The Doctor stood still.
The others looked at her expectantly.
"Doctor?" Asked Yaz, concerned.
"This is where he told me," she said, mouth agape as she walked wearily across the room.
There were bodies of dead cybermasters, in piles on the floor. Ko Sharmis' buried beneath them.
"They're all dead," said Jack.
"Where's the Master?" Asked Ryan, looking around a bit frantic.
The Doctor sighed, clearly used to a similar outcome when it came to the Master, "he's always somewhere."
The group continued to look around, which made the Doctor feel slightly uncomfortable, and more and more exposed then she'd had to endure from humans in a long time.
Team TARDIS barely knew anything about the Doctor, so to be on her home planet, and for it to be so destroyed, it broke the four humans heart's.
"What are you doin', Doc?" Graham asked when he saw the Doctor taking stance with her fingers on her temple.
"Exploring the Matrix," 13 answered, as if it were obvious.
"I might be a while so, don't wander off." Her gaze drifted between the four of them, pointing her finger, sternly, as though a parent warning her kids.
And with that, she froze, soon off into the depths of Gallifryen history...
The Doctor found herself wandering on nothing but blank. No walls, no light, no dark. Just blank.
This looked all too familiar from her last trip.
She walked.. and walked.. and walked...
Nothing.
The Master was right, even though she hated to admit it. Everything was erased.
It's not even like 13 was even going around in circles, she wasn't even travelling.
She turned to go in a different direction.
The same outcome.
After a few pointless tries, the Doctor gave up. She dropped to her knees and panted from the pointless running.
How did the Master get in?!
She pounded her fists on the floor. Except she didn't, there was no floor, she couldn't even feel it, even though she was stood on it?
13 huffed and rolled onto her back. With arms flailed out on the ground pathetically, the Doctor stared straight up to the bright nothingness.
She was lost in thought; her anger, frustration, loneliness, hated, all boiling to the brim.
She felt so stupid, so naive, so, so..
She sighed.
The Master was the one that told her, that's the worst part, perhaps that's a tad dramatic but he's the only one, who's still alive, potentially, to be mad at.
13 rolled over and curled her knees to her chest, her head aching, she felt drained from the place already.
Why did the place affect her so?
She squeezed her eyes shut tight, desperate for the pounding in her head to stop.
A tear rolled down her cheek and dripped away into the Matrix.
This did something.
13 jumped to her feet, looking around frantically as she composed herself for attack.
The place seemed to get brighter and brighter, so much so, that the Doctor had to shielded herself with the back of her arm, but it was no use.
Her knees buckled and she silently prayed for relief.
Suddenly, it stopped.
That was weird.
Wearily, 13 began to remove her hand, until she dropped them both by her sides.
It looked kind of like a screen, except there wasn't a border, it faded out and there wasn't anything on it apart from a fuzzy, greyish colour, static.
"Hm," 13 wondered aloud, "what is this?"
She tried to look behind it, but the view only followed her.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them it was gone.
13 sighed, "no, come back."
She squeezed her eyes again, concentrating deeply.
The screen returned.
"Interesting." She said.
13 thought for a moment, "so it comes on with thought? It plays memories, maybe? With some kind of psychic control?"
Looking down, she thought of a memory, the time the fam told her they were here for her, that made her smile.
Drifting her eyes back up, the screen had changed. She blinked three times in surprise, the memory had paused. She blinked three times again, the memory played.
Pausing it again, she thought. So this can show me my memories? What about the ones I can't remember? The Master saw them and they weren't even his.
13 thought of another memory, the one of the boy being zapped, one that the Master had showed her, one she needed to unravel.
Looking up, she saw the boy strapped to the chair, screaming. He jostled around uncontrollably whilst the onlookers did nothing, they stood there emotionless.
13's eyes watered, and in a fit to bat them away she paused the screen. In frustration, she went to play it, but stopped when she noticed the head set on the boy, it had gallifreyan symbols on it.
She squeezed the screen away in terror. Who the hell is that? Why did he get changed? Into what?
