Return trip to Paris.

The Doctor and Romana, and the Jones family and Jack, not to mention the people whom the Master had enslaved and imprisoned on the Valiant, were more than delighted to arrive at one of the many UNIT bases large enough to sustain a ship the size of the Valiant. For those who'd been locked inside the aircraft walking on the ground again, breathing the fresh air without the tang of death was a joy. Romana and Martha had spent an entire year walking across the world, and they'd become accustomed to smelling death in the air. The Valiant crew, freed from the oppressiveness of the Master's control, had brought the carrier down to Earth, where UNIT would be waiting. The Doctor and the Captain of the Valiant had given reports on what had happened, the knowledge that the Master had taken control of the Valiant for a year that was now erased had understandably shaken the UNIT commanders, but they would get the full story when they went over the Valiant and checked over the flight recorders.

Everyone was going to be thoroughly debriefed, including the Doctor and Romana. UNIT knew the Doctor would love nothing more than to leave Earth, but with the TARDIS in ruins the whole thing was academic. Romana and the Doctor, with the dubious cooperation of UNIT, moved the TARDIS to a hanger where the time machine could be repaired by the two Time Lords. The Doctor and Romana were concerned about UNIT's attitude; Romana had heard stories of UNIT from the Doctor, how they'd taken him in and given him a job when he'd been exiled by the Time Lords, but their attitude worried her because they watched them both with suspicion, almost as if they expected the Time Lords to attack them.

Romana guessed that the Master's actions where to blame for this, but she wasn't so sure. It had been years since the Doctor had worked with UNIT, and the organisation had had plenty of time to change in their handling of alien and earthbound threats, without the Doctor's help. It may've been that UNIT felt they no longer needed the wandering time traveller.

The Doctor, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. Like Romana he was sure that some of UNIT's suspicion stemmed from the report of the Master's apparent conquest of the Earth, but the Doctor didn't think it was entirely the case. UNIT had come a very long way since the 70s, they'd adapted from experience, changing their tactics. Meeting them in his 7th incarnation had shown that during the mess with the witch queen Morgaine had convinced the Doctor that UNIT were getting better and better at dealing with alien threats. The Master may have been partially the reason for the mistrust, but the Doctor doubted it. He only hoped they didn't do anything rash.

The human prisoners on the Valiant were treated for any injuries the Master and Rose inflicted on them, they were given fresh clothes, water and food. Jack had been extra delighted at the prospect of a shower, but he was going to be given a long debriefing like the others. Since he was the Head of Torchwood it was expected that his debriefing would be as long as the Doctors and Romana's. The Time Agent had helped the two Time Lords in repairing the TARDIS, but the debriefings came quickly.

Jack was examining the console, looking over the controls and used a micro laserson probe in removing a piece of the Paradox machine links to the console before throwing it at a growing pile on the floor. Romana, dressed in protective gear, was using an oxyacetylene torch to remove the pieces of the field cage from the console. The Doctor was under the grating, disabling the paradox field cabling from the Heart of the TARDIS. Jack was delighted the old timeship was accepting of him now, but he wished that acceptance had come differently. Jack guessed the TARDIS was in too much discomfort that he barely made any difference.

The Doctor poked his head above the grating and said to Jack, " I think that's it. I've removed the field cables from the Heart sheath, try it now."

Jack's hands moved across the console like a pianist working on a concerto. There was a hum of rising power, and the console started to smoke. The Doctor shook his head, " Shut it down Jack, before there's an overload."

Romana had taken off her welding mask when she realised what the Doctor was doing. " Still no luck."

The Doctor shook his head, " No, it's like pulling weeds. Every time I remove one piece, two more seem to take it's place."

Romana looked at her work, starting to think that the Doctor would need to change console rooms. All TARDISes had a number of console rooms in their spacious interiors, it wouldn't take much effort for the Doctor to switch the temporal core to one of them and allow the TARDIS to heal itself. Looking at her work she saw that her efforts were more effective that the Doctor's, but she needed to remove the cables from the Heart to allow the TARDIS to properly repair herself.

The Master had made a serious mess; it was bad enough he'd brought the Toclafane back, the dimensional tear caused the most damage. The Master had needed to separate the two systems and only allow power into them both. Romana was dealing with the Toclafane side of the remains of the Paradox machine while the Doctor dealt with the part that had brought Rose through, and both Time lords agreed that even though the Master had made a mess of the ship he'd known what he was doing.

The Doctor looked sadly at the TARDIS. He knew that the TARDIS would need time to recuperate and she couldn't do that if they used this console room. He wasn't going to give up though. There was no way he was going to use a TARDIS with paradox machine technology added on.

Martha stepped inside the TARDIS and took in the sight of the room. The cage had been partially removed allowing easier access to the console, but there were still pieces of it here and there. Jack was at the console, looking like a garage worker except he wasn't wearing overalls. The Doctor and Romana were looking tired and not very happy with the progress they'd made. It was a testament to how little Martha understood the workings of the TARDIS that she didn't understand what was happening. Jack was human himself, yet he knew more about the TARDIS than Martha herself did. Envy sank into Martha's stomach, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it.

Romana noticed her first, " Hi Martha, what is it?"

" UNIT told me to tell you that they want you for their debriefings."

The Doctor groaned, " This isn't the best of times." He gestured around the console room. " The TARDIS is in pieces, at least I'm not working in here alone."

Seeing the Doctor about to go into one of those childish little fits of not having his way, Romana asked her friend, " When do they want us?"

Martha looked reasonably apologetic, " Now."

Romana, Jack and the Doctor looked down at themselves, seeing how disheveled they were.

The Doctor, now in a new suit, Jack, now in new clothes, and Romana, now wearing a new dress, left the TARDIS and went towards the administrative wing of the UNIT base. A young soldier met them at the reception and took them around the base, making the two Time Lords more uncomfortable with the stares they were receiving. The three time travellers had spent most of their time in the TARDIS and trying to repair her just to get away from the stares, but when they had no choice but to leave the time machine they felt uncomfortable. Romana was always escorted by either Jack or the Doctor, this made Romana both irritated but thankful that her male friends cared. It wasn't just them, the Jones family also helped. Tish, Clive and Francine were still...wary of the Doctor and Romana as they were both other members of the same species as the Master. Martha, who knew the two Time Lords still one Earth better than her family, told her family stories of her time travelling. Even though they'd spent a whole year with the Doctor, the Jones family had suffered much at the hands of the Master. They were trying to put that behind them, but it wasn't uncommon for the family to have nightmares of their experiences as prisoners.

The three were led into a room, where - " Brigadier!" The Doctor shouted as he rushed towards a man in his sixties wearing a distinguised suit. The Doctor embraced his old friend, uncaring about what they thought. The Brigadier chuckled as he returned the embrace. Romana smiled at the sight of the skinny Doctor hugging the old man. Romana had heard stories of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, and she was delighted he wasn't anything like the present day soldiers.

" Doctor, it's good to see you again. I like the new regeneration, just like Sarah Jane said. Young, but still the same." The Brigadier said warmly.

The Doctor broke the embrace looking at his old friend with a smile, " You've met Sarah?"

