A/N: Hello everyone! A little early today, I know, but since it was ready and I was awake, I decided to post it.
The poll is up! Please go and vote!The poll is on my profile for which episode containing Clara you guys all want me to do first, it's been up since about an hour after last weeks chapter was posted. Can you please vote, not that many people have, which leads me to believe you don't want me to do an episode with Clara in it. So please, go vote.
Finally, apologies if there is any spelling or grammatical errors that I have missed. Now, go and enjoy.
Professor Docherty was trying to get the sphere open, while Kari, Martha, and Tom, all looked on. They were all anxiously waiting to see what they would find, but no one was more nervous than Kari. "There's some sort of magnetic clamp. Hold on, I'll jus trip the…" Finally it hissed and she managed to pull it open in four sections. "Oh my God!" She cried, looking at the small, deformed head that was sitting inside of the sphere. There were wires and other things connected to it, a metal device where it's mouth should be. It's eyes opened and everyone but Kari jumped back. "It's alive."
"Martha. Martha Jones." The thing called, it's eyes clouded over.
Everyone was stunned. "It knows you." Tom said, his shock evident.
"Sweet, kind Martha Jones. You helped us to fly."
Martha looked to Kari, before looking back at the head. "What do you mean?"
"You led us to salvation."
"Who are you?"
"The skies are made of diamonds." The moment it said that, recognition flashed not only across Martha's face, but Kari's as well.
"No…" Martha whispered, taking a step back. "You can't be him." She remembered the little boy from that place, the boy she helped fly off to Utopia.
"We share each other's memories. You sent him to Utopia."
It was clear how much shock Martha was in, while Kari was just feeling sick. "Oh, my God."
Tom looked between Martha and the head. "What's it talking about? What's it mean?" He asked, knowing that both the women knew something about it all.
Professor Docherty decided to join in with the asking as well. "What are they?"
"Martha. Martha, tell us. What are they?"
Martha looked at Kari, grabbing her hand and giving it a tight squeeze. Both of them felt sick to their stomachs, knowing that they had been right. "They're us. They're humans. The human race from the future."
Tom and Professor Docherty stood there in shock. "This is what the Master has done. He created them. He did this." Kari whispered. Martha just hugged her tightly, knowing that she was struggling with it all. She was trying her best to keep up such a tough act, to make it seem like she was completely fine, now void of all emotion, but she wasn't.
"I'd sort of worked it out with the paradox machine." Martha explained after a few moments of silence. "Because the Doctor said, on the day before the Master came to power, he said…"
"When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only think I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed, which is right here, right now." Kari said, her eyes closed as the words came from her mouth. "With eighteen months leeway."
Everyone was looking at her, but only Martha was smiling a little. "The Master had the TARDIS, this time machine, but the only other place he could go was the end of the universe. So he found Utopia." Martha explained, gently putting a hand on Kari's arm, causing her to open her eyes. "The Utopia Project was the last hope. Trying to find a way to escape the end of everything."
"There was no solution, no diamonds. Just the dark and cold. But then the Master came with his wonderful time machine to bring us back home."
"But that's a paradox. 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." Professor Docherty reasoned.
Kari let out a sigh. "And that's the paradox machine. His masterpiece. A living TARDIS that is strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and future to collide. With him as their Master." She stopped to rub her head, a pain starting to push at the front of her skull. "They came backwards in time, to build a new empire lasting one hundred trillion years."
The room was still filled with utter horror at all this new information. "But what about us?" Tom asked the head in the sphere. "We're the same species. Why do you kill so many of us?"
"Because it's fun." Came the reply, followed by a laugh, which was cut off when Tom put a bullet through the head.
They were all disturbed by what had been discovered, but none so more than Kari. She had stood by the man who had started it all, who had created the paradox machine, allowed millions of people to be killed. She had believed the lies he had told her, she had trusted him. Kari knew she played a bigger part in all of it than she really knew, and that sickened her.
"I think it's time we had the truth, Miss Jones. The legend says you've travelled the world to find a way of killing the Master. Tell us, is it true?" Professor Docherty asked after they had all had some time to recover from the shock.
