A light blinked on the TARDIS console as Romana walked back into the console room after changing her clothes. The Doctor had disappeared off into the depths of the TARDIS so Romana was on her own. Even K.9. had left after the final defeat of the Black Guardian.
The light continued to blink at her. She tried to remember her classes on vintage and veteran vehicles and decided that the light meant a course change. So much for the Doctor and his randomiser.
"We've changed course," she announced as the Doctor stepped back through the inner doors.
The Doctor glared at her. "What have you done?" he asked accusingly.
Romana tossed her long chestnut hair in disgust. "Nothing. The course change was automatic." She indicated the blinking light.
The Doctor studied it carefully. "We've changed course!" he stated.
"I told you that," Romana sighed, pulling down the wide cuff of the navy blue jacket that she had changed into after their recent adventure. "Do you think it's the Black Guardian?" she asked, a trace of fear creeping into her voice. There were not many things that could scare the average Time Lord, but a Guardian was certainly high on the list.
"Doubt it," the Doctor said unconvincingly. He frowned. "We'll soon know, we're landing."
On cue, the rising roar of dematerialisation echoed through the console room and the time rotor ground to a halt.
"Any idea where we are?" Romana inquired.
"Not a clue," the Doctor replied. He grinned suddenly. "Fun, isn't it?" So saying, he operated the lever that opened the doors of the TARDIS and stepped out. Reluctantly, Romana followed him.
***
"That course change might have been just an effect of the Randomiser," the Doctor called back over his shoulder as he stepped out of the TARDIS. He turned to look around and walked straight into a cloud of gas.
The Doctor collapsed to his knees, coughing violently. Tears streamed down his face and he fell forward.
As he lost consciousness, he saw a female face swim across his vision. Long red hair and a smile. A cruel kind of smile. Then all was blackness.
Romana knelt by the Doctor. His double pulse was weak but stable. She looked up into the face of their attacker, who had her at gunpoint.
"Do get up," the woman told her. "You're making the floor look untidy."
***
The Doctor's eyes fluttered open. He tried to move, but found his wrists and ankles bound. He was flat on his back, so was probably on some sort of operating table. Life could be so predictable sometimes, he reflected. Slowly, he licked his dry lips.
"Mmm. Cytonian Gas, part of the Praxis range. Not a lethal dose, obviously." He turned his head slightly, catching sight of Romana. She was manacled to a nearby stone wall, though her feet were firmly planted on the ground. One of the advantages of her height.
"Don't just hang around there, Romana. Help me off this table."
She glowered at him. "I would, but I'm a little tied up at the moment," she replied acidly.
A slight metallic clink caught the Doctor's attention. He turned his head, straining to see beyond his feet.
A figure came into his line of sight. It was the woman he had seen just before he passed out. She was wearing a green hospital type gown and hat, her long red hair tied back. A surgical mask hung loosely round her neck, just below that cruel smile. She was holding up a scalpel.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Doctor. For a while, at least."
The Doctor gave her a dazzling grin. "Hello, Rani."
"You two know each other then?" Romana asked from her position, chained to the wall.
"Oh, yes, we were at the Academy together," the Doctor replied, from his position strapped to an operating table.
"Really? So she's 760 then?"
"I am not!" the Rani bristled. "I'm 752."
The Doctor grinned. "Did you ever hear about the incident with the Lord President's cat, Romana?"
A smile brightened Romana's face. "Yes, they're still telling that one at the Academy now. So the giant mice were down to you?" She addressed her last remark to the Rani.
The Time Lady scowled. "How was I supposed to know they would get free and eat the damned cat?" she said defensively.
"Well, at least he could regenerate after they chewed off his leg," the Doctor chipped in.
"Enough!" stormed the Rani. "All this is incidental. Unlike your deaths."
"Why are we here, Rani?" the Doctor asked.
"Why are any of us here?" she replied, pulling the surgical mask over her nose and mouth.
"Oh, spare us the philosophy," groaned Romana. "Don't you just hate it when the villains get philosophical?"
"I know what you mean," the Doctor told her. He turned his attention back to their foe. "Why have you brought us here? And how, for that matter?"
The Rani smiled under her mask. "The how was easy, Doctor. I've been monitoring your little quest. Your spat with the Black Guardian was very entertaining. As soon as your TARDIS entered the vortex, I used my Artron Energy Attractor to bring you here." She gestured towards a device on a nearby workbench.
The Doctor was outraged. "Don't you realise how dangerous that is? Why, an AEA could trigger a regeneration in a less stable personality!"
"Then consider yourself very lucky, Doctor," the Rani commented. "Now, please hold still while I kill you."
"WAIT!" the Doctor cried. The Rani, scalpel poised, raised her eyebrows in frustration.
