CHAPTER FOUR - ETERNITY'S PLAYGROUND
The First Doctor and his companions, Ben and Polly had just defeated the Cybermen in their insidious plan to drain the Earth of all it's energy, but in the process their own world of Mondas had been destroyed. The stress of the conflict had taken it's toll on the Doctor.
"I'm affraid this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin!" he had whispered to Ben.
The whole adventure had taken place at the Snowcap Space Tracking Station, hidden beneath the ice at the south pole. Wrapped up against the bitterly cold temperature and cruel winds, Ben and Polly had helped the visibly weaker Doctor back to the TARDIS, where he hurried to the main console.
Placing his palms flat against the telepathic circuit panel, the time rotor started rising and falling automatically, and a strange rythmic sound seemed to fill the console room.
The Doctor stiffened and light pulsed over him, ebb and flow. Ben hugged a terrified Polly as, with a loud cry, the Doctor fell backwards on to the floor.
As they watched, the Doctor's face began to change. Ben was about to say something, when time froze. The regenerating Doctor disappeared.
The Doctor came to with a start. He was lying on his back, looking up into a clear blue sky. Easing himself up, he realised that he was in his own beloved, landscaped gardens. The smell of his roses drifted on a warm, gentle breeze.
"Dear me, I must have fainted!" he tutted to himself.
The Doctor wasn't usually given to irrational thoughts, but he felt distinctly uneasy about something. He looked around at his surroundings, the ornamental fountain, the oriental garden, the neat flower beds, they all seemed in order, but why did it feel so wrong?
The Doctor's keen eyes spotted something on one of the lawns. It was a giant chessboard of the kind that could be found in gardens belonging to stately houses.
The Doctor made his way over to the black and white squares. The opposing pieces were all arranged neatly in their rows. The Doctor examined the metre high pieces. His features had been carved onto the face of the white king. The black king had the familiar features of a saturnine, bearded face.
"It's that renegade fellow!" the Doctor uttered. "Now, what was his name?"
"I am usually reffered to as the Master!"
The Doctor looked around him, but could see nobody in sight. Where had the silky voice come from?
"Who said that?" he asked imperiously. "I demand that you show yourself!"
"Why, Doctor!" the voice purred. "I am all around you!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" the Doctor snapped.
"Now, now, Doctor!" the voice mocked. "Temper, temper!"
The Doctor looked stern and gripped the lapels of his frock-coat.
"Young man, I don't have time for such silliness!"
The Master emerged from behind the black king. The Doctor recognised the black velvet suit and brocaded collar. "Welcome to the Determinant, Doctor!" the Master cooed. "My own little domain!"
The Doctor scoffed at the Master. "You didn't do a very good job, did you?"
The Master looked offended. "I knew from the start dear boy, that this place was not what it seemed, I have an instinct for such things, hmm!"
The Master shot him a murderous glare. "Have a care Doctor!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" the Doctor said with a dissmissive wave of a hand. "Now, why have you brought me to this infernal place?"
The Master smiled. "You are here to pit your wits against mine, and all the traps I have set for you!"
The Doctor sniffed. "Well so far my boy, I am not in the least impressed!"
"Your flippancy annoys me, Doctor!" the Master snapped. "You will soon look eternity in the face and be humbled!"
The Doctor looked down his nose at the Master. "Dear fellow, I walk in eternity!"
The Master snapped his fingers and the Doctor faded away. "Good luck, Doctor!" he snarled. "You'll need it!"
The Doctor found himself in entirely different surroundings. Clear blue sky surrounded him on all sides and he realised that he was standing on a large cloud. The sound of music drifted on a light breeze. It was the mechanical tune from a child's music box.
"What lunacy is this?" the Doctor thought to himself, and then he raised his voice. "Well? I'm waiting!"
"And not very patiently!" the Master added.
