Chapter Forty-Two – Chronicle Of A Death Foretold

Rose sat there, next to The Doctor, watching the past events on the screen. They'd just reached the part where they first met Jimmy Olsen, as he lay there helpless on the ground with a Dalek coming towards him.

Rose turned her gaze away from the screen and towards The Master. "So, you've been behind everything right from the start. Dragging us across realities on a wild goose chase just so we'd end up here."

The Master looked at Rose incredulously, and then threw back his head and laughed. "Really, child, you think I managed to orchestrate all of that. You think I'm some kind of puppet master who's been pulling the strings all of this time. No, you're sadly mistaken. I'm no puppet master - I'm just The Master. I'm just as surprised as you that we ended up meeting here."

The Doctor looked at The Master dubiously. "You expect us to believe that, when it's obvious that you sent those Daleks against us."

The Master looked back at The Doctor smugly. "Me? Send those Daleks? Why do you say that?"

"Because there are no more Daleks," explained The Doctor. "They were wiped out in the Time War, along with your bad self."

"Really?" replied The Master, smiling, completely unphased by the news about his inevitable death. "Such a shame to hear about the Daleks, although there are plenty more lying around I'm sure. You've just got to know where to look."

"So, you did send those Daleks against us," said Rose accusingly.

"Well, yes and no. I did send those Daleks, but not against you specifically," replied The Master, and then, after a suitably dramatic pause, added "I sent them everywhere."

"Everywhere?" repeated The Doctor, terror spreading across his face.

"Don't worry, Doctor," said The Master reassuringly. "They were all defeated. Well, nearly all. If you turn your attention back to the screen however you'll see the exception."

The Doctor and Rose looked at the screen to see themselves and Jimmy Olsen getting into the Tardis, and then, after a short while, the Tardis disappearing.

The Master used the device in his hand to make the screen disappear. "So, while all the other Daleks I sent out were defeated, you just ran away in your Tardis."

The Doctor started laughing.

Rose leaned over to him. "What's so funny."

"He's bluffing. He can't be behind it. Even if he could find sufficient Daleks for what he says he did, they'd never have co-operated with him."

The Master felt obliged to interrupt. "Maybe not in our reality, Doctor, but I found another reality, teeming with Daleks, all of them in league with a malodorous melodramatic version of myself, all conspiring to curse another version of yourself with the most fatal of deaths. There were Daleks to spare there, and all of them were only too willing to visit our reality. Of course, if you want proof…"

And with that The Master used his device to create multiple screens, all of them showing Daleks.

"Sorry about some of the picture quality and the occasional lack of color but transmissions across both time and reality aren't the easiest of things to pull off. Here you can see the Daleks I spread throughout time. Along with the Daleks, you may also recognize, dear Doctor, many of your predecessors. You'll also no doubt fail to recognize some of your successors. All of them defeating the Daleks in exactly the way you didn't. I even tried sending the Daleks to invade another reality's Earth in 2150 and, sure enough, even there, another reality's Doctor saved the day."

The Doctor was silent as The Master walked around triumphantly. "Still, Doctor, I guess you can't win every time. Just in the same way as I can't lose every time."

"Let's wait and see," said The Doctor. "I want to see what happened after I left."

The Master gave a slight smile. "Very well, Doctor. I'll let you wallow in your defeat."

A second later the multiple screens collapsed down to one, showing the war-torn landscape that The Doctor and Rose's Tardis had just departed. Suddenly a flying train appeared from out of nowhere.

The Master laughed loudly. "Ah, this is what you wanted to see. Doctor Emmett Brown defeating the Daleks with his localized EMP blast."

"No," replied The Doctor, "That would only work temporarily against the Daleks. They'd shut down their systems as soon as they detected it and then restart a safe time afterwards."

"Indeed," said The Master, fast-forwarding over Doctor Brown's visit to show the Daleks once again moving around the landscape. "Can we finish with this now and discuss your death?"

