Authors Note, I was planning on including Ace. I adored her character in the series, it's a pity they didn't go into greater depth, but then again, as Doctor Who night said about that time being like the Morecombe - Wise show.

I planned this chapter when I watched " Death of the Doctor." VIVA SARAH JANE SMITH !

A Charitable Earth - The Resistance.

Romana and Martha followed a kid that Romana thought must be 7 or 8, it was hard to tell because the poor boy looked like his world had been shattered. Indeed, that look was common with children. Romana's hearts clenched with pain each and every time she saw the faces of children. It made her wish she could go back in her own personal timeline, and drag the pompous self centred fools that brought the Master back, and force them to watch what their actions had brought.

She wanted to scream at the sky, This is what you've done, you bastards. Your decision to bring back the psychopathic creep has ruined the lives of innocents.

But the Time lady knew in her hearts that if the High Council was still around they wouldn't care. Why would they ? In their eyes, Earth and other planets were primitive, and below their feet. Heaven knew why the cowards who'd sat in the council chamber bothered with the Time War. They didn't do anything, leaving Romana to do all their dirty work.

Now, here in front of her, was one of the results behind their actions, not even thought out.

If Romana was saddened by the loss of innocence in the child in front of them, then Martha was horrified. These were her people, conquered and battered down without a chance by a monster of the same species as the Doctor and Romana. Martha took a long look at the Time lady, and was amazed by the heartbroken look in her eyes.

Any ill will of the Time lords faded in that instance; it wasn't the Doctor's fault, or Romana's, that the Master had conquered the Earth. But if only the Doctor had selected another destination for the TARDIS then none of this would be happening.

Martha knew those thoughts wouldn't change reality, she needed to stay sharp and focused.

The boy led them into what was left of a building, the façade read, " A Charitable Earth," and Martha gasped with recognition. A Charitable Earth was globularly renowned for being one of the greatest charity organisations around the world, it had ties and investments in various projects for growing food and finding new sources of minerals and water too boost a countries flagging economy.

It was run by a woman called Dorothy, but Martha didn't know her last name, but she'd never imagined she would meet the woman who'd created it from virtually nothing. As for Romana, she didn't understand the significance of the organisation, but she gathered from Martha's reaction that this was special. Martha saw her friends' confusion and hurriedly explained it too her.

" A Charitable Earth, it's a worldwide charity organisation. It's run by this woman, Dorothy something. She's raised billions. She helps children, mostly. But she does other things - cancer research, famine relief…everything."

Romana nodded, wondering briefly why Humans couldn't be bothered with working out there problems with violence and stopping pain around their world.

The boy took them inside where they found camp beds lined in rows, bits of litter, foodstuffs and water bottles everywhere. The boy ran ahead of the two women and tugged on a bent persons' arm. The figure, who happened to be woman, moved her head. The boy gestured towards Romana and Martha. The woman got up from her position and Martha saw that she'd been tending a child on a bed.

Martha was about to rush off, but Romana stopped her. " Not yet, I want to know more about this woman."

The woman came over to them, walked into the light. Martha saw a woman in her forties, or somewhere in that age range. She had long brown hair done up in a messy ponytail. Her eyes, like Sarah Jane's, like Peri's showed that this woman had seen and done so much in a long time.

Romana looked at her, there was something about her…something out of time…..that was when it struck her. She'd travelled in time !

But Martha recognised her after a minute, her name was Dorothy McShane.

The woman, Dorothy, stepped forward, " Martha Jones," she said in a London accent to Martha before turning her attention over to Romana, " Romana."

When neither women spoke Dorothy asked again, " You are Martha Jones and Romana, aren't you ? I'd hate to have to have one of the Master's agents in here. Lord knows the Master's caused enough murder as it is." Dorothy's hand went to something in a handbag which was slung over her shoulder.

Martha nodded, " Don't worry, we're with the Doctor." Martha had no idea what the woman had in her bag, and truly didn't want to find out without making it clear they weren't a threat.

As she'd hoped, at the mention of the Doctor's name was enough to make Dorothy withdraw her hand from her bag. Suddenly the woman became more welcoming, she took them inside, past the numerous beds with children and people who were being tended too.

