Chapter Four
Harry, Martha and Tom all crouched down behind large rocks as they stared up at a large statue of the Master, making Harry roll his eyes at the mans arrogance and narcissism.
"All over Earth, those things. He's even carved himself into Mount Rushmore," Martha told him, tone dry and telling them exactly what she thought of it. Harry snorted in amusement, remembering her face when they first saw it.
"Best to keep down. Here we go. The entire south coast of England, converted into shipyards. They bring in slave labour every morning. Break up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal. Building a fleet out of scrap," Tom told them as they turned slowly to look over the edge of the quarry at the massive fleet of space rockets.
"Russia is even bigger," Harry whispered, making Tom look at him in shock. Harry wondered if the man even realised he could talk.
"Bigger?"
"Shipyard Number One. He's talking about Shipyard Number One. It stretches all the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait. There's a hundred thousand rockets getting ready for war," Martha told him, picking up from where Harry had stopped, aware that he probably didn't want to say any more.
"War? With who?"
"Everyone. The whole universe. No where is safe from him. No one is safe," Harry muttered, not taking his eyes off of the rockets and not seeing Tom shift uncomfortably.
"We've been out there, Tom, in space, before all this happened, and there's a thousand different civilisations all around us with no idea of what's happening here. The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all," Martha told him grimly, making Tom stare at them both in surprise.
"You've been in space?"
"Problem with that?"
"No. No, just er, wow. Anything else I should know?"
"We've met Shakespeare," Martha told him with a grin, only stretching the truth a little to include Harry given it would be strange if she'd gone without him. Suddenly two Toclafane fly up from behind the statue, making Harry and Martha freeze and stay staring over the cliff edge, not daring the move even as Tom was questioned on his identity. Both flinched when the two spheres flew off, laughing as they did.
"They didn't see you," Tom said, sounding stunned as he turned to look at them both. Martha just smiled and pulled out her key from inside her jacket to show him.
"How do you think we travelled the world? Because the Master set up Archangel, that mobile network, fifteen satellites around the planet, but really it's transmitting this low level psychic field. That's how everyone got hypnotised into thinking he was Harold Saxon."
"Saxon. Feels like years ago."
"But our keys are tuned in to the same frequency. Makes us sort of not invisible, just unnoticeable. Harry's is stronger than mine, but they both function in the same way."
"Well, I can see you."
"That's because you wanted to. But if I weren't here then I bet you'd still have trouble focusing on Harry," Martha told him whilst Harry just stayed silent but gave a small grin when Tom looked at him in surprise.
"We'd better move, mum. We've got to find this Docherty woman," Harry whispered, pulling on Martha's sleeve to get her attention.
"We'll have to wait until the next work shift. What time is it now?" Tom asked them, Harry's words grabbing his attention as they realised he was right and they really shouldn't linger.
"It's nearly three o'clock."
"Well, we'd better get going then. The next shift is about an hour, best to be there when it changes.
Harry and Martha held hands as Tom led them towards the houses that the slaves were kept in before they had to start working in the shipyards again.
"Was I right? Did you suspect who the Toclafane actually were?" Harry asked Martha quietly as they headed for one house in particular.
"Yes. You were there?"
"Yeah. It was horrible. There was no way I could stop him. But then, I don't actually think they wanted to stop him. I don't know if I would have stopped him if I could either," Harry admitted quietly, getting a shocked look from Martha.
"Why not?"
"They weren't human anymore. Not recognisable as human at least. They were monsters long before the Master turned them into one," Harry told her in a quiet, sad voice just as they all had to duck as a patrol passed them before hurrying to a house and knocking on the door.
"Let me in. It's Milligan," Tom whispered at the door, taking a step back when it opened and ushered Martha and Harry inside. They both paused slightly when they stared at the packed hallway, more people packed into one little terrace house than it was ever built to comfortable fit. This wasn't all that new from other places they'd visited though. At least these people were sheltered from the elements. The camps that were basically just plastic sheets of tarp shoddily attached to trees and posts were the worst. The people in those had lost any semblance of hope. Harry much preferred these kind of dwellings. The people seemed to have some hope left.
"Did you bring food?" a woman asked them as they made their way further into the hallway, glancing at Harry and Martha with a small amount of curiosity before turning back to Tom hoping for a positive answer. Harry felt sorry knowing the answer but also knew exactly what she was feeling. Hunger wasn't a stranger to Harry and Martha anymore.
"Couldn't get any, and I'm starving."
"All we've got is water," the woman said with disappointment. Harry looked down and took a step closer to Martha, trying to hide slightly when the movement got the attention of everyone in the room.
"I'm sorry," Martha told them, moving so that she was standing in front of Harry slightly, what she was apologising for exactly, Harry wasn't too sure. He also wasn't sure why she even felt the need to do so in the first place. It wasn't really anyones fault other than the Masters.
"It's cheaper than building barracks. Pack them in, a hundred in each house, ferry them off to the shipyards every morning," Tom told them, walking further into the room and not noticing that Harry and Martha did so only slightly.
