Author's Note:
Here we are, just as promised, an extremely quick update. That being so, I'd really like to thank those people who took the trouble to review the last chapter so promptly: MayFairy, TheWritingKat, EmmaMarie, pattibon, sailormajinmoon, gallifrey calls now, TheGreatWhite, Ahsilaa, SawManiac211, irishartemis, Lost Moon, MountainLord-92, Theta'sWorstNightmare and Lexy Summers :) This chapter is for every single one of you wonderful people.
To sailormajinmoon: I'm so happy to know you've read my other stuff too, that is great! Hopefully you will also enjoy this chapter.
To Lost Moon: I'm very relieved that everyone seems to approve of my interpretation of the Deca, so thanks very much for your review :)
Big thanks to EDZEL2, who put me on to the magnificent music by "Two Steps From Hell" - I wrote this chapter listening to "Undying Love", which is just amazing and brought tears to my eyes.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to irishartemis! Hopefully this chapter might count as a gift from me to you!
WARNING: A bit of sexual content in this one. You know the drill - you no like, you no read, thank you :)
- Chapter Six -
"This is Gallifrey...our childhood...our home..."
- Murray Gold.
It was her own fault. She knew that, but it didn't make her feel any better. She should never have allowed her anger at Fionnula to provoke her into approaching the Deca table. If she hadn't been trying to throw the other woman's spite in her face, she would never have done it.
As Tejana prepared for bed, everything in her chest felt tight, all hot and twisted up and tangled. No matter what had gone on in her life in the past, no matter what the discomfort or danger she faced, she had always had her dignity to fall back on, the deep-seated pride in who and what she was. Whenever she had entered a room, wherever it was, she had done so in the complete knowledge that as a Time Lady she would be the equal, if not more often the superior, of every single individual in the room. In all her centuries of life, she had never before had to deal with the complete disdain shown to her by the Deca. It still burned, the memory of the lofty hauteur in their eyes, tinged with dispassionate curiosity, as if she was a worm who had suddenly decided to dance the tango for their entertainment.
Did I do that? she wondered. Is that the way I used to treat the servants when I lived on Gallifrey?
Looking back, she couldn't remember treating the servants any particular way at all - and perhaps that was even worse, that she had so thoroughly disregarded them, as though they weren't people at all. It was so easy to make the excuse that she had been young and hadn't known any better – but here was her father, just as young, yet already showing seeds of the compassion and empathy that would characterise him all his life.
Tears stung her eyes as she thought of the kindness in his young face, the way he had immediately leapt to champion a mistreated servant girl.
Oh, Doctor, you've always understood so many things about so many people...why could you never understand your own daughter?
Quickly, she raised her hand to her face and wiped away the betraying tears, before Dyoni could see them. To her dismay, she had been allocated a bed in a tiny room she had to share with the other girl. It appeared she would be required to be in her company even while they slept. Dyoni seemed nice enough, but it had been a long, trying day and Tejana could have done with some time to herself to try to process what had happened to her. But there wasn't anything she could do to change it, so she just had to put up with it.
On top of that, she had a strong sense that Dyoni was also a bit resentful of her presence in the room, although she was too polite to say so. Tejana couldn't help wondering if perhaps this bed had once belonged to the mysterious Minya. For a few seconds she was tempted to ask, but then she decided she was just too tired. Without speaking, she pulled the pins out of her hair and changed into the long nightgown Fionnula had provided as part of her clothing allowance. It was one thing to sleep naked in her room in the TARDIS, but it was another to do it when she was sharing a room with a virtual stranger. The thin cotton nightgown reminded her of the one she had once worn as a prisoner on board the Valiant. She could remember the Master summoning her in the middle of the night and having to stand before him in the revealing garment, the way his eyes had roved so explicitly over her body...
Sudden loneliness pierced her. If she was to admit the truth, it wasn't just the way the Deca had treated her that had unsettled her. It was also her physical reaction to the young Master. When he had accidently touched her hand, she'd wanted to pull him close and run her fingers through his thick dark hair and kiss his lips. It had brought home to her just how much she was missing his older self.
