Danziger and Alonzo slid down the mountainside, frantically calling "Julia!" and "Devon!" Neither knew what they could hope to find.

Uly came sliding down after them. Breathing hard, he reached the two men. Almost absentmindedly, Alonzo put his hand on Uly's back, instinctively trying to protect him from the ZED. All three looked around at the suddenly barren slope.

"Mr. Danziger," Uly asked. "Where's my mom?"

Danziger didn't know what to say. Finally, he just shook his head. "I don't know, kid."

The mountainside had changed. There was no sign of the ZED's camp, or even a clue as to where it had been.

Uly looked down the mountain, fear growing within him. Real fear, for the first time in his life – not like what he'd felt when they'd crashed, or in the Terrian cave on his birthday. Each of those fears, and a double dozen others, had been calmed by the presence of his mother, his protector – believing in him, providing the answer, providing warmth, providing love.

But now, his terror came from the realization that his protector might well and truly be gone for good. He trembled. He remembered what the Doctor had said about time travel, death, and how permanent it was.

But he also remembered what the Doctor had said around the campfire earlier.

Uly had a feeling. He could not keep from looking down the mountainside, as if he knew where his mother was. Or as if...his other mother knew where she was.

He crouched with his knees pointing up, and lay his hands flat on the ground. He closed his eyes, and listened to the feelings.

Danziger and Alonzo watched, spellbound.

After a few seconds, Uly stood as if in a trance. Then he hunched his shoulders and dropped into the earth.

Seconds passed.

He abruptly arose again about 100 yards down the mountainside. In each of his tiny arms was a person. Julia lay like a limp rag. His mother madly gasped for air, coughing and spluttering.

Danziger and Alonzo raced downhill.

 

The Doctor was dying.

Trapped in a concrete darkness, unable to move a muscle, he began to drift in and out of consciousness. His emergency air supply wasn't going to last much longer.

He wondered if he would quickly regenerate five times while buried beneath the ground. It was a horrible thought: dying of suffocation five times over.

He was getting delirious. Old faces – friends and enemies alike – were coming to mind, and they were saying the dumbest things. The Master wanted to fly a kite with him. Something to do with the air he so desperately needed? He couldn't tell. He'd long ago learned to tune out whatever the Master was saying, anyway. Jo Grant was dancing with a Dalek, which sometimes became the Brigadier. Daleks and Brigadiers – yes, they were alike, in a strange, twisted sort of way. At least he could trust the Brigadier to care.

Then he was in a restaurant of some sort. The Grendler Bar and Grille, the sign read. It was a nice place – piano in the corner, low light, plush cushions. Very fancy.

He sat at the bar, feeling as if his clothes were out of place. The barstool seats were bright red leather. Plants adorned either end of the bar.

His koba friend sat on the next stool. The little animal had an eyepatch, and a bright grin on its face. "Get you something?" it asked.

"Yes, indeed," the Doctor replied. But he wasn't himself. He was his fourth self, the one with the long scarf and that appalling sense of humor, because he couldn't stand it if he wasn't the life of the party.

Great – a past regeneration. They were always lurking around the subconscious somewhere. They bubbled up in times like these.

Suddenly, it was his first self – the old grandfather figure – who was at the bar. "You there, young man," he said cheerfully. The bartender was a Terrian, in a white shirt and black vest. It was wiping glasses, its back turned to him. "I'd like a Double Moon Cross for myself, and a Sonic Screwdriver for my friend, here." But the Terrian did not turn around. It continued wiping its glass.

The voices of the others in the restaurant were getting louder, for some reason. The Doctor started to reach over and tug the bartender's sleeve, when suddenly the noise reached a deafening roar. He put his hands to his ears. "Barbara – take Susan and get her out of here, now!" he snapped. He looked up to see the bartender watching him curiously.

The voices receded to a murmur. They sounded like a billion voices whispering on the edge of sleep, voices he could never quite hear no matter how hard he tried to listen, and could never quite reach no matter how far he traveled.