The Doctor turned to see a silver-haired version of the Master. He was sitting at a long black trestle table, which had been draped in black silk. A large pyramid made entirely from playing cards sat on the table, along with a hexagonal, black box. It was from the box that the tinny music emanated from. The Master held it up for the Doctor's inspection.
"This charming contraption was once the most prized possession of the Celestial Toymaker. It doesn't belong to the Toymaker anymore!" The Master turned the box's handle and glanced across at the Doctor. "Get inside!"
The top of the box irised open, and a pink light drew the Doctor towards it. Helplessly, he felt his body fall into the box. The Master closed it after he was trapped within, and settled down to watch events unfold in a large, portable looking glass.
The Doctor felt a bit giddy after being deposited into the Toymaker's box. "Wretched fellow!" the Doctor said aloud. He would have to deal with the Master later. He looked at his new environment. He was standing within a tunnel, the walls of which resembled a vast, patchwork quilt. To both sides of the Doctor, the tunnel disappeared into darkness, but how far did they go?
The Doctor decided to press on into the gloom. A very pale light penetrated the fabric walls from the outside and just about illuminated the path ahead. After walking a short way, the Doctor came to an intersection of tunnels. One tunnel went left, the other carried on ahead, and the last one went right. The Doctor made for the left hand tunnel and just stopped in time as three bars of blazing red light slammed horizontally across the opening. The air crackled and sizzled around him. The Doctor took a deep breath, if he had been a few seconds quicker in entering the tunnel....
"Not so high and mighty now, are you, Doctor?" the Master's voice mocked.
The Doctor approached the middle passage. "Careful, Doctor!" the Master warned. "You never know what's around the corner!"
Ever so slowly, the Doctor edged inside the tunnel. Nothing happened. All of a sudden, a strange mechanical whirring sound filled the air. A neat, unbroken line of miniature Daleks appeared and circled the Doctor's feet. Round and round they went, crying "Exterminate!" in their squeaky little voices. Angrilly, the Doctor kicked them all aside. Undaunted, they re-grouped and scuttled away, further down the tunnel.
The Master's laughter echoed around the Doctor. "Be thankful, they were not the genuine articles, Doctor!"
The Doctor gripped his lapels and stood ramrod straight. "Young man!" he snapped. "There is scant little about you that can be said to be genuine!"
With a terrible tearing sound, the path in front of him fell inwards, revealing a gaping black hole.
"No Doctor, not that way!" the Master again.
The Doctor looked behind him. An enormous playing card hung suspended in the air. It was the king of hearts, with the Doctor's face. As he stared at the manifestation, the card flipped itself over to reveal the Master, in the guise of the joker.
"More of a fool than a joker!" the Doctor chuckled. The giant card suddenly exploded and the Doctor found himself in the middle of a malestrom of cards. They fluttered around his head like a swarm of angry bees. They began to push the Doctor back towards the hole.
"The cards are stacked in my favour, Doctor!" The cloud of swirling cards became denser, and the Doctor fell backwards into darkness.
The darkness vanished and the Doctor found himself pitching backwards and forwards, sickeningly. He was sitting astride a brightly painted wooden rocking horse.
"What is this tomfoolery?" he thought. Once more the tinny sound of the child's music box reached his ears. The Doctor attempted to get off the horse, but he was paralysed by some unseen force. The rocking horse began to speed up.
"Giddy-up, Doctor!" the Master chuckled. Faster and faster went the rocking horse. Soon the contraption and the Doctor were a blur of motion. "Buckaroo!" the Master cried.
The rocking horse stopped dead, and the Doctor flew from the saddle like a bullet fired from a gun. He sailed throught he air and landed in an undignified heap on a bright yellow bouncy castle. Exhausted, he stared up at the patchwork sky, which suddenly changed into a kaleidascope of different colours. A greatly enlarged face appeared within the colours. It was the Master.
The Doctor, in his weakened state, found himself drawn towards the giant pair of eyes. The ebbing and flowing of the colours made his eyelids feel heavy.
