Kathy deems it time that Carlyle shouldn't keep running away and tells him that they will return to Ashildr. Another part of Kathy's reasoning is that it is 1651, the year Ashildr and the Doctor, the twelfth, meet again. Kathy finds it difficult to predict whether the events of the episode will play out considering so much of Ashildr's life has been altered compared to the original timeline though she still faced the pain of losing her children and everyone except Kathy and Carlyle but Kathy wonders if their separations could've taken a toll.
Kathy easily locates Ashildr's mansion and it's when they approach the door does Kathy feels the mental link with the Doctor. Clearly, they've arrived later than expected if the Doctor is here in daylight. The robbery must've already happened and they have the alien artefact that resembles the Eyes of Hades. Kathy and Carlyle share a look. She and Carlyle knock and wait. Clayton, whom Kathy recalls as being Ashildr's poorly servant, opens the door.
"Hello?" He questions.
"Hello good sir." Kathy greets him with a kind smile. "We were hoping to have an audience with your mistress. Old friends you see." No point explaining how she's her mother-in-law as that'll send the poor man into a panic.
"Of course." He steps aside and lets them in. It is at this point she hears the Doctor speaking.
They come into the entrance hall to see the Doctor frowning at them and Ashildr, dressed in a fuchsia coloured dress with white lace trim, smirking.
"Kathy? Carlyle?" Comes the Doctor's greeting.
"Hello Doctor, good to see you." Carlyle greets cheerfully though albeit awkwardly as he glances at his wife who doesn't look pleased.
"What are you doing here?" The Doctor questions.
"Oh, Doctor," Ashildr remarks with an unkind smirk, "why would I not receive visits from my husband and mother-in-law?"
The Doctor does a double take. "HUSBAND?! MOTHER-IN-LAW?!" He yells.
"Well, yes," Kathy replies with a raised eyebrow. She'll sort this out first then get to Ashildr.
"Why did no one tell me?!" He exclaims indignantly.
Kathy rolls her eyes at his childish behaviour. "It was spoilers. You were either too young or too old to tell. Had to wait to meet the right you to tell." She explains.
"She did tell you I got married didn't she?" Carlyle adds.
"Well, yes, but—"
"Don't worry we don't always get along." Ashildr remarks snidely. "When anything gets difficult, he runs off with his mother. Like you Doctor, running from your problems."
Kathy is surprised. She has known she had felt like this in the alternative timeline but turns out Kathy's absences were not a good thing. Ashildr storms off into the dining room.
They follow her into the room where the Doctor seems to jump back to what he and Ashildr had been talking about before. "It looks like the ancient Greek talisman which wards off evil and protects those in death on their journey to an afterlife?"
"You tell me." Ashildr says in a bored tone as she slips the amulet she holds into a string bag.
"Could it be that the mythology originated on another planet?" The Doctor questions excitedly as he moves around the room. Kathy takes note that the episode is still going along as normal as the Doctor doesn't know of Ashildr's true intentions.
"You can't wait to get going and find out, I'll wager." Ashildr remarks.
"No. I think I want to stick around, and keep an eye on you for a while." The Doctor corrects.
"Get me back on track?"
"Well, why not?" Kathy asks causing Ashildr to turn to her. "It seems you've lost your way Ashildr."
Ashildr narrows her eyes. "Then why can't the Doctor take me with him?" She challenges.
"Ashildr? What do you mean?" Carlyle asks his wife looking hurt. "I thought we were good, happy."
"You're wrong I'm sick of this planet," Ashildr snaps, "taking it day by day while man can galavant off and face no consequences."
"Trust me he does, like right now, for example." Kathy says.
"You don't want to get stuck with an old fool like me." The Doctor casually dismisses. "You have this whole wonderful planet to play on."
"It takes a day to get to Kent." Ashildr retorts. Kathy admits the lengthy travelling is annoying.
"In the future, you'll fly."
"I want to fly right now." Ashildr retorts tearfully. "I have waited longer than I should ever have lived. I have lost more than I can even remember." Kathy winces when she thinks of her grandchildren, the little ones who barely lived. "Please, Doctor, just get me out of this. I want more than this. I deserve more than this. Why not? Why not?!"
