On their first attempt, they reappeared on a mountainside and started rolling down right away. The insides of the TARDIS shook and shifted round and round, and the Doctor only barely managed to jump back into the Time Vortex. Virgil shouted something about an earthquake ripping the Dale apart, and swallowing them whole. He had been warned by Mary about what to expect from the TARDIS, but her words had seemingly vanished from the poor angel boy's mind as soon as the floor turned over itself.

On their second attempt, the TARDIS landed on solid ground. The Doctor quickly poked his head out and found that they'd appeared before a crowd of praying people next to a priest who promptly tore up the scripture he'd been reading from.

On the third, they appeared in the depths of an ocean, right in front of the gaping jaws of a massive creature. Just as they were being swallowed whole, the Doctor hit the controls for a fourth time.

Finally, the Doctor's face lit up, and he proclaimed success. He started frantically pressing buttons and pulling levers, while Rose, Mary, and Virgil gathered around him.

'Ah,' the Doctor said, as nothing happened. 'Er,' he went on. Soon, his audience was beginning to exchange glances, as the screen on the central column refused to show anything meaningful.

'Oh, right. Wrong button.' He tried again, but to no effect.

A good ten minutes later, nothing had changed. Their collective excitement had shrunk to hushed conversations behind the Doctor's back, and then it quickly turned into a relaxed get-together. The three of them explored the small door in the wall and found a corridor leading to various rooms that were filled with nonsensical stuff: one was an exact replica of the inside of the shed the TARDIS had been living in for the past five months; another room contained nothing except a bed with a TARDIS-blue blanket – obviously the Doctor still wasn't used to the concept of sleep being something comfortable and relaxing.

The paradoxalyser room showed two dirty markings of squashed soil and torn grass - the heavy footprints of the warbum. It had been there just long enough for two of its massive feet to touch the ground, before the TARDIS had spat it out again.

After a while, Mary and Virgil got into an argument, and Rose thought it best to give them their space. She'd given Mary her opinion earlier, so now there was nothing else for her to do. Besides, she had her own conundrum to worry about.

Back in the console room, the Doctor was still trying to work with the TARDIS. As Rose walked up to him, she gave a sigh, despite herself.

'What art thou that dost grumble there?'

'Tis me, milord. Is she still naughty?'

'Yeah, I s'pose. But we're making progress, aren't we?'

Rose could tell he was in a happy mood. 'Any chance we could pop back home for some chips?'

'Typical humans. We're so close to the finish line, and you let your nervous guts get in the way.'

'We're close?'

'Well, no, not really. Don't know why I said that. But close-ish, definitely.'

Rose gave a sigh, which was obviously heard by the Doctor. He narrowed his eyes at her. 'Rose Tyler, you love shirking your responsibilities, don't you?'

'Huh?'

'Why don't you take the reins for a change?'

Rose flushed; she still remembered the ice-cold torrent that had dragged her out of the capricious space-time machine the last time, kicking and screaming, because she had pressed the wrong button in the wrong way. 'Yeah, and the sewer's right outside,' she said, 'just waiting for me to make a mistake.'

'Rubbish. She's yours too. You've got to get used to each other. Come, I'll do it with you.'

The Doctor made her stand in front of a panel and told her which levers to pull, which buttons to press, and where to stand while doing it all. Soon the screen in the console began to shift and show various images. 'Good, she's already changing her behaviour. But she's still not listening, I'm afraid. She's looking at everything except the thing we need her to look at.'

'Honestly, she's not too far off the old model, is she? What's that?'

'Dunno, the planet's core? Maybe she's trying to figure out how deep her scan can go?'

'And that?'

'That? Hmmm... Oh, that is brilliant. Those are the chemical reactions inside my blood. I reckon she's looking for traces of Timelord physiology. Blimey!'

'What is it?'

'It seems I still have a few Timelord tricks up the old sleeve.'

'Like what?'

'Apparently I can mind meld.'

Rose frowned. 'The Vulcan-thing?'

The Doctor huffed. 'Vulcan? Where do you think Roddenberry got it from?'

Tongue firmly wedged into her cheek, Rose rolled her eyes back at the screen. 'She's jumping again. What's that mean?

'Erth Jellbria,' the Doctor read from the image, frowning. 'Not a clue. Could be anything. Maybe something pretty. The TARDIS likes pretty things.'

His words made Rose remember something, and a moment later her eyes widened as she looked at an image of a hunky, good-looking man, wearing next to nothing, prominent muscles on full display. 'What's she showing now?' Rose whispered, wanting to look away, but finding herself unable to do so.

'Uuuhhh, that's probably a snapshot from somebody's short-term memory,' the Doctor explained. 'She's inside someone's mind.'

'Who's mind?'

'Um,' the Doctor said. 'One of us.'

