Dramatic shizz happening in this chapter aay! Hope you enjoy it guys, hope I inspire some of you to write your own fanfic for these two, love them together! Not enough fanfics of them out there, but there's an amaaazing one from my bud Allonsy_Elize, it's called Playing with Fire, you guys should seriously give it a read if you ship this couple and are looking for feels! Enjoy this chapter anyway, review after to let me know if you liked it!
Clara woke slowly, leaving her eyes closed. Memories of what had happened last night came back to her as her brain woke up and she became aware of someone's arms around her. No, not just someone. Koschei. She felt herself smile. She was glad he was still here, had stayed with her. She had half expected him to leave before she woke up like the last time. Her head was lying on his chest, the drumming of his hearts almost like a lullaby, calming her and making her want to sleep again.
She didn't want to sleep though. She was content right where she was. She kept her eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. She could tell the Master was already awake and if he knew she was too he might move. She didn't want that to happen. He was gently tapping out the rhythm of the drums on her back. Clara wished they could stay like that forever. She felt like once they had to get up, they'd be brought back to the real world again, the world full of danger and unknown threats. She wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet.
"Clara, it's obvious you're awake. Why are you pretending otherwise?"
Clara could hear the smirk in his voice. He had stopped drumming and let his arm fall gently to his side, away from her, leaving her craving his touch again. Clara sighed.
"So you wouldn't do that."
She raised her head to look at him, still sprawled across his chest. He looked puzzled. Clara eyed his arm that he had taken away from her.
"Oh," He murrmured, looking uncertain. Clara leaned over and pressed her lips to his softly.
"Good morning, Koschei," She smiled.
"Good morning, Clara," He smiled back, wrapping his arms around her again. Clara knew he wouldn't stay long, knew he couldn't, not with everything going on. She wished they could forget about that for a while. She lay her head down again and began tracing patterns on his chest gently.
"How long can you stay?" She whispered quietly. She felt the Master sigh.
"Not long," He whispered back. Clara had expected this but she couldn't help feeling disappointed. She knew they had to get up sometime, she just wished it didn't have to be so soon. They were getting up to face danger.
"Did you talk to the Doctor last night?" She asked, continuing to trace the patterns. It soothed her somehow. "About what's going on?"
"All we know is that the Time Lord's have found a way to lock the Tardis coordinates so we can't land anywhere of our own accord," He sighed. "It's my fault. They can only track us because of the link. If I wasn't here, this wouldn't be happening right now. You should have just left me there on Gallifrey."
Clara lifted her head again to look into his eyes defiantly. "Don't say that," She ordered. "None of this is your fault. I don't regret saving you and neither does the Doctor. Not for a second."
"All I do is put you in danger, Clara," The Master muttered harshly. He pushed her off him gently and pulled away, remaining on the bed but not touching her. His eyes were dark and angry as he glared at the ceiling. "Anyone else and I wouldn't care. But you, I can't see you hurt. I don't know, maybe I really am going insane," He chuckled darkly. "But now you can't get home. You're stuck here until the danger passes. If the danger passes. We could all die."
"Hey," Clara reached out to him, concerned at the bluntness of his statement. "Stop thinking like that. Everything will be ok, we're all gunna be fine, no one's going to die!"
The Master wasn't listening to her. His eyes were distant, his thoughts were far away. "Maybe then the drums would stop," He muttered quietly. Clara didn't want him thinking like this.
"Master," She began. He wasn't looking at her. He remained staring at the ceiling, drumming his fingers against the wooden side of the bed in annoyance at himself. "Koschei!"
He snapped out of it, finally looking over to meet her eyes. He sighed. "I don't know what's wrong with me, Clara." He muttered. "I think I really am going mad. Insane, destitute, dying..."
He let out a sudden yell, shooting up from his lying position on the bed and sitting up. Clara sat up with a gasp, startled. The Master let out another shout of pain and swore loudly.
"What's wrong?" Clara yelped. Was it the drumming? She had never seen him in so much agony.
The Master gave a groan and tried to stand up but tumbled to the floor. Clara jumped up quickly to help him. She crouched down beside him, shaking his shoulders to get him to stay concious. He let out another groan.
"What's happening?" She cried. "What do you need?"
"I need," The Master choked, holding his head and shaking it as if to push away the pain. "I need.." He tried to stand up again, moving past Clara and stumbling to the door. "I need the bloody Doctor!"
