Time is Still A-Flying

by chocolatequeen

Part 3 of Being to Timelessness. With a bond and a promise of forever, the Doctor and Rose have managed to escape the trap set for them in Torchwood, but Time is not yet done with them. The Master is still in London and Election Day draws ever closer. He's tried to separate them once; will they survive a second attempt? Sequel to To Make Much of Time

37. Bound for Utopia

Chapter 37: Bound for Utopia

"All passengers prepare for boarding," Lieutenant Atillo ordered over the PA system. "I repeat, all passengers prepare for immediate boarding. Destination, Utopia."

Martha watched the Doctor, the professor, and Jack rush around the engine controls, putting the last pieces in place. Chantho showed her and Rose how to slide the circuit boards into place, but with three of them working, they soon finished.

"Chan, we have more circuit cards in storage, tho." Chantho started for the door and looked back over her shoulder. "Chan, I would be most grateful for your help carrying them, tho."

"Yeah, sure," Martha said, and Rose nodded her agreement. Chantho led them to a storage room that was no bigger than a cupboard and loaded them each up with a stack of the cards.

They were on their way back to the lab when Martha caught sight of the boy they'd talked to earlier. "Excuse me. Hey, what was your name?" She looked up at the ceiling, trying to recall. "Creet."

He stared at her with wide, blue eyes. "That's right, miss."

"Do you have a family, Creet?" Rose asked. "Mum, dad, maybe a brother or sister?"

"No, miss." Creet shook his head. "There's just me."

Sadness swept over Martha, along with sympathy for the orphaned boy. "Well, good luck." She looked around at the passengers filing through the corridor. "What do you think it's going to be like, in Utopia?"

Creet's eyes glowed. "My mum used to say the skies are made of diamonds."

"Good for her," Martha said. Creet's enthusiasm curtailed the pity she'd felt for him earlier. "Go on, off you go. Get your seat." She patted him on the head as he walked by. If humans carried that kind of optimism with them to Utopia, she had a feeling they'd do well.

oOoOoOoOo

Working on the wiring with Professor Yana, the Doctor thought he caught a familiar scent. He brought the wire to his nose, then looked at the professor. "Is this—?"

Yana nodded. "Yes, gluten extract. Binds the neutralino map together."

"That's food." The Doctor took his glasses off and looked at the matrix with a renewed sense of respect. "You've built this system out of food and string and staples. Professor Yana, you're a genius."

"Says the man who made it work," the professor said self-deprecatingly.

The Doctor wouldn't let him brush the compliment off. "Oh, it's easy coming in at the end, but you're stellar," he insisted as they continued plugging connectors into ports. "This is, this is magnificent. And I don't often say that because, well, because I'm me."

"Well, even my title is an affectation," Yana admitted. "There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another."

"If you'd been born in a different time, you'd be revered." Yana laughed, and the Doctor pushed on. "I mean it. Throughout the galaxies."

Yana looked up from his work. "Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse. Some admiration would have been nice. Yes, just a little, just once."

The words were lighthearted, but frustrated ambition lurked in the professor's eyes. The Doctor was almost sorry he'd brought it up, since they both knew there was very little chance he'd get the acknowledgement he deserved.

"Well, you've got it now," he said, then swiftly changed the subject. There was something the Doctor had been thinking about ever since he'd understood how the engine worked, and he couldn't avoid it any longer. "But that footprint engine thing. You can't activate it from onboard. It's got to be from here. You're staying behind."

Yana nodded. "With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses."

The Doctor looked up at him, full of admiration for the selflessness this human exhibited. "You'd give your life so they could fly."

The professor scoffed. "Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep," he added with a tired smile.

"Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box," Lieutenant Atillo said over the intercom.

"Ah!" the Doctor said, relief easing the fear he'd been trying to ignore.

"Doctor." Jack beckoned him over to look at the monitor.

The sight of his TARDIS brought a smile to the Doctor's face, and he patted Professor Yana on the back. "Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out."

oOoOoOoOo

Rose felt the Doctor's relief, and in reply to her query, he told her the TARDIS had been found. She sucked in a deep breath, and Martha looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"They've found the TARDIS."