" Of course," Alistair replied, ignoring the impatience coming from the other members of UNIT. " Sarah Jane told me of your encounter with the Krillitanes a year ago." The Old man looked solemn and sad for a moment as he added, " I was also told that you were the last of the Time lords."

The Brigadier had been around for a long time, he'd seen the various alien races from beyond the stars and even those beneath the ground. Out of all of them the Time Lords were the most mysterious and enigmatic, it had taken Alistair years to glean enough information out of the Doctor just to know the basics of the Time Lords. It was strange, even when exiled to Earth, the Doctor was reluctant to give information about his race to UNIT. Then again the Time Lords themselves were far from conventional, not like the Cybermen or the Silurians. Those two races the Brigadier understood; the Cybermen wanted to survive by converting Human beings into emotionless creatures like themselves. The Silurians, still clinging to outdated beliefs about Humans, wanted the planet back for themselves.

The Time Lords...

Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart had gathered enough information about the mysterious and powerful race over the years. He knew that the Time Lords had to be an old race, how else could they have gained power over time and space if they hadn't worked for it? They had the power to change their appearances due to injury or illness; he was aware too that the Doctor was now in his 10th incarnation, thanks to Sarah Jane Smith. They were also a deeply civilised race; the Doctor had argued hundreds of times about the approach of UNIT barging in guns blazing. The exception to that was the Master, a truly nasty piece of work. Alistair had been brought in because he was an expert on Time Lords, well the closest UNIT had to an expert because the Time Lords had never sat down with any member and told them about themselves. The Doctor had told Sarah he was the last of his race, but it seemed he'd been premature; the Master had survived. That made sense, the Master had the survival instinct of a cockroach. Then there was the beautiful woman with the Doctor. He didn't know how old she was, but he could see that her eyes held the same youth as the three Doctor's he'd worked with. Even this Doctor had a spark of youth in his eyes, but it was slighter than it had been. The stress of being on his own had clearly taken its toll on the usually energetic Time Lord, the Brigadier was sad to see.

The most unusual thing about the Time Lords was their time machines, their TARDISes. Bigger on the inside, and capable of travelling throughout time and space. That was what worried the Brigadier, the Doctor's TARDIS was still on Earth, and UNIT wanted to know if it was a threat. Like the Doctor, Romana, Jack and the Jones family, the Brigadier had noted the rather...unsettling way UNIT was regarding the Doctor and Romana. They were aware of course of the alternate timeline the Master had created and conquered the Earth, but it was as if they expected the Time lords to attack them and carry on with the Master's work. The Brigadier had watched the Master, or Harold Saxon as he called himself in this latest disguise for power, threaten the people he'd locked up on the Valiant, and couldn't help but see the UNIT commanders point. He didn't like it but he understood it.

" Please be seated," Alistair said gesturing towards the three seats infront of the table where the other commanders sat. The Brigadier was the only one not in uniform, but everyone could see the sense of military in every step he took, the way he spoke even when he was relaxed.

The Brigadier, being the most senior, started off with introductions, " This debriefing of the ' Valiant Incident' is now in session. Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart presiding. To my left," he pointed towards a middle aged woman with a strict expression and what looked like a permanent frown as she looked down her beaky nose around the room, " Major Alice O'Neil of the American Branch. To my right, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Holmes of the British branch." The last man was a younger man, with brown hair and grey eyes which were glacial and only demanded professional attention to detail. He'd have been attractive, Romana thought, if his eyes weren't as cold as ice. The debriefing started. The UNIT commanders knew only the scant details of the virtual extinction of the Time Lord race, but they didn't know the full story. Neither the Doctor or Romana particularly wanted to revisit those unpleasant memories, indeed if there was only one of them in the room it would've taken decades just to scratch the surface of the details of the Time War, but since both Romana and the Doctor had each other it was easier.

Holmes asked the first question, " Tell us how this..Time War," he said the last two words as if the whole concept was alien to him, which it was, " started in the first place Doctor."

The Doctor didn't like to think of the reasons behind the war, but he felt Romana's hand on his lap, squeezing it reassuringly, and he also had Jack's hand on his shoulder to let him know that he was there as well. Even though Jack's condition was repulsive, the two Time Lords had grown attached to him.

The Doctor took a deep breath, " It began when I was in the early days of my 4th incarnation, I was travelling with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, who was a member of UNIT at that point. We were separate from the TARDIS at the time, and we were in the future, using TRANSMAT technology." The Doctor didn't tell them about the solar flares or the Wirrn. The less said about the Sontaran on Earth conducting experiments the better. O'Neil frowned, " TRANSMAT?" She asked.

Holmes answered for her, " TRANSMAT, matter transmission. UNIT had met races with the power to beam people and objects from one point in space to another. We've experimented with it ourselves in labs all over the Earth."

" You shouldn't, not unless you know what you're doing." Romana cut in at that point. Races tinkering with aliens artefacts was a bad idea if you didn't know what you were doing.

" You are?" O'Neil asked.

" Lady Romanadvoratrelundar, ex president of the High Council of the Time Lords, but you may call me Romana." Romana replied.

" What's the ex president doing here?" Holmes asked curiously.

Romana had to admit they had a point. " I was deposed by the Council," she admitted, not wanting to tell them about Rassilon and his lunatic scheme until much later. " I later escaped and fled to a planet out of time. The Doctor, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones saved me. At the time I'd thought I was the last of the Time Lords."

The questioning got back to the Doctor. He explained the Time Lords had sent him and his companions to prevent the Daleks creation as their latest temporal projections at the time had shown they would wipe out all life and become the dominant species. The Doctor's mission was three fold; 1. The Daleks creation would be averted, wiping them out. The Doctor pointed out that even the Time Lords were becoming afraid of the Daleks and their potential, highlighting that the Daleks had developed nascent time travel ability, reminding the Brigadier and the other commanders of the Styles incident when the Daleks tried to maintain their iron grip on Earth's 22nd Century conquest.

The Doctor dropped in a theory that the Time Lords had seen how good the Daleks were getting in their studies of time travel and their potential for damaging the timeline irreparably. He also told them about the time in his second incarnation when the Dalek emperor had wanted him to spread the Dalek factor through time and convert the whole universe into one massive Dalek empire. The other alternatives were to try and convince the Kaleds that the Daleks would grow to become a universal menace, the third was to alter their genetic development so then they wouldn't become an aggressive race. In the meantime he would try and find a weakness that could be exploited should he fail.

The Doctor told them of Davros, the evil crippled genius who'd created the Daleks. He told them and the Jones family who were only just realising how complex the Doctor and his life was.

The Doctor told them how he'd tried all three options when the Daleks, under Davros' command, destroyed the Thal city, giving a basic summary of the war the Kaleds and the Thals had been locked in for thousands of years and what it did to the planet. Davros' betrayal of his race was also stated, how he'd used that to his own advantage. The Doctor left Skaro, the Daleks were born and there was nothing he could do about it.

Romana wrapped an arm round his shoulder, comforting him. The Doctor welcomed it, the memories of what he was remembering and explaining were becoming too much. The Doctor had always thought he was to blame for the disaster that the Time Lords had forced on him.

