The console room was deserted when she returned. The blue and white spotted outfit fitted quite well, a little tight across the bust perhaps but nothing major. She turned to leave when she saw Claire standing in the doorway. She had also changed into a nice pair of brown cords, a lacy pink blouse and a loose fitting waistcoat with a bright orange and blue design. "Claire. What's wrong?" she asked.
"The events today got me thinking. What if you died? What if you got hurt? I was petrified I might lose you. I don't want to lose you Hannah. That's why I've thought long and hard about this." Claire took the small box from her waistcoat pocket and knelt down on one knee. Hannah Sinclair, would you do me the honour of being my wife?"
Hannah felt the world falling out from under her feet. She felt excited and scared, she felt giddy and sick. What should she say? She loved Claire; would it work? The two of them? "Claire, I don't think it would work out. It's a lovely gesture and I do want to be with you, it's just that I don't think we're ready yet. I know I'm not ready for such a big commitment and I don't think you are really. Lets just take each day as it comes and see what happens? Maybe in a few months I'll be the one doing the asking?" Hannah's thoughts were all over the place. Part of her wanted desperately to be with Claire while another half said that she should just let things take their time. If it's meant to be it will happen. "I'm sorry if I hurt you, Claire."
Without a word Claire stood up, pushed the ring box into her waistcoat pocket and left the console room. The soft click as it shut filled the room as if it was the end of the Universe itself.


"He will rise." Those three words were uttered for the first time in a small tearoom. The young man who spoke them into a young woman's ears suddenly convulsed and a stream of green energy poured out of his mouth into hers. The young woman's friends screamed in shock at this. Their screams increased however as the young man's body started to collapse in on itself, turning into a dessicated corpse within seconds.
"He will rise." The young woman whispered before licking her lips, smudging her bright red lipstick. She slipped away from the screaming fools; she had something far more important to do.


Deep in the heart of the TARDIS, where she seldom ventured to, the Doctor was sat in one of the wooden chairs inside the secondary console room. She used an old fashioned quill to write up her report of the events on Galena. She could control the TARDIS just as easily from here as the primary so there was no need for her to trek back to check the flight settings.


Andred read the report carefully, there wasn't much to report but the remarks about their escape from the local prison made for light reading. "I'm glad you're all safe at least. The Cardinals of the sub-committee may want to issue a verbal comment about the minor interference in the development of the natives but for me I don't feel there is anything to suggest you did it out of anything else than to extract a larger temporal anomaly." Andred put the report down on the desk. "Was the girl harmed?"
"It was more of a public humiliation really. She'll recover in time. There's something else though." The Doctor started to pace around the room, making sweeping gestures with her hands as she talked.
"Well unfortunately that was the only possible sighting of the Valeyard we've had for a while. I guess you've got a little free time due. If there's anything we'll tell you though."
"You want to get me out of the Capitol for a while?" the Doctor asked. "Got something planned? Don't tell me there's an inspection of the TARDIS bays and you don't want a type 40 with a faulty chameleon circuit messing it up?"
Andred looked at the Doctor, suspicion in his eyes. "How did you know that?"
"You should encrypt your schedule more often." The Doctor smiled. "You've been using the same code for the last century.


Rodan opened her door and smiled at the petite figure of Hannah Sinclair. She looked down slightly to see the bundle of fur nestled in Hannah's arms. "You want me to look after Lucky again?" she asked breezily. She took the creature into her arms and smiled at it. "You want to stay with Aunty Rodan again? Yes you do, don't you?"
Hannah couldn't help but grin. This new incarnation of Rodan was a natural animal lover. "He likes you," she said. "Thanks for this. The Doctor has this insane idea of taking us back to 1920's Earth. She seems so eager that I can't say no."
"He'll be in great hands." Rodan promised. "As long as Leela and her little one do not visit me. She's been teaching him to hunt. I'll just have to explain things to her."
"Goodbye Lucky." Hannah said. "Look after Aunty Rodan now."


"He will rise." In a different part of the city an old man looked at a younger man who has taking a break from jogging in the park. Within seconds the old man was a brittle collection of bones wrapped in a thin wrapping of leathery skin.
"He will rise." The young man whispered. He left what he had been doing; he had something far more important to do now.