"I am your Master!" the giant face intoned. "You will obey me!" The Doctor tried to blot out the face, but he was so tired. "Obey me, you will obey me, obey me, obey your Master!" the Master continued in his hypnotic monotone.
Seconds before he was consumed by the Master's will, a strange vision floated across the Doctor's consciousness. It seemed to be a semi-transparent mass, almost ameoba-like. One moment it was there, and then it was gone, but it seemed to give him a mental boost.#
The Doctor chuckled at the bemused look on the Master's face. "Oh do shut up!"
The Master's shocked countenance disappeared, and the Doctor once again stood opposite his foe on the cloud. The evil Time Lord could barely contain his rage. The music from the Toymaker's box stopped and was replaced by the sound of children singing.
" London Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My Fair Lady "
A gust of wind broke up the Master's card pyramid and carried it away.
"Not so pleased with yourself now, are you?" the Doctor asked. "It will take more than cheap mind tricks to stop me, dear boy!"
The Master pointed a black gloved finger at the Doctor. "Get out of my sight!" The Doctor vanished.
"I'm getting a little fed up with all this tooing and froing!" the Doctor grumbled. The Master had transported him to a vast grey landscape. Grey clouds scudded across a grey sky and a grey sun cast grey light down upon him.
A bright purple tent appeared in front of him. It was the only splash of colour around. Warily, he lifted a flap and went inside. Sitting within the tent on a pile of cushions was a strikingly beautiful woman, whose skin glowed with a silver sheen, and her eyes burned with cold intelligence.
"Welcome, Doctor!" she said quietly.
"Do I know you, young lady?" he asked.
"I am Ishtar, but perhaps you know me by another name!"
The Doctor racked his brains, but could not remember her. "I apologise, my dear, but I simply can't recall!"
Ishtar produced a question mark handled umbrella and threw it at the Doctor's feet. "When we last met Doctor, you looked somewhat different in appearance!"
"What regeneration?" the Doctor asked, without pleasantry.
"Seventh, and you called yourself 'Time's Champion'!"
"Arrogance!" the Doctor tutted. "A trait of my race!"
"Which goes hand in hand with stupidity!" Ishtar got up and approached the Doctor. She seemed to flow instead of walk. She caressed the Doctor's cheek. Her touch was cold and metallic.
"Remember me yet, Time Lord?" The Doctor staggered back in shock. "I sense your fear, Time Lord!"
"The Timewyrm!" the Doctor gasped.
Ishtar circled the Doctor, a huntress eyeing up her prey. The Doctor's expression was unreadable, but he was frantically trying to remember the outcome of his last encounter with the evil entity before him. Seventh regeneration she had said, but it was so hard to look that far into his own future memories.
"What the devil did I do?" he thought.
"I'll tell you what you did!" Ishtar hissed. "you trapped my life force inside your own brain and then transfered it into the mind of a child!"
The Doctor was appalled.
"Irresponsible, wasn't it!" Ishtar laughed.
"Dangerous is the word I would use!" the Doctor said.
"You disaprove of your future selve's actions?"
"I can hardly change them now, can I?"
"If you could, would you?"
"I refuse to answer such a foolish question!"
"No mind is closed to mine, even that of a Time Lord!"
Ishtar stood in front of the Doctor and placed her hands against his temples. He felt a powerful presence penetrate his mind. He tried to put up a mental barrier, but Ishtar was very powerful indeed. Inch by inch, she gained access to his thoughts.
The Doctor's arms hung limply by his side and his eyes glazed over with the Timewyrm's taint.
The Master stared intently into his looking glass. "Now this should be interesting!" he mused.
Ishtar wrapped herself securely around the Doctor's mind. "Now Time Lord!" she exulted. "Let me see your thoughts!"
An image began to form in the Doctor's mind. It was a short, dark-haired girl, with incredibly deep, clear eyes. It was his grandaughter, Susan. Ishtar watched the unfolding memory, as seen from the Doctor's point of view.
