The Master watched Bill crumple to the ground, completely and 100% dead, with probably no hope of coming back.
The TARDIS still had a zero room, but it was too far to carry her. Even if thee picked her up and started sprinting now, it would be too late. And that was a lot of damage, more damage than some weakling little human could survive, even with the aid of the zero room.
She was dead before she hit the floor, and there was no way she could be revived.
Shit, thee thought.
"Oops." Thee said out loud.
The TARDIS was enjoying sparking at thy whenever thee swore, or insulted anyone she liked. Which was pretty much everyone except thy. She wasn't going to be happy about this, and thee could already feel her mental glare.
But it wasn't like thee'd meant for that to happen. Thee'd just gotten carried away with the showmanship of it all. Making fun of the Doctor and ler little friends was too much fun for thy to worry about rescuing people. And was it really that big of a deal anyways? So Bill got shot and died because thee was having too much fun pretending to be an idiot. Who cared?
The TARDIS zapped thy again, and thee practically leapt out of thy skin with the shock of it. The TARDIS had forcefully disconnected thy from the simulation, leaving thy unable to see anything, since the helmet was still strapped over thy face. "Hey!" Thee snapped, shaking thy tingling hand, "I didn't even say anything that time!"
You thought it!
"Yeah, and that doesn't count!" Thee retorted.
"I told you this wasn't going to work, now look what thee's done! I just died! Did you see that? Thee just got me killed!"
Now that thee wasn't connected to the simulation program anymore, thee could hear the conversation going on outside the simurum's closed door. It wasn't meant to be soundproof, all it had to do was block light.
Thee released the clamps on the sides, and lifted the helmet off thy head, blinking thy eyes to force them to adjust faster. The simurum was lit in dark red from dim lights on the ceiling, with enough shadows draped between that thee couldn't see the floor.
Thee considered just dropping the helmet instead of putting it back in its spot for a moment, but then just rolled thy eyes at thy own idiocy and walked it back over to the alcove on the wall next to the door, and put it back on its hook to charge.
Newer TARDISes had completely socket-free technology, but then, this old thing was older than thee was. Thee would never cease to be amazed that she was still kicking.
Since she was listening to thy thoughts, the TARDIS chirped at thy in a way that was definitely snippy, but she didn't shock thy this time.
Thee made a mocking mimicry of the sound she'd made, and she mocked thy right back, with garbled noises and static.
Thee stuck thy tongue out at her, and without further ado, walked through the holographic door.
The Doctor and ler friends were sitting around the small table that had taken up place in the middle of the room, with mismatched armchairs that had been dragged out of somewhere that hadn't seen the light of day for at least several centuries.
As one, they all turned to glare at thy, some of those glares more heated than others.
Thee tried to look innocent. "What?"
The Doctor narrowed ler eyes over ler cup of tea. "Don't you what me. You know exactly what you did wrong."
"And this is exactly why I am never going anywhere with thy, ever, for as long as I live." Bill said firmly, glaring now, not at the Master, but at the Doctor. "I don't care what you say. I don't care that thee's 'not as bad as thee used to be'. You had thy locked away for a reason, you had Nardole dying from anxiety just at the thought of thy being left unguarded, let alone getting out, and now you expect me to just trust thy with my life? For no good reason? I don't think so. Look what happened-thee got me killed! Within like five minutes of being in there!"
"'Not as bad as before' doesn't mean 'good'." Heather put in succinctly. She and Flight were sitting on the back of her chair with her feet on the cushion, her cup of tea floating a slow orbit around her in its saucer.
"I told you this would happen." Nardole agreed, "Didn't I tell you? I told you. Why didn't you listen? You swore an oath to guard that vault, not open it."
The Master couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. "Oh, I'm sorry," Thee said, sauntering over like thee had meant to fail spectacularly, "I forget, who was it that let me out of the vault? Oh. Right! Now I remember- -that was you."
Thee grabbed the cup that was clearly meant for thy, but didn't drink it yet. Thee wasn't in the mood for tea.
Nardole glared up from the tablet he was scribbling indecipherably on, and snapped, "Yes, I let you out, because it was an emergency, and then I put you back. And you should have stayed back! But someone- -" He turned to glare at the Doctor, "Decided otherwise! Even though that otherwise breaks the oath hea swore!"
The Doctor actually dropped ler head into ler hands. "Oh, please, we get it." Hea groaned, "Will you please stop going on about that? I swore an oath, yes, and now I've unsworn it. It's my oath. I get to do what I want. Especially because I didn't swear it to you, I swore it to those executioners. And I made that promise a million years in the future. It has been a thousand years since I swore it, therefore, it's done. And also, because it's my oath and I said so."
"That is not how this works." Heather said, sighing like it was a sentiment she and Flight had repeated multiple times now.
