Chapter 105
"How…are there Nine Gallifreys?" Harry asked. It wasn't the first question he'd asked that day, nor would it likely be the last. He had found himself a chair at least.
None of the Eternity Circle had said anything when he'd retrieved a chair from the Timeship, it was now parked in the corner of the Eternity Circle's laboratory, or whatever it was where they'd last met.
"Surprised?" Harry'd announced with some satisfaction when they'd stepped out to find the Time Strategist waiting.
"Your survival was suitably expected Sorcerer," it had said knowingly.
Which Harry reflected was an extremely weird way to answer his question, for a Dalek. He had been expected either a long or a short 'Yes'.
"The Time Lords' temporal manipulation has not just extended to manipulating Skaro's heritage, they manipulate their own timeline to gain advantages in the Time War Sorcerer," Harry refused to jump, he'd seen the Time Strategist glide off, presumedly to put some washing out on the line, but had obviously glided back in behind him.
"Do they still exist or has Gallifrey hidden them away like the Degradations?" Harry wondered looking at the projection up on the screens.
"They no longer exist, successful Dalek temporal assault squad operations and Dalek stealth ships cooperated with the Deathsmiths of Goth to eradicate the temporal supports and chronon structures supporting the timeline webs substantiating these alternate worlds," one of the Eternity Circle added in a tone that almost projected an excited tone that it was able to impart this knowledge to someone who was curious.
Harry blinked. "I can't remember why we got onto the topic of the Nine Gallifreys now," he admitted.
"Working out how to get to Gallifrey, they thought there might be data there that might be useful," Oswin tutted. She was stood seemingly quite comfortably, he'd offered her a chair earlier but she'd indicated she preferred to stand and observe.
Harry breathed in a slow lungful of air and idly wondered whether anyone would notice if he ducked back into the Timeship to make a mug of tea.
They'd all notice. Only the Time Strategist would give him a look he betted.
"And?" He wondered. "You've got agents I would guess on Gallifrey?" Harry craned to ask the Time Strategist who thoughtfully glided around into his forward vision so he didn't need to look to backwards to it awkwardly.
"Yes," this was a long yes, and usually came with a 'but' or 'however' implied or not. "Dalek agents on Gallifrey are utilised sparingly for information gathering and dissemination of false data, they cannot lower the transduction barriers or clear sky trenches to allow you and Dalek Mage access to Gallifrey," it explained in a tone.
Harry nodded. "I have my own agent on Gallifrey," he mused to himself.
The Time Strategist and one of the Eternity Circle twisted to look at him expecting him to explain further.
He didn't, just to annoy them.
After several rels they looked to Oswin, who shrugged.
-/
Harry leaned back in his chair thinking on what he'd learnt and knew about Gallifrey.
That it was full of thugs. Dangerous and paranoid thugs.
That he'd much rather be in a room with the Master or the Doctor than spend any time with the Time Lords of Gallifrey.
That they would try and attack Earth in his past and their future.
"In the past…" Harry began out loud as he thought to himself.
Sarah and Tegan, along with the Brigadier had ended up on Gallifrey. In the Death Zone.
Which was on Gallifrey.
Which would mean they wouldn't need to worry about getting through the Transduction Barriers, because the Time Scoop could just scoop them up, he guessed at least.
"What about the Time Scoop?" Harry asked as he finished his thought out loud.
Harry felt all eye-pieces on him.
"Time scoop?" One of the Eternity Circle repeated curiously.
-/
Tannis' eye twitched. He had refused to regenerate. That vampire had cost him a life, he would not use another.
He had been returned to Gallifrey and been interviewed by the Celestial Intervention Agency.
The vampire had been destroyed; by the Daleks and their agents.
The TARDISes too had been destroyed by the Daleks and their agents.
The CIA had not asked who, best to keep that information secret and away from anyone who might ask questions was the general implication.
Those events, and the involvement of the thing in the war, were now classified to the highest degree.
He was to remain on Gallifrey to perform work with the Inner Council, although not the War Council he had apparently seen too much war for this regeneration.
That was why they'd tried to get him to regenerate, a fresh body to fight anew.
This body was fine, it bore the scars of the thing.
Then, the other night, someone came to visit him in his chambers.
Once they were alone with him he knew something was different with this woman. His temporal senses found something lacking with the woman before him.
"We have a mission for you Tannis," she explained calmly.
"A mission?" Tannis asked his hand moving to the staser on his leg. Everyone who worked with the High of Inner Council wore them.
She held up her hand; a Dalek weapon was protruding out of it.
Tannis felt his hearts miss a beat.
"The Daleks?" He asked quietly.
"Harry Potter has a request, and is glad to see you lived to fight another day against the scum and the creature your people created," the woman seemed to quote.
Tannis had not considered Harry Potter, in his relative timeline it had been almost 30 years since he had met Harry Potter. He who had rescued him, a brief flash of time, were it not for the war elongating and suppressing time and its experiences.
"What does he wish me to do? I won't diminish Gallifrey's defences for those you represent," he challenged defiantly, his hand still over his staser.
The woman before him smiled. "He said you would probably say that, and he doesn't want that, he has an idea," she paused. "And enough knowledge of Gallifrey to get himself here, and deal with Ginny Weasley," she seemed to continue to quote.
Tannis took hold of the desk before him, a Time Scoop. How did Harry Potter, a human know of the Time Scoop, and enough to inform where it was?
Although not enough knowledge to know that the Lord President no longer inhabited those chambers.
