I'll meet you by your room in ten. Apparently when Arthas isn't murdering he leads a rather blasé life.

Murder is hard work, I imagine. It takes all the energy out of a person. No wonder he rests between times.

I'll be outside my door.

Obviously, Narvin, that's why you make them kill themselves. [A bit of dark humour from the Doctor there. And he leaves then, giving Narvin time to think on that before he shows up without his usual oafish grin. He just looks tired and irritated.]

Have you been dragged into it?

[Well, that wasn't a sentiment he expected to hear from the Doctor. Although when he thinks about it, he's not surprised. That was essentially what the Doctor had done to Skaro.]

Nygma had requested my...help--or perhaps advice--just before the situation exploded. He believed that Snape might have been deliberately concealing Mozenrath's culpability, which is something I found troubling and I noted as much to him privately at his inquiry. But once Shego and Mozenrath's deeds became public, I though further digging would be counter-productive. Politically speaking.

It's still not the full story. [He pulls off his hat, runs a hand through his hair, and replaces the hat. He might as well admit what was happening. At least Narvin came out about his own distress.]

You recall when you caught me... upset, on the upper decks. When we were in port, Jim stole my credit from the Admiral and set out to bribe Shego to take Arthas off into space. Hoping that the ship would leave without them and they'd be abandoned to those identities. He did this because Arthas took revenge on Nygma for Nygma's last altercation with him. The one I found him in a state in afterwards.

Persephone before that, murdering Cooper. The Joker, driving Rex to addiction and Tim to violence. Shego a victim twice over because of men under my watch. I lost my temper, Narvin, and I barely had the restraint not to rewrite the man into a new person right then.

I see. Well, we're only mortal.

I've often thought that would certainly be a simpler solution than this zoo the Admiral has set up. And when the Master was my inmate...I'd told him explicitly that every time he committed a major crime, I'd wipe some of his memories. If he hadn't vanished, it would have happened eventually, probably more than once. Probably enough times to wipe clean his whole history eventually. A large part of me still thinks the Master would have been the better for it. It wouldn't have been the first time I--

[And he switches topic suddenly. Some of the things the CIA did, things that he did under orders as an operative for the CIA, aren't sitting well with him lately now that he's taking the time to go back and think about them.]

This continuing cycle of retribution has to stop. At this point in the conversation, Braxiatel would probably quote some pretentious line from Shakespeare or Greek tragedy about vengeance. I simply think it's a bloody nuisance and a security risk that's growing worse and worse.

Yes, but Jim had memories that he needs to cope with. Ones he was prompted to publicly announce because of this outrage.

And I concur. There is a persecuted man who fears for his kind because of human abuse, a man who feels utterly unappreciated for his genius, and another man who was excluded altogether. While my inmates have been the centre of all this madness. Do you know why I was utterly astounded when you said that I'd actually helped you?

[He makes a motion around him, as if saying, "All this ~expletive word for refuse here~", but in the most polite of Gallifreyan terms of course.]

If there is going to be further retaliation it's going to come from Ngyma or Profit. Or possibly Mozenrath against Ngyma, but that's for Snape to deal with. The other two...I may try to keep a somewhat closer eye on them.

Your surprise is surprising. I'd always thought helping people--usually while interfering outrageously with the lesser...the younger races--was simply what you did.

Nice correction. I do make the attempt [He heads toward Arthas's room at a slow pace] but my attempts here have been somewhat lacking. I actually made the most progress with the Joker. And the pitiful thing was, just as he left us, I had learned what I must do for him.

Well that's a familiar story. I wonder if the Admiral has something against Time Lords and simply objects to our actually ever graduating anyone.

My younger self did graduate someone, by some miracle.

[A pause.]

You must help give my brother an outlet to express his hate for Rassilon. Having it suppressed concerns me. Can you do that for me?

[He abhors the idea of him going back to being dead.]

[Narvin shakes his head at the thought of all the Time Lords on the Barge *that* Doctor was the successful one. Then he turns serious as the conversation shifts to Braxiatel and Rassilon. Although he can't imagine what the Doctor thinks *he* can do.]

I'll set up a Seal of Rassilon in the pub for us to throw darts at, shall I?