For a while no one spoke, they were wrapping their heads around the whole thing. They could see clearly the Time Lords had made a massive mistake in sending one man in stopping the Dalek threat. UNIT had a basic knowledge of what the Daleks could do, but they knew enough that they were a deadly threat. The Battle of Canary Wharf had seen the Daleks kill hundreds of people, excluding the Cybermen. Fortunately it had given UNIT the opportunity to examine the technologies Torchwood had scavenged before Torchwood could reorganise. UNIT had taken hundreds of samples of computer date from Torchwood and pieces of scavenged technology, but they didn't abuse it the same way Torchwood did. UNIT knew better than Torchwood.

Finally the Brigadier said, " Carry on Doctor, what happened next?" The Brigadiers voice was calm and controlled, he was trying to imagine the Doctor trying to commit genocide, and he could easily imagine how torn the Doctor must've been to carry out such an assignment.

The Doctor sighed, " There was a Cold War period between the Time Lords and the Daleks, but I think I did some good when I tried to carry out my mission."

O'Neil was intrigued, " In what way?"

" Before my mission, my earlier encounters with the Daleks showed them as more cunning. In the new timeline they seemed to have lost some of that cunning, they'd become more like the Cybermen. They were more logical, more machine like. Indeed, my next encounter with them showed them fighting another race of robots, the Movellans. In the past, the Daleks would've been able to destroy and crush the Movellans, taking the empire they'd created and adding to their own territory. Instead the Daleks fought them for centuries, their battle computer working logically. Let me and Romana show you what I mean. Romana." The Doctor added, looking at the Time Lady.

Romana knew what the Doctor wanted to do and indulged him. They played a small game of Scissors, Rock, Paper. Everyone in the room saw Romana win first, then the Doctor, then Romana again. Finally the Doctor stopped and explained, " Romana and I have just shown you all what battle computers do, with humanoid races they program their computers differently. Robotic species like the Daleks and Cybermen on the other hand, don't. Their programming is purely logical. One computer makes one move, the other one immediately anticipates and counters it. As a result the Daleks and Movellens were locked in a logical impasse, unable to fight back, prolonging the war. Add to that the Movellans had the power to recover from Dalek gun shots and you've got a power enemy. The Daleks wanted Davros so then he could reprogram their computers and give them the edge, they knew what it was. Intuition. They just didn't know how to implement it. Similarly the Movellans wanted me to do the same when I deduced they weren't organic like they appeared. Naturally I refused, then both races were destroyed and Davros was imprisoned for crimes against all sentient species. Most of the cold war revolved around Davros in some shape and form. The war between the Daleks and Movellans continued, don't ask how long, but the the next time I saw Davros, 90 years had passed. The war was over at that point, the Daleks had lost."

Realising that the Doctor wasn't going to get to the core of the Time War soon, the UNIT commanders were nonetheless intrigued by the new intelligence they were receiving.

" How did they lose? I mean, if their computers were unable to lock on - " Holmes asked then the Doctor answered the question he was seeing coming.

" I think the Movellans on the ship I was on was sending information and recordings of my meeting with them back. Logical, if you don't get the person who could give you victory then settle for the next best thing. Like I said, the Daleks, being partly organic, knew what it was they'd lost, but the Movellans weren't organic. After seeing their recordings, and realising that they themselves couldn't reprogram their computers because they didn't have that knowledge, they looked for a different solution. They found it." The Doctor said, looking grim.

" What was it?" O'Neil asked impatiently.

" Ironically, the Movellans used one of the Daleks' old weapons; biogenic weapons. They created a virus that works in two ways. The first attacks the life support machinery in the Dalek casing. The life support system was eaten away, and attacked the mutant itself. Not an easy thing, considering the Dalek casing is designed to repel viruses. When I next encountered the Daleks the race was virtually destroyed, the fleet was gone. The empire was shattered. Some survived, they went to separate parts of the universe to escape the risk of further infection and work on a cure." The Doctor explained calmly his face still grim, " They revived Davros from suspended animation and hoped he'd cure them. He worked on a cure, but he also worked on another plan."

Even the Brigadier was becoming tired of these guessing games as he said impatiently, " Kindly stop speaking in riddles Doctor, what else was Davros working on?"

The Doctor looked down at his hands for a moment before he looked back up, " You have to understand Davros. Davros came from a society that was embracing racial purity, when I first met the Kaleds they'd banished their genetically wounded out of their city and were doing the same to their children, even when mutations were becoming more and more common. Davros was nearly killed by a nuclear blast himself, only his scientific brilliance saved him from his races persecution. As time passed, Davros experimented on the mutations, realising they were irreversible. He took living cells and accelerated them to determine the final form of the species. Those results would give birth to the Daleks, development of the casings they use for travel and defence. But Davros himself was a racist, he believed wholeheartedly in the racial purity of his species, and he preserved that in the Daleks genetic programming. But Davros lost himself in fantasies." He looked down at his hands again. " Some time ago, I met an alien collector who had a Dalek in this stupid alien museum, the bloody fool tortured the Dalek, when I came on the scene in broke out and killed everyone. But Anyway," the Doctor said, waving a hand dismissively, " the collector asked about who created them when I told him they were genetically engineered, with all emotions except hate removed. I told him it had been done by a genius, a man who was king of his own little world."

Romana snorted, drawing attention to herself, " Sounds like Davros to me."

" Yeah," The Doctor agreed with her before carrying on, " The Daleks losing the war was unacceptable to Davros, making him realise their limitations, the fact they didn't understand emotion. The mistake Davros had made was to make them totally ruthless, this restricted their ability to cope with aliens who relied not just on logic, but on emotions. Davros would later change all that with new races of Daleks, with him as their emperor. Then there was the Daleks own plan, they wanted to conquer Gallifrey, and they knew the Time Lords would have access to the virus, which explains why they needed a cure." The Doctor's eyes and face became masklike, " That was the first time the Daleks specifically targeted my homeworld, they were planning on using me and my companions and duplicating us, and sending them to assassinate the members of the High council, leaving Gallifrey wide open to the Daleks invasion. With Gallifrey in their power, the Daleks would be able to conquer the whole universe, have the time travel technology pioneered by the Time Lords. Nothing would be able to stand in their way. With the help of a duplicate, the Dalek ship and the space station Davros was imprisoned on was destroyed." The Doctor looked down, memories of Tegan's departure still in his head.

The debriefing the Doctor went through took 2 hours. He told them about the Dalek factions and their internal warfare, he handed a brief summary of the events on Tranquil Repose and how Davros had used human corpses to create a new Dalek army, and create a cheap foodstuff. The people in the room were sickened by the atrocities Davros had committed, even when they hadn't been committed yet. Then came the Hand of Omega incident. The Doctor started that one off by giving a basic history lesson of the Hand, what it was capable of doing and what the Time Lords had used it for. The UNIT commanders, including Lethbridge Stewart, were surprised that the Time Lords had had the power to destroy suns and turn them into supernovas. The Brigadier recalled the meeting with Omega, and what had happened to him to get him in that state in the first place. The Brigadier accepted that to have a power source then some sacrifices needed to be made.

