An Omega Agenda

Moments later, on the move…

After the wave broke over Rei’s group and a slight . . .delay . . .Rei and friends were back on the move. This time, with Rei Takahashi still in tow but giving a rather unorthodox briefing to two people of rather unusual backgrounds. One is a Marine general, gifted in the art of war and in black operations in particular (but a man of honor all the same as seen in certain movies). The other, a certain purple haired woman with the rank of colonel in a para-military, secretive organization known as NERV.

"Let’s be friends forever…," a childs’ chorus of voices sings in the background.

Try as she might, Rei had NOT been able to silence that rather inappropriate music that had started playing right at the very start of that “delay" earlier there. She’d put up with it as some sort of obligatory incidental music, but she’d be burnt as a heretic if she’d ever LIKE it.

Some of Rei’s group look somewhat smug while others look like they would dearly love to take Rei (or another of the Champions) aside and shake them violently until they start giving some answers that make sense. The fact that Rei’s rather busy still right now (and could more than defend herself against such tactics) precludes such actions though.

Ragan would dearly love to know just what in the #$#$%# is this thing: Stargate Command. Last thing she had heard about anything remotely like that from the military corners for deep space telemetry. It had stunk of a cover story but she had never dreamed upon returning from what seemed like a BAD episode of the Twilight Zone that something called Disclosure would happen and BOOM. Starships! Wormhole gates to other planets (which was too much like that failure of a scifi show: Wormhole Extreme). Rei’s group new about it beforehand by the looks of it, despite being surprised by it; kept putting off a full explanation with the Doctor’s old excuse: “I’ll explain later!" They were too busy with other things right now.

Yeah, talking this general and this colonel woman into not knocking them out of the sky with missiles is a nice idea but . . .

As for the Master, wasn’t he the smug one. Still, the young woman with the blue hair had given him a look that despite all his experience, what he’d seen and done in all his centuries of life, had given him pause. Frankly, with the still unknown abilities this “magic" that Rei and her sisters had made him a bit leery about just going off and dismissing the young woman. That and what amounted to super pepper powder she had on her person which was (according to her) meant to use in her spellcrafting for that magical means of fixing the problem that HE inadvertently unleashed upon this world (and himself); but it sure would and could make a most PAINFUL pepper spray if the blue haired woman should get too angry with him!

Well, as being that she caught on to the ploy I set in motion and used it to good effect I am sure she’ll understand why I interceded, the evil Timelord thought to himself. With that kind of military officer she was wasting valuable time. When his type it’s either groveling at your feet if not snapping at your throat. Depends on just how you handle such people, that’s all.

That little display done by Sailor Plu . . .er. . . .Sailor Moon had done wonders to batten down any needless blustering by both general and that lyrically beautiful purple haired colonel: Misato Katsuragi. That and that one Angel that arrived and took some matters into her own hands…

Anyway! The Master was sure Rei would see his side of things when he finally got a moment alone here away from prying ears. Yes, surely she’d see his point of view and agree.

He hoped so anyway.

Meanwhile both the commander officer of Stargate Command and the commanding officer of Tokyo 3 (at least until the US military could take over formal command after Misato had surrendered) were having a frank discussion with the party leader: Rei Takahashi. Such a thing was possible despite Rei having to hang onto the tether line to her husband’s airbike as they all blasted through the air due to the touch neural crown her laptop (such a NICE toy her family had gifted her upon her return) made it possible. Made what would have been a VERY awkward fumble with her laptop both hands free and worry free!

And my what an interesting (albeit short) discussion it was turning out to be here!. Both General Hummel and Colonel Katsuragi (who’s managed to regain access to the communication channel Rei had hijacked earlier) look somewhat ill, but at least look like they’re more willing to listen to what Rei had to say now; it had been a combination of the dimensional breaches suddenly sealing themselves with that white “disruption wave" had shattered upon the magical wards Setsuna had placed around Rei’s group (pretty much annulling that ill advised plan of Hummels to throw nukes into the breech to CLOSE them and hopefully stop the VLA from destroying the world (and then some). The general had been dubious about that idea anyway but then again . . .this situation hadn’t been something one usually works with in his line of work but those scientist types had been sure of themselves.

