Fish Custard ? Eww !

Romana looked at the redhead, " What do you mean, me and the Doctor crashed into your garden ?"

The Time lady found the image hard to believe, but it wasn't improbable; even though she loved and adored the Doctor, he could be careless, but when it came to his beloved TARDIS he was incredibly cautious. She remembered the time when she and him had been searching for the second segment of the key to Time, how he'd ignored her advice about the multi loop stabiliser. Later on he started using it. Romana believed it had something to do with avoiding another incident like a planet using TRANSMAT engines. But that was an isolated incident, hardly likely to happen again. Then again, she like other Time lords had believed there to be no other Great Vampires, and look how that turned out.

Still, she found it hard to believe he'd deliberately crash into a 7 year olds garden shed.

Amy smiled, " I had a crack in my wall, it had been bothering me for a long time. I could hear voices, " Prisoner Zero has escaped," " Silence will fall," though don't ask me what that was all about."

Romana wanted to get the girl to shut up but there was no stopping Amy, " There was this blue box that had crashed in my garden. It was all glowing, golden yellowy light. Then the doors opened, and a grapnel was thrown out. This man, with long floppy hair appeared, asking for an apple. He said he loved apples, and added as an afterthought that he maybe having a craving. He fell out and breathed out this glittery golden stuff. He said he was still cooking."

As Amy carried on with this story, how the Doctor had virtually eaten and spat out everything seven year old Amy Pond had given him, saying weird things like " new mouth, new rules," before settling to fish fingers and custard as his food.

Romana had learnt enough to realise that Amy had met a future Doctor, with her still in her present incarnation, how else could the girl recognise her ?

From how Amy described it, the regeneration the Doctor was in, the raggedy Doctor as Amy called him, had obviously been a violent one. But how ? Not many things could damage a TARDIS during a Time lord's regeneration. A TARDIS's construction was supposed to contain regeneration energy, if a Time lord who'd contained and bottled the energy for a long time regenerated outside a TARDIS's dimensional field, the resulting damage could be incredible. Yes, that must be it, the Doctor must've contained his bio energy to the point where he could still function. The pressure must've damaged the TARDIS when he went through with the regeneration. But she was still curious as to the cause. After a moment Romana gave up, partly because she didn't want to know. But Amy had done one thing.

She'd given the Time lady faith and hope.

Faith that the Master would be stopped, hope that the Doctor was alright. When this was over, she was going to snog him senseless.

" Fish custard ? Eww," Martha moaned.

Romana smirked, during regeneration some Time lords started eating and sampling weird things. The Doctor wasn't exempt from that quirk. It happened to all Time lords eventually.

She remembered something Amy had said, " Amy, you said raggedy Doctor, could you please describe for me what he was wearing ?"

It had taken Amy some time to realise that this Romana hadn't met her yet, but it still took some time to get used to that simple fact.

" He was wearing a long sleeved blue shirt, a brown tie with a light and dark blue swirl pattern, brown pinstried trousers and converse trainers." Amy grinned, not knowing she'd described the Doctor's basic present look, " Do you want me to tell you what you were wearing ?"

Romana shook her head, held one hand up and said, " No, no thank you, Amy. Call me Miss Picky, but I think I'll pass."

Amy pouted, disappointed.


When the meeting was finished, at last, Amy promised to help spread word of the Doctor around for the two women. When they left the next day, Martha had to ask about her.

" So, she's going to be a future companion then ?"

Romana heard the jealousy in Martha's voice, but she was beyond caring, " Maybe, but we need to meet her first. Clearly, I meet her in my future, especially since it's in her personal timeline."

Martha struggled to understand, and Romana took pity on her, " Basically, I'm her past, she's my future."

Martha nodded in understanding, but the Time Lady could still see her confusion. That irritated her, humans were capable of understanding, they just needed to think in 4 dimensional terms and to stop thinking things at face value.

