The Further Adventures...

[HN]

Not a great situation to be in. The ground was cracking and crumbling under her feet. The walls were caving in around them. A great smog of dust and debris filled her lungs and burned her insides. Running would be a nice time about nowish, but Sylar it seems, was going to act like a big heavy lump.

For some reason the words, 'unmovable object' and' unstoppable force' kept circling her mind like vultures preparing to dive in on an obviously dying human.

She would have to run, and just hope Sylar was still here upon her return.

Run she did. Lara Croft, leaping over dead bodies, scaling broken walls, the fastest route was the most direct one. Her twin hearts pounded to exploding point, as her feet slapped at an accelerated pace as ran. Every muscle fiber in her ached as she fell in through the double doors of her beloved ship. She heaved a great sigh, a combination of relief and agony, as her face cracked painfully against the metal grating that had previously been below her feet. She could lie here forever, she knew, resting in the safety of her craft. Sylar however, was not getting any less dead, and to hesitate now would most likely cost him dearly.

Dragging herself to her weary feet, she stumbled to the console that dominated the room.

"Ok girlfriend, if you were ever going to do right by me, now would be a good time."

She just hoped that in the mists of chaos, she could navigate efficiently enough so that she materialized over the body of her friend.

[Sylar]

The Rani reached her TARDIS in good time slipped the key from around her neck. When she turned it in the lock of the beautiful clock it immediately transformed into something more simple elegant, and capable of admitting a person. A pure white box. The Rani pulled open the door and stepped inside. She stamped her foot like a petulant teenager and ran over to the console. She set a few co-ordinates and in the time it took to run into her old lab, grab something deliciously potent from the shelf and return she had landed exactly where she had planned.

She wasn't going to be stupid enough to step outside into the crumbling world. She couldn't make the Doctor pay for ruining her plans, but someone needed to suffer. She had other ideas.

She wandered coolly up to the human that she had materialised around. He lay handsomely, if uselessly still drained from the soul sucking revenge of he Eternal, in the middle of her TARDIS.

She had already considered keeping him, perhaps like a pet. The Doctor liked pets, why couldn't she have one too. Humans made good pets she remembered. Without Horris perhaps this one would do. Then she had considered what this one had done to all her nice minions, how he had spoiled all her nice experiments. She didn't like the human mutants, but she had worked out from the man's reaction to her poison that this particular mutation was one of the stronger ones, and no doubt one with manipulatable DNA, that was a real treat.

"Still, you're a liability." She said patting Sylar on the head. And with that she mumbled a few words in a language similar to that which had been etched on Sunshine's flesh. She took the syringe of black liquid she had found in her lab and pierced Sylar's arm. The words she spoke appeared and then, almost immediately vanished.

"Much better." She smiled, "Now shall we see about ..."

She looked up. In her TARDIS was..."YOU!" she exclaimed, and carefully concealed the syringe in the folds of her skirt.

The blonde woman running around the console as if it was her own looked up.

"WHAT!" she said, "WHAT!"

"You!" replied the Rani.

Then there was a knock at the door(s) to the TARDIS(S). Outside, looking for sanctuary Bob was hammering with his heavy boots, the injured body of Socrassi Runcoon in his arms.

"What!" Responded the Doctor and the Rani simultaneously.

[HN]

What were the odds? Well one in... a lot. It was possible, in fact, on a universal scale, considering how many Time Lords there were alive during the peak of Gallifreys reign, and how many Tardis landings occurred unshielded, it was, in fact, highly probable. Almost an absolute certainty that at some point the Doctor would cross paths with another in this fashion. But still...

The Doctor was both relishing and dreading one last stand off against the Rani with equal measure. But distractions were plentiful and quite frankly, distracting. She ran to Sylars side, concerned by the damage caused to him by both Eternal and the Rani.

Then of course there was the knocking on the doors of the Tardises. The two Time Lords exchanged glances silently, the words taking no form and yet speaking volumes.

"Answer it."
"Be my guest."
"No after you I insist."

Neither moved, both frozen in position crowding the dying human male. Another look.

"Coward."
"Wuss."
"Baby"
"Ass face."

[Sylar]

The Rani was not going to give in. She was going to split the TARDIS. She was going to take her new pet and she was going to find somewhere else to conduct her experiments. Perhaps even if she did it right she could bring the Doctor with her, she was sure, after all that under the female physiology the Doctor was still a he. Simple DNA manipulation, perhaps a combination of the humans (drastic times called for drastic measures) could yield the results she needed.

She ran to the console. Hit the relevant buttons and smiled at the errant Time Lord.

"Leave them Doctor." She said, "Come with us. We will start the race again, you and I."

[HN]

It was like both Time Lords were connected, mind and body both alike, working through the same calculations with genius brains and unflawed logic. Of course, the conclusion was reached by both simultaneously. The Doctor would never come. The Rani would never take no for an answer.

It then became a race for the control panel. The Rani was not above taking the Doctor by force, and so being the first to uncouple and materialize their Tardis was a matter of life and death.

Wrestling, in that way only women can; hair pulling, scratching, elbows in the face; both Time Lords tried to complete their work whilst ruin that of the other. There was now only one thought on the Doctors mind: she had to get out of here first.

As if to add to the madness, the doors popped open and Bob marched in, carrying Crassi. There was shouting. Their were accusations flying. The room was a hubbub of commotion. All the while Sylar slept.

But then, the work was complete. Both Time Lords paused, eyes locked in an eternal battle of wills, before both lunging for their own little green buttons. He who hesitates is lost. Never had there been a truer word spoken.

Shaking. Creaking. Sparks and smoke vomited from the core of the Taridises. A great crash, an explosion, the two machines came apart, throwing the drivers, and all passengers, to the metal floors.

But a moment. Snapping open her eyes, the Doctor was greeted by the ceiling of her own Tardis and so she gave a mental cheer. Had she been first? Sitting up abruptly, she doubted her speculation. If she had hit the button before the Rani, they would all be here. Had they hit the button together, the universe would randomly select which Tardis each body belonged to.

"Sylar?" Her voice was weak with worry and barely carried across the hum of the central column. Could she be alone once more? "SYLAR?"

There was no reply.

The End

[Sylar]

and to be continued..