But he obviously knew enough about the Games of Rassilon and where the Time Scoop deposited its victims.
He knew the zone was largely out of bounds for most Time Lords, it was where Rassilon performed his most dangerous experiments.
So, dropping two agents of the Daleks there would not cause much harm, and they; the council, the Time Lords had created a thing dangerous and psychotic that had robbed him of one of his lives. An abomination, a vampire. This would be a minor indiscretion to them, after what had been taken from him after following their orders.
"What are the target coordinates?" He asked after several microspans of thought on the matter.
-/
There were tempting fruit hanging from the weird trees. According to his handful of spells he'd done when they'd arrived they weren't poisonous.
Despite the small weak sun hanging over them it was quite Mediterranean in its climate here on Ranx, some sort of refraction apparently in the purple and orange sky did something to make the sun's rays warm the planet.
"Do you know anything interesting about this planet?" Harry asked as he looked at the circle they'd drawn.
The circle was the coordinates that they'd given the Dalek agent who would pass it onto their own agent; Tannis on Gallifrey. It was a bit of a thrill to think they had agents to call on.
He hoped that Tannis wouldn't drop them into a supernova.
They didn't have a gigantic amount of options to get to Gallifrey. They'd had their hands on literally a couple of TARDISes and failed to get Transduction Barrier codes.
This lateral way onto Gallifrey would hopefully work.
Then getting closer to the Capitol should be matter of apparition, the Eternity Circle had provided him and Oswin with a good amount of information gathered by their sneaky agents on Gallifrey. Apparently that was all they did, neither he nor Oswin believed that for a moment, but they were helping them, which was all that mattered...for the moment at least.
"It's protected by the Galactic Heritage," Oswin said in a tone that did not inspire confidence.
"Oh?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, their warships are a bit of a scourge, you've said you've encountered British Heritage who're just as militant?" Oswin asked curiously.
Harry smiled broadly. "Not quite, but I think they would like to have warships to use on developers who decide to knock down a Grade I listed building…" Harry trailed off as both he and Oswin looked up at a sound like thunder.
"That doesn't sound good," Harry shuffled closer to Oswin as they looked around.
"There," Oswin pointed.
Against the orange and purple sky was a rather ominous looking black triangle. It was spinning around as a weirdly two dimensional object in three dimensional space. Its incongruity deeply disturbing him.
"It's the temporal energy, it's…disturbing," Oswin explained as she took his hand, squeezing it.
Harry squeezed her hand back and felt scared, saying so to Oswin.
"We're going to the home of the Time Lords, we should be Harry, but we'll watch each other's back," Oswin squeezed his hand again.
"And they probably want to kill us both," he tried to laugh as the two dimensional triangle made its way down through three dimensional space towards them.
"Yeah, and this is an old death trap anyway isn't it?" Oswin continued in a nervous way.
"We'll just have to find another way to get to Gall-" then the black triangle fell on both of them, freezing them in stasis and whisking them away.
-/
"-ifrey." Harry stumbled and looked around, Oswin was beside him looking up at the overcast orange sky.
"Well, this is another thing to tick off my list of things I thought I'd never do," she commented.
Harry nodded. "Me too, we still need to survive this," he finished as he looked up, shading his eyes against the light. "Sarah, Tegan and Iris were right, it does look grim and overcast."
Something roared some ways away.
Harry fumbled a bag out of his coat and pulled on the deep red cloak, Oswin was likewise doing the same. The Eternity Circle had provided them with genuine Gallifreyan garments.
Gesturing around with his wand Harry tried to establish where they were in relation to the Capitol, and if it was safe to apparate.
If it wasn't to do the latter then this would be a very long quest.
"Safe?" Oswin asked.
"We're in the Death Zone on Gallifrey and we're working with the Daleks, in the Time War," Harry commented with a smirk. "We're in the least safe situation, possibly in the universe at this moment," he paused as Oswin wrinkled her nose at him. "But it's safe enough to apparate, to the Outlands,"
"It was called the Drylands on the Eternity Circle's intelligence," Oswin pointed out as she took his hand.
"The Doctor, when he told me about the old times on Gallifrey called it the Outlands," Harry remembered wistfully. "I think it's the same," he finished as he pulled Oswin closer, putting his arm around her.
"Close?" She whispered.
"Just in case," Harry said in a soft tone as he closed his eyes, breathing in the air around him, feeling through the breeze, thinking of Metebelis III when he had the Eight Legs on his back; feeling the energies around him, relaxing his body and mind to pass through and grab a hold of those energies and then…
Then he opened his eyes and released his grip on Oswin.
-/
They were stood on a parched dry landscape, the ground beneath their feet was pitted and pot marked. No rain had fallen here for some time, yet the dust, such as it was seemed fixed to the ground.
Oswin nodded behind him. "There."
Harry turned around to look; and there on the very edge of the distance was a domed city.
"Point me; Ginny Weasley," he said as he laid his wand on his palm, breathing in calming against the wind, it tasted musty, dry, slightly metallic with an edge of...something else.
His wand shifted, twitching slightly before settling, pointing towards the domed city.
"Do we walk?" Oswin asked.
"We could fly," Harry looked up, he was sure he could see something up above the clouds, perhaps the sky trenches looking down at them? He wasn't even sure what sky trenches were.
"That might be a bit conspicuous, especially for me," Oswin commented flattening down her dress.
