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Description
Students, Yogis and other learned men have postulated on that age-old question; that of Life, the Universe and Everything-it's not really that simple...
There is not a Universe but a Multiverse. Infinite numbers of Universes which occupy the same space with slightly, or sometimes wildly differing versions of their inhabitants and circumstances. The Dictator who was a good painter and never felt the need to dictate or conquer anyone, a Lincoln who thought, 'Actually, I might not bother with the theatre tonight.' Even a Keannu Reeves who became an actor...
Each Universe has individuals who ponder the great question of Life, the Universe and Everything. What they should really be pondering is Life, the particular Universe I inhabit and Everything-but that's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?

In this particular Universe there is a man. To be more specific, a Gallifreyan man (Timelord if you must) and his companion who is also from Gallifrey but very definitely female. Their real names are almost unpronouncable but they currently pass under the titles of The Doctor and Romana and they are in peril, not so much from the imediate threat to them but from an evil so utter, so elemental that it will haunt them to the end of their days.
The Doctor of this Universe is (so far) a tall, wide-eyed master of words with an infectious (if somewhat manic) grin and yes, alright he's running down a dark corridor with his friend...

"Hurry Romana, this way!"
"How do you know?" gasped the blonde breathlessly. The Doctor paused, put his hands on the dusty, defunct turnstyle and vaulted it;
"I told you,I've been here before!"
Her straw hat fell unmourned as they both tore through past the wall's schematic map and the sign that bore the legend Tooting Bec, his scarf trailing through the air like a knight's standard.
"HALT!" Grated a mechanical voice from behind them, "STAY-WHERE-YOU-ARE!"

The evil was suddenly aware of a trace, a mental signiature and thought-patterns that were very definitely those of it's Nemesis and the astral mind of The Black Guardian burned with hatred;
"The Doctor, at last!"
The invisible persona soared across time and space, touching and influencing planets. It spawned wars and atrocities that it neither intended nor wept for. Earth, he should have known! As the malevolent intellience sped to the small blue/green world it's evil contaminated places and life-forms along the way like infected ink spreading from a diseased octopus. Anyone watching from a ship's observation blister may have caught a slight glimpse of a lightning-festooned, black cloud as it momentarily passed through their vicinity and time-frame lusting after the Gallifreyans' blood. They probably then thought how nice it might be to kill the next person they met.

