evadaius

"Yes, by all accounts, the Evadians were a culture steeped in oral tradition," Professor Bernice Summerfield — Benny — explained, carefully brushing away dust from her latest archaeological find. "Despite being technologically advanced, they believed the height of art was in singing stories, not in writing them down."

"Which is why no one ever knew why their culture died out," Peter said, with a groan. "I know, mum. You told me this on the trip over."

Benny managed to dislodge the artifact she was uncovering. Making careful note and catalogue of it. "Did I?"

"Yes!" Peter said. "And that these ruins are about a hundred years old, in a gravity field increasingly unstable following the death of all life on this planet. And that you dragged me out to this planet, because you have all these mad conspiracy theories about what Irving Braxiatel might really be up to, back on the Collection. And you want to 'keep me safe' from him."

Benny glanced up at her son. "I don't trust him," she muttered. "After all, I remember what…!" She looked at Peter, then gave it up. "Forget it," she said, putting the artifact aside.

"Like it or not, Irving proved himself a long time ago, mum," Peter pointed out. "You should know that."

Benny stood up, turning on Peter. "The Time Lords are marching across the universe," she said, throwing her arm out at the sky, "rewriting time and history in some barbaric war, and you think…!"

"Irving has nothing to do with that," Peter cut in, sharply. "Humans have started a lot of wars that you haven't liked. Kilorans have started wars that Dad didn't like. That doesn't make those wars your faults. And it doesn't make this one Irving's."

Benny paused.

Then dropped her hands. "I suppose you're right," she mumbled. Looking out at the dig. "I just wish I knew why he sent me here."

Peter slouched to one side. "You're an archaeologist," he said. "This is a dig."

"It's not as simple as that," Benny said. "It never is with Braxiatel."

As if right on cue…

"Professor Summerfield!" came the shout from one of the students she'd brought with her, on the dig. He scuttled over the landscape. "We found something. Something… unlike anything else on this planet."

Benny's mind raced with theories.

Some alien intervention or invasion, which wiped this planet out?

The remains of an alien spacecraft?

"Show me," Benny said, hurrying after the student.

The machine, now powerless and dead, was intricate and beautifully designed. The entire structure impossible, so that Benny had to squint to take it in, and even then, couldn't quite believe her eyes. The contours seemed to shift, one way or another, as if drifting in and out of the visible spectrum.

"Highly sophisticated technology," Peter said, "damaged." He turned to his mum. "Well. Here's why the Evadians died out. All your questions are answered. Now, can we go?"

Benny stepped up to the machine they'd dug out of the sand.

It was, as Peter said, damaged. The outside cracked and scarred and broken. But… not from a crashed ship or overuse.

"Peter's right," Benny said. Leaned down, towards the dust at the base of the machine. Blew it away to expose the rock beneath, traced with scorch marks and burns. "This was what destroyed all life on this planet. It must have given out a tremendous blast, when it went off."

Peter sighed, now completely bored.

"But the damage to the device itself wasn't caused by it exploding," said Benny. Getting back up and circling the machine, carefully. "These are natural erosion marks. Rust. Decay. The sort of thing you'd expect to find in any artifact that's been buried in the ground for a century."

One of the students reached out to touch it. "But if it wasn't a damaged piece of Evadian technology, malfunctioning, then what…?"

Benny caught the hand, before it reached the machine.

"It's not Evadian technology," said Benny. "It's a weapon. Designed to send out a destructive pulse… probably across a specific spectrum of dimensions, judging by how its exterior shifts about that way."

The student pulled back her hand, alarmed.

"But if the Evadians didn't construct it, then why would…?" Benny suddenly turned on Peter. Who had been skulking back, some ways, pretending to look bored.

But not quite bored enough.

"Peter," Benny said, her voice low, "why did Irving send you here?"

Peter gave a frustrated sigh. "He sent you here," he complained. "You dragged me along."

"Yes, but you didn't protest too much, when I did." Benny straightened. Walking over to her son, slowly. "He wanted you along, on this dig, to make sure you'd bring this back to the Collection. Didn't he?"

Peter didn't answer.

"Peter!" Benny roared.

"He knew this planet had been one of the battlegrounds," Peter confessed. "He suspected there was something dangerous left behind. He wanted you to get it out and bring it back, so he could properly dispose of it." He scanned the horizon. "And he sent me along, just in case there were any… lingering survivors."

