Chapter C

Doctor

He was sitting in his wheelchair and stared out of the window when the master came to stand right beside him, crouching over him, looking out of the window as well.

"It's ready to rise, Doctor," he said. "The new Time Lord Empire. It's good, isn't it? Isn't it good? Anything? No? Anything?" he waved in front of his face, but he just stared through his hand, ignoring him, not even blinking. "Oh, but they broke your hearts, didn't they, those Toclafane, ever since you worked out what they really are. They say Mira Rhodan has come back home. Now why would she do that?"

It was now that he slowly turned his head and looked at the Master. "Leave her alone."

"But you said something to her, didn't you? On the day I took control. What did you tell her?"

"I have one thing to say to you. You know what it is," he replied.

"Oh no, you don't!" the Master yelled and pushed his wheelchair away until it stopped a few feet away on a threshold.

"Valiant now entering Zone One airspace. Citizens rejoice!" the Master yelled. "Come on, people! What are we doing? Launch Day in twenty four hours."

The Master didn't pay attention to him anymore, being to busy with his master-plan. The time was right. Now or never. It was dangerous, but there was no other choice. Too much had already been sacrificed and certainly his own security mattered the least right now. But the Master wouldn't touch him – he would rather take it out on Martha's family. Martha. She wasn't the first companion he had lost – but that didn't mean it got any easier to deal with it. He was just glad Mira hadn't surrendered. He would have only killed them both.

When Francine, who was now more determined than ever to stop the Master, looked at him, he gave the signal.

Little later, at almost 3pm, chaos broke loose. Sirens sounded, disrupting the massage the Master was receiving from his newest sweetheart he used to torture Lucy with.

"Condition red!" someone was heard over a speaker.

"What the hell?" the Master yelled.

Next second Tish threw the Master's jacket at him, and another second later he hold the Laser Screwdriver in his hands, pointing it at the Master.

"Oh, I see," the Master said and lifted his hands.

"I told you. I have one thing to say," he replied, but the Master only laughed.

Next moment he found out why. He just couldn't get the Screwdriver to work.

"Isomorphic controls," the Master explained, took the Screwdriver from his hands and punched him so hard that he fell backwards.

"Which means they only work for me. Like this," the Master added, aimed and Francine and shot.

He hardly missed her as she jumped away, but he was certain that he did it on purpose. He wouldn't miss if he had wanted to kill her.

"Say sorry!" the Master yelled, and Francine stammered, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry," before Tish came over to her, hugging her.

"Didn't you learn anything from the blessed saviour Mira and the useless sidekick Martha? Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do. Take them away," the Master said and Guards dragged them out.

Then the Master helped him up and sat him into a chair.

"Oh, do you know, I remember the days when the Doctor, oh, that famous Doctor, was waging a Time War, battling Sea Devils and Axons?" he said, sitting on the table in front of him, slowly rotating the chair. "He sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade single handed. And look at him now. Stealing screwdrivers. How did he ever come to this?" He grinned and then continued, "Oh yeah, me."

"I just need you to listen," he tried to talk sense into him again.

"No, it's my turn. Revenge! Best served hot. And this time, it's a message for Miss Rhodan."


Mira

She had finally made it back to Great Britain. Tom, a young man, had waited for her at the coast and was about to bring her to Professor Docherty. Docherty. She was about to play a quite important role very soon – she just didn't know it yet, and probably never would. She had lost her son, probably at the day of the first attack, and was now willing to do almost everything to get information about his whereabouts. At least so said the resistance movement, and she had to figure out just how far Docherty would actually go. Figuring out someone else's personality, what made them tick and assume their actions was an easy thing to do for her – and yet she hated to use that woman's pain in such a way.

"Professor Docherty?" Tom said and she followed him inside a shack.

"Busy," a middle-aged woman with short hair replied, without looking up.

"They, er, they sent word ahead," he stuttered. "I'm Tom Milligan. This is Mira Rhodan and General Davies."

"She can be the Queen of Sheba with her personal entourage for all I care. I'm still busy," Docherty said, hitting angry at an old TV.

"Televisions don't work anymore," she said.

"Oh God, I miss Countdown," Docherty sighed and continued, talking mostly to herself, "Never been the same since Des took over. Both Deses. What's the plural for Des? Desi? Deseen? But we've been told there's going to be a transmission from the man himself."

Well, if there was a transmission then there was a good chance he would reactivate the televisions just for that, she thought, and was proven right a moment later. The television came to live and a black and white image appeared, disturbed by static. They all gathered in front of the screen.