The Master had the feeling that they'd been out here having this conversation in circles since thee'd gone into the simurum. The TARDIS was old, and scarred, so the simurum wasn't what it should be in this day and age. There was a time delay, so that what was five or so minutes inside the simulation was about thirty minutes outside it.
The only reason thee'd agreed to use it at all was because thee'd been hoping it would be easy. An easy way of gaining the Doctor's trust so thee would finally be able to leave.
Thee hadn't counted on humans being so squishy. Or for their refusal to dodge or do anything to defend themselves. Why did thee have to do all the hard work? Weren't these companions supposed to look after themselves? Did the Doctor really need to hold their hand for everything?
"No, no," Thee said, interrupting the Doctor as hea opened ler mouth to speak again, "No, that wasn't fair. The simulation wasn't true to truth, not even close! The NSHCs weren't acting like real people, they were acting like outdated compter programs running on a damaged, outdated computer! You can't tell me Bill here- -" Thee gestured in her direction, and she glared back, picking up her cup of tea like thee intended to steal it- - "Would just stand there not doing anything to protect herself. You cannot tell me you honestly believe that if that were a real situation that was actually happening, she wouldn't have just gone right back into the TARDIS to shield her life signs. It would have taken two seconds, especially because none of us even bothered to lock the doors behind us."
Bill was frowning now more than glaring. "Okay," She said reluctantly, "Thee does have a point. There is no way I'd just stand there. If my life signs were attracting danger, I'd just go back into the TARDIS, not stand around hoping this idiot- -" She gestured at thy "- -is going to save me. I wouldn't trust thy to hold my sandwich, let alone keep me safe."
"Yeah, and why wasn't I there at all?" Heather asked, and Flight added, "And why didn't I just heal Bill as soon as she got hurt?"
"Hold on," Nardole interjected, sitting the tablet down on the table, looking between Bill and Heather and Flight, "Which side are you arguing for now? I thought we all agreed it was a bad idea from the start to let the Master out, but now you're defending thy letting you get killed."
"No, I'm not defending thy, I'm just saying that the situation made no sense. That doesn't mean thee shouldn't have done anything, because thee could have done a million things to actually help, but I mean- -Look there's just no way I would just stand there not doing anything. If I find myself somewhere where the monsters specifically track and hunt humans, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna leave, that's what."
"See? Like I told you, the test wasn't fair!" The Master grinned at the unexpected support. "I demand a retrial! One that follows real logic! You can't expect me to babysit everyone and make decisions for everyone, can you? That's the opposite of your beloved free will you're always going on about. I've had too many of my plans thwarted by your companions in the past for you to try and convince me that they just stand around uselessly until you tell them what to do. That test wasn't fair, and you know it! I want a retrial!"
The Doctor had set down ler tea and currently had ler head pillowed on ler hands as hea shook it in exasperation. "I don't know what more you expect me to do, the TARDIS can't help the fact that the systems are damaged, she still has scar tissue from- -"
"Yes, yes, from the Time War, we know." Thee interrupted. "We don't need to hear the grisly details. But that's no excuse! The TARDIS might be damaged, but that doesn't mean all technology across all of available time and space is damaged. There are countless virtual reality arenas you could be taking us to if you're so insistent on me taking this ridiculous test of yours. There is no reason we can't go to Sebacia 4 and their lazer arcade, or that Vyrus place everyone's been babbling about for as long as I've had ears, or any number of other planets and stations and ships with advanced simulation capabilities."
"No, no. Absolutely not." The Doctor lifted ler head from the table so hea could glare sternly. "You are not leaving the TARDIS until I know I can trust you."
"I- -" Heather started to say something, then stopped. Everyone turned to look at her.
She glanced between all the watching eyes, looking embarrassed. "Okay, I know I really shouldn't be arguing this point, but I have to point out- -if you don't want to let the Master out until you know you can trust thy, then it's not really trust, is it? It's not trust if you know the outcome, trust requires that there's a chance of betrayal."
Everyone stared at her.
"Seriously," Nardole said, exasperated, "I don't think you know how arguments work. You're supposed to pick one side and stick with it, not switch sides every time you open your mouth. Have you never been in an argument before? You're very bad at this."
"I'm just saying!" Heather exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air, her teacup floating up towards the ceiling. The Master watched its movement with thy eyes, and stepped hastily to the side incase it tipped.
"Well, stop just saying! You're not helping!" Nardole retorted.
"No, she's right, Nardole." The Doctor sighed heavily, "She's right. It's not really trust if I already know thee won't betray me."