" Alright," Romana said, realising that she needed to explain in greater detail, " If something happens in the past, then it becomes the past. I'm a fixed event in Amy Pond's timeline, me and the Doctor. Since it happens sometime in my future then I'll know what to expect. But I don't know when it will happen. Time lords have long lifespans."

" You know, I've been trying to wrap my head around time travel since I started with the Doctor. But it still drives me mad." Martha shook her head with a smile, even though she resented Romana treating her like a kid at school.

Romana could see the resentment, " I know," she admitted, " Some Time lords, especially the Doctor sometimes become confused over time and paradoxes."


Whilst Martha slept, Romana had time to think over the conversation she and Martha had had about the crash in Amy Pond's garden.

Her earlier thoughts about the reasons for the crash, the damage caused by the Doctor bottling and compressing the regeneration energy in his body, then releasing the energy through the regeneration….it put her in mind with a champagne or wine bottle, any form of beverage in a bottle. The gas inside expanded and then it simply…popped. The only problem was why the Doctor would do something so amazingly stupid.

Romana loved the Doctor, had done for centuries. The memories of how she'd hunted him and Compassion, the living TARDIS in her previous regeneration made her feel ill, she winced whenever she thought of them. Fortunately she knew that the Doctor forgave her, even though he did give her a dressing down.

Her last life had been like a dwarf star alloy box, tough, impossible to crack, believing that everything she did and would do was justified for the coming Time War.

The reality had been worse.

The enemy hadn't been Faction Paradox. It had been the Daleks, in many ways the equal and opposite to the voodoo time travel cult. The Daleks, seeing the timeline where the faction paradox had destroyed the Time lord race, and stopping them from getting revenge on all the things the Time lords had done to them over the centuries.

The Daleks had placed a temporal virus into the Faction, wiping them out, stopping them from existing in time. They also developed the technology to shove them into a timeline where everyone in the primary timeline would simply forget them.

The war was worse than anything Romana had believed, it grew so bad that everything the Time lords had fought for centuries to maintain, the laws of time, the prevention of multiple timelines….even their own, and sometimes shaky, morality.

The Time lord race had had some very questionable events in their murky history, the great vampires, the Racnoss wars, the Minyan incident…..Ravolox. The last one had made her furious when she'd seen the file, she'd disbanded a good portion of the Celestial Intervention Agency, and she'd warned the other organisations that if they did it again she'd make sure that they'd regret the day they'd become Time lords.

The Time War had made the CIA superfluous anyway, the destruction her race was causing was enough to make her feel ill now.

Then the High Council, composed of cowards and people who enjoyed ignoring the way the war was going, concerned still with personal power, unwilling to let it go, and even more unwilling to let anyone take it away, did the most moronic thing possible.

They'd brought the Master back to life. Whilst Romana was wary about using someone like the Master, who from what she'd heard was only interested in himself, she understood the reasons, and didn't, much to her shame now considering what he was doing to the Human race, do anything about it.

Bringing the Master back was far from easy, his mind was locked in the Eye of Harmony. Getting him out took a year, but cloning a body using his bio data which had been recovered from the time he'd returned to Gallifrey during the Borusa incident was child's play. The Master even had a new regeneration cycle, for which he was eternally grateful, especially since he'd stolen 2 bodies just to stay alive. It was a ghoulish existence, one no one should ever have. The Master was brutally efficient when he needed to be, and the High council, realising that they had a perfect weapon, set him to work on the frontline.

It was lucky the Master didn't encounter the Doctor, the enmity between the two Time lords was legendary and Romana had been concerned that if the Two met on the battlefield then the war would become worse.

Romana had had other concerns about using the Master, fears that the High council hadn't thought the whole thing out properly. Those fears had been justified when the cruciform fell and the Master vanished without a trace. Romana had lashed out against the council, but they were unrepentant.

It wasn't until 3 more years had passed before they unveiled the project that they'd dreamt up.

