A/N: The Assessor's visual reference is the actress Ana Brenda with dark hair and dark eyes! And just a reminder that Renata's new visual reference is Livia Brito too!
The Master was relishing in his triumph. He had every single human under his control, every weapon at his disposal, a whole planet just for him...and then came the truly best part. On one side of the room he had the Doctor strapped to the very chair that had kept the Master a few hours ago. There was a thick black strap going over the Doctor's face - finally shutting up that gob of his - with a few other straps to keep him bound. On the other side, the Master had Renata bound to a regular chair but she had no gag on. He wanted to hear more of her excuses, see the shame on her face each time he would remind her of her past. It was his entertainment. The old human beside her was just a plus. He didn't know what he would do with Wilf yet but he was sure to have a plan later on.
"Now, then. I've got a planet to run!" the Master exclaimed, tapping his fingers against each other as he walked towards the controls. He had every world leader as a version of himself.
"This won't last," Renata said after the Master annoyingly checked in with each World Leader. He'd done this three times already.
The Master turned around, glaring at her for a brief second before he grinned. "Oh my dear Renata! You really think that, huh?" he scurried towards her, missing the Doctor squirming under his straps. He wanted the Master far, far away from Renata.
He won't hurt me, he heard Renata's calm voice in his mind. She was having a stare down with the Master three inches from her face. To her credit, she truly did not seem afraid of him.
He's crazy. You don't know what he would do, the Doctor returned.
He won't hurt me because then he wouldn't be able to mock me and shame me if I really died. Renata had no doubt that the Master wouldn't hesitate to inflict some type of pain on her but never to the point of killing her. She was a good source of fun for him, a toy that he could squeeze and laugh at. He could never end that type of game.
"Why are you so silent?" the Master demanded from Renata. Usually by now she would have said something else, something about how this plan was crazy and he would never succeed. But all she did was stare. He looked back at the Doctor who had stopped squirming. He craned his head as if he were going to look at Renata again but he started to laugh. "Oh! Oh! I get it!" He stepped away from Renata so that he was between her and the Doctor. "You opened up your telepathic abilities! You're connected! How romantic. Tell me," his laugh disappeared as he turned to Renata. "How long did that take after I was gone? You waste absolutely no time, my dear Renata."
Renata glared at him but there was still an inkling inside her reminding her that what the Master claimed was true. She did make a terrible mistake in the past. But she would not allow him to guilt her over things that never happened. "I only opened my mind because the situation called for it. I've done nothing wrong."
The Master laughed again and bent down in front of her, shaking his head. "It's hilarious to me that you actually believe yourself. Who would've thought that the noble Renata—" he mocked her name, taking pleasure at her flinch, "—would do something so...primitive like a human. I mean, you—" he gestured back at the Doctor, "—I sort of expect because, well...look at where you've wasted centuries of your lives on." The Doctor glared at him. "Of course you would pick up their ape-like ways. Then again, this did happen before so maybe you were always like this. Having an affair? Hm," he brought a hand to his chin as if he was really pondering on the situation. "I've always been rather infamous myself but you would never catch me having an amorous affair. Pathetic!" He screamed, causing all three of his prisoners to flinch from the sudden volume. "Embarrassment to our people!" A deep, dark fury that crossed his face - that one did make the Doctor fear for Renata's well being. The Master turned on his heels for the Time Lady and rushed right up to her face, so much that she had to lean away. "Betrayal for my brother! He was an idiot but he was still my brother! He showered you with stupid love, stupid gifts and you go and betray him! You should be dead like the rest of them!"
Renata scrunched her face as he kept shouting at her. She could feel some of his spit landing on her skin but it wasn't what mattered. His words were all true. Her stomach churned as she thought of her late husband. Elek. He did give her everything she wanted; everything anyone would've wanted. He was always sweet to her, never once raised his voice even when they did have a arguments here and there. But he was rubbish at arguing - she always pointed that out to him when they made up.
"Maybe it's because I don't want to argue with my beautiful wife," he would tell her later in the day.
"Or maybe you just have no talent at it," she would poke more fun at him to see if she could get one proper argumentative response, but she never did.
There were the gifts that he would surprise her with. Being an Architect gave him ample exploration of the planet. Sometimes he would come home with the rarest of things that he claimed that only fit her. She still remembered her favorite gift: a necklace that he himself had forged. It had her name, her true name, written in Gallifreyan along with hers. He had given it to her just before the War had begun and what truly made it her favorite gift was that it also had their unborn child's name. At that moment, Renata was about four months pregnant and they had come up with a few names until they had decided on their favorite name. She loved that necklace.
When the Master heard the first blip of an oncoming sob, he straightened away from Renata, pleased with his work. Even when she claimed to have moved on, there was always something that would pull her back to her roots.
Renata? Don't cry. Don't cry, you've done nothing wrong. The Doctor struggled even more to get out of the stupid chair holding him back. It was me. It was always me. Gala? I'm so sorry my love. You don't deserve any of this - you never deserved any of it.