Nice to know that his “gut instincts" had been right over their “learned guesswork". Frankly, he’d not been too keen on using such destructive remedies anyway. Wasn’t like he was a monster or anything like that, you know! The fallout from such weapon usage would have lingered on and hurt and killed lots of people even IF the breeches had been closed. Oh, not American lives but there HAD to be people on the other side of those breeches who’d suffer.

As for what he’d just witnessed just seconds after the wave had collapsed, taking the dimensional breeches with them? Well, it had been hectic to say the least! The immediate aftermath of the battle between what turned out to be an Angel possessed Evangelion Unit—the Angel Bardiel possessing EVA Unit 03—and EVA unit 01 got “interrupted" rather violently by a rather high powered magic blast from none other than Sailor Moon, who bloody well recognized what had been happening here! If one was familiar with the Evangelion story, they would have recognized it instantly. EVA unit 01’s “dummy plug" (a kind of autopilot for times when it’s normal human pilot cannot/will not fight) had managed to defeat the possessed EVA unit by savagely tearing it to pieces (and probably causing all sorts of agony to the trapped EVA unit pilot in the process because of the special nature of the psionic linkage needed to “pilot" these abominations effectively). However, despite having defeated the rogue EVA and killed the possessing Angel the Dummy Plug (designed to simulate Rei Ayanami as the pilot), the device had still serious flaws to it. It was going to continue attacking it’s downed foe, and if things played out HERE as what had happened in the anime (or gods forbid, the manga) then the helpless pilot still trapped within the Entry Plug of Unit 03 was in SERIOUS danger!! If she allowed the freaking thing to get that plug in it’s hands, that is.

One major beam of magical attack later—an pink ray from her which looked silly indeed but managed to knock the rampaging Unit 01 for quiet the loop (and a VERY big crash) downrange of what is LEFT of the freeway; nearby seismic sensors would register the impact as something of a minor earthquake, really. While still trying to rise after that hard knock, for some odd reason Unit 01 then jettisoned it’s own Entry Plug, sending the still reeling Shinji Ikari on a rocket ride away from here to be rescued at a later date. Without the Entry Plug still inserted into it’s back to act as a bridge from what passed as a mind to the rest of the body, the Unit went silent and dead.

Later, Setsuna and the others would learn of similar happenings all over the place with the other EVA units did the same thing. Right before what she had come to know as “Axiom Wash" had finally come and taken away the fantastic abilities “anime physics" provided the EVA units and left them as so much rubbish to be cleaned up!

Fine and well because she really did not want to go toe to toe with any more giant robots, that last blast took a LOT out of her!

That and . . .the fact that we got quiet a surprise when upon opening up Unit 03’s Entry Plug (after a quick cleansing spell to avoid Angel venom and whatnot for Contamination) they found a bawling red headed girl infant instead of the expected teenage pilot!

Setsuna and the others had been expecting a male teen by the name of Toji Suzuhara, NOT this.

Rei had just enough time to learn from a stunned looking Colonel Katsuragi that the pilot of EVA Unit 03 had been Asuka Langley Shikinami before the stunned NERV officer went into deeper shock. She had already been shocked to have seen what she had previously thought as only a fondly remembered manga character she’d read about in her childhood being not only alive but VERY much capable (with her magic) to have a huge robot thrown about like a rag doll. Betty and the others of REi’s group had already known that Setsuna was something of a magical powerhouse and become somewhat used to the idea. The visit by an actual, honest to goodness heavenly angel (and not some alien invader named by some goth types in NERV’s hierarchy) had been jaw dropping, even when witnessed from afar through remote drone video feed.

General Hummel hadn’t been too far behind, but had been able to hide it (somewhat) better. Still, despite being somewhat more . . .religious than others there at Stargate Command (or so he had ciphered out from basic impression), to see something from actual legend in the metaphysical flesh was . . .daunting. It shouldn’t have been. All sorts of tricks and other technological special effects throughout Earth history had . . .

. . .

Well, just suffice to say that this particular entity had an air to her (the angel had been Buffy Summers) that made easily dismissing her . . .VERY hard and leave at that. Something that NO other entity on the mortal plan could quiet duplicate, her and other Office types mystical aura. Not really.