Rassilon's return.

When they did, Romana couldn't believe it. Rassilon, the founder of the Time lords, one of the greatest Time lords in History. It finally made sense, about why the council had resurrected the Master, why they hadn't been especially bothered by him running away.

They'd done it as a trial to bring back something bigger. Rassilon's bio data was easy to obtain, as was his mind, they'd just wanted to make sure they had the technique right.

The council, with Rassilon's full backing, deposed her, Romana had stepped down, knowing the other Time lords would simply tell her that they would win if Romana left agreeably, and she did, but not without resentment. But Rassilon made her a general on the frontline since she spent most of her time away from Gallifrey anyway, her time with the Doctor and the war making her the perfect general, especially since being in the council chamber made her feel bored.

Under Rassilon's leadership, the Time lords, for a time, managed to hold the Daleks back, something they'd never been able to fully do when she'd been president.

But then the Daleks mastered solar manipulation, and destroyed a massive number of Solar systems deep within Time lord held space. The Dalek armies moved in during the confusion, and drove the Time lords back, using their new temporal weapons to wipe out millions. They'd also dredged back in history, and removed the Cloud, the Could have been King with his army of meanwhiles and neverweres. The Cloud, a massive, malignant entity which devoured whole suns and planets, had been a problem for the ancient Time lords because none of their weapons or abilities could touch it. The Daleks knew that after they raided the Matrix, saw it as the perfect weapon and simply lifted it out of its time and placed it in the middle of the war.

The cloud was intelligent, the Daleks knew that, and simply told it that the they'd brought it there to allow it to get revenge on the Time lords. The Daleks told the Cloud that the Time lords had virtually forgotten it, that they needed to be reminded of its great power.

The Cloud consumed planets, breaking them up and consuming all life and energy, even transforming the debris into great amounts of fuel.

The Time lords, with the Doctor and Rassilon's help, managed to shove it into a Time loop, but why they'd never been able to do that was beyond Romana, but the damage the Cloud had done was beyond serious, the Daleks had placed the Cloud in 5 different Timelines, and the Time lords had needed to collapse them all.

Rassilon, realising that the timeline problems were causing the war to become serious, and fearing that the Daleks were creating a possible timeline where they'd win, ordered the walls of reality sealed off.

This plan was met with approval from everyone, who hoped that the walls would be reopened and repaired when the war would be over.

It worked to say the least, the timelines were collapsed. But that wasn't the end of it.

After the fall of Arcadia, the war changed, the loss of a great planet and ally of the Time lords made the Time lords see that this wasn't a small conflict, which many did for reasons Romana couldn't wrap her head around. The war escalated with millions dying and being resurrected by time itself.

Things back home, Romana shuddered at the memories, were getting was bad to seriously worse, bordering on nightmarish. Rassilon had starting revealing his true colours, that of a tyrannical dictator, but it was too late to depose him. All of his opponents were crushed like petrified twigs under his boots. To make matters worse, the renegades were starting to talk. As someone who'd been travelling with a renegade in the past, Romana knew how they spoke. What they said terrified her. Since Romana understood the renegade mind, knew what had been needed to bring them to fight in the war, they thought of her as one of them. Many Time lords questioned the wisdom of having the renegades fight in the war but some of the more liberal minded and logical Time lords accepted the wisdom of her decision; the renegades such as Drax and the Rani had skills needed to fight the war, skills other Time lords couldn't grasp. The things you learnt on the run blew the mind.

The renegade did good work, beyond great actually. But Rassilon ignored them, left them alone to their own devices. So when some of them vanished under mysterious circumstances the warning bells started ringing. The renegades knew how devious and dangerous their own people could be, knew that Rassilon didn't trust them. They went to Romana, asking her for a meeting on a planet.