Renata could only bring herself to look at him for a few seconds, showing her reddened eyes in the process. That was false. It wasn't all on him. He never forced her into anything. Her thoughts were cut short by the ringing of a cellphone. Everyone froze and slowly their eyes landed on Wilf since the ringing was coming from him.
"But that…that's a mobile," the Master scowled at the old man.
"Yeah, it's mine, let me turn it off!" Wilf struggled to move his hands with the rope around him.
"No, no, no. I don't think you understand." The Master marched over to Wilf's chair. "Everybody on this planet...is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?" He searched for the phone himself and came across the revolver first. "Ooh, and look at this. Good man!" he waved it at the Doctor then Renata. He let it drop to the ground and continued the search until he found the cell phone. "Donna," he read off the screen. "Who's Donna?"
"Nobody, move on," snapped Renata though the tone she was going for didn't exactly portray the snap. She was still trying to recover from her little episode, but she was not going to let it be the reason Donna was hurt.
The Master answered the call to hear Donna's frantic voice telling him all about the "changed people" in her house and in the streets. "Who is she!? Why didn't she change!?" he angrily demanded to know.
"Well, it was this thing the Doctor and Renata did…" Wilf struggled to remember the right name. "The Metacrisis?"
The Master laughed condescendingly. "Of course. "Oh... He loves playing with Earth girls, huh Ren? You would know."
Renata glared at him. At first, the mere mention of the Doctor with Rose Tyler would set her off. A human girl...but things were so different now. She knew better, she knew humans a lot better. She couldn't blame the Doctor for anything. It was his story and it was a tragic one all on its own without her adding ridiculous jealousy.
The Master ordered his clones to track Donna down. Wilf panicked as the clones did the job.
"You just leave her!"
"I wouldn't do that," Renata, on the other hand, warned calmly. Even the Doctor didn't squirm or try to say something behind the mouth strap on him.
The Master craned his head at the Time Lady, smiling sarcastically. "Why?"
"I just wouldn't."
The clones had found Donna in two minutes but just as they closed in on her, she released golden energy from her head that knocked them all out, including herself.
When the Master looked at Renata afterwards, she was smirking but her eyes flickered past him to the Doctor. He was responsible. He growled and stalked towards the Doctor, pulling the gag off him.
"That's better!" the Doctor opened and closed his mouth in strange ways to get the movement back in order. "Hello. But really, did you think I'd leave my best friend without a defense mechanism?"
"Doctor, what happened?" Wilf asked him. He wasn't able to understand if Donna was truly safe or not.
"She's all right, she's fine, I promise. She'll just sleep," he assured Wilf.
The Master exhaled deeply, forgetting all about the stupid human. She would eventually die on her own anyways. "Tell me, where's your TARDIS?"
The Doctor didn't answer immediately. He stared at the Master in an annoying silence. "You could be so wonderful."
"Where is it!?"
"You're a genius," the Doctor continued to ignore the demand. "You're stone-cold brilliant. You are, I swear, you really are."
"Stop it!" he snapped, but instead he got Renata to join in.
"He's not wrong," she said. "You and Elek would have these conversations that I could never dream of understanding. And you know, most of the time Elek was so inspired by you. He admired your intelligence. What would he think right now if he saw this? Wouldn't it be better to travel together?"
"Travel with the likes of you?" he sneered and looked between the pair. "With the likes of both of you!? Ha!"
"But maybe together, all three of us, we could figure out how to stop that noise inside your head," the Doctor said, truly meaning it. He wants to believe that if the noise was gone, things would be so different. Maybe the Master would finally find peace.
"Would it stop, then?" the Master's voice was suddenly quiet. "The noise in my head?"
"We can help."
"I don't know what I'd be without that noise."
"Wonder what I'd be, without you."
The Master stayed quiet for a moment, almost looking like he was considering such an idea. He'd been with that noise all his life, what would he do if he could truly get rid of it?
"What does he mean? What noise?" Wilf asked them.
The Master was too far in thought to deny the human the answer. "It began on Gallifrey. As children. Not that you'd call it childhood. More a life of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation. To stare into the Untempered Schism."
"But what does that mean?" Wilf continued to ask. He had no idea what the man was talking about.
"It's a gap in the fabric of reality," the Doctor simplified it. "You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts."
"You get three reactions basically," Renata said quietly. She could see the raw pain the Master held just by remembering his initiation. "You either run away, go insane or you get inspired. Very rarely do you see another reaction."
It didn't take a lot for Wilf to decide what reaction the Master had. Renata knew the Master's story, and she knew the Doctor's story.
Which one were you? the Doctor asked her. He was gazing at her curiously, unable to decide whether or not she was as against the Initiation as the Master was.
A small smile came to Renata's face. I was inspired. I saw the Gallifreyans and how they struggled outside the Citadel. I wanted to help them. It was at that moment that Renata set out to find a way to help the people their city had forgotten about simply because they chose against regeneration. It shouldn't have mattered what they decided. They were still of the same species, the same kind originating from the same world. They should have always been one.
You were amazing even as a child, the Doctor remarked and enjoyed seeing the blush spread over Renata's face.
