"Intruder alert. Intruder alert."

Arthur quietly stands still as he looks around. Seems sort of a space station. Well, an old space station with messy wires connected around a large tree that looks like a sakura tree, two purple lights standing in between at the front…and shaking structure. "Nice place you got here."

"And brave of you to come here," a woman with grey hair, wearing a straw hat, a strange, shabby outfit appears beside an Ood. "Apparently I don't need another plan to get you."

"You want me?"

"She has arrived," an Ood informed her.

"Bring her here," she commanded and the Ood left them. The woman stares back at Arthur. Her eyes look familiar. "Shall we?"

"Let an enemy roaming around?" Arthur wondered as he followed her behind, observing the console she's working on. "Very…bold."

"No," the skeleton-figured man said as he and the other one stepped in the space station.

"And leave this behind?" The skeleton-figured woman questioned, showing a small fob watch.

"Three places, same time. Three me's, three Doctors. Same Doctor."

"Sunny?" A familiar voice called. When he turns back, he stumbles a bit…sees the Doctor. The version who decided to blow up Gallifrey all by herself.

"You didn't start this. I did," Ko Sharmus revealed to the Doctor and took the grenade away. "I was part of a resistance unit that sent the Cyberium back through Time and space. Though obviously we didn't send it back far enough. So this is my penance. Mine to finish. My journey ends here. But the universe still needs you, so I suggest you run."

He…didn't remember Ko Sharmus did that. He should have known, he was there. He knows his own memories. So, why is this shocking news to him? Should he at least figure it out back then?

…is his illness getting worse?

"Doctor?" He slowly walks closer to her before smacks her forehead. "Next time, don't do that!"

"Ow! Sunny!"

"I really thought I lost you for good! I tried so hard not having a breakdown with your past selves! Do you have any idea how worried I am?!"

She winces, rubbing her forehead. "You did that almost all the time, young man. Don't start lecturing me!"

"I did not."

"You did."

"Did not.

"Did."

"Did not."

"Did."

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Are you two done?" The woman scoffed, folding her arms.

"You!" the Doctor glares at the older woman, standing in front, shielding Arthur. "I've met you."

"You won't be told, will you?"

"It's a defining trait. Who are you and where are we?"

"She calls herself Awsok," Arthur shared, keeping an eye on the older woman. "And—"

Awsok smirks as he still has a distrusting eye on her. "Go on, little Explorer. Tell her."

Yeah, he didn't like her one bit. "And…this is the Division's headquarters."

"Welcome back. Or should I just say welcome instead?"

The Doctor rolls her eyes. Her fake kindness starts to get her. "Sunny…where are we? Precisely?"

Arthur looks up and down, even as the whole place is shaking. "Some sort of spacestation, for certain. But I can't get a precise location."

"You know too much," Awsok warned as the Ood walked into a small panel.

"And you hide too much."

"A completely transparent power move and not very effective," the Doctor agreed, pointing at her before another shake happens.

"Systems are under increasing strain," the Ood informed.

"Go further, Ood," Awsok insisted as Arthur eyed the Ood. "You can push it much further. This is no time for caution."

"Increasing propulsion levels."

"Better. Much more like it."

Arthur groans, rubbing his head as more quakes come back. "You really need a renovation."

"What is that Ood doing?" the Doctor demanded as she's helping her son to stand by.

"Of course, you have a lot of questions. It must be hard to know where to start," Awsok remarked.

"Not if you had a psychic," Arthur commented, patting his jacket sleeves from the dust around. "But then again…you don't have one, do you?" He smirks the moment Awsok takes a moment to look at him. "Yeah, I know about that one. And I can know more things that you're so desperately trying to hide." Okay, that's a lie. He only makes an education guess. The Division is very secretive, compared to the Silence. He tried to ask Ohila at some point, since the Sisterhood of Karn had survived the Master's rampage. But even Ohila had little information about the Division, other than the Division forcing the sisterhood to be banished from Gallifrey forever. "So, Mrs. Super Secret At Everything…do tell us about the Division."

The older woman inhales deeply before making a fake smile. "So, you'd like to know about Division."

"Yes!" Both mother and son responded.

"Are you in charge of it, or just behaving like you are?" the Doctor asked first.