Flushing with embarrassment, Rose quickly pressed a random button, trying to make the image go away. The TARDIS reacted by playing the noise of an extremely loud buzz-saw, and Rose stepped back from the console, looking up in horror, expecting another torrent of icy water to tip her out.

Nothing happened for a few awkward moments. Then the Doctor snorted, and soon they were both laughing.

'I gotta say, he seems quite impressive. Like he could make an impact on impressionable ladies.'

Rose scoffed as she walked back, readjusting her jacket and straightening her hair. 'Takes more than that to impress this lady.'

'You know, I thought about applying to that fitness, uh, thing, that place a couple blocks down from Pete's.'

Rose snorted. 'I know you haven't.'

'Thought or applied?'

'Both.'

'Correct. But d'you think I should? Apply, I mean, obviously.'

'That's it!' gasped Rose, pointing at the screen, her eyes flashing excitedly. The Doctor gently but firmly moved her aside and began zooming and moving angles and adding filters to the image. 'Beautiful,' he finally said. When he spoke next, he sounded almost surprised. 'It's a hyperspace nexus.'

'What's that?'

'No idea. Just made it up. But if these readings are correct, then it explains how everything got here, including your shooty robot, big flappy Felgorn, and Mary's trek of settlers. They've fled the rampaging Vikings, moved through Lincolnshire, came into a magical forest with a magical space-time distortion, and ended up here. This thing works like a wormhole-machine, but it's set to automatic. You said it was revolving all the time, yes? I bet it's not supposed to. The way it is now, it charges itself up every other month until bang, it opens a portal to some unsuspecting world that happens to get caught in its gaze, only to drag in everything and everyone unfortunate enough to be around.'

'I thought you just made it up?'

'Well, not so much made it up as concluded.'

Rose grinned. 'Alright, Sherlock, go on then.'

'Well... I have no clue how it got into the zoo, or how the Illantis managed to get their hands on it. Must have been quite the prison break story, worthy of some Oscars at least. But I'm much more worried about who might have built it in the first place... They must have been very advanced and very dangerous. Or, in fact, they still are very advanced and very dangerous. Technology like this allows you to instantly zap your armies to any point in space and time. They could be conquerors.'

'The Daleks?' Rose asked quietly.

'Possibly. It would be like them to build a weapon of that magnitude.'

Rose remembered her last encounter with the Daleks. A deadly battle that she herself had ended, by looking into the heart of the TARDIS, absorbing its power, and becoming a god-like entity called Bad Wolf. With a single thought, she had wiped the entire Dalek race from existence. It had nearly killed her.

But of course the Daleks had come back. They always came back.

'You think they could be around in this universe?' she asked, her stomach twisting at the thought.

The Doctor nodded solemnly. 'Here be Daleks.'


'You know,' Rose was saying after a while, 'what I don't get is why he didn't just control us instead of the warbum and hammer guy.'

'Well, Varrachian pacifiers never aim at specific targets; they send out soothing impulses to quench aggression in a surrounding area. This upgraded mind-controller version uses the same targeting matrix, except over long distances; it's totally rubbish, can't reliably pick out a specific target. It's more a shot in the dark.'

'So you're saying it missed us and got warbum and hammer guy instead? And then how does he get Felgorn? He's a lot further away, isn't he?'

'Big target. Easy to find. Plus there's the autosave.'

Rose frowned, having trouble keeping up. 'Autosave?'

'Nevermind. Not important.'

Rose shrugged. 'So how's the plan coming along, then?'

'Just fine,' the Doctor said casually, working the console. 'Once I figure out how to work the Hyperspace Nexus, I'll be able to send everyone back home.

Rose smiled, letting herself enjoy the Doctor's brilliance. Then she remembered something. 'But... wouldn't the angels just go back to some cruel zoo?'

'Not all of them,' the Doctor said casually. 'Just their king.'

She frowned. 'You're kidding?'

The Doctor met her look, but remained adamant. 'He knows about the history of his ancestors. He knows about the horrors of oppression, and he's still chosen to be an oppressor. He's proven that he hasn't learned anything. He's a lost cause.'

'What about second chances?'

'He's had enough of those. Every time he's used the Dragon's Bane, he's had the chance to step away and not murder innocent people.'

Rose just stared at him, utterly bewildered. 'I can't believe I'm hearing this. You really are different.'

She could tell he was trying – and failing – not to sound angry. 'I am him, just like he is me. He doesn't get a monopoly on being the Doctor.'

'But you're still different. Born in battle, he said.'

He jerked toward her, his voice sharp. 'If I hadn't killed the Daleks, they'd be off wiping out whole planets right now! I saved billions of lives!'

'By committing genocide. Doesn't that bother you at all?'

The Doctor's eyes grew dark; he jabbed his own chest with his finger. 'I did his dirty work. He was glad to have me, to carry the burden. Isn't that what we do, us companions to the great Doctor? He can preach, while we suffer in the trenches!'