Making sure Dyoni wasn't watching, she drew her laser screwdriver out of the pocket of her leather jacket, which was folded neatly at the end of her bed. Curling herself under the covers, she slipped it under her small, hard pillow, leaving her hand wrapped comfortingly around it. It was stupid, she knew, but somehow holding on to the Master's gift made her feel closer to him.
Drowsily, she allowed her eyes to fall shut and for a few hours, she knew no more, exhaustion dragging her deep into the realms of sleep. But then something disturbed her, almost as if she heard someone calling her by name. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw him, standing at the end of her bed.
Her Master.
Not the boy she had seen today, but the man that he would become. The man that would be the centre of her life and her soul. The man that would father her child.
"Koschei?" she queried shakily.
"Ana," he answered, his voice rough and full of need.
"But how...? This is a dream, isn't it?" she asked, sudden grief pulling at her. "You're not really here."
He stepped forward, as lean and dangerous-looking as a jungle cat, and she felt the bed shift under his weight as he sat down beside her. "Ssssshhhhh," he commanded, leaning over her and trailing his fingers down her cheek. "I promised I'd never leave you."
She closed her eyes, luxuriating in his touch, not caring if it was a dream. For now he was here and he was hers. Tomorrow could look after itself.
"I'm sorry I went off without telling you again," she murmured. "I just needed to see the Doctor. I wanted to ask him if he would marry us..."
His mouth came down on hers, cutting her off mid-sentence. The kiss was soft and persuasive at first, but as she relaxed against him, it became more demanding and intense. The touch of his tongue against hers, possessively invading her mouth, literally made her toes curl and she forgot how to breathe.
"It doesn't matter," he growled against her lips. "There's nothing the Doctor can do that will make you belong to me any more than you do right now, Ana. Just like there's nothing he can do to take you away from me. Nobody will ever do that."
She held him closer, coiling her arms around his neck and passionately returning his kiss, threading her fingers through his hair as she angled her mouth beneath his. He groaned deep in his throat and she felt his body shift, until he was fully on top of her, pressing her into the thin mattress. Heat surrounded her, streaking through her, sinking deep into her flesh. And then, that sweet, savage, familiar surge of sexual electricity between them, sweeping everything else in the universe aside and rendering it unimportant. Desire exploded deep inside Tejana, liquid and smouldering, as his hands ran down over her slender figure, deliberately arousing both of them. His lips trailed fire down the soft vulnerable skin of her throat and she tipped her head back, gasping in mindless pleasure. "Please...oh, please."
"I love it when you beg me, Ana," he rasped, his whiskey-coloured eyes dark with a mixture of lust and male triumph as he looked down into her face. "I love it when you burn for me and only me."
She could feel the hot hunger prowling inside him. It was alive, a tangible force that reached out for her, and every part of her ached to satisfy it, to sate him in every way.
"I know," she whispered fiercely, arching provocatively against him, her voice husky with challenge. "Master!"
He shuddered in response. In one quick, powerful movement, his fingers laced through hers and he slammed her arms above her head, trapping them against the bed. She knew there was something she should remember about that, something important about his hands restraining hers, but at that moment she didn't care. All she cared about was how much she loved him and wanted him.
"How much will you give me, Ana?" he hissed passionately into her ear. "How high can I take you before you shatter in my arms?"
Her hips moved in their own rhythm, pushing against the hardness of his body, wanting him to take everything she had. She was totally lost in the magic of what he was doing to her, her entire sense of self vanishing as the sweet, hot pressure began to build inside her.
"Mine," he muttered harshly, his breathing ragged as one hand moved to tug at the hem of her nightdress, pushing it up her thighs. "Always and forever."
She trembled beneath him as he touched her, shuddering in pleasure, crying out her need...
"Kat! KAT!" The voice was sharp and strident. It didn't belong in their shared world of light and heat, calling her back to a place she didn't want to be. She did her best to ignore it, desperately wanting whoever it was to go away and leave her alone with the Master. But something was shaking her by the shoulder and wouldn't let go.