Oh, one could argue (and successfully argue) that types like Buffy (and Astra) didn’t necessarily need to be what religious dogma put them as being. More like perhaps some kind of custodians charged by some kind of higher cosmic alien entities who’d put together the multiverse as a grand experiment? That is what some of the more secular types in Rei’s group like to think of it as being.

Even Yukiko had been aware of the fact that those of the Office of Good had been known to appear as various other types of messangers/whatevers besides Christian/Judean Angels (like Valkaries from the Norse mythology for one). However, that wasn’t something that Rei felt like discussing with her audience right now, thanks.

Anyway, after Buffy had arrived just a moment after REi had magically torn the Entry Plug’s door off with spellwork, she’d taken some kind of rather revealing version (even for a plugsuit) of what Asuka had been wearing and changed them into the blankets with the designs of the Imperium of Mankind symbols upon it and vanished without even as much as a hello.

Rei put it down as the Angel not wishing to cause a time paradox. It was obvious that time travel of some kind HAD to be involved IF wayard Primarchs like Asuka (for that was what this particular red haired infant girl had been) should be snatched up like that AFTER (by Rei’s watch) that same child had already been delivered to the Emperor of Mankind’s hands earlier today!

As for Colonel Katsuragi and General Hummel, they now both were more inclined to listen to what Rei had to tell them and not scoff. Sensors from both NERV and Hummel’s ships in orbit had told quiet interesting things, including that the mystical forces that had been thrown around by both Sailor Moon and Rei had been very . . .telling. It was the very same kind of energy (that’s about all their sensors could tell it was, nobody could really make heads or tails of it besides it showing alarming properties if not stopped) that had been shown to somehow been manipulated and strained at a crosspoint within VLA grounds.

After the rifts had closed and those lines of force still were acting up (coupled with the fact that that Dome no longer was fouling up all but the most basic of scans) told tales. Tales like nuking Tokyo 3 (or the VLA) would do anything good at all. Mostly, it would make things only worse. Much worse.

As hard as it was to believe (and stomach) the only thing both officers saw to do was to let Rei and her group proceed with their plan because right now . . .not even the most wild eyed members of either camp knew what else to do to stop the VLA from going up in a VERY big bang (and taking out a LOT of real estate with it).

But a few questions had to be answered still for Hummel’s sake of mind. This was war and all that. He understood that, now, despite the rather bizarre way it had been waged before his and other’s eyes. Hey, given how completely combat ineffective conventional forces had been in some of the prior witnessed Angel battles (it had been a almost complete curbstomp), it made more sense now than some kind of vulgar display of power to intimidate Earth. NERV’s EVAs had been created to combat the alien invades called Angels (though in reality in the end to perform this Third Impact thing along some dark human designs rather than the Angels’ designs).

That he got. But what he still could not quiet get (or didn’t want to get was) . . .something very basic.

"And you say that the reason you use children to pilot the Evas is because why?" Hummel asked, clearly disgusted that children had been drafted into waging war. “In God’s name, why?!"

He was a soldier. A man of honor. Heck, let’s just say he was a Marine’s Marine even! And in his worldview wars should be fought by at the very least young men (and women), not boys and girls barely into their teens!

"I . . .was not happy about it being necessary myself," Misato said softly, not liking how she had gone along with it. Waging war upon the very enemy who’d taken so much from her, did she lose her way really in stooping so low as to use chlldren in her vengeance quest? Oh, it had to be done, but . . .had she’d been totally honest with her justifications? Had she not questioned herself enough before waging her little war through the blood and tears of children?

She was not so sure now.

"General, the fact of the matter is that IF NERV hadn’t been so rushed and shorted of resources due to the aftermath of Second Impact she could have developed the EVA synching system without all the compromises she’d done," Rei sighed. “In the end a flawed solution to creating a war machine had been the only way to create something capable of combating Angels. A system to pilot EVA units which only worked for children born after Second Impact, and only a selected few at that."

"It was either that insanity or extinction," Hummel said after a moment of silence, disgesting such a impalpable piece of data. “And speaking of insanity, with half the world’s population wiped out to begin with where people go and watch life and death struggles as if it was a show . . .some world you come from Rei. And with Tokyo 3 here we have that insanity now imported here on my world as well.

"My God, and to top it all off we have to let this madman you call the Master loose in order to save us?" the General swears. “But you hired him off so that makes him trustworthy? And how did you come to that conclusion Rei?"

