Chapter 4:

POV: Jenny

Date: Unknown

It was all too easy to get inside of what was clearly Ohila's hideout, and that in itself was highly suspicious.

Dad quickly figured out how to de-cloak the front door, and we essentially waltzed right into what appeared to be Ohila's ship. It wasn't quite a TARDIS, but still Gallifreyan, that was certain. I guessed it was likely that this ship originated from Karn. It was fairly large—we had walked into what appeared to be a wide cargo bay with high ceilings. No small ship would have this. All around us were various crates filled with supplies.

Ruby let out a low whistle. "You've been holding out on me, Doctor. I thought the TARDIS was impressive."

I clucked my tongue. "Watch it. This ship's got nothing on the old girl. All this is just a bit of flash, don't let it fool you."

Our eyes shot up as the door to the cargo bay opened. To my surprise, it was Ohila herself that entered the room still dressed in her red robes. It was a wonder that none of us had realized who she was to begin with. If Mum had been here, I'm sure she would have noticed right away. Of course, how could she not, given what the Sisterhood had done to her.

Ohila nodded to us. "Greetings. I'm a tad disappointed, Doctor. Miss Tyler. In all of you. I'd thought you would have found me sooner. Perhaps you are all slipping in your older age?"

Both Dad and Faeter rushed forward, ignoring her passive aggressive jabs. "What have you done to my daughter?" Dad's voice boomed across the hanger, and I could feel all the power of the Oncoming Storm behind his words.

Ohila turned bored eyes onto him. She tisked. "Come now, Doctor, I'd have thought you'd already figured it out. She's half Quo." The old woman pulled out something from her robes then, and my eyes widened. I may still be learning about some of the intricacies behind both Gallifreyan and Time Lord culture, but I knew what the item she held was.

I let out a strangled sound. "No."

"What is that?" Ruby asked.

"A confession dial," Faeter answered in a low, dangerous tone. His face had hardened even more at the sight of it. "It wasn't enough for you lot to take my wife, my forever companion, you need my daughter too?"

"What, was once not enough for you to learn that the Quo can't be controlled?" Dad spat out.

Ohila chuckled. "Oh, how the Time Lords have forgotten the danger that is the Quo. We, the Sisterhood, have bided our time waiting for the day we could save the universe from their power at last."

"By taking it for yourselves and destroying people's lives in the process?" I countered. "Our mother nearly lost her soul for you lot. It was a testament to her strength that she held on as long as she did until we could find her."

Ohila stared at me for a long time before she responded. "Gallifrey is lost. Your Mara will help us take her back. Back to what it once was before the Time Lords, in all their arrogance and lust for power, sullied her. Back to an age when she was ruled by those who practiced the old ways."

Ruby blinked. "But, sorry, what's a confession dial?" Her eyes flickered between Faeter, Dad, and me. "What does it do?"

I turned to her. "It's a piece of Time Lord technology—sort of like a last will and testament. When a Time Lord is dying, their consciousness is transported into the dial. While inside they're given a chance to work out their inner demons, so to speak, before they pass on for good. Normally, it's given to their closest friend."

"But sometimes," Faeter continued with the explanation. "It's used as a means to interrogate the Time Lord for information. I should know."

I met Ruby's confused eyes. "He was once trapped in a confession dial by our own people to be interrogated for information they wanted. Time moves differently in the dial than it does out here, so he was stuck in there for about four billion years."

Her eyes widened with horror, and she let out a gasp. "That's awful." That was an understatement if I'd ever heard one. I remembered my own reaction when I'd heard Dad tell the story. I'd been in tears long before he was finished telling it.

"How long have you been torturing her?" Dad asked through gritted teeth.

Ohila turned the dial over and over in her hands. "In all? She went through her loop for about two thousand years."

"Why put her in a confession dial though?" I asked, trying desperately not to fall into feelings of guilt and despair that this news evoked. "Why not burn her up and place her in a device like the Moment?"

Ohila let out a huff. "It took us centuries before we were able to break down Rose Tyler's spirit enough that she would obey commands as the Moment. Even once she did, she devised a way to get back at us by casting punishment and judgement on those who used her. This time, we needed to break in our weapon before we used her to take back what's ours."

Horror—mine, Faeter, and Dad's—shot ice through my veins.

Ruby gasped. "How could you be so cruel? Can't you see what this is doing to them? And you did this before—with Mara and Jenny's Mum?"

The Pythia woman turned unfeeling eyes back onto Ruby. "You are very young. I don't expect you to understand. But you, Doctor. Both of you. I would think you would understand the necessity of sacrificing the few or an individual to save billions."

"From Mara?" I let out a laugh. "Who could she hurt? She doesn't even have the same power that Mum did!"

"I think I've heard about enough." Dad pointed his screwdriver at Ohila. "Drop the dial."

She chuckled, and let the device fall to the floor. "It's too late, Doctor."

