Notes: I just wanted to briefly apologize for the mix up with the chapters earlier. I decided to combine the prologue with the Master chapter after I had published both chapters. Sorry about that! Also, this chapter takes place soon after 'The Doctor Dances'.
The Doctor hauled me to my feet, but unlike the Master she was gentle with me. Her touch was strong and kind as her hand drifted from the small of my back to the curve of my waist. She had an arm around my waist, keeping me propped against her as if she had somehow known that my legs were too wobbly to rely on.
"Doctor," said Rose Tyler, the Rose Tyler, "what's going on?"
"Who's the Master?" Jack added.
"An old friend. Of sorts." The Doctor led me up the metal ramp to what I soon realized was the TARDIS console, her TARDIS full of life and brilliant, shining colors. There was a two-person seat welded to a pair of giant springs on the edge of the console platform where the Doctor helped me sit down. "Someone I thought was dead."
The cool touch of her fingers on my skin was a relief to the burning heat that had spread across my body. I sighed, leaning into her touch as my eyes fluttered closed. But even with my eyes closed, I could still see the time vortex as it rippled across the inside of my eyelids.
"Batyah, talk to me." I half opened one eye to see the Doctor gazing at me again. Her eyes were so intense, so focused that it was hard to hold her gaze for very long. "What did he do to you?"
Flashes of memory invaded my senses in response to the Doctor's question. I pictured the Master laughing in my face and all but crumpled into the Doctor's waiting arms. "He said I was never going to die," I said softly. My eyes had started to sting with tears by that point. "That I was reborn in the fire of the vortex. That... that I wasn't even human anymore."
"What happens to all your human rules when you stop being human?"
The Doctor pushed up the sleeve of my hoodie enough to feel the pulse at my wrist. "No, you're still human. For now." An unspoken "but" seemed to hang in the air.
I sniffled, pressing my forehead into the Doctor's collarbone. "What's happening to me? I feel sick and hot. And like I could rip the Master in half for even touching me."
Before I was given a response, an alarm sounded from the console. The monitor fixed above the control panel had turned black with large white Gallifreyan symbols stamped across it while a tiny red light flashed on top. The Doctor's mouth fell open and she quickly moved me against the back of my seat before jumping to her feet.
"That's impossible."
"What?" cried Rose. "What's that?"
The Doctor braced herself against the console as the sound of a TARDIS rematerializing echoed painfully in my ears. Each wheeze and groan vibrated deep in my bones. "It's another TARDIS. It's trying to materialize around this one." Her startled expression turned dark, then, even vengeful. "The Master. He's coming for her."
A voice crackled overhead, as if coming from an old, unused stereo system. Meanwhile, my body had started aching like I'd been rammed by a car. "Long time, Doctor. How's the Time War treating you?"
"Master!" roared the Doctor.
"If you'll look to your left, ladies and gentleman, you'll see Miss Batyah Sinai producing a fine example of the beginning stages of human-vortex gene splicing." Three pairs of eyes settled on me while the Master laughed. "There's nothing you can do to stop it, Doctor! She's changing already!"
The Doctor returned to my side, her hands holding and prodding me as she murmured worriedly over me. "Bee, Bee, look at me. Let me see your eyes."
Rose and Jack appeared by the Doctor's shoulder. I could see Rose fidgeting and Jack frowning, but their bodies were framed by flickers of gold light. The light had come in gone in just a few seconds, but it was enough for the Doctor to notice. She was visibly shaking as she held me at arms length, her fingers tight around my biceps.
"What's wrong with her?" said Jack.
"It's the vortex, the time vortex. Her body's trying to fight it off, but it's been spliced into her DNA."
Rose put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "The vortex is inside her?"
"Yes. And it's killing her."
I blinked. "But the Master said I can't die," I protested.
"Except you're still human."
The Master's voice sounded again, booming and sadistic and unbearably giddy. "Yes! Exactly, yes - she's still human! She weaseled her way out from under me before I could finish the process, Doctor, and you know what that means. She's dying." He hummed excitedly and I could all but picture him clapping his hands gleefully as he reveled in the chaos. "But if you hand her over now, while I'm asking nicely, I can fix it."
"Over my dead body," was the Doctor's response.
"That can be arranged." I shuddered at the murderous darkness in the Master's voice. "But either way, the time vortex is burning her alive like a sinner at the stake, from the inside out."
