Author's Note: Thank you very much to the following people for reviewing the last chapter – Catelly, Aietradaea, Theta'sWorstNightmare, SawManiac211, MayFairy, MountainLord-92, Lexy Summers, Imorgen, Dryu, Bernice-Summerfield and xNinjaxBunnyx.
Only one more to go after this, I think. I wrote this chapter listening to "The Reluctant Warrior", by Immediate Music from their Trailerhead album. Very angsty.
Hope everyone enjoys...
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Reaper dipped lower, its gnarled talons reaching for the Master's prone and defenceless body.
With no real idea of what he was going to do, the Doctor surged forward with a wordless shout, the coloured glass crunching into powder beneath his boots as he ran. But before he could reach the Master, Tejana managed to struggle free from beneath the other Time Lord and jump to her feet, throwing herself between him and the descending creature.
"NO!" she screamed up at it, her hands held out in horror before her, as though in supplication, dripping red with the Master's blood. Her face was suddenly fully alert and agonisingly aware of what was going on. "Don't you TOUCH him! I'm the one you want. Don't you understand? I did this! It's my fault, all my fault!"
At that moment, the air was filled with a familiar wheezing, groaning sound, loud enough to be almost deafening. With a harsh cry, the Reaper spiralled upwards again, away from Tejana, sensing danger and circling around to face it. The Doctor stopped in mid-stride and whirled around in disbelief, just in time to see the familiar blue outline of his TARDIS materialising in the middle of the room.
No, it is not your fault, child, came a calm, clear voice, rippling melodically through the psychic link. The fault is mine. And I will make it right.
With that, the double doors of the time machine slowly swung open, to reveal a flood of golden light. Shading his eyes against the blinding glare, the Doctor could faintly make out a shadow standing there in the doorway, the faintest impression of a figure, like a ghost, the silhouette of a woman in a elaborate Victorian party dress, her long, curly hair dressed high on her head and flowing down her back.
"Idris!" he breathed in amazement.
The Reaper threw back its head and shrieked in rage and fear at the newcomer, before plunging towards Tejana like a flaming sword of vengeance. But before it could touch her, Idris flung out her hand in a single, graceful gesture and pointed at the creature. A cascade of artron energy, sparkling like a storm of tiny, angry fireflies, streamed through the air from her fingers to envelop the Reaper in a refulgent halo of light.
Back to the Time Vortex, creature of darkness, back where you belong, she commanded. In the name of the Imprimatur of Rassilon, I banish you from this world.
The Reaper screamed again and beat its wings vigorously, trying to rise towards the ceiling. But already the glittering sparkles of energy were eating away at its dark body, dissolving it like acid, shredding it like a nightmare, until bit by bit it vanished into thin air.
You must hurry, my thief, Idris warned, turning her ghostly head towards where the Doctor stood, frozen in stunned relief. Her psychic voice was much weaker now, as though her efforts to repel the Reaper had taken a tremendous toll on her. I can hold back the others, but not for much longer. The paradox must be resolved.
Even as she spoke, her shadowy image seemed to ripple and fade, becoming more and more insubstantial, until it merged with the golden light and was no longer visible.
"Amy, Rory, into the TARDIS, now!" the Doctor yelled.
Recognising the note of command in his voice, the human couple hurried across to the time machine without even arguing once.
The Doctor turned back towards his daughter. She was kneeling on the ground in the midst of the sea of broken glass, the Master's head on her lap. She had pulled the blade-like shard of glass out of his back and had wadded up his shirt to put pressure on the pulsing wound, trying to stop the bleeding. His eyes were closed, his unconscious face as white as freshly-blown snow.
"Tejana..." the Doctor said.
"He's going to be OK," she interrupted, her words rushed and almost manic, as if she knew what he was going to say and didn't want to hear it. "He won't need to regenerate. See? The wound's closing...he's healing already. There's nothing to worry about. It's all going to be OK now."
"Tejana, listen to me!" the Doctor urged. "You have to come with me, now."
She shook her head, over and over again, as though she couldn't stop herself, her feverish gaze fixed on the Master's still face. "No. No, I'm not leaving him behind, not again. Never again."
Up above, beyond the protective golden haze still emanating from the doors of the time machine, the Doctor could sense the ominous winged shadows still swooping and swirling like hungry birds of prey, single-mindedly searching for a way to get through to them.
"The TARDIS can't hold back the Reapers for much longer," the Doctor said, crouching down beside her, his hand on her shoulder. "And as long as we're here, the wound in Time can't heal itself. We have to leave, right now!"
