One day you will be tired of women breaking your hearts
The Doctor closed the TARDIS door behind him and inhaled deeply, feeling the weight of the latest battle and everything it had brought with it deep inside his bones. He imagined that for Clara the aftermath and consequences might even be worse, at least as long as P.E. hadn't figured out how to use the bracelet. But that man wasn't stupid, he would find out eventually and return to Clara. And then it would be: bye-bye Doctor, as it usually was.
Yet he didn't feel hopeless, he had something else to look forward to. He had a home. After being the lonely wanderer of the universe for centuries, Gallifrey was now as close as it had never been ever since that dreadful day during the Time War. If Missy had given him the right coordinates. The Doctor approached the console unit and was about to enter the numbers when he heard a woman clear her throat. Shocked, he looked up.
"Thought you were alone, didn't you?"
There was Missy. The Missy that had been killed by the Cyberbrigadier only hours ago. The Missy that was the Master. The Missy that was just standing there, in his TARDIS, drying her hair with a towel. The Doctor wasn't sure which question he should ask first.
"What are you doing here?" Yes, that seemed like a reasonable question to start with.
Missy laughed and continued rubbing her hair with the towel. "I must say, that swimming pool is a great idea. I should've known you had one. Always trust the Doctor to have something really cool inside his TARDIS."
"Yes, yes, I know," he said impatiently, "But how did you get here? I saw you get killed."
Missy rolled her eyes at him, obviously very bored. Or annoyed. He couldn't really tell.
"Really? I mean, really?" she pointed at herself, "When have I ever stayed dead, huh? No, seriously, I teleported into your TARDIS just to see if I could. I could."
She shrugged and threw the towel at him. He caught it the last second.
"You can't just teleport inside a TARDIS," was all he could reply.
"Only half right. One can't. I can," she grinned at him.
The Doctor placed the wet towel neatly over the bannister and walked a few steps further to let himself fall down into one of the armchairs. He wasn't sure what to think of Missy still being alive. Had her fate been really up to him, he would have spared her. He would always spare her until there was no other option. And Clara wouldn't leave him an option, she had wanted her dead.
Missy followed his example and took the armchair next to him, sitting down with a sigh.
"I do like what you've done with the old lady," she commented, looking around the TARDIS console room.
"Speaking of old ladies," the Doctor turned to look at her, "How come you're. . . this?"
"Oh, you mean a woman? So, you did notice?"
"Stop trying to be funny and just tell me," he demanded.
"You know the ancient Gallifreyan laws? It seems Rassilon had some ideas as to how bad Time Lords should be punished. I am rather proud to say that those methods has never been instated before, well, me, but the High Council thought it would be a good idea."
"What methods?" the Doctor asked.
"When I returned to Gallifrey, the High Council decided I should be punished for my crimes and only banning me for life apparently wasn't enough. They gave me a new regeneration cycle, like they did for you, but they forced me into a female form so as to humiliate me," Missy explained to him.
"You don't seem humiliated to me," he remarked with a smirk, "To be honest, it seems you're quite enjoying it."
She smiled. Again. Always the smiling.
"Yeah, it does, doesn't it? I admit, the first few days were a bit awkward, but I quite like how it turned out. Do you?"
The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks.
"Do I what?"
"Oh, come on, Doctor. Don't be shy. Have a look," she got up and twirled around in front of him a few times. She stopped and finished with a wink in his direction.
"Well, your new face turned out very nicely."
"Could have been worse, I suppose," he finally said, but without taking her eyes off her.
"Does give us a few new possibilities, Doctor. And don't say that thought hasn't crossed your mind," she said and sat back down in her chair.
"Alright, another one of those remarks and I'll through you out of my TARDIS with my own hands."
"Okay, okay," she raised her hands as a gesture of surrender, "I just thought I fit your pattern now."
"What pattern?"
She rolled her eyes again, as if she couldn't believe he could be that dull sometimes. "You know exactly what pattern. You always pick some pretty earthling woman to travel with you, but you know what? One day you will be tired of human women breaking your hearts, and they always do, and then you will come back to me."
He snorted. "That will never happen."
"Ah, I didn't say this day would come soon. It might even take you a few more centuries, but in the end, you know it's always you and me."
"We'll see about that. But first I need to find Gallifrey. See for myself that you didn't lie to me. Again."
"Why do you wanna go back there, Doctor?" she asked him, her face now turning serious for the first time. "It's not the place where we grew up anymore."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that Gallifrey is a sad place. The High Council is power mad."
"And coming from you, that means something," he whispered but Missy had obviously heard him. Still, she ignored that comment.
"Of course it would be a sad place when they worship you as the greatest war hero of all time."
"You're lying," he spat.
"I wish I was," she said in a singsang voice, "Thirteen versions of the Doctor coming to save Gallifrey. You didn't think that wouldn't even leave the tiniest impression, did you?"
"I did what I had to do. Anybody could have done that."
"Yeah, but anybody didn't. You did. So, go back to Gallifrey, let them celebrate you. They're actually dying for you to return. I think they even have a place for you in the High Council. You could be president if you really wanted to. Now, wouldn't that be just terrific? President of Earth and Gallifrey. My dear, you have come far."
"Shut up!" the Doctor shouted at her, "I don't want to hear your lies."
"Well then go and see for yourself. That is, if you can find it," Missy yelled back at him and got up from her chair.
"What is that supposed to mean? You already told me."
A broad grin appeared on her face and the Doctor knew that she had been lying. She might have even been lying right now. But he would never know unless he actually found Gallifrey.
"Well, I really should be on my way now. I have some matters to attend to. And, you know, the other reason for the High Council to force me into the body of a woman was that they hoped I would change, that the female side would overwhelm and soften me. I guess they were wrong, as usual."
"No, I think they were right," the Doctor rose from his chair as well, "I think you have changed. A little."
"Aww, now, who is lying?" she asked him and pursed her lips.
The Doctor shrugged and without a trace of an emotion in his voice, he said: "Get out of my TARDIS."
"See you soon, Doctor," Missy said and activated the teleporter that was disguised as a button on her jacket. The Doctor got the feeling that she was right. They would run into each other again, they always did.