Sadly I don't own Doctor Who.
Please let me know what you think, and enjoy. There are a few references to the Eighth Doctor novels, but that's it.
How's your House out there?
As she gasped for air, using her hands to pull herself forward, the Doctor was both eternally grateful for her Time Lord biology - on the subject of her biology, the Doctor was grateful her respiratory bypass system was capable of bringing in more air into her lungs than a human was capable of. At the same time, she was trying to work out for herself just what she was going to do when she and her friends finally confronted Barton to discover more about the alien spies on Earth.
She had seen many strange and bizarre things over her long lifetimes, but she had never encountered alien spies on his scale before - she had thought those times in her eighth incarnation when she had suffered from so many bouts of amnesia, it was a wonder she had come out of that regeneration with the amount of stuff she actually knew, on top of seeing those various parallel worlds with Anji and Fitz had taken her to the newest heights of strange and bizarre mostly because she had an instinct for how wrong those worlds were before that encounter with the Council of Eight, and restoring Gallifrey to the timeline after compressing the knowledge of the Matrix inside her mind for a century or so.
Barton was the only lead they had; with C in MI6 dead (the pompous and presumptuous official's death didn't ring true with the current pattern of these bizarre aliens; from what she had seen with their powers of teleportation, how they could phase through walls, and worrying including penetrating the doors of her TARDIS, and their own means of killing people like those Australian agents in the outback, the Doctor could only conclude C was murdered by someone else), although his help was shockingly limited, Barton was their only lead.
The alien they'd captured thanks to O - the Doctor privately wondered how he had managed to assemble that trapping gear so easily - had worried her. On one hand, she had an idea the aliens came from a different plane of existence, which explained many of their abilities. But she was worried about their long-term aims.
Barton was the only one who could clear the air, and the Doctor needed to think of a means of making him talk. That was going to be difficult; most of the arrogant, self-important and self-contained individuals she had met over the years had varying levels of resistance, but the Doctor was confident she could think of a way…
She wanted to know who these aliens were, and what they planned to do.
She wanted to understand why the alien spies were suddenly killing human spies when the logical thing they should be doing was keeping their heads down.
She needed to know what had happened to Barton, and why he was more alien than human, and what it was all about. What was the point? Was he trying to develop their abilities, or was there something more to it than something that simple?
She wanted to know why C had been murdered in that manner, and how the aliens had come after her and the fam, and the strange tactics of hijacking a car when they had the means of phasing through ordinary matter.
Unfortunately, she had made a mistake in confronting Barton bluntly but she was getting seriously tired of these tedious spy games. She had wanted plain answers instead of constantly looking for leads which inevitably died out.
On an unrelated note, the Doctor was also curious about O. He had said he was never good at sprinting, but when she had looked over his file it had said clearly he had been a champion sprinter. If he had said he wasn't as fast as he had once been, the Doctor would understand, but when he had said he hadn't been good at sprinting…
The Doctor looked over her shoulder. "Here," she said as they reached the main cabin, hauling themselves along after their long race after Barton's plane.
"What are we actually going to do?" Yaz asked.
The Doctor shrugged. "Sit tight, and see where he's going," she replied as she stopped and turned around and watched as the explanation satisfied them although she couldn't suggest anything more practical right now.
While the others were getting comfortable, the Doctor turned to O. "Never been good at sprinting?"
"I was the last one in every race at school," O replied as he looked away, embarrassed.
"No, no, no," the Doctor was now truly suspicious now although she didn't voice what was on her mind. "I read your file. You're a champion sprinter."
Her worst fears were realised when O slowly turned to her while in her peripheral vision she noticed the fam taking note of what was happening, but her attention was focused on O.
She had always thought of O as an eager puppy, really. Nervous, eager to please, sweet and friendly. But the sly smirk on his face was worrying and out of character, and if she wasn't already suspicious a red flag had gone up when O said that about how he had come last in school races.
One thing was clear, this was no O. He had never existed, not as she had known him.
"Hmm, got me. Well done!" O smirked at her.