The UNIT commanders secretly wished the device was still around, they didn't like the idea of the Time lords having such a weapon. The Doctor outlined what his seventh self had done, how he'd tricked Davros and the Daleks, manipulating events so then the planet Skaro would be destroyed.

The Doctor finished that part off with a note, " At that point, seeing how fluidly the Daleks were able to travel through time, they were indeed approaching the level of the Time Lords."

The Doctor had a potted knowledge of the Time War, so Romana took over the whole thing. She explained how the Daleks had taken her prisoner, forced her to become a slave, working in conditions that would kill a normal human being. Then she came to the Faction Paradox, the voodoo time travelling cult, how the Time Lords thought they were enemy the Time Lords had foreseen that would destroy them.

Romana told them about Compassion, the living TARDIS, earning a scowl from the Doctor. Even now, even when the Doctor had forgiven her, he wasn't happy about how Romana and the other Time lords had treated him and Compassion. Between the pair of them, they gave the UNIT commanders the full run down of what happened, the Doctor's travels in Compassion when he believed his own TARDIS was destroyed before discovering her again. The fall of Gallifrey, and the removal of the Faction Paradox as the enemy. The Doctor didn't go into details of his 100 years of exile on Earth, but he did tell them of the restoration of the Time Lords.

Then it came to the Time War.

Jack and Martha, although aware of the conflict, knew very little about its origins. They were horrified by it. The war started when the Daleks created timelines with their more refined time travel technology, which was closer to the level of the Time Lords. The Daleks had stolen technology from ancient races, adding to their own power and making them into a greater threat. The Daleks had created their own equivalent of TARDIS technology, their DARDISes, and how they were war machines, not exploration vehicles like the TARDISes.

The Daleks wiped out their enemies, the Thals, the Movellans, the Mechanoids and how they targeted time aware and time active races. They were erased from the timeline, remembered only by those with access and knowledge of time travel. The Daleks dug through history, bringing from the Dark times ancient and hideous enemies and creatures the Time Lords had thought dealt with. The Time Lords were hard pressed to deal with them, the Daleks also released the Fendahl on a highly advanced race, wiping them out, and forcing the Time Lords to shove them into a pocket universe / stroke Time loop, forever locking it away from the universe.

The Daleks also brought forward the Great Vampires, who were more than happy and willing to attack the Time Lords after all the hell the Time Lords had brought them. The Time Lords had been torn with fighting the Daleks on one side, the Vampires and the other monstrosities on the other, add the races who were taking advantage of the war, only to find themselves attacked and destroyed by both sides. The UNIT commanders had to be told how serious the Great Vampires were and how much of a threat they'd been, for them vampires were monsters in horror movies. For the Time Lords it was another story, even in the debriefing even though it had been centuries since the Great Vampire wars, but the Time War had rekindled the nightmare those Time Lords had dealt with. Then Davros made the mistake of awakening the Nightmare Child, a creature that fed on the nightmares of others and gave them nightmares of the worst kind and sucked out their psychic energy, like a child would suck their milkshake with a straw. It had taken a hundred Time Lords and a hundred TARDISes to clean up the mess Davros had made. There'd been no tears lost when the creator of the Daleks was lost to the Nightmare child.

The Time War had lasted 70 years, and Romana and the Doctor didn't bore their human audience with the details of some of the war, just the basics. Then the story came to the point Romana and the Doctor knew would come.

The Master.

Romana told them the details of the Master's resurrection, making the Doctor have to explain the details of the Battle in San Francisco, and told them the Master had been given a whole new regeneration cycle since he'd exhausted the last one. The whole idea was to have a perfect soldier, and the Master was highly efficient, as the Brigadier knew well. Now he was getting an idea of the Master's involvement he was starting to see where it was going.

" The Master ran away, he was assigned to protect the Cruciform." Romana spat angrily.

O'Neil was starting to get annoyed, she'd been a serving member of UNIT for 12 years, and all members of UNIT were aware of the Time Lords and their advanced technology, but she'd always wanted to know what else they had up their sleeves. She forced herself to stay patient, " The what?" she asked.

The Doctor answered this question, " The Cruciform, one of the greatest achievements of the Time Lords. Haven't you noticed that some of the races you've met are humanoid?" Not waiting for an answer, he carried on, " That's because the Time Lords took it upon themselves to...adjust the development of sentient species. I know," the Doctor added when everyone protested, " they shouldn't have done that, but it was to stop another race from taking over the universe and doing the same."

Romana carried on, hoping to stop anymore questions about the Cruciform and other more dubious pieces of Time Lord technology, " The Cruciform fell into the Daleks hands, that meant that the Daleks could rewrite the genetic codes of the universe and create a massive Dalek race." She gave them a hard look, " Now do you see why we wanted the Cruciform safe?"

The Brigadier could see now. The Doctor had filled him in on the basics of Dalek history and philosophy, he knew how much they hated races that were nothing like them. A device like the Cruciform would make them beyond happy.

" What did the Master do?" The Brigadier asked. It was hard for him to picture the Master as a coward, but there was a first time for everything.

" He ran, to the end of the universe. He made himself human with a piece of technology called a chameleon arch. It rewrites biology, and it stores the Time lord consciousness inside a storage device," The Doctor wasn't going to tell UNIT with it's new mindset of what the storage device was, not if his suspicions were right on the money, and they usually were. He was convinced more than ever that there were other members of his race out there, and no matter what his old ties to UNIT he wasn't going to let these jumped up little tin soldiers harm any member of his race, if there were any on Earth.

" He took on the identity of Professor Yana. Yana was working on a refugee ship, and send the last Humans to a place they called Utopia. He had them build a rocket, he was a genius, but then again the Master always was." The Doctor was saying but he was interrupted.

" You sound like you admire him, Doctor." Holmes said seriously, making it sound like an accusation. The Doctor and Romana bristled with anger.

The Doctor nodded, " I admire many things about the Master," he admitted readily, " I admire his genius, in some ways he and I are alike. Someone once went so far as to claim we were the same person. In many ways we are, Time Lords, powerful, both wanted to travel and get away from the oppressiveness of life on Gallifrey, but thats where the similarities end. The Master wants to conquer the universe and rule it with an iron fist, I don't. I left my homeworld to see the universe. Yes, in some ways I admire the Master, but he's brought me a lot of grief. Because of him I've lost two of my incarnations, not deliberately his fault but side effects of his plans. He's also stolen two bodies from innocent people, causing their loved ones more grief. One of them was the wife of a paramedic in San Francisco. The Master killed her, in her husband's body. Don't you dare sit there and tell me I can't even admire one of my oldest enemies. I do, I have a grudging respect for hundreds of my enemies. The Master's one of them. Besides he's a Time Lord, one of the last ones. Can we get on with the debriefing, please?" The Doctor asked, getting irritated with the way the commanders were tarring him and Romana with the same brush as the Master. It wasn't their fault the Master was evil.

Romana took over, explaining in detail about the Councils nonchalance about the Master vanishing and the Cruciform falling into the Daleks' grasp. Romana highlighted the complacency of the council and the members that sat on it, then she came to the part she and the Doctor had been dreading.