Martha was sitting on the end of the bed, Kari sitting at the top of it, hugging her knees against her chest tightly. "Just before I escaped, the Doctor told me…" She stopped, remember what he had said to her once more. Instead, she started pulling things out of her bag, laying them out on the bed. "The Doctor and the Master, they've been coming to Earth for years. And they've been watched. There's UNIT and Torchwood, all studying Time Lords in secret. And they made this, the ultimate defence."
Three vials of coloured liquid stayed on the bed, while Martha opened a black box, with an injector gun sitting inside of it. "All you need to do is get close. I can shoot the Master dead with this." Tom said, holding up his own gun.
"Actually, you can put that down now, thank you very much." Professor Docherty said, motioning for him to put it away.
"But it's not that easy to kill a Time Lord." Kari said rather quietly. "They can regenerate, literally bring themselves back to life. They change, their whole body changes, as well as their personality. They kind of become a different person. Same memories, just a different face before you."
"Ah, the Master's immortal. Wonderful." The older woman groaned. So far, Martha's information had been nothing of significant in the downfall of the Master.
"Except for this." Martha said, a smile on her face as she picked up the gun. "Four chemicals, slotted into the gun. Inject him, kills a Time Lord permanently."
Tom looked and counted the chemicals that Martha had. "Four chemicals? You've only got three."
"Still need the last one. Because the components of this gun were kept safe, scattered across the world, and I found them. San Diego, Beijing, Budapest, and London." Martha told him, pointing to the vials in turn, apart from when she reached London.
"Then where is it?"
Martha was hoping that he was going to ask that question. "There's an old UNIT base, in North London. I've found the access codes. Tom, you've got to get us there." She was referring to herself and Kari, because there was no way she would ever leave her anywhere alone.
He looked at her a nodded, causing her to quickly pack all her things back up. "We can't get across London in the dark. It's full of wild dogs. We'll get eaten alive. We can wait till the morning, then go with the medical convoy." He said, walking back through the mess of a workshop that Professor Docherty lived and worked in.
"You can spend the night here, if you like." The woman offered the trio.
Tom stopped and turned to look at her. "No, we can get halfway, stay at the slave quarters in Bexley. Professor, thank you." He said, shaking her hand.
"And you. Good luck." She said, before looking at Martha and Kari. Martha said thanks to the woman, while Kari said quiet, gazing at the floor. "Martha, could you do it? Could you actually kill him?"
"I've got no choice."
The woman frowned at her. "You might be many things, but you don't look like a killer to me."
That was what caused Kari to look up. "Never judge a book by its cover, Professor. A clear blue ocean may look beautiful and enticing, but what's under the surface could be dangerous and deadly. Remember that." She said, before walking out, leaving the woman standing there staring after her.
When the three of them were back in the van, Martha looked at Kari, who was gazing out of the widow beside her. "Will she do it?"
"Of course she will. She'll think about it, try to talk herself out of it, but at the end of it, he has her son." Kari replied to her, her eyes still watching the outside world. She didn't blame the woman for what she was about to do, she could completely understand it, trading information about her and Martha for information on her son.
Martha continued to look at her as the van began its journey. They could cover some ground on the road before they would have to go on foot and sneak around. "You look like you could use some sleep." She eventually said, knowing that Kari really could do with a few hours of rest.
"I'd rather not." Kari mumbled. She really didn't want to fall asleep and see what was happening somewhere else, to be reminded of what was going on elsewhere.
"Kari, you're just making yourself ill." Martha told her, not even bothering to try and cover up the concern in her voice. "You don't eat, you don't sleep, you just sit there and stare into space or tell stories to people. You need to stop and look at what you're doing to yourself."
"This isn't my doing, it's the Master's. And he is going to pay for it. I'll make sure he suffers for everything he has done. Not just to me, but to everyone, the whole of the universe." Martha really didn't like the way that she was speaking, she didn't sound like the Kari she knew. "Just you wait, Martha, I'll make sure he pays for the past year."
Martha really didn't know what to say to that, and she looked over at Tom as he was driving. Even he had a worried expression on his face, and he didn't know either of them. He could see that Martha was worried about her friend, and he could understand why. When he looked at Kari, she looked tired and exhausted, the features of her face a little too prominent. Her clothes were slightly baggy, and well worn, and he knew that she must have lost some weight.