"I don't think the Time Lords do Mary Poppins, and you don't have an umbrella," Oswin gave him a puzzled look. "Cultural reference, sorry."
Oswin shook his head. "Or do we walk?"
Harry patted down his pockets, just making sure they were all still there and full of things. He'd been tempted to keep his dimensionally transcendental bag with him, but it was tucked away inside a bag within one of his pockets.
Oswin had the Timeship with her. What they were going to do with that and how they were going to escape was another question entirely, and one he was determined to deal with later. One massive problem at a time.
"We'll go to the foothills there" he pointed to the bottom of some snow-capped mountains in the distance "and then we can get our bearings and have a better look around."
"Did you ever think you'd be stood on Gallifrey?" Oswin asked as he took her in a one arm embrace and closed his eyes again, wary of the weird energies that were supposedly present on this planet.
With the briefest of parting of air they were closer to the Capitol at the foothills of one of the mountains.
Harry looked around, they were stood amongst some red grass. "Never, considering what the Doctor told me about everyone here hating outsiders and you know," he made a spraying exploding gesture with his hand and made a noise. "There's also them trying to destroy my home planet, I didn't imagine I'd ever visit," he commented as he looked around and dug out some binoculars from an expanding bag; looking down to the Capitol.
While it was a dome there were several paths leading across what looked like a moat made of destroyed saucers.
"It's a lovely view," he commented handing the binoculars to Oswin.
"Very harsh industrial," she mused as she handed them back to him.
"We can't just pop in, can we?" Harry wondered with a sigh as he bent down to touch the alien grass. "Too much to go wrong if we pop in."
-/
In the end he'd decided to risk apparating, although not into the domed Capitol. There was a transmat port close to the outside where they could join a group of people walking into the Capitol.
He kept his wand up a sleeve, and Oswin walked beside him like she had somewhere important to be.
They both did, which he guessed sold it.
Until they were stopped by a very young looking guard holding a scanner.
"You've not regenerated," he said in a tone Harry couldn't quite identify. He looked younger than 14, but that could mean anything on this planet.
"That's right soldier, special biodata genetics for undercover work," Harry commented calmly as he caught the guard's eye and holding his gaze for a long moment.
The guard opened his mouth a little but didn't say anything.
"Special CIA work..." Harry began and wondered how much he'd have to bluff.
"The Celestials?" The guard looked at him brightly. "Thought I'd be able to get in, only on my first regeneration," he held up the scanner, "wanted to talk to others about it, the others think I'm weak."
Harry smiled and was glad he probably wouldn't have to kill the Time Lord and vaporise his body somewhere. "Nothing wrong with one heart soldier, plenty of the Daleks' enemies face them with one, and they've survived," the guard didn't seem to want to leave it at that. "Or what about the renegades?"
"The renegades?" The guard repeated surprised.
"The Master, Rani, Monk," Harry listed off on his hand.
"The Doctor," Oswin added from his side.
"The Doctor!" The guard repeated in surprise looking between Harry and Oswin.
"He did plenty before his first renewal, fought them before war was even declared on Skaro, tried to stop them several times, even stopped them getting dimensionally transcendental time travel," Harry explained.
The guard's eyes went wide, Harry saw he had deep blue, almost purple eyes, a shock of black hair under his helmet seemed to be trying to escape and manifest as a fringe on his forehead. "They tried to have dimensionally transcendental capsules?!" he asked in a shocked and excited tone.
Harry smiled. "Don't say where you learnt it," Harry tapped his nose as he chuckled. "The Doctor stopped them, before his first renewal," Harry paused. "So don't worry about having one heart, there's nothing only about having one heart, it's the Gallifreyan within that matters."
"We should head off, particular business that requires our attention," Oswin prompted.
"Oh course," the soldier said quickly and smiled at Harry. "Thank you."
"Of course," Harry said with a half smile as the soldier turned and continued looking at his scanner.
It was only after they'd walked amongst the people and ducked down a quiet corridor, although one with a view up to the domed sky that Harry let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding.
"I really thought we'd need to drag him into a corridor like this and have him meet a messy end," Harry muttered as he extracted his Babel Fish on a stick and applied some to the back of his ear. He'd put just the tiniest dab before they'd come in just in case it would be detected, he doubted it would. But they were playing with napalm while juggling neutron bombs here.
Rubbing the Babel Fish gel he closed his eyes for a moment and laid his wand on his palm. "Point me-" he was cut off.
"Hang on, maybe we should find our agent, instead of wandering around randomly?" Oswin commented. "Not that it's not exciting, in a weird way being here."
"Doing Doctor-y things in deadly danger?" Harry asked. "I agree, let's find Tannis."
-/
Tannis knew something was amiss immediately when he'd returned to his chambers. There was evidence of disruption on the lock to his chambers, the slight sonic warping around the eighth dimensional interconnect within the locking mechanism.
Entering he didn't vocalise his surprise until the door locks were suitably engaged.
"You survived the Death Zone."
"We didn't hang around there for very long, if I'm entirely honest, had a look at the sky, heard something roar," the man smiled ruthlessly at him. "I'm a bit disappointed, we didn't even get to see the Tower of Rassilon, I've heard it's quite an imposing sight."
"Like the Time Lord himself," the woman, she was wearing a red cloak said, she was stood calmly, almost like a sentient TARDIS in the way she observed him off to one side.
"I was surprised to hear that he had been brought back if I'm honest, I thought he oversaw the Game of Rassilon, and was dead," the man continued casually.