"Go away!" she snarled. But it was too late. The dream had vanished like morning mist in the sunlight, snatching the Master away with it.
"Are you all right?" Dyoni persisted. Slowly, Tejana opened her eyes. The maid was standing beside the bed, an ethereal figure in her white nightdress, her pale hair a soft blur in the low light from the lamp. "You were calling out in your sleep."
For a few seconds, the desolate sense of loss nearly swamped Tejana and all she wanted to do was to scream and punch and kick. But somehow she managed to gather her last few shreds of self-control. "I'm fine," she said hoarsely. "It was...just a dream."
Dyoni looked at her uncertainly, as if she was disturbed at something in Tejana's tone. "Well...it can't have been a very good one then, for you to cry out like that. It's lucky I woke you."
"Yeah," Tejana agreed in a dull, aching voice. "Lucky. Really, really lucky."
With that, she turned over and faced the wall. Behind her, Dyoni re-dimmed the light and climbed back into her own bed. Long ago on Gallifrey, Tejana had taught herself how to cry silently, so that no-one ever knew. As the bitter sobs wracked her small frame that night, she clutched the laser screwdriver to her hearts and relearned the skill all over again.
Lord President Drall shifted uncomfortably on his chair. A stoop-shouldered man with thinning brown hair, he had only been President for a matter of months and was still settling into the job. He looked at the serious faces of the two men facing him and both his hearts sank. He could really do without a crisis this early in his term of office.
"Chancellor Umbast...Castellan Rannex..." he greeted them. "Tell me, what can be so urgent that it requires an emergency meeting such as this?"
"Good evening, Your Supremacy," Umbast inclined his head. "Forgive us for disturbing you at this late hour, but we felt you should be informed." He paused and slanted an uncertain look at the Castellan, before continuing, "It seems the APC Net has detected some alarming distortions in the timelines."
"Distortions? What sort of distortions?" Drall demanded, not liking the look on the other man's face.
"We're not quite sure," Rannex said cautiously. "It's almost as if time is unravelling in places, as if the skin of the Universe is...cracking."
The President frowned. "And what is causing these cracks?"
"From what we can tell, a temporal explosion of some sort, far into the future. The effects are reaching all the way back through time."
"A-ha!" Drall exclaimed in relief. "That's simple then. We'll just get the CIA to send someone forward in time to sort it out. I can authorise it with the presidential codes and no-one else need ever be any the wiser."
Umbast shook his head unhappily. "I'm sorry, Sir, but we can't do that. We're blocked."
"Blocked?" Drall was starting to feel like an idiot, repeating everything they were saying like some sort of damned parrot. "Blocked how?"
"We're unable to send any Gallifreyan agents past a certain point in time. It's like someone has drawn a line across history that we can't cross. The APC-Net indicates that at some stage in the future, we've been time-locked."
"That's preposterous!" the President spluttered. "Absolutely impossible! If there's any time-locking to be done, we're the ones who do it! Who would dare to time-lock Gallifrey herself?"
The Castellan cleared his throat uncomfortably. "That's not all, Sir. There's something else."
Drall rubbed fretfully at his temples. This was beyond annoying. And to think that the most exciting thing he'd had planned for his day was admiring himself in his mirror wearing the Sash of Rassilon!
"What?"
"The Fourth Law of Time has been breached. Someone from the same time period as the temporal explosion has travelled backwards into Gallifrey's past. Whoever it is, the APC-Net indicates that they're here on the planet somewhere, right now."
Drall's head snapped up in shock. "A Time Lord? Disregarding the Protocols of Linearity?"
"It appears so," Rannex confirmed.
"Then find them!"
"We've been trying to, Sir," Umbast said with an apologetic shrug. "But whoever it is, we can find no evidence of them in any time-line, not even the slightest record – past, present or future. Basically, they don't exist. It makes it very difficult for the Matrix to trace them."
"A Time Lord that doesn't exist, travelling backwards through time," Drall groaned. "Am I the only one here who realises that doesn't actually make sense?"