But that didn't mean the voices couldn't reach him – if he asked.

They were trying to tell him something. What were they saying? How did he listen? What did he have to...feel?

"Connect with us," they seemed to be saying. "Connect with us again." They didn't use words. The Doctor could only feel the desire.

"When did I connect with you?" he felt back.

Memories came at him. Not his own; racial memories. "You came to us millennia ago," he felt them say. "Your body was different, your granddaughter was with you. We were becoming what we are today, but we were afraid. You calmed our fears, and helped us with the changes we were experiencing. You were happy for us. We did not agree with everything you said, but we respected your wisdom, and have always remembered you for it. We knew you when you landed. Your face was different, but we sensed the soul inside."

"You knew who I was...." the Doctor felt.

"We knew..."

"Connect with us..."

"You could sense my soul? I was the same?"

"Connect with us like you did of old..."

"I am"

"Every regeneration..."

"You are"

"Time Lord"

"Connect with us..."

"We knew you..."

"We could tell...."

"Connect..."

"You knew that I was...."

"and still are..."

I am

You are

The Doctor.

 

And the earth moved.

With a rushing in his ears as loud as thunder, the earth flowed like a shining bright stream, pushing him forward like blood from a heartbeat, carrying life to life, with an exhilaration he'd never felt before! Flowing along that earthen highway, his body tingled as if he was flying on invisible wings, while still safe within a mother's womb. He'd never felt so free, so joyful.

Emerging from the ground like a newborn into the night, the Doctor opened his eyes with a smile, and breathed deeply of the double moons crossing high above.

He looked down, and found the koba at his feet.

It was terrified.

The Doctor smiled, and knelt to pet the animal. "You've had a rough, night, haven't you, little one?"

The koba just purred softly. It was looking around in alarm, afraid that at any moment the sky would fall.

"I don't think you'll have any more surprises tonight. Why don't you stay here? You've done enough for a lifetime." The Doctor tickled the koba one final time under the chin, then left it alone.

Since it was now devoid of any plant life, he could clearly see the entire mountainside, from the blast site downwards, in the bright moonlight. A little ways off he spotted the others.

And someone was with them.

 

Working quickly, methodically, the ZED clawed her way out of the ground.

Caught on the very edge of the landslide, she hadn't been buried very deep. Now, wounded and weaponless, she finally pulled herself free. She stood and surveyed the situation, calmly ripping away the damaged circuitry from her face.

They had come at her from up the mountainside. She had witnessed the blue box's ability to appear and disappear, and had seen people come in and out of it. Therefore, it stood to reason this mobile base of theirs was farther up the mountain. She would go to it, and wait for them.

She started climbing.

 

The Doctor joined the others, surprised and elated that everyone was alive. Danziger held Devon in his arms, giving her the comfort she so desperately needed after her ordeal. Julia was unconscious. Her left arm was broken. Alonzo tended her as best he could.

A little ways off, Uly was meeting with three Terrians – and the Doctor understood their conversation. Their language was no longer gibberish to him. Uly was telling them the damage was because of a battle which had been fought there, but it was over now.

The Terrians regarded the Doctor as he approached. He nodded solemnly, and they nodded in return. He turned his attention to Julia.

"What happened?" Alonzo asked.

"I'm not sure. I met the ZED, just before the explosion, then she ran off. I don't know where she is." He took the diaglove from Alonzo and gave it a quick scan to familiarize himself with its functions. Then he took off his coat and put the glove on.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Alonzo asked.

"I will in a moment." He scanned Julia with the glove. "It's a close call, but I think she'll live." He hesitated, looking around. "I think we should get back to the TARDIS rather than waste time making a sling for her arm. We're not safe here. I'm not willing to bet the ZED was caught in that landslide."

He looked at Uly. One of the Terrians held his wooden staff, and they were all curiously examining it. They handed it back to him.

Then the Terrians hunched their shoulders and dropped into the earth.

