A/N: First I want to thank to Brownbug, mericat and Torchwood Cardiff for their reviews. Sadly they are the only three reviewers to the last chapter. I want to also say a very special THANK YOU to mericat who is a new reviewer and read and reviewed the whole story in three days. That was great and kept me going with reviews when no one else who read it gave any feedback.
Another special thank you to Brownbug who is my wonderful beta and puts up with all my grammar errors and moaning.
On another note, I hope any people who live in Manchester will excuse me if there are any inaccuracies with roads and timing but I had to work with Google maps since I've never been to Manchester before. Now if this was situated in London I wouldn't have any excuse. Moreover, I had to work with Google map 2012, and it sure had changed since 1973.
Another note, I have spotted some plot holes and trying to fill them up, but I'm sure that there are a lot more in this story that I can't detect, because I'm rubbish in avoiding plot holes, so if you see any don't feel shy to poke your finger into it and shout 'Plot hole!' It will help me fill it up.
In the end, the impressive, action-movie effect of their mad dash towards the door was somewhat ruined by their reluctance to emerge into the foul weather outside. Both of them stood at the station's entrance and watched with dismay as the heavy rain beat down on the concrete ground and splashed into muddy puddles. The Master was trying to calculate how fast he would have to run towards the car to keep himself as dry as possible. It didn't take him long to realise that no matter how fast he ran, or how low he kept himself, he would never reach the Cortina soon enough to keep from ending up looking like a drowned rat. Nothing for it, he thought, preparing for the uncomfortable run through the teeming water. The sooner he did it, the sooner he could try to get over it.
The swish of a long coat announced the arrival of the Doctor next to them at the door, and the Master heard him take a deep breath, sniffing at the air.
"Ah, the smell of the fresh English rain," he said wistfully. The Master wondered what freshness the Doctor was talking about. It was typical of the fool's optimistic nature, something he was barely able to stand at the best of times.
The younger, albeit older-looking Doctor, joined them at the door and appeared quite put out, screwing up his face at the sight of the pouring rain. At least this one looked a bit more realistic - probably because he was tied to this place and particular decade, much like the Master, and wasn't stupidly nostalgic about it all.
"Is it raining again?" he asked. It was amazing the amount of obviously idiotic questions the old fool could come up with sometimes, the Master thought. He was tempted to smack the man on the back of his head, but knew that it would look quite strange if he did. After all, this version of the Doctor looked a great deal older than him, and the UNIT papers he held proclaimed him to be the one in charge at the moment.
"No, 'course not. Why would it be rainin' in Manchester, of all places?" He opted for sarcasm instead, as a way to show how he felt about the Doctor's stupid questions. "That's just the gods pissing down on us."
Gene Hunt turned around to him, pushing him out of the door and towards the car park, getting him immediately wet with the first step he took into the heavy rain.
"Yer such a cheerful sod, aren't ya, Tyler?" Gene said, keeping the conversation running. He followed the Master out, not looking all that bothered by the water that was starting to soak through his clothes.
"Yes, because there's so many things to elevate my mood," he growled at Gene. "My life is just one big picture of flowers and pink candyfloss clouds."
"You should take what you can get, Boss," Chris tried to make him see the bright side of things. Opening the back door of the car, Chris slid in and on to the seat. "After that bad whack on the head, you might not have been that lucky."
"Thank you, Chris, 'cos that makes me feel so much better," the Master muttered, following Chris's example and sliding on to the front passenger seat. He shook the water from his wet shoulders and hair, frowning.
"That's all right, Boss, I'm glad to help," Chris said cheerfully behind him.
"That's called sarcasm, Chris."
"What is?" Chris asked, sounding confused.
"What I just said to you," the Master scoffed. "It's called sarcasm."
By that point, everyone had followed them to escape the rain. The Guv was behind the wheel, and the two Doctors were next to Chris on the back seat. Ray and Annie were left to follow in one of the plonk's cars. After the Master's last comment, the car was full with amused silence, as all the occupants waited for DC Skelton to understand what had just been said. However, if they were hoping for any sort of big reaction, they were all destined to be disappointed. Chris's only comment was barely more than a single breath, which came out sounding like, "Oh!"
The Guv took off from the parking lot in true Hunt fashion, planning to follow the best routes he knew around the streets towards the Manchester Food College. Of course, it was too much to hope that things would run smoothly. The moment the Guv exited Bootle Street and tried to take A34, they found out that the entire junction with Oxford Street and Portland Road was blocked by a lorry accident. There goes our best route, the Master thought, listening to Gene Hunt cursing at the incompetent plonks who couldn't do their jobs and keep the streets clear for emergencies. From there, they had to turn into side streets, most of which were one way, and then go across to the other side of A34 to reach Chorton Street and the College. Not that it seemed to bother Gene too much - he didn't bother to slow down, even in the side streets with barely enough space for the Cortina to fit between the parked cars.
