5. Time, the Long Way Round.

Alyssa spends three years attending to the young John Smith and his apparent sibling.
Occasionally she returns to the Tardis and speaks to it from the outside.

"What's happening to you? I need to know. What's causing you to stay locked?"

She ensures that the CyberMaster must stand outside in all weathers, not inside, protected in any way! She hopes it will somehow rust or succumb to the weather. She doubts it's power source will die, though! .

During this time, Alyssa frequently brings the fob watch to the child. She expects something to magically just happen. What had the Doctor said? She wishes she had been paying at least some attention. .

The fob watch fails to trigger when simply placed near the child. The Doctor fails to re-appear and doesn't return into the child. She even starts to doubt that she has the right child! .

Alyssa spends more and more time trying to educate the child about his apparently forgotten past.
She wants to show the child what he was, so that he might be inspired to re-attain, in the hope that it might just happen!
But that isn't the way the fob watch works. .

From bad to worse!

One day, Alyssa wakes up and finds the fob watch has been stolen. She's desperate to rediscover it, even if she can't have it, she must know where it is. She spends a lot of time searching everywhere in the encampment.

After nearly a year, she discovers that the fob watch is in the treasury of the Chief!

She waits for a suitable moment to re-acquire it.

At least she knows where it is! .
This doesn't make it right to steal it back!
She knows that challenging ownership will fail - she is a nobody in the village having come from nowhere and she can't account for her sudden appearance! The Doctor would have known what to do! .

The CyberMaster's demise.

Insects gain access inside the CyberMaster's metal suit and irritate the living remains inside, where the CyberMaster can't scratch. Insects bite, injure and sepsis sets in. Even repeated regenerations fail to keep the insects away. These CyberMasters are dedicated to their cause as Cybermen and refuse to give up or try to find other ways out (ref. 60).
Eventually, after a total of four years and it's twelfth regeneration, it dies!

Finally, the Tardis unlocks.

Every day as she goes about her daily routine, Alyssa glances towards the CyberMaster standing alone in all weathers. One day, she sees that it has fallen over. She immediately goes to check the Tardis.
Finding it unlocked for her touch, she goes back to the village to secure the fob watch and get the young boy Doctor.

She boldly steals the fob watch back from the tented treasury and runs with the boy Doctor to the Tardis where they are safe once again.

There she discovers that even in the Tardis the child appears to be simply a child and fails to recognise the significance of the fob watch.

Alyssa thinks she's tried everything, but still nothing has happened.

Will nothing work for me? she thinks. She daren't disturb the boy's quiet innocence by voicing this.

A long time to get nowhere! .