A/N: The long awaited finale. Though, I'm still not entirely pleased with the result.
Season Three: The Last of the Time Lords
A year… it had been a year. An entire year in which Rose Tyler had not been seen and had only been heard from in the dreams of those she loved. The TARDIS had used the growing connection it felt to her to pull her out of the physical world before the paradox began. She could see everything that was happening, but she could help anyone, or touch them. She quickly realized the only way to even talk to anyone was to enter their dreams or alter psychic waves.
Fancy that, she could interact with dreams, but nothing real.
At the moment, she'd searched out Martha. It was easier to be near the TARDIS while she was like this, but Rose was determined not to let Martha get killed before she made it back to the Doctor. Her friend was moving toward the shore, looking grim and tired. Rose wanted to hug her, but even as she reached out, she could tell that the former medical student had no idea she was even there.
An old fashioned lantern shone from her destination, held by a man who looked somewhere in his late was nearly there. Martha's figure, dressed in black, waded ashore and strode up the beach. She'd followed instructions left in dreams for years now.
"I'm here, Rose," she murmured. "I haven't let you and the Doctor down yet."
You never will, the spirit-like woman replied, knowing it wouldn't be heard.
Looking to the man waiting for her, the black woman smiled. "What's your name, then?"
"Tom Milligan," he replied, seeming eager to please her. "No need to ask who you are, the famous Martha Jones. How long since you were last in Britain?"
"365 days. It's been a long year."
Rose thought to the tortures she'd witnessed aboard the Valiant and nodded. It had been an exceedingly long year, and she only hoped the plan the Doctor had explained to her was going to work. Because she didn't know how much longer she could stand not being able to touch or help her family – and Martha's.
The two she was watching began to walk up the beach.
"So what's the plan?" Tom asked, ready to help free the human race.
"This Professor Docherty. I need to see her. Can you get me there?"
"She works in a repair shed, Nuclear Plant 7. I can get you inside. What's all this for? What's so important about her?"
The woman shook her head, her eyes even guarded. Rose hated what the Master had forced her friend to become, and hoped that it would all be over soon.
"Sorry, the more you know, the more you're at risk."
Tom nodded, accepting her answer. After a moment, he spoke in a far away tone, "There's a lot of people depending on you. You're a bit of a legend."
Martha barely kept from snorting. She was spreading the real legend. "What does the legend say?"
The man's voice became almost reverent. "That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America. That you're the only person to get out of Japan alive. 'Martha Jones', they say, 'She's gonna save the world.' Bit late for that."
Martha shuddered at the mention of Japan. If she hadn't had that dream of Rose, telling her to get out, she would have been another casualty of the slaughter. She saw Tom's truck ahead of them.
"How come you can drive? Don't you get stopped?"
"Medical staff. Used to be in paediatrics back in the old days. But that gives me a license to travel so I can help out at the labour camps."
Rose wanted to cry at the thought of how many deaths this man would have had to witness without the equipment to prevent them.
"Great," Martha laughed. "I'm travelling with a doctor."
They both got into the truck and Rose could hear just another flash of conversation before she left them for the time being.
"Story goes, that you're the only person on Earth who can kill him. That you, and you alone, can kill the Master stone dead," Tom said, trying to get information out of his passenger.
"Let's just drive."
With a slight shake of her head, the former shop girl closed her eyes and let her consciousness return to the TARDIS. Ghosting a hand over the cannibalized console, she moved out into the Valiant. She moved to the control room, looking around sadly.
"Citizens rejoice. Your lord and master stands on high playing Track 3," she heard the Master announce before dancing into the room, singing a song she'd come to hate.
"I can't decide whether you should live or die…" he crooned, sidling up to Lucy in her red formal gown.
Lucy represented a personal failure to Rose. She should have tried harder to get her away from the Master, but she'd let the fear of a little electric shock silence her. Now, the woman was nearly dead inside, barely reacting when her husband abused her and others.
"Though you'll probably go to Heaven. Please don't hang your head and cry…" he continued, pausing to kiss the nearly unresponsive woman. "No wonder why my heart feels dead inside. It's cold and hard and petrified. Lock the doors and close the blinds, we're goin' for a ride…"
The Master sat in one of the chairs at the table and twirled childishly as Francine Jones, in a maid's uniform, served him tea. "Oh, I could throw you in a lake or feed you poisoned birthday cake. I won't deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone…"
Jumping to his feet again, he ran up onto the bridge and began ringing an old-fashioned ship's bell. The Doctor crawled out of a tent that had straw on the floor. Beside the tent was a bowl that read "DOG". Rose felt tears slip down her cheeks again to see him so subjugated. She knew he was going to continue his act of obedience as long as it kept the Master from hurting anyone, but it still hurt to see. She visited his dreams more than anyone else's. It was the only place she could talk to him.
