Episode 10: The Omega of Harmony, Part Two

The ripples in the air and waves of nausea pass, and the Cast find themselves (thankfully, with Davan and Caan) in what appears to be a vast wasteland, full of ravines and rocky crags. In the distance they can see a tall, dark tower, its spear-like spires piercing the air.

"Well," Susan says, "It's been a good twenty years since I've been here. I didn't like it then, either."

The Artist begins walking towards the tower. The Cast asks where they are, and the Artist points to the tower and says, "Tomb of Rassilon."

Susan goes on to explain that they appear to be in the Death Zone on Gallifrey, a place once used as a gladiatorial arena for the pleasure of pre-enlightened Gallifreyans, and that when in the Death Zone, the Tomb of Rassilon is about the only place to go.

As they walk, they notice a pair of human-looking figures (likely Time Lords) sneaking through the crags. With a brief surge of excitement, the Artist informs Susan, "That's your grandfather in his eighth incarnation." He seems startled and concerned by the woman accompanying the Doctor, however, and when the Cast catches on, he says, "That's the Rani. A criminal, amoral, scientist, human experimentation, you know how it is. Nothing important, now." He reasons that the Rani's exile must have been lifted due to the war.

Another time shift occurs and the Cast finds themselves inside the Tomb of Rassilon. Don goes to examine the body, which he marvels is perfectly preserved after thousands of years. Susan explains that myth has it he's still alive, which is why he hasn't decayed, but nobody knows for sure. She cautions him against trying to touch the ring on Rassilon's finger, even in his semi-incorporeal state.

At that moment, the Doctor and the Rani run into the tomb and slam the door behind them. The Doctor works his sonic screwdriver and says, "That should hold him."

Davan sticks his head through the door to see an utterly featureless humanoid form firing long javelins from its arms at the door. It leaps in the air, vanishes, then reappears directly in front of Davan. It looks confused, as though it were trying to get through the door but can't teleport in. Davan informs the rest of the Cast what's outside, and the Artist identifies the creature as a Raston Warrior Robot, a perfect killing machine.

The Doctor goes to a secret compartment and opens it up, then beckons to something within. An unadorned, plain gray coffin floats out, which the Artist theorizes is the receptacle for the Hand of Omega (Susan confirms his theory, but is still confused as to why it is on Gallifrey).

The Rani suddenly turns on the Doctor, insistent that this plan to use the Hand is madness, that it will destroy everything and she can't allow that. The Doctor, self-righteously convinced that all other options are exhausted, struggles with the Rani and wins, leaving her unconscious on the floor and muttering, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," before leaving with the Hand.

Another Time Shift occurs and the Cast find themselves back in the Citadel of the Time Lords. They discuss strategies for getting back into the Council Tower to access the Eye of Harmony, and decide the sewers are their best bet, as sewer access isn't likely to be deadlocked.

As they head for the sewers, they again witness Persephone, now the Queen of Time, stalking through the streets, mercilessly killing anyone in her way with a vibro-sword. She arrives at a Battle TARDIS and creates a distraction that lures the pilot out, then she executes him and steals the TARDIS, making good her escape.

The Artist's mood becoming ever darker, the Cast enters the sewers, where they pass through multiple battles between squads of Daleks and Time Lord guards. The Daleks, it appears, are trying to access the Tower just as the Cast are, but the Time Lords appear to be holding their own. Dalek Caan begins rooting on his comrades, screaming "EXTERMINATE!" Don smacks the Dalek, and comes away with burns on his hand as a reward.

The Artist says, "What have I told you about teasing the Dalek?"

The Cast makes the Tower, and heads toward the control room for the Eye. Chuck makes a remark about the lack of guards, and the Artist retorts that they saw the guards fighting in the sewers, and reminds the Cast that there's also a coup on, assuming they're back in the moment they arrived.

