Return to the Homestead

The TARDIS slammed down inside the cradles in the CIA tower, pressing a few controls the Warking hacked into the Capitol grid, throughout the Amplified Panatropic Network codes and backdoors put in place millions of years ago.

"What do you want?" the Warking asked Arla from across the console. "I could put you in the regiment as if you'd never met me."

"Why, where are you going?" Arla asked him in turn already having a feeling that she wouldn't like whatever he said next.

"First I'm going to rescue Narvin, then I'm going to stop this war once and for all," the Warking's answer wasn't particularly forthcoming, but Arla realised what he was saying.

"You're going to destroy Time Lords and Daleks alike," Arla wasn't sure whether to be appalled or relieved that the war would end.

"Yes,"

"Well, it ends as it begun," Arla responded her voice full of sadness.

"I'm sorry?"

"Rassilon and a corrupt leadership for the Gallifreyan people." Arla said. "Wonder why we never tried to find the Other or Omega."

The Warking watched Arla, his eyes guarded.

"You remember the Other?" the Warking asked in surprise.

"Yeah, apparently he threw himself into the central loom in order to be reincarnated one day in Gallifrey's future." Arla said as the Warking crossed the room to pull up a staser rifle.

"If you want to come with me I suggest you get a weapon," the Warking turned back to K-9. "K-9 stay here and be ready to transfer the TARDIS directly to the Vaults."

"Warking, where are we?" Arla asked already bringing up her own rifle.

"Above, between or below," the Warking sung, badly.

"The Dark tower?" Arla asked.

"Yes, the only place where Rassilon could stop his opponents from finding that Gallifrey's legal President was still alive." The Warking's voice was full of contempt as he walked out of the TARDIS into the stone room that contained Rassilon's tomb, and stretched out across the stone slab was Narvin, he was tied in a spread eagle position, his face was pitted and full of scars. Blood was smeared across his Patrexian robes.

The Warking placed his twin fingers on Narvin's temples.

Narvin, it's me…

Rassilon paced across the Presidential office, he barely took notice when Matthias entered his office, his was too busy studying his new face.

"My Lord President, we have a Matrix alert, someone has entered the Dark Tower,"

Rassilon turned to Matthias his eyes filled with murderous rage.

Narvin pulled himself up and took the Warking's arm and looked at Commander Arla.

"Acting-President are you alright?" the Warking asked as Narvin drew level with him, they looked into each other's eyes before Narvin's slipped to the transmat both as two chancellery guards materialised. Narvin took the Warking's pistol as the Warking raised his rifle, the two Time Lords fired, the chancellery guard fell, dead, but more came.

Firing continuously the Warking and Narvin spun over the stone slab as weapons fire scorched and burnt the room.

"Commander Arla get back to my TARDIS and activate emergency protocol two!" the Warking ordered as he and Narvin pocked their heads up to fire, more and more guards poured in only to be met by sudden and brutal death, as materialised from the both they'd be instantly cut down as staser fire burnt their armour and destroyed their second hearts with absolute precision, neither the Warking or Narvin missed.

Despite their marksmanship more and more guards poured in until they were hemmed in.

"Why did you come back for me?" Narvin asked over the cacophony.

"After all the days, all the loses, Lucie, Tamsin, Alex, Patience, Brax, Leela…" the Warking looked up to fire off another salvo of weapons wire. "I'm not losing anyone else."

"Well touching as that is, you've just killed our only chance of stopping Rassilon!" Narvin said in turn as the trasmat both powered up and Chancellor Matthias appeared.

Just as they were about to be overwhelmed the TARDIS begun to materialise around them, they dimly heard Matthias roar to raise the force field.

"K-9 get us out of here!" the Warking shouted as the TARDIS rocked to the side.

"Raise force fields!" Narvin crashed over the console and took over; the Warking was slow to assist. "We need to lock onto the Matrix partition under the Panopticon."

"I know!" the Warking shouted back as the TARDIS rocked back and forth. "Wanted the best TARDIS pilot, unfortunately Romana wasn't available!"

"Second best to Romana, I can live with that!" Narvin shouted back, the Warking smiled back.

"I don't know who wouldn't mind being second to the smartest Time Lord ever!" the Warking said as the TARDIS rocked to a halt.