"Chan, what is the TARDIS, tho?"

"She's our ship." Rose shifted the stack of cards for a better hold. "We got separated from her when the Futurekind chased us, but Lieutenant Atillo's men found her for us."

Martha grinned. "Best news I've heard all day."

The three of them jogged together back to the lab, weaving through the crowd of humans waiting to board the rocket. When they got there, the ship was already standing tall on the far side of the room. The doors were open, and a moment later, the Doctor skipped out carrying a cable under his arm.

"Extra power." He hooked the cable up to the power supply for the engine. "Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro feeds."

Rose set down her stack of cards and hurried into their ship, ignoring everyone else. The familiar hum calmed her, and she ran a hand over a strut. Two months in 1913 and two months in 1969, she told the TARDIS. I wasn't ready to lose you again.

The hum changed pitch slightly, and Rose frowned, trying to place the emotion she was sensing. The harder she tried, the more the TARDIS pulled away, and she finally realised the ship didn't want her to know what it was thinking.

All right, Dear, she said soothingly. Keep your secrets.

When she slipped back out into the lab, Jack was pointing at Martha. "Connect those circuits into the spar, same as that last lot. But quicker."

"Ooo, yes, sir," Martha muttered sarcastically as she went to do as he asked.

Rose crossed her arms and looked at Jack. "The Doctor isn't the only one who can be rude," she said mildly.

Jack flushed and cleared his throat. "Right. Sorry, Martha."

Rose joined the Doctor, who was leaning over Professor Yana. The professor was sitting down in a chair, looking pale and tired. "You don't have to keep working," the Doctor told him. "We can handle it."

The professor shook his head. "It's just a headache. It's just, just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head."

The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look—that sounded an awful like telepathy. "What sort of noise?" Rose asked.

He sighed. "It's the sound of drums," the professor said wearily. "More and more, as though it's getting closer."

"As though what's getting closer, Professor?" Rose asked.

Professor Yana offered Rose a weak smile. "Why, the end of the universe of course, my dear."

"When did it start?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, I've had it all my life. Every waking hour. Still, no rest for the wicked."

He got up from his seat, leaving the Doctor and Rose looking at each other. What do you think? Rose asked him.

Telepathic signal implanted in his brain? the Doctor suggested. But why? If it's counting down to the end of the universe, why hasn't something happened before now?

Rose had the distinct feeling that they were asking the wrong question, but she couldn't figure out what the right question was, so she shrugged and followed the Doctor and the professor back over to the main control panel.

oOoOoOoOo

Martha had sneered a bit at Jack's imperious order, but in truth, she was glad to have something to do again. She and Chantho worked together to get the circuit boards into the rack.

"How long have you been with the professor?" Martha asked while they worked.

Chantho took the next circuit board from her. "Chan, seventeen years, tho."

Martha's eyes widened. "Blimey. A long time."

"Chan, I adore him, tho."

Her blue skin brightened just a bit, and Martha got the impression she was blushing. Then she realised she hadn't seen a single sign of a relationship between the two.

"Oh right, and he…"

A green tinge appeared along Chantho's cheeks. "Chan, I don't think he even notices, tho."

Martha nodded, then changed the subject, for Chantho's sake. "Do you mind if I ask? Do you have to start every sentence with chan?"

Chantho's eyes widened. "Chan, yes, tho."

"And end every sentence with…"

"Chan, tho, tho."

Martha tilted her head in consideration. "What would you happen if you didn't?"

Chantho's eyes widened. "Chan, that would be rude, tho," she said, her voice nearly squeaking on the word rude. She laughed nervously, then looked around the room as if she were afraid someone else had overheard the suggestion.

Martha smiled slightly. "What, like swearing?" she asked, half-teasing.

But Chantho nodded earnestly. "Chan, indeed, tho," she whispered.

"Go on, just once," Martha encouraged.

"Chan, I can't, tho."