"Are you Martha and Harry? The Joneses?" a young boy, not much older than Harry appeared to be by the looks of him, asked them which got them even more attention. Though by this point, Harry was used to all the attention they got in the camps. He still didn't like it though.
"Yeah, that's us." Martha smiled at the boy as she replied but didn't move from her place in front of Harry, which Harry was very grateful to her for.
"Can you do it? Can you kill him? They said you can kill the Master, can you? Tell us you can do it. Please, tell us you can do it."
"Who is the Master?" Another woman asked, which seemed to be the sign for everyone else in the room to ask questions all at the same time, giving Harry a headache as he tried to hear them all and each one made a new possibility of time flash through his head. Martha gave him a concerned look and pulled him so he stood in front of her and wrapped her arms around him when she heard him hiss in pain. She was well aware of what he was going through as he'd told her not long into their journey after the first couple of camps they'd visited.
"Come on, just leave them alone. They're exhausted and Harry's only a kid, don't crowd them."
"No, it's alright. They want us to talk, and I will. Harry might not though," Martha added, glancing down at Harry who shoved the time stream to the back of his mind and gave Martha a small nod telling her he'd talk too if needed.
Martha moved Harry forward so that they could sit on the stairs, sitting him on the step lower than her, between her legs to keep him sheltered from the rest of the people sitting around them, eager to hear what they had to say.
"We travelled across the world, from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of china, right across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere we went, we saw people just like you, living as slaves. But if Martha Jones and Harry Jones became legends, then that's wrong, because our name isn't important. There's someone else. The man who sent us out there. The man who told us to walk the Earth," Martha told them, the crowd listening with all their attention, and Harry took over, always happy to talk about the man he wanted to be his father.
"His name is the Doctor and he's incredible. He has saved all of our lives so many times but doesn't ever expect any thanks. You never even knew he was there. And he never stops. He never stays. But we've seen him, we've travelled with him, lived with him. We know him. And I love him so much, and so does my mum. And we know what he can do," Harry added in a quiet voice that still travelled to each one listening, though suddenly there was the sound of gunfire from outside and Harry flinched back into Martha as everyone in the house started to panic.
"It's him! It's him! Oh my God, it's him! It's the Master. He's here!" A woman said quietly hysterical, glancing at the door as though the Master was about the break the door down any minute.
"But he never comes to Earth! He never walks upon the ground!" The boy who had asked them if they could save them said, looking both scared and confused.
"Hide them!" Someone shouted, looking at Martha and Harry fearfully.
"Use this!" Tom told them, handing over what looked like an old potato sack or similar and covered them with it, Martha dragging Harry onto her lap to cover them better.
"He walks among us, our lord and master," the boy whispered, as they all fell silent and stared at the door, waiting to see what would happen next.
It came as no surprise to anyone really that the Master knew Harry and Martha were there, especially not the two currently being called out by him.
"Martha! Martha Jones! I can see you! Out you come, little girl, and bring your annoying brat with you! Come and meet your master! Anybody? Nobody?" The Master shouted out, loud and clear to everyone huddled in all the houses. Harry glanced up at Martha underneath the sack with a questioning look, getting a small nod in return. "Positions! I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself. What would the Doctor do?"
Harry and Martha took the sack off of themselves and then removed their Tardis keys from around their neck and placed them in their respective pockets. They then determinedly made their way to the door, ignoring the people trying to stop them.
"Don't go. At least leave Harry here. We'll protect him! Don't go out there!"
"Where I go, Harry goes. It'll be fine. We've got to go. We can't let him slaughter all of you just to save ourselves. He'll get us either way," Martha told them, pausing at the door to hold Harry's hand, and giving it a squeeze in a semi-comforting way, before she opened it and they both slowly walked outside, shutting the door behind them.
"Oh yes! Oh, very well done! Good children. He trained you well. Bags. Give me your bags," the Master demanded, making both of them glance at one another before slowly taking their bags off their backs and moving to hand them over to him, stopping quickly when he pointed at them. "No, stay there. Just throw it!"
The both threw their bags on the floor in front of them, though admittedly Harry's didn't go quite as far as Martha's. It didn't make any difference to the Master though as he destroyed both of them with his screwdriver.
"And now, good companions, your work is done!" The Master said, pointing his screwdriver at Martha with a manic grin before slowly turning it to face Harry.
"No!" Tom suddenly ran out of the house they had been hiding in towards Martha and Harry, but the Master shot him before he could reach them and he dropped to the floor dead. Martha and Harry watched it happen in horror and then moved closer to hold onto one another, Martha crouching slightly to pick Harry up and carry him.
"But you, when you die, the Doctor should be witness, don't you think? Almost dawn, kiddies, and planet Earth marches to war." The Master grinned at them before glancing at the soldiers with him and then hurried forward the grab them both, though Martha made sure to never let them take Harry from her.
"Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe!" The Master called out, grinning as he had Martha and Harry dragged in and visibly delighting in the gasps of horror from Martha's family and Jack. Harry fidgeted slightly so that Martha would put him on the floor, and when she did so he straightened his back and looked the Master straight on, refusing to look as scared as he felt. "Your teleport device, in case you thought I'd forgotten."