"Oh, I could bury you alive but you might crawl out with a knife and kill me when I'm sleeping, that's why…" The Master sang happily, moving down and forcing the Doctor into a wheelchair. "I can't decide whether you should live or die though you'll probably go to Heaven. Please don't hang your head and cry. No wonder why my heart feels dead inside. It's cold and hard and petrified. Lock the doors and close the blinds, we're goin' for a ride…"
The two Time Lord whirled around the room, one overly happy, the other depressed that he had so failed to protect those around him, ending up by one of the windows.
"It's ready to rise, Doctor. The new Time Lord Empire," the Master said with a smile as some Toclafane spheres floated by. "It's good, isn't it? Isn't it good? Anything? No? Anything?"
The psychotic man waved his hand in front of the Doctor's face, but the other man didn't react, he merely stared out at the spheres. Rose felt her heart clench. She remembered clearly the night he'd told her what the Toclafane really were.
"Oh, but they broke your hearts, didn't they? Those Toclafane, ever since you worked out what they really are. They say Martha Jones…has come back home. Now why would she do that?"
That finally got a reaction from him.
"Leave her alone," the Doctor commanded weakly.
The Master grinned at the tiny reaction. "But you said something to her, didn't you? On the day I took control. What did you tell her?"
The man in the wheelchair smiled a bit. "I have one thing to say to you. You know what it is."
"Oh, no you don't!" he said, almost panicked, as he got up and pushed the DOCTOR away until he hit a wall.
Rose shook her head. The Master wanted to be hated, feared – the idea that the Doctor wanted to forgive him and give him another chance scared him more than anything else. He really was unstable.
"Valiant now entering Zone One airspace. Citizens rejoice," the automatic announcement rang through the control room.
Shaking himself, the Master clapped his hands and looking around eagerly. "Come on, people! What are we doing? Launch Day in 24 hours!"
The Doctor pressed three fingers against his thigh. Rose looked up to see Francine nodding. She swore to herself. Another attempt to stop the Master. She'd told him in his dream that she didn't think this was going to help, but he'd insisted the attempt was necessary, and so she'd passed the details on to those they could trust through her only means of communication. It had taken a while for Martha's family to trust that they weren't insane and merely imagining her. Francine walked by and out into the corridor past her ex husband, who was now a janitor, and Rose followed her. The haggard woman held up three fingers and kept walking. When their remaining daughter, also a maid, passed Clive, he signaled her with three fingers. Tish moved along, followed by someone she couldn't see, and approached a gated area. Seeing she only carried a food tray, the guard let her in.
Rose hated to see Jack caged, like an animal, manacled to the wall in thick heavy chains. She wanted him to be free, not hurting, not dying, even if he does come back. This was too much, everyone she loved being hurt. Eighteen months and it was just her. That was okay, because it had been just her. But now… now it was them.
We have to fix this, she murmured to the TARDIS. A wishful hum answered her.
"Morning, Tish," the captain joked. He was much better than the others at pretending his spirits were high. "Ah, smell that sea air. Makes me long for good old fish and chips. Yeah. What do I get? Cold mashed swede. Some hotel. Last time I book over the Internet."
Tish fed him a spoonful then held three fingers against the tray where he could see it. Jack winked.
After the girl had left, Jack sighed, hanging his head. These were the moments Rose waited for, the one person who spoke to her while they were awake. She knew the Doctor would, but being under constant watch, he simply couldn't.
"Little sister, you still in the room?"
This was something she'd been practicing with him. She moved closer, concentrating hard so that she could reach out and touch his mind. It was the faintest of brushes, but he felt it.
"Rosie," Jack breathed. "When you're solid again, I'm so going to kiss you. Don't care what Doc says."
The ripple of her awareness told him she was laughing and he smiled. "You have to protect Martha. Get her here, Rosie. And then… tell me how to get you back."
The woman sighed heavily, even though she was the only one who knew she did. How to get her back. She knew, but she couldn't risk it yet. Not until the Doctor could get into the network. It was a psychic network, and she was nothing if not a psychic entity for the time being. She had promised to help him make the connection when the time was right. And she believed that so long as the Master couldn't physically hurt her, it helped her husband focus on what he needed to do. She couldn't abandon his plan and become a problem and distraction for him. She'd done that far too often when she'd started traveling with him. This time, she would stick with the plan.
With a mental kiss of comfort for her tortured brother, she went in search of Martha once more. She rode the airwaves to her friend, still with Tom, and listened to their conversation.
They spoke of the rockets. Thousands of warships, ready to lay waste to thousands of civilizations, most of whom had never even heard of humans. Taking over the universe, one destroyed world at a time. So intent was she on their words, she nearly missed the Toclafane approaching.
Cursing herself, she used her connection to the psychic waves to push Martha's perception filter. They were looking for her now. She had to boost it, until it was time to bring her back.
"Identify, little man," the childlike voice demanded of the doctor.
"I-I've got a license," he stumbled, his fear of the vicious creatures leaking through as he searched out the permit to show them. "Thomas Milligan, Peripatetic Medical Squad. I'm allowed to travel. I was just checking f—"
"Soon the rockets will fly and everyone will need medicine. You'll be so busy."
The Toclafane laughed and flew away, Tom looking amazed at Martha.
"But, they didn't see you."
