Unto the Universe
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Sacred Flame: Old Questions
By Lumendea
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any spinoff material, and I gain no income from this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.
AN: Yes, the Master is back! It is meant to be the Simms Master, just with the classic goatee. I'm so thrilled with the response to this episode thus far! Thank you for all the great comments! There are references to the Big Finish story The War Doctor Begins. While I'm not using the War Doctor in this universe, I did like the story.
….
The cool of the tunnel did nothing to soothe the Doctor. He curled his hands into fists as rage boiled in his chest. He wasn't sure where to direct it. There were so many targets. Jack followed him into the tunnels, and one of the sisters brushed past them to look outside.
"Can we seal this entrance?" Jack asked her.
She looked only a little older than Rose, with warm tan skin and straight black hair that was partially covered by her red scarf. Her eyes moved to Jack, and the Doctor braced himself for her comment on not taking questions from humans. Instead, she nodded and closed her eyes. The young woman crossed her arms in front of her.
"Sacred Flame, hear my call. Protect Karn, protect those who shelter in your embrace. Sisters, heed my plea."
A wave of pressure hit the Doctor's chest. Not enough to hurt, but he felt the energy rising. Jack tensed and looked around nervously and shifted his hand towards his Vortex Manipulator. The Doctor remembered this feeling. He'd felt it a long time here on Karn when the Time Lords under Rassilon had decided to rip out of Karn, hoping to gain control of their Elixir's natural sources and teleport it to Gallifrey. The minds of the deceased sisters, somehow still present on the planet, had rallied to destroy the threat before the Sisterhood pulled Karn itself out of time. The memory, while a bit disturbing to his Time Lord sensibilities, was reassuring at this moment. The Eternals, the Monk, and the Master were all after Rose.
The walls of the tunnel shimmered, a reddish-gold glow spreading across them like the light of flames. Backing up, the Doctor swallowed down the instinctive dismissive remark. The Sisterhood was his only allies, and the only other Time Lords were his enemies. Falling back on his Time Lord habit of being insulting towards the Sisterhood wouldn't help.
"Whoa!" Jack gasped.
The rock itself shifted, almost growing out of the ground to seal the entrance. The Sister backed up, her face slacking with effort, but she didn't lower her hands or pause in her chant. A red glow covered the entrance, and the Doctor stepped forward to press his hand against it. Not only did it feel solid, but there was energy in it that made him immediately draw his hand back. His teachers at the Academy had greatly underestimated the power of Karn. He would now hope that the Master, the Monk, and the Eternals would as well.
"Karn is constant," the priestess said solemnly. She finally lowered the hands, looking exhausted but pleased with herself. "The path is shut. Karn protects us."
"What is your name?" the Doctor asked. She looked young, but that meant little to a Gallifreyan who had access to the Elixir of Life.
"Maevra," she answered with a nod. "Please, Doctor. Ohila will need to know what occurred."
"I'm fairly sure she already knows," the Doctor huffed. He turned and looked at the rock now covering the entrance. "They summoned a creature, some sort of demonic beast. Massive and its very presence was causing temporal ripples across the planet."
"Yes," Maevra agreed. "We felt it. Please, Doctor, we must rejoin the others. Only together can we find the way forward."
She turned and began walking down the stairs. Jack put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.
"You alright, Doc?"
"I'm always alright."
"And I know that is a lie," Jack sighed. "Just… tell us what you need?"
"I need there to be Time Lords who aren't lunatics. The Master… he's as much a danger to the Eternals and the Monk as he is to us. Depending on what leverage they hold over him, he might be a bigger danger to them than to us."
"Do you think you could convince him to help us?"
It was a good question. A few regenerations ago, maybe. The Master's sense of honor had been more intact then. But running out of regenerations after one too many plans failed, time and defeats had worn all of that down. The Time War had changed things yet again, and the Doctor just couldn't be sure. What made the Master the Master was that he could justify anything to himself. That he felt he deserved to be able to do anything he wanted. And what he wanted could change at any moment.
"I don't know. He may see the Eternals as the only way to survive. And the Master will always try to survive. What he might want beyond that… I don't know."
Jack nodded. The Doctor could see the questions in his eyes, but the man didn't press. He was grateful for that. Despite all his initial worries about Jack, the man had proven himself time and time again. He turned his attention back to the priestess and followed her down the carved staircase.
To his relief, Rose was with Ohila in the main room. Relief flashed over her face as they entered, but his worry must have shown because it was gone in an instant. Ohila and the sisters gathered close together, with Maevra joining them.
"You called forth protection," Ohila said to Maevra. "Then it is a true threat."
"Yes, High Priestess," Maevra confirmed.
