Chapter 9 – The President & The Queen
Romana's hands twitched as the Rani's intense gaze fell upon her. She had an interesting relationship with the renegade Time Lady. During her time as President Romana was largely willing to allow her to go about her business, as long as it didn't interfere with the time stream too much. She was well aware of the Rani's questionable reputation but having a planet full of people to look after meant that she couldn't divert resources to track her down. The Rani tended to keep to herself and avoided getting involved in the elaborate schemes for domination like her fellow renegade the Master.
Like most residents of Gallifrey the Time War changed both Time Lady's. Romana's more ruthless wartime incarnation relied heavily on the Rani to invent some exotic weapons of destruction to use against the Daleks. It helped that the Rani's wartime regeneration was more than willing to serve her home planet than previous incarnations would've been. This regeneration though was a mystery to Romana and she had to tread carefully, "Surely we can talk about this like civilised people Rani", the brunette began, "we're not here to interfere with your experiments".
There was a nervous silence as Romana waited for the Rani's response. Appealing to the renegade's desire to protect her experiments was probably the best course of action, the Rani valued those about everything else, not matter her incarnation. To her immense relief, the Rani slowly waived her hand, "At ease Malachi", she said in the direction of the tallest creature, "these visitors have no ill intensions towards your clan".
The grey skinned creature snorted before sniffing Harry curiously. To his credit the dark haired teen stayed perfectly still, allow the beast to ascertain his intensions. The creature slowly backed away before bowing gently as a show of respect. The gathered locals slowly disappeared back into the forest but Romana could sense they weren't too far away, "I see you found a way to restore your memories", the Rani began with a small smirk, "I trust you didn't spend too long as a human".
"Nearly eighteen years", Romana shot back, "thanks to someone setting the arch for youth rather than adult".
The Rani shrugged, "What makes you think I did it deliberately?"
"Well if you didn't then you got the calculations wrong", Romana smiled broadly, claiming this little exchange as a small victory. The miffed expression on the older Time Lady's face filled Romana with glee.
"Erm hi, remember us?" Ron interjected himself into the Time Lady's conversation, "perhaps some introductions are in order".
"Surrounding yourself with humans, how the mighty have fallen Lady President", the Rani chuckled. She turned towards the humans and ignored Romana's annoyed expression, "I am the Rani, a better example of how a Time Lady is expected to act".
"If by that you mean totally amoral scientist with a superiority complex the size of Jupiter", Romana fired back.
The two humans looked slightly nervous and began to back away from the dark haired Time Lady, "Please if I wanted to kill you, I would've done it the moment you stepped onto the planet", the Rani sniffed, "beside I've cut back a little on the experiments if you must know".
"I'll believe that when I see it", Romana countered, crossing her arms across her chest, "perhaps the two of you should return to the TARDIS, just in case our host changes her mind".
"If she's dangerous then we're staying", Ron replied defiantly, filling Romana's hearts with happiness, "especially if you haven't got a wand to defend yourself with".
"Oh we can't use magic", the Rani said absently, staring at her painted fingernails. Ron and Harry's heads snapped towards Romana as the younger Time Lady glared at the Rani in annoyance, "You didn't know, oops", she practically chuckled at Romana's misfortune.
Romana could feel the humans gaze firmly on her. Picking up on their emotions the pair felt more disappointed than angry, which in some aspects was probably worse. Romana could deal with an angry Harry and Ron, her human self had done that on many occasion. Disappointment though was something entirely different, "Why didn't you tell us?" the Time Lady winced as the hurt in Harry's voice, "didn't you trust us?"
"That's not it at all", Romana replied quickly.
"Then what is it", Ron added heatedly, "I'm getting sick of these little surprises you keep springing on us Romana. I can't speak for Harry but I would like the whole story for once".
The brunette Time Lady nodded slowly and wondered exactly where to begin. This would be a difficult conversation at the best of times but having to conduct it in the presence of the Rani made it ten times more difficult, "Ooh trouble in paradise", the older Time Lady chuckled gleefully, "there's something about human emotion that fascinates me".
"Rani shut up", Romana hissed, ignoring the elated feeling rolling off the dark haired Time Lady. She took a couple of moments before beginning her explanation, "I knew that I couldn't do magic almost from the very beginning. There was so much other stuff going on that I didn't want to worry you", Harry and Ron didn't look overly impressed, "none of the wands onboard the TARDIS would respond to me", she continued, "if I'm honest I was ashamed and I felt like a failure". She sighed deeply and stared at the ground, "I thought that you would find me useless without magic".
