As Rassilon and Romana went to greet the Thanakians, Miss Tarae saw the Doctor talking with Amy, Lurra Rus, and Susan. \u201cGrandfather,\u201d said Susan, unaware of Miss Tarae\u2019s presence, \u201cI still don\u2019t understand why she\u2019d do that!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, she justified it as the Lie Gallifrey was Built on,\u201d replied the Doctor. \u201cAs humans of the 21st<\/sup> century are wont to say \u2018cool motive, still murder\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTelling your granddaughter about what happened to our home?\u201d asked Miss Tarae, startling everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026Well, she deserves to know the truth,\u201d remarked the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat is the truth but a mere interpretation of the facts?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat may be,\u201d remarked Susan, \u201cbut the truth is an interpretation worth upholding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh? So you know about what the Doctor did? What sparked the Time War?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI still hold that it was that mission during the last days of the Thousand Year War on Skaro that sparked the Time War,\u201d remarked the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, come now,\u201d chuckled Miss Tarae. \u201cGiving your own granddaughter an incorrect interpretation of the facts? We both know it was Skaro\u2019s destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDestruction?\u201d asked Amy. \u201cBut we were ON Skaro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA rebuilt Skaro, yes,\u201d replied the Doctor. \u201cThe Daleks managed to restore it thanks to their time travel capabilities. But I DID turn Skaro\u2019s sun into a supernova.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat?! How?!\u201d asked Susan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough the Hand of Omega,\u201d explained the Doctor. \u201cI knew a wicked race of time travelers would try to use it, so I had the Hand turn the sun of the offending race into a supernova.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd that race of wicked time travelers turned out to be the Daleks,\u201d guessed Susan. \u201cBut where does Miss Tarae fit into all that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFurther along into Skaro\u2019s past,\u201d replied Miss Tarae. \u201cWhat if I were to tell you that the High Council used me as a sacrificial lamb?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot entirely a correct interpretation,\u201d remarked the Doctor. \u201cBut the High Council DID make a metaphorical deal with the Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019d hardly call it metaphorical, considering the Daleks ARE the Devil,\u201d scoffed Miss Tarae. The Doctor drew in a breath before continuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen she was the Master,\u201d she said, \u201cMiss Tarae had used up all 13 of her regenerations. She wasn\u2019t technically a Time Lord. She possessed the last Keeper of Traken. To top that off, she was dying, infected with a cheetah virus that was slowly turning her into an animal. Romana and the High Council saw this as an opportunity. She called it the Act of Master Restitution; a bid to try and stop a war between us and the Daleks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was at the end of my tether,\u201d interjected Miss Tarae, \u201cand the High Council saw me as the ideal man for that suicide mission!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo!\u201d argued the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes,\u201d countered Miss Tarae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as clear-cut as that! I know Romana-!\u201d insisted the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDON\u2019T LIE TO ME, DOCTOR!\u201d Miss Tarae grabbed the Doctor by the collar of her coat and pulled her close. \u201cI was expendable! Some sugar-coated promise of a new regeneration cycle for \u2018helping the cause\u2019! But all they really wanted was to kill two birds with one stone! Romana told you every single detail of the plan! You knew I wasn\u2019t going to be walking away from Skaro alive, didn\u2019t you?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026Yes,\u201d admitted the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd the deal was struck!\u201d hissed Miss Tarae. \u201cGo on, Doctor. Tell them all! Tell them the details of that failed deal!\u201d She flung the Doctor to the ground. Lurra Rus helped her up. The Doctor adjusted her coat and continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiss Tarae was sent back to a period before Skaro\u2019s destruction to broker some form of peace treaty with the Daleks, to try and avert any of the future events from happening and starting a war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut that\u2019s breaking the cardinal rule of time travel!\u201d protested Susan. \u201cThe High Council would never allow something like that! They\u2019re not Earth politicians!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy dear Susan, whether from Earth or Gallifrey,\u201d said the Doctor, \u201cpoliticians are a stuffy bunch who will stop at nothing if it means not getting their hands dirty, even if it meant breaking a rule or two. After I destroyed Skaro, the Time Lords knew that any surviving Daleks would see it as an obvious act of aggression and would come here to destroy us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy didn\u2019t they send you?\u201d asked Amy. \u201cYou\u2019re the one that knows the most about the Daleks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey would have killed her on the spot, and the High Council knew it,\u201d replied Miss Tarae. \u201cNo, I was considered expendable, and I already had dealings with the Daleks. President Romana felt that would play in Gallifrey\u2019s favor. Doctor, do you know what happened on Skaro?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou were executed and somehow transferred your consciousness into a Deathworm Morphant,\u201d answered the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, how na\u00efve,\u201d remarked Miss Tarae. \u201cAlthough, I suppose I should be grateful for their lack of morality. If only they just killed me. No, the Daleks wanted to know how we work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow we work?