"Oh, do it for me."

Chantho looked around the room, then back at Martha. "No." Her eyes widened again, and she burst into a fit of giggles, her tentacles moving in time with her laughter.

They giggled together as they finished putting the circuit boards in place, then Martha wandered over to stand by the Doctor, looking down at the main control panel.

"Professor, are you getting me?" Lieutenant Atillo asked over the intercom.

The professor sat down in front of the terminal. "I'm here! We're ready! Now all you need to do is connect the couplings, then we can launch." His tone of voice changed from excitement to sharp annoyance. "God sake! This equipment. Needs rebooting all the time."

Martha walked over to him. "Anything I can do? I've finished that lot."

Professor Yana stood up, and Martha sat in his place. "Yes, if you could. Just press the reboot key every time the picture goes."

"Certainly, sir." Martha pressed the button. "Just don't ask me to do shorthand."

He patted her on the shoulder. "Right."

Atillo's face reappeared on the screen. "Are you still there?

Yana leaned over her shoulder. "Ah, present and correct. Send your man inside. We'll keep the levels down from here."

Rose wandered over to stand next to Martha as the picture on the monitor faded out, then back in on a room bathed in red light. A man in a radiation suit walked inside, and Atillo shut the door quickly behind him.

"He's inside. And good luck to him," Atillo added fervently.

Yana hustled over to Jack. "Captain, keep the dials below the red."

"Where is that room?" the Doctor asked, voicing the question they all were wondering.

"It's underneath the rocket," Professor Yana said. "Fix the couplings and the footprint can work. But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation."

The two men walked over to watch the man's progress on the monitor.

"Stet?" the Doctor asked. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't want to," Yana said darkly. "But it's safe enough, if we can hold the radiation back from here."

The Doctor rested his hand on Rose's shoulder, and the four of them watched the man work at one of five couplings, tapping a series of buttons and then opening a hatch. He reached inside and grabbed onto something they couldn't see, and a moment later, the coupling dropped with a thunk.

Simultaneously, an alarm sounded. "It's rising. Naught point two," Yana muttered, then turned around to shout an order to Jack. "Keep it level!"

Jack nodded. "Yes, sir."

Inside the chamber, the second coupling slotted into place. Rose had a knot in her stomach as she watched, and she'd just realised it was dread, not anticipation, when the lights went out in the lab and alarms sounded.

They all looked around apprehensively, and Chantho stated when they were all thinking. "Chan, we're losing power, tho!"

The Doctor, the professor, and Jack all leapt into action, each of them working on a different part of the engine, trying to keep things going.

"Radiation's rising!" Jack yelled. He looked at another panel, then back at the Doctor. "We've lost control!"

"The chamber's going to flood," the professor pronounced gloomily.

"Jack, override the vents!" the Doctor ordered.

Inside the chamber, the man continued to work on the couplings, even as Atillo shouted at him to get out. Rose knew, with a horrible feeling in her gut, exactly what was going to happen to the poor man. He was too stunned by the alarm blaring around him to grasp what he needed to do, and in seconds, that shock would kill him.

Jack yanked a live cable out of the console, then grabbed a second from the control panel for the vents. "We can jump start the override."

"Don't! It's going to flare!" the Doctor told him, just as Jack held the two live ends together.

Rose felt him die, then felt the odd bump in Time as it argued with the fact. Do you feel it? the Doctor asked. She took his hand and squeezed in answer.

Martha's medical training kicked in, and she ran to Jack's side. "I've got him."

"Chan, don't touch the cables, tho." Chantho squatted down and tossed the cables out of the way while Martha started mouth-to-mouth on Jack.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Professor Yana said.

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets and looked down at their friends. "The chamber's flooded with radiation, yes?"

Rose looked at the Doctor sharply, instantly understanding what he was going to suggest. He met her gaze evenly, and after a moment, she sighed and nodded. As much as she disliked the idea of exploiting Jack's inability to die, it was their best chance to get the rocket working.

Professor Yana nodded glumly. "Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing."

