Appearing somewhere inside the library, the TARDIS's door opens, and Theodore stepped out, intent in his icy blue eyes as he scoured the shelves, searching for the desk, while creeping along the ground.
Late, the Council not in session, no one around, security wasn't a priority in the library, it seemed, as he maneuvered around the aisles, mindful of his steps.
No Layne anywhere, he must've gone to bed.
Reaching the counter, filled to the brim with scrolls, opened books, a clutter, Theodore swiftly went around the cluttered counter, searching for anything regarding the Master.
Knowing little about Layne, Theodore scoured for anything that looked out of place, until he gone through the drawers, his large hands swiftly making working of every content, until he stopped.
Hidden away, buried underneath the hoarded material, Theodore found his evidence, a black and white photograph.
There.
He sees the Master.
Even in the black and white photograph, he saw the contempt in those eyes of his.
Slowly, Theodore moved his icy blue eyes to see Rommy beside him.
Seeing their garbs, this was a wedding photo.
"Who goes there?" Theodore heard a weary Layne call out somewhere in the library, pattering footsteps as the old Time Lord wandered through the aisles, "If it's you, Loran, I swear on my bones, I will throw the abacus at you, again!"
Theodore hid with the stolen photograph as he waited for the old Time Lord, coming around the counter, a quizzical look in his aqua eyes, calling out Loran, incensed that the Time Lord's trying to borrow another book without asking, again.
Slowly, Theodore emerged with a look in his face as he tells Layne, "It's only me, Layne."
It startled Layne as the short Time Lord looked up at Theodore as he goes, "Medikus's boy? Why on Gallifrey are you rummaging through my things?"
Without a tinge of sarcasm, Theodore bluntly stated, "You lied to me, Layne. You knew!"
Layne's baffled at the accusation until Theodore showed him the photograph he'd stolen from him, immediately, Layne struggled as he begged for it back, "Give it to me, this instant!"
Snorting, Theodore leaned over as he dryly told Layne, "Or what? Report me to the Council? Oh no, Layne, I'm afraid we both know you wouldn't want them involved. Show we wager how they'll react to your implication in these heinous crimes?"
He knew Layne wouldn't report him for the theft, else it would gotten the old Time Lord in trouble with the Council, again, and with Layne's track record, they wouldn't be as forgiving if they found out that he'd kept contraband.
And knew what the Council didn't want anyone else knowing.
Raising his hands, Layne insisted, "You don't understand!"
Crossing his arms as he eyed Layne with contempt, Theodore gestured with his free hand, "Then enlighten me, old chum, we've got the time. Oh, well, I do. You're already on a timer."
While the Council didn't like Theodore for his heritage, they'll be quite interested in what he found out over the course of the night, and he'll be doing his duties, despite their bigotry towards him, that they'll rescind it once he showed them the photograph.
Realizing he hadn't anything to throw back at Theodore, Layne calmed down, his head low, as he asked the incensed giant, "What do you want?"
He heard a gruff, "Who is he?"
While the Master's comfortable with his exiled title, Theodore wanted to know everything about him, including the name he was born with.
Layne showed hesitance, but Theodore forced him to utter, "Alhazared… Alhazared al Jinn! But! Quiet, boy, you mustn't say his name!"
Since his conviction, the Council made quick work of his mere existence, they'll convict the both if they ever found out either said his name out in the open, much less knew about it.
"Answer me, Layne. How did you, of all people, become involved with someone like him?" Theodore wanted to know how the seemingly elective old Time Lord become involved with the most single-handedly dangerous person in the known universes, over, and Layne told him with a sharp exhale.
It started as a favour to the Master's father when Layne served the Vanguard centuries ago, during the Time War.
Should anything happened to him, he wanted Layne to adopt the Master, and inevitably he died in the incursion by the Daleks.
"When Jinn died, he had no one. The Council agreed to Jinn's wishes and gave his son to me because of my work. I tried, child, to give him the best life I could muster after the war. But that boy, his eyes… his… cold lavender eyes… I knew. I knew in my hearts, that nothing I could do would change him. What was I supposed to do? He was a boy. What good would've it done if the Council exiled him like Hermonculus?"
