A/N: I have a very important question. What's the most angsty and/or sad scene for the New Doctor Who that you want the other companions to see and know? PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! Very important for later chapters!

Chapter 12

Big Brother is Coming Home

River and Jenny were screaming and screaming as they plummeted through the atmosphere at an exhilarating speed. The Daleks opened fire, but Jenny shot back all the same. She grinned as one of the Dalek spaceships burst into flames. River pulled the Zigzag router, narrowly avoiding being destroyed by a bright green ray.

"How much distance left?" She hollered. Jenny ran to the screen and shouted back.

"Almost there!"

"How much, sweetheart?"

"Oh—fifty kilometers till we reach the Crack!"

The console room lurched and rocked roughly. River cursed and ran up to the console. She swerved to the left, and a missile whizzed past. Jenny stared down from the open TARDIS door. The Crack was looming closer and closer and bigger and bigger every second, at a dizzying speed—

The radio beeped incessantly, replaying an urgent message signal from the Church.

'Warning: Do not approach. Warning: Do not approach. Warning—!'

Oh, no chance of that, River smirked gleefully, in spite of the urgent situation. The wind was roaring now, and the gravity pull only increased the speed of the ship as it hurtled down directly to the Crack, unstoppable by any force. 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 kilometer left—

"Do it, Jenny!" River yelled over the roaring noise of the overpowered engine. "Do as I told you. NOW!"

The Church of the Silence was sending out troops, and they were just behind Jenny and River, ready to shoot them down to pieces. On the other hand, the Crack looked bigger than ever before, glowing with a bright white light, as if waiting for someone. Or something. And they exactly knew what it was. And nothing was going to stop them, if this meant getting some help for the Doctor.

Jenny inhaled sharply, closed her eyes tightly shut, and yelled at the top of her lungs, every cell of her body hoping and praying that this would work. Things would go to absolute hell if it didn't.

"Time Lords of Gallifrey, this is the TARDIS! We demand entrance to your pocket universe, in the Name of the Doctor, which is—!"

The moment the Name fell from her lips, a blinding storm of light erupted from the crack, engulfing all of them. The Daleks screamed for mercy—in vain—as the sheer, amazing amount of energy ripped them to pieces. The Church was hopelessly blown away like dust. A thundering flash ensued, and then—

The TARDIS had disappeared, nowhere to be seen.

*…*…*…*…*…*

Pocket Universe, Gallifrey.

Lady President Romana sat in her office, having a cup of tea and relaxing—for the first time in many weeks. Irving Braxiatel, Lord Cardinal of Gallifrey, sat across her. Even in dire times like this, the lean man's black suit and the graceful posture was remarkably sleek and impeccable.

Braxiatel was the Doctor's only brother, but he gave a drastically different first impression. The Doctor was rather eccentric, quirky, and cheerfully insane. He was rude from time to time, and handed out jelly babies to everyone. He was the very picture of a classical renegade in Gallifrey.

On the other hand, Brax looked like he was in his mid-thirties, with his jet black hair and the manners of a noble scholar. It was undeniable that he was quite a handsome man. He was also unofficially the richest man in the Universe— but still, he never wasted his money or boasted about it. In short, Braxiatel was the best Renaissance man one could ever meet, and it was enough to attract almost everyone immediately at first sight.

However, Romana knew better.

She turned around and looked at the currently most powerful (not officially, of course, but still, it was the well-known truth) Time Lord in Gallifrey.

"Although most had turned to dust from the impact of breaking through the Time Lock, there were eight survivors of the Council who engaged in the Final Sanction. Two of them were those who objected, the other two were the guards. One was the Master, and three of them were the ones who had agreed. Surely you know that, Cardinal Braxiatel?"

"Oh, yes, so I've heard. And it's just Brax, you know. And actually the reason I've come back to Gallifrey at the last moment of the Time War was to stop the Final Sanction. Fortunately, they had been stopped by the Doctor, and in the same time all the twelve incarnations of the Doctor froze this planet into a pocket universe. Frankly speaking, I was quite impressed. Do you know that the children are singing songs about him in the marketplace?"

He chuckled, bringing a cup of black tea to his mouth. "I never knew that the Doctor would be able to pull such a feat. That was nearly impossible. Not to mention that he wasn't the best student in the Academy, and he was a renegade, too."