The Doctor's eye were wide, terrified. She looked into me and I looked into her, desperate for a glimmer of hope. "I can fix this," she said. "I can fix this. I'm not letting you burn."
"There's only one way to save herrr," rang the Master's sing-song voice. "Give her to me!"
"No!" The Doctor stood, furious and Northern and brimming with rage as she cast her eyes to the ceiling. "D'you really think that after all those years of bloodshed and violence and war strategies that I don't know how to beat you at your own game? That I don't know how to win? I'm going to save her. And then, just because I can, I'm going to hunt you down and tear you apart!"
The Master chuckled, his voice a mere whisper. "It's a date, then."
Whirling on her companions with fire in her eyes, the Doctor pointed to me. "Rose, you stay with Bee." The blonde was by my side in an instant, her arm around my shoulders as she drew me close. "Jack, with me. And Bee?" My heart did a little skip when the Doctor flashed me a grin. "You just hold on."
The Master was wringing his hands together, laughing to himself as he sauntered towards the blue police box sitting in his console room. He could distantly make out the sound of a Cloister Bell chiming in the distance, but he paid it no mind. With a quick flourish of his hand, he had smoothed back his fringe and straightened the line of his coat. He reached into his pocket and grinned upon pulling out his Tissue Compression Eliminator. Oh, he was in for a grand old time with an an even older friend.
The TARDIS doors fell open with a shove of his hands and he waltzed inside as if he owned the place, casting his gaze to the ugly coral support beams and the yellow-orange walls with a disappointed look. "I thought your style would've improved by now," he drawled, poking out his bottom lip in a frown.
Across the walkway stood the Doctor and one of her human companions, a man in jeans and an ugly beige jacket who he recognized as Captain Harkness, while Batyah sat just a few feet away with a blonde girl by her side. The Master felt his hearts thud heavy in his chest. Disposables - how delightful. The blonde ought to be the first to go since she'd make such a pretty doll. He might even consider keeping her on display once he was finished. Perhaps Batyah would like that. It could decorate the inside of the TARDIS and serve as a reminder of all the time she wasted pretending to be good.
He aimed his TCE and fired, but the smug expression on his face was immediately wiped away when Batyah pushed the blonde out of the way with a shout. He stamped his foot and snarled. The blast from the TCE hit Batyah square in the chest and she shrunk down to the size of his thumb, clattering onto the seat cushion as a lifeless doll. "Stupid girl!"
The scream the Doctor let out was unlike anything the Master had ever heard. It was hearts shattering to anyone who cared. The Doctor fell to her hands and knees, face frozen in horror as she stared at what remained of her lover. The Master paused for a moment to wonder if perhaps he had just made the greatest mistake of his lives. But that thought was fleeting and empty when he realized she was fine. The spark of vortex energy crackling around her tiny figurine was evidence enough of that.
"Snap, crackle, and pop, Doctor. Here she comes!"
A wave of air, light, and vortex energy blast through the console room, tossing Batyah's figurine into the air. The Master watched in awe as the figurine shimmered and shook before finally enlarging to her normal size. She floated in mid air for an eternity, arms and legs splayed while her hair fanned out around her like a halo. The time vortex had brought her back, breathed new life into her human-ish body. It was glorious. A shiver of delight ran through the Master's body as he thought of all the treacherous possibilities her new immortality allowed. How many times could he snap her neck and watch her reanimate before the excitement died down? A thousand or two? Perhaps he'd give her a little kiss after each go just to spice things up a bit. Maybe she'd even return the favor.
But just like that, the magic was gone and Batyah's body was unceremoniously dropped to the floor. She crumpled like a rag doll and flopped onto her face. The Doctor scrambled forward, still on hands and knees as she desperately called Batyah's name.
"Oi, give her a minute!" The Master huffed and rolled his eyes, exasperated. "She's still recalibrating, Doctor." His body was humming with adrenaline. He fingers were itching to throttle something, his hearts beating a frantic onetwothreefour as he watched, eagerly, Batyah's body rise and fall with her breaths. The other two humans had bored him already, their deaths would be uninteresting in the shadow of Batyah's resurrection. So he pocketed the TCE and braced himself against the railing at his side. "Taking her sweet time, isn't she? She not usually this slow."
That was when the Doctor's eyes locked onto the Master. It felt like it had been an eon or two since the last time the Doctor had looked at him like that, brimming with the rage of the Oncoming Storm. Oh, how he missed that vengeful arrogance! It was exciting enough to make something stir deep in the pit of his stomach.
