A/N: So uh... hey. I just... I don't really know what's been up with me the last couple months. I have had to force this out of myself and I don't really know why. I hope you guys enjoy it cause I lowkey hate it but I just needed to finish it. It was weighing on me cause I knew I only really had this chapter to go. At some point I may continue this but I don't know right now. Regardless, I hope you enjoy 3
The power didn't come back on and all of the machinery was still and black. The room was near black and it was Yaz who reached for the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to turn on the torch function first, holding it up as she looked between the cases before looking to River in question as to who she should go up to. River pointed towards the one that the Valeyard had been placed into first and Yaz approached slowly.
"Doctor?" Yaz asked quietly to the figure still inside the glass case in front of her.
"Careful," River spoke up, reaching out a hand to Yaz's shoulder, "We still don't know." Yaz nodded, taking in a deep breath and squaring her shoulders before she approached the glass once more, crouching in front of the figure who was still sprawled out on the floor of the small glass case.
"Doctor?" Yaz's voice dropped to a quiet whisper, "Please be you." She spotted The Master approaching the other figure in the second glass case across the room, but she didn't pay him much mind as she kept her focus on the one in front of her. The figure stirred. Brown eyes flickering open and darting around the room in a dazed confusion before they landed on Yaz's face.
"Yaz?" The human felt her heart jump a beat out of a momentary joy as it jumped ahead to the conclusion that this was definitely the Doctor. She had to quickly remind herself that this could just be the Valeyard's trick.
"Doctor?" She asked, sitting a hesitant hand against the glass, still tentative despite all the Valeyard's weapons lain out on a table on the other side of the room, well out of her reach. Mostly she was just scared that this hadn't worked. That the figure over there would not be the Doctor. Whether that mean it was just an empty husk or even, a worse thought, an exact copy of the Valeyard and they'd have two of them to deal with. "Prove you're you. Cause I can't let you out until you do." The woman's face scrunched up in a deep confusion.
"Why do I have to prove it?" Her words were mumbled, and Yaz couldn't help her scoff of amusement.
"Cause you've been trapped inside your own head by the Valeyard for the last long while. And she knows all your memories, so you have to prove to me that you're you."
"How am I meant to do that when she has all my memories and the last thing I remember is being strapped to a chair on Gallifrey?"
"How indeed?" The Master had moved back to the control panel with a sigh, a hand reaching into his pocket, "I suppose there's only one course of action." Yaz's gut told her what was about to happen before he' even got his TCE out his pocket, him having managed to pick it up off of the table while they were all distracted. She chose to listen to her gut and pulled open the door to the case in front of her before he pressed the button.
She just barely yanked the Doctor out of the glass case, both women tumbling to the floor in a sprawled out pile, as the cases both lit up red and the figure in the one still closed let out a shriek of pain and everyone turned to the Master with wide eyes.
"What have you done?!" Ryan yelled out, and the Master merely shrugged.
"Back up plan." He grimaced down at the very much still alive and fine Doctor on the floor and huffed slightly, "Never seems to work out in my favour, does it."
"I inspected both of those cases and all the tech inside of it. How in the hell did you do that?" River snapped at him and the Master shrugged.
"Back up plan I implemented millennia ago when I first was in contact with them. Seemed prudent at the time but now I have to thank my past self. Could've got the Doctor twice with it."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Yaz yelled, furious, as she got to her feet, trying to help the Doctor up with her as she did. Graham hurried in to the Time Lord's other side, pulling one of her arms around his shoulders so he could help prop her up.
"Some people would say a lot of things." The Master sighed then stared at her, unimpressed, "I don't see why you're upset. You already expected this. You chained me to a radiator and knocked me out. Problem is, you're just human. And I'm brilliant and have the added benefit of having known the Doctor for almost my entire life. I have hundreds of plans all concurrently running all at once. Sometimes I even forget about them, truthfully."
"You're a prat." The Doctor's shaky voice spoke up in the quiet that followed and they all turned to look at her. Watching as she took a moment to stand herself upright, clearly not wanting to have to have support to stand upright.
The hug that came next came out of nowhere, to the Doctor anyway. One second she'd been waveringly swaying on the spot, greeting her wife in confusion, the next her small figure had been pulled into the hold of the man who'd been one of her sworn enemies for millennia now. Who was, as far as she could recall, the reason for whatever had happened to her.
He pulled away just as quickly, practically shoving her away like she was something that burned, as though he was just as surprised that he'd just done that, but the fear was still cloudy in his eye and the Doctor's anger softened just slightly in her gut. Something she immediately cursed herself for.
