"Now, I think we can all agree this is excessive," Ash said as he, hands bound in front of himself and blindfolded, was led by the humans towards what he assumed was the Boundary.
Annoyingly, they had correctly gathered that if his glasses effectively blocked his abilities, that meant a blindfold would be infinitely more effective. If other people had ever noticed that particular weakness, they had never been able to get close enough to either twin to try it.
It didn't help that Ash had no desire to regenerate right then, particularly without Charity by his side. He also wasn't that interested to find out what side effects his regeneration might have without a guarantee of safety while he was still around them. So he hadn't pushed them and their stolen Cyber weapons.
The humans didn't address him. They stopped walking.
"The Boundary, it's real," Ravio said.
"Yeah, and the Doctor's on the other side," Ryan pointed out.
"So, how do we do this?"
"If I may," Ash interrupted. "That is my home planet and I've never set foot there or properly seen it. I would quite like to not be blindfolded and bound the first time."
Ryan snorted. "Then you shouldn't have lied."
"If lying results in this treatment, would now be a good time for me to start listing the times the Doctor has lied to you? I warn you, it will take quite a long time."
"What makes you think we're going to believe anything that comes out of your mouth?" Yaz asked.
"For starters, she never officially learned how to fly a TARDIS..." he was cut off by the sound of his own weapon – taken by Ravio – being flicked to a new mode. "I'd be careful with that if I were you."
"Shut it," Ravio said. Since he didn't actually trust the humans to know if the weapon was on stun or not, he obeyed. "How do we do this?" she repeated.
"The Boundary will absorb us, but you have to take the step."
"Step into the unknown. Who fancies going first?"
About a second after Graham finished speaking, there was the clear sound of someone entering the Boundary. The rest quickly followed, with Ash being the last, pulled along after Ryan.
Even blindfolded as he was, he swore Gallifrey felt different. Lighter, almost, like some part of his biology recognized it as home despite having never set foot here. The air, ash-filled as it was, seemed to fill his lungs easier.
It was, for all intents and purposes, a terrible homecoming.
"This is Gallifrey," Yaz breathed. "This is where the Doctor's from."
"I'm sure my home looks lovely. Wish I could see it." Ash shifted his wrists.
"We're never going to find her in this lot." Graham already sounded quite defeated.
"Yeah, we are," Yaz said. "We're going to find her and we're going to rescue her. She's done it for us enough times, now it's our turn."
"You know, something my abilities are particularly good for is finding people. Particularly my parents or aunt, who are almost certainly in the same place."
Still, they were ignoring him. It was incredibly annoying.
"This is going to be even more dangerous from here," Yaz continued. "You don't have to come."
"Oh, wonderful," Ash said. "Then I'm staying here."
The rest of the humans were annoyingly less selfish. "We owe you," Ravio said. "We're in. Right?"
"Right," Ethan said.
"Great," Yedlarmi sighed. "How am I meant to contradict that if you're going all heroic?"
"You coming?" Ryan asked.
"I've already lived longer than I expected. There must be a few last things I can blow up before I'm done," Ko Sharmus said.
The group started walking.
Ash waited a few seconds before speaking again. "Just so you're aware, the second that either of my parents or sister sees that you're treating me like this, they will not hesitate to shoot all of you." Ash kept his voice light. It was the exact level of playful threat that his mamaidh had mastered. "Quite violently, I suspect, given my family's protective natures. You'll wish for vaporization." The humans were quiet. Ash could guess they were looking between each other, considering his words. "Release me, and I'll be kind enough to not tell them what you've done. We can walk away from this all on the same side. I'll even help you find them." They stopped walking. "I respect why you felt you needed to do this, but you should remember who my parents are."
"That's just the problem," Yaz said. "We don't know who they are. We barely know who the Doctor is."
"Yaz..." Graham started.
"She said it herself," Ryan said. "We don't know her. We want to, but she refused to tell us anything."
"Wait, you don't know the person we're here to find?" Ravio asked. "Why are we trusting her?"
Ash took a moment to think before he spoke. "Shall I tell you about my aunt?" He emphasized his link to the Time Lord. Even blindfolded and without specifically accessing his abilities, the humans fell quiet. "The Doctor is cruel and kind and both the best and worst person in the universe. They care deeply for every single person they meet and fall in love far too fast. They push everyone away to save themself the hurt, but just keep suffering because they can't help caring. They can't stop helping." He paused. "I am an empath and the Doctor's my aunt. I know her well. But, honestly, how much of that did you already know? I can do it about my parents too, but everything I could tell you should already be abundantly clear. Simply extrapolate off of what you've seen and what they've said, and you already know them better than most people in the universe." He held out his wrists and grinned when the humans cut the ropes.
He pulled off the blindfold and took in Gallifrey properly for the first time. Yes, it was burned and utterly destroyed, but Ash could fill out the scenes with his memories.
This was his terrible legacy. The home planet he was never supposed to see.