Martha gave him a filthy look but threw the vortex manipulator onto the floor in front of him.
"And now, kneel. Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?"
"The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice." One of the guards said, though Harry couldn't help but wonder just how much sincerity was behind that 'rejoice'. He wouldn't have thought there was much, though it's doubtful the Master ever noticed.
"Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?" The Master called out, spreading his arms just to add to the drama. Harry scoffed mentally, knowing exactly what the answer to that was. Harry did agree with the Master on the ticking clock though.
The spheres predictably agreed with the Master gleefully, all starting to fly out of the atmosphere in formation, anticipating more species to take their pain and anger out on.
"And now, Doctor, at zero, to mark this day, the child of Martha Jones will die! Tonight is the night I kill Martha Jones and little Harry Jones. My first blood. And I really do think the child should be first, don't you?" The Master said, grinning at Harry who just stared up at him as bravely as he could even when faced with his death. The Doctor wouldn't have shown his fear, so he wouldn't either. He refused to close his eyes as the Master pointed his screwdriver at him, he wouldn't show his fear. He wouldn't.
"No! Don't! He's one of us! Master, he's a time-tot!" Harry spun on the spot to face the Doctor with wide eyes, wondering why he was telling him that now. Though it did stop his imminent death, so he wasn't complaining.
"What? How? How is that possible?!" The Master asked, staring at Harry like he was something impossible. Something that shouldn't exist. Which to be fair, he was.
"I saved him. He… he was the last one. I took him before he died. I stole him away and hid him inside the Tardis until I felt it was safe," the Doctor told him in his quiet voice, using every bit of energy that he had in his ancient body to stop the Master from harming Harry.
"And you thought now was safe?"
"No. You turned the Tardis into a paradox machine. She could no longer hide him for me. Just don't… don't kill him," the Doctor told him weakly, the energy slowly coming to an end.
"How old is he?"
"Now? Nine."
"Nine. You locked him in time. How old…? Had he looked inside?"
"He did. Introduce yourself, Harry. Tell him your chosen name," the Doctor told Harry gently, making Harry look at him in confusion, before looking at the Master.
He straightened his back and took a step towards the man he had viewed as his uncle once, and who had chased him across the planet for a year. The man he had watched for eighteen months, getting to know better than possibly anyone else other than the Doctor. "I'm The Traveller."
"A Master, a Doctor and a Traveller. Well, no one ever really said time lords were an imaginative bunch. Fine, I won't kill him, Doctor. I'll spare him and then raise him. He'll be my legacy. We'll bring back the might of the Time Lords together, what do you say, Traveller?" The Master asked him, manic grin back on his face once more as he held his hand out for Harry to take.
"I… Doctor?" Harry asked, unsure as to what he's supposed to do in this situation. He'd been told by everyone that he shouldn't reveal himself to the Master, but then he recalled what his mother made him promise over a year ago.
"It's okay, Traveller. It's all going to be okay. I promise." Harry nodded at the Doctor's words and took a tentative step towards the Master and further away from Martha, silently hoping that he'd lose interest in Martha if he wasn't standing near her. He was quickly disabused of that notion seconds later though.
"Tricky things, your promises. Now! Martha Jones definitely isn't a Time Lord, she's useless to me, so no saving you. So where was I? Oh yes! Bow your head, it's time to die, Martha Jones! And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. Made even more helpful with the newly discovered Traveller!" The Master said gleefully, glancing at the ticking clock and then smiling as he pointed his screwdriver at a kneeling Martha. His smile soon left his face, replaced with one of confusion when Martha started chuckling. "What? What's so funny?"
"A gun," Martha said, amused disbelief very clear in her voice, and Harry grinned as the final part of their plan was about to take place and there would be no stopping it all because the Master was too curious to refrain from asking.
"What about it?"
"A gun in four parts?" Martha said in disbelief, looking up at the Master and smirking at him. Harry saw that the man's attention was entirely on Martha so he slowly started to move backwards towards the Doctor.
"Yes, and I destroyed it."
"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean, come on, did you really believe that?" Martha asked him and Harry couldn't hold back the giggle he let out, which just made the Master spin slightly to look at him in equal disbelief that he'd be showing Martha.
"What do you mean?" The Master asked, looking from Martha to Harry, eyes glancing to the Doctor once before turning his attention back to Martha.
"Doctor would never ask us to kill anyone, shouldn't you know that, Koschei?" Harry asked him in a quiet voice, tilting his head in question and smiling softly when the Master's eyes widened at the use of his name.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her," the Master told them, though he still looked shaken at Harry's words if you knew him well enough. So only Harry and the Doctor noticed.
"But we knew what Professor Doherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son. That's exactly why we chose to go to her, even though we were well aware of everything she had to tell us."
"We told her about the gun, Master, just so that she'd get us here at the right time," Harry told him softly, glancing over at the ticking clock, and dragging the Master's attention to is as well.
"Oh, but Martha is still going to die. And you're grounded, Traveller! Naughty Time Tot!" The Master told him, though he didn't sound quite so convinced about his success anymore and even the humans could hear it now.
