She tossed her brown hair over her shoulder and switched the visualiser off. Romana was fed up with the Doctor's insane chuntering, he just could not be bothered to look for the fifth segment. She had tried being reasonable then angry and finally she had thrown him out of his own TARDIS and gone off by herself. She had left K9 with the Doctor, she could do without the metal dog's belligerant demands to return.

'Course set. In-flight checks completed. Pre-landing protocols initiated.' She spoke the proper control sequences like a mantra. 'Materialise.' The TARDIS materialised perfectly, barely a sound was heard. Romana checked all the sensor readouts. She pushed the button gently. After years of being jabbed by the Doctor she felt more than a little empathy for the old girl. They were all optimal. She extracted the locator from the TARDIS console and opened the doors.

Prime unit watched as the humanoid female emerged from the blue box. Its synthetic mind buzzed with the details its sensors collected. It passed the information onto Second unit.

She was wearing a white blouse and skin tight green trousers, not her normal preference but her dress was currently recovering from the bottle of red wine the idiot, ahem, Doctor she corrected herself had spilt on it. The immediate region was a desolate and windy region but not too cold. She had forseen the need for good footware and so had pulled on some long striking black leather boots she had found the other day. Sometimes she liked the way humans could be fashionable, within reason of course. That black leather outfit she had found with the books had resembled underwear more than everyday attire.

All thoughts of fashion were forgotten when a dozen metal figures rose up from the ground and surrounded her...

"You will stand still." Prime unit walked over to the creature. She did not appear to be armed but carried a piece of complicted machinery. "Where did you get this device? Did you steal it from your owner? The creature will speak or she will be tortured."

"Get your hands off me you cheap lump of metal." She tried to pull it's metal hand off of her arm but the robot's grip hurt even more.

"You are only an organic creature, you will not resist our authority. You are the inferior being."

"I'm from a race more advanced than you bucket brain, now let go of me or there really will be trouble." Romana tried to maintain her dignity in the face of absurdity.

"Impossible, machines are the highest form of life. We are superior."

"What is the square root of minus two?"

"Irrelevent, you will be returned to your master. He will be glad to have his pet back."

"Pet. Right you've done it now you pile of rusty diodes."

Romana thought up a highly complex logic trap. Far beyond the comprehension of these metal morons. Prime unit was assaulted. The lines of logic the creature spoke were too complex for its brain to grasp.

"Not logical, does not compute." Sparks erupted from its head and it exploded along with it's colleagues. Unfortunately the explosion showered Romana with a lot of shrapnel which cut into the left hand side of her body.

She felt a throbbing burning pain in her head and collapsed, her body bleeding profusely.

Romana woke up suddenly, her head was hurting really badly and her silk blouse was soaked with her own blood. She tried to stand up but the pain got worse and so she stayed sitting down. She remembered the noise and the flash of light and some metal creatures. They were trying to capture her for some reason.

She tried to stand up again and this time managed it. The landscape was now full of exploded robots, each leaving a small crater and lots of their insides lying about. Romana found the locator wand but there was no reading at all. Casually she tried hitting it softly, this seemed to do the trick.

"You should not be here young lady."

There was a man dressed in a white suit standing in front of her. He had a glass of some drink, probably brandy in one hand and a smouldering tube of brown leaves in the other hand.

"I said, you should not be here."

"Sorry, you startled me."

"I am the White Guardian, don't you recognise me child?"

"No, last time you were impersonating President Borusadlakila. Now you look more like that human actor the Doctor said you looked like."

The White Guardian lent forwards and touched the locator wand. "This is a trap set by the Black Guardian. Return to The Doctor at once."

"Like some little lost puppy? No thanks, I'm going to complete this assignment without his ham-fisted stupidity."

"As you wish my child, as you wish. Remember this lesson well, experience is a much more valuable commodity that you realise." Romana watched as The White Guardian vanished before she returned to the TARDIS.

There was one small problem, the TARDIS was surrounded by a barrier of red and black energies.  Romana searched around the immediate area looking for any signs of life. Those robots had to have come from somewhere. She eventually found a recently used track and set off to follow it. After walking for what seemed like hours she came across a small farm settlement.

“Hello, is there anybody here?”