"My people. Salutations on this, the eve of war," the Master said. "Lovely woman. But I know there's all sorts of whispers down there. Stories of a child - a child with her personal butler - or what was the correct word? General? Same difference. Anyway, a child with a love for old men - so don't you worry, my dear Doctor," He paused for a moment and smiled a nasty, cheesy smile. "She's walking the Earth, giving you hope. But I ask you: How much hope has this man got?" For a moment the Doctor's face filled the screen and for the first time in a year she could clearly see his eyes again. Eyes that seemed to meet hers for a moment as if he was actually looking at her, and only at her. "Say hello, Gandalf. Except he's not that old, but he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted little apes. But what if it showed? What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate? All nine hundred years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?"

Then he pointed his Screwdriver at the Doctor and the scene from almost a year ago repeated itself. Then, finally, just as she thought she couldn't watch it any longer, the Master stopped. She took a sharp breath as the camera swung over to the seemingly empty pile of clothes. He killed him. By accident or purpose, he had gone too far...

And even the Master himself didn't seem to be too sure that it hadn't been too much. But then there was movement and slowly a huge head with big eyes belonging to a tiny frame peered out from under the clothes. So that was what he would look like if he hadn't regenerated for nine-hundred years? But at least he wasn't dead. And yet it was a shock. He would grow old, and, one day, he would naturally be that old.

"Received and understood, Miss Rhodan?" the Master asked and then the broadcast ended.

"I'm sorry," Davies said.

"No need for that," she replied. "He's still alive; that's all that matters."

"Obviously the Archangel Network would seem to be the Master's greatest weakness," Docherty said. "Fifteen satellites all around the Earth, still transmitting. That's why there's so little resistance. It's broadcasting a telepathic signal that keeps people scared."

Oh if she'd only know how right she was.

"We could just take them out," Tom said.

"Let me go have a look outside, we just need fifteen ground to air missiles," Davies said with all sarcasm he could muster. "Or have you got any on you? Besides, on any military action those spheres descend."

"Toclafane," Tom corrected him.

"That's not what they are," she replied.

"Then what are they, then?" Docherty asked.

She looked at Docherty for a long moment. Yes, it could work. She just had to lay out the bait now.

"That's why I came to find you," she replied eventually. "Know your enemy. I've got this!" she hold up a computer disc.

The rest was rather easy. Well, as easy as provoking those things and then try to lead them into a trap could be. They set up an electrical field to take down another sphere, and then brought it into the laboratory. Docherty opened the magnetic clamp and then they all could see what she had known since she had seen the spheres for the first time.

"Oh my God!" Docherty breathed. Inside it was a human head – or at least, it had once been one. Then it opened its eyes. "It's alive!" Docherty yelled as they all jumped back – all but her and Davies. She had told him a while ago what the Toclafane actually were, knowing that she could trust him. He was the only one who knew down here on Earth, apart from her.

"They're humans," she said quietly. "Humans from the end of the universe. The Master lured them into a trap then."

It hadn't been hard to work that part out. That was why the Master needed the paradox machine.

"We know you," the Sphere said. "You where there, with Martha and the Doctor."

"What is it talking about?" Davies asked her.

"They were humans once and- I've met them before," she explained. "Looking for a way to escape the end of the universe. Looking for Utopia, their last hope. But of course, at the very end of literally everything there's no such thing – at least I wouldn't call that Utopia." She pointed at the head. "The Master stole the Doctor's time machine, that's how he was able to travel back and forth between this time and the end of the universe, working on his plan."

"But that's a paradox," Docherty said. "If you're the future of the human race, and you've come back to murder your ancestors, you should cancel yourselves out. You shouldn't exist."

"That's why he needed a paradox machine," she said. "This makes it possible. Though I doubt if it would not just rip apart the universe. That's a massive paradox, and I can't even begin to imagine the amount of energy it takes to sustain it."

"But what about us?" Tom asked. "We're the same species. Why do you kill so many of us?"

"Because it's fun!" the sphere said and laughed, and before anyone could stop him, he shot the head.


Doctor

The Master had locked him up in a cage on the flight deck. The deck was empty now as it was late at night. Then the Master appeared, followed by a seemingly deranged Lucy. He had no idea what he had done with her, drugged her, hypnotized or just beaten her into submission – probably a bit of everything.

"Tomorrow, they launch," the Master said quietly. "We're opening up a rift in the Braccatolian space. They won't see us coming. It kind of scary."