"I saw the worst," the Master bad turned to Renata, once again sneering at her. "Not all of us could be inspired," he mocked her and moved away. "They took me there, in the dark. I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums, the never-ending drums."
~0~
Gallifrey.
Two Time Lords were bringing in a Time Lady with a ruddy appearance. Her pale face had bruises and cuts that were still open. Her brunette hair was tangled in knots. She had her arms gripped by each Time Lord and they wouldn't let go until they reached their destination. Twice she had tried to run away and if she could, she would.
Finally, they stopped in the Matrix room where the Assessor waited. She stood on a platform when her sister was brought inside. "There you are." She gave a nod at the two Time Lords to leave them. "Renata, you look well."
Renata's emerald eyes glared at her sister. "Why am I here?" She had just received her newest location to move towards to when all of a sudden she had two Time Lords demanding to take her away, all on orders from the High Council.
The Assessor stepped down from the platform and walked up to her sister. "I have a task for you."
"But I just got a new assignment—"
The Assessor raised a hand - a very clean hand which just angered Renata all over again - to command silence. "Forget it. The Council has assigned you to a much more important duty. Failure is not an option here."
"What do you want?" Renata asked. She couldn't understand why the hell the Council wanted something from her. If anything, they needed to get off their behinds and do something to help them. Time Lords were dying outside and yet the High Council - those snobby creatures - wouldn't leave their protected chambers. They were letting everyone else die, including her.
"We got word that the Doctor has stolen the Moment. And just so we're clear, the Moment has the power to destroy the entire planet along with the Daleks. You are going to find him and stop him from activating it."
Renata nearly keeled over but she didn't because she knew that her sister was playing a joke on her. The Assessor would never want her near the Doctor, not after what happened in the Academy. Centuries may have passed but the anger in the Assessor was still as raw and fresh as the day she found out about them.
"I know you must be confused but time is of the essence. If you don't hurry, all of this—" the Assessor gestured to the room they were in, the room where all of their history was in, as an example of what they were saving, "—will be lost."
"You're not joking," Renata whispered. "You really do mean it. You want me to find the Doctor?" Anger quickly filled her face. "You forbade me from seeing him again! Don't you remember!? You literally threatened me! You blackmailed me! You were prepared to hurt him if I didn't end things! You destroyed my life! And now you want me to go find him? You want me to save you? Do you want me to save the very institution you once said would kill the Doctor?"
The Assessor wasn't phased by her sister's outburst. If anything, she thought it was embarrassing. But her sister was always more...emotional than the rest of their family. She didn't understand that things worked in a specific way and each of them had to do their respective tasks. "The situation calls for it. The Doctor's family is dead. You are the only one who could stop him. He will kill us all."
"No! Absolutely not! You will not use me!" Renata was beyond furious that she shoved her sister away.
The Assessor struggled to regain her balance and sent a dark glare her sister's way. "I advice you not to do that again, little sister." She dusted her robes off, something that made Renata want to throw her to the floor. The Assessor's robes were elegant and clean as was her appearance. She was untouched by the war.
And here she was, demanding for a soldier to keep fighting.
Renata had already been beaten and worn down by the war to hold what little restraints she had to keep herself composed. She had lost everything and even then, when she was so alone, the Assessor never once offered her support. They were the last of their family and yet it didn't feel that way. Renata lost it. "You haven't fought for us! You haven't fought for me! You don't care about anyone! Our parents died months ago and you didn't even check up on me!"
"You were fighting," the Assessor said, her tone still untouched by Renata's spats. "You had a duty, so did I."
"You have no duty! You haven't been out there!" Renata frantically pointed out the door. "People are dying! The children—" she stopped to close her eyes, "—are dying. I saw a whole group of them disintegrated in one second." Tears rolled down her face. "Cece," the use of her sister's nickname was the only thing that made the Assessor shift with actual emotions, "My own child died inside me. It wasn't enough that I lost Elek, I lost my child. You did not care."
"The casualties are part of a war. They are not surprising," the Assessor said, though her eyes did linger on her sister's stomach for a few seconds. "You think that I am not affected by the passing of our family? My own husband died, did you forget? But I have a responsibility and I will continue doing it until my last breath. The same goes for you now."
"You still don't care," Renata shouldn't even be surprised by that, but she always clung to a little bit of hope that somewhere inside the Assessor did have feelings. She did love her family, her. "I've lost most of my lives and you are now asking me to put myself in further danger."
"How many lives do you have left?" the Assessor inquired.
"What—"
"How many lives?" the Assessor demanded this time.
"Three more!"
"How would you feel about a whole new cycle?" the Assessor slowly tilted her head, knowing that she now had her sister's entire attention. "The Council understands your journey is treacherous and they are prepared to grant you a new regeneration cycle. All you have to do is retrieve the Moment from the Doctor."
Renata raised an eyebrow at her sister. They must be really desperate to offer that type of deal. Regeneration cycles were not handed out lightly. There had to be exclusive reasons for somebody to receive a whole new cycle.
And yet everyone was dying.