"Ashildr…" Carlyle murmurs to his wife looking hurt and tearful.
"Because it wouldn't be good. Ashildr, please. Ashildr." The Doctor replies.
"I am not Ashildr any more. Not to you." Ashildr snaps.
Something big snarls nearby. Well, that just confirms that Ashildr is up to what she thinks she's up to. Her and Carlyle's presence hadn't improved things perhaps made things worse.
"Do you have a cat? It sounds like a very big cat. Hence the very big cat flap." Light is coming from behind a pair of doors. The Doctor opens them to reveal a man-sized biped with lights for eyes. It walks forward and the Doctor backs away. The being looks like a lion and is wearing a golden diadem. The lights in its eyes fade.
"Leandro, meet the Doctor, Carlyle and Kathy." Ashildr comes to stand it. It is now Carlyle, Kathy and the Doctor standing on one side and Ashildr and Leandro on the other. "You thought I was helping you, Doctor. In fact, it was the other way round. Leandro, we have it. My friend here was as useful as I'd hoped."
"If somebody needed my help, why did nobody just ask?" The Doctor questions. "I am forced to assume you have plans I wouldn't approve of. Oh, Ashildr."
"Stop calling me that."
"Kill us! Come on Ashildr, if you're so sick of us." Kathy declares. Everyone except the Doctor looks at her in alarm or worry.
"But mom—" Carlyle tries to say but Leandro interrupts.
"Why?"
"If you intend any harm to this planet or its people, then killing us is by far your best move." The Doctor explains.
"You invite your own death?"
"No. I just want you to attack first. Then my conscience is clear." The Doctor corrects.
"Of what?"
"You."
Leandro laughs. "You are not of this world," he looks to Carlyle and Kathy, "or are any of you part of my plans. I have no quarrel with any of you."
"Then tell us why you are here and what you intend to do." Carlyle demands sharply. He stares at his wife, who swallows uncomfortably before straightening and trying to act like his disapproval doesn't affect her.
"Otherwise, get on with trying to kill us. But I advise you. Be very quick and very sure." The Doctor adds.
"I am from Delta Leonis." Leandro explains. "My tribe was overthrown, my world destroyed, my wife killed as we escaped." Kathy narrows her eyes at him, knowing the truth.
"Using the amulet? That was your means of travel." Carlyle concludes.
"I lost it when I crashed to Earth."
"I found him in my grounds. He's been sleeping there while I searched for it." Ashildr explains.
"The Underworld, gateway to an afterlife, another reality." The Doctor summarises.
"We need it to open a portal, travel the galaxy."
"Oh! Oh, so what's the plan, Ashildr? Fancy yourself as his new Queen? But what about Carlyle?" The Doctor remarks.
"Oh, dear God. You're just like every other man." Ashildr grumbles. "I'm not looking for a new husband, you oaf. I'm looking for a horse to get me out of town. You said no."
"Oh, what? And you think you can trust him?" Kathy asks pointedly.
"He knows what it is to be alone. To be abandoned."
"But we haven't abandoned you!" Kathy cries.
"You keep leaving!" Ashildr snaps. Has Kathy herself been so self-centred, so focused on the Doctor, she hadn't realised her running off and exploring with someone else has a negative impact on Ashildr?
"I know what it is like to be alone." The Doctor interrupts.
"Then how could you do what you did?" Ashildr asks harshly.
"I'm looking for the headline here."
"The what?"
"Well, you know, you want to escape? Well, go on. Escape as much as you like. Why would I not approve?" The Doctor questions.
"You wouldn't Doctor, the amulet." Kathy tells him. Ashildr frowns, she must now realise that Kathy knows what's happening though more than Ashildr realises.
"What about it?"
"A death is required. It is only way the amulet works." Leandro explains.
"Of course. Every single death is a tiny fracture in reality, and the amulet can lever the fracture open. Primitive, but effective." The Doctor realises.