"Then stop."

"Once the Empire is established, and there's a new Gallifrey in the heavens, maybe then it stops," the Master replied and came closer, stopping with his head just in front of the cage. "The drumming. The never ending drumbeat. Ever since I was a child. I looked into the vortex. That's when it chose me. The drumming, the call to war. Can't you hear it? Listen, it's there now. Right now. Tell me you can hear it, Doctor. Tell me."

He leaned forward, grabbing the bars of the cage with his now tiny hands. He looked at the Master, and it was still a mystery to him what he was talking about. "It's only you."

"Good," the Master said and turned around as a sphere entered.

"Tomorrow, the war," it said. "Tomorrow we rise, never to fall."

"You see?" the Master said. "I'm doing it for them." He pointed at the sphere in a dramatic gesture. "You should be grateful. After all, you love them so very, very much. I took Lucy to Utopia. A Time Lord and his human companion. I took her to see the stars. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"

"Trillions of years into the future," Lucy said as if reciting something, staggering through the room. "To the end of the universe."

"Tell him what you saw."

"Dying. Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart, and I thought, there's no point. No point to anything. Not ever," Lucy did as she was told.

Just as Mira, he thought to himself – though he wasn't quite sure Lucy had really seen it. More likely the Master had told her what to say. He sank to the floor of the cage, suddenly week and tired, feeling his old and fragile body dying around him.

"And it's all your fault," the Master said to him. "You should have seen it, Doctor. Furnaces burning. The last of humanity screaming at the dark. All that human invention that had sustained them across the eons. It all turned inwards. They cannibalised themselves."

"We made ourselves so pretty," the sphere said.

"Regressing into children," the Master continued. "But it didn't work. The universe was collapsing around them. And now it's here. My masterpiece, Doctor. A living Tardis, strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and the future to collide in infinite majesty."

"But you're changing history. Not just Earth, the entire universe," he said – even though the Master must know that.

"I'm a Time Lord. I have that right."

"But even then, why come all this way just to destroy?"

"We come backwards in time all to build a brand new empire lasting one hundred trillion years," the sphere said.

"With me as their master. Time Lord and humans combined. Haven't you always dreamt of that, Doctor? Human race, greatest monsters of them all." Then he turned around and walked towards the door, his arm around Lucy and followed by the sphere. "Night, then."


Mira

So the day had come, she thought. It would soon be over - or at least, so she hoped. But even if the Doctor's plan worked out it would take them decades to get back to where they had been, if not longer. Even back in her universe it had taken over twenty years to rebuild what had been destroyed when the Dolans had attacked Earth – but they had been able to rely on the colonies on other planets for help and material. The humans here and now didn't have that. Probably conditions would even get worse once the Master, the threat uniting them, would be gone. There was a good chance they would start to fight each other over what little was left. Someone would have to fill the vacuum left by him. And, once it would go uphill again, the scars would stay with them for generations to come. But she also knew that they would forget eventually. Maybe not in hundred or two-hundred years, but it would happen. Humanity would move on, as would the universe, and in the grand scheme of things - or even in the next thousand years of their evolution which was not more than a blink of an eye for the universe – there would be nothing left of this trauma but a few lines in a history book. Only living fossils like herself would occasionally sit together and remember – a thought strangely melancholic and comforting at the same time.

"Mira, we have to leave!" Davies threw open the door and waved at her. "The Master, he's out there!"

"No, the Master never walks the Earth," a young boy who was living in the slave quarters where she had spent the last two days, said.

"He's here," she said quietly. "Davies, leave, hide, run, I don't care what, just keep your head down."

"But-"

"General," she cut him short. "He's here because I led him here. I told Docherty where the last piece of the weapon is, so she could tell him. I'm going to go out there and you won't stop me."

"What?!"

"It's time," she replied. "Remember my plan? The one I couldn't tell you about?"

He just stared at her as if she had finally lost it.

"It's over. Just do what I've told you tomorrow. I promise you, it's over."

"He'll kill you."

"Don't think so. At least not here and now. He'd want the right audience for that."

They looked at each other for a long moment and she could see it working in his face. He trusted her and she knew it.

"Fine," he said eventually and saluted. "It was an honour."

"Yes," she said and returned the gesture. "It was an honour indeed. And now try not to die, I owe you some whisky tomorrow, when it's all over." She cracked a smile and nodded at him reassuringly.