Maybe...the Doctor had figured out a way to make everything stop. He always knew what to do. A small smile came to Renata's face when she recalled the many times he helped her solve her problems. She hadn't allowed herself to think about him much after they parted ways. But now the Assessor was making her go back to a painful moment in her life. Renata was forced to drive the Doctor away and now the Assessor was taking it back just to save her own skin?
Fury bubbled inside Renata. She laid eyes on her sister and the woman still didn't offer up any emotion. Everyone was dying and she didn't care. The Council didn't care. No more, Renata gritted her teeth behind her closed lips. They shouldn't have had the power they did. Oh, she hated them all. She hated all these people in power who did nothing for their citizens. And now the Assessor was dangerously close to being added to that list.
It's time to end it, Renata decided. She had nothing left. Her husband was gone, her child was gone, her parents. The Doctor had long been gone. The Assessor had never been there. I deserve better.
Renata straightened herself up and walked up to her sister. "I want the cycle first," she spat in her sister's face.
The Assessor smirked.
~0~
Present Day.
"Listen to it," the Master commanded the two Time Lords with him. "Listen." But of course, without a mind connection, neither Renata nor the Doctor could hear the drums...but they now knew that they were real.
"Then let's find it, you and us," the Doctor attempted to construct yet another speech to stop the Master, but a new idea had crossed the Master's mind.
"Oh! Oh, wait a minute! Oh, yes. Oh, that's good!"
"What? What is?" Renata dreaded what he had come up with, although a part of her asked herself what more could he do that would be worse than what he had already done to the planet.
"The noise exists within my head. And now within six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine! Oh... Oh, yes!" His laughter was cut short with another skeletal flash struck him. He dropped with a groan.
"The Gate wasn't enough. You're still dying," the Doctor grimly.
"This body was born out of death. All it can do is die," the Master was able to pull himself up after a few minutes. "But what did you say to me, back in the wasteland? You said, "the end of time.""
"I said something is returning. I was shown a prophecy. That's why I need your help."
"What if I'm part of it? Don't you see?" the grin was quick to return to the Master's face. "The drumbeat is calling from so far away, from the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate all those signals. I could find its source! Oh, Doctor... That's what your prophecy was. Me!" He crouched in front of the Doctor. "Where's the TARDIS?"
"No. Just stop. Just think—"
The Master rolled his eyes and suddenly pointed a finger at Wilf. "Kill him!" A helmeted soldier moved towards Wilf and aimed his gun at him. "I need that technology, Doctor. Tell me where it is, or the old man is dead."
"Oh stop it," Renata frowned. "Why not redirect it at me instead? Maybe you're not the only one with a little bit of power left." Had she been anyone else, he might have had the gun aimed at her but here she was completely unharmed. The mental torture was the only thing he used against her, but never physical harm.
The Master shot her a glare, practically warning her to keep her mouth shut. "I'll kill him, right now!"
"Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone-dead stupid," the Doctor's calmness despite the situation was the first thing the Master should have noticed.
"Take aim," he ordered the soldier.
He never was smart for the obvious. Renata smiled at the Doctor. He over thought too much. His brother didn't.
The Doctor was able to smile back at her. The Master noticed their silent smiles at each other and scowled. "What us going on!?"
"What I think the Doctor meant to say is that you've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you still can't see the obvious," Renata made a face at him.
"Like what?"
"Well, for starters, you're over exerting yourself - oh!" Renata exclaimed as if she only just remembered the real point they'd been trying to make. "And that guard—" she nodded at the soldier holding the gun on Wilf, "—is one inch too tall."
It was only then that the Master finally gave the soldier a good look, but it only lasted a few minutes before the soldier hit him with his rifle. He pulled his helmet off to reveal Rossiter underneath.
"Oh, my God, I hit him. I've never hit anyone in my life!" He was absolutely stunned at himself, but Addams ran into the room looking primed for the job.
"Oh I know, it gets you the first time," Renata smiled at him with a chuckle. "I never hit anyone—"
"What about me?" frowned the Doctor. "You hit me loads of time in the foundation."
"Yeah, but those didn't hurt. I meant like an actual smack or something. And the war doesn't count either."
"You did hit me hard enough to hurt!"
"I did not!"
"Don't you remember when you threw a—"
"Both of you stop!" Addams cut in to scold the two.
Renata flushed with embarrassment. No one had ever scolded her too. What was going on with this new body of hers? She did not want to be like the Doctor. The universe truly could not handle two of him.
"We need to get out of here, fast!" Addams said, throwing a look at the unconscious Master on the ground. She doubted Rossiter had him hit hard enough to be out for anything more than a few minutes.
Rossiter had untied Renata while Addams untied Wilf. The Doctor proved to be a bit more difficult with the multiple straps.
"God bless the cactuses!" Wilf laughed when he could finally stand up from his chair.
"That's cacti!" the Doctor called.
Rossiter stopped struggling with the straps, quite offended with the two of them. "That's racist!"
"Please don't offend the people who are saving us!" Renata scolded the Doctor and Wilf. There we go, she did the scolding because she wasn't rude.
"This prophecy of yours, Doctor...where did it come from? Doctor?" one of the Master's appeared on the screen behind them.
