Notes:

(Promoted to ch6 since it's not really an epilogue)

Thanks for all the reviews! Hopefully this was a less depressing ride than the season finale looks set to be.

I may sequel this if there's interest/inspiration strikes

Chapter 6

Everything happened as if in slow motion. Together they watched the Doctor return the time vortex to the TARDIS and rewind the dial on all the damage done to the console, putting it back as though nothing had happened.

Her hand slid from it and for a moment she stood staring, blank eyes in the middle distance. For a moment a wave of hope possessed the room, but hen her eyes rolled shut, her head falling back as her knees crumbled and she started to fall.

The Master caught her, cradled her, not screaming this time but letting his body be wracked by sobs. The others watched on, emptiness taking the space the grief should have filled.

Everything collapsed into the next moment, the one after that, time going on unrelenting.

Then the Master lifted her, carrying her deeper into the TARDIS. Inside everything was dark... except for one room.

The companions had never seen it before and it didn't look like the rest of the rooms. It looked almost like a crypt, all stone and low lighting that resembled candlelight.

Everywhere was golden circular writing, and in one corner was an empty crib, the same type of writing on the front.

The Master gently laid her down on one of the stone slabs, shucking off his coat and sliding it under her head as a pillow. He touched her cheek with the back of his hand, whispering something to her. He moved her arms to rest on her middle and slid something into her hands, then leant down to kiss her forehead.

Then he turned and shoved roughly past all of them, heading back into the console room.

The companions were left hovering in the doorway, all of them struck by how quiet the room was without the Doctor's larger than life presence to fill it.

"We could say bye to her?" Graham said softly. "Like we did for Grace?"

The other two exchanged looks, the pain reflected in each others' eyes. Yaz took a shuddering breath.

"I want to, I'm just worried about what you know who is doing," Ryan said.

"At a time like this?" Yaz snapped.

"Yes! Because we still have to worry about the bigger picture! Y'know, getting home?" He folded his arms. "She would. No matter what was going on, she'd still worry about getting us home."

"And now she's gone, Ryan. Excuse me if I need five minutes!"

Graham laid a hand on both their shoulders. "OK. Let's take a breath. I'm going to say something quick, then we go. OK? "

They both looked away.

Graham walked forward, bowing his head before the Doctor. "Doc, it's me. We all love you a-and we're going to miss you. I gotta be honest, he wasn't worth your life. I'd trade a hundred of him if we could h- have you back. But you shielded him like you always shielded us, and you paid for it. And it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt a long time."

"I wish I knew you better," Yaz said suddenly. "I realised with my own parents - they had a whole life before I came along. And you did, too - hundreds of them. Wish I could have known you like-"

She cut off, crying again. Ryan softened.

"You were one of my best friends," he said. "You brought us together, gave me dreams I couldn't dare to have before. I'm a different person now, 'cus of you. Just like you warned me. I dunno how I'll get back to regular life."

They all stood a moment, tears falling, then there was the sudden noise of the TARDIS engine.

Ryan dashed his tears away. "What did I say-"

They raced through to the main room to find the Master working the controls, flipping the lever.

"Rassilon was an arrogant bastard; didn't take backup. But those guards will notice I'm gone eventually. We need to get out of here, quick."

"And go where?"

"Drop you out of the way. Earth."

His eyes were manic, his back leg constantly twitching with nervous energy.

"And then what'll you do?" Ryan asked.

"First I'm going to find the bastard who shot her and kill him. Slowly."

"He was aiming at you, mate," Graham snapped. The Master's eyes flashed.

"What about Captain Jack? Should we tell him?"

The Master snorted. "He'll wring my neck if he founds out how she died. You tell him."

"What did she mean, Jack will know who to tell?"

He sneered. "She meant her other pets, of course." Off their surprised look he rolled his eyes. "Really thought you were the first companions she ever had? Honestly."

Yaz ground her teeth. "She wouldn't want you to get revenge."

"She is a sentimental FOOL who died protecting the man who COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST HER PLANET! Excuse me if I don't CARE!" The snarl on his face was so vicious they all drew back.

But Ryan nerved himself to try again. "And then what?"

He looked over at him like Ryan had just asked the dumbest question ever. "I go back and save her. Obviously."

Yaz's face lit up, Graham's too, but Ryan looked suddenly apprehensive.

"Won't that - I dunno, disrupt the timeline or something? When we almost lost Shelley, she said it could make a huge difference. And that was one poet on one planet. The Doctor's..."

"So much more than that," the Master said quietly, flipping the custard creams lever. The TARDIS didn't answer him. "So I need to act fast. If no one knows, it won't be fixed. And even if it was..."

Graham looked confused. "She's not around to stop you anymore. I thought you'd be more, I dunno, gleeful and plotting."

The Master laughed a dry sardonic laugh. "Idiots. What would be the point?"

Ryan turned his back slightly to whisper to the other two. "I want the Doctor back as much as anyone, but we gotta think about this. Let's let him land on Earth and then rush him."

The others exchanged looks but wordlessly agreed. But they didn't realise the Master was watching, a sudden hard steel in his eyes.

He reached into his pocket.

Ryan was shrunk first, followed quickly by Yaz and Graham. The Master cackled and clapped his hands.

"Can't hate me for this one, love," he said wildly. "They'll be good as new once I go back and put everything right." He flipped a lever. "Nothing is fixed. Not yet, not yet."

He turned, sinking down against a pillar as the weight of grief overcame him. "I can't lose you yet," he mumbled, burying his head in his hands.

The TARDIS groaned and spluttered, the Doctor and her companions clinging on for dear life.

"Doc?" Graham said. "What's happening?"

She clung to the console, tapping furiously at buttons on a screen. "I- I don't know. She usually only gets like this when we run into a paradox!"

"A what?"

"A disruption in the timeline! Like if Krasko had succeeded in stopping Rosa Parks getting that bus, but times a million million!"

"Really?"

"Really." Her expression was grim as she studied the screen. "I've never seen one this bad though..."

Four beeps sounded from another part of the console. The Doctor froze. The sound came again. She pulled herself around to it, frantically tapping four beeps in response.

This time the Master opened a line.

Contact.

Contact, she responded.

An overwhelming wave of mixed emotions from him overcame her at the sound of her voice, one distinct: relief. It wasn't like him to share, unless he was so unstable now he couldn't control it.

He thought back, Talk to me.

A note of almost pleading in his voice.

I am talking to you, she thought back, confused.

He said nothing else, but he didn't cut the connection to her. He just stayed quietly, a quiet contentment to his thoughts, just like he was in the room, being with her.

It was so odd she didn't know what to say. The companions exchanged a look.

"Doctor? You OK?"

"Yeah," she said, distracted by how peaceful he felt. She didn't want him prying at her thoughts but she was loathe to cut him off.

What have you been doing? she asked him.

The usual, came his quick reply. Evading 'justice'. Vengeance. Destruction and carnage.

There was something off about his tone that wrong-footed her.

You could try saving someone, she teased. Just for a change.

The wave of grief and sadness was so sharp it almost floored her.

Then he cut her off.

The Doctor gripped the console for support, head spinning. Graham touched her arm.

"Doc? What's going on?"

She opened her mouth to tell them everything - about Gallifrey, about the Master being back. But the grief she'd felt from him made her throat constrict and tears well up in her eyes.

In a tight, tiny voice, she said, "I think it's even worse than I thought."