\u201d asked Susan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegeneration, my dear,\u201d explained Miss Tarae. \u201cAnd our sensitivity to time! They must have learned a lot from me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExperimentation!\u201d shuddered the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey did things to me that even YOUR nightmares could not conceive, Doctor! Thank goodness I plucked a jarful of Deathworm Morphants from the swamps of Skaro. They spliced my DNA with other creatures and subjected it to different forms of radiation while I experimented on the Morphants. Only one impossibly strong Morphant could house my consciousness! \u2026On the subject of Dalek experiments, even I learned some things I didn\u2019t think were possible. For instance, did you know that gamma radiation accelerates the regeneration process?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut Grandfather just said,\u201d interjected Susan, \u201cthat you were possessing a non-Gallifreyan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, and that\u2019s what prompted my execution,\u201d remarked Miss Tarae. \u201cFor the crime of stymying their scientific efforts, I was sentenced to vaporization. But the last surviving Deathworm Morphant managed to hold onto my consciousness. After a stint with the Doctor after he freshly regenerated into his eighth incarnation, I was brought back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd after several plots,\u201d remarked the Doctor, \u201cshe was drafted into the Time War like I was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut that whole incident burned in my mind!\u201d hissed Miss Tarae. \u201cThe High Council called it the Act of Master Restitution! And it failed! The Daleks still went to war against us! All because of the Doctor selfishly destroying their homeworld!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, Miss Tarae, the war started when I was sent back in time to avert their creation!\u201d insisted the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAvert their creation?\u201d asked Susan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo that\u2019s when you first met Davros?\u201d asked Amy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly, Amy,\u201d replied the Doctor. \u201cAnd to answer your question, Susan, the Time Lords foresaw a time stream where the Daleks would destroy all other forms of life in the universe. So they sent me into Skaro\u2019s past, during the nuclear war we heard about. I had learned that the Daleks\u2019 humanoid ancestors were actually called Kaleds and they produced a madman called Davros. In a bid to win the war with the Thals, Davros accelerated the mutations of his people and slapped them into a metal war machine, the means of locomotion based on his old chair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou mean this Davros character was a halfway point between the Kaleds and the Daleks?\u201d quizzed Susan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHold on, I saw him with legs,\u201d said Lurra Rus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t used to have legs, or hair, or a left arm,\u201d replied the Doctor. \u201cA Thal shell packed with radioactive isotopes ruined his body, but he was alive. His chair acted as life-support, but his hatred kept him alive up until he stole some of my regeneration energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo he\u2019s got two legs these days?\u201d asked Miss Tarae. She then realized something. \u201cWait a minute-!\u201d she snarled at the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiss Tarae,\u201d interrupted the Doctor, \u201cunlike you, I don\u2019t force others to fix my insanity, even if they started it in the first place. Rassilon and Romana have weightier concerns, callous though I may sound. Weightier concerns, I might add, that YOU plopped on our doorstep! We\u2019ve all confessed our sins to you numerous times and offered constructive solutions. YOU are the one that refuted them in favor of conquering the universe. Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019m going to puzzle out a new tangle Rassilon left us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomething about this Eye of Harmony?\u201d asked Lurra Rus. She and Amy then realized something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDidn\u2019t Rassilon say she used the Eye to power the time scoop and bring Romana and Susan here?\u201d asked Amy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe did,\u201d confirmed the Doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo why make a new one?\u201d asked Susan. \u201c\u2026Unless\u2026\u201d She trailed off in thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSusan?\u201d asked Amy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGrandfather, perhaps we should assist our presidents in greeting the Thanakians,\u201d suggested Susan. The Doctor caught onto her granddaughter\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do believe you\u2019re right, Susan. Let\u2019s go, everyone.\u201d The Doctor led the way with Miss Tarae snarling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDistract everyone by going off on a tangent, Doctor!\u201d she hissed to herself. \u201cHow gutless! And the universe WILL pay for my madness one way or another!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Rassilon and Romana went to greet the Thanakians, Miss Tarae saw the Doctor talking with Amy, Lurra Rus, and Susan. \u201cGrandfather,\u201d said Susan, unaware of Miss Tarae\u2019s presence, \u201cI still don\u2019t understand why she\u2019d do that!\u201d \u201cWell, she justified it as the Lie Gallifrey was Built on,\u201d replied the Doctor. \u201cAs humans of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[959,1067],"tags":[515,35,963,962,997,1068,1069,63],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctor-who-crossings","category-the-specials","tag-amy-rose","tag-doctor-who","tag-fan-companion","tag-fan-doctor","tag-rassilon","tag-romana","tag-susan-foreman","tag-the-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7525,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions\/7525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samueljvinton.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}