Unto the Universe
Chapter Sixty-Six: The End of Time: Lord President
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: It's so cute that you think calling me evil doesn't just make me happy. Quick reminder that canon and I are divorced so please don't be expecting me to try and rewrite recent events. It just won't work with what is already established in this universe. And bluntly, I think the characters are doing better over in this universe.
…
Rassilon had not changed. Oh, he'd regenerated many times since the first time the Doctor had met him, either way, that you counted their first meeting. But the figure looming above them had a face that more easily reflected the malice and greed of the being. The sight of Rassilon's features as he stared at Rose brought back too many memories. It was all the Doctor could do to slam them firmly into a box and push it away. He didn't have the luxury of dealing with his inherited baggage right now.
Rassilon's cold green eyes were fixed on Rose. Disbelief was immediately followed by hunger and his thin lips twisted into a cruel smile. The Doctor's hearts stopped. He knew. Rassilon knew. The Doctor didn't know what was next. Behind Rassilon, a few other Time Lords shifted, but none of them moved, and they all remained silent. Two were covering their faces, and that felt important, but the Doctor didn't dare take his focus off of the Lord President.
"A new Gold Guardian," Rassilon snarled. "Oh, I know just what to do with you."
Rose pulled herself onto her knees at the same time that the Doctor did. There was a slight tremor in her hands, but she raised her chin definitely and met Rassilon's eyes. The Doctor was both proud of her for that courage and wishing desperately that she hadn't been pulled here with them or had been able to hide.
But the Master had cleared away much of the debris in the time he'd stolen. The White Point Star was suspended in a new machine that was made of mismatched parts and humming with a painful whine. The Master's time machine had been partially cannibalized with some of the extra support pieces missing though it was still working, and the Doctor could feel the time distortion washing over his skin.
"Stop this, Rassilon," Rose gasped. "Stop this now. The Time War is over."
"Daleks still fire on Gallifrey in the Time Lock!" Rassilon's eyes moved to the Doctor. "The traitor trapped us in Hell. No more. I will restore us. No, I will ascend us!"
The Doctor saw it happening before he did. He remembered this. A different time, a different place, with him and Rassilon each wearing a different face. And a different golden woman. But it was the same. The greed in Rassilon's eyes as he did all of the calculations and found that he liked the answer he came up with.
"You don't need her power!" the Doctor snapped. "This isn't like before! You can already ascend!"
Rassilon's eyes jumped back to the Doctor, a little wider than before. Hundreds of years, the Doctor had kept his secret, and now… now he was certain that Rassilon now knew who he used to be. He waited for the words to come, for the accusations to fly. But they didn't.
Instead, Rassilon raised his hand, revealing a heavy metal gauntlet. It wasn't familiar to the Doctor at first glance, but on Rassilon's hand, he knew it couldn't be good. There had been rumours, so many horror stories coming out of the capital after Rassilon was restored about the new weapons and brutality the Lord President was revealing to Gallifrey. The firearm in the Doctor's hand was heavy. He wanted to- he needed to…
But Rassilon moved first. Ignoring the Doctor, he turned his attention to the groaning Rose, who was struggling to stand up. There was only a moment of warning as lightning arced over the metal. The Doctor's finger shifted onto the trigger. He needed to lift the firearm; he needed to shoot Rassilon. His arm wouldn't move. Coward. Still. Every time.
"No!"
Jack threw himself in front of Rose. The blast hit him, throwing him back several feet and past Rose and the Doctor. Then the man was still. Very still. The Doctor tried to focus his sense on Jack, but he felt nothing. Rose shifted, trying to reach for Jack, but Rassilon was faster and flicked his glove again. Energy rolled off of it, forming a crackling beam. This time it hit its mark.
Rose's body twisted, bending back as a scream ripped from her body. The room shuddered, and the air shook. Time slowed, and the Doctor and other Time Lords all froze. All except Rassilon. His smile widened, and the lightning flashing off the gauntlet increased, lighting up the room. Rose's scream grew louder, and the air ripped. Time and space sundered, sending hot and burning sparks rolling down the Doctor's back. He caught flinches from the other Time Lords, all of them save Rassilon.
