The Time War reignited.
" Okay, Rose," the Doctor sighed, trying to ignore the urge to throttle the stupid girl for insulting Romana and making her lose her balance when she must've seen she was pregnant. He had more important things to do, and deal with the latest Dalek plan. Davros' presence in the Medusa cascade frightened him, the Dalek's creator had proven time and again he was a monster, that he wasn't as emotionally limited as his creations, but the Doctor had started to hope he was dead, and now here he was, ready to do it all again and cause more destruction, and the biggest insult was that Rose Tyler arrogantly decided to let him wait before telling him that she was here, that the Daleks were here, and the whole universe was in jeopardy. " Enough games. Why didn't you call me in the TARDIS when Davros moved these worlds?"
Rose was defiant, " Timelines and stuff." The reticient and petulant response only annoyed the Time Lord more than he already was. He had to bow his head and take a deep breath to stop himself from shouting. When he looked back up, Rose was still in petulant mode. Stupid girl. What was it about Rose that kept her in a teenage mindset?
" That's not a good answer, Rose." The Doctor ground out angrily, stalking forward and invading her personal space. " Besides since when did you care about timelines? You personally invited Adam Mitchell into the TARDIS, next thing we know he's sending information back through time, and taping it on an answer machine. An answer machine! Next, not learning from that, you then coerce me into taking you back in time to your father's death, and then you almost destroy the world. You then ripped open the TARDIS console, looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Yeah, you may have destroyed the Daleks, but you did kill one of my incarnations. Forgive me if I don't show much confidence in your concern about timelines. Rose, if you don't tell me the truth, then I'll make sure-" The Doctor snapped, but he didn't finish his sentence when he saw who was coming towards them.
Romana came out of the TARDIS, breathing heavily, one hand cradling her belly. Forgetting Rose, the Doctor sprinted over to her and hugged him.
" How're you feeling?" he whispered in her ear.
Romana shook her head, then winced when the movement made her more sick. She leant against the Doctor, trying to maintain her balance, breathing hard, and the Doctor wrapped his arms around her. Across the room, Rose made a face at the display, but the two Time Lords ignored her. " Rough. I think I'm going into labour," she added, not looking happy about the prospect in their current situation. Absolutely typical, she gets pregnant, a happy surprise yeah, but when they encounter Daleks, her children, as stubborn and impossible as their father decide it was time to come out. "I've been feeling the twins move around for the last couple of hours, but I'd hoped they wouldn't make an appearance for a while. Sorry, the timings terrible. Of all the times to have children, I have to have them in the middle of a Dalek attack." She broke down sobbing.
The Doctor looked deep at her, and cursed Rose for not taking the effort to actually call so then this mess could've been resolved. Romana breathed in hard, closing her eyes in effort. She wasn't sure how long she could last. Her Time Lady body meant her body had more strength than a humans, and her mental powers had yoga like training, but even Time Ladies who were pregnant had their limitations, and Romana was truly nearing hers.
She also heard her loved one's angry thoughts. Romana looked at the Doctor and then nodded towards Rose, " What's Miss Universe of the year doing?"
The Doctor sneered, " Oh, she's going on about timelines now. Damn it, stupid girl, what is it about humans that make them think they know everything, but in fact they don't? First Torchwood, then Rose," he cursed, and Romana winced. The loudness of the Doctor's thoughts echoed painfully in her mind. The Doctor winced himself in sympathy, " Sorry," he apologised sheepishly. He started rubbing her belly, hoping to soothe the twins impatience. It didn't work very well.
Romana shook him off, " Do you have any plans to deal with the Daleks?" she asked.
The word Dalek made the Doctor's face stormy, he shook his head. " No, and it's partially that stupid girls fault. ' Stars are going out,' that can mean anything, it explains so much, that's what Donna saw, that's what Rose described. We know now that the Daleks have yanked planets into this of space time because of some form of psychic technology, we know that in the parallel universe Donna was in Earth wasn't yanked, but we know little else. I won't know for sure until I speak with Davros."
" What?" Romana gasped, " Are you insane? Davros's Daleks may get trigger happy."
