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(( smile thanks. smile where about in england are you going? And how does the sock puppet sketch go?))

Trayte looked at Grandpa with disgust.
'I am looking at you with disgust. You disgust me.' he raised the gun, and shot.
'What the...'
Grandpa had multiplied [kuriboh influnce - thanks kathryn.].
'Well then.' said the grandpas 'Now who do you shoot?'
Trayte spun around in a circle, and came to face morgan.
'Hello.' Said morgan, before thumping him on the head. Hard.
Ace chuckled as the rest of the Doctors and companions filed in.
'What a mess!' Exclaimed mel.
'How did you do that?' Asked Ace.
Grandpas' eyes twinkled and he tapped the side of his nose and winked.
David came up to Professor, holding the inert body of James.
'I think we'd better take care of this.'
'Yes.' Agreed the professor.
The Doctors went to the room where Trayte had earlier put grandpa.
'Are you sure you're up to this?' Morgan asked Diva quietly.
'Just. I suppose.'
He nodded gravely.
'What are you going to do?' Asked Nyssa.
'Get that thing out of him.' Answered Donald 'And then use the nanobots to bring him back to life.'
'They can do that?'
'Yes. I hope.'
'You get started.' Said Professor 'I just need to...'
'Yes?' Asked morgan. Bignose led him into the room.
'Not now.' he whispered.

_____________________________________________________________

The Professor went outside. Sarah-Jane, Nyssa and Mel were talking.
Ace went to see what was happening. Professor leaned against the wall, and then slid down until he was sitting, and buried his head in his hands.
'Professor.?'
'I'm fine. Just leave me awhile to... Gather my thoughts.'
'You're not yourself.'
'What do you mean? Of course I am!' He snapped.
He looked up at her.
'I'm sorry you had to go through... that.'
Then he started to cry. Not huge, loud wracking sobs. Simply quiet, exhausted weeping.
Ace didn't know what to do.
'Erm, Professor?'
He didn't answer.
'You don't need to be sorry...'
He remained silent. So she hugged him. What else? Oh bugger. she thought. I suck at this.
Bignose came out to them, and patted his former self gently on the shoulder.
'They're ready.'
Professors' Head jerked up.
'What? Oh, of course.' Wiping his eyes roughly, he made to stand up.
'Thank-you, Ace.'
oh no. thought ace. Soppy crap.
'Yep. Well, go help yourself. Himself. Their... Go help james.'

_____________________________________________________________

The Doctors had assembled in order around James. Professor took his spot in between Morgan and number 8, whom Ace had decided to call nancy.
'Close your eyes or you'll go blind.' Warned Professor.
The four companions obeyed. There was a deadly silence, then a flash of light, and then a 'Hurry, start it up!' from what sounded like einstein, and then the shutting of a door.
Ten minutes later, the Doctors emerged, one after another.
'I think a bit of that brandy would do us good at this moment.' Grandpa was saying.
'Mmm.' Agreed einstein. David was carrying James. Morgan was carrying Diva. They all looked very tired. But Professor no longer winced when he had to bend over... and all the scratches from Morgans arms had disappeared. Bignoses' eyes were back to normal.
The nanobots. Ah, of course, thought Ace. Healed their wounds but not their strength. Always a bloody drawback.
'Let's go, my dears.' Smiled Morgan wearily.
'Whats happened to Diva?'
'He was in a bad way from the beginning.' Said David 'That last... what we just did must have drained the last of his energy. Don't worry, he'll be right soon.'
'You bet.' Mumbled Diva.

___________________________________________________________

Back on the TARDIS, all of the Doctors had gone to rest in the library, where the couches had been made into makeshift beds. James was in the Doctors room, with Ace, Sarah-Jane and Nyssa watching him. He was alive, they could see that in the steady rise and fall of his now-mended chest as he slept.
Ace smiled mischieviously.
'Let's do something to Morgan while he's sleeping.'
The other two women looked at her.
'What?' Asked Nyssa
'You know, like draw on him... has anyone got eyeliner?'
'I do.' Mel had entered.
Sarah-Jane grinned.
'I think Morgans not the only one we should do.'

