Chapter 12: The Death Of A Friend

"What's so funny?" Said the Master.

Martha looked up. "The gun."

"What about it?"

"The gun in four parts. Did you really believe that?"

"As if I would ask her to kill." The Doctor croaked.

"Well, it doesn't matter now." The Master laughed. "Because now I've got her right where I want her!"

"But I knew about Professor Docherty. The resistance knew about her son. That's why I told her about the gun. 'cos I knew she'd report me and bring me here."

"You're still going to die." The Master reminded her. This certainly wasn't how he'd planned to see her respond.

"Don't you want to know what I was doing, travelling the world?"

He sat on the steps, massaging his temples. "Fine, tell me."

"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor. I told them to spread the word so that everyone knew."

The Master raised an eyebrow. "Faith and hope? Is that it?"

"No, because I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said. He told me to use the countdown. I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time…"

"Nothing would happen!" The Master leapt to his feet laughing. "Is that your weapon? Prayer? Oh! Psychic energy." He laughed again. "Doctor, are you really resorting to magic? You know no human being can channel that power. Not without a transmitter the size of Cambridge!" He scanned the two foot cage to see if the Doctor had one hidden.

"Or a network of 15 satellites." Said Martha.

For the first time, the Master looked worried. "What?"

"The Archangel Network." Said Jack.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor."

The Master spun round, just in time to see the timer hit zero. He spun back to the Doctor, just as his cage started to glow.

"No, no, no, no!" Shouted the Master.

On the bridge, there was a security feed of the world below. They saw people gathering out of the slave quarters, saying "Doctor. Doctor…" Over and over again.

As the Master watched, the cage dissolved and the Doctor grew and toughened, from the elf to the old man.

"Doctor. Doctor…" Said Martha.

"Doctor. Doctor…" Said Jack and Martha's family.

The effect didn't just affect the Doctor. It began to undo the hold of fear that the Master had had on the human race. One by one, the guards began to join in. "Doctor, Doctor…"

"I order you to stop!" The Master roared, quaking with rage at having come so far, only to see everything falling apart so spectacularly.

Last of all, Lucy joined the chorus. "Doctor. Doctor…"

The Doctor was healing further. No longer the old man. Now young and strong once more. "I've had all year to tune myself in to the psychic wavelength." He rose off the ground on a boost of energy. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now. When they can do this."

The Master watched in horror as the Doctor floated above him, taunting him, just as the Keller machine had shown him all those years ago. "NO!" He screamed, and fired a laser bolt at him, which dissipated a foot away from him. He fired several more, which also failed.

"I'm sorry." Said the Doctor. "I'm so sorry."

The Master spun to point his screwdriver at the others. "Then I'll kill them!"

But the Doctor stuck his hand out and the laser screwdriver shot out of the Master's hand, clattering along the floor. "You know what happens now."

"No!" Cried the Master, scrambling backwards and tumbling down the stairs as he went.

The Doctor rapidly floated towards him. "You wouldn't listen."

"No!" The Master scrambled backwards across the floor.

"Because you know what I'm going to say."

"No!" The Master hit the wall and clawed desperately at nothing. As the Doctor set himself down next to him, he curled in a ball, like a child.

"I forgive you." The Doctor put an arm around him.

Somehow, this hit harder than any threat could have. "My children." The Master gasped.


Through a radio link, the Toclafane heard his call. As one they broke formation and swarmed downwards, towards where the Valliant was. "Protect the paradox. Protect the paradox."


"Jack, destroy the paradox machine." Said the Doctor.

"Right." Said Jack, and gestured to two guards. "You two, with me. The rest stay here."

The Doctor looked back, and saw that the Master was in the process of programing the teleport bracelet.

"No!" Shouted the Doctor. He leapt forward and got caught in the field.

The Valliant faded, and was replaced with a vast rocky landscape, strewn with spaceships.

"Now it ends, Doctor." Said the Master. "Now it ends!"

"We've got control of the Valliant. You can't launch."

"Oh, but I've got this." He held up a remote. "Black hole converter inside every ship. If I can't have this world, Doctor, then neither can you. We shall stand upon this Earth together, as it burns!"


Martha hurried up to the control panel. She guessed which buttons were least likely to kill her and hit them. This brought up a RADAR map, containing billions of tiny blips swarming towards a Valliant shaped blip. She didn't have to scan to know what that was. "Hurry up Jack." She muttered.


Jack's party had reached the storage bay where the TARDIS was being held. As usual, there were two spheres hovering next to it, guarding it.

The guards let loose a barrage of shot, but to no effect.

"We'll get slaughtered in there!" Shouted one of them.

"Yeah, happens to me a lot." Said Jack, and charged in, guns blazing.


The Doctor was not the least bit phased by the Master's latest plan. "Weapon after weapon after weapon. All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do."