In the end, they both shared a worried look, before Tom turned his attention back to the empty road to focus on their journey. Martha kept glancing at Kari, and was surprised to find that she was actually starting to fall asleep. Her eyes were slowly closing, and it was plain to see that she was fighting to keep them open. But in the end, sleep won, and she drifted off into the world that she was so desperate to avoid.
"Martha Jones and the Golden Angel. I wonder who that could be." The Master asked, circling a large birdcage with a rather small and deformed person inside of it. "She disappeared for three months, not a single sighting of her. And now, as soon as Miss Jones returns, word of a Golden Angel spreads."
The person in the cage, the Doctor, just looked at him. "Leave Kari alone."
A grin stretched across the Master's face now. "Oh, so it is her." He said, acting as if the Doctor had just confirmed his thoughts for him. "But what I would really like to know, Doctor, is how she got away. Because the energy spikes that were recorded were not consistent with her usual method of travelling." The Doctor continued to stare at him. "And there were two of them."
Now the Doctor was a little confused as well. "Two? What do you mean, two?"
"Two energy spikes, Doctor. One several minutes after the first." The Master got as close to the cage as he could. "Now what do you think about that?"
The Doctor didn't know what to think about that. He had hoped that Kari would somehow manage to get away, that she would be able to jump once the restriction on the time vortex had been removed. But she had been in a very fragile state, with no memories and a power that she just could not control.
At the back of his mind, she was scratching away. It was very faint, but he knew that it was her, so he knew that she was out there somewhere, he just didn't know where, and most importantly, he didn't know if she was safe.
"Believe me, Doctor, when she finally does decide to return, I will make sure that she doesn't go anywhere again. I've been looking at the restraints again, making a few changes here and there. I'm sure that it'll work, but there's only one way to find out, right?" The Master asked him, a wide grin on his face.
It was horrifying for the Doctor to know that the man who had once been he friend was trying to do anything to get Kari to stay with him. The man had almost killed her, lied to her, acted like someone he wasn't, all to try and get her to stand by his side. But the Doctor knew Kari better, and he knew that she wouldn't give in to him.
"Miss Jones will make a mistake soon, you mark my words, Doctor. And when she does, I'll be there, and she'll face death. Oh, but at that moment, a Golden Angel will appear, just in time to save her. What do you think about that, Doctor? Hmm?"
The Doctor stood up as best her could and griped onto the bars of the cage. "I think you should leave Kari alone, and Martha as well. Do you really think Kari is happy with any of this? If she is out there, she will have seen what you have done, she will see what you really are." He was still trying his damned hardest to get the man to listen to reason, but nothing seemed to work. "Is that what you wanted, when you started all of this? Did you want Kari to see you for who you truly are?"
For a moment, just a moment, it looked as if the Master was seriously thinking about it. But then that evil smirk was back again. "What I wanted, I'm still going to get, Doctor. There is no doubt about it. Kari will be mine." The look on his face was just pure menace, and it made the Doctor feel uneasy.
"Please, you have to stop this. Kari isn't a thing to be owned, she is a person and she has a mind of her own. A rather strong and determined mind, she's stubborn and never gives up. Not ever." Both men knew that to be true, they had both seen her stubborn and making sure that she got her way. "You can't force her to be someone she isn't."
"I don't want her to be someone else. Kari is who she is, who she always has been, and that makes her perfect." The Master told him, before wrapping his arm around the woman in the red dress and leaving the flight deck.
The Doctor sat down in the cage, his hands still holding on to the bars tightly. "Wherever you are, Kari," he whispered, "I hope you're safe. I just want to know you are safe." A tear quickly fell from his eye, which he completely ignored. It was apparent what was bothering him, and that he was desperate to know that Kari was actually safe.
A sudden jolt made Kari's eyes fly open. She was breathing heavily as her hand reached to her chest and grasped onto the key beneath her top. She wanted to reach down her top and pull it out, to feel the cool metal against her flesh, but she only needed to feel the shape of it, the jagged edges that protruded through her clothing, that was enough for her to calm down.