The Doctor was looking at Susan on the TARDIS scanner screen. He had locked her out of the ship deliberately, after he had thwarted the Dalek invasion of Earth. It was time she settled down and enjoyed a less hectic and secure life. That young man, David Campbell, would take good care of her, of that the Doctor was certain, besides, he loved her. The Doctor switched on the TARDIS loudspeaker.
"One day I shall come back, yes one day! Until then, there must be no tears, no regrets, no anxieties, just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine!"
With that, he had set the ship in flight. A single tear ran down the Doctor's cheek. He would greatly miss his grandaughter.
Ishtar probed further for more memories.
The next remembrance showed the Doctor in Paris, in the year 1572, a time of great danger and religious strife. The Timewyrm eagerly read each thought, feeding on the Doctor's fertile mind.
The Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, aided by the hated dignitary, the Abbot of Amboise, had hatched a plot to wipe out all the French Protestants, also known as Huguenots.
The Doctor and his companion, Steven had befriended a group of Protestant rebels from the household of Admiral de Coligny, a high-ranking Protestant official,who was also to be killed in the Catholic scheme. The Doctor bore an exact likeness of the Abbot, and so a daring plan of impersonation was devised, however, not even the Doctor and his companions could stop the terrible bloodbath of brutal killings which took place on St. Bartholomew's Eve.
During the massacre, the Doctor and Steven narrowly avoided being killed themselves, and managed to escape the carnage in the TARDIS.
The Timewyrm soaked up every last bit of the horror of the terrible events which unfolded in the Doctor's sub-conscious.
"More, Time Lord!" she whispered. "Show me more!"
The TARDIS arrived in the London of 1966, on Wimbledon common. Steven was still very traumatised by the events that he and the Doctor had just barely walked away from. The Doctor seemed to take it in his stride, and it angered Steven that he could sometimes be so cold-hearted.
"Surely there was something we could have done to stop it?" Steven protested.
"No, nothing!"
"Did they all die?"
"Yes, most of them!" the Doctor replied, gravely. "Ten thousand in Paris alone!"
"The Admiral?" Steven enquired.
"Yes!" the Doctor sighed heavilly, and for once appeared to show his great age. "The massacre continued for several days in Paris, and then spread to other parts of France!"
"I can't believe you left them to die!"
"Steven, even I cannot change the course of history, I dare not!"
This answer was not good enough for Steven, and in a fit of rage he stormed out of the TARDIS, never to return. The Doctor was left alone to ponder his own actions. He knew deep down that he had done the right thing, but it was a heavy cross to bear.
"Such a senseless waste of life....a terrible page of the past!"
The TARDIS suddenly seemed very empty. He reflected upon his previous companions, and how sometimes his decisions could appear to be heartless and cruel.
"So, they've all gone, all gone!" the Doctor whispered. "None of them could understand, not even my little Susan. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time!"
The Doctor's hand's suddenly shot to his head and he focused his thoughts with one goal in mind - to expunge the Timewyrm from his mind.
"You are not real!" the Doctor cried. "You are merely a projection of the Master's will!"
Inside the Doctor's head, the Timewyrm screamed in agony.
"I deny this reality!"
Ishtar's link with the Doctor was broken, and she collapsed on to her bed of cushions, where she slowly dissolved into a large silver puddle.
The Master entered the tent and applauded the Doctor's triumph. The Doctor shot him a filthy look.
"You are indeed stronger than you appear, old man!" the Master said.
"Well?" the Doctor snapped. "What's it to be, another conjuring trick?"
The Master reached into his jacket pocket and produced one of his cubes.
"No, not this time , Doctor!" the Master casually stated. "I have done with you for the time being!"
"I beg your parden?" the Doctor said, affronted.
"Stick around for a while, will you?" the Master chortled, and activated the cube.
The Doctor doubled over in pain as he was broken down into energy particles and imprisonned within the cube. His features appeared on every tiny window.
"I never did like you in that particular regeneration, Doctor!" the Master chided.