"Oh, I don't know."

Rose put a hand on Martha's shoulder. "Martha, leave him."

Martha fought as Rose pulled her away from Jack. "You've got to let me try."

"No, really," Rose told her. "Just leave him alone."

They all looked down at Jack, lying dead on the floor for a few more seconds. "It strikes me, Professor," the Doctor said, "you've got a room which no man can enter without dying. Is that correct?"

The professor snorted. "Yes."

"Well…" the Doctor drawled.

Jack gasped for breath, and Rose nearly threw up at the grating sensation of him coming back to life.

The Doctor took his glasses off. "I think I've got just the man," he concluded.

"Was someone kissing me?" Jack asked.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor and Jack ran through the base to the control room. "Lieutenant," the Doctor shouted as they entered the room, "get on board the rocket! I promise you're going to fly."

"The chamber's flooded," Atillo protested.

"Trust me. We've found a way of tripping the system," the Doctor lied.

Atillo looked at him sceptically, but stood up and walked slowly towards the door.

"Run!" the Doctor ordered, and he finally left the room.

The Doctor flipped a few switches on the control panel, then looked over at Jack, who was down to trousers and undershirt. "What are you taking your clothes off for?"

"I'm going in."

"Well, by the looks of it, I'd say the stet radiation doesn't affect clothing, only flesh," the Doctor said sardonically.

"Well, I look good though," Jack said, as only Jack could. He paused at the door and looked back at the Doctor. "I guess there's something good about this after all."

The Doctor nodded. "Yep. Good luck."

Jack entered the chamber and closed the door quickly behind him. The Doctor followed, so he could watch through the window.

oOoOoOoOo

Rose clasped her hands together and pressed them to her lips. The danger she and the Doctor had sensed was here, now. Time was pulling them insistently in one direction. With a start, she realised it was the same feeling she'd gotten from the TARDIS when she'd said she wasn't ready to lose her again.

She took a step towards the ship, but the TARDIS hummed a warning, and she backed away.

They watched on the monitor as Jack walked into the chamber, but then the signal was lost again. "We lost picture when that thing flared up," Martha mumbled. She pressed the reboot button. "Doctor, are you there?"

"Receiving, yeah," the Doctor confirmed. "He's inside."

"And still alive?" Martha asked.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor told her.

Professor Yana shook his head. "But he should evaporate. What sort of a man is he?"

Rose paced the lab, running her hands nervously through her hair. Every question of Professor Yana's they answered pulled the timelines closer together.

"I've only just met him," Martha answered. "The Doctor and Rose sort of travel through time and space and pick people up." She shook her head. "God, I make us sound like stray dogs. Maybe we are."

Rose stopped and stared at her. "How can you say that, Martha?" she asked, not bothering to hide the hurt in her voice. She knew this mostly came from Martha's lingering confusion over Jack's story, and for the first time, she really understood how the Doctor must have felt when she'd questioned him after meeting Sarah Jane. But still… "When have we ever treated you like less than a friend?"

"You travel in time?" The hunger in Professor Yana's eyes when he looked at Rose made her skin crawl.

"Don't ask me to explain it." Martha pointed over her shoulder at the TARDIS. "That's a TARDIS, that box thing. The sports car of time travel, he says."

But Professor Yana didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. He'd turned around and was staring at the TARDIS. The avaricious gleam in his eyes made Rose want to climb into the ship and leave immediately, heedless of the people who were counting on them to get them to Utopia.

Something was going to happen, and she was stuck watching the temporal train wreck in progress.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor started to look back out the window after the brief conversation with Martha in the lab, but a wave of unease from Rose caught his attention. What is it, love? He was fairly sure he knew the answer, but he wondered if she'd figured it out for herself.

Do you feel that? she asked. That feeling like the timelines are sort of… pulling us, like we're just along for the ride, and whatever is going to happen will happen, no matter what we do?

That's a fixed point, Rose. I didn't notice it right away because Jack throws off my time senses, but that's what you're sensing.

