Doctor Who: More than Friends
Author's note: This takes place between Spyfall Part 2 and Orphan 55. Hope you enjoy!
The Doctor and her companions were in the TARDIS. They were all crowded around the console. "So who was he?" Yasmin asked "Really?". The Doctor looked up from the console towards Yaz. "Who was who really?" she replied. Yaz scowled. "Don't do that," she said grumpily. "Don't do what?" she said without a hint of sarcasm. "You just did it again, changing the subject by asking another question, like we're idiots," she explained. The Doctor sighed. "The Master is a Time Lord like me. We attended the Gallifreyan Academy together. We became best friends." The Doctor paused for a moment, clearly lost in thought. Ryan and Graham shot glances at each other while Yaz waited in the uncomfortable silence. The Doctor took a while before continuing. "One night, we went outside and lied down on the desert sand and dust. We looked up at all the stars in the sky and made a promise. We would visit them all, together, just us, forever. And that was the night I fell in love with a madman." "Wait, you loved him?" asked Yaz in confusion. "Yeah, and he loved me. It was a bit more than a crush. When I ran away, I invited him to come with me, to be my companion. But it wasn't meant to be. I visit and try to help where I can, where he will arrive and take over, try to control. The ultimate battle of good and evil." "Hey Doc, if that's your idea of a relationship, you and 'im are gonna need some serious couple's therapy," Graham pitched in. "Yeah, if you guys are friends or lovers or whatever and all that, why does he hate you so much, why does he try to kill you all the time?" asked Ryan. "Why would we? We grew up, and we now represent opposite sides of a coin. Our very ways of life clash with each other, we can never live in harmony together again." "What do we do now?" Yaz asked. "We continue as we are now. Flying about the universe and helping out where we can. It's a really big universe, but we may still find him again someday. Who knows?" Suddenly, the blue hexagons around the TARDIS began flashing red, lighting the orange crystals the same colour. A loud alarm started blaring. Everyone except the Doctor winced. Graham put his hands over his ears. "Hey Doc!" he shouted over the sound of the alarm "Can you make this racket stop?" "Not right now Graham, I need to see what's causing this." She raced over to one of the panels on the circular console and looked towards the readouts. "It's a distress signal!" she shouted, "But they normally don't make the TARDIS freak out like this, it must be very, distressing, see what I did there?" said the Doctor in a smug tone. "Yeah, yeah, that's the funniest thing I ever 'eard Doc, now can you please shut that alarm off!" Graham pleaded. The hexagons reverted to their blue colour, and the alarm stopped blaring all around the virtually infinite interior of the TARDIS. The Doctor spoke to her machine, "Alright, I was going to shut it off in a second." "Thank you," Graham whispered to the TARDIS. The TARDIS gave a happy groan in response. "Whoever sent that distress signal attached coordinates as well, shall we have a quick look? It would be rude not to," the Doctor said to her TARDIS team. They all nodded in agreement and the Doctor's face broke out into a massive grin. "Alright, as a wise man once said, geronimo." The Doctor pulled down a large black lever on the console.
The TARDIS materialized in a large room decorated to look like a living room in Victorian times. There was a pot of cold tea on the table and a vinyl in the corner not playing any music. The right door of the TARDIS flew open and the Doctor stepped out. She looked at her surroundings. Graham was the next to fall out of the TARDIS, and he looked around in confusion. "So, Doc, whoever sent the distress signal had powerful enough tech to make the whole TARDIS go nuts, but how can they have that if they live in Ye olde Victorian times?" The Doctor scrunched up her face. "Two possibilities, I say, number one, a thief of alien tech, number two, this isn't actually a Victorian times house." The Doctor jumped up, lied down on the floor, then got up and scanned her surroundings with the Sonic Screwdriver. She examined the readings and pulled a face. "You alright Doc?" asked Graham. "Of course, always am, I'm the queen of alright...why do you ask?" "Because you look like you just had a seizure or something." rebutted Graham. "I jumped to test the gravity, which is artificial, I lied down to see if I can feel the engines, which I could, and the Sonic just confirmed my assumptions. We're on a ship, not sure what type though." The Doctor turned to the TARDIS to see Yaz and Ryan exit. "What took you so long?" asked the Doctor. "Yas had to go to the wardrobe to change her shirt, because she wore it two days in a row and me being the kind soul I am, waited for her by the stairs," Ryan explained. "It's not my fault! Someone decided that the best way of saving me last time was the push me into the dirt, now my shirt stinks!" Yaz said, shooting death glares at Ryan. "I get that, I have to change my shirt." the Doctor said, drawing attention to her burgundy shirt. "There's literally no difference," said Yaz. The Doctor's face fell. "Yes there is! It's a different colour!" she explained. This was the first time that the TARDIS team noticed