She shook her head, taking out her TARDIS key. "How do you think I travelled the world? 'Cause the Master set up Archangel, that mobile network, 15 satellites around the planet, but really it's transmitting a low-level psychic field. That's how everyone got hypnotised into thinking he was Harold Saxon."
Tom snorted. "Saxon. Feels like years ago."
"But they key's tuned in to the same frequency. Makes me sort of…not invisible, just unnoticeable," she continued, finishing with a shrug.
"But I can see you," he said, staring at her, impressed.
"That's 'cause you wanted to."
Rose glanced upward, missing her Doctor more than ever. The conversation turned to more personal topics, and the slightly intangible woman was about to leave again, when she heard her name.
"What about you?" Tom asked.
"I keep looking for the kinda love my best friend, Rose, has. The kind where you'd do anything in the world for someone, and know they'd do the same… but this isn't exactly a world to raise a family in."
"Maybe it could be again," he said hopefully.
"That's the plan. Come on. I've got to find this Docherty woman."
Rose smiled, telling herself to hug Martha as soon as she could, and returned to the Valiant. Nearly three. She had to see what he'd planned this time.
As she arrived, the Master swept into the control room, Lucy following in his wake.
"Time for my massage. Who shall I have today? Tanya. Come on, sweetheart. Lucy, have you met Tanya? She's gorgeous," he said grandly, taking off his expensive jacket and throwing it carelessly onto the table. "Tanya, when we get to the stars, I'm gonna take you to Katria Nova. Whirlpools of gold."
Rose scowled, attuning herself with the Archangel field. She'd had plenty of practice over this past year. She found all the devices that were tuned in and nearly laughed. The Master sure had a lot of confidence in himself. With a silent apology to the Doctor for ruining whatever he was thinking of doing, she made each and every machine go haywire.
The Master jumped to his feet, rage coloring his features. "What the hell is going on?"
He rushed to the control deck, hitting buttons and swore he heard laughter.
"Who is laughing?!" he screamed, turning to see the Doctor only staring at him in shock.
Can you hear me, love?
The words echoed in the Doctor's head, and he jumped. Rose?!
I finally integrated fully into the network, and to you. I can connect you to it now.
He felt the relief flood him. Both at the connection established and concrete proof that he hadn't imagined all those dreams. His wife was alive still!
The Doctor couldn't stop the grin on his face as he stared at the Master. "Problems?"
"What are you doing?" the other Time Lord demanded furiously.
"I'm not doing it," the Doctor laughed.
A circuit board exploded and the ghostly laughter was there again.
"The blonde," the Master suddenly spat, bounding to the Doctor's face and glaring at him. "That girl in the TARDIS. Your pretty little wife. I should have known she couldn't be killed that easily. Why can't I see her?"
Francine and Tish both looked at the Doctor, confused and afraid. This wasn't part of the plan! The Doctor found it hard to be upset though, as usual when Rose deviated from the plan. It rarely had bad results, and he missed her so much it was hard to not be proud as she wreaked havoc.
Thank you, love. What were you planning?
I have to get the laser screwdriver from him.
You can't, Doctor. Isomorphic controls. I tried to steal it once.
The Doctor winced as a flash of her memories came to his mind. Oh my Rose…
No time for that. We need a new plan and fast. The screwdriver isn't an option.
The Doctor looked around, his mind working a thousand miles a minute. Have to turn off the alarms or they'll catch Jack. And he needs to destroy the paradox machine.
Rose blew the alarm panel, smirking to herself. I really miss being seen.
I miss seeing you. The Doctor rubbed a hand over his face. This was worse than when the Wire stole Rose's beautiful face in 1953. Now he missed everything about her; the feel of her hand in his, the sound of her voice, her laugh, the smell of her hair.
Waxing poetic, love, she teased. Ideas?
"How did you hide her, Doctor?" the Master asked, putting his face directly in the Doctor's vision. "How is she doing this? I scanned her, time and again. I did every test available on her! She isn't capable of this sort of display."
The Doctor shrugged. "You did it."
Protect Jack until we can reverse the paradox, my Rose.
Rose left immediately to find the immortal man, trying to escape the guards. She released the steam controls and urged her almost brother to run toward the TARDIS. Once inside, she could seal it. The TARDIS couldn't affect the timelines or prevent the Master's massive attacks, but she could still lock. The long tortured captain panted heavily and slid down the wall.
Rose sent images to Jack, trying to make him understand. Food, rest, shower. He needed those things, and he should get to them now, because they were going to be headed for a lot of trouble soon.
She let her mind wander along the network, gathering information. The Master, furious at losing Jack and not being able to get to Rose, locked up the Jones family and was sending a transmission to the people on the planet's surface.
She asked the TARDIS to show the message on the monitor, and Jack pushed himself to his feet finally, moving closer to see what was happening.
The psychotic Time Lord was facing the camera, smiling widely. "My people. Salutations on this, the eve of war. But I know there's all sorts of whispers down there. Stories of a child, walking the Earth, giving you hope."
