So, yeah, most of Utopia happened as per canon-Jack flirts with everyone in sight, Professor Yana turns out to be the Doctor's best frenemy the Master, humanity goes off to the stars, everyone comes home via Jack's Vortex Manipulator.

Back home safely once more, Martha made tea for herself, Captain Jack, and the Doctor as the latter's cell phone rang.

"Barry? Yeah, yeah, sorry, we had to take off unexpectedly…just got back."

He gave Barry Martha's address, then switched his phone off.

"How's he going to get over here?" Jack inquired as he took a cup with a grateful nod.

"Oh, didn't I mention? He's super-fast now," the Doctor told him, and briefly explained about the Speed Force to Jack.

"It's true, I've seen him," Martha put in. "Here you go," she added, handing the Doctor her laptop. "Any good?"

As Jack pulled up the Harold Saxon website, Martha noted incredulously that it was only four days, linearly speaking, after she'd met the Doctor. Jack hypothesized that the Master had gone back in time and been living on Earth for decades, but the Doctor nixed that theory, telling them that he'd had, at most, eighteen months. He tipped his head to one side.

"Oh, and here comes Barry. Five…four…three…"

There was a gust of wind, papers flying everywhere, and a storm of golden lightning that faded to reveal a familiar man in a red suit.

"Doctor," he said, nodding.

"Oh hi, Barry."

The red-suited figure hugged Martha, grinned at Jack, then turned to the Doctor and folded his arms.

"Doctor, it's been four months."

"I…"

"Four. Months."

"That's nothing, he left me behind for over a century," Jack said, with just a hint of bitterness.

"I said sorry," the Doctor told him. Barry gave him another glare, then sighed.

"Good to see you, though, Captain," he nodded, and gave his old friend a hug.

"Nice to see you, Barry," Jack agreed, holding him at arm's length and looking him up and down lasciviously. "Nice suit. Very…tight."

"Stop it," the Doctor grumbled absent-mindedly as he helped Martha pick up papers.

"Yeah, I have to wear it when I run, otherwise my clothes burn up."

"Oh, so that's why they call you…" Jack smirked, but trailed off at a look from the Doctor, who spoke up quickly.

"I really am sorry, Barry. The TARDIS took off without us, and we had to use Jack's Vortex Manipulator to get back."

As quickly and concisely as possible, the Doctor explained what had happened while they'd been away—quick jaunt to the end of the universe, meeting the last remnants of humanity, and a kindly old professor who'd turned out to be an evil Time Lord in disguise.

"So what've you been up to?" Martha asked. Barry shrugged.

"Well, you left me almost three years into my personal future, so I didn't want to go home or to Sarah Jane or anything, but then I remembered Oliver. I ran over to Star City, and he put me up. I've spent the last four months doing missions and training with Team Arrow. By the way," he nodded to Jack. "You know a guy called Malcolm Merlyn? 'Cause we ran into him, and he looks a lot like you."

"Oh," Jack smiled. "My son, actually. His mom was an attache to the American ambassador in the 1960s, she was visiting Cardiff, there was this Anzat who came through the Rift…long story. I check in on him occasionally. Last time we talked was a few years ago. How's he doing?"

"Well…" Barry made a face and started ticking off points on his fingers. "Lost his wife, joined the League of Assassins, tried to destroy Star City back in March, got imprisoned, and now the League is after him. It's all kind of a mess."

Jack sighed. "I'll check on him again when this is all over."

"We could do with your help," Barry agreed. "Team Arrow, I mean."

"So, Harold Saxon!" the Doctor called, looking over the Master's campaign website.

"He's got a whole life," Martha noted.

"Or it looks like he does…." Barry put in. For a Time Lord, he thought, hacking the system wouldn't be too difficult.

"He's always been sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale," the Doctor murmured, noting how many people of every station had been willing to vote for him, even Martha and Jack. A fanfare sounded from the laptop.

"Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom," the Doctor raised his eyebrows, and turned on the TV to see the Master giving a speech, introducing an alien race called the Toclafane who, he claimed, would make diplomatic contact with humanity the next day. Barry didn't need the Doctor's incredulous shout to realize that the whole idea smelled funnier than his high school locker room.

"Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe," the Time Lord announced. "Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Every…I don't know…medical student?"

Eyes wide, the Doctor spun the TV around to see the explosive attached to the back.

"Out!" the Doctor bellowed. Barry grabbed them and ran them at super-speed out of the apartment, the Doctor and Jack grabbing their coats and the laptop as he did so.

"Thanks for the ride," Jack told Barry, patting his ass. The speedster rolled his eyes as Martha pulled out her cell phone.

"Would you believe I almost missed you?"

"Yes," Jack said, straight faced. As Barry sighed, Martha put through a call to her mum. No answer. She tried twice more, and then her dad. Same result.

When Barry rushed over, he found nothing but an empty apartment.

"Too late," he told her as he returned. "Sorry."

"I got Leo to hide, but Tish…"

Barry shook his head. "I think he's got them."

