In another life, far different than any of the men imagined, the Master took the lives of innocent men who bore likeness to them, out of hatred, spite, an incomprehensible rage of their existence, that he couldn't understand why, they existed, at all.
One even bore likeness to whom he once considered a brother, in advanced age, didn't take long for him to overtake the old man, he barely managed to put up a fight.
They all died to his hands, the ones he found, anyway, the others died before he made his advance through the realm.
And yet.
Their faces, remain.
Why?
How dare they…?
The Master spent much of his eternal years struggling understanding why these same faces continuously existed, despite his efforts wiping them from existence.
Somehow, someway, they always showed up, even when he didn't expect them, and it drove him aggravated.
Yet, as though he found their faces, he never found any that look quite like his, none ever had his striking lavender eyes.
He never understood why.
It's enough to send him into years of attempting to understand the reasons for the discrepancies, but he never found his answers, and Hamon saw the look on his face, as he began attempting killing off the men as he done before with the weapon, he procured from one of his old lives.
An interesting, but boring one, that he was grateful too have escaped from, it was prohibitively impossible for him to do anything without risking his cover blown, and despite his grievances, he couldn't help but keep something from it.
It's a weapon fashioned to look like a simple walking cane, but with a flick of a wrist, it'll turn into a metal whip, another flick, it'll turn into a snake sword effortlessly, the drawback's that the weapon requires an electric current constantly for it to be properly used, the originators of the weapon didn't have issues using it not their own.
The propped-up corpses the originators puppet couldn't complain about the constant currents of electricity coursing through their bodies to use the weapons with ease, when their puppeteers didn't want to show their phantom hands early.
Anyone who wasn't aware of the capabilities of the weapon would've instantly regretted it the moment they tried handling it, the electricity it uses to connect to the hands of the puppets, easily enough to send them into a heart attack.
Those were them, not him, the Master.
He spent enough lifetimes controlling the weapon without injury to himself that it's become an extension to his will, something the men saw as they avoided the metal whip as it went after them, seemingly on the Master's silent commands.
"Now, I know what they put up with!" David commented on their situation, recalling a video game character having a weapon like the Master's, except this is real life, and, it wasn't an actual snake sword with the glowing bits.
Twisting his knees as he's dodging the Master's weapon as it attempted to impale itself into his chest, David's glad he's part-Time Lord, by the time this's over, his knees would've grounded into only bones and a prayer!
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for poor Pete, despite his attempts ducking and avoiding the Master's weapon, his age still held it over his head, and David helped him any chance he could while waiting on Hamon's command.
William got the idea of using a heavy shield he tore off the wall, using it to slow down the encroaching weapon, slammed into it, bore a hole in the other side.
Had to drop it immediately when he felt the electricity pulsating from the weapon, felt like he'd touched the side of a sub-station.
Theodore helped yank him away after the initial shock numbed him, almost lost control of his legs, hadn't Theodore managed to pull him far from the shield as it landed with a heavy thud on the ground, the weapon struggling to tear through the shield, giving the men just enough time to hide behind the pillars of the circular room.
"If you have a plan, o' chap, now's the time!" David called out to Hamon.
His mind aflutter, putting together strategies as he done when he was a general back in the war, cogs worked overtime as they spun in Hamon's head while he and the others dodged the weapon's onslaught, then he reached out to his nephew, having him arm himself with his father's pocket watch.
Taking his own pocket watch out, Hamon timed it with Theodore, when the blade turned on them, they wielded their pocket watches in the palms of their hands, when the blade reached them, the reaction caused a feedback shock enough to cause the Master visible anguish as he dropped his cane, the blade losing its capabilities as it's deprived of power from the Master.
The force drove the men backwards, the others rushed to collect them from them ground, pulling them away from the disabled blade as it laid limp on the ground.
Struggling, the Master recoiled as he felt his hand grow numb, like a spider, the fingers jittery as he worked to recover while the men scrambled to put their next plan in motion.
Stepping forward, Hamon produced an item from his pocket, where he presented it to the Master as he attempted to reach for the hilt of the weapon, immediately his lavender eyes caught sight of it, and his mouth gap.
Seeing the part in his uncle's hand, Theodore recognized it as the component needed in the TARDIS, why Al hadn't shown up at all, why he suddenly grew quiet.
"You wouldn't!" the Master refused to believe his former headmaster's capable of using the highly prized, but extremely dangerous if misused, part of the machines that gave them the ability to create life.
Even he knew better to mishandle such a delicate part.
Standing there triumphantly, Hamon shouts, "Have you not figured it out, yet?"
The moment he grabbed his weapon, the Master responded with a dull, "What would that be, headmaster?"
A Cheshire smile, Hamon goes, "You're not the only chess master, my former student."