He walked to stand beside the Doctor, and Jack tensed, wishing Rose had a hand he could hold. At this moment he felt horribly alone.
"But I ask you…how much hope has this man got? Say hello, Gandalf. Except he's not that old but he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted, little apes. What if it showed? What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate? All 900 years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?"
He pointed the screwdriver at him, the high pitched whirring covering any sounds the Doctor may have made as he fell to the floor and writhed in agony.
"Older and older and older. Down you go, Doctor. Down, down, down you go. Doctor."
There was silence from where the form of the Doctor had just laid, and the Master bent down to examine the clothes lying on the floor, empty. Within a few moments, up by the neck, a large domed head peered out with huge, blinking eyes. With a maniacal grin, the Master walked back to the camera.
"Received and understood, Miss Jones?" he asked coldly as he ended the transmission.
Jack swore, looking around for something to hit. Rose sent calming waves to him, but she was nearly as livid.
"I'll rest just a bit, Rosie," Jack promised. "I'm not foolish enough to think I'm going to be able to take him on like this."
Once she'd made sure her near brother had washed, eaten and was sleeping, Rose moved back to the bridge, looking for the Doctor. She found him, crammed into a birdcage, looking like a creature from a fairytale.
Doctor?
He looked up, blinking his large eyes at her. I'm so sorry you had to see me like this, my Rose.
Don't you worry about that now, she insisted. When Martha gets back, we'll do just what you said. If it could have fixed you the first time, it can now.
The Doctor smiled a bit at the confidence she still had in him. His answer was lost though, as the door opened and a guard marched in and grabbed the cage. Rose followed as the Doctor was carried into the conference room and left there. The Master entered not long after with Lucy hanging on his arm a bit vacantly.
"Tomorrow, they launch," he gloated to the captive Doctor. "We're opening up a rift in the Braccatolian space. They won't see us coming. Kinda scary."
"Then stop," the wizened Time Lord said.
Rose moved through the room, careful not to alert the Master this time.
"Once the empire is established and there's a new Gallifrey in the heavens, maybe then… it stops." He looked at the Doctor through the bars of the tiny cage. "The drumming. The never-ending drumbeat. Ever since I was a child. I looked into the vortex. That's when it chose me. The drumming, the call to war. Can't you hear it? Listen, it's there now. Right now. Tell me you can hear it, Doctor. Tell me."
The light in his eyes was pleading, and manic. The Doctor longed to say the right thing that would make his old friend give up his quest for power and dominance, but what he said was, "It's only you."
The Master hesitated, frowning slightly. "Good."
The door opened and one of the Toclafane entered, announcing in a sing song voice, "Tomorrow, the war. Tomorrow we rise. Never to fall."
"You see?" the Master cried, falsely jubilant. "I'm doing it for them! You should be grateful! After all, you love them. So very, very much."
Rose felt her hands clench into fists, though she knew it was only wishful thinking that made her feel that. She no more had hands than she had feet, hair, or any other physical features.
The Master sat down at the table, cheerful again at the prospect of torturing the Doctor some. His abused wife stood near him, eyes glazed and hands trembling slightly.
"I took Lucy to Utopia. A Time Lord and his human companion, just like you and your pretty little wife. I took her to see the stars. Isn't that right, sweetheart?" he asked her, his voice oozing charm.
She answered with obedient promptness, her tone as dead as her eyes. "Trillions of years into the future. To the end of the universe."
"Tell him what you saw," her husband urged.
"Dying. Everything dying. The whole of creation was falling apart. And I thought…there's no point. No point to anything. Not ever."
"And it's all your fault," the Master laughed.
No it isn't, love, Rose encouraged her husband. He makes his own choices. He could have spared her that, but he wanted her to suffer, to grieve, and to give up.
"You should have seen it, Doctor. Furnaces, burning. The last of humanity screaming at the dark. Your wife saw it, and she cried," the Master continued, his eyes glowing as the Doctor clenched his tiny wrinkled hands around the bars in fury. "Poor little Rose. I should bring you the results of her tests. You think what I did is so bad, wait until you see what traveling with you did to her. And they call me the bad guy."
He stood and waved at the sphere."But these pitiful things - all that human invention that had sustained them across the eons. It all turned inwards. They cannibalised themselves."
"We made ourselves so pretty," the sphere agreed.
"Regressing into children. But it didn't work. The universe was collapsing around them," he laughed. "My masterpiece, Doctor. A living TARDIS, strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and the future to collide in infinite majesty."
The Doctor felt bile rise in his throat and missed Rose so much it hurt. He longed to hold her just then, and take comfort from her. The words of the other Time Lord echoed in his ears, and he knew that after they stopped the Master, he was going to have to find out what changes he was talking about.
"But you're changing history. Not just Earth, the entire universe."
"I'm a Time Lord. I have that right," the Master declared imperiously.
The Doctor shook his head. "But even then, why come all this way just to destroy?"
"We've come backwards in time to build a brand new empire lasting 100 trillion years," the sphere trilled happily.