They chose Earth. It was safely out of the way of the Time War, and they discussed it in a café. It took her an hour to get the whole thing in her head. Rani and Drax, along with 6 others told her about some unusual activity in the council, that they'd noticed. If it had been any other Time lord then they'd simply have never noticed it, but they knew Romana had been close to one, and had developed the ears of a renegade. One of them was an old friend, one she'd never envisioned as a renegade. Flavia, formerly Councillor Flavia of the High council.

She remembered the meeting….

Earth was still the same beautiful world it had been when she'd first visited in her first life, the peace, the lack of awareness of the Time war soothed and relaxed Romana tremendously. As a leader of a now war torn race, she like many had become paranoid, cautious and ready to fight at the drop of a hat.

The meeting took place in a café, a place called Nero's, it was a massive place, and was perfect. But Romana kept her eyes and ears open and alert, there may be Dalek agents, duplicates and Robomen here. If the Daleks caught wind of Time lords meeting on this planet, Earth could find itself dragged into the Time war.

Romana shuddered at the thought of the Doctor hearing that Romana was partially responsible for the destruction of his favourite planet. They'd made progress in patching up their friendship, but that could change.

She spotted Drax first, cheerful, carefree Drax, he was speaking to the Time lady she knew as the Rani.

" She'll be 'ere soon, don't worry Rani, 'eh, Worry, Rani, eh that rhymes." Drax laughed.

The Rani shot him a look of pure poison, " If you don't shut up Drax, I'll feed you to a cat that's 1,000 ft tall."

Drax shut up, some of the renegades shook their heads at his antics. Romana did too.

Flavia spoke up, the other renegades were still wary of her. It didn't surprise Romana as she was as surprised as they were that Flavia, someone who'd followed the rules more than her, would become a renegade. The story was Flavia had regenerated into a body that saw the Time lords as corrupt and couldn't see any way of changing them. So she left them and started travelling the cosmos. She got that idea from their mutual friend. Nearby was a Time lord she'd heard of but never met. The Corsair. He was a giant of a Time lord, he was a renegade who left Gallifrey for the same reasons as the Doctor, but he did things differently. The Corsair's reputation made him sound like his namesake, he was a dashing man, his appearance put Romana in mind of a pirate of the 17th century, but he looked like a businessman with his immaculate suit, it contrasted to his beard which was in the style of 17th century noblemen.

" She'll be here soon, Romana is punctual. Oh, here she is now." Flavia said looking up.

Romana smiled as she came over. Between these people and the council, she knew which she preferred, these people were her brethren, the council were a bunch of old people who squabbled amongst themselves. These people were more like friends looking for a good time. It was curious, before she travelled with the Doctor, she'd looked down her nose at the renegades, but when she started travelling with one, she felt more like one. Maybe she really was a rebel at heart.

Romana sat down and looked at them. Drax, Flavia, Rani, Corsair, The Queen, another female renegade, Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, Pandora, a relatively young Time lady renegade, but still she'd been travelling 345 years before the war, and finally Chronotis, also known as Salyavin, someone Romana hadn't expected to see, but she shouldn't have been that surprised, especially when you took into account what he was capable of.

A notorious adventurer, Salyavin's mind control powers, matching Susan's own powers had made him a feared criminal. But it was due to the prejudices of stupid Time lords, who were jealous of Salyavin's powers and control.

Romana and the Doctor had met him in Cambridge, where he'd retired as a professor. Skagra used his sphere to learn the location of Shada, the Time lord prison Salyavin had been imprisoned in but escaped secretly. With their help, Salyavin was able to defeat Skagra, and in return the Doctor swore never to reveal Salyavin's secret.

The Time lords had been prepared to imprison the old Time lord, who was already nearing the end of his life after using all his regenerations up, but his experience and knowledge was a tremendous help. He wasn't on the frontlines, his body was failing him and he couldn't physically move very fast, but his mind was as sharp as a razor. It was the same of the Rani and the Corsair, their knowledge was formidable. Drax was an engineer, who hid his true intellect under a persona that made him out to be a fool.