"We have no idea of the agenda of this unknown person. We can only assume that it has something to do with the temporal explosion. Perhaps they were responsible for it, who knows?" Rannex continued stiffly. "The only definite data we have is that they materialised somewhere within the Prydonian Academy within the last few days."
"The Prydonian Academy?" Drall exclaimed, his anxiety levels increasing exponentially. His son Anzor, the apple of his eye, was a student at the Prydonian Academy. What if he was in danger from this unknown threat? There was no doubt that decisive action had to be taken. "This person is a threat to the security of Gallifrey. He or she must be found, as soon as possible. You will see to it, Castellan, whatever it takes."
"And when we find them, Lord President? What then?"
Drall fixed his two underlings with a steely, grey gaze. "The Protocols of Linearity are very clear on this matter. No breach of the Fourth Law of Time will be tolerated, under any circumstances. Any Time Lord found guilty of such a breach will be executed immediately, without trial."
The next morning, Tejana felt heavy-eyed and lethargic, as if she'd had no sleep at all. To her relief, she and Dyoni were not assigned to breakfast duty, so she didn't have to face the possibility of seeing any of the Deca. Instead, they were given the duty of making up the rooms in the senior accommodation wing, a job which appeared easy enough on the surface. But towards the end of the morning, after tidying what seemed like hundreds of rooms, Tejana's back was aching like it had never ached before. When children were first admitted to the Academy, they slept in large dormitories, supervised by house-mothers. When they became seniors, however, each student was allocated a private room with an attached bathroom. And no matter how technologically advanced Gallifreyan society was, someone still had to do the cleaning. It was much too far beneath the young Time Lords and Ladies of the Academy to do their own dirty work. That was left for the servants to do. Tejana had lost count of how many rooms she had attended to already that day – making beds, picking up dirty clothes off the floor and sending them down a chute to be dealt with by the laundry maids, straightening books and papers, dusting the furniture...
From what she could see, most of the students were what on Earth would be called filthy slobs. Occasionally she and Dyoni came across a pristinely tidy room, but for the most part they looked like a violent hurricane had recently blown through them. At first it made her feel murderously annoyed until, with a strong sense of guilt, she remembered racing off to meet Damon for breakfast at the Refectory during her time at the Academy, leaving her room in absolute disarray behind her. It had always been immaculate when she returned, just like magic, and she had never given a single thought as to how it got that way.
Some magic! she thought now, stretching painfully and rubbing crossly at her lower back. The unconventional lifestyle she usually led meant that she was a long way from being unfit, but she was still unaccustomed to this level of prolonged physical labour. It just wasn't something Time Lords usually did.
Dyoni smiled at her in amusement, her hands busy fluffing out a pillow, before replacing it on the neatly made bed. She seemed to have hardly even raised a sweat, which only served to make Tejana even more grumpy.
"It's not funny!" she groaned. "I think I'm dying."
"We're nearly finished," Dyoni replied, bustling around to attend to the pillows on the other side of the bed. "There's only around twenty more rooms to do."
"Twenty!" Tejana exclaimed in horror. "Is that supposed to be comforting? What do they think we are? A bunch of Ood?"
The other girl looked over at her curiously. "What are Ood?"
Tejana was more than used to answering similar questions from her human companions, so she didn't even think twice about replying. "A telepathic race, enslaved by humans throughout the Universe to do all their menial work," she said, bending down again to pick up some more rubbish from the floor. "They look like little bald men, but with tentacles instead of a nose and mouth. They live to serve, that's all they do. Except, of course, when they go all 'red-eye' and kill everything in sight instead. After this, I think I can understand why they do it!"
Dyoni laughed. "Oh, Kat, you're such a wonderful storyteller. You Shabogans have such imaginations!"
"But it's not..." Tejana began, only to catch herself as she suddenly realised what she was saying. Kat the Shabogan maid-servant would have no knowledge of the Ood or of any of the other countless races that populated the Universe. On Gallifrey, only a Time Lord would have access to that sort of information, and then usually only in an academic sense, since most Time Lords never left their home planet. "Er...yes...imagination. That's me, all right, very imaginative. People are always saying that. You'd be surprised at the stuff I come up with."