" Who is Rassilon?" O'Neil asked.

The Brigadier remembered that time he and the second Doctor had gone to Gallifrey during that Tomb business, and he knew only a small amount about the man.

" Rassilon's the Founder of the Time Lord race, I once journeyed to his tomb with the second Doctor. There are myths that divide the general opinion of Rassilon, some considered him a hero, others considered him a tyrant. Am I right Doctor?" The old soldier asked the Doctor, who nodded.

" Yes, you're right. The version of Rassilon we met all those years ago was one side of the man. The reality was worse, wasn't it Romana?"

The Time Lady nodded, " The Council had known for years that Rassilon could be brought back to life. We had this...matrix, it housed all the minds of departed Time Lords. It also contained their biodata, the biological information of their bodies." Romana added for the benefit of the Humans.

" The Master's mind survived the battle in San Francisco, that was recovered and the biodata we had on him enabled the Council to resurrect him. I've heard stories about the Master, both on Gallifrey and in the TARDIS, and I was concerned about what the consequences would be. The Daleks may have been our enemies, but the Master could've easily joined them. He had no love for our people, which added to my concern. When the Cruciform fell, some of my fears were confirmed. Except he ran away, either because he saw that the Daleks would kill him no matter what he did, or he realised that the Time Lords were getting desperate enough to kill traitors.

" When I confronted the Council about the Master, they didn't care. The Council had something else in mind, I could see it. Not long afterwards I found out what, only it wasn't what I expected. Rassilon, one of the greatest minds the Time Lord race ever produced, indeed he created the Time Lords, the foundations of our power and knowledge. Rassilon took over the council from me. Privately I resented it, but I couldn't do anything about it. Rassilon's been an icon for our people for centuries, they simply wanted a quick and easy victory." Romana finished off.

The Doctor nodded, " Rassilon gave us that victory, at least at first. The Daleks had created multiple timelines that made fighting the war even harder. When Rassilon took over he ordered the closure of the walls of reality, the barriers that enable travel between alternate worlds, like the one I fell through when I was working on the TARDIS console, that business with Stahlman. Back then travel between alternate worlds was easy, TARDISes would simply slip sideways in time, navigating using the quantum phase shift of the other reality."

" Quantum phase - what's that?"

The Doctor sighed, " Quantum phase shift. Every reality has its own signature, like humans have different fingerprints. TARDISes can feel the phase shift of this reality, and use that as a homing beacon. That way it wouldn't get lost in the multiverse. Now the Walls have closed, only natural fissures remain, and they're temporary themselves. The order to close the walls was a popular one, it meant that we'd be able to fight off the Daleks that much more effectively."

" Rassilon sealed off these timelines, making it more difficult for the Daleks and the other enemies from making us fight on more than one front. To the Time Lords, Rassilon was close to a god. In many ways, he was. Without him there would be no Time lords, no dominion over time. For a time, Rassilon was a godsend, he managed to hold back the Daleks. Trouble is, the enemies Rassilon was used to handling didn't adapt to change the way the Daleks did. It wasn't long before Rassilon found himself facing an enemy that was more problematic, an enemy that was relentless and were the universal version of the cockroach." Romana said grimly.

The Doctor added his own contribution, " Rassilon listened to the council, people who didn't understand the war, or the Daleks. He didn't listen to the renegades. Throughout Time Lord history, there have been those that don't follow Time lord life. I'm one of them, I left the planet and my people to explore the universe. The Master also fits into this category, but he's, as you know, wanted to conquer the universe. The renegades were made generals, mostly 'cos of their experience and knowledge."

" The things you can learn as a renegade are incredible," Romana commented. " I travelled with the Doctor for 200 years, and as I did I learnt how to understand renegades and how to listen to them, to accept things when they weren't quite as they seemed." She glanced at the man lovingly, uncaring about protocol, either Time Lord or Human. " The Doctor taught me everything I know about the subject, whereas Rassilon didn't. He relied on help and advice that was hardly good for the war effort. A renegade called the Corsair was assigned to him,-"

" Ah, the Corsair," The Doctor grinned as he interrupted. " Brilliant guy. Got drunk with him a dozen times, swore I'd never do it again, but hey. We were friends. One of the good ones, the Corsair. We got drunk once and woke up in the vaults of the Bank of England - "

" Doctor, now's not the time for reminiscing about that. I still suffer from nightmares about that night. Can we stick to the point?" Romana glared at the Doctor even though she didn't mean it.

The Doctor shrunk in his chair, " Sorry Romana."

Everyone laughed when they saw the sheepish way the Doctor shrank away from his girlfriend. He looked like a little kid. Then the Doctor sobered up and looked deadly serious.

" The Corsair, as Romana was saying, was assigned to provide Rassilon with details of the war, and provide practical strategies to fight against the Daleks. As you've probably gathered, Corsair was ignored. Not a good move. The renegades were practically running the Time Lord forces, no one else had any will to do it, so we did it. If it wasn't for us then we'd have lost the war quickly rather than prolonged it." The Doctor said, glossing over and ignoring the fact he was the one who interrupted Romana.

Romana gave him a soft glare for his interruption, but she carried on. " The Doctor's right. The renegades had to use all their ingenuity to fight and keep up with the Daleks. We'd all welcomed Rassilon's return to power, his reputation as a warrior is well deserved. He stayed at home, and didn't contribute much to the war effort."

" Unlike Romana," The Doctor piped up again, earning another stern look from Romana, which he ignored. " She fought on the frontline, a true leader. She used all her knowledge gleaned from her travels, putting them to good use. Rassilon stayed at home, he seemed to believe, arrogantly, that the Daleks wouldn't dare attack Gallifrey whilst he was on it. How wrong he was, Gallifrey was attacked 5 times. Rassilon was barely able to hold them off, they grew more and more daring with each attack."

Romana wondered if they'd ever get this meeting over with soon before the dawn of the next ice age. With Time Lord lifespans, Romana knew it was only a matter of time. Romana folded her hands and carried on, hoping the Doctor wouldn't interrupt.

" As the war progressed, it grew worse. Time itself was resurrecting the dead, finding new and more terrible ways to die, paradoxes were forming around millions of races caught in the crossfire between both sides so then they'd be erased from history. There were times I was convinced I'd died myself. Then I received a message from some of the other renegades, asking me for a meeting on Earth in the 21st century." Romana said, saying the last part slowly, knowing somehow she'd get a reaction.

She didn't have long to wait. Two of the UNIT commanders immediately started to berate her.

" You arranged a meeting on a neutral world, knowing full well the Daleks could've learnt about it?" Holmes asked angrily.

O'Neil was just as angry as her colleague, " I thought you Time Lords were supposed to have sense, surely you knew you were jeopardising the peoples of Earth?"

The Brigadier was silent, he knew the two of them would have a good answer.

Romana took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. She knew, from political experience, that the Humans would need to be reassured. Pointless platitudes wouldn't do it, they'd need something more solid.