She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand wiping her cheek. "Kari, are you okay?" Martha asked her softly, clearing away the tears the woman didn't know she had shed.
Kari wanted to nod, but she ended up shaking her head. "They… uh, they… he still wants me. He's confident that he's going to get me, that I'm going to be his." Kari managed to whisper.
Obviously Tom had heard this, being stuck in such a small space with them and being rather curious. "Who still wants you?"
The two women shared a look, and Kari let out a sigh. "The Master. Look, we haven't been completely honest with you, Thomas Milligan. My name is Kari Conner, I'm a Time Lady. Like the Doctor and Master are Time Lords, I'm the female version of them. From what I've found out since loosing my memories, I kind of have some sort of connection to the Time Vortex." By this point, Tom's mouth was hanging open. "And my fiancé is the Doctor."
"You're one of them?" Tom asked in utter shock. "You're the same as them?"
"Yes, I'm the same alien species as them, but the Doctor and I are nothing like the Master. I assure you. The Master is cold and ruthless, the Doctor is kind and caring. He is always willing to give anyone another chance, and maybe that is his problem sometimes, but it's who he is." Kari told him, starting to wonder if telling him the truth had really been such a good idea. "The Doctor goes around save people and planets, the Master destroys them."
"Right. Anything else that the pair of you haven't told me?"
Kari shrugged. "Yeah, probably. But I don't remember at the moment."
"So, what exactly happened then? For you to lose your memories and everything." Tom asked, not ready to drop the subject just yet. He wanted to know more, more about the people who had been wandering the Earth and trying to find a way to stop the Master.
"I don't remember. All I know is that I woke up and the Master was there, telling me all sorts of things. Apparently, I almost died because of something that someone did. I don't know who this someone was, or what it was that they done." Kari didn't know why she was telling him all of this, she had tried to stop thinking about it all, to move on and focus on what to do next. "All I can say is that I escaped and found Martha. And that's the end of it." Straight away her gaze went out of the window beside her.
The silence fell in the vehicle, a little tense to begin with, but it soon settled down. None of them realised how late it really was until they were creeping through the streets, trying to avoid the patrols as they made their way to a safe house.
Tom knocked on one of the doors, while Martha and Kari kept looking out for the patrol to come back their way. "Let me in. It's Milligan." Suddenly the door creaked and the three of them slipped through the small gap that had been opened.
"Did you bring food?" One of the women asked, as Kari looked around. She could feel a fire burning in the pit of her stomach at what was before her. People had been crammed into the house, with clothing that was tattered and falling apart.
Tom looked at the woman and the others sadly. "Couldn't get any, and I'm starving." He explained to them.
"All we've got it water." She told him, before settling back down.
Martha was shocked at what she was seeing as well, and Tom didn't fail to notice. "It's cheaper than building barracks. Pack them in, a hundred in each house, ferry them off to the shipyards every morning." By now, Kari's anger had built even more. There was no way she was going to let the Master get away with any of it, not ever. She would make sure he was stopped, even if it was the last thing she ever done.
She was so in her own little world that she didn't notice the young man speaking. "Are you Martha Jones?"
"Yeah, that's me." The woman replied, keeping an eye on Kari who was just staring off into space once more.
"Can you do it? Can you kill him?" It was easy to see the hope in his eyes as he spoke. "They said you can kill the Master, can you? Tell us you can do it. Please, tell us you can do it."
"Who is the Master?" A woman called, before everyone started talking all at the same time. So many different questions were being thrown at Martha, she didn't even know where to begin.
Lucky, Tom stepped in for her. "Come on, just leave her alone. She's exhausted." He said, trying to get them all to just back off from her.
"No, it's all right. They want me to talk, and I will." Martha told him, before turning her attention back to Kari. "But I'm not going to do it alone. Kari?" She was still in her own world, and heard nothing that Martha nor anyone else had said. Martha lightly placed her hand on Kari's arm, finally getting the woman to look at her. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, as if she really hadn't been there at all. "Everything okay?"