For a long and horrible moment, the Doctor's mind whirled while his body was frozen. He fought to take a step towards Rose even as a fearful instinct told him to stay back. Rose should be fine. The Doctor blinked and stared. He'd seen her vaporize a Dalek fleet and witnessed her destroy the Eternals and use their energy to give life to Karn. Yet, she wasn't fighting back. She should be able to swat the Time Lords like flies.
Except… Gallifrey was in the sky. Gallifrey, where the power of the Gold Guardian had been bound up. Gallifrey, whose very existence had prevented the rise of another Gold Guardian until it was gone. Rose could meet his past, could cross his timelines, but Gallifrey… it had to be gone to her. Always. And now it wasn't. His eyes went up to the hole in the ceiling. Gallifrey hung in the sky like a new moon, flickering as its presence atop Earth became more and more stable.
And Rassilon had killed the first Gold Guardian. He knew how to destroy Guardians. Tears formed around Rose in the room. Holes were being ripped in time and space by her power as it was pulled from her. New noises and sounds echoed through them, but Rose's scream remained loudest. The rips shuddered and twisted with Rose's spasms and screams. Her scream. It had been Rose screaming they heard through the tears in time. They'd heard her and hadn't understood. They'd had a warning and hadn't heeded it. The scream echoed, taking on an unearthly note. It rattled against the Doctor's senses, painful and sharp, without even considering that it was being torn out of the woman he loved.
It all snapped together in the Doctor's mind too late. Rose was the woman they'd heard screaming; she always had been because her pain, the agony of the Gold Guardian as Rassilon ripped her apart, was the source of the rips. Just as it had been all those years ago, that was why Rassilon had needed to build the Web of Time, to stitch reality back together.
Rose's timeline was fraying. The golden lines that were normally hidden from him burst to life, circling her and twisting around Rose as if desperately trying to knot themselves around her. To keep her in place. They were twisting so quickly that the Doctor could see none of the details. Golden energy poured off of her, but it was wild and burned as the waves of pressure hit him.
"You're stronger now," Rassilon laughed. "Interesting."
Jack was still, too still. With Rose under attack, the core of her power, under attack, the Doctor feared they had finally learned what could leave Jack dead. Rose couldn't fight; she couldn't move. The Doctor pushed. He pushed his legs; he pushed back against the swell of ancient and fearful memories of the time he didn't act.
Reaching, he tried to pull Rose from the beam, but the pressure pushed him back. The Doctor heard the Master laugh gleefully. A rip widened. Gallifrey was more solid with every passing second. Electricity jumped off the solid beam to strike him, sending convulsions through his body. The haze lifted under the sheer force of the electricity being poured into him. His hand spasmed, and the gun clattered to the cement floor. Stumbling back, he grasped at his chest. Only one heart was working now.
"Stop it!" The Master shouted. He was close to Rassilon, waving his hands and snarling.
"Rose?" the Doctor called,
She didn't answer. Rose just screamed. The golden energy around her was flickering but clinging to her. The Doctor dared to reach back into his memories, but he didn't know how long it had taken for the first Gold Guardian to die. He'd left; he'd avoided the confrontation.
"That was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen you do," the Master sneered. His nose curled up as if he was smelling something foul. "What is wrong with you?" Gesturing towards Rassilon, the Master drew the attention of the Time Lords to him. "But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored," the Master cheered.
"You weren't there in the final days of the War," the Doctor snarled. The words were hard to form around the lingering pain. He tried not to think about how much pain it meant for Rose if Jack was dead and he was in so much pain after a mere moment of contact. "You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending."
"My kind of world." The Master didn't understand. Not really. He'd run the first time.
"You ran from that world," the Doctor snapped. "Because even the Time Lords can't survive that."
"We will initiate the Final Sanction," Rassilon said. He was calm, as if the Gold Guardian wasn't screaming. As if golden energy wasn't flickering around them and rips in the fabric of the universe weren't growing. Then again, he'd seen this before. "The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart."
"That's suicide." Now the Master sounded worried. His eyes jumped between Rassilon, the Doctor, and Rose.
"We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone," Rassilon boomed. His gaze was still focused on Rose. A cruel smirk danced at the edge of his mouth. The Doctor didn't want to talk, but Rassilon did. "Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be."