There's a shift as the Master's lavender eyes widened, as Hamon gave the command, the men activated their Sonic Screwdrivers at once, the reaction caused by the droning noises, the pulsating lights, the part in Hamon's hand began resonating.
Despite his attempts, the Master couldn't wield his weapon, as though he tried, the force generated by the part's enough to prevent it's activation.
"You fool!" his eyes wide, the Master sees what his former headmaster done, by utilizing the generated power of the Sonic Screwdrivers and the part from the TARDIS to create a force field that prevented him from moving an inch.
His mind's unable to attack them, something's clawing its way in his head, preventing him.
"Witness them!" Hamon shouts at him, "these faces you sought to destroy. If they were not important, why have the universes sought to create them?"
He challenged his former student into explaining how every universe seemed to create the same faces that the Master sought to destroy countless times.
His angry lavender eyes on him, the Master stated, "They're wrong, headmaster! These men, all of them, they're not true Lords of Time, they have no right to the machine and its contents!"
Unable to comprehend, the Master showed denial as he refused to believe his former headmaster, but Hamon insisted he's right, these men were the Doctor, the Lords of Time, regardless of what the Master felt.
Growing aggravated, the Master attempted to push through, using his mind to attack the men, but found that it's useless, he's unable to attack them as he done so easily in the past, and Hamon knew he couldn't do anything to them.
Growling at him, the Master grew testy, asking Hamon, "What do you expect me to do, headmaster, grovel at your feet, beg for forgiveness?"
Shaking his head, Hamon tells him, "You'll do better listening."
With his eyes, Hamon motioned the men to say their pieces to the Master, while not breaking their concentrations as they held their pulsating Sonic Screwdriver.
Unable to block them off, attack them with his weapon, the Master's forced to listen to the men give their grievances.
"You killed Rommy and Hermonculus!" Hamon shouted at the Master as he held the pulsating part in his hand outstretched.
Such a sweet girl, Rommy, she didn't deserve to die at the Master's hands, full of life, no doubt had she lived, she would do good for Gallifrey, but the Master killed her, like she was nothing more than an absent thought!
"She should've known her place!" the Master spat.
Hermonculus was foolish giving his life up for a human, the Master lamenting he expected better from the lowly hermit.
Anger flashed in Hamon's eyes as he hears the Master lambast the late Rommy and Hermonculus.
Clearing throat as he struggled, William took his turn, shouting, "You killed our mum!"
She didn't have a chance against the likes of the Master, William saw what he did to her, strangled her until there was no life in her dark eyes, stole her wedding ring while the body was warm.
Seeing it on the Master's left hand, the onyx stone shining in the blinding light, William shouted for the Master to give it back to him, to which the Master scoffed at him.
Anger in his caramel eyes, Pete took his turn, saying in a low voice, "You killed my wife!"
Not only killed her, but had the gall to kill her in front of their then-baby daughter, he then demanded to know why the Master killed her, why he did it that way, and the answer Pete heard made him furious.
"You brought it on yourself, child!" the master decried Pete being the Doctor, claiming that it was his fault that the Master killed Matilda, he made him!
The child, it served no use of him, he didn't think anything of it.
Took restraint of the Sonic Screwdriver's pulsating energy keeping Pete from attempting to lunge at him.
The second to last grievance the Master's forced to hear's from Theodore as he narrowed his icy blue eyes on the Master as he says to him, "You killed our friend, why?"
Bill did nothing to the Master, wasn't part of Theodore and Lila's adventures, none of them told her anything about them, yet the Master willingly went after her.
A disinterested shrug, the Master tells him, "Have you rocks where your brain is, I said it before, a means to an end!"
Didn't matter if Bill wasn't directly tied to them, her association's enough for the Master.
"Don't think I didn't know about your siblings, either, child, I am the Master, I know everything!" the Master warns Theodore that he could've easily went after Hammond and Odette, but didn't, he chose to only go after Bill and attempted to do the same to Lila, hadn't Hamon intervened.
Choking back his emotions, Theodore bit his tongue as he tried not to engage with the Master more than he should, the old Time Lord's trying to trip them up, make them lose concentration, so he can turn on them with ease.
The last to air out his grievance, David stared in the Master's lavender eyes, anger in his normally jovial chocolate eyes, as he bitterly shouted, "You killed my father!"
Tilting his head, the Master asserted, "He stole from me, boy, there's a price to pay for stealing from me!"
He considered it fair, Mackie stole from him, hadn't his associates intervened, maybe things would've been different, perhaps, harkening back to his conversation with Pete.
Snorting at the men's attempts, the Master states, "I've killed many, not enough, it'd seem!"
It'd appear, he didn't do his due diligence, wanting to correct that, but Hamon shouted, "The known universes foiled your plans, Alhazared. Kill all the Doctors and the universes will make more. You cannot kill the Doctor!"