"Just want to watch a moment longer," answered The Doctor. "Can you fast forward it to sunset. See if anything else pops up."

"Really, Doctor, you're getting desperate," said The Master, as he followed The Doctor's orders, and then his jaw suddenly dropped when he saw the Tardis materializing on the screen and then the Tardis' door opening and a group of strange creatures flooding out.

"Gremlins," exclaimed Rose, suddenly realizing where The Doctor had sent the mutated Mogwai to earlier.

"They destroy machines," she added, as one of the gremlin's claws ripped through Dalek metal, whilst another's eye beams blasted the top section from yet another Dalek.

The Master looked on horrified, as two of the gremlins took to the air and lightning bolts came down destroying yet four more Daleks. Suddenly one of the remaining Daleks fired at one of the flying gremlins, sending it spiraling to the ground, but then stopped in its tracks as another gremlin ran straight at it, and then through it.

The Doctor relaxed back in his chair, his hands behind his head, enjoying the spectacle of Dalek destruction he was witnessing.

"Sorted."


As Billy Tate pointed his gun at Ursa, she stifled a yawn.

"Put the gun down, Billy," she said calmly. "You're not going to shoot me."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I'm a good judge of character, Billy. You're a lawman, and basically, deep down inside you somewhere, there's some good. Also, you're a coward. You're going to get that crook Luthor to kill the drifter rather than shoot him yourself."

"You know too much, lady," said a nervous Sheriff Billy Tate, his finger tensing on the trigger.

"How are you going to explain this, Billy? Shooting an unarmed pregnant woman."

"I can come up with an explanation, lady," said Billy. "Believe me I can."

"Of course you can," realized Ursa, remembering that Billy Tate was going to move into politics. "Oh, let's get on with it, Billy. Quite frankly, I'm getting bored."

And then, before Sheriff Billy Tate knew what was happening, Ursa had leant forward, put her mouth round the nozzle of the gun, and her hand had gripped his so that her finger was now pressing on his trigger finger. He looked at her, as she looked right back at him, wondering how he'd manage to explain this. Shocked, he threw the gun aside, leaving a cut on the side of Ursa's mouth.

"That was fun," said Ursa, her hand rubbing her wound. "Now, let's talk about this plan of yours."

"How do you know so much about me?" asked the Sheriff.

"Don't worry about me, Billy. I'm just passing through. I know that you're planning to kill the drifter and that's exactly what I want you to do."

"It's not my idea," he replied, glad to finally be able to talk to someone about the thoughts he'd been having. "It's Louise's. She's watched too many film noirs. At first she wanted me to kill Dex, but I drew the line there. So then it was going to be whichever stranger came walking into town next - she wanted us to kill him and pin the murder on Dex. First there was this guy Jimmy who came through. Louise came on to him strong, started showing people a love letter I'd sent her, telling them it was from Jimmy, but then, just when I'd finally got up the nerve to kill this guy Jimmy, he'd disappeared. Looks like this drifter Joe's our next target, although Louise hasn't said a word to me since he showed up."

"So, you and Louise are lovers?" asked an incredulous Ursa.

"We've always been lovers," replied Sheriff Billy Tate. "That child she had was really mine - or so she says."

"Child?" said a confused Ursa.

"Laura Potter," he replied. "I thought you knew everything."

"Obviously not," said Ursa. "You just go ahead with your plan, okay, or I promise that I'll come back and kill you."

And with that, Ursa wandered out of his office, shaking her head in disbelief. It wasn't every day that she told a man to kill somebody who was possibly her son, knowing that he'd actually be killing somebody who was possibly his granddaughter. Then again, this wasn't just an ordinary day. It was a day when Ursa was hoping to get back to Krypton, a day when Lana Lang would get shot, and also, after his meeting with Ursa, the day that Sheriff Billy Tate started smoking cigarettes.


