Alright, everyone... Last chapter, here we go.

Thank you all for reading, I hope you've enjoyed it! [heart] [heart]

Chapter 24: The Long Way Around

The Master materialized the TARDIS right back where she belonged, back at the South Pole on November 23rd, 1986.

Clara's birthday…

He hadn't gotten her a gift. Although, perhaps he had, in a way?

She'd been the Doctor's Christmas present and he had been her birthday present.

That was remarkably efficient and he felt that someone should be congratulating him.

He realized he was drifting, his brain growing fuzzy with his own impending change.

Time to head back to his own TARDIS, safe within the corridors of the Doctor's ship.

'We did well, Little One.'

"We did," he replied. He said the words aloud. It helped to focus.

'I am very proud of you,' she added.

He smiled, self-satisfied. "Of course you are," he said, waving it off. "I saved everyone. I beat the Doctor at his own game!" He chuckled because the Doctor would be so jealous when he figured it all out.

The scanner up above flashed on and he saw a figure in the snow. Moving towards them.

Time had restarted. He hadn't even noticed.

He needed to regenerate, time was short.

The Plan was complete.

Everything was done, settled. The Doctor was safe and well, or would be, soon enough.

But it was as if he was still waiting for something…

Clara?

No. Clara would find him.

She'd promised she would be here. She was probably waiting in his TARDIS right now.

His eyes lingered on the figure in the snow. And he started to smile, because this is what he had been waiting for… This one last, wonderful idea.

He wondered why he hadn't thought of it before, because it was so perfect. Then he realized he probably had… He couldn't remember now why he had dismissed it.

It was far too beautiful to pass up.

Laughing at the joke he was about to play, he opened the exterior doors and walked out towards the Doctor.

His friend didn't see him at first, head down, simply trying to get home before his first ever regeneration.

"Hello, Doctor," the Master called out, just before the Doctor actually bumped into him.

The Doctor stopped short, eyes focusing through the falling snow. "Hmm?" he responded. "Hello? Who - who is that?" He didn't seem to process that he was staring at a mirror image of himself. Vague concern registered on his face.

The Master smiled. A familiar expression on a familiar face. He'd grown up with that face.

"Are you lost?" the Doctor asked. "You should - you should head towards the Base, it isn't safe to be outside in this cold. I regret I cannot take you there myself..."

The Master rolled his eyes. The Doctor was literally dying of old age and was still trying to help everyone.

Idiot.

Also, he was taking all the fun out of the joke because he hadn't seemed to realize he was looking at himself.

So the Master dropped his disguise and grinned at his young friend. "Surprise!" he said gleefully.

The Doctor's expression fell, no longer amiably concerned, no longer unrecognizing. And then he pouted, frowning. Another expression the Master was very familiar with.

"You," the Doctor spluttered, pointing accusingly. "You, you! No!"

The Doctor threw up his hands dismissively and walked right past the Master as fast as he could manage.

The Master just shook his head and followed, catching up easily.

"Not happy to see me, then?" he asked, taking the Doctor's arm as his friend stumbled.

He'd found the Doctor at an especially complicated point in their relationship. He was excited to see how the Doctor would respond.

"I told you to leave me alone," the Doctor grumbled predictably, jerking his arm away. The Master just took it back again. "What are you doing here?" the Doctor asked, stopping in his tracks to ask irrelevant questions, as always. "Did they send you here?"

The Master laughed, thinking of how long it had been since he'd been at the beck and call of Gallifrey's CIA. "No, I'm a free agent these days."

The Doctor grunted, understanding immediately what that meant. When he connected the next dot, it was visible on his face. "You did this, created these Cybermen, these monsters?"

"No," the Master said reflexively. He hadn't been involved in Mondas's attempted takeover of Earth. But then he realized that wasn't quite what the Doctor had asked. "Well, actually…" he chuckled.

The Doctor looked severely displeased. "So this is what you've been doing? Creating these horrors, murdering innocent creatures?"

The Master shrugged happily, thinking of the many and varied things he'd done over the centuries. "Among other things."