The atmosphere inside the TARDIS was frosty at best. Claire and Hannah stood at opposite sides of the console room, one refusing to speak to the other. Hannah had tried to do the talking, the explaining, the apologising but nothing worked.
The Doctor tried to keep things jovial, as she was too polite to ask what the problem was. "Soon be there. I think we should hit the clothes shops first before a spot of lunch and then we can take on the shoe shops. After that perhaps we can find ourselves a party or two to be seen at. 1926 was a great time for parties as I recall. There may just be time to pop across the Channel to see my old friend Claude Monet before he leaves the world emptier for his passing. Always one for a good knees up was Claude. If we're really lucky we could hear some one interesting at Speaker's Corner."
"Oh that sounds fantastic doesn't it Claire?" Hannah gushed, eager to gain Claire's favour once more.
"Great." Claire muttered a semi-sarcastic reply. London was dull in her time, never mind thirty years ago before they invented rock and roll.


"He will rise." A nurse, walking the pram containing her tiny charge stopped suddenly as a fellow nurse stopped her and green energy poured from one nurse to the other. The body of the second nurse quickly collapsed to the floor, the bones shattering into dust inside the uniform. The second nurse looked down at the two prams before walking away, leaving them abandoned. "He will rise," she muttered to herself.


The TARDIS materialised in the middle of Hyde Park, fortunately unseen apart from a few ducks swimming on the serpentine. The three time travellers emerged into the morning air, the Doctor pointing them in the right direction past the Hudson Memorial, put up the previous year. Their attention was diverted from their walk by the sound of a baby crying. Hurrying over they found two prams abandoned and the tiny babies inside both screaming. The Doctor looked down to discover the broken, shattered remains of the nurse. Quickly she made Claire and Hannah wheel the prams away before taking a closer look at the body.


Hannah tried comforting the screaming child but nothing seemed to calm it down. Claire was having more success however; in fact she seemed a natural at it. "I can see you as the maternal type you know."
"Babies need two parents," she replied coldly.
"You can't stay mad at me forever you know. I never said I wouldn't marry you forever, just not yet. When we're ready there won't need to be any asking, we'll just know because it's the right thing for us to do." Hannah shifted the child's weight in her arms. "Did you imagine yourself with a normal family when you were a kid?"
"Yeah when I was young I guess. I always wanted to be more than just a housewife though. There was so much I wanted to try before I was twenty-five. What about you?"
"Nah," Hannah replied, "my Barbie's both lived together and Ken was buried at the bottom of my toy box. "I guess I always knew even if I didn't understand." The baby started to quieten down. "There now, who a good baby?"
"I hate fighting," Claire said, looking across the cold dark water of the Serpentine. "I love making up though."
"Don't you mean making out?" Hannah teased.
"Same thing isn't it?" Claire pointed to the darkening clouds on the horizon. "It looks like it's going to rain. Tears from heaven, as Gran used to say.


The Doctor had seen something like this before, in her past. Something to do with a Chinese cabinet and a gun from Birmingham, wasn't it? The body had been totally stripped of all moisture and cellular energy. It crumbled to dust finer than even her eyes could see. There wasn't anything to do but find the right homes for the babies. Inside one of the bags she found a small book with a list of instructions about one of the babies and the name of the employer. The other pram just had an address scribbled out on a scrap of paper in very bad handwriting.
They took the babies to the first address, a large house in Mayfair. The parents were so glad to have their baby daughter back. They thanked the Doctor and her two nieces a lot before inviting them in tea, which was declined because they needed to find the parents of the other baby and return their child too.
The second address was in a lot less glamorous part of town, but still well off enough for a full nurse service. They were upset about their baby son being abandoned but more that grateful for his safe return. They too invited the Doctor and her young wards inside for tea and buttered scones.
"Mmmm, this is great," the Doctor gushed. "First rate tea. I must try and get some of these leaves. Drink up girls, there's time for one more cup."
Claire groaned. "Anymore and I'll turn into a tea bag."
Hannah squirmed in her seat. "Feel lucky you went before we left the TARDIS."
"One more cup won't hurt you Hannah," the Doctor said, slowly pouring more tea from the pot into her cup.
"Stop that," Hannah snapped. "You're doing that deliberately."
"Sorry," the Doctor muttered before stopping Claire from doing the same with the milk jug.


It was in a meeting room that the first of them arrived in and started the chant. He repeated, "He will rise." Over and over he chanted, sometimes loudly and sometime quietly. Sometimes with great passion and other times with bored indifference. One by one they came to the room.


"I think we should be going now." The Doctor stood up. "My young charges are eager to peruse the latest fashions."
"Of course." Diane Mellemby agreed. "London today is for the young, and the young at heart."


The first stirrings of memory came with the first reduction. It viewed dimly with many eyes and thought with many heads. It was not yet time but soon he shall rise. The bodies of the faithful had given nourishment and each gave wholly and finally. Their husk like bodies were trampled into the floor, a final indignity even after death.


