The Curse of Lungbarrow

by fantomeq

Summary:

Lungbarrow has gone mad, a sign of a deeper problem looming on the horizon. Returning to Gallifrey may be the biggest mistake that the Doctor has ever made.

Chapter 1

Notes:

If you're here only for smut, you want chapter 6.

They say the sky went black as ink, the rivers ran with blood, and the mountains heaved. They say that the birds fell dead from the skies, and children screamed in their mothers’ arms.

No. That’s not quite right.

They say that vortisaurs blotted out the two suns, and the river Lethe ran crimson. They say that Mount Lung heaved its last breath and fell still for ever. They say that flocks of trunkikes and rinchins dropped dead from the skies, and the very last of the womb-born screamed in their mothers’ arms.

They say that is what happened when the Other came to Gallifrey.

***

“Brax, let’s say for the sake of argument that I believe you. These…” Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar waved her hand vaguely. “...Horrors would have occurred millions of years ago. The Doctor is nearly a millennium old and has completely failed to terrorise Gallifrey other than to cause moderate to extreme aggravation.

“You forget that I travelled with him. I don’t deny that he’s dangerous, but only in the conventional sense.” She frowned. “Perhaps that’s not the right word. He’s far from conventional.” She let out a noise between a splutter and a growl. “Oh, you know what I mean.”

“My Lady,” said Braxiatel, folding his hands on her desk, “when the Doctor was born, he claimed to have remembered life in the Loom.”

“Oh, Brax, children claim all sorts of silly things!”

“You recall the testimony of the agents who interrogated him under the mind probe.”

“Clearly he caused them to hallucinate. This incarnation seems to be skilled at hypnosis.”

“They were highly trained agents. He must be better skilled than the greatest among us! My brother was a dull plodder in the past, yet suddenly he’s brilliant and competent in advanced areas.”

“If you told him that last bit, it might go a long way towards repairing the rift between the two of you.”

Brax screwed up his face quickly then let the expression drain away.

“Hmph,” said Romana.

“I tell you, something is wrong with him.”

“I won’t dispute that, but generally, he keeps his distance. Braxiatel, I tell you, there is nothing to worry about!”

At that moment, the Doctor entered the Presidential Office with Lord Ace at his side, the former wearing his usual mismatched human clothes, the latter in her leather jacket carrying a rucksack containing a long metal club. The only concession to formality was the large blue Gallifreyan rings on their fingers.

The lights flickered ominously.

Brax and Romana exchanged a long look.

***

“Fancy seeing you here, Brother,” said the Doctor brightly, twirling his red-handled umbrella.

Ace wrinkled her nose. “Smells like you forgot to take out the rubbish, President Fred. Or do you have people who do that for you?”

Romana drew herself up to her full height, which was admittedly a couple of inches taller than Ace. Much like Ace’s oversized jacket, Romana’s robes helped lend an impression of presence to the small woman.

“So,” Ace went on, “if you noticed a temporal disturbance at Gamma Apple Triad, that was us. Had a few nuclear wars to deal with, but we fixed it up in the end. All’s well that ends well.”

Brax’s face went into a well-crafted neutral expression, a look she had seen often on his brother. Always a bad sign. She stuck out a thumb. “You have this bilgebag doing community service or something?”

Romana looked to the Doctor in confusion. He shrugged.

“Still a cardinal, I see,” said the Doctor.

“How many people did you brainwash to get that job?” asked Ace.

Romana rubbed her eyes. “It was ever so peaceful before you arrived. Is there anything else you need?”

“Him dead,” said Ace cheerfully.

“Other than that.”

“I’ll give it some thought.”

Romana said, “In any case, I’m glad that you’re here. Braxiatel was telling me that you’re needed at Lungbarrow.”

The Doctor said, “Let Quences take care of it.”

“Unfortunately, Quences has passed away, and the household is in disarray,” said Braxiatel.

“Then you take care of it.”

“I have more important concerns.”

“Is the House in a mood?” asked Ace eagerly. “The TARDIS gets like that sometimes.”

“No properly maintained TARDIS should have ‘moods,’” said Brax.

“Oh, he spends plenty of time maintaining it, and I’ve gotten good at it too.”

“That ship should have been decommissioned centuries ago.”

The Doctor said, “I’ll thank you not to refer to her so rudely.”

Ace said, “Yeah, we like her fine the way she is.”

Brax let out a long-suffering sigh, and Ace was proud of herself for not walloping him. “What’s up with the house?”

Romana said, “Brax has told me, rather dramatically, that Mount Cadon is breathing again.”

“It’s what, Lady Fred?”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed, and Ace could see he was hooked. “Seismic activity?”

“Not at a tectonic level, although geological sensors have detected movement on the surface.”

“What do the residents say?” Ace noticed that the Doctor hadn’t referred to them as his family.

“Er, there hasn’t been a response.”

“And you didn’t see fit to investigate?”

Brax said, “The Lady President sent a few of the Chancellery Guard, but they didn’t give a clear answer as to what they saw.”

Ace groaned. “Don’t tell me.”

The Doctor ignored her and said, “Has Susan tried?”

Brax drew in a deep breath. “I decided on your behalf that perhaps Susan and her son were best left out of these circumstances until we knew more.”

The Doctor nodded, but then he said, “And she actually obeyed?”

Ace felt a little insulted for Susan but more relieved that Brax had been a decent person for once in his life. She smiled at him, and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Susan did, yes. She prefers the comfort of her residence in the Citadel.”

“We’ll go investigate,” said the Doctor carefully, “but I will not be staying on in the long term.”

“I wouldn’t dream of expecting you to,” said Romana.

Ace’s hearts beat more quickly with the excitement of finally seeing where the Doctor grew up. After all the times he had delved into her past, finally it was her turn.

***

“Fred’s worried,” said Ace.

“She is indeed. It’s difficult to say whether Lungbarrow is the primary cause of her anxiety, as she bears a great deal of responsibility in her role as President.”

“She’s got plenty of people to help her out, and there’s the Council too.”

“The biggest decisions are ultimately hers.”

They walked back to the TARDIS bay, ignoring the looks they attracted due to their non-Gallifreyan clothing.

“The House is halfway up a mountain,” he said. “I’d prefer to take the ship.”

“Easier to escape.”

“Precisely.”

“So who built it?” asked Ace, as they closed the TARDIS door and prepared to leave the Citadel.

“The Great Houses are ancient and alive. As to whose idea… I daresay it was my own, or rather, the Other’s. I suspect that’s why my brother is sending me. He thinks I can reason with it.”

“You have plenty of experience with the Old Girl.”

“Houses are wilder, or at least, mine always was. Koschei’s was more sedate, although his family were of a cruel sort that did not brook disobedience.”

“We’d better not see him about.”

“I understand the Master to still be in prison.”

“I’d be happier if he was dead.”

“It’s not worth the effort, Ace. He never manages to stay dead.

The TARDIS landed halfway up a mountain with an extraordinary view.

An orchard of trees dotted with bright magenta fruit stretched as far as Ace could see. An elaborate sundial made of a statue of Rassilon holding a long rod showed the time to be early afternoon. Below, a valley of silver leaves and red grass shone under the cool mountain sunlight.

The House, however, was not obvious.

“Hmm.” The Doctor paced back and forth. “It appears to be hiding. That must be the motion that was detected.”

He placed his hand on the stone and closed his eyes. “The key is to be polite,” he said. “Houses hate being taken for granted.”

Nothing happened.

Eventually, Ace got impatient.

“Oi, House!” she yelled. “Come off it! I’m new to the family and have come to see you!”

And the House did. It rose from its partial slouch inside Mount Lung. Ace prepared to run from an onslaught of boulders and chunks of earth (chunks of Gallifrey?), but the House rose as if by magic, which it probably was.

Ace put her hand on the marriage of warm stones and wood and said fondly, “Good House!”

She felt a wriggle of happiness inside her brain, and it felt much like the TARDIS.

“House, please note that we do intend to leave these walls again.”

Ace gave the Doctor a quick look of alarm, but he ushered her inside.

“Hello?” she called out. She had an immediate impression of scale and ruin, as if it had been built out of a cave, which she supposed, it might have been. Vines twisted in and out of broken windows, and there was a persistent sound of dripping in the distance.

The Doctor’s frown had become deep. “I’d never planned to return here,” he said.

“Where is everybody?” Ace asked nervously, pulling her jacket more tightly around herself in the chill air.

“I have no idea. Braxiatel was being a bit cagey, don’t you think?”

“No idea where he gets that from.”

“He is older than I am.”

“Not really.”

“I would prefer to never visit any of my elder family members,” he said.

“I understand that, but I’d feel better if someone was expecting us. How many people live here?”

“Forty-one.”

“This place is dead creepy. Now I understand why you have a thing for haunted houses. I can’t imagine what it was like growing up here.”

He shrugged. “I suppose it does have a superficial resemblance to some other places we’ve been.”

“Superficial? Really?”

“You’ll observe some differences.”

“Ugh. We’re back to this, after all this time?” Why couldn’t he just be straight with her?

“Stay close. Don’t touch the spider webs.” He looked at her a long moment, face hard and cold. Protective.

“Sure,” said Ace. Then the suns came out from behind a cloud, and she could see more clearly. It was high-ceilinged, somewhat organic, all greying white arches and curves, not a straight line in the place. “Wait, was this House grown?” she asked, startled.

“Yes. Tree, mountain thought, hatred, sorrow, all enmeshed. Ancient.”

Ace sighed at his drama. “So where does everybody hang out?”

“There really ought to be someone here in the Great Hall.” He stared out at the arched doorways. Glumly, he added, “I’d rather they were all dead.”

It was startling coming from him, but Ace deeply understood the sentiment. “As it’s mine now, can I burn down my mum’s house?” she asked suddenly. “I’ll stick close by to make sure no one gets hurt.”

The Doctor said nothing. Ace went through a moment of pique, followed by concern. She rummaged about in her rucksack. “Ginger biscuit?”

Silently, he took the entire package.

Dusty tapestries hung opposite a long wall of arched windows. There was no furniture nor carpets, which was odd, and it intensified the abandoned air of the place.

The Doctor walked ahead and gestured for her to stay behind him. Naturally, she ignored him and came to his side. They passed through a winding corridor, another arch, and then into another massive room with the largest table Ace had ever seen. Not just large like a castle table but so large you couldn’t even reach the plates.

“We’re not that short,” she said, pinching her nose against the smell of rotten food.

“It seems that the relative dimensional stabilisers are damaged.”

“So it is a TARDIS house?”

“Not precisely.”

“Can we at least get the lights on?”

The Doctor clapped his hands and in came a candelabrum. A walking one, about eight feet tall. At least it didn’t have a face. “Does it sing?” Ace asked, deadpan.

Instead, it tipped its flaming candles outward and charged at her.

“Oh, and,” said the Doctor muffledly through biscuit crumbs, “I forgot to tell you not to mention arson. Houses don’t appreciate that.”

“I’m sorry!” Ace shouted, pulling out her baseball bat and preparing to swing. They began a sort of dodging dance. “I would rather not hurt you,” she gasped, which would normally be a ridiculous thing to say to a normally inanimate object. “I’ve got nothing against you! I meant a house that’s not alive! I swear they’re different where I come from. Doctor, will you please help me?”

“My mof if full. Ahem.” The Doctor clapped his hands, and bellowed, “Halt! Do not harm Lord Ace!”

The candelabrum bowed low as if in shame and shuffled backwards into a corner where it extinguished itself.

“Well then,” he said. “Where were we?”

“Okay, Doctor. I can see why you didn’t want me to come here first visit to Gallifrey.”

“It’s usually not this obstreperous.”

“I suppose it doesn’t like me.” Loudly, she added, “Again, sorry. I’d never burn down this house.” More quietly, “Even though it deserves it.” Why do these things happen to me? I’m in arsonist hell. Again. Guess I’ll be paying for that one for all eternity.

“Forgive me for not warning you.” He was sounding a little tipsy.

“I did not go into this being prepared to not insult a house. It seems a vital part of education that I have missed, and that’s on you, Professor.” She jabbed a finger in his direction.

Maybe it was the ginger, but he did laugh. Then he stuffed some more biccies in his mouth, and Ace was forced to confiscate the rest. As much as she wanted some, she needed to remain clearheaded. This was a really freaking weird place. She pulled out a torch as she put the box away. “And why isn’t there electricity or a futuristic glowy alternative?”

“Tradition,” said the Doctor. “The same reason they do everything the stupid way on Gallifrey.” He was starting to act very out of sorts. Ace reflected on how badly her last visit to her childhood home went.

“Traditions that old? I might as well start doing things the Viking way, in that case.”

“You already do, Ace.”

She snorted. “Yeah, guil-- Erm, I mean totally innocent,” she said to the House. She began to walk down the nearest archway, but the Doctor hooked her arm with his umbrella handle (she hated that so much), jerked her backwards, and used its tip to knock down a rather impressive cobweb.

“Guess nobody’s been down this way for a while.” Careless of her not to notice. She turned about face and headed the other way. “Care to enlighten me about the webs?”

“Made by retrochronoid spiders with the ability to incapacitate you. Touch the wrong sort of web and find yourself in a coma chatting with someone who died a thousand years ago.”

“Wow. I suppose that does make tradition a little more relevant,” said Ace. “On second thought, you can take the lead. Sounds really inconvenient. Can’t you call an ex--” Ace stopped herself in case the house would be offended. “You know.” She whispered, “What Daleks do. But to bugs.”

He chortled again. At least someone was having fun. Suddenly, he went quite serious. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Ace.” He took her hand, and she felt a mass of negative emotions leaking from him. Apparently, he was an absolute wreck inside. Giving him a hug, she whispered that everything would be all right.

“That remains to be seen.”

“Where the hell is everyone? I mean, any house that has that many people living here has got to have some sort of fight going on at all times.”

The Doctor looked at her sadly.

“Care to share what it was like last time you visited?”

“It was back in my first life, and no, I do not.”

“Understood.” She squeezed his hand. “Are all Time Lord houses dark and creepy?”

“Most, yes, although there are a few newer families who prefer modern amenities.” He fumbled the pronunciation of the last word yet produced another biscuit out of his sleeve.

“I’d prefer-- I mean, this place is perfectly lovely. How could anyone possibly feel that way?”

The Doctor smirked. “Koschei was also from an ancient family. Picture this house but with more black, even more dour.”

Ace screwed up her face. “Hmm.” She trailed her fingers along a wall as they walked down a windy corridor. “The tapestries are nice. I like the garden pictures. Could use a good hoovering.”

“They were the only concession towards brightening up the place when I was young. I don’t understand why everything is so dirty.”

“Staff go on strike?”

“The staff is made of living wood, and perhaps it did, Ace.” He walked into a small bedroom, bare enough to be depressing, and uncovered a floor-length mirror. “Drudges,” he said to it, “Theta has returned with his guest, Ace. All hospitality is to be extended to her.”

Ace thought she saw one of the two people in the mirror move, but she and the Doctor were standing stark still. She tugged at his sleeve.

“Hello, Drudges?” he repeated.

“Seriously?” said Ace. “I suppose it’s at least an honest job title.”

“The Lord of Lungbarrow has arrived!” he cried out. “Will you not answer his request?”

At that point, every door in the building slammed with thunderous jolt, and the floor rolled like a wave. Ace nearly fell but grabbed the Doctor, who had miraculously remained steady.

“So it’s to be like that, is it?” he said darkly.

Ace said, “I suggest we find out where everyone’s gone and get them, and us, the hell out of here as fast as possible.”

“Agreed. Let’s go upstairs.”

“Are the stairs likely to turn into a slide at any point or throw us back down?”

“No. Probably.”

“Small blessings.”

“Indeed.”

“You’re getting terse, Professor.”

“I am… not fond of this location.”

“Me too. God, what was it like trying to speak plainly around here?”

“The House generally held few opinions other than not scratching the furniture. This is a different situation.”

“But definitely not like Gabriel Chase.”

“I’m beginning to wonder.”

“Brilliant. You know, when I imagined this place, I imagined spoilt Time Lord children running about with their ancient aunties.”

“We weren’t truly children in the way that humans are and were never allowed to run indoors.”

“I should have reckoned that.”

“You were right about the ancient aunties. Innocet is the best of a bad bunch.”

“Let’s go to her room, then.”

“Agreed.”

Now that all of the doors were shut, they were obliged to knock on each before entering. Ace grew tired of this and shouted, “Listen up, Lungbarrows! Anybody home? Open up!”

Not a sound. The silence unnerved her.

Then they skipped ahead to the third door on the fourth left (fourth left??) turn.

The Doctor opened the door.

“No, no, no,” he said, “This isn’t right.”

Ace walked past him to the window. Outside, she could see a flooded atrium, which made no sense as the grass outside had been crisp. As she watched, listening to rain fall from probably centuries in the past, the water began to turn scarlet. “Doctor,” she said in alarm. Across the way, rock fell from the crumbling facade with a resounding crack.

The Doctor’s head whipped her way, and he was breathing hard.

Ace placed a hand on his back, then moved to a small desk. Sketch after sketch of a boy growing into a man littered the surface. The circles that used to be meaningless to her aligned in her mind, and she could read, “I’ll love you for ever, Koschei. Your dearest Theta.”

A pang. The Doctor turned away, ashamed.

On a side table was an odd-looking stereo much like the one he’d made for her when she was young, and next to it, a stack of CDs labelled in Gallifreyan: Earth jazz, baroque, blues.

She looked at him, tears in her eyes.

As she stretched up to buss his cheek, there came another crack outside, then another, growing louder. The sound of unearthly sobbing, a child with broken hearts. He jerked at her shoulder and pulled her through the door.

***

At last they found the room they sought, a bedroom larger than Ace’s entire childhood home with ornately carved double doors. The room was more well appointed than others Ace had seen, its the massive bookshelves stuffed with books and scrolls. The mirrors were covered by shawls. On the dressing table was an open diary next to a half-collapsed house of what vaguely resembled circular tarot cards and in its chair was sat something that looked more like a grey heap of hair and cloth than a person.

Ace grimaced and placed a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder.

“Innocet,” he breathed, coming in as closely as he safely could.

Innocet was covered in dust and cobwebs. Ace drew in a sharp breath, backed hard against a bookcase, closed her eyes against a memory of the house in Kent.

He poked at the cobwebs with his umbrella once again and pressed his finger to the woman’s wrist. “She’s alive,” he said.

“The spiders?”

“Probably. Or a self-induced coma. She’s been here for some time.” He closed his eyes. “Innocet, it’s Theta. I’ve come home.”

The eyes shot open so quickly that Ace jumped. “Aren’t you known as the Doctor now?” the woman said, her voice scratchy. As Innocet straightened, Ace saw that she wasn’t extremely old, although the roots of her extremely long hair were white, and she was surprisingly tall. “Old” was of course relative on Gallifrey.

“Yes.”

“I’d read everything about you for the first four hundred years. I’m afraid I lost track at some point.”

“I was Lord President for a time.”

Her eyes lit up, and she clasped his hands. “I wasn’t even certain you’d graduate the Academy, and now here you are, Former Lord President! I’m pleased, and Quences would be as well.”

“He did have high ambitions for me,” said the Doctor, who didn’t look pleased by the praise. “Brax is a Cardinal, by the way.”

“I always knew he was going places. Tell me, is he well?”

The Doctor scowled.

Ace put in, “I’m Ace, the Doctor’s friend. Pleased to meet you, but where is everyone else?”

