Return to Britain.

Martha and Romana got out of the boat that had brought them to the shoreline, and they ran towards the man holding the lantern, ignoring as best they could the freezing water that slowed them down as they both raced for the beach where the man was standing, swinging the lantern.

" What's your name, then ?" Martha asked when they got close. He was taller than Martha, and was unshaven, which wasn't a big surprise. The Master's conquest of the Earth had forced the surviving Humans to forgo their own hygiene. After a while, you got used to the stench.

The man replied, " Tom Milligan. No need to ask who you two are, the famous Martha Jones and Romana, sorry I didn't catch-" he asked looking at the silent figure of Romana, clearly trying to get her last name, thinking she was a Human.

" I don't have a second name," Romana said, looking down, " not anymore." Romana closed her eyes, memories of her family and home planet filling her brain like no ones business.

Tom nodded in what he thought was understanding, " You mean the Master murdered your family, like mine and thousands of others ?"

Romana was furious by his insular assumption, and she glared at him, " No, my family died a long time ago. The Master," she spat the name, " had nothing to do with it." Romana looked murderous.

Tom was taken aback, and he held up his hands, " Ok, ok, sorry I asked."

Mollified, Romana apologised.

Tom changed the subject when it looked like Romana wouldn't lose her temper, " How long has it been since you were last in Britain ?" he asked Martha, changing the subject.

" 364 days. It's been a long year." Martha said, looking wry at how long it had been as if she still couldn't believe it had been that long. Romana knew how she felt, as a Time lady she was aware of the passing of time, but this year had felt more like a thousand years of constant running, constant danger, and constant fear of being captured and tortured by the Master. Romana, on the other hand, knew that if the evil Time lord got his grubby hands on her, her fate would be worse than Martha's. Becoming a brood mare wasn't what she'd imagined when she'd met the Doctor again after the war, not unless it was with the Doctor that is.

As they walked away from the beach, Tom had to ask a question which sounded like it was on the lips of everyone, " So what's the plan ?"

Still walking, Martha replied, " This professor Docherty. We need to see her. Can you take us there ?"

Tom nodded, " She works in a repair shed, nuclear plant 7. I can get you inside. What's this all for ? What's so important about her ?"

Romana replied to that one, feeling a bit ashamed for her reaction earlier, " Sorry. The more you know, the more you're at risk. We're so close now, and if anything goes wrong," she sighed, her eyes older than they had been earlier, Tom was astonished by the change. " If anything goes wrong, the Master will be in charge for a long, long time."

Tom nodded, disturbed by the concept. " There's a lot of people depending on you two. You're a bit of a legend, the pair of you." He told them, changing the subject again.

Both Romana and Martha had heard about the legends that surrounded them, and they terrified them both because with so many people banking on their successes if anything went wrong all hope would fade.

" What does the legend say ?" Martha asked neutrally, wanting to get the interpretation from the man now helping them see Docherty.

Tom seemed surprised they didn't know, but carried on regardless, " That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America, that you were the only people to get out of Japan alive." Milligan didn't notice them wince at the memories that conjured. The horrors of Japan haunted them both, especially Romana, who carried the pain of the Time war on her shoulders.

" Martha Jones and Romana, they say, their gonna save the world." Milligan became despondent, " A bit late for that."

Both women didn't like the sound of that, they'd been travelling around the world for so long that they hadn't thought what was happening in the country where it had all started, but they'd hoped the people here would be hopeful for it all to change, to never happen. If Tom was anything to go by, then it all seemed like a waste of time.

They walked up to the jeep waiting for them. " How come you can drive ? Don't you get stopped ?" Martha asked.

In countries like America and Australia, size was a great benefit because the Toclafane patrols could only cover so much, and as a result many people still owned cars, vans and lorries, using them to ferry people to places where Humans can still be free, if they could call it that. Supplies were also helped by the cars in those two counties, and since those two countries meant covering lots of ground, the Toclafane left them alone, besides the Master saw no problem in allowing people to smuggle decent food and water into the work camps. People with vehicles took advantage of that. But in smaller countries, it was much harder because there was less ground, and since the remote areas had been searched and patrolled, with work camps set up there wasn't that many places to hide from the dive-bombing spheres.

