Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
Day of the Time Lords
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Chapter 1: The Silence of the Drums
Beyond time and space...
He regained consciousness slowly, and immediately wished he hadn't. The feeling currently carving its way into his brain felt like a mixture of an enraged tyrannosaur, a plasma drill, and the worst hangover imaginable.
The last thing he remembered was that day: the last day of his life.
First, victory.
His triumphant resurrection, brought back from the dead by his loyal servants. Using stolen technology to overwrite the DNA of every human being on Earth with his own, turning every human into a clone of himself.
Second, confrontation.
Then, that man. The only man in the entire universe who could always find him, who could always stop him.
The Doctor. Leaping, impossibly, from a spaceship and crashing through the roof of his command center, intending to kill him.
Third, despair.
And then the revelation. The discovery that his entire life was a fabrication, a construct of the Time Lords. The sound of drums in his head, which had tormented him since he was a child, had been planted there deliberately by Rassilon and the High Council. They had put him through hell, solely so that they could use him to escape from the Time War.
Fourth, battle.
Finally, his confrontation with Rassilon and the Doctor, as Gallifrey materialized in the skies of Earth, soon to be followed by all the horrors of the Time War.
The Doctor, wavering between shooting either him or Rassilon. Then making the decision, shooting the whitepoint star that the Time Lords had sent to Earth instead, breaking the link between Earth and Gallifrey.
Rassilon lashing out at the Doctor, infuriated by his defeat. The Master countering, intercepting the enraged President, forcing him back with blasts of deadly energy. Walking forward, driving him back into the Time Lock, even as the link collapsed and the Time Lords were drawn back into the war.
He could remember that fight in flashes, hard to hold on to. After a while, he had barely been conscious of himself anymore, knowing only the battle.
.
He was fire and his enemy was ice and he was light and it was darkness and he burned it and it froze him and he blasted it and it stung him and it screamed and it burned and burned and burned...
.
He had been drawn with them, pulled back into the war that he had sacrificed his identity to hide from, locked in his own personal fight to the death. But, in the moments before he fell back into the seal, he pulled away. He pulled back, fighting his way back to the outside, back to the Doctor, back to the world of the living, rather than the hellish oblivion that awaited him within the war.
But, instead of finding the Earth and the Doctor, he kept falling. Endlessly, tumbling end-over-end through the multicolored whirlwind of the Vortex, feeling the deadly energy burning every point on his body, hardly able to hear his own screams over the roaring in his ears, in his mind.
And then, eventually, everything around him went black.
He knew nothing more, until he'd awakened.
.
Slowly, he opened his eyes and picked himself up, blinking and wearily rubbing his eyes as his senses adjusted to the light. He winced again as the memories flooded back into his mind, flashes of that terrible struggle. Trying not to think about it, he focused on his surroundings. There were trees all around him, with sunlight shining dimly through them.
He examined his surroundings, confused. Something felt wrong. He tilted his head, frowning. It wasn't an external sensation: rather, it was the absence of something internal.
The drums were gone.
That ceaseless beat, the never-ending rhythm in his head, had vanished. In its place was only silence.
All things considered, it was a very strange feeling. Those drums had ruled his thoughts for longer than he could remember. Through all of his regenerations, all of his life, dying and returning from beyond the grave, they had always been there. But now they were gone, and…
The Master frowned. Now that they were gone, he felt… different. He had never felt so clear-headed in his life. He felt… free.
He smiled faintly, hearing the chirping of birds in the trees overhead as a gust of wind ruffled his blonde hair. Raising a hand, he examined it as if he was seeing it for the first time.
"Now, then," he muttered, turning in a circle and looking around. "Body seems to be intact… more than intact, actually." That was what felt different: the odd sensations that he'd been feeling ever since his botched resurrection ceremony had vanished, as if his body had reverted to normal. The constant, ravenous hunger, like a gnawing sensation in his gut, had completely disappeared, and he no longer felt like he had an endless rush of nervous energy flowing through him. He felt like his old self again, before Lucy Saxon's bullet and his own refusal to regenerate had ended his life.
"Must've been a side effect of being exposed to the raw time energy of the Vortex," he murmured thoughtfully. "Restored my genetic makeup to its normal setting." Looking up at the sky overhead and blinking as he raised a hand to shield his eyes, he considered. "Now… where exactly am I? If I had to guess, I'd say Earth, but…"
The distant sound of a woman's scream echoed through the woods, instantly drawing his attention. His head snapped around, locking onto the sound like a hunting dog on point.