Dorothy would sometimes stop and talk to some of these people, reassuring them and giving instructions for food and water.

Finally she took them into a room which was clearly hers. It was quite Spartan, but there was a bed in a corner, another room where Martha could see chemical apparatuses arranged neatly.

" Sit down, " Dorothy said, gesturing to some chairs. Martha and Romana did as they were told. Once they were comfortable enough, Romana started questioning Dorothy. They were both tired and they needed answers, hopefully this woman would accommodate them both.

" You've travelling in the TARDIS, haven't you ?" Romana asked.

Dorothy looked at Romana, and Martha got the impression very little could surprise this woman. But clearly Romana's had thrown her off balance.

" How do you know that ?"

Romana took a deep breath, " I'm a Time lord. Time is my business."

Dorothy nodded, " You're right, I did travel with the Doctor in the TARDIS, back when he was a short geezer with an umbrella."

Romana nodded, she had this woman pinned down. " The seventh Doctor. You travelled with him." Romana smirked and added, " Ace."

Dorothy chuckled, " I guess he told you about that." It wasn't a question.

Romana shrugged, a smirk on her face, " Believe me Ace, I know lots of things."

Martha was getting confused again, " I'm sorry, but Ace ?"

" Ace" smirked, " It's a kind of nickname I made for myself." the woman looked down at her hands, " I hated my life. I grew up in Perivale, the shit hole of the universe. I found consolation in chemistry." Then she got up, " I had a friend, Manisha. She was a great mate, we did everything together. But she had problems, a bunch of racist thugs were harassing the family. One night her family were bombed, a petrol bomb through her letterbox."

" Oh my god !" Martha clamped a hand over her mouth in horror.

Romana shook her head and closed her eyes, Humans. Only this time she was sickened by the pigheadedness of the Human race, the lack of brain power of bigotry. It reminded her of the xenophobia of the Time lords. This was too close to home for her.

Ace nodded, rage started to burn in her eyes, " I went after 'em, then I bombed them with Nitro Nine."

" Nitro nine ?"

Ace was about to explain but Romana interjected, " Nitro nine, it's a variant of nitro-glycerine. Nitro nine a, much more powerful."

Ace smirked at Romana, " You have done your homework. But you need to answer some questions from me. I thought you Time lords were supposed to stop things like this from happening. Why is the Master doing this ?"

Any cheerfulness from Romana faded at the reminder, " The Master can get away with it because there is a grand total of three Time lords left, including the Master. The rest are gone, dead. Gallifrey is gone. Skaro is gone."

" Skaro ?" Ace asked, " The home planet of the Daleks ?"

" Hold on, you know the Daleks ?" Martha asked.

" Know them ? I blew 'em up," Ace replied grinning.

Ace turned back to Romana, " So what happened ?"

For the next half hour, Romana told Ace what had happened to her race, the Time war, how it began, how the Daleks kept adapting to each change in history, how they'd overrun the Time lords and their most mightiest symbols.

Romana told Ace about how the Council had brought the Master back, how the selfish bastard ran off and hid at the end of the universe.

By the time Romana had finished, Ace was silent. Then she got up and paced up and down. Now she understood the problem and the fact they would get no outside help, Ace was starting to make plans.

" The Archangel network, you said it was a telepathic field, that it forced the people to vote for the Master ?" Ace asked Romana.

Romana nodded, wondering where Ace was heading with this. Ace continued, " I think I have an answer. I've spoken to some of the kids I work with, that and using some alien technology I scavenged from the Torchwood institute."

" Torchwood ?" Romana and Martha asked together. Whilst they'd been travelling they'd come across Jack's team in the Himalayas. They'd given the two women the basics of its history, how the Doctor had pissed off Queen Victoria, who'd banished him and his companion, who happened to be Rose Tyler.

Romana had actually found them incredibly nice people, even though she'd been dismayed to hear about the acquisitive nature of Torchwood London.

Ace nodded, " I take it you've heard of them. Anyways, I found out about them when I left the Professor, the Doctor, " she added when she saw the confusion on Martha's face, " I broke in, and using a pocket scanner I'd picked up from the future I was able to identify the bits and pieces. Imagine my shock when I hacked into their records and found out that the Doctor had pissed off Queen Vic."