"Don't you want to know what we were doing, travelling the world?"
"Tell me!"
"We told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. We did just what the Doctor said. I protected Harry's existence from you, taking him with me and we went across the continents all on our own. And everywhere we went, we found the people and we told them our story," Martha told him with a grin, sending a wide smile over at Harry and the Doctor.
"We told them all about the Doctor. All about the good he's done. How he's saved Earth so many times. How much we love him and respect him. Look up to him," Harry said, picking up the story as the two of them talking seemed to throw the Master off track even more.
"And we told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."
"Faith and hope? That was all?"
"No, because we gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said," Martha said, standing up and holding her head high as she smirked at him, visibly unnerving the angel.
"We told them that if everyone thinks of a word, at one specific time," Harry added, deciding that it was actually a better idea to be closer to Martha and further away from the Doctor, just in case it was a little more explosive.
"Nothing will happen. Is that your weapon? Prayer?"
"Right across the world, one word, just one thought at one moment but with fifteen satellites," Harry told him softly, with a smile as he finally reached Martha's side and gripped her hand.
"What?"
"The Archangel Network," Jack said, suddenly speaking up and grabbing the attention of everyone on the deck.
"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor," Martha finished telling him, just as the ticking clock reached the end of it's countdown. Not even a second later the Doctor started to glow along with the cage he was trapped inside of.
"Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't!" The Master screamed at them, turning to face the Master. Harry gave a small smile as he noticed everyone on the deck start to whisper the Doctor's name quietly with their eyes shut. Giving Martha's hand a squeeze, Harry shut his own eyes and started to think about the Doctor, his thief, his father.
"Don't!" The Master yelled at them, not that it would work. "Stop this right now! Stop it!"
Harry couldn't help but open his eyes in shock when he heard Lucy start to whisper the Doctor's name, but really he wasn't too sure why he was surprised. Eventually the Master was going to get bored of his human wife and start to treat her like he treats everyone else, maybe even worse. He hated mindless followers even more than everyone else after all. But with his eyes now open, Harry was able to see the Doctor starting to glow as he physically deaged.
"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network, and a very intelligent Time Tot making the connection even stronger and helping me to integrate with its matrices," the Doctor told him as the light started to brighten, making the Doctor float and start to go down the steps towards a visibly scared Master.
"I order you to stop!" The Master yelled at them, glancing around himself panicked as everything he'd planned for almost three years was starting to crumble around him.
"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking," the Doctor told him gleefully as he stopped floating and stepped forward, sending Harry a wide smile as he did so. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this!"
Harry glanced over as Martha finally ran over to her family and grabbed them into a group hug, giving her a smile before turning back to the Doctor and the Master and walking slowly towards them, his only family. He stopped next to the Doctor and then glanced up at him, as he started to walk towards the Master.
"No!" The Master shouted, pointing his screwdriver at the Doctor, but then glancing at Harry who was now within touching distance of the Doctor and yelling in wordless frustration as he lowered his screwdriver. "Stop it!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the Doctor told the Master in a soft voice, just getting a frightened look from the Master and a sad look from Harry.
"I'll kill them, Doctor!" The Doctor held out his hand, ignoring what the Master was saying and making the screwdriver fly from the Master's hand and into his own. "You can't do this! You can't do it! It's not fair!"
"And you know what happens now," the Doctor told him, stepping even closer and reaching out to place a hand on Harry's shoulder as he did, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"No! No! No! No!"
"You wouldn't listen."
"No!"
"Because you know what I'm going to say," the Doctor told him, ignoring the Master's pleas as the man slowly slid down the wall he'd bumped into. Harry frowned slightly when the Master slumped into a corner, staring up at them before curling into a ball, and moved forward to hug the man.
"I forgive you," Harry whispered, somewhat taking the Doctor's steam a little but he didn't really mind as every Time Lord reacted positively towards a hug from a Time Tot. Harry hugged the man tightly and gave a sad smile as the Master hugged him back. "I watched you for all those eighteen months. I saw everything you did. How you made the Toclafane. And I forgive you, Uncle Koschei."
"No. No. You can't," The Master muttered against Harry's neck, even as the Toclafane started to return back towards Earth as if they somehow knew what was happening and making the Doctor turned towards Jack quickly.
"Captain, the paradox machine!" Doctor yelled, getting a nod and a salute from Jack before he grabbed two of the guards and all three ran from the room. Harry shifted slightly in the Master's arms when he felt the man move one of them away from him, the movement also getting the Doctor's attention and making him lunge towards them, grabbing hold just as the vortex manipulator activated and took them away from the Valiant.
They all stumbled to the ground just outside the quarry, the giant statue of the Master looking down at them, and they scrambled to stand up. The Master let go of his hold of Harry, who took a step back from him and glanced between the two Time Lords, not stepping closer to either and staying an equal distance from them both.
"Master? Doctor?"
"Now it ends, Doctor! Now it ends!" The Master shouted, before he looked towards Harry and his face softened. "It all ends, Traveller."
Behind where the Master stood, a siren started sounding, along with a rumble of thunder. Harry looked past the Master in fear, wondering what would happen if the Toclafane found them.
