Chapter One: The Escape

Sometime Shortly after The End of Time

It had been a simple enough fix really. His body had been dying yes, ever since his botched regeneration at the hands of his ex "wife". He smirked for a moment at the thought of his onetime companion. He had to admit he had more fun with her then he had expected, having originally only taken her to mock the Doctor's seeming obsession with pairing himself off with these pathetic humans. Breaking a spirit had long been a favorite pastime of his and he may never have before broken a person into such a worthless shell of a thing before, or at least thought he had broken. The man's demeanor shifts from amusement to fury as he remembers when his beloved wife betrayed him for the first time by putting a bullet in his chest.

Shaking his head to clear thoughts of Lucy away, the man refocused on his recent triumph. His body was now healed. No longer was he playing the part of the skeleton man. Much as a man like himself didn't really mind the added fear factor his temporary predicament had awarded him it did make it quite hard to go around unnoticed when you became see-through every few minutes. This could be a troubling thing for a man that has often found himself working in the shadows, even if his most recent regeneration had liked taking a slightly flashier and more direct approach to things. He had no idea which kind of behavior he preferred now though as he really hadn't been "himself" long enough to really find out.

The fix to his temporary condition had, as he had always known it to be, a simple one, but was applied only very reluctantly regardless. He had only to injure himself enough to trigger a complete regeneration, as the process would in a sense reboot his body back to normal; of course he had to sacrifice his current persona in order to accomplish this, something that would have come quite reluctantly to any of his incarnations. Still remorse or regret weren't big words to this man, and he had more pressing matters at hand like finding out what kind of man he really was now. Also, there was still that pesky little problem of finding some way out of this seemingly void like pocket dimension he had woken up to find himself in.

His last memory before waking in this place had been being sucked back into the time lock along with Rassilon and his Time Lord flunkies, but he had woken up not back on the war torn Gallifrey as he had expected to but rather in this endlessly white void. He had since theorized that as the time lock around the Time War was set up to not let anyone in or out, while it readily reabsorbed the other Time Lords who had momentarily escaped it, it had rejected bringing him back inside as he had not already been there to begin with, and thus his new presence would have changed the ever repeating history of the war inside the time lock. Instead the lock seemingly had a defense in place for events like this, which is why he found himself alone in this seeming pocket dimension outside time and space. Since waking the only thing he had found was a small piece of Dalekanium that looked like it had fallen off a damaged Dalek. While he had mused for a second on how that got there, a new realization that suddenly found him, quickly took his mind off it.

The Drums were still with him. He had hoped that the destruction of the Whitepoint Star coupled with a new regeneration on top of it, might be enough to kill the sound once and for all, and yet there it was. Da Da Da Dum, as loud and constant as ever in the back of his mind. A cold fury rose through him, but unlike most people this anger seemed almost to calm the man, as it was a feeling he knew quite well and found himself greeting like an old friend. As he closed his eyes and listened to this sound he had heard for so long, he thought of only one thing, escape. No place, not even a seemingly endless pocket dimension outside both time and space could hold him. After all, he was The Master.

Unspecified time and place in the 51 Century

A young woman finds herself hunched over a table reading hundreds of pages worth of records on to what a random passer bye my mistaken as the accounts of seemingly unrelated historical incidents across the history of the universe. A closer inspection would indicate that many of these often violent incidents revolved around a single man, but most would still not view them as connected as the different cases appear to feature different men across different centuries. What this particularly bright young woman believes she has figured out however is that despite appearances the man spoken of in all these records was truly the same person. More than that, this person was in fact one of the legendary Time Lords thought by many to be little more than legend, and at best an ancient race lost to the history over the many centuries.

Even more important than her knowledge of his race however were three other points. The first being that she knew that this man was not only alive, but also trapped in a limbo like state outside the laws of time itself. The second fact being that after searching for quite some time she has finally found a way to pull the focus of her studies out of this prison like place. As she thinks on this fact, she looks to her right where a rather short man is working furiously on a machine, his eyes glossed over as if he was in some kind of trance. This man whose name she had already forgotten was said to be the greatest genius of his time in the subject of Time Travel. In fact he was the chief science officer of the Time Agency, and there was currently a galaxy wide man hunt on for him and his captors. Luckily for her, she had gotten him out of his own galaxy long ago. Now after three long years of planning including a rather dull one spent with her little helper here building the machine, she finally had a way of getting to her target.

