Chapter Text
The Master looked at the Doctor, backdropped by his grotesque hybrids of Time Lords and Cybermen. His hearts shattered, mind and body exhausted. She hadn’t done it. She hadn’t pushed the trigger. Of course, she hadn’t. He didn’t know why he thought she might, might end his suffering and let him go off into the beyond. He didn’t know if he could stand it from anyone else. He had goaded her and played at her weaknesses, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough.
The elaborate ploy he had spent planning for what felt like aeons, and perhaps it was that long, didn’t succeed. Maybe deep down that’s what he wanted. Maybe the desperate attempts to end it all were just a ploy – a game he was playing against himself. At every turn something would thwart him, making him continue, making him keep walking this mortal coil. What if that was what he wanted? Something to push him, something to make him feel alive? Was he walking the line between death and life not to bring about the end but create a new beginning? Create a new dynamic with the woman he once called ‘friend’?
He looked at her, slightly surprised at the feelings of disappointment, pride, and anger that made a messy cocktail of emotions in his stomach. He pointed his finger at her, “Everyone in the Universe will suffer for your weakness. I’ll make sure of it.” If he couldn’t go at her hand, joined in death in the way they couldn’t in life, then he might as well have some fun. Something to take his mind off the eternal pain and rage that tore at his hearts. He would help himself, his way. Choosing the creation of something the Doctor could never understand – the birth of chaos. Glorious chaos. With its swirling hues of red and its symphony of screams.
“Not if I have anything to do with it.” Ko Sharmus rounded the corner, his eyebrows furrowed, and his old ragged clothes hanging from his tired frame. One last deed to save the Universe. To save humanity.
The Master jumped up the few steps, his thoughts shattered at the sight of the intruder. He lept back onto the platform next to the Doctor, “Excuse me,” he said, “No gate crashers.”
The Doctor spun around to look at the old man, her words firing out of her mouth like bullets, “You can’t still be here, I set the controls.” Had she failed to save her friends? Again? The fear of it tore at her insides.
Ko Sharmus pattered down the steps and stood before the Doctor, “I followed you out,” he explained. “They tried to stop me, but I wanted to be sure that these things are gone.”
The Cybermen had torn his life from his hands, and he was sure as hell not going to let them continue to ravage the Universe. He tried to rip the grenade with the attached death particle from the Doctor’s hand. He grabbed her wrist with one hand and the explosive device with the other. “And now I can be.”
The Doctor tried to keep hold of it. If she was honest this was this her responsibility, but on the other hand, she also felt exhaustion bubbling to the surface. She was torn as to what to do. If Ko Sharmus hadn’t have walked in, maybe she would have pushed the button. She could always surprise herself, right? The thoughts flew thick and fast through her mind, but the tight hold of the man’s hand around her wrist drew her back to reality.
“No,” she was determined to take responsibility for her actions for once.
The human chuckled, “You didn’t start this,” he must have heard more of the Master’s conversation than she thought he did, “I did.”
The Doctor’s eyes grew wide at his admission.
“I was part of a resistance unit that sent the Cyberium back through time and space.” He explained, hoping to convince her to relinquish her hold on what was effectively a time bomb grasped between them. “Though, obviously, we didn’t send it back far enough. So this is my penance.” Clearly, something he said was working. He could feel the Doctor’s grip loosen, and he was able to shift it from her grasp to his.
“Mine to finish.”
The Doctor’s arms hung limp beside her. She didn’t question the Master’s silence nor the words of the man before her. Her eyes cast downwards. Another human was taking her place. Fighting her fight, as they had so often done before. There was no fight left in her to fight back. None to finish what had started long before this warrior, this hero, could even imagine.
He was speaking again, or perhaps he’d never stopped, “My journey ends here.”
The Doctor lifted her eyes back up to his. There was kindness in the sparkle of those orbs and the curve of his mouth.
“But the universe still needs you.”
Understanding flooded her as he spoke those fateful promised words, “So I suggest you run.”
“But…”
He lifted his voice, “Run Doctor!”
She took a final glance at the death particle. Her thoughts fought a war of their own. To stay or run – an age-old question and one she knew so well.
Finally, the Master broke his silence, he could see where this was leading, the scrawny little human was going to break his game. “Don’t you dare,” he growled.
The Doctor gasped, she knew what she had to do, what she always did.
Run.
She leapt from the platform and took off.
Away from the regenerating Cybermen. Away from the Master. Away from the responsibility of yet another death. Though she wouldn’t admit that last one even to herself. Her feet pounded underneath her, and she heard her oldest friend and greatest enemy yell her name.
“Doctor!”
Rage burned bright again in the Master’s chest. She had left him – again. Could he expect any less? The vile little human stood in front of him, taunting him with the explosive in his hand.
“Still feeling confident?” The man asked with a gleeful grin.
The Master stood closer to him, that was his role, his alone to dangle life and death before another and to relish in the fear that shone in his victim’s eyes.
The Doctor ran. She ran faster and with more fear in her hearts than she had felt in a long time. It seemed that at every turn of her life, she had been running from responsibility and from the consequences of her actions. But never had she run from them quite so fast as she was doing now.
Her breaths came out in gasps as she sought out a TARDIS that would take her far far away from the desolate planet that was once her home.
