Harry caught the Doctor making breakfast, which was really the only meal he could cook, well pancakes anyway, they were alone, he knew his dad was nowhere near thanks to SATURN and the TARDIS.
"You've not looked into dads mind or allowed him to look into yours yet have you?" Asked Null.
"No not yet the Time War is still too new to him, he knows in his mind our home is gone but not in his heart and I'm scared what it will do to him." Answered the Doctor while still cooking not looking over at the table where Null was sat.
"Then talk to him about it and partition it off except maybe the really big baddies that are still out there other than the daleks and then just show him the end" offered Null.
"It not the same, with you Null, with you I was much stronger than you are, me and the Master were born the same year and went to school together but while I'm near a thousand years old the Master's liner timeline isn't the same age, he's actually older than me now, if I opened my mind to him he would be able to see it all everything that is in my head along with all the feeling just like you got, I don't want him reverting Null, Koschei is finally back here with me I can't lose him to the madness again. Or his friednship when he sees what i did to stop the war, it's different seeing it Null."
"Then we'll just have to get dad to see it was the drums that caused you not to trust him but that you still cared a great deal for him allowing him to teach me how to properly pilot the TARDIS shows you are trusting him again otherwise you would have stopped it. Also we need to show him that the three of us won't ever be separated, doing this, going to places where he's helped and seeing the people without the drums in his head, knowing they had seen the best and worst of him and yet still chose him over the other horrors then we can get him to see that no matter what as Koschei, the Master or my dad, we have to show him that when he was able he did do a lot of good, and we love him all the more for that. The war did differnt thing to you but you were both affected by it."
"You're right…. Aren't we meant to be the parents and you the tot!' The Doctor spoke the first quietly but the last with feigned indignation.
"If I wait around for you and dad to get together on your own, I'll be an adult myself by the time you two get your act together" Null replied rather dryly.
"So why do you think he chosen this place next?" Even though they hadn't arrived they both knew where they were going, they could see the timeline in front of them but that was it the planet looked destroyed from space.
"I think he wants to shock us but he's in for a surprise there is life teaming on that planet" Explained Null.
"What? How do you know that? I can only see the devastation on his face before we leave!"
"Because I have magic, I can understand why my ancestors were feared so much even by ordinary Timelords and ladies, we can cast certain spells through time I only know because something wasn't right with the timeline when I woke up and noticed it and where we were going, the psionic disruption showed me over half a million humanoid souls on that planet spread all over, yet it looked like they could move to each settlement. There are five main ones I would guess all underground looking out from the TARDIS but that is all I could get before dad slams the door shut." Explained Null
"You can fire spells through the timeline? Asked the Doctor shocked
"Only my linier timeline, like you I can look into all the alternatives and see but not actually cast through them." Explained Null seriously while letting the Doctor see just what he had done
"Do you think we should tell him of the life there? He's bound to see just as much if not more than me because it's his own timeline he's looking into?"
"Unless he's refused to look further which would be my guess, it's as though he goes into shock and can't move forward. Yes, I think we are better telling him, I don't want to hide this from him and it might make him feel better." As Null spoke, he placed his hand on the wall and spoke to the TARDIS asking her to wake his dad and send him to the kitchen post haste.
Ten minutes later a very disgruntled but neatly dressed Master was in the kitchen, the Doctor gave him coffee and a plate of pancakes while moving him over to the table where Null was still sat.
"Dad, I know you have looked into your future timeline we need to know why you are so shocked at the damage done to the planet that's obviously not how you thought it would look, but you must have done something right because there is life on that planet underground!" explained Null in a soft understanding voice.
The Masters head came up and you could suddenly see the full timeline and it showed Null's spell as well as them lading in the central settlement. All of them stopped looking then and looked over at the Master.
His face showed both shock and pride while looking at Null.
"I was going to tell you it went through my own timeline not yours its why I could only get the one spell off and quickly grab the results, but until you moved past your shock and horror we were both waiting for you, we couldn't make the decision for you and once we saw where we were going next you had already shut down and hid out in your room. I didn't put up a silencing spell on there so you could ignore me, it wasn't very nice of you and it really upset me this morning you promised to always be there for me...I know you needed time but you didn't have to shut me out. If you hadn't maybe I would have worked the spell out quicker and you wouldn't have spent all this time ignoring the both of us!" Null told him upset at the end with his dad he couldn't help it though he really was upset it was a good job the Doctor was there, or Null might have vanished.