" I don't want to imagine it Ace, " Romana said wryly.

Martha and Ace laughed at the Time lady.

Romana shrugged, " So, you broke inside Torchwood, hacked into their computers and then stole their stolen technology and made this organisation ?"

" Not quite," Ace said, " I created this organisation and its resources, not just to combat famine and homelessness. That was only the basic part."

Suddenly Romana understood, " You mean you wanted to emulate the Doctor and Torchwood ?"

Ace nodded, " Torchwood, whilst it had a nasty belief that all aliens were aggressors, did do some good work. They've stopped dozens of invasions, alien plagues that UNIT and the Doctor didn't even know about. I wanted to do something similar. That's what I've been doing all over the world, helping people in trouble and also investigating the odd and the unexplained."

" So you're like a detective ?" Martha asked smiling.

" Yes," Ace replied. " Not only am I, or was in this case, a business woman, I'm also an ex TARDIS traveller and an alien and supernatural investigator."

Romana broke in, " How much do you know about the Archangel network ?"

" I know enough about it. Come over here." she led the two women over to where a laptop was working. Martha gazed at the screen.

" How did you get that working ? Laptops don't work anymore."

The Master had shut down the internet, the TV stations, even radios. That way the population wouldn't hear about anything except from rumours and hearsay. Knowledge was power, and the Master wanted to break them of that.

Ace looked back at Martha, " I adjusted it with alien tech, when I did that I found that it was more powerful. I used it to study the archangel network and also anything else that was weird. I found it was broadcasting a telepathic signal. At first I thought it was a side effect of the technology used by the network."

" But then you realised it wasn't ?" Romana asked.

Ace nodded grimly, " I went on a trip to Britain, once there I found out about Harry Saxon. Everyone seemed….hooked on the guy. I checked him out discreetly, using old connections."

" You mean like Sarah Jane Smith ?" Martha asked.

Ace looked at her strangely, " Oh, you've met her ? Yeah, I know her. I keep in touch with her. She gave me access to her files when she heard who I was and how I knew things."

" Does the Master keep an eye on the Doctor's former companions ?" Romana asked Ace. If this girl had access to the any form of information, then they could be at a turning point in their fight against the Master.

Ace shook her head, " I dunno, the Master's files are encrypted. Not even all the computer geniuses put together would be able to crack even the first few digits."

Romana stepped forward, " I'm a Time lord, so is the Master. Let me try."

Ace was about to argue, then decided against it.

Romana worked for about 34 minutes before she gave up, " Argh !" she cursed. " I can't get in, I was hoping the Master would be using a Time lord computer matrix to seal his files. Either he doesn't have any or he doesn't use a computer this laptop can hack into."

Ace glowered at the computer, almost as if it was the laptops fault.

" Okay, that means we have no intelligence except for the workers the stateleader takes from here to work in the shipyards and the state leader's home, like that's gonna help."

Martha couldn't believe this woman, " Excuse me, you're talking about kids in your care."

Ace turned to her, " Keep your hair on. The archangel network doesn't work on kids. I went on a business trip to Britain before the Toclafane invasion. Whilst I was there I found virtually everyone hooked on Harry Saxon. Ok, some politicians have that effect, but not all of them to that extent. The only ones that didn't seemed to be kids."

Romana turned to face Ace properly, " Of course, voters are adults and children don't count because they aren't eligible. The Master was targeting those with well developed minds.


When the two girls had gotten assurance from Ace that they would be escorted safely out of the state and given shelter and food and water for the night, they were put up for the next 2 days so then they could continue spreading the word. Romana knew Ace would sit in and help, Ace was highly respected and people around here probably knew that she could be trusted.

Romana only hoped that the Master didn't catch wind of this, if he did then Ace was in trouble. The Time lady sensed Martha was still awake, and fretting.

" Alright Martha, what is it ? Why wont you sleep ?"

" Well developed minds, you said." Martha whispered.

Romana sighed as she understood, " Martha, the Master needed a minority of the population of Earth to vote for him. Children couldn't vote for him, so he left them alone. The telepathic field generated by Archangel has been changed so then everyone in the world will be affected. Don't worry Martha, the paln will work."

Martha sighed in relief. So did Romana when the human girl finally fell asleep.