Narvin and the Warking ran to the doors and into the catacombs, at the centre of the Capitol was the great hexagonal hall of the Panopticon and beneath it was the Eye of Harmony Chamber. The two Time Lords knew exactly where to go, the massive double doors were a hundred feet tall.

Moving forward Narvin stood tall.

"I am Narvinectralonum of the Patrexian Chapter, Acting-President of the Time Lords and I demand entry!" Narvin's voice was small compared to the sound as the massive locks and automatic clicking as the doors parted.

They then plunged forward into the darkness; at the centre was a massive brass sphere, from the top was a hexagonal pillar that stretched all the way up to the Panopticon.

"It's incredible," Narvin breathed.

"Yes, the Other completed this chamber in Omega's name," the Warking said as he walked forward to a console, Narvin stepped onto the edge of the Sphere.

"Now," Narvin ordered as the Warking pressed the control as a sphere of glowing white light formed. He reached out and closed his fist around the Great Key, he stepped back.

Nodding the Warking pressed another series of controls causing the sphere to roll to the side and the Infinite Time Loop to fail revealing a crate.

Narvin attached the transmat control to the crate and turned back to the Warking.

"We have it,"

"My apologies Lord President but the Lord Doctor and Lord Narvin escaped your chambers in the Dark Tower, they appeared to have the assistance of a deserter from Arcadia,"Rassilon shuddered at Matthias' voice came over the communications net, must I be surrounded by these fools.

"Very well Chancellor, we shall continue the search throughout the Capitol," Rassilon cut the link.

Turning back to the double door of his office Rassilon flexed his fingers in the Gauntlet of Arcalia.

Where would I go if I wanted to stop the Magnatron power sequence? Rassilon mussed, while he was no scientist Rassilon knew some of the principles behind the Magnatrons operation and the power sequence for the Eye of Harmony as designed by the Other during his days as Rassilon's contemporary.

The massive double doors to the Eye Chamber closed; the Warking and Narvin looked satisfied, as they made their way back to the TARDIS neither of them spoke, they didn't have to. While every other Time Lord had been consumed by hatred, anger and a desire to survive Narvin and the Warking remembered what it actually meant to be a Time Lord, and what it meant they must do. They wished they didn't.

They suddenly ducked behind an ancient support girder as a small group of guards walked passed; they were holding a young woman, presumably a Time Lady who objected to the Final Sanction. Her duty insignia suggested a Matrix technician.

One of the Guards turned their head to look around, then apparently satisfied there where to witnesses he raised the staser and fired into her head at point blanc range.

As her dead body rolled to the floor the guards laughed and moved on, not noticing as Narvin and the Warking stepped from the shadows, kneeling beside her body Narvin rolled her eyelids shut.

He then stood as the two Time Lords continued towards the TARDIS, just as they reached the doors an energy blast roared overhead, the Warking crashed with all his might into Narvin, the blast grazed the back of his head. Spinning around the Warking fired a single shot at Matthias who lead the group of guards, as he fell down the fires of regeneration begun to blaze beneath his skin.

Kicking open the doors the Warking unleashed K-9 who having expanded the TARDIS' force fields rendered the stasers useless.

"K-9 activate the transmat control and bring it here!" the Warking had grabbed Narvin and dragged him into the TARDIS as the engines started and the box faded from view.

The Last Great Time War in Heaven raged across the universe for more than a thousand years, the Dalek emperor in orbit scintillated with glee as the transduction barriers weakened and the Quantum Force fields collapsed, Gallifrey's last garrison of war TARDIS' were being repelled. Soon the Daleks would become all powerful.

Deep inside the Capitol Rassilon surveyed the data on the plan to breach the Time Lock, if successful they'd only need to hold the breach open for a few microspans before reality integrity fell below sustainable levels and space-time collapsed.

Meanwhile across the planet in southern Gallifrey stood a mountain, in days past the House of Lungbarrow, which was perched on the side of the mountain. Would have overlooked the majestic Cadonflood river, but now the nearby tectonic plates had shifted and buckled, molten rock flowed from nearby peaks and the river was now a bloated swell of chemical waste from the war-looms and magma from some long-extinct caldera set off by the Dalek assaults. The orange sky was blotted out by ash, acid rain had scouwered the few non volcanic peaks down to nothing, snow and plants had long been destroyed.