" I know, but I'm thinking of something right now." The Doctor swallowed as his plan's repercussions went into his mind. He forced a smile, and he took Romana by the arm and took her over to a couch. " Get some rest," he ordered her gently, rubbing her belly to try and soothe the twins and stop them from almost killing their mother. " You might need it." Romana narrowed her eyes at him, thinking that he was planning something.
" You don't have to tell me twice," his wife murmured, soothed by her husbands magical touch. She fell onto the couch, sighing in delight of not being on her feet anymore, and went to sleep straightaway. The Doctor sat there, watching her for a moment, cursing the Daleks and their damn creator. " You won't take her from me, you slimy parasitic germ," he vowed.
Jack came over to him, watching Romana as she slept. " You plan to go to the Daleks, don't you?" he asked, knowing his old friend well. The Doctor nodded with a sigh, and Jack was struck by how old the Time Lord appeared. " I have a plan, rather rushed thanks to Miss Rose-I-Know-so-much-more-than-anybody-else-because-I've-travelled-with-the-Doctor Tyler's refusal to actually tell us about the Daleks. Damn it, Jack, I don't want to leave her, not whilst she's pregnant, she's also in labour but I have to. What a wonderful time," the Doctor spat.
" What do you plan to do?" Jack whispered. He understood his old friend's anger and resentment towards Rose; the girl had been sitting on the knowledge of the Daleks for a while, and instead of contacting the Doctor, the stupid tart had done nothing.
The Doctor took Jack by the arm, leading him to where Susan's TARDIS was standing. The Doctor looked at the more advanced time machine with something Jack could see as pride. The Doctor may not own a flashy spanking new TARDIS, but he was proud of them anyway. The Time Lord turned to face Jack.
" I don't want Rose or Romana to overhear what I'm saying, Romana because of how much stress she's under, and Rose because she'll do something stupid that puts our lives at risk, but my plan is simple. I want Susan and her to return to New Gallifrey, and to bring in the Time Lords, but I want Romana gone so then I know she'll be safe. It should slow the Daleks down, and prevent their plan from coming about. The Daleks believe there's only one Time Lord, not an entire race. I want to end the Time war, once and for all. Here, in the Medusa cascade. I am tired, Jack, of meeting them, and I am sick of them, of Davros, even though I haven't seen that mutated bastard in a long time. Let me see your vortex manipulator."
The Doctor's request was a strange one, and Jack was at first resistant, knowing how contemptuous Time lords were of vortex manipulators. It was also because the time machine wriststrap was the only one Jack had, but he trusted the Doctor.
The Doctor flashed his sonic screwdriver over the manipulator, and started pressing buttons. Puzzled, Jack watched him as he started to reprogram the manipulator.
" What're you doing?"
" Vortex manipulators tears holes in the time vortex, and Dalek sensors are tuned to detect that sort of damage, time rings used by the Time Lords merge with the vortex and are practically undetectable by Dalek scanners. One of the only time machines we had in the war the Daleks couldn't detect until too late. The problem is your manipulator's basic technology, but I might be able to duplicate it slightly," The Doctor explained briefly, still absorbed in his reprogramming. " I'm reprogramming your manipulator to do the same. "
" Will you still leave the manipulator alone when you leave?" Jack asked excited, but carefully.
The Doctor didn't reply, and Jack didn't respond or push the issue. Susan came out of her TARDIS, walking over to them. She noticed Romana sleeping over on the couch, just as she was about to go over in that direction the Doctor stopped her. " Susan, I've got a job for you." He finished the job on the manipulator. " Susan, I want you to take Romana to New Gallifrey."
Susan's eyes almost popped out, " Do you have a death wish or something, or do you want me to die? Romana'll make death instantaneous."
" I know," the Doctor hissed to keep their argument, as it was starting to appear, down otherwise Rose, who was coming towards them, would overhear. " Susan, I want you and Romana to bring in the other Time Lords so then we can keep the Daleks occupied, and give me and Jack a chance to deal with them and Davros on their turf and distract them. As far as I know, the Daleks are aware there's only one Time Lord, me, so they won't suspect anything until its too late."
Susan folded her arms and shook her head, " I don't like this," she said frankly. " You do realise of course she's gonna skin you alive?"