The Master held the detonator up, his finger trembling over the button. Just one push…

"Give me that." The Doctor said calmly.

The Master sunk his head down, and handed the remote over.


Martha had had some frantic words with the technicians, but the Master had never shown any of them a way to stop the Toclafane.

They didn't need RADAR to see them now. They were within sight of the massive glass viewpoint at the front of the bridge. So many that they blotted out the sun.


Jack had been killed seconds after he'd got into the room. But the spheres hadn't been prepared for him to get up again, and failed to respond fast enough to stop him getting to the TARDIS and slamming the door behind him.

Once there, he opened fire on the paradox machine. If it had been propagating different kinds of paradoxes, this could have torn time apart. But now they knew it was doing all the work keeping things in this state. With it gone, things would return to normal. As he hit some of the more vital looking valves and circuits, the machine flashed and sparked, and the lights went out.


Down on the ground, the Doctor and the Master were knocked down as time began to shift. The Master saw his chance and grabbed at the vortex manipulator again. But the Doctor realised soon enough what was going on and grabbed it off him, just as they were caught up in the teleport field.


The group on the Valliant also felt the shift, like a massive rush of wind. Martha was thrown from the poop deck, only to land in the Doctor's arms.

"Hold on!" He shouted. Time's reversing.

Outside the window, the enormous swarm of Toclafane halted in mid air, before flying backwards away from the station. Seconds later, the clouds began to shoot around in a rapidly increasing pace, while the sky rapidly alternated between light and dark.

An outside observer would have seen the crowds below rapidly moving backwards,like someone had put the entire Earth on rewind. Monuments to the Master and space fleets were dismantled. People were returned to their homes. A year's worth of death and destruction were wiped out and billions of people came back to life.

The clouds and the sun began to slow down outside. Finally, the Toclafane flew back into the rip in the sky, which sealed itself up below them.

"The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning." Said the Doctor.

"This is UNIT Central. What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated." Said a voice on the radio.

"Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was." The Doctor carried on.

Martha took a look at a screen, on which a news channel was busy interviewing the excited crowds who'd come to watch first contact from Trafalgar Square, or rather just staring in shock. But all around them, things were back to normal. "What about the spheres?" She said.

"Trapped at the end of the universe."

Martha looked at the people below. Apparently, the entire species was fated to evolve into those things. She tried not to think about it.

The Master was picking himself up. Since the Doctor was busy expositing to the humans, he had an opportunity to get away.

"But I can remember it." Said Francine.

"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know." The Doctor notived Clive and shook his hand. "Oh, hello. You must be Mister Jones. We haven't actually met."

At this point, the Master took his chance and ran for the door, only to find his way blocked by Jack.

"Whoa, big fella! You don't want to miss the party." The captain gestured to a guard. "Cuffs." He cuffed the Master. "So, what do we do with this one?"

"We kill him." Said Clive.

"We execute him." Said Tish.

The Doctor stood between them. "Now, that's not the way."

"Oh, I think it is." Said Francine, pointing a gun she'd seen a guard drop. A look of pure hatred on her face. "Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them."

"Go on." The Master smiled. "Do it."

Francine never changed her expression, but her hands were noticeably shaking.

"Francine, you're better than him." Said the Doctor. "Put the gun down."

Francine dropped the gun, before promptly collapsing into Tish's arms.

"You still haven't answered the question." Said the Master. "What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lord left in existence." Said the Doctor.

"Yeah, but you can't trust him." Said Jack.

"No." The Doctor agreed. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

"You'll keep me a prisoner?" Said the Master.

"Mmm. If that's what I have to do. It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I've got someone to care for."

The Master was just in the process of rolling his eyes when a shot rang out and a bullet struck him through the torso. Across the room, Lucy was holding the gun Francine had dropped. Expressionless as smoke poured out the end. She didn't even flinch when Jack took it off her.

The Master, meanwhile, sank to his knees, only for the Doctor to catch him before he could collapse entirely.

"Always the women." He groaned.

"I didn't see her." Said the Doctor.

"Dying in your arms. Happy now?"

"You're not dying. Don't be stupid. It's only a bullet. Just regenerate."

"No."

The Doctor was silent for a moment. "One little bullet. Come on."

"I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse."

"Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please. Please! Just regenerate. Come on." The Doctor was sounding ever more desperate.

"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?"

A small tear ran down the Doctor's face. "You've got to. Come on. It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons. Remember the Axons? And the Daleks. We're the only two left. There's no one else. REGENERATE!"

"How about that. I win. Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?" And with that, he died.

"No!" The Doctor screamed, clinging on to the body of his oldest friend and his oldest enemy.

Martha couldn't imagine how he must feel. To have found even the tiniest shred of his race, only to have it taken away again. She looked at her own species below once more. Suddenly the knowledge that they were going to die at the end of the universe seemed a lot less devastating. They had 99,999,999,997,992 years of life ahead of them. Which was more than the Doctor's people.