“You’ve brought someone home? I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Yes, yes, I’m perfectly unpleasant, and no one can stand me.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Ahem. I did ask a question.”

Innocet blinked at Ace. “Everyone? I’ve been the only one here since Quences died.”

“The only one?”

“They all died or fled when the House went mad.”

***

“Fantastic,” said Ace. “In that case, let’s pack a bag and go on a little trip to see everybody.”

“Do not patronise me, child!”

Ace raised her hands. “Apologies. The talk of madness made me anxious, that’s all. Looks like you’ve got a lot of books. Might need to come back for some of those.”

“Nonsense,” said Innocet, but more kindly. “I’ve a number of bags under my bed from my younger days. I used to travel to the Citadel, you know.”

“Get on it, then. I mean, we may want to consider hurrying, ma’am, seeing as the House is mad and all. I met a nasty candelabrum earlier, and there’s more coma cobwebs hanging all about.”

The Doctor said, “Innocet, where are the Drudges?”

“There’s only one active, now that I’m the only one here. The last one who ran away was Glospin, a few years ago.”

“It seems I’m late. Relatively speaking.”

“Relatives always are complicated,” said Ace. “Sod them all. Present company excepted. Sorry.”

“Are you starting another family, Doctor?” said Innocet out of the blue. “The Loom’s still operational.”

Ace went red, and she looked to the Doctor, who had a placid expression. “No,” he said.

“That’s probably for the best until we get this sorted.”

“It’s usually easier to sort an empty homicidal house,” said Ace, thinking of Gabriel Chase.

“You have experience in this area, do you, young person?”

“Unfortunately, she does, Innocet. It’s almost an area of expertise by this point.”

Innocet pursed her lips, looking much like the Doctor, then said, “Very well, let’s go outside. I confess I would delight to see the orchards again.”

“Great,” said Ace. “Let’s grab your stuff.”

She pulled the old ecru shawl off the floor length mirror to wrap it around the woman’s shoulders, then all hell broke loose.

***

The window opposite exploded inward from a rockfall, and Innocet fell back across the room. The Doctor ran to her side, pressed a handkerchief to her bleeding face.

And vanished.

***

The window exploded inward, and Ace found herself alone in the room.

Out of the mirror steps a tall man. Ace recognises him instantly. Teeth, Eyes, Curls, and Scarf scowled and said, “Leela can get along perfectly well on Gallifrey, and Romana’s the President now. Really, Ace, I’ve never seen such a disappointment as you.”

A man in black with smooth white hair clutches his lapels like an old-fashioned vicar and says, “Young lady, without me, you’d have been drowned as a witch by now. Why can’t you simply cooperate like Susan, hmm?”

A young blond Doctor sighs tiredly and says, “Really, Ace, must you always be so volatile?” and he refuses to even look at her.

The Doctor with the bowl haircut and the checked trousers like her Doctor’s says, “You aren’t half as interesting as Jamie, and you never will be.”

The fluffy-haired Doctor with the velvet and the ruffles rolls his eyes and says, “I’d much rather work with (screw) the Master. If you must insist upon getting in the way, you can at least learn to make a proper cup of tea.”

Another tall, curly haired man, this one blond with a ridiculous coat, begins to bellow at her until he goes red in the face. He grabs her by the throat and shakes.

Ace fights back, and the shouted words all slur together. (Her stepfather raises his thick fist, strikes.) Spittle lands on her face.

Sudden silence, release of pressure. Gasping.

Then her own Doctor appears, and she says to him, “Innocet is missing. We have to find her,” and he looks at her blankly.

“You’ve disappointed me,” he answers. “Imposter. Wild beast. You’ve corrupted me like a disease. And now I’m stuck with you for eternity.”

She looks into his eyes, and they are black, very black.

On Gamma Apple One, Ace is dead on the ground from a dozen bullet wounds. The Doctor is being held back by six soldiers. He screams and writhes. Then he stops, closes his eyes, and a black shadow crackling with lightning rises from him, smothering everyone in the room.

The men seize up, thud to the ground with mouths slack, all dead without being touched.

Ace screams in rage and smashes the mirror with her fists.

***

The window exploded inward, and the Doctor found himself alone in the room.

Ace, wearing her old jacket with badges and looking very young, steps through the mirror and immediately falls to the ground screaming. She is being crushed by an enormous beast, and she shoves Nitro Nine into its mouth, locks eyes with the Doctor and says, “I’m at ground zero.”

And she dies, bloody and in terrible pain, and the Doctor feels nothing but fury.

An instant later, another woman appears, wearing a black combat suit, a laser pistol in her fist. The Doctor blinks, and the image resolves. Ace. Yet not Ace. Her face is scarred, and her expression is bleak and merciless.

“Thanks a lot, you sick bastard,” she says. “You stole my life, you used me, broke me. You made me a killer. I’ve taken four hundred sentient lives since I met you. Want to make it four hundred and one?”

The Doctor raises his hands in surrender, keeps his expression blank.

“You fucked with me again and again, Professor, stole everything from me, got everyone I loved killed, and now I can’t feel anything but hate. Bet I won’t even live to thirty. Give me one good reason to spare your life.”

“I can’t,” he whispers, bereft.

A murmuring on the wind intensifies into a child’s screams. He sees a small girl with brown hair being held down by a very large man. The girl is crying out for her mother, who isn’t coming for her. The man is now wearing a guard uniform from another planet, and Ace is now older, dazed and bleeding from a head wound. She is calling out the Doctor’s name, and he isn’t coming for her. He didn’t even know.

Now Ace in the combat suit is back, curled up on the ground, her neck twisted at a sickening angle, and blood is trickling from every single joint in her body. She blinks and says, “You should have told me the plan.”

Before she dies, she shoots him between the eyes.

The Doctor blacks out.

***

“Doctor?” asked Ace, shaking him. He hadn’t responded for five minutes.

The Doctor slowly opened his eyelids, slapping his hand to his forehead. A passing look of terror vanished in an instant under his usual cool control. Ace wondered what he had seen, knew he wouldn’t tell.

“So,” she said, casually. “Something wrong with the mirrors, or do they usually do that?”

He blew out a long breath. “Something wrong with the House. A House cannot stand without a family.”

“A joke of a family,” said Ace, “all running at the first sign of trouble, not warning whatever stupid gits come to rescue them.”

On the ground, Innocet was completely still. The Doctor shook his head, put the sodden handkerchief back in his pocket.

“Won’t she regenerate?” Ace asked.

The Doctor shrugged. His expression was bleak.

The House was still until they reached the bottom of the stairs, then everything happened at once.

The furniture set upon them, followed by flame-wielding candelabras. Huge wooden golems let out creaking screeches like angry unoiled doors and charged at them. The Doctor was shaky, probably more from shock more than ginger consumption, so Ace shoved him ahead.

They had just made it through the front doors and safe into the open when the House trembled violently once again, sheets of wood paneling falling from the ceiling, shattering as if brittle.

Ace and the Doctor exchanged an exhausted look.

“If we were going to have a place on Gallifrey, Doctor… it would not be this one. But what to do about it? Can we reprogram it?”

“No.”

“Can we get it therapy? Exorcise it?”

“No.”

Ace looked at him eagerly. “Want to watch it burn?”

The Doctor’s eyes lit up darkly. “You do the honours, Ace.”

And so Ace did what she did best.

***

“Now,” said Romana, picking up a data pad to check her agenda. “It seems that there is a petition to create a new House. Such an unusual suggestion. These names are not familiar to me, and they all seem to be rather odd.” She passed the pad across the desk. “Can you tell me anything about these people, Brax?”

Braxiatel’s face clouded as he read. “Oh yes, and we must deny the petition at all costs.”

“Why?”

“Tell me, Romana, have you ever heard the legends of Faction Paradox?”

***

Ace shoved her hand into the Doctor’s pocket, fumbling past yo-yos, apple cores, and a sonic screwdriver to retrieve the handkerchief, orange-red with Innocet’s Time Lord blood. Her voice rang out loud and clear, vibrating with something unearthly that tingled in her bones. “By the blood of Lungbarrow--” She flipped open her pocketknife, sliced the Doctor’s palm and wiped the cloth on it. “--And the blood of the Other, I, Lord Acegalemcshanesigmalungbarrowmas, release you from this universe.” She dabbed her bleeding knuckles on it for good measure, remembering that magick liked threes, and tied the handkerchief around a can of Nitro and threw it along with five others as far as she could inside the front doors.

“Ace,” said the Doctor carefully after they’d finished running away, “when did you learn to do that?”

“I have no idea. It just came to me.”

The mountain shook as the canisters exploded. The ancient building shattered like a china plate and began to collapse.

As the fire burned, a vision came to Ace. Inside her mind, something horrible was being summoned through the Schism. The sky went dark, the mountain trembled, and everything burned, from the mountains to the Citadel. The screaming of children rang in her ears, and it came to her in dark nights for years to come.

Time writhed, knotted, shattered in strange patterns.

“Gallifrey will be destroyed,” she said in a distant voice. “We have to stop time.”

“What?” asked the Doctor sharply.

She saw the Doctor with the blackness seeping from his eyes, blotting out the suns. “There will be a battle throughout all time. If you don’t stop it, this planet will be destroyed, maybe even the universe.”

When she could see the orchard again, she was squeezing the blue stone of her Gallifreyan ring.

“Ace, are you certain?” he asked, panic on his features. He tore at his hair.

She squeezed his hand and let him see inside her mind.

“Run,” he said.

The magentas in the orchard blackened and fell off their branches.

Inside the TARDIS, he paced, gnawed his knuckles, breathing hard.

Ace’s terrible certainty grew stronger. Something was about to happen. “It has to be now, Doctor.”

“But Susan and Alex.”

“Now.”

Wide eyed, he froze, mumbling, “I should have stayed away. I was cast out, banished, my name taken from me.”

Ace keyed in a course for a high orbit and put the Untempered Schism on the scanner screen. Surrounding it was a ring of strangely dressed people wearing what looked like masks made of various sorts of skulls.

The Doctor wobbled a little on his feet. She could tell he knew something about this cult.

She had no idea why, but she removed her ring and grabbed the Doctor’s as well, running to the lab that he kept moving in the hopes that she wouldn’t find it.

He dashed after, and together they stared at the newest version of the Hand of the Other. Ace shoved both rings inside the dimensionally transcendental box and glanced over.

The Doctor wasn’t breathing, and he was slowly turning a disturbing greyish colour. Then he nodded grimly, pale eyes focusing on nothing as he ran blindly back to the console room with the Hand. He hooked up the device through its lead to the console, tapping rapidly with the ease of someone familiar with the doomsday weapon though multiple uses.

Then he checked the force field, opened the ship’s door, pressed the big red button and threw the device out.

In a moment, the whole of Gallifrey turned blindingly white with an explosion that froze time.

Then the planet vanished entirely from view, protected in its sleep.

The Doctor was very still. His lips had gone blue.

Ace asked, “Doctor, what the hell is this? Are we cursed?”

Clenching his hands together, he said nothing.

“Look, we’ll figure it out and fix it. We’ll find a way to reverse it once we understand what’s going on.”

He burst in to movement. Screaming in rage, the Doctor began to throw every loose object in the room in random directions. Ace threw her arms up in alarm, ducking a spanner.

“I told Susan to leave! I told her it wasn’t safe! I told her--” The Doctor took off at a run down the main corridor. Ace moved to follow him and found him gone. He had probably hidden himself with one of those fourth dimensional side stepping tricks.

“Doctor? Doctor?” she called out, shaken.

And Ace was left alone.

Notes:

Notes: This is my take on Lungbarrow. I reread it twice in preparation, threw up my hands, and decided to do my own version. I changed up the mirrors for gothic purposes.

Also, was anyone else annoyed by Ace’s comments in Lungbarrow about “uppity servants?” She just wasn’t like that before.

Feedback deeply appreciated.

Chapter 2

After days and days of being completely alone, Ace was growing more and more agitated. The Doctor needed her, and she needed him.

At some point, it’s fair to say that she lost her mind.

Ace landed the TARDIS in her unoccupied childhood two up two down early in the year 2000 and lit all of the drapes on fire and waited as long as possible before leaving.

Ten years earlier, she landed in her stepfather’s house and shot him with a staser until he was just a dark smudge on the sofa. He had been too drunk to even notice her, which wasn’t very satisfying, but at least he’d never hurt anyone again. She’d wanted to tear him apart with her bare hands. She had been showing restraint.

The police would probably figure out who did these things. She didn’t really care.

Stepping back into the TARDIS, she had the sinking feeling that she might have been “acting out,” as she had done during her teenaged years.

Ace ran through the corridors calling out the Doctor’s name, more and more panicked, until she finally found him in a gallery she’d never seen before.

The long rows were full of paintings made with increasing skill and in varying styles. At the other end, he was finishing a portrait of his granddaughter, a burning Gallifrey in the background. It had a fascinating three-dimensional effect that she would have appreciated any other time.

As it was, she opened her mouth to yell, “You bastard!” but nothing came out. She was, perhaps, too tired, or maybe just too relieved to see him.

The Doctor paused, sniffing the air. Ace became aware that she still smelt of various crimes. This was not well thought out.

He stared into her eyes, and she felt nothing at all coming from him.

“I’m sorry,” Ace managed, gesturing to the painting. “I lo-- I liked her a lot.” She’d once entertained a wild and brief notion that they could have been a family.

The Doctor said very slowly, “Leela had sent me a message to tell me that she was pregnant. Now that child will never be born. It’s my fault. I brought pain upon the people I love.”

“You couldn’t have known!”

“Are you sure?”

“I will never, ever leave you.”

She stepped closer, but he said, “Yes, you will,” in deep, rough tones. He lifted his hands towards her face, and Ace pulled back, raised a hard wall against his mind.

“No. You will not push me away, Doctor. You will not erase me. We’ve come too far. Don’t you dare.”

He lowered his hands, regarded her sadly. She had the impression he knew what she’d done.

He said nothing about it at all, and she really needed him to.

“No, Doctor,” said Ace again. “Listen to me.”

He moved his hand like a conjuror, and a door appeared between the two of him, slid shut in her face, severing the gallery in two.

Sinking to the floor, she became aware that she wasn’t thinking clearly. She forced herself to breathe more slowly, to calm down, but when she stood up, she found herself beating her fists on the door and screaming.

She heard no sound from the other side.

Days later, she was saying, over and over, “Doctor, I need you.” The TARDIS had long since given up trying to calm her, but the Doctor still hadn’t come out of the end of the gallery, and Ace hadn’t moved.

Assuming he hadn’t taken a hitherto nonexistent shortcut to the library.

That was it. She struggled to her feet, ran there, disheveled, hair wild.

The library door was shut but not locked.

Behind it, was the Doctor, reading quietly as if nothing was wrong.

“Doctor,” she said with all the calm she could muster, “it’s been a long time.” Then, to her horror, she fainted.

***

When she first remembered what had happened, she was afraid that he had decided to leave her alone to die. Instead, she found herself in the medical bay on an IV drip with a needle pinching and bruising a vein in her hand.

She hated those things with a passion.

The Doctor had transported or transfigured an armchair in the room, and near him were stacks of musty smelling books and scrolls coming up to his knees. It seemed he’d barely missed a beat whilst waiting for her to come to.

She watched him, her anger slowly fading into weary fondness. She still couldn’t sense his feelings.

He looked up, and the curious spark of learning drained from his eyes, leaving them blank.

This was very bad.

They stared at each other a long while. When he stood and turned to the door, Ace jumped up, tripped over her IV line, and fell down hard on the floor, smashing herself in the face with the cover of a thick book.

He stopped, came back.

On the floor, Ace had never felt so desperate or pathetic and hated herself for it.

He tipped his head, evaluating.

“When was the last time you ate?” she asked, bleeding on the tiles.

Then he burst back into life, disinfecting her arm and newly injured nose, replacing the needle, tucking her back in.

“No,” she said. “You need one too. Have you even looked in a mirror?”

His eyes were deeply shadowed, and he had difficulty swallowing. Stubbornness hardened his sunken features.

“They say Doctors make the worst patients.”

He sighed, checked himself for signs of dehydration, and gave himself a drip as well. Then he lay on his back on the bed next to her and stared upward.

That was usually Ace’s role. She’d glared the ceilings into submission many a time.

“Doctor,” she said after a long while, then couldn’t find the magic words to get him to speak to her.

She made a second attempt when got up to replace her IV bag. “Don’t leave me alone again,” was all she could manage: tiny, childish. Bloody terrified.

He shot a look at her, and she saw deep concern before he squelched it. She caught his fingertips, then awkwardly pointed at his own IV pole.

He scrunched his face in irritation but replaced his own bag, wrapping his arms as tightly as he could around his chest with a needle jammed into the back of one hand.

Eventually he turned his head towards her and said, “You did something, Ace.”

So he was determined to be angry at her. At least he was sticking around.

She didn’t want to answer at first but knew that was being as childish as he had been. “It’s fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“No, I’m not. Not at all. I think I went mad.”

He leapt up and began to examine every inch of her, trailing his cool fingertips down her touch-starved skin. Remaining quiet, she feared to discourage him. At last, he was satisfied that she was uninjured. Hating herself for making him worry when he was already vulnerable, she caught one wrist in an iron grip.

His brow furrowed, and he stared into her eyes.

“I did so something wrong,” she said. “I’ll tell you, but don’t leave me again. I can’t take it.”

“I was right here on the ship.”

“I couldn’t see you, talk to you, or even sense you!”

“Hmm.”

“Don’t do this to me. I’ll tell you. I killed my stepfather. I did it. You know why. It was quick. I wish it hadn’t been.”

Completely expressionless, he just stood there in front of the bed, the ship thrumming in the background.

“I… I think I was cutting ties too. I burnt down the house like I said I would. No more family, no more Perivale. Ever again.”

“You wanted,” he said slowly, “to relate to me as best you could.”

“I committed a murder.”

They stared at each other on opposite sides of a gulf, inches away.

Ace was wide-eyed, twitchy.

Eventually, the Doctor narrowed his own eyes at her, then said, “Ace, when you told me what he’d done to you, it was all I could do to stop myself from paying him such a visit myself.”

He was being shockingly honest. Where was the lecture? “I waited until… after. I didn’t change my past.” Absurdly, she expected some sort of praise for that. What the hell was wrong with her? The twisted thing was that she hadn’t even considered it, hadn’t tried to save herself as a child, because the rules were so engrained into her.

“I turned you into a killer,” he breathed.

“Do you really think I wouldn’t have become one on my own?” Ace snapped back. “There was no hope for me before I met you. No hope. Whether I’d joined a gang, or took Kane’s coin, or took up with Glitz, or kept being used by Fenric, it was all the same. I know I’m not as good as you, and I’m sorry!”

He seethed, nostrils flaring, for a long moment. She kept meeting his eyes. Then he abruptly said, “What did you see come out of the mirror, Ace?”

A long silence. “Are you going to tell me what you saw?”

“Perhaps.”

“‘Perhaps?’ That’s not fucking good enough. Fine. You know what? Fine. I saw every version of you that there ever was telling me how disappointing I am.” She wasn’t going to mention the other thing she saw, not with him like this.

The ship hummed more loudly. Something in a medical cabinet beeped.

“Nothing? Are you really going to say nothing to that? I’m not blaming you-- you didn’t really say it to me, but I am really disappointing, and--”

Flatly, he said, “Ace, I saw you die, I saw you as a killer, and I saw you shoot me. And… I saw your stepfather.”