"I had to stop them," the Doctor said. "Master, this has to stop!"
"Your little Guardian doesn't matter anymore," the Master laughed. His eyes went to Rassilon. "I saved you, Lord President. I called back Gallifrey and brought you the Gold Guardian. Take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory."
But Rassilon's expression hardened. "You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more."
Everything burned as the Doctor pushed himself to his feet. Rassilon's eyes were burning. Greed, rage, and arrogance. The Doctor hated all of it. Regret ached, and he had so very many at that moment. He grabbed the pistol off the floor. It was heavy and wrong in his hands. The Doctor hated it. But he needed it.
Raising the pistol, the Doctor aimed it at Rassilon. He wasn't sure what he wanted to see in Rassilon's eyes. Part of him wanted to see fear. He was dying. The cells were bursting all throughout his body from the blast he'd taken. Maybe he wanted to see regret or guilt. Maybe even a flicker of recognition. This time he was saying no.
"Not this time, Rassilon. Release her."
But Rassilon was calm as ever. "Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one."
"But he's the President," the Master hissed. "He tried to destroy the girl. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours."
Fear swirled in the Doctor's chest. It wasn't towards Rassilon or the Master. Images of burning planets, whole worlds flickering out, and Time Lords being ripped apart by their different regenerations filled his mind. Screams echoed around them, not just the echoing screams of Rose in the convulsing rips around them, but those he'd heard throughout the war. Everyone he tried and couldn't save. Those who were too afraid of Time Lords to ever trust him.
The double heartbeat of a Time Lord surrounded them. His singular working heart was trying to keep up with it. He turned and aimed the pistol at the Master. His old friend's eyes widened in surprise.
"He's to blame, not me." Then a look of realization overtook the Master's face. "Oh, the link is inside my head. Kill me; the link gets broken, and they go back." The Doctor could see the Master running the calculations. If the Doctor only broke the link, then the Master could try again and again and again unless he was destroyed. But then the Master smirked. "You never would, you coward." The Doctor's hearts jumped at the word, and the Master stepped closer to him. "Go on then. Do it."
He needed to shoot the Master and break the link. The diamond was an option, but then the Master could try again and again. Now that he knew it was possible. Now that Rassilon and the High Council knew, they could send a White Point Star to him. The Master's death was necessary. But the Doctor didn't pull the trigger. Still too much of a coward. His hand shook.
The Master stared at him, his expression changing. Odd how easy it still was to read him. All new features, and yet, the Doctor knew those facial quirks. The Master was pained at Rassilon's dismissal, and the Doctor thought he might even feel a flicker of sympathy for him at this moment.
Strange how the small step between friends that marked them as two distinct people could grow. All the little choices that first created a trench and then formed it into a canyon. They could shout across, but at this point, even a bridge was impossible. And yet… you could still remember when all you had to do was take a small step to close the gap.
The Doctor sucked in a breath and turned the gun back on the Lord President. It had all started with Rassilon. All started with his vision that the Doctor, who he used to be, had gone along with for too long. Maybe Omega was the lucky one. He'd been trapped, but he'd never had to face the consequences of what he'd helped to build.
"Exactly," the Master cheered. His voice was low and strangely soothing. "It's not just me; it's him. He's the link. Kill him!"
The Doctor wished that Rose could speak with him. Wished that he could stop time and see what she thought. What would she do? Rose had shot Thane because there weren't other options, and he'd been about to destroy the world. She'd understand. He just needed to pull the trigger.
"The final act of your life is murder," Rassilon said. He didn't even sound worried. "But which one of us?"
The Master stared at him. The Doctor thought there was a glimmer of tears in his eyes. He meant to pull the trigger. He did. He should. He needed to. Rose was screaming, he had to stop this for her sake, and Jack was dead. Rassilon was only going to become more powerful through harvesting Rose's power. He'd all but enslaved reality with the power of the first Gold Guardian. The Final Sanction would be easy with the power of another.
Rose would understand that he needed to pull the trigger. But she'd asked him what he was changing into once. His eyes went to the Master. The Doctor aimed the pistol and readied his finger. The Master's face fell.