There were races out there that would tear whole world apart to get their hands on a timelord's body. Knowledge of their biology was too useful.

As such, the Doctor had followed the full Gallifreyan funeral tradition. He'd placed the Master's body on a pyre by the coast and lit the whole thing up, before walking away and leaving it to burn.


Professor Docherty had had a rather irritating day. Meeting with three students, two of whom had failed to turn up, one of whom had insisted that recurring hangovers were a valid excuse for not doing assignments. Nor did she have much to look forward to at home. All in all, she was pretty unhappy as she walked home through the park.

Just then, a girl stepped in front of her, and handed her a bunch of flowers from the florist.

"Just to say, I don't blame you." Said the girl, and walked away.

"But… Who are you?" Said Docherty. When the girl didn't respond, she shrugged and carried on walking. Suddenly much cheerier.


Having sorted that out, Martha went to join the Doctor and Jack, overlooking the Roald Dahl Plass. They'd had a lot to sort out over the last few days. Not least explaining what had happened to what was left of Britain and America's governments.

"Just think." Said Martha. "Time was when all these people knew your name. Now they've all forgotten."

"Good." Said the Doctor. "I can't stand attention."

Jack, meanwhile, ducked under the barrier and took a few steps down. "Back to work."

"I really don't mind, though. Come with me." Said the Doctor.

"I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was, and I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility. The 21st century's when it all changes. You've got to be ready."

"What's that mean?" Said the Doctor.

"Don't know. It just sounds good." Jack grinned.

"Defending the Earth. Can't argue with that." The Doctor took hold of his wrist and soniced the vortex manipulator.

"Hey, I need that!" Said Jack.

"I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport. You could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologise."

"What about me? Will you ever be able to fix me? Will I ever be abl to die?"

The Doctor smiled. "Nothing I can do. You're an impossible thing, Jack."

"Been called that before. Sir. Ma'am. But I keep wondering. What about aging? Because I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?"

"I really don't know."

Jack laughed. "Okay, vanity. Sorry. Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me. Hmm. I'll see you." He ran off towards the Torchwood hub, before he could notice the Doctor and Martha's startled looks.

So he was… But he couldn't be… But…

The two of them looked at each other and laughed.


Last of all they went to visit Martha's family. They knew they would have a lot to cope with now. A whole year's worth of PTSD for reasons they could never tell the outside world.

Martha was inside talking to them. But the Doctor thought it best if he stayed outside. He watched as Francine came to the kitchen window and smiled faintly. She thought for a moment, and her facial muscles twitched slightly, before she walked away.

Some time later, Martha emerged, talking to someone on her phone. "Yeah. Could you put me through? Hi, I'm looking for a Doctor Thomas Milligan."

Tom's was interrupted from his exciting day treating children with the measles, by a random phone call. "Hello." He said.

Martha grinned and rang off. She'd phone him back later. First, she needed to talk to the Doctor.

She found him at the newly rebuilt TARDIS console, calibrating some instruments. "Right then, off we go. The open road. There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or back in time. We could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth. I know. What about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie. I bet she's brilliant… Okay." He didn't need to ask. The look on Martha's face said it all. She was leaving.

"I just can't." She said.

"Yeah."

"Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them."

"Of course not." He smiled. "Thank you Martha Jones. You saved the world."

"Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good. You going to be all right?"

"Always, yeah."

"Right. Bye then." Martha left. A second later, she had a thought, and went back in. "Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him."

"Is there a point to all this?" The Doctor interrupted.

"Yes. Because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out. So this is me, getting out." She rummaged in her pocket and threw a phone to him. "Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?"

"Got it."

She left. This time for good. The Doctor thought for a moment what she'd meant. Then finally, realisation dawned. He chuckled at his obliviousness.

Oh well. Time to get moving. He went and pulled the dematerialisation lever. But the moment he did so, an alarm blared and he was thrown back into the captain's chair. He got a bizarre feeling like he'd fallen several times in succession.

He jumped up and hit the stabilisers, again feeling like he'd done it several times. "Ah, stop it! What was all that about, eh? Eh? What's your problem?" He went round the console, checking controls, only to collide with a man in a cricket jumper coming the other way.

"Sorry." They each said, as they passed, before turning to stare at each other.

"What?" Said the Doctor.

"What?" Said the other one.

"What?" They both said together.


The woman sifted through the ashes of the Master's pyre, until finally, she found what she was looking for. The Master's ring. It was still glowing, so it would be possible to do what she needed to do. What the Master had implanted in her head. She could almost hear his cackling laugh as she picked it up and walked away. The Master never went anywhere without a backup plan.


Author's notes: And now for something completely different. Next time: The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.