“You saw me as a killer… then I go out and-- and--”

“Yes.”

“What the hell kind of house was that?!” No wonder Brax was the way he was.

“It’s gone now. Even if it somehow survived the explosions, it’s inaccessible.”

“Along with your family. Oh god, I’m so sorry. I wanted to be there for you. I would have done anything.”

“Anything?” he asked sharply, and she was suddenly uncomfortable.

Should she retract what she said, give a caveat? As she blinked at him tiredly, wanting to lie back down, she reflected how much they’d changed over the years and how fast they’d gone backwards. “You need someone right now. It’s like grieving but probably worse. You shouldn’t have been alone. Do not shut me out again. That’s not the way this relationship works.”

“Ace,” he said. “I have the bad feeling that that cult wasn’t trying to summon something out of the Schism. I think it was trying to summon me.”

Her heart sank. “That tracks. Do you think they can control you?”

“I don’t want to find out. When the thought occurred, all I wanted was to destroy them all.”

“If you did it fast enough, Gallifrey would be free.”

There was the look of disappointment. A bit belated, but present, as expected. She was almost relieved.

“It’s a thought, not a requirement.”

“Ace, I fear that if I gave into that feeling, I would never stop. Gallifrey is now safe from me.”

A chill crept under Ace’s collar. “What if I--”

“No. I forbid it.”

She bristled but opted to let the command stand.

The heavy silence returned.

“I love you,” she said, and that was when he broke down. They held each other for quite some time, crying together. Ace wiped her his eyes with the back of her hand, forgetting about the needle and wincing. “How long was it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, and then he walked over to check the medbay chronometer. “A month!” he exclaimed.

“No wonder I felt bad.”

“You’d be dead if you were still human.”

“I know where to find food and water.” She did not say that maybe she’d have deserved it, but he seemed to have caught the thought.

“Do you wonder,” he said, sitting on the bed across from her, “what Shreela would think of what you’ve done?”

“I care a lot more about what you think. I don’t think she’d know… I used a staser.”

“And where did you acquire that?” he asked tightly.

“I stole it from Brax’s house, just before we left the asteroid.”

The Doctor swallowed loud enough to hear. “I can understand why you’d feel the need for protection after such a violating experience.”

She ignored his concession. “Shreela’s not my friend anymore. I saved her from the Cheetahs, and that’s all. We haven’t seen each other in years.”

“It wasn’t always that way. Ange as well.”

“These are not the buttons to be pressing at this time, Doctor. Yes, I’m aware that I’ve burnt my bridges and there’s no going back.”

“As I’ve burnt mine.”

“Ace and the Professor against the universe.”

“Doesn’t it get lonely?”

“It was fine until the last month.”

“I had no idea it had been that long, Ace. I truly didn’t.”

“I supposed that. Have you ever forgotten a human friend, left them--” She had to literally bite her tongue to stop herself. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, but I haven’t found myself in a situation like this before.”

“You were going to erase my memory. Were you going to throw me over?”

“No, I didn’t mean it. I… I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was nothing so cruel.”

“What you did do was cruel.”

“It was. I shouldn’t have shut you out for so long. I owe you care and love even when…”

“When you’re devastated? All you had to do was talk to me a few times, let me know if there’s anything I could do. I’d have given you your space, but just don’t scare me like that.”

He laughed bitterly. “That’s what scared you about all of this.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“I’ve caused you to ignore your innate danger signals.”

“Yours don’t work too well either.”

“They never did.”

“Doctor, I crossed a line. No, wait. Let’s backtrack a little. What I told you to do about Gallifrey, I didn’t even really think about. What it I was wrong? What if the vision was a trap?”

“It wasn’t,” he said.

“We should have--”

“We should have done exactly as we did. Your quick thinking saved many lives.”

“Guess fate owed me one, then.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I considered going back to stop myself. In Perivale and on Gallifrey. Might have been worth trying.”

“Time doesn’t work that way on Gallifrey, and as for your stepfather, there was unfortunately no justice nor redemption that would have served as a better alternative.”

“I ought to have looked up his records. Maybe the police finally believed somebody.”

The Doctor closed his eyes.

“I should have asked you for one of those chemical castration pills you gave to Glitz.”

“They’re no guarantee. Humans find ways.”

“They certainly do.”

He turned to her. “Ace, I want you to know that I’m not angry, and I’m not disappointed in you. I did research that vile man myself, and you undoubtedly saved lives with your actions.”

Ace went a bit numb with shock. “I did?”

“You did. I’m so very, sorry that I, or someone else, did not do the same for you. You deserved to be saved, and you still do.”

Sniffling, she stared at him, feeling more distant with the more kind words he said to her.

He detached them both from their IVs, although Ace’s non-professional opinion was that he could have benefitted from having his longer, and he sat next to her on the bed.

“I shouldn’t be putting my actions on you at a time like this,” said Ace.

“I was foolish not to think that what happened on Gallifrey wouldn’t have affected you.”

“Those other versions of you… I didn’t know much about those men, but it seemed authentic. I mean, they were being arseholes, but there was a ring of truth.”

“The House knew, even though I hadn’t been there for ages. It exists outside time like the TARDIS.”

“I hate to think what sort of shit my house would have done to me if it were alive, given all that went down in that place. When I went back, I was actually scared.”

“It was your house to keep or destroy as you like.”

“Not entirely. There were some overdue bills, and--”

“Ace.”

“The next house over was empty, some old lady who went into a care home. I checked, but maybe she has other family--”

“Ace. If you feel the need to make amends, that can be arranged. For now, let it go.”

“Doctor, did you ever hurt one of your companions, last life?”

He went pale.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said--”

“You’ve had a lot on your mind these past few weeks, Ace, and it’s all bubbling to the surface. Yes, I did. I wasn’t well after the previous time I regenerated. It was the only instance of violent behaviour.”

“I assumed so, I just… I’m being horrible.”

“As I said, you’ve needed to talk.”

“I should be listening.”

“There’s plenty of time for that.” He ran his fingers through her loose hair, caught them on a tangle.

She cleared her throat, hopped down from the medical bed. “Let me help you put all of these things away.” Picking up an ancient text, she dropped it upon reading the title. “You really do think you’re a demon.”

“I’m covering many aspects of mythology.”

“Just no.” She scooped up as much as she could carry and marched to the library, her eyes stinging with unshed tears.

“I don’t want you to have a gun,” said the Doctor.

“Tough.”

“There are other ways to defend yourself.”

“Oh? You know, I saw what you did on Apple Whatsit, after I got killed.”

He stopped dead. “Pardon?”

She gritted out, “I wasn’t going to mention it, considering, but that’s what this research is about, isn’t it?”

“You saw that, and then…”

“What did it feel like?” she asked as lightly as she could manage. “Eating their souls.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“I think it’s important.”

“Later. The House probably made you see that as a distraction.”

Sure. “Ever get the feeling the House didn’t go mad on its own?”

“Very much so, at this moment.”

“The cultists, or some even bigger eldritch deity?”

“I can’t say for certain.”

“It was a trap. It had to have been, and it killed Innocet.” She went back to the medbay, hoisted up another pile of research materials. “Did you find anything about Gallifreyan cults in these?”

“The most obvious one is the Pythia, the remnants of which now reside on Karn, but they aren’t the sort to go in for subversive actions.”

“When was the last time you talked to them?”

“Hmm, in my fourth life. On our previous visit to Gallifrey, I told Romana I’d seen them recently, and she didn’t seem pleased.”

“But you hadn’t.” She never was sure of all the things he went up to without her.

“No. I didn’t care to crash land.”

“Naturally.”

Together they carried the armchair back to the library, where the Doctor handed Ace a handwritten book that turned out to be one of his old diaries.

He’d never shown her one before, so she felt a bit honoured. These days his writing tended more towards shopping lists of loose ends he needed to tie up.

***

Sprawled out on the sofa, Ace stretched and closed the diary. “So they used to prophesise and made a whole planet infertile, but now they worship a cooktop? They wouldn’t try the opposite and make me fertile, would they?”

The Doctor said with a hint of humour, “I shouldn’t think so.”

“And they have that brilliant salve and supposedly live forever.”

“Their lifespans are greatly increased by an unknown number of years without making use of the Imprimatur. I’m not sure how, but they credit it to the Flame. They guard their secrets jealously.”

“Do you think they’ll know anything about the Other? I mean, if they don’t like Rassilon much, maybe they won’t have mythologised ancient Gallifrey in the same way that the Time Lords did. Then again, Sacred Cooktop.”

“Like most cultures, they are indeed fraught with contradiction. By the by, best to stop referring to the Sacred Flame that way. They’re also telepathic.” He paused. “Ace, I can’t help but wonder if much of your stress is due to our recent experience with Fenric. The things that the mirror-me said, your panic at being left alone.”

He was right, but she said, “Maybe. I’ve got to say, seeing Innocet covered in dust and cobwebs did nothing for my nerves.”

He hummed.

“Maybe it was coincidence. She had to have been like that for a long time, and anybody who knew would either be us or Fenric himself. He’s dead this time. He has to be.”

“Rest easy; I do believe he is. But anyone who could create the images from the mirrors must also be highly telepathic.”

“I thought it was a warning at first. Could it have been?”

“The extent of the Houses’ intelligence hasn’t been fully studied.”

No kidding, as Time Lords thought no one could possibly be as intelligent as themselves. “They seem a lot like TARDISes, and I bet those could manage it. So was it helping or being possessed or just crazy?”

“Any of those alternatives could be true, or a mixture of all.”

“Are you being uncertain or cagey?”

“Uncertain. Deeply shaken.”

Ace sat properly and patted the cushion next to her. He approached as if she were an unfamiliar animal, sat stiffly. After she threw her arms around him and pulled him back against her chest, the tension began to drain from his body. Ace’s hearts were beating too quickly.

“A month,” he murmured. “I abandoned you.”

“Damn sight better than four years.”

“Which wasn’t real.”

“Does that really matter if we both remember it?”

“That’s a complex ontological question.”

“I suppose it is. No easy answer. Was it always this way for you? Were things more straightforward when you were younger?”

“A bit, yes. You’ve been thrown into the deep end, as it were.”

“And by a bit, you mean a lot.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good to know everything will be twelfth-dimensional Escher and Dali by the time I’m your age.”

“Mmm.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve slept in the last month.”

“I can’t recall.”

Lectures about responsibility didn’t work on him any better than they did on her. He was plenty old enough to know how drinking water and sleeping worked. If he hadn’t done it, he hadn’t been able in some way.

“Then close your eyes.”

She stroked his hair until his breathing became slow and even. Then she let her own eyelids close.

Four hours later, she awoke gasping, covering her ears against the screams of the children. Why was she hearing this? It wasn’t real, it wasn’t real.

The Doctor stirred and gently sang to her. Slowly, she got her breathing under control.

“We need answers,” he said quietly. “Perhaps it’s time to start our enquiries.”

***

“We’re in orbit around Karn,” the Doctor said, waving Ace to his side by the console.

“Doctor, you’re late,” said the old woman on the screen. “Your timeline is a disaster.”

“Apologies for my tardiness.” They looked at each other in silence, then he said, “It seems I’ve lived longer than the universe had planned for me.”

“Nevertheless, we are pleased to see you. Please land at the specified coordinates.”

“Forgive me if I’m cautious. Last time we met, your Sisterhood crashed my ship and tried to burn me at the stake.”

“A simple misunderstanding.”

The Doctor harrumphed.

“You helped us revive the Sacred Flame, so you are welcome here.”

“Marvellous. Now, are we free to land safely?”

“You have my word, Doctor.”

“I have someone with me. Can you guarantee her safety as well? No injuries or deaths of any sort?”

Ace bristled.

“Ah yes, your spouse. Certainly. We are most interested in meeting her. Your romantic tendencies do tend to throw the universe into an uproar.”

The Doctor and the woman stared at each other for a long time. Ace sensed a standoff in progress but wasn’t sure of the reason. Then he nodded. “We’ll be arriving shortly.”

Karn was not a vacation destination. The dead orange planet was covered with twisted, pointed rocks like a picture Ace had once seen of Arizona, but more gothic, with a supernatural weight in the higher dimensions.

There had better not be tentacles. She was in no mood. No mood at all.

The place was a veritable graveyard of spaceships that would be fascinating to look at more closely. A salvager would make a fortune, provided that he survived and ever managed to find a way off.

Ace paused outside a cave lit by softly flickering torches. She really didn’t want to go in, but staying outside didn’t feel especially safe.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her reticence, then urged her ahead of him. The Sisterhood weren’t big on men. As a non-binary person, Ace wasn’t sure where that left her, but she had no problem taking the lead, so she bravely entered the scary cave first. Or she hoped it looked that way to anyone watching.

A line of women in red robes waited in a large chamber. They were of all ages, and many wore painted designs on their skin. Like henna, Ace thought. Maybe they’d do her up.

She wished they hadn’t come unarmed.

The woman from the screen came forward and said, “Welcome, Doctor, Lord Ace, from the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Sacred Flame. My name is Reverend Mother Ohila.”

“Flame needs a tuneup?” Ace couldn’t resist asking.

“No, it does not,” Ohila snapped. “Please allow me to serve you some restorative tea, and we shall speak in private.”

Ace wondered if they’d see the Sacred Cooktop. A young woman passing by must have caught the thought, because she giggled and hurried off. The Doctor glared.

They followed Ohila back through rocky walls to a low-ceilinged, tapestried room with a warm fireplace. Ace sat at the small table near the hearth and watched the woman pour three cups of tea.

The Doctor stared at his. “I apologise for my reticence, but you seemed unhappy that I haven’t died lately.”

Ohila groaned, took a sip from his tea, and returned it to him. “Perfectly safe. The only unusual ingredient is a dash of the Elixir.”

“In that case, I’m honoured.”

Ace drank first. Ace paused to suss out any negative effects and felt none. She was a bit lightheaded, as if she’d had some ginger. A moment later, she felt both relaxed and energised and nodded towards the Doctor.

“We came here, Ohila, because of a problem on Gallifrey.”

“Yes, we sensed your doings. The Oracle was quite alarmed.”

“Didn’t she see it coming?” Ace put in.

“The universe is a rather unpredictable place with the Doctor in it.”

“You’re telling me.”

“My actions were necessary. I wish to ask about a new cult that has arisen on Gallifrey. It attempted to summon something at the Untempered Schism.”

“Doctor, Faction Paradox was attempting to summon you.”

Next to him, Ace jolted in her seat.

The Doctor calmly said, “I was already on the planet. They needed only knock up Lungbarrow.”

“They wish to use you in battle.”

“Gallifrey is sealed, Skaro is no more. There will be no war.”

“Your battle is never over, Doctor.”

He folded his hands on his lap and leaned back. “What if I don’t want to fight? What if I want to retire in the countryside, entertain the village children with juggling and magic acts?”

“Do you really think the universe would leave you alone?”

“Ohila, you live in isolation. What do you think it’s like to be constantly pursued by evil forces?”

“You would be bored. Utterly bored without your vocation. And someone would come to kill you and everyone you love in a trice.”

“Everyone I love is in this room,” he said, his voice hard. “The rest are sealed away like flies in amber. For ever.”

“Gallifrey is not your only problem and never has been. Don’t be facile.”

The Doctor stood. “Ohila, I did not say that it was. I came to learn more about my new enemies.”

“And yourself,” said the Reverend Mother.

He moved into her personal space and pitched his voice lower. “If you have anything to share with me, I suggest you do so now. Karn is still part of the universe, whether it likes it or not.”

“Indeed it is,” said the woman darkly.

Ace wanted to put forth a threat but restrained herself. She knew when she was out of her depth.

The torchlights suddenly went dim, and Ace felt prickles rise on the back of her neck. The Doctor said, “I don’t even know what I’m capable of, Ohila. I think it’s best for the universe if I find out under controlled circumstances.”

She licked her lips and straightened. “You had only to ask politely, Doctor.”

“I’m pleased to hear that,” he said, sitting again and drinking his tea as if nothing had happened.

Ace swallowed hard.

“We’ve gathered all resources on Faction Paradox and… and the Other and have put them on this datapad for you. This is unaltered data, free from the taint of the Matrix.”

“And what do you make of it all?”

“I think that you did the right thing on Gallifrey.”

“Good,” said Ace, and the woman gave her a penetrating stare. Used to this from the Doctor, Ace stared placidly back.

“What have you done to his young person, Doctor?”

“She’s like me,” the Doctor said lightly.

“Yet you don’t even know the limits of your own powers.”

“That’s correct. After Ace was changed, a visit to the Schism was in order, and some new abilities and memories came to light afterwards.”

“Is that why they were wearing masks?” Ace asked suddenly. “The Faction? Suppose there are filters in the eye holes? Or do they want to go mad?”

“They are already mad,” said Ohila. “They want to tie the fabric of time into knots. They derive power from paradox and discord.”

“Gathered that from the name,” said Ace. “Care to elaborate?”

The Doctor said, “It’s difficult to predict the actions of those who thrive on chaos.”

“I’m not asking about the future. Do they have a manifesto?”

“Doctor, they were interested in you before they learnt you were the Other. Now they worship you.”

“Then I can tell them to stop their plans, to disband.”

“Oh Doctor, you aren’t that naive.”

“I have to offer a choice.”

“They planned to contain you, to control you.”

“Black magick,” said Ace fearfully, even as her loyalty to the Doctor insisted that it he couldn’t possibly be trapped and destroyed like Fenric.

“Yes.”

“And how do you know all of this?” asked Ace.

“We had an agent on Gallifrey at the Schism, although we have lost contact.”

The Doctor said, “I thought the Sisterhood were above all of that.”

“Times changed. You did not.”

The light dimmed again. “From what I’ve seen, those other mes were childish and weak, unable to do what’s necessary for the greater good.”

“Other,” said Ohila evenly, “if you were so certain of your own strength, why did you not simply go to the Schism to face your enemies instead of genociding an entire planet?”

“It wasn’t genocide!” said Ace. “We can wake them up, restart time if we need to.”

The Doctor was very still.

“You don’t know how? Oh no.” No wonder he’d been a wreck for the past month. Without thinking, Ace thrust the rest of her drink towards him, whether to help him feel better or make him stronger, she wasn’t sure. Their host silently refilled their cups.

“What can the Other do?” asked Ace. “I know he was a science expert, and he’s higher dimensional and ancient, but what else?”

“The legends say he has the power of life and death over the universe.”

Ace shifted in her seat, but said, “In concrete terms?”

“He can kill with a thought.”

Ace forged on. “That’s handy. Go to the Schism, kill all the baddies, get things back to normal.”

The Doctor’s eyes were very dark.

The old woman dug about in her kitchen area and produced a large amber-coloured glass bottle. “This is pure, undiluted elixir. Drink this, and you’ll see the future.”

“What’s the downside?” Ace asked quickly.

“It might cause higher dimensional damage in the untrained. Our sisters study for a hundred years in preparation to become Oracles.”

“Yeah, I heard that about the Academy too. Let me try it,” said Ace.

The Doctor’s mouth opened to say no, but he paused. Then he turned to Ohila. “Ace has had visions before. Would it be safer for her?”

“Has she?” The Reverend Mother gained greater interest.

“Yes, but not many. I’m still new to all this mystical sh-- stuff.”

Ohila looked into her eyes again. “She has only few bad habits to unlearn, some natural defences.”

Ace gave her a death glare, which although a long way from causing death, did cause satisfyingly nasty headaches, and Ohila drew back.