Kari looked at her, and that was when Martha noticed the fear in her eyes. "He's coming for us. She did it, and now he is coming for us. I can't go back, Martha. I can't… I'm not going back there." The way she was acting was worrying for Martha. She was absolutely petrified, knowing that the Master was coming to find them, knowing that he wanted to take Kari back with him and try to claim her as his own. She could understand why she was scared.
"Kari, I know you don't want to go back, but we have to. It was always the plan, always. That's why we saw Professor Docherty, we both knew what would happen." Martha told her, trying to get her to calm down and make her realise that it was for the best and that nothing bad was going to happen. "It's going to be fine, Kari, I promise you. The Doctor is going to be there, and soon, all this will be over. I swear."
All Kari could do was nod at her. She really didn't want to go back there, even if she did know that had been the plan all along. It didn't matter how scared she was of the Master, she was even more scared of what she would do to him if she saw him once more. She had started to notice what had been happening when she became angry or irritated, and she didn't like it. She was something dangerous, and she had a feeling that if she didn't control it, she could seriously hurt someone.
"Come on, let's tell them all about you and the Doctor. What do you say?" Martha asked her, hoping that speaking about the Doctor will help her a little more. It always seemed to trigger some memory, without her ever realising it. Martha just hoped that it would continue work, and that Kari would keep on remembering, and soon remember everything.
Martha ended up sitting on the stairs, surrounded by people, while Kari leaned against a wall, listening to everything that the woman was saying. "I travelled across the world, from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere I went, where we went, we saw people just like you, living as slaves." The woman said, making sure to keep Kari in the story as well. "There's someone else. The man who sent me out here, the man who told me to walk the Earth. And his name is the Doctor. He saved your lives so many times, and you never even know he was there. He never stops, he never stays, he never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him, I know him. And Kari…" She stopped and looked over to her.
A sad smile graced Kari's face as she absentmindedly twisted the ring around her finger. "Well, I know him as well. I probably know him better than anyone else in the universe. But the only thing is, I lost my memories because of the Master." There were a few gasps and whispers as she said that, which Kari expected. "Each and every day I start to remember things. Only little things, but it's always something about this mad man with a box."
"And we know what he can do." Martha added, sensing that Kari was struggling a little. She kept rubbing her head, like she did every time she started to remember something. "We told them about the Doctor. And we told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."
Before anything else could be said by the pair, one of the woman came rushing over to the stair, full of panic. "It's him! It's him!" She cried. "Oh my God, it's him! It's them Master. He's here."
Both Martha and Kari tensed up at the announcement. "But he never comes to Earth. He never walks upon the ground." A boy called out.
The woman looked in panic between Kari and Martha. "Hide them. Hide them both." Martha was quickly covered over with coats and anything else they could find. Kari just bent down, and hid between all the people.
"He walks among us, our lord and master…"
"Martha? Martha Jones!" A voice sang outside of the building. The hairs on Kari's arms stood up on end. "I can see you! Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your master. Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing?" Kari could tell that something bad was going to happen, she could just feel it. "Positions. I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself, what would the Doctor do?"
Kari looked up between the people, and saw Martha getting up, taking off the key that was hanging around her neck. "I have to, Kari. We both do." She didn't wait for a reply, she just got herself down the stairs and slowly opened the door.
"Oh, yes. Oh, very well done." The Master called as Martha came into his view as she exited the house she had taken refuge in. "Good girl. He trained you well. Bag. Give me the bag." Martha went to take it off and walked towards him, rather large guns being pointed at her from every direction. "No, stay there. Just throw it." She done as she was told and watched as he fired his laser screwdriver at the bag, making it spark and a few flames shoot out of it. "And now, good companion, your work is done."
Kari had been listening, as had everyone else. Tom was about to charge out of the house, to go to try and protect Martha, but she quickly pulled him back. "Leave Martha alone." She said, trying to keep her voice strong as she walked out of the house. Kari walked forward, doing her best to be confident.
"Ah, and there is she, my beautiful Golden Angel." The Master said, looking at her with a wide grin as she opened his arms out towards her. "Oh how much I have missed you."