Katsuragi would like to know this herself, after having done a quick check from files the Magi had on old pre-Second Impact British scifi shows on this particular chap after Rei had mentioned just what the Master was and which TV show one could watch to see the guy in action.

"The Master was and still is something of an evil sociopath," Rei explained slowly, glad that the Master was on a different channel while she’d been chatting away here. “He is a monster even now but one for hire. That and one who might only still understand the meaning of right and wrong from an intellectual standpoint, but he still understands the concept of punishment. If he screws us over then HE will die along with us even IF he managed to get away by his TARDIS. He knows that HIS life is at stake here and I have the only means of his continued survival. I did not hire him to save this world or keep him in line. He knows darn well he’ll have Hell to pay if he messes us up on this mission of mine for that."

That and to avoid a time paradox that would annul the cure for his Drum problem and bring them back to pound on his brain ten fold! He knows that screwing us over would have been punishment that he just did NOT want to deal with.

"No, I hired him to save the world he’d been originally set upon blowing up for some client alien race to colonize," Rei explaination continued. “Originally he’d been trying for a blast that would cause nuclear winter to clear the way for colonization. But being that he knows now that using anything like the VLA to do something like that back home would cause too big of mess he’s going for a plan B to satisfy his clients. I just hired him to make sure that that world will remain safe even after the Master leave it alone. Either the other ‘emergency resolution specialists’ would mess it up in order to fulfill their contract with that client the Master had been contracted out to here. . ."

The Master had not been the only mercenary (or Emergency Resolution Specialist as some in the business call themselves) contracted for a world make colonizable for these desperate aliens.

"Or the two temporal loops that had been weakening the fabric of space/time would eventually cause that world to be sucked into the void between realities, never to be seen again. I just hired the Master to make sure that that world somehow HAS a future besides those two fates, that’s all. Not like I and my friends can follow the Master back to that reality and do it ourselves!"

"What about the Doctor then?" Katsuragi interrupted. “Isn’t he the good guy in that universe. He was in the TV show you know!"

"That particular Doctor turned out to be a bad guy pretending to be a good guy according to my sources," Rei retorted. She’d done enough secretly casted lie detection spells to make sure that the Master hadn’t been lieing to her there. Oh, the guy could still pull it off if he knew the methods to fool such spellwork, but only if first he knew HOW the spell of lie detection worked. That and that a spell had been in monitoring him in the first place. “That and it is not like we have the means to contact the Doctor in the first place so the Master is the only game in town . . .so not like I had much choice in the first place. Unless I felt like leaving that particular Earth to it’s fate."

"Ok….okay," Misato finally manages, blinking. “Well, I guess you know what you’re doing then. I guess. Guy must be really as good as what the TV show makes him out to be to not only rig the VLA to do all it did in the first place with the Dome and all that but to also manage to hook that other TARDIS’ Eye of Harmony into NERV’s power grid."

"Pardon?" Rei blinks after a few seconds of silence.

"Well, the sensors do show now the power signature of the TARDIS’s singularity thingie that’s connected to the VLA right now AND the other one which is connected down in Terminal Dogma. What, you thought that all those Positron rifle shots were just from Tokyo 3’s backup generators? You’d need something like all of MY Japan’s power grid in order to fire just one. Tokyo 3’s generators just would not cut it!"

"Yes . . .my experts on this side said that the Master did have a habit of having backup plans and escape routes whenever yet another one of his evil schemes would eventually fail and blow up in his face," the General said, shaking his head in consternation. To think that a person like him would seriously have to have to resort to what he considered a cheesy BBC show to get a handle on the emergency situation was almost too much for the old soldier to stomach. “He was rather good that way. Always had some out to come back after what should have killed him permanently."

"Almost virtuous of him," the blue haired woman said with a forced smile. “Hold that thought a moment folks. I’ve REALLY got to talk to the man in question about something about this right now!"

Rei switched on to the other channel, keeping her audience on line but only with the ability to listen in, not interrupt things.

Something wasn’t adding up here and she had a bad feeling she knew just why. It had been rather odd how she’d been able to slip into the NERV computer network without even a slight hitch. Oh, Inquirer’s work was superb as always and it showed in her hacking kit she’d left with Rei’s computer, but still…

"Oh Master," Rei called out sweetely, “I’ve got a question for you here."

