Chapter XCVII
Doctor
They appeared in a dark, dirty alleyway – or rather, they got spit out by the vortex as he wouldn't call it appearing or even a proper landing. He looked around and his eyes fell first on Martha, rubbing her head, mumbling something about a headache.
"Time travel without a capsule. That's a killer," he added, popped his neck and then he saw Mira.
Talking about it being a killer. She was literally hanging in Jack's arms, apparently devoid of any sense of balance.
"What's the matter?" he asked and hurried over to her.
"I'm fine, as soon as the room stops spinning," she murmured and lifted her head, showing the unhealthily greenish colour on her face. "Or street or whatever this is. And there I thought the flight through the temporal lock back in my universe was bad."
"Which temporal lock?" Jack asked and let go of her as she started to free herself.
She swayed and took a step to catch her balance again, making him reach out to her, but she managed to finally stand on her own feed.
"We had the Solar System locked away in the future, just a few seconds, but you needed to go through a lock to reach it, obviously," she explained. "But never mind that now. Seems we made it. And at least one of the stars is back!" She addend and pointed up. "And it feels like the rest are all back as well."
"Yeah," Jack said and looked up. "Earth, twenty first century by the looks of it. Talk about lucky."
"That wasn't luck, that was me," he corrected him bitterly.
He had repaired the Vortex Manipulator and synchronised it with the lock he had put on the TARDIS's time vortex controls.
"Come on, let's go," he added, turned around and walked down the alleyway until it crossed a main road.
"Looks as if we're not that far off," Martha said. "Just glad we had a backup."
"That's the good thing when you're stuck at the end of the universe," Jack replied, "And got stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator."
"But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS. He could be anywhere in time and space," Martha said.
"No, he's here. Trust me," he said quietly without looking at them.
He still couldn't quite understand how all this was possible. The Master, on Earth, with his TARDIS. What was he up to now? Would he never give up? Not even now as they were the only two left? Didn't he learn a thing? Their whole species died because they had valued their own secluded existence more than the sake of the whole universe.
No, they didn't just die. You killed them.
The Master most likely didn't know the exact circumstances– or did he?
"Who is he, anyway?" Martha asked. "And that voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor."
"If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated," Jack replied.
"So, it's still him but then it isn't? Like that man we met on Ayxelurius who was-"
"Yeah, he's all new now," he interrupted her and sat down on a bollard.
"Major?" Jack said as they all had sat down.
"Captain?"
"Seems you've been right though – it was a trap."
"Hm? Yeah, but I didn't see this coming," Mira replied, shaking her head. "There's no way for me to recognise him as a Time Lord when he's in human form."
"How can you anyway? They look just like humans anyway. Extremely handsome and charming humans, but still...," Jack asked.
"It's-" she started and sighed, "Well, let's just call it a sixth sense, it's complicated..."
He stopped listening to them, getting increasingly irritated when someone started to tap some rhythm and he turned his head, his eyes fixed on a homeless person tapping onto a tin mug. Then he felt Mira's eyes on him and turned his head to her. He suddenly knew he would have to tell her – not only about the Master, but most likely about everything else, and he only wished he had done it earlier. At some better, or at least less worse time than now. Sure, he could always ignore her questions and nagging which was sure to start soon, but even her patience and understanding would only go so far.
"Then how are we going to find him?" Martha asked.
"I'll know him, the moment I see him. Time Lords always do," he replied.
"Well, I'll know him as well for not being human when I see him," Mira said, "But for this we still have to get face to face with him. How many billion people are living on Earth now?"
He just shook his head. It wasn't a matter of finding the Master, the Master would find them. He had always had this need to boast about his plans, drag him into it, even though he had repeatedly stated he wanted to get rid of him. Sometimes it had almost seemed as if he couldn't be without him. Or both not without the other? This thought had crossed his mind countless times, but in fact it was much more complicated.
"But hold on," Martha said, "If he could be anyone...," she stopped and looked around, "We missed the election. But it can't be!"
He looked around and noticed all the election posters saying, "Vote for Saxon"
Who was Saxon? They all stared at the public television screens broadcasting news.
"Mister Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters," the newsreader announced.
"Saxon Headquarters?" Mira asked disbelievingly.
He watched the new Prime Minister walking down steps with a woman at his side, hardly able to trust his eyes.
"I said I knew that voice," Martha said excited. "When he spoke inside the TARDIS. I've heard that voice hundreds of times. I've seen him. We all have. That was the voice of Harold Saxon."
"That's him," he said sternly. "He's Prime Minister."