Milligan supplied the answer, " Medical staff. Used to be in paediatrics back in the old days." Milligan added, sounding reminiscent, almost as if speaking about another previous life he'd had centuries ago, and wished his life was just as ordinary, and not the unrelenting nightmare it was now.

" But that gives me a license to travel so I can help out in the labour camps."

Romana approved of that. She'd been expecting to walk across country, but this was an unexpected turn of luck, she was starting to warm to this man.

Martha felt the same, but for different reasons, " Great. I'm travelling with a doctor." she said as they opened the doors and got in. As they settled down in their seats, waiting for Milligan to start the jeep, he said,

" Story goes that you two are the only people who can kill him. That you two and only you two can kill the Master stone dead."

Neither girls liked that observation. Martha disliked the idea of taking a life, she was a doctor, a medical practitioner, a healer. She was supposed to save lives, not take them. Romana, on the other hand, was different. The past year, she'd been aware of the Master's consciousness, and it made her jumpy. But she liked the knowledge she hadn't been the only child of Gallifrey too escape the carnage of the Final Days of the Time War. The prospect, the very idea of taking another Time lord's life at this point was repugnant, even if the Master did deserve it.

Keeping her voice level was an achievement for Martha as she turned to face Milligan, not confirming the rumour either way, " Let's just drive."


The Master's statue towered over them as they walked across to where the shipyard was. Martha looked up at it, disdain in her voice, " All over the earth, those things. He's even carved himself into Mount Rushmore." she added, remembering vividly seeing the Master's many faces, unable to get out her mind that demonic face of his, the madness in the second bearded face, or the wide eyed mania of the deformed Master.

Tom lead them both towards a cliff, overlooking one of the shipyards. " Best to keep down. Here we go." he whispered as they peered over the edge. As they'd travelled around the world they'd witnessed the steady production of the war rockets. Now, the number was nearly completed, 200.000 ships, set to burn across the universe. Martha and Romana had gone out their way to avoid the shipyards, preferring to spend their time with the slave labour that built them.

Tom summarised for them, even though they both knew it, " The entire South coast of England converted into shipyards." he whispered, his eyes raking the immaculately laid out rockets, the sun shining on the red and white paint on their hulls. " They bring in slave labour every morning, breaking up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal. Building the fleet out of scrap."

Romana took a pair of binoculars out from her backpack, the lenses specially tinted for a task like this. She used them to view the construction. From an environmentalist point of view, it was a radical way of reusing valuable metals, besides mining would take too long, and the Master wasn't renowned for his patience. The Time lady listened to Martha's conversation with Tom, " You should see Russia." the young woman's voice was wry and dark as she recalled the massive fleet yard. " That's shipyard number one. All the way from the Black sea to the Bering Strait, there's 100.000 rockets getting ready for war."

" War ? With who ?" Milligan asked, making the girls realise that he hadn't bothered to ask why the Master had enslaved the whole Human race, forcing them to build these warships, it obviously never occurred to him that there was more beyond the atmosphere than the solar system.

Martha was exasperated, " The rest of the universe." she replied like it was obvious. For Romana and Martha, and for the other companions of the Doctor, it was indeed obvious.

Martha carried on, realising this wasn't the time to sugarcoat the truth, " I've been out there, Tom, in space, before all this happened, and there's 1,000 different civilisations all around us with no idea of what's happening here."

Romana snorted, " There's more than that out beyond that, Martha."

Tom looked to towards the woman, " You know about this ? This isn't some kind of joke ?"

" Why do you think the Master's got everyone building these rockets, for fun ?" Romana asked, not taking her eyes off the rockets.

Martha carried on, her voice a whisper, " The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all."

That wasn't an exaggeration, with the Master's knowledge of warfare and weapons, nothing could stop him from destroying vast areas of space where any of his potential enemies and threats to his power could cause him trouble in the future.

Tom sounded disbelieving, " You've both been in space ?"

Martha retorted, " Problem with that ?"

Tom replied quickly, sounding more like a guy trying to pacify a lunatic, " No ! No, just...wow. Anything else I should know ?"

" I've met Shakespeare."

Romana turned with a smirk, " I've met Leonardo Davinci, nice man."