" The Time War was no where near Earth," she started, gaining her confidence through her explanation. " The Time Lords may've had an apathetic regard for other forms of life, especially those on level 5 planets like Earth, but they knew you wouldn't be able to repel a Dalek attack, especially with the new temporal weapons the Daleks had. Every time the Daleks approached a planet like Earth, the Time Lords would attack them and would try to draw their fire, and do their best to destroy the Dalek force. The meeting was held on Earth because of the remoteness of the planet."

But the Doctor seemed to be on the UNIT people's side. " I'm still not happy you had to choose Earth, you could've chosen a different planet. Why did it have to be Earth Romana?"

Romana knew she shouldn't feel betrayed by the Doctor's sudden joining of sides, but she couldn't help herself. " I wasn't the one to choose Earth Doctor. You know I wouldn't if I'd had the choice."

The Doctor and Romana sat there, and just stared at one another, then the Doctor nodded. " Alright, I'm sorry. But I'm still not happy that it had to be Earth, even though I understand and agree with the reason for the meeting."

Jack was curious about this meeting, " What was the meeting about?"

The ex Time Agent hadn't spoken until now because it wasn't his place, it was the Doctor's and Romana's. Besides he was learning more about the Time War than he'd ever had when he was a member of the Time Agency Academy. Study of the Time Lords were a required course at the Academy, the Time Lords reputation for protecting the Time Lords and their dominion over time was beyond believable. Then there was the Time War. Little was known about it, and Jack had learnt tidbits about it from his time with the Doctor. Now there was this meeting, and he was intrigued by it.

" Some of the Time Lord renegades had started to notice that Rassilon had this...scheme for ending the Time War. There was something about it that made them uneasy, and a few of them had even vanished mysteriously for no apparent reason. The Time Lords I spoke to at the meeting were from the frontline, some of them, others were on their rest shifts and could do what they liked. No one would question it, at least not back home. There weren't any traitors working for the Daleks, the policy they were following meant every Time Lord they met had to be killed.

Romana took a deep breath as she went on with it, " They told me that work was being done on the Untempered schism..."

" The what?" Alistair asked.

It was the Doctor who explained for the benefit of his old friend, " It's a gap in the fabric in reality, through which can be seen the time vortex itself. At the age of 8, young Gallifreyans are taken before it, and stare into it." The Doctor was silent as he recalled his own initiation, in the dark and cold room where the schism existed. He remembered how frightening the vortex had been, those images and sensations he'd felt and watched still sent shivers down his spine. The Doctor had to shake himself out of the memories and focus on the present day. " As we stare into the vortex, we have to stay there for a certain amount of time. If we run from it before the time limit expires, then we don't get admitted into the academy. Romana, the Master and I, along with the other Time Lords were the lucky ones. We became Time lords, spending centuries in the academy and learning about the universe."

The hall was silent as they assimilated the new insights into Time Lord culture. For the most fanciful, this was reminiscent of the Harry Potter series, the sorting hat. For Romana and the Doctor, the Untempered Schism was a major part of their pasts, the turning point in their childhoods.

As Romana told them the suspicions that her friends and fellow Time Lords, the UNIT commanders and everyone else learnt of Rassilon's insanity. When Romana told them of her capture and torture, both she and Jack found themselves having to restrain the Doctor from losing control of his temper even though it had happened a long time ago from Romana's perspective. In her hearts Romana was delighted that the Doctor was acting like this, proving their love.

Romana and the Doctor took turns going over the End of the War, and it was horrifying for everyone. The two of them had stated the Time Lords were meant to protect the cosmos, not deliberately destroy it and wipe out all life based on a theory that might not even work the way it was supposed to. Jack himself scoffed quietly when Romana described what would come from the Ultimate Sanction. Neither Time Lord admonished him for it, they knew it was beyond believable themselves and was simply a madman's desperate scheme.

Jack had listened as his two friends described the Ultimate Sanction. Jack had known little about the Time Lords, but all the legends about them painted them as super beings with incredible powers and abilities, technology that was indistinguishable from magic itself. Jack knew only three Time Lords, and he trusted only two of them, and they weren't the godlike aliens the legends painted them to be. The Doctor and Romana were not to dissimilar from Humans, they made mistakes, made assumptions, but both were incredibly smart and knew that the Ultimate Sanction was a fools errand. He was delighted that other Time Lords had realised it too, but he was sad for his friends that the only member of their race was a monster who wouldn't believe them and the sacrifices they had to make for everyone else, something the other Time lords hadn't really cared about.

Romana finished off by telling them how she managed to escape, triggering her third regeneration and a gave a brief summary of her time on the planet out of time before her rescue. The Doctor was next. With great sadness, he explained that with Romana gone and Rassilon's true colours exposed, the Time lord people were cowed into submission, and followed Rassilon like sheep to the slaughter. The other renegades were put under arrest, and in the confusion the Doctor had no choice but to destroy the Time Lords.

The Doctor didn't go into detail over the method he'd used, he told them he wired a superweapon, which was the closest analogy the Doctor could use to explain the Moment - the Moment was too complex, even for a Time Lord to understand; there was no way these people would ever understand the Moment, not to mention it's incredible power. Jack might understand, but the Doctor doubted it. The Doctor said how he'd wired it into the central power source of Gallifrey, and how he managed to send a telepathic message to his friends, and left in the explosion. The final explosion of Gallifrey, the Eye of Harmony exploded, converting millions of worlds and stars into antimatter, along with the Dalek fleet. The TARDIS had been rocked with explosions, and the radiation the Doctor had absorbed from the Eye, and the explosions in his own ship, caused the Doctor to regenerate for the Eighth time.

When the Doctor was finished, he glanced around the room. He caught Martha's eyes, and saw tears trickling down her face. It was the first time the young doctor had learnt about the details of the Time War which destroyed his people, and now she was seeing what it cost him. Now she understood why he'd never told her.

Tish was similar to Martha, she too had tears trickling down her face, but since the two of them hadn't travelled together then Tish didn't know much about the Doctor, even whilst she was a prisoner and maid under the Master's rule.

Francine and Clive had pity on their faces.

Jack was looking at him with an expression of brotherly sympathy, for which the Doctor was eternally grateful for. The Doctor knew with some relief that Jack, being a Time Agent, already had some idea of the scale of the Time War but some of the details were absent from his knowledge. Now he knew those same details the gaps were filled in his knowledge. But the Time Lord could see that those meant nothing to Jack, the immortal Time Agent saw that the Doctor had had no choice, faced with a virtually unstoppable army on one side, a violent tyrannical madman on the other with an insane plan and backed up by the corruption of the Doctor's own race, what other choice did the Doctor have?

It was Romana's reaction that frightened the Doctor most. Even though the other Time Lord knew of the catastrophic events that led up to the destruction of Gallifrey, the Doctor was frightened that Romana would hate him and never be able to forgive him for the destruction of their world. The Master had learnt about Gallifrey's destruction, and had spent some of his free time tormenting the Doctor about his actions and his decisions over the matter. If the Doctor hadn't been forcibly aged the way he had, then he'd have pointed out that he, the Master, had tried to destroy the Time Lords with the help of Chancellor Goth, but because his body was weak, and his mind was focused on the Archangel network matrices and monitoring Martha and Romana as they travelled the world alone, the Doctor had listened to the Master's taunts. Romana was different from the Master though, she hadn't run away like a coward, she'd fought until the bitter end.

