'Good boy,' Rose said as she rubbed her hand over the warbum's long neck. 'Or are you a girl, and the other head is a boy? Guess we'll never know will we? Not without a sonic screwdriver we won't.'

The crowd was cheering around them, the purple light of dusk inviting the workers to forget their troubles for a little while. Little Anthony was standing ontop of Mary's shoulders, eyes wide with anticipation. 'Mind sharing what you're telling it?' Gunter laughed behind her. 'Because it seems to be working.'

Rose grinned as the warbum trembled with a satisfied moan and took another step toward the finishing line on her side, and away from the one on Gunter's. She kept talking to it in a soft, playful voice. 'And not without a blue box that goes swoosh-hhhrrrrr – wait, that isn't how it goes.' She tried replicating the old TARDIS' take-off and landing sound as good as she could, but even the warbum seemed to disagree with her attempts, because its whole body suddenly tensed, and both its heads shrieked loudly. 'Woah, OK, I'll stop!' Rose shouted, but too late. The warbum freaked out completely, kicking out on Gunter's side and then on Rose's, throwing them both off as it spun around rapidly. Their screams briefly filled the air, dirt billowing as they hit the ground. Rose scrambled to her feet just as Gunter rushed over to protect her.

His protection wasn't needed however, as the warbum suddenly stood absolutely still, its heads looking straight ahead, one to Rose's left, and the other to her right. Her jaw dropped when she saw the orange glow in their eyes. It was the same glow she'd seen in Felgorn's eyes when he'd attacked earlier that day. Rose had assumed that all dragon eyes glowed like that. Now she was pretty sure there was more to it than that. 'I gotta tell the Doctor,' she stammered.

But her blood turned to ice as both heads slowly turned toward her.


The Doctor had loved running – back when he'd been a Timelord. Now, he seriously worried that Rose might die because he hadn't eaten enough and his single heart just wasn't pumping enough oxygen to feed his exhausted muscles. He had always thougt that being human would be an incredible privilege, completely wasted on those blessed with it, but in that moment – and with what little breath he could spare – he cursed his human body.

The roofs of the settlement were burnished by the orange light of a setting sun. He raced through the streets, trying to ignore his aching lungs and muscles. So far, there was no sign of a dragon attack. That should have calmed him down, but instead it unsettled him even more. People stepped out of his way, giving him bewildered looks as he passed them by. One of them however, a really tall fellow, stepped into his way.

The Doctor was about to slip past him with a deft move when he saw the eyes of the man. They were glowing orange, with malicious, otherworldly intent. The Doctor skidded to a halt, coming to a stop just a metre before him, his mind already racing as he studied the man. He had a face like a dog with a big, unkempt beard, and thick, wiry muscles showing from underneath a black leather apron.

'But...' the Doctor began, as his mind began to race. The horrible realisation came crashing into his mind, paralysing him, just as the man brandished a large hammer.

'He needs me!' the Doctor insisted.

Shocked gasps and shouts came from all around him, a child shouting, 'Daddy no!' as the hammer smashed into the earth on which the Doctor had stood just a moment earlier. He had whirled around just in time, putting himself behind the mind-controlled giant. 'Well, somebody doesn't need me.'

It didn't matter. One buzz of the sonic screwdriver would be enough to cut the connection, so he reached into his pocket.

'Oh. Right.'

He turned and ran, dashing down the street. 'No!' the kid shouted, and the Doctor looked over his shoulder, getting ready to duck down in case the smith had tossed his hammer.

He couldn't believe what he saw.

The orange-eyed, dog-faced man was chasing after him, still gripping the heavy hammer firmly, his long legs closing the distance frighteningly fast.

'Blimey!' the Doctor exclaimed as he scampered aside at the very last second, right before the deadly swing crashed through the air above him. Momentum carried the Doctor further until his trainers lost their footing, and he rolled over himself, dirtying his suit with the soil-patched road.

When he came up again, he saw a door in front of him. Hoping he might be able to trick his pursuer, he made for it.

He barged into the smith's workshop, eyes jumping around. Heavy tools were lying on tables and shelves, a couple of squat anvils were waiting in a corner. A dead forge was taking up most of the space further in the back. The rest of the place was so cluttered with metal plates and parts, some of the stuff had simply been strung to the ceiling, held in place by a network of crisscrossing strings.

Behind him came more shocked cries, and the quick stomping of heavy feet, when the Doctor's eyes caught on a sword. It looked like it could withstand a blow from the hammer.

