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Drean did his best to ignore the slight sting in the Doctor's words. Yes, they're EXTREMELY painful. That's why I don't like the idea of advising it... He turned his back to the two of them, refusing to see the look on the Doctor/Katrina's face as he once again tried to talk them out of this "good idea."

Drean nodded. Well, then, I'm turning off my audio sensors... He snapped his fingers to illustrate the point, and the world became soundless. That's one advantage to being a sentient machine, now... Starting chameleon arches... Preliminary scans complete.

Consider yourself lucky, Drean. You don't have to hear this. The Tardis whispered through Drean's link.

Activating chameleon arches in three... two... one. Drean tried not to imagine what was going on behind him as he flipped the final lever.

When the Tardis console showed him that the process was complete, Drean disconnected himself, pulled the chameleon arches off of their unconscious bodies, and placed each fob watch into the other's hand. After putting the other hardware away, Drean sat down, relaxing his feet on the console and wiring himself straight into the data banks. Can you play them for me? They'll be out of a while...

You know that you can't get those days back, Drean. Watching your own memories is just torturing yourself... The Tardis warned him. You need to stop wishing for the past.

That's rich, coming from a time machine... Drean tried not to snap at her with his retort, the matrix was just trying to protect him, after all. I know that it's painful, but it's a bittersweet pain...

You need to move on. The Tardis gently chided. But I won't stop you. I'll extrapolate your memories from the "good old days." The tardis matrix hung back, easily registering the huge amounts of joy coming from Drean as he re-watched memories of his old life. She knew that he was seeing his parents, his friends... And himself, completely organic. Before the cybermen attacked.

Did either of you open the fob watches yet? Drean muttered, grouchy to be distracted from his reminiscing. That's the cue for the changes to undo themselves...

When Drean heard the cybermen, he almost mistook it as part of the memory that he was watching, but it was easy for him to recognize it as coming from the outside. Like waking a sleeping lion, the cybermen had instantly gotten on Drean's last nerve. A guitar riff to a familiar song called "Ready To Die" began playing in his brain when he heard the scream for help. They're not getting away with it THIS TIME!



Disable the temporal grace! He shouted as he ripped himself away from the control panel. When he turned to face the cybermen, and saw them carrying off Katrina/The Doctor, his rage completely engulfed any plans of giving mercy. He raised his arm as a targeting sight appeared in his vision. A large panel slid to the side, an a large gun barrel rose up. Drean didn't even stop to notice that he had never been aware of that gun, but opened fire. The first blast decapitated one cybermen, and three more had suffered the same fate before they realized that they were being attacked. The final cyberman, still holding Katrina/ The Doctor, slammed its fist to its chest, teleporting away just as a blast was about to take its head off, as well.


Drean was panting heavily as the music faded. His gun barrel was smoking and slowly retreated back into his arm, and he walked to the place where the cyberman had been standing moments ago, just outside of the Tardis. He looked around, trying to find some sign of them, but finally dropped to his knees, knowing that he had lost to the cybermen once again.


Ohh, the poor little boy, so very far from home... Chasing a nightmare, all alone. The valeyard's voice crackled over the speakers. A little machine with so many flaws, but when he fights, he sure has claws!

Where are they?? Drean shouted, knowing that he could be heard.

Oh, they're quite safe... for now.

Oh, this is too rich! The great and powerful Doctor, helpless to save his own body! I'll steal your remaining regenerations, and you won't be able to do a thing about it! You won't even BE there! The valeyard laughed.

Doctor, Doctor, Doctor. This is a chess game, not a fist fight! It's your move, use it well and use it quickly...


Drean shook his head, trying to see the similarity to a chess game. The queen has been stolen, the king's moves are limited... and the only way to get a queen back- He rose to his feet, gripping his head in disbelief of what he was about to do. Is to have a pawn reach the back row. Doctor, I have to go to rescue her!

Drean nodded solemnly, looking back at the Doctor, then the Tardis. His home and his friend... He walked back to the blue box, placing his hand on the doorframe.

There's new software that I uploaded to keep the cybermen from hacking your systems again, but there's something else... It seems as if there may be a new type of hardware.

Drean tilted his head, a bit confused. The Tardis never used a wireless connection unless it absolutely had to. Do you know what it is?

It's a thought-adaptive building technology, mainly based around nanites. You just used it to build that pulsar blaster. I didn't have time to run a full scan on the technology, but they seem to be purely under your control, not the other way around. Remember that you have that available to you while you're out there.

Don't worry about me. Drean tried to be reassuring as he walked away. I'll be okay.




After a few minutes, Drean was completely lost, and the Valeyard's taunts of "Warmer" and "Colder" were only confusing him more. Absent-mindedly, he scratched at his cyber-arm, tugging at the plates and gently fingering the bolts. I need a clue... He looked from left to right, only confronted by a thousand doors. Well, I'm not getting anywhere in these hallways, maybe a room could tell me something... He reached out for a door, spotting that it was room number 13.

My lucky number...