Nothing was going like planned.

She knew that unpredictability was a reality of war, a reality of life really. But to see it happen with her own eyes was almost disheartening. General Zat had sound reasoning behind his infiltration of Skaronite. It was a part of a bigger plan they had developed alongside the New Thalian Council throughout the past week. General Zat wasn’t the only man growing tired of the war. There were those in power on both sides. President Dav the Third had agreed fully.

They would take Skaronite with help from inside forces. Those who still supported the war and sectioning of the planet’s people would be jailed and later tried. They would reunite the planet. Bloodlessly too, with little loss of life. It had been easier to convince the Council of that than Jenny thought.

That wasn’t what had happened, though. A spy in the Council had leaked word to Supreme General Fastif, the man who had placed himself in charge of the rebels – the purebloods as they went around calling themselves. Units had been placed at all the previously hidden entrances into the city. Rather than being the powerful force that would take Skaronite with one swift and easy blow, they had become something akin to lambs going to the slaughter. At least, that’s what Jenny thought the metaphor was.

It didn’t matter. No matter how many rounds she or anyone in her squadron fired, they were still outnumbered. According to Voule, it looked like Fastif had recalled all his troops home for this battle. With communicators jammed and the fight looking more and more hopeless, she sent her friend off to find General Zat and suggest a possible retreat. They needed to develop a new plan before any more lives were lost.

With a grim frown on her face, Jenny continued to shoot the Pureblood New Thalians convinced they were fighting for the proper cause – for extermination of anything remotely connected to the Daleks. It was a stupid cause, she thought again, not for the first time since General Zat had explained the war to Jenny. It was just as stupid as all those human prejudices against those different.

While she tried her best to aim for legs from behind the fallen tree that she and a few others were using for cover, sometimes Jenny missed. Dad might have claimed that she had a choice but in a time like this, she couldn’t believe that. Oh, she tried hard not to kill. And yet, Jenny knew that the majority of the death toll for the Purebloods fighting to defend the Eastern Exit was her fault.

Her squadron wasn’t that good.

And they were outnumbered with no orders yet to leave. She despised this. Instinct told her she couldn’t break her superior officer’s orders. Her inheritance told her to fight. But all she wanted to do was get the survivors to safety. Jenny wondered what her father would do in this situation. He’d have the solution. After all, he was a full trained Time Lord. She was just a Time Lady in training who had gotten in over her head.

Who now jumped at the slightest sound. The leaves rustled to her left and without thinking twice, Jenny turned, aimed, and began to fire a rapid round of ammunition towards the approaching soldier. It was only when the man fell, a look of surprise on his face and her name on his lips, did she realise who he was.

The battle was forgotten as she dropped her blaster to the ground and ran over to Voule. Tears blurred her vision as she picked him up and cradled him in her arms. Jenny gulped and stared down at him, unable to rationalize what had just happened. How could she have been so stupid? How could… oh, oh Rassilon!

“Jenny,” he choked out, smiling at her despite what had just happened. “Don’t… no retreat. No… not blaming.”

No. No, this couldn’t be happening! They could get away. The camp medic had seemed good enough. Jenny could find him and he could heal Voule and then she wouldn’t feel this horrible guilt welling up in her hearts.

“Good soldier. And… and cutest girl I’ve ever…”

“Stop,” Jenny snapped. Tears were falling and for a moment, all she could see was her father’s own face peering down at her while he held her in his arms. She had been dying then but she had gotten a second chance. She had been born for second and third and fourth chances.

“Just stop. You need to hold on, Voule. I’ll get you to the medic, you’ll see. And then we’ll get out of here. I’ll take you travelling! Show you that there’s more to life than this and it’ll be great. We've got things to do, you and me."

Without realising, she had begun to echo the words her father had told her as she had died in his arms three months ago.

"Hey? Hey, Voule? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose. It’s gonna be great. No, it’s gonna be more than great. It’s gonna be amazing. You hear me? Voule?”

His chest had stopped rising as she talked. While the silly grin was still on his face, that silly stupid grin that looked too much like Bart’s, the boy’s eyes had gone glassy and still. Voule had died in her arms and it was all her fault.

Suddenly, Jenny couldn’t take it. She couldn’t be here. Edward was wrong about her. She didn't hesitate. And now? Now, she needed to get away. A good soldier never abandoned her mates.