Rose stared at him, not understanding his anger, not recognising the Doctor at all anymore. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to get out of the TARDIS.

Her wish was granted just moments later. Holes in the walls opened up, releasing high-pressure jets of freezing water. Mary and Virgil's yelps of shock echoed to the console room, but Rose and the Doctor kept staring at each other, ignoring the TARDIS' latest tantrum.

She was almost relieved the water was carrying her tears away.

The TARDIS filled up quickly, and soon she opened up, ejecting her four passengers. The air suddenly was filled with the rotten stench of the sewers. Rose was still wiping her eyes while she sluggishly got to her feet.

Which is why she was the last of them to see the royal guards, and their circle of pointy halberds once again surrounding them.

'Your Highness finally decided to join the party?' the Doctor said, acting innocent and flippant despite the two royal guards twisting his arms behind his back and holding him detained. Two more were holding Rose in a similar way, keeping both of them far away from the TARDIS, which had materialised close to one of the sewer's walls, and from the elegant receptacle of the Key, which still revolved around itself in the centre of the chamber, as if it was searching the stone walls for something, completely ignorant to the commotion surrounding it.

A wet Virgil stood protective before an utterly drenched Mary. 'Father!' he exclaimed, 'I can explain!'

'You're collaborating with the enemy,' the king said calmly. 'Or maybe you tricked them? Led them to us? Hm?' He tilted his head slightly, giving Virgil a look to say that it was entirely up to him to choose his version of the truth.

Virgil seemed uncertain about which one to pick; his panicking eyes met the Doctor's gaze, holding it for a long moment. Mary, behind him, was reaching for his hand, and the Doctor could see their fingers looking for each other, touching, gripping tightly. 'I led them to you,' he said, and the Doctor closed his eyes.

'What are you doing?' whispered Mary, but Virgil ignored her and raised his voice at his father. 'This girl had nothing to do with all this. You have to let her go.'

'Of course,' the king said, glancing knowingly at Mary. 'Kindly escort this stranger outside, while I deal with our prisoners.'

The crowd of royal guards hesitated, but, with a gesture from the king, they parted to let Virgil and Mary through. Mary looked back at Rose with an expression of utter horror, then she disappeared behind the closing wall of guards.

'Deal's off, then?' the Doctor began.

The king himself was equally unimpressed. 'Our common friend told me everything about you, Doctor. You're a traveller from a different time and place, just like him. You are quite impressive, I must admit. Except your posturing earlier was nothing but a bluff. You have no god-like armament, no divine capabilities that could end me in a matter of seconds.'

'Never said I do.'

'You have nothing with which to threaten me.' He smiled smugly as he walked closer, his royal guard keeping close to his step. 'Plus, you're an easy man to catch. I thought I'd have to scour the Dale to put you in chains. Yet here you are, gifting yourself without the slightest contest.'

'Well, you know, weather's nice, and the birds are extraordinary this season... Guess I was feeling generous.'

'What was your plan? Steal the Key, like your kin has done before? Or did you try to destroy it with all that water?'

The Doctor glanced down at his wet clothes, the latest result of the TARDIS' misbehaviour. 'You've got it. You figured out our devious plan. Bravo, I must say.'

'I'm quite impressed by your metal traveller sphere,' the king continued, and a dangerous glint entered his eyes as his voice fell to a whisper. 'Clearly it is magical, and not from this world. The potential it must hold... Yes, I shall make good use of it.'

'Why'd you try to kill us?' asked Rose, having had enough of the king's obnoxious talk.

The king scoffed softly. 'Kill you? No, I'm locking you both up in a dungeon. Forever. You'll eat tasteless bread and sleep with the fleas and only know the light of day every tenth-'

'She was talking past tense,' the Doctor interrupted. 'Blimey, you are full of yourself, aren't you?'

The king looked as if he wanted to explode in outrage, but he was simultaneously trying to keep up with what the Doctor was saying.

'An hour ago?' Rose clarified. 'We were attacked by a smith and a warbum, both mind-controlled by your Dragon's Bane.'

The king seemed to relax slightly as he realised something. 'So he's working alone.' He turned to the royal guards. 'He must still be in the castle. Round everyone up, and check their wrists. He could look like any one of us.'

'Did your pal give you a slip?' asked the Doctor.

'He stole the staff,' said the king curtly. 'He disappeared an hour ago. I thought he had joined forces with you to overthrow me.'

'Listen,' urged the Doctor, 'whatever he's planning, it's big. Bigger than anything you could imagine.'

The king shot him an annoyed look. 'You do know you keep talking without permission, don't you?'

'Let us help you find him,' offered the Doctor. 'You'll need all the help you can get.'

But the king would not heed him. 'I won't let you out of my clutches again, Doctor,' he said, giving a sign to his guards. Then, with a hard look, he watched as the Doctor and Rose were put in chains and dragged through the sewers.