The Master's eyebrows rose hopefully. "Oh, so should we set the coordinates for Sebacia 4 then? Or that vyrus- -vyral- -vy-something-or-other place then? Sign ourselves up for a game of personalized lazer tag? You know how much I love lazer tag! And you can program the settings to your heart's content. Last I checked they even had a setting to keep participants in the game until the game master decides to let them out, so you can make sure I won't skip away when you aren't looking! Which I wouldn't do anyways, why would I ever want to leave your glorious company? Where else would I find quality entertainment like this?"
Thee gestured to the table just to insult them all, with the three of them sitting in the mismatched chairs. The display screen for the simurum was still active on the center of the table, lit up with a blue background, with white, heavily simplified rassiloid figures frozen in the last glimpse thee'd seen of the simulation before the TARDIS kicked thy out of it.
The figure that was labeled Bill was sprawled on the ground, her status bar greyed out, with the still-unnamed alien still posed with the weapon, and the Master's figure still lounging in the chair thee'd been spinning in. The figure for Nardole was standing off to the side and back, having not moved or done anything but talk.
"If that's supposed to bolster my confidence in you, it's not working." The Doctor informed thy flatly.
The Master smiled anyways, and took a sip of the tea to show that thee was being good. "Lovely tea you've made." Thee said, still grinning.
"Actually, I made that." Nardole said, lifting a hand.
Thee turned thy smile on him, and enjoyed the way he shifted uneasily, but only for a moment.
"I still think we should just put you right back in the vault." He said stubbornly, "So don't go looking to me for backup. I'm not your friend and I'm not going to help you."
"Me either." Bill put in, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, "You got me killed. That's just rude. And you haven't even apologized."
Thee- -oh. Thee blinked. Oh well she did sort of have a point there. "I'm sorry for getting you killed." Thee said.
She snorted.
"But in my defence, your NSHC was very unintelligent. It may as well have been an escort mission for how much it tried to keep itself out of danger. You're much more intelligent than that, I can tell."
"Flattery's not gonna cut it." She said, rolling her eyes, "Especially not when you're saying I'm smarter than an ancient, corrupted computer program. That's not exactly a compliment, that's bare minimum."
The TARDIS chose that moment to join the conversation, creating a swirl of yellow lights that circled the edge of the table in a simple pattern.
Well, simple for a Time Lord, not so easy to read for a human, or a human-mimic.
"She says she's sorry." The Doctor translated, "Running the simurum expends a lot of energy, and she didn't have much concentration left over to make sure the NSHCs behaved realistically."
Bill leaned forward to pat the table affectionately, "Oh, no I'm not mad at you, TARDIS, I'm sorry, it's not your fault. Even if you couldn't make the computer act like me, thee still didn't do anything to help when thee could've, it's thy I'm mad at, not you. Don't you worry, I'm not mad at you."
The lights jumped in happy acknowledgement, then disappeared again.
"So…" The Master said into the temporary silence, "Lazer tag? Please? It'd be so much fun, and I promise to be on my best behavior. I won't even shoot any NSHCs, even if they're the really, really annoying kind."
The Doctor narrowed ler eyes. "Really." Hea sounded extremely doubtful.
"Well," Thee amended, "I won't shoot any that you don't give me permission to shoot. Never know when an NSHC's going to turn into a rouge SHC and go on a rampage."
The Doctor dropped ler head into ler hands as the human and human-mimic looked on on confusion. "You do understand that shooting an SHC is worse than shooting an NSHC, correct? Please tell me you understand that."
"Hold on," Bill interrupted, "You didn't explain before- - what exactly is an NSHC? And what's an SHC? You need to start spelling out these acronyms. You can't just expect me to just magically know what they mean."
"It stands for non-sentient holographic-character." Nardole said, "And for sentient holographic-character. Some AIs exist entirely within simulations; they can't really leave except with specialized equipment, so they're called SHCs to differentiate them from the normal holographic characters that are just normal computer programs."
"But...How do you tell the difference?" Bill looked puzzled and alarmed. "If you're playing lazer tag and just go around shooting people, how do you know which ones are real and which ones are fake?"
Oh no. Thee could tell this was going to be a long, and boring conversation. Thee hooked a foot around the leg of the empty chair, pulled it towards thyself, and plopped down sideways across the ornate cushioned seat, so that thy feet were hanging over one of the the gilded arms, with thy head pillowed on the other. Thankfully, the chair was reactive, and grew a pillow for thy head.
The Doctor was staring at thy with a slightly blank expression, like it wasn't really thee hea was looking at. The Master quirked an eyebrow back at ler, waiting for ler to come back to the present as Nardole began a long-winded explanation of the SHC timeline.
It didn't take long. The Doctor blinked, then shook ler head, unable to fully hide the regret in ler eyes before hea blinked again, and made a good show of hiding the pain behind another glare.
'When in doubt, glare' was apparently this incarnation's motto.
"Please?" Thee asked again, "I promise I'll be good."