Hearing this declaration, the unusually calm Master had an outburst, shouting back, "I am the Master, these fools sullen what little the title meant. I've destroyed them once, I can do it, again!"
Shaking his head, Hamon tells him, "No, Alhazared. There is no next time. This is the last!"
Scoffing at him, the Master retorted, "He tried and failed, headmaster, not even you or the fools can kill me!"
A smirk on Hamon's face, he then says, "Not without help!"
Raising his fine brow at this, the Master grew curious as he let out, "What?"
Following the instructions given to him, Hamon called out, "Straxus al Alhazared, I call upon you!"
His lavender eyes widening, his mouth gap, the Master panicked as it hit him like a bag of bricks, the realization what the old Time Lord did, "You fool!"
Amid the energy flowing throughout the room, there's a sudden appearance, the tall figure wearing a dark suit, illuminating blue eyes, pale skin with black veins poking through in places.
"Hello… father," he calls out to the Master, much to his chagrin.
Shouting, the Master panicked, "You fool! How dare you?"
A grin, Straxus says, "Yes… how dare he, father?"
A look in Hamon's eyes, he struggled holding the part in his hands, he shouted, "I have mistakes in my life, but tonight, I am rectifying one!"
He should've saw the signs that the Master wasn't all he seemed when he was younger, that he should've pushed the Council further than he did when it finally came out what a monster he was, but he's correcting that mistake.
Recoiling, the Master gawks at him, "You're willing to go against the Council?"
The usually high strung Hamon going against the Council to kill him, that's almost impossible as it's improbable, but Hamon countered with, "You did."
Using forbidden texts to create the monstrosities in that lab of his, harming innocent people in his wake, it's more than enough for the usually studious Hamon to buck the rules.
Looking at his creator, finally, after spending years hunting for him, working in the shadows, hiding, Straxus tells him, "But now is the time of your discontent."
Swallowing the pit in his throat, Hamon added, "The Council washed their hands of you!"
Straxus then interjected, "You have failed."
Struggling, the Master bore a grin on his face as he looked at his failed creation and his former headmaster, the men around them struggling to keep their arms up as they wielded their Sonic Screwdrivers, "Have I?"
Shaking his head, Hamon says, "No more of your vile tricks!"
A light shrug from him, the Master responded with, "You've always said I had a brilliant mind, headmaster."
Gritting his teeth, Hamon acknowledged what he said decades ago, "Once."
He then shouted for the companions in the respected version of the TARDIS to pull on the lever and they pulled it on his mark.
The flash of light that erupted caused the men holding their Sonic Screwdrivers to stumble backwards, covering their eyes as the bright light temporary blinded them.
Struggling, the men found each other by reaching out, touching their hands, pulling each other beside one another, as they attempted to find their way around the circular room.
Amid their struggling, they heard the cries of the Master, vowing to come after them once again, vowing to return once more, however, his shouting became increasingly desperate, no longer the controlling man he thought himself as, screaming vengeance against them, all.
The panic became frantic screams, until finally, silence, and when the men managed to open their eyes, tears under their eyes as the pain of the bright light affected them, no Hamon, no Straxus, no Master.
"Uncle?" Theodore called out to his uncle, but he didn't answer.
Staggering forward, he called out once more, but his uncle didn't appear.
Frantic, Theodore went around the circular room, but his uncle nowhere in sight.
He stopped when he noticed something on the ground, his uncle's beloved hat.
Reaching down, Theodore snapped it up into his large hands, holding it gingerly, tears began pouring from him as he bitterly wept, crying out for his uncle.
That was his endgame, all along.
To make sure the Master died, Hamon sacrificed his life.
"No…" Theodore shook his head, weeping openly, as the other men came towards him, giving him their condolences for his loss.
His head low, Pete tells Theodore, "He was a general at heart, son, but he did this for you. For all of us."
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore struggled to speak, air trapped in his throat as he felt Pete rub his back, encouraging him to let his tears flow, his uncle understands.
"Look!" William called out as he rushed towards the centre of the circular room, snapping up his mother's wedding ring, his dark green eyes welling with tears as he gingerly clutched the ring in his hand.
Catching sight of an emerald shining under the lights, Pete rushed to collect his wife's necklace, bitterly crying as he held the necklace close to his chest, imaging his wife's heartbeat as she slept close to him, her head resting on his chest.
David joined his side, looking at the necklace as Pete showed him, a bitter smile on his face as he's reunited with a piece of his late wife.
"Is it over?" William asked them, looking around.
A heavy sigh, Pete says, "Yes, son, it is. He is dead."
The evil has finally ceased, this time for good.
They're rattled by a sudden rumble, violent enough it almost knocked them off their feet, as they spotted cracks in the bookcases, light breaching from somewhere outside.
"The dead zone's collapsing!" Theodore shouted, alerting the men they needed to hurry back to their respected TARDIS.
With that, they fled.