He quickly jumped to his hands and feet and dashed for the sword. He grabbed it with one hand, then added his second as his muscles failed to wield it with any sort of grace at all. Cursing himself for his weak, no-sonic-having human body, he raised the weapon in front of him and gritted his teeth, awaiting his opponent.

The man was coming at him like a rhinoceros, eyes flaring, hammer swinging wildly. The Doctor quickly calculated the amount of force he would have to produce in order to block his blow, and decided to duck away in the very last moment. The hammer's head went through a wooden support pillar behind him as if it was made of waffles.

The true nature of the situation began to dawn on the Doctor: He couldn't outrun the smith. He couldn't block his attacks. He could trick him, perhaps, trap him somewhere or lose him through clever manoeuvring. But who knows how long that would take; his human physique was still too new to him, and he worried it might fail him unexpectedly.

He glanced at the tip of his sword. It would be child's play to plunge that blade into his soft flesh.

He couldn't do it, obviously; his opponent was an innocent man, controlled by the king and turned into an assassin completely against his own will.

But meanwhile, Rose didn't know that something was coming for her.

She could die.

But I'm still the Doctor, am I not? Even without all my gadgets, my TARDIS and my hearts. I won't kill an innocent man, no matter the situation.

The man lumbered toward him, hammer firmly in his clutches. The Doctor moved one foot ahead, shifting into a proper combat stance, pointing his blade at his target.

Am I still the Doctor?

In the sliver of a moment before the hammer swung down, the Doctor spotted a connection within the network of crisscrossing strings, right behind the smith's head. He saw his chance and let his blade sink as he spun around, evading the attack. Using the momentum he brought the blade back up again in a wide arc toward the ceiling, cutting just the right string. With a sharp hiss, it slipped through the network, pulled by the heavy head of a showcase hammer that had been strung up in just the right place.

It hit the smith right in the back of his head with a dull thud. The orange glow disappeared almost instantly, and with a soft groan he fell on his face like a statue.

Breast heaving, and with vestiges of his moral conundrum still swirling around in his head, the Doctor checked his pulse – alive. He quickly spun around and dashed back out onto the road.

A scream ripped through the onlookers, making them jump and turn. The Doctor looked down the road to where Rose Tyler was running for her life. Behind her was a mad warbum with orange glowing eyes. Virgil the Illanti was flying right above it, ordering it to stop and trying to push it off its course.

'Rose!' the Doctor shouted. 'Over here!'

'Doctor!' she shrieked.

The Doctor turned around, desperately looking for something else he could use to knock out both of the animal's heads, but there was nothing.

He had an idea. An absolutely mad idea. 'Come to the TARDIS!' he shouted before he turned to run back the way he'd come.

His heart felt as if it was going to enter a workers' union and simply go on indefinite strike. His whole body felt like it would copy that idea fairly soon.

At least his orientation skills were still working. Dusk had almost shifted to night, and the forest was little more than black shapes blurring into each other, but with the help of his torch, he found the clearing right away. Further along, the remnants of moonlight highlighted the smooth edges of the infant TARDIS in a pale glow. He skidded to a halt and tapped the TARDIS three times, and panted, 'Blimey!' while it opened up. He scrambled inside, searching between two space suits, several gadgets and the mess of Rose's luggage that still hadn't been cleaned up until he'd found what he was looking for.

Moments later he was dashing outside again, the charged paradoxalyser in hand, aiming at the dark clearing.

A small, white light glowed in the utter darkness, frantically swivelling left and right. Rose with a Torchwood-torch, running for her life. The warbum's loud cry came from behind her, along with the stomping of feet. Virgil was flapping somewhere above them, shouting desperate suggestions for what she could do, but it was clear that he was just as overwhelmed and helpless as her.

'Alright, don't let me down now,' he said to the TARDIS. 'It's time to settle the matter, what d'you think? You're not scared of a little weirdness; no, you're secretly embracing it, aren't you? You're a brave TARDIS, I know you are! Nothing can scare you, certainly not some tiny little paradox creature. Am I right?'

The TARDIS remained silent. Ahead of him, Rose dropped the torch and put all her strength into a final sprint. Behind her, the eyes of the charging warbum glowed an implacable orange.

'Oh, I hope I'm right,' he muttered to himself. Then he pulled the trigger.

The cow-like cries of the warbum and the thunder of its trampling feet made Rose mobilise her last energy reserves. The past five minutes had felt like an eternity; she'd kept running after the Doctor, following the erratic movement of his torch beam, zigzagging whenever the creature was about to crush her. She was forever grateful to her Torchwood training; Rose from the shop wouldn't have stood a chance.