" Thanks for reminding me, please Susan I need to do this, and I need you and Romana to do it. I can't send a hypercube because the Daleks might detect it."
" Just like they might detect my TARDIS."
" Did they detect mine?" The Doctor asked pointedly, starting to get frustrated.
Susan saw that her grandfather was not budging from his suicidal plan. " Okay, I'll take her. But if I die and regenerate, then I'll murder you."
The Doctor smirked, " Granted." His smile faded when he saw Rose swagger over to them closer than before.
" Jack, the manipulator," the Doctor gestured. Jack held out the manipulator and both men disappeared. Susan shook her head, and walked away, but Rose accosted her, " Hey, where've they gone?"
Susan glared at her, " To clean up your mess." Deciding it was time to get rid of Rose Tyler, Susan pressed her fingers to the other woman's neck, and applied pressure on a pressure point, and Rose passed out. Susan grabbed her before the blond could fall to the ground, and the Time Lady dragged her to a couch, and grabbed some wire and bound and gagged her. The Time Lady then went through her pockets, and took out a mobile phone, and a small circular device. A dimensional teleport, Susan realised, feeling sick. Grabbing the Very Big Gun, Susan put the teleport on the ground, and blew it to pieces. Breathing hard, Susan then turned to face the still sleeping Romana, surprised when he saw she was still asleep even through all that, but she sighed as she realised the worst was still to come.
Romana woke up, feeling all her temporal senses tingling as they did when she was travelling in a TARDIS. She woke up, and found herself inside a TARDIS, but not the Doctor's. This was a more advanced model, a mark 2, and Susan was at the controls.
" What's going on?" Romana asked, staggering to her feet. At once Susan was at her side, and pushed her unresisting body onto the TARDIS pilot seat.
" I'm sorry, Romana, but I had to do it?" Susan apologised.
Romana knew her husband too well, and she knew he had something to do with this. " What has he done now? Why am I here?"
" He wanted me to protect you, and I am. Your family, more than my grandmother ever was, and you're pregnant. We're going to New Gallifrey."
Romana was many things but stupid was not one of them, " He wants us to bring the Time Lord races in, doesn't he, to fight the Daleks?"
Susan nodded, " Got it in one, Romana." She wrapped her arms around Romana. The other Time Lady knew rationally that the Doctor had done it to ensure her safety, but her dawning motherly side was kicking and screaming, demanding blood from fathers who weren't there to see their offspring born.
Rationality won out, but Romana had to control the pregnancy, the twins seemed to know their father wasn't with them, and they weren as happy as their mother. " How long before we're at New Gallifrey?" She asked.
Susan disentangled herself from Romana, and turned to the console. " We're almost there."
" Did the Daleks give you any trouble?"
Susan turned around, " No. They're convinced that the Doctor's in their midst, so why bother looking for other Time Lords?"
Romana nodded. " Flavia and the others are not going to like this. They escape the Time War, the Daleks, Rassilon, and they come out, and they find monsters like Davros and the Master have come out on top."
" One thing baffles me," Susan said. " How do you think they got out of the Time Lock?"
Romana shook her head light, trying to concentrate through her pain. " I can see two possibilities, and the Doctor probably does as well. The first one is Rose Tyler, blundering about with something that can shatter the walls of reality. Considering how I know her that one seems the most likely, but there's also the second possibility. That the Time Lock itself is imperfect."
Susan gasped. Like all the other Time Lords to have fought in the war, and as one of the renegades to be aware of Rassilon's madness, Susan was aware of what would happen if the Time Lock suddenly collapsed. The Time Lords that had survived and rebuilt from the war had worked long and hard since their awakenings, and the Rani wouldn't want her 'children' to be used as cannon fodder if Rassilon got his hands on them. Many of the new Time Lord races were above and beyond the Time Lords of old, they'd evolved, changed beyond the needs Rassilion thought befitted a Time Lord.
" You don't think...?" Susan asked fearfully, her voice trailing off.
Romana swallowed, thinking the same thing as her friend.