"Well, it's complex, but I suppose yes, right now, leadership falls to me," Awsok shrugs, pointing at herself.

"What exactly is the Division?" Arthur inquired this time. He had an idea about The Division. But he didn't know much about the organisation's goals and systems at work.

"Division is simple, and indescribable. It began on Gallifrey…as a group to ensure the safety of our galaxy. As our ability to travel grew, and our horizons broadened, Division kept pace. The number of operatives grew."

"And what did these operatives do?"

"Anything we needed. Guided and shaped events."

"Interfered, in contravention of all Time Lord directives," the Doctor guessed.

"Not every civilization works or is enlightened. Some require help. Some needed to be told. Division assessed and acted accordingly."

"So, in a nutshell, you're all playing god," Arthur summarised.

"And you don't?" she retorted back, rather angry that this young man said such a thing like it disgusted him. He had no idea how much hard work she needed to get there. How many people died in the name of Division. How important the Division becomes.

"How much did it interfere?" the Doctor asked. "How big has it become?"

"Colossal. Across space and time, its influence is unparalleled, its reach is unlimited. All from the shadows. It achieved its aim beyond our wildest dreams. Division…is magnificent."

"I don't think having Weeping Angels do your dirty work can be classed as magnificent."

"More like a virus," Arthur added.

"Division recruits across all dimensions, from all species. It had to," Awsok replied, ignoring Arthur's comment before.

"Then why couldn't I find it? Where are we now?" the Doctor questioned. "Because we looked far and wide across the universe, and there was nothing."

"Because we're not in our universe," Arthur slowly realised. "We're…in between."

"That's not possible, Sunny."

"Let me show you where we are, Doctor, Explorer." A large hologram appears above them, showing all universes. "Here is the universe as you know it. Universe One, if you like," Awsok explained, pointing at one universe before pointing to the blank space in-between universes. "And we are here, outside. The Division. The control centre from which all our operatives were directed. And there, beyond Division...the next universe, and the next beyond that. Multiverses. Our terminology became quaint a long time ago. So here we are, outside one universe, on the cusp of many more. A bridge."

"But the dimensional engineering required to build this place," Arthur pointed out. "You can't do it without a proper test. You need to stay alive."

"Oh, conversion!" the Doctor recalled. "That's why conversion plates allow us to exist in form outside the known universe. Well, except Sunny. Time Vortex allows you to do that."

"Yet…it's unbalanced."

"Yeah. Why is it shaking? Unless...It can't be, can it? It's moving?"

"Exactly," Awsok confirmed. "As we near the end of the old universe, Division is moving into the next. The crossing is in progress."

"And this place?" the Doctor gestures around.

"My seed vault. Genetic traces from the previous universe to import into the next. To preserve what will have gone."

"We won't let you," Arthur insisted.

The Doctor nods. "That universe isn't going anywhere."

"It's over, Doctor, Explorer. It has been ever since we let two viruses into the experiment," Awsok remarked.

"What sort of viruses?"

"You two. You, Doctor, got out from Division. And you couldn't leave the universe alone. I blame myself a little, but mostly I blame you. I thought you were manageable. But I had to admit…what I always knew deep down. You'd never stop if you rediscovered what Division had done. I mean, morality was always your flaw."

"You're not the first one who ever said that," Arthur hinted.

"Really?" Awsok mused. "And who's the first?"

"The Creator of the Daleks."

She sneers. "You and your mother…never stop messing with us. No matter what."

"So did you ever recruit a Silent?"

That's not what she's expecting to hear. "I beg your pardon?"

"Did you recruit a Silent as your operative?" He dared before pause. "Oh, you did. You did recruit one Silent."

"Sunny?" his mother called, not sure where this is going.

"You said the Division recruited all species across time and space," he continued. "And its influence spread across the universe as well. So…do you just recruit one Silent, or did you help the cult of Silence by yourself?"

"Of course," the Doctor murmured, finally understanding what her son implied. Her eyes darted to Awsok with disgust. "You…You infiltrated the Silence and used them to stop us."

Awsok turns to Arthur, her eyes staring between amazement and annoyance. figured it out much sooner than she expected. The Explorer really is something else. "And if I did?"