Despite Gene's breakneck speed, it still took the team over ten minutes to reach their destination and by then, both Doctors were looking decidedly sick and worried.
It wasn't too difficult for the Master to figure out the reason they looked so green around the gills - after all, it had taken him a lot of time and effort to get used to Gene's driving as well. The reason they both looked worried was easily explained as well. They had already wasted enough time in working out the possible place where Jo Grant might be held, and the even minor delay from the road blockage must be causing both Doctors a lot of worry for the girl's wellbeing. If she was really being held inside an industrial freezer, there was only so much time that the human body could withstand the below zero temperature.
The pacing around did help Jo keep herself warm for a while, but it wasn't a long term solution as the blood in her body started to cool down and the circulation slowed again. From a certain point onwards, it didn't make much difference whether she was lying down or moving. Besides, moving had become too painful. Logically, she knew she should keep moving, despite the pain in her limbs, because at least it kept her body in motion and the blood circulating. But her limbs were heavy and painful and she was too tired to bother about standing up and walking around the place. Maybe if she still had some hope of finding a way out of this place, she would have forced herself to move, but she had exhausted every option that was available to her in this place and nothing she had tried had moved the door of the freezer even an inch.
Jo wasn't someone who gave up easily, but even she could see now that she had to admit defeat. She pulled her thin jacket more tightly around her, although she didn't really feel all that cold any more. Even her shivers had almost stopped. It was something Jo knew she should be concerned about, but it felt much too nice to have a break from feeling so cold and from trying to escape through the metal door. All she really wanted to do right now was to sleep and curl into the false feeling of warm and peace. She tried to move and shake herself awake, because her sluggish brain was deceiving her with that peaceful place. She wasn't home in her bed - if she let herself go to sleep now, she knew she wasn't going to wake up ever again.
Trying desperately to pull her sleeves over her hands to warm them up, she noticed that she couldn't move them. They didn't hurt any more, which couldn't be good, but they wouldn't respond to the commands that her mind was trying to give them. The nails and the tips of her fingers had become deep blue, almost purple, and she couldn't move them more than a twitch. It should have scared her, but she couldn't muster the effort to think rationally enough to care.
Looking up, Jo fancied that she could see the cold air crystallising into tiny snowflakes and she twitched her blue-tinted lips into a ghost of a smile. It was an illusion, and a deadly illusion at that, lulling her into the false tranquillity of an eternal sleep. She should be fighting it, she should be thinking of the Doctor and what he would think when he found her if she had given up and died. But it was so beautiful and enticing and she was so tired and cold that she didn't even want to fight it any more. Her grannie's voice came to her, singing one of the songs she always used to sing at Christmas. Jo thought that if she closed her eyes, she could imagine that she was back with her grannie at Christmas, just like when she was ten, making a snow man and listening to her grandmother singing, instead of dying here in an industrial freezer. It was so much easier than trying to fight to stay awake and move - all she had to do was just let go and listen to the song. I'm sorry, Doctor, she thought.
The Rani had fled the boat house angrily, although not in too much of a hurry. She still managed to save some of the experiments that she had begun. The only things she had to abandon really were a few pieces of tech and some commonly available chemicals. It still didn't make her any more pleased with the situation and the fact that she hadn't taken into account the risk of running into that Detective. Someone from this time shouldn't be clever enough to ruin her carefully crafted plans. Despite his claims to be the Master, the Rani still wasn't ready to believe that it was indeed the other Time Lord. Although, she wouldn't put it past that imbecile, the Master, to show up in another incarnation and to muck up her experiments. Her main problem was that, if it was him, she couldn't work out his agenda in this situation. It didn't look like he was here to try and take over the planet, or even to find that ring that his other incarnation – the one who was helping her - was trying to locate. Maybe he was trying to take over the law enforcement on the planet. She shook her head and chuckled at the thought. Still, no time for lame jokes, she still had work to do before that old fool, the Doctor, came and discovered her.
She didn't have time to collect every single chemical from her experiment, but that wasn't too worrying, she could leave them there. The chemicals were safely stocked up in the college's industrial freezer, together with the fertilized eggs, so if she needed to come back for them later, she could. Now she needed to deal with the Master, who she was sure wouldn't allow her to leave the planet without demanding her to take him somewhere off the planet in her TARDIS, or want her to keep her word and give him the component necessary to replace the one the Doctor had stolen from his ship a while ago.
