A/N: Two chapters left after this one, and they're all done and dusted, proofread and ready to go! Whey-hey! I'll review reply at the end of the story. Makes sense! ... I think.
Chapter 36 - Some Big Explanations
The next morning at 5:30am, the Doctor was lying in his and his wife's bed. The latter was pressed up against him clinging onto him tightly in her sleep, her messy blonde hair all over his face. He blew it away from his mouth and pulled the rest from his eyes, but remained perfectly in position with her arms around his neck and her leg over his waist.
He'd been in this position all night, unable to sleep. But he'd been perfectly content with just lying there holding her, listening to her light snores and watching her nose twitch like a bunny rabbit.
For a very long time he just stayed still, gazing at the ceiling. When the clock hit 9am he could hear the sound of children running back and forth, shouting and screaming with a crying baby joining in the chorus. He could also hear Jack, Brax, Martha, Gwen, Mickey and Ianto yelling ineffectual orders at the children, and occasionally the sound of the TARDIS wibbling and wobbling and joining in the fun – clearly on the children's side.
"Doctor?" Rose murmured from beside him and he looked sideways at her, lying there with sleep-clad eyes.
"Good morning," he said in return, pecking a kiss to her lips.
"Sorry, manky mornin' mouth," she apologised, smiling sleepily.
"It's okay," he replied, readjusting himself to embrace her further.
"We should get up," Rose muttered.
"Must we?" the Doctor moaned.
She laughed, sitting up. "Careful, you sound like me."
The Doctor smiled at that as she rolled over to lean over him, kissing him again before drawing back to gaze down into his eyes, her long blonde hair tickling his chin.
"Have a shower and I'll get breakfast ready for you," she said lowly, pushing back his hair. "Then I can cut your hair. You're a mess, you know that?"
The Doctor smiled again. "Yeah," he confirmed, and she finally got off of him.
"See ya in twenty minutes," she said, picking her dressing gown up off of the floor and disappearing out of the door.
Everything seemed so beautifully normal.
Jack, Braxiatel and the Master were already in the kitchen when Rose got there.
"Mornin'," she said to Jack and Brax with a smile, but she didn't even bother to acknowledge the Master.
"Where is he?" Jack asked, looking behind her.
"Havin' a shower," she responded, rummaging around the kitchen to pull out the components of a Full English. "Then I'm gonna cut his hair and get him straightened up."
"How is he this morning?" Brax asked. "Not ill?"
Rose shrugged. "He seemed fine."
Brax nodded. "Good. I'll scan him later."
The Master made a very pronounced sigh from the corner that made everyone turn and look at him.
"What?" Jack asked, irate.
"You have no idea what you are dealing with," the Master said simply.
"What the hell are you on about?" Jack asked.
"Don't bother," Brax said seriously to Jack.
"No, what are we dealin' with?" Rose snapped back, staring hard at the Master.
"Him," the Master continued, a smirk appearing on his face. "He's not told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Don't, Rose," Brax said seriously.
"He's doolally," the Master continued with that ever-present smirk, unfazed. "Volag-Noc has made him a little off of his rocker, if you know what I mean."
Brax turned to listen now, frowning. "What are you talking about, Koschei?"
"You haven't noticed?" the Master asked, sounding surprised. "Too busy checking his body for scars you haven't bothered checking his mind, have you?"
"Stop it, Koschei," Braxiatel grated.
"Just trying to give a helpful warning," the Master insisted. "Before he ends up killing you all. What did you say he was doing? Taking a shower? Probably trying to drown himself, judging by what I saw. Then again, twelve years in solitary confinement is going to make anyone a bit mad."
Jack glanced at Rose, who seemed to freeze on the spot.
"Stop lying, Master," Jack snapped. "What the hell are you still doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be off somewhere biting heads off of rats or whatever it is you do for fun?"
"Oh no, I'm staying for a bit."
"You've got to be kidding," Jack responded, astounded.
"Nope," the Master replied happily. "There's something that's about to happen that I'm just dying to see. Hey, Braxiatel, what happened to Gallifrey?"
Jack and Rose both looked at Braxiatel, who just stared at the Master. His eyes narrowed as he spat out his next words. "Rose has let you in here out of the kindness of her heart for saving Thete's life. If you want to remain here, you shouldn't stray from her rules," he said in a voice laden with complete authority.
"Fair enough," the Master said, seemingly unabashed as he gulped down the last of his tea. "Speaking of the rules, I need the toilet, so I need an escort to make sure I don't do anything bad to the toilet."
Brax sighed and got up, dragging the Master out of the door by the collar.
Jack looked at Rose, who was still frozen to the spot.
"Go check him," he said, indicating with his head. "I'll do breakfast."
"Thank you," Rose breathed, and ran back to the bedroom to find the shower going and the door closed. She approached it, turned the handle and stepped through.
The room was full of steam, and she nearly tripped over the mess of his pyjamas and used bandages abandoned on the floor. But as she looked down, she could see a wash of red in amongst the draining water...