Then that's why the TARDIS keeps telling me not to do certain things.

That's it.

I don't like it.

The Doctor chuckled wryly. Fixed points aren't often pleasant, he told her. He gave her a quick mental caress, then he looked back at Jack.

The sly look on Jack's face raised red flags right away, but he didn't anticipate the question. "So… bond mate, huh?" Jack asked as he keyed in the code to open the casing around the first coupling.

He blinked. Oh. He had called Rose that earlier, hadn't he? "Yes," he answered warily.

"I've known lots of telepaths in my time." The hatch popped open, and Jack grabbed the handle on the coupling. "And every one of them meant the same thing when they used that term."

The question was obvious, but the Doctor wasn't going to answer it without Rose's permission. She hadn't wanted to tell Jack about the changes to her physiology before, and even though he knew that was mostly because she'd been worn out from everything else that had happened that day, he still wanted the okay from her.

Rose? He didn't bother to put the question into words, knowing Rose was watching everything on the monitor and could put the pieces together.

There was a short pause, then she said, Go ahead, Doctor.

"Ask your questions, Jack," the Doctor told his friend as the first coupling dropped into place.

Jack looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he moved onto the next one. "Well, I think you just answered one. She's telepathic."

"Yes."

"She wasn't always telepathic, though, was she?" Jack grunted as he tried to pull the coupling up. "I'm pretty sure I would have noticed that when I travelled with you before."

"No, she wasn't." The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "Do you remember what I told you about how you became…" He looked Jack up and down. "This?"

Jack rocked back on his heels as he worked on the coupling. "You said—" He grunted. "You said she looked into the Time Vortex."

"She took it into herself and merged with the TARDIS. The TARDIS made her telepathic so they could communicate. The Vortex… the Vortex changed her physiology."

The second coupling dropped into place and Jack punched in the code to open the third. "You told Professor Yana that you were the last two Time Lords in existence. I thought you were just including her because she's your wife… Time Lord by marriage or something. But you meant it."

The Doctor nodded. "I did. Rose's basic anatomy is still human. But holding the Vortex inside her was killing her, and Time decided it wasn't ready for her to die yet. The way it brought her back changed her."

Jack whistled. "You know, Doc, not many people can say their spouse was once a goddess."

The Doctor smiled. "Rose didn't need to look into the heart of the TARDIS to be a goddess to me," he said quietly.

Jack chuckled. "You guys always were the cutest couple I've ever known."

The Doctor shrugged. He wasn't trying to be cute or sweet; it was the honest truth.

"Anyway, her biological connection to time is very similar to mine. She can even feel and manipulate time the way I can. So, yes, Rose is a Time Lord; yes, she is telepathic; and yes, we have a telepathic bond."

"What's that like?" Jack grunted, still trying to get the third coupling to move. "I've been with a few people who could form a temporary connection during sex, but an actual bond…"

"Jack," the Doctor said warningly.

Jack threw him a cheeky grin. "Can't blame a guy for trying," he said.

The Doctor didn't say anything. It might not be unexpected for Jack to follow that line of questioning, but he still wasn't going to give him any details about their sex life.

Jack caught on after a moment and nodded. "Right. So, Rose is a Time Lord. Does that mean she can regenerate?"

The Doctor took his glasses off and rubbed at his forehead. "We don't know," he said. "I think she can, most likely—she has the genetic code that Gallifreyans only received when we graduated from the Academy and became Time Lords. But there's only one way to find out for sure."

"And I don't imagine you're keen on letting her die."

"Not exactly, no."

The Doctor was done talking about his relationship with Rose. "Do you want to die?" he asked, changing the subject.

Jack grimaced as he pulled on the coupling. "Oh, this one's a little stuck."

"Jack?"

Jack looked at him and shook his head. "I thought I did. I don't know. But this lot." He grinned with the same zest for life he'd always shown. "You see them out here surviving, and that's fantastic." The two men shared a smile, and then the coupling finally dropped.

"You might be out there, somewhere," the Doctor told him as he moved on to the last one.