that she wasn't wearing her black shirt. "Where did you get that? We only bought the black one at the shop," Yaz noted. "I got the TARDIS to replicate for me in a different colour, now, can we stop getting distracted please?" asked the Doctor. "Police officer Khan, you search for clues, tech support Sinclair, you search for any devices and bring them back to me and Graham. You have the most important job of all." the Doctor told them. "Which is?" asked Graham. "Can you heat up that tea because I think once we solve this, we'll all need a break," the Doctor told him. "What? Why do I have to make the tea?" asked Graham. "Because you enjoy it the most!" the Doctor replied cheerily. "Oh alright then..." Graham muttered as he waddled off grumpily. The Doctor nodded at Yaz and Ryan and they split up. The Doctor left the room to find herself on a small balcony area in the house surrounded by doors. Looking over the railing, she realised that she was on the second floor. As she made her way down the stairs, she noticed the wall next to her was getting progressively rough as she descended. Towards the bottom, she noticed large circular indents in the wall. Staring at them she said, "This seems awfully familiar." She pulled out her sonic with a flourish and scanned the wall. Before the sonic could complete it's scan, it sparked up and shut off with a fizzing noise. The Doctor pulled a face. She pulled the sonic up and checked the readouts. "What? Technology too advanced?" She exited the staircase and was surprised to hear an echoing noise, instead of the typical click of a shoe hitting wood. She looked down at the floor. It was made of metal. She performed another scan, producing no results. She looked up from the sonic to see a door swinging open slowly, with a white light pulsing from within. She pocketed the sonic and moved towards the door, moving it slightly as she moved through it. She saw another set of steps leading to a slightly ajar door, the light was being emitted from behind the door. She pulled her sonic out, just in case she needed it for self-defence and descended the steps quickly and quietly. She pushed open the door and let out a surprised gasp. It was a TARDIS! The control room was white with a hexagonal console in the middle with a tiny time rotor. Round, white, indented circles, or as the Doctor called them, the 'round things', lined the walls. The wall at the back of the control room had large banks of computers protected by a large glass booth. A space-time visualiser. In front of that, hanging from the ceiling, was a device the Doctor recognised all too well. A chameleon arch. At the back, a small, bronze fob watch was attached. She heard a bang from behind her and she turned towards the sound of the noise. The doors had shut, locking her in. The Doctor was too shocked to speak, something that had been happening to her a lot recently. She repocketed the sonic and walked towards the central console, searching for the switch that activated the doors. She found it and flicked it. Green gas shot out from the console right towards her face. She backed away, but the damage was done. She tried to stumble towards the door, but her legs shut down and she fell to the floor. As everything went fuzzy and indistinct, she saw well-polished shoes approaching her. Then her brain shut down.
Blackness disappeared, her sight returning. "What happened?" is what she tried to say, but her mouth wasn't fully operational yet, so it came out more like "Wapend?" "Oh, you're finally awake," said a voice she recognised. "Finally?" she asked as her mouth started functioning again. Where did she recognise that voice from? Her brain hadn't reactivated it's memories yet. She finally moved her head up slightly to see a blurry figure approach her. "This better?" he asked. "Oh, it's you," said the Doctor as she finally recognised him. "Ughh! Why is my brain so slow? So were you the one who sent the distress signal?" she asked, almost fully awake now. "Of course I did," replied the Master. "I thought you would have sent down Yaz, but this is brilliant!" he said happily. "What are you talking about?" the Doctor was confused, then looked up, she noticed her wrists were in large cuffs. "Oh," she said. The Master laughed manically. "That's my name," he said. "Well, it was, a long time ago," he added. "What? You mean a few days ago? How did you escape anyway?" "No, no, no, to you, it was a few days ago, to me, oh it's been years! You foiled my plan twice Doctor! Now, I get to take my revenge!" "How, by forcing me to stand here, trapped, listening to you? I've had worse." "You think you're so funny, Doctor." "I do actually yeah." "Well, the joke's on you! This isn't my full plan. See that chameleon arch behind you, Doctor? I've modified it." "What? How?" the Doctor asked, visibly scared. "You see, you wrecked my plan, I wreck your life. I've set the settings to Time Lord, so you'll stay as you are, and I've already filled the fob watch. I used it without the arch, my consciousness is safe in there, ready to fill your body with my mind." "What? Why?" the Doctor nearly screamed. "At this point in your timeline, you still have plenty of regenerations, why do you want mine?" she asked desperately. "You ruined my plan twice! By becoming you, I ruin your life. You also have more regenerations, so that's a win-win-win." "I don't know how many