As they walked along the seemingly endless corridors, they came face to face with David.
His face now resembled that of a strange tatooed nimbonian.
He grinned at them.
'Very funny, girls.'
'oops.'
He tapped the side of his nose.
'Don't worry. I don't know nothin'.'
and he beckoned for them to follow him.
'Theres a rather interesting room down here that i think you all might like.'

___________________________________________________________

[sorry, i'm having too much fun for it to end... twisted ]

Back at the castle, trayte stirred. His head throbbed.
He took a minutes to gather what had happened, and then gasped.
'Those... imbeciles! oh, I'm so close. Oh, i sound so cliched. Oh bugger.'
'Sir, we've put a tracking device on their vehicle.'
'Oh couldn't you think of something more creative?'
'No, sir. I'm just a simple guard. I like to leave all the clever plotting to you.'
'Veyr flattering. Now, we need to get them. And the girl, too. I might just have a little job for her.'
'Which one?'
'The one with the seventh one.'
The guard looked at him questioningly.
'The 'Ooh don't leave me please professor!' one.'
'Ah. I liked her.'
'Oh, shut up.'

___________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS]
'Negative.'
'Oh shut up.'

((Arcade games... sounds like fun! Argh... I only ever see the chinese side of the family... Never the english/welsh/scottish/ireland/any bloody other place on my dads side except for my dads brothers family. And only about once every two years...
How does the sock puppet sketch go?))

David was laughing hysterically as they spun crazily around and around in circles, while snippets of past and future memories flew past them.
Mel was screaming her head off. Sarah jane and nyssa were looking around them in interest. Ace was laughing along with David.
'Let me out!' Shrieked mel 'I tihnk i'm going to be sick!'
'Negative. You cannot be sick in here.' Stated K-9
'Why, david?' Asked Sarah curiously.
'Because 'here' is nowhere... and everywhere. At the same time. They use it for study. I just come here because it's fun.' He paused for a moment, and then turned around.
'WHat is it?' Asked Ace, narrowly missing a passing doughnut.
'I'd better get back.' He muttered, and opened the door, and stepped into the near-but-not-quite normalness of the TARDIS.
_____________________________________________________________

The women and David approached the control room. Professor was nervously pressing buttons, while bignose was hurriedly reading off a screen, lips moving silently. David strode over.
'What seems to be the...'
'Shhhhh!' hissed Professor.
He pressed a few more buttons, and then looked at David.
'We're being tracked.'
'Ah.'
'And there's something else.'
'Get lost.' Growled Bignose to the girls.
They were less than happy to oblige, and shuffled down to the Doctor's room to check on James. Mel and Nyssa decided to detour to the kitchen for a drink.

__________________________________________________________

Inside, Diva was muttering in his sleep. James was sitting on his bed with a faraway look in his eyes.
Diva cried out, and babbled in that language. It was really starting to irritate Ace now - she had absolutely no idea where it came from. But it did sound nice. A sort of fluid, almost musical language.
'What is that he's speaking?' SHe asked james.
'Wha...' his head jerked up. 'Oh. An old language. Very old.'
'BUt...'
'No more about it for the moment. Could you go and check his temperature? He seems to have a mild fever.'
Sarah-jane looked confused.
'Timelords? Fever?'
'Yes.' James smiled faintly. 'Indeed.'
Ace obeyed, and was shocked to feel that his forehead was burning.
'What do we do?'
'Go and get another one of me. They'll know what to do. I don't really feel up to it, myself.'

_____________________________________________________________

((Sounds interesting. And do you speak gaelic? Mrs Ross at school is scottish, and when she says gaelic, it sounds like shes saying garlic. and so we were doing this song in the choir, vair me oh something or other... anyway, she said 'this song has gaelic in it...'
You can sort of guess the rest.))