Faeter shook his head as he scooped up the device and backed away from Ohila. "No—no it isn't. We'll wait for her—or find a way to free her."

The Pythia woman shook her head with a cackle. "Oh, for all your posturing, you all missed one very important detail in what I've said."

"And that is?" Ruby demanded.

Ohila's eyes glinted. "I said that your precious daughter went through her loop for two thousand years. I never said she was still in it."

My mouth went dry as the pieces slowly started to fit into place. "No," I breathed. "No, it can't be."

Ohila cackled again, more loudly this time. "Honestly, being a child of the great Doctor and Rose Tyler, we'd expected her to last longer. Though she did give us some trouble—she did figure out where she was much more quickly than you did, Doctor. And you're quite wrong about her—all of you. She has far more power than you know. Just…no will left to use it to save herself."

"No!" Faeter and Dad cried out.

As we all lunged forward, Ohila quickly lifted her wrist. Fury raged through me and rushed through the bond I held with Faeter and Dad as we saw her input something into Mara's Vortex Manipulator. And then, with a flash, she was gone.

"Argh!" Dad shouted as he ran over to topple one of the crates to the floor with enough force that the wood splintered.

A torrid stream of emotions crashed down into my chest and threatened to crush my hearts. Anger, fear, never-ending grief, and not all of it my own. We had failed her. Failed her as we had Mum all those centuries ago. Failed her when we had promised never to do so again.

"What do we do?" I felt Ruby as she marched up beside me. There were tears streaming down her face. "Jenny, Doctors, what do we do?"

"We find her," I said quietly, and brought my eyes up to Faeter's, and then Dad's. "We have to find her."

Dad reached out to take my hand. "Yeah," he said. "We will."

POV: Jenny

Date: October 2, 2025

It had been two months since we had lost Mara, and despite our best efforts, we had not yet been able to find where the Sisterhood had taken her.

We'd had the TARDIS running regular scans to search for events that could be instances of the Sisterhood testing out Mara as their new weapon. I hated the very thought of my sister ever being classified as a weapon of any kind and avoided saying it out loud. We had seen small events so far. There was a takeover of Mirius II—a planet that was infamous for arms dealing. The encounter hadn't left destruction like Mum's in its wake, but there were reports of "a woman who could bend the laws of time around her". Several of the workers had gone mad after Mara had, evidently, distorted their perceptions of time so that the Sisterhood could steal weapons.

And that wasn't the only instance. There were half a dozen more similar events where planets had been burgled and their people left dead or crazed. Every time we went to investigate, however, we were never able to catch the Sisterhood in the act. The TARDIS refused to take us back to the start of any of the events, and by the time we landed the Sisterhood and Mara were long gone.

"It's like whatever Mara is doing is creating time that is so distorted that the TARDIS can't get a good lock on a landing site," Dad said after one particularly nasty attempt to fly into the center of an event. "She can't even lock us onto coordinates from before the attack takes place."

"We were trying to land on the same day though," I pointed out. "What if we landed one day or several days earlier?"

Faeter let out a delighted laugh. "Oh, you see, Ruby! That—that right there is what I love about my girls. Always asking the best of questions, they are."

I felt a little thrill go through me. Having a version of my dad, let alone two, who was so open with his emotions was still such a new feeling. One that would never grow old. I smiled. "Right. Ruby, we're going to need your help for this. Grab that lever there." I pointed to the time dial.

"Got it!" Ruby crowed enthusiastically.

"Hang on tight!" Dad shouted as he started up the flight sequence. "This is going to be a bumpy one!"

Dad, Faeter, and I danced and spun around the console, being careful not to hit Ruby, as we furiously piloted the TARDIS through the worst of the vortex's turbulence. Above my head, I could hear the TARDIS protesting our efforts with the grinding of her gears and a hissing sound. Ruby screeched as bits of the console sparked at her, but she didn't let go of the lever. Bless her. And bless Faeter for his choice in fearless companions. He always did manage to find the best that humanity had to offer.

"Prepare for impact!" Faeter cried out from across the console.

We all braced ourselves as—with a screech and a groan—the TARDIS landed.

For a moment we all leaned against the console in an effort to catch our breath. Ruby's eyes were wide as they passed between the three of us. "If smooth landings normally mean trouble, then what does a landing like this tell you?"

I began to laugh, and both Dad and Faeter soon followed suit. I leaned over to wrap an arm around Ruby's shoulders to give her a reassuring squeeze. "It tells us that it's a normal Thursday."

She rolled her eyes good naturedly as we followed Dad to the doors. "You're all nutters, then."

"Oh, absolutely!" Faeter cried out with enthusiasm. "Sanity is for boring people."

"People who don't know how to break the rules," I added.

"People who are too stuck in themselves for adventure," Dad supplied.

"And we, my dear Ruby Sunday, are none of those things," Faeter said with a grin. "And neither are you. Now! Who's ready to go thwart some evil plots?"

My own smile widened. "Sounds like the perfect plan for the average Thursday."