Uly rejoined them. He was still a nine-year-old boy, but something about him had changed. He somehow seemed to possess more authority. He looked calm, purposeful, almost like divinely-chosen royalty – yet not quite, for he didn't possess any arrogance. He looked as if he'd just been charged with a mission, and he meant to see it out before his life was through.

For a moment, it even seemed he would open his mouth and take charge.

Just like an Adair, Danziger thought whimsically.

But he didn't. He came to his mother and held her hand, letting her know everything was all right. She collapsed and hugged him tightly.

Alonzo put his arms under Julia and, grunting slightly, picked her up, grateful she couldn't feel the pain in her arm as he did.

They wearily trudged up the mountain in silence, watching for the slightest sign of attack. Danziger led the way, his pistol outstretched in a two-handed grip. Devon held a sedaderm in one hand and Uly's hand in the other.

No one uttered a word as they passed the blast site. Above it, the trees and undergrowth were undisturbed. Devon held Uly's hand more tightly.

They moved on cautiously. Minutes passed, and nothing happened. They quickened their pace. The TARDIS came into view.

The ZED leaped out from the trees like a silent phantom just behind Danziger, leveling the Doctor and sending him sprawling. He lay where he landed, dazed.

Danziger turned, but was too late. The ZED spin-kicked him in the chest and backhanded Alonzo across his face, all in one move. They both went flying. Julia landed in a heap on Alonzo.

Devon shoved Uly behind her and tried to nail the ZED in the neck with the sedaderm, but the ZED swatted her arm aside. Devon then kicked and screamed as the ZED picked her up, held her high over her head, and threw her 30 feet. "No! Uly! Get back to the TARDIIIIIIIS!" There was a horrendous crack as Devon's left knee shattered as she hit the ground. She screamed – still for her son, always for her son. She madly pulled herself along the ground back at the ZED--

who stopped and looked at her.

The ZED did not continue her attack. She silently observed Devon's desperate struggle, oblivious to any wound, uncaring of any odds, as she fought to save her son.

And the ZED recognized the depths this woman felt for her child. Recognized it again, as a memory of a memory of a feeling she might have known, once.

It didn't matter.

She ignored the woman's cries; she could not reach her in time. The males were still stunned. The one she'd kicked was even beating the ground madly with his fists, choking, for the breath had been knocked out of him. The boy was hers. She reached for him.

And Ulysses lowered his head and blasted her with lightning from his staff.

He blew the ZED off her feet, slamming her against a tree. She didn't cry out. No shock registered on her face. She simply staggered, her arm outstretched, and stood up.

Uly blasted her again. Not to kill, just to keep her away. She fell. This time, she stayed down.

The Doctor and Alonzo slowly sat up. Danziger dragged great draughts of air into his lungs, coughing. Devon lay on the ground, barely believing what she was seeing. She had been so certain it was all over, that the ZED would take her son away from her. Her heart raced. The pain in her knee was excruciating.

The ZED lay on her back, convulsing badly, blinking at the sky. She was still trying to get up, but her right arm just moved in a feeble circle.

The Doctor knelt beside her, and Alonzo almost didn't believe what the Time Lord said next. "Tell us how we can help you."

"M-m-mission...failure," the ZED was able to say. "Captured."

"No!" the Doctor said. "Listen! I – none of us here – have taken you prisoner, do you understand? You are not our prisoner!"

"Initiating...cyanide r-release..."

"No!" the Doctor yelled. "I tell you you have not been captured! You are not our prisoner! You don't have to end this way! Let us help you!" He desperately searched for something she could understand. "Search your programming, and you'll find there are no orders to commit suicide if you have not been captured!"

The ZED just looked at him. It took the Doctor a second to realize she was crying.

A single tear trailed down her cheek, and dropped to the earth.

"I...was captured...a long...time ago."

The Doctor's face softened. The others looked on from where they sat or lay, even Devon.

"My name.... my...name – it's..."

She lay still.

The Doctor gently closed her eyes. He said softly, "And for every one who is held captive, the rest of us are a little less free."