Susan and Pandora were hardly slackers either, but out of the two of them Romana knew which one was probably the fountain of knowledge. Susan had been travelling the cosmos for years, Pandora was still new to it. But Pandora had modified her TARDIS to fire a wave of pure artron energy, capable of shredding the Daleks apart. The weapon had been installed on many TARDISes and it won many battles.

The Queen was someone who marginally older and more experienced, but Romana didn't know much about her, but she definitely knew Flavia. Flavia was someone Romana would never believe was a renegade at heart, she never went to the undercity of the citadel to get drunk with the shobogans, never got into fights and never pulled any pranks.

But it was good to have her here, it offered a bit more realism to the meeting. If her old friend was here then the situation must be genuine, but she knew the renegades wouldn't have called this meeting if the situation wasn't serious.

The Corsair was the first to speak, with a gallant smile, he stood up and offered her a chair and even pulled it out for her. The others held back their smirks. This was another side of the Corsair, a womanising Time lord.

" There, my lady." he said with a warm smile. " Can I get you anything ?"

Romana tried not to blush at the attention, " Some coffee please," she gave the order and the Corsair walked off to get it.

The former president looked at the others, " Why are we here ?" she asked getting down to business.

But Rani wouldn't let them start, " Wait until Casanova returns. He's the one who first heard what we're going to tell you."

The others nodded seriously, including the usually excitable Drax. The Queen placed something on the table, shutting out the sounds from the rest of the café. When the Corsair returned, they started. Flavia asked her a question that plunged them into business.

" Romana," she said leaning forward over the table, " have you noticed anything from the council ? Any rumours, anything ?"

Romana frowned, " No, but then I haven't spent much time back home. I've been on the frontline for the past few years. I can't stand the political intrigue back home," she admitted, knowing the Flavia would understand.

Flavia nodded, knowing only too well what Romana was saying, " I know, but the Corsair heard something that he told the rest of us. For the past few years, he's been acting as a…liaison, for lack of a better word, with the High council."

She was interrupted by a snort from the Time lord, who looked considerably unhappy, his arms folded, showing his famous circular tattoo.

" More like, stand there and listen to your superiors and follow our orders, at least that's how they treat me. They don't treat me like a Time lord, they treat me like we treat people like the humans in this café," he said, looking around.

Romana's frown grew deeper, " How do you mean ?"

The Corsair sighed, " I was asked to advise Rassilon on the war. When he returned to power, the council asked me, as a renegade," he sneered, " to act as an advisor. He's got hundreds, telling him what to do and what not to do. As a result, the war has been going terribly, because Rassilon isn't listening to those with common sense in their brains. He's listening instead to feeble minded fools who don't see the extent of the war. "

The Corsair fell silent, gathering his thoughts, " Rassilon is starting to become…I don't know, secretive, like he's got a plan in his head, and judging from the glint in his eyes it isn't good. On top of that, he's sent me on missions to the frontline, escorted by a member of the guard."

" How did you get away ?"

" Rassilon only sends him on missions with me, aside from that I'm left alone. He's deliberately keeping me away from the meetings." the Corsair said, " That's what worries me, on top of that we're losing this war. Whether you like it or not Romana, we're losing this war."

The words we're losing this war sent shockwaves through her mind. Romana knew the war wasn't going well for the Time lords at this stage, but she'd never expected to hear something like this, especially from someone like the Corsair.

Romana looked around the grim faces, and saw the others. Their faces said it all, they agreed with the Corsair. Romana looked curiously at them, " Why isn't the Doctor here ? If it concerns us all-"

Susan looked a little sad, as did the others. The Doctor was one of the most notorious of the renegades, but he couldn't get away.