"Mister Saxon, this way, Sir," a photographer on screen said. "Come on, kiss for the lady, Sir."
"The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain," he said, staring at the screen completely dumbfounded. "The Master and his wife?" he added with a mixture of disgust and disbelief on his face as they kissed each other. Had he really married that woman just for the sake of his plan?
Now there was a close up of the Master with him saying, "This country has been sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine."
He just wished he would stop right now, but of course he didn't.
"In fact," the Master continued, "I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs right now, is a Doctor."
Mira
They had decided to use Martha's flat as a base of operation – in lack of any other place. It was incredible though – she had shaken of the after-effects of the 'naked' time vortex travel – meaning without ship – all the numb sadness had fallen off of her. Sure, she still knew how she had felt at the end of the universe, but it was hardly more than a faint memory. Nevertheless, she still shivered when she thought about that feeling of hopelessness, utter lack of any prospects, and she doubted she could ever shake it off completely. In fact she expected that it would come back and keep her busy for a while, once things had calmed down a little bit – if that would ever happen.
"Home," Martha said and unlocked the door.
She followed her inside, her hands in her pockets, trying to hide the bulge from the small weapon she had stuffed in the inside pocket of her uniform jacket just before they had dematerialised. She knew exactly that the Doctor would try to get rid of it as soon as he realised she still had it; but she had no intention to do so. So best he would not notice it at all. Weirdly enough that he hadn't mention her shooting at the Master – he must have seen it through the window in the laboratory door.
"What have you got?" the Doctor asked and stormed in. "Computer, laptop, anything." Then he turned to Jack who was making a call. "Jack, who are you phoning? You can't tell anyone we're here."
"Just some friends of mine, but there's no reply," Jack said.
"What friends?" she asked.
"Friends," he replied. "They could have helped us out with... technology and-"
"Technology? You're not with the government, are you?" she said and looked at him. No, he didn't look like the government-type. And his emotional reaction wasn't the on of someone just caught red-handed. But who else... He had been living through a century, trying to hide somehow with what looked like knowledge about future technology, so what would have she done in his stead...? "Oh- Torchwood?!"
He didn't say anything, just looking at her, slightly sheepishly. Oh, and now he felt caught. That ever so slight emotional reaction even the best poker-face couldn't hide from her.
"Seriously?" she said. "That xenophobic bunch of idiots? I tell you what, they'll blow up the whole planet sooner or later when fiddling with stuff they won't understand in a thousand years!" she said and stared at him.
Martha pushed past them before he could reply, handing the Doctor a laptop. "Here you go. Any good?"
"I can show you the Saxon websites," Jack said, dropping the topic of the origin of his 'friends'. "He's been around for ages."
"That's so weird though," Martha added. "It's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you."
"We went flying all around the universe while he was here all the time," the Doctor murmured.
"So who is he? You know him for a while?" she asked. "Sounds like the two of you have quite the history. If there's anything we should know, now would be the time to tell us."
"He's a Time Lord," he replied.
"Oh, really?" she said. "Noticed that the moment he threw me across half the laboratory."
At the same time she realised that her sarcasm was totally uncalled for, but she couldn't help it. "Sorry," she added. "He murdered Chantho. She aimed at him, and his words were: Now I can say I was provoked! Not to mention him becoming Prime Minister now. If you can think of what he's up to, just say it." They needed all the information they could get, and seemingly he was keeping a lot from them.
"Yeah, what about the rest of it?" Martha added. "I mean, who'd call himself the Master?"
"That's all you need to know," he replied to Martha, then turning to her, "You shot him. Talking about murdering people."
"Seriously? First, he's still alive. Second, he murdered Chantho, was about to steal the TARDIS and definitely up to no good. He had to be stopped. I didn't intend to kill him though – but it was a risk I was willing to take. Oh, and I didn't know that you know him back then. So with having the same information available as I had back then I would act the same way again, any time. Never judge past situations on information not available back then. Just use it to learn from it."
She and the Doctor stared at each other for a long moment, and she had the feeling that he might not like what she had done, he was glad someone at least tried it.
"Well, that's a change," Jack said and looked at her appreciatively, a boyish smile on his face. "I like that version of you much better than the no-hope-all's-lost version back on Malcassairo."
"Come on, show me Harold Saxon," the Doctor finally said to Jack after they had stared at one another for some more seconds.
She looked over to Martha who had went to the phone, listening to the answering machine, though she didn't pay attention to what was spoken on it and looked at the screen together with the Doctor and Jack. Ads from people she had never seen in her life, all trying to convince her to vote for Saxon.
