"The inheritance of war is the personal legacy that never ends."
-- the Doctor, IA#15

 Aspects of this chapter may seem a little confusing, if a little incongruous. This has been kept to a minimum; however, should you experience any inconvenience such as soldiers being on a ship one minute and not there the next, this will be due to a small mechanical toy chihuahua.

 "Yah-hah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough examination!"

 The Doctor's face fell. "Oh, dear," he whispered, "it appears that I've made something of an error."

 The Gord laughed as the TARDIS fell further into the heart of the sun.

 Van checked the readings on the stensor rifle; the pictogram indicated that it was fully charged. She threw it to her partner H, who was leaning against the cabin's grey metal walls. He caught it; the touch of the metal rifle with the silver rings H wore made a sound that echoed through the hollow freight ship. H walked towards her. The clanking of the silver buckles on his leather boots echoed down the ship.

 "How many mesmer grenades do you have?" H asked. He placed his stensor into the back of his leather pants, tucking it underneath the purple frock coat he usually wore. He rested his thumbs on his belt.

 "Fifteen and 12 Vasser stingers," Van replied.

 Hansen ducked under the bulkhead which secured the shuttle's cockpit to the rest of the ship. The aura of green light filled his face as he checked the reading. "We should be reaching the target sometime soon." He looked up at his reflection in the glass. The light cast a strange shadow around his face, but he noted his goatee was neatly trimmed.

 Van pushed the mirror shades into place over her eyes and smiled. "You're too vain, H."

 He shrugged his shoulders.

 "We're here to finish off the job that Jadi left behind, not to pick up floozies."

 "Yeah," H said dismissively, "he used to be a great bounty hunter."

 "And more," Van said, "so I heard. You two had something going?"

 "That was strictly a business partnership years ago."

 "I heard it was more personal than business."

 "You get yourself killed if you start hearing those kind of rumours."

 "Or you get more chances to kill if you hear the right ones," H sneered at her.

 "Your perverted past better not get in the way of this. I don't intend to be killed because you forget flowers on his birthday. I'd just as soon kill you if you get in the way."

 "Can we leave the past and get on with the task?"

 "Sure," Van chuckled to herself.

 The two sat in silence as they each checked their gear. Van broke the silence: "What about our guests?" Van pointed to the bodies on the floor of the shuttle.

 "Push them out into the vortex, we don't need them. I doubt we'll be returning to the 28th century for some time." H took his stensor and shot the bodies a few more times.

 "They were already dead."

 "I'm just making sure my trigger is still working."

 Van looked at her partner and saw it in his eyes. H was going to make this Angel Ferris collection personal. H was going to kill Jadi for something else rather than the job. H's anger was going to burn the stars and everything else that in the sights of his stensor.

 "'We've never come across anything of this magnitude before.'" Van stared at her partner as he was taking off his blond hairpiece, "'Won't it be exciting to find out?' I can't believe the crap you spin out sometimes."

 H shrugged his shoulders and took a small metal tube, switched a button. The metal object vibrated as he worked it over his face. Van watched as the 40ish Henderson became the 28 year old bounty hunter H.

 "I wasn't the one left gasping," he said, "...'It's -- it's beautiful.'"

 Van threw off her red 'Von Wer' wig and quickly put her mirror shades over her eyes. "What do you make of Tern?" she asked.

 "Pretty much as I suspected," H said as he began stripping, "He's an archaeologist: all dirt, no brain. Too busy watching the past to notice the present."

 "I can see why you and Jadi had something," H continued, taking off his clothes. "Here, this is what you need."

 Van threw on the army clothes she borrowed from the two soldiers they had encountered.

 Van elbowed H and the two stopped and let the rest of the squadron make their way to down one end of the ship. The military had already ran their troop down one end of the ship to the other that hour. "Keep them stupid" was the military way of doing things, Van thought to herself. Easier to push the pawns into position, when you sat in the bunker several millions of light years away.

 "Let's get our own shuttle and finish off the job."

 H nodded.

 Angela looked at Wil coldly.

 Wil mumbled sorry under his breath.