She ran wildly, trying to escape, and in her urgency, she forgot how.
"Let me out!" She screamed into nothingness. She dropped to her knees, then realised she'd just been in this position.
She took a slow breath, in and out, then instinctively put her fingers to her temple, breaking herself free.
When she came to, there where four worried companions, with fearful brows furrowed above her head.
"Doctor?" A distant voice said.
"Doc, wake up, Doc," she heard again more clearly now.
She scrunched her face as she adjusted her eyes to the once blurry silhouettes. Jack, Yaz, Graham and Ryan sat there.
Remembering her surroundings, 13 jumped to her feet. Her legs buckled slightly, but she continued to walk, Yaz holding her upright.
"Doctor, slow down," Yaz breathed.
13 ignored her, she clambered to her TARDIS, scrambling for the key in her many, endless pockets.
"What is it Doctor?" Jack said.
"I saw something the Master showed me." She said opening the TARDIS door and heading around the console.
She flipped a few switches until down hung the Chameleon Arch.
"Doctor, I know what that is," Jack said concerned, "what ever you found out, you don't have to do this."
"What?" 13 said, confused, "I'm not using it."
"No?" Jack asked, embarrassed.
"No," the Doctor confirmed, "I saw one on a boy and he was strapped to a chair an-and he was screaming."
"What do you think you've missed something on it?" Jack said.
"What is it?" Ryan said, feeling dumb, yet nonetheless frustrated.
13 turned her head surprised, she was so lost in thought she forgot they were there.
"It's a Chameleon Arch." The Doctor said.
The three exchanged confused looks.
"It rewrites your DNA, or, at least I thought it did, maybe it does something else too?" She answered, rhetorically.
"Like what?" Graham asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor answered, bringing down the headset to inspect it, "they're known for having perception filters."
"So, you think there's a perception filter making you forget about part of what the chameleon arch does?" Jack questioned, "that's a bit far-fetched."
"Yes, well," the Doctor mumbled, "I'll believe anything nowadays."
During the Doctor's inspection, she noticed some writing she hadn't before, it read length.
Why length? 13 rubbed her finger along it, slowly feeling each line.
"What is it, Doctor?" Yaz asked.
"It reads, 'length'?" 13 said, taken aback when the words began to glow.
"What's it doin?" Ryan asked.
The Doctor quickly glanced in his direction before smiling reassuringly and putting the arch on her head, "guess we're about to find out."
"No," Jack cried, once he realised what idiotic thing she was doing.
But it was too late, the Doctor's wires were changing...
She screamed in agony, the sensation seeming all too familiar.
All the fam could do was watch in horror.
The Doctor was killing herself to get answers.
"Jack, what do we do?" Yaz cried, desperately.
But Jack just shook his head, he'd heard of these things, but never seen them in action.
"Jack?!" Yaz cried, louder this time.
"It should work," Jack cried in return, "she should be fine."
"That's a lot of 'should's'," Graham muttered.
"Just give her a minute," Jack answered, wavering slightly.
After a few endless moments, Doctor fell still. Yaz kept to her side, "Doctor," she screamed, frantically shaking her.
Jack, at her other side, checked for a pulse, it was slow but there.
He nodded, and Yaz felt the sighs of relief from Graham and Ryan on the back of her neck.
"What now?" Yaz asked, "what's wrong with her?"
"We should take her to her room, wait till she wakes up." Jack said.
"When will that be?" Ryan said.
"Honestly, I don't know," Jack sighed.
Yaz watched the Doctor, turning uneasily in her sleep, a fever breaking droplets of sweat on her forehead.
"Doctor," Yaz mumbled, taking 13's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze, "please, tell me what to do."
Graham came rushing in with a wet towel, he sat by her side and dabbed gently at her head before setting it neatly on top.
Ryan sat on a stool in the corner, staring blankly at a spot on the floor. He didn't react when Jack's pacing constructed it.
"Jack," Graham sighed, "you'll wear yourself out doing that, why don't you sit here for a bit."