The Doctor looked at him. There was something worryingly familiar about that smirk…
"What's going on, Doc?" Graham asked, looking between O and herself with curiosity.
"I don't know."
'O' turned and addressed her fam as well as herself. "You'd best take a look out the window," he chuckled as if to some joke only he knew the punchline to.
The Doctor and the fam went to the window…only to see O's wooden hut outside, flying alongside the plane.
"How's your house out there?" Graham demanded.
The Doctor didn't hear O's answer; she registered something about the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, but while there was a resemblance between O's hut and the house that carried Dorothy to Oz, she knew this was no house. Now its shielding was down which had prevented her from realising what it was the moment she walked through the door, and she could see it clearly even through the chameleonic shielding, the Doctor could not take her eyes off of it.
"That's not a house, Graham," she said, saying each word as she tried to deny it.
"What is it?" Yaz demanded.
"Yes, come on Doctor, you can do it," 'O' goaded her.
"O!" The Doctor swallowed in realisation. She could not deny it, not anymore.
'O' chuckled and she glanced at him, seeing his mocking, almost insane grin. "That's my name, and that's why I chose it. Oh, so satisfying!"
"Guys, that house only looks like a house. It's an effect known as chameleon shielding; disguising objects as something else to blend in with its surroundings. It's a common feature to TARDISes," the Doctor didn't take her eyes off of O.
She had a good idea who he was. The long game. The insanity that had been carefully hidden but now exposed. The TARDIS. But she couldn't believe it, and she wondered what had happened during the last meeting they'd had.
"A TARDIS?" Ryan repeated.
"That house is a TARDIS?!"
"Who are you?" Graham turned to O.
O grinned as he turned to the Doctor, speaking to them all, but he turned his hungry eyes towards her. "I did say look for the Spy Master, didn't I, Doctor? Or should I say, Spy Master?"
The Master.
The Doctor sighed, gazing at O - the Master - in horror. "So, you're still alive? I liked the new regeneration; you're doing it again, going through your lives like a train shoots through stations. But I met O years ago, how did you pull that off? O worked for MI6…"
The Master laughed. "A man dear to my hearts," he theatrically placed a hand to his chest - she hated it whenever the Master used traits taken from his 'Tremas' incarnation, she really did; Nyssa's father hadn't deserved that fate - before he looked mock contrite. "Actually, in my pocket."
The Doctor knew the moment the Master fished out a matchbox she was not going to like what was inside because she had a good idea what he had done.
"Do you want to see him?" The Master laughed while she stared at him in horror while her fam was looking on in confusion. "It's always good to keep a backup of one's work. Tissue compression… its a classic!" He said to her friends as he slowly opened the matchbox and showed everyone the tiny, shrunken corpse inside.
"I thought you'd stopped using that thing," the Doctor spat, feeling sick at the sight of the miniaturised corpse.
"What? Stop using a classic that's been my favourite means of killing through different lives? No chance!"
Yaz had had enough. "Doctor, who is this man, if he's not O?"
The Master answered the question before the Doctor could even reply. "I am known as the Master, her best enemy. The Doctor and I, two Time Lord renegades, left Gallifrey centuries ago. We both wanted to see the universe, for different reasons. The Doctor is such a….tourist, whereas I believe you must rule or serve!"
The Doctor didn't bother countering this. She knew nothing she said would dissuade the Master, especially after the whole mess with Missy before discovering Missy's past life had transformed Bill into a Cyberman.
Everything happened so quickly.
Barton was gone and in his place was a bomb, which exploded while the Master's newest allies who were likely carrying out the same old boring plan that the Master came up with, to conquer Earth out of sheer spite against her, make them do the dirty work; she didn't understand it since it had never worked in the past. He had tried it with the Nestene Consciousness, the Sea Devils, the Toclafane, and now it looked like these aliens were the latest in a long line.
But what confused the Doctor the most while the plane was crashing, hearing her fam screaming in panic, was when the Master leaned over her and shouted. "Everything you've ever known is a lie!"
What did he mean by that?