It was time to bring another inarnation of the Doctor into the game.
The First Doctor and his companions, Ben and Polly had just defeated the Cybermen in their insidious plan to drain the Earth of all it's energy, but in the process their own world of Mondas had been destroyed. The stress of the conflict had taken it's toll on the Doctor.
"I'm affraid this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin!" he had whispered to Ben.
The whole adventure had taken place at the Snowcap Space Tracking Station, hidden beneath the ice at the south pole. Wrapped up against the bitterly cold temperature and cruel winds, Ben and Polly had helped the visibly weaker Doctor back to the TARDIS, where he hurried to the main console.
Placing his palms flat against the telepathic circuit panel, the time rotor started rising and falling automatically, and a strange rythmic sound seemed to fill the console room.
The Doctor stiffened and light pulsed over him, ebb and flow. Ben hugged a terrified Polly as, with a loud cry, the Doctor fell backwards on to the floor.
As they watched, the Doctor's face began to change. Ben was about to say something, when time froze. The regenerating Doctor disappeared.
The Doctor came to with a start. He was lying on his back, looking up into a clear blue sky. Easing himself up, he realised that he was in his own beloved, landscaped gardens. The smell of his roses drifted on a warm, gentle breeze.
"Dear me, I must have fainted!" he tutted to himself.
The Doctor wasn't usually given to irrational thoughts, but he felt distinctly uneasy about something. He looked around at his surroundings, the ornamental fountain, the oriental garden, the neat flower beds, they all seemed in order, but why did it feel so wrong?
The Doctor's keen eyes spotted something on one of the lawns. It was a giant chessboard of the kind that could be found in gardens belonging to stately houses.
The Doctor made his way over to the black and white squares. The opposing pieces were all arranged neatly in their rows. The Doctor examined the metre high pieces. His features had been carved onto the face of the white king. The black king had the familiar features of a saturnine, bearded face.
"It's that renegade fellow!" the Doctor uttered. "Now, what was his name?"
"I am usually reffered to as the Master!"
The Doctor looked around him, but could see nobody in sight. Where had the silky voice come from?
"Who said that?" he asked imperiously. "I demand that you show yourself!"
"Why, Doctor!" the voice purred. "I am all around you!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" the Doctor snapped.
"Now, now, Doctor!" the voice mocked. "Temper, temper!"
The Doctor looked stern and gripped the lapels of his frock-coat.
"Young man, I don't have time for such silliness!"
The Master emerged from behind the black king. The Doctor recognised the black velvet suit and brocaded collar. "Welcome to the Determinant, Doctor!" the Master cooed. "My own little domain!"
The Doctor scoffed at the Master. "You didn't do a very good job, did you?"
The Master looked offended. "I knew from the start dear boy, that this place was not what it seemed, I have an instinct for such things, hmm!"
The Master shot him a murderous glare. "Have a care Doctor!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" the Doctor said with a dissmissive wave of a hand. "Now, why have you brought me to this infernal place?"
The Master smiled. "You are here to pit your wits against mine, and all the traps I have set for you!"
The Doctor sniffed. "Well so far my boy, I am not in the least impressed!"
"Your flippancy annoys me, Doctor!" the Master snapped. "You will soon look eternity in the face and be humbled!"
The Doctor looked down his nose at the Master. "Dear fellow, I walk in eternity!"
The Master snapped his fingers and the Doctor faded away. "Good luck, Doctor!" he snarled. "You'll need it!"
The Doctor found himself in entirely different surroundings. Clear blue sky surrounded him on all sides and he realised that he was standing on a large cloud. The sound of music drifted on a light breeze. It was the mechanical tune from a child's music box.
"What lunacy is this?" the Doctor thought to himself, and then he raised his voice. "Well? I'm waiting!"
"And not very patiently!" the Master added.
The Doctor turned to see a silver-haired version of the Master. He was sitting at a long black trestle table, which had been draped in black silk. A large pyramid made entirely from playing cards sat on the table, along with a hexagonal, black box. It was from the box that the tinny music emanated from. The Master held it up for the Doctor's inspection.