 "That warship will be in range..." Jadi searched the control panel looking for the information he needed, "pretty soon. I think. Let's get out of here." The three of them ran down the corridor heading towards the shuttle bay, they didn't have time to take in the sights. As they made their way down to the shuttle bay floor they felt phaser shots rocking the ship. Klaxons sounded off, and an automated voice announced that the three levels above them had been compromised and were being depressurized. The automated voice then gave a small eulogy to the crew it suspected had died, or were about to die in cold space. It then apologized for any inconvenience. Wil shook his head at Angela and Jadi.

 "Here," Jadi shouted.

 They had reached the shuttle bay and found that only one shuttle was available. They ran to it. Angela looked to the keypad and started keying out a few combinations. The door chimed after her fifth attempt.

 "What did ya press?" Wil asked.

 "I just typed in the first message I could think of."

 Wil raised an eyebrow.

 "'Shit is on fire.'"

 Wil didn't believe her.

 The door opened, Angela went up the ladder first, then Wil, followed by Jadi. When she got to the top, she let out a little scream and called out "Okay, you don't get to see this every day."

 When Jadi got in he saw a stensor pointed to Angela's head, and a small cardboard sign with the words: "Say: 'Okay, you don't get to see this every day' - or I'll blow your head off."

 Jadi immediately recognized the person pointing their gun at Angela. "Hi, H, have seen you in a while."

 Another woman who Jadi didn't know but suspected was H's partner walked up to him, standing very close to him, Jadi saw his eyes reflected in her glasses. She placed one hand on his face, carefully stroking it with her long, catlike fingernails, and with the other hand...

 She backed away, and Jadi looked down...a Vasser grenade was attached to his groin.

 "What the hell is that?" Wil asked, looking at the one attached to his pants.

 "A Vasser stinger," Jadi gulped.

 "The joke is far too obvious and definitely unfunny to make," Wil replied seriously.

 "Doing what you should have done a long time ago." H left Van to look over Angela and the kid, whilst he and Jadi went down into the shuttle to talk.

 "I can't let you do that." Jadi said.

 "Didn't think so, anyway..." H tapped his stensor, "you won't get a chance to change it."

 Jadi knew he wasn't going to get him to change his mind.

 "So the reward was the right price, you only *did* things like this for the right price," Jadi punctuated his sentence angrily as he spoke. He was furious, the situation was severe enough without this further complication. Jadi felt as if his whole past was crashing in around him.

 H shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, what do you care? I still love you." H grinned.

 "Fuck off, you're obsessive, your head's screwed."

 "You've said that before; that's what all you Moroks say." H's eyes narrowed.

 "You betrayed us all, you made us suffer!"

 "Can't say I was all too displeased."

 "It was all your mess to begin with, and instead of Justice falling on the *guilty*, on *your* head, you let your family suffer!" Jadi shook his head.

 "Can't say I care about that either," H smiled smugly.

 "So that's it is it? Edmond Morok just goes on not giving a damn... except for yourself. You can go to hell."

 "On the contrary, you'll be going before me. I know your career. It's a nice pretty story of a fucked up psychotic individual. The kind you tell to children if you want to really abuse them."

 "You're sick," Jadi spat.

 "Really?...Still taking your medicine?" H/Edmond asked

 "You shouldn't listen to rumours, you'll get yourself killed."

 "Or you get more chances to kill if you hear the right ones," Edmond snapped back and tapped his stensor again.

 "Right, whatever, just get to the deal. What do you want?"

 "What you were supposed to do: Angela Ferris, and your head."

 "Not part of the original scheme," Jadi said.

 "No, but you've made people unhappy, they now want the trimming."

 Jadi moved in closer, kissed Edmond on his left, then right cheek.

 "You won't win," Jadi whispered. Jadi sat back and grinned as he saw the puzzlement on Edmond's face. Jadi tapped the side of his nose with his finger.

 "So what's this all about?" Angela asked. Van sat quietly. Angela recognized something in Van she knew all too well. The kind of person who liked to kill. Van had displayed all the right characteristics of psychotic killer, hidden under sex kitten -- she had the leather gear to match.

 "Hey, Ange," Wil spoke, "why's that other guy H gone off with Jadi?"

 Before Angela replied she noted that Van moved slightly. It seemed Wil found the right trigger.

 "Don't know, Wil. Jadi's been kinda quiet about his past." Angela noted Van again.

 "Hey, quiet!" Van shouted.