Soon she would finally meet this "Master", the man with the knowledge that would allow her to pull off the greatest single heist in recorded history, a heist that would quite simply make her the richest women in all of history. A place that she desired so strongly not primarily out of any insatiable greed but rather out of a feeling the universe owed this to her. She had hopes the Master could be coaxed into fulfilling his role in her plan merely in return for her rescuing him, or maybe by being offered a slice of the reward, but all her research into the man led her to believe things wouldn't go that smoothly. That was just fine be her however, after all she was River Song, last of the Kandarians, the race of psychics so powerful the rest of the universe had banded together to destroy them out of fear, and a women who had no problem using her powers in just the way the other races had been so afraid of.

While standing up River takes a large breath before giving the mental order to the man in front of her, to put in the coordinates. This was it, she thought inside her head. After all this time, her plan was finally in motion. As soon as the coordinates were locked in and she pressed the button in front of her there would be no turning back. There was no hesitation as she pushed her finger down on the button before her; she was not the type to come this far just to back out at the last second.

For a moment nothing happened, and she wondered briefly if the genius she had taken such lengths to kidnap and put under her persuasion wasn't worth his outstanding reputation after all. Before she could think further on this however, there suddenly was a loud bang, and in the center of the large room in front of her a circle of what looked like electricity formed. At first there was nothing but a seemingly white void emanating from it, and then suddenly a figure appeared, stepping through into the room with no seeming hesitation or fear. She knew instantly, that despite his appearance not matching any of her records, this man could only be the Master.

Moments Before

It had been a week since his regeneration, and yet he was no closer to escape. While the unique properties of his prison left him with no need of food, water, or even air, its seeming lack of anything left him with nothing of which to create a means of escape. He was beginning to believe there might really be no escape from this one, but a long life had shown him many a time that life can surprise you and he had been known to cheat some just as seemingly impossible situations before. It was just as this thought travelled through the Master's head, that in some grand gesture of cosmic irony, a loud thunderous sound signaled the arrival of a strange portal inside the white nothingness. Wasting no time to think on this random occurrence, he rushes to this seeming salvation. After stepping into what he can only surmise to be some kind of research lab, he is greeted by the sight of a female figure. Despite her shape, he can tell she is neither Time Lord nor one of the Doctor's precious humans. This was not altogether uncommon however, as the overall shape and size of both the races was quite common in the history of the universe as he knew of at least 20 other species that could for the most part outwardly pass as a Time Lord. What was surprising however was that the women was calmly looking him over, as if he was somehow exactly what she had expected to walk out of the portal, and not at the same time. Then a greater surprise soon came as she began to speak.

"May I be the first to welcome you back to the universe, Master"

It was obvious now, that this woman knew him, and that more importantly he had been rescued from that hell on purpose. Both of these facts raised questions that needed answers immediately, as he was not one to enjoy being in any conversation where he did felt himself at a disadvantage.

"While I certainly do appreciate being freed from my previous confines, I do believe you have me at a loss when it comes to names, Miss?"

While he spoke, he carefully took account of his surroundings. Behind him was a rather large machine that he assumed had been the device used to bring him out of the pocket dimension.

"You can call me River, Time Lord. Also, it would make our partnership easier going forward, if I could be allowed to just call you that. I must admit, the whole Master thing just isn't doing it for me."

His face snapped back to her with this statement, a brief touch of anger visible on his face for just a moment. This soon turned to a small smile however; as he enjoyed the sight of her being startled by just how quickly he had suddenly turned angry. As he still had no real idea what he looked like in this new form, it was comforting to know he still had a face that could frighten when necessary.

"Well now I can see that despite your knowledge of my name, my species, and my location, you clearly know nothing about me….River..was it? Because anyone that has known me well, has known that I don't do partnerships, and more importantly I quite insist on being referred to by my actual name."

He was surprised now to see that her face did not so much as flinch with this statement, and he wondered if perhaps his new voice was just not all that menacing this time around. It was now he noticed for the first time, the third party in the room in the form of the almost robot like man standing in the back with a total blank look upon his face. After only a moment's pause he suddenly realized just why this women who clearly knew much about him, seemingly had such confidence in his cooperation.