"We've got control of the Valiant. You can't launch," the Doctor told him, walking over to them and stopping next to Harry. He ran a hand through Harry's hair comfortingly before turning his full attention back to the Master, who was grinning once more, though it didn't look quite as cheerful or manic as before, just a little resigned.
"Oh, but I've got this. Black hole converter inside every ship. If I can't have this world, Doctor, then neither can you. We shall stand upon this Earth together, as it burns," the Master said, holding out a control. Harry bit his lip and looked up through his scruffy fringe at the Doctor and relaxing a bit when the Doctor just sent him a reassuring smile.
"Weapon after weapon after weapon. All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years and all these disasters, I've had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. And perhaps even more important, you kill Harry. And that's one thing you could never do. No matter what you've done or what you've turned into, you're still a Time Lord and you'll never be able to kill a Time Tot. Now give that to me," the Doctor demanded, holding out the hand that wasn't running through Harry's hair reassuringly for the Master to give him the controller.
The Master paused for a second before looking at Harry and then giving the converter trigger to the Doctor. Suddenly the ground started to shake, making Harry cry out in fear and grab onto the Master as the Doctor stumbled backwards. The Master held out the vortex manipulator and Harry touched it slowly, before looking over at the Doctor, who quickly moved and grabbed onto them before the Master could leave him behind.
They landed back on the deck, once more in a pile on the floor, with Harry in the middle of the two struggling Time Lords, which really wasn't dignifying for any of them. Harry managed to quickly wiggle his way out from between them just as the Toclafane disappeared from the sky and suddenly pieces of paper started to fly all around them. Behind him, through the chaos, the Doctor and the Master both stood up just as another rumble went through the ship, shaking it and causing Harry to lose his footing and stumble backwards, being caught by the Master who held him against him.
"Everyone get down! Time is reversing!" The Doctor yelled, making everyone duck down to the floor, the Master dragging Harry down with him and covering him with his body. Despite everything that Harry had watched the man do, he still somehow felt comforted in his arms. He blamed it on the Time Lord part of him.
As time reversed around them, shaking the Valiant and causing them all to cling to the nearest solid object, Harry clung on to the Master and glanced at the Doctor from between the man's arms, getting a grin from the man as he clung on to the railings of the stairs. Not long after it started - especially considering they had just reversed an entire year - everything stopped shaking aa the Valiant became stable once more.
"The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning," the Doctor told them, letting go of the railing to stand up straight, even as the Master slowly started to stand up, still keeping Harry close to him.
"This is UNIT central. What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated," A voice over the radio asked, more confirmation that the Doctor was right, just in case no one believed him.
"Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrives. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The Rockets, the terror. It never was." Harry fidgeted slightly against the Master, trying to get him to loosen his hold slightly, giving a small sigh of relief when he did.
"What about the spheres?" Martha asked after they all stood there in silence for a moment, just taking in the fact that everything they'd gone through had never happened.
"Trapped at the end of the universe," the Doctor told them grimly, moving to stand closer to Harry and the Master, making the room start to look a bit like it was humans against Time Lords.
"But I can remember it," Martha's mum said in confusion, looking at them for answers. Harry shrugged and turned to the Doctor for the answer. He knew why he, the Master and the Doctor had their memories, but the humans he wasn't all too sure about but probably could take a good guess. He shrugged off the Master's hands, though didn't move too far from him, only reaching out to grab the Doctor's coat and give it a tug, which had the Doctor getting the hint and moving closer to him.
"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know. Oh, hello," the Doctor said suddenly, which made both Harry and the Master turn to look at him. "You must be Mr Jones. We haven't actually met."
Harry's attention was taken away from the strange interaction when he felt the Master give him a gentle push towards the Doctor and step away from him. Harry glanced over his shoulder and gave him a questioning look but only got a shake of the head in response. He wasn't really all that sure if he should alert someone to the fact the Master seemed to be moving nearer to the door, but he also wasn't too sure that he wanted to either, so instead he just turned back and tightened his hold on the Doctor's coat. His sense of time was telling him that something bad was going to happen, and if he couldn't be close to both Time Lords, then he was going to stay as close to the Doctor as possible.
"Whoa, big fella!" Jack's exclamation caught the attention of everyone else in the room, and they saw that he'd managed to stop the Master from escaping, and once more Harry felt both relieved and disappointed. "You don't want to miss the party. Cuffs. So, what do we do with this one?" Jack asked, once he'd put handcuffs on the Master's wrist, and preventing him from running away.
"We kill him," Martha's dad said in a cold tone, just making Harry step even closer to the Doctor, not feeling all that relieved when he placed a firm hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"We execute him," Tish, Martha's sister, said as she stepped closer to where Jack was holding the Master. The Master who was now starting to look a little alarmed, echoing what Harry was feeling and probably the Doctor as well.
"No, that's not the solution," the Doctor said, even as Martha's mum held up a pistol and aimed it as the Master. Harry looked at her in horror before running to the Master and standing in front of him before he even thought about it.
