River took the lead stepping out of the TARDIS once they'd landed. She searched around the empty archive room but found no one. The others followed out behind her, the Master pulling up the rear and looking the most nervous about coming outside the safety that the TARDIS provided. They been in the Vortex for a long while, getting as much of the work done on the Biodata Module and consciousness transporter as they could within the TARDIS. Now they just had to hope they'd be able to finish now they were on Earth once more.
It didn't take long for the sound of pounding footsteps to be heard heading towards them. The shouting of soldiers and the distinct click of safety being turned off of guns and the room around them was swarmed by UNIT soldiers. The group out of the TARDIS all put their hands up immediately, the Master with more of an eyeroll and huff of annoyance over how much time this was going to waste for them. One of the Petronella Osgood's stepped into the room, hands in the pockets of her jacket and a hard look in her eye. She walked through the many men with guns until she was stood in front of the group.
"What are you doing back here?"
"We need help, it's to do with the Doctor." River spoke first. The Master opting to keep his mouth shut because he at least trusted her to get their point across. They would trust her.
"The Doctor killed Kate." Osgood's outrage and grief was clear and most of the group winced at the sound of it. Everyone except the Master, that is.
"It wasn't the Doctor though." Yaz was quick to tell her, "Not really. It's the Doctor's body but she's not the one in the driving seat right now." At the woman's confusion Yaz's face scrunched up sympathetically, "Sorry, it's a long story. But it wasn't the Doctor, you know the Doctor and she never would." At the face the Master made at those words he was rewarded a sharp jab to his ribs by River's elbow and he barely hid his noise of pained discomfort, one of his hands dropping so he could clutch his side for a second.
"If it's not the Doctor, then who is it?"
"She's called the Valeyard." The Master finally spoke up, "and she'd been inside the Doctor's head for a very long time. I accidentally set her free. So, she's very old and very angry and isn't hesitating to kill anyone who gets in her way."
"Who gets in her way of killing you?" Osgood was very blunt. The Master just shrugged and nodded. "You killed another me before. Tell me why I shouldn't just leave you to her."
"Because we need the Doctor back. And as long as he's alive we know where she's going to be. If he dies then we lose any idea of where she's going to be and the universe is put in more danger than ever." River spoke again and Osgood gave them a look, the grief still evident on her face but eventually she relented and nodded, pointing to her, looking at the Master.
"I'm only saying yes because she's here. Know that."
"Then I'll count us as lucky." The Master just replied sarcastically and finally lowered his arms. Osgood motioned for the soldiers to be at ease and at once the weapons were all lowered to point down to the ground rather than at them.
"How are you going to get the Doctor back?" Osgood asked as most of the soldiers started making their way out of the room again. A few stayed behind, a security detail remaining to no doubt keep Osgood safe.
"We have a plan. We need some things though; you wouldn't happen to still have that Vinvocci glass, would you? I have an idea that'll need it."
They'd had help from UNIT in clearing out what they could within the Black Archive room, giving them the room they needed to work with. The Vinvocci glass cases had been brought to them and placed in two corners of the room for them, and he and River were working on hooking them up, one of them at each. The Fam were all watching from various points in the room. They'd all asked if there was anything they could do to help, but the Master and River had both made it clear that what they were doing required total precision, so they'd just stood back and watched.
"So, what exactly is it that you're planning to do?" Yaz asked finally, looking between River and the Master as she waited for who was going to explain first.
"Back on Gallifrey, if you were considered dangerous enough, or if you'd done something bad enough, you'd be locked away. Or, if need be, your consciousness could be transferred over into another body."
"What's the plan this time?" Ryan asked, "are we using that fob watch?"
"No, well, if we had the Doctor's I would have, but this one's mine." The Master tucked his fob watch back into his pocket with a sigh, "Unfortunately the Doctor handed his off to a small child as some kind of good luck charm, so we've had to improvise."
"Improvise how?" Graham questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"That thing there," River pointed up to the device that she was currently installing to the top of the glass case she was inside of, "is a similar technology to a teleport. And teleports work kind of like a computer with a save file. As long as we have a scan of the Doctor's body and her DNA then we can use this to create a copy when it's needed."
"You're gonna make a clone of the Doctor?"
"We're going to try, and we'll put the Valeyard in that. We'll decide what to do with her afterwards. Vinvocci glass is unbreakable." The Master finished off with a tense sigh, "We just have to finish this before she gets here."
"And do we have a scan of the Doctor?" Yaz asked.
"That's where you three come in." River turned to them again.