" He's on the frontlines, unable to get away. The Daleks always fight harder whenever he's on the frontline. You know," she mimicked a Daleks's voice, " The Doc-tor is the grea- test en-emy of the Dal-eks ! He must be found and Ex-ter-min-ated !" the others nodded, even though Rani scolded her granddaughter for the impersonation.

Flavia now took it up, " When I went to Gallifrey to brief the Council for the push on the 5th front, I heard a few of the council members taking, ever since Rassilon came back they're easier to spot in their new Prydonian robes of red and gold. They spoke of a plan, the Ultimate Sanction. They spoke about it like it was the key to winning the war and defeating the Daleks once and for all."

Romana didn't see the problem, " Maybe its not so bad. If it ends the war…." she tried to be optimistic, but if the most notorious renegades of her people had brought her all this way, then the situation was serious and wasn't to be brushed aside.

" Then why is there talk about connecting the Eye of Harmony and the Untempered Schism ?" Susan asked.

" What ?"

The Rani explained, " The Eye of Harmony has been in much demand recently, that and the Untempered Schism, along with a few other devices, each connected to the vortex. The Time lords are up to something, something tremendous."

The Queen spoke up at that point, " Rassilon ordered a massive taskforce to retake the Cruciform, I was the general in command. He told me, personally, that the cruciform was necessary for winning the war. It bordered on a threat, really. The man's body language scared me."

Romana hadn't heard about this, " Did you succeed ?"

The Queen looked ill, " We did. After 4 months work. Whatever the Master," she spat the name angrily, " did to let the Daleks get their plungers on the damn thing, they weren't going to let it go. Not without a fight. I lost a good number of soldiers in the battle. By the end of it, we'd wiped the Daleks out and retaken the cruciform. But there was a problem. It blew up, taking with it a good portion of my attack force. Rassilon was furious."

Romana frowned, " Why would he want the Cruciform ?"

Pandora shook her head, " Aside from the fact it's connected to the time vortex, and acted as a source of life in the cosmos, who knows ? I heard this from a few council members as well. They believe Rassilon's plan will succeed, that the vortex will help them but I don't see how."

" How can the vortex help them ?" Romana asked.

Salyavin, who'd been silent up till now, spoke up, his voice thin and reedy but very strong, " I think they intend to do something drastic, something not seen since Omega destroyed Qqba, the star used to harness time itself."

The others stared at him, " What makes you say that ?" Flavia asked.

Salyavin shrugged, " The scale of what Rassilon's doing. Why would the Time lord responsible for helping our race to our place in the cosmos wish to meddle with the forces by which our dominion over time and space stems from ? It's wrong."

Drax frowned, then said, " The Eye of Harmony connected to the cruciform and the Untempered schism….not a good combination."

Romana frowned, " What do you mean ?"

Drax closed his eyes, Romana had the impression he was trying various ideas and discarding them, but he spoke.

" There are a few possibilities. A, Rassilon intends to use the combination to blast the Daleks into a timeline that he can create. After sealing off the walls of reality this would be difficult, but not impossible. B, he intends to launch a temporal weapon at Skaro before life evolved, wiping the Daleks out. C, and this is the one you wont like. He doesn't intend to use either the Schism or the Eye, their just pieces of an engine for something bigger and far worse. Before you ask," he added tersely, " I dunno what it is, so don't even ask."

Salyavin nodded and pointed at Drax, " Boy's got the idea, well done."

Drax didn't look like he was complimented.

Susan piped up, and Romana had to smile at this bubbly girl, " You have to tell my grandfather. He needs to know what we've learnt. Our fate, and the fate of everyone depends on it."

The others nodded.

Romana had told the Doctor, when they'd met during a briefing to decide the next best strategy for the war. The Doctor had looked haggard, like he'd aged more than his physical body, Romana recalled.

He hadn't been surprised. He'd told her that bringing Rassilon back would bring with it consequences. Not all of them good.

How right he'd been. Romana had told him about the meeting, what Drax and Salyavin had told her