"With me as their master. Time Lord and humans combined. Haven't you always dreamt of that, Doctor?" the Master grinned, walking to the Doctor. "Human race. Greatest monster of them all. Night-night."
He left, escorting Lucy with an arm around her waist, the sphere floating behind them. After a few moments, a guard came to return him to the control room.
I don't blame you for anything that's happened to me, Doctor.
He sighed, covered his face with his hands. What sort of things have happened to you, my Rose?
There are only a few minor things, really. I didn't know about them until he started all those damnable tests. The whole not aging thing, the life connection with the TARDIS, and…
What?
There was a hesitation on her part. I'm sterile. I can never give you a child. I'm so sorry, my Doctor.
He winced. Human women wanted to bear children, didn't they? He'd had children before, but Rose never had. She'd lost her family, and now he knew she wouldn't have one of her own. He wondered if there was anything he hadn't ruined for her.
Stop that.
He blinked.
I know you're blaming yourself. Stop. I have you, and that's all I really need. I'm just sorry I couldn't give you more.
He nearly laughed. There's nothing in this whole universe I want more than you.
Soon… we'll be together again soon.
She went back to check on Jack, leaving the Doctor to get some much needed rest. Before long, her connection to Archangel alerted her to an incoming message from Alison Docherty to the Master. It seemed Martha was right on schedule. She couldn't wait for this to be over.
She sent her awareness to find her dear friend, and found her in one of the slave houses, telling the story she'd told hundreds of times. The people in the house crowded around her, hushed and listening intently, hanging on very word.
"I traveled 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, I saw people just like you, living as slaves. But if Martha Jones became a legend, then that's wrong because my name isn't important. There's someone else. The man who sent me out there. The man who told me to walk the Earth. His name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him. I know him. I believe in him. And I know what he can do."
The woman who greeted them at the door pushed her way forward. "It's him! It's him! Oh my God, it's him! It's the Master! He's here!"
Rose sent all the calming energy to Martha that she could, hoping she could help her somewhat.
Martha stood.
"But he never comes to Earth! He never walks upon the ground!" a little boy shouted.
"Hide her!"
"Use this!" Tom said, throwing what looked to be a blanket or tarp to the people near her.
"No," Martha tried to stop them. "This has to happen."
"He walks among us, our lord and master."
"Martha. Martha Jo-hones. I can see you!" the Master called from the street, "Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your master. Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing? Positions! I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself—what would the Doctor do?"
Martha removed her TARDIS key and shook her head. Everyone looked in her direction. Outside, she knew the Master was waiting. The woman moved to the door and put her hand on Tom's gun. He slowly stood. With a little smile for everyone inside, she opened the door and stepped out.
"Oh, yes!" the Master cheered with a clap. "Oh, very well done! Good girl! He trained you well. Bag. Give me the bag. No, stay there. Just throw it."
Martha stopped and took off her pack, throwing it onto the ground. The Master fired his laser at it, destroying everything inside.
"And now, good companion, your work is done."
Rose panicked. She didn't know how to stop him from killing Martha, but she saw Tom race from the house, gun aimed at the Master.
"No!" he shouted.
The Master shrugged and shot the pediatrician instead and he fell to the ground. Martha glared fiercely, knowing she couldn't even really react as the Master chuckled.
"He had a point… when you die, the Doctor should be witness, hmm?" he grinned, inhaling deeply. "Almost dawn, Martha. And planet Earth marches to war."
They returned to the Valiant, and the Master projected what he believed to be his triumph for the world to see.
"Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe."
Jack was finally awake, and he'd been studying the paradox machine. "Rosie, I think I can take this apart without taking you apart as well."
She sent him a wave of love, asking the TARDIS to show them the control room.
The door to the conference room opened on the monitor screen and two guards escorted in Martha. She walked forward alone, head held high. To one side they could see her family and at the base of the stairs to her right was the Doctor in his cage. She smiled softly at them, glancing around for Rose and Jack.
"Your teleport device. In case your thought I'd forgotten," the Master directed the woman.
Martha reached into a pocket in her pants and threw him the manipulator, which he caught smartly.
"And now…kneel. Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?"
"The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!" came a voice over the radio.
"Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down! I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?"
The chirrupy voices of the Toclafane sang out, "We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice!"
Looking into the camera, the Maste announced, "At zero, to mark this day, the child, Martha Jones, will die. Ha, my first blood. Ha, any last words? No?"
Martha glared silently, not ready to give him the satisfaction.
"Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex," the Master sighed, grinning as the Doctor's eyes flashed at the hint of a slight against his beloved Rose. "This one's useless! Bow your head. And so it falls to me, the Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords! From this day forward— What? What's so funny?"
Martha had begun laughing from her position, and looked up with a smirk on her face. "A gun?"
Jack laughed at the scene from his place, untangling the wires attached to the paradox machine. Rose felt the build up from the Archangel network growing.
"What about it?" the Master snapped at Martha.
Rose moved into the control room, near the Doctor.
"A gun in four parts?" the medical student asked.
The Master rolled his eyes. "Yes, and I destroyed it."
She pressed him. "A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean, come on. Did you really believe that?"