Romana tried to block out everything in the surrounding area, she couldn't deal with a gloating Rani or any more disappointment from the two teens. She stood on the spot almost drowning in her failures, the panic attack in Diagon Alley and now deceiving her only friends. To her surprise a firm pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders forcing her to look up, directly into the vivid green eyes of Harry, "Romana, how can you believe you're useless", he soothed, "without you, neither of us would've escaped from Malfoy Manor".
"We probably would've been caught by the Goblins and executed for breaking into Gringotts", Ron added, "and you have a bloody machine that travels in time and space". There was a soft snort from the Rani that the trio decided to ignore, "Maybe we have been a little hard on you but we're still trying to get our heads around this, I mean our best friend is a really old alien with a time machine".
The brunette smiled warmly, her hearts warmed by the loyalty shown by Hermione's friends. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she had forgotten how hard this was on Harry and Ron, "No matter what, you're still our friend", Harry continued, "but we would like a little more openness though".
The moment was ruined by a retching noise from the other Time Lady, "Please no more, this is far too sickly sweet for my tastes", the Rani sniffed.
"Well no one asked you", Ron snapped, "where does she fit into your story then Romana?"
"I'm sorry to say that she was the one who smuggled me off Gallifrey at the end of the Time War", Romana replied. The memories of that day were still fresh in her mind, locked up like a common criminal in the bowels of the Citadel after being overthrown by Rassilon and his minions. Sometimes she could still feel the foundations of the great structure shaking under heavy assault from the Dalek fleet when she closed her eyes.
"I prefer the term rescued", the Rani continued the story, "our people, in a moment of stupidity or possibly insanity revived one of the founders of our civilisation in hope that he could end the war". Romana was surprised when the Rani paused, for a moment she felt a twinge of regret through the Time Lord telepathic connection, "I'm ashamed to say that I was one of those who voted in favour of this action", there was a pause before she added, "I was wrong".
A small part of Romana wanted to rub this in the Rani's face but the renegade Time Lady rarely admitted she was wrong about anything. To gloat in her face now didn't feel right, "I'm surprised that Rassilon didn't discover your plot", Romana asked her fellow Time Lady, "his telepathic abilities far exceeded any Time Lord in existence".
Once again the Rani hesitated before slowly unbuttoning her blouse. Romana was about to ask her what she was doing but her attention quickly focused on three angry red scars that stretched across the Rani's torso, "Who said that he didn't discover my plan", the older Time Lady said with a small voice. Romana couldn't think of anything to say, feeling nothing but sympathy for the Rani, "I don't want your pity Lady President", the dark haired woman snapped and quickly closed her shirt.
"Then just tell me why?" Romana pleaded, "why did you save me?
"Why not?" the Rani shrugged, "what better way to get back at Rassilon than releasing his biggest opponent from prison?" The Rani hesitated again before continuing her story, "He was planning the Final Sanction, did you know that?"
Romana froze she had read about the Final Sanction in the Academy's library, the total collapse of the time vortex which, in theory, would allow the Time Lords to ascend to a higher level of consciousness. It was purely a theory though, no one would ever be crazy enough to go ahead with the Final Sanction, at least that's what Romana thought, "Do we want to know what this Final Sanction is?" Harry asked nervously.
"The end of everything Harry", Romana replied with a quiet voice, "that's all you need to know".
"Fortunately for us Rassilon's master plan called for Gallifrey to escape the Time Lock and appear in orbit near Earth", the Rani continued her story. "Rassilon was so focused on his moment of triumph that he forgot about me. I grabbed Romana from prison and we escaped to Earth in her TARDIS".
"But I was dying", Romana took over the story, "Rassilon's treatment of me whilst in prison", she paused, trying desperately to push away the dark memories of that time, "let's just say it made Azkaban look like a holiday camp". The two wizards shuddered just at that thought, "The Rani used the Chameleon Arch as I was regenerating to hide me from Rassilon, although quite why you turned me into a baby is beyond me".
The Rani merely shrugged, "Because it amused me", Romana fumed at the older Time Lady, she had been forced to grow up as a human because the Rani thought it would be funny, "I found a childless couple in London who took you in".