"Come on! We've got to get out!" Addams told Rossiter, she thought he was far too slow.
"There's too many buckles and straps!".
Addams groaned. "Oh just...wheel him!" Rossiter didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed the chair by the handles and started turning them for the door.
"No, no, no! Get me out!" the Doctor shouted at them. "No, no, don't! Don't! No, no, no!"
Renata ushered Wilf ahead of her but she stopped for a moment just outside the room, smiling - almost laughing - as she heard the Doctor ahead of her, shouting for them to properly release him. Her smile suddenly dropped while her eyes widened. "You are not rude!" she scolded herself before finally running after them.
With all the chaos and running away, the Doctor couldn't get either Vinvocci to listen to him and take them to the TARDIS instead. Even Renata, when she caught up, couldn't get them to change course and she wasn't going to let them take the Doctor either. They would have to come back for the blue box afterwards.
"Not the stairs... Not the stairs!" the Doctor fought to get out of the remaining straps but the stairs had come up and now he was being rocked in all directions. "Worst...rescue...ever!" He only stopped fighting for a second when he heard something strange behind him. "...is that laughing? Renata, you're laughing!?"
Renata caught herself quick and covered her mouth. "No!" she gave the muffle answer and focused on running and nothing more.
The Master had caught them in the teleporting room but despite that, the Vinvoccis were one step ahead. They teleported themselves out of the building, off the planet, and onto their ship.
"Now get me out of this thing!" the Doctor practically ordered while he wriggled like a worm.
"Don't say thanks, will you?" Addams scoffed as she went to help him out.
"He'll thank you when we cut off the weapons the Master still has!" Renata sighed as she hurried to undo the straps on him.
"Oh, my goodness me...we're in space!" Wilf had found the huge glass wall at the end of the room. He could see planet Earth, bright as ever despite what was going on. With a view like this no wonder Donna loved traveling.
"We'll come back to the exciting part, Wilf! Promise!" Renata said just as she'd pulled the Doctor off the chair. From her force, he leaned just a bit too close to her face, not that he cared. He quite liked her new face.
"Come on!" she urged him to remember what they were supposed to do.
"Right!"
Adams couldn't understand what was the huge rush. They were no longer in danger since they weren't even on the same planet as that crazy man. "But we're safe! We're a hundred thousand miles above the Earth!"
"And he's got every single missile on the planet ready to fire!" the Doctor said, making her finally realize the problem.
"Oh. Good point. This way!" she took the lead out of the room. Renata hurried for Wilf who was still taken by the grand sight of space.
"But we're in space!"
"Aha!"
"We've got to close it down!" the Doctor said as soon as they found the controls.
Rossiter gave him a mad look. "No chance, mate, we're going home."
"We're a salvage team. Local politics has nothing to do with us," Addams argued as well. "Not unless there's a carnival. Sooner we get back to Vinvocci space the better!"
"No you are not!" snapped Renata and before Addams could open her mouth, Renata continued to shout. "The whole reason Earth is the way it is right now is because of your stupid machine! If you and your people had been more responsible, this machine would have never fallen into the hands of the humans! Therefore you are responsible and under the rules of the Shadow Proclamation you have a responsibility to help us fix things! And just so we're clear…" Renata pulled out her sonic and used it on the controls, effectively killing the entire power line.
The Doctor was stunned by her actions and her entire outburst as a whole. He was about to do the same thing but that's what he always did. That was no shocker. But Renata had finally come around humans and Earth to the point that she would do anything to help them and save them.
Plus, she looked incredibly good arguing someone's ear off. I love that woman, he concluded with a huge grin on his face. Also not a shocker.
"You've wrecked the place!" Addams was in complete outrage. If she wasn't green, she would've turned red from anger.
"The engines are burnt out!" Rossiter was in a state of panic instead of anger like his co-worker. "Just auxiliary lights. Everything else is kaput. We can't move. We're stuck in orbit!"
"Thanks to you. You idiot!" Addams spat enough to make Renata wince.
Okay, so maybe she hadn't thought it through but if she hadn't killed the power, the Master would've killed them. But, there was still a bit of guilt sitting on her shoulders. She might have doomed them anyways. "I'm sorry," she said as Addams and Rossiter stormed out of the place.
"Hey, you did what I was going to do anyways," the Doctor walked up to her and brought his hands to her arms. He offered her a supportive smile and pulled her into a hug while she struggled to accept the reality.
~0~
Gallifrey.
"My Lord, I have my sister," the Assessor had brought Renata into the main chamber of the Council, though not before cleaning her younger sister up a bit. She would be damned if Renata embarrassed her.
Renata's face had been cleaned up for the meeting and any blood dripping on her had been forced shut with a bit of the Assessor's own regeneration energy. It didn't surprise Renata though that her sister had done that, because she knew that the Assessor only did it to make her 'proper'. Her hair had been forcibly untangled and Renata dared to say it hurt almost as much as each of the cuts and bruises she'd gotten from battles.
"Excellent," Rassilon looked the brunette over from his spot at the table. She didn't exactly return the gaze. This was the first time she walked into a chamber of the Council, and much more she was seeing a Visionary. Hardly anyone saw a Visionary up close.