Gently placing Voule back on the ground, she ignored the shouts from the other boys. She ignored anything and everything as she ran, determined to make it back to her shuttle and away from all of this – off planet and across the galaxy. Or maybe even a new galaxy. Anywhere that wasn’t here, wasn’t New Thal or any other sort of paradise planet.

She ran.

In the end, Jenny knew that she wasn’t a good soldier after all.

By day five, Voule’s squadron had become something Jenny believed that she could be proud of. It had taken much more work than she ever imagined any group of non-trainees would need but in the end, she decided it was worth it. No longer was Voule easily tackled; there were actual fights now when she tried to pin him to the ground. It made her happy and the way he smiled at her made her blush and long for someone planets away.

She supposed that she could really visit him if she really wanted to. After all, she only had to step through her shuttle door and more than often, Jenny appeared there. Then she could see Bart and maybe Donna and Edward and everyone else she loved there. Yet, something kept her on New Thal. Jenny suspected it had to do with finally being a part of an actual army, properly having her inheritance put to work.

Dad would be disappointed. And that was another reason to see this through – to prove to herself and to him that she could be as amazing as he claimed she would be when she was dying.

“You boys have become such soldiers,” she told Voule proudly on the fifth day after target practice. She eyed the various sheets, unable not to beam at the 90% kill rate. “This is great, Voule. We’ll present your accomplishments to General Zat and then we’ll go and deal with the Purebloodss and end this war for good.”

The dark haired teenager looked at Jenny with bright puppy eyes. He followed her around without hesitance, like a shadow she hadn’t asked for. “You really think so?”

“Yeah,” she answered, feeling a pang in her hearts at his smile. “I totally know so. Soldier, remember?”

Voule laughed, hesitantly reaching out for her hand. Jenny accepted it without thinking twice and swung their arms happily. It had felt good to have a friend here, even with his crush. “I don’t know what we would’ve done without you, Jenny. I think the General might even send us out on the mission to Skaronite.”

“You think so?”

“With your training?” Voule squeezed her hand as his smile brightened. It sort of reminded Jenny of her own smile, and the smile of someone she loved. “I totally know so.”

“Let’s go find General Zat and show off, then.” Jenny flashed Voule a challenging smile. “Last one there!”

She took off running. It was also strange, she noted, to know that this time she would win the race.

It had started with Time War and the destruction of the Daleks. Jenny sat in the grotto, listening to General Zat with rapt attention. This was the war that her father had fought in. She knew that without a doubt. The words and the stories felt as familiar to her as her own memories. The awed whispers of Time Lords only confirmed such.

They also confirmed her silence.

While the majority of the people of New Thal (such as the camp she currently sat in) were neutral in opinion to the acts of the Oncoming Storm, she found out that some groups had become furious. And thus, when the Time War ended and word of such slowly spread across the universe, war eventually broke out on New Thal. It had been a simple enough of a cause: a fight among those with Kaled descent and those who considered themselves pure and free of the Dalek taint.

They had been late in discovering the truth about the Time War, late in discovering the strong truths some still held dear. But that had made no difference in the long run. The paradise planet still fell apart. They had been fighting ever since.

Jenny squirmed uncomfortably as General Zat lamented the loss of many generations. Peace had attempted to be wrought many times over the decades. Each plan had resulted in failure. Hardcore factions from either side would assassinate ambassadors. Troops would be captured during infiltration plans. Nothing would ever go right.

She couldn’t help but remember Messaline as the elderly man talked. Although they had no progenation machines and actually had villages and livelihoods and real families to protect, the concept was the same. Not everyone on New Thal was a soldier but soldiers were in high demand. Everyone on Messaline had been born a soldier. So not the same, but still. The differences weren’t enough.

General Zat didn’t even have to ask for her help before Jenny volunteered to fight. If the Cline-like-boy was anything to go by, Jenny was a far better soldier than any of them. She could save lives, she could make a difference.

And maybe she could even show them that there were alternatives to fighting, just like her father had shown her. This, Jenny knew without hesitation, was a Time Lady’s purpose. Forget what that silly book said, she was going to rescue this planet and save these people.

No matter how long it took.

“I know I look young, but it’s what I was born to do,” she explained to the general as she eyed the Thal she had captured during his attempt to capture her. “Peace is too important not to fight for. My- someone I know taught me that. There’s always a choice when it comes to killing. And I think we can end this war in such a way.”