 "Right! Sorry," Wil replied cynically.

 Angela heard noises, it sounded like Jadi and H were returning. H threw Jadi towards her. She noted that Jadi was bound like herself and Wil. Van stood up to greet H.

 "We should be back at our ship in less than two hours, then we can go back and deliver Angela," Van spoke. Angela stirred when she heard her name.

 "So do we kill Jadi and the kid now?" Van asked.

 "Bullet to the head is too simple for Jadi," H said.

 "You're making the first mistake in villainy," Jadi called out.

 "No, Jadester," H replied, "I'm just looking for something more personally satisfying."

 "Yah-hah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough examination!"

 The Doctor's face fell. "Oh, dear," he whispered, "it appears that I've made something of an error."

 The Gord laughed as the TARDIS fell further into the heart of the sun.

 "The TARDIS has fused Strategy and Aggression's personalities together..." The Doctor paused. "The fusion has created a totally unstable entity, and we haven't got two years for intensive psychoanalytic therapy to sort it out." The Doctor madly thumbed a few controls, but all he could hear in his mind was a cradle song.

 "Embrace me now, Doctor." The Doctor was confused, he felt the Gord reaching out. It seemed right. It seemed perfect.

 "Embrace oblivion in my bosom." The Gord held out her arms. "Embrace me like the mother that abandoned you."

 The Doctor didn't move, feeling at ease as the Gord held the Doctor in her arms, resting his head against her chest.

 "And let me cradle you in my heart of darkness at the hour of eternity."

 The Primer began to resonate a high pitched sound as it heated up. The Doctor could feel the heat reach him as he held onto the Gord.

 "I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered. He felt the palms of his hands itch.

 "Let me cradle you..." the Gord trailed off.

 Oblivion had arrived.

 The Doctor stared at Wil. "A toy chihuahua? I don't know what goes in your mind sometimes."

 Wil shrugged and smiled. It saved eternity. Who cared if it looked like a toy chihuahua?

 "Embrace oblivion in my bosom." The Gord held out her arms. "Embrace me like the mother that abandoned you."

 The Doctor didn't move, feeling at ease as the Gord held the Doctor in her arms, resting his head against her chest.

 Out from nowhere a small toy chihuahua appeared and began moving. It was one of those little toys you bought kids at the markets. It had this fake horrible material for fur, and would "Yap" five times then take four little steps, bark again, then take another four steps.

 The Doctor looked down at the toy dog with new child-like eyes:

 "Yap, Yap, Yap, Yap, Yap," and then walked a bit, "chchchchch," then went "yap, yap, yap, yap," then "chchchchch," then "yap yap yap yap," then "chchchchch," then "yap yap yap yap," then "chchchchch," then "yap yap yap yap," then "chchchchch," then "yap yap yap yap," then "chchchchch," then "yap yap yap yap," then "chchchchch"...

 The Doctor absorbed the sound in his mind. He listened carefully to each 'yap' and to each 'chch.' It ticked like a metronome, trigger of thoughts, ideas, memories and maybe tears. He pushed himself away from the Gord.

 "No... this isn't how it happens!" He looked around desperately, the little toy dog headed towards the console. The Doctor followed its path and saw the box. And understood everything.

 [SHE can't hear us ECHO she never was our SHE is CREATED ECHO]

 He walked up to the Gord and handed the box to her like a gift. No, the dog was creating how things really were, recreating the past.

 The Gord took the gift and screamed. Her face contorted and she tried to shake the box from her grasp. "My mind, my personality, being trapped, contained!"

 The box radiated and incredibly bright blue light, filling the console room in an instant, blinding the Doctor so that the only thing he could sense was the barking of the little toy dog.

 A scream, the Gord's final words..."I am the mother, and you are my child."

 And then silence.

 The blue light disappeared.

 The box dropped to the ground.

 The Doctor fell to the ground exhausted.

 "You were never my mother." He rubbed his itchy palms.

 The toy dog had reached the Doctor where he had fallen and stopped -- and stopped barking and stopped silent.

 "What do you think?" he asked the dog.

 "Ah, yes, let history attend to itself. I remember that one; that's the pledge I made long ago, and every time I met injustice I wasn't allowed to interfere with I had to remind myself, remake that pledge.." The Doctor pushed a few levers and switches on the console. "But when it comes down to friends, how can I stand back and say history should attend to itself? Time is far too cruel to have that kind of right."