"Pastures of red grass, stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. Look at us now." The Master glared past the Doctor at Rassilon. "Look at all of us now."
"Get out of the way."
The Master dodged to the side just in time. His finger tightened on the trigger, and the Doctor felt the pistol fire all through his body. Despite never firing a gun in this life, his aim was true. Atop the Master's device stabilizing the link, the White Point Star cracked and was thrown back. The link exploded, and the room shuddered.
"The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon," the Doctor shouted. "Back into hell."
"You'll die with me, Doctor!" Rassilon shouted.
The tears in time and space rippled all around them. Overhead, Gallifrey was flickering in and out. Rassilon's beam faltered, and golden energy surged all around Rose as she collapsed on the floor. The Doctor nearly wept as he saw that she was breathing.
"I know," he answered instead."
Rassilon growled, but his eyes were drawn back to the golden light. The Doctor saw the moment when the Lord President decided his priority and threw himself forward. Rose shouted to him. Energy blasted off of Rassilon's gauntlet, striking him in the chest, and then everything was burning. He screamed.
"Stop!" the Master shouted.
"You won't regenerate this time," Rassilon said. His eyes bored into the Doctor. Despite the pain as his cells were ripped apart, the Doctor felt a flicker of fear from that gaze.
"You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!"
The Master had no weapons. But he launched himself at Rassilon, his hands wrapping around the Lord President's neck through pure spiteful force. The beam stopped as Rassilon moved his hand to fight the Master. The Doctor gasped for air. The Master was shouting and a cry of "Gallifrey falling" echoed down from the planet above through the link.
He looked up in time to see Rassilon and the Master stumbling back. Around the Time Lords, the rips shuddered and churned. Rassilon's entourage drew back. There was no time to watch their expressions. Bright light swallowed them all up as the Master and Rassilon tumbled back. Then they were all gone.
"Doctor?" Rose's soft voice called.
Relief hit the Doctor hard, and his limbs gave out, the weakness of his condition taking hold now that he knew Rose was alive. He collapsed to the ground, managing just enough movement to roll himself onto his back. Forcing open his eyes, he looked up and around. The cracks were fading as a golden glow with hints of white and black energy gently sewed them back together. A soft laugh escaped him. Funny, Rassilon had needed to restructure huge parts of the universe to fix the damage. His eyes slid shut again. It was too much effort to keep them open.
Old memories jangled to the forefront of his mind despite his best efforts. He remembered the first time now so clearly. He'd stood on the sidelines with Omega. Even the Other had suppressed that. Staying silent and not interfering. Rose was right. He'd gone from a man who didn't interfere to a man who did nothing but interfere. Definitely, an improvement, even if it was painful.
The Doctor became aware of Rose's hands on his chest and touching his face. A soft sigh escaped him, and he turned his head into the warmth of her hand. Droplets of water hit his face. It took him a moment to realize what was happening. Rose was crying. That realization focused his thoughts, and he forced his eyes open.
She was leaning over him. Exhaustion weighed on her features, and there were tears in her eyes, but she was alive. He smiled, and Rose returned it, but her smile was haunted and sad. Her hand moved across his chest.
"Doctor, only one of your hearts is working."
"Yeah," he managed. "There's… a lot of damage. Built to rip apart molecules and a Guardian. Not good." He sucked in a deep breath, filling his aching and damaged lungs. "Sorry, darling."
"You have to regenerate," Rose finished. She sniffed loudly. "I'm sorry. You got between-"
"Don't," the Doctor said. "Don't, Rose. My choice. The right choice."
"Come on," Jack's voice said gently. His other companion joined Rose, he was pale, but he was alive again. "Let's get him to the TARDIS."
The Doctor almost smiled, listening to his companions. He was dying. The cells were rupturing and disintegrating. Not all at once, no, not a fast death, at least from the one blast he'd had. There was time. His organs were shutting down, but he had a couple of hours for… he wasn't sure. But the Master had… the Doctor chuckled humorless. The Master had stopped Rassilon before regeneration became impossible. One life to fix the mistakes of the ancient past. Not bad. And the Time War was well and truly over. He could live with it. Or at least who he'd be in a few hours could. In any case, they'd be getting a good start.