"I could go meet myself," Jack realised.

The Doctor was confident enough in Jack's understanding of the laws of Time to not take that seriously. "Well, the only man you're ever going to be happy with," he ribbed.

Jack laughed. "This new regeneration—it's kind of cheeky."

oOoOoOoOo

Rose watched the professor's reactions to the conversation with a growing sense of foreboding. She hadn't wanted to say yes when the Doctor had asked, not when Yana could hear everything he said to Jack, but the tug of the timelines had been inexorable. Watching Professor Yana pace the lab nearly in tears, she felt like maybe there had been things he'd needed to hear that wouldn't have come out without this conversation.

Martha shook her head. "I never understand half the things he says." She turned around and spotted the professor, and her smile disappeared. "What's wrong?"

"Chan, Professor, what is it, tho?"

All three women moved to stand in front of the professor, Martha and Chantho concerned, and Rose anxious.

"Time travel," Professor Yana gasped. "They say there was time travel back in the old days." Tears were streaking down his face. "I never believed. But what would I know? Stupid old man. Never could keep time. Always late, always lost. Even this thing never worked."

Rose and Martha's eyes widened as the Professor pulled an old fob watch out of his pocket. Rose felt timelines tightening around them, and she knew—knew without a doubt—that the professor was a Time Lord.

"Time and time and time again," Professor Yana said. "Always running out on me."

"Can I have a look at that?" Martha asked, at the same time as Rose fought to keep from taking a step back from the professor and the watch.

"Oh, it's only an old relic." He chuckled wetly. "Like me."

Martha looked at the watch, then back at the professor. "Where did you get it?"

"Hmm? I was found with it," he said, as if he were only realising now how unusual a story that was.

Rose wanted to stop the conversation, to keep the professor from realising what he was. The Face of Boe was right; the Doctor was not alone.

"What do you mean?" Martha pressed.

"An orphan in the storm. I was a naked child found on the coast of the Silver Devastation. Abandoned, with only this." He looked down at the watch with new eyes.

"Have you opened it?" Martha asked, before Rose could stop her.

He shrugged. "Why would I? It's broken."

Martha looked excited, like Christmas had come early. "How do you know it's broken if you've never opened it?"

"It's stuck," Yana insisted, holding the watch in shaking hands. "It's old. It's not meant to be. I don't know."

Martha turned the watch over slowly and they saw the Gallifreyan symbols they'd both known would be there. She gasped and took a step back, and Rose quickly took it from her hand, wanting it dropped and out of sight.

As soon as she touched the watch, she could hear two voices, both belonging to the Time Lord inside.

The drums, the drums, the drums, the never ending drumbeat. Open me, you human fool. Open the light and summon me and receive my majesty.

Destroy him! And you will give your power to me!

"Does it matter?" Professor Yana asked curiously.

Rose forced a smile. "No, it's nothing," she lied as she handed the watch back to the professor. "Listen, everything's fine here. Martha and I should go see if the Doctor needs us."

Martha followed her out of the room without question. "This could be good, couldn't it?" she asked as they ran through the corridors. "I mean, if there's another Time Lord, then the Doctor isn't the only one."

Rose sighed. "If there's another Time Lord, then he hid himself away so he wouldn't have to take part in the Time War. I don't know if I can forgive that, even if the Doctor can."

"What do you mean?"

"Martha…" Rose bit her lip. The Doctor hadn't told her the worst part about the war, and she clearly hadn't figured it out for herself. "The Doctor still has nightmares about the war," she said, skirting around the truth. "He was there; he fought on the front lines. And you know how much he hates violence."

"So here's someone who deserted… I get it."

That wasn't Rose's only misgiving. The voices she'd heard had terrified her. Whoever was inside that watch, they were nothing like her Doctor. The flashes of cruel ambition she'd seen in his eyes, that was the Time Lord in the watch bleeding through.