Before the astonished Tom Milligan could respond the familiar whirl of the Toclafane caught them by surprise. Quickly, the two girls went into the perception mode, concentrating on remaining hidden from the spheres. Fortunately, Milligan himself provided the cover, he scrambled back to his feet as they came closer.

Tom expected to be blasted to smithereens, and he wondered why the Toclafane hadn't noticed the girls. Luckily, the spheres weren't in a murderous mood, but that could change soon. It all depended on the way he approached them.

One of them spoke, " Identify, little man."

" I've got a licence." Tom cried desperately, hoping he wasn't going to die, but banking on it at the same time. He held the licence in question up for the spheres to see, " Thomas Milligan, peripatetic medical squad. I'm allowed to travel. I was just checking for..."

The sphere said in its high pitched voice, " Soon the rockets will fly !"

The second sphere added, " And everyone will need medicine ! You'll be so busy !" Laughing, both spheres flew over them, and towards the shipyard on their patrol.

Tom looked towards the two girls, who were both coming out of their statue postures.

" But...they didn't see you."

Both girls took out the pieces of string where the perception filters were. " How do you think we travelled the world ?" Martha asked.

As they walked back towards the jeep, Martha explained, Romana wasn't going to waste her breath, her mind was on other things.

" The Master set up Archangel, that mobile phone network, 15 satellites around the planet. But really it's transmitting this low level psychic field."

Romana added helpfully, " Which is how he managed to hypnotise everyone into believing he was Harold Saxon. That's why everyone voted for him without thinking much about it."

Tom looked like he was remembering a dim memory, "Saxon ! Feels like years ago."

Martha carried on with the explanation, seeing how her friend was in too much thought to answer at the moment, " But the key's tuned in the same frequency. Makes us sort of, not invisible, just unnoticeable."

Romana rolled her eyes at the crude explanation.

Tom pointed out the obvious, " Well, I can see you."

" Only cause we wanted you to notice us." Romana added in again.


Nuclear Plant seven, like all other plants, were reserved for technical use. The Master had set scientists up for building elaborate new instruments of mass destruction for his war fleet, but in reality they were for low level maintenance. The Toclafane did patrol nearby, but they weren't as intense as they were with the shipyards.

Taking out a pair of heavy duty wire cutters from his jeep, Milligan cut a hole in the fence, large enough for them to climb through. Running towards a door, they managed to get inside without any sphere noticing them.

They found Docherty, a middle-aged and intelligent woman hunched over a television set, trying to repair it. It didn't look like she was having much luck, if the cursing and hitting the piece of junk was anything to go by.

" Professor Docherty ?" Tom asked.

" Busy." the reply was both brisk and distracted.

" They sent word ahead. I'm Tom Milligan. This is Martha Jones and Romana." Tom said, adding the last part as if the two girls were both celebrities.

Docherty didn't care, but then again that was the mission the girls knew about. They knew that the professor was an agent for the Master, but not a willing one.

" They can be the Queens of England and Sheba for all I care, I'm still busy." Docherty said, still fiddling around with the TV set.

Martha pointed towards the set, " Televisions don't work anymore."

Docherty gave up, slouching over the desk she was working at, " Oh, God, I miss Countdown." she said with the air of a woman who was on the verge of giving up, Romana got the impression she was just putting them off the fact she was trying to gather information for the Master.

Docherty carried on, unaware of the Time Ladies' thoughts, " Never been the same since Des took over. Both Deses." Docherty looked curious for a moment, thinking about what she'd just said.

" What's the plural for Des ? Desii ? Deseen ?"

Romana caught the look her compatriots shared; they clearly thought the professor was a lunatic.

Then Docherty changed her image for something a bit more logical, more alert. She went back to fiddling with the set, trying to get it working, and trying to put them off track.

" But we've been told there's gonna be a transmission. From the man himself."

She hit the set, at around the same time Romana subtly pointed her sonic screwdriver at the set, she wanted to hear what the Master was going to say this time.

The screen came alive, " There !" Docherty exclaimed, happy with her work.

The picture was blurry, but the Master's arrogant face, and equally arrogant voice came through over the TV loud and clear.