"Yeah? Well I haven't missed you." Kari had been worried this was going to happen, that she was going to see him and snap. She was trying to control herself, to keep it together and not let seeing him break her. "You are a lying, scheming, deviously, conniving, ruthless creature." She spat at him, striding towards him. "You are sick, and twisted, and you deserve everything that is coming to you. Including this…" And then she punched him, hard, in the face. She didn't care that it her hand made a few horrible cracking noises, or the pain that was now soaring through it.
The Master held his nose but smiled behind his hand. "Oh, I like it. You're even more feisty now." He told her, grabbing a cotton tissue from the pocket of his suit jacket and dabbing his bloody nose with it. "Oh I do like that, the fire burning inside of you. I can see it, right there in your eyes." He reached forward with his free hand, reaching out to touch her cheek.
Kari slapped his hand away, rather harshly as well. "Don't even think about touching me." She snarled at him. "The past three months have opened my eyes. I see everything so clearly now. I have seen what you have done, and I know what you are planning on doing." Her next actions surprised both the Master and Martha Jones.
The Master found himself looking down the barrel of a gun, being held tightly by Kari. The look of his face was pure shock, and there seemed to be a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "Please, like you know how to use a gun." The Master scoffed, hoping that he was right. But Kari proved him wrong, by pointing the gun over his shoulder and firing it at a tin can that was amongst a pile of rubbish.
As soon as she hit the can, the gun was back in his face. "My big brother Jack may have taught me a few things. We don't just party at Torchwood, we occasionally get down and do some work." Kari retorted, pleased that she had managed to unhinge the man. "Travelling with Martha has helped me, it helped me to remember a few things. And one thing that I remember the most, is that the Doctor is worth more than anything in the universe."
An animalistic growl came from the Masters throat, before he reached out and wrestled with Kari to get the gun away from her. Both of them were struggling, and Kari wasn't afraid to kick out at the man to try and get him off her. Then there came a loud bang, followed soon by another, and their struggle stopped. Martha wasn't breathing, having no idea what had happened.
Then she saw it, the Master was holding the gun, while Kari was clutching onto her side tightly. Without hesitation, Martha ran to Kari's side, panic and fear flooding through her while the Master just looked on in horror with his wide eyes. "Oh, God. Kari, it's going to be okay, yeah?" Martha assured her, trying to gently tug her arm away so that she could see what had happened. "Come on, Kari, let me have a look."
When she actually managed to get her arm away, Martha could see exactly what had happened. Kari was standing there in utter shock. She wasn't moving, but tears was streaming down her face as the blood soaked through her clothing. Her eyes were locked with the Master's, and even his eyes seemed to be glistening with something. "So, this is what it comes down to." Kari was struggling to keep herself up, and speaking was taking a lot more effort from her. "All this fighting, and in the end it's always me who ends up getting hurt. This is the last time you can hurt me, Koschei."
They all stood there in silence for a few moments, before Kari's legs finally gave way and she ended up on the cold and dirty ground. Instinctively, both Martha and the Master reached out for her, their eyes meeting and both seeing the other ones concern. Martha watched him closely, and instead of backing away, he scooped Kari up into his arms. "Almost dawn, Martha, and planet Earth marches to war." He told her, before walking over to the posh car that was waiting for him.
That was when Martha was finally restrained and treated like the criminal the Master believed her to be. But she didn't care, as all she could think about was her friend, Kari. She had been shot, and she really needed some medical attention. The woman didn't know much about regeneration, with Kari's memories missing, she didn't either. Martha knew that Kari was in serious danger, not just from the Master, but from what had happened now as well, and she was helpless to do anything about it. All she could do was hope that the Doctor's plan would work, and that Kari would be okay at the end of all this.
A/N: Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? Don't worry, I have got the next chapter written, and the next. I have done Time Crash, so I am a little ahead with my writing at the moment, but don't expect it to last long!
Thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed the story, it's rather heartwarming to know that people still enjoy reading this story. And all of you who have sat down, read the chapters and taken the time to leave me a review, no matter how long or short, I want to thank you all as well.
I know there was a lot crammed into this chapter, but there might be a little bit more crammed into the next. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed it and are excited for next week!
Don't forget to go and vote on the poll on my profile!The poll will be closing in a week, so please take the time to go and vote, you only have to select an episode and then hit the vote button, it's really simple!
Well, until next week then!
Pippa.