Again blood splashed her face and body. Then she threw the blade away and turned him over, she saw he was still alive. Thin green ooze mingled with thick dark Gallifreyan blood that pooled around his body. She looked down at her blood stained hands before hearing his last words.
"The horror," he whispered. "The horror." Then the Valeyard was still, the light of life faded from his eyes and was extinguished.
Numb, but not with the cold night breeze the Doctor stood up and walked back to the boat shaped TARDIS. She walked on autopilot and found herself taking the boat back down river as fast as it would go. Once they were safe did she allow herself to feel again and they found her the next day curled up in a ball shivering. She's looked into the heart of darkness, where the blood-red journey ends. When you've faced the heart of darkness even your soul begins to bend.


Hannah turned round to see three cube shaped craft materialise above the large building. They rained down large pink bolts of energy and everything burst into flames. "All right!" she exclaimed before becoming subdued when she saw the look of disapproval on the Brigadier's face.
They made it safely back to the rendezvous and the boat-shaped TARDIS folded its walls around its passengers once more. Its destination was pre-programmed and it took off. When they finally arrived they were in the Panopticon. They had just carried the semiconscious figure of the Doctor outside when the TARDIS, shaped like a silvery green Doric column dematerialised.
"Well there goes my lift home," the Brigadier said before hefting the weight of the Doctor in his arms. "I'm sure Doris won't mind me being a few minutes late." He carried the Doctor to her seldom-used quarters. There had been a token attempt to personalise it but Time Ladies rarely needed sleep so the Doctor rarely needed it except to meditate. The room looked as if a wind had blown the contents everywhere. Claire tidied up as best she could, putting the blood covered sheets into the recycling machine. Hannah found the Doctor's large toy rabbit, Mr. Cuddles, and dusted him down.
Leela left and when she returned she brought Andred and Rodan. Rodan offered to take the Brigadier back home by her own TARDIS but he preferred to stay with the Doctor until she recovered.
Claire and Hannah stayed for a while longer before leaving to continue what they started back on the boat. Leela also left, to take care of her child. Only Andred and the Brigadier remained and they sat in vigil over the inert body of their friend. They had only met briefly when the Brigadier had been infected by an alien parasite a couple of years ago.


Eyes. Open. Light. Painful. Headaches. Water. The Doctor sat upright and turned to look at the sleeping figure of the Brigadier. She heard the door open and she saw Andred enter holding two mugs of coffee. "Don't you knock before entering a lady's boudoir?" She teased before stretching her arms and legs. "Oh I feel like I slept for a month."
"Not quite, Doctor," Andred replied. "Three and a half hours."
"More like four," the Brigadier said before yawning. "I'm getting too old for this Doctor."
"Nonsense Alistair, you're in the prime of your life. Now go home. Doris will be worried. And take her some flowers." The Doctor pointed to the door. "I'm perfectly all right. Now get out of here before I throw you out." She laughed and clapped her old, dear friend on the back.
"Rodan will take you home sir," Andred informed the Brigadier. "She's been wanting an excuse to get out of the Capitol again."
"Travel broadens the mind Andred," the Doctor quipped. "Do you mind? I'd like to take a shower now, this time I'd prefer it sans anyone else."
"Of course Doctor." Andred turned to leave. "Come by my office once you're ready. I need to take a full statement."


It begins as it ends. It is what was, what will always have been. Time is not constant as you think it is. Reality is not a flat surface. Space and Time converge and intermingle and interact relative to each other. One second is made up of millions upon millions of tiny particles of time. They are called Chronotrons and they weave together like molecules of water in a glass.
Interstitial Time occurs when the Chronotrons are arranged in a regular format, each discrete particle of time separate and unique to its neighbour. It is possible to punch a hole through this format from one moment in time to the other.
However there are things outside and around and between this stream of particles. Creatures that live outside the fourth dimension, they are alien to us and unknowable. Some of these beings we call ghosts, echoes of what was or what will be. Others we call Chronovores, eaters of time. However there are dread, eldritch beings that are as alien to the Chronovores as the Chronovores are to us. They do not think the way we do, do not live the way we do and do not behave the way we do.
To them our Universe is like a candle flame and like moths they are drawn to that flame. However they cannot reach the flame because the way is blocked for all time. They can never reach the flame, not unless someone was insane enough to change the course of history. Someone like the Doctor...