His lips curved in a grin. "Oh, good. Trouble: that's very me." Bursting into motion, he raced off into the forest.
.
After running for several minutes, he paused when he heard the same woman's voice echoing through the trees. This time, however, she was shouting a word. A very particular word, which he immediately recognized as a name.
"Doctor!" she shouted.
The Master's eyes widened. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he muttered. A faint grin flickered across his face, and he began sprinting towards the source of the voice.
A few moments later, he suddenly caught sight of another figure dashing through the trees, about a hundred yards away. Even at that distance, the familiar profile and the brown suit were instantly recognizable.
Chuckling to himself, the Master darted towards the man, coming to a stop and concealing himself behind a tree once he drew close enough to hear what he was saying.
"…I am the Doctor," the man was saying. "I'm nine hundred and four years old; I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterberous; I am the Oncoming Storm, the bringer of darkness, and you… are basically just a rabbit, aren't you?"
Glancing out from behind the tree, the Master almost burst out laughing at the sight of the Doctor, looking almost exactly the same as he had when they'd last met, standing over a large gray rabbit that was sitting at the base of the tree, nibbling on some moss.
"Okay, carry on: just a general… warning." Groaning in frustration, the Doctor held up a large rectangular device and frowned, scratching his head with one hand while shaking the device with the other, producing a series of clicks, beeps and whistles. Clearly, whatever that thing was, it wasn't working the way it was supposed to.
Another scream of "Doctor!" echoed through the trees, and the Doctor whirled towards it and took off running again. The Master waited a few seconds, until he was far enough behind to avoid detection, and then started running in pursuit.
After running for some time, the Doctor finally burst into an open clearing in the trees. The Master skidded to a halt and ducked behind another tree at the edge of the clearing, and then looked out into the clearing to see the Doctor crouching beside a red-haired woman wearing a golden dress, in a style reminiscent of Earth during the Middle Ages.
He frowned, realization starting to dawn as he looked more closely at the woman's face, recognizing her from his knowledge of Earth history. Is that… Queen Elizabeth the First?
His lips curved in a smirk. My, my, Doctor, you do get around, don't you?
"That thing!" the woman – Queen Elizabeth, apparently – exclaimed as the Doctor helped her to her feet. "Explain what it is! What does it want of us?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out," the Doctor explained. "Probably just your planet."
Abruptly, another female voice called, "Doctor!" The Doctor, Elizabeth, and the Master all turned towards the source of the voice, only to see an exact duplicate of Elizabeth walk into the clearing.
"Step away from her, Doctor," the other Elizabeth ordered. "That's not me; that's the creature."
"How is that possible?" the first Elizabeth gasped. "She's me! Doctor, she's me!"
Still hidden behind the tree, the Master groaned. Oh, god, not a shapeshifter. I hate shapeshifters!
"I am, indeed, me," the other Elizabeth retorted. "A compliment which cannot be extended to yourself."
"Extraordinary!" the first one marveled. "The creature has captured my exact likeness! This is exceptional!"
The second raised an eyebrow. "Exceptional? A queen would call it impertinent."
"A queen," the first shot back, "would be compelled to admire the skill of the execution. Before arranging one."
"It's not working!" the Doctor muttered in irritation, shaking the device he was carrying next to his ear.
"One might surmise that the creature would learn quickly to protect itself from any simple means of detection," the first Elizabeth remarked.
"Clearly you understand the creature better than I," the second replied. "But then, you have the advantage."
"Okay, enough of this!" the Master finally snapped, stepping out from behind the tree. "God, I hate arguing doppelgangers!"
A moment later, he realized that all three pairs of eyes were now focused on him.
"Oh." He took a step back towards the tree, and then thought better of it, flashing a trademark grin as he glanced between the three of them. "Well, this is awkward. So sorry to interrupt."
"You?" the Doctor whispered, his eyes wide in shock, drawing the Master's attention. "Master? How…"
The Master grinned. "Ah, Doctor. Lovely to see you again." He raised an eyebrow. "What? You didn't really think a little fall like that would've been enough to get rid of me, did you?"
"How can you be here?" The Doctor took a hesitant step forward. "You died. I saw it, on the Valiant. Your wife, she… she shot you, and you wouldn't regenerate. I…" For a moment, the Master was actually convinced he was about to start crying. "I watched you die."