The Doctor's voice was steady and calm when she finally spoke, but there was sterile strength to its timbre. "I'm glad you came, Master. I'm glad you survived the War. In fact, I'm glad you're standing here right now. You want to know why?" A sickly sweet smile spread across her face as she glared a hole into the Master's head. "Because I'm going to kill you."
Giddy laughter tickled the Master deep in his bones, but it quickly turned to anger. He pointed at the Doctor's face, aiming square between her eyes. "Oh, Doctor!" he roared, his throat scratching in pleasure-pain. "You could never manage to kill me before. What makes you think you can do it now?"
The Doctor stood. "You hurt her."
"And I'll do it again. And again. And again. Until. She. Breaks."
The blonde girl spoke up, her voice squeaky and grating. "You're sick! You hear that? You're sick! Who the hell d'you think you are?"
"I'm the Master. And that girl there, stewing in resurrection energy, is mine. Mine! She's my consolation prize. She always has been. And I'll be bathing in your blood by the time she comes 'round if you don't shut up!"
Captain Harkness stepped forward, one arm stretched protectively in the blonde's direction. "I think you better watch your mouth," he said. "Because no one talks to Rose like that."
"You tickle me, Captain. As if I care." The Master waved his hand in the air, as if to move the conversation along. "I'm getting bored with all this chitchat. Batyah is still dying, Doctor. And you don't know how to save her. I do."
"I'm not handing her over to you."
"Then she'll die on your watch and you'll have never known her. Because I stole her. I stole her from her home, fresh and ripe and untouched by either of us. She's still new." The Doctor's face fell as she realized the truth of the Master's words. "How many worlds has she saved in all her years, eh? How many times has she saved you? What will happen to your perfectly crafted universe when the foundations come tumbling down and Batyah Sinai dies?"
Silent as a statue, the Doctor walked down the ramp to meet the Master where he stood. The pair look deeply at one another, assessing, calculating. The Master hated that he had to tilt his head back to meet his best enemy's eyes. How had she managed to tower over him at a massive six feet while he'd been cut down to size, forced to make up the five inch difference with little more than an intimidating scowl? Then again, he supposed it didn't matter. He had Batyah's life in the palm of his hand. He was in control.
"Ask me to help."
The Doctor's jaw clenched as her teeth ground together. She seemed ready to stand her ground, but changed her mind a moment later. "Please," she said through gritted teeth.
"Please, what? Couldn't hear you."
"Don't test me, Master."
"Don't test me."
A small voice broke the two apart, drawing their eyes to the figure on the floor. "Help," Batyah cried softly. "It hurts."
The Doctor started towards her, but the Master grabbed hold of her jacket and shoved her into the railing. He said nothing, but the promise of violence was bright in his eyes. The massage was clear: stand down or else. Another quick push and the Doctor was left clinging to the railing while the Master sauntered the rest of the way up the ramp.
Rose and Jack had stayed close to Batyah, keeping watch, but they hesitantly moved to huddle together by the console when the Master shot them a glance. Jack put an arm around Rose's shoulders, angry but silent and unmoving as he watched the Master stand over Batyah like the predator he was. She looked up at him wide-eyed and without an ounce of fight in her.
"Come now, love." The Master hauled Batyah to her feet with a grunt. "We have work to do."
"Doctor, are you just gonna let him leave?"
The Doctor flashed Jack a look that quieted him immediately. The Master smiled. "Smart move, Doctor. Probably your best one yet." He and Batyah stumbled down the ramp again. Batyah looked as if she was about to collapse, but the Master was chipper and grinning from ear to ear. He thought he'd won.
"She won't be with you forever," the Doctor said when the pair stopped by the doors. "You realize that?"
"Oh, she'll go off and have her little adventures. But she'll always come back. To me."
The Doctor grabbed hold of the Master's bicep, drawing impossibly close. "You ought to watch your back," she uttered. "You'll find the universe is a very small place when I'm angry with you."
The Master simply scoffed. "Where I'm going, you can't follow."
"Try me."
And then the Doctor let him go.