"What is it now?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"You still haven't explained why you're about to kill me. It would be nice to know I've sacrificed my life for a good cause."
The Rani sighed deeply. "I've discovered the secret of immortality. I need the DNA of a Time Lord and obviously can't use my own, as the procedure is fatal. So you will have to do. If I can't use yours, she will be a second choice." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, towards Romana.
"Ah. Thank you, that makes me feel so much better," the Doctor said.
"Can I please get on now?" the Rani asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.
The Doctor grinned. "Please, don't mind me."
The Rani lowered her scalpel towards the Doctor's prone body.
"Now, that's not very nice, is it?" asked the voice behind the Rani. She spun round just in time to see the fist connect with her jaw before she crumpled to the floor.
Romana tried to massage some feeling back into her bruised knuckles.
"I say, that was a good punch," the Doctor congratulated her. "Maybe I should introduce you to my old friend, Don King."
"That would be nice," Romana replied, starting work on the straps holding him down. "It's always interesting, meeting royalty."
"By the way, how did you get out of those manacles?" he asked, massaging feeling back into his own wrists.
Romana smiled. "While I was checking you over after the Rani's gas attack, I slipped this out of your pocket." She held up the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "Then all I needed was for the Rani to be distracted. You did that rather well."
"Glad to be of service," the Doctor commented, taking back the sonic screwdriver. "Now, we should tie her up." He indicated the prone figure of the Rani.
***
A groan from the chair told the Doctor and Romana that the Rani was coming round. The Doctor moved to squat beside her chair.
"Welcome back," he said as her eyelids fluttered open. She glared at him, struggling with her bonds.
"We're not going to kill you," Romana told her coolly, "despite your previous offer to provide that service for us."
"You'll wish you had, when I get out of here!" spat the Rani.
The Doctor tutted. "There's no need to be like that. I've been looking over your data," he indicated the computer terminal built into the cavern wall. "It's really quite comprehensive."
The Rani gasped. "How did you get passed my security lock-outs?"
The Doctor grinned at her. "I knew what your password would be. I knew about your supposedly secret crush on Vansell at the Academy. In fact, the entire Deca did, but we kept quiet about it."
"Curse you, Doctor! Release me at once!"
"Oh, I can't do that. Not until you promise to give up this mad scheme of yours to conquer death."
"Never! I need the formula to extend the lives of my workforce on Miasimia Goria. They are inefficient and die too easily."
"So, you would make the subjects you rule immortal?"
"Only so long as they please me," the Rani replied. "I can take the ability away as easily as I can bestow it, once I have the DNA of a Time Lord."
The Doctor looked grim. "I don't like the sound of that. So, it looks like you're not going anywhere for a while."
"Release me!" the Rani screamed.
"Sorry, can't do that. Now, Romana, let's see if we can find some tea." He turned away from the Rani, steering Romana back towards the TARDIS.
"Then I shall just have to free myself," the Rani said slyly. The Doctor and Romana turned, to find the Rani was not only free, but holding a slim laser pistol.
The Rani was smiling her trademark cruel smile. The Doctor and Romana both raised their hands.
"Thought you had me there, Doctor. But I always was too clever for you."
"As I remember," the Doctor replied, "I could always beat you at chess."
"You're not that good a player, Doctor," Romana chipped in. "K.9. can beat you."
The Doctor grinned. "The Rani is worse," he told his companion in a loud whisper.
"You forget, Doctor, who has the gun. Now, move over there." She indicated the cavern wall near where Romana had been chained up.
The Rani moved over to her computer terminal. Keeping one eye on her prisoners and another on the screen, the Rani worked.
Eventually, she sighed. "Well, we'll just have to do this the hard way." She gestured them forward.
"Do make your mind up," the Doctor complained.
"I have." She tilted the surgical bed through ninety degrees. "Get back on, Doctor. You, Romana, strap him up."
"This is getting really tedious," Romana commented.
"Well, not for much longer," the Rani assured her. She tested the Doctor's bonds, then started inserting small probe needles into his wrists and neck.
"Ouch!" the Doctor yelled. "You never passed basic acupuncture either, did you?"
The red haired villain moved back to her computer terminal and began punching in a complex sequence of instructions.
"Erm, what is it you're doing?" the Doctor asked from his prone position, trying not to sound concerned.
"I'm extracting your DNA the painful way. Now, just lie still and try not to scream too much."
The Doctor raised his head as far as he could. "I really wouldn't do that if I was you," he warned.
The Rani spared him an acidic glance. "I don't remember asking your expert opinion. Now, keep quiet, I'm working."
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." She shot him another glare. "I know, keep quiet, Doctor."
The Rani continued working at her terminal. She kept her eye on Romana, who was standing quietly to one side of the cavern. She wouldn't be a problem. Entering the final string of code, she looked over at her enemy.