Benny felt fury flooding through her. "This is all part of this… Time War."

Peter didn't need to answer that.

"We've both faced down Daleks, mum," Peter said, instead. He gestured at the machine. "Collecting and safely disposing of their weapons would be the best thing for everyone. And if Irving can learn something about how the Dalek weapons operate, at the same time… then maybe he'd be able to protect everyone on the Collection."

"Dalek…?!" Benny turned, storming back to the Braxiatel Collection Shuttle. "Irving bloody Braxiatel!" she shouted. "I'm going to kill him!"

The Braxiatel Collection

Benny stormed into Braxiatel's office, when she got back to the Collection. Her face like thunder. Her eyes bitter and furious.

"How long?" Benny demanded.

Braxiatel had been listening to a Bach sonata. Turned down the volume, when Benny entered the room. And gave her a perfectly charming smile.

"Bernice," he said. "How good to see you've returned. I trust the dig proved as illuminating as you'd initially hoped?"

"More than you know," Benny growled. She pointed out the window, to where the Collection crews were unloading the doomsday machine she'd uncovered during the dig. "Peter might not know, but I do. The Evadians were humanoid creatures, and one of the closest matches to your people's biology. And that weapon was created to wipe out all biological life on the planet."

Braxiatel said nothing.

"Don't deny it, Braxiatel," said Benny. "That was not a Dalek weapon. It was made by your people."

Braxiatel was quiet for a moment longer.

"Yes," he said, at last. "I suspect… you may be right."

"From my point of view, from Peter's, the Evadians have been dead for at least a century," said Benny. "But that's only because your Time War altered time!"

"It is hardly my…"

"How long, Brax?" Benny demanded. "How long have they been dead? From your perspective?"

Braxiatel was silent for a long moment.

Then turned away from Benny.

"Two days before you departed on the dig," Braxiatel said, at last.

Benny didn't know what to say to this.

"I have limited access to news of the Time War," said Braxiatel. "But from what I understood, Daleks had amassed around that planet, at a temporal location about a hundred years behind us. My people… felt they had to act."

"You mean they sent a weapon down to the planet," Benny corrected, "and killed everyone, before the Daleks could invade."

Braxiatel said nothing.

"There were no bodies, Brax," Benny said. "No bones! No biological data of any kind! Your people killed all those Evadians just to stop the Daleks from gaining information."

"The Evadians had been on the verge of mastering complete cellular regeneration," Braxiatel replied. "To allow that knowledge to fall into the hands of the Daleks would be… disastrous." He shrugged. "I suppose my people thought… this was an expedient solution."

"Expedient…?!" Benny couldn't stop herself from trembling with rage. Only just stopped herself from grabbing Braxiatel up and shaking him.

"I am not responsible for my people's actions," Braxiatel told her. "I'm not part of the War."

"No, you just send us out to dig up Time War Battlefields, and bring back weapons," Benny replied. "You're not involved at all."

"And I suppose you'd rather leave those weapons lying about," said Braxiatel, calmly, "for the Daleks to find and use on the rest of the universe? I suppose you'd be happy if the Time Lords caved and surrendered to the Daleks, allowing them to rewrite time to their own design?"

Benny opened her mouth to speak.

But no words came out.

"I don't like this war any more than you do, Bernice," Braxiatel said. "But I have a duty to preserve the memory of the races and worlds wiped out by the fighting. And if I can remove some rather dangerous weapons at the same time… then perhaps that is for the best."

Benny stared at him, hard.

Waiting for him to crack.

He didn't.

And she sighed. Finally caving, and admitting… there was no one she could properly berate for the carnage and destruction she kept seeing. Not in person.

"This is not my war," Braxiatel said, again.

"I know," Benny sighed. "I just…" She glanced back out the window, at the other artifacts being unloaded from the dig. The remnants of a people wiped out by the Time War. "I wish it would end. No, I wish it had never happened in the first place."

Braxiatel joined her. Looking out the window at those artifacts.

Both silent.

Both thinking on a war in time and space that was killing so many.

It was only after Benny had left, and the machine that destroyed Evadaius had been moved to the middle of Braxiatel's study and left there, for him, that Braxiatel got down to work.

"Perhaps, Bernice," Braxiatel muttered, although she was long out of earshot, "you will get your wish."