A/N: Okay, I'm currently on chapter 30 and I can smell the end!

Chapter 26 – Trial Of A Time Lord

The Doctor woke up next in a cell.

He had one hell of a sore throat so he obviously must've been drugged again - he probably had more drugs inside him than a Pharmacy. He didn't move from the position he lay in on the cold, hard stone bed, for a moment just taking in his peaceful surroundings, despite being in a prison. He could hear the hustle and bustle of a working town overhead: the manic chatter of people in the street; the shouts of traders promising great deals to their customers. It was quite soothing in a way.

Then suddenly a loud bell began to ring from above, and the Doctor instantly sat up on the bed.

"Public execution! Public execution! Midday! Public Execution! Town square!"

Public execution?!

The Doctor sprang onto his feet and ran over to the cell window at head height, peering out from between the bars to the world outside. It was indeed a city and he was in a perfect position to view the Town Square, and the giant wooden gallows that stood in the middle of it. Someone was about to get hung.

Where was he? Where had the Master left him? Was this the medieval period? He was suddenly panicked, only able to watch from his cell as a man was led forcefully out from the opposite side of the square, dragged to the gallows by two guards either side of him. He was of average size, brown hair, blue eyes, screaming for mercy and his freedom.

"Please, I'm innocent! I didn't do anything, I swear! Please!"

His head was placed in the noose, which was duly tightened around his neck.

"This Gallifreyan has been tried and found guilty of conspiracy to free the high-security prisoner of the Royal Prison known as the Doctor. This is a severe crime that carries the punishment of death. Has the accused anything to say?"

"I didn't do it!" he yelled, "I swear I would never free him, please! This is my last body!"

"Then let justice be done." The lever to the trapdoor below the man's feet was pulled. The Doctor turned away, unable to watch what happened next.

Had someone just been executed because of him? The man has said 'Gallifreyan'…

"Enjoy the show, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked up to meet the gaze of the Master for once not flanked by guards, still hosted in Rory's body. The Doctor ran forward to the bars of the cell, teeth gritted.

"What is this place, Koschei? Why did that man die?"

"He died because I wanted you to see what will eventually happen to you and your regenerationless body."

"So he was entirely innocent," the Doctor surmised. "You framed him just to show off. What kind of empire is this?!"

"It's been three months since we were on that ship, Doctor, and in that time I've constructed a new, gleaming Time Lord empire on a brand new planet. I call her Gallifrey II. This is the Final Experiment."

"So that was what those test tube babies were. You were growing new Gallifreyans from mine and my daughter's Time Lord energy…"

"Poor creatures only have one regeneration each, but that will evolve. Every one of those Gallifreyans out there lives because of you, Doctor. And the ironic thing? You're public enemy number one." The Master gave his terribly familiar smile again, so wrong on Rory's face. "Your trial starts tomorrow. If found guilty – or rather when found guilty – you'll be executed in the same way. No regenerations, no coming back. No human friends to come and save you this time. Then with a new pure-blooded Time Lord empire, we can grow in technology and numbers and take our revenge on the Daleks."

"You don't seriously think you're gonna win against the Daleks with a couple of two-bodied Gallifreyans equipped with sticks?" the Doctor challenged again, "and how can you be obsessed with having a pure-blood Time Lord empire when none of those people out there are more than half-Gallifreyan? You forget, Koschei. I'm half-human. This is absolutely appalling. It's sickening you could do anything like this. You've taken the respected legend of the Time Lords and turned it into a joke!"

"Enough!" the Master commanded, but the Doctor was on a roll.

"The Time Lords were a mighty civilisation, standing tall and proud above the planets of the Universe and watching over it. They hated chaos! They hated change! So now you're deciding that you want to rule a new race of force-grown cells within a body that's only a quarter Time Lord in a fascist dictatorship! You know as well as I do, Koschei, Rassilon would be turning in his grave! Really, the Time Lords were better left dead! Instead you choose to destroy my life in order to bring back what's meant to stay dead!"

The Master simply turned and walked away.

"You know I'm right, Koschei! Let my son go and forget this sadistic dream!"

The door of the dungeon slammed shut.

"Okay, how about… Abi?"

Rose looked down at the baby girl in her arms, who was looking up at her with deep brown eyes and a smile on her face. Rose shook her head. "Nah, she's not an Abi."