"I'm thinking," Jack huffed, impatiently, waving him away with a hand.
Graham persisted, "please, you look exhausted."
Jack huffed again, but decided he was too tired to argue, and begrudgingly sat down by the Doctor.
He didn't dare look at her, perhaps a glance, but never more then a second. She was his oldest living friend, and he'd never seen her so drained.
"She'll wake up" Graham said, unconvinced himself, "She's the Doc, she gets out of everything."
Jack was too tired to brush Graham's comforting hand off of his shoulder.
It felt like days, but who knows, time often slows when the Doctor's not there to pull you through it.
However, when Jack sat, dabbing at 13's fever. He noticed her eyes flutter.
"Doctor?" Jack said, hopefully.
She brought a hand to her forehead, wiping away the slimy thing and mumbling something incoherent.
"Doctor," Jack said again, more focused this time.
The Doctor looked around wildly before her eyes landed in Jack.
"Jack?" She smiled sadly, "long time no see."
"Doctor, we saw each other a few days ago." Jack said, concerned.
"Did we," she questioned, "sorreh, everything's a bit muddled at the minute."
"It's okay," he said, unsure of the right way to respond, "just lie still for a minute."
She nodded, instantly regretting it as her head pounded in response.
She winced, causing Jack to worry.
"Hey-hey-hey, don't move," Jack said, holding her shoulders comfortingly, "take your time."
13 just mumbled a 'yes' that time, not daring to move.
She took a few deep breaths, using her arms to shield her eyes from the light.
"Hold on, I'll turn the lights out," Jack said, rushing to and from the light switch. "Better?"
"Yeah," 13 mumbled, she sounded pained.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" Jack asked.
"My head, it's pounding."
"What can I do?" Jack said, not wanting to confront her on her recklessness at that precise moment.
"Ice," 13 said, "ask the fam, they insisted I got a freezer to store some for situations like this, and because Graham wanted ice tea."
Jack chuckled, "I'll be back, just sit tight."
With a swoosh of his coat, the Doctor was left to her thoughts.
In the console room, Jack shouted for the companions.
"What is it?" Yaz said, rushing into the room to discover the problem.
"Where's the ice?" Jack said, simply.
"What, why?" Yaz stammered, looking in the direction of the way to 13's room.
"The Doctor needs some, she says you know where it is?"
Yaz pointed in the direction, still staring fearfully.
"I'll go get it, go check on the Doctor," Jack said, already running away.
Leaving Yaz to rush hesitantly to the Doctor.
"Doctor?" Yaz said gently, hovering with a hand over the light switch, unsure of why she was sat in the dark.
"Yaz?" 13 said, she sounded pained but relieved, where have you been?"
"I've been waiting for you to wake up," Yaz stated, forgetting the light and sitting on the end of the bed.
"Wake up?" The Doctor said, "from what?"
"You don't remember?" Yaz said, checking her temperature with a hand on her head.
She whined, "I don't--"
"Doctor, you put this chameleon arch thing on your head, you've been out for days."
Suddenly, the rope began to unravel, and her head filled a moment.
She bolted up right, twitching at the blinding pain she couldn't help but show. "I remember everything."
The chameleon arch, it took away her memories, it adjusted her perception of the length of her life. And now she understood why, she was too close to discovering the truth...
"You remember everything?" Yaz asked.
The Doctor sighed, drawing her knees to her chest, "yes."
"And?" Yaz questioned.
"And, it's true, everything's a lie, the master was--" she inhaled sharply, "right."
She sunk lower, "I'm not the person I thought I was."
A/N : Finally, this story comes to an end. If you read this, I'm really sorry for the massive break from last chapter and for this shitty ending.
This years been extremely difficult for me to keep motivated for writing, as much as I wanted to finish it.
I decided not to delve to far into her past because, when would it end, plus I wouldn't wanna muck up the history.
Anyway, started in March, ends in December. (At least it's not New Years LMAO).
Stay safe, you're amazing.
AND THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWSSSS!!