I awoke in the Master's TARDIS, splayed out on the floor under the cracked open console. I could vaguely remember the Master taking me there, the bitter words exchanged between him and the Doctor beforehand, but it hurt my head to think too deeply on it. My head rolled to one side and I started when I saw the Master's body crouched over my outstretched arm. He looked like a gargoyle fresh out of a hell I didn't even believe in. An IV drip stretched between my arm and his, dark red blood flowing steadily into my veins.
"What are you doing?" I croaked.
"Blood transfusion," he replied, brows furrowed and his eyes trained on needle stuck in my arm.
A strange thought occurred to me as I lay immobile on the floor with the Master filling my vision. If he had just a little less psychotic energy buzzing around inside his brain and little more wayward traveler energy instead, I might have mistaken him as an incarnation of the Doctor. His coat and rolled up plaid trousers and waistcoat reminded me of a handful of Doctors I had come to love over the years, namely Doctors the second, eleventh, and twelfth. I wondered if I, assuming I survived the Master's reign of terror, would ever get to meet them.
I rolled my head to the other side to catch a glimpse of the console, curious to see if I could spot its heart. But the Master had placed me under a different portion of the console with its exposed heart out of reach. He seemed to notice me looking because he cleared his throat. He was staring at me when I finally gathered enough courage to look his way.
"I could kill you for doing that." His voice was so soft, so calm and gentle. It was like I was speaking with a different person.
My eyes all but bulged out of my skull. "What?"
"Running away on me."
"I didn't mean to!"
The Master laughed softly. "Yes, you did."
I nodded dumbly. "I did." There wasn't really a point in lying if he already knew it wasn't true.
"But I won't. Kill you, that is." His left arm was free of any IVs and he extended it enough to touch my face. His knuckles were rough and cold.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
"Because I have to. Do you know what kind of chaos I'd reign down if I never reforged you? The universe would fall apart." There was a tenderness in his eyes that scared the wits out of me and the way his gaze lingered on me made me want to hide myself away in a deep, dark hole. "My universe would fall apart." He turned his attention to the IV that connected us and sighed. "You already ruined my life centuries ago, Batyah. Now I'm just returning the favor."
When next I woke up, having quickly lost consciousness after the Master's blood transfusion, I noted I was still on the console room floor. But the Master had repositioned me so I was sitting upright and propped against the open part of the console. My arm was sore, likely from all the poking and prodding he'd been doing.
"You're up," he said. I looked up to find him leaning over the control panel, focused on something other than me for once. "Good. Time to start, then."
There was a frightening calmness to his demeanor. I didn't trust it and I didn't trust what might happen to me if he stayed so startlingly calm, but what could I do to stop him? The Doctor, the man who stops the monsters, had let the Master take me away. If the Doctor couldn't save me, then what could anyone else do in her place? What point was there in anything? Did it matter if I lived? Deep in my heart, I knew it did. It was the core of my beliefs, both as a human and as a Jew - every life is valuable, every life is worth something, whether wicked or good. But faced with the terrible reality of living only to be used as a science experiment with no concern for how I felt, I couldn't bring myself to want to live.
"Please, don't," I protested when the Master took my arm in hand. I locked eyes with him and shook my head. "Please. Just let me be."
"You'll die if I don't," he said. There was a shimmer in his eyes, a look of mad scientist and defeated warrior.
"Isn't that what you're all about? Death and destruction?" I could see every pore in his skin, every line and wrinkle, every hair in his beard. He was an enigma, larger than life and awful, but he was also just a man, standing before me with the same human features that I had. "What makes me so different?"
The Master finally smiled, a bit crazed like I was used to. It was much more comforting than the serious look he'd been sporting earlier. "Dangerous question, Batyah."
"You're a dangerous man."
It was poetic in a twisted sort of way. I'd spent so many years pining after the Doctor and even the Master, albeit the Missy version who was much more my type than the one currently holding me in a death grip, and now I was at what seemed to be the end of my life with one of them. The story of the Doctor's life had been a beacon of hope in some of my darkest years. Now I was going to die at the hands of her best enemy.
"Please," I said again, still holding his gaze while I hung limp in his hands. "Just make it quick. I don't care if it hurts. I just want it to be over."
The Master dropped me like a hot coal. I thought perhaps he would finally do it and end me, but instead he grabbed my hand and smashed it against the heart of his TARDIS. "Can't do that, love."