The city of New Gallifrey was in some ways identical to the Citadel Romana had grown up and studied in, but it was different. It wasn't closed off to the elements. There were wide open spaces with grassy parks. Overrall the city resembled one of many.
Susan's TARDIS materialised on the grounds of the new council building, and Susan helped Romana out of the TARDIS, but neither of them headed for the medical centre. They went to Flavia and the rest of the council instead.
Flavia stood up as they walked inside, and she rushed to help her friend. " Romana, what are you doing here? Where's the Doctor?"
Romana's mouth contorted at the bad taste in her mouth. That bad taste was given a name.
" Daleks. In the Medusa cascade. Millions of them."
Flavia and the other councilors started talking when they got over their two minute shock. '' Where's the Doctor?" Flavia asked again.
" He's gone to face them. Flavia, the Daleks are not alone. Davros has survived. He'd come out of the war thanks to Dalek Caan."
" That's impossible."
Romana's pregnancy had made her lose most of her renowned control, and the Scholar's statement made her lash out, Susan grabbing hold of her to keep her steady. " I know its impossible, but its happened."
Romana gave them a brief summary of the recent turn of events, Donna's parallel world, the Daleks, the planets stolen, their presence in the Medusa cascade, Rose Tyler's return. All of it, including her husband making his own granddaughter take her away.
The Scholar's scathing words made Susan and the Rani, who was also in attendance want to kill him, but that was nothing compared to what Romana wanted to do to him.
" You're marriage is none of our concern, Lady Romana."
Breathing and huffing, Romana gritted her teeth. This was not doing her pregnancy any favours. " I don't give a damn what you think, you pompous beauracratic snob. I know all about your prejudice towards my husband, but I don't care. You've spent your lives ignoring the bigger picture of the cosmos, but not me and my husband. He could be dead for all I know, and if I hear one word from you, you'll regret it. You're supposed to be a Time Lord. That means more than sitting down on your arse, playing it safe. I've spent most of my life travelling the universe. I've fought monsters, whereas you've done nothing but lecture people. The time for our people to be blind and weak minded is past. The old era of the Time Lords will never come back. We must move forward." She said, looking at each of them.
Flavia looked down at her toes before she looked up, her eyes as hard as granite. " You're right, Romana. Its time we become more proactive instead of reactive. I'll contact the other races myself and arrange for as many ships and TARDISes as possible for launch."
Romana nodded, her worry about her husband making her more and more nauseous. Flavia's promise was welcome, then she remembered something else, for more problematic. " There's something else, something far more serious. One of the Doctor's companions, Rose Tyler, was left in a parallel world after a confrontation with the Daleks, and she was stuck in the parallel universe. She had access to alien technology, thanks to an organisation called Torchwood, and used that technology to rip holes in the walls of reality."
The Scholar threw up his hands, " Oh, when will the Doctor ever stop taking humans on his travels?"
That was it.
Romana marched over to him as best as she could, and she punched the reticient Time Lord in the eye. The Scholar staggered back, holding his eye.
" I don't have anything to say to you, Scholar. Keep away from me."
A few hours.
That was how long it took for the battle fleets to be organised, and it wasn't long before both Romana and Susan with Flavia boarded the Human-Time Lord battlecruiser. On the outside of the mighty ship was massive, but the inside of the ship was infinitely more bigger than outside, thanks to the pocket universe inside.
Rani looked around the bridge of the Human-Time lord ship. It was a mixture of styles, some of the walls had roundeled panels on them, but there were more commonly bare walls with functional controls on them. Rani knew that the Human-Time lord race, and the others had superseded TARDIS technology, and she knew that even though the ship was disappointingly smaller on the outside, that wasn't true for most of the internal mass. The engines and the weapon systems wwere inside massive sections that were too big for a normal ship, but there was no additional mass to the ship.
Susan watched as Romana looked around the bridge with admiration. The younger Time lady had interacted with her cousin race on many occasions, more than either the Doctor or Romana.
Romana was rubbing her pregnant belly, fretting as she sat on the couch the captain had had brought up to the bridge for her comfort, much to her gratitude. Susan embraced her. " He'll be alright." She whispered. Tears flooded Romana's eyes. " I hate him sometimes, for thinking that I'm just a weakling." She said between her tears.