Ace sat alone in the room. Well, not quite alone. James was with her. But he was absorbed in the book he was reading.
'So...' She began
He looked up. 'Oh! I didn't see you there.'
'What do you mean... I've been here the whole time.'
'Where's jamie?'
'Who?'
'Jamie. one of my companions. So you haven't been here all the time, then.'
'I...'
'Thought so. What sort of a place are you running here, anyway? Looks odd, doesn't it? I have the feeling I've been here before.' He yawned.
'I feel awfully tired right now. I hope you don't mind if I...' He made to lie down.
'NO!' Shouted Ace. James stared at her oddly.
'I mean...well...'
Suddenly, he gave a shout and jerked upright again.
'Oh! I didn't see you there.'
'James?'
'Yes, Ace? I must've drifted off there. Where has Diva gone?'
'To get some tea.'
'Excellent. I think I might go and join them.'

((Oops... I answered the Gaelic question in the wrong RP... And I'm SURE it's not pronounced Garlic... At least I think I'm sure...))

James looked troubled. He was still holding the book Grandpa had given him, tossing it from hand to hand as he walked. But he was not heading for the kitchens.

"James..." said Ace eventually, when she realised she was lost, "Where are we going?"

"Hmm?"
He obviously hadn't been paying much attention to their surroundings. He looked around him in surprise.
"Ah... err... I'm afraid I don't really know."

Ace shuffled her feet nervously. At least the walk had kept him awake.
"What's in the book?"

"Monsters."
He wouldn't say anymore, though he did turn round and begin to retrace his steps.

Ace felt she ought to fill in the silence.
"What... what happened to you back in the castle?"

James frowned. Obviously the question had been bugging him too.
"I... died. And then I woke up in the TARDIS. Not that I'm unfamiliar with that. I just didn't really expect to wake up with the same face..." he laughed, "Though of course I didn't did I?"
He pointed to the smudged remains of his moustache. Ace smiled back but the feeling wasn't really in it.

"Is that all you remember?"

"Yes..." he raised an eyebrow, "Why? Did you see something else?"

"You really don't remember anything after you got shot?"

He clutched a hand to his head.
"No... No I don't think so..."

Ace thought for a moment. How could she explain to him what she'd seen? He seemed so harmless now, but before... And what with Grandpa's warning...
"You... went a bit funny, that's all. You were walking around. And talking. Only it didn't really sound like you."

"You make it sound like I was possessed!"
She didn't say anything and his face went pale.
"I... was? I don't remember..."

She shrugged.
"I don't really know what it was."

He stopped and turned to her, looking worried.
"I.... didn't do anything particularly... well... horrible, did I?"

She shook her head.
"Not really horrible... You shoved the Professor around a bit, but the others stopped you before you could do much."

He sighed.
"That's a relief!" he walked on. They were nearly at a passage Ace recognised. They were only a few doors away from the room David had shown them before.
"I shall have to apologise to him," James continued, "When I can find my way around again... where are we? And who made my TARDIS so complicated?"

"It's ok, I know where we are. There's this really cool room up ahead..."

"Oh? I don't believe I've seen it."

"Really? David said you'd... he'd... um... well you know, that you'd made it for study."

"Must have been after my time..."

"Well I'll show you it then! It's really cool!"

****

The TARDIS screeched as it passed through the time barriers and landed on the planet's surface.
"Did we make it?" said the Professor, glancing at the scanner which had gone blank, "Are we on Gallifrey?"

David pressed the door control and strode across to watch as they opened. There was a moment of silence and then something bright shot in through the doors and stuck to David's arm. He clutched it, wincing.
"Yes... we're home..."

He collapsed sideways, unconscious.

"Drop any arms you maybe carrying and step out of the TARDIS!" said an angry voice from outside, "You have landed without permission! Come out and identify yourselves!"

The Professor and Big Nose exchanged a look.
"I think we'd better do as we're told," said the Professor, raising his hands, "We wouldn't want them to get their knickers in a twist..."

