A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far! There was one mentioning that Rassilon was way too nice and I have to hold my hands up and admit: it's been a while since I saw episodes with him in. I refreshed my memory with 'Hell Bent', so hopefully I can rectify his portrayal with this chapter.

Chapter Text

The Master's cries were so distressed the others almost didn't notice the familiar groan of the landing TARDIS. Rassilon stepped out, his face ambivalent as he looked on the scene, with Ryan close behind.

He saw the Doctor and started shaking his head in disbelief, looking to Yaz for confirmation. She couldn't give it. She was crying too hard.

"A shame things turned out this way, though I have to admit, not entirely unexpected," Rassilon said, kneeling and reaching out towards the Doctor. The Master's head snapped up so viciously that the others flinched back.

"Don't you FUCKING TOUCH HER! Keep your filthy hands OFF!"

Rassilon regarded him calmly. "In an ideal world someone would hold an interplanetary funeral. But given the upheaval it would cause..."

"Shut up."

"But you - He said he could save-" Graham swallowed, not seeing the flash in the Master's eyes before continuing, "... the heart of the TARDIS?"

Rassilon's eyes turned thunderous. "I cannot allow that! The monstrosity you would create-"

The Master knashed his teeth, growling something no one could understand and reaching into his pocket. In an instant Rassilon was on his feet, gun drawn from his robes but he wasn't fast enough, the Master had a device in his hand and clicked it once and in a flash of light Rassilon was shrunk to the size of a hamster. The miniature Time Lord didn't make it three steps before the Master stamped on him.

The Master scooped up the Doctor and rushed toward the TARDIS. The companions shared a look before helplessly following, Graham in the lead and Ryan shepherding Yaz along.

"Hey!" Graham yelled, grabbing the gun Rassilon had dropped on the way. "What are you doing? What did he mean?"

Inside it was dark, the TARDIS lights dimmed way down. The Master had leant the Doctor against a railing and was wrenching at the console, yanking pieces off with his hands and anything he could find. He gave Graham and the gun in his hand a brief look before ignoring him entirely.

Graham raised the gun and cocked it. "I said stop!"

"You don't -" A chunk of console clattered across the room, "- want to get in my way. I can still - save her."

"By turning her into somethin - somethin else? The Doc wouldn't want that!"

"Don't you presume to talk to me about what she would want!" The Master thumped the console, glass shattering under his fist. "You people know nothing! Don't you realise the Earth is as good as DONE FOR without her? You won't last five damn minutes!" He was laughing now, even as sparks flew up in his face. "The rest of the galaxy too. She is the law in some solar systems - invasions have lived and died on whether they thought they could escape the Doctor's notice!"

He kept pulling at the console, laughing bitterly to himself as he did so. "I always thought protecting you stupid apes would kill her, but this - this - worthless! The lot of you, worthless piles of waste. Violent - and twisted - and -"

There was a great rending sound as the entire front panel slid off and crashed to the floor, the Master quickly shielding his eyes from a golden light pouring out from within. He turned and picked up the Doctor.

Graham raised the gun. "Answer or I shoot you! What will that thing do to her?"

Yaz put her hand on his arm, lowering the gun. "Let him."

"Yaz, listen-"

With them distracted the Master seized his opportunity and moved the Doctor, turning her enough that her hand brushed the console.

The effect was instantaneous - golden light latched onto the Doctor's arm and the Master clung on for dear life as her glassy eyes looked into the time vortex and the time vortex looked back.

The others cried out, huddling together in horror as the Doctor's body spasmed in the Master's arms like she'd been gripped by an electric current. The light spread up her body and centred around her wound, changing into a beam that burrowed into the bloody wound before it began to die down.

Everything fell silent as the last of the light leaked from the console and circled the Doctor in a lazy aura. The Master lowered her to the floor, brushing the hair back from her face.

"Theet?" he said, softly shaking her.

"Doctor?" Yaz whispered, creeping forward. Ryan started to move, too, but Graham held him back.

The silence stretched on and on, the Master's grip on the Doctor getting gradually tighter and tighter.

Then the blank eyes blink. The Master gasped at the same time the Doctor did, his hand moving to cup the back of her head as he pressed their foreheads together, whispering something as the Doctor's breaths came in a frantic wheeze.

"What did you- what did you-" She shut her eyes, shuddering and squirming to get her hand up and to the wound, which was still shining from ripples of golden light.

Then she went still.

"Doc?" Graham said, still holding Ryan back as Yaz rushed to the Doctor's side and knelt down. Even the Master leant back, studying her thoughtfully as the Doctor's eyes dropped.

When she looked up again, everyone but the Master flinched back.

The Doctor's once warm brown eyes were now a bright burning gold.