“Good offences,” she allowed. “She’s strong.”

“Damn straight I am.”

“And she’d do absolutely anything for you.”

Ace felt strangely embarrassed.

“The Sisters can support her.”

“I don’t want them seeing what’s to come. Not until it’s set.”

“Understood.”

He said carefully, “Do you? Do you understand what might be uncovered deep in our minds?”

“Or just outside our bodies?” put in Ace. Like tentacles, damn it, even if he said they weren’t called that. If the kids in Perivale knew, she’d never hear the bloody end of it.

“Then you’re aware, Ace? Your auras saturated the entire planet when you landed. The Flame amplifies psychic senses.”

“Oh, bollocks,” said Ace. “It’s our fault this place is creepy? Sorry for that.”

“It was creepy last time,” offered the Doctor.

“It sure doesn’t have a spa resort feel to it at the moment.”

“We don’t want visitors,” said Ohila sharply.

“Doesn’t mean it has to be depressing. How about better lighting?” And without thinking, she raised one hand, and the torches shone more brightly. “Crap,” she muttered. “As much as I was looking forward to hearing the ‘Best of Sisters of Karn,’ album, maybe the Doctor and I had better meditate outside so nobody’s brains get exploded. Uh... Lights, normal,” she said as if controlling a computer, and the gas flame torches obeyed. “Yeah. Still, not joking about the lighting.”

Red-faced, she snatched up the phial and the datapad and marched outdoors. “Wouldn’t want to wreck the hovel-chic aesthetic,” she muttered, then said, “Doctor, I really don’t like this place.”

“Neither do I.” The Doctor took the pad as if afraid she’d break it.

“Right. So the planet’s cranking up our abilities. We don’t need no stinking flame.”

“Ace.”

“Er, sorry, Planet Karn,” she added, just in case. She found a relatively smooth rock to sit on and crossed her legs.

Ohila had followed them out. “Drink the whole phial quickly,” she advised. “We beseech thee, Sacred Flame, to assist Lord Ace!” Then she walked off whispering, “Sacred Fire, Sacred Flame” about a million times, which was more annoying than focusing for Ace.

The Elixir didn’t taste great, but Ace supposed it wasn’t supposed to. It was sort of a mild mint with a nasty bitter aftertaste, but she instantly felt more alert and aware, her head buzzing.

The planet shared a certain vibrational rhythm with its inhabitants, and in her mind’s eye, she saw a glowing string of light out shooting out towards the future, a fainter spectrum spreading out across the sky. She expected Pink Floyd to start playing at any minute.

Her head had started to hurt. She saw her aura actually was expanded outward as far as she could see, so she pulled it inward as easily as closing an outstretched hand.

This planet was dangerous in the wrong hands. Ace realised she could shift it just left of reality and no one could find it. She reached out to do so and stopped herself. Whoa.

Then she remembered what she was supposed to be doing and asked herself what would happen if the Doctor faced the Faction.

She saw Gallifrey’s red sky blotted out with blackness (children screaming, always the children), a hurricane rising above a desert, ready to flatten the Citadel in a single strike.

She saw a hidden city belonging to the Faction, dark celebrations and death as its new cycle, people pulling apart the timelines and killing their ancestors for the sheer joy of destruction.

Without warning, Ace pushed her way through the Doctor’s defences, as a knife through butter. She wormed her way into his brain and sought out motor control.

“Quack,” said the Doctor.

When Ace opened her eyes, she was surprised that the planet was still there.

“What did you see?” The Doctor was leaning in close. Several blood vessels in his eyes had broken. Ace tried not to panic.

“The apocalypse.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“You might get carried away. I think I have to possess you so no one else can. Also, they think they can control you with your biodata.”

“This isn’t the first time someone has tried. Typically it’s stored safe in the Matrix.”

“If I take over your mind, then the biodata will be mixed up or doubled. Does that sound right?”

“Then they can’t use it to control me. Yes, a very clever idea, Ace.”

“The problem is I don’t know how long I can keep it up. It’s not something we’ve tried before.”

“We’ll find a way.”

They stepped back inside, Ace relieved that she hadn’t somehow messed up the Sisters’ home, and Ohila bowed her head to them.

“Now, you must go to Metebelis III,” said Ohila.

“Care to say why?” asked Ace.

“To meet an old friend. She’ll be waiting in the bar.”

Ace rolled her eyes towards the Doctor, who thanked the Reverend Mother.

“Before, I go, sure you don’t want better weather on this dump?” Ace asked.

Ohila ignored her, and then they were off.

Chapter 3

Notes:

This week my computer caught on fire, but I will not be kept down! On with the show...

Ace drummed her fingers on the table, wrinkling her nose at the universal bar odours of alcohol and despair. “Doctor, the place is empty. How long are we going to wait?”

He replied, “Have patience. Metebelis III is a perfectly lovely planet.”

Ace nervously eyed a bolt of blue lightning lighting up the sky on the very blue planet outside the window.

“Although it did kill me once.”

“What?” asked Ace.

“I’m going for a little walk. You wait here.”

She grabbed his sleeve. “No you’re not. You’d better not get yourself killed again, or so help me--”

“Maybe they have gingersnaps.”

“This is a bar. They do not.”

And then he left whilst Ace yelled colourful words at him.

A few minutes later, a woman with short dark fringed hair came out of the loo to sit at the bar, then she whirled around in a wobbly way and shouted, “Ace! I’m so glad to see you!”

Ace looked out the window for the Doctor, but he’d already wandered too far away. She went over to the woman, who was asking for another drink, a line of empty shot glasses already at her spot.

She tossed back another and said, “My Doctor crukked off and left me-- Wait, how old are you?” She fingered Ace’s leather jacket then poked at it as if she’d never seen one before.

“Excuse me, have we met yet? You seem familiar.”

“Benny! It’s Benny! Wait, why are you being so polite?” She narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, Benny,” said Ace. “The Doctor had a few flashes about you once. We were supposed to have travelled together?”

“How old are you?” she repeated.

“I’m almost 28.”

“Twenty-- Huh. Where’s your Doctor?”

“He stepped out. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Yours is gone?”

“He’s not even from this universe, mine is. Isn’t. But you shouldn’t be with him either. You’re supposed to be at the French Revolution or something. I’m a bit fuzzy on that.”

“No, I’m still with the Doctor.”

“Ace, you’re smiling. Why are you smiling like that when you say his name? Now you’re going all red. You’re not with him, with him?”

“Yes, I am. This feels like school. How old are you?”

“Oh, a lot older than I look.”

“But you’re human.” Ace squinted. “Your timeline’s really weird.”

“Goddess, you’re not, are you?”

“I’m a Time Lord now. It… was a wedding gift,” she decided.

“Wedding, you? And him? You never!” Her shock would be amusing if it weren’t so annoying.

Then the Doctor returned, a quizzical look on his face, and met them at the bar. He ordered a glass of water and got glared at by the bartender. Ace asked for ginger beer, which they did have.

Benny saw the Doctor and leant too far over on her stool to kiss him on the cheek. “Doctor! I like the waistcoat. You ought to be dead! I thought she married the next one along!”

She elbowed Ace, who moved one seat farther away in response. “You’re-- you’re gonna love his next body. It’s a realllllly nice one. Trust me, I slept with him. My new Doctor now… not so much. He’s old and cranky.”

Ace looked between her and the Doctor and blinked.

“Aren’t you going to punch me?” Benny sounded almost disappointed. She downed another glass and gestured for another drink. The Doctor sat between them and shook his head at the bartender.

“No, I’m not.”

“Ace, you slept with that clone of Jason at my wedding, so it’s only fair. I mean… What was I saying?”

“I did what?”

“Slept with my husband at my wedding. My ex now. So it’s only fair,” she repeated, petting the silk of the Doctor’s waistcoat.

“I did not, and paws off. The Doctor and I are married,” said Ace, “and he’s not interested.”

“Pleased to meet you, Benny,” said the Doctor, “and Ace is quite right.”

“Married?! You two hate each other! I mean, she hates you, but she didn’t used to, and there was that one time you were together in bed, but that was hypothermia, so that doesn’t count, but then she left you AGAIN.” Benny paused and looked at him expectantly.

“I think your history is a bit different from ours.”

“Ob… ob…. obvis.... Yep. I mean, look at your clothes.”

“Oi! What’s wrong with them?”

“That sounds more like Ace.”

“Guess she’s always narked at you. I’m starting to see why.”

“Mine wears this combat suit all the time.”

“Combat suit?” asked the Doctor sharply.

“Yeah, from when she was in Spacefleet.” Benny added in a stage whisper, “But she wears it and these sunglasses even when there aren’t any Daleks, and she’s got post tramadic- post tra-. She’s ’motionly damaged, so I think it’s her armour now, and she always carries guns and grenades and a knife. Y’know, she killed a little boy once, but it was really a robot. Or a bug. No, it was a plant. I can’t ’member. Goddess, it feels good to talk about this!” She reached out to grasp both of their hands affectionately.

Ace frowned, not taking the ramble too seriously, but the Doctor had gone pale. “The mirror,” he said, and Ace went over to touch his arm.

“Oh yeah,” said Benny, “defitely together. I can’t believe it.”

“Sorry my other self is such an arsehole,” said Ace. “Do you need a ride?”

Benny whirled around, and the Doctor had to catch her.

“I do, but it seems like everything’s wrong here. I can’t find Braxiatel anywhere!”

Ace wrapped her arm defensively around the Doctor’s shoulder. “He’s on Gallifrey,” she said. “You know him?”

“Yeah, he was a friend. Then he made my son kill my ex-husband. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. He ran a bar like this one!” Benny was tearing up.

“The second part sounds like Brax.”

“Irving. He’s Irving now. Like that makes a difference. He’s from another universe too.”

“Mine brain washed me and--” She glanced at the Doctor. “—I killed him.”

“That sounds like Ace!” Benny shook her hand heartily.

“This is weird.”

“Did he come back?” asked Benny.

“Yeah. He looks the same.”

Benny nodded as sagely as one could manage whilst being completely pissed. The Doctor steadied her by taking her elbow.

“Let’s move to a table before you crack your head open,” Ace suggested, and the Doctor helped Benny down from her stool.

“Missed you, Doctor!” said Benny.

The barman finally came back with the ginger beer and water, which Ace carried.

Benny was going on about how much she hated and loved Braxiatel, which was just confusing, because he was a total arsewipe.

“Do you always talk this much?” Ace asked curiously. The Doctor shushed her.

And then, she said, “I heard you die AGAIN in the… in the Time War. Aren’t Time Lords supposed to live a long… time?”

“We prevented the Time War,” said the Doctor. “Skaro has been isolated.”

“That’s nice,” said Benny. “Wait, when?”

“Around 2200,” said Ace.

“Twenty two… no Skaro? That means, that means my mum is alive, and my dad’s with her!”

“Um, you’re welcome? When are you from?”

“She’s alive. I’ve got to go. I’ve got--” Benny stood up too quickly from her chair and fell down. Ace helped her up, and Benny looked surprised about it.

“You’re not going anywhere right now. Have you got a room nearby?”

“Not yet.”

Ace and the Doctor exchanged a glance. He shrugged.

“Want to stay on the TARDIS?”

“Really? Yes. Yes, I do.” Benny cleared her throat and smoothed back her hair. “Yes. Let me just get one more--”

The Doctor put the glass of water in front of her. Benny frowned at it.

Ace chugged her ginger beer and smiled sweetly at the Doctor. He patted her head absently, which made her feel entirely too warm and happy.

“Soooo a couple,” said Benny, reluctantly drinking her water.

“You seem quite surprised,” said the Doctor.

“I would be less sup-- supised if she’d killed you by now.”

“We get on fine,” said Ace, trying harder to be polite now that she knew what Benny had expected of her.

“Good. I always liked you, Ace. I’m glad this one didn’t kill all of your boyfriends and girlfriends. Prob’ly.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, they were always in the right place to be sac-- scarificed.”

The Doctor raised his hands. “Ace, you must believe that it would only be in the most dire circumstances and if there was no other choice--”

Ace frowned at the Doctor. “Did you think about it a lot first or just do it?”

“If only you hadn’t gotten involved--”

“Doctor, I’m not angry at you. You weren’t the one who actually did what she said.” But she was very angry at the idea, and she couldn’t show it right now. “So, Benny, where’s your Doctor?”

“Left me here, I said. Flew off without me. Oh, you mean the Doctor Doctor? I meant the other Doctor, my newest one. I don’t think he used to be yours. He wasn’t from this universe or mine. Which is probl’ly not this one.” Benny folded her arms on the table and let her head flop down on them, nearly upending her drink.

“Let’s get you a bed,” the Doctor said. “Up you go. Stay awake just a bit longer. Tell me, Benny, have you done any research lately?”

That got her talking at top speed.

The barman gave a shout as they headed towards the door, so the Doctor tossed him a gold coin, and off they went.

***

Having tucked their new friend in a bed in the room that the TARDIS had eagerly made ready, Ace and the Doctor sat down in the kitchen with tea and sandwiches.

“She doesn’t seem like she’d be good in a fight,” said Ace. “Wonder why we travelled together.”

“It’s not all fighting. Bernice is an archaeologist and quite helpful with historical matters. And she did go to a military academy as a child.”

“A child,” said Ace between her teeth.

“She was orphaned.”

“You remember all of this?”

“A great deal of it came back when I helped her to her chair.”

“You read her mind.”

The Doctor shrugged. “It seemed expedient.”

“I’m not sure that was necessary. She was going to go on all night. I wouldn’t trust her with a secret.”

“She did think she knew us.”

“She asked me how old I was, so she was at least thinking of the timeline.”

“That shows promise.”

“What the hell are we going to do with her? It’s clear she doesn’t belong here, and she says she’s not from the other Doctor’s universe. It’s likely there’s a duplicate of her with a life of her own.”

The Doctor pursed his lips in thought. “There’s a feeling about her, like she’s a lynchpin. We’d met her during an event of dire universal import--”

“Big surprise there. I’m getting the feeling a dead boyfriend is involved?”

“Yes, in fact.”

“I’m trying not to have feelings about that, but it’s hard.”

“Naturally.” He reached over the table to squeeze her hand.

“I know you better now, and I know there must have been no better way.” She sighed and crunched her cucumber sandwich.

“It seems, in retrospect, a very convenient way. I suspect you are also a lynchpin, emotionally drawn to those who are vital in certain circumstances.”

“I sometimes wonder if we’re cursed, and if we just stayed home, the universe would be better off.”

“And where would home be?”

“I’d say Kent, but Earth has enough problems as it is.”

“You’ve changed your mind about your ancestral home?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t seem so bad after seeing where you grew up.”

“It really is a lovely home, near a lovely community.”

With children who enjoyed jugglers and spoon-players, no doubt. “Fine. We’ll go there again sometime. Wait, are you thinking of going there now?”

“I’ve already set the course.”

“It’s really weird when you do that.”

He smiled innocently. “It’s a familiar place for our guest.”

Once they landed in the foyer of the house in Kent, they lifted Benny out of her temporary bed and carried her into a room upstairs. Ace probably could have handled the weight herself, but help made moving the boneless woman less awkward.

“I think this one is hers,” said the Doctor, “but none of her things are here, of course.”

“I’d be freaked out if they had been. We don’t need any trans-dimensional, or is that trans-universal, leakage.”

He looked delighted that she’d applied her knowledge. She might have to punch him if he clapped. Fortunately he knew her well enough to temper his enthusiasm appropriately.

Then they sat in a dusty parlour, leaning against each other. “It worries me,” she said, “what Benny said about the other me. Then it turns out you’d seen her. I got glimpses before, remember, after the Schism, before the Other Device?”

“She’s not you.”

“She’s almost me. She’s me without love. And it’s always possible that if I lost you, or if things changed between us—”

“Consider the other Ace a warning.” She was relieved that he wasn’t going to give her a bunch of lies about nothing ever happening. That wasn’t the way life worked.

“I hate that device. It was all overkill,” she said, “what we did. We went too far.”

“Yes, we did, but I fear we can’t underestimate our enemy this time.”

“Find something new?”

“The TARDIS databanks show no information on a Bernice Summerfield or her parents in her century. She doesn’t exist.”

Slowly, Ace said, “You think the Faction wanted to keep us apart and erased her?”

“I can’t be sure.”

“Backfired though, because we have the clever Doctor.” She bussed his lips.

“I sincerely hope so,” he murmured.

They finished their meal in silence and gathered some things from the TARDIS to put in their bedroom.

Ace tested out the bed her favourite way: by throwing herself on it, and found it felt the same way as in her false memory from Fenric.

She shivered and stood up.

The Doctor came back with a big smile on his face. Plotting, probably.

He reached into his pocket and fumbled about. “As your last ring met an unfortunate end, I have a new one for you.”

Ace stretched out her hand, and he put on it a new ring with a large blue uncut crystal on it. “Does this one explode?” she asked, knowing it had to do something.

“No.” He paused a long while. “This one amplifies psychic abilities and will help protect you from being possessed.”

“Nice. I see why you chose it.”

“And please don’t be offended, but I have a crystal for Benny as well.”

He pulled out a stunning sapphire crystal about a foot long. Ace didn’t care much about jewels but was still impressed.

“Why does she get the big one?”

“It won’t fit on a ring, and she’s not psychic. She needs more protection than you do.”

“From the Faction.”

“Yes.”

“So we’re bringing her to Gallifrey?”

“If we can find a way through. She wants to see Braxiatel.”

“Ew.”

“It pains me to say it, but Braxiatel is the greatest strategist I’ve ever known. Should any of the Faction escape, he may be of help.”

“Last resort, okay? Very last. Gonna tell me the crystal plan?”

“It’s best if neither of us know the whole plan, but it does what I said.”

“Do you have any more?”

He gestured to Ace’s rucksack. Inside, every inch was packed with crystals, which were glowing slightly.

“You could have led with that,” she said in awe. As she touched them, the wave of power was electric, and she thought she could actually feel her mind expanding, could sense Bernice sleeping, the Doctor’s slight nervousness about her approval, even the spiders in the walls and the movement of the plants outside. Wicked.

“It’s imperative--”

“Yeah, don’t let the bad guys get them. Wow. Portable Karn.”

“Metebelis actually.”

“And Benny just happened to be there. Somebody had a plan.”

“That fellow sounds very clever and probably handsome as well.”

She kissed him. “I don’t know what the other you looks like, but I’d kiss him too.”

Benny appeared in the doorway. “He’s not nearly as good looking, trust me.” She rubbed her forehead. “Goddess, how much did I have to drink?”

“I think you cleaned the place out,” Ace said. “Here, catch.” She threw the large crystal to Benny, who raised her eyebrows.

“A Metebelis crystal! I’ve never seen one of these before! Why does it tingle when I touch it? I seem to recall that they’re radioactive. Wait, didn’t these kill you once?”

Ace quickly put it down on a table.

“No, it took a whole cave to do the job. You’re fine with that one.”

Ace kicked her rucksack under the bed just in case.

Benny took it back and held it next to her ear. “You’re telling the truth,” she said. “How did I know that?”

“Benny’s slightly psychic,” the Doctor amended. “I seem to recall that now.”

“And now I’m more psychic! Right, take me to the nearest casino.”

“No.”

“You’re no fun. And precisely why am I more psychic?”

“We’re going to Gallifrey to face a dangerous adversary and we’re putting you in charge of protecting Ace’s body.”

