Title: The World is Not Enough
Obviously this is a Doctor Who fic, things you need to know will be up here.
Pairing: Eventual Doctor(ten)/Master(Simm/regeneration into ?) with maybe, no probably... River Song thrown in there with the boys.
WARNINGS: Intention is for a slash fic. Also, 11th Doctor will make an appearance, only... he's not who he's supposed to be.
Summary: At the end of the 2 part episode End of Time there's a sudden hiccup in the Doctor's plan to regenerate. The TARDIS proceeds to con the Master into helping in his stead.
No major character death!
SPOILERS- I'm working off the 2005 through to the 2011 seasons, so there are going to be references to a lot of episodes. Read at your own risk if you haven't watched the series.
OOC WARNINGS Specific:
I feel I must also state ahead of time there will be some Out of Character bits as well.7
The appropriate warning is BAMF!Doctor I believe...Aka, the Doctor has some morbid Chuck Norris moments, including leaving a trail of bodies.
The Master will be OoC in the form of, I'm not writing him as a complete psychopathic narcissistic nut-job. Narcissist? Definitely sane, however much like a certain madman in a blue box that he is... :)
River may be out of character, but that's mostly me being an idiot and not so intentional. If she gets to ooc please feel free to state so and to what degree so that I might be able to fix it.
Please forgive me for the long stint of notes, they will not be present in other chapters after this. I also beg forgiveness for my inconsistent uses of British terms, I am an American attempting use them properly, between Doctor Who and Top Gear UK that's all the most British English that I am exposed to. The first part here is mainly just my re-cap of the End of Time Part 2 with the twist so it might be followable. and of course I own nothing...
THE PRELUDE TO MADNESS
The man standing before him, the kind old grandfather of good old Donna Noble, he just had to knock four times didn't he? The Doctor sighed, there were days he hated being who he was, today seemed to be one of those days… The Master was nowhere to be seen, the Doctor assumed he had been taken into the time lock along with the rest of the Time Lords. He couldn't help trying to sense for the other man temporarily, there was nothing, but he did still have Donna's grandfather to save. The things he had to accomplish… so much for Time Lord Victorious.
"Looks like it's going critical," he mumbled aloud observing the machine cautiously, "going to have a massive radiation blast by the looks of it…" Donna's grandfather, shifted his weight from foot to foot. Wilf was a brave soldier, and was even braver still to suggest what he was about to.
"Well that's no good, leave this old soldier to his post," Wilf, "the world needs you, now go on. Go on make sure my Donna stays safe, even if you can't be beside her, the world needs more men like you Doctor." The Doctor shook his head, he was so unsure of why the Noble family was quite as stubborn as it was, maybe they were part Time Lord? He certainly hoped not, but the fact remained that they were all stubborn as the Lord President of Gallifrey.
"No, I can't leave you here," the Doctor let a sad smile cross his face, "Donna would kill me, that is if her brain didn't burn first in the process of remembering me… and then I would berate myself until the end of time. Not to mention what the TARDIS would think… No, I think you'll have to go while there's still time left Wilf." He entered the other half of the box, looking at him with the wisdom of his many years. His eyes seemed hold sort of an endless sorrow, an empty loneliness, so many things in those eyes of his probably. He suspected that he would not remember this incident in his next incarnation, simply because he wouldn't want to see the frightened or the pitied look coming off Wilf again.
"But… you can't die here, what about Donna, what about the world?" Wilf watched him from through the pane of glass, "you can't do this Doctor. You go, go save the world." The Doctor closed his eyes, and pressed the release button for the other door. He was not in the mood to debate, if only Jack had been here, then everyone would have lived through it unscathed, well… mostly anyways. The Doctor let a small inward smirk make its way through his mind, perhaps Jack was right, the Doctor's emotions toward him as a fixed point in time were perhaps in some way prejudiced towards him.
Rose would have scolded him, the TARDIS agreed with him though, so he was sure it was evened out somewhere. He heard Wilf's hand touch the pane of glass between them, tapping on it to draw his attention unnecessarily back to the present. He felt his twin hearts beat a little faster, he knew what would happen, but he couldn't stand by and let any more of his friends pay for his cowardice. He would save the day this time, and no one else, well human anyways, would be hurt.
"No… It's time…" the Doctor answered resolutely. He had seen Ood Sigma, he had saved the Earth and it's populous from the Master and the rest of the Time Lords. Time Lords he had killed once before, Time Lords corrupted by the Last Great Time War into caring for nothing and no one. The Doctor, the one who was supposed to make people better, he had killed… however indirectly, he had killed so many. So many Daleks, Slitheen, so many people died because of him, for him, all because he couldn't stand to see the senseless death anymore.
