Sweat poured down Jack's brow as he ran through the steamy jungle, ducking under tree limbs, and crashing through bushes. Charles was at his back, keeping up, gun in hand. They were moving as fast as they could, knowing they didn't have the time to waste. The Cybermen were obviously here for one reason.

They were here for The Doctor. To kill him. Jack knew they could not let that happened, not with everything The Corsair had told him. Charles may not have any semblance of respect for The Time Lords, but even he understood that.

He looked up at the sky as he ran, seeing black smoke pluming upwards from the direction they were running. He could smell the burning wood. They were getting close. The Cybermen were doing what they did best; destroying anything that was not a Cyberman, and could not be made one. Racism at it's highest form.

"There's a slope about thirty feet ahead of you. Scanners are showing Cyberman activity at the bottom of it," The Corsair chattered in his ear.

"How many?" Charles asked, before Jack could."

"I'm counting twelve in the general area, but the smoke is messing with the sensors. There could be more, could be less." Jack only nodded. So she had no idea.

They reached the steep incline she had informed them about, Jack instantly taking cover behind a tree. The hill itself was overgrown with tall, lush grass. Trees were interspersed down it, with vines dangling down like snakes. Glittering sunlight filtered down through the leaf canopy up above, shining down on a pair of up-rooted trees lying at the hill's bottom. They were as big around as Jack was tall, maybe even more.

Below the hill however, the majesty of the forest ended. The field, and trees were aflame. Black, choking smoke accompanied the raging blaze, orange flames spreading in all directions. They raced up trees, and burned away green grass, and leaves, leaving nothing behind, but scorched, black patches, and ashes. Farther beyond, he could see a black, ashen field, that had once been more jungle.

The culprits were still here, marching in a line. Jack could see them from here. They looked like tall men wearing thick, silver, armor. The blue, glowing light in the center of their chest revealed them as something else entirely, something more machine than man. There faces were featureless, except for a pair of black empty eyes, and a thin line for a mouth. The squarish shape of it's head, complete with a handle-like apparatus rising from where it's ears would be revealed them for what they were. That shape, the shadow made by it, was loathed, and feared across the universe. He could see four close by, and another two, further away in the ash field.

It was true. The Cybermen were here. They stood in a line, walking in one direction. Their fists were pointed forward, the guns attached to their wrists, spitting fire before them. The accelerant burned down everything in it's path. They had only been here about an hour or so, and Jack could already see a football pitches length of burned field. Nothing remained.

"Why are they doing that? I thought they were here to kill The Doctor." Charles asked through the com-link.

"They are, but this planet is perfect for their needs. It's out of the way. If they can clear it of anything "unnecessary," they can use it." The Corsair explained.

"For what?" Charles asked. Jack knew the answer before she said it.

"A Cyber-factory."

"Not today they wont." Jack muttered. He glanced over at Charles, who was looking at him. The Mechromancer nodded, and Jack did the same.

They came from their hiding places in unison, each taking a target. Jack fired, his Villengard Special blasting two shots into the nearest Cyberman. It was caught off guard, the first shot glancing off it's helmet, the second hit it full in the side of the head. It dropped to the ground with a dull thud. It's partner turned, raising it's wrist gun, but Charles shot first. Two gold rounds hit it square in the chest. Jack saw it twitch, the wound sparking, before it flopped backwards.

"Oh good, they haven't fixed their weakness to gold yet!" The Corsair shouted in their ears. The other Cybermen in view now turned to view their attackers.

"You mean you weren't sure?!" Charles shouted, ducking back as a pair of blue lasors flew past his head.

"Ninety percent sure!" The Corsair argued. Jack popped off a pair of lasers at one of the approching Cyborgs, both missing. One of the further ones fired two wrist shots at him, blowing a pair of holes in the tree he was covered behind.

"Delete!" He heard a Cyberman below drone as it started it's march up the hill. It's wrist gun was pointed at Charles, heavy shots of plasma spewing forth. Charles ducked back as the tree he was behind was blown apart in front of him. He dove aside, scrambling behind another tree.

Jack cracked off another shot, this one at Charles' attacker, the laser glancing off it's shoulder. Jack was forced back, however, as a second Cyberman fired from the bottom of the hill. Jack ducked, a huge chunk of bark blasting past his face. This was not good. They had no good cover.