"Oh I see," the dark Timelord responds, finally figuring that his time to explain his actions had come upon him. “Well, if you’re going to scold me for my actions with that bag of hot air the general I . . ."

"I do NOT want to talk to you about that," Rei snapped, interrupting the Master before he could put his foot more into it. “The fact that you could have made that man so mad at us that he’d probably not listen to my reasoning enough NOT to stop us getting to the VLA or at least leave us alone afterwards to get BACK to Sunnyvale without a LOT of dodging and using up every last bit of magic I and my sisters will be needing to get OUT of there after we return that . . ."

"Pardon?" the Master blinked. “Magic you shall need after you return to Sunnyvale to get OUT of Sunnyvale? I thought that after Setsuna closed the Hellmouth that that would be the end of it and then you and your friends would walk out of that library and past that pompous excuse of a principal and be on your merry way, safe and sound. Not as if the man could put you in detention, you know!"

"I . . .was more worried about his employer: the Mayor," Rei explained slowly, seeing what the Master had not known. She put it down as just a lack of knowledge about the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series than anything else. She had been in quiet a rush to get away here so had skimped on certain now important facts about the Hellmouth and the Mayor’s schemes. “The Mayor is in actuality in the TV show an evil mage who made a pact with evil forces to gain power to ascend to a full blooded, immortal demon creature. Sunnyvale the town had been set up over the Hellmouth by the Mayor in order to attract not only human beings but monsters and evil types to perform all sorts of death and chaotic magics that in the end would feed enough power into some kind of magical ritual the Mayor wanted to transform himself. Before the events of Halloween the Mayor had a while yet to go before he had enough magic built up for it.

"With all the death and chaos Ethan Rayne unleashed upon Sunnyvale with his Chaos magic when Warmaster Horus and Iron Monger got into a rumble? More than a bit of the town got Destroyed in that fight before I and my friends put a stop to it, you know."

Rei knew that the Master had some idea about how certain magic styles seemed to work, if only by the way of legends and mythology. He did have enough knowledge to understand that at least in the field of necromancy the use of sacrificing of live animals (or people for the unscrupulous) was useful to fuel certain spellworks.

"Wha . . .oh dear," the Master blinked, suddenly seeing what Rei was saying. “The principal was just a distraction. A stooge to keep you occupied as the Mayor you speak of finally makes his move to full demonhood, that and perhaps after studying your wards to get an idea of your magery? To be better able to pay you back for your meddling in his affairs or at least take care of you as a possible menace to his future plans after becoming a demon, even?"

"Most likely considering the sudden windfall he got from Halloween last night," Lilith added, putting in her two cents. “The Mayor needs a bit of time to make proper use of that windfall to ascend so Principal Snyder got sent our way to keep us occupied if he could and spy upon us for his boss if he could not in addition to whatever other tools besides that tool the Mayor has at his disposal."

I am just glad that this General Hummel had been more of a mindset suited for Stargate Command instead of being merely a well meaning extremist like his counterpart in the movie ‘The Rock’, Reika mentally sent to her sisters, shivering slightly. Glad he’d not gotten so mad at the American government and angry in general that he’s prone to make over the top, stupid choices like he had in the movie.

Truly, it was foolish to think that even threatening to gas San Francisco with VX gas if his demands for reparations to widows and children of those under his command who’d died in service to their nation were not paid. Oh, it was horrible that those soldiers had died on secret missions and their surviving family told fairy tales about how they’d died. Terrible that the dead had not been given even a proper military funeral; all very terrible and wrong but trying to right a wrong with another wrong? And let us not go into the failure the general had over some of the allied rogue Marines he chose to pull off his caper.

"I’ll not scold you for having gone and made policy for me there with the general when I was first trying to reason with him politely," Rei continued, chuckling mirthlessly. “I understand perhaps your asking about the Generals somewhat sarcastic humor he’d shown there at times as being inappropriate, but it’s a coping mechanism of sorts. Kind of like me being a touch snarky with you from time to time as it being friendly banter between . . .those who usually wouldn’t work with each other.