Zod had been far too pre-occupied in the caves, setting up computer programs that wouldn't activate until decades later, to wade through all the numerous Jor-Els in the Kryptonian database to see if he was actually Kal-El's father. He also hadn't looked into returning to Krypton, since, now that he had his powers back, he never wanted to lose them again. Of course this wouldn't satisfy Ursa, and he was loathe to try altering Ursa's DNA while she was carrying his child, so he'd have to come up with an excuse as to why they couldn't leave. After all, for Ursa, being trapped on this Earth was akin to being trapped in the Phantom Zone.

And then inspiration hit him, and he knew exactly what he'd tell Ursa. It was so crazy it just might work.


Lana Lang looked at the burnt stack of hay where she'd been on the verge of making love an hour earlier. Surprisingly, Joe had been apologetic but it obviously wasn't any of his fault. After all, it wasn't as if he could set fire to things just by looking at them.

No, Lana knew why the hay had caught alight. It was that sign she'd asked for from God. It even followed his M.O. - a flaming haystack wasn't that different from a burning bush. It was obviously a sign of where she was heading. She cursed herself for insulting Heaven's color scheme, and cursed herself even more for forgetting that God was famous for his wrath.

Still, the burning haystack had saved her from going too far with Joe. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, one last way to feel alive, but she didn't really know Joe that well at all. She'd only met him that morning and whatever feelings she was feeling for him were probably just the feelings she had for Clark, who she would never get to see again.

Now that she thought about it, she almost regretted agreeing to meet Joe later on. Still, she had to go through with it or she'd never die and the Universe might cease to exist (although whether a Universe without herself was really worth saving was a question that still plagued Lana).


"So, Doctor, you've replaced the Daleks with these monsters," observed The Master, trying to snatch stalemate from the jaws of defeat. "Is that such a good thing?"

"The military will have already sealed off the area to cope with the Daleks, and, providing that they've watched the right films, the gremlins should pose them no problems," explained The Doctor. "Actually, if you fast forward to sunrise you might find that there isn't even a gremlin problem left to take care of."

"Well, well, Doctor. It appears you win again," said an unhappy Master. "Still, there's the matter of your death to discuss," he added, with a smile, as he pointed the device in his hand towards The Doctor.

Rose leapt to her feet. "You can't kill him. Not like this where he can't fight back."

"Actually, his injuries look a lot worse than they actually are," admitted The Master, "and I'm sure he's quite capable of fighting back."

"Is that right?" asked Rose, turning her head towards The Doctor.

"Well, yes, I guess so," replied The Doctor, "but all I've got is my sonic screwdriver. It can't do half the things that that can do." He pointed to the device in The Master's hand.

"What is it? A sonic Swiss army knife?" she asked sarcastically.

The Doctor looked at Rose with surprise, while The Master looked at her with a new-found respect. "Very impressive," he said, "but I'm not going to use this to kill The Doctor. I'm going to use it to save him."

At that very moment there was a whirring sound from the device in his hand and a piece of paper started to be printed out from it. The Master looked at what was written on the piece of paper and smiled. "Take this, Doctor. It tells you how you're going to die."

The Doctor leaned over to the device suspiciously, pulled out the piece of paper sticking out of it, and, placing the paper in his pocket, looked at The Master suspiciously. "Is this some kind of trick?"

"No trick, Doctor," replied The Master. "Now let's return you two to your Tardis. It looks like there's a few repairs needed."


"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked Chloe, who was sat down by the sea, looking out to the horizon.

"Yeah, apart from the fact that we're lost forever in the wrong reality."

"If it's any consolation, you get used to it eventually," replied Jimmy, who'd been lost in the wrong realities for what seemed like forever. "Just think of poor Clark, being shipwrecked on the wrong planet all of his life."

"Did someone mention my name," said Lex, turning his attention their way. And then his eyes went larger as they threatened to pop out of his head.

Jimmy and Chloe turned their heads to look at whatever Lex was looking at behind them, and saw a palm tree suddenly pulsate into view. If this wasn't shocking enough for them, a door suddenly opened in the palm tree's trunk, The Doctor and Rose stepped out, and the palm tree pulsated away again.