The Professor and Big Nose helped David to his feet as the Gallifreyan guards scanned the room.
"Just how many of you are there?"

"Not that many..." muttered the Professor.

"Bring them out here!"

James and Ace ducked back behind the door.
"Oh dear..." James whispered, clutching his recorder nervously, "Gallifrey..."

"Gallifrey?"

"Gallifrey. Time Lords. My own people."

"Oh. That Gallifrey."

A guard had taken Big Nose by the arm and was leading them towards the door to gather the others. James grabbed Ace's sleeve.
"Come on..."
They ran ahead, trying to find the others. The guard and Big Nose would go to the Doctor's room first, so James led the way to the kitchens. Grandpa, Diva, Sarah-Jane and Nyssa were still there.

"Time Lords!" shouted James, eyes wide, "They're searching the TARDIS - we have to get out!"

Grandpa had leapt straight to his feet but Diva didn't look so worried. He was sat with a cup of tea in his hands, looking much brighter than he had done earlier.
"What's so terrible about that?" he said, "You forget, things have changed since your incarnations... we don't have to run from them now."

"They knocked out David!" snapped James, glaring back, "And I'm not waiting around for the same treatment!"

"I agree," said Grandpa, "I said I'd never go back to Gallifrey and for good reason! Those stuck up fools..."

Diva pushed his tea away and stood up.
"The others obviously brought us here for a good reason..."

James rolled his eyes.
"Good for them but not for me. I'm taking the back way out - you can come or not as you please!"

"Back way?" said Ace, looking puzzled.

"There isn't a back way!" laughed Diva.

"Your memory must be getting fuzzy in your old age," Grandpa smiled, "Let me show you..."

***

They ran down corridors - James checking round every corner as they passed it and Grandpa keeping them all in a line close to the wall. They only passed one pair of guards; one was dragging Nancy along the corridor by his feet whilst the other tried to wrestle a sonic screwdriver out of his hands. He shouted something nasty at them but it was muffled by his cravat that had been pulled up into his mouth.

Keeping to the shadows they made it to a small, nearly bare room. In the center someone had hacked the wooden floorboards away to reveal a man-sized hole. On the wall behind it was a painting of a castle with a long, white road leading up to it and beside that a tall hat stand.

"Which would you pick?" said Grandpa, grinning at the companions as he closed the door.

Ace glanced around.
"The hole?"

"If you leapt in there you'd end up in the library..." said James, "A handy shortcut. But what we really need is the outside world..."
He walked over to the hat stand. Counting round from the front hook, he missed out two and pulled the third down. There was a clunk from the painting but it didn't seem to change.
"Hold your breath as you step through. It's a little... strange."
Without waiting for the others he ran through the painting and disappeared.

"Come on!" snapped Grandpa, herding the others towards it, "On you go!"

With a shrug Ace ran in, followed by Nyssa and Sarah-Jane. Diva glanced back towards the door and then at the painting.
"Seems a bit of a cowardly retreat..."

Grandpa clipped him round the ankles with his walking stick.
"It's a long and noble history of cowardice that you have inherited. Get used to it."

Shoving his 10th self ahead of him, Grandpa led them both through the back door.

((I thought they sounded worryingly real... We got the same sorta thing on the anti-terrorism leaflets the government sent round... confused Has the world gone mad?

On a sub-note: I know nothing about the American depression... except that some guy invented Scrabble during it. I only know that cos there was a play on the radio about it... So, y'know, kick me if I make any mistakes...))

"It sure looks depressing..." said Ace, glancing at the grimy buildings, "I don't s'pose we can go get a bite to eat Professor?"

The Professor glanced at David and round at the exhausted party before nodding.
"That might not be a bad idea. Lead on!"

"Where to?"

James covered his eyes with one hand, pointed the other straight out in front of him and spun round in a circle until he staggered to a halt.
"There!" he said, looking down the road his finger had landed on.

Ace rolled her eyes.
"But how do you know there'll even be a..."