She pulled out her screwdriver and directed the sonic waves towards the first door of the first TARDIS she came across. The doors opened, and she sprinted into the control room. The clock continued to tick as it got closer and closer towards death. That one dish that she offered to so many and yet refused to consume herself. Tearing around the console, she flicked switches and spun dials. Preparing the ship to dematerialise. She could only hope that for once time was on her side.
The Master glared at Ko Sharmus. Without taking his eyes off the man, he called out to the army amassed behind him, “Kill him.”
“I’ll kill you first,” Ko Sharmus said between gritted teeth, his thumb resting against the activation button. Before he could press down on it, shots fired out from the Gallifreyan Cybermen. Each shot met its target, pushing his body side to side with the force of the energy beams. He fell to the floor. Dead. As his hand hit the ground, his thumb pressed on the button.
Dead and unknowing, he failed to hear the Master shout at his soldiers, “All of you, through here, now!” But it was too late.
It was over.
The explosion rocketed the planet. Every bit of organic matter torn from existence. Whatever the Master had not destroyed, be it the flower or Gallifreyan tissue from the bodies of the dead, was gone in an instant.
The Doctor exited the TARDIS, her hearts still beating rapidly in her chest. She had made it. She had survived. But at what cost? Pushing down the thoughts of doubt and uncertainty, she let the wonder of seeing her ‘getaway car’, for lack of a better term, stand tall and firm as it took on the appearance of an aged tree amongst the rocks of the quarry.
Admiring the ‘tree’, she smiled, “Oh, yeah, nice. Good chameleon circuit.” Continuing to talk to the TARDIS, she said, “I’m going to have to leave you there, though.” She started to walk away and up the stone ridden path, her footsteps slow and heavy.
“I can think of worse places to spend eternity,” she mused.
The blue of her beloved box called to her. Exhaustion marked each step up the soft rise of the path as made her way to her home. She placed a soft hand on the side of the box and felt the Old Girl power up. “Hello, mate,” she said tenderly.
Opening the door, she stepped inside. Her heart lifted as the TARDIS made soft beeping noises around her. The yellow lights glowed a path to the console. Her ship was welcoming her home.
A soft smile pulled at the corners of her lips, “Thanks. Home, sweet home.”
The TARDIS made a soft warbling sound, questioning her thief as to where her strays were.
“They got a lift back another way,” The Doctor answered.
The TARDIS let out a long quiet beeping sound.
“Don’t get jealous. I’ll pick them up now.” Even as she said the words, the weight of everything that had happened pulled down on her. Any energy she had left was gone, and the desire to curl up on the TARDIS floor was stronger than ever.
“Maybe just need a moment.” She rested against the console with a tired sigh. She barely had time to just be before the TARDIS alarm filled the air. She just couldn’t get a break. Turning to look at it in confusion, she was shocked by a bright beam behind her. Turning back around, three Judoon officers stood in front of her.
“What?” You’ve got to be kidding!
“Judoon Cold Case Unit.”
The officer closest to her barked, “Fugitive – The Doctor. Sentence – Whole of Life Imprisonment. Maximum Security Facility.”
Before the Doctor could argue, or even say a word, the Judoon officer lifted his gun-like device and pointed it toward her. He pressed the trigger.
The next thing she knew, she was in a cell. Thin windows circled the room above her head, and light streamed in through another small opening nestled in the stone, allowing her to see somewhat through the dark gloom of the cell. The cell was as barren and empty as her tired heart.
“What?”
Regaining her balance, she ran towards the barred window. Her eyebrows lifted in astonishment and her mouth hung open as she took in the deep void of space on the other side of the bars.
She groaned, repeating the only word that found substance in her head, “What?”
Yaz looked around at the other survivors clustered around the controls. They could do nothing but stand there, exhausted. They didn’t know what would be there to greet them what they landed. The wheezing groans of the TARDIS filled the control room alerting them to their rematerialisation.
Ravio was the first to move. She reached out and pulled the door back. The sight of houses and cars untouched by war overwhelmed her, as did the green grass that carpeted the ground. “This is Earth.” She took her first step out of the TARDIS and onto the planet she doubted she’d ever see again.
Close behind her was Yedlarmi and behind him, Ethan. Ravio breathed out in wonder, “We’re on Earth.”
Yaz, Graham, and Ryan had followed their three new friends out of the TARDIS. Yaz looked about her, disbelief swirling in her stomach, “We’re home. She got us home.” She turned to look at Graham, his face sagged in heartbreak and understanding as she tried to keep back her own tears that threatened to spill down her face. Her friend was gone. Dead or alive, she didn’t know. Determined to push away the thoughts of the Doctor dead and alone, she continued, “But what happens to her?”
Ryan took a step closer to Yaz and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Graham lifted his hand to comfort his young friend as well but was interrupted by the sound of a wheezing, groaning TARDIS. Yaz’s eyes lit up, and a smile took over her face. All six humans spun to watch the materializing TARDIS. As it stabilised, however, their hearts shattered. The ship in front of them wasn’t the comforting blue police box they’d all come to know and love but a dark green van that stood parked on the curb.
“Maybe she took another TARDIS?” Yaz hoped.
Her hopes were soon dashed by the sight of a broad-shouldered man exiting the car. He was clothed in long red robes and held a large black gun in his soot-blackened hands. His blue eyes were barely visible through the rage that filled them. His dishevelled black hair was brushed by the soft breeze as he trained the gun on them.
“Where is he? Where’s the Master?” He growled.