Charles was more than full of surprises however. As he rose from the ground, he held his robotic arm up in front of him, parallel to his head. His hand was in a fist, and before Jack's eyes, he watched a crescent-shaped, blue aura rise in front of him. It was some sort of polarity shield, as far as Jack could gather. Charles seemed to stand firm, aiming his rifle with his other hand.

The first Cyberman laser bounced off of it, ricocheting into the heavens. Charles was about to answer, but the a second wrist shot hit.

Much to his dismay, the shield was destroyed with a zap of electricity. Charles was thrown from his feet, with a loud curse, landing flat on his back. He immediately flipped over, stumbling to his feet beneath a hail of fire from both Cybermen.

That meant neither of them were looking at Jack. Charles may have bungled his defense, but Jack had an opening. His shot on the closest steel man was true. The blue beam went through the light on it's chest, and Jack saw a blob of molten metal shoot out it's back. It flopped forward, as he took aim at the one marching up the hill.

Charles hit that one instead, his golden rounds knocking it down with a pained groan.

Jack was already starting down the hill, not wanting to wait. The other Cybermen, the two in the ash field, were already on their way. If there were more, they would be too. Charles was close by, on his right. As they bounded down the hill, Jack tore his power pack from his sonic gun, replacing it with another. He was going to need a full clip.

"You will be deleted." The emotionless, robotic drone came from Jack's left. He whipped his head in that direction, instantly seeing another triumvirate of Cybermen marching through the forest. With the pair down the hill, they were going to be flanked, quickly.

Charles was already firing on the new arrivals, galloping sideways as he did. Jack saw one of the Cybermen twitch as it's gun was blown from it's arm in an explosion of blue, and gold sparks. It was unfazed however, as it raised its hand instead, lightning dancing across it's fingertips.

Jack ducked, and ran for cover when it's friends began shooting, a pair of plasma shots grazing past his head. He blindly fired back, hoping to drive them back with suppressive fire. He managed to get behind a tree, another pair of laser shots destroying the branches near him in an explosion of splinters. His eyes bolted down the hill, to the other two, now stomping up to join the fray.

He heard one of the metal men let out a robotic wheeze, and heard it fall with a heavy thunk, another causality of Charles' golden bullets.

Jack glanced around the tree, spotting the last two from the left, still coming forward, ever advancing. Charles was laying down on the other side of a fallen log, peppering shots down the hill.

Jack moved to fire on the leftmost attackers, but boiling pain suddenly erupted through his chest. He suddenly couldn't breathe, the taste of copper in his mouth. One of the Cybermen down hill had been true to it's mark. He tried to manage a shot in return, but he fell backwards instead, everything going black. He couldn't die. Not now, not leave Charles in a lurch like this. His thoughts stopped completely, as he died, one more time.

Searing pain ripped through his lungs as he gasped for breath, sitting bolt upright. The light blinded him for a moment, but his vision adjusted quickly.

He heard the combat before the saw it, the laser shots whumping into the ground, and the crack of them slicing near by trees. Then he heard a loud electrical crash, a blazing, crackling sound he could not even describe.

A pair of electrical sparks springing skywards to his left caught his eyes, and he looked to it. Their sat one of the Cyberman attackers, slumped against a tree, smoking holes in it's silver armor courtesy of Charles' gun. It still twitched as the gold corrupted it's circuits.

His eyes caught one of their fallen attackers, a bit further down the hill. Charles' gun lay near it in a melted pile, but the Cyberman had paid the price. It had a steaming dent, the size, and shape of a cannon ball, in it's chest. The wound sent zaps of yellow sparks as the dying machine tried to rise to it's feet.

Then he finally saw the source of the cacophony.

Charles was down the hill, in combat with the final pair of Cybermen. He held his strange mace in his hands, wreathed in orange lightning. Jack had never seen a weapon quite like that, not in melee at least.

The nearest Cyberman was already injured, with a massive dent in it's steel head. It was tottering on it's feet, it's motions stiff and jerky. It attempted to grab him with one hand, but he slipped aside, easily.

It's partner, this one uninjured, fired at him with it's wrist laser. Charles had managed to manuver the injured cyborg between himself, and the other. It's shot blasted into it's ally knocking it dead, in a bright blast.