"Former Minister of Defence," Jack explained. "First came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve. Nice work, by the way."
"Oh, thanks," the Doctor replied.
"It was him who shot them down?" she asked. "That explains why they love him so much. They definitely need a few more centuries to get ready to mingle in intergalactic politics. Or the right leader. Which obviously isn't Saxon," she added quietly, speaking to herself and ignoring the look Jack gave her.
"But he goes back years. He's famous," Martha said from across the small room. "Everyone knows his story. Look. Cambridge University, Rugby blue. Won the Athletics thing. Wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, everything. He's got a whole life."
Jack
The Doctor was browsing the webpage for the next minutes, so he went to the kitchen which was just a few steps away from the only room to make some tea – and coffee for Mira. She seemed completely changed since they had arrived here – and now, with all lethargy gone, she was confusing him even more – though he had to admit he liked her style. So she was from another universe. And he had been right with her being part of some future-space military organisation. But hiding a complete star system in the future? That was massive. And how she was talking about cosmic politics and time frames – would it be too impolite to just ask her for her age? Oh, and she had him there with working with Torchwood. How had she figured that out? Her ominous sixth sense? And then, bunch of xenophobic idiots which would blow up Earth sooner or later? Well, that bit certainly had changed.
"But why Britain then?"Mira asked, and as the Doctor and Martha looked at her blankly, she explained. "Why not China or Russia - or the US? More military, probably more money and resources, more nuclear firepower - or is that not the case in this universe? If I'd want to take over Earth I would start with one of them, not the UK. Not that I say Britain is unimportant," she hurried to add as now he was staring at her as well. "But I guess you get my point, don't you?"
"Guess he didn't have enough time," the Doctor said.
"But he's got the TARDIS," he said and put the mugs on the desk. "He could have went back in time and living here for decades."
"No," the Doctor said.
"Why not?" he replied. "Worked for me."
"When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates," the Doctor explained. "I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now."
"Yeah, but a little leeway?" he asked.
"Well, eighteen months, tops. The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale."
"Hypnotic in which way?" Mira asked. "Charmingly hypnotic or more psychic? On which scale? Influencing one person is not a big deal, but he'd have to influence like half of the population which is allowed to vote?"
"I was going to vote for him," Martha said with an absent look on her face.
"Really?" the Doctor asked and frowned.
"Well, it was before I even met you. And I liked him."
"Me too," he said.
And it was true. He really liked Saxon. He was charming, nice, trustworthy, handsome... He noticed that Mira was fixing his eyes with hers – just as if she could look right into his soul, making him feel naked and exposed.
"Why do you say that?" the Doctor asked. "What was his policy? What did he stand for?"
"I don't know," Martha replied and shrugged. "He always sounded good." She started tapping a rhythm and continued, "Like you could trust him. Just nice. He spoke about... I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice."
"What's that?" the Doctor asked.
"What?"
"That... That tapping, that rhythm. What are you doing?"
"I don't know. It's nothing. It's just, I don't know."
Then they were interrupted by a pop up on the laptop screen accompanied by a sound effect, saying Saxon would broadcast on all channels.
"Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom," the Doctor said after he had switched on the TV.
"Britain, Britain, Britain," the Master said, smily and trustworthy as always. "What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen." the appropriate clips were shown with Big Ben destroyed by a crashing spaceship, a huge spaceship over London, the Cybermen, and then the Racnoss's star shaped ship. "Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill. Time and time again, and the government told you nothing." He paused to give his following words more impact. "Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose here today is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted. A message for humanity, from beyond the stars."
A voice could be heard, seemingly female but obviously modulated by a computer.
"People of the Earth, we come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."
"Seriously?" Mira whispered. "As if that ever happens."
"Ooo, sweet," the Master said with a sugary smile. "And this species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane."
"What?" the Doctor asked in surprise, a huge frown on his face.
"And tomorrow morning, they will appear," the Master said. "Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don't know, every medical student?"
They all turned their heads to Martha and then the Doctor hastily turned the big, old TV around. There was a device stuck to it which looked suspiciously like a bomb, certainly beeping like one.
"Out!" the Doctor yelled and grabbed the laptop.
Next moment they were hurrying out of the door into the street. Not a moment too late as the first floor exploded with a massive fireball, blowing out the windows, almost pushing them to the ground. A rain of glass shards came down around them.
"All right?" the Doctor asked.
"Fine, yeah, fine," he said just as Martha started to dial on her mobile phone.