The Doctor knocked twice on Andred's door before opening it. "Only me," she said as she took a seat and sat down on it.
"Leela refuses to say anything about the mission she was dragged along on. I think that the Celestial Intervention Agency have implanted mental blocks in her mind." He folded his arms slowly. "I want you to tell me why my wife was placed in danger Doctor."
"I was sent to find someone and then to carry out a particular assignment. I have no idea why Leela, the Brigadier, Hannah or even Claire was sent along. I suspect they were there to make sure I came out of it again."
"Who were you sent to see Doctor?"
"Him; the Valeyard."
"What was your mission?"
"That's classified."
"What was your mission Doctor?"
"I can't tell you."
"Tell me, please."
"I was sent to kill him, okay? They sent me there to terminate his command with extreme prejudice." Tears welled up in the Doctor's eyes but she brushed them away angrily, smearing mascara across her cheeks.
Andred stared deep into the Doctor's eyes. "Did you complete this mission?"
The Doctor looked away, she couldn't meet his gaze. "Yes," she whispered quietly.
"Then there's no reason to detain you any further Doctor. Please vacate your offices as soon as possible."
"Why?" the Doctor asked.
"You were assigned to track down the Valeyard and deliver him into our custody. That mission is no longer valid."
"So it's just pack up and leave is it?" the Doctor demanded angrily.
Andred stood up and looked at the sheet of paper on his desk. "I should put you under arrest Doctor, however your past services and your status as former Madam President ... well, it would be undignified to put you in that position."


The final item, a baseball catcher's mitt, was casually tossed into the cardboard box. "That's everything," the Doctor said. "I suppose you want to frisk me on the way out too? Cop yourself a quick feel?" Red-faced with anger the Doctor chided the guards.
"Only doing our jobs Ma'am."
"That's what they all say, and don't call me Ma'am." The Doctor assumed the position while the female guard searched her person. "The first hint of the words body, cavity and search and I assure you that Andred will have two job vacancies."
"She's clean," the guard announced. "You can leave anytime you want."
"About time, don't expect a tip." The Doctor headed towards her TARDIS.


Claire found packing boring; she stuffed her things into a couple of bags before watching Hannah fold each and every garment carefully. She played with Lucky for a while, to pass the time, letting him munch away on a leafy branch. There was a knock at the door and the Doctor wandered in.
"Ah there you two are. All packed yet?"
"Not quite Doctor," Hannah replied, hurriedly trying to hide the bedroom toy. "One or two things left to sort out."
"What about you Claire? You busy?" She noted that the Doctor was tapping her foot; she was expecting a no.
"As it happens I have a few hours free in my oh so busy schedule. Just after receive thanks for helping defeat a serious menace and before get kicked in the teeth by a group of ungrateful bastards."
"Language young lady," the Doctor admonished. "They have their reasons."
"Sure, their business is to be as ungrateful as possible. So what's the gig? What are we moving? Planning on stealing the crown jewels?"
"Gallifrey doesn't have any, just a stick, a hat and a sash. Hardly the stuff of Empires is it? A key too, now that I think of it. Yes I must pay Kellner a visit. Stay here Claire; give Hannah a hand. We may need to leave in a hurry.


Finally they got the last bag inside the console room when the Doctor rushed inside and operated the dematerialisation circuit. The small plasma ball on top of the console burst into frenetic activity.
"We're clear of the transduction barriers, we've made it." The Doctor fished inside her blouse before pulling out a long mortise key. "Had to hide it in my bra. It was the only place I could stash it. I'd like to see Kellner eat his sandwiches now."
"What's so special about a key Doctor?" Hannah asked.
"It opens Kellner's draw where he hides his cheese and pickle sandwiches. A small act of petty theft. Here, you keep it." The Doctor tossed the artefact to her companion. "Look after it though, you never know when it might come in handy."