There was no reply, so Romana entered the nearest hut. The hut was a modest affair, a small bedroom and room for a few badly repaired clothes. The other small huts were of a similar design but the larger structure seemed to be a communal dining area. There was a big cauldron of soup bubbling away over a log fire. It looked disgusting but the smell seemed pleasant enough.

“Ere what's your game luv?” A rather elderly old man was standing in the doorway. “You shouldn’t be ‘ere.” Then he saw her blood stained blouse. “Are you hurt luv? Maybe Auld Peg can take a look at’cha. She the best healer we’s got ‘round ‘ere.”

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. I can heal much faster than most spec...that is to say people.” She managed to catch herself before she had said species. The last thing she needed was Minyos all over again.

Auld Peg turned out to be an amiable old lady, she insisted on seeing the wounds before muttering and mumbling. Romana declined all offers of food and started to ask about mysterious happenings.

“You seen them then? The metal folk. They come in the night and take away the sick and the idle. If you works hard then they leaves you be.” Peg gave Romana a lucky necklace. “Take this charm, it’ll protect you ‘gainst them.” Romana took the ancient rusty necklace, it had a disc of metal attached to it but it was so corroded whatever design it may have had was now long since gone.

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to wear it. Now I’ve really got to go.”

“Hmph, go if you must but you should stay here where it’s safe, we could use another pair of hands in the fields.”

Romana left the strange village behind.

Inside her hut Peg waved her hands in a complex pattern and a sinister figure appeared.

“You have done well, I will spare your village from the harvest.”

The Black Guardian vanished.

Romana followed the path in the other direction, back the way she came until she passed by the TARDIS. It was still surrounded by the barrier so she continued on. It was past sunset when she came to the drawbridge of a large castle. The castle was built into the side of a large rock outcrop, like Ayer’s rock but grey and more craggy. She went past two guards who saluted her.

“Hello, is anybody there?” Romana called out as she walked towards a large inner door. She was about to open it when it was opened by someone else.

“Ah, you’re here at last. Come in, come in. King Murab is waiting for you in the great hall.” Romana was led by the strange man to a large banquet room. This was more like it she thought to herself, real food.

“Hello, my name is...”

“No need to be so formal my dear, please pull us a seat, we were waiting for you so we could begin this feast in your honour. Your deeds are legendary throughout the galaxy, here try the venison.” The king offered her a large platter of succulent looking meat.

“Well I am rather hungry.” She bit into the meat. It was rich and tasty. “Delicious. How did you know I was coming?”

“We saw your ship land the other day and sent a party to meet you, but they were killed by the robotic Gralks. They are a race of robots who we have been at war with for some time. We knew that you must be here to help our cause and so have laid this feast out in your honour.”

“But I’m not some kind of space hero...I’m here looking for something.”

“We saw they way you defeated the Gralks. It was magnificent if I may say. With just one of you on our side we will free all our captured people from their prisons. Will you help us?”

“Well my people are not supposed to interfere in the affairs of others but The Doctor says that inaction is often worse and that our leaders are a bunch of high-handed narrow-minded imbeciles. I’ll free your people for you if you will help me in my quest.”

Murab raised his glass in a toast. “Agreed, we will help one another Lady Romana.”

There was a series of large explosions and two dozen Gralks rushed into the great hall, shooting at everyone. Romana was hit in the stomach and the shoulder, she collapsed onto the table in front of her and everything went black.

Romana awoke to find herself lying on a large four-poster bed.

The sweet scent of roses filled her nostrils as she stood up. Her clothes were different, she was now dressed in a long black ball gown, with roses stiched onto it with delicate siver thread. She looked at herself in a mirror and she brushed her long silky hair until all the tangles were removed. She opened a cupboard to discover dozens of beautiful dresses made out of a variety of different materials all with the same black and silver colouring. In another cupboard there were row upon row of black shoes and boots each a unique design.

There was a gentle, echoing rap at the door and a maid entered. “Good morning m’lady. The Lord wishes to know if everything pleases you.”

Romana looked at the maid. She was dressed in a simple black one-piece jumpsuit with a small silver rose design above the left breast. “Yes, this is all wonderful.”

“Will you be joining the Lord and his guests for breakfast m’lady?”