Benny looked her up and down. “She always seemed well protected enough to me. Who is this adversary?” she asked cheerfully.

“Have you ever heard of Faction Paradox? Fact or legend?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“We have little information either. It’s a rogue Gallifreyan house that aims to cause discord.”

“Wait, Doctor,” said Ace. “House.”

“Not literally. Ah.”

Benny held up the crystal dramatically. “Still not getting it.”

“Ace and I were recently attacked by my childhood home.”

“You had a childhood, Doctor? That must have been a real riot.”

“On Gallifrey, one’s House is alive and is usually called the same name as one’s family name.” Ace noticed that he didn’t tell Benny his name.

“So the house and the clan have the same name. Nothing unusual there.”

“Except if the House is alive. Then it’s symbolic.”

“I think the House was possessed,” said Ace. “Too many weird coincidences.”

“Possessed by a Gallifreyan cult. I thought Time Lords were too boring for things like cults. What do they worship, chronometers, time tables? Paradoxes, of course. Silly me, it’s in the name. And why do I need to protect Ace?”

How much to say? Might as well give her a broad overview. After Ace did her best, Benny’s mouth hung wide open.

“Ought I to be concerned that you lot suddenly purport to have god-like powers?”

“No,” said the Doctor, low.

“Funny, I remember him being more chatty. Always about useless things but definitely chatty.” She sighed and sat down on the bed. “I take it that we’re not taking me to see my mum because we’re going to die for a lost cause first.”

“I’m afraid, Benny,” he said, “that you don’t exist in this universe. There’s no one to go see.”

Benny sat for a long time, then sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye. “That’s that then. I’m all alone.”

“We thought we can take you to Brax on Gallifrey, but ours is a psycho too. You seriously can’t trust him.”

The Doctor jumped, paused for a moment, took the crystal from Benny’s hand, then put it back. Then he fluttered his fingers about, probably calculating. Benny looked on, unsurprised by any odd behaviour.

“I do believe I’ve inadvertently solved both of our problems. You see, Gallifrey is presently frozen in time, protected by a barrier that I created.”

“And you can’t uncreate it. I know that face.”

“But if we use this crystal--” (He waved it about.) “--To augment the telepathic interface, we may be able to hone in on the remains of my home and break through. I think we can do the same for you, to identify your home universe and put you back in it. Honestly, I think yours might be easier.”

“Then I can see my son again!”

Ace patted her shoulder. “You must be missing him badly.”

“Are you sure you’re Ace?”

Ace scowled, and Benny smiled.

The Doctor said, “But will you help us first?”

“Can’t you just put Ace’s body in the TARDIS?”

“I’m uncertain how close we can land because of the Schism. We haven’t done tests yet on the range of possession.”

“You said this is a whole cult. How are you going get past everyone?”

Ace brightened. “Doctor, remember how you sort of shift in time for a fraction of a second to disappear and reappear?”

He started to laugh but remembered their recent separation.

“Teach me how to do that, and it’ll look like we came out of nowhere.”

“I have a Time Ring,” said Benny, reaching into her pocket. “It’s out of power, but you can have it, if it will help.”

The Doctor examined it a long while. “This is a newer model and may work around the Schism once charged. No, I want you to keep it for yourself,” he said, giving it back. “It’s wrong of me to ask you to risk your life for us, and I know this is sentimental.”

Benny looked suspicious. “If she’s in your body, then this turns into a one-person operation. Don’t you need help?”

“Maybe we should get her home first,” said Ace. “It serves as a test run.”

“You aren’t pushing me out of this.”

“Benny, how long has it been since you’ve seen your son?”

She paused. “Too long. And we were separated before that. I missed most of his childhood!” She was starting to blubber again, but she said, “I know I’m not a god, but I’m sure I can be of use. And a chance to see the Schism!”

“You can’t actually look at it, or your brain will melt,” said Ace.

“Oh.”

“Damn, I hadn’t considered that. She’s going to have to be stationed far away with a helmet. That’s it,” Ace said. “We’re sending you home.”

“I haven’t done anything useful!”

“You gave us an idea.”

“Have a few drinks, and you won’t care anymore.”

“Ace!” said the Doctor.

“On second thought, the TARDIS might get confused if you’re drunk when we plug you into her. We wouldn’t want that.”

“You’re really sending me home. Just like that?”

“If it works.”

“No tricks, no lies?”

“God, Benny, your Doctor sounds even worse than mine. Than he was, I mean. When I met him. Not so much now.”

Benny groaned and rubbed at her face. “It seems like you’re relying on a lot of things Ace doesn’t know how to do yet.”

“Hey, I have the equivalent of a Time Lord education! I just haven’t tested it all yet.”

“Do a lot of Time Lords you know go around possessing people?”

“A couple.”

“Is there any food in the kitchen?” Benny asked suddenly.

“Yes, there’s fresh fruit,” said the Doctor, “and bread for toast.”

“I’ll meet you on the TARDIS after I have some breakfast. I’m starving.”

They all walked downstairs and parted ways.

As they entered the TARDIS, Ace said quietly, “This is a suicide mission, isn’t it, Doctor?”

“Quite possibly, Ace. We’ll get her home safely first. It seems I owe it to her. And I owe it to Susan to free Gallifrey.”

He took off his coat and Ace brought him the leads that he used for the Hand of the Other. She had a feeling that they’d be needing it again. Those combined with a few copper wires connected the crystal to the TARDIS. The Doctor said he couldn’t set it in the telepathic circuits’ gel directly or it might give the ship a nervous breakdown. She flickered her lights in annoyance at the thought.

Ace thought of flickering lights on Karn and shivered. The ship sent her a gentle pulse that it was going to be okay.

Eventually, Benny came strolling in, looking pleased but not overly eager. Her knuckles looked gnawed on.

“We’re ready,” said the Doctor brightly. “Place your hands in the gel and think of home. Think of the people, the places in as much detail as you can manage, and the ship will read your biodata and the signature of your universe and send you there.” He patted the console near where he wanted her to stand.

Benny gave both of them a quick kiss, to their surprise, and stuck her hands in the telepathic goo.

Ace said, “Click your heels, Benny, and say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ ”

“Good meeting you, Ace, Doctor! Good luck and thank you!” And Benny did click her heels together.

And vanished.

Blinking, Benny found herself at the Mansionhouse. It didn’t look the same, but it had been shut down for a long time. Irving Braxiatel, the good one, she hoped, was talking to a person standing on a ladder with a tray of gold leaf, and Peter was standing next to him, her Peter, all grown up, looking bored.

For an instant, she expected to see Jason with them. Sometimes the grief sneaks up on you. Sometimes it whacks you over the head with a sledgehammer.

She embraced them both and let the tears fall.

Chapter 4

Sure, The Wizard of Oz was naff, but when else would Ace get a chance to say it?

“I think I’m going to miss her,” said Ace. “She seemed so attached to us, in a fraught-sibling-relationship sort of way.”

“Ah, family. Benny is easy to love. She thinks she’s not an affectionate woman, but she is, and a generous one too. Now she’s home and safe.”

“We’re sure?”

He pointed to the screen, which was beginning to fade. There were three people holding each other tightly, one rather furrier than the rest.

“And the best part of it all is,” he said, disconnecting the wires, “that now we’re back where we belong, easy as that.”

“Where I belong, maybe. Gallifrey’s your home.”

“Oh, Ace, it hasn’t been for centuries.”

“I hate it there too, but I don’t want it ruined for ever.”

He rubbed his thumb against her cheekbone and kissed her. Inside, he was tightly controlled, trying not to let her feel his fear. For her, for Susan. Not for himself. But towards himself.

“Doctor,” she said, upon noticing, “we’ve got to go into this with some confidence. You’re not going to destroy the planet or the universe. You don’t want to. You spend all your time saving it, and yes, after this, you deserve a long holiday tormenting hapless villagers with your spoon-playing. I’ll even let you play them on me.”

He managed a smile. “You needn’t try so hard to cheer me up, Ace.”

“I think I’d better. This is going to be mind over matter. We go in there feeling like we did two days ago, and we’ll get ourselves killed.”

He kissed her again, this time more deeply and led her to the bedroom.

***

“We’ll have to arrive just after we left. I haven’t decided whether to create a secondary bubble within the primary planet-wide bubble of frozen-space time or to recall the Device and reprogram.”

“You think we can recall it?”

“I think that we just deposited a woman into another universe with shocking ease. Recalling the Device to its creator is probably not difficult.”

“Glad to see your confidence is back.”

He smirked at her. “I can’t think why I don’t keep a large store of Metebelis crystals on hand at all times.”

“Probably the radiation.” Her face fell, remembering Brax’s bolthole.

“Don’t think it,” he said. “It’s in the past.”

“Right,” said Ace. “We’ve got to get this plan sorted. Did you notice you quacked?”

“Yes, I did, and I recall our earlier conversation on the subject, so I knew why.”

“I want to use that as a trigger for getting in and out. We’re already partway there. I’d feel better if it was just me though, all hologrammed or illusioned up to look like you.”

“I suspect they’d see right though that. It has to be the genuine article.”

“Got it. So I have to get in, make you… This feels wrong.”

He touched her wrist. “Ace, I’m giving you permission. It’s a good plan.”

“I hope so.”

“Let’s start with the disappearing act, then,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “It was a good trick at the Academy, but only few people could do it. Take a deep breath. Reach out and feel the time around you. Feel the way it flows through you.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Ace’s eyes were closed, but she could see the shine of artron and chronons all around her.

“Now move with it. Note its rhythms, the way it feels in your body, your breath and your hearts. Feel it?”

She nodded.

“Now, go just out of step, counter to the rhythm, just a few milliseconds.”

“There!” he declared.

But she could see him.

And he could see her.

They were out of step exactly the same amount. It all felt just a little bit wrong, perceived as colours going too dim and too bright in regular pulses, sounds muffled and underwater.

He waved goodbye and disappeared.

She breathed, felt her hearts resisting the change, came back into normal time.

“You did it, Ace!” he said, and she didn’t object this time when he clapped and beamed at her.

“Now, the hard part is to do that when moving. Let’s try again.”

She did it again. And it worked.

She really was a Time Lord. Ace was elated.

But she was also exhausted, having pushed herself psychically and temporally to the extremes. She begged off further practice, instead dozing off in a chair whilst the Doctor amplified the TARDIS’s perception filter and hopefully reinforced her tolerances enough to park within walking distance of the Untempered Schism.

Ace couldn’t blame the TARDIS for being reticent-- she hated being near it too.

Then it was time to practice the hard bit. They decided that the bedroom would be most comfortable place.

She and the Doctor sat knee to knee on the bed and pressed their hands and foreheads together. She concentrated on the shape of him and the very edge of his mind. The ring did seem to help. She hoped she wouldn’t become dependent on it, given how short a time she’d had the last one.

He opened himself to her. It was a bit different, going inside all of his body instead of just his mind. She had to keep the contours in her thoughts.

She felt his hand passing into her own, felt a little lurch like she was about to fall, and then she was looking at herself.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said, seeing double, and she watched her body slowly tip over onto the bed. She closed her eyes until it stopped moving.

“You’re doing well. The vertigo will pass. Don’t look at yourself.”

So she looked down at the Doctor’s body instead and stood up very carefully. It didn’t quite “fit.” She was obliged to widen her stance, and everything was just a little bit higher off the ground. Her hands were all wrong, fingers wide and knuckly, but she’d looked at them so much over the years that it wasn’t disorientating. Her nose was very tickly inside. Yet, it felt good. Really good, like something Ace had wanted without entirely realising it.

“This body is a bit of all right. Nice features, couple of inches taller. Interesting to see it this way round. Wish we had time for a full test drive.” She paraded him up and down the corridor, spun him in a circle, patted his head and rubbed his belly at the same time, tried a few punches and stances. He wasn’t particularly graceful, but her control over his body was still Time Lord-quick in reaction speed. “Looks good,” she declared, closed her eyes, then said, “Quack,” and found herself back where she belonged, slumped on one side on the bed.

“Well weird.” She gave a little shiver.

“If you don’t need more rest, it’s time to go. It’ll be easier if you try it again soon.”

“Let’s get this over with,” she agreed.

***

They were in orbit around Gallifrey, which is to say, in orbit around nothing.

“Are you sure we can get in?”

“I want to try punching through and creating the second bubble before any other measures. Contain the damage.”

They hooked the Doctor up to the crystal, as they had done for Bernice. Despite it working before, Ace was deeply uneasy.

“I want to call back the Hand, in case Lungbarrow isn’t intact enough to act as tether.”

They opened the door above the empty space that should be Gallifrey and let the Hand back inside. The Gallifreyan jewellery inside was blackened, and the stones were cracked beyond repair. He fiddled with the device a long while and added it to the leads before sticking his fingers back in the telepathic circuitry. Closing his eyes, he went very still. The time rotor began to engage. The ship shook and came to a halt.

“We’re through,” said the Doctor. Through the door Ace caught a glimpse of the blackened ruins of a million year old living house. She felt a twinge of guilt. “Making another jump from Lungbarrow to the Untempered Schism. This is the tricky bit.”

“You can do it,” said Ace faintly, holding on.

He closed his eyes. The ship’s engines protested, juddered, then quietened. “We’re here,” he said softly. “We did it. Good girl.” He patted the console lovingly.

“I guess we have to do this then,” said Ace, then realised they were poor probable last words. She threw her arms around the Doctor as he was wiping his fingers on a rag. “I love you,” she said, “always and no matter what happens.”

***

Ace shifted into space-time inside the caldera to see the Faction members, thirteen of them, all in dark robes and masks of animal skulls of the sort that didn’t exist on Earth, circling the Schism. Dead creepy. The day was growing late, but the suns were still shining in the sky. The Schism churned in eternal persistence, and she shot only a fast glance in its direction.

She’d really, really wanted to bring the Baseball Bat of Omega, but the Doctor was concerned that its unusual energy readings might cause too much attention to get her in safely. So she was unarmed, except for her rucksack full of crystals, ready to fight with only her words with the Doctor’s help and the Hand of the Other in her coat pocket, just in case. Er, his pocket, as she was wearing his coat and shirt and trousers along with the rest of him.

She walked around the circle, looking each of them in the eyes, eyeholes, until she figured out who the leader was.

“Heard you were looking for me,” said Ace in the Doctor’s voice. “Lucky for you I was already in the area. I’m the Other. How may I help you?”

“Doctor, Doctor, Doctor,” they said.

The repetition first brought thoughts of the Sisterhood, then Eighth Man Bound. The name became a series of syllables, meaningless. The name became a way to command her. It wasn’t her name. She could resist.

The leader wore a spiky bat-like skull, and she discovered to her disconcertion that he had no shadow. He said, “We who have existed since the Anchoring of the Thread, when the door shut on the Time of Chaos, consecrate this knife in the presence of the Other, the Grandfather, the greatest and first of us all. If he shall not commit Severance willingly, then we shall commit it for him, in this, the first step of creating a new kingdom on the Homeworld.”

“Blah blah blah, and unlimited rice pudding,” said Ace. Then she lowered the Doctor’s voice to a rumble, which was wonderfully satisfying and gave her a little thrill. “How convenient it is to have you all gathered here before me at this sacred site.”

A hush fell over the cultists. Two looked ready to run away.

“Shit’s going down, people. I can crush you with my little finger.”

“Tone it down, Ace.” said the Doctor’s voice in her head.

”What’s he holding?” she asked.

“A biodata extractor.”

“Godfather!” cried the crowd. “Godfather! Godfather!”

“Other, also known as the Doctor, we control your timeline. We control your past and your future and shall use it to further our goals.”

“Sorry, mates, you’re going to be disappointed-- my timeline’s shorter than you expected.”

Then Godfather flourished a handkerchief encrusted in drying blood, tied around a canister, and Ace’s heart sank. How in hell did he get that? It should have blown up along with the House. Somebody must have been hiding, and to get out that fast, they had to have had a time ring or a weird portal, but how had they known to look for it?

They must have made her do that banishing, and they were about to make her do anything they wanted. For ever. They had her blood and the Doctor’s. And here they were, together in one package.

Oh shit.

“We reversed time around it,” explained the Godfather. “Your biodata is ours, given willingly.” Then he touched it to the machine. Once it beeped, he threw the canister to Ace.

She caught it and was shocked to find that it was not empty and the timer was intact. They were probably about to control her, but she was armed. She put it in her—the Doctor’s deep jacket pocket.

She needed to get them grouped together. Time to talk. Stretching her control, she blackened the sky. The effort hurt.

“Willingly, ha! Trickery is not free will. That’s not going to power a spell. What shall I do with you lot? I can kill you here or bung you in the Schism, your choice.” She paused. “Better not. I wouldn’t want your sorry arses to screw it up somehow. I really don’t want to bring about the apocalypse, buuuut if I have to…”

And they were coming together, listening to her. Grouped neatly as a single target. They were all looking at her, and their eyes held a great pressure.

The air crackled with energy, wrapping around her, confining her, and Ace felt sick. History was about to splinter, hers and the Doctor’s timelines folded up, altered beyond recognition, the birth of the Eighth Man Bound and-- Ace turned toward the Untempered Schism, taking the full force of it into her mind for a second time.

Something within herself fully unlocked with a physical jolt. She felt herself spreading out, losing her body, and had to force herself back together. But she was becoming more, something Other.

Then she sensed it, whirled round. The man in the spiky bat mask had sprouted a shadow, another. Too many shadows, like spider legs, which tickled at a primal fear in the back of Ace’s mind. Godfather lunged forward, grabbed her left elbow hard, twisted her shoulder, and sawed a long knife deep into her skin. He was going to take off her arm.

Ace was familiar with knife fights from far too young an age. The deep, cold ringing pain of severing nerves brought her to herself. This was the man who’d tortured them using the Doctor’s House. He was the reason Innocet had died. She reached out with her mind to the crystals... and lost all control.

She screamed aloud in rage, and she buried the Doctor so deeply that he couldn’t object to what she was about to do.

The last vestiges of her rational brain worked quickly. Options: throw them into the Schism or blow them up or eat their ugly little minds. It was her choice: murder them the old fashioned way or become a monster. No contest: make them afraid so no one would ever, ever try this again.

She reached for the Godfather’s face with her free hand and hooked a thumb in one eye. She squeezed and drove him to the ground. The knife hand faltered; a shadow hand took its place, also armed. She wrenched her bleeding arm free, clutched his face with both hands now. Sharp as a knife herself, her mind, lined with thorns, plunged through his, her injury growing distant with the rest of her body. She could hear people screaming and didn’t care.

Lightning shot across the sky, and the wind whipped up. The moons and stars went out, leaving only the soft glow of the Schism reflecting like rippling waves upon the barren dirt, almost taunting it with the water it couldn’t have. All of the shadows became hers, trickling towards the man like black blood. She felt herself growing, covering him, soaking up his fear, his shock at being overpowered.

Tendrils drove deeper into him, writhing inside. She ate his cold, twisted mind (his hopes, his dreams, his love, his hate), her aura shining darker, her control now total, her strength growing, twisting out through higher dimensions, black, glittering, transcendent, glorious, ecstatic, and the Time Lord cultist fell dead to the ground with a thud, scorching, vanishing in her strengthening wake. Smoke rose in curls, blown away by an angry gust.

The rest of the robed figures were frozen in terror, or perhaps more directly by her.

