"I wonder if you've figured out who I am by now," the woman said lazily, as she watched the Doctor's shaky approach.

He didn't say anything, instead concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and avoiding jumping into bed with her.

She sighed. "Then I suppose you aren't as clever as I'd thought."

"Who are you?" asked the Doctor, finally feeling confident enough to look her in the eye. "What's your name?"

"When one is as long-lived as you or I, Doctor, one tends to be known by many names. The people of Kalponir worshipped me as the goddess Sa-Dí. I was known as Nyam on Aigan. I go by Calypso these days. Let's say I'm an admirer."

"Kilothian," the Doctor murmured.

Calypso's smirk broadened. "There's a clever boy."

"I didn't know any of you survived the Time War."

"I'm not surprised." She sat up slowly, drawing her legs under her. "Considering there's only me left."

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor, and he meant it. He knew what it was like to be alone and he wouldn't wish that fate on anyone.

"Then, we have something in common," she said. "Sit down, Doctor. We'll have a chat and compare notes."

The Doctor hadn't been keeping his guard up. Without thinking about it, he sat on the bed beside her. "Listen," he said. "I don't know what you're doing here, but you can't just kidnap people. Let me and my friends go."

"Oh, I don't think so, Doctor." She slid closer to him until their faces were inches apart. "I've been looking for so long, sifting through the chaff, to find what I need." She looked at him hungrily.

"DNA," he murmured.

She kissed him. Momentarily, it occurred to him that this was wrong, that he shouldn't be kissing anyone who wasn't Jack or Rose, but there was something clouding his mind.

"No," he said suddenly, pushing her back. "You can't."

She looked hurt. "Doctor, I'm not asking you to marry me. All I need is a little..." She paused, searching for the right word. "Donation."

The Doctor frowned.

"We're both the last of our kind," Calypso continued. "Don't you ever wish you could pass on your genes, rebuild your species?"

The Doctor shook his head, but she wasn't done.

"You do, I think." She reached out to brush some invisible lint from his suit, straightening his tie with her long fingers. "Do you really prefer being on your own? Or is it that you think her weak human body couldn't take it? You know how strong the blood of Kiloth is." She twined her fingers in his hair. "It's all up here. Just think of it, Doctor. The mind of a Time Lord and the longevity of a Kilothian." She leaned forward, almost kissing him. "You deserve better than them."

"Leave them out of this," said the Doctor sharply. He had nearly worked through her telepathic field. He could feel the effect she had on him fading.

"Have you calculated what a tiny sliver of your life you can spend with her? You have, I know. And even your immortal will wither while you remain young." She brushed her thumb across his cheek. "You burn at the center of time and they are mayflies, Doctor, drawn to a flame, too stupid to know they'll get burned."

"Stop it," he said evenly.

"You may not mind being alone, but I need this." He was suddenly struck by the sincerity of her expression. He'd thought at first that it was her psychic mask, but she really seemed so lonely. And he knew what it was like to be that lonely. He hesitated.

Calypso pressed her fingers together. "A donation. And then I let you go, on your merry way, with the apes that warm your bed."

The Doctor paused. Suddenly, a most welcome whooshing sound filled the room.

**

"Where are we now?" asked Rose.

"Let's find out," said Jack, charging across the grating and pulling open the doors. They stumbled out into a bedroom. The Doctor was sitting on the bed, beside a beautiful woman. He had a glazed-over expression, seemingly in her thrall.

"Doctor?" said Rose hesitantly.

"Rose!" The Doctor leapt off the bed and ran toward them; they met in a three-way hug.

"Doctor, what happened?" Rose murmured into his shoulder.

"Doctor!" said the woman on the bed, raising her voice. "I think you're forgetting something."

"Not now, Calypso," said the Doctor, turning to look at her, but not letting go of Jack and Rose. "We're leaving." Then, he seemed to spot Robert for the first time. "Oh, hello!" He stepped away from his companions to greet the other man. "I'm the Doctor."

Robert grinned. "I've heard a lot about you." He reached out to shake the Doctor's hand, but suddenly disappeared.

The Doctor whipped around to face the woman he'd called Calypso. "What did you do?" he said coldly.

"I sent him back where he came from," Calypso said easily, shrugging her shoulders. "He was a spare. Neither you nor I needed him."

"Bring him back!" cried Rose. She didn't know who this woman was, but she didn't think she was on their side. "I'm warning you."

"Oh, is that what you're going to do, Doctor?" Calypso laughed. "Sic your pet wolf on me?"

Something dormant twitched in Rose's mind, but as suddenly as it was there, it was gone again. Instead, she just fixed the other woman with a cold stare. "Who are you?"