She yelped and dived forward to check, and found the Doctor was standing there, naked. He turned, saw her, and clearly nearly had a hearts attack on the spot.
"Rose!" he shouted in alarm. "Don't do that!"
"Where's all that blood comin' from!?" she yelped.
"What?" he asked and turned off the shower, still covered in suds. "Say again?"
Her eyes flashed to his chest where the worst cut was, which had clearly been reopened with the force of the shower. "Oh," she realised. "I was... just comin' to see if you needed a hand," she amended, giving a smile. "Sorry I made you jump."
"I'm fine," he said, tilting his head slightly and frowning as he considered her. "... Sure you're all right?"
"The Master," she said simply, as if it explained everything.
"What about him?"
"He's just been workin' me up, don't worry," Rose dismissed, waving a hand.
"What's he been saying?"
"Don't worry, it's stupid," Rose insisted. "See you in a bit. You're bleedin', by the way."
"Oh," the Doctor said, looking down at his chest. "Thanks."
She stepped out of the bathroom as the water recommenced. She couldn't believe she'd allowed herself to be convinced by the Master.
She went to the drawers and laid out some clothes for the Doctor before leaving back to the kitchen.
When the Doctor walked in ten minutes later clean, clothed and re-bandaged, he found the Master, Jack, Brax and Rose sitting there in tense silence. He sat down next to Rose and took the proffered plate, and looked around at them all.
"Morning," he supplied in the silence.
"Thete," Brax began lowly.
The Doctor looked at him. "What?"
"I need to talk to you."
"About what?"
"No," Rose interrupted, resting a hand on the Doctor's arm and looking at Brax. "He eats first."
"Fine," Brax said, getting up and taking the Master with him. "We'll be in the leisure room."
They left without another word.
"What was that about?" the Doctor wondered.
"Nothing. Eat your food," Rose ordered.
"I'm not hungry."
"Rubbish," she said, getting another fork to stab at a sausage and holding it to his mouth. "Eat it or I'll get Leah to come and feed you."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, weighing the heftiness of this threat in his mind. He quickly decided that yes, it was quite a substantial threat, and bit a piece of sausage off.
"That was sexier than it should have been," Jack admitted, staring at him. The Doctor looked at him with the usual stinging expression, and Jack just grinned. "Oh, I missed that face."
"Jack, seriously," Rose said quietly.
Jack quickly sobered. "I know. Sorry."
The Doctor looked at the two of them, sitting there so still. "Okay, what's going on?" he asked seriously, pushing the sausage away.
Rose sighed, dropping her hand. "Braxiatel wants to talk about the Time War since the Master brought it up."
The Doctor's eyes widened and he immediately pushed the plate away, losing any modicum of appetite he may have had.
"Come on," Rose said gently, kissing his cheek and pushing back his hair. "It's okay. You'll be okay."
"He's going to hate me," the Doctor muttered.
"No, he won't," Rose insisted. "He'll understand."
"Will he?"
"Yeah," Jack chipped in. "You did what you had to do and he'll see that. Anyway, he does have the right to know," he added.
The Doctor sighed, looking between the two of them. "Come with me?"
"Really?" Jack asked, slightly shocked by that.
"Might stop them killing me."
Jack laughed at that, before realising he was utterly serious. "Kill you?"
"... I should have been executed and he'll know that."
"You really believe that, don't you?" Jack realised.
"Of course we'll come with you," Rose told the Doctor, glancing at Jack again. "Eat breakfast first, yeah?"
She pushed the plate back to him, but he shook his head.
"I can't," he muttered to the table.
She sighed again. "Okay. After."
He nodded.
They reached the leisure room, where Brax and the Master were sat on different settees, the Master clearly amused by something and Braxiatel was staring at the floor with a very dark expression.
The Doctor sat on a different settee. Rose and Jack both simultaneously and instinctively backed up against the wall.
"Get rid of the humans," the Master ordered, not even looking at Jack and Rose.
"They're staying," the Doctor replied firmly.
"Braxiatel..." the Master began, looking at the oldest among them.
"If Thete wants them here, they stay," Brax answered simply.
The Master folded his arms and sulked like a teenager. The Doctor nodded at his brother, and then shot a tiny wink at Jack and Rose who were standing there both glued to the floor.
Jack was particularly blown away. Rose was here by family ties, but Jack was being trusted enough by the Doctor to listen in on probably one of the most poignant conversations in history. The last three Time Lords in existence after the Time War, sitting in a TARDIS leisure room having a conversation about the near-extinction of their race.
Sure, one was his hot best friend, one was his hot best friend's handsome brother and the other was a jerk (it was like the easiest game of snog, marry, kill he'd ever played) but that didn't detract from this event at all. Even the three Time Lords seemed to sense that, a brief silence taking hold before Braxiatel began, still staring at the floor.
"Theta, what happened to you in the final days of the War?" he asked slowly and carefully, as though he'd gone through the sentence a million times in his head.