"My love, who is this man?" one of the Elizabeths demanded.
"Yes, who is he?" the other added.
Understandably, the Master was very confused by this point. True, all of the stuff the Doctor had just mentioned had happened: but then, later on, the Master had been resurrected and they'd fought against each other again, only to team up against the Time Lords' attempt to escape the Time War and end the universe. How could the Doctor have forgotten that?
Unless…
That's when the realization of what had just happened hit him.
"Oh, god, we just met in the wrong order, didn't we?" the Master sighed. "Perfect." He looked up at the Doctor. "Okay, look: it's a long story, and if I tell you too much of it we'd cause a paradox that would rip the universe in half, so I should probably just leave before–"
Suddenly, with a flash of light, a swirling vortex, like a whirlpool of yellow light, materialized in midair, hovering above the four of them. The Doctor, the Master, and the two Elizabeths whirled to face it.
"Back, all of you!" the Doctor ordered, pulling the two Elizabeths behind him protectively.
"That…" The Master frowned. "That's not possible."
The Doctor nodded, his eyes wide. "That's a tear in the fabric of reality. Anything could happen!"
With a flash of light, a small object fell out of the vortex. Taking a step forward, the Doctor picked it up, revealing it to be a red fez with a tassel.
"For instance… a fez," the Doctor commented.
A voice suddenly echoed from within the vortex, calling out, "Geronimoooooooooo!" A moment later, with a much larger flash of light, a humanoid figure burst out of the vortex and slammed to the ground a few yards away. The figure sat up, revealed as a young man with tousled dark hair, wearing a tweed jacket, matching pants, and a red bow tie.
The Doctor straightened up, placing the fez on his head, as the young man hopped to his feet. He stared at the Doctor for a long moment, his eyes wide.
"And who the hell is this?" the Master demanded.
"That's just what I was wondering," the Doctor replied.
"Oh, very skinny," the young man murmured, staring fixedly at the Doctor. "That is proper skinny." He turned sideways, looking down at himself. "Never seen it from the outside; it's like a special effect!" Marching up to the Doctor, he knocked the fez off his head with a sweep of his arm. "Oi, matchstick man!"
The Doctor's own eyes widened in shock as he looked more closely at the other man. "You're not…" he whispered.
Each man looked the other up and down, before slowly reaching into their inner jacket pockets. Each of them withdrew a cylindrical metal object, which the Master recognized as a sonic screwdriver. The Doctor's glowed blue, while the newcomer's lit up green. With a flick of the stranger's wrist, metal prongs sprang out of the sides of his screwdriver, surrounding the glowing green light at one end. The Doctor replied by adjusting a switch on the side, extending his own screwdriver.
"Compensating?" the Doctor questioned, raising an eyebrow.
The young man frowned. "For what?"
"Regeneration: it's a lottery."
"Oh, he's cool. Isn't he cool?" the young man snarked. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm all cool: oops, I'm wearing sandshoes!" He pointed to the Doctor's shoes with a grin.
"What are you doing here?" the Doctor protested. "I'm busy!"
"Oh, busy, is that what we're calling it?" The younger man snatched up the fez from where it had fallen and placed it triumphantly back on his head.
While the Master had never met any of his other selves, past or future, he was still a Time Lord, and for him, it didn't take much effort to work out what was going on here.
"Oh, my god," he muttered. "As if this situation wasn't confusing enough already, now there's two of you? And…" He frowned. "You just keep getting younger, don't you? Well, that's… incredibly unfair."
Both of them had already turned back to face him by this point, registering his presence. The Doctor still looked alarmed, but the new arrival was absolutely stunned.
"W…What?" he murmured. "Master? How did you…"
"Okay, I'm guessing you, at least, remember where you saw me last, right?" the Master asked, cutting him off. "The Gate, the whitepoint star, all that stuff?"
The newcomer nodded in confirmation.
"Well, it hasn't happened to him yet…" The Master indicated the Doctor who was familiar to him. "So we probably shouldn't talk about that. Suffice to say, for me, all of that stuff just happened. And, before you ask: no, I have no idea how I got out of that, and no, I have no idea how I ended up here, so let's just move on, shall we?"
After considering that for a moment, the newcomer shrugged. "Fair enough. Well, in that case…" His attention shifted to the two identical women standing behind them, who he promptly made an elaborate, sweeping bow towards. "Hello, ladies!"