"It's just exploiting an abundant resource. There's so much dying here." Ashildr remarks casually. Kathy winces, she wonders if she herself has begun to be slightly more numb to death than she used to be.
"So who dies so you can run away, leaving me?" Carlyle asks his wife tearfully.
"Clayton?!" Ashildr calls.
They can hear Clayton coughing before he calls, "Coming, milady."
"No, you can't. He loves you." The Doctor argues.
"To the end, it would seem."
"Would you rather take his place?" Leandro breathes fire. The Doctor, Kathy and Carlyle jump back from the flames.
"Not them. We agreed!" Ashildr snaps. Still, Ashildr seems to not be entirely hateful. There is still time to turn her around.
"Oh, Ashildr, daughter of Einarr, what happened to you?" The Doctor demands to know.
"You did, Doctor. You happened." Ashildr replies then turns to look at Kathy and Carlyle. "You and your little followers that I have to call family."
—
Later, Kathy, Carlyle and the Doctor's hands are tied behind their backs and they are secured to chairs in an adjoining storage room to the dining room.
"I know you've suffered, all three of you. You and Carlyle seeing your children dying." The Doctor murmurs causing Ashildr to stop before she leaves the room. "Kathy your grandchildren…" Kathy gives him a small sad smile. "I have read your diaries, the diaries that Kathy and Carlyle would read to to remind you of the memories you had lost."
"They would have died anyway." Ashildr retorts, turning to face them. Her voice sounds slightly wobbly as she speaks but she keeps it together.
Carlyle winces. "How can you dismiss them so? Our Essie, Jean and Rue." Kathy can't imagine what her son is going through right now, his wife's hurt and anger being unleashed. Kathy feels that all of this is more her fault than any of theirs, she knew the future and look at what happened.
"Too human were they not?" Ashildr remarks as she walks forward. "They would have joined the fleeting lives of human life. Like mayflies, they would've breed and died, repeating the same mistakes. It's boring. And I'm stuck here, abandoned by the one man who should know what eternity feels like. Who should understand. And the other two who don't think it listen to how I feel."
Kathy's eyes widen as they tear up. "I do listen. I-I did, I thought…"
"Don't be angry with her." The Doctor snaps at Ashildr. "I do understand now, but—"
"You still won't take me with you." Ashildr snaps, interrupting. "You gad about while I trudge through the centuries, day by day, hour by hour. Kathy shrugs it off carelessly as she hurries to the next part of history she interested in it the next adventure where she'll find you, sometimes dragging Carlyle with her. Do any of you ever think or care what happens after you've run away? I live in the world you leave behind, because you abandoned me to it. You left Kathy to do your job but you still pulled her away."
"I didn't realise Ashildr!" Kathy cries. "Please, I thought you had Carlyle and that I was around enough."
"Why should I be responsible for you?" The Doctor asks before Ashildr could reply to Kathy's pleas.
"You made me immortal." Ashildr retorts angrily.
"I saved your life." The Doctor corrects. "I didn't know that your heart would rust because I kept it beating. I didn't think your conscience would need renewing, that the well of human kindness would run dry. I just wanted to save a terrified young woman's life."
"You didn't save my life, Doctor. You trapped me inside it." Ashildr argues. "And now I've found someone who can set me free. Someone who understands because Kathy and Carlyle thought it was just fine to leave me in this world." Ashildr walks back to the door.
"You can't trust him Ashildr!" Kathy warns her. "He hasn't told you the whole truth! Trust me, I know what happens here!"
"You talk about trust!" Ashildr snaps. "You barely tell me anything! You probably knew what would happen to my children!"
"No your wrong!" Kathy pleads desperately. "This time it was different! They had Time Lord and Apalapucian DNA, I thought they'd be safe but clearly not."
Ashildr frowns at this before shaking her head. Kathy's words seem to be getting through slightly. The problem is that while Kathy remembers everything, every meaningful and happy moment, Ashildr doesn't.
"Listen to her!" The Doctor adds. "You know what she's like, but please I know his type. Very first argument, guaranteed he'll bite your head off."