"Oh, Rassilion, stop talking about him like a stranger. And don't think you can throw me off scent like that, Brax." She shook her head, arching her eyebrows rather disapprovingly. "Look—they had all been hospitalized, and they were recovering from their injuries at a relatively fine pace. And suddenly, yesterday, the three who had voted in favor of the Final Sanction were discovered dead. Fried in electricity! Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"Hmm, how unfortunate." Irving Braxiatel tilted his head, inspecting the intricate patterns on the bottom of his cup. "I remember interviewing them after they had regained consciousness. I was mildly surprised—they didn't express any regret for their choices, and seemed to be quite eager to regain their seat and the power. A pity that they will never be able to do so— there was a power overload in their rooms, wasn't it? What a coincidence…"

"Are you sure that it's a coincidence? An accident?" Romana demanded in a sarcastic voice, her annoyed feelings and exasperation seeping through.

"Oh, yes, of course, my Lady President." He replied in a cool, level voice. "Absolutely sure."

"And how is that?"

"You see, Romanadvoratrelundar—" Brax leaned back, smiling pleasantly. "I happened to be the Chief Investigator of the incident. I didn't find any signs indicating murder."

Romana stiffened, feeling a sudden chill run down her spine. He continued to sip his tea in a casual manner. There was a reason he was called a Renaissance man and a sneaky devil. His work was always… perfect, in a sense.

He had left Gallifrey for good, believing in it inevitable demise. And soon enough, as he had predicted, the Time War broke out.

Frankly, he didn't care too much; he had the genetic information data of every Time Lords on the planet, and he could rebuild Gallifrey back to its original glory once all of this was over. Lives of children being lost? He shrugged. Such trivial matters didn't trouble him at all. They will all be restored anyway, won't they? Why try to save them when there was a far easier way?

The only thing that made him pause was the Doctor. His little brother who walked the stars, somewhere far away. His only 'true' family that understood him and still didn't despise him.

But he had never been the 'caring older brother' type, and the Doctor was always good at surviving without his help— Braxiatel trusted Theta's remarkable survival instincts more than anything. So he turned away and retired to his personal museum on an asteroid that he won by gambling—the famous Braxiatel Collection. And there he stayed, waiting for the War to end and things to quieten down. He didn't give a second thought to rescuing the Doctor.

—That is, until he got the news of the imminent activation of the Final Sanction. The end of reality, the end of time itself. The end of cultures and civilizations. The end of Gallifrey. The death of the Doctor.

Angered, Lord Cardinal Braxiatel charged back to his doomed home planet, intending to kill Rassilion and end his madness then and there from wrecking the Universe.

He certainly didn't expect this.

You certainly got better at it, didn't you, Theta? He smiled fondly. The Doctor had frozen the entire planet into safety, ending the war once and for all. And Brax—although he did have the ability to travel between universes with ease and could have left the Pocket Universe even without a TARDIS—stayed. Since the original Gallifrey didn't fall, after all, he wouldn't have to proceed with his plan. Instead, he was helping the wrecked planet back onto its feet.

After the disbelief, joy and celebration, people began rebuilding their home planet. They mourned and buried the dead with honor, they rebuilt hospitals and temporary houses with wood and metal. They salvaged what little resource they had, and made the best of it; the marketplace began teeming with life once more. In the place of rubbles and blood, the orange sky revealed itself. There weren't any Dalek ships hovering overhead anymore. Birds began to sing.

Gallifrey was waking up again, softly singing the song of the Doctor, their savior.

With the Council gone, people called for Romana to lead them as their Lady President again. There weren't many High Minds of Gallifrey left. Most of the Council had died when the Final Sanction failed. So there were just the War Council and its trustworthy General, the two surviving loyal High Council members including his own mother, Romana, and him. Lord Cardinal Braxiatel.

Excellent.

They worked together smoothly, and they worked hard. Day and night. It took them three full weeks to restore their Capital. His mother volunteered to take the Master in and care for him—the man was still unconscious and recovering— albeit secretly; although they had agreed that his madness was due to the wrongdoings of the Council, the people didn't know of it yet, and they would be appalled at the idea of taking a criminal like the Master in. Better to keep them in the dark. That would be far easier.