"A psychic is it? And a powerful one at that given the fact it looks like your friend over there's mind has been completely fried. So what's the plan then? Take over my mind, put the all powerful time lord to use on some task, that I am quite sure is far beneath me. You must be confident in your power girl, I can see you've done your homework on me, so you must know I am no slouch when it comes to the powers of the mind myself."

For the first time he could tell he had her stunned and off her game. The almost arrogant confidence she had quite annoyingly possessed when he first arrived seemed washed away. This had him in the best mood he had found himself in, in this body so far. Not only was he free, but now the only person in the room possessing an arrogant smile was himself, as it rightfully should be.

"I see you're just as smart as the legends say, and for that I am glad, as hopefully that means you can actually accomplish what I hope you can. Also before you say more, I suppose there is little chance you would agree to help me merely, due to the fact I rescued you from that oblivion?"

Before responding he walks closer to her. He stands directly next to her looking down upon her face. He realizes only now that this might be the tallest of his bodies so far, but he can't think long on such a trivial fact, as he grows increasingly frustrated by the fact this River Song, seems to have regained her composure and is looking at him with no trace of fear on her face.

"While it's been mildly amusing, I do believe I have let this little conversation run longer then I normally would, just because it's been so long since I had another face to speak to. So I'll spare us another ten minutes of this pointless exercise and say that while I do appreciate what you did for me, your only reward for that action is going to be the fact I have decided not to kill you when I leave. A Time Lord like myself has more important things to be doing then helping some women, with whatever it is you actually have planned. So if you're going to try your little hypnosis charm on me, do it now, but be forewarned that if you so much as attempt to enter my mind, my promise of sparing your life is most certainly negated."

With that the Master takes a step back to face her directly again. He wonders what her next action will be, and things to himself that he does actually hope she will be foolish enough to attempt to invade his mind. He had spent almost his entire time in this body working on his psychic and mental abilities, as it was one of the only tools he had available to him in there, and a power his last persona had for whatever reason not made much use of. If she were to act now, it would be a perfect test of his new body's powers and limits in this area.

Suddenly he felt it, at the corner of his mind a foreign presence. At first the Master finds himself almost disappointed at the amateurish nature of the psychic attack, but then suddenly and without warning he feels her delve deep into his mind, an act that outrages the Master in its very principle. Pushing back now, with his own power, he halts her unrelenting advance into the dark recesses of his mind, and he notes with a bit of pride the shock on her face, clearly telling him this is the first time in her life anyone has ever managed to halt her psychic powers like this, and something she was not prepared for. Before he can become too smug however, her attack strengthens again, and he finds himself having to use every ounce of his concentration to hold her back. After a short but strainful period the two minds find themselves at a mental stalemate, with neither able to make any advance into the others head.

"Well now River, I must say I am indeed quite impressed. It's been some time since I met someone with psychic powers equal to my own. No…that does you a disservice I believe, I wasn't able to invade your mind at all. You are in fact my superior in this regard. I would tell you to cherish that statement as it might just be the first time I have openly admitted my inferiority in any regard to anyone, but then again I do believe it's only because I intend to make sure you're not around for much longer so it's really of little concern."

As he talks, he slowly inches closer and closer to the now quite scared looking women in front of him. She is backing away, but is almost to the wall, and there is clearly no place for her to run. He again feel's her inside his head, but now knowing what to expect combined with the fact her concentration is much less than before, he is easily able to stop this invasion leaving it a useless gesture.

"Come now girl, quit with the head games and accept your fate. I have already given you quite an honor by admitting your psychic abilities out due my own, I really can do little more than stop you from invading my mind, but for now that is enough. I don't understand why you're so confused by this turn of events. For someone who seems to know me so well, it's shocking you didn't think I would have to kill on principle anyone with the audacity to think themselves MY master."

He is about to get within reach of her, when suddenly the lifeless shell of the other man in the room springs to life and attacks him. He easily enough dodges the awkward attack, and quite ferociously smashes the man's skull into the table beside them. Whether he was dead or just knocked out he wasn't sure, but it was of little matter since he intended to make sure to finish the job either way before he left this place. He turned again to the panicked young women, who had so foolishly decided to be his savior. Deciding he should still appreciate that gesture, he thinks on how he can grant her a quick death. With neither his tissue compression eliminator nor his more recent laser screwdriver on hand he was going to have to do this the old fashioned way. He imagined a quick snap of the neck would suffice. Still he made a quick mental note to build himself a new weapon again once he got out of here, it was so undignified to have to do everything by hand. Just as he was about to move in for the kill however, his prey suddenly said something that made him stop in his tracks.

