The Mistress holds him close.
"I loved being you. Every second of it." She admits, holding him tightly. The Master feels the blade slide in but does not move, his arms around her. He lets out a gasp but allows her to finish.
"Oh, the way you burn. Like a sun." She says sweetly, "Like a whole screaming world on fire. I remember that feeling and I always will." The Mistress says in his death, granting him one last kindness. Finally she pulls away from him and he wants nothing more than to kiss her.
"And I will always miss it." She whispers softly, voice breaking at the end.
He steps back.
"Now that... Was really very nicely done." He says gently, watching the tears swim in her eyes. The Master can't help but smile.
"Thank you." She says, dipping her head and trying not to let the tears fall.
He runs his fingers across the cut in his clothes and they come away wet with blood.
She brings out the blade, running it across her own hand, mixing their blood together, emphasising who they are.
"It's good to know I haven't lost my touch." He confesses.
"You deserve my best." She agrees, looking distraught despite her claim.
She helps him to the lift, a hand against his chest. He knows she is counting the beats.
"How long do I have?" He asks, feeling himself weaker already.
"Oh, I was precise." She reassures him, "You'll be able to make it back to your Tardis, maybe even get a cuppa, though it might leak a little." She says, turning her back on him.
"And then regenerate... Into you." He summarises.
She looks back at him.
"Welcome to the sisterhood." She teases.
"Missy, seriously, why?" The Master asks,
"Oh, because he's right." The Time Lady says certainly, "Because it's time to stand with him." She rephrases.
"It's where we've always been going and it's happening now. Today. It's time to stand with the Doctor." She states.
"No." The Master says easily. The Mistress pulls her umbrella from the earth, not wanting to hear him.
He will make her listen.
"Never." The Time Lord growls, "Missy!" He roars.
He hears her steps falter, gets the faint impression of fear before she locks it behind her shields again. She doesn't turn back.
"I will never stand with the Doctor!" He shouts, feeling the weight of the screwdriver in his palm.
"Yes, my dear, you will." She says and he fires.
She gasps in pain, glowing in an orange light as he breaks her. She clings to a tree for balance and the Master almost laughs when she collapses, limbs weak, and lands on the floor like a broken doll.
There's something so beautiful about seeing her- this pathetic, worthless version of him- broken.
She tries to get up- crawl away from him. She's even making small pained noises- how delicious. What he would give to be able to stand over her now.
"Don't bother trying to regenerate." He says, smirking, "You got the full blast." She starts to laugh and it sounds like crying.
He laughs too- he can't help it now.
"You see Missy. This is where we've always been going. This is our perfect ending. We shoot ourselves in the back." He declares, picking himself up enough to get the whole of himself inside the lift and be able to watch her die.
She just laughs as if it's the punchline to the universe's greatest joke.
He supposes that's what they are really. Then she goes still.
He leaves her body there.
Maybe the Doctor will find her. Maybe he won't.
It will hurt him if she dies.
She supposes that's what the Master was aiming for. He didn't care about her- it was always the Doctor.
The Master's laugh is the last thing she hears as the green world drifts away, like a computer program glitching out.
She swears she sees the Doctor. Every single version of him. Every single smile.
It makes dying worth it.
But for him she will try to live- try to regenerate.
Because it would be good, wouldn't it, to make him smile.
For him to tell her that she's been