"I'm sorry it shouldn't have looked like that it should have been teaming with life all different kinds, nothing should have caused that, I spent nearly a hundred years slowly teaching them to use technology sensibly. The underground was meant as a way for the population to grow without taking away more of the beauty of the planet, but they were nowhere near to needing them the last time I visited, in fact only one was complete and that wasn't furnished only just starting to be ready. They hadn't even gotten the hydroponics bays never mind the aqua bases running, even if they had all rushed there it wouldn't have held a tenth of them and they wouldn't have survived with it as it was."
"So, something happened either they did something with the technology or something else caused the destruction on the surface. The fact remains that life is living and thriving there, if there is still at least one original adult ether they will be able to tell us if they didn't record what was happening above them, can either of you see back along the timeline to see what happened?" first explained Null then asked his question.
"No…..I've been trying to all night and all morning that's why I was in my room I didn't deliberately ignore you, it's quiet in there even the hum of the TARDIS is missing if not the vibrations but no matter how I looked I couldn't find a reason for it, that's what troubling me even more…What happens if they used the technology I gave them and turned it on each other?" He replied then asked the question that bothered him the most.
"Dad, you said that you gave them technology but over a lengthy span so that they could understand and respect it did you manage that? Were they really responsible after that time? I'm not judging you just asking for your honest opinion." The Master looked at Null when he was asked that question and realised, he wanted him to really think and that he honestly wasn't wanting to judge him just understand. Slowly he nodded his head.
"They knew all the risks, how much the technology could be used for destruction as well as life, they understood the importance that although technology is a wonder it is not everything, and they understood just how damaged their world would become if they did use the technology for conquest instead of curing something like diseases, I was carful and graphic in my teachings so that each new child would understand the technology, they would also come to see both the horror it can do and the importance of having each other, there is no reason for this, what so ever. It took them a year to finish the first underground settlement to what I stated so you can guess again for the other four add a year for the tunnels back and forth they planned, I would say it had to happen at least eight maybe nine years after I left. It's also strange because they should have been able to repopulate the planet as well as recover from the damage. The settlements were meant to hold all the latest in technology and information, all educational facilities had the information updated regularly so they were teaching the latest minds the latest information as well as helping their own chosen field to naturally progress with scientific discovery." The Master explained to the both of them.
"Well, it looks like we have a mystery on our hands, and you know I love a good mystery! So, eat up and then give the coordinates and time to Null we will arrive in space and take some pictures then go to the middle settlement and find out what going on and what went on!" Exclaimed the Doctor with another smile on his face while he fished eating his own breakfast.
Not only would he get to meet underground settlers but find out how the surface got damaged and hopefully help the Master move on past this and show him he would be there for both the good and the bad.
Ten minutes later they were doing just that and then they arrived in the middle settlement all three were shocked when they walked out of the TARDIS to find people shouting and clapping, and behind them all, was a massive statue looking as though it was holding the ceiling up of the Master in one of his earlier incarnations.
Finally, after about five minutes guards appeared and led a procession of who were obviously the most important people around this settlement. As soon as they got near the one at the front dropped to one knee in front of them making all those with him and around them also copy him. Without looking up he spoke.
"Lord Master, you have finally returned to us, you promised but over these long years we lost a little hope especially after the cataclysm and yet if it wasn't for this period we may never have recovered what was almost lost if not for your forethought, some said you knew others disputed this we had the technology and know-how to survive without you needing to look over us and as you explained when you last left you were leaving to allow us to grow naturally now we had become like responsible adults unfortunate that is where we grew arrogant you told us you didn't want to stall our natural evolution now you had saved us and helped us rebuild into something unimaginable by earlier generations before your arrival. With that arrogance and belief, we felt that we knew what we needed to know, to not only prosper but to find answers that you hadn't given to us as you saw us still as your children but as they felt was their right now as responsible adults they went looking for more answers of the universe, for three generations we continued on pursuing knowledge growing in technological might but we felt also in wisdom. We did what you did for us when we met a nearby planet hosting intelligent life, they were suffering from a famine and so we offered to help them with it, we immediately cured the famine problem then talked to all of their highest biology and botany students, teachers and Masters in their own right about how it had come about and as to why. With them still with us we then brought in the engineering side as well as the technological side including the big business leaders that lived on the planet and we explained to them again why the famine had come about and how we had cured it with input from the biology and botany side…..We then went on to explain the science behind what we had done and how we had done it making sure they understood the dangers this could cause even giving demonstrations on how the technology could actually ruin soil with too much over use. They listened to us, theorised among themselves for a year until we were sure they understood the dangers. We gave them only one piece of technology and that was the ability to commune with our planet directly, we wanted to keep an eye on them, they wanted to be able to form more relations in the hopes of actual technology not just an understanding on how it worked and how it was put together…" At this he stopped as the teers were running down his face. On instinct Null left his dad and the Doctor and went over to the man bending down slightly he still was only child sized after all he hugged the man.