"The drums! I can make them go away! If you don't kill me I can silence the drumming inside your head!"

It was a panicked plea clearly made out of desperation but still it was one he couldn't just ignore. He pondered her claim for a moment and then said simply.

"Show me."

And with that, just as simply as she had promised they were gone. For the first time in as long as he could remember he was greeted with the strange but beautiful sound of silence inside his own head. It was glorious, but then just as quickly as it had stopped the noise returned. He reopened his eyes, having closed them in the first moment of true inner peace he had ever known and looked at River intensely. As if anticipating his response she spoke quickly.

"I can't turn them off for good, it's an active repression, but as long as I am in your general vicinity I can silence them. In other words, if you KEEP ME ALIVE, I can keep the drums quite."

He pondered this idea for a moment. While he had been quite looking forward to killing her just a moment ago, this was the women that had saved him from his seeming lifetime in limbo. She was also quite clearly a psychic of tremendous power, a tool that could be useful to him in the future. Even more reluctantly he had to admit, there was just something about her general bravado and demeanor that he admired and found reminiscent of his own. After all, here was a woman that had obviously carefully crafted a complex plan that even involved the taming and location of the most devious and cunning Time Lord ever to exist, and with that thought came the sudden reminder that he was also one of only two Time Lords that did exist. Banishing the thoughts of THAT man away for later, he turned himself again back to the idea of what to do with this the person directly in front of him.

"Alright then River, we have a deal, for now at least. As it appears I am not to kill you today after all, I must admit I am just mildly curious as to what exactly you needed me to do for you so badly you went to all this trouble and more importantly the risk in bringing me back for."

With that statement, he saw a devilish grin emerge on River's face, that he had to admit would have looked quite at home on his own.

Present Day TARDIS

"Miss me yet, my dear old friend?"

The words hung in the air for a bit before the Doctor hesitantly responded.

"Master?"

"Who else?"

"You sound different, regeneration?"

"From the sound of it you're not one to talk, Doctor"

The Doctor laughs at this, and sends a comforting look to the clearly concerned Amy standing next to him. He can tell though that his face must be giving away his inner concern over the events currently transpiring as she only looks more concerned afterwards.

"That's right, even younger looking this time if you can believe it."

"Ha, is that so. Keep this up Doctor and by the next one I'll be trying to kill a small child."

Despite the joking tone, the talk of his death reminds the Doctor just who he is dealing with here, and with this thought he regains his serious composure.

"Let's get things straight here Master. The me that had naïve hopes of us peacefully traveling together as the last of the Time Lords is gone now. I know how things are, and will forever be between us, and much as it pains me, I'm not going to sit here and just have a nice little chat with you."

The Doctor struggles to ignore Amy's continued astonished look as the conversation continues and keep his mind on the man on the other end. While he understands her obvious confusion, especially given the fact they had just discussed his existence as the only surviving Time Lord, and here he was addressing the person on the other end as a fellow Time Lord, he just didn't have the time to worry about her and the Master both.

"That hurts to hear Doctor, I have always much preferred the versions of you that had that amazing naïve optimism about them including that last one especially, unfortunately it seems were back to a more realistic and pragmatic Doctor again I see."

"Unfortunately yes, and its people like you that make versions of me like this necessary. So now that we have that established, what is it exactly you want from me?"

"Is this the part where I calmly tell you all my plans just because you asked so nicely and you know so well how to play my incredible ego against me Doctor, thus giving you ample time to stop me? No, no, no, I think we have had just about enough of that in previous lives. I already had that one figured out in my last life even. This time when we meet it's going to be on MY terms."

"And why is that?"

"Because Doctor, you're not going to believe who I ran into recently. Really you must imagine my surprise when I sensed another Time Lord in the area. For a moment I thought it was you of course, it even had a similar feel, but then I realized it wasn't quite right. The feel was all wrong you see; it wasn't even a proper Time Lord at all. Obviously I just had to investigate, but I assume you must have already figured out where this is going."