The TARDIS hummed mournfully and Rose nearly spun around and ran back to her. How could she have left their ship alone with a deranged Time Lord? But the TARDIS pushed Rose forward, and she realised that if she were there when he opened the watch, he would take her, too. She had to go tell the Doctor, and together, they could track the Time Lord down.

oOoOoOoOo

"Yes!" Jack shouted when the final coupling fell into place.

"Now, get out of there," the Doctor ordered. "Come on!"

Jack ran out of the radiation chamber and slammed the door shut while the Doctor got Atillo on the horn. "Lieutenant, everyone on board?"

"Ready and waiting," Lieutenant Atillo replied.

"Stand by," the Doctor told him. "Two minutes to ignition."

"Ready to launch. Outer doors sealed."

"Countdown commencing," the computer announced. "T minus ninety-nine, ninety-eight…"

The Doctor and Jack ran around the control room, flicking the last switches into place for the rocket ignition. Rose and Martha ran into the room, and he beamed at them. "Ah, nearly there. The footprint, it's a gravity pulse," he said, excited that he finally understood it. "It stamps down,the rocket shoots up. Bit primitive. It'll take the both of us to keep it stable."

A gauge started beeping, and the Doctor lunged for the control panel it monitored. Martha moved to the other side of the room with him, excitement rolling off her in waves.

"Doctor, it's the professor. He's got this watch. He's got a fob watch. It's the same as yours. Same writing on it, same everything."

"What?" The Doctor looked up at Rose. In answer, she sent him a picture of the professor holding the fob watch, and an image of the engraving on the back.

"So he's got the same watch," Jack said.

Rose shook her head, and the Doctor noticed she seemed… resigned. "It's not just a watch, Jack."

The Doctor shuddered at the feeling of timelines tightening around them. "No, no, no, it's this, this thing, this device, it rewrites biology. Changes a Time Lord into a human."

"And it's the same watch," Martha insisted.

His friend looked insistent and excited, but everything from the timelines to the dread he felt from Rose told him this was not a good thing.

"It can't be," the Doctor insisted, not wanting to believe what he was starting to understand was happening here.

Another gauge went haywire, and the Doctor ran down to check it out.

"That means he could be a Time Lord," Jack exclaimed. "You might not be the last one."

"Jack, keep it level!" he ordered, trying to ignore the conversation and focus on the far more important task of sending the last of humanity off to Utopia.

"Look, I get that maybe the bloke might not ever be your best friend," Martha said, "but isn't it at least a good thing that you're not the last one left?"

The Doctor shifted down to another panel and worked the controls there. "Yes, it is. Course it is. Depends which one."

Do you want to hear what I heard when I held the watch? Rose asked.

He looked at her warily, then nodded. The shared memory took only a few seconds, but that was enough time to upend his life. He knew those voices.

His hands clenched into fists and his eyes darted between Rose and Martha. "What did he say?" he ground out.

"Martha was paying more attention to him," Rose said. "I kept getting distracted by the fixed point."

The Doctor spun around and leaned over Martha. "What did he say?"

Martha jumped, and the Doctor felt bad for startling her. But if the Master came back…

She took a deep breath. "He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it. Like that perception filter thing."

"What about now? Can he see it now?" the Doctor asked quietly.

"We can't stop it, Doctor," Rose said, and he could hear how much she hated the thought. "He'll open the watch and come back… and he's going to take the TARDIS."

Jack and Martha's shouts of protest covered up the sound of the computer counting down the final seconds.

"Take the TARDIS!?"

"Oh, it wouldn't be the first time," the Doctor said bitterly as he kept an eye on the last gauge. "He's attempted it before when he was without a TARDIS. Tried to steal her from me in San Francisco, 1999."

The countdown reached zero, and as the rocket took off, the Doctor felt the sudden awareness of another telepath on the planet. The Master had opened the watch.

The Doctor was torn; he wanted to run back to the lab and get his TARDIS and take Rose as far from here as he could, but he needed to confirm that the rocket had successfully left the atmosphere.

He got on the horn again, every second lost chafing at him. "Lieutenant, have you done it? Did you get velocity?" He waited a moment, then repeated the call. "Have you done it? Lieutenant, have you done it?"