In such a way that would make her father proud, she thought silently. Jenny held her blue eyed gaze firm as she studied the wrinkled face in front of her. Unlike General Cobb, this man was weary of war. He was probably a farm boy once, not someone ever meant to fight and kill. And yet, now, he was the best that New Thal offered.

General Zat looked amused. “Is that so, young one?”

“Jenny,” she stressed. “It’s just Jenny right now, but yeah. It’s so so. Just watch. We’ll reunite New Thal and make this planet back into the paradise it once was. If it happened on the planet I was born on, it can happen anywhere.”

“Join Voule’s squad,” he answered, nodding to her soldier. Jenny could read the emotions in his face clearly: he had doubts, but he also had his hopes. And hope, she was learning, was a very powerful force. “Give the lad his blaster back, shape up his team into something respectable by the end of the week, and we’ll see.”

Jenny gave him a sharp nod and saluted. “Yes, sir.”

She had read a whole lot on New Thal before deciding to visit. Well, perhaps it wasn't what most people would consider 'a whole lot' but considering Jenny's penchant to just run off to a planet, she considered it a whole lot. It was apparently settled by the remnants of a long lost planet that sought to redeem its citizens. The paradise planet claimed to have lived in absolute peace and had since they left Skaros before, they claimed, the advent of the Daleks.

When Jenny had read both words which sitting in the cockpit of her shuttle and absently playing with the psychic paper, she had shivered unexpectedly. The words were foreign to her and yet, some part of her seemed to know them.

Overall, talk of sparkling beaches and diverse tidal pools and huge expanses had sounded more than promising. It sounded like a fun planet to check out, maybe even to take Bart to on a romantic getaway like she had read about in one of her Earth books. And then there was that nagging in the back of her head, the nagging voice that said she should avoid New Thal and anything with roots to Skaros at all cost.

Of course, that meant she had to go find out for herself.

Maybe the first clue that should have told the young and adventurous Gallifreyan that this wasn't the paradise planet she was looking for should have been the lack of a docking bay. But she had ignored such a fact. Clearly shuttles were just meant to land in the nearest rock cropping and blend in with the rest of the beautiful planet.

It had made sense then.

Perhaps the second clue ought to have been the ruined buildings she first came across as she made her way to the beach. They could have been gorgeous once: something resembling coral reefs washed ashore and the sparkling mountains in the distance. But there were holes where holes ought not to be now, large gaps of infrastructure missing and rubble everywhere. These weren’t hotels and spas for tourists.

It was a theme, quite clearly and these were hotels and spas for tourists! Jenny laughed, feeling herself quite clever as she figured it out. The idea of paradise lost almost seemed too perfect for this planet to be true. Her blue eyes sparkled as she ducked her head into one of the doorway like openings. Oh, Bart would love this.

“Hello?” Her voice echoed in the chamber. “Hello, I’d like to talk to someone about renting a room here!”

“Quiet!”

A hand covered her mouth as the voice hissed at her. With less than a second’s reaction time, Jenny reached for the stranger’s wrist and yanked his hand away from her mouth, flipping him on to the ground with a strength she didn’t realise she possessed. She straddled his back; pulling his arm tightly behind him and pressing his face to the ground (cheek down) with her other hand.

Jenny blinked a few times, looking down at the man. Even in the shadows of the building interior (which on second glance, really didn’t look like a themed hotel at all), he appeared rather young. She loosened her grip a little, feeling oddly guilty when fear flashed across the man’s face. He didn’t seem to be much older than Cline and, for a moment, Jenny wondered if she wandered to Messaline by accident. Would terraformation make it into a planet this pretty?

Just as she was about to question the man, he spoke. “We’ve gotta get out of here. I don’t know who you are, but the Kaled-sympathizers are coming and they’re going to kill us if they find us.”

A strange image of an old and wrinkled man in a hover chair with a blue sensor implanted to the middle of his forehead suddenly appeared in her mind when the soldier mentioned Kaleds. Jenny blinked in confusion, chewing on her lip as she tried to make sense of the image.

“Please,” the man begged, interrupting Jenny from her quandary. “Please, I promise you won’t even be a Thal prisoner. We just need to get out of here before we’re caught.”

“Yeah, alright,” she finally answered, albeit a bit reluctantly. “But I get your weapon, got it?”