Charles didn't waste any time, dodging past the falling robot. He brought down a heavy swing at the other Cyberman.

The robot intercepted it, grabbing the shaft just before the mace hit it, stopping it completely. It's other hand was reaching for Charles, charged for the kill.

The Mecromancer was not so easily stopped. He curled up his right hand, and hit the Cyberman with a heavy, straight, punch to it's head.

A normal man would have only succeeded in breaking his hand, but Charles was far from that. Jack had never expected how strong that cybernetic arm could be, however. It was not enough to truly hurt the steel soldier, but it stumbled backwards from the force, buckling ever so slightly.

It was enough for Charles to wrench free his mace. He spun around, gripping his weapon with both hands, and hit it as hard as he could. With a roar of orange lightning, it collided with the Cyberman's head, knocking it off of it's sturdy feet. If landed stick straight, and dead.

Jack stumbled to his feet, picking up his Villengard Special. He saw Charles wipe the sweat from his brow, taking deep breaths, before tapping his weapon on the ground. The glow sputtered, and died, then the head retracted itself back into the handle.

He turned about, adjusting his glasses, as Jack jogged down the hill toward him. Charles wore a tired smirk.

"Well, we really are indestructible, aren't we? The rumors are true," he tilted his head, "I only half believed it."

Jack only smirked and pointed at the rod in Charles' hand.

"That's one hell of a weapon you have there," he complimented.

"Last Tonitrus in existence," he tapped it with his finger.

"I know you boys are busy being manly, and proud of yourselves, but the last three Cybermen have disappeared off of my scanners," The Corsair's voice abruptly fizzled on in their ears.

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Jack asked. He immediately knew that was wrong, as Charles had rolled his eyes, and was shaking his head.

"No, that means there somewhere my scanners cant penetrate, like a giant TARDIS Tomb perhaps," she replied dryly.

"That's code for hurry," Charles added. Jack nodded. That was always the way with anything that involved The Doctor, everything went a hundred miles an hour.

"Well... as an old friend used to say..." Jack nodded, "Allonsey!"

"No! No get off of me!" Sarah Jane's screams reverberated through the room, her feet sliding uselessly across the floor. She could not resist. She could not pull herself free. She struggled in vain against the squirming, wriggling mass of Chronal Tumor.

The pair of tendrils that licked her arms had fully wrapped themselves around to her biceps, pinning her arms to her sides. Now they were interlocking across her chest. The thick tentacle had wound itself around her legs, paralyzing her. She twisted, and bucked her shoulders, to no avail.

"I told The Doctor, I would have my revenge!" The boy Master taunted, "but I never thought it would be so sweet." The rotted face in the console seemed to smile with it's mouth tear. The entire Tumor quivered, and twitched. The moment she reached that console it was going to engulf her. Would she even know it? Would she even remember it? Would she even exist if he took her body?

First she thought of The Doctor. He would blame himself. He would be alone. He needed someone, to steady him. To help him. To make him see himself when he couldn't.

She thought then of Luke, and Sky. They wouldn't even know what happened to her. She would never look into their eyes again, hear their voices call her Mom.

No. He was not taking her from her children. They needed her. She didn't have a her mother, and she'd be damned if her children had to feel that. Maybe in a few decades, but not now.

She was needed. She mattered. Her children needed her. The Doctor needed her.

She struggled as much as her body would allow her. She thrashed, and grunted like an animal in a trap. She was not going down without a fight, not like this. If he wanted her body, she wasn't giving it over without a fight.

She wrenched her arms back, and forth, feeling the tendrils starting to weaken. She started, forcing her arms away from her body, seeing them starting to loose their grip and separate.

"What are you doing?" The child Master shouted. His black eyes blazed in fury. The tumor was no longer pulling as hard, instead trying to gain back it's grip. "Stop it! Give up!"

"I don't think so," she struggled, through gritted teeth. Her arms were almost free from her side. If only she could just move them a little more.

A shrill, screeching, screaming noise filled the room. It was iron claws racking down a chalkboard, mixed with a police siren. It went through her head like a nail. If she wasn't wrapped up, she would have cringed.

The flesh of the Chronal Tumor shook, and quaked. It's grip relented, the constriction releasing from her thighs, and arms. Her ears rung as it's pitch rose.