"How do you know so much of Gallifrey Harry Potter? You're a human," Tannis shook his head.
"I saved your life, killed a vampire, I'm a man of several talents," he countered casually.
"I…I thought," Tannis began, he had thought that in bringing these two to Gallifrey that that would be the end of it, of things, of them.
"You weren't intercepted using the Time Scoop I hope?" Harry Potter asked, he almost sounded sincere.
"No, no one even knows of it, it's not protected by anything, not even a few Sliders," he commented. "No one would be stupid enough to want to go to the Death Zone," he looked to Harry Potter. "Or smart enough to extract themselves from it."
"No, I suppose not, I come from a rather well placed location with regard to that," the human mused in a low tone.
"Which is?" Tannis wondered.
"The renegades are quite talky once you get a bit of booze into them and then threaten them with acetylsalicylic acid," the human finished with a feral smile, it almost seemed like a threat. Tannis felt his hearts quicken, it was quite odd to be threatened so casually by a human, with little more than words. The knowledge behind them was however quite true, that was why he was threatened by them. "What do you want?"
"We could wander around trying to find Ginny Weasley for ages, but we might run into some of your fellow Time Lords," the woman commented casually, it also sounded like a threat.
Harry Potter looked at him. "And I honestly have no desire to harm any of you on this planet Tannis," he paused. "With one or two exceptions,"
"Harry," the woman warned.
"Help us narrow down where Ginny Weasley is, and we'll leave you to your lives," Harry Potter said.
"And if I refuse?" Tannis asked, his voice tight.
"Then I'll stun you, and you'll wake up with a dry mouth and headache that could crack open a small moon," the woman commented.
"But you'll live Tannis, I'm not here to kill Time Lords, I have one target, and that's it," the man finished in a tired tone, his expression remained resolved.
Tannis looked at the man, properly now removed from the mess of their first encounter he recognised the body language and resolve of many Time Lords and agents of theirs, the quiet tireless resolve to a mission, long fought with dedication. It was strange to see it in a human, who worked with the enemy.
-/
There were 96 floors of the Penansulix Structure, Gallifrey's advanced science and technology building, and Ginny could be in any of them.
Harry was just glad she hadn't some how been moved somewhere else, he didn't fancy some how getting to the Three Minute Cities, Arcadia or Old Harbour just a few of the places listed by Tannis that she could have been, and all of which were supposedly behind the Capitol which was why his wand had pointing in this direction.
Tannis had seemed like he was just going to leave Ginny's location as being the Penansulix Structure, and leave them to hunt through all 96 floors. Then Oswin had threatened him a little bit more in a cold and detached way, it seemed something about her distressed him, Harry wasn't sure what. He didn't think she was Dalek-related so it wasn't that, but there was something about her threat that disturbed him and made him more compliant to presenting more information.
Ginny could be in any of them Tannis related, but the Penansulix Structure reached deep into ground, its foundations sitting at the same level as the Cloisters, where the Sliders resided.
Tannis hadn't elaborated what the Sliders were, and beyond showing them the tunnels below he refused to help them any more beyond that. Simply suggesting that below the surface was where hidden projects usually lay, out of the sight of the common Time Lords.
Tannis stated he wouldn't reveal their presence, and Harry mostly believed him. There remained an angry, slightly scared side to the man that was bubbling below the surface, directed at his own people for what they had done, what they'd allowed to be done to him through the vampire Ginny. He'd almost wanted to reassure him more, but...he didn't know what to say to the Time Lord, he just wanted to get through this and get it done.
-/
"How a planet that seems so dry can have cold mildewy tunnels I don't understand," Harry commented gesturing around with a torch. His wand had indicated this was the right way.
"Mmm," Oswin said moving her shoulders around like she'd pulled a muscle.
"Problem?" Harry asked with concern.
"I'd feel more comfortable with a gun and manipulator arm if I'm honest Harry, and that's not often I've said that magic boy," she said seemingly forcing a light tone, giving him a brief smile.
"I think I might feel better as well, but hold off on the hemispheres for now Oswin," Harry said, "I don't think the Time Lords would appreciate a Dalek popping around for tea."
"I could do with a cup right now Harry," Oswin said in a small voice.
"So could I Oswin…" Harry trailed off as the wall they'd been following turned into a door with a roundel in it, "But I don't think this is a café we've found."
-/
He'd found her in a small room off of the main laboratory, that was where he'd left Oswin to download all the data that seemed to be stored there. What all of the equipment did, he guessed was for creating her other selves.
The room wasn't a TARDIS, but had a similar sort of perception filter that made both of them want to turn around and leave, feeling as though they'd seen nothing until they'd both forced each other to step further in and acclimatise to its interior being in existence, despite their senses being quite suggestive as to it otherwise not.
The woman he found in the other room was naked, save for the fleshy cables and other things attached to her. She was unconscious, mostly, her eyes were closed with a coronet over her head; muttering to herself.
She didn't just look sick, she sort of looked like the person he'd known, but with old person's makeup on.
After seeing 12 different version of her, both old and young, this, the original seemed…not, not…he couldn't put his finger on it. There was something aged and not to her.
After all the powerful, both physically and passionate versions of her that he'd fought across the Time War, here she was; under a building on Gallifrey. Hidden away and protected by its secret nature.
"Ennervate," he whispered softly casting an extended spell over her body.
She jerked as the spell's effects took hold on her, all the cables jerking with her motion like a nest of snakes suddenly coming to life.