The view would have been tremendous if anyone had been there to see it. Ruptures in the fabric of space and time blossomed open like multi-dimensional flowers of greens and reds and blues. Whole galaxies were swallowed up as the fissures sucked in matter and energy. Fortunately these were returned again, however the nature of the fissures changed the local histories of everything they touched. Whole cultures became different cultures. The Hououioity race, a water breathing marine people, had suddenly always been a snail-like animal that ate the plants of the Muing Zah Federation's central command base.


Claire flopped down on her bed. Well, hers and Hannah's. They had managed to reconfigure their rooms to merge into one huge room and they pushed the two beds together, to make one. After a long talk they had decided to give living together a go and see what come of it. Removing her skirt, she relaxed in her favourite chair and let the foot spa work it's magic on her sore toes.
"Ah, there you are." Hannah entered their room with the last of their things. "Once we get this lot unpacked the Doctor's got a pot of tea on the go."
"Oh wow, tea. Big deal. I can think of a few more interesting things to do than drink tea."
"Me too, but I think the Doctor needs the company right now."
"Yeah, I know. It's just that what can we do? What can we say that will help?"
"Maybe nothing, maybe just letting her know we're there for her is all we can do."
"Okay, give me a few minutes to get changed yeah?" Claire asked as she started to dry her feet off. However Hannah threw a pair of purple Lycra leggings at her, catching her square in the face.
"Got you!" Hannah laughed.
Claire joined in the laughter as she pulled the tight material up onto her hips. "You just want to hope I'm still not wearing them when I throw them at you."
"I hope you are wearing them," Hannah teased. "Then I can discipline you properly, you naughty girl!"


The Doctor poured the tea into Hannah's cup. "Drink up, there's plenty more. The Pot's full."
Suddenly the pot of tea was dashed to the floor of the TARDIS when the whole room was shaken about. The table and chairs were buffeted off of Human, and Gallifreyan flesh, as it seemed the whole room was a giant blender of sorts.
Then it was over as quickly as it started. All three people picked themselves up and dusted themselves off.
"What the hell was that?" Claire asked.
"I don't know but it broke my favourite Teapot." The Doctor dropped the shattered remains into the bin by the door and left, headed towards the console room.
Claire and Hannah followed on behind. "Hold my hand please," Hannah asked Claire.
"I already am," Claire responded.
"Oh, yeah." Hannah noticed that Claire was holding her hand. "Then hold me, I don't feel too good."

The Console room was a mess of soil, broken plants and other assorted knick-knacks. The Doctor ignored the devastation as she pressed button after button, pulled lever after lever and turned dial after dial. Finally the wall-sized screen flickered into life. The Doctor gasped when she saw that they were being drawn into a massive green and black cloud of energy.
"What is it?" Claire asked, seeing the display.
"I'm not sure, no-one's seen one before but I'm guessing it's a time fissure. A rent in the fabric of space and time. A place that leads to a dark void of unknowable logic."
"Sounds like sex," Hannah giggled.
"That's quite enough of that," the Doctor lectured sternly. "This is neither the time nor the place for gossip. Wait until we're out of this mess before we discuss lewd behaviour."
"Sorry Doctor," Hannah apologised, her cheeks burning with shame.
"What is it?" Claire asked, seeing the display.
"I'm not sure, no-ones seen one before but I'm guessing it's a time fissure. A rent in the fabric of space and time. A place that leads to a dark void of unknowable logic."
"Sounds like sex," Hannah giggled.
"That's quite enough of that," the Doctor lectured sternly. "This is neither the time nor the place for gossip. Wait until we're out of this mess before we discuss lewd behaviour."
"Sorry Doctor," Hannah apologised, her cheeks burning with shame.
"I think we've just travelled through a pocket of random time. We just repeated ourselves. I do hope we don't get trapped in a chronic hysteresis." The Doctor pressed more buttons, some of the red ones this time. "This is bad. We don't have enough energy to pull free."
"What can we do?" Claire asked reasonably.
"We're all going to die!" Hannah panicked blindly.
The Doctor was forced to slap the hysterical Hannah. "Calm down Hannah, I'll get us out of this." She crossed her fingers behind her back. "Hold on, I'm taking us into the eye of the storm. Full power!"

To the casual observer in space it seemed as if the small blue time machine shot forward into the green and black fissure only to bounce out again as if it had hit a sheet of rubber. However the more observant would have seen the invisible war fleet pouring out of the fissure into the universe, pulling the TARDIS behind them in their wake just before the fissure collapsed in upon itself.