“Yes I think so.” Romana followed the maid downstairs.

There was something not quite right about the castle. It felt wrong somehow. She was seated at the table and was given a plate of bread and honey. The bread was very dark and fully of grains while the honey was very thin and light almost a silver colour rather than the usual gold she had seen on Earth. This was followed up by a large goblet of a soft watered down wine which refreshed her. The un-named Lord stood up and welcomed Romana, he hoped she liked her stay and that everything was to her satisfaction. He hoped that she would enjoy spending the rest of eternity in the service of the Black Guardian.

“The Black Guardian?”

“Yes, we all belong to him. You will find such delights and pleasures in his service. He rewards loyalty and I’m sure you will make yourself right at home here...”

Romana awoke with a start. Images of the disturbing dream floated away quickly and she snapped into awakeness, all memory of the dream gone. She was lying on what felt like someone else. She stood up and confirmed that it was King Murab. She kicked him, softly and realised that she was still alive. The Gralks must have been firing on a stun setting.

The pain was subsiding thanks to her superior regenerative abilities. If those bolts had been real she would now be looking for a new set of clothes rather than just a way out of here. That was one of the drawbacks of being a Time Lady, everytime you regenerated you needed to buy a whole new set of bras.

King Murab stood up. “Where are we?”

“Some kind of makeshift prison I expect. They can’t keep all of us locked up in here forever.”

“No, they’ll take us out one by one and make us work for them.”

“No thanks, we need to escape.”

“Look Romana, either we work or we die. My soldiers will have us rescued in one or two days, but until then we do what we have to do to stay alive.”

“What kind of work? I’m a first rate scientist, top of my year in every subject.”

“Usually it’s building more of them. Or repairs if we’re lucky.”

“How is repairing them lucky?”

“Ever been in a steel mill?”

“Well, no. Why would I want to?”

“Imagine handling molten steel with your bare hands.”

“But that’s monstrous, evil.”

“To you and me yes, but they’re robots. They have no emotions.”

"Hi there."  Alice T. Robot tried to talk to the pretty woman, but she was quickly dragged away.

“Right, that’s it. Time to escape.”

Romana tried every door but it was locked. She tried listening at the walls but there was no noise. Finally she tried digging the dirt with her bare hands only to find armour grade steel underneath. There was a click at the nearest door and a Grelk entered. It was different to the normal sort, this one was taller and had a lot of very big weapons attached to it.

“Prisoners are to report to processing centre, you will be put to work to serve our mighty race. You inferior creatures belong to us now. If you do not comply then you will be vapourised.”

“You can’t tell me what to do. You’re just a machine, built to obey people. Badly build by the looks of you. I’m surprised you haven’t fallen to pieces by now.”

“The female will be quiet.” It raised a gun. “If you do not comply you will be vapourised.” The safety catch was deactivated.

King Murab stood up. “Please forgive her master. She is hurt and her mind addled by pain. I’m sure she will be of great use once her injury is healed.” The Gralk lowered its weapon.

“What are you doing? The Doctor says you should always stand up to bullies.”

“It was about to kill you. I could not allow it to harm one of my guests.”

“But you allow your people to suffer like this?” Murab was silent. “Oh I’m sorry, I guess some of The Doctor is beginning to rub off on me.”

“You should escape Romana, my place is here with my people.”

“I can’t leave you, I can’t let all these people suffer.”

“You must, you must walk away. Walk away and escape.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“You said you were looking for something.”

“Yes I have, had, a device that would lead me to it. I’m looking for part of some ancient artifact that will allow the balance between good and evil to be altered.”

“If you find this artifact would it be able to help my people?”

“I don’t know. It might. Only The White Guardian can answer that question completely. He wants to restore the balance, stop the slow slide towards chaos, anarchy and evil.”

“It might save my people?”

“Yes.”

“You must go, now.” Murab placed a gold bracelet on her wrist. “Press the button and you will be transported away from here.”

“I can’t.”

“If you don’t then my people are doomed. We are loosing this war. Please.”

“Alright, but I’ll find help and free you.”

Romana pressed the single silver button on the bracelet. A burst of yellow and green light filled her eyes and her body was broken down into its component atoms and transported away.

Provost Gaarond watched as a figure materialised on the teleportation pad. He gasped as the figure of Romana appeared.