As soon as she opened her eyes and saw him standing in front of her she started laughing manically.
"Oh," Harry began with a sigh. "I see you're quite mad."
"You are here," she began in a grandiose tone in between laughs. "You're real and here. The disgusting traitor, on Gallifrey, Brought by my Lord Rassilon to assist me in the Pythian reproduction process?" Her voice was deep, but not in a mature way, not in the way some of her older selves had been, this was…unnatural and strange, her eyes looking around the room almost moving separate of one another, looking maybe for her 'Lord Rassilon'? He didn't know. She hadn't tried to get up or disconnect herself from the cables which continued to shift and move as she awoke.
"That's why Rassilon's got you hooked up?" Harry snorted. "You didn't warrant being kept in his secret laboratory in the Death Zone?" Harry commented.
Ginny sat up, or tried to; the cables seemed to be weighing her down, instead her head seemed to move independent of her body in an almost snake-like manner. "You know of his Foundry?"
He didn't, although Tannis had mentioned that as well, Harry didn't really know anything beyond it. "Of course, the Omega Arsenal's been running a bit low," Harry commented idly.
She grinned, her teeth seemed to have grown, but her mouth hadn't. "My sisters, my selves will solve that Harry, and the filth like you and the Daleks will be annihilated!" she exclaimed as she leaned further forward, pulling herself up into an upright seating position, the cables straining and shifting over her body.
Harry removed a staser from his cloak, this one had been provided by the Eternity Circle, it was genetically unlocked so he could use it. He hoped just to use his wand, or it. He wasn't sure which would set off fewer alarms. He suspected either would draw unwanted attention.
He shook his head as Ginny seemed to spool up for another rant. "Your sisters," he paused; "your other selves are dead."
"Dead?" She repeated. "They have lived for thousands of years Harry, they can't just-"
Harry cut her off. "Killed all of them, even the vampire one," Harry smiled sadly. "You're the first, and the last," he paused. "And here I am."
Ginny snarled but did not try to get up or move much more. "Rassilon will sacrifice some more Time Lords for me," then she looked into his eyes and Harry felt something drop off a cliff as he wondered if he'd left the iron on.
Harry didn't know how long had passed as he swallowed. Ginny was laughing. There was an alarm going off and Oswin was in the room.
Harry shook his head. "A psychic attack," he said realising what had happened. He felt like his brain had had a sledgehammer taken to it.
Ginny stopped laughing. "Smart enough deviant to protect your mind from me, not enough to stop me."
He didn't know he'd done either. "Data?" He asked in Dalek to Oswin feeling the Babel Fish on a stick resisting his deliberate use of his non-native language, it was one of the many things he hated about it, but it was far too useful not to use.
"Most of it before the alarms started going off, it's all in Gallifreyan," she answered in Dalek.
"The mind probe will feast on the your memories Harry Potter!" Ginny exclaimed wildly. "My lord Rassilon will enjoy your usefulness, and I will-"
Harry shot her with the staser. "Wow that's noisy," Harry said and shot her twice more as the staser's energy flared over her body. Her body jerked in death amongst the cables as he spelled a sample from her body, looking at it briefly he vaporised her body.
"They'll be coming for us." Oswin gestured at the doorway she'd come through as Harry cast about with his wand before deciding to just blast every wall.
"One of these walls has to be a-" he cut himself off as one of the walls was an escape route. "Come on," he said grabbing Oswin's hand and rushing through.
"That's it,' Oswin was saying.
He wasn't trying to think about that, that person, she was the aged original, it was a bit of a let down.
But then they were on the home planet of the Time Lords, there were alarms going off everywhere above them and they were on the Gallifrey!
Gallifrey!
He cast about with his wand; "Yes!" He exclaimed and grabbed Oswin tightly and disapparated.
-/
There was red grass beneath their feet again and mountains behind them, and they were still on Gallifrey. He could sink to the ground and breathe for a moment.
But they couldn't relax, and he couldn't quite process, not yet, he'd killed 13 Ginny Weasleys, including the original.
But he just needed to sit for a little bit, the terror and brain smashing headache filling in between the adrenalin rush and slight sinking feeling of completing the mission. Running his hands through the red grass he tried to pull himself back into some sort of relative state of equilibrium.
-/
Harry warmed his hands around the mug of hot liquid. It wasn't tea as far as he could tell, but it wasn't poisonous either, Oswin had double checked for him.
They couldn't use the Timeship to breech Gallifrey's defences, going in either direction the Transduction Barriers would stop them and if they didn't the sky trenches would.
Hanging around in the Outlands had attracted attention of the wrong sort. They'd left before the patrol craft had gotten close enough to shoot at them.
He'd apparated them back to the transmat port, they'd taken a walk, calmly towards the train station and got themselves on a train to one of the Three Minute Cities.
Here they were much less conspicuous.
They were a Time Lord and Time Lady out investigating…something.
So far it was just a robot that had served them. A drudger of some sort according to Oswin who was reading a discarded newspaper or something like it.
Here he was, on Gallifrey, in the middle of the Time War and no way to escape.
They couldn't just wait around until the Daleks attacked, and then at some point Gallifrey buggers off to hang over Earth for a few minutes.
Which might prove the best way to escape, and he had considered it and mentioned it to Oswin.
Along with all the associated problems. He only knew that Rassilon was in charge when Gallifrey was there. That it happened some time between now and when Gallifrey is destroyed. They'd already attracted trouble to themselves twice.