"What about… Rachel?" Jack tried next. Rose looked back down at the baby girl, but shook her head again.

"Nope, not a Rachel."

"Jenny?"

"…Hmm, I dunno…" Rose began, but was interrupted by Zoë tugging on her trousers.

"Mummy, Uncle Jack, come look!"

"What is it, honey?" Rose asked as Zoë took both Jack and Rose's hands, pulling them onto their feet. "You too, granny!" the latter was to Jackie who got to her feet to follow her granddaughter obediently through Howard's flat. The girl took them straight into the TARDIS, pulling them over to the chair and sitting Rose down. Lottie was standing next to the console, grinning from ear to ear.

"What you girls been up to?" Jackie asked, readjusting baby Jack in her grip as Lottie and Zoë looked at each other, both grinning stupidly.

"We wanna go find Daddy," Lottie announced, Zoë nodding beside her with Drunky tucked under her arm. Rose looked to the floor, dejected.

"But we can't go and find him, we don't know where he is or how to fly the TARDIS."

Lottie and Zoë exchanged another grin.

"That's where you're wrong mummy," Zoë said, before looking at Lottie.

"For ages and ages we watched daddy…" Lottie looked at Zoë.

"When he was flying the TARDIS…" Zoë looked at Lottie.

"So we remembered what buttons he pressed 'n stuff…" Lottie looked at Zoë.

"Then we worked out what order they went in…"

"So we could fly the TARDIS like Daddy!" They both finished off together, still grinning stupidly.

Jack couldn't help but grin with the pair. "D'you know where he is?"

"That's easy," declared Lottie, nudging her sister standing next to her. Zoë nodded, turning around to reach up to the console and pressing several random buttons.

"Zoë's got this connection with Daddy, see?" Lottie was saying as they watched the other girl type in a sequence of random Gallifreyan symbols onto the monitor. "But it's all weird."

"I can hear him but he can't hear me," Zoë surmised as she drew back from the monitor, and instantly a hologram flash up around them, displaying a Galaxy of planets. Zoë walked over to a mid-sized planet close to Captain Jack's head and pointed at it. "He's there. But the drums are here. Koschei's got him bad, this time."

"Koschei…" Rose repeated, confused. "Who's Koschei?"

"The Master."

"The Master?" Jack echoed. Zoë nodded as the hologram disappeared. "Master of what?"

"Everything."

"Who is he?"

"He's a bad Time Lord, is the Master. He's evil. Daddy's always stopped him but this time…" she trailed off, turning back around to the console.

Jack was frowning. "The Doctor, the Master. Man, Time Lords sure named their kids weird."

"Don't be stupid," Rose suddenly interrupted in a huff. "'Course it's not their real names. The Doctor isn't his real name. He chose it."

"Oh, and I suppose you know his real name do you?" Jack challenged, but was more than startled when Rose nodded.

"He told me it the day we got married. Some kind of Time Lord pledge or somethin'."

"Wow, really? What is it?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I can't tell you that!"

"But that's not fair!" Jack moaned loudly. "Why not?"

"People can use his name against him; like use it to bring about the end of the Universe."

"Oh right, well that's realistic." Jack folded his arms like a sulky teenager. "Anyway, I thought all the Time Lords were dead?"

Zoë was shaking her head, inputting a destination setting with Lottie's help. "Koschei beened trapped inside daddy's TARDIS since before the War. When the TARDIS went wrong he gotted out and went into daddy. Daddy didn't know. Carried him 'round in his head for ages. Then Koschei gotted out… now he's got daddy bad."

The TARDIS jolted, suddenly flying off through the vortex – startling its unaware passengers more than anything else. Rose steadied herself, sitting up more in the chair.

"Zoë, d'you know anything else about the Master? What's he got planned?"

Zoë nodded again, turning around to face the three adults and two babies. "Long story," she said, "but long night."

She began to tell them everything.

The courtroom was, surprisingly, a proper courtroom to the Doctor's eyes. There were the Jury, the Judge's chair at the moment vacant as the Doctor was taken with bound hands to the standby two guards. There were instant mutters from the public gallery; evil glances aimed in his direction. He hadn't really expected much else in all honesty – but it hurt him, just a little bit, that his own race saw him as a renegade whose life was as worthless as the mud on the ground.

Suddenly the court hushed as the door across the room opened and the Master entered, dressed in a white wig and red cape. He took the Judge's seat, picking up the gavel and whacking the wooden plate a few times.