The silver-haired woman continued to write on her scroll, acting as if she was the only one in the room.
"But we may have found another solution," Rassilon said as he gestured to the hologram of Earth behind him.
"But...that's Earth," Renata recognized the blue-green planet almost straight away. She looked at her sister for an explanation, but even the Assessor was puzzled.
"What doe that planet have to offer us?" she asked, sharpness tinging her tone.
"Our very salvation," Rassilon's tone was even sharper, a piercing that reminded the Assessor of her place. "We have sent a signal. A simple task of four beats transmitted back through time, and implanted in the Master's mind as a child."
"What!?" Renata blinked. The Master always complained about a noise in his head, one that - shamefully - she and her husband never believed in. "You...you did that to him? The endless drumming, he would call it. You're the one who put it inside his head?"
The Assessor gripped Renata's arm, silently telling her to shut her mouth. "Forgive me, my Lord, but what is the plan? I thought I presented one myself."
"The Master is on Earth, in the future, and if we can establish a link then perhaps we can leave the Time Lock."
"But it's just an idea," frowned Renata. "To establish a proper link you would need something physical…"
"Something...so simple," Rassilon agreed and turned away to consider what might do.
"So small and shining, shining bright and cold, the tiny, tiny star, falling, falling, burning, burning, burning," the Visionary babbled on to herself.
The Assessor blinked when she realized what it could be. Her head snapped in Renata's direction, her eyes lowering to the jewel around Renata's neck. Without a warning, she reached over and pulled the necklace off Renata's neck, ignoring her sister's cry.
"That's mine!" she made to take it back but the Assessor raised it over her head. This current incarnation of Renata's was quite petite.
The Assessor ordered for her sister to be taken into custody. "The Master would recognize this straightaway," she walked up to Rassilon holding the necklace in her hand. There was a clear diamond at the end of the silver necklace, one engraved with Gallifreyan names. "After all, he did help his brother forge it."
Renata was in tears as she fought the two Time Lords holding her back. "That's mine! Elek gave it to me! Assessor, please! That's-that's mine!"
Rassilon took the jewel into his hand and examined it briefly before looking up at the Assessor. "Do not fail me," he darkly warned, but the Assessor remained calm.
She was always sure of herself. "I would never."
Rassilon threw the diamond into the hologram. Renata cried loudly for her lost jewel but still her sister did not flinch.
It was a means to an end.
~0~
Present Day.
On the Vinvocci ship, the Doctor worked to get the power back on. Renata helped with what she could but she had to stop when she noticed from the corner of her eye something shiny soaring through space. It was heading for Earth!
"The last thing this planet needs is a meteor," she sighed as she walked towards the glass wall.
Down on Earth, the Master and his clones had pinpointed the impact of the 'meteor'. The clones all searched the crash site until one soldier found something peculiar in the middle of the crater. It glittered.
"It's a diamond, sir," he picked it up as he informed the Master. He scraped the dirt of the jewel to see a clear pattern of Gallifreyan names. A laugh came to him. "Oh... the most impossible diamond. You won't believe this. It's a Whitepoint star!"
The Master had enough laughter to last him a lifetime.
~ 0 ~
Wilf had gotten lost in the ship for a few minutes. It was like a maze and after another odd interaction with a woman he was sure was part of his imagination, he finally found Renata and the Doctor in the main room where Renata had killed the power.
"Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?" he asked the pair, but they didn't seem so cheery.
"Just trying to fix the heating," the Doctor mumbled while he crossed two particular wires.
"Sorry," Renata said yet again. The heat was off because HE she killed it.
The Doctor, by this point, was more than done with her relentless apology for something that was going to be done either way. "Renée, just stop it."
Wilf took a seat near them. Renata drifted towards him, figuring the heat wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.
"D'you know, I've always dreamt of a view like that," Wilf gave a nod towards the glass wall. No matter how many times he looked at the Earth, it wouldn't stop taking his breath away. It was simply amazing. "I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day." And yet there was no cheer for the new day. He kept thinking about Sylvia and Donna, and everyone else he once knew. "My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. D'you think he changed them, in their graves?"
Renata lowered her gaze, unable to answer him because the answer might not be the one he wanted to hear.
"We're sorry," the Doctor said for him and Renata. He came over to the two and sat down next to Renata.
"It's not your fault," Wilf told them. They were the good guys. They had no say in what the Master did.
"The noise inside his head…" Renata scrunched her face as if something was trying to come to her, "I swear there is something I'm missing. There's something tickling in the back of my head about it. Something that's telling me I'm forgetting something."
"Seven-hundred fifty-eight, something's bound to slip your mind," the Doctor joked only to see if he could get her to smile. He did. And it was so worth it.
"Never say a lady's age," she lightly jabbed him on the side, making him smile now.
"You're how old?" Wilf gawked at Renata. He had to study her face again but even when he did, it didn't make sense. Her new face was younger than the last one she had on.