"You're alive," gasped Chloe.

"Of course," replied The Doctor. "So where's the Tardis?"

"Over there," said Jimmy, Chloe and Lex, all pointing in different directions.

"Looks like it crashed and scattered all over the island," said The Doctor laughing. "Wonder where it could have got an idea like that."

"What's so funny?" asked Rose. "Have you got a special switch somewhere that'll pull it back together?"

"You're good," replied The Doctor. "Now stay here, all of you," he ordered as he walked off towards the trees and disappeared amongst them.

"So, why did the Tardis crash?" Chloe asked Rose.

"There were some gremlins inside at one point," she explained. "They must have interfered with things somehow. Destroyed the artificial gravity. Who knows what else?"

"And what was that palm tree you just got out of?" Chloe asked, her investigative instincts kicking in, trying to make some sense out of the situation.

"It was this other Time Lord's Tardis," she explained. "It looked that way because of this thing called a chameleon circuit. It was trying to blend in. Unlike The Doctor's Tardis, where it just doesn't work."

"Until now," said Chloe, suddenly realizing what was going on. "The gremlins interfered with the chameleon circuit, reactivating it somehow. That Tardis wreckage is just an illusion - it's The Tardis trying to look like what I was expecting it to look like - I remember thinking we were going to crash."

"Sounds pretty far-fetched …" started Lex, and then he, and the others, suddenly saw the huge amounts of Tardis wreckage collapse in on themselves in the direction of the forest until not a trace of wreckage was visible. "Then again, maybe not," he added, starting to run towards the trees.

The others quickly decided to follow him, and within twenty seconds or so were standing in the middle of the forest looking at the Tardis. Standing there in the doorway was The Doctor.

"So, what are you waiting for. I've fixed everything and broken the chameleon circuit. Time to go and stop Ultra Woman and visit who knows where else."


Somewhere else, not far from the island, a Tardis appeared and The Master stepped out.

The only other person there approached him. "So, my acolyte, was the information Lex supplied about The Doctor's death of any use to you?"

"Oh, yes, Ra's. Very useful. I gave it to The Doctor."

"You gave it to him?"

"Yes, Ra's. He knows about the sacrifice he'll make for Rose Tyler and, The Doctor being The Doctor, he won't change a thing. And, thanks to me, he'll have to live with that knowledge until he dies."

"Well done, my acolyte. You have listened to me well. Destiny is indeed a most powerful weapon."


"So, Jimmy, where are we going next?" asked Rose, as the Tardis started its journey.

"Back to your reality," replied Jimmy. "Where all our realities are nothing more than TV shows."

"Great," said Rose, and then glanced over at The Doctor to see him reading the piece of paper The Master had given him.

"So, how are you going to die?" asked Rose.

"It was just a trick of The Master's," replied The Doctor, scrunching up the piece of paper and putting it back in his pocket. Turning his head away from Rose to look at the Tardis' console he added "Some psychic paper. Nothing more. Told me what I wanted to see."

"So, it's a good death?" asked Rose cheerily.

"Oh, it's a great death," replied The Doctor. "The best yet."

And then the Tardis suddenly stopped traveling.

"Are we there already?" asked Lex.

The Doctor suddenly forgot about the note and walked over to the Tardis door, flinging it open. "Jimmy, were you at a high altitude when you visited our reality?"

"No, at ground level," replied Jimmy, looking out at the clouds outside.

"Looks like another Tardis malfunction," said The Doctor.

"Can't we just try again?" asked Chloe.

"Can't risk it," replied The Doctor. "Could end up outside all realities, could end up in a mountain."

"So, we can't just travel to ground level," said Rose, realizing that the Tardis wouldn't be needing the chameleon circuit to look like it crashed this time.

"Oh, yes, we can do exactly that," replied The Doctor. "We're doing it right now in fact. I just don't think it's that good an idea."