For the first time since taking the TARDIS, the Master felt unsure. "What do you mean?"
"As if I would ask her to kill," the Doctor scoffed.
Faltering only slightly, their captor shrugged. "Oh, well, it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her."
Rose began to feed the energy from the Archangel network into the Doctor, establishing a bridge between her husband and the psychic energy.
"But I knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son," Martha explained to the Master, distracting him from feeling what was happening. I told her about the gun, so she'd get me here. At the right time."
He glared. "Oh, but you're still gonna die!"
She tipped her head. "Don't you wanna know what I was doing? Travelling the world?"
"Tell me." He sat as though it were story hour.
"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor. And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."
The Master rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Faith and hope? Is that all?"
She shook her head, "No, 'cause I gave them an instruction. Just as the Doctor said. Use the countdown." She stood, confident. "I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time—"
"Nothing will happen!" the Master shouted, surging to his feet angrily. "Is that your weapon?! Prayer?!"
"Right across the world. One word, just one thought, at one moment… but with 15 satellites!"
He jerked as though she'd slapped him. "What?"
"The Archangel Network," the Doctor grinned, fully integrated now.
Rose returned to Jack, ready for him to free her.
"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word…is Doctor."
The countdown reached zero and a glowing field surrounded the Doctor.
The Master pointed at him, fear making him pale. "Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't!"
Francine closed her eyes. "Doctor."
"Do—"
The large plasma screens on the walls showed crowds of people across the world gathered in public places all saying "Doctor".
"Stop this right now! Stop it!"
"Doctor," Lucy said, closing her eyes.
Jack, in the TARDIS, paused for a moment and chanted, "Doctor."
Doctor… Rose added.
Martha breathed, "Doctor."
Still with an energy field about him, the Doctor broke from the cage and was now back to being an old man.
"I've had a whole year and a brilliant woman to help me tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices," the Doctor said with a smirk.
"I order you to stop!" the Master tried.
The screens still showed the desperate, oppressed people of Earth, gathering together and chanting, "Doctor." The man in their thoughts returned to his normal self, bursting with psychic energy.
"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking," he said, proud of the race he loved so.
The Master stared, shocked, as the Doctor levitated, using the energy field around him.
"Tell me the human race is degenerate now when they can do this," he said to the Master.
Martha ran to her family and hugged her mother and sister, her father throwing his arms around all of them.
"No!" the Master shouted, firing the laser at the Doctor, but deflected by the field.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the Doctor said softly, pity in his gaze for the only other Time Lord beside him.
Unable to accept his defeat, or the Doctor's pity, the Master pointed his laser screwdriver at the Jones family. "Then I'll kill them!"
The Doctor calmly gestured and threw it across the room telekinetically.
Unarmed, the Master panicked. "You can't do this! You can't do—It's not fair!"
"And you know what happens now."
"No! No! No! No!"
The Doctor moved gracefully through the air to land next to the Master, who was huddled in the floor. Jack grabbed a large cable with a manic grin on his face.
"You wouldn't listen," the Doctor said to the Master.
"No!"
"Because you know what I'm going to say."
"No!" the Master cried, curling into fetal position.
The Doctor landed and walked over to the whimpering Master and wrapped his arms about him. "I forgive you."
"My children!" he cried, a last ditch effort to win.
They could hear the eerie voices chanting over the radio, "Protect the paradox! Protect the paradox! Protect the paradox!"
"Captain! Now would be nice!" the Doctor called, knowing Jack would hear him.
"I'm already on it," the man grinned, yanking the cable heavily, and causing a shower of sparks to cascade from the console of the TARDIS.
Everything lurched as the TARDIS began to undo everything.
"Everyone down! Time is reversing!" the Doctor shouted, falling to the floor, face-to-face with MARTHA and laughing.
Below them, the planet rebuilt itself from what the Master's empire had reduced it to, and people who had been gone returned to lives they never knew had been interrupted.
The Doctor stood to his feet and checked the controls. "The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past 8:00 in the morning."
"This is UNIT Central," a voice on the radio spoke. "What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated!"
"You see? Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was."
"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.
He shook his head sadly. "Trapped at the end of the universe."
Francine's voice shook as she said slowly, "But I remember it."
"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know," the Doctor explained, turning to see Clive there. "Oh, hello! You must be Mr. Jones! We haven't actually met."
The Master took advantage of their preoccupation and ran for the door, only to be stopped by Jack as he entered.
"Whoa, big fella! You don't want to miss the party. Cuffs," he said to the confused guard, who handed them over to the Captain, who promptly secured the Master's wrists behind him. "Doc, I brought you a present, something you've been missing."
Rose came running from behind him and launched herself into the Doctor's open arms. He crushed her to him and swung her around in a circle. Rose buried her face in his neck, fighting back her tears.
"No more sharing thoughts?" he asked softly.
"Sorry, my Doctor," she murmured. "I can't do it now."
He kissed her forehead. "It's okay, my Rose. I'd rather have you at my side than in my head."
Jack coughed, drawing attention to himself and the man in his custody. "So, what do we do with this one?"