"Or I'll bite his off. Perhaps I'll enjoy that." Ashildr retorts.
"You're playing with fire. Open that portal and you have no idea what horrors might come through." The Doctor persists.
"That's as good a reason as any to do it."
"You're not like this. I know you're not." Carlyle argues.
"This is exactly what I'm like." Ashildr spits. "This is what the Doctor and your mother made of me."
"He'll kill you." The Doctor warns.
"He'll have to be fast. And if he does, perhaps it's about time." Ashildr says softly.
Then there's knocking on the door and a "Lady Me?" Llewelyn, one of the guards that have arrived.
The Doctor, Kathy and Carlyle scrape their chairs to the doorway of the small room.
Two pikemen rush in, one Welsh, Llewelyn, and one English, Stout. Kathy, Carlyle and the Doctor watch on through the open door of the room they sit in.
"Oh, Lady Me, thank goodness you are safe." Llewelyn says as they meet Ashildr in the middle of the room. "Sam Swift has been captured and he swore the Knightmare was heading in this direction."
Kathy remembers Sam Swift or "Sam Swift the Quick", an alias used by a highwayman in the 17th century and the Knightmare's, Ashildr's, main rival
"I've not seen him." Ashildr replies.
"Sam Swift will hang in Tyburn at noon." Stout tells her.
"In half an hour?" Ashildr looks over her shoulder at the trio leaning out of the adjacent room. Kathy knows what she's thinking and narrows her eyes at her. "A guilty man destined to die? No harm in that. I have not seen the Knightmare. But this is his sidekick, the Doctor and some accomplices. They were robbing me. I only just managed to overpower them."
Llewelyn checks a scroll, a wanted poster. "You will hang for this!" He declares.
"No, listen, we were trying to help her. She tied—" The Doctor tries to argue.
"Silence or we'll—" Llewelyn tries to threaten but Stout is trigger happy and fires his pistol into the ceiling. "—shoot." Llewelyn glares at his partner.
"They needn't hang. But keep them under lock and key, for all our sakes." Ashildr pleads.
Clayton enters. Llewelyn draws his pistol.
"Was that the door?" Clayton questions, he takes notice of the three leaning out of the room, tied to their chairs. "Oh, dear. Always the quiet ones."
"Goodbye, Clayton." Ashildr says to her ailing servant, she turns to the trio. "You see? I do have a heart."
"In which case, don't do it." Kathy retorts. Ashildr leaves the room and goes to her coach.
"Do I look like some feckless thief?" The Doctor remarks as Llewelyn points his gun at them and Stour unties them. "I'm on your side. I'm an undercover constable from Scotland Yard. Do you have Scotland Yard yet?"
Kathy groans in annoyance. "No Doctor, not for a couple hundred years yet."
Llewelyn smirks at them. "Been on the cider, have we?"
Kathy rolls her eyes irritably at the squabbling and promptly stands. The men around her gape in surprise at how she's able to stand as the gas believed she had been tied to the chair.
"What?" Kathy huffs. "You didn't think I would learn to get myself out when tied up?"
Llewelyn promptly aims his gun at her and Kathy shrugs and raises her hands to show she's not a threat. Stout unties the Doctor and Carlyle and pulls them individually to their feet.
"The Dunbar Victory medal. I was decorated for valour in battle." The Doctor tries next. Llewelyn squints at the Doctor's psychic paper that he had pulled out. He either cannot read or isn't impressed by a Scotsman being on the side of Cromwell in 1651. Kathy uses his diverted attention and walks to the window and sees Ashildr in a cloak readying her coach with Leandro inside.
"All we want is to bring the Knightmare to justice." Carlyle is pleading.
"But you were robbing Lady Me." Llewelyn counters.
"We came to warn her. I fear her life is in danger." Kathy corrects. She gestures out of the window to point out that Ashildr is driving her coach away, down the drive. "Look! It's the Knightmare, cloaked and in disguise, bound for Tyburn."
"You have to let us go, or take us there." The Doctor declares.