Now after assassinating Ginny Weasley, a weapon of the Time Lords hidden away from everyone. They were likely to be a bit pissed.
And he'd already been interrogated by the Time Lords once, he had no desire to repeat the process, not take Ginny's place in the laboratory of the Time Lords.
Harry sipped his drink. It was sort of grassy with a tweet tinge to it, it wasn't unpleasant, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable.
"Anything interesting?" He'd cast a few privacy spells around them, there were a couple of other Time Lords at the front of the not-café that they were in.
"Just the war, difficulties in Arcadia with the Sky Trenches," she turned a page. "Old Harbour used to be nice this time of year," she idly commented and then looked at him "have you had any interesting thoughts?"
He'd had a lot of interesting thoughts about how they might die.
"Let's go back to where we were the least safe," Harry said after another sip of his drink and stood, heading towards the back of the not-café they were within.
-/
The Death Zone, Gallifrey.
It was sort of bracing in a terribly dangerous sort of way.
They'd found a depression in the ground, somewhere they could hide the Timeship from visual approach at least.
Harry only let out a breath he felt like he'd been holding for hours once they were inside and collapsed into one of the chairs in the side control area.
"It's not good," Oswin was saying over by the screens.
Harry leaned out, craning to look. All the lighting was low in here and none of the screens were as animated as they usually were.
"We're rooted? We're on the Time Lords' home planet with no way off?" He asked as he extracted the sample he'd taken from Ginny and pulled himself up with a bit of a grunt and made his way to the laboratory workshop. This would give him final confirmation.
-/
At some point he realised that Oswin was stood in the doorway. He didn't really know how much time had passed while he had been in thought.
"Was it her?" Oswin asked.
Harry nodded. "100 per cent match to my original sample, some dimensional and temporal warping in the biodata, but it's a match," he finished with a sigh and looked to her. "I want to cry out, relax and maybe be upset?" Harry wondered. He'd killed so many versions of her. The original, the one he'd actually known and had a history with…hadn't been even remotely as interesting nor as eloquent as some of the others. Some of them had weirdly appealed to him, before they'd tried to kill him, even then…
But this one, the one he actually known was nothing, just a husk stored away by the Time Lords, kept in the lower levels. She was just old, mad and a bit of a disappointment.
"I can't, do any of that can I?" Harry looked at Oswin who shook her head. "We've still got things to do."
Oswin motioned him out of the laboratory and pointed him towards his bedroom. "Go. Rest. Change. Think," she said in short bursts. "We can't just crash out of here and we can't go in guns blazing," she smiled. "As much as that probably appeals."
Harry dramatically sighed. "Shirt ripped, blasters in both hands?" He gestured guns with his hands. "Or do you want that?" He smiled slyly.
Oswin effected a mock embarrassed look. "I have eyes for only a few people with their shirts ripped Harry, you aren't one of them, now off you go magic man."
-/
Harry lay in bed thinking, the background hum of the Timeship lulling him to sleep.
"Got my bus off the scrapheap didn't I? Not like the Doctor, fetching his out of the workshops the sod."
"I found the TARDIS, it wasn't the best, but she was the best for me."
"Unlike the Doctor I have always had a fully functional TARDIS Harry, but one can always have a spare, something to keep ready, the repair shops were always useful for that."
"You always need to know where the underbelly is Harry, the bottom is always the best place to start."
Harry woke up with a jerk and a start and wondered what Ginny had tried to do, and that he'd managed to keep her out of his mind without thinking about it. Mental and psychic exercises with talking plants and Eight Legs? Perhaps that had done wonders for his mind. Except now his sleep was visited by Jacks, Doctors, Irises and Masters.
"I've had an idea," Harry announced as he was met by Oswin looking bright and cheery.
"There's no Dalek fleets on the horizon and the Time Lords don't appear ready for a full attack," she reported as she walked back to the side control room coming back with a mug of tea.
"That's unfortunate," Harry said smiling a thanks to her. "How is it you always know when I'm about to get up?"
"The Timeship does it, I grabbed it while I was getting some water," she answered easily. "What's your idea?"
-/
Getting into the Capitol once was dicey, getting to somewhere underneath it was even more dangerous. But now that they'd been in there once before they could walk more confidently, know where they were going more like they'd actually lived on the planet for some time and find their way to the dark green corridoryness of the underneath of the Capitol.
Oswin had asked a very good question, in fact several very good questions, most of them like how they were going to pilot a TARDIS, where were they going to go, how were they going to get through the Transduction Barriers and many other very good questions.
They'd have to find a technician and persuade them to take a TARDIS on a test flight away from Gallifrey, far enough out they could jump out and leave them.
Or if not, they'd need to brute force their way away from Gallifrey.
He knew the very basics of a TARDIS, how hard could it be to escape?
Probably very hard.
"I never wanted to visit this planet, all the stories the Doctor and Master told of me, it seemed magical, distant and…" Harry let his fingers touch the sides of a wall as they walked.
"Never tantalising enough to visit?" Oswin commented as they walked along the dingy corridor. They hadn't encountered anyone for at least 10 minutes.
"With places like the Lake of Mutations, Barastabon, and Florana populating their stories?" Harry asked with wonder in his voice. "Gallifrey was a location of myth and chaos, of the dark times and the time of legend," he paused as Oswin held up her hand and gestured into a small alcove.
-/
"Andro I'm telling you the detectors on those old capsules are off, no one's coming down here," someone was saying into their wrist.