So they took Master to their family manor—the one that was miraculously unharmed—and his mother tended to him. She looked much younger now, with her new, beautiful face, slender figure and the long ginger hair. She had regenerated in order to recover from the impact of the Final Sanction.

Master had regenerated so, too, while still in coma, with the energy pack given to him via Romana's orders. But as far as he could see, there was little or no change in his features, except for the fact that his body wasn't flickering blue and transparent anymore. Well, Brax didn't care too much for the renegade Time Lord, drumbeats or not. So he didn't pay much attention to him after that.

Shrugging, he brought the cup of hot black tea to his lips again. It had been three weeks and two days since the End of War, and this was the first time he was taking a break.

Roman sighed and sat down, too, dropping the subject. She could do with some tea and a few minutes of rest— she was quite tired, too. And even though Irving Braxiatel was one of the most intelligent and ruthless people she had ever seen, it was not like he enjoyed murdering. On the contrary, he solely acted for what he thought was a 'better good'; it was only his lack of sympathy or compassion, the complete absence of hesitation when it came to manipulating others or sacrificing his friends or other 'trivial things' in the way that made her feel fear.

At least… she trusted him. He had always been her best, most trustworthy supporter. So, although she didn't approve of his 'methods', she did allow herself to relax in his presence.

Oh, well, Romana shrugged, and brought the teacup to her lips again. A little bit of peace does no harm, she thought…

BANG—!

… And at that exact moment, the TARDIS crashed through the roof, making a fantastic cloud of dust and pieces of wood rain down on their heads spectacularly. The antique wooden desk shattered with a heavy thud, and Romana gaped as the all-too-familiar blue police box door was thrown open and a woman with wild, curly hair and a girl with a golden ponytail tumbled out, losing their balance in the process. They fell face-first onto the splintered remnants of the said table and promptly lost their consciousness.

Braxiatel calmly set his cup down and spoke.

"… Well, that was unexpected."

"WHAT?!" Romana whipped around, staring at Brax incredulously. "For Rassilion's sake, Cardinal Braxiatel! How can you just sit there and say 'well, that was unexpected'?! This is the Doctor's TARDIS. As far as we know, they could have killed the Doctor, got hold of his TARDIS, and came to assassinate or attack us via a mysterious route!"

"No need to fret. It's about time you knew what kind of man I am." Braxiatel shot an annoyed glance at the angry Time Lady. He placed a hand on his chair. "I'm always prepared for every unexpected happenings."

And he pressed a hidden button.

A blue constraining energy field shot up, smoothly encasing the two unconscious people like a tube. Romana stared in utter disbelief.

"I didn't know that we had such… thing."

"Of course, I gave a direct order for its installment."

"… In my office, without my permission?"

"Yes. Any problem?" Braxiatel replied coldly, and turned his attention back to the two intruders. He clasped his hands together and smiled. "Now, will our two intruders kindly identify themselves?"

For a short time, there was only silence; then the fingertip of the blond girl twitched, Slowly, slowly, she raised her head, looking dazed. Her eyes scanned the room in a sluggish manner—until she found Romana and Braxiatel standing side-by-side and staring at her. Romana tensed up a bit, but Brax was merely watching with interest.

Jenny's eyes widened in recognition of the male Time Lord, and then her face cracked into a huge grin. She jumped up, waving her had excitedly, and shouted—

"Hi, uncle!"

For a moment, everything was absolutely still.

Romana froze, her hand flying to her mouth in shock.

Irving Braxiatel's jaw dropped open. He had never expected this.

And meanwhile, River, who was lying in the back, came to her senses, too. She looked up, shaking her head groggily. She frowned, her eyes taking in the blue, transparent energy field surrounding her. Finally, she understood what kind of situation she was in. And a playful smirk immediately sprang to her lips.

For she had a very amusing idea.

A/N: Uh-oh. Sorry for the delayed update! And sorry for this short, boring chapter; it was necessary for the plot. Forgive me. But it will become much more exciting, I promise! Some really good parts coming up!

Next Chapter: River being… River. In short, chaos ensues. Also, Braxiatel gets the shock of his life— he finally meets Theta, manages to insult and annoy everyone in three minutes, and ends up receiving a Donna Noble slap. Humor and Fluff!

Please R&R—and mind the Author's Note up there.