 The toy dog was silent.

 "I don't have the right to interfere." The Doctor shook his head, picked up the dog and took it over by the chair where a cup of tea was waiting for him. He placed the dog on the table and picked up the cup, and allowed himself a moment of relaxation as he sank back in his chair. He sipped the tea.

 "Hmm, coconut. I might have to pop down to the tea centre and pick some more up." The Doctor looked back at Angela on the floor. "I have a conscience and it's so heavy with regret and several lifetimes worth of pain. I can't escape my responsibility...what did I do in my last body? It's been a long time."

 The Doctor fell into a deep sleep as the TARDIS made its way from the sun that had threatened to destroy everything, but which for now, due to the interference of a toy dog, was one big scoop of chocolate ice cream.

 The TARDIS had arrived to the right place. He took out the robotic Angela and buried her.

 "I'll let history attend to itself. For five million years you will remain buried here, awaiting eternity to end it. I'm sorry, it's the only way I could deal with it." The Doctor picked up a shovel and covered Angela's remains with the dirt he had previously dug up.

 "I don't want to do this ever again," he promised himself. And in his mind crept the image of him standing by the graves of all of his companions. "I've been looking through the glass a little darkly of late." He smoothed out the grave and walked back to the TARDIS. He smiled to himself as he sang silently about eternity.

 Above him the stars turned around for five million years and hoped to turn for five million more.

 "I love you," Jadi called out.

 "I know," she replied as she was pushed into the shuttle.

 Van forced her onto the floor and she hit the floor with a little more force than she had expected, but she didn't care. All she could think of was Wil. And especially Jadi. The last thing she saw of them was the two on their knees with H pointing a stensor to Jadi's head. Van kicked her, forcing her to reel in pain.

 "Bye, dear, next stop: your return, passing through my favourite station, Lover's Death." Van walked out; a large metallic door shut Angela inside. She screamed out.

 A hand touched her face.

 "It's time to be alive now," it was that brooding charcoal voice she recognized.

 She turned to see the Doctor's face beaming down at her.

 "I'm not going to lose any of you."

 "So, H, worked out how we'll get rid of these two?" Van asked coldly.

 "Their necks seem perfect for what I'm thinking. I suggest we tie the rope around their necks and let them hang," H said eagerly.

 "Is this the promised end?" Wil spoke nervously.

 "Or an image of that horror..." Jadi replied.

 "I'll get the rope," Van said and marched back into the ship.

 "So, Jadi, any final words? Plea for forgiveness. I can assure you I'll let Angela know how you cried for your life, and then describe in every detail of your death throes."

 The click of a rifle being readied buzzed near H's head. Wil saw Angela with a rifle pointed at H's head. "I'm not particularly fond of seeing any sort of killing, extermination, or death at the moment, but I might make an exception in your case. Put you stensor down and fall to the ground."

 The Doctor strolled out of the ship with his arms folded, as H threw his gun away and fell to his knees and then laid face down into the dirt. Wil was glad to have his wrist free at last as the Doctor worked at Jadi's and his bonds.

 "What's all this about?" the Doctor asked. Angela lowered the rifle.

 Wil spoke first... "Unfinished business, bounty hunters wanting Angela."

 The Doctor looked at Angela, "Your people are willing to get time travelers to collect you. It's bad luck for them you employed the services of time travelers first."

 "No. This is also family business." No one had spotted Jadi grabbing H's gun. Jadi had the stensor leveled at H's head.

 "This unlucky bastard is Edmond," Jadi announced, "Edmond Morok."

 "No, Jadi, don't," Angela called out, "You can't be apart of their game, you can't kill him!"

 "This isn't just about politics, this is about Justice. About dignifying family."

 "Jadi, look at me, you're not a part of the bounty hunter game," Edmond spoke out, "No one ever leaves the business, you're always a part of it, 'cause its your core being, it defines everything about you."

 "It's about Justice. It's about dignifying family. It's about avenging the deaths Edmond caused." Jadi was completely focused on Edmond through the sights of the stensor.

 "Jadi," the Doctor called out. "Listen to the sound of my voice. Put the gun down. That's the only way to end it, to end all the pain."

