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'No,' he said. 'The way of the warrior? I don't think so.' He gestured at her with a small wand. 'There are much easier ways.'

'It is what I would expect from a Tesh,' she said contemptuously.

'There's no time to check out these Tesh,' he said. But you really don't like them do you? So you'll be glad to know they're going to disappear along with you and along with everything else. 'Again he waved the wand at her.

'This is not a wand, you sad primitive you. It's a remote activator. It's the end of the universe.'

'Not any more, Josh,' the Doctor said from the entrance to the side gallery.

'Now it's a much more localised ending.' He nodded at Leela and quickly touched his finger to his lips to silence her.

No it's not!' Josh contradicted him angrily. 'You know that's not true. You know you can't lie to me. I have evolved beyond you, beyond your comprehension.'

Beckoning to Leela, the Doctor said, 'Did you kill Professor Finer, Josh?'

He put a finger to his lips again and gestured to Leela to hurry.

'He was a killer,' Josh said. 'And he wanted to kill me.'

The Doctor pointed, and Leela went into the gallery. Below her she could see the TARDIS in a blaze of strange light.

What did you do to him?' the Doctor asked.

'He was just another rat. I put darkness in his mind.'

But you don't want to die, do you Josh?' the Doctor suggested.

I'm the only one who isn't going to die,' Josh said. 'I'm the next. I'm the only'

'If you press that button Josh, you will die,' the Doctor said.

'Wrong!'Josh raised the remote control. 'Pity you'll never know how wrong.'

'Wait!' the Doctor said urgently. Wait! You're right, of course you're right.

Give us a little time to prepare ourselves? What's a little time in an eternity?'

'How long do you want?' Josh asked. 'Don't be greedy though. When your time is up, your time is up.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I don't know,' he said. 'How about you count to a hundred?'

Josh glared at him. 'Are you mocking me?'

'Of course not." The Doctor shook his head emphatically. 'I wouldn't dare.

It's just that we're little more than children to you after all. It seems an appropriate way to end our time.'

Josh frowned for a moment, then said, 'Very well. I'll count to a hundred.

One, two, three -

'

The Doctor walked out of the chamber and then sprinted down the gallery.

'In the cradle, Leela,' he urged and jumped in after her. 'Hold tight,' he said, and jammed the lift into its downwards motion. 'We have about twenty seconds before he gets bored and presses that button.'

Hullo Doctor,' Leela said. 'I thought you might have forgotten about me.'

'Never,' the Doctor protested. 'I would never do that.'

The lift cradle crashed into the floor of the cavern and Leela and the Doctor staggered to the TARDIS which was already beginning to make small destabilising movements, and heaved themselves inside. The Doctor pointed to the screen. The TARDIS had returned to the wood.

Nineteen, twenty. Ready or not,' Josh said, 'here I come.' He was smiling as he pressed the button.

On the screen in the TARDIS Leela watched herself in the wood. She watched as she got up from the ground. She watched as she put salve on her scratches. She watched as she made up her mind not to wait there in the wood for the Doctor, but rather to set off for the campus instead. She watched herself walk slowly and deliberately away.

'I do not understand,' she said.

'It's tricky,' the Doctor agreed.

'That is me,' Leela said, pointing at her departing figure on the screen.

'Yes,' the Doctor said.

Leela said, 'We are inside the TARDIS but the TARDIS stayed there in the wood. So we were there all the time in the TARDIS.'

'No.'

We are still there,' Leela persisted. The TARDIS went back to the wood.

We went back to the wood in the TARDIS. We are still there. Here. We are here before what is going to happen has happened.'

No,' the Doctor said. The TARDIS allowed the multiverse