"Oh, I think so. Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them. So, move out of the way, Harry. Or Traveller. Whatever your name is."
"No! You can't shoot him! You can't!"
"Francine, you're better than him," the Doctor told her, walking over to them, sending Harry a worried glance as he stopped to stand next to Francine.
"Please don't hurt him," Harry whispered, stepping back to press against the Master and breathing a small sigh of relief when Francine paused before looking at him and then lowering the gun. The Doctor took the gun off of her and hugged her, before he passed her over to Martha and placed the gun on a table.
"Harry, come here, okay?" the Doctor said calmly, holding out a hand for Harry, who ran to him but not without giving the Master a scared look.
"You still haven't answered the question. What happens to me?" the Master asked the Doctor, looking at him with a stubborn look on his face as if waiting for the answer he knew was coming but didn't want to hear.
"You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lord left in existence," the Doctor told him, hugging Harry close to him without taking his eyes off of the Master.
"Yeah, but you can't trust him. You're going to let him have free reign around the kid, Doctor?" Jack asked him incredulously, ignoring the scowl that Harry sent him.
"The Master wouldn't harm Harry, you've seen how he is around him. It's almost genetically built into Time Lords to protect their Time Tots. No one will be safer than Harry and the only safe place for both of them is the Tardis," the Doctor told them, ignoring the disgruntled look that the Master was sending him, though he did glance down at Harry for a second as though he wasn't against all of the plan. Harry had the feeling that the Master would much rather grab Harry and run away with him.
"You mean you're just going to keep me? Like a pet?!" the Master spat the word pet out in disgust as he sneered at the Doctor.
"Mmm. If that's what I have to do. Well, the keeping you part, not the pet part," the Doctor added with a shrug, "It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I've got someone to care for and you can help me. Now he's no longer… hidden, I'm going to need help raising him in the ways of Gallifrey."
The Master looked at him with narrowed, calculating eyes, before looking down at Harry and sighing, clearly coming to a conclusion and reluctantly accepting the Doctor's offer. He looked back up at the Doctor once more, only to stare over his shoulder in surprise as something caught his attention, just as a loud bang sounded and the Master staggered back into Jack, holding his stomach and looking down at it in shock.
"No!" Harry yelled out, yanking out of the Doctor's hold so that he could run to the Master, the Doctor not far behind him and taking the weight of him from Jack and slowly lowering him to the floor. Harry sobbed as he clung on to the Master's hand, pressing his head against the Time Lord's chest and hearing his heartbeats start to slow down. He heard the humans talking around him, but didn't care about them anymore, they just proved everything he knew about human adults right. They weren't to be trusted.
"I've got you. I've got you," the Doctor whispered, pulling the Master onto his lap, rubbing Harry's head soothingly when he shuffled closer to the Master, as he sobbed against the Master's chest.
"Always the women," the Master said with a huffed breathless laugh.
"I didn't see her."
"Dying in your arms. Happy now?" The Master said weakly, making Harry let out another heart-wrenching sob and cling on to the Master's jacket tightly.
"Don't die," Harry whispered, pressing as close to the Master as possible and listening to his slow heartbeats as proof that he hadn't died. "Don't leave us."
"You're not dying. Don't be stupid. It's only a bullet. Just regenerate," the Doctor told him in a forced light tone, though the fear and anguish on his face told Harry that he was just as worried as Harry was.
"No."
"Please! Please regenerate, Uncle Koschei! Please!" Harry begged, voice slightly muffled as he pressed his face into the Master's chest and clung on to him.
"Listen to Harry. It's one little bullet. Come on!"
"I guess you don't know me so well after all. I refuse."
"Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please. Please! Just regenerate! Come on!" The Doctor begged him, shaking him slightly in desperation. Harry just starting sobbing even harder, pleading with him over and over.
"Please don't leave us. Don't leave us alone."
"I can't spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you, Traveller."
"You can! I'll show you my room and… and my toys!" Harry told him desperately, voice wobbly and thick with tears.
"I can't, Traveller."
"You've got to. Come on! It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons! Remember the Axons? And the Daleks. We're the only two left to raise Harry. The only two left to teach him how to be a proper Time Lord. There's no one else! Regenerate!" The Doctor begged, tears running down his face and leaning over the Master and Harry, hugging them both to him.
"Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming? Will it stop?" the Master asked quietly, before closing his eyes and his hearts slowly stopped beating and came to a stop. Harry sobbed louder as he heard them stop and gripped onto the Master tightly, tugging at him.
"Please wake up, Uncle Koschei. Please don't leave us. Come back. Please," Harry sobbed out, shaking the Master weakly as though trying to wake him up.
"Harry. Harry, he's gone," the Doctor told him quietly, his own tears running down his face as he shifted the Master's body so that he could pull Harry into his own arms, hugging him tightly against him as they sat on the floor, bent over the Master's body.
"I want to be little again. It hurts less when I'm little," Harry whimpered quietly into the Doctor's side as he turned away from the sight of the Master's body.
"When we get back to your mum, you can be little again, okay? Just wait a bit longer. Then you can be little and we can give Uncle Koschei a proper Time Lord funeral. It'll be alright, Harry, we'll be alright."