"Don't start!" the younger Doctor warned him.
"Listen, what you get up to in the privacy of your own regeneration is your business," the older, bow-tied one remarked.
"One of them is a Zygon," the younger one explained.
"Ooh." The older one blinked. "I'm not judging you."
"Oh, so that's it!" the Master realized, snapping his fingers. "Of course it's Zygons. Brilliant: I haven't seen those for centuries!"
"You would be excited," the older Doctor muttered.
They were interrupted by an abrupt crackling sound, coming from the vortex. The Master and both Doctors turned to gaze intently at it: each of the Doctors donned a pair of glasses (rectangular-lensed for the younger one, round-lensed for the older one) and smiled when they noticed the other's, remarking, "Oh, lovely," simultaneously.
"Your Majesties," the older Doctor called, "now might be a good time to run."
"But what about the creature?" both Elizabeths asked simultaneously.
"Elizabeth," the younger Doctor instructed, "whichever one of you is the real one, turn and run in the opposite direction to the other one."
"Oh, yes, because that's a foolproof plan," the Master scoffed.
"Oh, like you've got a better one," the older Doctor shot back.
"Of course, my love!" both Elizabeths responded to the younger Doctor, ignoring the other two men.
The first stepped forward, saying, "Stay alive, my love; I am not done with you yet!" She kissed the Doctor on the lips, before rushing off into the woods.
"I understand," the other Elizabeth added as she hurried up to the younger Doctor. "Live for me, my darling! We shall be together again!" She also kissed him passionately, before hurrying off in the opposite direction.
Left alone, the three Time Lords exchanged glances.
"Well, won't that be nice," the younger Doctor managed.
"So… one of those was a Zygon, huh?" the Master inquired.
"Yep," the younger Doctor replied.
"Big red rubbery thing, covered in suckers," the older Doctor remarked.
"Yep."
The Master weighed in again. "Venom sacs in the tongue."
"Yeah, I'm getting the point, thank you," the younger Doctor cut him off.
"Doctor, is that you?" a soft female voice called from within the vortex.
"Ah, hello, Clara, can you hear me?" the older Doctor called out, taking a few steps forward.
"Yeah, it's me: we can hear you. Where are you?"
The older Doctor frowned, turning to his younger self. "Where are we?"
"Yeah, I was going to ask that myself," the Master put in.
"England, 1562," the younger Doctor answered promptly.
"Who are you talking to?" the voice queried, sounding puzzled.
"Myself," both Doctors said simultaneously, causing them to exchange grins.
"Can you come back through?" an older woman's voice called from the vortex.
"Physical passage may not be possible in both directions…" the older Doctor mused. He perked up a moment later, raising a hand. "Ah! Hang on…" Removing the fez from his head, he took a step forward, hollering "Fez incoming!" and pitched it directly into the vortex.
They waited for a long moment, only for the younger woman's voice to reply, "Nothing here."
"Well, where's it gone, then?" the Master wondered, tapping his chin with one index finger contemplatively.
.
After waiting for a couple of minutes to see if the fez would reappear on either end, with no success, the younger Doctor glanced to his older self. "Okay, you used to be me, you've done all this before: what happens next?"
The older one shook his head. "I don't remember."
The Master frowned. "You don't remember? How could you possibly forget this?" He indicated the three of them with a wave of his arm.
"Hang on, it's not my fault!" the older Doctor protested. "He obviously wasn't paying enough attention!" He pointed to his younger self.
"What, like this is my fault?" the younger one snapped.
"Oh, just forget it," the older one muttered. "Reverse the polarity!" He nodded to the vortex.
Both Doctors removed their sonic screwdrivers from their pockets and stepped forward, aiming them at the vortex and activating them. The buzzing sound of the screwdrivers continued uninterrupted for several seconds, but nothing happened.
"It's not working," the Master observed.
"I can see that," the older Doctor snapped.
"We're both reversing the polarity," the younger one realized.
The older one frowned. "Yes, I know that."
"I'm reversing it, you're reversing it back again: we're confusing the polarity."
For a long moment, the Master seriously contemplated facepalming.
Another flash of light and a rushing sound instantly drew their attention back to the vortex, just as another humanoid figure emerged from it, landing on his feet. He was an elderly man with white hair and a short beard, clad in roughly made, brown leather clothes.