"We kill him," Clive said harshly.
Tish nodded. "We execute him."
Rose frowned, turning to them. "No, that's not the solution. He's the monster, not us. We kill him, we're just becoming like him."
Francine aimed a gun she'd found at the Master. "Oh, I think so. 'Cause all those…things, they still happened because of him. I saw them."
"Go on! Do it!" the mad man jeered.
Her hand trembled.
"Francine, you're better than him," the Doctor said softly, reaching out and taking her hand.
After a moment, the woman dropped the gun with a soft sob, and he took her into his arms in a hug. Martha stepped up and he transferred the now crying woman to her daughter.
With a roll of his eyes, the Master asked, "You still haven't answered the question. What happens to me?"
The Doctor glanced at Rose, who nodded. She knew what he had to do. The Master couldn't be trusted alone, and no one else was going to be around long enough to really watch him competently. Not to mention, he was a member of the Doctor's race, the last remaining link to Gallifrey. It was a difficult thing, but she knew her husband needed to try to help him. And Rose had to help the Doctor in all things, not just the fun ones.
"You're our responsibility from now on. The only other Time Lord left in existence."
Jack gave a start, glaring at the man he saw as a brother. "But you can't trust him. After everything he did to our Rosie, you're going to let him stay around her?"
"The only safe place for him is the TARDIS," Rose said, placing a soothing hand on Jack's arm. "We'll be able to watch him there – and maybe help him."
The Master looked horrified. "You mean you're just gonna…keep me?"
"If that's what we have to do," the Doctor said firmly, looking between Jack and Rose. "Perhaps it's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I'll have a family and someone to care for."
A gunshot rang out, stunning them all, and the Master staggered backward. Lucy, wide eyed and a bit frozen, was holding the gun. As Rose and the Doctor rushed to the bleeding man's side, Jack moved to take the gun from the mentally destroyed Lucy and have her taken gently into custody.
"There you go. I've got you. I've got you," the Doctor said quietly, lowering the Master to the floor.
"Always the women," he gasped. "Honestly, I thought it would be your wife that killed me, not mine."
"I didn't see her," the Doctor apologized.
"Dying in your arms. Happy now?"
Rose shook her head. "You ain't dying, don't be daft. It's only a bullet. Just regenerate."
"No."
The Doctor looked a bit panicked at that."But…one little bullet. Come on."
Even as his life slipped away, his smirk was infuriating. "I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse."
"Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please! Please! Just regenerate! Come on!" the Doctor cried out, breaking at the thought of losing his race all over again.
"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you two?"
The Doctor shook him slightly, "You've got to. Come on. It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons? Remember the Axons? And the Daleks? We're the only two left, there's no one else. Regenerate! Rose!"
"I can't force him to live, my love…" she said, her heart breaking over the anguish on his face.
"How about that? I win," the Master breathed, suddenly looking tired." Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?"
He died, his last breath easing out, and his eyes drifting peacefully shut. The Doctor hugged the lifeless body for a moment, then allowed him to sink to the floor as Rose gathered her husband into her arms and held him as he sobbed. The others just looked on, at a loss for how he could grieve so for a man who tortured them all quite happily. But Rose knew. It wasn't for that man that he cried. It was the man who'd been his friend, and an entire race of people that were now merely memories in his mind alone.
Later, after the Master's body had been taken care of, and they were back in Cardiff, the Doctor and Rose, Martha and Jack were standing at the rails by the Pierhead Building looking out over the bay.
"Time was," Martha mused, "every single one of these people knew your name. Now they've all forgotten you."
"Good," the Doctor said. "I don't want to be known. I have a few good friends, and that's all anyone needs."
"Back to work?" Jack asked curiously.
He nodded. "I really don't mind, though." The Doctor smiled crookedly at him. "Come with us."
"I had plenty of time to think that past year, the Year That Never Was. And I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility," Jack said quietly. "They aren't ready for me to go just yet. Not completely."
Rose smiled and kissed his cheek. "Growing up a bit, Jack?"
"Thought I'd try it out, little sister," the captain laughed. "Besides, we're family, and kind of stuck with each other for a long time to come. There'll be more days ahead for me to tag along."
"And we could always kidnap you for a few short trips, and dinners," the blonde woman teased.
"Defending the Earth," the Doctor shrugged. "Can't argue with that."
He made to shake Jack's hand but exposed the manipulator while giving him a chiding look and pointing his sonic screwdriver at it.
"Hey, I need that!" Jack cried.
"We can't have you walking around with a time-travelling teleport. You could go anywhere—twice. The second time to apologise."
Rose and Martha laughed as the ex time agent pouted like a child.
"And what about me? Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?"
"Nothing I can do."
Rose looked guilty at that. "I'm sorry, Jack. I couldn't even begin to think of how to try."
"I'll get over it, darlin'. Don't you worry about it. Just gives me more time to live."
The Doctor clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You're an impossible thing, Jack."
"Been called that before," Jack laughed as he started to leave. After a few steps, he turned back and saluted. "Sir. Ma'am. Sis. I just keep wondering…what about aging? 'Cause I can't die but I slowly keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?"