"Martha?" the Doctor said, "What are you doing?"
"He knows about me," Martha replied, phone at her ear. "What about my family?"
"Don't tell them anything!" the Doctor said.
"I'll do what I like," she snapped at him, and then into the pone, "Mum? Oh my God!"
Martha
Her heart skipped a beat as her mother finally answered the phone.
"You're there!"
"Of course I'm here, sweetheart. You all right?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine. Mum, has there been anyone asking about me?"
For a moment there was silence until her mother replied, "Martha, I think perhaps you should come round."
"I can't. Not now."
"No, but it's your father. We've been talking and we thought we might give it another go."
"Don't be so daft. Since when?"
She looked up and found the Doctor, Jack and Mira staring at her.
"Hang up. The phone's most likely tracked or monitored," Mira whispered, but she just shook her head at her.
"Just come around," her mother said.
Something was wrong. They would never get back together, not in this life.
"Come to the house. We can celebrate," her mother tried again to convince her.
"You said you'd never get back with him in a million years," she replied.
"Ask him yourself," her mother said.
"Martha, it's me," she heard her father's voice – obviously her mother had handed the phone to him.
"Dad, what are you doing there?" she asked.
This was wrong, just wrong.
"Like your mother said. Come round. We can explain everything," her father replied.
"Dad? Just say yes or no. Is there someone else there?"
Silence for a long moment, then her father yelled, "Yes! Just run!"
"Clive!" she heart her mother in the background.
"Listen to me! Just run! I don't know who they are!" her father yelled, then all she could hear was indistinct noise and people shouting.
"Dad? What's going on? Dad?" she yelled, bot no one answered and a few seconds later someone hung up the phone.
"We've got to help them!" she said and started to run towards her car which was parked outside the house.
"Martha, don't," Mira said.
"That's exactly what they want. It's a trap!" the Doctor added.
"I don't care," she said, unlocked the car and got behind the wheel.
It was all his fault. Oh, and she should have never come with him in the first place. Had all this been worth it? She hardly noticed the Doctor getting in the passenger seat and Mira and Jack in the back of the car. She started the engine and drove like she had never driven before to her mother's place, hardly hearing the shouts from her passengers when another car was oncoming.
Despite her style of driving she found time to call Trish, speaker on and her phone on her lap.
"Come on, Tish. Pick up," she murmured.
"Martha, don't," Mira said from behind. "Either they have her by now or they'll track the call!"
But she didn't care; she just had to warn her.
"Martha," Tish finally answered, "I can't talk right now. We just made first contact. Did you see?" Then there was noise and Tish was yelling, obviously to someone else, "What are you doing? Get off! Linda, tell them!"
Oh no, they had her as well.
"What's happening? Tish!" She then turned to the Doctor and snapped in a way she hadn't thought possible just a day ago, "It's your fault. It's all your fault!"
"Look at the fucking road!" Mira yelled from behind and she just managed to get back on her lane before crashing into another car.
Then, when they finally reached her mother's place, all was full with armed people, dressed in black armour, a huge police car standing there, and inside it – her parents.
"Martha, get out of here! Get out!" her mother yelled at her.
For a moment she didn't know what to do. As if her brain wasn't working anymore. She could only stare at the scene in front of her, refusing to believe it.
"Target identified," a man yelled, and a few of the men swung around their weapons – pointing directly at her.
"Martha, reverse," the Doctor urged, his voice strangely calm.
"Take aim!" the man said, and then finally all weapons were aiming at the car.
"Get out, now!" the Doctor yelled, and she finally woke up.
She reversed the car full speed, just as the first bullets hit the road where she had been a moment ago. She pulled the car around hard, hearing bullets hitting it, and then the rear window got smashed, just as she made it around a corner and out of their reach.
"The only place we can go, planet Earth. Great!" she yelled, trying to overtake another car, not paying attention to oncoming traffic.
"Careful!" the Doctor yelled.
"Martha, listen to me," Jack said, leaning forward. "Do as I say. We've got to ditch this car. Pull over. Right now!"
Doctor
They had left the car in front of an underpass, well away from the road. It was raining heavily, and Martha tried again to phone someone.
"Martha, come on!" he said without turning around. Probably she was right and it was all his fault. But how could he have known? Or did he just bring nothing but trouble and doom to the people around him? He who only ever wanted to help?
"So what now?" Mira asked.
"Don't know," he said and shrugged.
Well, of course he knew, sort of. As well as Mira and Jack new.
"We have to stop him somehow," he added.
"Let them go, Saxon," Martha suddenly yelled. "Do you hear me! Let them go!"