"I do indeed," a voice came from Martha's still-active mobile. "Hello, Ms. Jones. Been a long time since we saw each other. Must be, what, one hundred trillion years?"

"Let them go, Saxon!" Martha screamed. "Do you hear me? Let them go!"

The Doctor took the phone from her and spoke. "I'm here."

Barry, Martha, and Jack hung back as the two Time Lords talked. And then, there was nothing they could do, except run.


Later, they sat in an alleyway around a fire, eating takeout filched at super speed from Big Belly Burger. The Doctor told them about the Master and where he'd come from as they munched—taken from his family at the age of eight, forced to stare into a gap in the fabric of reality.

"Some were inspired, some ran away, and some went mad."

"What about you?" Martha asked away.

"Oh, the ones that ran away," the Doctor shrugged. "I never stopped."

He nodded at Barry, who thought about how it felt to be surrounded by the Speed Force, flowing around him and within him, his blood like liquid mercury pulsing in his veins, lightning crackling across his body…

His ruminations were cut off as Jack's laptop beeped, and the man swung it around. He pulled up a file, revealing that he was working for Torchwood. The Doctor was not exactly pleased.

"I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you in your honor," Jack protested.

The Time Lord gave him a somewhat-apologetic look, and leaned forward to hit play. They watched a video recording of a woman who sent them information about the Archangel Network, set up with the assistance of American tech genius Max Lorrd.

"Him again," Barry grumbled.

The Doctor realized that it had been put in place both to project a low-level hypnotic field encouraging people to trust the Master, and to hide him from the Doctor. Barry found the idea of that kind of satellite network more than a little unnerving.

"Any way you can stop it?" asked Jack.

"Not from down here," the Doctor shook his head.

"What about Kara and Clark?" Barry wanted to know. "I could call them, ask 'em to take them out."

"If I know the Master—and I do—he'll have armed the satellites with counter-measures. But now we know how he's doing it."

"And we can fight back!" Martha exclaimed.

"Oh, yes!"

With pieces from their phones and the laptop, the Doctor assembled four perception filters from each of their TARDIS keys and demonstrated how they worked.

"I know what it's like. It's like, when you fancy someone, and they don't know you exist. That's what it's like!"

The Doctor rushed off as Barry watched Martha and Jack exchanged looks.

"You too, huh?" Jack asked her.


They headed off to an airstrip, where they watched the Master talk to the American President Winters.

"You voted for him?" Martha whispered to Barry, nodding at the President.

"You were going to vote for him," the speedster shot back.

The Doctor shushed them with a glare. The Master turned to look at them, but was distracted when a police van pulled up with the Jones family.

"Oh my God," Martha breathed.

"I could…" Barry offered. The Doctor nodded. "Go."

There was a gust of wind. The Master turned his head. When he looked back, all of his captives had disappeared. He brought to mind an ancient Gallifreyan swearword which had originated around the time of the Norman invasion of Britain. He looked back at the Doctor and his pets, but they'd gone too.

"Oh, that thing is rough," Martha groaned as the trio recovered from another teleport jump.

"I've had worse nights," Jack shrugged as he straightened up. "Welcome to the Valiant."
It didn't take them long to find the TARDIS, but when they did, they discovered that the Master had cannibalized her into a paradox machine. Barry's fists clenched. Seeing the ship-his home—violated like this made him feel as if he'd just seen a friend assaulted.

"How are we going to stop him?" Jack growled.

"Oh, I've got a way," the Doctor said innocently. "Sorry, didn't I mention it?"

They entered the main room quietly, watching the Master's press conference as it unfolded around them. The Doctor explained that if he could get the perception filter around the other Time Lord's neck, he could cancel out the Archangel Network. Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, things went pear-shaped. The Toclafane murdered Winters, and the Master called for his guards. As they flooded in, the Time Lord jumped to the stairs. "Now then. Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully."

Then, it got even worse, as a pair of guards forced the Doctor to his knees in front of the Master. He withdrew a laser screwdriver, shot Jack dead, then shot a blast of energy at Barry.

"Temporarily scrambled your cells' connection to the Speed Force," he announced cheerfully. "Normal speed for the next little while. Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? I whipped up the app after your little stunt last night. And as for our handsome captain, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!"

"Get out of here," the Doctor whispered, along with something else. As the Toclafane descended, Martha and Barry grabbed the Vortex Manipulator and teleported out.

They reappeared on the ground, and rose together to watch London burn.

"We'll come back," Martha promised.

"Let's go," Barry muttered, and they slipped into the woods.

For those wondering why the Master didn't go after Henry Allen, or Joe and Iris, and grab them as a hostage: There are, in fact, advantages to being a time traveller. Barry's future self warned them to stay low.

I thought about including bits of the Doctor/Master phone call, but honestly, all they'd be able to hear is the Doctor's side anyway.

Next, we have one or two pieces set during the Year That Never Was, and then Last of the Time Lords. There are also reasons as to why no superheroes have stopped Harold Saxon-this will be explained next week. See you then!