Here he was, standing in a radiation soaked room, or what would soon be one, thinking about all the people who died because of him in some way, and strangely enough it was as he was about to die. The Doctor found it ironic, all of these things he did, all in an attempt to save one species, sometimes a couple at once, and he was the one who ended up costing the most people their lives. He was the last of a race of murderers, and look at him now, trying to find some sort of redemption for all the 'supposed' good he had done over the last 800 odd years of his life.
Redemption for killing the rest of the Time Lords. Redemption for all the trauma he caused his companions for not wanting to be alone. Redemption for being an incompetent moron, that was how the Master would probably phrase it, and right now… The Doctor would do a lot just to hear those words come from that man. He would do almost anything not to be the last Time Lord, but soon he feared that there would be no Time Lords at all. However if the last days of Gallifrey were anything to go by, maybe that was a good thing.
Wilf saluted at him and stepped back to watch the resulting overload of 500,000 rad that would have instantly killed any human in an instant. The Doctor, in his true fashion absorbed all of it, kept the machine from exploding, and managed to hobble out of the machine looking more like a drunk than a man at death's door. He certainly didn't look like he just absorbed enough radiation to mutate an entire city with deadly cancers or simply eat through their skin. He stumbled his way to the TARDIS, Wilf tailing behind him worriedly.
The TARDIS sent out her own waves of sympathy upon his arrival, she knew what was going to happen. She was also sending a different message, but the Doctor was too ensconced in the pain that the radiation was slowly leaking through his body. He took Wilf home, visited every one of his human companions one last time, (even Rose at one point before the parallel universe bit) before returning to see his best friend married. He gave Donna's family one last present, and with his whims done he made his way towards the TARDIS. He assumed he was crying much like a spoiled child now, because he honestly didn't want to regenerate. However he also didn't want to die, the choices Time Lords have…
This incarnation had friends, he had family, he had so much left to do! Alas, even as a Time Lord he never really had enough time, then his mind was overcome with a sudden blackness, one that overrode the pain, and then he was floating… Was this death then? Was he out of regenerations then? The Doctor felt his consciousness slip away, into the surprisingly warm inky blackness. Time and Relativity slipped away from him, his adventures across the dimensions and space suddenly seeming enough for now. He was content in this inky black warmth…
The Master looked down at the unconscious form of the Doctor sprawled out on the TARDIS grills. He wished there was some alternative to what he was about to do, thanks to his new found sanity, there was unfortunately… none. The TARDIS had persuaded his lazy arse out of Zero room to talk to the Doctor, what he didn't know was that it was going to cost him his stabilized regeneration to so.
The Doctor's form was leaking radiation like none other, and the Master did the only sensible thing. Although he really didn't want to do it, he kissed the Doctor drawing out all of the harmful radiation, he felt rather humiliated by the maneuver… He worked quickly to get the Doctor to the nearest room the TARDIS provided, the Master could feel his own pending regeneration and skipped out to the TARDIS console.
"This was your plan from the start wasn't it?" he muttered, with a jolt the TARDIS was moving and the Master was thrown across the room like a rag doll. The TARDIS was making that screeching noise that if he remembered correctly was the sound of the parking brake still on. What sort of nonsense had the Doctor had fed to this poor TARDIS to make it do something so illogical and painful to the ears of anyone listening.
"STOP THAT YOU SODDING BOX OF DEAFNESS!" the Master yelled, the TARDIS ignored him, he was sure of it. Then his regeneration started, the 500,000 rad sprayed out of his body hitting the console in the process, the pain going with it. As the thrum of the regeneration energy trickling to a dull roar in his veins.
The TARDIS stopped spazing around for the moment, and then went into total system shutdown. He grabbed the console and held on for dear life, enough of the systems were on fire there was still more than enough power to…. Oh shite…
"TARDIS implosion imminent, core detonation in 52 minutes, proceed to exit the TARDIS—" the speaker announced, and the Master frowned. That break in the warning system… never a good sign at all, and the Doctor was out cold. The Master shuffled his way over to the door only to find it gone.
"What manner of idiocy is this? If he's stays in here while you reboot you're going to kill him! I will not be the last Time Lord, I refuse," the Master pounded on the wall, "damn it let me save him!" Fury was now boiling out of him into panic, he could not be the last Time Lord, he would go insane, and for good at that point.