The Cast arrive at the control room. Chuck is absolutely awed at the sheer idea that there is a black hole right in front of him, and it's so contained that it's exerting no pull on the surrounding area. He begins making notes in his journal, studying all the equipment, computers, and settings in the room.

Susan reaches out and manages to make contact with Angelique, who is in fact trapped in the event horizon of the Eye of Harmony. With her help, the Artist and Susan work out that if they can destabilize the Eye for a fraction of a millisecond, that might allow Angelique to escape without swallowing the planet. Susan advises the rest of the Cast to find something to hold onto, and she and the Artist focus all their concentration on working the controls that contain the eye, button by button. The process takes an agonizing span of minutes, but finally the entire Cast finds themselves thrown forward, straining against their anchors as the force of the black hole slams them into objects with a force none of them ever imagined.

There's a blur of movement from the Eye, and then everything stabilizes again, and there on the floor in the midst of the Cast is Angelique, looking haggard and weak, but intact. The Cast then decides their next trick will be to somehow regain cohesion with the normal flow of time-space. They opt to head back out through the sewers as they are not deadlocked, but when the Artist tries to pass through, he rams right into the grate. After a shocked moment of silence, Davan reaches for a log book on a table and picks it up with ease.

"Guys," he says, "We have a new problem."

The change is not lost on Dalek Caan, who promptly shouts "EXTERMINATE!" and shoots Davan, who dives behind a control panel and gets away with being winged. As his arm goes numb, he grabs a fire extinguisher with the other arm and hurls it into the air, as the rest of the Cast desperately attack the Dalek, trying to keep it off balance.

The Dalek's next shot explodes the fire extinguisher, filling the room with clouds of white vapor and providing some small cover. The Artist rushes to a security panel and kicks it open, withdrawing a Gallifreyan Particle Beam Rifle, which he uses to shoot Dalek Caan. With his PDA, Davan takes a video of the Artist using a gun..."just for the record."

Suddenly realizing it may be outnumbered, the dalek blasts the door off the hinges and flies from the room, shouting, "The Hand of Omega will belong to the Daleks, and we shall be victorious!"

The Artist wants to cut and run, but Angelique says her power cells are drained. When asked if she can't tie into the Eye, she responds, "I have no connection to the Eye. I never have. In my time, the Eye doesn't exist anymore."

The Artist asks what she needs to recharge. She half-sarcastically responds, "I'm drained, unless you know some way I can physically step into the Time Vortex."

"As a matter of fact," the Artist says, "I do."

Davan and the rest of the Cast, however, are not willing to cut and run at this point. Davan points out that they just set loose a powerful, clever, and dangerous dalek with independent thought after the Hand of Omega, and it's their responsibility to stop it. They dash out the blasted-off door and follow a trail of half-disintegrated Gallifreyan bodies into the foyer, each Cast Member collecting a particle beam rifle of their own as they go.

Exiting the tower (which has had the front doors blown right off the hinges, the Cast discovers that the Daleks have made the city, which is now a bloody battlefield. They scan the dalek forces in vain, desperately hoping to pick Dalek Caan out of the throng.

Against all odds (and with a roll of 26 on his Perception and Notice Task) Chuck succeeds. The Cast open up on Dalek Caan, blasting it out of the sky. As it falls, it shouts, "Emergency Temporal Shift!" and vanishes. The Cast are panicked until the Artist explains that "emergency temporal shift," equals "uncontrolled, random point in space-time," and that with the damage it suffered, Caan won't be a threat for some time. He then suggests that the Cast make haste, as judging by the look of things they have mere hours before the war ends, and they all die.

He explains as they walk that they are heading for a rift in time and space called the Untempered Schism, which is a direct portal into the Time Vortex. Chuck wants to see, and Davan and Emilie try their best to tell him, "No, you really don't want to see."