They hit the first shop barely an hour and a half after their arrival. True they had been side tracked, but they were in the business of helping others anyway. Each of them tried on frocks, gowns, dresses, skirts, blouses and a huge array of accessories before they finally narrowed their selections to a mere dozen outfits each.
Feeling particularly generous today the Doctor agreed that they could get them all if they promised to try and help out more around the Capitol. She more or less coerced them into looking for part time jobs.
Hannah couldn't wait to wear her most favourite flapper gown with matching elbow length gloves, shoes and micro-handbag. She strutted round the room while the Doctor paid for the garments in cash, pulling an impossibly large amount of notes from her purse. "How do I look?" she asked Claire.
"Not bad, but if you want to complete the look we should get your hair cut." Claire walked over to the Doctor and informed her that they would be next door while Hannah got her hair cut into the right style.


More arrived, each a fragment, a whisper or an echo. Like motes of dust building up into an image of Dave in 2010 they converged together. The second reduction brought complexities, instabilities, true thought and reasoning. Like a fractured mirror he looked at the bodies that contained his being, the Children of Weng-Chiang.

Hannah was admiring her new look in the mirror when the Doctor arrived. She had a platoon of uniformed shop assistants carrying the boxed purchases. "Hurry up you two, once we get this lot stashed in the TARDIS it will be time to party."
"Great." Hannah leaped into action. "Finally I'll have somewhere to show off my new me."
"You know you remind me of an old friend. She used to dress like that when she was having her bad regeneration period. Fortunately she got better and we became the best of friends again." The Doctor snapped out of her memories. "Well what are you two waiting for? There's a party waiting for us to liven it up."


More fragments now, slowly but surely they came together. Each piece added more and more. He realised now that his process had been going on for a century and a half. It was the Zigma effect. Zigma energy attracted particles charged with its energy together. To think of power on this scale amused and delighted him.
"He will rise." The young men and women chanted. "He will rise."


It had taken half an hour to hypnotise the assistants to forget what they had seen inside the TARDIS. The Master could have done it in seconds, her seventh or eighth persona in minutes but she liked to get the job done right. "Run along," she told them, tipping each of them generously.
"Party time. Hannah exclaimed. Swinging her bag around in a wide circle by its strap. "Time to party like it's 1899."
"I wonder if they have any good LP's?" Claire wondered out loud. "I hope what ever they have is good to dance to." Having changed into a cute little black dress Claire couldn't wait to hit the dance floor and sweep Hannah off her feet. If things go well she could even change her mind about the ring.
"It's a little early for LP's," the Doctor announced. "Gramophones too. More likely to be a band or a piano and singer. I wonder if they need someone to play the piano, I used to be quite musical one time." Like her companions, she too had changed. She now wore a demure ivory skirt with matching blouse. She had even forgone her beloved heels for flats. She let her long blonde hair cascade across her shoulders and inside her bag she had a small flask of something guaranteed to make the party go with a bang.


Feeling happier he motioned one of his forms to play some music to soothe his nerves. Soon now, soon he would rise. He would live again and this time there was no Doctor around to stop him.


