Steven had been back on Earth for six months. He had been away for three months of Earth-time, and ten years of his life, before he had been returned.
At first the Agency had quizzed him of the mysterious disappearance of his spaceship, and his trip to Earth without it. But he had still been cut up over the loss of his wife and child and just told them the truth till they had let him go.
He had been halfway back to his apartment when he realised it would have been repossessed by now and his goods would have been sold on. He needed his job back.
Since he had aged ten years prematurely and was under suspicion of consorting with aliens they decided not to entrust him with another ship. Instead they made him a clerk.
And so now he sat staring out of a fifty-story window looking to the sky. He wished he could see his wife again, but she was dead. He wished his daughter was here, but she was away with the Doctor. They probably both pinned him as dead. He wished he could see his parents but they had never seen eye to eye. He wished he could see Sara, but she was dead as well.
"Number 3456, we have someone with high level clearance, only its pattern is two thousand years ahead of date. She says we must prepare for an imminent Cybermen invasion. Make her fill in a type 456.89 questionnaire then tell her to go away."
The lift doors in front of Steven opened and Sara Kingdom stepped out.
"Who are you?" Steven pulled out a small laser gun.
"Steven! I saw you die."
"No! I saw you aged to death! Who sent you?" Steven held his hand over the security button.
"It's a long story."
"Join the club." Stephen's relief finally beat his feelings of danger. He lowered the gun. "You go first."
***
"I'm beginning to see a pattern. Why did the Cybermen want us both here?" Steven sat in the driving seat of his car.
"I certainly see no reason why the high commander should risk his own safety to send me here alive. Watch out!"
Steven was making it obvious he hadn't driven a vehicle or ship in a decade. "I hope any reasons become clear soon."
Suddenly the TARDIS appeared in the middle of the road. Stephen floated round it, braking just before he hit the Doctor.
"Doctor! Mary!" Steven was glad to see his old friend and his child.
"Daddy!" She hugged Stephen as he stepped out the car. "We saw Daleks."
"No we didn't." The Doctors almighty voice had taken on an odd tone, Guilt? "Only a few educational trips round the galaxy before I managed to catch up with you." His eyes fell on Sara. "How..?" He paused. "...A long story?"
***
"...I had given you up for dead Steven, but he told me that you were sighted on Earth. Naturally we came here as fast as we could."
"So Doctor, what do you make of the Cybermen's maltreatment of us all?"
"I can't be too sure Sara but I'd say that we all share the rare link of surviving exposure to the Time Destroyer. If I didn't know better I'd say someone wanted to learn about it through us, and I do know better and they're Cybermen."
"They must have some kind of foothold on this timeframe then, Doctor."
"No it's the opposite, this is a relatively calm period of time. I don't think there'd be much opposition to any cybership appearing in orbit."
"Well we do have some highly advanced fighter ships, why I once-"
Both the Doctor and Sara snorted in unison. Suddenly the Doctor jumped up.
"I've got it. A few years ago in this timeframe I stopped a pack of nomad Cybermen from destroying a planet of gold. It was never clear where they came from since they had been unseen for some time. But now I see."
"What is it then Doctor?"
"For years they'll have been operating on skeleton crews throughout the system, waiting, cleaning up and getting ready so the big moment can go unhindered. And now we are about to witness it."
"What makes you so sure?" Sara hadn't travelled with the Doctor for long, and didn't know he was rarely wrong.
"They need us, we need only wait. Indeed they may already be here."
"Then if we left maybe we could stop their plans, what they plan to do with us."
"What if they want us to think that?" Sara had a point.
"So what do we do?"
"We go to Saturn."
"Telerium!"
"Yes Sara. If they are to use the Time Destroyer then for centuries the Cybermen will have been scraping what little they can get to work the device, and it only occurs in one place."
"And they'll still be there..."
"Precisely."
"...Waiting for us."
"This time period is just a clue as to where to find them. This is going deep..."
"We've got to go then."
"But Mary stays here."
"I think that would be for the best Steven."
***
The TARDIS materialised inside the centre of the Cyber-Destroyers main hall. A squad of Cybermen was ready to escort the gang of four.
"You will follow us to our commander."
"And some explanations?"
"Patience Steven, is a virtue. I'm sure all will become clear."
"I wish you could have told us your suspicions before we left Doctor. I don't like walking blind."
"Silence Mortals."
They followed the Cybermen sombrely. Eventually they emerged on the bridge.
"Greetings Doctor."
"The Master! So it was you who showed the Cybermen how to move through time."
"Who?" Sara and Steven spoke in unison.
"An old enemy. He's as evil as his moustache makes him look."
"Thought you'd left me to a certain death with the Daleks, Doctor?"
"No, I thought I'd left you rotting awa...I really shouldn't be saying this when you look so healthy and not dead."
"Tempting as it would be to learn of my future Doctor, I have a universe to control."
"The Cybermen will never obey you. They destroyed my dimension."
"Oh but they do miss. I didn't study the dust left by the Time Destroyer, only to be used and discarded." He signalled for the Cybermen to fasten the Doctor and his friends to the wall, then the Cybermen left. The Master clicked his fingers.
A new Time Destroyer rose through the floor.
"No doubt you want to know why you are all still alive."
"I'm already there. The Time Destroyer was made by beings above the Daleks. They merely happened upon it. But the beings that made it didn't ever need to use it. They certainly didn't want it abused. So they left a safety. A handful of beings had to survive each time it was triggered, to prevent a single madman from killing the universe. We are that handful."
"Why Doctor, I'm impressed. It took me years of study to realise."
"But you couldn't build it from scratch again, could you? It still needed us."
"So the Cybermen of my dimension were prepared to sacrifice themselves to give me to you."
"Yes Sara. We are all pivotal."
"But Doctor, you cannot stop me now. You are cogs in an engine I wind." The Master began to laugh maniacally. His hand moved to turn the machine on. "A brief demonstration; I only need two of you, and Steven has the shortest life-span ahead."
Steven grinned at the master. "No. I have a cyanide cell under my tongue. I would sooner take it than allow activation."
Sara then smiled. "I have inner poison glands that I'd gladly use to commit suicide if it would stop you."
"And I could stop my hearts with a thought," finished the Doctor.
The Master continued to laugh. "I thought of all that. But your nobility is also your enemy." He pressed a switch and the podium beneath the Time Destroyer was revealed to hold Mary. "It was easy to find her, and I will give her a cruel death as soon as one of you pops your clogs."
He pulled a lever on the time destroyer and it began to hum. Time flew by.
"See Doctor! No one can stop me now!"
Time flew past. They could feel time contorting, stretching their beings.
Then the hum froze. Steven, Mary and Sara were stock-still. Only the two Timelords still moved.
"Time interference Master, we are in the presence of a higher form!"
Black and white swirls flew across the room. "Two opposites, fighting like us. Yet even more so."
"No Doctor, No it can't be! I was the greatest power!"
"We are just ants in the grand scheme of things."
Intense white light began to fill the room as the black subsided, blinding the occupants. Inside his head the Doctor heard a voice:
"Its over. Even the greatest evils can't fight time. It binds us all."
"What are you?"
"A higher form will suffice for now Doctor, until we meet again."
***
And it was gone. The TARDIS appeared back on Earth. And the others inside it.
Steven was the first to speak. "Your Friend? Where did he go?"
"Who knows. It is beyond my control or even understanding. But the world continues, as does time, as do your subjects, where they have been relocated. They still need their leader."