The TARDIS refused, and the Master growled something out that probably wasn't translatable from any language. He started flipping switches, throwing levers, spinning knobs, and then finally thumping it with a hammer. The TARDIS threw him to the doors, almost out of the TARDIS completely, the Master held on to the threshold tightly, pulling out the Sonic he had swiped off the Doctor earlier. He managed to Sonic the machine in to behaving just enough he could pilot it to the ground… Where of course the TARDIS decided to crash sideways without the gravity stabilizers on, meaning as it crashed he fell down the corridors. Thankfully the TARDIS was feeling slightly merciful and connected him through the Library into the swimming pool to land. The books from the Library were not so kind, they dropped into the pool nearly cold cocking him as they landed roughly against his head.
Then he realized something that he probably wouldn't have noticed if the Doctor was going through another of his rambling speeches.The Drums were gone, the Master would have cried out of joy if he wasn't attempting to figure a way out before he managed to drown in the TARDIS swimming pool full of obnoxious human books. He could finally think in peace, well… once he got out of the pool and onto dry land again.
He looked down at the shambled suit he was wearing, and wondered what he managed to look like this time. Presumably he could still pass for human visually, unlike a certain incompetent moron he didn't feel the need to check that he still had limbs, although if the unpleasant rubbing at the base of his skull was anything to go by he had rather long hair. His teeth felt weird too, but he was used to the particular strangeness that accompanied a regeneration. He was more worried about the fact that his latest regeneration had probably destroyed the majority of the control room, which was never a good idea in a TARDIS.
The TARDIS was sending threats to him, but attempting to knit itself back together, and there was no sign of the Doctor. He found a hook lodged in the bottom of the pool, and a rope floating across the top to make a grapple hook. He found something to launch the hook to the entrance doors, and climb his way out. He found that the TARDIS had predictably crashed in the United Kingdom, and in someone's garden no less.
The Master resisted the urge to laugh, only the TARDIS could be impudent and childish while on the urge of exploding. As he scurried over the threshold and onto solid ground his newly regenerated body started sounding off with its own warning bells.
His limbs responded slowly and awkwardly, indicating he was taller, his stomach was attempting to turn itself inside out, he was ravenously hungry whether because it had been several hours since he'd last eaten or the regeneration itself he could not be sure. He also wished he could cut his hair, because now it was trying to leave him blind. His lungs were working admirably considering the steep climb through the sideways TARDIS, and he really needed a lou about now. Then his eyes decided to notice that the owner of the garden he had crashed into was watching him curiously.
That someone was a lovely little ginger girl with a Scottish accent, she had a torch in one hand, and curious expression on her face as she looked his way. The Master found himself wishing that for once, just once he was more like the Doctor, more like Theta once was. The TARDIS was tipped sideways, and he had climbed out of the pool, which had somehow made it into the Library, with a make shift grapple hook. He was drenched, he was cold, and apparently he was snippy. Not to mention borderline starving, that one seemed to always be a regeneration side effect.
"Can I have an apple?" the Master started. The little girl looked at him like he had grown a second head. The Master very nearly turned to check seeing as he had yet to see his reflection.
"Are you a police man?" the little ginger girl asked. Very polite, and still very much perplexed at his appearance. Maybe he was green or something… that would explain the odd look she was giving him. Although if he paused to consider the fact he was dripping wet, standing in front of what to her appeared to be a shallow police phone box that was tipped over, where had he bothered to look were the remains of a lovely old shed that he had crashed into from out of nowhere… No, she didn't really have a reason to be looking at him like he was a loon of some sort.
Although he might start doing that to the little ginger girl if he ever figured out she thought he was an early gift from Santa Claus to fix a crack in her wall.
"No, I'm…. the Doctor," he lied, so sue him! The last time he introduced himself as himself he got shot or slapped. He was going to play it safe, he had the Sonic screwdriver after all, because the Doctor had destroyed his laser screwdriver, so he pick pocketed the Doctor's as he deposited him earlier.
"Can you fix the crack in my wall?" the ginger haired girl asked, "and why does your box say it's a Police box if you're a Doctor?" The Master could have smiled at how perspective humans were, except that now was not the time.
"Perhaps, but first, can I have an apple, please?" the Master really hoped that last word never got back to the Doctor, ever. It didn't matter, right now something was wrong, and his problems currently started with his stomach and ended with a crack in a seven year old's wall. Not to mention a volatile TARDIS teetering on self implosion.
This particular seven year old is the young miss Amelia Pond, and she has just introduced him to fish fingers with custard. Then there was the crack in her wall, that was very interesting…. The Master looked at it with an astounding amount of curiosity, he pointed the Sonic at it, and heard the voices ones that little Amelia Pond confirmed that she had heard for the longest time.
Thus the Eleventh Hour…. Staring the Master as the Eleventh Doctor. I suppose you now understand half of the warnings up above now. XD CrimsonChoucho 6/2/12