The Doctor's face drops at the thought of what the Master was implying. This wouldn't be the first time a loose end in a past incarnation would come back to haunt him, but he just wasn't prepared for something like this. She had been dead. He had been so sure of that, but then again in the rush and panic of the guilt in losing her he hadn't been thinking so clearly. His previous self, to be fair like almost all of his versions, himself included, hate more than anything to linger once business was concluded. He had made a point to get off that world as fast as he could, his rush to leave only heightened by his seeming loss. Had he missed something, was it possible her latent Time Lord DNA had activated the regeneration process just in a delayed manner perhaps. These questions were all soon washed aside however when a voice came back on the other line.

"Dad, is that really you"

The Doctor takes in a sudden breath at the sound of that unmistakable voice. Somehow it even appeared as if she had marinated the same body. How could he have been so wrong? This was no time to contemplate the mistakes of his previous self however and he quickly responded.

"Yes, Jenny it's me"

"I'm so sorry! He caught me off guard there was nothing I could do. But listen you have to stop him! He's mad! He keeps ranting on about something to do with silencing the whole universe!"

With that last sentence the Doctor almost collapsed under the mental weight of all he was trying to consider at the same time. The Master was back. His daughter was alive. The Master had his daughter kidnapped and was using her has bait to lure him into his an obvious trap, and now it appeared as if his oldest foe might also be behind all his recent misfortunes as well. Suddenly he could hear the sounds of a scuffle coming from the phone and he heard a female cry of pain, from what he could only imagine as Jenny being shoved to the floor.

"I never was one for that mushy family stuff. Anyways Doctor, back to the point. I have your daughter, or whatever it is you call this fake Time Lord monstrosity you made. I'm sure you want her back, and to do so you need to come to the Axarion 3 in the Centarus cluster year galactic year 5023. Hurry now, this little experiment of yours really is such an abomination to everything our good race stands for, I just don't know how long I'll be able to stand her continued existence."

Before he can say anything in response, the line goes dead, and the Doctor finds himself dealing with more revelations and thoughts then this body or perhaps even any of his personas ever have before. Taking a moment to calm himself he reaches to straighten his bow tie yet again, searching for any kind of familiar distraction to help calm his raging mind. Realizing that Amy has been quiet now for a quite uncharacteristically long time he turns his attention back to his current companion. Now though he sees her about to literally burst with questions, but before she can open her mouth he preempts her by talking first.

"I know you have questions Amy, and so do I. But for once we need to act without thinking."

"You say that like it's something new for you Doctor."

"I'd take offence to that, but again we just don't have the time. Right, first things first. We need to get Earth immediately."

"Earth? But we just left there, and you promised me one trip just you and I, like old times before we went back to pick up Rory!"

He turned to her sharply now, his mind on so many things the next words coming out harsher then he meant them to.

"In case you haven't noticed Amy, things have changed considerably. Turns out my..."

He struggles for a moment to choose the right phrase here, but then after closing his eyes and taking a breath he realizes there is only one right word and it's the obvious one.

"…daughter is alive but if I don't act fast she may not be for long. Also, another Time Lord I thought dead is alive, and if I don't stop him soon, I have a feeling the whole universe may by paying the price."

There is a silence as he stares intently at her, almost challenging her to get angry or complain in her usual boisterous or sarcastic manner

"Well then if THAT'S the case what the hell are we doing sitting around here. Earth it is. Let's get going!"

As she flashed him that trademark grin of hers, the one he had become so attached to, he felt for the first time since the TARDIS phone had rung a sense of calm as he set the coordinates back to the planet he had been to so many times before.

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Authors Notes

Please REVIEW! My motivation in writing literally is fed by reviews, so if you want to see the next chapter please review. Anonymous reviewing is on, so by all means review even if you're not a member here.

As for the story please keep a few things in mind. This is a River WAY younger then we have ever seen her on the show itself. Any differences between her character here and then, will be explained. I have a long arc in mind for her, and we will see in this story (and its possible sequel?) how she becomes the river we know from the show. Other differences like her abilities as shown here, and why there not apparent on the show will also be explained. So basically have faith. This is going to be an epic ride, but I do have most things planned out. If you have other questions feel free to leave them in a review!