" You know that's not true," Susan chided. " He wanted to keep you safe, and the best way of doing that would be to send you off and get help at the same time. He counted on that."
" I know, but-" Romana cried harder.
The captain approached, professionally ignoring Romana, and announced. " We're ready."
Jumping out of warp space, the Human-Time Lord, Silurian-Time Lord, Monan-Host -Time Lord, and Chula-Time Lord battlefleets appeared next to the time barrier surrounding the Medusa Cascade.
The Captain of the ship Romana was on, ordered calmly. " Activate time drive, charge all weapons and power the shields. Firepower maximum. Remember the Daleks are to be slaughtered. No mercy. And don't forget, there are 27 planets in there, and they must be returned."
The battle fleets moved in, and activated their temporal deflectors to pry open the temporal pocket. The Doctor's TARDIS, and Susan's, had weakened it. The deflectors applied more pressure to the temporal barrier. Finally, in a burst of blue light, the entire thing came down.
The Chula- Time Lord attack fighters, with their Silurian and Human counterparts, fired on the Dalek battlesaucers, their anti-Dalek weapons piercing the shields of the Dalek ships without effort. The Rani had taught her lessons well on that subject, giving them Dalek technology to work with, and to make advances with. Their weapons maximised the Dalekanium power feeds inside their ships as well, destroying the Daleks, burning them inside their casings.
On the crucible, the Doctor watched as the fighters, Chula-Time lord by the look of them, throw themselves against the Daleks, destroying saucer after saucer, their weapons a mixture between Human, Time Lord, Dalek, and Chula, naturally. It was the warlike tendencies of the Chula that had made them such an obvious candidate of the Rani's to breed a new race of Time lords from them.
Rose, who had somehow managed to teleport to the Crucible, in some sickening desire to announce her love to him, was watching the slaughter with wide eyes, and the Doctor realised she had never seen Dalek ships be attacked by another race before. Sarah-Jane, Jackie, Mickie, Martha, and Jack, were locked in similar cells.
" Doctor, who are they?" She asked.
Davros wheeled around in his chair, " Yes, Doctor, who are they?"
The Kaled scientist almost jumped out of his chair when the Daleks near him exploded as the Dalekanium feeds caused their casings to overload. He was furious, he recognised some of the weapons as Time lord, but the Time lords were all but extinct. He'd been nursing dreams of killing the Doctor finally when the Reality bomb had been exploded.
" Figure it out, Davros." The Doctor said quietly, just as he, his friends, and not friend Rose were transported to the bridge of the Human-Time lord ship that Romana was on. The Doctor grabbed her, but she slapped him, the sound reverberating around the bridge, bringing all attention on to them. " That's for thinking I couldn't handle it." She shouted, tears leaking from her eyes, her coiffured hair falling out of the elegant hairdo. Then Romana grabbed him by the lapels and snogged him.
Jack grinned, but it faded when he saw Rose's expression. " Rose, it was never going to happen."
Rose was about to retort, when they caught sight of some of the Dalek ships be rounded up, and pushed towards the Crucible where smaller ships started generating beams of yellow energy, catching them like a spider's web. The Dalek ships that tried to pass it were destroyed, and the Zed neutrino energy shining from the reality bomb emitter array grew dimmer as the energy was siphoned off.
One of the crew reported to the captain, " Energy webs on line, some of the Daleks and saucers are trying to activate temporal shift and time corridor, or simple teleportation, but the webs keeping their signals blocked."
The Captain nodded. " Excellent. Continue firing on them."
Martha walked over to the embracing Doctor and Romana, smiling at Romana. " What're they doing?" She asked, pointing at the web.
The Doctor didn't turn around, he knew what the web was. " The web is generated by the Time lord ships," he started, ignoring Rose's gasp of surprise. " And they siphon energy from the enemy ships, blocking any attempt to flee by warp or hyperjump, even time travel's rendered inoperative. It's similar to some tricks the Daleks played with our TARDISes."
Rose just had to stick her nose in it, " How can they be Time lords? Your the last one."