"Then, you're insane, way worse than Kovarian," he exclaimed.

"Did you always exaggerate with people?"

"Did you always bother with people?" Arthur exclaimed, shaking his head before mirthlessly chuckling. "You…You did more damage than I thought you could have."

"I know the moment you and your…family…knew the truth, you'd never stop hounding us," Awsok said rather calmly. "When Kovarian and her believers made their own movement from the Church to stop a silly war, we decided to…help them. The Division provides resources to the Silence. But, in the end, it never matters," she glares at Arthur. "Because someone decided to alter the timeline."

"And now, knowing Kovarian had failed to stop us, you decided to end the universe to protect the existence of Division," Arthur sarcastically added.

"Precisely. Which is why we engineered the Flux, shut the universe down and you two within it. Except even then you two interfere. Disrupting the Flux, just as it came into existence. Throwing yourself and a Tardis in front of it."

"Division created the Flux because you're scared of us?" the Doctor asked, trying to hold her rage from the information she just had. That the Division was not only responsible for the Flux, but had an involvement in the Pandorica, her own death in Lake Silencio, and the siege of Trenzalore.

"Not scared," she disagreed. "Wary…perhaps."

"Not buying it," Arthur smirks. "You're scared. Scared how much the influence the Doctor and I had. Me and my family can bring hope and ideas to people. After all, ideas live forever. And that terrifies you…Tecteun."

"Pattern optimization in progress," the Ood stated. Arthur quickly uses the time vortex at the console. "Pattern optimization failed."

"Restart," Tecteun ordered, turns to Arthur, clearly losing her patience. "Do that again—"

"Or what?" Arthur barked, not bothering the wary look his mother had sent to him. "You killed me? I mean, you're generating the final waves of the Flux from here, forcing spatial compression on that universe. Plus, you're trying to move this structure into the next universe while you destroy the one you leave behind. But…you're convinced to use the Flux to kill us? I wonder if you're truly smart…or truly stupid."

"So…was what the Master told me true?" The Doctor asked, trying to diffuse the situation from getting worse. Tecteun has no qualification to hurt others, so she needs a good, precise idea to stop this whole madness. And provoking—like her son had been doing—clearly isn't helping.

"Yes," she replied. "I found you. A lost child, alone, beneath a monument on a deserted planet, seemingly deposited thereby a wormhole. No way back, no one to care for you."

"You took something that didn't belong to you."

She chuckles. "I rescued you. Would you prefer to have been left?"

"Rather than living like this? Yes!" Arthur snapped. "Especially the likes of you."

"You assumed I came through that wormhole, but you don't know," the Doctor continued, trying to be brave, to the person she used to view as a parent before morphed as an abuser. "What if I was waiting there to collected? What if I was supposed to be taken through it? What if whoever left me there was taken by that wormhole?"

"What if, what if, what if?" Tecteun mocked.

"You denied me my life!" The Doctor yelled.

"I gave you a life. Everything you are is because of me. But I understand. You think you could have been something else, someone else."

"The only thing I hear is more crap," Arthur hissed. The sight of her made Arthur sick. He didn't see this old woman as family, but as a self-righteous, ignorant woman. Truth be told, Arthur personally sees the Time Lady known as the Woman as the Doctor's real mother, not Tecteun.

"You judge me…for giving your mother the journey of her lifetime. But you have seen what she does, Explorer. Pick people up, take them, adopt them, use them, for reassurance, for company. In fact, she never cared about you in the beginning. The Doctor saw you as an extension tool to save the so-called 'companion' and nothing else." Tecteun insisted. "Tell me, how many people have died in the name of the Doctor?"

"And how many people died under yours?" He countered. "I bet you never know, because you barely care. Well, here's the difference. The Doctor cares. Maybe you did care for her. But you lost it the moment you used your own child as an experiment and someone to be controlled with."

She shook her head. "I wish I got you sooner. You'll understand much better than…that."

"Over my dead body."

"And I would fight you for it," the Doctor snarled, taking her son behind her, daring Tecteun the danger she'll receive if she ever does so.

"Ood, guard both of them," Tecteun commanded and walks away.

"Yes, Tecteun," the Ood responded.

"We can try to convince the Ood," the Doctor suggested, using Gallifreyan language.