"Just don't let Fionnula hear you spinning any of your tales," Dyoni warned. "She'd think it was frivolous and a waste of time."
Together they moved towards the door, leaving the room spick and span behind them, at least until its occupant returned and messed it all up again. The repetitive futility of their task grated on Tejana. No matter how well they did their job today, they would be back here doing it all over again tomorrow. She couldn't imagine doing it over and over again, ad infinitum, with nothing else to look forward to, ever, except for more of the same. That level of concentrated tedium was completely beyond her understanding. It was so different to her wild and free existence travelling the stars.
"Don't you ever want to do something different with your life, Dyoni?" she blurted out, struggling to work out how the girl could possibly bear it. "Surely you don't want to do this forever?"
Dyoni's pale blue eyes met hers in puzzlement. "Like what?" she asked. "There aren't exactly a lot of options available for unmarried females of our class, are there? We can either go into service or become a 'Lady of the Night'. And I don't know about you, but I have no intention of bartering my affections to the highest bidder."
"No, but you could..." Tejana started. "I mean, there's always..." But the more she thought about it, the more she realised that there was nothing she could suggest. She herself had found it difficult enough to break free from the suffocating bonds of Gallifreyan society, and she had been a Time Lady, a descendant of one of the Great Houses. What hope did a maidservant like Dyoni have?
"Isn't there anyone you want to marry?" she finished weakly, not sure what else to say.
Dyoni blushed. "Not yet. There's been a few boys, but no-one special. How about you?"
A pang of grief unexpectedly hit Tejana right between the hearts as she remembered the passion she had shared with the Master in her previous night's dream. Oh, Koschei, do you even remember my name?
"Yeah, there's someone," she said aloud, settling for a version of the truth. "I was hoping we could be married, but there's been a few...obstacles."
"Where is he now?"
"Far away." So very, very far...
Her voice must have revealed something of her pain, because Dyoni's eyes softened in sympathy. "Do you miss him?"
"More than I could ever tell you," Tejana replied. She knew she had to stop talking about this right now, or she was going to burst into tears again. So instead, she tried to change the subject. "Listen, I think I've got this room cleaning thing pretty much figured out by now. So how about we split up and do separate rooms? We should get through them a bit quicker that way."
The abrupt change in Dyoni's expression was almost startling. The hunted look was back in her eyes, like a small animal expecting to be attacked any minute. "No! We stay together."
"But, I just thought..."
"No more argument, Kat," the other girl said fiercely. "The maids clean the rooms in pairs. That's the rule, ever since..."
She broke off and walked up the corridor to the door of the next room. Even from behind, Tejana could tell her shoulders were tight with tension.
"Ever since what?" she asked curiously.
But Dyoni just shook her head. "Never mind. That's just the way it's done, all right?"
Tejana rolled her eyes at the ambiguous answer. She was getting a bit sick of Dyoni's evasiveness. "Fine. I was just trying to help."
The other maid didn't answer. She merely slid open the door of the next room instead. Tejana sighed in irritation and followed her in. The other maid seemed like a really nice person, when she wasn't being all cryptic and strange. But at least she been distracted from the subject of Tejana's love life, which was an enormous relief.
The next room was one of the rare few that was already immaculately tidy. Apart from cleaning the bathroom, which they did together, and making the bed, which Dyoni took care of, there was very little to do. Tejana flicked her duster around unenthusiastically, until a spectacular model hanging from the ceiling in the corner caught her eye. She moved closer, entranced. It was a perfect holographic representation of the Constellation of Kasterborous, with the twin suns glowing at the centre and the Seven Systems gloriously spread out around them. Tejana easily picked out the rust-coloured image of Gallifrey, patterned with brown lakes and grey clouds, orbited by her two moons, the small copper-coloured Pazithi Gallifreya, which was bright enough to be visible even in the daylight, and the larger heliotrope moon of Selenista Gallifreya, which illuminated the nights. The other five planets in the system were also accurately represented, including the planets of Karn and Polarfrey and the asteroid of Kasterborous the Fibster. Tejana could hardly remember when she'd seen anything so magnificent.