The Master's voice echoed around me as I was consumed again by the TARDIS's heart and then, by the time vortex. I found myself in the vortex's hauntingly beautiful nothingness, listening to the rushing of the time winds, the lilting melody of the Doctor's life, and the crashing beats of the Master's heartbeats. Even here I felt tortured, knowing that the Master wanted me to keep on going simply because he had the power to make me. I cried. I let the time vortex tear me apart and sew me back together again. I might as well, right?
With the time vortex flowing through my veins and vibrating in between my atoms, I discovered that I could see beyond reality. I could see every moment of existence, from the creation of the universe to its final moments where a woman named Me spent her days watching the stars die out. I watched planets being born, lived on, destroyed, and born again. Civilizations rose and fell on nearly every planet the universe had managed to spit out. People fell in love, killed each other, gave birth to new life, over and over until there were finally no people left. I searched and focused and finally found the birth of my people on Earth, the wanderings of the Hebrews as they were taken from their homeland, sold into slavery, rose to power as kings, and were conquered. I saw their victories and deaths, every good and terrible thing they had or ever would do. I saw G-d through their eyes and it was enough. Dayenu, we say each Passover - it would have been enough. And it was. In that moment, for me, it was.
The vortex eventually faded away like early morning mist and I was left in the TARDIS, bathed in the red and white glow of the overhead monitor and the light of the TARDIS's heart. The Master was kneeling next to me, his face frozen in anxious curiosity. I sighed shakily and resettled against the propped open section of the console I had awakened on. There was a new fire sparking to life deep inside me and it wasn't just the residual vortex energy whizzing around. It was hope. I didn't need the Doctor, even if I desperately wanted her there to whisk me away. I had myself and I had my faith. That was enough.
That awful, sadistic smile of the Master's slowly returned to his face. It sent shivers down my spine and dark, hopeless thoughts into my mind, eager to snuff out the spark within me. "There you are," he said softly. "There's the Batyah I know."
I furrowed my brows together, taking in his greasy black fringe, scruffy beard, and wild eyes. G-d, I was so tired of him. I could feel something stirring in my stomach as my anger began to build and build like a gathering storm. I sighed. "Eat shit." And then, unbidden, a burst of light erupted from within me and hit the Master in the chest, sending him flying back against the far wall.
I staggered to my feet, bristling with energy and adrenaline and fury. I looked down at my hands; they were tingling and glowing a faint gold, almost as if I were regenerating. Somehow I knew it meant power. Good. I could use a healthy dose of power.
The Master was watching me, mouth agape in delicious awe. I could see a trickle of blood along his hairline and it made me pause, just for a moment. I'd never injured someone seriously enough to draw blood before. But damn, it felt amazing. I felt free, like flying, like towering over him and playing with him and his fear like a cat plays with her food. It would feel so good to bruise that arrogant, evil face and then leave him there to wallow in his ugly TARDIS. I could even damage it, make it so the Master could never find me again, so he could never go anywhere or harm anyone again. Let him waste away inside his ship for the rest of eternity.
Luckily, I never had to find out if I truly would have gone that far. To the Master's right, the TARDIS doors flew open and in stalked the Doctor, tall and dark and beautiful. The light pulsating in my hands brightened upon seeing her, it was almost bright enough to match the joy I felt thundering in my heart. The Doctor raised a hand to shield her eyes from the light.
"Batyah!" she called. "It's alright."
With the Doctor present, I felt safe enough. She was enough. And just like that, like flipping a switch, the light was gone and the three of us were bathed in the eerie red darkness of the Master's TARDIS. I stumbled backwards as a dizzy spell suddenly swept over me, trying to keep my balance and my wits about me as my brain started racing. I felt like I'd just jumped off a cliff into a foggy valley and I didn't know where the bottom was.
I muttered something nonsensical as my legs gave out underneath me. With my cheek pressed against the floor, I could see, from an awkward angle, the roar of the Master as he lunged to the side, clawing at the Doctor. The pair of them fell into a heap of flailing limbs and shadows. Behind them, through the still open doors, I could also see a yellow-orange haze and another pair of figures quickly approaching. They came bursting into the TARDIS, one figure clad in a beige jacket and white shirt, the other in a zip-up hoodie with bright blonde hair.
Jack surged forward and grabbed the Master by the scruff of his neck, pulling him off the Doctor as if he weighed next to nothing. Then his fist slammed into the Master's face and the Time Lord fell flat on his ass. Rose had scurried past all three of them, her body and face filling my vision until she was all I could see. Her hands rested sweetly on my shoulder as she asked if I was alright, her eyes scanning me everywhere for signs of injury.