"I'm sure that irritating fool the Master would have something witty to say at this point, but it's not my style. Try not to make too much noise or mess."
"Final chance, Rani. Give up now."
"Not a chance, Doctor." She threw the final switch in the sequence and the control console blew up in her face!
"What happened?" Romana asked as she freed the Doctor from the table once more.
"I did a little re-wiring while she was recovering from your punch," he admitted.
The two of them moved over to the console. It was spitting flame. The Rani lay crumpled on her side in front of it. The Doctor and Romana pulled her free.
The Doctor felt her pulse. "Weak," he reported. They turned her over carefully.
The Rani had burns to her face, hands and arms. Her breathing was shallow and she looked close to death.
The flames were getting worse. Fire was spreading across the cavern. Romana noticed something that made her shiver, despite the heat.
"Doctor, we're cut off from the TARDIS!"
The Doctor glanced up. Indeed, the familiar Police Box shape was distorted by the heat haze of a raging blaze. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a large white cube against the far wall.
"Come on, help me get her into her TARDIS!"
The two Time Lords carried the third into the white cube. They lowered her gently to the floor. Romana straightened, looked around herself and snorted in disgust.
"A type 70. Almost as decrepit as yours, Doctor. This should be in a museum."
"Be grateful it isn't," the Doctor told her as he manipulated controls on the circular, mushroom shaped black console. The three rings where the time rotor usually stood began to turn on their own axis.
"Where are we going?" Romana asked, horrified that the Doctor had set the craft in motion.
"Wait and see," he replied, grinning. Then he pointed at where they had left the Rani. "Look."
As they watched, the Rani's burned features seemed to blur at the edges. Gradually, they reformed and a different woman lay on the floor before them. Her hair was still the same length, but now a dark brown. She looked a few years older than previously and now had prominent cheekbones.
"Let's take her to her room," the Doctor decided. Together, they carried the regenerated Rani from the console area. Not far down the corridor, they found her bedroom. They laid her carefully on the bed. As they did, her eyes flickered open.
"What happened?" she asked. Her voice had lost its musical lilt, replaced by a stronger, slightly accented tone.
"You had an accident," the Doctor said. He moved over to where the Rani was sitting up. "How are you feeling?" he asked loudly.
The Rani winced. "My ears are fine." She looked up at him. "Doctor? How did you get here?"
"Oh, I was just passing and picked up your TARDIS' distress call," he lied. "Don't you remember?"
She shook her head. "I remember working on something important, but not what or why it was important. Do you know?"
Now it was the Doctor's turn to shake his head. "You never were one to share your plans and ideas. Will you be alright?"
She got to her feet a little shakily. "I'm fine. Now leave me, I must get back to Miasimia Goria."
"Very well," the Doctor said, bundling Romana towards the door. On his way out he slid a bottle of pills off a low table and into his pocket. "Goodbye, Rani."
The Rani didn't reply and the two Time Lords left her room.
***
The Doctor and Romana walked back into the Rani's console room. There, standing in the corner, was the Doctor's TARDIS.
"Isn't that extremely dangerous?" Romana inquired, indicating their TARDIS.
The Doctor grinned. "Extremely!" They entered the TARDIS and it quickly faded from view.
EPILOGUE
Romana looked at herself in the full-length mirror in her room. She was tall, her hair long and brown. She was also haughty, arrogant and difficult.
Romana had watched the Rani's regeneration with interest. She was relatively young and had never witnessed a regeneration before. The Doctor had done it himself three times and had seen others before. He was an old hand at it.
She had asked if it was safe to just let the Rani go. The Doctor had assured her that without Beta Olefron, a Gallifreyan drug that blocked the effects of post regenerative amnesia, the Rani would never recover her memories of the key to immortality.
"Nobody should have that kind of power at their command," he had said. She agreed.
Now she looked at the bottle of Beta Olefron the Doctor had taken from the Rani's room. Her own personality seemed to clash all too often with the Doctor's. If they were to travel together, surely a more easy going personality was needed.
She smiled, thinking of that nice Princess Astra they had met on Atrios so recently.
Knowing that her mind was made up, she closed her eyes, took a capsule from the bottle, swallowed it and began to concentrate hard.
***
The Rani stepped out of her TARDIS and back into her palace on Miasimia Goria. She looked around herself. She was going to have to re-decorate.
She crossed to the full-length mirror by the bed and studied her new form. Yes, this was more like it. More suited to being queen of a world. More dignified. Definitely more majestic.
Something was tickling the back of her mind. Something really important. Something also just out of reach.
She shook her head. She had never been one to dwell in the past, more to live in the future. If the thought was important enough, it would return, in its own time.
Crossing to the door, she set off to begin her new life much as her old one had been lived. In control.