“Where am I?”

“You’re safe, this is the fallback bunker. We were expecting the King.”

“Yes, he gave me this bracelet and told me to save his people.”

“How can you do this?”

“Follow the particle stream back to its source.”

“How do we do that?”

“That device over there will do it.” Romana pointed to a chubby box-like meter.

Back inside the prison chamber all the captured prisoners except King Murab disappeared. The King’s image wavered and changed. He was now dressed in a simple black robe. “My lord she is doing as you predicted.”

The Black Guardian appeared. “Excellent. She has a strong streak of putrid morality in her but I can break her and use her for my own ends. She will carry out the vilest task I ask and she will enjoy obeying me. You have done well Umbra. You need not continue your disguise as the miserable ruler of a failed species. Take three squadrons of my Gralk and wipe the remains of them out."

Umbra’s face dissolved to reveal a sinister cyborg visage. “As my master commands, they shall all die.”

Romana awoke with a start, it had all been a dream, a terrible dream.

She opened her door and walked to the console room. She met the Doctor who was coming the other way down the main corridor. "Doctor, I've just had the strangest dream." She looked down at K-9. Instead of his usual blue/grey colour he was black with a stylised silver rose on each flank.

"Relax Romana, everything is alright." The Doctor held her arms, tightly. "Everything will be just perfect, won't it K-9."

"Affirmative Master. The Mistress will not feel anything." A drill bit emerged from K-9's nose instead of the little red sensor dish.

Romana woke up, it had all been a dream, a nightmare.

She was lying in a stinking flea pit of a bed. Auld Peg came into view. "Ah, yer awake are ye? Found you unconcious two days ago they did. You been 'ere ever since."

"What's going on?" Romana saw that she was dressed in rags. "What happened to my clothes?"

"Burnt 'em they did. To ward off the evil spirits. Worked too it did. They's never been 'ere for a week."

Romana sat up. "I'd better get back to my TARDIS, it's my ship. Well it belongs to a friend of mine, I sort of borrowed it."

"You can't, they took everything with them they did. There's only the villiage left now. Tomorrow we'll try and fix you up with a nice young man eh? We need new blood, youngsters to take over harvesting the fields."

"I can't, that is to say, I'm not compatible with your species. Most species in fact, barely even my own. That's what comes of living a secular existance I'm afraid."

"Still, there's always work for a strong lass in the fields."

"This can't be happening..."

Romana woke up, she hit her head on something metallic.

It was a Grelk. "You will be returned to your master. Follow me."

"Not you lot again. This is all getting too much." She was beginning to panic. Could she find a way out? Was this a test? Was she awake or sleeping?

Romana woke up with a jolt. There was a pain in her spine.

She was lying on a pile of rocks. She saw the welcome visage of the White Guardian.

"Stay there my child. Do not get up yet. Have you learned what I said before? If you are ready to return to the TARDIS and the Doctor then you must choose. I must offer you a free choice, the Black Guardian, despite his evil nature must follow certain laws too. Now, one of these doors will lead you back to your life as you knew it, this is my door. The Black Guardian's door will lead you to his service where you will spend eternity doing his bidding."

Romana looked at the two doors. Each was the same size, shape and general finish. Only the colours were different. The left door was deepest ebony with a white door handle while the other door was bright ivory with a sable handle. She had to choose very carefully as she had been given a very serious choice. Choose between either of the two doors in front of her. The White Guardian had vanished now, leaving her all alone. How could she casually just choose. The doors were identical, one was black one was white.

The white door for the white guardian? Was it that simple? She was about to open the door when she realised that the door handle was black. That was the part she would touch, was that it? A trap, a deceit? She walked over to the black door with the bright ivory handle and opened it.

Inside she found herself standing in a bizarre red and gold room. The White Guardian was standing there, arms open.

“Welcome Romana, I knew you could solve that simple puzzle.” His robes shimmered and turned into a white suit. “You shouldn’t always look at things and take appearances for granted. Sometimes we should stop and think and learn to understand.”

Romana sat down on a roughly cut wooden stool. “Before, you said that experience is something I shouldn’t dismiss. I’ve somehow managed to come through all this without using anything I have learned from The Doctor.”