"Don't move," I could hear Jack say. "Sonic blaster. I'll vaporize you in a heartbeat."
Rose helped me to sit up first, then to stand, by which time the Doctor had come to my aid. She pulled me into a desperate hug, squeezing me so tightly that I thought my limbs might pop out of their sockets. Her fingers were in my hair, on my skin, running down the length of my arms, her voice a breathless prayer as she murmured English and foreign words into my ears. But the moment was cut short when Jack called for the Doctor's attention.
The Master had finally moved to stand, but he looked tired, defeated. The Doctor's hands lingered on me as she turned towards him, and I leaned into her touch. Everything was silent and still, but uncomfortably so. And I felt caught somewhere between being tired and wired. But the Doctor was with me, her friends were with me, protecting me, so maybe I was safe again.
The Doctor nodded in the Master's direction. "Look in your pocket."
Confused, the Master clawed his way into the pocket on his left and searched it. Then he froze and pulled out a small glass and metal sphere, its interior blinking faintly. "A tracking device." He buried it inside his fist before angrily smashing it on the floor.
"You were so busy swannin' about that you forgot one very important detail: I'm the Doctor and I always stop you."
"No! Not this time, Doctor!"
"Yes, this time!" I could feel the heat of the Doctor's anger radiating off of her. "We're the last two left, you and I. We could've worked together. But you just had to go too far." She shook her head, the muscles in her jaw clenched tightly. "No more."
The Master giggled. "You gonna finally do it, then?" He took an uneasy step forward, his legs shaking underneath him. "Can you stop my hearts, Doctor? Or are you a coward?"
Deep within my subconscious, I heard a familiar whisper and saw a flash of an image: the Doctor in a dark room, surrounded by Daleks, her life and the fate of the Earth hanging in the balance, and her mouth forming the words, "Coward. Any day." I reached out, searching for the Doctor's hand, and twined my fingers with hers. It felt right to hold her hand. She glanced down, lost in the haze of infinite possibilities that she stood confronted with. I couldn't say anything, I didn't know what to say, but I couldn't look away from her either. Nor did I want to.
"I've killed too many Time Lords," she finally said. "I'm not killing another one."
The Master made a big show of complaining about the Doctor's morals, rambling on and on about how disappointed he was. It was exhausting. I'd been taunted by his stupid voice for far too long. The rage I had felt minutes earlier, fresh from the vortex, was brewing inside me again. I wasn't angry enough to destroy him, not like I had been, but enough was enough. He needed to go.
I dropped the Doctor's hand, my own glowing gold as I walked forward. His eyes met mine, his bottom lip trembled; he was scared. I rotated my hands in large, glowing circles, gathering my vortex energy into a sphere big enough to cover the Master's head. I slammed both hands into his chest and let the light absorb into his body, watching his face contort in shock and pain.
"You're not welcome here. Go back to the hell you came from," I said darkly. I shoved him again and this time he vanished, leaving nothing behind but the faint glimmer of gold dust in the air.
I turned around completely, Rose and the Doctor coming back into sight. I couldn't tell if they were afraid of me or not, but in the moment it didn't really matter. So I closed my eyes and focused. I could see the Master falling through time and space before finally slamming into a concrete floor. He was in the room he had first taken me to, the orange-tinted prison on what I now knew to be Gallifrey. It was likely he would escape, one day in the very distant future, but that was good enough. He wouldn't be coming after me anytime soon. With him taken care of, I could finally focus on his TARDIS. The Doctor had materialized her ship around the Master's, so I opted for the simplest solution I could think of.
Standing on the border of reality and the time dimension which the vortex coursed through, half present with the Doctor, Rose, and Jack, I began gathering my energy again. I circled my hands around each other again and again until I could feel it grow large enough to swallow me whole. My eyes flew open. I lifted the energy ball into the air and let it burst overhead, raining down gold dust as the walls of the Master's TARDIS disintegrated. Every inch of it, from the console room to the depths of its darkest corridors was crumbling into dust. Every masterly devised plan he had ever thought up inside it walls turned into pure nothingness. I was free. We were all free.
The light and the vortex was gone. The Master and his TARDIS were gone. Myself, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack were all standing inside the Doctor's TARDIS. I smiled as I looked into the Doctor's wide and worried eyes. And then I died.
Notes: I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a review with any comments or criticisms. :)