The Doctor lunged at Romana, throwing the two of them to the floor as a beam of super-heated plasma destroyed a long-dead chocolate-vending machine just ahead of them. The duo rolled in wild-limbed synchronicity to shelter behind a roof-pillar.
"The twenty second century," he remarked, "...not my favourite period of Earth history!"
"YOU-ARE-TWO-OF-THE-HUMANS-THAT-PLOT-AGAINST-THE-DALEKS!"
"Right modus operandi, wrong species!" He bellowed, almost joyously.
"YOU-WILL-BE-"
"Exterminated?" They chorussed.
Romana gazed yearningly at the familiar, blue, boxy shape of the Tardis nestling in the tunnel less than twenty yards away;
"Doctor, we've got to get to the Tardis!"
A further blast sent a packed litter bin cartwheeling off the platform;
"I'm entirely in agreement, the question is how?"
A faint noise drew his attention away from the end of his smouldering scarf;
"A train?" Romana queried.
"Nonsense, nothing's run down here for years, unless..."
Cocking their heads either side of the pillar they saw the Dalek halt indecisively as something come out of the tunnel. Mechanically, it was not a train, not one that London Transport would have aproved of, anyway. It was an uncomfortable marriage between car and rail-truck. Most of it appeared to be constructed from an ancient, butchered Jaguar with the top cut off and extra lights and a bull-bar on the front, complete with buffers. A gritty-looking man and woman stood-up in the front grabbing the top of the screen and door-frames;
"Kate, Bryan-get away!" Screamed Romana.
"Not after all you've done for us!" Bryan shouted and lobbed a grenade at the squat creature. The explosive bounced off the Dalek's shell and erupted into smoke and flickering light with a loud WHUMP.
"Doctor, Romana-we got it going again, just like you said!" Kate yelled through the murk.
The Doctor heard a vaguely familiar beeping and stared deeper into the smoke. In turmoil, the Dalek spun from side to side as the smoke and chaff-like metal fragments showered it, confusing it's sensors.
Through a less dense area of smoke, Romana saw a huge, hairy shape rise from the back of the XJ6. It was so tall its head and glowing eyes were visible above the smoke as it bore-down on the creature from Skaro.
It's vision and sensors impaired, the Dalek began loosing random bursts of fire in the Gallifreyan twosome's general direction, tile and concrete splitting under the onslaught. Suddenly, it's globe sensors warned it of a huge shape bearing down on it. The Dalek began to turn but Massive arms encircled it and lifted it from the floor!
"Go now, Doctor! Fido's got him!" Yelled the woman from the car. As if in punctuation of Kate's order the Yeti threw the machine creature to the floor;
"UNDER-ATTACK! UNDER-ATTACK!" It shrieked as its casing burst upon impact. The Yeti swiped at it's eyestick, spinning its dome as it tried to fire at its attacker, blasting at the walls and floor, drunkenly.
Sheltered in the car beneath the platform's edge, Bryan jiggled one of the levers on his radio-control unit and the robot smashed one huge claw down on the Kaled mutations top, leaving a huge dent;
"We've got this under control now, you two-you're safe to leave!"
Romana and the Doctor considered as they watched the battle, smoke billowing from the Dalek after blow upon blow from the re-purposed Yeti;
"Very well," he considered, "...don't worry about you race's future. You'll see victory, till then," he raised his hat aloft in salute as they turned for their ship, "Vive la Revolution!"
The Dalek's eyestick and protuberances dropped to the floor as wisps of smoke coiled from its grills, its triumphant foe standing in silent victory over it.
'NO!'
The voice boomed in Romana's and the Doctor's heads. He threw his hands to his ears but knew he couldn't block-out the purely mental sound. The Gallfreyans stopped in their tracks and turned to see a black, crackling mist boiling through the far wall, already certain what it was;
"Run Romana!" He yelled, feeling true, mortal fear for the first time in centuries.
The Astral Mind of the Black Guardian cast about, looking for a weapon to use against the duo as they sprinted for the Type 40. The robot and it's controller was too far away and hadn't the range-there was only one option. It funneled its mind into the remains of the dying Dalek and forced it into action.
As the Doctor put his key into the lock there was a blast as the Yeti was shredded by a salvo from the revitalised Kaled-mutation's weaponry. The creature from Skaro jerkily turned to face the fleeing duo and with its new-found vitality it's voice was an exhultant shriek as it screamed;
"DIE-KA-FARAQ-GATRI-DIE!"
It loosed a burst of fire at them and the Doctor and Romana were bathed in a flare of killing radiation as the black cloud boiled above the now-dead creature's dome in exhultation. the visage of the Black Guardian now visible in it. Blackened and smoking, the Doctor fell against the door of the Tardis which creaked open, invitingly;
'NO!' Cried the image of the Guardan, 'NO, DOCTOR, YOU'RE TOO LATE! YOU MUST DIE!'
There was something in the voice, an almost spiteful desperation that put strength into the Doctor's dying, pain-wracked body as he pulled himself up on the door handle and dragged at his ebbing companion's body till she was over the threshold. He met the disembodied face's gaze and conjured-up a grim smile from somewhere;
"Probably," he ventured, "...but not today." The Timelord sagged to his knees against the door frame.
'YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME, DOCTOR!' Screamed the malevolent countenance and tried to funnel itself back into the Dalek but it was now completely dead and useless to him, 'NOOOO-!' In desperation, the seething individuum aimed his mind at the Timelord as he dragged his partner over the threshold of the ship then, in a moment of desperation, he flung his mind at the woman.
Romana's body and mind were ablaze with pain. Radiation coursed through her body, eating at her cells. To the Guardian, pain was anathema but to actually experience it, fantastic! She was far beyond his control, though. She was so close to death that her mind had retreated back into itself, incapable of controlling her body for even the most simple task.
Leaving a shadow of himself in her, the Black Guardian left. The pain was now an unnecessary novelty but perhaps the touch of his 'self'-an almost sentient hatred for her colleague might achieve something? He left the agonized maelstrom that was her mind and watched mutely as The Doctor dragged her fully into the Time Machine and slammed the door. It squeaked open again, the Doctor's pain wracked features visible again;
"Next time you're in the nieghborhood, why don't you drop in?" He winced and closed the door again. The old Type 40 faded from view with its accompanying fanfare. All was silent once more, then an engine bellowed and the Jaguar squealed backwards into the tunnel it had emerged from with it's two panic-stricken and uncomprehending passengers.
'THANK YOU FOR THE INVITATION DOCTOR,' intoned the Guardian grimly as he sensed the randomiser kick-in and pluck the whereabouts of the machine from his senses, '...BUT PERHAPS I ALREADY HAVE...'