"He's sided with the Division," Arthur argued. "I doubt he'll help us."

"This entire place isn't safe for us. Tecteun might use some unknown methods to know what we'll do. We need to try, Sunny."

Arthur wasn't happy with this idea. Aside from the risk of being found out and put in danger, they could be adding to the problems of their colleagues on Earth who were helping with the Flux issue. "Oh, screw it," he cursed and looked at the Ood. "Hello, Mr. Ood?"

"I am unable to provide assistance," he replied. "My service is to Division and Tecteun."

"You're generating spatial compression, the final Flux events, from here."

"Mate, we have to stop this," the Doctor suggested.

"Prevention is in contravention of instructions," the Ood disagreed. "It is also impossible. Flux culmination is already in progress."

"Show us while she's not here."

"I am prevented from—"

"Yeah, but you want to, right?" Arthur mused, sincerely hoping this is working. "Deep down, in your mind, you know this is wrong."

"Aren't you worried? Aren't you scared for your own kind?" The Doctor coaxed. "Because that universe is full of Ood. The universe, the matter that is being compressed by you, that's where your people live. And I don't know how or when you became part of this, but we can stop this. We can save them all."

"You cannot. It is too late," the Ood pointed out.

"Gotta try, Mate," Arthur asserted.

"We're very good at pulling rabbits out of hats," the Doctor added.

"I have no rabbits," the Ood stated.

"It's a metaphor."

"Or hats."

"Honestly, it doesn't matter. Just show us, quick smart, before she comes back."

The Ood pauses, quietly looking at both of them…before showing them what he's working on via projection.

"Good job," Arthur complimented him.

"Oh! Thank you, thank you, Ood. We can sort this," the Doctor thanked before she and Arthur took a good look at it. "Sorry, which part of the universe is this?"

"All of it," the Ood said.

"No, there's nowhere near enough of it."

"This is all that remains. The first Flux event destroyed many galaxies."

"But it doesn't make sense. It's not centred correctly," Arthur noticed.

"Exactly!" The Doctor noted as she circles the projection. "The erasure, the compression all looks like it's moving in from the outside, all to one place."

"That is Earth," the Ood informed. "Earth will be the ultimate apex of destruction. It is designed that way."

"It's always Earth!" Arthur huffed. Seriously, why do so many aliens always attack Earth, especially around the UK?

He closes his eyes as he hears many vague noises, calling to him.

"But what has been compressed can be decompressed," the Doctor realised. "Uncompressed, cos I'm thinking, those transport pads, this power source, reversing the polarity of the conversion plates, I can stop this and get out of here before she kills me, cos we both know that's where this is heading. And what is that noise? That whispering?!"

"You hear it?" He gazes at her.

"I cannot hear it," the Ood responded.

"Mum!" Arthur gestures at a red shelf. There is an ornate fob watch under a glass dome. Even as Arthur and the Doctor get closer, the noises get louder, as if reaching them.

"Listen up, Ravagers," Fugitive Doctor announced. "You are intruders in the Temple of Atropos. The Temple is surrounded. There's no way out of here, and no way off this planet. We've come to reclaim what you took. You do not belong here, so you might as well surrender to save matters getting too unpleasant. I know you can hear me. Tell your remaining troops to surrender now, or they'll have me to answer to."

"I see you've found it," Tecteun said from behind.

"A Galifreyan device…for the protecting and storage of memories and identities," the Doctor remarked, knowing this device very well. Used it twice in fact. One to be Ruth Clayton and another to be John Smith. "Of course you kept them, the memories you took from me."

"A good scientist never throws away their workings. We had them quantum stored for a long time in the Weeping Angel…who tracked you and betrayed you, but don't worry, it didn't escape. Everything has been transferred now, stored in that fob watch."

"How much memory is inside it?" Arthur asked, mesmerised at the fob watch as he slowly took off the glass dome and touched it, hearing more noises while the Doctor's looking at the hologram of the Weeping Angel.

"How many people have I been?" The Doctor questioned. "Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?"