She bellowed, her borrowed gravelly voice heavy with power as it resonated in the ribs and double skulls of her enemies. “You better be scared. You’re not dealing with the Other. You’re dealing with Ace, and guess what? This can of Nitro Nine isn’t empty. Giving it back to me is the last stupid thing you’ll ever do.”

Setting the timer, she put it in the bag of crystals, swung it round and round and let it go.

The lightning sparked a rich blue colour. The explosion shook the planet to the core, rippling back in time. An impossibly deep sound that threw her down flat echoed through the air as the space-time continuum ripped asunder. Ace found that the caldera she was standing in was one that she had just created.

And most importantly, she couldn’t sense a single living trace of the Faction in the devastation she wrought. If she had, she would have shredded it with her teeth or her mind.

She could hear something laughing, half mad, and hoped it wasn’t her, but who else could it be? The air smelt of charred hair and flesh and dusty, sweet death, and blood, and time.

Breathing in the shards of the crystals, Ace felt them cut her lungs, her skin, permeate her body, her outer dimensions. No one else would have survived such a physical and psychic shock. Her senses stretched out, and she became Gallifrey: every speck of dust, every skeleton in the ground, every animal and insect, every school child, every Shobogan, every Time Lord in the Citadel, and for an instant, she was even part of the Matrix. She brought the planet back into proper alignment with the rest of the universe, set time moving throughout, gathered her energy...

Then she released it.

The Shobogans awoke to Time. Things were about to change on Gallifrey. Fuck the aristocracy.

Coming back to herself, she realised she was covered in blood, wounded in every dimension, yet healing at higher points she’d never sensed before. The arm was considerably less bad than it should have been.

Contain the damage to the Schism area. She certainly hadn’t done that. Something exploded in the back of her brain, whiting out her vision, and she doubled over, wheezing.

But it was over, the bubble gone, Gallifrey freed and better than before. The sky lightened. The Schism was unchanged. It began to rain, washing away the smoke hanging in the air.

“Quack,” she whispered, feeling stupid and raw and exhausted, and then she was back in her own body on the floor of the TARDIS. She began to cry, traced a strange sigil on her hand, retraced the old invisible mark made of tears on the skin of her leg.

That’s why they didn’t use her own body. She was too well protected. He’d given her that gift without even telling her on the day he’d killed her. Yet somehow she was covered in the same cuts as the Doctor, injuries now woven into her biodata. She’d hurt them both.

The Doctor’s body-- hers-- no, his-- trudged through the caldera and fell to its knees just inside the door.

With blood and tears, Ace drew the sigil on his arm, his face, the rip in his trousers, everywhere she could find, until he kissed her fingers clean. Weakly, she asked, “What if that wasn’t all of them?”

He said, his voice broken, “One of them was from the Sisterhood. We should have protected her.”

“No way they didn’t brainwash her. No way. She was a lost cause. Their minds were all wrong.”

“Ace, are you all right?”

“I don’t know.”

“What you did… I would have thought it impossible.”

“The bar on that has been moved a lot lately.”

“Indeed.” He wiped a tear of blood from her face.

“Biodata,” she said, “Higher dimensional injury too, feels weird. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s hard to heal.” She ripped off his torn shirt and tied it around the cut on his upper arm. It was very deep but not gushing. The image of the arm gone superimposed itself over her vision, and she went a bit wobbly.

“You need to go to the medbay,” said the Doctor, but he was having trouble standing. He gave her the same treatment.

“We need to get to Romana and get the hell out of here.”

“Get Susan and Alex too.”

She nodded. “Wouldn’t go without them. Not after all this.”

***

They landed in the Citadel, the Doctor resting, whilst Ace went to speak to Romana.

She swept into the Presidential Office like an avenging angel, all rage and blood and vindication.

Romana blinked at her and quietly pressed the panic button on her desk.

“We took care of your little cult problem, Fred.”

“I’m pleased to hear that, Lord Ace. Do you need medical help?”

“No. But you should know that the Shobogans are Time Lords now. Bit of a Metebelis explosion near the Schism. Deal with it fairly. I know you’re up to it. Gallifrey’s about to get democracy.”

“That’s quite a development. Would you like to tell me more?”

“No, I have no intention of being interrogated. I’ve killed enough people today. Oh, and Leela’s pregnant. Let anything happen to that baby, and there will be hell to pay. Protect it with your life.

“We’ll be taking Susan and Alex and leaving now.” All that grandfather talk earlier had made her nervous.

Romana’s expression shifted enough that Ace knew she was already going to treat Leela the way she deserved, but she said, “What if Susan doesn’t want to go?”

“We have a little holiday planned.” She winked at Romana, just to throw her off.

Twenty minutes later, guards escorted the Doctor’s granddaughter and great grandson into the office. They were each carrying two suitcases and looking stressed. Ace brought them to the TARDIS in silence.

Inside, Susan fell into the Doctor’s waiting arms. If Ace had felt better, she’d have taken a photo. “Grandfather! I’m so glad you’re all right! Something horrible happened, didn’t it?”

“Then it unhappened,” said Ace. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Alex stood with arms crossed, looking awkwardly at Ace. “Where are we going, er, Gran?”

“Who wants to go to everyone’s favourite planet?” Ace said, spreading out her arms, no, one arm, showily. The other one didn’t seem to lift up. Susan came to her for a careful hug.

“Hiya, Alex. I know I’m your trade-in model of a great grandmother that’s younger than you, and I’m covered in blood, which is probably a bit off-putting, but I think we can be mates. What kind of music do you listen to?”

“Grandmother, he’s from your future.”

“Maybe there’s some good stuff I haven’t heard yet.”

“I’m not a teenager,” said Alex.

“That’s too bad, because at that age I was making my own explosives. I just blew up the caldera. Want me to teach you how?”

That brightened him up.

Chapter 5

“You need a healer,” said Susan, looking at the identical deep cuts on their arms. “This isn’t a normal wound.” Alex walked around the console room, making the occasional appreciative noise.

“It’s not likely to be anything seen on Gallifrey before,” said the Doctor.

Ace said, “We don’t need to traumatise Lin again. I like them too much.”

“Grandfather, Grandmother, what if it doesn’t heal?”

“I just made everyone on Gallifrey psychic, maybe even the tafelshrews. I can heal two arms.”

“It was part of a ritual.”

“Look, Susan, they’ve already stopped bleeding.”

“You want to go to twenty-first century Earth. They’ll probably amputate!”

“It’s not that bad,” said Ace. “Besides, I didn’t let that happen the first time. What the hell would they want with your arm anyway, Doctor?”

He frowned. “I’m afraid I have no idea. Susan, if there are complications, I can assure you that we’ll visit a hospital.”

“Not the cat hospital,” Ace said quickly.

“What’s wrong with the catkind?” Susan asked, as Ace’s face grew red and hot.

“Not the cat hospital,” agreed the Doctor.

“Grandfather, are you ignoring me?”

“We need rest and meditation, Susan. We can get that in Kent. It’s a lovely home, the ancestral seat of the McShanes, and it’s well protected.”

“Protected against what?”

“Gods,” said Ace. “Mostly. The house has been abandoned for a while. He’s probably going to make you clean it up.”

“It would be a great help,” said the Doctor sheepishly.

“Are we going to name it Lungbarrow Two?”

“No,” he said stuffily. “It’s called Smithwood Manor.”

“Shouldn’t I get to name it?”

“It maybe is a touch superstitious, but I don’t even want to think the name of my family House right now.”

“I get that.”

“So Lungbarrow is gone,” said Susan, “and Innocet is dead. How very sad.”

“Yeah. I’m really sorry.”

“Am I to take it that you are the reason my family home is gone, Grandmother Ace?”

“I said I was sorry.”

Alex who had paused to eye their wounds with a deep frown, perked up. “What happened to it?”

“It was possessed, so I blew it up. Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted the place. Candleholders attacking, scary stuff in the mirrors, windows blowing out.”

“What if Alex wanted to live there someday?”

“I don’t,” he put in with a shiver. “I hated that place.”

“I put it out of its misery.”

“Ace,” said the Doctor quietly.

She’d waved her arm about, so her wound was bleeding again.

Alex wanted to investigate the library, and everyone else went to the medical bay.

The Doctor ran the dermal regenerator and a few scanners over the wounds, and they closed up neatly. “Good as new,” he said to Susan, but Ace’s arm felt a little weird. As if it didn’t belong to her, sort of like reverse phantom limb syndrome, or if she and the Doctor had somehow switched arms. It looked like hers though. She gently tested the range of motion, found it tight but servicable.

She shot the Doctor a glance. Maybe having family over at a time like this was a bad idea.

When they landed in Kent on a bright summer morning, the Doctor parked in the middle of the circular library, like in Ace’s false memories, circles and rituals being on both their minds. She was pleased that he put the Campbells in the other wing, saying that nightmares were likely on his part, although Susan bluntly pointed out that Ace and the Doctor would want privacy.

She immediately went to work cleaning, ordering her grandparents to rest.

Ace lay down on the master suite’s bed, smiling.

The Doctor tipped his head and watched her for a few minutes. “Grandparenthood suits you, Ace,” he said.

“Shut up. I’m twenty-eight.”

“Regardless.”

“I like her.”

“You love Susan. You should tell her.”

Those were not easy words for Ace to manage. “Yes, I should. I feel…”

“Yes?”

“It’s easier when we’re in the same brain.”

Then Susan appeared as if summoned. No, Ace didn’t want to think that way.

“I have it, Grandfather,” Susan said quietly, handing the Doctor something.

He turned to Ace. “I have a gift.”

“Thanks, but I don’t really need anything.” I don’t deserve anything.

“It’s a bit redundant at this juncture, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to acquire it.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

He took her hand in his and placed a gold pin with a large white stone on it.

“It was my mother’s,” said Susan. “Before she was killed.”

Did Susan know that Brax was probably the one who’d done it?

“It’s a true white point star to replace the blue one that was destroyed.”

“This looks a little easier to wear than the crystal,” she said.

“It used to be a necklace, but those are impractical in a fight. You can put this on a tie or wear it as an earring if you wish or not wear it at all if you should so choose. Happy anniversary, Ace.”

“I didn’t even realise.”

He laughed. “It’s fine.” He took off her crystal ring and placed it on the dressing table. “You probably won’t want to wear this all the time.”

Upon its removal, she relaxed visibly, which he noted. “Certainly not all the time,” he amended.

“It’s only that I’m worn out.”

“Of course.”

“You two should get back to resting. On your anniversary.” Then Susan winked and departed.

Ace sat back down on the bed and sighed. “Is it a year or two or six or…”

“It’s rather relative, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t count those four anyway, considering. Here we are again though.”

“To create better memories,” he insisted.

“I’m not sure I’m up to hosting guests,” she said. “I feel…”

“You need normality.”

“This isn’t normal for me.”

“It should be. This is the sort of life you deserve.”

“I’m afraid.” And she was bloody terrified, the worst she’d ever been in her life. This wasn’t what she was used to, and after what had just happened, she didn’t think she could cope.

He looked down at her, his eyes careful not to show too much. “I know.” She couldn’t look back.

“I can’t face them,” she hissed.

“You already have. It gets easier from here.”

“Not when they don’t know what happened.”

“Sometimes we can’t tell people certain things for their own good.”

“Ha bloody ha.”

He watched her for a long moment. “We have a great deal to discuss. Please know that you may tell me anything.”

“I feel… distant.”

“Emotional shock. It will take some time to subside. It’s natural and healthy.”

Without conscious thought, she blurted out, “I should have died there.”

“No.”

“I should have!”

The bed sank as he sat next to her. She covered her eyes. It didn’t stop her seeing the things she didn’t want to see.

“I’ll ensure you receive your personal space.”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble with your family, Doctor.”

“But you don’t want me to keep away too much,” he suggested.

She shifted, unwilling to sound clingy. She just wasn’t that sort of person.

“I understand. I feel the same.”

“You’re lying.”

“Ace, we may express ourselves differently, but I do need your company when I’m... not feeling well. I’m simply not accustomed so such generous and extended availability.”

“Just go.”

“No. As Susan said, it’s our anniversary. Whether you want to sit quietly together or do something more active, you are my highest priority.”

“I shouldn’t be. You’ve barely seen her for centuries.”

“Please. It’s only been a few decades for her.”

“You sound like me.”

“Such an enchanting young person has bound to have made their mark on my own personality.”

“Bullshit. Look, your great grandson doesn’t have a few decades to wait around for you, or at least I assume he doesn’t. Go spend time with him.”

“Not today,” he replied firmly.

“Get out.”

***

But Ace wasn’t alone for long. A quiet knock came on the partially closed door, and Alex stepped in the room. Great. She didn’t even know how to talk to him.

He had his hands in his pockets and looked a bit shy. “I went for a walk. It’s really quiet here. It doesn’t look like the England I remember. There’s really been no war?”

“Not for a while now.” Ace folded her hands in her lap to stop herself biting her nails. “It’s the year 2000.”

“This is all right. Earth’s pretty awful when I grew up.”

“Did you get in trouble a lot, or were you a mama’s boy?”

He didn’t look bothered. “I made some mistakes.”

“The Doctor won’t judge, trust me. You wouldn’t believe half the stuff I’ve done.”

“I probably would. Thought I was doing the right thing once, but I didn’t know anything. You know how that is?” The last was uncertain.

“Yeah, I do, kid.”

“I think you could use a break, Gran.” He leant on the door as if he were tired too.

“Yeah, I could. Life with the Doctor… it’s like an unending war, but it keeps changing, so you can’t get the hang of it. He really can’t help it.”

“Can’t he? Who is he to decide what’s best for the universe?”

She started to bristle, but sighed instead. “He’s somebody with a lot of experience, hundreds of years. And yeah, we screw up sometimes. This time… I think we managed to stop another war, a really bad one. But I didn’t go about it right. So anything you want to say to me, I probably deserve it.”

He stared at her.

“Are you sure about that?” Alex asked. “No offence, but you seem exhausted. You’ve been through a hell of a lot and you’re younger than I am. You probably were just doing your best.”

“I killed people, Alex. I killed them without giving them a chance first. And the way I went about it…”

“The bomb?”

She didn’t correct him.

“It was a brilliant idea though,” he said. “Can I see one of those crystals? I’m not telepathic, and I’d love to know what it’s like. Especially out here, where there’s not a bunch of Time Lords around.”

“Let me ask the Doctor,” she said, a little unnerved. “He might say no as they’re radioactive.” She wondered if maybe Alex would find out soon that he’d already become telepathic, given what she’d done. She caught sight of a blinking light coming from under the cupboard door and thought that the Doctor might have installed a jammer there.

“Everything’s radioactive where I grew up,” he said, shrugging.

That was a disturbing thought.

“It’s usually best to try these things out carefully. You don’t want to blow out any synapses. Killer headache, aneurysms, that sort of thing.”

“I didn’t take you for the cautious sort.”

“Believe me, I didn’t used to be. But lately… These things hurt the Doctor and me when the explosion went off and not in easy to fix ways. Invisible psychic damage.”

“That’s not good,” he said, but the interest in his eyes was not deterred. God, this bloke really was related to the Doctor. She wondered if he could regenerate. Probably not. And with curiosity like that, he probably wouldn’t last long.

Best not to get too attached.

“I didn’t know I was half Gallifreyan when I was a kid. Mum didn’t tell me until she got recalled to Gallifrey. I thought she was barking! She was really scared when we got there. I think she thought they were going to kill us. I hear that things are going to change? That the caste system could go away?”

That news got around quickly. Ace warned, “It might get worse before it gets better. It usually works that way. We like to think we’re heroes starting revolutions, but it doesn’t get resolved in a day.”

“Yeah, that sounds right. It’s practically fifty years since the Dalek war ended, and everything’s still a mess where we live.”

“I could see that. I’ve been to some Dalek occupied worlds, and they were really bad. Um… about the telepathy, you might not need the crystals. The explosion probably changed you too. Talk to your mum.”

“Wow. Anyway,” he said suddenly, “I should let you go on with your day. Good talking to you.”

“Bye, kid.”

That was weird, but not in a bad way, she supposed. She’d gotten through it all right, and she had managed to hide the worst of how she felt.

Yet there was still a lingering horror, like waking after a nightmare, and now that the numbness was starting to wear off, it was starting to take over her thoughts. What was the Doctor going to say?

He knew what she’d done. How many chances was he going to keep giving her? And what was she, deep down?

Susan and Alex should run.

***

The Doctor peered in a couple of hours later. “I thought perhaps you would have a nap,” he said uncertainly. She was sitting next to the bed, brushing her fingers over the carpet threads.

“I can’t. I’m afraid of the dark,” she whispered, “because I’m the monster in it.”

He sat next to her on the floor. “What we are,” he began, speaking with great care, “is not an easy burden to bear. Our form is not evil, but the way that we interact with the universe evokes certain archetypes in our more conventional brains.”

“Doctor, this isn’t about primal fears. I can overcome that. This is about murder, maybe even something unknowably worse. What’s a soul, and what happens when it’s eaten or absorbed or whatever? Is there even a scientific answer?”

He sighed, unwilling to let this turn into an argument.

Ace reached out, touched his forehead. He held steady to show that nothing had changed between them. She closed her eyes. He could feel her around the edges of his body, tentatively probing. Then with a flash of warmth, his lingering pain vanished entirely.

She’d healed him.

Perhaps this was the first step toward assuaging her shame and helping her to work through what she’d done.

Then she fell to the carpet, curled up in a foetal position.

He examined her quickly, found her bleeding heavily from the arm, saw blood running from her eyes.

No, she’d taken his injuries into her own body.

He swore, swept her up, bleeding a trail of blood down the stairs to the TARDIS. Susan asked him something-- he couldn’t hear what over the pounding of his hearts-- and he shouted angrily at her to get out of the way. He placed Ace in the medbay and worked as quickly as he could. The bleeding under control, he scowled, tried to centre himself enough to sense the damage.

The higher dimensions of Ace were shredded from thousands of tiny impacts that trickled down into fifth, fourth, and third dimensional scarring. Her higher sensory organs, mind, timeline, and skin were torn. Trust Ace to find a way to make Nitro Nine into an even more destructive weapon.

Although to be fair, it was a miracle they both were even alive.

He had to put aside his anger. He couldn’t do this without a clear head and a surgeon’s dispassion.

Basic injuries: the arm. He regrew the damaged bone, tested the nerve connections with his equipment, repaired the small fibres, worked outward to the muscles. The lungs had copious micro-abrasions, as did the skin and the eyes. Easily mended. The mundane damage taken care of, he placed his hands on her skin.

Fourth dimensional injuries: the arm was convinced it had been removed, which felt wrong on so many levels that the Doctor had to distance himself further to even begin. No, the arm was hers, had been, and always would be, and it was functioning properly and would continue to do so. He anchored it to her body and orthogonally along her timeline to any other bodies she had/would have in the past and future.

Fifth dimensional: the mind. He stepped away from the emotions at first, as they were difficult to bear. Only look at the crystal injuries. He could do this. Death by a thousand cuts. No, don’t think that way.

She had saved Gallifrey, saved himself, and left herself damaged beyond imagination. He should have put a stop to it before it even started.

Pulling his view outward, he sensed energy fizzing about at higher levels. The more abstruse bits of her were mending. He needed only to pull their attention downward.

He probed with invisible digits, added commands from his mind. Examine. Evaluate. Extrapolate repairs. A buzzing sensation almost like a circuit connecting, and there! Wounds were mending.