Description
Students, Yogis and other learned men have postulated on that age-old question; that of Life, the Universe and Everything-it's not really that simple...
There is not a Universe but a Multiverse. Infinite numbers of Universes which occupy the same space with slightly, or sometimes wildly differing versions of their inhabitants and circumstances. The Dictator who was a good painter and never felt the need to dictate or conquer anyone, a Lincoln who thought, 'Actually, I might not bother with the theatre tonight.' Even a Keannu Reeves who became an actor...
Each Universe has individuals who ponder the great question of Life, the Universe and Everything. What they should really be pondering is Life, the particular Universe I inhabit and Everything-but that's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?

In this particular Universe there is a man. To be more specific, a Gallifreyan man (Timelord if you must) and his companion who is also from Gallifrey but very definitely female. Their real names are almost unpronouncable but they currently pass under the titles of The Doctor and Romana and they are in peril, not so much from the imediate threat to them but from an evil so utter, so elemental that it will haunt them to the end of their days.
The Doctor of this Universe is (so far) a tall, wide-eyed master of words with an infectious (if somewhat manic) grin and yes, alright he's running down a dark corridor with his friend...

"Hurry Romana, this way!"
"How do you know?" gasped the blonde breathlessly. The Doctor paused, put his hands on the dusty, defunct turnstyle and vaulted it;
"I told you,I've been here before!"
Her straw hat fell unmourned as they both tore through past the wall's schematic map and the sign that bore the legend Tooting Bec, his scarf trailing through the air like a knight's standard.
"HALT!" Grated a mechanical voice from behind them, "STAY-WHERE-YOU-ARE!"

The evil was suddenly aware of a trace, a mental signiature and thought-patterns that were very definitely those of it's Nemesis and the astral mind of The Black Guardian burned with hatred;
"The Doctor, at last!"
The invisible persona soared across time and space, touching and influencing planets. It spawned wars and atrocities that it neither intended nor wept for. Earth, he should have known! As the malevolent intellience sped to the small blue/green world it's evil contaminated places and life-forms along the way like infected ink spreading from a diseased octopus. Anyone watching from a ship's observation blister may have caught a slight glimpse of a lightning-festooned, black cloud as it momentarily passed through their vicinity and time-frame lusting after the Gallifreyans' blood. They probably then thought how nice it might be to kill the next person they met.