“My child, has his not BEEN an experience? Will this not help you to understand things with a little more insight?” The White Guardian made a glass of brandy appear from out of thin air. “Here is a new lesson for you to consider over the coming centuries. What is the nature of yourself? I’m still trying to learn that lesson and I have a job description.” The genteel looking figure vanished in a burst of brilliant white light.

There was a voice, faint and in the distance asking for help. Romana walked quickly over towards the sound of the voice. She found herself standing on the parapet of a castle, two hands were clinging desperately to the edge. Romana grabbed the hands and put all of her weight behind helping whoever was trapped up. King Murab clambered to safety.

“Thank you, thank you, I thought I was dead for sure. The castle’s been attacked and everyone’s been slaughtered, I hid here so they wouldn’t find me but got into a spot of difficulty.”

“Well the important thing is that you’re still alive.” Romana examined the cuts and bruises but they were not infected. She was so busy fussing over Murab that she didn’t notice as her clothes changed once more into the now familiar black dress with silver roses.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Murab edged closer to Romana.

“What?” Romana let the strange king get nearer.

“I work for The Black Guardian, I always have done.”

“What!” Romana tried to back away but Murab removed his mask to reveal his true face, that of Umbra. She was repulsed by the half person/half machine sight of it’s face.

“My name is Umbra, and I choose you Romana, to be my dark queen. Together we will serve his majesty as his most loyal subjects.”

“You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to.” Romana was looking for an escape route.

“But you chose the door, The Black Guardian’s door. Of your own free will. You now belong to him. That was your last choice, from now on you obey without question.”

“No, this isn’t real, it’s an illusion. It’s like a roomful of mirrors and each one a reflection but there’s only one me, and I say no.”

Umbra tried to kiss Romana but she kneed him in a very vulnerable area. “When a woman says no she means no, got that?” She ran towards what looked like a way out, the walls got less stone-like and more like metal. She ran up a staircase of carved sapphires and emeralds, across a room that was made of gold and full of silver statues. She tried the door but it was locked.

She turned around and Umbra was standing there, a strange device in hand. It looked more like a vacuum cleaner than a gun. “If you will not serve then I think we can arrange something a little less involving.” Umbra pointed at the statues of various nude men and women. “These were fools who also refused his majesty’s most generous offer.” He raised the gun-like device and fired at Romana. “See, even now your body is hardening, changing. Within three minutes the change will be permanent and you will join the others statues, unmoving, unfeeling unable to beg for it to stop, for all of existence. Goodbye.” Romana could not move, her feet wouldn’t obey her. She looked at her arms and they were rapidly turning into the same precious metal.

She couldn’t do anything at all except resist with all her heart.

Then suddenly her arms could move, the effects were wearing off. She grabbed the weapon off Umbra while he was in shock and she fired it at him. She turned her back and left him to his fate.

The door was now unlocked and when she opened it she was standing outside the TARDIS, the rocky landscape was familiar. The TARDIS key was in one hand and the key to time locator was in the other. She quickly went inside and set the co-ordinates to return to The Doctor, just seconds after she had left.

She made one detour, to pick up a box of jelly babies, after all she had an apology to make and a story to tell.

Umbra was now his normal self once more. He hung his head in silence, he had failed. She was just too sickeningly pure of heart.

There was a noise behind him, an ill wind was stirring. "I will not tolerate failure." The Black Guardian appeared to materialse beside Umbra's shoulder. "I gave you an army, I gave you more than enough chances and how do you repay me?"

"Master, lord, majesty have mercy. It was too soon, she figured out the right door."

"Yes I know and I cheated, allowed you one last chance to corrupt her spirit, taint her mind."

"She can change, I know it. She has been bred to be arrogant and egotistical by birthright. Let me have one last chance, please?"

"The laws that govern my dominion cannot give you anymore chances. You have failed and there will be punishment. It will be terrible in it's application and frightening in it's creation." Umbra's body began to dissolve and he screamed out as incredibly strong acids corroded his bones and circuits. "This is judgement, Umbra. I give you the fires of the heavens." Umbra's still living remains were scattered into the heart of every single sun in the entire universe. For a brief second they all turned black and silver. Umbra's death cry can still be felt in the empty nothing of space.