"This charming contraption was once the most prized possession of the Celestial Toymaker. It doesn't belong to the Toymaker anymore!" The Master turned the box's handle and glanced across at the Doctor. "Get inside!"
The top of the box irised open, and a pink light drew the Doctor towards it. Helplessly, he felt his body fall into the box. The Master closed it after he was trapped within, and settled down to watch events unfold in a large, portable looking glass.
The Doctor felt a bit giddy after being deposited into the Toymaker's box. "Wretched fellow!" the Doctor said aloud. He would have to deal with the Master later. He looked at his new environment. He was standing within a tunnel, the walls of which resembled a vast, patchwork quilt. To both sides of the Doctor, the tunnel disappeared into darkness, but how far did they go?
The Doctor decided to press on into the gloom. A very pale light penetrated the fabric walls from the outside and just about illuminated the path ahead. After walking a short way, the Doctor came to an intersection of tunnels. One tunnel went left, the other carried on ahead, and the last one went right. The Doctor made for the left hand tunnel and just stopped in time as three bars of blazing red light slammed horizontally across the opening. The air crackled and sizzled around him. The Doctor took a deep breath, if he had been a few seconds quicker in entering the tunnel....
"Not so high and mighty now, are you, Doctor?" the Master's voice mocked.
The Doctor approached the middle passage. "Careful, Doctor!" the Master warned. "You never know what's around the corner!"
Ever so slowly, the Doctor edged inside the tunnel. Nothing happened. All of a sudden, a strange mechanical whirring sound filled the air. A neat, unbroken line of miniature Daleks appeared and circled the Doctor's feet. Round and round they went, crying "Exterminate!" in their squeaky little voices. Angrilly, the Doctor kicked them all aside. Undaunted, they re-grouped and scuttled away, further down the tunnel.
The Master's laughter echoed around the Doctor. "Be thankful, they were not the genuine articles, Doctor!"
The Doctor gripped his lapels and stood ramrod straight. "Young man!" he snapped. "There is scant little about you that can be said to be genuine!"
With a terrible tearing sound, the path in front of him fell inwards, revealing a gaping black hole.
"No Doctor, not that way!" the Master again.
The Doctor looked behind him. An enormous playing card hung suspended in the air. It was the king of hearts, with the Doctor's face. As he stared at the manifestation, the card flipped itself over to reveal the Master, in the guise of the joker.
"More of a fool than a joker!" the Doctor chuckled. The giant card suddenly exploded and the Doctor found himself in the middle of a malestrom of cards. They fluttered around his head like a swarm of angry bees. They began to push the Doctor back towards the hole.
"The cards are stacked in my favour, Doctor!" The cloud of swirling cards became denser, and the Doctor fell backwards into darkness.
The darkness vanished and the Doctor found himself pitching backwards and forwards, sickeningly. He was sitting astride a brightly painted wooden rocking horse.
"What is this tomfoolery?" he thought. Once more the tinny sound of the child's music box reached his ears. The Doctor attempted to get off the horse, but he was paralysed by some unseen force. The rocking horse began to speed up.
"Giddy-up, Doctor!" the Master chuckled. Faster and faster went the rocking horse. Soon the contraption and the Doctor were a blur of motion. "Buckaroo!" the Master cried.
The rocking horse stopped dead, and the Doctor flew from the saddle like a bullet fired from a gun. He sailed throught he air and landed in an undignified heap on a bright yellow bouncy castle. Exhausted, he stared up at the patchwork sky, which suddenly changed into a kaleidascope of different colours. A greatly enlarged face appeared within the colours. It was the Master.
The Doctor, in his weakened state, found himself drawn towards the giant pair of eyes. The ebbing and flowing of the colours made his eyelids feel heavy.
"I am your Master!" the giant face intoned. "You will obey me!" The Doctor tried to blot out the face, but he was so tired. "Obey me, you will obey me, obey me, obey your Master!" the Master continued in his hypnotic monotone.