Inside the Houses' attic the TARDIS materialised, the Warking stepped out and looked around with despair.

"Welcome Home Thete, welcome home…" he muttered, louder he added to Arla and Narvin. "Welcome to my ancestral home, the House of Lungbarrow."

"It's a wreck!" Arla exclaimed taking in the dilapidated room.

"Like most of the planet," Narvin cynically added.

"It wasn't always like this," the Warking started. "When I was young the hallways lit up and the Drudges and painting would whisper their welcome, now it's dead and empty, looted too I'll bet!"

Narvin laid a hand onto the Warking's shoulder as a tear made its way down his face. Looking around Narvin turned to Arla, the whole right side of his face was terribly burnt and he only had vision in one eye.

"Commander find the Loom controls, we need access to the Capitol grid," as Arla left Narvin walked forward to join the Warking at the window, a burnt orange paradise, was how he'd once have described Gallifrey, but not anymore.

"Leela once said that it was in the outlands that Gallifrey's future lay amongst the sand beetles and dust worms, well they all died," Narvin broke the Warking's concentration and nostalgia. "Gallifrey has no future, not anymore…"

Trailing off Narvin went to assist Arla as the Warking re-entered his TARDIS.

"K-9, find Narvin and Arla,"

"Affirmative, Master,"

Watching sadly as K-9 left and he was alone he turned to the crate, focusing his eye into the blue light the retina scan authenticated who he was, as he pulled back he put the Great Key into the lock and saw the box open. Inside was a dull black cylinder that would attach to the TARDIS console and a controller with a white point star as the detonator charge, licking his dry lips he attached the device and held the tiny diamond in his hand.

"If you're going to do it, do it and put us out of our misery,"

Spinning around the Warking saw Romana perched in his armchair, this Romana was how she'd been at the start of her term, her previous regeneration, flowing golden hair and a lovely smile, her voice was as Presidential as ever.

"Romana?" the Warking whispered in shock, he was in half a mind to call Narvin.

"Don't you like it, I searched your memories and you always associate this body with authority.

"You're not Romana, who are you?"

"No, not this form how about this one?" the not-Romana morphed and shifted into a figure on a tweed jacket, cardigan and tie, in other words the Warking's old friend Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart, retired of course. "Ah Doctor, splendid fellows, all of you."

"Don't call me that," the Warking breathed. "The Doctor died in the Presidential office the moment that the blade plunged between Romana's hearts, I'm all that's left."

"You say that," Alistair crossed to stand in front of the Warking. "And yet you still yearn for another way."

"How do you know that?"

"I can see inside your head, the Final Sanction, the Daleks, all of the other horrors in this war." Alistair looked around the console room. "Who am I?"

"You're the Moment, the interface the Other built to stand in judgement of those who would try to destroy the Time Lords." The Warking, said in resignation. "I have no desire to survive this."

"Then that's your punishment, you Arla and Narvin. You live." Alistair sat down beside the console followed by the Warking. "You once disagreed emphatically with the real Brigadier over the Silurian affair."

"He… He committed genocide," the Warking's voice cracked, sure this was Romana's plan should the war progress to far but she wasn't the one pressing the button, that was him.

"And he was following orders, just as you are now," Alistair swallowed. "Do you know how many people on this planet disagree with the Sanction, how many newly loomed Time Lords and Ladies really want to go through with this?"

"No,"

"One day you will, do you want to see who you will become?"

"No," the Warking looked at his feet. "I know who I am, I am the Warking, loomed from the House of Lungbarrow on Otherstide eve, I was once married to the most wonderful woman in the universe, we had thirteen children, grandchildren, even a Great Grandson. I am known as the Oncoming storm, Ka Faraq Gatri, destroyer of worlds, bringer of darkness, Time's Champion and a former President of Gallifrey, and on the Last Day I would die alongside my people."

"No, Doctor," Alistair looked to the Warking. "That isn't your fate,"

"What's that?" the Warking asked as a portal opened overhead.

"A doorway into your future," Alistair took hold of the white point star and put it into the Warking's pocket.