He staggered out into the hallway. Clara rushed out to his side.
"Doctor!" She called out in desperation. She let out a yelp as the ship began to shake. The Master gave another cry of pain.
"We have.. To get.. To the control room," He groaned, staggering down the hall, holding onto the wall for support. Thankfully the Tardis seeemd to be helping them for once, despite the shaking. Clara felt dizzy. She hated when the ship went out of control like this.
They burst into the control room to see the Doctor rushing around the console, holding on for dear life and trying to keep it under control. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he looked quite comical with a red fez on his head. Things were worse in here, sparks were emmitting form the machine and the ground felt unstable.
"Doctor!" The Master growled, collapsing onto the floor in pain, holding his head. The Doctor gave a surprised cry and rushed over, dropping to the ground beside the Master, fez threatening to fall off.
"Clara, go hold down that lever!" He instructed quickly. "The red one over.. Yes that's the one! Don't let it go!"
Clara raced to the lever and grabbed a hold of it, pulling it down and holding it there. She looked over to the two Time Lord's, trying to keep her balance as the ship lurched.
"Doctor, they-" The Master cried out in pain again. He tried to look up at the Doctor. His pained expression suddenly turned to one of annoyed disbelief. "What the hell are you wearing?" He scoffed.
The Doctor raised a hand to his fez defenisively. "It's a fez!" He exclaimed in annoyance. "You told me I should get a thinking cap," He mumbled. The Master gave him a look.
"Fez's are cool," He muttered but reluctantly removed the fez from his head and placed it carefully beside him on the floor. His expression turned serious as the Master gave another pained shout.
"What is it?" He demanded. "You said they? The Tim Lord's? What are they doing?"
The Master's breathing was ragged. "The Time Lord's are using the signal to bring us-" He was cut off again, holding his head and inhaling sharply.
"What is it? Where are they taking us?" The Doctor took a hold of the Master's face desperately, forcing him to look at him. "What are they doing!"
"I don't know, you idiot!" He tried to pull away but didn't have the strength. He gritted his teeth. "I can feel it... It's not.. It's not.." The Time Lord tried to catch his breath.
"Not what?!"
"Shut up I'm talking!" He growled, eyes squeezed shut. "It.. It's not even a bloody place!"
"What?" Fear registered on the Doctor's face. Clara felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This couldn't be good. The lever she was holding down was beggining to put up a fight. She soon found herself using all her strength to prevent it from springing up.
"Doctor," She gasped. "I can't hold this down much longer!"
"Just two minutes, Clara, two more minutes!" The Doctor yelled up at her. "That lever is holding up our emergency shields!" He turned to the Master, who was writhing in pain, trying not to cry out again.
"Fight it!" He urged him, hands still on either side of his face in determination. "Come on, Master, you've got to fight it!"
"I can't!" The Master hissed defensively. "I can't," He moaned again, voice cracking with pain.
"Doctor!" Clara yelled, feeling the lever begin to slip out of her grasp. Her strength wasn't enough for it anymore.
The Doctor released the Master who sunk to the ground and shot up, racing over to Clara and taking hold of the lever.
"Come on!" He urged his Tardis as Clara sunk to the ground beside Koschei. "Come on please... No, no no!" He yelled indigantly as the machine sparked and he lost his grip on the lever.
The Tardis was really out of control now and the pain in the Master's head seemed to be getting worse. Clara held onto him tightly as the ship plummeted. She ducked her head out of the way as the fez flew past her head in the chaos. The Doctor sank to the floor beside them, holding on to them both.
"Hold on!" He roared in an attempt to be heard above the noise emmitting from the Tardis.
After more harsh lurching and banging, a large crash indicated that they had landed. Clara winced. This crashing business was happening way too often for her liking. The Master gave a low groan. He took his hands away from his head slowly, cautiously and winced.
"Are you ok?" Clara asked in concern. He nodded, flinching slightly at the movement but seemingly relieved that the drumming had returned to normal.
The Doctor was already on his feet, moving about the console and gazing at the scanners in concentration. He blanched. Clara was reminded of the time they had realised they'd found Gallifrey. The way his face had paled in shock that day was not unlike the palour of his face now. A look of fear flitted across his features.
"What?" The Master questioned angrily, his impatience and worry getting the best of him. "What is it, Doctor!"