"Oh, dear god, who the hell is this now?" the Master groaned.
"Anyone lose a fez?" the old man inquired, holding up the older Doctor's fez in one hand.
The Master looked over, raising an eyebrow as his gaze fell on the two Doctors. For some reason, they were both staring at the new arrival with what could best be described as expressions of absolute horror.
"You," the younger Doctor breathed. "How can you be here? More to the point, why are you here?"
The older man blinked. "Good afternoon," he greeted them. "I'm… looking for the Doctor."
The two Doctors exchanged glances.
"Well," the younger one managed, "you've certainly come to the right place."
"Oh, good, right." The old man smiled faintly. "Well, who are you boys?" He glanced back and forth among the three of them. "Oh, of course. Are you his companions?"
The Master had to clasp a hand over his mouth to keep himself from bursting out in hysterical laughter.
"His companions?" the younger Doctor asked incredulously.
"They get younger all the time." The old man's eyes widened questioningly. "Well, if you could point me in the general direction of the Doctor?"
Without speaking, both of the Doctors produced and activated their sonic screwdrivers.
The old man stared at them in disbelief. "Really?" he asked.
Both Doctors nodded.
"Yeah," the one in tweed said.
"Really," the brown-suited one added.
"You're me?" The old man glanced questioningly back and forth between them.
The Master's eyes widened. Wait, what? Another one?!
"Yep," both Doctors muttered simultaneously.
"Both of you?"
"Yeah," the brown-suited Doctor replied flatly.
The old man – the Doctor – frowned. "Even that one?" He pointed to the older Doctor.
"Yes!" the Doctor in question exclaimed.
"You're my future selves?"
"Yes!" they both shouted.
"Am I having a midlife crisis?" The old man took a step forward, but stopped short as both of the other Doctors immediately pointed their sonic screwdrivers defensively at him. "Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that?" he questioned. "They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!" He glanced over, noticing the Master for the first time. "And who are you?" he inquired curiously. "Don't tell me you're me too!"
The Master chuckled. "No, no, I'm not you. But we do know each other very well… Doctor." He smirked.
It took a few seconds for the old man to realize it, but the Master could tell exactly when he figured it out by the widening of his eyes. "Master? You're alive?"
Nodding, the Master shrugged. "Long story. Not sure how much of it I should tell you, to be honest." His eyes flicked over to the other two Doctors. "I take it this one's a past version: does he know about the…" He trailed off meaningfully.
"Yes, he knows about the Time War," the oldest Doctor replied.
The brown-suited one sighed. "He's the one who fought in it, actually."
"Ah, got it." The Master turned back to face the old man. "In that case, it's actually pretty simple: the Time Lords resurrected me to fight in the war."
"Ah." The old man nodded understandingly. "You seem to have let yourself go a bit," he added, clearly referring to the Master's ragged, scorched clothing, a souvenir of his fall through the Vortex.
"Hey!" the Master protested. "This–" he indicated his clothes with a wave of his hand "–was not my fault!"
The other two Doctors, meanwhile, had been observing the argument. "Loving the posh, gravelly thing," the brown-suited one observed. "It's very convincing."
"Brave words, Dick van Dyke," the older one replied.
A moment later, the sounds of men shouting echoed through the trees, as a group of armed soldiers appeared, quickly surrounding the four men. The brown-suited and bow-tied Doctors immediately raised their sonic screwdrivers again, pointing them at the soldiers, while the Master raised both of his hands, arms extended, in preparation to fire blasts of energy from his hands.
One of the soldiers, wearing a more elaborate outfit than the others, stepped forward. "Which of you is the Doctor?" he demanded. "The Queen of England is bewitched. I would have the Doctor's head!"
The old man smiled. "Well," he said cheerfully, "this has all the makings of your lucky day."
The Master smiled to himself. Oh, this is going to be good.
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AN: Hello, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of my newest story, Day of the Time Lords! I came up with this story as a way to show what Day of the Doctor would have been like if the Master were present, and also as a way to explore what happened to the Master between his disappearance in The End of Time and the character's return as Missy/the Mistress in Series 8. Hopefully, I'll be able to tie all of that together in a way that makes sense and will be fun for everyone to read.
I greatly enjoy receiving feedback from my readers, so if anyone has any questions or comments regarding this chapter or the story as a whole, please review! (No hate, please: that's not fun for anyone).
See you all next time!