That didn't mean he still wasn't frightened by her reaction to hearing the full story once more after everything that had happened. Hesitantly, the Doctor looked into Romana's eyes. There was no trace of anger, for which he was grateful for, her eyes were filled with different emotions.

Pity.

Sorrow, for which the Doctor assumed was for himself for having to make such a hideous choice, or that it should've been Romana's chore, not his. The Doctor hoped that she didn't wish she'd been the one to use the Moment instead of he. The choice he'd made should never be made by any sentient being, least of all this beautiful soul. Besides the Doctor knew how much of a Time Lord Romana was, compared to himself. No Time Lord in their right mind would make such a decision, but he had.

Finally, Love. Love for him, the Doctor, the destroyer of worlds. The Doctor didn't know if his hearts had shattered again or whether they were being remade and polished. He definitely felt different after seeing that feeling in Romana's eyes.


The UNIT debriefing ended, thankfully quickly, enabling the two Time Lords the opportunity to leave the base. The UNIT commanders, except for the Brigadier, wanted the Time Lords to remain in their custody along with their TARDIS, but the Brigadier reminded them that UNIT had no real right to hold them prisoner.

The Doctor and Romana knew UNIT blamed the two of them, irrationally, for the Master's actions and return. Luckily Jack had stepped in, taking the two of them in Torchwood's custody. Torchwood was older than UNIT, their rules went beyond the United Nations, if Torchwood wanted something from UNIT, then UNIT would have no choice but to give it to them, and their protocol, before Yvonne Hartman's reign, had been incredibly cautious. Torchwood had learnt from every alien encounter, adopting new First Contact methods as they went. Hartman had chosen instead a shoot first, ask questions later policy, but Jack had returned Torchwood to its original cause before Hartman's insane and twisted perversion. Jack had exercised Torchwood's power and secured his friends release from UNIT's dubious custody.

Jack took them to Cardiff, luckily Jack's team was out on a case and Jack went after them after they'd connected the TARDIS to the power of the rift to aid in the repair, leaving the Doctor and Romana alone.

The Doctor and Romana watched as Jack hopped on a motorbike and sped away. Alone, the Doctor shyly glanced at Romana. She looked so radiant, she could be wearing a bin liner and the Doctor would still think she was gorgeous. The Doctor held out his hand, revealing Jack's vortex manipulator. Romana gasped when she saw it.

" How did you get that?"

" Asked Jack for it. The TARDIS is still a wreck, the Master's left the solar system behind, leaving this as the only form of time travel within reason. We both need proper time to ourselves without the likes of Torchwood, the Joneses and UNIT looking over our shoulders." The Doctor held up the manipulator again.

Romana glowered at the thing, she hated vortex manipulators like most Time Lords.

" Where are we going?"


" Paris." Romana squealed with delight. The Doctor smiled at her reaction as they looked over the beautiful French city on top of the Eiffel tower, like they had all those years and regenerations ago, back when the Doctor was in his fourth life and Romana was starting her second. Romana took a deep breath of that bouquet that she had two lives ago. It was still the same. It was the first Earth city Romana had ever visited, and it held a special place in their hearts. Romana looked excitedly around, feeling turn of the Earth with her Time Lord abilities, and looked quizzically at the Doctor.

" Why have we gone back two days?"

" I wanted to get away from UNIT and make it difficult for them to track us, besides I wanted you all to myself for a while whilst Jack takes care of the TARDIS for us. What better way would you recommend we spend time together?" The Doctor explained.

The mention of UNIT filled Romana with anxiety that they'd do such a thing. " Do you really think they'd do that?" She asked.

The Doctor was silent for the moment. UNIT wasn't the organisation it was when he'd worked with and for them so many years and experiences ago. Time changed people, and UNIT was no exception.

Finally he said, " When the Brigadier was in charge, he knew that I wasn't always to blame for the Master's attacks on Earth. On the contrary, he saw me as an Ace. As time passed and the Brigadier retired from service, UNIT began to change. They became filled with politicians, that's why Alistair retired in the first place. He was a more front line soldier than someone who worked behind a desk. Oh, they're good, resourceful and filled with experience, but they're run by bureaucratic morons. I think UNIT is afraid of you and me, they want us to remain here on Earth."

Romana frowned at the reply. That made sense.

" Do you think they've had this in mind for a while?" It would make even more sense if they had, Romana couldn't see them not thinking about the matter for a while.

The Doctor sighed, " Possibly, in fact I'm betting on it. The Master's return has given UNIT the opportunity to blame us and take us into custody in one single swoop."

Romana scoffed, " We're Time Lords, not cats. They've no right."

" You know that, I know that. Jack and Martha know that. UNIT ignores that little issue. They want us so then we can do their dirty work for them so then they won't have to make decisions for them." The Doctor snapped out of his depressing thoughts and took Romana's hand. " Enough of that, we're on holiday."

" Famous last words," Romana said cheekily, remembering the conversation they'd had in Paris as they discussed Kerensky and Scaroth's time travel experiments.

The two Time Lords ran through Paris, acting like two overgrown children and making people shake their heads. Romana did cartwheels through the streets entertaining children, who laughed and clapped their hands. Then came the part the Doctor dreaded, he'd taken Romana shopping. Women, even Time Lord women, loved shopping, and Romana was no exception. For 6 agonising hours, the Doctor thought his head was going to explode. He himself had gone shopping for lighter shirts and shorts, he was tired of the same damned suit and overcoat. That had taken him less time than Romana, who seemed determined to prolong her friend's torture. She teased the Doctor mercilessly in front of the customers, who fell about laughing. To make matters worse, some of them were teenage girls, who eyed the Doctor with admiration, and the boys who were there with them on the same torturous mission as the Doctor himself, pitied his for the soul destroying hell he was going through.

By the time it was over, the Doctor left, delighted to see the sun again.

" Good god, I thought I'd never see it again." He proclaimed dramatically, sinking to his knees. Romana shook her head as she saw how much of a spectacle he was making of himself, and practically threw her new clothes at him.

" Here, you can carry these." She said. The Doctor took in the fifty something bags and boxes she was giving him, and he groaned.

That night, after the torture, the Doctor took Romana to a cinema. The film was in French but with the Time Lord gift for languages, it was easy to decipher the language. Then he took her to a lovely little French restaurant. Romana was wearing a dark blue dress with matching kitten heels and handbag, her long hair done up in a bun, whilst the Doctor was wearing a casual black pinstripped jacket and matching trousers, and red shirt with a few buttons undone. He still wore his well worn converse trainers though.

Romana filled the Doctor in on the companions she and Martha had seen during their time in the Year that never was, the hellish time of the Master's rule, as it was now referred too.

" Hold on, you met Ian and Barbara? How are they doing?" The Doctor smiled.

" Yes, they were on holiday when the Toclafane invaded. They're working at Cambridge, or somewhere like that, I wasn't listening to them at the time. They haven't aged a day." Romana added, gazing over the wine bottle at the man she loved. " Then again you knew that would happen, didn't you?"

