A/N: Wow. This chapter is a doozy. Pretty long as well. Thank you for reading it, hope you enjoy. As always, read, comment, and if you like it, please vote! It helps boost my confidence so much! :)

"Warrior... Volvian." The Doctor gasped in realisation, and he dropped to his knees, head bowed. "Mother Vildia. I remember now."

Rebecca backed against the wall, surveying the spectacle. Vildia stood over him, looking down with fury and anger in her eyes. His head was bowed, but not in reverence. In shame.

"Your planet?" he sounded uncomfortable, like he was asking a question that he didn't want to know the answer to.

"Gone. Burnt to a cinder. I ran from the town hall, finding the nearest school. I got the youngest grade out – but no one else. We ran, our hearts beating in time with their screams. Buildings crashed and burned. Volvians died on every street corner. The fleets converged on the town hall, dismantling it in one fell swoop. Tell me Doctor, do you remember the magnificent opulence of that blue veined marble? Tell me, Doctor, could hear the cries of exterminate over the din of it all?"

"I couldn't – I never – I shouldn't have forgotten" his voice trembled precariously.

"FORGOTTEN!" her voice rose "YOU LET OUR WORLD BURN AND YOU FORGOT?"

Rebecca gasped in shock. The man she had been following all day. Laughing with. Opening up to. He was a murderer.

The Doctor jumped up "I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them! Your whole galaxy suffered! I had no way to save you!"

"But you forgot!" her tone was accusing him, condemning him to the worst fate. Her voice was strong now, surprisingly so, for such a frail woman.

"SO DID YOUR PEOPLE! All hatchlings. You took them away before they could remember anything! Tore them from their parents."

"You tore apart worlds! What was I supposed to do? Give them broken memories for a broken home?"

"YOU TURNED THEM INTO SOLDIERS! YOU...YOU CONVERTED THEM.!" His voice rose into a crescendo and he spread his arms wide.

"I regret nothing" Vildia's voice was filled with steely resolve.

"Y-you" he lifted a finger and curled his lip, voice dropping to a deadly calm. "You are no better than a Dalek."

"How dare you?"

"Oh I dare. I dare alright. I dared to slaughter my whole race. I dared to commit the extinction of two whole species! Don't you ever, ever think I am above telling the cold, hard truth." A bubbling pot, that is what he had resembled. All of that rage, bubbling just under the surface, a lid slammed down on it all. So carefully maintained. So carefully groomed. So carefully contained.

"Daleks. Time Lords. By the end of the war they were both the same. That's what the rest of the council said. I had never truly believed them. But I see it now. All that fury, Doctor?" she spat the name like a curse "It's ever present. YOU CALLED ME A DALEK, AND THEY ONLY UNDERSTAND HATE" she took a breath "I suspect it is much the same with you."

The Doctor took a step back, like he had been kicked in the stomach. Mother Vildia turned away from him, robes swishing gently. She too, had entered that calm. The calm of carefully controlled wrath. Her brow furrowed, and she lifted her chin, choosing the worst words. The most harmful ones.

"Last of your kind. And what a fine specimen you are."

The lid lifted, and everything spilled out.

"You are a liar. A liar and a cruel, cruel Volvian. And they deserve to know the truth." He strode over to the desk, pushing her aside cruelly.

Rebecca rushed over to her fallen form, shaking in horror. All the things she had learnt... she didn't know what Daleks were, but they sounded terrible. But was the Doctor any better? The words Vildia had said echoed through her mind over and over.

Burnt to a cinder.

We ran, our hearts beating in times with their screams.

Volvians died on every street corner.

Echoing, echoing over and over. She turned to the Doctor, what was he doing?

"Never could resist a PA system, huh? Enjoying the sound of your own voice, even now?" it was evident- he now remembered everything.

"You still enjoy making your voice wake every Volvian in the vicinity, huh? Still make the morning announcements, then? Well that's too bad. Because now it's going to work against you!"

He jumped up onto the desk, stabbing at a button viciously with a foot.

"EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD IS A LIE."

Words echoed all around. Reverbrating through the corridors. Repeating themselves in Rebecca's mind, over and over, making infinite copies.

"THINK BACK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD" he hollered "YOUR PARENTS? REMEMBER THEM? THEY WEREN'T SOLDIERS. THEY WERE KIND, AND THEY LOVED YOU. AND MOTHER VILDIA TOOK ALL OF THAT" his voice  dropped slightly, but was still audible. "Your planet burnt, and Vildia is trying to make a new one. Think about it. You're all the same age. You feel no inherent conquering tendencies. You all love, and care for one another. Volvians were torn apart by war once. DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. DEFY YOUR LEADER. REMAIN LOVERS, AND FAMILIES." He stepped off of the button. His rage had bubbled over, and he knew it. So it was in a quiet voice that he said

"They know now. Leave Earth alone!"

Rebecca was silent. Lovers being torn apart. Families.

"Tell me the truth Vildia" it was The Doctor's turn to condemn her "you chose Earth because you know that I choose to protect it. This is all REVENGE for you!"

She turned her frail body away, not replying. She looked so small and fragile. A broken heir to a broken throne. Tears streaming from her eyes, Rebecca stood and strode across the room. Filled with fury, she hopped up on the desk next to The Doctor, shoving him slightly with her shoulder. The way he had just dumped the information on the Volvians – it just wasn't right. With trembling hands, she picked up the microphone and lifted it to her lips.