" My people ! Salutations ! On this, the eve of war. Lovely woman," the Master added as an afterthought, cementing the knowledge in Romana's mind he was just like the Doctor in this new incarnation of his, and chilling her with it as well. The Master carried on with his speech, " But I know there's all sorts of whispers down there, stories of children walking the Earth, giving you hope."

Romana and Martha felt indignation about the dismissive way the Master said that about them, but they both caught the way he said hope. The message was clear; you've got nothing, I'm in charge. No one's gonna save your worthless hides.

The Master carried on, moving away from the camera, and bringing attention to the woman standing close behind him. Both girls watching felt rage grip them; Rose was still being well fed, well sheltered whilst hero own species beneath her feet were starving, struggling to survive the cold and the threat of the Toclafane.

The camera focused on the withered form of the Doctor, who looked old and wrinkled in his suit, but there was still a fire in the old man, a spirit that would never vanish. Romana felt her hearts seize on this image, she felt lifted to see he was still kicking.

" But I ask you, how much hope has this man got ?" The Master asked, walking to stand behind the Doctor, " Say hello, Gandalf !" The Master said to the Doctor, but all he did was look up defiantly into the screen. Martha was furious, and one look into Romana's face told her her friend was just as angry about the way the Doctor was being mocked like she was.

The Master, unaware and uncaring of how the two watchers were feeling, ploughed on with his monologue, " Except he's not that old, but he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you, stunted little apes." The Master spat contemptuously into the camera.

" What if it showed ?" Turning to the still seated Doctor, he asked, " What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate ?" The Master asked, holding something Romana was sure was the laser screwdriver. Martha gulped in fear, knowing she wasn't going to like this; in truth, she knew little about regeneration, but from what she gathered it wasn't an easy or smooth process. One look into the horrified face Romana had at the moment proved that.

Romana couldn't believe the Master would and could do something like that, but then she realised he'd been set up by the Doctor. Clearly the other Time lord had done something to annoy the Master and make him mad enough to do something like this, but Romana was sure that suspending the Doctor's regenerative ability was part of the plan. She was so caught up with her own hypothesis that she needed to tune back into the scene on the camera.

"...Doctor, what if we could see them ?"

Flicking the laser screwdriver, the Master pointed it, and at once the Doctor screamed in pain. As he screamed, twisting in the impact of the genetic changes on his body, the Master said tauntingly, " Older and older and older. Down you go, Doctor ! Down, down. Down the years.."

Romana had to control herself from screaming in rage and horror about the pain the man she loved more than life itself being tortured like this, so she settled for squeezing her fists instead, the nails rupturing her skin in the process, but she didn't care. Martha couldn't believe how anyone that claimed to love the Doctor like Rose did would just stand back and watch, showing that she didn't care about the Doctor, that what she said was just deluded words.

By this time, the Doctor had fallen out of his chair, and he seemed to be...shrinking...smaller and smaller...

Finally the Master stopped, and walked towards the pile that was the Doctor's clothes. " Doctor ?" The Master asked.

Tears began to sting Romana's eyes. Please, no not him too... ?

Finally, after an agonising age that seemed like decades, a small domed head peaked out of the shirt on the ground, the face a warped and aged version of the Tenth Doctor.

Martha turned to face Romana, who was starting at the screen with relief, delight and astonishment. Their eyes met, and Martha gestured, her body language acted as if they were speaking, Can that happen ?

Romana knew that regeneration was dangerous, but if a Time lord condemned himself to live in anyone body, then they would be forced to regenerate. Considering the number of centuries the Doctor could live now the original limitations of regeneration had been lifted with the destruction of Gallifrey, if the Doctor condemned himself to live in just one body to commit suicide, then this could happen. Until now it had only been theoretical about what could happen in such an instance.

In reply, Romana shrugged. On the screen, the Master himself was stunned, adding credence to Romana's thought.

He spoke into the camera, his voice contemptuous, " Received and understood, Miss Jones, Lady Romana ?"

As soon as the camera and TV turned themselves off from the other end, breaking their connection, Tom turned his head towards Martha.

" I'm sorry."

Romana's heartfelt voice wasn't what Tom expected to hear, " The Doctor's still alive."