Rose and the Doctor exchanged looks.
"I… really don't know," the Doctor admitted.
The captain chuckled slowly and shook his head. "Okay, vanity. Sorry. Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid back on the Boeshane Pennisula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. They Face of Boe they called me."
The three people were stunned, gaping at him.
"Hmm, I'll see you."
Jack winked and ran across the Plas towards the water tower.
"Can't be," Martha gasped finally.
"No, definitely not. No," the Doctor agreed.
Rose laughed, leaning against Martha who joined her. They both laughed harder at the awestruck look on the Doctor's face.
He shook his head, insisting in a slightly higher pitch. "No."
The girls only laughed harder.
Soon they headed back to the Jones' home. As Martha and the others stayed inside talking, the Doctor and Rose were in the TARDIS. Jack had helped them return the ship to normal, and they were happy to be home, together.
"So, what d'ya wanna do next?" Rose asked, hugging her husband tightly.
"Something relaxing," he laughed. "You've been away from me so long…"
She frowned up at him. "Don't you go blaming yourself for that. I never once held it against you or lost my faith you'd come through in the end."
"I really don't deserve you, my Rose Tyler," he said in a bit of awe over her. "When there's nothing else in all the galaxies I can depend on or believe in, I always have you."
"And you always will," she promised, kissing him. "Otherwise, the TARDIS and I are going to get really bored sitting all by our lonesome somewhere."
He kissed her deeply, only pulling away when the door opened and Martha walked in. He bounced to the controls and grinned.
"Right then! Off we go! The open road! There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or…back in time. We could…I don't know, Charles II? Henry VIII? I know! What about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie! I bet she's brilliant!"
Rose saw the look in their friend's eyes before he did. "Umm, love, better look again."
He did, and realised Martha wasn't smiling and immediately sobered. "Oh. Okay."
"I just can't," the medical student apologized.
The Doctor nodded. He'd been through this before with other companions. Eventually, they all left, one way or another. Except Rose. "Yeah."
Rose moved to hug her. "It's all right, Martha. We understand."
"Spent all these years training to be a doctor," she said, not sure why the tears sprang to her eyes. "Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them."
"Of course not," the Doctor said with a smile. "That's your family." He stepped closer and hugged her also. "Martha Jones, you saved the world."
She beamed at that. "Yes, I did. I've spent a lot of time in my life thinking I was second best. But you know what? I am good. You gonna be all right?"
The Doctor looked at Rose and took her hand, staring at their entwined fingers for a moment. "Always. Yeah."
Martha glanced at the door, then back at the blonde. "How'd you do it, Rose? You told me that you left your family, knowing you would never see them again. How?"
Rose didn't even hesitate with her answer. "He needed me. And I needed him just as much. I'm always gonna love my family, but when you find where you truly belong, you just can't let it go without a fight, can you?"
The black woman smiled and nodded. "Guess I'll keep looking then. Because I know I'm going to have to find my place somewhere, just like you did."
"You'll find it, Martha," the Doctor assured her. "You're too brilliant not to."
She reached into her pocket and tossed her mobile to them. "Keep that. 'Cause I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you better come running. Got it?"
"Got it," the Doctor nodded, blithely handing it to Rose who tucked it into her pocket, her own phone having been destroyed by the Master.
"I'll see you again," Martha smiled before leaving.
For a moment, the two left inside stood silently, then finally moved back to the console.
"I think it's time you learned how to fly," the Doctor said after a moment.
"Really?" Rose beamed at him. "That would be brilliant!"
He smiled at her enthusiasm and congratulated himself on distracting her from the pain that would come soon enough at the departure of both Jack and Martha.
"Hit that button, then come here and I'll show you how to set a destination."
They started the TARDIS and took her into orbit, where the couple moved around the console, Rose asking questions and the Doctor answering with much laughter.
"That does not only make noise," she giggled. "The TARDIS wouldn't have a button that was only there to make noise!"
"Alright, Miss Smarty-smart Pants. What does it do then?" he teased her, chuckling.
Their laughter was interrupted when a ship's horn could suddenly be heard and something crashed into the TARDIS throwing them to the floor. As soon as he could clamor to his feet, the Doctor rushed to Rose's side as she also stood shakily. They both looked up to see the bow of an ocean liner broken through the wall.
"What?" the Doctor cried.
"Did we have her shields off?" his wife asked, horrified at the damage to their beloved girl.
He coughed. "What?!"
Rose lifted up a life preserver she noticed in the wreckage and they saw that it read "TITANIC".
Together, the couple half shouted, "What?!"
A/N: I'd like to explain why it's taken me so long to get this out… but I have no reason good enough to appease you. I hated the beginning of this episode, I must have rewritten it sixteen times, at least. I'm still not happy with it, but I can't ask you to wait any longer for it. My personal life is trying to get in the way of writing, but I'm trying to get past things. I hope you can forgive me and continue reading – and reviewing! – and I will continue rewriting a series that we all love with a character we miss.