But she was also close to her limit. She dropped her torch as she saw the rectangular glow of the TARDIS' interior and the silhouette of the Doctor in front of it, and she hoped his plan – whatever that was – wouldn't take too long to kick in.

'Rose! Duck!'

She threw herself to the ground, fully cognisant she might be run over a moment later.

But instead, there was a loud sucking noise.

'What in the name of all the…'

Virgil's exclamation was interrupted by a deafening bang, followed by the fearful shriek of the warbum. Rose risked a look over her shoulder as she scrambled away. The creature was spinning around in the light of the Doctor's torch, jerking and kicking out, before it turned and ran off into the forest.

Heart beating, Rose glared at the Doctor. 'Next time just wait a little longer, why don't you?'

'You sound just like your mother.' The Doctor attempted a triumphant grin, but it quickly contorted into a breathless grimace, as he slumped back against the shell of the TARDIS, holding his aching chest.


Rose was still leaning against the TARDIS walls, resting her legs and trying her best to pay attention. Once Mary had caught up to them, they'd all settled down inside the TARDIS. Virgil had taken a while to deal with the whole bigger-on-the-inside thing, but eventually the Doctor's rapid explanations had forced him to just accept it.

Now the Doctor was seething with rage. 'He was being mind-controlled all along! That despicable despot, that murderous megalomaniac!'

'I'm lost,' said Rose. 'Which one's the megalo- the bad guy?'

'Pardon me,' Virgil threw in impatiently, 'are we not going to talk about what just happened out there?'

The Doctor made an impatient gesture at him. 'Come on, Virgil, keep up! Someone, meaning your father, or the advisor who's secretly an alien, or both of them, or neither of them, tried to kill Rose using the Dragon's Bane to mind-control a warbum. I disrupted the connection by teleporting it using a toy I built for my baby space-time-machine. It's really not that hard, is it?'

'I beg your pardon?' Virgil said.

'The big question is,' the Doctor went on, raising his voice as well as a finger. 'Who did it? And why? Two very big questions.'

'I can assure you that my father had nothing to do with it,' Virgil insisted.

The Doctor pointed his finger at him. 'Possibly. Very possibly, actually. He needs the dragon to suppress the population, to stay in power, and for that he needs me alive, and not squashed by a hammer. Then again, the Dragon's Bane doesn't work without the shiny crystal inside your father's staff, and he never lets it out of his sight. In that case, the wicked assassin really is the king, just with a completely different motive we have yet to find out.'

Virgil's eyes widened in outrage. 'What... what are these insinuations?'

The Doctor walked up to Virgil in an almost threatening way, his eyes dark like his voice. 'I am insinuating that your father is a bitter old man and a cold-blooded murderer!'

'That is not true!'

'Open your eyes, Virgil the idiot! Your daddy is consumed by hatred. Give power to such a man, like say, a leash around a dragon's neck, and he will set the world aflame!'

Virgil was torn between outrage and surprise at the Doctor's unbridled tantrum.

'Oi! Leave him alone,' threw in Rose. 'He's not the enemy!'

The Doctor stepped away from Virgil and began pacing around, an expression black as the night.

'Are you sure it was the king?' asked Mary in a weak attempt to come to Virgil's aid. 'Not the advisor?'

'The humanitarian cactus?' added Rose.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Unless he stole the crystal somehow.' He suddenly stopped, as if considering the possibility with new interest. 'He lied about the combustion engines. Plus he's well connected, has allies among the angels. It's not out of the question. I even granted him an overseer's authority to the Varrachian pacifier pod.'

'What can he do with that?' asked Rose.

'It allows him to disassemble the machine, take apart its components. Could be a piece of the puzzle. Though I've got no earthly clue what the whole picture might look like once it's finished.' The Doctor ruffled his hair, grunting in frustration. 'We've barely even sorted out the edge pieces!'

'So, whoever tried to kill us,' Rose said, 'they're fine with the Dragon's Bane being gone in ten days?'

'There would be nobody to stop Felgorn,' said Mary, suddenly white-faced. 'Who would do something like that?'

'A good question,' said the Doctor, drawing both fingers across everyone present, 'Whatever they're planning, I'd bet my Timelord hand that it's big.'

'We still don't know what's inside the tower,' reminded Rose. 'Right above that weird Key-thingy. Maybe that's another piece of your puzzle? Also, you can stop pointing now.'

The Doctor pointed at her one last time before he packed it in. 'Right, then. Back to plan A: reconnaissance. We've got to find more puzzle pieces. Let's take a closer look at the tower and the weird Key-thingy.'