"You want to hear somebody really old?" Renata jerked her thumb at the Doctor. "He's 906! Yeah, he's old!" She thought she would definitely get the Doctor back with that one, but all he did was smile fondly at her.
He just wanted to see her cheer up for a bit. He still didn't forget the fact she'd died only hours ago and he'd missed it.
Wilf shook his head at the two. "We must look like insects to you."
"I think you look like giants," the Doctor corrected him, extending that fond smile to him as well.
"My perspective on humans has changed in this last 2 years," Renata said with her own warm smile. "And I have Martha to thank, and Gabriela...and Donna." Wilf teared up in that moment as he wondered just what amazing things his granddaughter had to have done in her time up here in space. She had changed so much because of it and Renata and the Doctor. She had been a better person - she was a good person right now but being her other self gave her so much more perspective.
He couldn't let them die now, not on his watch.
"Listen, I... I want you to have this," he took out his revolver and held it at the pair. "I've kept it all this time, and I thought…"
"No," the Doctor said calmly. He expected this to come up sooner or later.
"No, but if you take it, you could…"
"I couldn't," Renata confessed. For all the harm the Master had done to the Earth and herself, and the Doctor, she knew she wouldn't be able to end him. She wouldn't even try to fight it.
"You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot the Master there and then," the Doctor pointed out to Wilf.
"Too scared, I suppose," Wilf said, lamenting his courage.
"I'd be proud," the Doctor suddenly said, starting a new thought.
"Of what?"
"If you were my dad."
Wilf did a double take at the Doctor, waiting for him to take it back or laugh it off. "Oh...come on...don't start!" The Doctor smiled wider at him, but when he did it reminded Wilf of what was coming for him. He didn't deserve that. "But you said...you were told... he will knock four times, and then you die. Well, that's him, isn't it, The Master? That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill you."
Renata tried her best not to react but her body flinched. It was an automatic response to such a horrid thought. She leaned on him, not even noticing it with all the thoughts that ran through her head. "I wouldn't let him," she whispered.
The Doctor put an arm around her, having heard her perfectly well. He gave a nod to Wilf's question and that was all Wilf needed to try and hand him the gun again.
"Then kill him first."
"That's how the Master started. And it's not like I'm an innocent," the Doctor started off on grim note, not that he could help it given his track record. He always knew what he'd become, but he would get by because he would push it away. He wouldn't think about it. "I've taken lives. I got worse - I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't. I just can't."
"But there's a difference," Renata raised her head off his arm. "The Master likes it. He likes what comes with death. You don't. And you know what? None of us are innocent. I'm certainly not."
The Doctor studied her eyes for any trace of doubt, a doubt for her words that she'd just said. Not too long ago he believed that she would be angry with him for what he did to their planet. Even as she denied such accusations, there was always a part of him that wondered if she was truly sure. It was no secret that she longed to be back on Gallifrey, who's to say that she wouldn't change her mind about him one day?
"If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?" Wilf thought to ask after taking another look at the planet.
"I don't know."
Wilf didn't buy that answer. "Doctor, what happens?"
"...the template snaps."
Wilf blinked. "What, they go back to being human?" He couldn't believe his ears, nor his eyes when both aliens nodded at him. Here they were lamenting the human race's current situation and there was always that one solution!? He was a bit angry now, properly angry. "They're alive and human? Then don't you dare, sir. Don't you dare DARE put him before them. Now you take this, that's an order, Doctor. Take the gun! You take the gun and save your life! And please don't die!" The tears got the best of him, but how could he calm down? He had done so much for their planet and now some man was going to kill him dead? And the Doctor wasn't even going to fight it! That simply couldn't be. "You're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die!" He forced the gun onto the Doctor's hand and closed his fingers over it. "You take it!"
But the Doctor still refused.
Renata shut her eyes, wishing everything would just stop. It had to stop, right? One way or another. But he might die. She shuddered a breath.
Maybe it's my rightful punishment, the Doctor's voice filled her mind. He wasn't looking at her, he couldn't. His gaze had become glued to the glass wall out of guilt. I went too far on Mars and I...I've done too much harm. Maybe my time is up.
Renata reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. Only one of us should have to regenerate and I already did it. There's no reason why you need to follow.
Before the Doctor could respond, the Master's voice came over the speakers. "A star fell," his tone was mocking, or at least getting ready to mock. "It fell from the sky. Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond...is a Whitepoint star. And you, my dear Renata, might know about it considering I helped my stupid brother forge it." Renata's body jumped up from the floor on instinct. Her hand immediately went to her neck. "And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be...spectacular. Over and out."
"Renata?" the Doctor cautiously got up and turned the woman around.
Her eyes were widening, as if she was just realizing something. She rose her head with a mouth hanging open. "Oh Doctor...it's my fault. It's my fault."
"What? What does that mean?" Wilf got up as well, but he couldn't understand why Renata was so mortified all of a sudden. Neither could the Doctor.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. A Whitepoint Star diamond was only found on Gallifrey…
"It's coming back to me! The-the thoughts! I-I buried them so long ago - that's my Whitepoint Star! The Assessor gave it to…" Renata swallowed hard as a lump had appeared in her throat. The tears were filling her eyes quickly. It was coming back to her in a rush. "She took it from me, Doctor. She pulled it off me…" her shaky hands found her neck, ghosting the place where her beautiful Whitepoint Star had once hung long ago. "They stole it from me! And now they're coming here! The Time Lords are coming back!"