"Your Doctor and I have a lot in common." Calypso got to her feet, arranging her long skirt around herself. That dress didn't leave much to the imagination. It'd be rather cold, Rose thought. "I'm the last of my kind and he's the last of his. I was trying to get him to agree to a little... exchange."

Rose didn't like the way Calypso was looking at the Doctor.

"Sorry, but he's spoken for," snapped Jack, apparently having reached the same conclusions as Rose.

"Oh, don't think I've forgotten about you, Captain." Calypso turned her attention from the Doctor to Jack. "You're almost as interesting." She paused. "I do wonder if it's hereditary."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rose.

"Oops," said Calypso innocently.

"It's nothing," said Jack, but he didn't quite meet Rose's eyes. She looked to the Doctor for clarification, but he glanced away.

"Doctor, if your friends are going to be a distraction, I'm going to have to send them away, too." Calypso dipped a hand into her dress and withdrew a large gold pendent.

"Doctor!" Jack shouted. He tossed the sonic screwdriver to him but it was too late.

Rose heard a rushing in her ears and then felt a sensation quite like being everywhere and nowhere all at once. Then, she felt nothing at all.

**

"What did you do to her?" roared Jack. He crossed the room and advanced on Calypso. If Rose was dead, he didn't care what she did to him.

"Nah-uh-uh," she said, wagging her finger. "I can do it to you, too, Captain."

For a brief second, Jack hesitated, but then he started toward her once more.

"She's not dead," said Calypso, as if stating the obvious. "Like I said with the spare, I just sent her back where she came from."

"That wasn't part of our deal, Calypso," said the Doctor warningly.

"I wasn't aware we had a deal, Doctor. Considering how you abandoned me as soon as soon as your two little humans came for you. Tell me, is that why you need two of them? Is one just not fulfilling enough?"

Jack clenched his fists. She was lucky he didn't carry a gun anymore.

"Bring. Her. Back," he said finally.

"Oh, I can't," she said breezily. "The technology doesn't work that way. I can pull bodies in from the Vortex, but your pet wolf is somewhere, now. I hope you remember where you got her."

"Doctor, we're going," said Jack.

"Not yet," said the Doctor quietly.

Jack started. He had expected the Doctor to just turn around and go.

"They're not bad, humans," said the Doctor casually. He stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and began to pace. "Sure they have their moments, but you're going to find it hard living without them, Calypso. You employ them. Like it or not, you're going to need to live with them. Come with me. I'll find you a place."

"Kiloth burned," she spat. "When the Time Lords went to war, they didn't care who got in the way. You owe it to me, Doctor."

"I'm willing to help you. You brought us here against our will–I don't think you're in much of a position to make demands." He started toward her, his stance threatening. Jack tensed. Was she going to do to him what she'd done to Rose?

"Doctor," Calypso breathed. Her tone suddenly changed. She burst into tears and flung her arms around the Doctor's neck.

"See?" he said gently, patting her on the back. "It's going to be all right." He turned to Jack. "Your turn now. Catch!"

He threw a round, heavy object toward Jack and suddenly he could move again. He dropped into a crouch and caught it deftly. It was Calypso's pendant, which was a large gold disc with a knob on it.

Immediately, Calypso straightened up and shoved the Doctor away. She was no longer crying. Instead, she was furious.

"That was always trouble for you Kilothians, wasn't it?" The Doctor rocked back on his heels, hands in his pockets. "Not very difficult to throw your telepathy back at you. It's like figuring out someone's computer passwords and going in and changing them on them–which, I might add, is not very nice."

Calypso reached for her pendant, but realized Jack had it.

"Now who's in a position to make demands?" said Jack smugly.

"You don't even know what that's worth," she hissed.

"Nope!" said Jack brightly, tossing it up and down in the palm of his hand. "I was thinking of taking it to Spledonia and getting it appraised. What do you think, Doc?"

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Spledonia? They'll cheat you out of your eyeteeth."

Calypso ran toward Jack, her face a mask of pure rage.

Jack had no idea what would happen, but being immortal provided for a bit of recklessness. He turned the knob.

**

The world exploded around him. It was almost like using his vortex manipulator, but a thousand times more painful. He wanted to scream, but he didn't think his mouth was still attached to his body. It felt as though he had been ripped into a million, billion different pieces and they were being scattered through the Vortex as if searching for the right spot.

Robert hit the ground hard, on his stomach. It took him a few seconds to get himself oriented. The landscape was rocky and barren, and the night was moonless. It was hard to see anything–he couldn't even see any stars. He shuddered involuntarily against the chill. Of all the worlds he'd been to, he'd never seen one that looked so utterly… alien.

