Eloise stopped suddenly, in the act of stepping across the threshold into the darkness beyond. She stood there, balancing awkwardly on one foot. “Wait a minute,” she said, shifting feet, “Where’s Lord Gallifrijan? Wasn’t he here, right here in this spot, when the timeline fractured the first time?”

“Yes,” said the eighth Doctor, “he was…”

“And wasn’t he the one we saw (or thought we saw) through the TSV, trapped in a time loop, about to open this very door, saying ‘behold’ in that over-dramatic way?”

“It was,” said the sixth Doctor. “I know what I – we – saw.”

“So where is he? Either he broke through the time loop himself, and wandered off to the canteen for a turkey and cheese sandwich–” (at this point, all the Doctors raised their eyebrows skeptically) “–or whatever the equivalent is, here on Gallifrey,” she added quickly, with a dismissive wave, “or someone really does not want whatever he was about to reveal, revealed. Personally, I’d go with the second theory. And I do wish,” she added under her breath, “that I knew how he knew my alternate Earth identity. In any case,” she told the others, “I think discretion is the better part of survival, here. Everyone, back away from this door, very quietly.”

But it was too late. For at that moment…