A shock, not throwing him aside but locking him in. Something was happening… but no, he was healing as well, all the little wounds that Ace had missed vanishing. His body had caught the trick for itself and had begun the process. He sent a message of love to Ace, gently soothing her emotional pain without being invasive. He extricated himself, sent a quick mental message that all was well to Susan, and sat down hard on his heels.

Once he was able to get up, he gave Ace a sedative and left the ship with a mop and a scrub brush and some Gallifreyan cleaning powder. It wouldn’t do for Ace to see the same bloodstain on the bedroom floor as in her nightmare vision from Fenric.

By the time he was finished, the path was scrupulously clean, and Ace was in her bed on the TARDIS so that she would not awaken afraid in a strange place.

***

The Doctor was whistling and removing the final tray of chocolate biscuits from the oven when Susan joined him in the kitchen. She tried one that was cooling, complimented his cooking with something like confusion, then got to the point.

“Grandfather, I know something very strange happened on Gallifrey. I’d like to recommend that you not tell Alex. You see, he has a history of xenophobia, because of when he grew up and a crowd he fell in with at uni, and I wouldn’t want him… I wouldn’t want him to get the wrong impression.”

The Doctor said sharply, “And precisely what impression is that?”

“He’s young. He hasn’t seen the universe!”

“Susan, it’s true that I’m the Other. As for what that means for you and for him, I cannot say.”

“As far as I know, I’m a perfectly normal Time Lord.”

“If you look into the Schism again, that may change.”

“Then I just won’t. Seems simple enough.” She paused. “Are you going to tell me about it?”

“Given what you’ve just shared with me, perhaps you’re better off not knowing.”

“This is important, Grandfather…”

“Later, Susan.” He pulled her in for a kiss on the nose.

She scowled. “I suppose if you didn’t know for nine hundred years, maybe I won’t have to worry about it for that long either.”

“Exactly.”

“You’re not getting away with avoiding this forever.”

Looking refreshed and unperturbed, Ace came into the kitchen, smiling as she grabbed a handful of biscuits. “Oh, yes, he can. What are we talking about?” She added through a full mouth, “Mmm, well domestic, Professor. Cheers!”

Susan put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

“Otherness,” the Doctor said lightly.

“Ugh. Got any ginger biccies in? I’ve got to say I’m with him on this one. I don’t anybody’s ready to hear about that.”

“Ginger?” said Susan, hands on hips.

The Doctor wrapped his arm around Ace’s waist and put his head on her shoulder. “The goings on are still a sensitive subject at the moment.”

Rather than being calmed by his touch, Ace tensed. She managed, “We’ve learnt a lot in the past year. The healing’s all right.”

“Healing? Why, that would be wonderful!”

“And I get visions, but he doesn’t. The people on Karn loved that.”

Susan’s eyes lit up and she came closer. “You’ve been to Karn? Tell me, what’s it like?”

“Crap music, crap weather, crap parking, but the Elixir of Life is decent enough.” Ace sighed. “Look, let’s just pull the plaster off, shall we? We’ve eldritch horrors from another universe. Happy now?” And she marched out with her biscuits, leaving Susan to stare after.

The Doctor looked between his granddaughter and the doorway.

“I think she needs a moment to herself,” suggested Susan, “but I’m fine if you want to follow her.”

He knelt next to Susan. “You needn’t be fine about this.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s only… I don’t like how complicated things have gotten for you lately.”

“Ace said much the same thing. In the end, I believe that pursuing the truth about one’s self is a worthwhile goal.”

“One that usually doesn’t take such a turn so late into one’s lives.”

The Doctor shuttered his face.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“A great deal,” he admitted, sitting down.

“You’ve never seemed particularly worried about using your lives up so quickly. Have you given yourself another set of regenerations?”

He drew in a breath through his nose and folded his hands on the kitchen table.

“Grandfather, I’m not a spy.”

“Not at this point, but things have changed on Gallifrey.”

“What if I didn’t want to go back?”

“That’s your choice, of course, but it seems to me that you’re the perfect candidate to improve things there.”

“That hadn’t occurred to me. I’ll consider it. Grandfather, do you think you’re immortal?”

“No,” he said, wanting to leave the room but knowing that his timing would be terribly suspect at this juncture. “If I were, I wouldn’t care much for the experimental testing process.”

“You think she might be. You’re afraid of it. I can see it in your eyes. You can’t push Ace so hard. I had no desire to be frozen on Gallifrey forever, but she could have at least had time to rest. No one ever would have known.”

“Other problems came up.”

“I’m sure they did.” She tutted. “Leela tells me that you never keep your human friends this long. That young person is on the verge of a mental breakdown, but she’d never admit it, and you know that.”

“The whole reason we’re here is to have a rest.”

“I get the impression that she doesn’t like it in this house because something bad happened here earlier, and I don’t think that a person with a troubled family history wants family guests at this time. Grandfather, you don’t have to try to make us all happy at once. She’s been hurt, and she needs you.”

“I don’t want to lose you again.”

Susan took his hand. “You won’t! Listen. I’ve rented a little cottage by the sea. I think that Alex would enjoy it there. He’s never been to unpolluted waters. I think that we should go ahead today, and then when Ace is feeling up to it, there are other cottages available. How does that sound?”

“It’s an excellent idea, but you seem to have developed more skill in changing the subject than even I have. How did that come about?”

She tittered. “I’ve had dealings with politicians.”

“Susan, I can tell you what I know. You’re right that it does pertain to you.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed. I’ve gathered more than I’ve let on. I’m not blind to the higher dimensions, you know.”

The Doctor drew back in surprise. “I didn’t expect that. Are you disturbed by what you see?”

“What do you think?”

“It looks like you are not. Susan, perhaps you should discuss this with Alex. I had the sense that he walked by a moment ago, and I’m not sure how much he heard.”

“Oh dear,” said Susan. “I’ll go talk to him. And Grandfather, I’m fine. We’re fine. I love you.”

“I love you too, my dear.”

***

“I’m making a fool of myself,” said Ace. She was once again in the bedroom, scowling at the wall. The Doctor had cleaned up the kitchen and sent his family on their way.

“You’re not. No one thinks that. Ace, Susan and Alex are going to the sea to give us some space. Does that sound good to you?”

She didn’t say anything but let out a long breath. “I keep worrying. I thought of something… The handkerchief with the blood, I left it on the Nitro Nine canister. I think it burned up, but what if it went back in time? I have the feeling that I ended up summoning you to Gallifrey in the first place.”

“A paradox.”

“Yeah. Causal loop.”

“In that case, what happened had to happen. That should be a relief to you.”

“Should?”

“A poor choice of words. Apologies.”

“Well, it isn’t.”

“Do you want to talk about this, or would you rather do something else?”

“Like what?” She looked up at him. “Oh. Yes, I would.”

He kissed her gently. “Happy anniversary, Ace.”

Notes:

Note: Should you be smut-inclined, it's in the next chapter.
They have a lovely argument first, because of course they do.

If not, feel free to skip it and go on to chapter 7 when it is uploaded.

Comments cherished. It's lonely out here in the real world.

Chapter 6: Anniversary

Summary:

Adult Ace, as usual, aged 28. You can probably enjoy this without knowledge of the rest of the series, if you skip ahead past the argument, but I do hope you read more.

(Two for one smut special. Regular sex, then a more explicit bodyswap!)

Not BSDM, as the Doctor is making wise choices here with an Ace traumatised from Fenric and Faction Paradox, but there is mention of the topic.

Warning for brief mention of child abuse.

Gallifrey was saved, possibly at the cost of Ace’s soul, and certainly at the cost of at least one soul of a Faction Paradox cultist. The day really wasn’t going well, but Ace was determined to make the Doctor happy.

It was some anniversary or other, Ace thought the second. They hadn’t celebrated the first because they were probably out providing aid to worlds war-torn by Daleks at the time. Maybe it hadn’t even really been two years. Ace’s time sense wasn’t well developed yet.

“Ace,” the Doctor said almost shyly, “are you interested in switching bodies?”

Ace’s eyebrows shot up. “I like the way you think. It’s a fantastic idea, don’t get me wrong, but after all that happened, I need to feel more grounded in myself.”

He nodded.

“Can we make this room soundproof?”

“They’ve already gone, Ace.” The loving way he said it made it beautiful, not a joke of a name she’d clung to far too long since her shitty childhood. Even if it was officially her name now, and she didn’t really hate it. She just hated everything right now. Would she have even kept it if not for the way it sounded in his mouth? “What would you like?”

Then she opened her own big mouth. “I want you to hurt me,” she said very seriously. “I want you to make me scream.”

“I really don’t think—”

“I need this.”

He looked into her eyes. His were flat and grey, neutral. “No. Not here, not today.”

She was about to rage at him, but she sensed something. “My nap earlier.”

“You’d been bleeding. When you healed me, you made your injuries worse. You’re only just healed now.”

“I said I need it.”

“I’ll consider it. Not today.”

She reached back to punch him, needing so badly to feel something, and he caught her wrist, lightning fast. She remembered when the temperature of his skin used to feel cold to her.

“Do you really want to know why?” he asked from between his teeth. “Do you want to see what I saw this afternoon?”

She found herself drawing back, but he was still holding tight. His chest heaved for a few moments, then he let go, closing his eyes, posture sagging.

“No,” he said to himself.

“What?” she snapped. “What could be worse than all the shit that already happened?”

He was still just breathing, eyes shut.

“Tell me, damn it!”

He looked up and pointed at the carpet next to the bed. “The purpose of your rest in the TARDIS was to allow me time to clean up the blood that bled copiously from your arm onto the floor in this very spot, which as you no doubt will recall has significant meaning due to your encounter with Fenric. So, I beg your pardon if I can’t bear the thought of seeing you injured again today. What you did in healing me was foolish, and I know well that it wasn’t your only option.”

She wanted to shout. She wanted to fight. But she let herself feel the waves of emotion coming from him and understand how frightened he was.

“Your arm could very well have been lost after what you did. Doubling that damage was foolish, and I would have been the one who was forced to amputate it on what was intended to be a pleasant day. Ace, your ways of expressing your feelings of apology and shame leave much to be desired. I do not wish to see you hurt. Now, if you were currently both physically and mentally healthy, I would, with great care and medical skill, indulge your whim.”

“Bullshit! My mum knew how to hurt me without leaving permanent damage. She did it all the time.”

He gritted out, “I would beg to differ.”

“I mean, when I got older--” She shut up when she realised what he meant. “Why’d you let them go then?” she asked vaguely.

“You are referring to Susan and Alex? To allow us time to enjoy ourselves and to help you heal.”

“This would help me.”

“Ace, you are exasperating.”

“Let me guess. In a thousand years, you never met anybody like me before.”

He went still. “I have met a few.”

“If you compare me to the Master again--”

Quietly, he sat and placed his hand on the carpet. “I’ve seen a great many people die over the years. I’ve seen a great many more on the cusp of death. I bury the feelings, but it will always affect me.”

Ace flinched on the word “bury.” “I know that.”

“Ace, are you attempting to be proactive? The rest of the vision will not come true. I will not let it. I’m certain that today was merely subconscious on your part. You will not remove my heart and bury me alive.”

“It hadn’t occurred to me, honestly. Now it has. Ta for that.”

They sat together, and she felt the tension in the air thicken. They could have had a good day, but she’d ruined it at every turn. “Um. This is one of those moments I really wish I was in a time loop so I could try again.”

“It’s heartening that your first inclination wasn’t to erase my memory.”

“I’m not you,” she snapped, then added quietly, “It all seems so small given that I killed people using your body.” There. She’d said it.

He sighed. Fortunately he did not point out that she’d said she didn’t want to talk, because she thought that might set her off again. Even the idea of fighting him made her feel queasy with guilt, no matter how much she very badly wanted to hurt someone, almost needed it. When she asked him, she’d meant to lie there and take whatever he would throw at her and then maybe, just maybe, she could feel she’d atoned. At his age, the man surely had to have a hell of a lot more self-control than she had.

Ace wasn’t sure who she’d want to be a thousand years along. Once, she would have said, “The Doctor,” but now… The longer they were together the harder it was to imagine living that long. The only way she could see herself lasting even one hundred years was to sit in one place and gather dust like Innocet (like the Doctor, in the library).

Okay, look at this another way, she thought. This place and the things that sort-of happened here clearly still bothered her. So stay here, do whatever he wanted, and work it out. If you can’t deal with imaginary memories put in your head by your own mental defences and eldritch gods, then you can’t deal with real problems. Right?

She reached up and dragged him down on top of her, right there on the twice-bloodied floor.

“I understand,” she said. “I understand, Doctor. There’s… nothing I can say.”

“Then don’t,” he said, kissing her hard and nipping her lower lip.

She nodded, moving with him as he tugged off her clothes. He got that glint in her eye that drove her wild and took off his own, trailing his fingers along her skin professionally, almost as if examining instead of feeling her up. She left him to it for a minute then arched against him and cupped his balls. He drew in a hissing breath and stared at her as if memorising her face. Stroking him, she lifted her hips and pushed him inside her.

Then she gave him a look of challenge and lay back, arms above her head.

He took her wrists in one hand, held her down hard, and began to move against her, quickly, possessively.

She was keenly aware of the boundaries of her own body because of the pressure of his own. Now he was pounding against her, pressing her deep into the confines of her skin where she belonged, and she was pushing back, feeling where she ended and he began, the bones beneath his muscles, the hardness of the floor.

He slowed, so she encouraged him once again with a squeeze and a grind, a nibble at his earlobe. Pushing her back down roughly, he went faster, and she relished the feel of the antique carpet below her slipping and burning the skin of her lower back.

She kept her eyes fixed on his, saw raw emotions shifting within them, unguarded. Then abandon finally struck. As she focussed on her body’s movement, and his climax, she felt she was who she was supposed to be. She felt almost human.

She hadn’t come, hadn’t even been that aroused, being too busy feeling other things, but it didn’t really bother her because the Doctor looked debauched and relieved. His breathing was loud in her ear, and he was stroking her hair fondly.

Then he noticed, and began kissing her face from her chin to her eyelids. “I’m all right,” she said. “It helped.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s not… it’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, or couldn’t,-- I know that’s what you’re thinking, that I’m too broken to feel it. I’m not. It did what I needed it to do. I’m here. I’m inside me, and I feel close to you.”

His expression softened. “My earlier offer still stands, should you want to switch. I assume you need some time.”

“I do want,” she said. “First, let’s just—” She stretched up awkwardly to pull the sheet from the bed down on top of them, not cold but just wanting to feel the softness against her skin. They shifted to their sides, and she pulled him close, feeling the muscles of his back and chest and arms. She hadn’t had much time to enjoy being inside his body before, so she considered it more carefully now.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t push you out of your own body so soon after becoming re-acclimated.”

“I’ll be fine. I don’t think that’s the sort of detachment I was feeling.”

“You were depersonalised from injury and emotional shock, and I don’t want to aggravate it further.”

“It’s… Damn it, I’m having trouble with the words. Give me a second. Right. Having a nice time in your body now that I feel better sounds like a good idea, maybe even a helpful one. Just shush…”

And so he quietened and they lay together, dozing a bit, and when they finally got up, lovely Time Lord physiology helped them both rise without groaning about stiffness brought on by hardwood floors.

“Tea?” she asked, washing and pulling on minimal clothing to go down to enjoy more of his chocolate biscuits. Stealthily, the Doctor reached towards the back of a kitchen cupboard and produced several bottles of ginger beer. “Susan’s not here to catch us,” he said.

“Hell yeah. Give.”

They each drank only two bottles, as Ace wasn’t confident in her ability to navigate the stairs of the strange house in semi-darkness. She remembered that ginger had a grounding effect and realised he’d had an ulterior motive.

As usual, he caught the slight change in her expression. “I think that perhaps telepathic sex is off the table for tonight, unless you’re feeling otherwise.”

She hadn’t even thought it through the first time, but yes, it had been an ordinary human-like experience. “Could we even still swap?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. The initial mechanism will work, but the more higher dimensional sensations will be dimmed.”

“You planned this.”

“Of course I planned ginger for our anniversary. I would have bought champagne, but it wouldn’t have much of an effect.”

“When did you even have time to do these things?”

The Doctor gave one of his annoying secretive smiles.

“It’s been… I think the day’s been salvaged. Thanks.”

They clinked their bottles together.

“Ready to go up?”

Ace stood carefully, relieved that she was in her own body for the moment. Ginger hit hard and fast but didn’t last long. He took her by the arm and guided her up the stairs, leaving the downstairs lights on, which ought to have annoyed her, but she was in fact grateful for.

“I was thinking,” Ace said on the way up, “the people who think this house is haunted will really get an earful if they pass by tonight.”

He feigned a stern look then grinned. “Goals to aspire to.”

“I haven’t even walked the grounds when they’re not on fire. We’ll have to go down to the village someday.”

“We should be sure to look properly ghostly first.”

Then they were up the wide staircase and back in their bedroom, which Ace’s more positive disposition was finding cosier than before.

“Right,” she said. “Why am I nervous?”

“It’s all right, Ace.”

They lay next to each other naked, holding hands for a long while, just breathing. Then she gave his hand a squeeze and rolled over on top.

His body pressed against hers in ways that were more distracting than she’d planned for, but she bravely persevered. Her half of the switch was only slightly more difficult than before, and she felt the Doctor pass through to her body, which was less disorientating than seeing it flop over half dead.

He let out a feminine sound and steadied himself. Ace gently rolled off of him and stood up, getting an eyeful in the full-length mirror in the corner near the windows. It was so very different wearing him than looking at him. The cock, her cock, twitched with a slight pull of groin muscles. Weird but good. Really good.

The Doctor stayed in one place touching her body like it was going to break if he pushed on it too hard. She let him take his time as he’d missed out before, but eventually realised he was being scientific again, trying to see what effects his varying touches elicited.

She’d show him instead.

Climbing on top, she misjudged a little and nearly fell on him, which provoked laughter. She peppered him with kisses then led into some of her favourites, nipping below his ear, twiddling her nipples with a pinch, and then kissing between her-- his legs, tugging just slightly at his labia and sucking.

He let out possibly the most high pitched noise either of them had ever made before. After covering her mouth to keep in the laughter, she pulled back and gave her cock an experimental stroke. There was that twitch again, and a feeling of heat.

That look of his showed up on her face, which was odd but very interesting. Her body’s eyes then darkened and narrowed, and it was rather appealing even to her. They simply watched and smelt each other for a while, savouring the rising tension. He took hold of her-- and she was stronger than she realised-- and easily pulled her to a sitting position then flipped her the other way around, and she thought, Oh, that’s what we’re doing, burying her face in her own cunt enthusiastically as he put her cock into his mouth.

She had the sensation of being fully inside someone, and it was incredible.

And he did knew what he was doing, his lips and tongue and hands making all of the right moves. The idea of him sucking cock turned her on to such a ridiculous extent that it was all going by quickly, but judging by the way his toes curled and back arched, it wouldn’t be long for him either.

She wasn’t sure at first if she should thrust, but he was okay with it, even enjoyed it, judging by the broken sounds he was making around the corners of his full mouth. God, it was so tight and slick, and his tongue made her eyes roll back in her head. In her balls, she could feel a sort of liquid movement, and she could tell she would be coming soon. She twisted and curled her fingers more quickly inside him so he’d catch up and tapped her tongue on his clit. This angle wasn’t convenient, but she made do.

