1. Bat Out of Hell
2. You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth
3. Heaven Can Wait
4. All Revved Up With No Place to Go
5. Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
6. Paradise by the Dashboard Light
7. For Crying Out Loud

Oi, Rani. A word, please?

We were all running through the corridors of the Capitol that night. Everyone else ran out. I ran in.

I had to place the explosive charges inside. They were everywhere really but the most important ones had to be in the Capitol.

The Daleks. They got control of the Cruciform, see. Once they'd done that... they had the Capitol. They had all of Gallifrey.

They would have all of space and time.

It couldn't be allowed.

I was the only one who could stop it.

I ran through the crowds, pushing against the flow of traffic. Against the people mad with fear who were trying to flee. I ran from room to room, preparing this the pinnacle of my homeworld's power for complete destruction.

My homeworld was prepared for destruction. All of it. But this building below the Cruciform had to go first.

When it was done, I ran again. This time the corridors were empty. I was the last one left.

I didn't know then just how prophetic that would be.

"Right," the Doctor said, rubbing his sore neck with a sheepish kind of look on his face. "Piece of advice. The first rule of attempting to shanghai someone off to Rassilon knows where so you can figure out a way to keep them from visiting more evil upon the universe?

...make sure they don't know sneaky ways to physically incapacitate you.

Yeah."



Author's note: Lovingly dedicated to the Rani and her mun for events both in this RP 'verse and meta events in chat.

"Koschei, give me the bottle."

"My dear Ushas, you're a delicate wisp of a female, you don't need as much drink as I do."

"You can give it to me, or I can break your legs and take it from you."

Theta Sigma snorted. "You'd best do it, Koschei. She doesn't crack jokes, remember?"

"...crack your skull in a minute, Theta..."

"Yeah, yeah, and if I had a bottle of wine for every time you threatened that, I could give them all to you and you'd adore me forever, wouldn't you, Ushas?"

She stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. Theta Sigma chuckled and sat back on the rocky ledge between his two best friends, watching as the bottle was passed across his lap.

"So it's off in that direction. Other side of the galaxy. First place I'm going to go, once I have a TARDIS."

"Mmm?" Ushas lowered the bottle. "Oh. Your little pet planet. How cute."

"At least he's got interests outside a laboratory," Koschei snapped but it was with affection. "So, Earth. I think it's grand that you're going to go. I don't know where I'll go. I just know I want to get out of here."

Ushas passed the bottle back. "Hear, hear."

Theta Sigma sat between them as they kept bickering, not paying attention to the words, just the sounds of their voices going back and forth. Their presences and the fact that they were together.

It was all going to change so soon. They were going to graduate in just a few short years and he was afraid they would never be this close again. He was afraid of losing this bond. He was afraid of going out there in that great big universe without the two people he liked most.

He closed his eyes and made himself promise he'd never forget this.

The Doctor set the last of the charges. He rigged the last of the wiring. He connected the last of the timers.

He wished it didn't have to come to this.

There was no other way. The Daleks would take everything. The Daleks would take his people. His home. His planet.

More importantly they would take the technology and power. It couldn't be allowed. They would flatten and crush the universe if they had all that.

There was no other way. He trudged toward his TARDIS with a vague memory hovering at the edges of his mind.

"There should have been another way..."

But he was young then. Not just the age but the face. He was so convinced of justice back when he was that man. Of fairness and alternatives.

He was that man no longer.

He never would be again.

He stepped into his TARDIS. This ship had been his oldest and most loyal friend. His home. Everything.

It was fitting, he thought to himself as he lay himself down on her floor under the console, that she should become his tomb. Perish with him in this last act of sacrifice. This last act for the greater good. She seemed to understand what he was doing. He felt her presence in his head, comforting him in these last moments.

Only minutes left now. No time for speeches, or for memorials or rituals to mark the passing of the greatest people the universe had ever known, for better or for worse.

He wondered, as he entered a trance state, what he would find when he woke up on the other side. If he woke up. If there was any way his consciousness survived once everything else was gone.

He woke up.

He woke up, on that floor, with his TARDIS intact, the engines humming and the rotor working up and down in its socket in the center of the console. He woke up, and they were in flight.

He woke up, and she was in his mind, mournful and apologetic and falling all over herself in a way he'd never experienced in all the centuries they had been together. She was sorry. She was so very sorry but she couldn't let him be burned away with the rest. She couldn't let everything perish. She had to save him. He had to survive.

He woke up, and he was fleeing the destruction he had wrought with his own two hands.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

“The best things in life are free.”

Earth saying, that. Most of your Earth sayings, they’re pretty daft. But that, that’s a good one. There was even a song. “The best things in life are free / but you can give ‘em to the birds and bees…”

Hrm. Never mind. The Beatles. And they were actually singing about money. And wanting money, so things that were free were no good.

…Wasn’t even Lennon and McCartney. That was a cover song.

And it wasn’t right. Not at all correct. The best things in life are free.

First, there’s free, as in, “doesn’t cost money,” yeah? That’s like the literal meaning, there. Like a nice sunset—that’s especially good if you’re on a planet with more than one sun. Or having a good friend to share that good sunset with. Or how about a song you love on the radio? Or having a good night’s sleep. None of that costs you a penny and it’s all fantastic.

Then there’s free, like, “without a care.” Like having a Sunday afternoon with no place to go and no one to see and no obligations. I like those. Or running down a beach and not looking back and not having a care in the world. Or several worlds. Or just sprawling out on your bed in the middle of the day.

Right, so yeah, none of those things cost you any money either so they’re still the other sort of free too. Whatever.

I like free when it means “there’s no history.” A first meeting. The first steps on a new planet. A new tool or piece of clothing. The chance to build a memory from scratch.

Maybe the best kind of free is “unencumbered.” “Liberated.” “Unfettered.” Like a planet with a good government that doesn’t crush its people. A person who isn’t bound to some relationship or job or whatever. Someone who’s got the opportunity to chase after their dreams and try to catch them. I like people like that. I am people like that, sometimes.

The best things in life are free. If you’re free to come with me, I’m free to show you all of them.