Toxic water splashed into her face as the creature thrashed in pain, it's tentacles retreating, through the muck to it's host. Every blob, and boil, every tendril along the walls and floor shook, and seized.

She pounced on her opportunity, backing up. She had no idea where the sound came from, but it had saved her. She could see the rotten face in the middle contorted in pain.

She spotted it, her prize, beneath the pus-lake. She didn't even think about it, now that such a creature had attempted to absorb her. She thrust her hand beneath the surface, and pulled up the gun. Now she just needed to leave.

Then she saw her savior, in the doorway opposite to where she had entered. He stood with his screwdriver in the air, the green tip lit up like a Christmas tree. He had a toothy grin on his face, his blue eyes clear, and bright.

As she had so many times, she ran to The Doctor, and he motioned for her to follow with his wrinkled hand. That was not a problem at all. Quicker the better.

They ran into the rusted hall, and he finally lowered his Screwdriver, the hellish sound stopping. Her ears still rung, and it she could feel the migraine coming in her future.

"Thank you Doctor!" she realized she was yelling, half deaf from the sonic screwdriver.

"I wasn't about to let Mister Tentacles back there eat you!" The Scotsman returned. He always came when she needed him. Always.

"I got the Epoch Lens Barrel!" She held up her slimy prize.

"Wonderful, now to..."

The duo rounded the corner, coming face to face with a man in striking, silver armor, with a glowing light in his chest. If took Sarah Jane a moment for her brain to process it was a Cyberman, before it raised it's wrist.

"Doctor found. Deleting." It droned. There were two more behind it, guns raised.

The old Time Lord leapt straight in the air with a yell, two blue shots flying past his, and Sarah's heads. He pointed his screwdriver at their attacker with one hand, grabbing Sarah's wrist with the other. The low warble accompanied him dragging her back around the corner.

The corridor shook as they ran, with a boom, a cloud of smoke erupting from around the corner

"Since when are the Cybermen here?" Sarah shouted.

"Since now!" The Doctor replied.

"Wait! We' re going back..." she was already shaking her head violently. She would rather take her chances with the Cybermen.

"Mister Tentacles, I know." She glanced back, seeing the first Cybermen stomping quickly around the corner, the steel of it's chest blackened with soot, it's gun a sparking mess. It's opposite hand was alight with electric energy.

On second thought, Mister Tentacles wasn't so bad. She instinctively ducked as a blue bolt steaked past her. The Doctor attempted to point back with his screwdriver, but another bolt whizzed over is right shoulder, followed by a sizzling electrical ball.

They skidded into the Master's disgusting console room, the familiar, rotten smell greeting them. The Chronal Tumor seemed to wriggle at they as they ran in, like a disturbing wave hello.

They ran across the console room, passed the Chronal Tumor. Sarah managed to remove her sonic screwdriver from her pocket, just in case it attempted to grab her again.

The Cybermen were right behind them, entering with a volley of lightning, and laser shots. She ducked back, putting the Master's console between herself, and The Cybermen.

An electrical bolt it the tumor, and it responded with a guttural growl. She saw The Doctor stand firm, his screwdriver pointed at one of the un-injured cyborgs. It's wrist-gun abruptly turned as it fired, its shot screaming into the chest of it's partner. With an explosion of sparks, it was blown into the wall, a massive burned hole in it's chest.

But then the Chronal Tumor started an attack of it's own, it's tendrils whipping out toward the burned robot. It fired on the beast to no avail, as it was yanked into the console by force.

Unlike Sarah Jane, was pulled fully. She watched in horror, as the Chronal Tumor overtook it, coating it in it's rubbery, rotted flesh. Electronic groans of protest escaped it, but it did no good as it was overtaken. The other Cyberman fired at it's former partner.

A pair of blue shots hit it's partner in the back, but the skin merely overlapped it, healing it in a wave of sludge. It retaliated, firing a single ball of lightning from it's hand, sending the other Cyberman flailing to the floor with a splash. The Tumor continued it's work.

It was time to leave. She turned around, seeing The Doctor just staring. His bushy eyebrows were raised, mouth open a bit. It looked like something between wonder, and disgust.