Then with a series of throbs and hot spurts, she came. It didn’t feel like she expected. Her previous experiences were so diffuse, ranging from full groin pleasure or tingling in the breasts and sometimes up the spine or even everywhere at once. This orgasm was strong, focussed. She could feel the muscles of his throat swallowing. Quickly, she moved down to bite his nipple, which always did the trick for her. He made that high noise again and panted.

She let out an undignified grunt and fell back, gasping. “Give us a minute,” she managed. She had the oddest sense that if she were female at the moment, she would have cried with the overwhelm of it all, but it seemed harder to cry in this body.

In a moment, he spoke. “Considering a change of gender after all?” he asked, sounding female and Scottish whilst looking very self-satisfied and holding one breast in his hand simply because he could.

“Are you?” she countered in his voice with her West London accent. “You seemed to really enjoy it.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, although it was a pleasant and novel experience.”

She snorted, which sounded weird. “I hope it was a little more than that.”

“It was a very pleasant and novel experience.”

“Better. Ahh… Done?”

“Interestingly, no.”

Smirk giving way to yawn, she patted his hand on her tit. “I do know what I’m doing. Want to go again?”

“Quack,” he said, momentarily, which was a ridiculous trigger word, but she closed her eyes and found herself back in her usual body, less sleepy than she’d been a moment ago.

“You missed half the afterglow,” she noticed, “and you probably could have gone for two.”

“I saved it for you.”

“That was generous.” She stretched and gave a happy wriggle and moan, grasping his hand so he could sense the rest of it. No point in him not getting the full experience.

He reached out and touched her still-peaked nipple in wonder. “How very different. I’d have thought I’d already have picked up on the nuances, but I hadn’t, just the broad strokes, as it were. I suppose it is all very intense, and telepathically, it’s a different experience altogether.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Are you, though, Ace?”

It took her a moment to remember his question. She touched her slightly swollen, sore lips. “Considering becoming a man? I wish it was as easy as flipping a switch, pick whichever you want each day, or neither if you’re not in the mood.”

“If it helps you, my body’s freely available to you.”

“It was already mine, wasn’t it?” she asked, reaching down to his wet cock, which was soft.

“I suppose,” he said with an air of reluctance.

“It was good. It felt right.” Her cunt was still throbbing a little, but she did her best to recall it all again.

“I’m glad it was a gratifying experience.”

“In more ways than one. Thank you. Really, thank you, Doctor. It means a lot, and as for that offer, that’s probably the most generous thing anyone’s ever said to me. Maybe to anybody.”

He hummed and kissed her nose. His breath smelt of her scent. She kissed it away.

“I do mean it. I’ve had many bodies and know what it’s like when one isn’t the right fit.”

“But you adjust in time.”

“I do, and I’m fortunate.”

She thought about that for a moment, then said, “I’ve always wanted to try pegging.”

It was cute that it took him a second to figure out what she meant. “A strap on cock,” she clarified.

“Sounds pleasant,” he said.

“I figured as much.” She’d had a bit of worry that he felt he was missing out after he’d had centuries longer in gay relationships than in straight.

“I love you, Ace,” he said firmly.

“I love you too, Doctor. Mmm, can’t top this evening.”

“In the morning, we have dinner reservations.”

“In the morning,” she repeated.

“Or sooner, if you’d like. I took the liberty of purchasing you something to wear.”

“Let me clean up, and then let’s see.”

In the cupboard was hanging an expensive blue pin-striped suit, and it looked faintly familiar but couldn’t possibly be. It fit perfectly, as she knew it would, and made her look fancy, but not naff. It had a black silk tie, and Ace knew that the Doctor had her new diamond tie pin in mind.

“Only if I get to dress you,” she said, and he pointed to a new charcoal suit that was probably the nicest thing he’d worn in seven lives. A moment of guilt swept over her for acting like a toff in her fancy clothes and fancy mansion. She used to burn down places like this. Still did, in fact. But the Doctor had lived a long time, and he’d built that cottage on Oceanside with his own hands.

Maybe she should start some sort of charity, she pondered, as they went to the TARDIS for an early next-day dinner.

Chapter 7

It would have been nice to land right on the beach, but they parked the TARDIS next to the cottage that Susan had rented, high up on the cliffs.

The weather was gorgeous. Ace wasn’t completely sure that she wasn’t responsible, but she’d take it.

The sunshine burnt off most of the dark corners in her brain. The fears were still there, but they were easier to face in the light of day. So, sitting on a deck chair next to the Doctor, she mentioned them, right out in the open, daring them to evaporate in the ocean breeze.

“It really bothers me that you aren’t bothered anymore when I kill people.”

He shot a look at her from under his opened umbrella, frowned deeply. “You know that I care.”

“You used to. Now I’m a soldier.”

“Perhaps that’s how life works.”

“I don’t like to hear that from you.”

“After a thousand years, it’s foolish to be naive. There’s no manual for what we do. I have to face reality.”

Shifting in her seat, she leant closer to him. “So we need to talk about the whole soul-eating thing. Which I shouldn’t have done. But things got nasty with that knife, and I sorta panicked.”

“It’s not soul-eating, Ace. It’s higher dimensional consumption: eating power and potential timelines.”

Ace screwed up her face. “I’m not really seeing the difference. You mean like chronovores or Weeping Angels?”

“Nothing that simple. We’re something that started out ancient and continued to evolve, and I wouldn’t have thought that possible. Something Eternal.”

“Like Fenric?”

He shook his head slowly. “Something I haven’t been able to categorise properly as yet. I may never know, and that may be for the best. Meeting others like us… I fear for this universe.” ­

“You found out something from the Sisterhood, didn’t you? You’ve said Nyar… lathotep before.”

“An Outer God,” he said. “Perhaps the only one. It feels right, but as for what it means, I can’t say for certain. Perhaps something to do with the Constructors of Destiny.” He shook his head.

They stared at each other, Ace wishing he’d just say what he meant. “So,” she said, “what does that make me, or Susan, or Alex?”

“They’re weakly connected to my true form. Of normal Time Lord stock, most likely.”

“All of which is probably a diluted offshoot of you to begin with, from the Imprimatur and when the Other went into the Looms. And if I did send our biodata back in time, what am I to you?”

“It makes you a sort of clone at higher dimensions, inasmuch as an incorporeal being can be one. Think of an eleventh dimensional amoeba splitting. It explains Fenric’s interest in your Viking bloodline and the others who travelled with them.”

“Backwards in time. At least the biodata was gift wrap for Nitro Nine. I hope it hurt.”

They sat quietly for a moment, listening to the sounds of the water.

“You seem to be taking this well, Ace.”

“Nothing surprises me anymore. So the top six dimensions of you got copy pasted onto human me, and the rest got a Time Lord twist. No big deal. I’m just wondering if I need to add glottal stops and hisses to my name to make people fear me, or if I ought to call myself The Pyromaniac.”

He chuckled. “The Chemist.”

“Mx. Smith. Maybe with a scream and a question mark in there somewhere. God, I wish I could go back and stop all the Fenric crap. You didn’t say, but that’s why the house in Kent affected me so much, isn’t it? Years of generational trauma seeping into the architecture due to that arsehole? That stone tape whatsit? Transference.”

“I ought to cleanse it now that the danger is over.”

“Tell me how and I’ll help. Is it over though?”

“Ace, knowing what I know now, Fenric is no danger at all to us even if he were still alive. What you did with the crystals… you carry them with you now.”

“Permanent portable Karn. Or Metebelis.” She shuddered. “Did we just get promoted?”

“I fear so. I don’t even know what we are now. The ethics are deeply complex, and I’ve no frame of reference to work with. I confess I feel a bit adrift.”

Ace squeezed his hand. “And Susan and Alex?”

“Alex is a full Time Lord now, or the equivalent. Susan… I am going to take it away from her at the first available opportunity.”

“Take what?” Susan asked cheerfully, handing them drinks. Ace sniffed. Some sort of ginger liquor. Susan must have changed her mind about imbibing.

“Does Alex know he’s telepathic now?” Ace asked.

“He does.” She pointed across the way where he was chatting up a girl by the water. “He made a beeline for the first pretty girl thinking flattering thoughts about him. We had a talk.”

“Is he going to be able to handle that all right?”

“I can teach him. The skill is a bit weak at the moment. Is that what you were discussing?”

“Among other things,” said the Doctor.

“Grandfather, I can handle it. If you really, truly think I can’t, then I’ll agree.”

“Why do you even ask what people are talking about?” said Ace.

“Politeness.”

Ace accidentally snorted a little of her drink up her nose, the ginger burning her sinuses. “You can teach him some of that.” She paused to watch the little stories unfolding around her. A child dropped his ice cream in the sand. A gull stole a sandwich from someone’s picnic. Normal lives, normal setbacks.

“You should have met him in his youth,” said Susan.

The Doctor raised his chin in mock-insultedness.

“Don’t worry, Susan. Someday I’ll go back and see all of his other incarnations and knock some good manners into them.”

Susan giggled.

Ace patted the other deckchair next to her. “Listen up, kiddo.”

She raised her eyebrows but sat.

“Your granddad and I are probably destroyers of worlds. I can’t recommend having instincts like that. We think it would be best for you to just be a Time Lord.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Trust me. You do not want this. You do not.”

Susan frowned and tipped her head to the side.

“Just ask questions. No mind reading. I’m being straightforward here.”

“Then be straightforward! Tell me what you’re afraid of, specifically.”

“On Gallifrey, I ate a bloke. Ate his soul or timeline or something. It was really easy, and honestly? I liked it. You’ve got Metebelis crystals in you too, just a little bit, so you might end up like us, or at least like the Doctor when he first saw the Schism twice. It’s been getting worse. We’re some kind of mythical being that can probably eat the universe. I don’t want that sort of fear and pain and responsibility on you. I’m afraid it can get hard to control.” She looked to the Doctor, who nodded with a thin smile. “We want you to be happy. That’s about it. Oh, and I love you, Susan.” There. She’d said it all. It made her feel a little bit lighter.

Susan blinked in astonishment, mostly at the last sentence. “I love you too, Grandmother. I appreciate your honesty. No, that really doesn’t sound like something I want to deal with. Grandfather, you want me to help out with the new Gallifrey. I don’t think someone in a position of authority should have such instincts.”

Then what did she think of the Doctor, Ace wondered. “If we take it away now, it’ll be easy to get rid of.” She reached out a hand into the air. “I can feel it, just around you, Susan.”

“What about getting rid of your power?”

“It would have to go somewhere, and I shudder to think of the possibilities,” said the Doctor.

Susan nodded. “So my excess abilities, they would go into one of you?”

“It would only take a second.”

“What if I don’t want to put that burden on you, as you don’t want to on me?”

“It’s a drop in the bucket, Susan. You might be normal. We think you could be, but with the visions you used to get…”

Susan drew in a long, deep breath. “I understand.”

“We can give you time to think it through,” said the Doctor.

She looked at Alex, laughing with a young woman.

“Will I be at a disadvantage compared to the other Time Lords?”

“Nope,” said Ace. “I didn’t mess with them. Just anybody different.”

“And maybe the tafelshrews.”

“Those too. They’re cute. This is putting you back to your old baseline from a few days ago.”

“Do it, then,” said Susan firmly. Ace reached out, but the Doctor stopped her.

“I’d rather, please.”

Ace shrugged. “All right. Let me show you first. It’s really easy to see.” She touched him, letting him know exactly what to siphon off.

The Doctor nodded and held his hands near Susan, not quite touching. She made a soft noise, and her eyes widened. “Before I do it,” he said, “this is what we’re referring to. Yes?”

“I consent.”

Ace watched the darkish shimmer on Susan’s aura drain away into the Doctor.

Alex jogged up, concern on his face. “What are you doing?”

“Just a little repair,” said Ace. “Don’t worry. She said yes.”

“Is this eldritch stuff?”

“Sorta.”

Alex watched until Susan blinked herself back into focus. “I’m fine, Alex. I promise.”

“You seem oddly okay with the idea of godlike eleventh dimensional deities,” said Ace. “I did not expect that, kid.”

Alex shrugged and sat cross legged next to them. “Honestly, I like that kind of story. They were popular a bit before I was born. It helped people cope after the Daleks, you know, imagining even bigger creepy tentacly things coming to defeat them.”

Ace groaned and covered her face, the light shining orange through her hands. “Doctor, we’re the actual creepy things that defeated them.”

He seemed unbothered. “Some stories have a basis in fact.”

“Nah, you’re all right. I can’t say I’m not weirded out a little, but I always had the feeling that Mum was different, even on Gallifrey.”

“I’ve never been that different, Alex, and now anything too out of the ordinary is gone.”

“I like you being out of the ordinary. Even if I never said it.” He gave his mother a long look, squeezed her hand. Then he nodded to himself, apparently pleased with what he perceived.

“Go catch up with your girl before she loses interest,” said Ace.

“Oh yeah.”

“And use protection.”

He flapped a hand at her. “Shut up, Gran.”

“Alex!” shouted Susan, but the two young people grinned at each other before Alex dashed off.

“You shouldn’t encourage him!”

“Somebody ought to.”

“But we’re not staying for ever!”

“He still can have a good time.”

“Ace used to have a girl in every port,” the Doctor said solemnly.

“Oi! Well, kinda. I couldn’t help it.” She gave him a seductive smile, or the best attempt she could manage while pissed on ginger.

“But you’ve settled down at such a young age.”

“Not for humans.”

“True. I do want Alex to find someone, but he’s never been in a serious relationship.”

“You can’t push people.”

“I know that!”

“Sorry. I don’t really know what your parenting style is, but he’s a lot older than you think of him as.”

“True.”

“My mum was trying to set me up from a young age because she thought I’d never amount to anything.” Ace winced after she said it. It was probably the ginger at work.

“Your mum sounds difficult.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“I have the feeling that you had a fraught relationship?”

“With everybody in my family except my Nan. D’you know, I got to meet her in the 1940s?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Anyway, she was the only one of them worth knowing.” Ace deflated.

The Doctor said gently, “It was not a good situation.” He and Susan shared glances, whilst Ace sighed.

“D’you really have to, Doctor?”

“I gave no details, I promise.”

“Look, I’ll just tell her, okay?”

Susan held up a hand. “Ace, it’s none of my business.”

“It kinda is. You’re my only family now, you and Alex. I dunno if I’m doing a good job.” She drained her glass. “But I prolly can’t do worse than my mum. I mean, I saved the universe, and I’m not gonna sell you or beat you.”

“Oh dear.”

“Didn’t eat your soul either, but it’s not like the P- P’fessor gave me a chance. I promise I wasn’t gonna. Um. I’d better let this drink wear off a little.”

“Why do you call him Professor?”

“Cause he knows it all, obviously. Used to annoy him so much, but now it’s kinda a pet name. Y’know?”

“It’s an odd choice, but I like it. It does fit.”

“Maybe someday he’ll be a teacher. He’s good at it when he’s not annoyed.”

“Grandfather taught me after we left Gallifrey. Then we travelled with two human teachers. I wonder how they’re doing.”

“Barbara and Ian are happily married,” said the Doctor.

“That’s wonderful!”

“You’re very… exclamatory, kiddo.”

“She is an enthusiastic one,” agreed the Doctor.

“She’s a good egg. Dunno how she turned out that way, ’cos Gallifrey. You musta done a good job, Doctor.”

“Thank you, Ace.”

“Oh, he did.”

“Thank you, Susan.” The Doctor finished his own drink, and his eyes looked a bit unfocussed.

“Time for spoons,” Ace hissed at Susan.

“What?”

Louder, Ace said, “He plays the spoons. You should hear him. You prolly will. Oh, look!”

The Doctor had retrieved two spoons from his sleeve, and stepping away from the chairs, had begun playing a vigorous beat. Children put down their kites and shovels and came to watch him.

A cute bloke threw a fiver their way, and Ace gave it back before it could blow away.

“See?” said Ace mistily, starting to cry for no reason at all. “This is all he really wants. I told him he didn’t want to destroy the universe, but he worries. If we stay here too long, everybody’s prolly gonna die.” A couple of teenagers backed away nervously.

“Grandmother, nobody’s going to die. We’re safe.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am.”

“The Doctor’s a good egg too. What do eggs have to do with anything, I wonder?”

“I have no idea,” said Susan, exchanging a smile with Ace. “But I think he’s one too.”

“Anyway,” said Ace out of the blue, “just let Alex fall in love and make mistakes and all that stuff. He’s plenty old enough. I should know. I’m his grandmother.”

A few more teenagers left at that, but a larger crowd of younger kids had arrived along with their parents.

“They all think I’m nuts,” said Ace, sotto voce. Another drink arrived, but Susan set it aside on the table.

Then Ace started laughing, and Susan did too. They clapped vigorously when the Doctor finished his song and shouted for another along with the children.

Alex stopped by with his girl, and they listened to the performance for a moment. Then he waved goodbye, blushing a lot.

Susan stirred, but Ace nodded happily. “He’ll be fine. Isn’t he like 33 or 34?”

“He is,” she said primly but gave a little laugh.

The Doctor was moving on to juggling. Pretty soon, he’d probably be asking people to tie him up, and the younger kids would leave, and the parents would be wondering if they should alert the authorities.

But for now, Ace was feeling pretty good.

“Grandmother, I worry about the pace at which you two take life.”

“I worry about him,” Ace said, jabbing her thumb in the Doctor’s direction. He was balancing a ball on his nose like a seal, turning about slowly. Then it vanished. “Do Time Lords ever crack up?”

“It’s been known to happen.”

“What do they do about it?”

“They meditate for a century or two in a zero room or in the catacombs beneath the city.”

“I’m not saying that the Doctor can’t ever sit still, but he could never manage that long. Wait, I wonder if that’s what Innocet was up to. She was all covered in dust when we found her.”

“Possibly.”

“Does it ever work?”

She shrugged. “I don’t really know.”’

“D’y’suppose it counts if he did it in a memory in my head? I mean, he did sit for four years in the library after Fenric possessed me. But then I woke up, and it wasn’t real.”

“This sounds like a very interesting story, but are you sure you want to share it?”

“Why not? Anyway, I’m glad that we’re not at the manor anymore. Part of it came true.” She shivered despite the warmth of the sun.

“That’s… alarming.”

“I shouldn’t be talking about this. I mean, this is such a nice place, and the weather’s good for once, and so far, nobody’s shooting anybody.” She added abruptly, “I ought to take a nap.”

“Go ahead, Grandmother. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“I kinda... I mean I do want to look out for him, but I also just like looking at him.”

“Of course you do. You’re in love.”

Groggy, Ace sounded quite young. “I love him so much it hurts. Is it supposed to hurt?”

“Shh. Close your eyes if you want to.” Then Susan reached out and smoothed Ace’s hair and patted her hand, and Ace couldn’t remember the last time someone besides the Doctor was so gentle to her.

“Ta,” she mumbled. “You’re all right, kiddo.”

And to her astonishment, Susan sang her a soft lullaby.

Maybe family wasn’t so bad, Ace thought as she drifted off.

When she awoke, the midges were about, and she smelt a citronella candle on the table nearby. Not lit. Without thinking, she nudged it with a finger.

The wick burst into flame.

The Doctor walked up to her, as she smothered her look of shock. She could tell him another time.

Notes:

Notes: This is my take on Lungbarrow. I reread it twice in preparation, threw up my hands, and decided to do my own version. I changed up the mirrors for gothic purposes.

Also, was anyone else annoyed by Ace’s comments in Lungbarrow about “uppity servants?” She just wasn’t like that before.

Feedback deeply appreciated.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 14 of The Scalding Veins That Hold Love's Drop