(A/N: And I'm back again, because you know that I can't stay away from Doctor/Master and I don't want to. I have a very unreliable internet connection so they may show up less often, but they are there. This one again focuses on 10 and then 11 because 11/Simm!Master is fantastic. I don't own Doctor Who, or a TARDIS. Anyway, on with the show, oh and if you can't figure out this is slash then please listen now, I don't do flames.)
On Gallifrey…Or Earth
"Get out of the way," those were the words that played over and over in his mind as he staggered back toward the TARDIS for the last time. He did not think of all the ones that he had just said good-bye to, but the one that he could not say it to. The radiation was a raging storm inside his body; it burned and tore at him, rending his insides and sending his hearts beating rapidly. Their throbbing was powerful and the desperate cadence that had daily reminded the Master he was alive was now signaling the Doctor's demise. The song of the Ood did nothing to quiet the sheer galloping panic of his hearts, the universe was no comfort when he was about to die.
On the last dregs of his reserves of strength he fell into the TARDIS, but did not hit the floor. A strong pair of arms encircled him and held him steady, and he knew that they belonged to someone that shouldn't have been there. Of course the fact that they shouldn't have existed couldn't occur to him past the notion of being suddenly more comfortable in his death.
Lips, soft and warm and welcoming but utterly desperate were pressed against his own, and he wept bitterly as he responded to that kiss.
"I don't want to go," the Doctor said against those lips as he cried unashamedly.
"I know that Theta, I know. But I'll be with you, here waiting," the voice was softer than he'd heard it in what felt like an age and those gentle lips carried him through his most painful regeneration in centuries. He clutched at the body in his arms even though the energy would have him jerked away from his only tie to reality and peace. The oddest sensation came over him as he pain began to ebb, of the excess energy being channeled rather unwillingly into the body in his arms, a body that desperately didn't want the help.
The Master gasped and fought against it as the energy of the Doctor's regeneration flooded his veins and brutally forced his life energy to flow normally. He screamed silently in abandonment as the drums faded from his mind, knowing that he had needed them in some way. No matter the terrible reason that they were there or the horrors they had caused his mind, he would miss them. But he did not blame the Doctor for this, the other man had not rerouted the regeneration energy, the TARDIS had and she was grinning at him like a cat.
When the golden light faded and the Doctor's arms finally unlocked the Master took an appraising step back and looked over the new body in his arms. It was the Doctor, and it would always be Theta, but this one was new and untested, and utterly innocently gorgeous. His jaw fell open and his mouth worked silently as he tried to put into words just how much he liked looking at the new regeneration.
"Koschei, love, you do look rather like a fish right now," the Doctor said with a smile and softly closed the other man's jaw. He stopped the silent workings of that pouting mouth with a kiss of his own and moaned when his lover's fingers came up to tangle in his hair.
"Yes well you are rather beautiful, like terribly so. The last one was gorgeous, but this one…"
"Like it do you?"
"Oh, Gods yes. But Theta?"
"Yes love?"
"You still aren't ginger," the Master said with a smile. The Doctor frowned and kissed the other man harder.
"Be it on Gallifrey or Earth and ginger or not, I will always love you Kos, and I will always think you're beautiful," the Doctor breathed though he privately wished that the beard would never make a return. If he had to stop at a convenience store to buy razors, it would never come back.
"And I you Theta. But we seem to be crashing."
(A/N: That's it. I know that I could have done better; I just couldn't get them both to feel right. So I leave it to you to tell me how to fix it.)