"We did it." Claire jumped up and down cheering.
"I'm alive," Hannah confirmed her continued existence before hugging Claire and the Doctor in a friendly embrace.
"Now to clear up some of this mess." The Doctor cast a sad glance at her destroyed bonsai tea plants. "Claire you get a mop, Hannah you get a broom." She looked up but her companions had already left the console room. "I really must have a word with those two about acceptable standards of behaviour. Oh well, no rest for the Doctor." The Doctor took out a small brush and dustpan from a recess under the mushroom shaped console and began to clear away the debris.


Sdrats Abeldi was an undiscovered paradise world of tropical islands. The natives were a simple folk who spent their days lying on the beach sunbathing and playing volleyball. Their simple lives were forever altered when a thousand spaceships descended on their world and drained much of the oceans. The survivors renamed their world Aridius as a reminder of their loss.
The spaceships swept out into space once more where they found a wholly unremarkable world in the unfashionable western spiral arm of an insignificant galaxy. The digital watch wearing natives never suspected that in their midst were not the little green men they wished to make peaceful contact with but rather the tall, many limbed purple skinned aliens they lived in fear of making contact with. Quite a shame really.


"Isn't it beautiful?" Hannah asked.
"Oh it's gorgeous." Claire moved her head closer for a better look.
"Do you like it?" Hannah asked.
"It's superb," Claire replied looking at the teapot Hannah had put back together using superglue and a lot of patience. "The Doctor is going to be thrilled."
"All right, all right what's all this noise?" The Doctor demanded as she burst into the kitchen. "What are you two doing with that Waldorf salad?"
"Making lunch," Claire replied. "Say why don't you make us a pot of tea Doctor?" Claire winked at Hannah.
"Because we don't have a teapot," the Doctor snapped.
"Are you sure?" Hannah winked back at Claire.
"You know I do speak Delphon you know," the Doctor growled.
"Then what's Delphon for I've fixed the teapot?" Hannah asked.
The Doctor started to demonstrate by flexing her eyebrows in a complex manner when Hannah lifted the tea cosy up to reveal the fixed teapot. "You fixed it?" the Doctor asked as she examined it.
"I think so. There were a few tiny bits left over." Hannah pointed to the microscopic fragments in the nearby bin.
"Not to worry, I think we can manage with this." The Doctor poured hot water into the teapot of warm it but the bottom and then the sides crumbled, spilling water on the floor.
"Ooops," Hannah said.
"Oh well, at least you dried. There's only one thing for it ... we'll have to go and buy a new one!" The Doctor set the girls on tidying the kitchen while she set the TARDIS to take them all to the right point in Earth's history.


Quizzle Kutzz, supreme lord of Neo Thurggia, crouched idly on his dais. He was bored of the constant coming and goings of the court and left the boring tasks to his Premier. He shut all fifteen of his eyes and fell into a light sleep.
The Premier glanced at the supreme lord; he was snoring again. It was bad for the subjects and lowered morale. He ordered one of the attendants to nip off and put a vat of coffee on to boil. That should wake his Lordship up if nothing else.


Claire and Hannah were first out of the TARDIS and the Doctor rewarded them with a chunky Kit Kat each; well it kept them quiet for a while. If nothing else it stopped the 'where are we? What's going on?' questions. Maybe if they closed their mouths and opened their eyes for once they might learn something. The Doctor doubted it though. Her good friend Ford had a remarkably wise opinion about Earthlings. Thankfully he never met Peri or his case would have been proven.
The Doctor adjusted her long pink coat - well, it was Romana's once but share and share alike the Doctor said when borrowing it - and wound the long white scarf around her neck. It brought back memories of her fourth self, when she had been more than a little obsessed with collecting long scarves. She still had twelve or so of them somewhere, in case she needed to rush back in time to perform a scarfoptomy.
It was about five minutes later when they discovered that the Earth had been taken over by aliens, again.
The Doctor stared at the large fleet of spaceships and tutted. "I go away for five minutes, five minutes! And someone comes along and invades. I just can't leave this planet alone." She began to walk up to the doorway to deliver a stern lecture when Hannah and Claire dragged her back. A yellow and white beam of energy tore the ground in front of them to less than dust. "Maniacs!" She yelled at them and shook her fist at the automated gun platform.