"What do we face, Doctor?" Ohila asked, turning her attention to the Doctor.
"Two Time Lords," the Doctor said. "The first is the Monk." Rose nodded her understanding, as did Ohila. "The second," he hesitated. "The second is the Master." Now Rose groaned, and the Doctor fixed his eyes on her. "Rose, years ago, the Master and I were investigating a village in England after there was a strange energy reading. I never found the source of it, but the Master told me that a young woman had vanished with the source of energy, was that you?"
"Yeah, I was on a mission for the White Guardian," Rose confirmed. "The Trickster was trying to get something called chronosteel into the hands of the Master. I used him to help me find it." She shrugged and glanced towards the entry. "With the Time War, I never thought I'd meet him again."
"How dangerous is he?" Jack asked.
"Very," the Doctor and Rose answered together.
Rose chuckled at them speaking together, but the Doctor gave himself a moment to stare at her. That girl had been Rose, probably back in her university days. During their telepathic training sessions, she'd showed him her memories of meeting his sixth self and, more recently, his second self. He was torn between amusement and worry. It was astonishing that she'd met his third self, but worrying that she'd crossed the Master and now he was here. The Master was never one to forgive a slight.
"It is not just the danger of the Master or the Monk," Ohila said. Her sisters gathered around her, all of them serious and worried. "They are terrible foes, to be sure, but the Eternals are throwing the full weight of their abilities against Karn."
"What do they want?" Rose asked. The Doctor said nothing, but the way Jack glanced at Rose told her a great deal. "They're after me."
"They've always been after you," the Doctor growled, glaring at the entry. "They're fixated on you."
"Ohila, I'm so sorry," Rose said, turning to look at the High Priestess.
"Their fear is no fault of yours," Ohila replied firmly. "And Karn is not without defenses." Ohila looked to the Sisters for a moment and then closed her eyes. "Yes, I see them. The creature they have summoned is drenched in the power of a space-time rift."
"They freed it," one of the sisters said. Her eyes were closed, and the others reached out to touch her shoulders and arms. "The Great Devourer, Abaddon. They brought it here to destroy us all."
"Are they aware of what Karn protects?" Ohila asked, stepping closer to the younger Sister. "Do they seek it?"
"I cannot see that," the Sister replied. "Their focus is Rose Tyler. Their mission is to destroy her, to keep her from waking."
"Waking?" the Doctor repeated. In the corner of his eyes, he saw Rose frown and rub her arms. Discomfort and guilt hung around her like a cloud. Stepping closer, he took her hand. "Do you think this is about…?" He trailed off, unsure how to finish the question.
"Yes," Rose said. Thankfully, Rose raised her chin to meet his eyes. "They want me dead, so I can't reach what my future is supposed to be. Just like the Silver Lord and the Trickster. Whatever it is, they're all afraid of it."
For one horrible instant, the Doctor wondered if he should be too before dismissing that worry. Rose was good. She wasn't perfect, her temper was terrifying at times, and she herself would admit that she could be selfish. But she was so good. She was compassionate and empathetic to the point of being empathic. Her belief in him, her honest and tempered faith in him had helped him be the Doctor again after the Time War.
But he loved her. He trusted her. He believed in her more than anything else in the universe except maybe the TARDIS. Squeezing her hand, the Doctor pulled Rose close and kissed the top of her head. He ignored the stares of the Sisterhood and the smirk that appeared on Ohila's face. The Time Lords would be horrified, and the Gallifreyans on Karn probably weren't impressed, but they weren't worth it. None of them were.
"Doctor," Ohila said. "We need to rally the defenses of Karn." She nodded towards the TARDIS. "Perhaps your ship can help you determine what we are dealing with?"
"We might be able to use the extrapolator to boost the defenses," Jack said. "And if it goes badly, evacuate the sisters."
"We must not leave Karn," Ohila said firmly.
"I know you guard the Sacred Flame-" the Doctor started to say.
"You are a Time Lord," Ohila cut him off. "You do not understand, Doctor. Even with the memories of who you once were buried in that head of yours, you do not understand what we protect here on Karn." She shook her head. "We cannot leave."
"The Elixir-"
"Doctor, it is more than that," Ohila said. Her tone left no room for argument and reminded the Doctor a bit of Jackie. "If you wish, then take Rose Tyler and flee. It might be best."
"And leave you to face the Eternals alone?" the Doctor asked doubtfully. "You can call on a lot of power, Ohila. I've seen that, but what's outside, I think, is beyond you."
"We are brave," Maevra said beside Ohila.
"We are brave," the sisters repeated. "And Karn is constant."
"There's no guarantee that they'd leave Karn to chase us," Rose pointed out.