"Alright Fabian, my mistake," a voice said back, a light shone around the corridor.
Harry slipped his wand out mouthing spells around himself and Oswin as the light shone over him and as he continued his spell work.
The light lingered before trailing away.
"Going to head out to the Capitol cradles Andro, want to check what they've been doing with the old capsules we sent," said the voice.
"Brace yourself Fabian, the High Council's been getting tetchy about that," a voice teased.
"Rassilon knows he can't do anything to the workers, the War Council knows what work we do, they're the ones doing the proper work, Ollistra knows about the heavy lifting," he said as the man, Fabian evidently walked away from where he and Oswin were.
"Just because you knew her way back before the war, some of us aren't on no titles with Cardinal Ollistra," the voice laughed.
Whatever else was said was lost to the corridors.
Harry waited for a long time before ending the spells around them. "Ollistra was one of the Time Lords Waym and Voran mentioned who sanctioned their operation," he commented as he laid his wand on his palm.
"Point me Andro," the wand swivelled around on his hand for a few moments indicating back down the corridor they had been walking.
"And you're not tempted to go on a warpath to deal with her?" Oswin wondered.
"I'm not here to kill Time Lords Oswin," Harry answered and he checked the staser on his thigh. "Not if I don't have to, and even then," he paused and looked at her. "I hope to have done enough killing in this war."
-/
His wand had led them down several dark corridors until they got to a door with ornate circular symbols on it. He could feel the translation trying but not quite getting there and tried to ignore it. There were symbols for Rassilon, Omega and probably others on the door.
Harry tried it, it wasn't locked.
"You're back already, the High Council not want to see…" a man started and then finished in a low worried tone "you?"
Harry smiled at the man. "Hello Andro."
"Who…who are you?" Andro asked.
"Hands where we can see them thanks very much Andro," Oswin said, not pointing anything at him.
He put his hands in front of him.
Harry smiled pleasantly. "Do you really want an answer to that, or would you prefer not to know who we are?" Harry asked genuinely.
He seemed to consider the question. "What do you want?"
"To get off of Gallifrey, preferably not in Kasterborous, but somewhere at least outside the Transduction Barriers," Harry answered.
"Why?" Andro asked, then added "Are you going to kill me?"
Harry shook his head. "No. Have you heard of the vampire Ginny Weasley or Tannis's mission?"
Andro's eyes went wide. "Lost a lot of good TARDISes," he paused. "That was you?"
Harry nodded. "The progenitor of the vampire was a long time ago an associate of mine, and an untenable disruption to the Time War that I had to deal with," Harry answered honestly.
"How did you get here? If you got here, why not use that method?" He asked.
"I'll tell you," Harry began "because I think it's a security hole for Gallifrey," he gave Andro a look. "And while I might have misgivings about the Time Lords I'm not going to let my interference sway things."
Andro snorted. "Then you're better than some on the High Council, the amount of safeties we've had to disable on the TARDISes is almost lethal," he shrugged. "Fine, what's a bit of excitement."
"You've agreed very easily, how do we know you're not going to kill us?" Oswin asked as Andro led them to a half dozen cylinders in a side room.
"What with these?" Andro gestured with puzzlement.
"Could compress the dimensions down and squash us to death, manipulate the temporal dimensions, age us, use pitted forcefield to turn us into a fine paste," Harry started to list.
"Shut up Harry," Oswin quickly said.
Also looked between them. "Who are you two?" He opened the door and called. "Come on if you're coming, I need to warm up the fluid links on this old one, then I can get clearance."
"It's very white," Oswin commented as they walked into the control room.
And not white in the way the Timeship was quite white inside.
This was white, the controls, the roundels, all featured in a featureless sort of way.
"Very, although the TARDISes I've been inside in the past have been of a vintage variety," Harry commented and turned as the doors behind him closed.
"And whose were they, and who are you?" Andro said from one side of the controls.
"Let me guess, the state of grace actually works in this TARDIS, you've electrified the console and there's no point running for the inner door, because this TARDIS is in the default and it just leads to the food machine?" Harry asked brightly.
Andro looked at him very weirdly. "You know your TARDISes."
Harry sighed. "My name's Harry, I'm here to deal with Ginny Weasley and her other selves. I know the Doctor, the Master and Iris Wildthyme."
Andro started to laugh, bending over and then bracing himself on the console as he continued to laugh.
"Iris Wildthyme doesn't have a TARDIS she has a death trap," he said between laughs and breaths of air and then stood up, flicking some controls, the centre column began to move up and down. "I heard your name in passing, Waym mentioned it his report, you and Voran are to blame for Space Station Zenobia."
Harry shrugged. "I made the mistake of getting caught."
"Where are we going?" Oswin asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot.
"Outside of the main war areas, that'll be far enough to use your temporal craft you've got hidden on you," he said looking at Oswin.
"When did you work that out?" She asked.
"When you walked into a TARDIS repair shop," he paused. "Are you Dalek agents?"
"They maintain my Timeship, I'm more of an independent operator," Harry answered simply.
"You don't deny working with the enemy?" Andro asked, watching him carefully.
Harry shrugged. "I was tortured by your people Andro," Harry looked at him. "While we were on Gallifrey we caught a train to the Three Minute Cities, we walked around the Capitol," Harry shrugged again. "Didn't do anything more than have a drink," he sighed. "I'm just an interloper here to sort out someone who should never have been in the Time War, that the Daleks enabled this, is only because the Time Lords interfered, I'm maintaining the web of time, or trying to."