The Doctor nodded grimly, " Yes. Taranium, when exposed to temporal energy has unpredictable effects like you know. They were adamant though, they'd travelled with me for two long years, and it was becoming obvious they'd spend the rest of their lives travelling with me if the Daleks had come after the TARDIS. It wasn't an easy choice, Romana. I knew that the time machine's radiation would have an unusual effect on them, but I couldn't keep them with me. They wanted to leave."

They fell silent, then Romana told him of her encounters with people like Jo Jones, who was nursing Brazilians when the Master attacked, Tegan, who was in Sydney, helping to tear the city apart for metal for the Master's war machine. The Doctor was saddened by that, but he was delighted that she'd been doing her best to fight back against the monster who'd killed her aunt all those years ago. Romana told him about Ace and A Charitable Earth. When it came to Peri, the Doctor was sad. His time with Peri had been especially rocky when it came to his 6th life. They had departed in a nasty and confusing point in his time.

" How's she doing?" The Doctor whispered.

Romana knew how badly the two friends had parted company, the Doctor knew that Romana had taken her from Yrcanos, but he didn't know the details.

" She's doing well." Was all Romana said.

The Doctor easily changed the subject, " When we get back to Cardiff, and the TARDIS, the ship should be repaired. But you and I must do something with these." The Doctor reached into his pocket and took out two fob watches, one was on a chain, the other wasn't. Romana gasped when she saw the mathematical / scientific hieroglyphic language of the Time Lords on both watches. She looked up with the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded, confirming her theory, " That one," he pointed to the chained watch, " was the one which the Master used. That one," he pointed to the other watch," was the watch I used when I hid from the Family of Blood." The Doctor frowned as he remembered the pain of the transformation, the...emptiness of living in the watch.

Romana still didn't get it," What're we gonna do with these?"

" We're gonna build a scanner, with Jack and Torchwood's help. A scanner wired into the telepathic circuits, channeled through the Cardiff rift, to find any other fob watch in use."

" You think there might be other Time Lords out there, hiding in the same way you and the Master did?" Romana whispered.

In truth, it had occurred to her when the Master ruled the Earth. Afterall, if she could hide on a planet isolated from the universe, and the Master hid himself at the end of the universe using the same chameleon arch technology the Doctor had used to hide from that bunch of parasites, then why not somebody else? Romana had had many friends, the thought some of them had been smart enough to see where Rassilon was leading the rest of the Time lord civilisation, and got out while they could. The thought of people like Rodan, Flavia, Damon surviving the Time War, hiding in Fob watches was overwhelming.

But pragmatism came back.

" What happens if there isn't anyone?" Romana whispered brokenly. The pain of being one of the last of her race was like a gaping wound.

The Doctor's face showed just how he knew what she was going through, " A few years ago, if someone came up to me and told me I would meet the most amazing and beautiful Time lady I've ever met, and the man I thought I'd seen the last of in the early days of my eighth life when he fell in the Eye of Harmony, I'd have laughed in his face."

Romana chuckled, " I know the feeling." Thinking of the Master made Romana ask her next question. " Doctor, when do you think the Master will return?"

" I dunno. The rules have changed." The Doctor replied enigmatically.

" What rules?"

The Doctor explained the rules of the giant chess game he and the Master had been playing for centuries, " When the Master and I fought before the incident in San Francisco, the rules were consistent. The Master would come up with some new mad plan for seizing power, I'd foil him, he'd escape in his TARDIS before coming up with something else, something more daring. More ambitious. In the days of my fourth and fifth incarnation, and around the time of my eighth, the Master had a problem. A big one. He was close to death, he'd used his regenerations up to escape a black hole, and he'd tried to destroy Gallifrey to save himself."

" I was at school when that happened." Romana put in.

" I know, you're lucky to be alive. What story did Borusa feed the public about what happened?" The Doctor asked curiously, wondering how his old teacher had explained himself out of that one. With the two most powerful people on Gallifrey dead because of the Master's plan, Borusa had been the only one left, and Borusa was many things but a decent story teller was not one of them. The Doctor had suggested, as a joke, that he say that the Capitol had suffered subsidence caused by giant mice. After the Rani's experiments, that was feasible. In fact that's what the Doctor was inspired by.

Romana laughed, surprising the Doctor, " Borusa spun some tale about giant vermin upsetting the city's foundations, but Spandrell and Engin weren't happy you weren't getting some credit. They leaked the whole story to the population, making you a hero."

The Doctor's face went stony, " I'm not a hero. I never have been. I do what I must."

Romana sobered, " I know, but how else do you think people regard you?"

The Doctor didn't answer, making Romana feel awkward. " Tell me more about these rules." She said, changing the subject.

" At times the Master would make a mistake, endangering his life. He'd already destroyed Logopolis in his scheme, and Traken, and a massive section of the galaxy. Something even the Daleks had never done. At the end of my seventh life, the Master committed suicide. He had found a way to steal my lives. He almost succeeded, but he killed an innocent man to steal my remaining lives."

" That man Bruce you were talking about during our...debriefing." Romana said quietly, trying hard not to say interrogation.

" Bruce Gerhardt, an ambulance driver. From what I learnt, a dedicated one." The Doctor said just as quietly, the anger the Master had killed yet another man just to stay alive rising in his chest until he felt sick. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor carried on, " The Master, in Bruces' body, killed Miranda, Bruce's wife."

" That's horrible."

The Doctor agreed, but he wanted to get on with what he was saying. " The Master was on his last life at the time, and he wouldn't give up. When he fell into the eye, I thought that was it. When I found out he'd been brought back by the Time Lords to fight, complete with a new regeneration cycle, I knew the rules had changed. The Master wont be afraid of death, but he'll be careful about his remaining lives. He knows the pressure of being close to death, and he wont want to go near that again. But there's another issue."

" What's that?"

" The Master knows the Time lords are gone, he knew long before he learnt the details of the Time War's end from me. He'd already built a paradox machine, brought Rose through a dimensional tear, and he created an alternate timeline, and tried to make it the primary one. With our people gone, and our power diminished, the Master was able to break the laws of time. If the Time Lords were still alive, he'd never have dared do something like that. Now their gone, and with no one but us to stop him, there's little the Master wont do."

" So the power of the Time Lords stopped him from committing those acts." Romana stated.

" Hmm, yes." The Doctor agreed.

" Do you think he'd bring the Toclafane back?" Romana asked, the things she'd seen those little bastards do terrified her. For once the Doctor didn't know, would his old friend bring them back?

" I dunno," the Doctor answered honestly. " We're dealing with an insane version of the Master, he's capable of anything. Then there's these drums he heard all year."

The mention of the drums surprised Romana; she knew about them but she didn't know much about them. " What do you think made him hear these drums in the first place?"

" I dunno," The Doctor replied again. " I know this, the Master's back. He's got his TARDIS. He's no longer afraid of retribution from the Time Lords. He's got a new life cycle." The Doctor finished grimly, " He's capable of anything."

A/N. Please tell me what you think of this chapter.