"However M, while I did twig to what you were trying to accomplish by forcing things along a quicker if ruder track I did not appreciate yet another thing coming out of left field to make me scramble yet again to switch up my planned course of action."

"Well, if you would have told me about that little needful fact I perhaps I would not have tipped your hand my dear," the Master chided Rei.

"I suppose but then again I really did not think that it was needful until now," Rei groused after grinding her teeth, ranting a bit. “ I mean this whole Quest has been ONE thing after a bloody another thing here!

"I and my friends go into Sunnyvale, trying for a discrete and quiet affair but some kind of timewarp/reality hack goes and we find it’s Halloween where chaos magic is running amok and any kind of discrete approach was a doomed endeavor as it turned out.

"Trying to help that Warmaster Horus who had not turned to the Ruinous Powers in Warhammer 40K in his quest to get back to the 30th millennium to warn his father, the Emperor? Nope, not only did he get turned around on the way to end up in a 40th millennium version of his home, but a 40th millennium that was VERY much like the 40th millennium one would FIND in Warhammer 40K. A game that Horus nearly went into a conniption over when we made a . . .side detour on the way to the Hellmouth over some of the things he read in some of the Codex books!"

The sidetrip had been . . .interesting and leave at that. At least Rei had been able to fix the damage the somewhat loopy Warmaster had done when he’d forced entry into the comicbooks/hobby store and leave a pile of gems and cold to cover the cost of the books “liberated" by Horus.

"And let’s not go into the snit I went into when the God Emperor himself, a bit loopy himself after Setsuna here earlier, back when she was in her ‘mad goddess’ mode’ had used her overclocked Sailor Powers to brute force that living husk of a corpse back to live and health. . . “

How the Emperor had survived that experience, being exposed to the very incompatible powers of real magick (which usually would cause massive damage or even explosive damage) to both users was going to be quiet a theory storming session for Rei and her kin once back upon Terra Prime. That was something Rei was sure of there.

As for Katsuragi during this part of the semi-rant that Rei was doing? She shivered despite herself, remembering the magic girl in question in said ‘mad goddess’ had done to NERV. Oh, she had blown the conspiracy and made known to the colonel what her superiors at NERV (as well as Seele, NERV’s true benefactor) were truly after, but it would be a LONG time from now before Misato would EVER forgive the Sailor Senshi for some of the things she’d forced her to face, thank you. Madness or not, the purple haired colonel was not at all taken with “Sailor Moon" anymore.

And wanted to stay the Hell away from Rei’s group, at least until Setsuna left the area…. Then she would talk with Rei “Takahashi" about certain . . .things she’d seen during those time-warp/whatevers she’d been through. Things that wouldn’t/couldn’t be answered by the one “replacement" Ritsuko Akagi (not her original “friend" that had torn her own eyes out, screaming as to whatever Setsuna had forced upon her own mind earlier). No, the “replacement" Ritsuko had acted out her original “friend’s “ (some friend, in cahoots with those who’d bring about Instrumentality) but in reality knew nothing at all about the truth. Hell, that Ritsuko Akagi only remembered the Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari trying to sway her to join him at NERV and take up where her now deceased mother had left off . . . no help there for unanswered questions. And this “internet" which Rei had thought would/should contain information about this anime/manga named “Neon Genesis Evangelion"? Well, it contained something about Evangelion, but only as a small article about a story that never got off the storyboard phase due to financial troubles at Gainax (the studio that would have made the story) and the creator of that series having thrown himself under a bus due to suffering from severe depression…. It inspired all sorts of weird religious/phsychological based anime and manga stories that credited NGE as an inspiration, but that was hardly any help for lingering questions the woman had about what this place.

Frankly however, Misato knew it wouldn’t happen however.

" . . .I can understand why the Emperor thought that Horus was some kind of man who only LOOKED like his long dead, traitorous son. After all ‘his’ Horus had begged the Emperor to destroy his very own soul instead of the Chaos Gods regaining control after the Emperor had managed to temporarily break their hold on the traitorous Primarch. By 40k understandings of the thing, what the Emperor did to his version of Horus had utterly destroyed the very essence of the Primarch, putting Horus, that particular Horus, beyond anyone’s reach. Basically, killing him beyond recall in this life or as what the 40k has as an afterlife. So when ‘our’ Horus shows up, trying to warn of a Betrayal and incipient civil war within the Imperium that had already happened, the thought of ‘our’ Horus being real (just one from a parallel reality)?