He hadn't listen to her phone call so far, but now he was at her side, grabbing the phone, then walking away a few steps before saying, "I'm here."
"Doctor."
"Master," he said quietly.
"I like it when you use my name."
"You chose it," he replied. "Psychiatrist's field day."
"As you chose yours. The man who makes people better," the Master replied and chuckled. "How sanctimonious is that?"
"So, Prime Minister, then," he said, ending the naming-game.
"I know! It's good, isn't it?"
"Who are those creatures?" he asked. "Because there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made up name, like the Bogeyman."
"Do you remember," the Master said softly, "All those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids, back home. Where is it, Doctor?"
He had feared that topic, even though he had tried to tell the Master back when he had stolen the TARDIS.
"Gone," he simply said.
"How can Gallifrey be gone?" the Master said after a short break.
"It burnt," he replied, trying to keep the pictures out of his head.
"And the Time Lords?"
"Dead. And the Daleks, more or less," he said and sat down on a small wall. "What happened to you?"
"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared."
For a moment he closed his eyes, his effort to keep the pictures, the memories out of his mind in vain.
"I know," he replied softly.
"All of them? But not you, which must mean..."
"I was the only one who could end it. And I tried. I did. I tried everything," he said and opened his eyes again.
There, out of the corner of his eyes he saw a movement and turned his head. Mira was standing there, probably wanting to tell him something. How much had she heard?
"What did it feel like, though?" the Master asked. "Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?"
"Stop it!"
"You must have been like God!"
"I've been alone...," he started but then he couldn't continue. He suddenly realised something he had essentially known the whole time. Known but never acknowledged; something Mira had told him as well. He was the one who had chosen to be alone; he was the one who was choosing time and time again not to let anyone close to him. Not even Mira. What he had done to end the war would always stand between them, he would always have to keep it from her, betraying her and everything between them. But he couldn't tell her. He just couldn't, and he only hoped she didn't draw the right conclusions from what she had overheard. "I've been alone for too long," he continued. "But not anymore. Don't you see? All we've got is each other!"
He could still feel Mira's eyes on him, and he wasn't quite sure himself to whom he was talking to right now. To the Master or her – or both? One thing was for sure – the Master was the only one he could ever tell. The only one mad enough to not despise him, not even judge him, not take him for the monster he was.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" the Master asked.
"You could stop this right now!" he said and jumped up. "We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that's what you want, but not on Earth!"
"Too late."
"Why do you say that?"
"The drumming. Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."
"I could help you. Please, let me help,"he begged him.
"It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen. Here come the drums. Here come the drums."
And indeed, there it was again. Someone tapping a rhythm. The rhythm. The one he had heard before on the street, the one Martha had been tapping. A guy with headphones was leaning against a wall, tapping the very same rhythm. Was that what the Master was hearing in his head?
"What have you done?" he yelled into the phone. "Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures? Tell me!"
"Ooo look. You're on TV," the Master said, ignoring his question.
"Stop it. Answer me!"
"No, really. You're on telly. You and your little band, which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there you are."
He walked over to a store-window with TVs, and yes, he could see it as well now. Nationwide hunt for them as terrorist suspects, accompanied by their pictures.
"You're public enemies number one, two and three and four," the Master said. "Oh, and you can tell handsome Jack that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them. Martha's family I took care off already. Just couldn't find anything about Mira, just as if she doesn't exist. But then again, you always had a habit of picking up strays all over time and space. And I find it rather entertaining that she found it in her to shoot me. So I guess I leave her be for now. My little present for you. Now, go on, off you go. Why not start by turning to the right?"
"He can see us!" he said to his companions, looking around frantically, then zapping the CCTV camera with his Sonic.
"Oh, you public menace. Better start running. Go on, run!" the Master said.
"He's got control of everything!" he yelled.
"What do we do?" Martha asked.
"We've got nowhere to go," Jack added.
"Well, then I guess we have to find a place," Mira said, weirdly calm. "Just get out of CCTV reach and don't use the phone anymore."
"Sounds like a plan," Martha said. "Doctor?"
She was right. Mira wasn't in a situation like this for the first time, and, even though he hated to admit it, she could see it much more objectively than he right now.
"Run, Doctor!" the Master sad. "Run for your life!"
"Yes, it does indeed," he said. "Run!"
heroherondaletotherescue, Serendipity989, OneWhoReadsToMuch, djmegamouth, koseta_a, bored411, StoryGirlWrites, NicoleR85: Thanks for leaving a review :-)