"What we need all of you to do," the Master stretched over to a table to his left and picked up a small square looking device that had a long stem attached to it, like an old timey walkie talkie or radio. It was one of three. He held it out to them, and Graham took hold of that one, turning it over in his hands a few times, "is be somewhere off to the side with these. They will do an in-depth scan down to a molecular level for the species of origin, and let us know how likely this is to work and how we need to adjust it accordingly. Providing we have time. The more devices the more quickly it can finish."
"We used something like this before." Yaz said as she stepped forward, "Back with Daniel Barton."
"And what will you be doing?" Ryan asked, reaching to pick up his own one of the devices whilst tossing the other to Yaz who caught it. He looked to the Master as the other man grimaced unhappily.
"Keeping her talking. Hopefully."
"How do we know whatever you're gonna do won't just kill her?" The Master raised an eyebrow at Yaz and slowly just pointed to River who glanced up from what she was working on with a smirk.
"As much as I would love to do just that…" The Master shrugged and River carried on quickly.
"I'm here. He wouldn't dare."
"Are you scared of her?" Yaz asked him, a taunting little smirk on her face and he practically growled out his next words.
"Of course not."
"Of course he is." River butt in, her smirk still on her face as she just looked back to what she was doing, "But everyone is, so that's nothing special."
"Even the Doctor?" Yaz asked with a raised eyebrow. River's smirk grew into a full out grin.
"Especially the Doctor."
"She's here." Osgood's voice came through the communicator and the room tensed, "Downstairs, we're holding her back, but you might want to get down here to do whatever you need to do."
"I'll finish this." River said, her attention to her work doubling down, "Just take as much time as you think you can keep her for, I'll do my best on my end." The Master made a face but took in a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet, reaching for his coat which he'd taken off part way through his work. He looked to the other three.
"Ready? Just try and hide around the room, they're programmed to ignore me and you all. Osgood knows to clear out once we're there." The humans all nodded their heads, steeling themselves before they followed the Master out of the room and through the hallways. It was when they were nearly there, though, that Ryan glanced around and realised that they were missing a member of their party.
"Yaz?" He called out, stopping on the spot to look around. When the other two men stopped, he looked to them and motioned with a hand, "Where's Yaz?" Graham's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as well and he too turned trying to search for her. When neither could catch a sight of her the older man called out.
"Yaz? Where are you? Yaz!" The two looked to each other, visibly worried and concerned over what could have happened to her. If the Valeyard had showed up already then god only knows what she might have done. But she'd been with them just moments before.
"What do we do?" Ryan asked, looking to his grandfather for guidance and Graham turned a few times, still visibly worried, and then looked back to the device in his hand.
"If she's dead, we carry on. If she's ran off, we carry on. What a time to take a wander though. Didn't peg her as the coward of the group. We don't have time to wait around." The Master cut in, only allowing a touch of sympathy to reach his voice. The other two looked like they wanted to argue, taking a moment more to look behind them, hoping that she'd just been stopped or had slowed down and would come around the corner at any moment. Eventually their sense of duty won out and they followed along after the Master, still hopeful that she'd be fine and would catch up. The sound of shouting and gunfire eventually brought them out of their worried thoughts about Yaz and gave them entirely new ones about Osgood and the UNIT soldiers who were meant to be holding the Valeyard back from just storming to find them immediately. The Master lifted the communicator to his mouth, "We're here."
Almost immediately there was the sound of Osgood shouting out, "Pull back! Now!" The gunfire continued even as soldiers began to hurry out of the room. The Master motioned for Ryan to go around and head towards another entrance to the room and then stepped in passed the mass of men and woman leaving the room. There was piles of dust lying across the floor of the room and when the bullets stopped the Valeyard finally turned her head around the corner she'd been ducked behind to avoid the bullets. She locked eyes with the Master and stepped out fully.
Ryan and Graham stood, hidden off in separate entrances of the room, just the devices held out and pointed towards the Valeyard who either didn't know they were there or wasn't paying them any attention. Her focus was fixed fully on the Master, even as what was left of the UNIT security force left the room.
"You're coming to me this time?" She asked, her head tilting, "I assume you've got something planned but I don't know how you think this is going to go in your favour. I could just shoot you now?"
"You could, but aren't you just a little bit interested?" She thought for a moment before shrugging.
"I mean I could live with not knowing, but, alright. How long did you have to keep me here for? Since, I assume, you're the distraction?"
"Well-" The sudden feeling of something piercing his neck had him whirling around in shock and his hand shooting up to his neck. The knock-out dart was still lodged in his skin and he whirled around and caught sight of Yaz standing there, with the UNIT created dart gun, made specially for Time Lords, still held in her hands, before his vision starting to go fuzzy. He tried to fight it, panic washing over him as he pulled the dart from his neck with a wince. A shaky "why?" was all he managed to choke out before he tipped over as darkness overtook him and he hit the ground with a thump.