Then she turned around and headed for the door. She would miss him. He had accompanied her the whole time, even though he had planned only to stay with her until she reached Russia, and by now he had become a close friend. All the conversations they had had when travelling the long distances, sometimes almost philosophic in nature. But now was not the time to think about this, she thought as she opened the door, hearing the Master's voice outside.

"Mira, Mira Rhodan. I can see you! Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your master. Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing?" He turned to the guards he had brought with him. "Positions. I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself. What would the Doctor do?"

Definitely not contemplating to kill you, she thought. She could kill him. There was a good chance she would be able to do so before the guards shot her. But what would she gain? Maybe he had some sort of energy-shield, and then there was the paradox machine and the spheres. There was a good chance that killing him here and now would not end it. She stepped out of the shadows into the open.

"Oh, yes. Oh, very well done. Good girl." He clapped. "He trained you well. Bag. Give me the bag," he said and she took of the backpack, stepping forwards. "No, stay there. Just throw it."

She threw it, and in mid-air he fired at it with the Screwdriver, desintegrating it, whilst she tried her best to look appropriately beaten.

"And now, good companion, your work is done," he said, pointing his Screwdriver at her.

He wouldn't do it, would he? It wasn't exactly the first time she was staring down the barrel of a gun, though it never left her cold. She had accepted the fact that, with her lifestyle, it was highly likely that her last moment would look something like this moment right now, and yet she didn't exactly anticipate it. Despite everything she actually liked to be alive.

Don't. Just don't.

"No," he finally said after what had seemed like an eternity and lowered the Screwdriver, "When you die, the Doctor should be witness, hmm? Almost dawn, Mira, and planet Earth marches to war."

...

They had brought her on board of the Valiant, held her in a cell until dawn, and now guards where escorting her to the flight deck. She didn't even try to resist, as it was in vain anyway. Besides, she was exactly where she had hoped to be. The only thing she dreaded was Martha's family; she was sure they were on the Valiant – that was, if they were still alive.

"Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe!" the Master said, making her remember, even though she wasn't into physical violence, how incredibly satisfying it could be to just punch someone right into their faces. Just a shame that she couldn't do that right here, right now. She would have, she totally would have.

She looked around and caught the glances of Martha's family. Angry and filled with disgust. And there was the Doctor, peering at her out of his huge eyes.

"Your teleport device, in case you thought I'd forgotten," the Master said, and she threw the Vortex Manipulator over to him. "Oh, and search her for weapons."

One of the guards went into her pockets, taking the energy weapon and the .45 pistol she had gotten from Davies.

"And now, kneel," he commanded, standing on the stairs, looking down on her. "Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?" he said into an intercom.

She did as he had told her, a knowing smile on her face, shaking her head slightly. Could it really be true - his arrogance being his downfall? Hopefully the Doctor's plan would work out.

"The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!" a male voice replied.

"Three minutes to align the black hole converters," the Master said and started a countdown on a digital clock on the wall. "Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock." My children, are you ready?"

"We will fly and blaze and slice. We will fly and blaze and slice," the voices of the spheres seemed to come from everywhere around her.

"At zero, to mark this day, the child Mira Rhodan, will die. My first blood," the Master continued and looked at her.

Child? Was he just playing or did he really not have the hint of an idea what was going on? She threw a quick glance to the Doctor. He was cowering in his cage, his body so week and fragile that she wondered how he could hold his own head, looking at her out of huge, sad eyes. Then she looked back at the Master. And even though the situation was similar to yesterday's, this time she didn't feel like he would kill her – quite the opposite. It was one of those moments when she knew how it would end. When she obviously could get a glimpse about the near future. And she wouldn't die – at least not at this day.

"Any last words?" he added, but she bit her tongue. The time to speak hadn't come yet. "No? Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex. This one's useless, just as good old Martha was. Bow your head. And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward-"

"Idiot," she whispered, very well aware of his good hearing.

"What? What did you say?"

"I said, you're an idiot. A gun? Seriously? Oh, and, by the way, I'm not a child."

"So? Well, then call yourself whatever you want. Add a few of your miserable, short years, same difference."

"You really have no idea, do you?"

"Oh but I guess you'll tell me anyway, won't you?" he said and sat down on the stairs.

"Sure, you asked for my last words. First, a gun? In four parts?"

"Yes, and I destroyed it," he replied.

"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? And I, telling you about it? It's always the same with the likes of you. Clinging to the first simple explanation someone provides you with."

"What do you mean?" the Master said, a slightly dumbfounded look on his face, standing up again.