"No wonder we had all the fun we had in that little hellhole of a reality! Was a miracle we survived it, thank God!

"But then we get to you and the Doctor. Not the one which turned out to be really from an anti-matter universe and only able to walk around in ‘our’ universe due to a zap with a raygun able to at least temporarily flip matter to antimatter or vice versa. Nope, let us talk about the evil Doctor Who who according to you was playing a deep game of deception. Very possible given the nature of the multi-verse, not every Doctor has to be the good guy.

"Yeah Okay to recap, the scenario is this: the Doctor--actually a villainous version of "the Other" of all people turns out to in this particular adventure--you the Master’s reality's version anyway and not the TV version Betty is familiar with nor the one Who I call uncle back upon my new adopted world: Terra Prime--hasn't had earth's best interests at heart after all but had been playing a deeper game."

"Yes," the Master agreed, not sure exactly what to make of Rei’s little rant or where this was exactly leading but willing to play along for now. “In other words, the Doctor turns out to be evil but a very good actor. What has this to do with anything?"

"Everything or nothing depending on something here in a moment," Rei promised. “Humor me, please."

Shrugging slightly, the Master made an affirmative noise to let Rei do just that.

"Yes, maybe that as you said or perhaps the Doctor has gotten to a point where his ‘utilitarian/for the greater good’ ethics have gotten out of whack," Rei continued, smiling as if playing for a audience. “In this case, he's basically given up on THIS particular Earth of your since there are other ‘Star Trek/Preserver" like duplicated spare Earths about back home in your reality. Why? Because this particular Earth the the Doctor is leaving it to a fate of it getting destroyed by the side effects of two time loops having a disastrous side effect/result.

"One timeloop created by the efforts of a Russian Cold War project which had involved a failed attempt by the Soviets to harness a substance they called Element 99 to create super weapons that would dwarf the power of the American nuclear arsenal, making it eventually possible to defeat the United States and sweep the world clean for a worldwide worker’s paradise."

"A pipe dream . . .there had been those with various time loop repetitions where for a time the project succeeded a strong man dictator who used it to turn everything into something of a nightmare for all but a few at the top. Not that I particular cared about the fate of the lesser people out there as you well KNOW, but even I would never use such crass and crude methods as that dictator used to keep power, “ the Master sneered. “I have higher standards and am NOT as idiotic as that strongman had been. See, I don’t try to gain absolute power over the universe to rule it under my guidance for a reason. The upkeep alone would be too much of a headache. And let us NOT forget how much effort and time I would have to spend watching my own back for those who’d kill me to gain what I had obtained. Things that purely human dictator faced in miniature but was too stupid to realize the painful and humiliating demise he was doomed to face eventually and all his work come undone before his very eyes."

The Master remembered all too well how things had turned out on several small worlds he had gone and uplifted and ruled for a time after having the curse of the Drums not egging him on. It had been something of an experiment to see what he could do and see . . .if such a small project could be used as a model for bigger and better things. It . . .could but . . .it just hadn’t been altogether as fun and rewarding as he’d hoped.

"Yes, a situation that sound disturbingly like the videogame first person shooter called Singularity," Rei continued, interrupting the Master’s trip down memory lane before things got sidetracked (again). “Things on the island known as Katorga-12 would play out and loop several times before the other time loop . . ."

Author’s Note: Information on Singularity and the other time loop thing can be found here ( http : //en. wikipedia. org/wiki /Singularity _ (video _game)) and here (http: //en.wiki pedia.org /wiki/ The_ Terminator).

" . . .would flare up and suppress the Singularity for a time while it looped and played out for a while there before the Terminator time loop would be suppressed and the Singularity timeloop would start up again.