"You wish to hang too?" Stout questions doubtfully as he shoves Carlyle and the Doctor to the door. They seem reluctant to touch Kathy; probably because she is a woman.
"Well, will you take me there if I say yes?"
"Indeed. There's a bounty on your head for twenty pounds." Llewelyn declares gleefully as Stout pulls the Doctor and Carlyle into the dining room.
"Twenty pounds? Is that all?" The Doctor complains.
"And why are complaining?!" Kathy hisses as she follows with Llewelyn's gun pointed at her back.
"'Tis a small fortune to us." Stout informs them.
"Well, in that case, I know where Lady Me keeps all of her money. Almost thirty pounds." The Doctor says.
"Now why didn't you say that in the first place?" Llewelyn remarks.
—
The Doctor, Kathy and Carlyle are soon on horseback, galloping along the track and passing a marker that says 5 miles to Tyburn. After a period of time, a bell sounds the hour as they are still galloping through the woods. Kathy urges on her horse as they run across a castle bridge.
They eventually arrive and have to push through the crowd, apologising as they jostle people.
"Time to hang!" Kathy hears someone sounding like Leandro yelling.
They reach a fence, which gives Kathy an advantage point to see over the crowd that has gathered for the noon entertainment around a scaffold to Sam Swift standing on it with Ashildr standing next to him.
"Hang him! Hang him!" The crowd cries. The Hangman tries to manhandle Sam into the noose.
The Doctor has turned to stare at the posters on the fence next to them, which say the Knightmare's reward is £100 compared to the Doctor's £20, amongst other items.
"All right, all right." Sam says hurriedly. Kathy watches on feeling anxious and sorrowful as she sees the fear on the man's face. "As God is my Highwayman. He steals the most precious gift of all. Life. Magical, filled with adventures. And at least I can say I lived mine to the full."
"I love you, Sam Swift." A woman calls to him. Sam tips his bottle of drink to her.
Kathy sees Sam notice the Doctor before he calls out, "Doctor, doctor! I'm a robber."
The crowd are confused, but the penny drops for the Doctor. "Have you taken anything for it?"
The crowd laughs as the Doctor, Carlyle and Kathy make their way to the scaffold. They need to get close by to either prevent this or help in stopping it when it happens.
"Er, Doctor, doctor."
"Quick man, I'm running out of patients!" The Doctor shouts. The crowd laugh.
"Have you ever seen such a sidekick so old?" Sam asks the people.
The Doctor pauses, looking offended. "I'm no one's sidekick."
"You do realise there is worse things to be called." Carlyle points out to him.
"He's so old, he farts dust!" Sam continues. More bouts of laughter.
The trio reach the front and the Doctor turns to the crowd. "And his nose is so big that—"
"They'll have to widen the noose!" Sam finishes. As the crowd laughs, Kathy watches a frustrated Ashildr look out into the crowd to where, Kathy can only assume, Leandro waits.
"Or, or bury him in a pyramid." The Doctor adds.
"You know what they say, big nose…"
"Oooooo!"
"Big handkerchief!" The Doctor cries.
The crowd laughs as the Hangman manhandles Sam back to the noose.
"No! Doctor, don't leave me hanging." Sam pleads.
"Wait! We have a pardon here for Sam Swift from Cromwell himself." Kathy says urgently.
The Doctor gets out his psychic paper again. The Hangman takes the paper. "Sam Swift is pardoned!"
Sam falls to his knees in relief. The crowd is not pleased. The Hangman gives the paper back to the Doctor.
"We didn't come all this way not to see someone hang." A man complains, Baxter if Kathy remembers correctly. "What about the Doctor? Yeah, hang the Doctor. Hang the Doctor! Hang the Doctor. Hang the Doctor!" The crowd echo his thoughts.
"Ssh." Ashildr utters. The crowd quietens. "You want to see someone die? How's this?" She holds up the Eye of Hades.
"No! Ashildr, no! No!" Carlyle lunges forward to pull his wife away but it is too late, the eye is already on Sam Swift's chest. Sam fits and sounds as if he is choking then he goes still. A purple ray is sent into the sky and a rift opens in the clouds.