"Affirmative. We'll see you in Utopia."

The Doctor didn't even bother to say goodbye; he just dropped the phone and ran for the door. It slammed shut just as he reached it, and he pulled the sonic screwdriver out, working on the deadlock seal.

"Get it open!" he ordered Jack, who appeared at his side a moment later. "Get it open!"

In the back of his mind, he could tell Rose was accepting this much more stoically than he was. She didn't try to calm him down though, which he appreciated.

They got the door open and were halfway to the lab when they met the Futurekind, turning the corner ahead of them. The Doctor cursed the Master and his contingency plans as he skidded to a halt and ran in the opposite direction.

No matter how fast they ran, the Futurekind were still on their heels. The Doctor was in a panic to get to the lab, to hopefully keep the Master from taking the TARDIS.

As they ran past a service corridor, Jack slid around and turned. "This way!"

They reached the lab in less than a minute, but that door was deadlock sealed too. "Professor!" the Doctor called out, hoping to appeal to the human the Master had been. He didn't reply, so the Doctor pounded on the door. "Professor, let me in! Let me in!" For the third time that day, he and Jack worked together to open a door. "Jack, get the door open now!"

"I know you've opened the watch, Professor," the Doctor said as he ran the sonic down one side of the door. "I know you know who you are now, but there's so much you don't know. It isn't like it was before."

"They're coming!" Martha said.

"Professor! Open the door, please! I'm begging you, Professor. Please, listen to me. Just open the door, please."

Finally, Jack smashed the control panel and the door opened. The Doctor stumbled into the lab and saw the Master, leaning against his TARDIS. Even if he hadn't heard the voices in the watch in Rose's memory, he would have known who he was on sight.

His oldest friend and oldest enemy stepped back into the Doctor's TARDIS and closed the door behind him. The Doctor's shaking hands fumbled with the key, and the Master had turned the lock by the time he got it out.

The Doctor reached for his screwdriver next and started unlocking the door, but he'd only gotten it partway open when he heard a clunk. The TARDIS hummed apologetically, and he realised the Master had triggered the deadlock seal.

"Let me in! Let me in!" the Doctor demanded, pounding on the TARDIS. Rose had said they'd lose her, but he hadn't wanted to believe…

He stumbled back a few steps, going over the options in his mind. The Master had the TARDIS and he couldn't get in. The only thing he could do was make sure he knew where to find him.

The Doctor's friends were talking to him, but he couldn't hear them over the roaring in his ears. "I'm begging you. Everything's changed! It's only the two of us! We're the only ones left! Just let me in!"

Gold light shone through the TARDIS windows, and the unearthly scream echoing from inside the console room made it clear what had happened. The Doctor took another half step back; the Master had regenerated.

"Doctor! You'd better think of something!" Jack shouted, and the Doctor was vaguely aware of the screams of the Futurekind filling the room.

But he kept his eyes on the TARDIS.

"Now then, Doctor." The Master paused. "Ooo, new voice. Hello, hello. Hello," he repeated, testing out his new vocal cords. "Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I don't think."

"I'm asking you really properly," the Doctor pleaded. "Just stop. Just think!"

"Use my name."

"Master," the Doctor whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Tough!" the Master shouted, and started the dematerialisation sequence.

"I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!" Jack shouted.

Hating fixed points more than he ever had in his life, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and locked the coordinates of his beloved ship, apologising to her all the while for leaving her in the Master's hands.

"Oh, no you don't!" the Master retorted, not realising yet what he'd done. "End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!"

Rose took his hand as their TARDIS disappeared, tugging gently once it was gone. "If we're going to stop him and get her back, we need to get out of here," she said softly. "And to do that, we need to get away from the Futurekind."

He stared at her blankly, and she tried the words that had always gotten through to him before.

"I need you, Doctor."

AN: There's a short chapter on Saturday, the last of the Master POV interludes. And then I'm afraid we are diving straight into the heart of the Master arc, with no way out but through.