regenerations the Time Lords gave me!" "That's not what I meant." "What?" "I'm about to begin the process, before your mind is wiped and filled with mine, any last words? No one will hear them anyway." "Yes, actually, because something you said is really bugging me because it doesn't add up. How can you be in the fob watch if you're standing in front of me?" she asked. "Oh, did I not mention? I'm not really here," he said. The hologram of the Master flicked away. "Ughh, that's annoying!" she said to the empty TARDIS, then froze. She strained to look behind her. The arch started moving across the room to her. "No..." She struggled against the restraints, but it was no use. The arch was right above her head now, slowly lowering. The clamps tightened, and the Doctor started screaming in agony. The bronze fob watch grew brighter, losing the shape of a fob watch and becoming more like a large ball of energy. Orange energy streamed out from the watch, entering her ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. The Doctor was jerking about on instinct, and as the last of the energy streamed out the watch and wiped her mind. She thought of her friends. Ryan, Graham, and Yaz. The energy stopped flowing from the now silver, empty fob watch. The Master, in his, or her, new body opened his eyes. The orange glow behind them dissipated. He gave a small smirk and looked up to the cuffs. "They're isomorphic so they should unlock..." he said, surprised at how his voice sounded. The cuffs registered his brainwaves and unbound, freeing his new hands. He shook them, letting the silver cuffs fall to the floor, leaving only a slight red tinge to the part of the wrist the cuffs attached themselves to. He pulled up his new hands and gazed at them. "They're so small," he thought. He ran his hands through his new, blonde hair and felt himself down the chest. He felt breasts. "That's new," he thought to himself. "Never been a woman before." he pulled back the front of his shirt and had a quick peek at them. He stopped himself. He had time to check out his new body later. He had to escape the ship. He walked over to the chameleon arch and ripped out the fob watch. "Just in case," he muttered to himself. He dropped the watch onto the console floor and stepped on it, crushing it. As he turned to leave, he flicked a switch on the central console, shutting off all the lights in the room.
Upstairs, the team were all gathered and enjoying a cuppa when the Master got to them. "Time to go," he said. "What? Why? We haven't finished yet! We were waiting for you! You've been gone hours. We were searching for you, but you were gone," Yaz said. "Did you find anyone, or anything?" Ryan asked. "No. Nothing more we can do here." said the Master. "Why don't you have a nice cuppa before making a decision," said Graham. "No time..." "Hey Doc, you alright?" asked Graham. "Yeah..." the Master was searching through his new brain for the Doctor's fragmented memories of this human. A name appeared in his mind. "Graham!" he said aloud. "Well after all the trouble you put me through to heat it, aren't you gonna have one?" asked Graham. The Master vaguely recalled that conversation. "No," he replied. "Really? That's a bit rude." Ryan said. "Oh! Yaz found some sort of file in a desk, and I found a phone." Ryan added. Graham had given up on trying to please the Doctor and entered the TARDIS grumpily. Nobody noticed. The Master scanned the Doctor's memories once again for something that the Doctor would say to them. He had already made a few slip-ups and he couldn't let that keep happening. Besides, once he got into the Doctor's TARDIS, the plan was complete, and he could stop being so polite and just kill them. He finally found what he was looking for. "Great work police officer Khan and tech support Sinclair, can I have them now please?" he told them. They both handed him the objects that they had found. The Master started to speed-read through the file (just diagnostics for parts of the ship) and looked at the phone. It was the phone he was using on Earth. Thank god neither of them investigated further, they were stupider than they looked. "Great, time to go," he said, heading towards the TARDIS. "What? We haven't finished? What is this place?" asked Yaz, blocking the Master from the doors to the TARDIS. "It's a victorian themed spaceship," he said simply "Can we go now?" he asked. "We can't just leave it here!" Yaz said. "Course we can, it won't cause any harm, it's too broken to do anything, people will just ignore it," he replied. "But, but..." Yaz said, stuttering. "But what?" asked the Master. "But that's not what you do." The Master sighed "Look, there is no immediate threat, it can't harm anyone and I don't want to destroy it, so let's just leave the ship." Yaz gave up, and let the Master through to the doors of the TARDIS. The Master ignored the sorry looking Yaz and grumpy looking Graham and rushed to the console, pulling a big black lever down. He shoved the file into a holder on one of the panels in the console and placed the phone into a small indented area on the console, connecting it to the TARDIS. The Doctor's friends were looking at him weirdly. He gave them his most convincing smile and looked down at the phone's screen. The text read 'SYSTEM WIPE IN PROGRESS'. This time, when the Master smiled, it was genuine, it was a smile of pure glee.