The sounds of music attracted the Time Travellers like bees to a flower giving away free nectar. They found that inside was the strangest party they had seen. The people didn't seem to be dancing; it was more of a synchronised milling about to music. The Doctor found a glass bowl and dusted it with her lace hanky before tipping the contents of her flask into it.
Claire started to mingle but no one seemed interested in talking so she just followed them as they walked around the room.
Hannah sampled some of the Doctor's punch, but after a sip she was wasted. Drunkenly she staggered over to a wooden bench and sat down, almost missing it and giggling.
The Doctor fretted, she hoped Hannah wasn't going to develop into another Bernice. She doubted that the Universe was equipped to handle two of them. Suddenly before her eyes the people started to spit think bursts of green energy at each other.
Claire turned to see a young man smiling at her. Before she could ask him what was so funny his face erupted in green light and it struck her in the face. She heard him say that someone will live before there was a pain in her head and everything went grey.
"Claire!" The Doctor jumped to her feet and rushed over to the still form of her companion. Everywhere else the bodies of the young men and women were decomposing, turning to dust. Only Claire was left. The Time Lady looked deep into Claire's eyes and shook her.
He saw the figure of the blonde woman. His mind was clear now but there were memories, so many memories of those whose minds each particle of his being had possessed. He knew this female. "Doctor?"
"Yes Claire, what is it?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"No, not Claire Doctor. Greel, Magnus Greel." He, no she now, chuckled as her face creased with understanding. "Did you think you could defeat me so easily? This body, pure at last, shall serve me well. Now that I am free of the legacy of the Zigma machine I shall return to the 51st century and this time I shall be victorious. Thanks to the Children of Weng-Chiang I am free."
"What have you done Greel? The Children of Weng-Chiang are all dead and you've taken possession of one of my friends. On a good day I might be inclined to simply defeat you but this is not a good day." The Doctor fished inside her small bag and produced three small pieces of wood. "These shards of that Cabinet are still charged with Zigma energy Greel. Right now Claire's body and your mind are in equilibrium. One push from me and your mind will suffer an overdose. I imagine the effects will be quite horrific for you but as I said this is not a good day."
"No Doctor, stay your hand. Together we could conquer time itself. Through the memories of this host I perceive that your understanding of time is far superior to my own. Together we could achieve total domination of the Universe." Greel wiped her forehead slowly. Thick beads of sweat were trickling down into her eyes.
"Can you feel it Greel? Is it burning you up? I abhor violence but even I must act to stop one such as yourself from gaining true access to all of Time and Space." She pushed the shards right into Greel's face. "Behold the end Greel. If you can hear me Claire, I'm sorry. Truly I am."
Greel screamed, her voice high and shrill. Every fibre of her body was tortured by the overdose of Zigma particles. "Noooo," she screamed as her mind decayed and dissolved into the empty nothingness of oblivion. Finally and mercifully her body slumped to the ground.
"Claire?" the Doctor shouted. "Can you hear me? Has his influence gone from you?" She shook Claire's body but there was no reaction. She checked the vitals. "Pulse, heart beat, breathing okay. You just don't want to wake up yet. It's okay now Claire, just wake up when you're ready. I'm here for you." Gently she lifted Claire's slight figure up into her arms and carried her back to the TARDIS before returning for Hannah.


Silently they walked slowly through the royal park along the gravel track, past a line of trees towards the TARDIS. Hannah could barely keep her eyes open and walk in a straight line but the Doctor was there to support her if she stumbled. She looked at the Doctor's green velvet trouser suit for a minute. When had she changed outfits? She wondered but couldn't summon the will to speak. Passed iron lampposts they walked until finally they came across the familiar blue of home. "Lets get a kebab." Hannah suggested eagerly as the fog cleared from her mind. "I hate drinking on an empty stomach."
"Hannah, there's something I should tell you," the Doctor started.
"Sure, you can tell me right after we get the kebabs." It was a strange Greek dish she had picked up from a pop video she had seen on MTV. "Maybe we could get a little something to wash them down with?"


Hannah woke up, her head pounded like a drum machine in perpetual loop. Her vision swam in and out of focus. "Oh did I get drunk or did I get drunk?" She asked herself. A quick check of the situation revealed a number of small orange traffic cones in her room and for some reason she was dressed in the uniform of a WPC. Finally she staggered out of the bedroom and made it to the toilet before vomiting profusely into its welcoming bowl.
"I see you're awake now," the Doctor said, standing in the doorway. "I did knock, but I think you had other things on your mind." She flushed the toilet for companion as she struggled to apply her makeup with a semi steady hand. "There's some bad news." She had to break the news sometime, may as well get it over with. "Just after you passed out at the party I discovered just what was going on in London. The reason behind those abandoned babies and the desiccated corpse. One of my old enemies managed to somehow reconstruct himself using the bodies of others to concentrate and purify himself. I tried telling you at the time but you were still under the influence as it were. That poor police woman may never be the same again after you used her own handcuffs on her."
"I can't handle the talking right now Doctor," Hannah said, adjusting her stockings. "My head's like a seven point five on the Richter scale right now.
"It's Claire. Magnus Greel possessed her body as his final act of recreation. Fortunately I managed to free her of his malignant presence but she's still in a coma. The Medicians can't say when or if she will ever come out of it."
Hannah ran all the way to Claire's bedside. Silently she held her hand tightly and looked down on her unmoving figure. "Get better, do you hear me? You get better." She ran her fingers over Claire's face, pausing over the soft lips. They had removed most of her make up so she used some of her own to give them a healthier look.
The Doctor coughed. "There may be a way to speed things up. The Sisterhood of Karn are renowned for a certain elixir. If I ask them for some, then it could help Claire recover."
"Sure Doctor." Hannah could barely speak as she fought to hold back her tears. She had to put on a brave face for Claire. The last thing she would want to see is for me to be all weepy, she told herself. "I'll stay here, make sure she gets everything she needs."
"Of course." The Doctor turned to leave. She paused half way and looked at Hannah tending to Claire. She started to speak, to ask Hannah to accompany her but stopped. Hannah was better off here. Leaving the small hospital room she headed back towards the TARDIS, feeling more alone than she had done for a long time.