"Purple, the colour of death. His life force is opening a portal." The Doctor speaks.
"To my new life." Ashildr says with a smile.
"Or to Hell." Kathy remarks. Leandro breathes fire at the crowd before moving onto the scaffold. "This isn't what you think Ashildr."
"A lion man!" Baxter cries. Then he points back at the rift. "Look!" A planet is visible beyond the rift.
"Goodbye, Doctor, Kathy, Carlyle." Ashildr says looking pleased but that soon morphs into confusion when Leandro says his next words.
"You are going nowhere."
"Doors work both ways. They let people out and they let the enemy in." The Doctor tells Ashildr as lots of small objects are visible around the planet.
"What's that? What's happening? What are those things?" Ashildr questions.
"Space ships, or they will be." Kathy answers.
"They're coming through the rift, actualising in this plane of reality." The Doctor continues.
Ashildr turns to Leandro accusingly. "You said you were the last of the Leonians. We were meant to escape."
"You shall. In death."
The crowd screams as fireballs come flying through and explode on the ground. Leandro attacks the crowd, who scream and scatter. Militiamen fire their pistols at him. Ashildr looks on at what her actions have caused and Kathy watches how horror sets in.
"No!" Ashildr shouts. "What have I done? What have I done to these people? Stop this! They are defenceless." Ashildr runs towards Leandro and pulls him away from the person he is attacking. Leandro turns to her and growls causing her to pull back in fright.
"Ashildr!" Carlyle yells as he runs to her and hugs her to him. "He doesn't care."
"But I do." Ashildr cries. She pulls away from her husband and looks at him with tearful eyes then looks to Kathy and the Doctor standing nearby. "Oh, God, I do. I actually do. I, I care."
The Doctor smiles at her. "It's awful, isn't it? It's infuriating. You think you don't care, then you fall off the wagon." Kathy knows the feeling.
"Never mind about me." Ashildr retorts. "What are we going to do about them? We have to help them. They need you. They need us."
"Welcome back." Carlyle says with a smile.
"Well? Do something then!"
Kathy can see the Doctor's thoughts racing and decides to jump him ahead a bit. "Death opens up a gateway. We need to close it."
"Yes!" The Doctor cries, pointing at her. "Sam Swift, he's the conduit. The amulet, it's still in him. It's his death that's opening the rift. So what do we do?"
"Reverse it." Ashildr concludes.
"You cannot reverse death." Leandro retorts.
"Oh, yes, we can." Kathy corrects. She nods to Ashildr, who has a look of realisation on her face. Ashildr holds up the other Mire repair chip, one similar to the one in her own head. Leandro tries to snatch it.
"Run!" Carlyle pushes her to the scaffold before he, Kathy, the Doctor and Leandro follows. Up on the scaffold, Ashildr puts the chip onto Sam's forehead and it is absorbed into him.
"No, my lady. They will destroy me for this." Leandro begs.
"Good!" Kathy snaps, she's surprised by the ferociousness of her words.
The ray changes from purple to gold and Sam begins gasping for air.
"The light of immortality." Leandro roars at Ashildr, who runs to hide behind the Carlyle. "Spare me, my brothers!" Leandro is disintegrated, and the rift closes. The crowd comes out of hiding and dusts themselves down.
Sam looks around dazed. "I'm alive." He murmurs to himself and once the notion has set in for him, he turns to the crowd and yells, "I'm alive!"
Sam laughs and the crowd cheers. The four standing next to him smile and join in on the clapping. The amulet stuck to his chest no longer shines.
—
Kathy, Ashildr and Carlyle sit at a table in the Ye Swan with Two necks.
"I thought I was helping you, clearly I was wrong. I know now not to be so careless." Kathy reassures her daughter-in-law.
"Maybe we should have a rule, every so many years we should do something together." Carlyle suggests.
"I like that." Ashildr says.
"There's something else we can do in our spare time…" Kathy trails off.