The Master was sitting in the school's reception area in one of the stuffed chairs. It was the time of the year when the college was on holiday, but it still should have had at least the bare minimum of personnel. The Master had most likely scared them away or hypnotized them into leaving. There were two of his goons outside, but they knew her and feared her as much as they feared the Master. They wouldn't dare do anything anyway, especially not after the rumours that the Master was responsible for the death of their mates in the gang, they would probably be glad to get rid of him.
"My dear Rani," the Master greeted her with a curt nod of his head, but didn't rise from his seated position. "I do believe you ran into the same troublesome DI that I did."
"Yes, indeed," she replied sourly, trying to convey with every sharp word and movement that she didn't have time to chat with him and that his presence was unwelcome. "He told me that he's one of your future incarnations."
She approached the cabinet that was propped against the wall on her right and opened the door. The cabinet opened on to something that looked much larger than the normal contents of a medicine cabinet. It also did not hold the tubs and bottles one would expect. Instead, it opened on to a vast room, which appeared even larger than the room they were currently in.
When she passed over the threshold of the cabinet she sensed the Master moving from the chair behind her. He was probably making sure that she wasn't going to run on him without giving him what he wanted. Something sharp touched her skin as he came to her and held her upper arm with one hand while his other hand was between their bodies.
"Not so fast, my dear," he hissed in her ear. His voice was level and unthreatening, but coming from him it was no less malicious. "We have unfinished business here. I still have to find my ring, as you well know, and your aid is still required."
The desire to turn around and plant her knee in his groin was really tempting for the Rani. She was slowly starting to lose her patience with the Master. She was already annoyed enough by her encounter with the Manchester DI, and the Master's annoying persistence in keeping her company at the moment didn't help her mood. And that was before he went and threatened her with a knife in her back. However, she wouldn't lose her temper in front of him- it would give him far too much satisfaction. Turning around calmly, with an acerbic smile plastered across her face, she held up two glasses of wine and offered one to the Master.
The Master expected to find the school buzzing with students and activity, but he found the College almost devoid of life. There was only the occasional devoted student in the library, or the ones late with their essay and assignment work, as well as the unfortunate staff who were on duty. It seemed that most of the students and staff did everything possible to clear out of the College during the holidays. It was a good thing, because it meant he didn't have to put too much effort into emptying the school. It only took him a few minutes of concentration and some thought-projection, suggesting to every single member of the school that they had something more urgent to do elsewhere. It was a bit disappointing, actually, because it wasn't much of a challenge this way. However, at least he now had more time to prepare for the real challenge ahead. He was sure that his confrontation with the Rani would prove extremely stimulating, and he would enjoy it immensely.
After sending everyone out, the only thing that was left to do was to wait for the Rani to arrive and to try to get away in her TARDIS. He knew that she would be reeling from the fact that her experiment had gone to waste with the arrival of the two different incarnations of the Doctor, not to mention having that human DI and his alcoholic boss on her case. It was pretty amazing that a handful of humans had been able to work out the games that he and the Rani had put into play. The Master had to admit, it was annoying being almost outsmarted by humans. But he always enjoyed a good game and he was all about fair play, even with humans. The Rani once told him that he was too polite in this regeneration to have any success, because he didn't like to play too dirty and always liked to give a fair chance to the opposite party.
Maybe she was right, but that polite spark in him didn't mean he wouldn't do everything possible to remove an obstacle should one come in his way. He might give the obstacle a fair chance, but essentially the outcome of the game would be the same as ever. Having to remove and outsmart not only the Doctor, but also these humans, and especially the DI and his sheriff, would only make the game that much more interesting. At the moment, however, his thoughts were on the ring and the fact that it had managed to evade him again. He had hired all his goons to get the ring for him, after receiving the signal for Time Lord technology from the shop. But it seemed someone had already paid some of the goons double to get it for himself. Now he needed to get rid of the Rani, not to mention Doctor's companion he had stashed in the freezer and who was proving most unhelpful. When he had instructed one of the junkies to kidnap the girl, he had hoped that the one who had taken the ring was the Doctor, and that with a bit of hypnosis his assistant would spill the beans. That didn't seem to be the case. Ms Grant either didn't know anything or she was becoming resistant to his hypnosis. So he locked her away, and that was the problem with the companion solved. He had killed a couple of the gang members in his rage and was now trying to cooperate with the Rani, in the hope that she knew something about his ring and that they could work symbiotically. Too late he had realised that the Rani was preoccupied only with her own work and had no idea where his ring was. So the only thing left now was to get rid of the Rani and fly her TARDIS in pursuit of the ring. He knew that he had burnt through his regenerations recklessly and was in his last. The actual purpose of the ring was to store a Time Lord DNA in a special time locked capsule and he needed it.