"What was that for?" She asked and the Master stared down at her, and for a moment they were caught in an awkward silence. Eventually the Master let out a frustrated growl and pointed at her angrily before he began to pace.
"You can't just ever make it simple for me to kill you. You have to always do this. Have some ancient entity in your head that wants me dead. Just die, for once." This time it was Yaz who laid out a square punch to the man's upper arm, which he immediately grabbed at with a snarl aimed towards her, "Do that again. You're still in danger from that knock out dart earlier."
"Enough!" The snarled yell hadn't come from the Doctor. But it was definitely the Doctor's voice that had called out, along with the sound of the loud thump of fists hitting against glass. They all turned. The Doctor saw herself standing, still trapped in the other Vinvocci glass pod. Her eyes widened, her figure trying to straighten up again only to stumble and have River catch her, sliding an arm around her shoulders to pull her in. And wasn't that weird. She was more than used to towering over her wife, height wise. The other Doctor in the glass case was half slumped over as well, her hair over her face and her expression dazed, "What… what have you done to me? I feel weird."
"Well," the Master shrugged casually as he made his way over to the glass case, "you know the thing with clones, there's never a perfect remake." Her eyes moved up to connect with his, narrowing in suspicion and anger.
"What have you done?"
"Well, depending on how much genetic coding was finished before the power went out? You'll either have unlimited regeneration or not even one. Maybe somewhere in between. You're not guaranteed anything. Just a little something I cooked up." Her eyes widened at his words and she struggled to her feet, using the edge of the case to hoist herself up, making pained grunts as she got further up.
"Why…." She trailed off and let out an angry yell, her eyes, wide and panicked, then addressed the Doctor, "You saw in my head. Everything they did to me. You can't tell you think that I deserve this. You can't tell me you don't agree with my actions."
"Of course I can't. I don't really remember much but… I know that I can't."
"What do you even mean?" The Valeyard snarled, enraged. "He did the same thing." She jabbed a finger towards the Master, "And you'll forgive him, because you always do. Everything he did, all the betrayals, even the ones still to come. And yet you'll let go of your judgement of him even after what he did was worse."
"You don't want my forgiveness."
"No. Neither does he. I want my body back. I want you wiped from existence. I want my life back."
"I'm sorry." The Doctor's voice was quiet, withdrawn in a way that the Fam had never heard from her before. "I'm so sorry all this happened to you. You didn't deserve it."
"Of course I didn't! You shouldn't even exist! I don't know why you exist, packing me away inside my own brain. I'm not in the wrong."
"You killed people." Ryan snapped up and the Valeyard looked to him with a mad glint in her eye, jabbing a finger in the Doctor's direction.
"So has she! She's killed more people than anyone else standing here and that counts him," The finger pointed towards the Master next, "Just because she doesn't parade that fact in front of you all, doesn't mean she's not one of the most feared creatures in the universe. All I've done is defend myself, avenge myself."
"And what about Kate? You murdered her for no reason." Yaz snapped.
"She got in my way." The Valeyard snapped back and the Doctor went suddenly pale, leaning into River's side as the shaky image of what indeed happened to Kate came to her.
"Oh god…" She murmured quietly. River's attention turned to her in response and there was a split second before the Valeyard pushed open the door to the glass case, managing to shove the Doctor backwards into River, knocking both of them off of their feet, and all but dived on shaky legs towards the table holding all of her equipment and slammed her fingers down on the take-off button of the vortex manipulator before any of them to even think to do anything to stop her.
"No!" the Yaz called out, trying to throw herself forward towards her, the rest of them doing the same but the Valeyard disappeared in a bright blast of vortex energy. There was a moment of tense silence afterwards.
"How did she even get the door open?" Graham cried out.
"The power's out! Nothing keeping it shut. She was only in there because she was hurt and we were surrounding her." The Master snapped angrily.
"She saw her chance and she took it." River continued huffily, managing to get herself to her feet before helping the Doctor up who was still a little woozy.
"River, do I need to drop you off anywhere?" The Doctor asked, turning suddenly once she was on her feet to her wife who looked down at her in surprise for a moment before shaking her head with a frown.
"I'm expected back in my cell, I've been away for a bit too long, and if I come with you there's every chance I could end up on some other moon. Are you sure? I can help."