The Doctor slowly moved back from the console, taking a deep shuddering breath.
"According to the Tardis scanners... We're nowhere. Nowhere, no time.." He trailed off, looking at the Master knowingly.
The Master swore and jumped to his feet, too quickly. He winced and resisted the urge to raise his head to his head again as the drumming increased slightly. Clara watched as his eyes widened in horror.
"You don't mean..?"
Clara felt confused. The two Time Lord's seemed to know what was going on, but she didn't. She approached the Tardis doors and made to open them.
"Clara, wait!" The Master yelled. "It's not safe!"
"Well we can't just stay in here!" Clara retorted, pulling open the door. She gave a small gasp at the sight in front of her. She took a tentative step outside the Tardis, sensing the two Time Lord's approach as they moved to stand beside her cautiously. She looked around. The only word she could use to describe this place was... Well it was a wasteland. Cold, rocky, barren wasteland, with no signs of life as far as she could see. She felt an unpleasant shiver run down her spine. This place scared her, but it gave her a different kind of fear to the fear she'd felt on Skaro. This place reeked of hopelessness.
"Where are we?" She managed to ask in a faint whisper.
"Yes, it's just as I feared," The Doctor muttered. "We're on Gallifrey."
"In the Death Zone." The Master stated, finishing the Doctor's remark.
Gallifrey? That beautiful planet that she had been on not so long ago? No, this couldn't be part of it! This was the complete opposite of Gallifrey. She felt fear course through her at the Master's forboding tone and the phrase he had used. Death Zone. That didn't sound promising.
"What is this place?" She wondered aloud, taking another step wary forward. "Are we the only ones here?" The Doctor opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a strange clicking noise coming from nearby. He froze. Clara whipped her head around to locate the source of the noise but she couldn't see anything. The ground around them was devoid of life.
She looked to the two Time Lord's questioningly. The Doctor looked as wary about the unfamiliar sound as she felt. The Master on the other hand, had a look of dread on his face, as if a sinking realisation had just dawned on him.
"Uh oh," He murmured in a slight sing song voice, looking up at the sky expectantly. "Busted."
Clara followed his gaze fearfully as the Master shifted his position slightly to stand in front of her protectively. At first she couldn't see anything but then it came into her line of sight. What looked a like a small, metal ball was hovering up above them. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She looked to the Doctor. Cold realisation had seemed to hit him too, although this strange object was unfamiliar to her.
"It's the Master!" The metal ball exclaimed suddenly, drawing closer. "He came, like they said he would!"
Clara turned to the Master in surprise. How did these things know him? He was looking at the metal object, his expression quickly turning to one of dread. More metal balls identical to the first were appearing out of the misty clouds above them, drawing closer, talking amimatedly amoungst themselves.
"Ah, sorry," The Master muttered apologetically to the Doctor and Clara. "I think this could be my fault."
"Master-" The Doctor began, annoyance and fear clouding his features.
"In my defense, I wasn't expecting this either!" The Master hissed, interrupting him.
"You left us!" One of the strange metal object exclaimed suddenly. "We were promised great things, but you left us!" Metal spikes suddenly protruded from the ball.
"Sorry, now's not a great time," The Master forced a grin, putting on a fake, cheery tone. "I'd love to stay and chat but you know, I'd rather have an incurable, life-alerting disease." He flashed a fleeting smile at the creatures which were fast becoming aggitated, spikes appearing out of their metal casing.
The Master turned quickly and pulled open the Tardis doors. "Get inside!" He yelled quickly. "It's not safe!"
Clara did as she was told, rushing inside with the Doctor following her closely. The Master dashed inside hurridly.
"Bye, love you!" He called to the strange objects outside which were now hurtling towards them, spikes out threateningly. He slammed the door shut and backed away, breathing laboured. He winced as the deadly creatures hit the Tardis doors forcefully, spikes protruding through the wood. The Doctor gave an indignant cry.
"Well, that was a close one!" The Master gave a nervous laugh as the Doctor turned to glare at him in annoyance. The Master held up his hands as if in surrender, an apologetic look on his face. Clara glared at him aswell, crossing her arms, waiting for the answers to the many questions that were running through her head.
"Yes, well," The Master scratched the back of his head guiltily. "About that."
Hope you liked that one, review to let me know what you think!