The Doctor couldn't make sense of everything Renata was seeing but she was letting her mind fully open to his and so he could see the same rush of images she was getting. The Assessor, Rassilon, the Whitepoint Star…
The Assessor had yanked it off her sister and handed it over to Rassilon.
Renata screamed and jumped for her necklace to be returned, but it was too late. It was far gone…
Until now.
A deep fury coursed through his entire body in that moment, a fury that went for so many people on that planet. He didn't know how much of it went to the Assessor, but it was a big one. He turned away from Renata and picked up the gun from the floor as he stormed out of the room.
"What happened? I don't understand," Wilf tried to calm Renata down, but the Time Lady was weeping.
~ 0 ~
The Doctor ran into the control room where Addams and Rossiter were still trying to make the necessary mends to get them home. He went straight for the comms and turned all communications back on. As soon as he did, everyone began to hear the four beats.
"What's that?" frowned Addams. What else could go wrong now!?
Rossiter checked the computer for the information. "Coming from Earth. It's on every single wavelength."
~ 0 ~
Gallifrey.
Renata was sitting on the ground over her knees, much too exhausted to keep crying and thrashing. Her sister had once again proved that she loved nobody, not even her own family.
"Contact! At last!" Rassilon exclaimed, making Renata raise her head. Everyone seemed content with the results, including the Assessor. She was smirking, like she had planned the whole thing.
Of course everything would turn out fine. She had made sure of it, just like always.
Rassilon strode out of the room, prompting everyone else to do the same. The Assessor walked after the group but instead of leaving with them, she stopped beside her sister on the ground.
"You took one of the last things I had from Elek," Renata said, her voice strained from her sobs. She gazed ahead but at nothing in specific, she was just lost. "Ripped it right off me like it didn't matter…like he didn't matter."
The Assessor said nothing as she bent down in front of Renata. She put a finger underneath Renata's chin and turned her head to face each other. "Renata, it didn't. A Time Lady must do what is expected of her. You had the means to help our people and you did. You did your duty."
Renata seized the Assessor's finger under her chin and shoved it away. "This was not to help our people," she snapped. "It was to save you and the Council, to those in power."
"Our people," the Assessor said again, making it obvious that she didn't see anyone else below their class as part of their kind. "Cheer up, Renata. You still have the locket." She barely touched the golden pendant around Renata's neck. "I didn't take it all from you."
"Yeah you did," Renata whispered. "You took it all away."
The Assessor's face went flat when she realized Renata wasn't talking just about the White Dwarf Star. "I saved you," her voice was low, warning Renata not to try and argue that matter with her again. "Because of me you had a life fit for your class. The Doctor would have ruined you."
"And now you're here, asking me to go back to him."
"And you will do it if we need to. Mother and Father raised you to always do whatever was asked of you. Never forget who you are, Renata," the Assessor straightened on her feet and ordered the Two Time Lords with her to make sure Renata did not move.
Author's Note:
The Assessor is, uh...sort of...mean? But at the same time she's kind of stupid for not seeing that Renata is going to double cross her in the end. (Go Ren, scam them!). Also, the next chapter is the LAST chapter of this story *sniff* I'm kind of sad about that. I've had this story for a long time now .
Random but since it's Halloween, and I frikin love Halloween, feel free to drop suggestions for any halloween one shots with Avalon!
P.S As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "noble-crescent" and the tag I created for any posts having to do with my work is # noblecrescentedit.
Reviews:
doctorsgirl262: Thanks so much! I really like writing this new incarnation too because there's new things to explore about her personality!
The Time Lord Oracle: Ah, more or less uptight? I'll leave that for you all to decide once we get into the next story. Gabby will come in after Prison Zero, yeah. She'll definitely have some new things to get used by then xD.
lexicaruso: Thank youuuuu! I had so much trouble deciding whether or not to go through with that beginning so I'm glad to hear it was well received. And yup, you have that correct! You'll see the actual scene in the next story. I felt like it didn't quite belong here considering what happens in the chapter before the scene. Ahaha yeah I was trying to go for something like that, she regenerated so there's of course going to be some diifferences but she's essentially still Ren! You're soooooo kind, really! Makes me entire day here! Thank you soooo much!
DarkSideofParis: I HAD to bring her in after what she did to them! Their moment is coming in the next chapter though! Sorry for the double wait! There's going to be some changes alright with her new incarnation and she'll be open about how she feels about them too. And as for Gabby, I thought about it LONG trust me and ultimately I felt like there was no way in hell that Renata would ever let Gabby come along if the Master was involved. She's far too protective of Gabby for something like that.
savethemadscientist: Yup! His thought logic wasn't all the way there considering how he felt. I mean, was it really a secret there, Ren, that you loved him? I think she was the last one to find out xD. Thanks so much!
Guest: Ahahaha he will be xD