"I think we'll have a while till she's back. Trust me." There was a moment before River nodded, leaning in for a moment to press her forehead against the Doctor's, a sweet moment that the human's in the room looked away from to give them some privacy. It was the Master who watched with an annoyed gaze.
"Goodbye love." River pressed the transport button on her own vortex manipulator and the Doctor let out a heavy tired sigh before turning to the rest of the and then heading over to the TARDIS which was still parked in the corner.
"Any chance of a lift? My TARDIS is somewhere in Blackpool, apparently." The Master asked finally.
"You have some cheek. Try and kill the Doctor, twice, and now you're asking for a lift." Graham scoffed, outrage obvious in his voice. The Doctor merely raised her eyebrow in question at the other Time Lord, staring him down for a few seconds before she heaved out a sigh and nodded, pushing open the TARDIS door and waving a hand inside dismissively.
"Fine. But I'm deliberately dropping you off on the other side of Blackpool."
"We'll see, your driving's never been spot on enough for that."
"Well then, if I end up leaving you in South Wales, I can't be blamed." The Fam watched, all with looks of incredulous shock at how the Doctor could simply invite the man that had almost killed her inside the TARDIS like he was nothing but an old annoyance.
Once the Master was dropped off at some unspecified location within Blackpool, the Doctor brought the TARDIS into the vortex and dropped to sit against the console, basically wilting in exhaustion as the last few days caught up to her body and mind.
"You alright?" Yaz asked, stepping in close first and the Doctor had to take a moment, sucking in a deep breath before she could answer.
"It…" She fell silent again, clearly trying to think out her words and the Fam all fell silent, allowing her the time. "It's strange. I went for so long there, thinking I wasn't who I thought I was. And…. I mean I'm not, not technically. This isn't even my body, or it wasn't mine first. But I'm not as old as I was worried I was. All those years terrified of the truth. I'm still not thrilled by it, mind you. But it does make me feel better, somehow, to have it be someone else's story. Still though, everything's that happened. Kate, all those people… It's starting to come back to me, like I was watching through a key hole out my own eyes and I couldn't unlock the box to do anything."
"That was the Valeyard. It might have been this hand but it wasn't you who did any of that. Don't do that to yourself." Yaz was quick to grip the Doctor's wrist, lifting up her hand with a strict expression on her face. The Doctor gave a small grateful smile and moved her hand so she could give Yaz's a squeeze before dropping it and turning as Ryan spoke.
"Are we gonna try and find her?" He asked, "How would we even know where she went?"
"It probably would've done a return trip first. Simplest action, just a press of a button. As for finding her? We could try, but if she does have any regenerations then she's going to have to use one. So we're not gonna know what she looks like."
"Isn't there some way to tell?"
"Maybe once we were right in front of one another, but I saw her mind, it's not as simple as it would be with the Master. Her mind is more ancient than anything I've ever seen before. She was awake throughout my entire life and I never even knew she was there. Watching, waiting. Stuck there until the Master let her out by accident."
"Were you right to let him go?" Yaz asked, crossing her arms across her chest, "He almost succeeded in killing you. Twice."
"Probably not." The Doctor breathed out the words heavily before shrugging, "What am I really gonna do though? I won't kill him. I can't kill him. I know that. He knows that. It's an endless cycle."
"He hugged you though, maybe he does care." Graham suggested and the Doctor smiled, clearly somewhat amused by that fact.
"That he did. Strange that. Maybe he was just overcome with the emotion of no longer having to deal with the Valeyard himself."
"What if she goes after him first? He's just left himself open to that." Yaz asked.
"We both know the Valeyard. I met the Valeyard before, a long time ago. I only knew her as a future version of myself. Or, that she would appear after my thirteenth regeneration."
"I thought you said you've had more than 13 regenerations though?" Graham asked, eyebrows furrowing.
"This is the thirteenth that I count. Besides, when I met her back then, she was trying to steal my remaining regenerations. I hadn't realised back then what she meant." She scoffed slightly in amusement, "Strange how much of it makes sense now, looking back."
"So, you in the past defeated her?"
"Well, I stopped her from taking over me. We got separated in the Matrix, I don't know what happened next."
"So, she's still out there."
"Somewhere, yeah." The Doctor pushed herself up from the TARDIS console, shaking herself to get herself out of the funk that had overcome the group and smiled at her Fam, "Ah, well. When she shows up, I'll deal with it."
"We'll deal with it." Ryan cut in and the Doctor nodded to him, pausing for a moment as a softer, more genuine, smile spread across her face as she looked between them all.
"Yeah. We."