A oneshot I wrote before we knew anything about the Observers. I changed a word around here and there to make it fit canon a bit better and to adjust the Master's language a bit.

I hope you like it!

"We don't often work with… foreigners… but we are unfortunately... in need of your services." The man standing before me was entirely bald and wore a dark suit and hat. When he spoke, his voice was calm and soft, but it held an odd menace. I was no stranger to this method of intimidation, since I'd used it so many times myself. It didn't affect me in the slightest - what bothered me was that he wasn't entirely human.

Not that I'm one to judge, as a justifiable evil mastermind living on a foreign planet myself. It's just that I didn't often meet other aliens on Earth who I hadn't brought there myself. His speech was eerily devoid of emotion and it seemed he hadn't grasped the cadence of language on this world. I hoped he was just some rudimentary cyborg…

"What sort of services?"

"We know you can build… a Paradox Machine."

"Ha! Any old boy with a working knowledge of Gallifreyan time physics and a Type 22 could do that in his garage!" I shrugged off the strange man's request, but his humanity was now second on my mind to how in hell he knew about my deeds from an alternate timeline that The meddling Doctor had stopped from happening in the first place. Not to mention the fact that I was currently residing twenty years before it would've occurred…

"So… you will build it?"

"Now, why would I do that?" I tried to turn and leave, but the man caught my arm. I struggled to free myself from his grasp, but he cocked his head and two men nearly identical to the first flashed into existence at his sides, their pale, expressionless faces somehow threatening me into submission.

"We revived you… You will help us."

"I can't."

"You just said-"

"Don't you get it? There aren't anymore TARDISes! They're all locked up tight in the Time War! The Doctor's gallivanting about in the last one - wasteful sot."

"We have something… better." He released my arm and headed for a black car parked nearby, his companions following close behind. I thought about running away – I really did – but what kind of Time Lord could turn away from "better than a TARDIS"? Who could leave that behind?

Thanks for reading!

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