Shaking his head at this explanation, Theodore stated, "He's a monster, Layne! What did you think was going to happen? Rommy? You knew!"
Layne knew what sort of man the Master was, even at a young age, he saw what a vile person the Master was turning into, but he did nothing to stop him.
Defending himself, Layne sharply said, "I… thought something would change if he married her. Since your father made a fool of himself, the Prime had to pick someone. I suggested him, because he hailed from an ancient line of scholars, a worthy replacement for the foolishness your father presented to the Council. You think the Prime would've listened to reason had I told him?"
Firing back, Theodore bluntly stated, "It was his daughter, Layne. Even King Solomon knew better than that!"
Recoiling, Layne gestured as he responded with, "You think I don't feel enteral shame, boy?"
Gesturing with disbelief, Theodore asks him, "Why did you protect him if you knew what he was becoming?"
Going back to the Time War, Layne frowns as he answered, "I promised Jinn I'd take care of him. If we still believed in the gods, I'd pray."
Following Layne back to his counter, still holding onto the photograph, Theodore watched the short Time Lord get on his tall chair, looking at him properly, weariness in his aqua eyes, as he uttered, "What does it matter, now, he's dead!"
Snorting, Theodore pointed at the Master in the photograph as he insisted, "No, Layne, that's where you're wrong. Vivit!"
Seeing the confusion in Layne's face, Theodore sees him stroking his tightly bound platinum beard, before insisting, "He can't be! Your father killed him!"
Hearing this Theodore tilted his head with intrigue as anger lit up in his icy blue eyes as he stared at Layne, asking him, "How did you hear this?"
Layne's confused until Theodore tells him, no one outside the Council, his father, his mother, and his uncle, knew about the Master's death.
By that point, the Council ensured no one would know if he did or didn't die, it'd be suicide if someone poked around where they didn't belong.
Unless…
Layne stammered as he explained how he concluded, but Theodore wasn't having it, as he bluntly stated, "You knew. You knew all along that he was alive."
Of course, Layne would know if the Master survived the killing, but to what extent Theodore didn't know or cared, other than what mattered.
Layne attempted to defend himself, but Theodore frightened him with a look unseen even by Lila as he restrained himself, wanting nothing more than to punch Layne squarely in the face, instead he sufficed his anger by seething, "He killed my friend and almost killed my mate, what did you think was going to happen, did you think he was going to change if he took a sabbatical?"
Mocking him, Theodore pointedly argued with Layne's choices, stating that because of him, Theodore and Lila's friend was killed, and the Master attempted Lila's life, hadn't his uncle been able to free her, things would've been very different for Layne.
"You melded with a human?" Layne's shocked at the realization before Theodore pointedly told him that it's because of their melding he knew something was wrong.
Not allowing Layne to escape the scathing words, Theodore continued.
"You let him steal it. Did he ever tell you what he was planning to do with it?" Theodore nearly raised his voice as he grew impatient with Layne as he brought up how the old Time Lord allowed the Master to steal the last working machine from the scrapyard.
He oversaw the scrapyard, he'd already lost the first machine to Medikus, the Council got onto him for that, and for someone who was afraid of being exiled, he didn't do a good job allowing the second machine to go missing from the scrapyard.
Realizing he could no longer fight against Theodore, the old Time Lord exhaled sharply as he explained, "The Council found out what he'd done to Rommy, his experiments, his use of the forbidden knowledge, they wanted to execute him. He came to me that night… I tried to sway him into turning himself over to the Vanguards, to find honour in his death, but he wouldn't listen to me… he asked about it."
Breaking down, Layne tells Theodore how hell broke loose when the Council learnt of the abhorrent things the Master done under their noses, sending the Vanguards after him, he went to Layne after escaping their capture.
Layne, in his final attempts, tried to tell the besieged Master to turn himself over to the Vanguards, that he'll find honour in his death, but it wasn't so, and the Master asked about the second machine.