"Oh, gods," she gasped. "It's so beautiful."
"Good, isn't it?" a voice said from the doorway. Whirling around, she saw Koschei standing there, his navy-blue eyes fixed steadily on her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dyoni sink into a deep curtsey. Reminded of who she was supposed to be, she did the same, thinking wryly to herself how much the older Master would enjoy this display of subservience from her.
He didn't even glance at Dyoni, but kept his attention fixed on Tejana as he walked into the room. "My friend Drax made it for me. It was an Otherstide gift."
With him in it, the room suddenly seemed a lot smaller. Against her will, Tejana felt her pulses start to race and her stomach begin to do flip-flops. Immediately, she felt angry with herself. This might be Koschei, but he was not her Koschei, she told herself firmly. Not yet. They were effectively two different people. At this point in time, he was centuries younger than her, not much more than a boy, and she had no right to be attracted to him, no matter how good-looking he was.
"It's amazing, my Lord," she said in a low voice, refusing to meet his eyes. "Your friend must be very talented."
"Oh, he is," Koschei replied. "Very talented."
Tejana swallowed hard. It appeared the younger version of the Master already had the ability to say so much more with his tone of voice than his actual words implied. It was like velvet, warm and sensual, sending shivers along her skin like a physical touch. Even without the psychic link, she knew him far too well to doubt what he was thinking. All at once, she was very aware of the bed behind her and she was incredibly glad of Dyoni's presence. It was lucky they had not split up to clean the rooms after all. She wasn't at all sure how she would deal with being on her own with him, especially as she was missing his older self so much.
"Forgive us, Lord Koschei," Dyoni spoke up, moving around to stand beside Tejana like a protective mother hen. "We've finished now. We were just leaving."
He paused for a moment, but then nodded, before stepping aside and leaving the doorway clear. "Of course. Don't let me interrupt you."
"Thank you, Milord." Dyoni bobbed another curtsey and ushered her companion past him into the hall.
Tejana could feel his eyes on her back all the way to the door. Deep inside, a very insistent part of her wanted to ditch Dyoni and stay with him, aching to find out whether the heat and excitement between them would be the same, even this far back in time. But she squashed it ruthlessly, refusing to surrender to the temptation.
The door slid shut and the two girls hurried together along the corridor. Dyoni slanted Tejana a suspicious glance. "That was very strange," she said. "Lord Koschei is almost never in his rooms at this time of day."
"Perhaps he was looking for something," Tejana suggested.
"Yes," Dyoni agreed, staring at her meaningfully. "Perhaps he was."
Koschei sank down on his bed, a scowl written across his handsome face. He'd been hoping that what had happened in the Refectory had all been some weird kind of anomaly, just some sort of odd, passing glitch in his brain. Lying alone in his bed during the dark reaches of the night, he'd almost managed to convince himself that he'd imagined his reaction to Kat. She was just a servant. He was the heir of Oakdown. If he wanted sex, he would find with someone of his own class. He was good-looking, intelligent and charming enough when he wanted to be. There were Time Ladies aplenty who were more than pleased to accommodate him, any time he wished. So why would he ever want a lowly servant?
So he had purposely set out to cross her path, to prove his point to himself. This time, he told himself, when he saw her, he would feel nothing. But then he had stood in the doorway of his room, watching her look up at the model in the corner, and he understood how wrong he had been. If anything, the lust he felt for her this morning was even stronger than it had been last night.
It was a strange, intense feeling. It was almost as if he wasn't anticipating what it felt like to kiss the long, vulnerable line of her throat, to taste the sweetness of her lips, to feel the softness of her small, delicate body writhing beneath him, to hear her calling his name, begging for more and more and more – it was like he was remembering it, in exquisite detail, as if he'd done it all before...
He was so caught up in the confusion of his thoughts, he didn't even notice a shadow crossing the wall behind him.
"What do you want with Tejana?" the Doctor demanded, surreptitiously pulling at his wrist restraints and trying to loosen them. According to River, Tejana was his daughter. Why in the Universe would the Master have any interest in her movements, when he already had the Doctor trapped and right where he wanted him? This whole situation was becoming more and more surreal with every second that passed.
