The Primer was choking the life out of Angela. In a fit of uncharacteristic heroism, Jadi ran toward the robot to break its grip, but the automaton simply flung him across the room. With one last choking gurgle, Angela slid to the floor.
The robot turned its glowing red eyes on the rest of the group. Mon's soldiers raised their weapons, but Mon motioned them to stop. "Don't fire on it, or we're all dead!"
The robot turned to Wil. "You left me. You all left me," it muttered in its metallic parody of Angela's voice. Wil shuddered and slowly backed away, toward the cryogenic capsule. Infused with anger, and finding itself free for the first time in aeons, Shadowmaker-00 began to rampage, swinging its metal fists into the supports around the TARDIS console, sledgehammering buttons and screens on the console itself, releasing deadly sparks and wisps of smoke. It then turned on Wil.
"Doctor ... Doctor!" Wil cried, dodging toward the library as the purely robotic Angela swung a solid-titanium arm at him with nearly-unerring accuracy. "Wake up! Help!" The robot knocked over a stack of books, nearly flinging them into one of the many candles illuminating the cathedral-like room.
"Buzzcock!" Jadi croaked from near the doorway. "Over here!" Not even bothering to complain about his use of the nickname, Wil made a run for the doorway, where Jadi, Mon, and the others had already evacuated the TARDIS.
Ouside, they turned to see if the robotic component would follow them. Sure enough, two glowing eyes appeared in the black doorway, followed by the metal monster itself. It paused in the doorway, then lurched slowly toward them. Suddenly, it collapsed.
Angela, panting for breath behind it, steadied herself in the doorway of the police box. "Lucky for you I knew where the 'off' switch was." She smiled wearily. "And lucky for me that I had one of those ... *things* inside me to make it more difficult to crush my windpipe." She collapsed to the ground next to her alter ego.
Jadi was next to her in an instant, although he found he was no longer sure what to think. He had known since their trip to the Otherverse that Angela had cybernetic implants inside of her, but he hadn't thought they were as extensive as the now deactivated robot next to her suggested. Did his Angela really have this--this *inhuman* monstrosity at the core of her being? Or was it something that she would only become sometime in the future? Could he really love someone who was nothing but a robot beneath her skin? Jadi shuddered. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, and he wasn't sure that he would ever be able to feel the same way about Angela ever again.
"Step away from the Primer," Mon commanded. Jadi, still in shock, dragged Angela a little way from her ersatz twin. Mon stared at the motionless lump of metal on the ground for a moment, and Jadi could see that the Colonel really wasn't sure he knew what he was going to do with the robot. "Take it back to the shuttle and secure it," he finally ordered. The soldiers moved to obey.
The temperature of the Primer's core slowly began to rise as the nearby star's heat and radiation leaked through the hull of the ship.
[Nothing of any importance. We're just fulfilling our prime objective.]
"Which is?"
{WE'RE GONNA BLOW YOU AND YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS' HEADS TO PIECES! HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?}
"Doesn't it ever become tiresome to be so aggressive all of the time?"
{NO WAY, DORK. AGRESSION IS COOL. COME OVER HERE AND LET ME SUPLEX YOU THROUGH THIS PILE OF S**T AND PROVE IT.}
"... So, Strategy ... is it true that Hell is being locked up for an eternity with your friends?"
{DON'T IGNORE ME, YOU BASTARD!}
[We simply are what we are.]
"Ah, it's such a nice change to talk to someone rational, calm, and logical. Now, why on Gallifrey would you want to let your friend here fire the Primer into the star?"
[Because then our objective will be complete, the mission for which I have been strategizing for millenia.]
"Which is ...?"
[To end the war. That is our function.]
"By completing destroying one side? That's genocide!"
[By destroying *both* sides.]
"Don't you value life at all? That's it -- mutually assured destruction! I remember now -- you're the Personality Matrix! But you were never to be used! The simple threat of your use was supposed to be enough to stop the war!"
[But it didn't. The war continues. And we are the inheritance of that war.]
{YOU'RE STILL IGNORING ME! YOU'LL BE SORRY, YOU JERK!}
"Go away, there's a good chap. It's all coming together -- you want to use the artron energy-filled heart of Angela to unleash the weapon, destroying everything in this part of the galaxy. I can't believe I didn't see it before. Surely, as intelligent ... artificial intelligences, you can see the stupidity of destroying all the soldiers and civilians involved in the war, as well as countless other innocent civilizations which have nothing at all to do with this petty feud. End this now, release the Primer to my care, and I'll see that you get reprogrammed to do something constructive, like write symphonies, or predict five-day forecasts for the Weather Channel."
{IT'S TOO LATE! BWA-HA-HA!}
[I'm sorry, Doctor. But the Primer is now on course for the star.]
She stared in horror as one of the Diracan guards began to drag the robot away into the shuttle. The time for observing was at an end. She had to make contact before she was irrevocably cut off from Angie, otherwise Angie's life -- and her own -- were over.
Toros had never realized that she was telepathic, which was all the worse for everyone involved especially when, unbeknownst to her, Strategy began to insert unconscious thoughts into her mind.
[Close the hatch ... there you go. Now power up the shuttle and undock ... very good, soldier. Now plot a course, straight ahead ... lower your speed, drop out of stellar orbit ... that's it. Soon this will all be over and you can rejoin your husband and your three sons in heavenly bliss for all eternity ...]
The artron heart of the millions-year-old Angela was nearing critical temperature. Soon the war would be over.
TO BE CONTINUED