Shakily, he got to his feet and turned slowly. For as far as he could see in either direction, it was all wasteland. He glanced down at his vortex manipulator. The coordinates it gave were in a sector of the universe he was unfamiliar with; the date setting wasn't even registering. Unless it's too high to fit, he wondered, a nervousness beginning to form in the pit of his stomach.

"I'll just go," he told himself, needing to say something aloud to fill the eerie silence of the deserted planet.

He was about to input a date and place–he was thinking maybe the Pleasure Gardens on Ettoa in the good old fifty-first century–when he heard screaming from the ridge behind him. Robert turned. A young man was running toward him as if his life depended on it, and based on the mob at his heels, it probably did.

"What are you doing?" the man screamed, as he ran toward Robert. "Head for the silo!"

Robert froze, his eyes on the inhuman mob bearing down on him.

"Run!" As the man passed him, he grabbed Robert's arm, helping him decide what to do.

Robert ran.

**

"Is he okay?" Rose's voice was anxious.

"He's fine," said the Doctor, in a low tone. "He's just unconscious. He's coming around now."

Jack's eyelids fluttered. He was lying on his back with the Doctor and Rose crouching over him. Over their heads, he could see blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

"Nice day," he said, voice cracking.

Rose threw herself at him, hugging him tight.

"Hey, be gentle." Jack sat up slowly and coughed.

"Bit nicer than the last time we were here," the Doctor observed, standing and looking at the sky. "Don't think it'll rain."

"What?" asked Jack. "What happened?"

"We're in Scotland!" exclaimed the Doctor, that accent back again. "Morning after we were here last time. Remember the werewolf?"

"Yeah, I remember." With Rose's help, Jack managed to stand. "I mean, what just happened?"

"Oh, you sent us back were we came from! Quite clever of you." He ruffled Jack's hair and grabbed the pendant, the chain of which was still wrapped around Jack's fingers. "Better put this somewhere safe."

"Under N for necklace?" suggested Rose.

"Nah," said the Doctor. "Got to be P for pendent. See, when there's a dangly thing, that means..."

"Doctor," said Jack levelly.

"Right!" The Doctor shoved the pendent into his pocket and gave Jack a hug. "She'll be gone, back where she came from, too." He gave Jack a quick kiss and lifted his arm to pull Rose into the hug, kissing her, too. "Her big old ship-base-thing will be useless outside the Vortex. I'm sure she'll make a fortune in the scrap business."

"Well, then," said Rose. "That was one nice thing you did for her, yeah?"

"Exactly, Rose," said the Doctor sagely. "I'm nothing if not charitable."

Jack shook his head to clear it. "Who was she?"

"A very lonely person," said the Doctor. He linked arms with Jack and Rose, leading them back toward the TARDIS, which Jack hadn't noticed until now, parked a few feet away. "Whom no one ever taught to make friends nicely."

"But how did she do all that?" Jack asked. "The distortion, the crossword?"

"Crossword?" asked Rose.

"Telepathy," the Doctor explained. "Quite brilliant technology, really. The computer that set up the distortion field was mildly telepathic. That's..." His face clouded briefly. "Very advanced."

"But she's gone now, right?" said Rose. "She's not going to do this to anybody else, is she?"

"Yup," said the Doctor. "That technology won't work anymore. Because we have the key. And this key, of course." He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew his TARDIS key.

"You're sure this is going to work?" Rose asked hesitantly as they went inside.

"Sure, I'm sure!" exclaimed the Doctor. "The TARDIS is absolutely unaffected by our little adventure." He began flipping switches and pressing buttons and the TARDIS began to dematerialize.

Though Jack trusted the Doctor, he still held his breath, but it soon became apparent that the distortion field was gone.

"Ah, that's more like it," said the Doctor, peering at the monitor. "A clear, unobstructed Vortex, just as it should be."

"So," said Rose softly. "What happened to Robert?"

"Same thing that happened to us, I imagine," said the Doctor. "He was sent back to the last place he was. He'll be all right."

Rose seemed to accept this.

"Right then!" said the Doctor. Suddenly, the TARDIS began to materialize. "Wait!" He swung around the console and began punching buttons. "I didn't tell you to do that!" The TARDIS lurched, throwing him to the floor.

"Is it her?" asked Jack, grabbing the railing for support.

"The TARDIS is destabilized." The Doctor struggled for footing and slammed into Rose.
"She's not going far enough. Hold on!"

Jack tightened his grip on the railing and braced for impact.