Seconds before he was consumed by the Master's will, a strange vision floated across the Doctor's consciousness. It seemed to be a semi-transparent mass, almost ameoba-like. One moment it was there, and then it was gone, but it seemed to give him a mental boost.#
The Doctor chuckled at the bemused look on the Master's face. "Oh do shut up!"
The Master's shocked countenance disappeared, and the Doctor once again stood opposite his foe on the cloud. The evil Time Lord could barely contain his rage. The music from the Toymaker's box stopped and was replaced by the sound of children singing.
" London Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My Fair Lady "
A gust of wind broke up the Master's card pyramid and carried it away.
"Not so pleased with yourself now, are you?" the Doctor asked. "It will take more than cheap mind tricks to stop me, dear boy!"
The Master pointed a black gloved finger at the Doctor. "Get out of my sight!" The Doctor vanished.
"I'm getting a little fed up with all this tooing and froing!" the Doctor grumbled. The Master had transported him to a vast grey landscape. Grey clouds scudded across a grey sky and a grey sun cast grey light down upon him.
A bright purple tent appeared in front of him. It was the only splash of colour around. Warily, he lifted a flap and went inside. Sitting within the tent on a pile of cushions was a strikingly beautiful woman, whose skin glowed with a silver sheen, and her eyes burned with cold intelligence.
"Welcome, Doctor!" she said quietly.
"Do I know you, young lady?" he asked.
"I am Ishtar, but perhaps you know me by another name!"
The Doctor racked his brains, but could not remember her. "I apologise, my dear, but I simply can't recall!"
Ishtar produced a question mark handled umbrella and threw it at the Doctor's feet. "When we last met Doctor, you looked somewhat different in appearance!"
"What regeneration?" the Doctor asked, without pleasantry.
"Seventh, and you called yourself 'Time's Champion'!"
"Arrogance!" the Doctor tutted. "A trait of my race!"
"Which goes hand in hand with stupidity!" Ishtar got up and approached the Doctor. She seemed to flow instead of walk. She caressed the Doctor's cheek. Her touch was cold and metallic.
"Remember me yet, Time Lord?" The Doctor staggered back in shock. "I sense your fear, Time Lord!"
"The Timewyrm!" the Doctor gasped.
Ishtar circled the Doctor, a huntress eyeing up her prey. The Doctor's expression was unreadable, but he was frantically trying to remember the outcome of his last encounter with the evil entity before him. Seventh regeneration she had said, but it was so hard to look that far into his own future memories.
"What the devil did I do?" he thought.
"I'll tell you what you did!" Ishtar hissed. "you trapped my life force inside your own brain and then transfered it into the mind of a child!"
The Doctor was appalled.
"Irresponsible, wasn't it!" Ishtar laughed.
"Dangerous is the word I would use!" the Doctor said.
"You disaprove of your future selve's actions?"
"I can hardly change them now, can I?"
"If you could, would you?"
"I refuse to answer such a foolish question!"
"No mind is closed to mine, even that of a Time Lord!"
Ishtar stood in front of the Doctor and placed her hands against his temples. He felt a powerful presence penetrate his mind. He tried to put up a mental barrier, but Ishtar was very powerful indeed. Inch by inch, she gained access to his thoughts.
The Doctor's arms hung limply by his side and his eyes glazed over with the Timewyrm's taint.
The Master stared intently into his looking glass. "Now this should be interesting!" he mused.
Ishtar wrapped herself securely around the Doctor's mind. "Now Time Lord!" she exulted. "Let me see your thoughts!"
An image began to form in the Doctor's mind. It was a short, dark-haired girl, with incredibly deep, clear eyes. It was his grandaughter, Susan. Ishtar watched the unfolding memory, as seen from the Doctor's point of view.