Also didn't say anything, but looked to Oswin. "What about you?"
"I'm here to make sure he's not shot and pick him up when he blacks out after a hyperspace jump," Oswin answered casually.
Harry looked around the room after Andro's questions he hadn't said anything else. "The scanner's very small, is this an old TARDIS?"
"What makes you say that?"Andro looked up from the console.
"The Doctor's friends, some of them said that the scanner was like that," Harry gestured. Actually Ian and Barbara had said it was like an TV attached to the ceiling, but he'd gotten better at excluding his cultural references.
Andro nodded. "Not as old as the Doctor's, me and Fabian saw him nick that way back," he paused. "You've travelled in it?"
"A couple of times, here and there," Harry paused. "Oswin materialised our Timeship inside the Doctor's, had to lower the forcefields to do that."
Andro nodded. "Those old Type 40s and 50s did better with that, much better, the war TARDISes're strong but less useful," he shook his head. "Don't know why I'm talking to you, you're the enemy."
"You're getting us away from Gallifrey, and we've done nothing to harm any Gallifreyans," Harry began. "Once we leave, there's nothing to worry about, even while we're here, there's nothing to worry about," Harry explained calmly.
"And I just go back, knowing that I've met agents from the future?" Andro asked as he flicked some switches on the console.
Harry watched the column slow. "I'm not used to Time Lords being so observant," Harry calmly said.
"Soldiers haven't got anything on a technician," he said as the central time rotor stopped moving, settling into the console. Andro flicked a switch; the doors opening to the outside world.
"Where are we?" Oswin asked looking out to the ruins outside.
"Eye of Orion, nothing either side wants here, good place to test flight TARDISes out to, the high bombardment of positive ions is a nice break from the war," Andro explained.
Oswin walked past Harry out into the environment. "It's okay," she called to him "not an illusion, or deadly."
Harry looked from her to Andro. "Thank you Andro. I could tell you how it all works out," Harry paused. "Suffice to say Rassilon will fight for the Time Lords with ever fibre of his being, and one day maybe we'll meet again."
"So there's a future for the Time Lords?" Andro asked as Harry crossed the threshold into the real world.
Harry turned back looking into the interior of the TARDIS. "Who knows," Harry paused. "But you and your friend are better placed to see and get away from all this than others."
Andro seemed to consider what he said and looked like he was going to say more, but reached for the console.
"The Time Scoop for the Games of Rassilon, that's how we got to Gallifrey," Harry called to Andro whose eyes went wide and he shook his head with a smile.
Then the doors closed and the cylinder dematerialised away.
-/
Harry breathed in a breath and saw Oswin was in her Dalek form looking around, the Timeship was next to her.
"Were you holding in a breath during all of that?" Harry asked as he exhaled a breath.
"Yes," it was a long yes from her. "Difficult being with him within that TARDIS."
"The Doctor's mentioned this place," Harry mused wistfully as he reached out, stroking his hand over the ruins feeling the textural quality of it, smiling at it having texture. He'd been around so much smooth materials on saucers or the Timeship or wherever, it was nice to feel something textured and real, not a simulation or things like that. Also nothing threatening here. "Suppose this is on the Galactic Heritage register."
"No," Oswin answered in a short tone.
Harry breathed in another breath as he pulled his hand away from the ruined stonework and looked up at the sky thinking of the battles, conflicts...the war that they'd been involved in, which he'd ended their need to be involved in with her death. "Time to leave I think Oswin."
"Time to return?" She asked as she led the way into the Timeship.
Harry nodded as he followed her. "To return and escape this."
On the Eye of Orion the peace and quiet of the ruins was disturbed again by a temporal vessel dematerialising.
Then it was left, again in silence, a haven away from the wars that were being fought, temporal and otherwise around it.
-/
Notes 2020:
Apologies for the delay in updating, I had finished this, albeit quite unedited, and then with the current world situation kinda lost the motivation for writing. (I still have massive plans for future chapters, and as things slowly return to the ebb and flow I become more motivated to write).
A/N:
That's the end of Harry and Oswin's mission. It's been a wild, if difficult arc to write in places.
It was always going to end on Gallifrey, and I have mentioned in this chapter another abandoned plot strand that I was going to pursue, but it just didn't fit properly. That was Harry and Oswin were going to wait around in the Timeship (suspended in time or something) and then 'jump off' of Gallifrey when it appeared above Earth.
It just didn't work well enough in my head, there were too many 'well what if the Timeship is discovered, what if someone finds them?' questions.
At least this way they get to have a bit of a travel around Gallifrey.
Andro and Fabian are the two TARDIS technicians seen in the The Name of the Doctor.
I was tempted to have Ginny be in Arcadia to really ramp up The Day of the Doctor connections, but it just made more sense to have her in the Capitol.
Ranx (the planet Harry and Oswin are timescooped from) briefly appears in Nightmare of Eden. If I'm mentioning a planet/location it usually exists in the DW universe.
It's quite an uneventful end for Ginny, given the various Ginnys that Harry's met, she wasn't going to be the most interesting, she's been stuck in a room for probably a couple of hundred years, possibly longer. Rassilon and the other Time Lords got everything they needed from her and shoved her in a Time Lord cupboard, just in case they needed her for the future.
Harry and Oswin still need to exit the Time War, so there'll be one more chapter set within the Time War.
Thanks for reading, next chapter will hopefully be out sooner than this one took to prepare.