Harry, four years old once more, stood silently by the Doctor, gripping on to his hand as tightly as he could as they stood in front of a large pyre, with the Master's body carefully wrapped in a funeral shroud that the Doctor had done just before he'd set this up, with Harry helping as much as the Doctor felt he should without upsetting him too much.
"Just stand here for a second, Harry, I'll be back in just a moment," the Doctor promised, crouching in front of Harry and ruffling his hair, before gently wiping a tear from his face and standing up again to grab a lit torch. He glanced over at Harry for a second longer before moving to light the pyre with the torch then moving back to stand next to Harry. Harry stepped close to him once more as they watch the pyre light up, and huffed a surprise gasp when the Doctor picked him up and held him tightly. "Come on, Harry. Let's head back to your mum."
"Okay," Harry sniffled, glancing over at the Master's body before turning away and resting his head tiredly on the Doctor's shoulder. "Do you think the drums have stopped now?"
"Yeah, I think the drums have stopped now. Come on. Let's go take Jack home."
The Doctor was holding Harry in his arms, not really having put him down much since they'd returned to the Tardis after the Master's funeral, as they stood with Martha and Jack in Roald Dahl Plass, looking out at the people walking around happily.
"Time was, every single one of these people knew your name. Now they've all forgotten you," Martha said from where she was standing next to the Doctor on the opposite side to where he was holding Harry.
"Good." Harry glanced at the Doctor when he heard the firm tone he said that in, then pressed closer and leant his head on the Doctor's shoulder. Neither of them were quite over losing the Master just yet, so Harry didn't think the Doctor was all that keen on being remembered for the year that never happened. And resulted in the death of the last Time Lord other than themselves.
"Back to work," Jack said with a sigh, staring out at the people in front of them.
"I really don't mind, though. Come with us," the Doctor offered, having spoken to Harry before they arrived here whether it still hurt him to be around Jack. Harry knew that the Doctor never would have offered if Harry was still hurt by him.
"I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was, and I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility," Jack said with a grin, before jumping over the rail they were standing by to head back to Torchwood. Before he could move far though, the Doctor grabbed his hand and moved up his sleeve to expose the vortex manipulator on his wrist. "Hey! I need that!"
"I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport. You could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologise," the Doctor added dryly, getting a small giggle from Harry and a grin from Jack. Though the grin faded a little when the Doctor started to sonic the manipulator with his screwdriver, which made Harry giggle even more.
"And what about me? Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?" Jack asked once he got his hand back, looking uncharacteristically serious for once as he waited for an answer. An answer that Harry knew he wasn't really wanting. The man's time stream still gave Harry a headache if he tried to focus on it, so he'd decided to ignore it from now on.
"Nothing I can do. You're an impossible thing, Jack," the Doctor told him sympathetically, and getting a small smile from Jack in return.
"Been called that before. Sir's, ma'am," Jack said with a salute to the three of them, before pausing and looking at the Doctor, "but I keep wondering. What about ageing? Because I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?"
"I really don't know."
"Okay, vanity. Sorry. Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me," Jack told them with a wide grin, not noticing the stunned looks Martha and the Doctor were wearing, which made Harry wonder why they looked so shocked. Jack gave them a wave as he started to back away from them. "I'll see you!"
"No," the Doctor whispered, looking at an equally stunned Martha.
"It can't be."
"Can't be what?"
"Nothing. No. Definitely not. No."
"What can't it be?" Harry asked, not understanding what the two were talking about at all and wishing he'd been told about a few more of the Doctor's adventures with Martha.
"It doesn't matter, Harry. Just something Jack said that can't be true. At all. Because I refuse to believe it."
"Right," Harry said slowly, narrowing his eyes at the two suspiciously but deciding against calling them out on their obvious lies because he didn't actually care that much.
"Come on then, let's get back to the Tardis."
Harry and the Doctor, with Harry still in the Doctor's arms, stood by the Tardis watching as Martha was with her family in her mother's house, before Harry stifled a yawn and the Doctor glanced at him and took him inside the console.
"How are you doing, Harry?" the Doctor asked him quietly as he placed him on the seat in the console room, Harry smiling when he felt his mum embrace him like she was hugging him before smiling shyly up at the Doctor.
"I'm okay. I don't think he was very well at the end. I think he really did want to go, didn't he?" Harry said quietly, looking back down at his hands as he played with the hoodie he was wearing.
"I think you're right, Harry. Why aren't you more angry with him? He made it so that you had to leave your mum, why don't you hate him?" The Doctor asked him curiously, moving to lean against the centre console, "I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious why."
"I watched him while he was here. The whole time. He wasn't completely insane for the whole time. Occasionally he seemed to be remembering things, like memories of you maybe? I don't know, but he had moments when I could see the Koschei that mama told me about and showed me memories of," Harry told him quietly, voice not any louder than a whisper, feeling his mother embrace him comfortingly.
"That's how you knew his name? Your mum told you?"
"She told me lots of stories about you both, the rest of the Deca. She told me about the adventures you got into as well. That was between all the boring lessons though," Harry added with a huff, getting a laugh from the Doctor.