"What would you give to know? What if I offered you a choice?" Tecteun offered as the shaking continues. "You two can return to the dying universe you left, defend it from its inevitable destruction and fail, or rejoin Division. Rejoin me. Come with us into the next universe, into the beyond. Help me build! With your memories restored. Be complete again. The next universe holds the other end of the wormhole where I found you. That universe…may be where you're from, where you began. Your origins, perhaps. Think of the discoveries that would await us both there. A new start. A way that nobody will ever hunt down your child or your family ever again."

"And you expect us to buy another of your crap?" Arthur snorts, fidgeting with his wedding ring on his necklace. "I'm starting to see the flaw in the Division."

"If you really knew me, you'd know I'd never agree to any of this, no matter how strong the incentive," the Doctor proclaimed.

"What if I left the Earth? What if we let your friends and child live?" Tecteun probbed.

"Listen to me. I'm gonna save my friends. I'm gonna save that universe. And I'm gonna destroy Division. So hold on to that hat, because you, me, Sunny, and all the things you had done until the end of the universe? It's personal now. And we're gonna win."

"They're here," Arthur abruptly blurted.

"Who?"

"The Ravagers."

On a cue, two skeleton-figure appear in the space station.

Tecteun also looks shocked as well. "How did you get here?"

"The psycho-temporal bridge I've been building, powered by the energy we harvested from the lifeforms of that universe, to you, Doctor," the skeleton-figured man, Swarm, explained. "Right from the start. All it took was a little Time. And all for this, to get beyond any one universe, to find Division, to get revenge on those who imprisoned us so long ago. To take them all. And," he glances at Arthur. "To make sure the Firefox died for good."

"You cause us great damage, child," the other skeleton-figure, Azure, reminded him. Her smile makes her appearance more creepy than ever. "We barely survived the surge of the Vortex. But our revenge fuels us to be here."

"You don't belong here," Tecteun insisted.

"Say thank you, Doctor."

The Doctor frowns, keeping her child close to her. "What for?"

"We could heal this pain of yours so easily."

Swarm slowly approaches Tecteun, who looks lost. "You released me. Now I release you!" He snarled and quickly touched her.

"Don't!" Arthur yelled at the same time her mother shouts, "No, no, no, don't touch her!"

But it's too late. Arthur watches silently as Tecteun disintegrates in front of them. Her eyes briefly look at the Time Lord, and her mouth seems to mutter something. Arthur's eyes went wide open upon realising what she's saying.

Tecteun wasn't a good woman, nor a good mother. She took a child and exploited that child in an inhumane way. Doing so, she wielded unlimited power and brought an advanced civilization to Gallifrey. A civilisation that unfortunately also sparked an endless Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords.

But Tecteun's ambition and greed made her afraid of the potential the Doctor can do and the way the Doctor had escaped her grasp. And so, aiding the Silence, she indirectly causes the misfortune of the entire generation of the Pond-Williams family.

Such a woman deserves no pity.

However, looking at Tecteun's resigned face before she died, Arthur felt the same way as Cassandra died, even after all the rottenness that caused so many people to die on Platform One.

"Now, Doctor," Swarm glances at both mother and son. "You and him—!"

"Duck!" Arthur screams and they both do it at the same moment.

"Ood, with us," the Doctor called before dragging the Ood away from the Ravagers with Arthur.

︎︎︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

After making sure they're far from the Ravagers, the Doctor looks at the Ood. "Ood, quick, what would happen if I rip off this conversion plate?"

"You will be pulled back into the universe," he replied.

"We have to get back to Earth," Arthur insisted, helping his mother with the hose. His Time Vortex can automatically activate when serious danger lurks. But, his mother needs a Tardis to get out of this space station. "Can you locate our Tardis?"

"Doctor! Explorer!" Swarm called not far from their location.

"Departing so soon?" Azure asked.

The Doctor shrugs. "The neighbourhood went downhill."

"You had your revenge against the Division!" Arthur yelled, buying the Doctor and Ood more time to prepare. "The universe doesn't deserve it. What more can you want?"

"I have located your Tardis, Doctor, Explorer," the Ood informed them.

"Hurry it along, Ood," the Doctor said.

"What more?" Swarm scoffed. "Even now, you're naive, child. You think Time is your ally? On the contrary, Time is your enemy. Nobody, especially beings like Time Lords, should possess the ability to control Time. We only want Time to be released as its original state."