Her green eyes met his, her gaze wild and frantic. "Then he comes with us, in the TARDIS! She can sustain the paradox. We can make it work. My child will have his father. Everything will be the way it should be!"
The Doctor couldn't help flinching, the anguished pleading in her voice tearing at both his hearts. "We can't do that, Tejana, not without changing history!"
"But history would be better without him in this time!" she said eagerly, desperate to convince him. "Just think...no Year That Never Was. All those people on The Valiant whose lives were destroyed...if he comes with us now, none of that has to happen! We would be helping, not harming! You're the Doctor, you help people, that's what you do!"
"It doesn't work that way! You're a Time Lady - you know that!"
Anger exploded across her face. "I don't care! Don't you get it, don't you see? If our positions were reversed, if it was me who had died, there would be nothing he wouldn't do to bring us back together, nothing! How can you expect me to do any less? Please, Doctor, I've never asked anything of you since I was eight years old, not once. I grew up without a father, I know better than anyone how terrible that can be. That was your choice back then. It's your choice again now. Don't condemn my child to that same misery. If you care for me at all, even the smallest bit, please, please, give me this!"
The Doctor stared helplessly at her, pain and guilt burning inside him. When she was eight years old and he had been running away from Gallifrey, she had begged him to take her with him and he had refused, a mistake he had bitterly regretted a thousand times over since then. And it was true – her stiff-necked pride had never allowed her to ask him for a single thing since that day, no matter how much he wished she would. Until now. And in this moment, there was nothing he wanted more than to be a father to his daughter, nothing he wanted more than to put her ahead of everything else and grant her request. But with a stab of sorrow, he knew that, yet again, she had asked him for something he just couldn't give.
"Tejana, I love you more than you'll ever know," he said gently. "But he isn't your Koschei. He looks like him and sounds like him, but it isn't him and he never will be, if you change history. The man you loved went through so much more, became so much more than what he is now. Do you really want to take that away from him?"
She faltered, grief clouding her delicate features, her fingers softly stroking through the Master's hair, her eyes unseeing and filled with pain. "Oh gods, father, help me. I can't...I don't know what to do..."
Tears filled his eyes at the aching, child-like plea, so unlike the strong, capable Time Lady his daughter had always been. "Listen to me! No matter how bad things have got between us, you've always trusted me. You have to trust me now. Take my hand, Tejana, come with me, please!"
He held out his hand to her, willing her to take it with both of his hearts. She looked at it, a tiny frown on her face, as if she didn't understand what he was asking. There was a flash through the psychic link and, all at once, he shared her grief-stricken memories of another hand extended towards her.
Come with me...I'll never hurt you, Ana...
And with the memory, her eyes fell back to the Master's unheeding face in her lap. The confusion seemed to fall away from her gaze and a small sad smile teased the corners of her mouth. "He's right," she whispered, tracing the Master's features lovingly with her fingertips. "Right now, hurting is all you know how to do. You're not my Koschei, not yet. But you will be. One day, amin Mekhil, you're going to set my Universe on fire. And I have to give you the chance to do that."
Leaning down, she kissed him tenderly on the forehead. As if in response to her caress, he stirred and groaned, his head tossing back and forth. Carefully, she lifted him from her lap and laid him on the ground. "Goodbye, love," she said brokenly. "I'll always be glad I had the chance to tell you about our son."
Turning back to the Doctor, she paused for a tiny moment, her gaze meeting his, empty and desolate. Then, before she could change her mind, she put her hand into his. His fingers closed tightly around hers and he drew her to her feet, slipping a comforting arm around her waist. Holding her close to him, he led her towards the double doors of the TARDIS, leaving the Master behind. The golden light retracted with them, shimmering all around them like a heavenly aura, ebbing back into the time machine as they went, leaving the room in darkness.
The Doctor took one last glance over his shoulder, looking sadly at the dim figure of his old enemy, stretched out on the floor. Then there came the grinding noise of the time rotor beginning to oscillate and he could feel a cold wind on his face as the paradox unwound itself and Time started to reverse, the hours and minutes and seconds rushing by him in a virulent swirl of temporal energy.
Reaching out, the Doctor closed the TARDIS doors.
Author's Note: OK, before anyone sends me any testy PM's, the canon basis for this chapter is that in the episode "Father's Day", the Doctor says "...once I've got my ship back, I can mend everything..." He also says that, once upon a time, the Time Lords could have controlled the actions of the Reapers. So, I took it from this that the TARDIS would have the power to repel the Reapers and close the wound in Time, once the paradox was removed. Also, I just love Idris, and wanted to have her save everyone in this, so there.