It was too late. The Doctors were already walking off. Sarah-Jane gave her a sympathetic shrug and they all followed.

***

"This looks nice enough..."

They'd managed to find a street with a bit more life in it. The buildings were still battered, the pavements still lined with unhappy looking souls, begging for money, but there were shops and shoppers and cars. They'd found a cafe - or as the sign on the door described it "The Little Diner". It was definitely little, but it served hot breakfasts all day.

And tea and biscuits.

David's face had brightened a little when they'd mentioned tea. He was still weak on his feet and Ace hoped the stun gun hadn't injured him badly.

"What can I get you hon'?"
Ace had been sent up for the order. She came back with a tray full of cups, plates and biscuits.

"What's this?" said James, picking up a large, round biscuit and pulling it in half, "Ah, a chocolate chip cookie. Haven't had one of these in ages..."

Grandpa pulled a face.
"Call this tea?" he hissed, but the others shushed him. The Professor was too glad to have escaped from Gallifrey to care about his drink.

"Five guards!" he said, grinning, "All bristling with laser guns too! But they didn't count on K-9... as soon as Big Nose got near the controls - bam! Out like logs."

"Big Nose..." said Ace, "What happened to him?"

David winced.
"He stayed behind to try and explain things to them. I doubt they'll be in much of a mood to listen. But they never are."

"He's got Morgan and the others to back him up."

"They might mind-scan him..."

It was the Professor's turn to wince.
"Yes, well. He did say he wanted to convince them, no matter what..."

Diva was sat staring into his teacup. He hadn't drank anything - nor said anything since they'd escaped. His face was oddly pale and his eyes dark, though he didn't look ill.
"Are you ok?" said Ace, nudging him.

His head snapped up and for a moment his eyes looked like black holes. Then the light brightened them and his expression turned puzzled.
"What?"

Ace grinned.
"Asleep on the job?"

"Waitress!" said Grandpa, standing up and waving his arm, "Another pot of tea please! Oh dear..."
He'd pulled out his hankerchief and two shiny gold coins had flown from his pocket with it and landed on the table, spinning noisily. He scooped them up.
"And some more biscuits!"

The waitress grinned.
"Sure hon!"

As Grandpa and the other Doctors went back to their noisy conversation about Gallifrey and how to get back to the TARDIS, Ace glanced round the room. The table just across the room caught her eye - it was one of the few others occupied. And it's occupants were watching them with suspicious interest. She could see the greed and desperation in their looks. They were sizing the group up - and possibly sizing up their wallets too. She'd have to be careful. The Doctors, eccentric at the best of times but today completely unmissable with their overly-British accents and odd clothes, would stick out like sore thumbs in this grim American town... And just how WERE they going to get back to the TARDIS?

When the Doctors had drunk their fill, David had proved he really was as 'fit as a fiddle' and the bill had been paid with tip, they left. As they walked down the street, away from the little cafe, Ace was sure she saw figures following them out of the door - but when she turned there was no-one to be seen. Perhaps she'd just been concentrating on it so much she'd imagined it...

They turned a corner and walked into sudden shadow. They were in an alleyway between two of the taller buildings.
"Oh dear..." said James, "Not this way I think..."

They turned and found their way blocked.

"This way's just fine for us..."
There were three men stood in the entrance to the alleyway. The nearest was holding what looked like a broken-off table leg and he was bouncing it off his palm in a threatening gesture.

Much to Ace's embaressment James and the Professor both raised their hands high into the air. She stood her ground.
"Piss off! You don't scare me - you think the three of you can take down the eight of us? We're used to being attacked you know!"

More figures appeared in the entrance way, desperate-looking men clutching make-shift weapons. Ace felt her courage fading. Suddenly they were outnumbered...

((The return of the evil villian! *plays dramatic music on recorder* Excellent. But I'm gonna skip on writing anything... I want to see Sarah-Jane/Nyssa... err... power. Also my brain has gone numb...))