"When it's chaotic and maddening, you mean?"

Time is by nature a terrible thing. Time controls everything. It was originally uncontrollable. And without Mouri's help, time will become even more uncontrollable. The risks are enormous if left unchecked. Especially the Time Vortex within Arthur. He might lose control, resulting in his body becoming old and young simultaneously, and his mind going crazy.

"You're not going to leave us, Doctor," Swarm warned.

"Systems functional. Exit available," Ood remarked.

"Watch me," she declared, taking Arthur's hand before removing the conversion plate from her jacket. Swarm manages to reaches Arthur's jacket before they truly disappears—

︎︎︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

Then, Arthur appears back in the space station.

"Right," He looks around, finding that he and the Doctor are still in here.

"Still here," the Doctor noticed. "How are we still here?"

"You are not," the Ood alluded to the Doctor. "And yet you are. There is danger. This is not usual."

"Weirdly enough, this is actually a good thing," Arthur remarked.

"How?" The Doctor demanded.

"Seems you're unable to tear yourself away," Swarm denoted.

Azure shows them the fob watch in her hand. Arthur quickly checks his jacket, cursing to find that Swarm didn't just reach Arthur to stop him, but also to take the fob watch. "Give. It. Back," Arthur warned, but decided to help the Doctor, who looked in pain.

"That does not belong to you," the Doctor hissed, holding her head.

"Do you think we're going to stop, after all the time you've made me wait?" Swarm mocked. "This is better than we could ever have hoped. We have everything we need. Division, the power to destroy your universe, your child, and you. You have no escape. It's perfect. All your lost memories."

In a swift movement, Arthur forcefully takes Azure's hand. She shook her head, finding it amusing that he would think this sort of action might help him. But as she's ready to disintegrate him…she notices her hand feels like it's burning. She tries to pull it off, but the grip is just getting stronger.

Arthur snarls, his eyes blazing with fire and sun. He never stops staring at Azure, even as smoke comes out of his body and his nose starts bleeding. His only focus was to make sure Azure returned the fob watch back.

"Sunny, stop!" The Doctor shouted, realising the smoke out of his body. "Give me that fob watch. Now!"

"Never!" Azure bellowed and forcefully opened the fob watch.

But the dark-haired man knows what she's going to do. He knows she still wants to open the fob watch. But Arthur can't let her open it, not without the Doctor's permission and the chance the memory inside the fob watch can hurt his mother further.

So, he does one of the stupidest things he could ever imagine.

He snatches the fob watch…and smashes it.

Arthur knew a thing or two about the use of the Chameleon Arch. The Time Lord's essence can move to the desired object. Generally, the watch fob is used. But there are times when certain objects can hold the essence of a Time Lord. Sometimes, if the item is destroyed before the essence is released to the original host, the essence is also lost.

Everyone just watches, stunned as Arthur proceeds to kick the fob watch on the ground like a wild animal. But the man doesn't care. All he thinks about is the idea that the Ravagers might have used it for their goal and the memory of them hurting Yaz and Dan just triggers him to keep smashing the fob watch like crazy.

He inhales deeply, staring at the pieces of the fob watch. A deep snarl distracts him from it and he looks up, at the four eyes that fill with nothing but rage.

His mother just covers her mouth, looking back-and-forth between him and the smashing fob watch. "Arthur Jonas, that is the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"Wonder why," he mused, wiping out some blood out of the corner of his mouth, not even remotely guilty about it. Even if his condition isn't at his best…he had no intention to do something without, at least, a plan.

"You play a dangerous act, Firefox," Azure snarled.

"Go ahead, do your worst," he challenged with a smirk.

"Sunny!" The Doctor hissed.

"I'll be fine. I promise. I know what I'm doing," he winked before collapsing.

︎︎︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

When he woke up, the Ood had to kneel beside him. "Please lay down, Explorer. Your condition is not fit to stand up first."

He nods, hissing at the back of his head. Okay that hurts. "Did I miss anything important?"

"Other than being reckless?" The Doctor huffed beside him, winces. "I'm not sure how much more my body can take of this. Ood, If we could get those Ravagers away, would you be able to minimise the final Flux event?"

"My impact may be minimal, but I'll try," the Ood replied.