By that point, there was nothing Layne could've done, the Master's mind was already set, and he stole the second machine effortlessly while Layne was helpless.
The Master used Layne's fears of retribution against the Council against him, that now that he had time to think on it, he was cemented to his fate either way.
Gesturing, Theodore insisted that he right this wrong, "Layne, he's too dangerous. We must stop him. He cannot escape, again!"
The Master's proven formable and dangerous, he's become a clear threat to anything and anyone, dead or alive, that allowing him to continue breathing's a disregard to everything in the known world!
"What would you have me do?" Layne questioned Theodore as he stared into his icy blue eyes.
Theodore gestured as he nearly shouted, "Help me!"
Layne raised the Master, older than Theodore, there must be something he knew that could help stop the Master once and for all, but Layne grew quiet, as he replied, "I'm not sure that I can, child. This is beyond me."
The answer wasn't good enough for Theodore as he pointedly asked again, "How. Do. I. Stop. Him?"
Hesitance in Layne made Theodore almost raise his voice and Layne finally broke down, telling him, "To stop him, is to kill him at his core."
Seeing confusion in Theodore's eyes, Layne quickly elaborated, "For you to kill him, no part of him should survive. Even a sliver of his mind escaping's enough for him to continue his reign of terror. You must kill him. Every facet of him, you must kill."
There's a look in Theodore as he processed what Layne told him, gesturing, "If my father couldn't, how am I supposed to do that?"
A shrug from Layne as he tells him, "You are the Doctor. Against all odds, you will prevail. You two are the faces of the same coin. You mustn't let his side overtake yours."
Remembering how the old Time Lord helped him fix his TARDIS, Theodore asked why he helped him, at all, and Layne tells him.
He knew it was inevitable.
The Master's a monster.
The Council has no idea what the Master's truly capable of and Layne knew their only hope's the Doctor.
Besides that, he knew once the Council finds out the extent of what he knows, he will be rightfully damned, his history purged, and he will be executed for aiding and abetting a convicted criminal.
Calming down, Theodore breathed deeply before thanking Layne for his help.
A small smile appeared on Layne's face as he admitted that he waited for centuries to get it off his chest, now he did, he's at peace with himself.
It doesn't abscond everything he did, he's aware of his inactions having dire consequences, but even a chance at rectifying one of them's good enough for him.
Pointing to the photograph in Theodore's hand, Layne tells him that behind it, is the answer he needed to winning against the Master.
Slowly nodding, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore thanked him one more time, before disappearing through the aisles back to the safety of the TARDIS as shouting came from the entrance of the library, Vanguards alarmed at the shouting that came out of it, while Layne sat at his counter, waiting for them.
Returning to his childhood home, photograph in hand, Theodore rejoined his love's side, bitterness remained in him towards his once beloved Uncle.
"It's weird, I felt like I was with you, every step of the way," Lila admitted that even though she wasn't with him, she still felt like she was at Theodore's side, feeling his emotions, and Hamon confirmed that it's part of the melding process, why Sarah and Medikus never felt loneliness even if they're apart.
Sighing, Theodore showed them the photograph as Lila's eyes flashed with anger, recognizing the man instantly as the same one who tormented her, and Hamon acknowledged that he was the infamous Master, formerly Alhazared al Jinn, the Magister to the Council.
"He said my answers are in this photograph," Theodore studied the photograph with intrigued as he searched for a way to finally rid the world of the most dangerous man.
Looking at it with him, Lila's chestnut eyes study every corner of it, but nothing stood out.
"What are we supposed to do?" Lila looked towards Theodore and Hamon for guidance, wanting to know how they're supposed to fight against a man who died once, but because of his powerful mind, returned to form, and Hamon grew quiet as he sat in his chair.
He finally then said, "We had a discussion over this."
Looking at him, Theodore and Lila grew curious, Theodore didn't hold the same patience he held before with his uncle, wanting answers, and Hamon gave it to him.
"We set a trap for him. One he cannot escape. Once we do, he will not escape his fate, again," Hamon exhaled sharply as he looked between Theodore and Lila.
TO BE CONTINUED…
"The Meeting"