"Volvians. Today marks the day of a change. But it doesn't have to be a bad change. I get that you probably hate Mother Vildia right now, but she just did what she thought was best." Rebecca took a deep breath.

"You were too young to understand. If she had brought all of you up knowing that your planet was destroyed, imagine how different you would be. Hopeless. Crushed. But now you deserve to know, because you are strong enough to know the truth. So The Doctor did do right. But this is not how you deserved to know. But prove your worth. Prove your worth by not hating her, and not taking your rage out on the humans. Love each other, and leave us in peace. There shall be no war. And no one shall fight. Because violence is not the answer." Her voice hardened slightly.

"Violence is never the answer. There may be something that you don't understand. Something wholly new. Something that may have seemed.... Unnatural. But do not hate it. Embrace the change. Love. Care." It was almost like she was speaking to herself. Rebecca turned off the PA system, and moved to hug Mother Vildia.

Sobs began from the elderly Volvian.

"I understand. Both of you guys. You can't stop a war with hate. You can't end violence with rage. Whoever burnt your world, whatever made you kill your people" she turned to the Doctor " Those... Daleks. They deserve all this anger and resentment you carry within your hearts. Don't let it hurt you."

The words weighed heavily on Vildia's shoulders, and they sagged. She shook her head from side to side, green wisps blowing around softy. All the words had sunk in. The truth was in the open now. The truth that what she had done was cruel, not kind. Not caring in the slightest. The truth that she had blamed everything on one man – when it wasn't particularly his fault.

Vildia pulled away from the embrace "You speak wise words for a young human. You have confirmed what I have known all along. We shall leave to Pluto soon. Far away from this world"

She walked towards the pool, stooped, and dragged her fingers along the bottom. When she lifted it, it was glimmering with the mineral deposits in the clay. She gestured for Rebecca to bend over, and with a bony finger, she drew a sweeping mark down her cheek.

"I dub thee Warrior Rebecca. Fighter for love and happiness. Let it be known, that wherever she goes, she will try to spread light. And she will make sure people will remember. For she will be the reminder for penance. The reminder that one can never forget their sins."

Rebecca smiled, and stood once more, but the bony fingers clutched her wrist. Those black eyes seemed to stare into her soul and she said

"In our culture, Warrior Rebecca, a knighthood is more than a title. It is a promise. Promise me you'll spread light wherever you go. For dark lives" Vildia snuck a glance at the Doctor "often need it."

Rebecca's voice cracked with emotion as she took the promise "Yes, Mother Vildia. I vow to spread light and love wherever I go. And I will never, ever let people forget their sins" Tears filled her eyes as a memory beat at the back of their mind "Because one's mistakes will change them, for better or for worse."

They smiled at each other and stepped back. Rebecca seemed to stand straighter. Her purple t-shirt stood on her shoulders like a cloak, and she wore her jeans like armor. The black curls which framed her face only seemed to intensify her gaze. Then, the mark glowed like silver on her dark skin. The clay had hardened. An impossibly elegant and thin line curved down her face, and curled under her ear. It felt warm for a second, and then it glowed with a bright light and sunk into her skin. Rebecca lifted a steady hand to her face; the mark had embedded itself like a tattoo.

"It looks cool. Tattoos are cool." The Doctor gave her a watery smile.

"Back to the TARDIS?" she asked hopefully, and he nodded.

It was remarkably clean, presumably the Volvian had calmed down.

"I need to tell you something." He began.

"No. Wait. Me first" she drew a deep breath, she'd need it "You tried whatever you could. I'm sure there was nothing you could've done. I'm so, so sorry about your people. But you're still alive for a reason, Doctor. Maybe you couldn't save your planet, and maybe you lost your people. It's unbelievably difficult to bear that weight on your shoulders, and you must struggle to wake up every day, to find the energy to live. I get that, I understand that hopelessness. But you have been blessed with a rare and amazing opportunity. I saw what we did today. We save planet earth." She let out a little laugh.

I helped save the world. Yours may have fallen, but you can stop other civilizations from doing so. The Doctor, protector of countless galaxies and universes. I know it seems difficult to believe but someday... sometime, you'll have done enough to make up for it." Rebecca's words came slowly, stuttering out of her mouth. Perhaps they weren't the right ones, for the Doctor just stood there, silently.

"Rebecca. I'll tell you the story someday"

She held up a hand, stopping him "You don't need to, do it at your own pace. I... I understand the need for privacy."

"I have a question to ask you." He started to smile, and it was a welcome sight for Rebecca.

"Sure." She returned his grin, more proudly now. Rebecca had gotten a confidence that she did not have before. A leader of a race had dubbed her a knight, or Warrior, for Goodness sake! If that didn't boost her self esteem, nothing would.

"What was written on that cake?" he asked, still smiling away. Completely oblivious.

She took long, slow steps and sat on the seat next to the console. Breathing in and out, she tried to calm her racing heart.

"It-It's fine Rebecca. You don't have to tell me now." He looked slightly perplexed, hands in the pockets of his tweed coat.

Rebecca looked at him with a tear stained face. "I'm ready to talk about it now. But I do need tea. Lots and lots of boiling hot tea and maybe some Jammie Dodgers."