"Better than nothing," Arthur shrugs.

"Oi, you two!" The Doctor called the Ravagers, getting their attention as she strodes to them. "Is this where we're going to stay for the end of the universe?"

"Atropos will be the final point of the Flux destruction. The culmination, where Time will be unleashed," Swarm revealed.

"Not gonna happen," Arthur proclaimed, also walking in front of them.

"How can you help in that condition?" Azure retorted.

"And besides, You two will be our offering," Swarm added. "The first and the last Time Lords. A final gift for the Saviour, sacrificed to Time on Atropos as it falls to the Flux." He grabs their shoulder before they can do anything. "Atropos, then."

"Sunny?" Her mother said telepathically. "Please tell me this is part of your plan."

"It is," he assured her as they landed at Atropos.

"Our Saviour," Swarm gasped as he and Azure bow at a purple swarm descends and solidifies.

"I always wondered what Time would look like," the Doctor contemplated.

"Replicating someone looks," Arthur guessed and sighs as it transforms into Swarm. "Called it."

"Saviour. We have come to release you," Swarm started.

"And yet I'm still encaged in this pitiful realm of Atropos," Time remarked.

"No. Soon the Flux—"

"The Flux is extinguished."

"What?!" Azure exclaimed.

"The Doctor had many allies while you're so busy with us," Arthur shared, adding a little glee tone. Although, he was rather sad that he couldn't save Jericho from his death. Well, then again, Jericho wasn't happy as well. Even if he stayed briefly at his house, Arthur can sense Jericho wants more into his life. At least, he finally got one.

"I've been with you the whole time. Well, most of me has. So, however much you wanted to break Time out of prison, you just have to make do with visiting hours. They didn't even bring you a cake," the Doctor commented.

"We brought you, Doctor, Explorer," Swarm reminded them before speaking to Time. "Take them, the Timeless Child and the Firefox as sacrifices. They are yours."

"But how will I reward your failure, my servants?" Time asked and sent the Time Force to take the Ravagers.

"Ascension!" Azure realises as she and Swarm accept it.

Not even perturbed, Time stares at them before transforming into the Doctor.

"Nice look. Quite fancy that coat," the Doctor complimented before frowns. "Oh, I get how that ego appeal thing works now."

Arthur shook his head. "You just realise that now? So," he turns to Time. "Is this it? Our time?"

"No," Time decided.

The Doctor blinks. "Oh. Really?"

"Very bold of you, considering you seem to hate me," Arthur recalled.

"Hate is a strong word," Time denoted, staring at him. "The presence of another being with a Time Vortex is never…beneficial for me. Especially people who have the ability to change time. But that doesn't matter. You two can leave here, but you won't outrun me. Your time is heading to its end."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Nothing is forever. No regeneration, no life. Beware of the forces that mass against you. And their Master."

A lovely young dark-skinned woman looks grimly at the (Tenth) Doctor. "It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then, Doctor? Oh, but then he will knock four times."

"Mother doesn't like to talk or think about your death. Remember that, Arthur."

"What do you mean? What do you mean, their Master?" The Doctor fearfully demanded, finding that warning too familiar to her. She didn't want that reminder, not again. Not after all these years.

"I restore you, Doctor. Reunify you. But for how long?"

Before the Doctor can say something, a bright light illuminates her and she disappears.

"I'm still here," Arthur pointed out.

Time just smiles. But the smile just looks wrong in so many ways. "You may think you can outrun me, but do remember that your Time is getting closer to its end."

"Because you put this illness in me in the first place, thank you very much."

"There's always a price to pay. Not even you can be an exception, Firefox."

Arthur just stared at this ominous entity before him. Time seemed calm, but if you paid attention, this entity had a cruel side that counted. Arthur knew the illness he was experiencing was a result of getting infected. But the big reason he didn't get better is because his immunity were already weakened by changing his father's future in Trenzalore. And though Time had said it had no problem with Arthur, the tone of the voice and the look in the eyes suggested otherwise. "So, what? Are you going to gloat in my face?"

"I suggest you need to rethink what you will do. The choice you shall take will bring consequences to your universe. Be it the past…or the future."

Time waves its hand and Arthur immediately turns off his eyes as a bright light heading into his way.