"Let's go!" She yelled, yanking him by the arm. It took him a few steps to turn, and run, as they exited out of the hall she had entered from. They ran down the hall, with her leading the way, back the way the child Master had taken her.

"What was that thing doing?" She shouted to The Doctor. She lit her screwdriver, so they could see in the dark halls. The Doctor was just behind her. She had a feeling she knew. It was The Master taking a new body. This one a Cyberman. Was it truly possible? She did not know. She heard he had stolen a form before.

"I've never seen anything like that. I have no idea!" The Time Lord shouted back. "We can't let it leave though, whatever it is."

They twisted, and turned through more darkened halls, hoping to find the way back. They needed to leave. Sarah admitted she was done with Time Lord tombs for one day. She was getting too old for all of this.

They rushed up a set of stairs, then The Doctor grabbed elbow, pulling her down a corridor she had passed.

"Do you smell that?" He asked, smacking his winking screwdriver in his palm, "Fresh air." Truthfully all she could smell was the stagnant rot of the console room. It was trapped in her nose, and she imagined that she clothes reeked of it.

"That doesn't make any sense!" She replied, as they jogged in that direction, "we could barely get anywhere in here before. Why would it let us out?"

"It's not letting us out, his TARDIS is trying to let The Master out.," replied The Time Lord. "All of that hallway business before was to separate us, so that one of us would get caught, and he could take someone's body. Now he wants out."

"How are we going to stop him?" Sarah didn't even ask if he had a plan.

"I'm working on that." The Doctor shrugged, "right now I'm between throwing fruit, and building a flux generator out of scrap."

"Neither of those sound viable!" She argued.

"You asked if I had a plan. You didn't ask for a good plan." She just shook her head in utter disbelief. Only he would say that sort of thing. He was lucky she knew him so well...

They rounded a corner, and the tarnished entry room was before them. The door to the outside was still open, and she could see daylight trickling in. They were almost out. As they entered the room, they heard the footsteps behind them.

It was the all too familiar chunk-chunk of a Cyberman, but she could hear a stomach turning squelching noise that accompanied it. She looked at The Doctor, who looked at him. He nodded, aiming his screwdriver up toward the hall. She did the same. They would at least be united, as they always were.

The monster came into view, and she immediately sneered in disgust. It resembled one of the Master's, the old, dark haired one, with the moustache, but it was more grotesque. The skin was rippling, and sliding in some places, the texture reminding her of melting wax. It had formed a mockery of his black jumpsuit from skin, this too looking all wrong.

His face was the worst. It did not correctly fit over the Cyberman head, so it still retained the box like shape. The dead eyes were too far apart, and his mouth stretched across his cheeks. The handles sticking up from the skin-hair made her own skin crawl. His moustache was a black Tenticle, wriggling like a worm.

It walked stiffly forward. raising one hand up. The electric blue light was shining through the putty like skin on his palm.

"You will let me leave, Doctor," The Master's voice was had been replaced by the robotic drone of the Cyberman.

"Come on... you're better than this," she could hear the sadness cracking through his voice. The Master was once his friend, after all.

"You owe this to me," The flesh abomination defended.

"I do owe you something but it isn't this," she saw him tilt his head, his mouth in a straight line. It was his eyes though. She could see a tear, just in the left one.

"You killed me! You caused my death!" The Cyberman voice replied loudly.

"No..." the Doctor trailed, "I can guarantee... that whatever happened, you killed you."

"Then you will die. I am sorry, my old friend." With that, a ball of lightning ripped through the skin. The Doctor was quick, ducking.

"Outside, get outside!" he yelled. She ducked back, as another shot zapped into the wall.

She ran out on The Doctor's heel, through the door, gripping her screwdriver in one hand, and the Epoch Lens fragment in the other.

Abruptly she slammed into The Doctor's back, as he collided with someone else. They all stumbled forward, her landing on top of her Time Lord, rolling off into the grassy soil. The Doctor was laying on top of Jack, both with a surprised look on their respective faces. Charles had managed to avoid the whole catastrophe. Both were coated in brown stains from dirt, and the green remnants of grass. Jack had a hole burned in his shirt, and Charles had a cut above his left eye. She briefly wondered what they were doing here. It looked like they had been in a scrum. The Cybermen? There were other things to worry about.