The Doctor shook his head down at the snow. "Despicable. Perverted. Shameful!" he muttered. He raised one finger to shake it in the Master's face. "You, sir, you should be ashamed."

The Master just laughed in the face of the Doctor's moral ire. It was like being lectured by a five-year-old.

The Doctor pulled himself up, offended at his friend's reaction. And suddenly he was far more the Doctor and the situation became far less amusing. "You think this is funny?" the Doctor thundered. There was a fire in his eyes, one which the Master knew would survive every regeneration.

"No, sorry," the Master said, serious for a moment. "Not this," he gestured around at the snow, at 1986.

He didn't want to fight, not now.

"What, then?" the Doctor prodded, quickly becoming more curious than angry. "Hmm? Why are you laughing?"

"I'll explain the joke one day," the Master assured his friend. The Doctor was unsteady, weak. The Master took his arm again, gently. "Come on, let's get you home. Things to do. We both have places to be."

"Why are you here?" the Doctor asked as they walked through the snow towards the beacon of the TARDIS.

The Master patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm just passing through."

"What does that mean?" the Doctor asked suspiciously. "Passing through to where? Hmm?"

"Spoilers," the Master chuckled, borrowing River's line.

They entered the familiar white Console room and the Doctor broke away, leaning against the Console, working his way around it.

"Spoilers?" the Doctor muttered to himself. "What's that, spoilers? What's he talking about?"

The Master watched, thinking of the friend he had met so long ago. Thinking of his own past and the Doctor's future. The nostalgia ached like an old war wound.

But, oh… The good times that lay ahead for the Doctor.

For both of them, hopefully.

He wondered, if the Doctor from his own future were to show up now, what he would say about the Master's life?

What spoilers were out there for him?

If the Doctor's future was any indication, it was sheer foolishness to even attempt to imagine.

Then the Doctor staggered and the Master rushed forward to catch his friend, lowering him gently to the floor.

He could see the fear so clearly in the Doctor's eyes. He thought about his own first regeneration, how frightened he had been. How abruptly everything had changed.

How confusing it had all been until he saw that his friend was still there, still the same.

He couldn't fulfill that role for the Doctor this time, as much as he would love to.

But the Doctor had other friends. Ben and Polly, on their way through the snowdrifts even now.

And then so many more friends...

A thousand new friends. A million new adventures.

So many wonderful years ahead...

"Listen," the Master said quietly. "I know you're frightened. I know you aren't ready. But you're going to be ok. Trust me, I know. I've seen it. Actually," he smiled, "you're not just going to be ok. You're going to be… Incredible. You'll see."

The Doctor still looked afraid, was still fighting to stay. His gaze darted to the friend he had grown up with. Even as his body failed, his eyes were so sharp and there was such reproach in them. "But you… You changed. It made you... Different. It made you cruel."

The Master shook his head and leaned close, telling the awful truth the Doctor hadn't been able to accept. "It didn't," he said.

A sadness grew in the Doctor's eyes as he understood and the Master's hearts ached.

But not all fantasies were good. Some had to be dispelled, despite the pain.

"I'm sorry. It doesn't work that way," the Master explained gently. "It doesn't turn you into someone else. It makes you the person you didn't realize you've already become."

"I'm, ah… I'm not sure I know who that is…" the Doctor muttered, troubled.

"I do," the Master said simply. He thought about all the versions of his friend he had met, all still ahead for this Doctor. He realized the Doctor was watching, wondered how much he could see. "Trust me," he smiled. "You're going to love being you."

Finally, the Doctor seemed to reach acceptance. The fear fell away. "Perhaps… Perhaps it is time to see what comes next," he murmured.

The Master looked up and Clara was standing there, watching silently with a fond smile and shining eyes.

"Happy Birthday," the Master remembered to say.

Clara laughed and wiped away a tear. "Thanks. I came to find you. Should have known," she added, nodding towards the Doctor.

"Who is that?" the Doctor asked. "Hmm? Who's there?"