"Go on," the Master coaxed the Doctor, a small smile curling his lip. "Tell your brother what happened."
The Doctor glanced at the Master with hatred, before looking at Braxiatel who was just sat there, giving the Doctor his full attention.
The Doctor opened his mouth, and began to speak.
"The final days were hell. I'd seen Davros fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child, I'd seen the fall of Arcadia; the destruction of Hotel Historia, Polymos and Kolox. There were so many Daleks, there were the Skaro Degradations, the Nightmare Child, the Horde of Travesties and the Could've Been King with his armies of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. Millions were dying and coming back to life every second just to be killed again as time was completely obliterated in the final days. The council were going mad... Well, we were all going mad."
"How so?" Brax asked quietly.
"Towards the end they wanted to... Rassilon proposed the Ultimate Sanction. I couldn't let them, Braxiatel. So I found the Great Key. I thought I could replicate the De-mat Gun, modify it to wipe the Medusa Cascade. Things escalated. I ended up making... the Moment."
Brax's shot open. "You're the Renegade!" he realised in horror.
The Doctor swallowed, nodding. "I'm so sorry, Braxiatel. I couldn't watch the Ultimate Sanction going into effect. I renounced my name, and kept the Moment with me. The Time Lords knew I had it, but they couldn't do anything about it. The day the Daleks destroyed every Battle Tardis and made it to the Citadel itself, I used the Moment. The War ended."
"Gjara'vont," Brax breathed, his eyes wide in horror.
"I didn't have a choice," the Doctor croaked.
"So totally fine with killing you're entire race bar two," the Master grunted. "Because you didn't have a choice, hmm?"
"It wasn't like that!" the Doctor yelled, frustrated and upset. "I didn't mean..."
"Oh, it was an accident?" the Master interrupted.
"I didn't mean to survive!" the Doctor yelled suddenly, as stiff as a board. Everything quickly became so silent, at least until the Master started up again.
"You're a coward, Theta Sigma."
"No," Jack suddenly said from the corner.
"Nobody asked you," the Master drawled.
"How can he be a coward?! You ran and hid, Master, and where were you, Braxiatel?"
"They wouldn't let me out of Volag-Noc. Though to be honest... I was a little relieved," Brax admitted quietly.
"So he's the only one here that actually had the guts to stand up and fight for his planet!?"
Brax and the Master instantly quietened as the Doctor just remained still and silent, shaking slightly. In the silence Rose dared to move forward, sitting beside the Doctor and boldly wrapped her arms around him. She half-expected the Doctor to pull away, but he didn't. He turned into her instead, struggling not to cry. Broken.
Brax and the Master just watched them for a moment in silence.
"Pathetic," the Master said, staring at the Doctor with his chin resting in his hand, looking very bored.
"For Rassilon's sake, shut your poxy little mouth!" Brax suddenly yelled, staring at the Master with hateful, narrowed eyes. "That is my brother!"
"... Bet you wish it wasn't," the Master muttered quietly, a small smirk on his face.
Brax heard it and immediately jumped to his feet, throwing out an arm to the door. "Leave, Koschei!"
"It doesn't work like that anymore, Brax," the Master said mockingly. "I don't take orders from you, not from anyone, especially not your staazula of a brother who can't even save himself from Volag-Noc. What are you going to do about it, hmm?"
"Thete was always better than you, and you know it," Brax grated in return. "Don't you even dare try to insult him, it makes you look like a fool."
"No, no, no, you're not getting it, Brax," the Master insisted, almost gleeful. "Gallifrey's gone. Everyone's gone. We can do what we all like!We are the Laws of Time, now!"
Brax moved forward immediately, standing inches from the Master. "If you break any I will be on you like a taipan. Yes, Gallifrey's gone, but we are still Time Lords. We are still responsible for time."
The Master sighed. "Narrow-minded, that was your problem," he told Brax. "Me and your brother over there used to joke about how uptight you were. Like all the others. Typical Time Lord – staying in line, following orders; plenty of things to fill your day but utterly nothing to do. Big men in big hats with big ideas leading to big nothings."
"Wasted words, Koschei," Braxiatel replied simply. "I thank you for all you have done for my brother, but you are leaving, now. And heed my words. Just because your father ruined his life does not mean you have to follow in his path."
The Master's eyes narrowed, his face dropping – suddenly so sincere. "Never compare me to that imbecile. And Theta," he added, gazing at the Doctor. "Remember you owe me that favour."
The Doctor couldn't help but shudder at the very thought of that.
"I'll take him out," Jack said and grabbed the Master's arm. The Master pulled it away, shooting a look at him that could probably even kill an immortal. He then sauntered out of the door with Jack two paces behind, the human's hand over his gun holster.
Braxiatel stopped for a moment, turning to look at his brother. There was no hint of an expression on his face.
He looked away, and left.
A/N: Translation:
Gjara'vont - Of darkest thought