The Doctor already knew she'd never leave a planet under siege. And she'd never forgive him if he tried to drag her into the TARDIS. He might not forgive himself either. The members of the Sisterhood weren't Time Lords, but they were Gallifreyans. They didn't fill the void left by the loss of the Matrix, but standing here, he was aware of them, and it felt… almost good. At least it didn't hurt.
"We're not leaving," the Doctor said. Saying the words helped. "We can't assume that your shield will hold forever," he held up his hand to stop the argument. "I don't say that as an insult, but you're living beings with limited physical and mental endurance. And there are Eternals out there who do not have the same limits."
"If I can get close to some of the-" Rose started to suggest.
"Rosie," Jack cut in. "There is a massive creature out there. I don't mean large. I mean towering over buildings. It's probably here, along with the Monk and Master, to keep you from slicing down the Eternals."
The Doctor was going to ask. He hated pressuring Rose, but he was starting to feel that he had to ask. She caught his eye and held his gaze. Then Rose nodded a tiny nod just for him. There was fear in her eyes, more than he thought he'd seen since she was a little girl at Spellman's Museum.
"That beast is draining away the life of Karn?" Ohila's eyes widened with panic.
"Through its shadow," one of the sisters whispered. She looked fearfully at the ceiling. "It stands over us. It does not need to see us."
The Doctor held back a remark about if there was life on Karn. The surface was one of the most dead and barren he'd ever walked on. But this wasn't the time. Closing his eyes, he focused on extending the reach of his senses. He felt Rose's presence next to him, warm and soothing as always. Whatever protections the Sisterhood had were dulling the twisting temporal storm outside, but he could already feel those defenses weakening under the onslaught.
"The defenses won't hold," the Doctor said. "We need other options if leaving is off the table."
"If the Sisterhood retreats to the Heart of Karn, we will be able to generate a more powerful field," Ohila said. "And perhaps end the Time Storm before the Eternals bring more creatures that do not belong to Karn." Ohila looked over at Rose and extended her hand. "I suggest, Rose Tyler, that you come with us."
The Doctor watched Rose blink in surprise. He expected her to immediately move to join him and Jack, but instead, there was hesitation in her eyes. What had Ohila been telling her while he was gone?
"Ohila?" the Doctor called. He wasn't sure what to ask or say.
"We can keep her safe, and the further she is from that creature, the better," Ohila said. She smiled a little. "Don't worry, Doctor; I do not have designs on recruiting your lover to the Sisterhood. Time is short, and the power of Karn is the power of Life. I give you my oath that she will be protected as one of us."
There was weight to her words. They rang against his temporal senses, like a loud bell in his ears. It settled in the room with a truth the Doctor couldn't argue with. What Ohila said was a fact, similar to a fixed point in time. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to unravel what she meant.
"Karn kills anyone it doesn't like," he pointed out. "Hundreds of ships crashed here every year. Cass-"
"And yet you were saved, you died, and the power held in Karn restored you to life," Ohila said. "Without the need for regeneration. Doctor, time is too short for us to debate Time Lord science versus what we elevate here."
The timelines were shifting. The Doctor's eyes widened as he caught sight of Rose's timelines for the first time in years. They were swirling around her, glowing like a halo and marking her as the angel she was. Rose's soft brown eyes met his, and she nodded. Whatever was happening, she felt it too. Her telepathy, perhaps? Or maybe something else, that something more that Rose knew about.
"Be careful," the Doctor said firmly. He leaned down to kiss Rose quickly, immediately regretting the time limit they were under. Her lips were soft and sweet, and if they hadn't had an audience, he would have snogged her properly. She smiled up at him when he pulled back and started to step away. The Doctor caught her hand. "Did you kiss my fourth self in Paris?" he asked. He'd already confirmed it was her in his third life, might as well confirm the other suspicion.
"Yeah," Rose admitted. Her cheeks flushed bright red, and she looked a bit sheepish. "Couldn't resist, you were talking to your companion about kissing random strangers."
"You wanted to kiss me back then?"
"I've loved you for years," Rose said gently. The Doctor felt like he could fall over at any moment. "I remember when I realized it but couldn't tell you the moment it started." She leaned up and kissed him quickly. "Good luck."
"Hurry," Ohila said. "We need to reach the Heart! Doctor, do what you can to protect Karn."
He nodded and watched as Rose and the Sisterhood vanished behind one of the ornate doors. Nearby the flame's light dimmed, and the Doctor eyed it carefully. Turning back to Jack, he reached into his coat and pulled out the TARDIS key. They needed to figure out some way to stop the Time Storm, the Eternals, that beast, and the Time Lords fast.