The Doctor kept glaring, but the emotion behind it didn't reach ler eyes. Hea still just looked sad, no matter how hea tried to hide it. "You promise me?"
"I promise."
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't. That's why it's called trust."
The Doctor contemplated thy for a few moments, looking lost in thought.
Part of Nardole's explanation filtered through to the Master's ears while thee waited.
"- -and shortly after that, Laelia and Zagreus shut dow- -"
The Doctor flinched so suddenly and violently that ler cup jerked out of ler hands and crashed to the floor, interrupting Nardole's explanation with the loud crash of shattering porcelain and flying tea.
The Master had scrambled to thy feet almost instantly, but not faster than the Doctor did, leaping out of ler chair like it burned, then turning and walking so quickly out of the room hea might as well have been sprinting, leaving the four of them staring after ler in startled confusion.
The walls of the room, the Master noticed, had gone from light grey to deep green, and a barely perceptible tremble had started up below the floor.
The TARDIS was...afraid. She was afraid, and hurt, and…
The Master had to actually close off the section of thy mind she had access to, because the sudden surge of grief and sorrow and white-hot rage almost made thy lose thy footing, forcing thy to grab ahold of the table to stay upright, unfortunately putting thy at eye level with Bill, who stared back with wide eyes.
She was only human, but thee had no doubt that even she had felt that surge of emotion from the TARDIS. You would have had to not have a brain at all not to notice that.
"Was it something I said…?" Nardole broke the silence to ask. He was the only one out of everyone assembled here who didn't have a brain, so he couldn't hear the TARDIS's emotions, even when they were this powerful.
In this case, that was a blessing.
They all looked at each other for answers, but it seemed none of them knew any more than thee did.
That was concerning.
Bill started to get to her feet, saying, "We should go after ler- -" when the TARDIS' internal communications crackled on, and the Doctor said, voice fakely cheerful, "Well folks, you wanted lazer tag, and you're getting lazer tag! Get your butts to the console room, we have a grid to program! I'll go ahead and buy us our tickets, meet me in inter-room three! Wear something you can run in!"
The intercom crackled off with a small tone, and the five of them were left to stare at eachother again, each with matching looks of confusion and concern.
"Okay," The Master started, "I know none of you trust me, and I don't blame you, but, uh, I don't know what just happened, but I think we all agree we need to find out, correct?"
"I've never felt the TARDIS in such pain before." Nardole said softly, "It felt like her heart was breaking." That confused the Master wildly for a few seconds, until thee remembered that Nardole had mentioned at some point that he a graft of the TARDIS' circuits in his spine, which did allow him to hear the TARDIS.
"And did you see the look on The Doctor's face- -I've never seen ler look like that." Bill said.
Heather said nothing, and neither did Flight. She was just frowning silently, most likely in furious mental conversation with herself.
The TARDIS abruptly set green lights to flash across the table, startling all of them. The Master's eyes quickly followed the frantic pattern as best as thee could, but it was difficult. The TARDIS wasn't making much sense. Most of the symbols canceled each other out and meant nothing. The only thing thee could make out for sure was go after ler, and please. All of you.
"The TARDIS wants us to all go after ler." Thee translated, then added, "Which is exactly the sort of thing I would say if I were trying to trick you into letting me out, but I- -"
"Oh just shut up and let's go already!" Flight suddenly snapped, dissipating in the chair and reappearing by the doorway that led to the console room, "There's no time for your headgames!"
Bill jumped out of her chair to follow her, and Nardole did as well, leaving the Master standing there like an idiot for a few seconds until the TARDIS flashed more green lights on the table, urging thy along urgently.
There was a deep well of sadness thee could still feel just outside the range of thy conscious senses, and thee actually felt guilty about the idea of leaving the TARDIS by herself to chase down the Doctor when she was clearly just as upset as hea was.
Of course, she could sense thy hesitation, and took matters into her own hands by solidifying the air and physically shoving thy towards the door, so that thee either had to stumble into a jog or fall on thy face.
Go! She commanded in thy mind, louder than she'd spoken to thy in ages, Prove you can be trusted!
"Can't you just tell me what's wrong?" Thee asked as thee began the run down the long and twisting corridor to catch up with the others.
The answer was another flash of grief, this time accompanied by rage and disgust and horror so deep it made thy gasp for air. It felt like thee'd been kicked in the stomach.
But it didn't tell thy anything useful about what was wrong, except that it was bad.
But thee didn't need to be told twice, thee just quickened thy pace, and ran to catch up with the other companions. If there was ever a time the Doctor needed thy on ler side, it was now.
Thee didn't know what had caused the Doctor and the TARDIS so much pain, or what had caused them to remember it so suddenly, but thee knew thee would never forgive thyself if thee didn't do what thee could to help.
Even if it meant thee had to put real effort into becoming a good person, once and for all.