 "He killed his parents. The fucking bastard killed *our* parents!"

 Wil looked at the expression on Jadi's face intensify. He thought Jadi was going to break down, but he saw instead his friend feed off what seemed like an eternity of anger and rage.

 Jadi's finger began to move.

 "NO! JADI!" the Doctor yelled angrily.

 Jadi eased a little.

 Jadi lowered the stensor a little.

 Angela sighed.

 Jadi raised the stensor again. "Right. Get up Edmond." Edmond stood up. "I'll give you the choice to see how this ends. Angela, give him the rifle."

 "What!?!" Wil and Angela chorused.

 Jadi reached into his pockets and pulled out a coin. "C'mon, Angela, I'll give him the choice to work out how to end this. Give him the rifle."

 Angela looked at the Doctor and he nodded. Edmond took a few steps back, and waited for Angela to hand him the rifle.

 "Don't bother trying to fire your weapon first, Edmond. We do this my way." Angela handed Edmond the rifle.

 Wil took a few steps back. Jadi was looking straight into Edmond's eyes. He held the stensor with his left hand and held the coin in his right. Edmond held the rifle in his hands, but had it lowered. Wil thought that Edmond wasn't in the position to have it any higher or quick enough. Angela joined the Doctor who was standing to the left of Jadi. Van was nowhere to be seen.

 "Right, Edmond, your choice," Jadi's said calmly. "Heads you get to attack me. You raise your rifle, take your best shot."

 Edmond nodded.

 "Tails I get to shoot you in the arm or in the leg. You can be sure that what I hit is good as gone."

 "Right, bro, heads."

 "You don't get the implication. If it lands on heads you get to attack me, but I get to kill you in self-defence. Your choice. Heads: probable death, tails: quick amputation. One ends your life, the other changes it forever. Your choice. Make the choice."

 Wil noticed Jadi holding onto the coin tightly as if all the anger and rage was their in that coin and he was going to be free of it forever. It looked as if Jadi was going to crush the coin in his grip.

 "Jadi," it was the Doctor, "Don't do this. Find another way."

 "Make the choice!"

 Edmond was silent.

 "Jadi. Find another way."

 "Make the choice!"

 "Another way"

 "Make the choice!"

 "Right!" Edmond yelled, "I've made the choice." He threw the rifle down. "I've decided. Don't flip the coin." Edmond turned and walked away. Wil was sure Edmond knew Jadi still had the stensor on him.

 "Hey!" Jadi called out. Edmond turned around. Jadi threw the coin at Edmond who caught it in his hand. "Remember when you look at the coin what happened here. This is now a part of our family history. Get out of here!"

 Edmond walked into his ship.

 Angela walked up to Jadi and cautiously touched him as if he was electrified with rage. She looked at him.

 "That was too close, Jadi Morok," the Doctor called out. "I don't want to see that again." He turned his back and walked away. Wil decided to follow.

 The Doctor had taken her out to the grave saying it was important for her to realise something. Jadi had elected to stay behind and the Doctor asked Wil to watch after him. She suspected the Doctor wanted to talk to her alone.

 "I don't quite remember if I ever said how sad I was, about you losing -- " he stuttered, "I mean you losing your child."

 "No, it's okay, Doctor, I'm trying to work it out on my own."

 "I wonder what Layra must be trying to understand?" the Doctor asked.

 "How do you mean?" Angela knew the Doctor was going to continue, but it seemed something was troubling him.

 "I mean," he sighed, "I don't know. Why is that life always has to end with death? Why can't we just go out there and save lives without losing anybody?"

 The Doctor took her arm into his arm. It began to snow. "Why can't we spend the rest of our lives playing in the snow, whilst the rest of the universe goes on. The suns burning, stars turning, five million years, ten million years!"

 "Doctor, it's a part of it. Layra is going to find out away of dealing with her...mother's death, just the way Jadi does as well." She pointed above, up past the snow flakes and into the night sky. "Those stars will die, this whole universe dies, but it lives." Angela knew the Doctor knew this stuff already, it was he who taught her. She suspected there was something else.

 Angela bushed the hair from his forehead and kissed him on his cheek, "You never told me about what you knew about your mother..."

 The End