The Doctor was looking at Susan on the TARDIS scanner screen. He had locked her out of the ship deliberately, after he had thwarted the Dalek invasion of Earth. It was time she settled down and enjoyed a less hectic and secure life. That young man, David Campbell, would take good care of her, of that the Doctor was certain, besides, he loved her. The Doctor switched on the TARDIS loudspeaker.
"One day I shall come back, yes one day! Until then, there must be no tears, no regrets, no anxieties, just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine!"
With that, he had set the ship in flight. A single tear ran down the Doctor's cheek. He would greatly miss his grandaughter.
Ishtar probed further for more memories.
The next remembrance showed the Doctor in Paris, in the year 1572, a time of great danger and religious strife. The Timewyrm eagerly read each thought, feeding on the Doctor's fertile mind.
The Catholic Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, aided by the hated dignitary, the Abbot of Amboise, had hatched a plot to wipe out all the French Protestants, also known as Huguenots.
The Doctor and his companion, Steven had befriended a group of Protestant rebels from the household of Admiral de Coligny, a high-ranking Protestant official,who was also to be killed in the Catholic scheme. The Doctor bore an exact likeness of the Abbot, and so a daring plan of impersonation was devised, however, not even the Doctor and his companions could stop the terrible bloodbath of brutal killings which took place on St. Bartholomew's Eve.
During the massacre, the Doctor and Steven narrowly avoided being killed themselves, and managed to escape the carnage in the TARDIS.
The Timewyrm soaked up every last bit of the horror of the terrible events which unfolded in the Doctor's sub-conscious.
"More, Time Lord!" she whispered. "Show me more!"
The TARDIS arrived in the London of 1966, on Wimbledon common. Steven was still very traumatised by the events that he and the Doctor had just barely walked away from. The Doctor seemed to take it in his stride, and it angered Steven that he could sometimes be so cold-hearted.
"Surely there was something we could have done to stop it?" Steven protested.
"No, nothing!"
"Did they all die?"
"Yes, most of them!" the Doctor replied, gravely. "Ten thousand in Paris alone!"
"The Admiral?" Steven enquired.
"Yes!" the Doctor sighed heavilly, and for once appeared to show his great age. "The massacre continued for several days in Paris, and then spread to other parts of France!"
"I can't believe you left them to die!"
"Steven, even I cannot change the course of history, I dare not!"
This answer was not good enough for Steven, and in a fit of rage he stormed out of the TARDIS, never to return. The Doctor was left alone to ponder his own actions. He knew deep down that he had done the right thing, but it was a heavy cross to bear.
"Such a senseless waste of life....a terrible page of the past!"
The TARDIS suddenly seemed very empty. He reflected upon his previous companions, and how sometimes his decisions could appear to be heartless and cruel.
"So, they've all gone, all gone!" the Doctor whispered. "None of them could understand, not even my little Susan. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time!"
The Doctor's hand's suddenly shot to his head and he focused his thoughts with one goal in mind - to expunge the Timewyrm from his mind.
"You are not real!" the Doctor cried. "You are merely a projection of the Master's will!"
Inside the Doctor's head, the Timewyrm screamed in agony.
"I deny this reality!"
Ishtar's link with the Doctor was broken, and she collapsed on to her bed of cushions, where she slowly dissolved into a large silver puddle.
The Master entered the tent and applauded the Doctor's triumph. The Doctor shot him a filthy look.
"You are indeed stronger than you appear, old man!" the Master said.
"Well?" the Doctor snapped. "What's it to be, another conjuring trick?"
The Master reached into his jacket pocket and produced one of his cubes.
"No, not this time , Doctor!" the Master casually stated. "I have done with you for the time being!"
"I beg your parden?" the Doctor said, affronted.
"Stick around for a while, will you?" the Master chortled, and activated the cube.
The Doctor doubled over in pain as he was broken down into energy particles and imprisonned within the cube. His features appeared on every tiny window.
"I never did like you in that particular regeneration, Doctor!" the Master chided.
It was time to bring another inarnation of the Doctor into the game.