Over an hour's walk later into the wastelands, Angelique stops and says, "I sense the Vortex is near. You all may want to get in, at least for the sake of the humans." Again Chuck protests, but is convinced to enter the TARDIS. The Artist collects everyone's guns and tosses them away. The Cast take one last look back at the Citadel in the distance, and witness it enveloped by utter blackness, which begins to spread. A beam of white light haloed in black fires from the center of the black and decimates the Dalek fleet, then connects Gallifrey and Skaro. The entire planet shudders, and both it and Skaro begin to rip apart.

Angelique holds up her cloak and one by one the Cast enters the TARDIS.

James asks Angelique if she'll hold on to his gun, and she says, "Yes, certainly I'll hold on to it."

Then, when he enters beneath her cloak, she tosses the gun away.

Most of the Cast head straight for the zero room to nurse their (thankfully, largely superficial) injuries, but Davan, the Artist, and Susan stay in the control room. A few minutes later, they feel a shudder, and the TARDIS's engines begin to rev up, its heart pumping up and down, and they feel the gentle swaying of the travel through the Vortex.

The Artist pulls out what look like foil hats and makes to put them on the Cast, while Davan says, "Ancient Egypt, wasn't it?" and dashes for the controls, working them feverishly. The Artist panics at first, then, when he sees that Davan actually seems to be doing it right, becomes petulant, saying, "Listen, I've never had a chance to try the psychic controls and now I have enough people to do it! Step away, Davan!"

"Oh, hush," Susan says, "Let him try."

The Artist pouts, but consents. The TARDIS shudders once, lands roughly, and the Artist peeks out the front door to see the Pyramids in the distance. Davan has managed to pilot the TARDIS for the first time, and the Cast has escaped to adventure once again...

Memorable Quotes

(Metagame conversation regarding growing pot on the TARDIS)
Jason: "With Systems Operation (TARDIS), you could disable Temporal Grace in one room to make a greenhouse."
Robert: "Yeah, but I don't wanna."

The Artist: "Remember when your mother took you to the antique shop when you were little? And she told you to stay perfectly still and not touch anything? Do that now."
Emilie: "My mom never took me antique shopping. She was a ho."

Chuck: "What a corrupt planet."
The Artist: "How would you feel if the entire universe judge Earth based on Adolf Hitler?"
Chuck: "They do!"

The Artist: "By the way, Don, do not antagonize the Dalek."

Davan: "That's a black hole?"
The Artist: "Yes. Would you like to poke it with a stick? You can poke it with a stick."
Emilie: "So don't touch the Dalek, but you can poke the black hole with a stick! You've got issues, dude."

Angelique (Psychically): "You need to destabilize the Eye of Harmony for a fraction of a second so I can get out."
Emilie: "YAAAAAAAY!"

Don: "Hey, what's going on?"
The Artist: "It's best that I don't tell you. You might try to stop me if I do."
Don: "Davan! Stop him!"

Susan (To the Artist): "Are you sure you want to do this?"
The Artist: "Do you want to be on Gallifrey when it goes boom?"
Susan: "Good point. I love this plan. I'm excited to be a part of it. Let's do it."

The Artist: "I keep telling you people to stop watching Star Trek, but you don't listen."

The Artist: "There goes my 'not using a gun' streak."

Don (re: the gun): "Do you have another one of those?"
The Artist: "How about you just take this one?"
Don: "Alright!"

The Artist: "If I could Deadlock seal duct tape, I would."
Don: "You'd be surprised what I use duct tape for."
The Artist: "I don't need to know that!"

Davan: "Trust me. No, Charles, you do not want to look into it."
The Artist: "Yes, Charles. I've noticed that you listen to him when he calls you Charles. You don't listen to me. Would you listen to me if I called you Charles?"

The Artist: "I never get to use this toy, so you are going to just sit there and wear that hat!"
Susan: "Oh, let him try."
The Artist (pouting): "Oh, fine."

Chuck: "Nice, safe, ancient Egypt."
The Artist: "Oh, you want nice and safe? Then you don't want to go to ancient Egypt."


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