︎︎︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

He finds himself standing at the front of the Museum of Liverpool.

"Dan?" Arthur called as the man emerged out of the building.

"Arthur?" Dan realised the dark-haired man from a photo Yaz showed to him during his trip in 1904. "Hey, Mate. You miss a lot."

"Tell me about it. Wanna company?"

"Need one."

Arthur nods as he and Dan walk away, watching the sky grew darker. "So, you and Diane…?"

"How did you—oh, right," Dan muttered, remembering, once again, that Arthur's a psychic. A powerful one, one might say. "No, I don't think me and Diane are going to work."

"I don't think she didn't want you. All the things that have happened to her are…overwhelming. Most people won't be ready after experience dealing with aliens. Just let time pass and see how she's feeling."

"You…think?"

"Hey, a psychic doesn't always know every 24/7. Especially someone's feelings."

Dan chuckles at that. He'll buy that excuse. "You must be a good boyfriend."

"I guess," Arthur shrugs. "It's hard to tell sometimes. Relationships are very complicated with Time Travelers."

"But you manage it."

"Took a bit of work, but yeah…manage it." He sees Yaz and the Doctor and waves. "Mum! Yaz!"

︎︎︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

"First left, ninth right, and then third left. Bedroom corridor," Arthur instructed Dan as he set the Tardis away. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz finally have an honest conversation.

"Yaz…I'm sorry. I didn't let you into what I was doing. Going after Karvanista. What I was looking for. I shouldn't have shut you out," the Doctor apologised.

"No. You shouldn't have," Yaz agreed, not shying away the hurt she has on the Doctor.

"I was looking for...information...about me. A life I never knew. I want to tell you everything."

"I'd like that."

"Wait, I'm confused," Dan said, his brows knitted. "Did you say left or right, Arthur?"

"Left!" Arthur uttered.

Yaz shook her head. "Come on, Scouse, let Yorkshire show you the way."

As Yaz and Dan leave, Arthur slowly circling the console, observing the Doctor. She has stayed silent for a while. Occasionally, he's very good at reading his father/mother's mind. But sometimes, it's hard for Arthur to know for certain. They're both too similar with keeping their emotions and problems to themself.

"It's not gone," he whispered.

The Doctor turns at him. "What?"

"The essence," Arthur continued. She had been desperate to search her past. She deserves to know. "It's never gone. It got transferred."

"I don't follow."

An understatement of the year. "When I smashed the fob watch," Arthur began, inclining his head. "I never actually intend to destroy it completely. I…I know how much you want to know your past, Mum. So, before the Ravagers took it from mine…I took the essence into myself."

The Doctor stares intently at her son. "So…the watch was empty?"

Arthur nods. "I put it in here," he pointed at his forehead. "It's still locked, so I can't access it. It seems Tecteun has made sure that nobody besides you can fully open it."

The Doctor's mind went back to the memory of Brandon, the Irish garda. How Brandon was forced to endure the pain of using the Chameleon Arch. And then the large clock with the inscription For Services To The Division Brandon received as the gift of his so-called retirement. Could it be…the inscription is a password to unlock the memories?

"It's up to you," Arthur said, holding her hands into his. "You can unlock it…and I can show it to you."

The doctor looked at her son again. Her son who had a forgotten memory of her past. Five words. Just five words and all her efforts to get her past memory will be achieved.

But...she hesitated.

That memory must be a lot for a Time Lord to have. What would happen to her child if he remembered all of that? Would his mind be okay? Or will his mind be damaged due to excessive memory capacity?

Not to mention…the Doctor herself. Will she still be the Doctor? Or would she take a different path the moment she remembered everything? What did Ruth say?

Have you ever been limited by who you were before?

No, never.

"Sunny, I want you to do something," she finally said, gripping her child's hands. "I won't say those five words. I want you to keep that memory somewhere deep within your mind, where I can't ever reach, no matter what. Unless I really ask for it."

Arthur blinked his grey eyes. However, he nodded. If this is what his mother wants, then he shall respect the Doctor's decision. "I will."

"Thank you," she whispered, slowly hugging him. He's so big now. And knowing this is the last body he'll have…

She's not ready.

No.

When it comes to Arthur, she's never ready to say goodbye.