Not nearly as remarkable as he'd expected. True, there was an undeniable sense of rightness, likely some biological reaction to the planet he'd specifically evolved to thrive upon, but that was it. Ash didn't have an undeniable pull to stay here, or even an undeniable pull to run away.
It was his home, but only distantly. Technically. It was an utter stranger.
He knew that his family lay in the ashes around him – he was probably tasting them on the wind – but they were strangers too. Almost unreal. Like people in a storybook.
Still, Ash had to swallow hard as he turned to look at the humans. "Now, let's go find my lovely family members." He held out a hand for his weapon again. Thankfully, the humans didn't decide to try to keep it from him.
-IX...-
The Master and the Singer took a few steps after Charity but were stopped by the Master's knee buckling. He looked back at the Doctor as he leaned against the wall. "She's waking up."
"Did you show her everything?" The Singer did hate that she hadn't been able to walk the Doctor through the revelations about her history, but Charity took precedence.
"More than enough." The Master narrowed his eyes at the Doctor's body. "That should keep her for a while." He turned again, focusing back on the Singer. Even without accessing their mental bond, he perfectly understood her next question without her needing to ask. "She's not going to help."
"To be fair, out of any of us, the Doctor has been the best at both making plans and successfully carrying them out."
The Master raised his eyebrows. "I'll be nice and not take that as an insult."
"Pity, because I intended it as one." She matched his expression. "Do you have a plan for how we're going to get Charity back?"
"Not yet, but it will come to me." He took one step up the stairs before pausing again. "Her plan wasn't entirely the Cyberium's. It was Charity and Ash's idea to defend the children of the universe." He turned more, facing the Singer with his entire body. "Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? Isn't that right?" Though it would have been so easy for his eyes to slip over her shoulder, the Master was making a pointed effort to not look at the Doctor's body, as though even the sight of her would worsen this moral dilemma.
"Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill," the Singer quoted, speaking the Master's past words back at him. "Nobody can have that power."
"But why not? Charity wants to stop children from being hurt. Isn't that one of the Doctor's pesky rules? Never interfere unless there are children crying?"
The Singer clenched her hands into fists. "You know I want to agree with you." Because she did. Yes, her focus was on getting Charity back, but Charity's mission, her desires... the Singer thought they were right. She still thought that it was okay, in the end, that Gallifrey had burned for its crimes. She still thought the Doctor was a pompous moral jerk who was terrible at admitting when they were wrong.
She still didn't mind that her children had turned up willing and able to use their weapons to protect themselves and others. Didn't mind that their morality had skewed hard in the Master's direction over the Doctor's.
The universe had already taken away some of her best friends. It had already nearly taken the people she loved most. No one should be able to harm a child even if they believe there's something wrong with that child. No child deserved to be forgotten.
The Master held out a hand for the Singer. "Then let's help her. Let's find Ash and help her with the Cyberium, and then help her protect the universe."
The Singer nearly reached out to take it. It would have been so easy if she did. They'd be able to stand together, as a family, finally.
"Ah, here you are," Ash's voice cut through them, making the Singer and Master turn. He – clearly dressed to match Charity, though he entirely lacked her Cyberium silver pallor – strode up to the top of the stairs. He'd taken off his glasses, holding them at his side. Behind him came a motley collection of humans, though it did contain the Doctor's three current companions. "That took longer than I thought. I need to put this tracking into more practice." He grinned down at his parents.
"Doctor!" Yasmin called, spotting her over the Singer and Master's shoulders. She made to rush forward, but Ash held out a hand. The human stopped at his side, eyeing the Singer and Master.
"What's going on?" Ash asked his parents, looking between them.
It took the Master a moment of staring at his son before he was able to speak. "We're going to find Charity. Come along."
"To help her?"
The Master nodded. "Yes. Let's go."
"You're just going to leave the Doc lying there?" Graham asked.
Ash glanced at him. "Technically speaking, we're also leaving you here, so the Doctor should be perfectly fine."
"She's unconscious!"
Ash's gaze drifted over to the Doctor, seemingly unconsciously, and the moment he saw her both of his knees buckled, his eyes going wide. The Singer and Master rushed forward to catch him before he hit the floor. "Oh, that's too much..." His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he went limp in his parents' arms.
The Singer's entire existence fixated on the pinpoint of her son's body in her arms. Suddenly, he was the Master dying on the Valiant, or Missy on the Mondas ship. Or Tirin, her son's namesake, who she'd never held as he died because he'd been stolen from her.
Except Ash wasn't dead because she could still feel his twin hearts beating, though they were far too slow. She was shaking as she looked up to meet the Master's eyes. His were red-rimmed, his entire body brimming with just kept in rage.
"Doctor!" one of the humans called, all of them rushing around and past the trio. It was only that which made the Singer and Master look back at the Doctor's body. At the way Yasmin had done to her knees by the Doctor's body, hands hovering over her without touching as the Doctor's eyes, slowly, opened.
A/N: Turns out, as Ash would say, the humans aren't total idiots ;)
Notes on reviews:
EchoMoment: Yeah, it was really fun to give the twins more of a motivation beyond just "find parents, find the Doctor". They're complicated people :)