Gallifrey, present-day

"So I left Romana," Braxiatel continued. "And went to find the Doctor. He was wary to concede that the Key to Time still existed… that it hadn't been destroyed in the Chaos Pool… but eventually, he agreed to surrender it. And we departed Gallifrey, to put the plan into action."

"But what was the plan?" Jenny asked. "What were you planning to do?"

"Precisely what I promised Benny," said Braxiatel. "What I promised the Doctor."

"To stop the War," Jenny said.

Braxiatel shook his head. "To save the Time Lords," he said, "by erasing the War from history. As if it had never happened."

Jenny stared.

Her jaw dropping.

"No traces of Daleks, anywhere in the universe," Braxiatel mused. "The Time Lords back to the way they were, before this ever started. Rassilon back in his tomb in the Dark Tower! And all those planets destroyed, all those races wiped out, all that damage done… undone. In an instant."

"How?" Jenny demanded. "That's… it's… impossible!"

"Not quite," said Braxiatel.

Jenny's eyes demanded an explanation.

Braxiatel gave a sad little smile. "It was something I discovered, just after I left the planet Legion," he said. "One of Benny's adventures, except it went hideously wrong. During that incident, I ran into a group calling themselves… the Epoch."

Previously, on the Adventures of Bernice Summerfield

The Epoch had existed since the beginning of the universe.

Robots designed to tamper with time and continuity. Provided a timeline had been completely isolated, they could map and remap reality, no matter how temporally complicated or paradoxical that reality was. And all according to the designs of a single mind — the Occulent — whom they had selected to rule them.

When Braxiatel had met them, that single mind had been Bernard Springmore, a man obsessed with living forever and remapping Bernice Summerfield out of existence. For no very good reason at all.

Braxiatel remembered…

It was long, long before the Time War. Back when he'd been living on Legion. One moment, he'd been floating away in an escape capsule, and the next…

He found himself at the mercy of the Epoch.

"You are Irving Braxiatel," the Epoch told him.

"Am I, indeed?" Braxiatel replied. "And how would you know that?"

"We know of your connection to Bernice Summerfield."

"Do you, now?" Braxiatel tried to scratch an itch on his ankle, but couldn't in the cramped escape pod. "And… dare I ask how? Or why?"

"We know Bernice Summerfield of old. We are the Epoch."

That had sounded rather ominous. "Funny — she never mentioned you," Braxiatel said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm rather—"

"You will forget her, Irving Braxiatel," they demanded. "You will become part of the Scheme."

"Will I, indeed?" Braxiatel felt a little smug, at the time. He'd known that, as a Time Lord, no one could touch him. "Wrong again, I fear."

"It is too late," the Epoch replied. "Your memories are now changing. Soon, you will remember nothing."

Braxiatel's smugness had fallen away, as he'd begun to panic. He could feel his memories falling away and changing — feel himself changing — as he was remapped into a completely different person.

With a completely different past.

It shouldn't have been possible! Not with a Time Lord!

But it had happened.

He'd believed himself to be a human from Earth, an actor who played a role in an audio drama in the UK. Time had remapped itself around him, to force him into that role. And if Benny Summerfield hadn't saved him from it… the remapping would have become permanent.

He'd have become human — and always would have been.

Of course, Benny had saved the day, in the end. As she always did. She'd undone the Epoch's scheme, defeated Bernard Springmore, and set the universe back to how it should be. The Epoch technology had shut itself down.

Which was when… Braxiatel received a message. A very special message.

From a future-self.

Regarding… his own scheme. To save the Time Lords.

Gallifrey, present-day

"But that's… ridiculous!" Jenny insisted. "Time Lords exist outside of time. You can't just use some nifty bit of tech to reshape and remap everything that composes a Time Lord!"

Braxiatel leaned across the table. "But the Epoch could," he insisted. "The Epoch did. I was remapped — just as easily as all of Benny's other friends. And if Benny hadn't rescued me… I would have been human forever."

"It's… it's…" Jenny couldn't think of anything to say.

"So after Benny defeated the Epoch, and reset time to undo all their timeline tampering," said Braxiatel, "I got a message. From a future self."

"…who'd realized that if the Epoch could use that technology to remap you," Jenny realized, "then you could use that same technology… to remap Gallifrey."

"And return it to the way it was, before the War," Braxiatel agreed. "By using my own memories as a template. Yes."

"But what about the War?" said Jenny. "All those timelines, getting fractured and unravelling around you! The remapping wouldn't stick."

"That's why we needed the Key to Time," said Braxiatel. "To trap the War and all its instabilities within a very sophisticated Time Lock. And then rewrite the universe so the Daleks, and any effects of the War, were wiped clean."

"That's… that's…!" Jenny shook her head. "It's brilliant."

"Yes, if it had worked," Braxiatel replied. "It would have saved the Time Lords. Reverted us back to what we'd been before…"

He looked out the window.

At what they had become.

And sighed, deeply.

"I wish it had worked," Braxiatel said. "Because this place… this planet… isn't Gallifrey. Not anymore."

"What happened?" Jenny asked.

What happened?

What happened was that Braxiatel hadn't told the Doctor the whole plan. He'd told him about the Time Lock. Wiping the Daleks out of time. But… stopped there.

And never mentioned the Epoch.

Or their technology.

"Why not?" Jenny demanded of Braxiatel, when she heard this. "Why didn't you tell him the whole truth?"

"Because Bernice Summerfield was once his companion," said Braxiatel. "And I didn't have the time or the energy to argue with him, over her treatment. I felt it was better to just… get on with it."

Jenny nodded.

"There were other factors, too," Braxiatel muttered. "The Doctor had just discovered that a former companion of his had gone mad and nearly torn apart the Earth — and he couldn't forgive himself for not going back and stopping it. That played a part."

Jenny frowned. "I remember hearing about that."

"And I never did find out the full truth of what happened to that energy field," Braxiatel continued. "Or just how depleted it had become. I assumed… it was still mostly intact."

Jenny's eyes went wide. "But it wasn't?"

Braxiatel shook his head.

"So what happened?" said Jenny.

"The Doctor and I went to the planet Winoli," said Braxiatel, "a small planet with a dimensional weak spot running straight through the middle of it. We set up the equipment, there."