The Premier glanced at his diary. "Hear report, receive tribute from conquered natives, and be defeated by the Doctor." He looked up sharply to see three humanoid females. "Be defeated by the Doctor?" he laughed. "Who is the Doctor?"
"I am the Doctor." The Doctor smiled and waved. "You can leave this world now or I'll get tetchy and do something unladylike."
"What can you do to us, human?" the Premier sneered.
"I'm not human, mostly," the Doctor stated, for the record. "I'm a Time Lady, from the planet Gallifrey and I am Time's Champion, former President of the High Council of Time Lords, defender of the Earth and scourge of the Daleks."
"Your babbling means nothing to me, go away now."
"Do not dismiss me like an inconvenience!" the Doctor shouted. "I can bring down your entire government, your culture and your religion and I haven't had a cup of tea for six hours!"
"Please leave now," the Premier yawned.
"What can we do now Doctor?" Claire asked.
"You can actually do that stuff you said," Hannah encouraged. "Kick them in the balls."
"We'll have less of that talk Hannah," the Doctor whispered. "We'll use a vice instead. First however we allow ourselves to be captured."
"I'm not that keen on S&M thanks all the same," Claire replied before realising she said it to the Doctor. "It's a terrible album, really." She hoped she got away with it.
"Hey, big purple and boring. Aren't you going to throw us in your cells or something?" the Doctor shouted at the top of her voice.
"No, are you still here?" The Premier returned to his diary.
"So much for plan 9, now for the old sabotage gambit." The Doctor strolled over to the nearby computer and started pressing buttons.
"Please do not press those buttons," the Premier asked. "No, not the self-destruct!" The premier gasped as the three tiny humanoids set every ship in the fleet of self-destruct. The room trembled as the engines started up. He watched as they ran out of the room, towards their freedom. "All in all today's been a bit of bugenshnaz really."
The three time travellers made it to freedom with seconds to spare. They rushed towards the safety of a nearby building and hid inside as the ships all took off before detonating in space where they could do no harm.
"Well that about does that. Now to get that teapot." The Doctor clapped her hands together. "What?" She asked her petrified looking companions.
"Tha...tha..." Claire gave up trying to talk and screamed. Hannah joined in with the loud screaming.
The Doctor turned around to see the huge multi-legged form of the Premier standing over her. "Oh, hi," she said. "Nothing personal but you can consider yourself beaten."
The Premier growled. "You can consider yourself lunch!" He opened three of his mouths, one for each of the women and laughed with his other mouth. Then he realised that each of his eyes saw something different. Two saw the screaming women while the other thirteen saw the Doctor but thirteen different versions of her/him.
"Leave us ancient one. Return to your slumber." Each Doctor spoke with reverence. "I recognise you now, you are defeated but we will not see you destroyed."
"I don't think so. This was but one outpost, a small outpost at that. I will rejoin my people and we will strike back for your actions. We will see this universe burn for your arrogance." The Premier faded out of sight.
The Doctor, now back to her usual self, relaxed. Being seen through so many eyes really took it out of her. "Come on you two, quit screaming, it's gone."


Back inside the TARDIS the Doctor eagerly poured the tea from her new pot into the cups. She smelled the scent, sipped it and then pronounced it a great purchase.
"I still don't see why it has to come out of our allowances," Hannah protested.
"Think of it as a present for your dear friend." The Doctor smiled. "Now drink up, we've got a lot of catching up to do."
Claire dipped her digestive biscuit into her tea, much to the Doctor's despair. "Well I like it this way," she pointed out.
"I know, I know. I'm surrounded by cultureless barbarians!" the Doctor replied as she poured herself more tea. "If I didn't drink so much of it, I might get addicted to this." She wondered why her two companions started to laugh so much.


"This is Sundowner command to Sundowner one, we have confirmed sighting of colony world. Atmospheric probes launched, awaiting results anytime now.
Deep inside Sundowner one slightly battered blue police telephone box materialised. A shadow fell across the closed doors...