"Order! Order!" he said pointlessly, smiling broadly. "Wow, I've always wanted to do that." He looked up at the Doctor, maintaining his smile before he suddenly became confused, looking around the courtroom with searching eyes.

"Hmm. Why isn't there a lawyer for the defence?" he asked innocently. The Doctor didn't answer. He didn't need to. The Master had a punch line on the way. "Oh that's right!" the Master continued, visually struggling not to laugh. "You haven't got one!"

The Doctor remained silent, his eyes dropping to the floor. The Master was still smiling.

"The defendant stands accused of murder on a massive scale, the exact count is not known, but in this particular instance we'll just mention the estimated three billion Gallifreyans in the Citadel alone that died at his hand."

The public gallery was a chorus of gasps.

The Master whacked his wooden plate again. "Order! Now then, we haven't found if he's guilty yet. Lawyer for the prosecution, would you care to take precedence?"

Bizarrely, the Master got up out of the Judge's seat, losing the cape and wig as he walked down onto the floor. He bowed to the now empty Judge's seat courteously.

"Why, thank you my Lord," he said, before turning to look at the Doctor with that smile. "Were you the last man standing on Arcadia?" the Master asked.

The Doctor stared at him. "Yes," he began. "But..."

The Master ignored him. "Did you, in truth, hold the Keys of Rassilon?"

"Yes, but..."

"And those Keys allow the holder alone to open the Eye of Harmony at the heart of Gallifrey?"

"Yes, but..."

"And that opening the Eye of Harmony causes the planet to be sucked through it and destroy the Temporal Gateway between dimensions?"

"Yes, but..."

"And every Gallifreyan in existence was on Gallifrey at the time? From the eldest right down to those still unborn?"

The Doctor swallowed. "Yes, including my own..."

"And there you have it, my lord Judge, which is also me," he grinned to the gallery of faces watching the proceedings. "This man has admitted the particulars of the crime. And now for my final question; did you do it?"

He already knew the answer. But he had to hear it from the Doctor's own lips...

The Doctor looked down at the floor, his eyes suddenly heavy with guilt. He wasn't about to deny it. How could he deny it? He knew his own crimes… He deserved execution. He deserved to die for what he'd done…

"Yes," he suddenly announced, still looking down at his bound hands as the jury gasped on cue. "I did it. I did it all. I plead guilty."

"Well, well, well," the Master was saying, his grin now spread from ear to ear. He climbed back up to sit in the Judge's seat, redressing in the cape and wig as he again took up the wooden gavel. "Well, you've heard it all, jury. Now what's your verdict?"

It didn't even need discussion.

"We find the defendant guilty, my Lord."

"Excellent!" the Master exclaimed. "Well, I guess that wraps up proceedings, and we've got ourselves a lovely public execution. Do what you like with him until the hanging. We'll schedule it for the day after tomorrow; still need to clear up the mess of the last one."

The Doctor didn't even look at the Master as he was marched from the courtroom, straight back to the cells. The Master was watching him however, and was grinning every moment.

"Now," he announced to the crowd as the Doctor disappeared through the far door. "Anyone for a spot of lunch?"

"Here, here!" the court declared.

A/N: Okay, drum roll please! I'm gonna do the wellposh 'Coming Soon' things that rosie-bec does.

Chapter 27 – The Last Stand

"No!" The Doctor lunged out his hand from between the bars, managing to catch one of the guards and yank him back from Rose, hooking his right arm around the guard's neck to immobilise him.

But two were still on Rose. She struggled but one held her firmly in place whilst the other drew back her cloak, taking the baby out of her grip. She screamed, lashing out but succeeding in nothing as seconds later the Master held the baby girl in both arms, making appropriate 'goo' and 'gaa' sounds. She continued to cry.

"Aww, y'know, you look just like your daddy!" the Master said to the girl, genuinely smiling. "Too bad he's dying tomorrow. You've got your mummy's eyes. Too bad she's dying too. Then you got no parents, little one. What you gonna do then? Do you want to die too?"

Coming Soon

The Doctor could only watch, helpless as the lever was pulled and suddenly there was nothing beneath his feet. Pain shot through his neck as the noose tightened, and it was only a split second before the entire world around him faded into nothing.

Isn't 'Coming Soon' totally PRO?! Huh? HUH? HUH?! :D