Finally, just when he thought that he was going to lose his patience and was going to have to try and break into the TARDIS, the Rani showed up. She had taken her time - probably trying to save as much of her experiments as she could. He greeted her politely but coldly, without giving her the honour of standing up for her, only moving to face her better and lace his hands over the knee that he had lifted and placed over his other leg. He inquired about the trouble she had with running into the same DI that he had the misfortune to deal with. To his utter shock, she told him the police officer claimed to be himself. Understandably, she was not pleased with the fact, but neither was he. He would need to look into this matter later, after he had dealt with the Rani.
The Master watched as she went to the cabinet against the wall and opened it to reveal a vast chamber-like room with a big column in the middle. Jumping quickly to his feet, the Master reached the Rani with only a couple of strides from his long legs. He took her by the arm and carefully took a blade from his pocket. He wasn't much of a fan of human weapons, but his intention wasn't to actually kill her now, just to stop her from leaving. He still needed her aid. He could feel the Rani's body stiffen for a moment against his, and then relaxing a moment later. He didn't need to read her mind to understand what she was thinking, she was visibly annoyed. Then she turned around and offered him a glass of wine.
"Really clever, my dear," the Master answered, smiling. He took his glass and sat back down on the chair, pouring the contents of his glass into a nearby plant. "You think I will drink anything offered me by you? You underestimate me."
The Rani smile never faltered while watching him getting rid of his drink. She approached the chair with graceful, cat-like moves and sat on one of the arms.
"Oh, you think I would be that obvious?" she asked in a sultry voice, taking a sip from her glass. "You are the one who underestimates me, and you just wasted a perfectly fine wine."
She moved too fast for the Master to counteract and something was jabbed into his thigh.
"I have no more use of you," the Rani told him and went to her ship.
Unable to move, the Master watched her retreating back and the wavering image of the dematerialising cabinet. Whatever it was that she had injected him with took hold way too fast, the world starting to waver and dim in front of his eyes. The last thought he had before the darkness overtook him was that he was going to find the ring and then the Rani and make her pay.
Running into the College building, 'A' division was alarmed to find it completely deserted but for one body of a well-dressed gentleman, slumped into one of the high leather chairs. They didn't know if the place was deserted because the people had left, or because something happened to them, the same way it had obviously happened to this gentleman. Some of the people in the team recognised the man from the station and the row he had with Phyllis at the reception desk the other day. The Doctor, however, recognised the man with the goatee and immaculate black suit as the Master, and looking at DI Tyler it seemed to him as if he had as well.
"He's just unconscious," the pin-striped Doctor said, as if to reassure the Manchester detective.
"Yeah, I'm still here aren't I?" Sam said, indicating with the tone of his voice that the Doctor was again stating the obvious. "If 'e was dead, I'd disappear."
"OK, Tyler, put some handcuffs on this one and get him into the car," Gene Hunt came over to them, instantly issuing commands. "Chris, Ray go and see if you can find the girl in the freezer."
The UNIT Doctor was torn between rushing to rescue Jo, and making sure that the Master was safely contained. However, in the end he decided that the two policemen could handle finding his companion and he didn't need to rush to save the damsel in distress. So instead he decided to stay and make sure they didn't let the Master loose again. He knew that it was going to be quite a battle with DCI Hunt to take the Master into UNIT custody, but he would do it, because only they could hold him on Earth. Maybe Torchwood as well, but he wasn't going to give anything to Torchwood.
He watched as Sam Tyler backed away and argued with his superior officer about not touching the unconscious man, and couldn't help his amusement.
"Sorry, Guv, but I can't touch him," Sam said, backing away and holding his hands up.
"What do you mean, you can't touch 'im?" Gene asked incredulously.
"I mean, I can't," Sam shouted, frustrated. "I can't, as in big bang, end of the world coming if I touch him. That man over there's me!"
The Doctor expected a big fight, for which he wasn't sure that they had time, so he was mentally preparing to have to break it up. But Hunt was obviously more than used to his DI's creepy comments, because he just rolled his eyes.
"I think my DI just cracked his last marble," Gene commented, with a touch of resignation. "All right, Tyler go find the girl. Doctor, you can help me with our sleeping beauty."