"Hey sailor," joked the former Time Agent.

"No time! "shouted the Scottish Time Lord, skittering to his feet, aiming his screwdriver back at the open door, at the monster within. She jumped to her feet as well, doing the same.

"What the hell is that!" Charles yelled, pointing a thick finger. Their enemy, in it's suit of flesh, came walking to the door, standing in the door way.

"Woah!" Jack yelled holding up his gun, his eyes wide.

Strangely, the Master, or whatever he was now, didn't move, and just stood still instead. Jack was about to fire, when a warble came from The Doctor's sonic, stopping him. He innefectively clicked the trigger, then glanced to him befuddled.

"Don't Jack." Was his only reply.

They all stood, staring as the flesh-thing attempted to move beyond, but couldn't. It's patchwork hand raised, as if to push a wall that did not exist.

"Why. I do not understand..." the robot beneath the skin. It had no inflection, but still somehow seemed mournful to Sarah.

"What is that thing?" Jack whispered through the side of his mouth.

"The Master," snapped The Doctor. He addressed, his old enemy now, "yes... you do."

"What have you done?" he asked, pushing harder.

"I haven't done anything. You did," The Doctor replied, "this is your final place of rest, old friend. It won't let you leave." The Master stood still for a few moments, his rotted face staring blankly.

"This tumor... it is not all of you," he pointed with the sonic screwdriver at the rot encompassing his body. "Part of your soul is still there, in you're TARDIS. Those parts will forever be fractured, by everything you did, and will do. You can't take one, and leave the other."

"Help me," were his only words.

"I want to. I wish I could," The Doctor half-heartedly smiled. More tears were now rolling from his deep, blue eyes. "I know you would burn the universe everywhere you went, but I would let you out anyway. I would still try to fix you."

"Then do it." If a Cyberman's voice could plead, he would have.

"I can't... not anymore." The Doctor took a deep breath, holding up his sonic screwdriver.

The warble started, raising to that same deafening scream she had heard in the console room. Jack and Charles recoiled, and Sarah stuck her fingers in her ears, buffering it slightly.

The flesh quivered, spasms running through it. It spread, and stretched, before finally ripping itself from the burned Cyberman. It landed on the floor with a wet slap, and slithered away, back into the dark, from where it came.

The ashen Cyberman teetered on his feet, before falling backwards. It crashed to the floor, stiff, and dead. The Doctor thumbed his screwdriver off.

Then, the shadows started to appear, drifting out from the black, one by one. They came into the light of the doorway, illuminating them. First came the Master with the moustache, and the slick, salt, and pepper hair. Then came the burned man, in the dark hood. He was followed by the pale, bald regeneration. Others followed.

One in a leather jacket, with sunglasses. Another with a trimmed beard, and brown, thinning hair. She recognized the woman in the hat, and the long dress, as well as the one with the grin who once called himself Harold Saxon. He stood next to a chubby, older man with stark white hair. Behind him was the cruel child.

More began to come forward, these she hadn't seen. One man with dark curls, and a waistcoat. Another had a thick beard, and a beret. She saw one dressed in the red robes of a Time Lord, and another in a bowler hat with a cane. One of the others was young, with shaggy, blond, hair. Another looked ancient, crumpled over, barely able to stand. Where these all him? All of these were The Master? More shadows lurked behind, but she could not make them out.

"Doctor... Torchwood doesn't have any of those on file. I know the face of every known Master." Jack muttered, his eyes locked on them.

"They may be past regenerations we don't know about. They could be his possible futures. Depending on events that transpire, some of them may not even exist," The Doctor answered, his eyes darting from face to face. They all just stared at him.

"For what it's worth... I'm sorry," The Doctor sighed. He shook his head, looking at his feet, then back at The Masters, "I never wanted it to be this way. Never."

"Look at that. You did say something nice." Missy smiled. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the door, and pressed the button.

With a whine, the door slammed shut. The Doctor still stared at it anyway. Sarah couldn't fathom how he felt in that moment. What do you say to someone you care about, who you killed, and who killed you? With him, that was very literal, yet figurative as well.

"Now what?" Jack asked. He too seemed disturbed, though not like The Doctor. The old Time Lord turned around, and shrugged. A smile, one that did not reach his eyes, spread across his face.

"One piece to go"