The Doctor lunged at Romana, throwing the two of them to the floor as a beam of super-heated plasma destroyed a long-dead chocolate-vending machine just ahead of them. The duo rolled in wild-limbed synchronicity to shelter behind a roof-pillar.
"The twenty second century," he remarked, "...not my favourite period of Earth history!"
"YOU-ARE-TWO-OF-THE-HUMANS-THAT-PLOT-AGAINST-THE-DALEKS!"
"Right modus operandi, wrong species!" He bellowed, almost joyously.
"YOU-WILL-BE-"
"Exterminated?" They chorussed.
Romana gazed yearningly at the familiar, blue, boxy shape of the Tardis nestling in the tunnel less than twenty yards away;
"Doctor, we've got to get to the Tardis!"
A further blast sent a packed litter bin cartwheeling off the platform;
"I'm entirely in agreement, the question is how?"
A faint noise drew his attention away from the end of his smouldering scarf;
"A train?" Romana queried.
"Nonsense, nothing's run down here for years, unless..."
Cocking their heads either side of the pillar they saw the Dalek halt indecisively as something come out of the tunnel. Mechanically, it was not a train, not one that London Transport would have aproved of, anyway. It was an uncomfortable marriage between car and rail-truck. Most of it appeared to be constructed from an ancient, butchered Jaguar with the top cut off and extra lights and a bull-bar on the front, complete with buffers. A gritty-looking man and woman stood-up in the front grabbing the top of the screen and door-frames;
"Kate, Bryan-get away!" Screamed Romana.
"Not after all you've done for us!" Bryan shouted and lobbed a grenade at the squat creature. The explosive bounced off the Dalek's shell and erupted into smoke and flickering light with a loud WHUMP.
"Doctor, Romana-we got it going again, just like you said!" Kate yelled through the murk.
The Doctor heard a vaguely familiar beeping and stared deeper into the smoke. In turmoil, the Dalek spun from side to side as the smoke and chaff-like metal fragments showered it, confusing it's sensors.
Through a less dense area of smoke, Romana saw a huge, hairy shape rise from the back of the XJ6. It was so tall its head and glowing eyes were visible above the smoke as it bore-down on the creature from Skaro.
It's vision and sensors impaired, the Dalek began loosing random bursts of fire in the Gallifreyan twosome's general direction, tile and concrete splitting under the onslaught. Suddenly, it's globe sensors warned it of a huge shape bearing down on it. The Dalek began to turn but Massive arms encircled it and lifted it from the floor!
"Go now, Doctor! Fido's got him!" Yelled the woman from the car. As if in punctuation of Kate's order the Yeti threw the machine creature to the floor;
"UNDER-ATTACK! UNDER-ATTACK!" It shrieked as its casing burst upon impact. The Yeti swiped at it's eyestick, spinning its dome as it tried to fire at its attacker, blasting at the walls and floor, drunkenly.
Sheltered in the car beneath the platform's edge, Bryan jiggled one of the levers on his radio-control unit and the robot smashed one huge claw down on the Kaled mutations top, leaving a huge dent;
"We've got this under control now, you two-you're safe to leave!"
Romana and the Doctor considered as they watched the battle, smoke billowing from the Dalek after blow upon blow from the re-purposed Yeti;
"Very well," he considered, "...don't worry about you race's future. You'll see victory, till then," he raised his hat aloft in salute as they turned for their ship, "Vive la Revolution!"
The Dalek's eyestick and protuberances dropped to the floor as wisps of smoke coiled from its grills, its triumphant foe standing in silent victory over it.
'NO!'
The voice boomed in Romana's and the Doctor's heads. He threw his hands to his ears but knew he couldn't block-out the purely mental sound. The Gallfreyans stopped in their tracks and turned to see a black, crackling mist boiling through the far wall, already certain what it was;
"Run Romana!" He yelled, feeling true, mortal fear for the first time in centuries.
The Astral Mind of the Black Guardian cast about, looking for a weapon to use against the duo as they sprinted for the Type 40. The robot and it's controller was too far away and hadn't the range-there was only one option. It funneled its mind into the remains of the dying Dalek and forced it into action.
As the Doctor put his key into the lock there was a blast as the Yeti was shredded by a salvo from the revitalised Kaled-mutation's weaponry. The creature from Skaro jerkily turned to face the fleeing duo and with its new-found vitality it's voice was an exhultant shriek as it screamed;
"DIE-KA-FARAQ-GATRI-DIE!"
It loosed a burst of fire at them and the Doctor and Romana were bathed in a flare of killing radiation as the black cloud boiled above the now-dead creature's dome in exhultation. the visage of the Black Guardian now visible in it. Blackened and smoking, the Doctor fell against the door of the Tardis which creaked open, invitingly;
'NO!' Cried the image of the Guardan, 'NO, DOCTOR, YOU'RE TOO LATE! YOU MUST DIE!'
There was something in the voice, an almost spiteful desperation that put strength into the Doctor's dying, pain-wracked body as he pulled himself up on the door handle and dragged at his ebbing companion's body till she was over the threshold. He met the disembodied face's gaze and conjured-up a grim smile from somewhere;
"Probably," he ventured, "...but not today." The Timelord sagged to his knees against the door frame.
'YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME, DOCTOR!' Screamed the malevolent countenance and tried to funnel itself back into the Dalek but it was now completely dead and useless to him, 'NOOOO-!' In desperation, the seething individuum aimed his mind at the Timelord as he dragged his partner over the threshold of the ship then, in a moment of desperation, he flung his mind at the woman.
Romana's body and mind were ablaze with pain. Radiation coursed through her body, eating at her cells. To the Guardian, pain was anathema but to actually experience it, fantastic! She was far beyond his control, though. She was so close to death that her mind had retreated back into itself, incapable of controlling her body for even the most simple task.
Leaving a shadow of himself in her, the Black Guardian left. The pain was now an unnecessary novelty but perhaps the touch of his 'self'-an almost sentient hatred for her colleague might achieve something? He left the agonized maelstrom that was her mind and watched mutely as The Doctor dragged her fully into the Time Machine and slammed the door. It squeaked open again, the Doctor's pain wracked features visible again;
"Next time you're in the nieghborhood, why don't you drop in?" He winced and closed the door again. The old Type 40 faded from view with its accompanying fanfare. All was silent once more, then an engine bellowed and the Jaguar squealed backwards into the tunnel it had emerged from with it's two panic-stricken and uncomprehending passengers.
'THANK YOU FOR THE INVITATION DOCTOR,' intoned the Guardian grimly as he sensed the randomiser kick-in and pluck the whereabouts of the machine from his senses, '...BUT PERHAPS I ALREADY HAVE...'