After a couple of minutes, the Doctor walks over and sits. "Now, is there anything else I should warn you about?" He asks Ashildr. He puts down the tankards that he has paid for with Kathy's money. She knows she's not going to get paid back.
"Don't worry Kathy will warn me." Ashildr says with a small smile which Kathy reciprocates. Sam Swift comes to sit at the table next to them and begins talking.
"Last thing I remember is you turning up, Doctor." He says. "Good thing too. Between you and me, I was running out of material."
"Yeah, I could tell. Gave a whole new meaning to dying on stage." The Doctor remarks.
"Gallows humour can be tricky, but at least there's never a second house." Sam argues. "I've nearly finished mine. I'll get another in." He stands up to leave but turns to Ashildr. "Oh, by the way, I've not forgotten that kiss." Sam walks away from the table. Kathy looks amusedly at Ashildr while Carlyle looks displeased and the Doctor simply sits there watching with a small smile.
"Kiss?!" Carlyle quietly exclaims.
"I only did it because he was dying!" Ashildr defends before smirking at her husband. "Though your jealous streak makes me think, maybe we could—"
"No!" Kathy yells. Her face screws up in disgust. She really doesn't need to know about these two. Ashildr and Carlyle laugh.
Ashildr turns to the Doctor, who is still watching with a smile. "Is he immortal now?"
"Well, Kathy, will he?" The Doctor asks.
"Oh Doctor, that would be telling." Kathy shrugs. He doesn't get mentioned in the rest of the show so Kathy can only assume that he doesn't.
"I don't think I want anyone to be." Ashildr utters.
"The power probably would have been drained by the whole opening and reversing the portal thingy. There'll be enough power to bring him back, but not enough power to keep him here, probably." The Doctor summarises.
Carlyle raises an eyebrow. "You just made that all up, didn't you?"
"Yeah. But it's hard to keep track of all this stuff." The Doctor argues. "Keep an eye on him though you three. He might be around for a while. Or not. Who can say?"
"You're still not going to take me with you, are you." Ashildr realises.
"People like us, we go on too long. We forget what matters." The Doctor tells her. "The last thing we need is each other. That's why Kathy never stays for long. We need the mayflies. See, the mayflies, they know more than we do. They know how beautiful and precious life is because it's fleeting. Look how Sam Swift made every last moment count," they look to see Sam laughing and joking away to those around him without any thought of tomorrow, "right to the gallows. Look how glad he is to be alive. I looked into your eyes and I saw my worst fears. Weariness. Emptiness."
"That's why you can't travel with me. Our perspectives are too vast. Too far away." Ashildr concludes.
"You're not the first, you know. I did travel with another immortal once. Captain Jack Harkness." The Doctor says. "Meet him yet Kathy?"
"No I haven't."
"Ah."
"Who?" Ashildr asks. Carlyle looks at his mother questioningly.
The Doctor lets out an exasperated sigh, probably thinking of all Jack's antics. "He'll get round to you eventually. Who told you about me? The man who comes for the battle and runs away from the fallout."
Ashildr shrugs. "Take your pick. You've had an impact on this world. You've made waves."
"Sometimes tidal waves." He says to her pointedly but Kathy sees him look at her briefly, which confuses her.
"I'm flattered."
"Well, you should be. You're an extraordinary woman, Ashildr." The Doctor compliments. "But I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on you."
"I think it'll be the other way round Doctor." Kathy corrects.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone has to look out for the people you abandon." Ashildr explains. "Who better than me, Kathy and Carlyle? We'll be the patron saints of the Doctor's leftovers. While you're busy protecting this world, we'll get busy protecting it from you. What better way to make use of ourselves?"
"So are we enemies now?" The Doctor asks.
"Of course not." Ashildr says. "Enemies are never a problem. It's your friends you have to watch out for. And, my friend, I'll be watching out for you."
"Ashildr, I think I'm very glad I saved you."
"Oh, I think everyone will be."
—
A/N: Shorter than previous episodes that had to be split up but I wanted Kathy and Carlyle, who is really underused so far, to come in at a certain point. I wanted to show that Kathy's presence and actions are not always positive and she makes mistakes.