The Doctor shook his head. " Not when I found the Master and Romana, then I found others. Rani, over there," he pointed at the oriental Time Lady," created dozens of new Time lord races, subspecies. Human was only one of them."
The captain approached. " If I may interrupt, Doctor, your TARDIS has been transported on our ship, though we had a little trouble with a woman inside."
" Donna," The Doctor said. " Captain, what're you gonna do with the Earth?"
" We going to activate a fold to send them back."
The Doctor was about to ask what a fold was when Romana cried out, clutching her belly. She was in labour.
Romana was rushed to the medical bay, trying to control her pains, but she was failing. The twins were giving her such a hard time, she thought they were going to tear their way out of her womb.
The Doctor was presently in agony, as Romana was crushing his hand in her grasp, and she was cursing him, spitting obsenties at him. The duty nurse came over. " Okay, I need you to push now."
Romana screamed.
Outside, Rose's heart was breaking as the sound of Romana's screaming, unable to comprehend how the Doctor had married her, that bitch, that Time lady. Jack and a girl who claimed to be the Doctor's granddaughter. Granddaughter! How could he be a grandfather? Yes, he'd said that he was a father once, but he had said nothing about that.
She was the one the Doctor loved, not that bitch.
She didn't notice the ship's captain and three of his guards approach her or her mother and Mickie until they were close enough. " Rose Tyler." The captain said, and Rose jumped and looked up, watching the four of them carefully.
" The walls of reality are closing, it's time for you to leave. Please stand up." The Captain continued, and the guards raised their weapons at her.
Jackie protested, scared for her daughter. " Oi! What's happenin'? "
The Captain turned his gaze to her, and Jackie stepped back at the coldness in his eyes. " Your daughter is responsible for the Daleks coming out of the Time war, and tearing the fabric of the universe to pieces. She and you, are going to be sent back to the reality you have been residing in, and you will have your memories locked so you cannot leave it again and cause more damage."
The captain raised his hand, showing a small blue gem in the palm, but Mickie got there first. He'd had enough of the universe the Doctor had named Pete's world, since his alternate grandmother had died, and he wanted to leave it. He had nothing there, and Rose was an arrogant bitch.
" Can I stay here?" He asked, unknowingly aware that the Captain was reading his mind, and sensing his sincerity.
" I see no reason why not." He said, holding up the palm gem again, and Jackie and Rose disappeared in blue light.
The Doctor sighed as he took off his jacket and shirt, and undid his tie as he prepared to go to bed. The TARDIS had done some remodelling on the room he and Romana shared, and added a doorway into the room the twins would share. Damon, and Rodan, a boy and girl, were in their mother's arms as she fed them, looking like an angel as she glowed with maternal joy at the sight of the twins.
When he got into bed, Romana turned his smiling face at him, then her smile faded as she saw his solemness. " What's wrong?" She asked.
" I didn't say goodbye to Jackie for the last time, but I'm glad I didn't have to speak to Rose." He whispered, playing idly with the twins and watched with a grin as Rodan grabbed her father's little finger and started sucking it.
These precious children could've been erased from existence by Davros, and his reality bomb. The thought of the evil scientist made him feel physically ill, and he was glad the others had generated that web to stop the crippled monster from escaping again.
Romana gave him a smile, " She's a mother herself, she knew you were occupied as it was. Besides, what would you have said to Rose? I'm sure you've said enough to her as it is already."
The Doctor gave a wry grin, but Romana was worried when she saw his eyes. " Look," she said exasperately, " what's really wrong with you?"
The Doctor sighed, he should've expected his beloved wife to notice that there was more to his melancholy than saying goodbye to Jackie and finding the appropriate words to Rose.
" It's Davros," he sighed. " It's just that he got out of the time lock, due to Rose, but I can't but feel that...if Davros could come out of the lock, something else can as well, something worse."
Romana clutched her children together protectively. She now saw the Doctor's point, if Davros, the evil creator of the Daleks could come out, what about the Nightmare child? Or the Couldhavebeenking? Other Daleks? Or...Rassilon?
The memory of the evil leader of the Time lords made Romana's hearts freeze. What if he did get out?
She didn't know it then, but that thought would come back in another 100 years to haunt her once more.