"Tell it in your own time, dad's here now and so are we, we will help you in whatever you need, please we just want to understand we aren't going to judge you we just want to know, dad left this planet and it looked beautiful now it looks barren we can't see in the timeline what happened to you to help you so we need you to tell us, we can't undo it sorry but we can help you move forward from here." Null spoke quietly. The man looked up at him for the first time and met his green eyes and all he could see there was understanding, no judgement, no pity, just understanding and the need to know more so he nodded at him and continued.
"Our next visit back was by invitation of them it had been two years to us although they kept in contact at least once a month, we honestly thought they were genuine when we originally met them and explained everything to them they seemed to understand and even realised the disaster that could await them if we just gave out technology without them fully understanding it, but as a civilisation I would say they were about a millennium away from what we were, that's not a boast but when Lord Master gave us a leap in technology it was a massive leap but as stated he ensured we understood it. Our spaceships carried the best in our defence and offensive weaponry, we never landed one of our big ships only ever using a shuttle or transport to get down to the planet and to leave on, they knew we had a ship up there but could never see it for themselves, as I said we put the best we had into those ships. When we arrived on the planet it wasn't to a warm welcome as we thought it was to be but to a standoff, they had us surrounded and even managed to get though our personal shields to kill one of us. In one tale I am told the hostages were in a sense grateful the technology on them would alert the others to their predicament but the Asperians had not been idle with the information for the famine machine their evolution jumped and passed what they could keep up with and a need to understand turned into a need to dominate and enslave, they felt if we wouldn't give them the technology they wanted then they would take it by any means necessary. They had managed to block the frequency our signal technology worked on by studying the communication device and without our knowledge of it stripping it down to find out how it worked and replicate it, they managed to advance a lot in certain areas. Areas that led to our own downfall. They used holographic and voice altering technology to pose as the group they were holding all the while they were torturing the others after overloading their personal shields but not to the point of killing any of the others, then they tried to force information out of them. Some of these were our most wisest and renowned people of our planet, they had gone to help to see what the Asperians had done in two years their broadcasts to us showed they had great promise of growing up with a little help from us along the way, we felt as adults ourselves that we did not need to look over their shoulder every step of the way, the way Lord Master had with us, we felt we knew better after all he had stopped us from dying out and elevated us now that he was gone it was felt that we should be the teacher but as it wasn't our direct home world and as they were nowhere near to us offering them technology or explaining it past the famine we had cured. We felt that they were too young and, in a sense, we were right, because we interfered and then took the time to actually explain everything we had opened their eyes to the fact if we could do this for simple food what else could we do. Within a month they got the hang of the transport we had used to come down in, less than a week later they loaded it up with their best soldiers their entire world could provide and stormed the mothership in orbit. Once they had that we were doomed as I said it held all of our latest in defence and weaponry, they took the designs and within three months they had completed ten of their own. Even more advanced in weapons than on our own ship, they took things we would never have done and turned them into mass destruction. We picked up the fleet on long range sensors and followed them back to the home world of the Asperians we arrayed all of our ships to meet them thinking they were here to show us how far they had come, which turned into a battle and yet those ten ships blew them out of space as if they were nothing. they then scanned the planet and not discovering the bunkers or what they thought would be a massive industrialised world instead of one living in harmony with the life around us they bombarded the surface, all that could, escaped into the tunnels the refuse centres were already full and our cloaking technology changed when we saw the fleet heading our way it was a precaution one that saved a lot of lives even before we realised what had happened to our ship and elders. We got a full delayed encrypted file that showed us everything from our one ship that was with them before it self-destructed. They are still out there and though we feel we could meet them on an even footing now we have nowhere to build ships the surface is inhabitable and left that way by us because we could not build quickly enough if we tried, they would come and just destroy the whole planet from what we have discerned, they are out there still looking for our main home world not knowing this was it. We are stuck here for the time being until someone comes to threaten them that are stronger than even us." At this he looked to the Master almost begging for him to intervene somehow.
"Have the Asperians spread out from their main home world?" asked the Doctor ignoring the pleading look the man on the floor was sending the Master. The man looked over to the Doctor nodding. The Doctor looked at the other two.
"Shadow Proclamation?" He asked them both.
"Oh, Rassilon no! Anything but them, I hate speaking rhinoceros." Begged the Master
"You know they are not called that! and they have both the power and the intelligence to back it up. They can put them back in their place easier than we could on our own!" argued the Doctor right back.
"They will make us feel indebted to them and they will call that marker in you know how they are they might be the galactic police, but they shoot first demand recompense second!" He argued right back Null stayed out of it he knew they were going but it would take half an hour of arguing before his dad agreed, he hated feeling indebted to people even now.