"Yeah, I was rubbish in school. What else did she teach you?"
"She taught me about the different Chapters, but she focused more on ours."
"Ours?"
"Yeah, the Prydonian Chapter. She said that is the chapter I'd be part of! Because you're my dad!" Harry said cheerfully, smiling at the momentarily stunned look on the Doctor's face before he smiled brightly back.
"I'd be honoured to be your dad, Harry," the Doctor told him in a soft voice, ruffling Harry's hair gently and leaning forward to give him a hug, smiling when Harry quickly returned the hug. They both pulled apart from the hug when the door opened and Martha walked inside.
"Right then, off we go. The open road. There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, and the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or back in time. We could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth. Harry should probably learn a bit of human history, if only so he knows where to run and who to run from when he inevitably messes something up," the Doctor admitted with a grin, and completely ignoring the indignant 'hey' that Harry huffed. "I know! What about Agatha Christ? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie. I bet she's brilliant."
"I just can't," Martha told him and Harry watched as the Doctor's shoulders slumped though surely he must have expected this. Harry had. The humans always left them eventually, especially when they realised just how dangerous travelling with the Doctor really was and just how fragile they were. Some lasted longer than others, but they all left in the end.
"Yeah," the Doctor said sadly, stepping to the side so that he could walk closer to where Martha was standing next to the door, clearly ready to leave as soon as she could.
"Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them," Martha told him, which Harry had to begrudgingly admit, even only silently and to himself, that she probably had a point.
"Of course not. Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world."
"Yes I did, though not alone," Martha said with a smile as she looked around the Doctor to give Harry a warm smile, Harry gave her a weak smile back, "I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good. I think Harry helped me a little with that. I'm good. You going to be alright?"
"Always. Yeah," the Doctor said. Harry slowly slid off his seat and walked over to the Doctor, slipping his hand into the Doctor's and smiling brightly up at him when the Doctor glanced down at him. "Yeah, I really am."
"Right then. Bye," Martha told them with a soft smile as she looked at the two of them and then she turned and left. Though before either of the two left even thought of turning around, she ran back inside, "because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him."
"Is this going anywhere?" The Doctor asked, sounding as confused as Harry felt. He had absolutely no idea why any of this was a reason for her leaving them.
"Yes," Martha told him impatiently, waving her arms around her slightly, a gesture Harry recalled her doing whenever she was frustrated during their year together, normally when they were talking about the Doctor actually, "because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of he life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out. So this is me getting out."
The Doctor stared at her silently, jumping slightly when she threw her mobile phone at him and only his quick reflexes actually meant he caught it, looking down at it in confusion when he did so.
"Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. I want to know how you and Harry are doing. What you're up to. So if that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?" Though she worded it as a question, both Harry and the Doctor were well aware that it was a demand.
"Got it."
"I'll see you again, mister," Martha told him, before leaving again though this time she didn't return. Harry and the Doctor stood there for a second before turning to one another.
"You're not alone anymore. You never were. Me and mama have always been here with you. Well, mama has. I joined a little later. My point is though, you're not alone anymore. None of us are. And I'm not afraid anymore, so we can be family now," Harry told him quietly but in a cheerful tone. The Doctor just continued to look down at him in a silence for a second before he gave him a bright smile.
"Family."
A/N - Hope you liked it! This has been in the works for a while now (seriously like years) and it was only recently, when I was binge watching Dr Who, that I decided to finish it. Tell me what you think!
Also, hands up that isn't the most orignal name for a Time Lord (actually, wasn't there a Time Lord called that in one of the old episodes or did I imagine that?) but I kinda drew a blank and no way was I gonna call him The Magician or something like that. Because, you know, he isn't. Plus, like the Master said, Time Lords aren't exactly an imaginative bunch.
I don't really have any plans to write anymore of this, though I have considered writing mini one shots of Harry meeting the next few companions, mostly because I think Donna meeting Harry would be highly amusing). Don't actually expect it to happen though, as I'm not sure I ever will get around to writing them.
And yes, the Doctor Harry was talking about when he first entered the Tardis was the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). Who was technically my gens Doctor, only I watched reruns of Dr Who before I actually watched those few episodes he was in so the first doctor I was introduced to was Four (Tom Baker) though I really liked Three (Jon Pertwee) who kinda looked like my great-grandfather with his awesome hair. Lol.
Oh! And I did consider redeeming the Master and having him join Harry and Ten in the Tardis. But I decided against it in the end as I preferred the ending I ended up writing so that Harry could reassure Ten that he was no longer alone.
Hands up, I have no idea what kind of chaos Harry and Eleven would cause, but it does amuse me to think about it. XD
(Btw, no one has any idea how old Harry actually is, including Harry. Though the Tardis possibly does… By my workings though, Harry is older than four hundred but younger than five hundred. The Time War lasted for about four hundred years, and I don't know if I ever actually stated how long he was with Eight, nor do I recall if it was ever stated how long it was after the Time War ended that Nine met Rose. So, yeah, older than four hundred but younger than five hundred.)