"Net effect was that this Earth and it’s solar system is stuck inside a time bubble, unable to advance beyond a certain year before looping back again and again while the rest of the universe at large still advanced onward for hundreds of years," the Master agreed, trying to get the conversation to some kind of endpoint so he could understand what Rei was trying to get at here. “ Soon enough the damage these interacting time loops would finally tear a hole in reality and remove everything inside that time bubble, leaving a strange discontinuity of sorts that is . . .rather hard to explain right now and let us just say it’s a space navigation hazard and leave at that. “

"That is true enough," Rei agreed. “And the Doctor of yours had tried to steer the timeline to what he thought was right despite some of the things that had ‘cropped up’ that could have shattered the timeloop and freed that Earth to advance on it’s own terms. But the Doctor you said didn’t want that because it would ruin his plans so like a petulant child he did a few a few cases of 'tech burn’ and thus and thus."

"And if such act should come to light I am very sure that his old friend the Brigadier and UNIT will be most displeased," the Master chuckled, rather relishing that thought of the looks on their faces.

"I’ll not go into the wft shock of the Master of all people coming in later after we fix things here to save the Day," Betty Ragan had to add, shaking her head at that one.

Still, she had to acknowledge Rei’s point over why the Master had been hired to do it. Nobody else from here would be able to travel there to fix that Earth and save things.

It was a long shot indeed that the Master would follow up and do it, but it was the only chance that Earth had. Hopefully, this Master was the business man he claimed to be and stood by his contracts (if only for self interested reasons).

Heck, Betty had wondered just how the Brig would react to this apparent betrayal the Doctor had done them; that was a tough one. Heck, even Reika had been wondering about that herself and had asked her about that very thing!

It's kind of a nasty scenario! Betty had answered back the red haired clone. If you're asking about the Brig's reaction, I think it's suffice to say that he'll be very, very angry.

Oh yeah, but then again maybe he might think that this had been an imposter or some kind of rationalization, Reika agreed but pointed out a possible fly in the ointment here. After all, later on in the series we learned that an evil version of the Doctor had set up that fascist version of England from that episode “Inferno" and all that.

Does he know that this isn't the Doctor he knows, but a different version of him? Betty sent back, agreeing . Because I think he'd have trouble believing in a betrayal from the Doctor, but would have less difficulty accepting the idea that the one he's been dealing with is some kind of imposter. (And whatever the complications about multiversal variations, etc., I think "imposter" would likely be a good enough explanation for him!) And then, of course, he'd do whatever he thought he had to do to save the Earth and stuff.

That said I think even helping the Master if the Master should need help from Unit and the Brig will be a tall order for the guy, Reika said, not seeing THAT turning out right at all. The Master was a long time enemy of Earth in general and UNIT in particular. The Brig didn’t exactly LIKE the Master and leave at that…

"That all said we seem to have yet another sabot in the works," Rei smiled a smile that really didn’t reach her eyes. “There seems to be an extra TARDIS around here. And it’s not the Doctor we hitched a ride with here. That one is still dematerialized and orbiting us right now and would pretty much put to paid this whole evolution anyway, being that by now it’s reverted to it’s natural antimatter state."

"Boom for the Boom god," chuckled Fred Takahashi, causing the Master too look at the knight in power armor strangely before turning back to Rei. Must be some kind of Terra Prime humor or some such dealings that he’d rather not go into right now. Somehow he figured it wouldn’t sit too well with like that really bizarre tale of the Warhammer 40k universe. Rei had been rather informative about that but her story telling style had been so . . .humorous but disturbingly twisted at the same time that it had given even the Master pause.

Besides, what Rei was saying really was a disturbing possible sabot in the works here!

"And we know that my TARDIS is located on the VLA grounds because it had been integral to what we all know can admit was an ill advised venture on my part," the Master agreed, nodding. Oh, it hurt the pride to admit it but he would be man enough to admit that his masterful plan had rather not been so masterful after all. Else why would he be in this situation, dependent upon another to save his life (and this world but the Master really hardly cared about this Earth). Anything else would have been boorish and rude. “You’re . . .saying that there is a third TARDIS? Well, I can safely say that is not mine Rei! While I admit to having an extra TARDIS stashed away from time to time as a means of escape if my primary TARDIS is unavailable and I need to escape a sticky situation, this time I only had the one.

"I . . .well, had been in a rush to set things up to finish my job in time for my clients," the Master added sheepishly.

Rei and the others were silent at that one for a few seconds and then…

1. ”I can then think of only one other likely suspect to who owns that mystery TARDIS: Omega. He followed the Doctor here to see what had waylaid him since he has an agenda with the Timelord after all.”

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