"Did they willingly take me in?" Romana asked the Rani, knowing her penchant for mind alerting drugs and poisons. The non committal shrug from the dark haired woman told its own story, "Actually I'm not sure I want to know", she sighed.
One thing that did confuse Romana was the memory of the destruction of Gallifrey, if she had left before this event why could she remember it? "A event like the destruction of Gallifrey, something like that is burned onto the very psyche of every Time Lord and Lady still alive", came the Rani reply to Romana's mental question.
"Were you there?" Romana asked, "is the memory yours that I'm feeling?"
The Rani shook her head, "By the time I returned from dropping baby you off with your new parents the time lock had broken and Gallifrey was returning to its original point in time. I barely had time to summon my TARDIS and run". The older Time Lady paused, "There's only two others that I know survived the war, the Master", Romana groaned, of course that psychopath survived, he was harder to kill than a cockroach. Romana and the High Council had already tried once, executing him for crimes against time itself. Somehow he had escaped death, only to tumble into the Eye of Harmony inside the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS. Even this wasn't enough to get rid of him, he had been brought back to life at the start of the Time War, a decision that Romana had opposed but had been outvoted on. The coward had run away though, saving his own skin and proving Romana right.
That brought Romana's mind on to the second survivor, a small slither of hope filling her body, "The other one, it's the Doctor isn't it?" she asked.
"Unfortunately yes", the Rani groaned. The animosity between the Rani and the Doctor was legendary. They still fought together during the War, more out of pragmatism than genuine respect for each other.
"That's a good thing right?" Harry asked the two Time Lady's, "Romana's told us how brilliant he is".
"The Doctor brilliant?" the Rani suddenly burst into laughter and Romana shot the older woman with a piercing glare. The Doctor wasn't everyone's cup of tea but he was still one of her oldest and best friends. No one insulted the man in her presence, "Oh yes, I forgot that the two of you had a thing for a while, his fourth and your second if I remember correctly", the Rani continued.
Romana could feel Harry and Ron's eyes on her, especially the youngest Weasley son. His feelings towards her human self weren't a secret and he probably didn't want to hear about her previous relationships, "That was a long time ago", the brunette tried to move the conversation along, "whilst I understand you'll never be the best of friends, surely he would appreciate the fact that you're alive".
"I have no need for company", the Rani quickly dismissed Romana, "especially not from that bumbling idiot".
"Rani, how long have you been alone for?" Romana was surprised to hear that question from Harry. For her the Time War was fairly recent, even counting her eighteen or so years as a human. It never once crossed her mind that it had been any longer than that since that fateful day.
For a few moments the Rani hesitated to answer and Romana could feel her hesitancy. There was one other emotion rolling off the renegade, near crippling loneliness. If Romana had to guess, the Rani had been free of the war for one or maybe even two hundred years, "I like my solitude Harry Potter and little wizards like you should mind their own business", the Rani snapped.
Silence descended on the forest again and no human or Time Lady dared to break the silence. Romana knew that the Rani liked to work alone, the council often went decades without hearing from her. Living with the knowledge that she was one of the last Time Lords in existence was painful for Romana but to live with that for hundreds of years like the Rani had, the brunette couldn't imagine anything worse. Then there was the Doctor, if he hadn't encountered the Master then he probably thought he was alone. Romana vowed to track him down as soon as she could, once this business with Voldemort was out the way.
"How did you know who Harry was?" Ron's question suddenly pierced through the silent, "you introduced yourself but never took our names".
Romana froze because Ron was absolutely correct, that brought another important question to mind, "How did you know about magic on Earth Rani?" she asked, "You must've had a fair idea to create a magical human persona for me".
The Rani crossed her arms defensively across her body and for once, Romana noticed that the renegade was lost for words, "Surely that's not relevant", the Time Lady answered. Romana though stood her ground, returning the Rani's glare, "Fine but I'm not doing this whilst standing in the middle of a forest". She turned on her heel and marched back towards the trees, "Try to keep up, there's some dangerous creatures in this forest", she called over her shoulder.
Harry, Ron and Romana looked at each other before the Time Lady followed after the Rani, "There better not be any spiders", Ron snorted. Romana had to chuckle, they were being led into a dark forest by a dangerous renegade Time Lady. A few spiders were the least of their concerns.