"As if I would hide a weapon on Earth for her to kill you," the Doctor added.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her," the Master replied.

"Yes. I am exactly where I wanted to be at this very time," she said and stood up again, clenching her fists, rage rising in her. Rage about what she had seen on Earth, what he had done to the people there, rage she could hardly suppress. "You're not the only one playing games. But you made a mistake. You underestimated me. Can't blame you though, must be my youthful face." She shrugged. "I would kill you though if that's what it takes to save Earth. I've done it before. I once even destroyed the centre of a galaxy to save Earth and humanity."

"No, you didn't," he replied, and it was clear to hear that he wasn't really convinced by his own words. "Which galaxy?"

"Not one in this universe. And that's another reason why you might have underestimated me. If you'd heard my name before you would have killed me on sight, right back at the end of the universe. You would have never let me get off this ship. And you would never call me a child."

For a moment they stared at each other, and she could see in his eyes that he at least considered to believe her. The doctor had been able to see that she wasn't an ordinary human, so he must be able to as well.

"You can see it, can't you?" she said quietly.

"Oh, but you're still going to die," he said, his self-secure mask suddenly back on.

"Don't you want to know what I was doing, travelling the world?"

"Tell me."

"I gave them a name to identify with, a name I used ages ago in my own universe, invented out of too much drugs and alcohol, but there it was, lasting for a bit over a century. Doesn't really mean anything by the way. It was nothing but a loose association of like-minded people, helping out for the good and the cause, you name it. Well, not really freedom fighters though. Anyway. Oh, and I told them stories. Stories of humanity. Stories about their future, about never giving up, even when facing entities much older and much more powerful than you'll ever be. And about the most important thing: Never losing hope. The one thing humanity in my universe is known and feared for: The will to survive and never to surrender, no matter who we were up against. I told about my father, Perry Rhodan, the one person saving humanity time and time again for almost two-thousand years – not on his own, but he certainly sacrificed a lot for it; far more than most would. And I told them that they have someone like this here as well. Just not out in the open. No one ever knows what he's done, and yet he saved Earth countless times. But only this time he needs help. And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."

"Faith and hope? Is that all?" the Master asked and frowned.

"Not all but most of it, and it's really sad you're not able to see that. You should never underestimate faith and hope. You can take away our freedom, enslave us, torture and control us, but you can't take away our faith and hope. But no, I also gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said. I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time-"

"Nothing will happen. Is that your weapon? Prayer?" the Master said.

"Nah, I'd rather call it the ultimate exploit."

"What?"

"Exploit. Positronic-security? Use a system to one's own advantage?"

"What?"

"The Archangel Network," Jack said.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together," she explained, "With all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same word at the same time. And that word is Doctor. You yourself gave them the ultimate weapon."

And then it happened. The countdown was finished. The cage around the Doctor started to glow, and everyone in the room, including herself, whispered: "Doctor."

"Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't!" the Master, finally realising that he had lost, yelled.

But no one stopped. She could feel it, coming from all of them, waves of hope and joy, and even on the screens people where saying his name.

"Stop this right now. Stop it!" the Master yelled, fear in his voice.

But it was too late. She could see how the Doctor started to revert to his normal appearance, saying "I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices."

"I order you to stop!" the Master yelled, but no one listened.

"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking," the Doctor continued, now fully back as he had been before, floating through the air towards the Master. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this!"

"No!" the Master cried and fired his screwdriver at the Doctor, but he was still surrounded by the glowing field which protected him.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the Doctor simply said – and she was sure he meant it. She had no idea how he could find it in himself to feel sorry for the Master, but he did.

"Then I'll kill them," the Master yelled but the Doctor just stretched out his arm and the Laser Screwdriver flew from the Master's hand.

"You can't do this. You can't do it. It's not fair!" he yelled, trying to get away from the Doctor.

"And you know what happens now," the Doctor continued, still approaching the Master who had reached the wall by now, curling up into a ball in a futile attempt to get away from the Doctor, "You wouldn't listen. Because you know what I'm going to say." Then he reached the Master, put his arms around him and simply said, "I forgive you."

"My children," the Master whined.

"Captain, the paradox machine!" the Doctor yelled over his shoulder to Jack.

Jack nodded at the two guards next to him, "You men, with me! You stay here!" he said to her and the Doctor. Then, as she turned her head again, the Doctor and the Master vanished.

Dammit, she thought. The Vortex Manipulator.


Doctor

They materialised on Earth, thousands and thousands of rockets around them.