The Master gave a short, sharp laugh. "Don't try to mess with me, Doctor. I'm warning you..."
But then he broke off and took an incredulous look at the Doctor's confused and angry face. "But you're not, are you? You honestly have no idea what I'm talking about."
"Well, congratulations, maybe you're not quite as stupid as I thought," the Doctor shot back. "Because guess what? I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."
"She came here to tell you she's carrying my child!" the Master hissed. "My son! Are you telling me you don't remember that?"
The Doctor shook his head blankly, shock slicing through him like a sword-blade. His daughter, pregnant with the Master's child? It had to be a lie, the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. What kind of a father would he have been to let that happen? The answer was excruciatingly obvious: a very bad one! And yet, somewhere in the back of his mind, it felt as if the Master had triggered a siren, as if a distant part of his brain was shouting at him that this was true and he had to remember...remember...remember...
"Wait a minute..." the Master growled, leaning over him and looking even closer, suddenly seeing the truth in his enemy's eyes. "You don't even remember her, do you? At all! She's completely gone from your mind - your own daughter! But what...?" Then he took a step backward, out through the door of the Pandorica, his face lighting with understanding. "Ohhhh...oh yes, of course, now I get it."
"Well, I'm glad you do, because I don't!" the Doctor snapped.
The Master turned away, running his hands through his white-blonde hair. "The cracks, he's using the cracks!" Then he spun back to face the Doctor, his face tight with barely-controlled rage. "Oh, he's clever, I'll give him that! He thinks he can keep her from me by using the Time-fire."
"He?" the Doctor repeated. "Who are you talking about?"
The white Dalek glided forward, as if it was tired of the irrelevant conversation between the two Time Lords. "The cracks in Time are the work of the Doc-tor. It has been con-firmed."
"No!" the Doctor shouted. "Wait...listen to me!"
"The Pandorica was constructed to ensure the safety of the Alliance," the Cyber-leader intoned. "You will be prevented."
"It's not me. It's the TARDIS. And I'm not in the TARDIS, am I?'
The Dalek rotated its eye-stalk back and forth, as if it was denying what he was saying. "On-ly the Time Lords can pi-lot the TARDIS."
As it spoke, there was another series of metallic sounds inside the Pandorica. Apprehensively, alert for further danger, the Doctor watched as another panel opposite him slid away. From a hidden compartment inside, another padded chair emerged, complete with wrist and ankle restraints. Another shoulder-yoke dropped from the ceiling.
"What...?" the Master began in a shocked voice, only to feel the two fake Roman soldiers gripping his arms in an unbreakable grasp. "What the hell are you doing?"
"On-ly the Time Lords can pi-lot the TARDIS," the Dalek said again, its voice implacable. "All Time Lords will be prevented."
The Master was fighting in earnest now, kicking and struggling just as the Doctor had done before him, with exactly the same lack of success. Bit by bit, the Autons dragged him towards the Pandorica and thrust him into the second chair. "No! I'm on your side! I helped you!" he howled, as the restraints were locked into place around him. "LET ME OUT!"
"You designed the perfect prison for a Time Lord," the Sontaran said. "A perfect prison for yourself."
The two Autons stepped back, leaving both Time Lords securely trapped within the Pandorica.
"Wait!" the Doctor begged. "You have to listen to me. The TARDIS is exploding right now and the two of us are the only ones who can stop it!"
He could see them all, peering in at them, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Autons and countless others, all crowding around to gloat at his final end.
"Seal the Pandorica!" the Cyber-leader ordered.
"NO!" the Master screamed. "You can't leave me in here with him! I am the Master! You will obey me!"
But none of the creatures moved. Slowly, inexorably, with a deep, grinding noise, the doors began to slide closed.
"Total event collapse!" the Doctor shouted in panic, still trying desperately to get through to them, even though he knew it was impossible. "Every sun will supernova at every moment in history. The whole Universe will never have existed! Listen to me!"
And then the doors of the Pandorica slammed shut.