Clara moved to kneel by the Doctor's side, putting a hand to his cheek tenderly. "Hello, Doctor," she said.

He reached up to her, vague memories trying to surface in his eyes. "Do I know you, child? You seem... Familiar. Have we met?"

Clara grabbed his hand tight and smiled warmly. "Yeah, couple of times. But we've never been properly introduced."

"Hmm," he smiled. Then the Doctor's gaze wandered, looking through Clara and into the distance. "Susan?" he said softly. "My little Susan?"

Clara kissed the Doctor on the cheek as his eyes closed. "See you soon, Doctor," she said. She looked up at the Master and got to her feet. "Come on," she said. "Home."

"Don't you want to see?" he asked as she started to pull him away from the Doctor. "It's a big moment. History."

"You know we can't," Clara reminded him. He wasn't sure why she was laughing. "We have our own history to make, remember?"

The Master looked back one more time at the controls on the Console, moving and flashing all on their own. He heard a pounding, voices outside the door shouting to be let inside.

With a self-satisfied smirk, he snapped his fingers to open the TARDIS doors for Polly and Ben.

"Take care of him," he said to the TARDIS and he wasn't even certain if he'd said it aloud or not.

'Always…' she whispered back.

Then he was back in his own TARDIS… On the floor, looking up at Clara's eyes, bright with tears.

"You did good," she smiled, her hand on his cheek, in his hair. "You did great. You saved him. He's going to be ok."

"My Clara…" he said, hoping she understood all the words he couldn't find right now.

He'd say them in a moment.

She kissed him, one last time. "See you on the other side, Master," she said, and she stepped back.

The Master closed his eyes as the flame of regeneration engulfed him, devouring the person he had been, making way for the person he had become.

He let it take him.

He was ready for the change, ready for whatever came next.

And then everything was different.

New and strange and exciting.

But there was someone else there, looking into his new eyes with her own familiar brown ones.

"Clara," the Master smiled. She was a center, a still point in the wild confusion of a Universe that was clamoring against eager senses. "Well?" he asked. "How do I look?"

Later, he'd acquaint himself with his own appearance, how he'd changed. Right now, Clara's assessment was better than a mirror... And far more important.

Clara stepped close, searching his new face with a smile, taking it in both hands, processing the change.

The Master marvelled at how different the world felt through new skin. Still, Clara's touch was so familiar and he grabbed her hand in his own, strong new bones and muscles holding tight as reality spun around them both like a chaotic circus ride, like a crowded ballroom, bright and glittering.

"Perfect," Clara pronounced. "You're perfect."

And that was all that mattered.

He raised her arm and twirled her, like they were dancing through the stars and galaxies and nebulae around them which never held still. The Doctor's cloak billowed out and Clara laughed as he pulled her close.

"So are you," the Master said softly to Clara. His voice sounded strange in his own ears. New pitch, new ears. "So, what do you think? Is the Universe ready for this?" he asked, indicating the both of them.

Clara smiled up at him, bright and loving, laughter in her eyes. "Probably not," she acknowledged mischievously.

"Good," the Master said.

Because the Doctor was safe and Clara was smiling and there was a whole Universe out there… And so many more plans to be made.

The End

Everyone, say hello to Sacha Dhawan! :D

I had no idea who the Master would be next when I wrote this, but you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. :)

And I couldn't resist putting the real First Doctor in there at the end... William Hartnell is a fantastic Doctor and very underrated: he created the role and really did a SUPERB job. I watched/listened to his entire era while working on this fic and I hope I did him justice.

Thanks again to...

... All of you for reading. It was a lot of words! Love you all. 3 3

... My sister, IncomingAlbatross for reading this and giving feedback and encouragement, but especially for listening to me talk cryptically about my Writing Struggles for months while I worked on this. Thank you, sister! :) [heart] (You can find her fic on AO3 if you're interested!)

... The Chakoteya Doctor Who Transcripts site. Literally could not have written this without that incredible resource. Highly recommend!

Until next time... Signing off. [heart] [heart]