"Now it ends, Doctor. Now it ends," the Master said and a roll of thunder sounded, accompanied by sirens.

"We've got control of the Valiant," he said, fully trusting in Jack and Mira. "You can't launch."

"Oh, but I've got this," the Master said showed him a little black device with a switch. "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!"

"Weapon after weapon after weapon," he said and shook his head, suddenly feeling as if in a bad dream, exactly knowing what's going to happen, unable to stop it and repeating over and over again. "All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do. Give that to me!"

After a moment of silence and them staring at each other the Master finally handed over the trigger. He wanted to take the Vortex Manipulator as well, but suddenly the ground shook. Had Jack destroyed the paradox machine? They struggled on the ground for a moment and then he managed to press the button on the Vortex Manipulator, sending them back to the Valiant.

On board was chaos – once more. The spheres which had darkened the sky due to their sheer numbers vanished, a wind rushed through the room, sending papers flying. Suddenly, out of thin air, a figure appeared. By now he knew what was going on, and yet his hearts still jumped with joy as the figure fell right into his arms.

"Martha!" he said and smiled at her. "Everyone get down! Time is reversing!"

For a while all they could do was to hold on to something – then, finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it stopped. He got up and rushed over to help Mira up, who was suspiciously green in her face. Oh dear, he thought as he looked at her, better no more time-travel outside the TARDIS for her.

"The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning!" he said and watched Martha's family hugging her – judging from the look on her face Martha had no idea of what had happened.

"This is UNIT Central," a male voice asked via intercom, "What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated."

"Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was," he said and smiled.

"What happened?" Martha asked.

"Later, that's a long story," he replied.

"What about the spheres? Where did they go?" Mira wanted to know.

"Trapped at the end of the universe."

"But I can remember it," Francine said, shooting an angry look to Mira – for a moment he was afraid she would just slap her.

"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know," he explained and then turned to Martha's father. "Oh, hello. You must be Mister Jones. We haven't actually met," he smiled and reached out his hand.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the Master trying to make it for the door, using the confusion to his own advantage, but just then Jack came back, stopped and then cuffed him.

"So, what do we do with this one?" Jack asked.

"We kill him," Martha's father said, followed by Tish and Francine.

He shook his head. "No, that's not the solution," he said and looked over to Mira.

"I don't believe in death penalty," she simply said. "Just make sure he'll never be able to take as much as a single step in freedom."

"But I do," Francine said, aiming a gun at the Master. "Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them."

"Go on. Do it," the Master taunted her.

"Francine, you're better than him," he tried to convince her and, after exchanging a long look with her, she slowly lowered the gun. He hugged her and then turned to the Master again who asked, "You still haven't answered the question. What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on," he replied. "The only Time Lord left in existence."

"Yeah, but you can't trust him," Jack said.

"No. The only safe place for him is the Tardis."

"You mean you're just going to keep me?"

"Mmm. If that's what I have to do," he replied. "It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I've got people to care for."

He turned his head to Mira, not too sure if he had to care for her in the future or not after what he had told her. Suddenly her eyes grow big, making him wonder what was going on. Then her head flung around and he followed the direction to Lucy, but as he saw what was going on, he could already hear the shot. He caught the Master as he staggered back, lowering him down to the floor.

"There you go. I've got you. I've got you," he said and tried to shift him so he was lying comfortably.

"Always the women," the Master breathed.

"I didn't see her."

"Dying in your arms. Happy now?"

What was he talking about? Dying? Why?

"You're not dying," he said and frowned. "Don't be stupid. It's only a bullet. Just regenerate."

"No," the Master said and it almost was as if he could see victory in his eyes.

"One little bullet. Come on!"

"I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse."

"Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please. Please!" he urged him, tears filling his eyes as he realised that the Master might be right this time. "Just regenerate. Come on!"

"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?"

"You've got to" he said, now crying. "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. There's no one else. Regenerate!" He almost chocked on this words, filled by a fear he had never felt before – or at least not in a very long time. There they were, he himself and the Master, the last of the Time Lords. He couldn't die, he couldn't leave him all alone. There was literally no-one else left. Mira would leave him, and then he would be all alone, and he couldn't stand the thought of it. Not again. He looked down at the Master, tears clouding his vision, searching for a hint, for something, anything to show him the Master would change is mind.

But instead, the Master said, "How about that. I win. Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?" Then his eyes closed.

"No!" he said, sobbing and crying, pulling the dead body closer.


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