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Only Rassilon's gauntlet wasn't pointed at The Doctor, his gaze was though, locked on The Doctor's drinking in his expression of horror as he rubbed two fingers together causing them to spark and spit before bringing them up in a mockery of a caress. Metal fingers ghosting over chiselled cheekbones as flesh and bone tightened savagely in the knot of her hair, yanking her head back roughly.
"Why you are almost pretty now my dear…We really must change that."
"Let her go!" It was meant to be commanding, The Doctor whose words had once caused armies to shiver and shake in fear, yet it came out of his throat more as a plea.
"No." Rassilon's reply was softly spoken yet there was no hiding his contempt for them both. "Why should I? I'm winning."
"Because there is no need for any of this." The Doctor insisted taking a hesitant step forward. "We don't need to be enemies, not this time. We all want the same thing to save Gallifrey and working together we can achieve anything…"
"Oh Doctor how very naïve you still are." Rassilon sneered. "The Daleks are worthy enemies, you two are irritants, mere pebbles in my shoes and I am finally going to deal with you and as for Gallifrey…" He added lip curling in disgust.
"What about Gallifrey?" The Doctor questioned nervously.
Now smiling broadly Rassilon nodded his head towards the display. "Why don't you take a look Doctor?"
Stumbling over to the control console The Doctor ran his sonic over the display and the viewscreen sprung to life. Yet this time there was no Osgood instead the display was filled with the glow of an orange planet.
For a moment The Doctor could only stare up in wonder, his two hearts swelling in joy. Gallifrey…Rassilon had found it.
"You found it." He whispered reverently his hands ghosting over the image. "Where did you find it? Have you found a way to bring it back?"
Barking out a laugh Rassilon could only shake his head. "Oh no Doctor I never lost it, I've always known where it was. After all I was the one who piloted my tardis out of the pocket dimension."
"But I don't…" The Doctor frowned in confusion running bruised and bloody hands through his stained hair. "Why did you leave?"
"Why should I stay where I was clearly no longer wanted or respected?" Rassilon demanded pompously his eyes flashing dangerously as they alighted on the red planet, and if The Doctor had thought Rassilon's gaze was venomous before now it dripped with bitter insanity.
"After all I only created them, built our society with my genius and hard work and how am I repaid? My own generals colluding behind my back and if my own people no longer respect me, no longer trust me to win this war…"
"The war is over!" The Doctor insisted. "We ended it when we saved Gallifrey."
"Oh yes you and your twelve other annoying incarnations." Rassilon sneered. "The Doctor once the butcher of Gallifrey now it's Hero."
"Is that why we're here? Because you're jealous?" The Doctor demanded incredulously. "Because it wasn't you? You the man who wanted to destroy the whole of time itself just so he could win the war."
"Is this moral judgement from the coward who once burnt Gallifrey and every man woman and child on its surface?"
"I did what I had to. The war would have destroyed the whole universe."
"Universes die and are reborn that is the nature of things." Rassilon pontificated as if instructing a particularly slow student.
"Yet you denied our people their opportunity to move beyond those petty bounds and now they will never get that opportunity…they no longer deserve it. A billion years of timelord civilisation deserves a more fitting end than to be forgotten in some pathetic pocket dimension, and a more fitting champion than a failed timelord who chooses another species over his own people, that or there needs to be a new class of timelords." Rassilon added darkly.
"What do you mean?" The Doctor frowned. "Explain."
"No." Rassilon replied. "I think I will just show you instead." Flipping the thumb of his gauntlet Rassilon switched the feed to the viewscreen and suddenly instead of Gallifrey there was a huge underground warehouse on the screen filled with what at first looked like sills and yet as The Doctor stared he suddenly realised what he was seeing…Looms…Thousands of them.
"A new race of timelords." The Doctor gasped and now suddenly it all made sense, why so much effort had been put into Rassilon's little reconstruction. He wasn't just building himself a home away from home he was building himself a new timelord empire.
"Yes and I really do have you and The Master to thank for helping speed up the process. With your DNA extracts I have been able to populate three times as many units for stage one."
"You…You…" The Doctor couldn't believe what he was hearing. Timelords potentially thousands of them… His descendants… His and The Masters and Rassilon's…That was a combination that made his brain hurt and he felt violated. Yet as Rassilon's revelation had left him reeling The Doctor couldn't help but think he was missing something. Rassilon had years to implement his new race of timelords so why wait until now?
Unless…
"Before a new empire can rise the old one must fall and there is nothing you can do to stop it Doctor, not this time." Rassilon gloated flicking the screen back to the image of Gallifrey before clenching his fist causing the floor beneath their feet to vibrate.
"What are you do…" The Doctor demanded yet then on the screen the terrible truth became apparent, a hole in space, a beam of light…Yet it wasn't directed at Gallifey.
"It was just a question of punching a hole into the right dimension and now it begins can't you see?" Squinting The Doctor cursed these old eyes he had ended up with. "Gallifrey will fall."
"Only if you ever learn to aim straight." The Master's sudden taunt stung and The Doctor winced as Rassilon moved his grip to her throat and stared down at her with a mixture of disbelief and disgust.
"You know I was almost impressed. Finding a way to cheat my programming and resurrect yourself but then you disappoint me Master. Do you take advantage of my ignorance? No you come scurrying here like a dog begging for scraps of attention. A mad dog grovelling for a kind word or a pat from the man who holds your leash…"
"Shut up!"
"Oh dear did I say something I shouldn't?" Rassilon asked innocently, his blue eyes flickering over to The Doctor who shifted uncomfortably his blue grey eyes clouded as he struggled with what Rassilon was implying.
"I honestly don't know who is more pathetic out of the two of you, The Doctor with his pathetic attachment to the lesser species or The Master with her unending obsession with a timelord who will never love her back. You're his embarrassment my dear didn't you realise, the childhood friend he wishes he could forget ever existed, but like a stalker you keep coming back and now even his patience with you is through. I am not wrong am I Doctor? I know I'm not, I saw it in your mind."
"It's not that simple." The Doctor spluttered, and it wasn't, yet it wasn't a lie.
He knew it, Rassilon knew it and now The Master knew it was well, and The Doctor didn't know what hurt worse the sheen of unshed tears in those too bright blue eyes or the half smile she gave him that made The Doctor feel like a complete bastard.
It was easier when The Master was dead to deal with their shared past, not to have to face the person that had once been everything he had ever wanted in the world and his greatest disappointment. It was easier to forgot, to keep on moving to the next planet, the next adventure, the next earth girl….every one broke his hearts but none had shattered them the way she had.
"Oh but it is Doctor I know you both, I know the secrets you try to hide even from yourselves. He wishes you would just stay dead so why don't you be a good girl and oblige him?" Rassilon suggested his touch on The Master's face almost gentle as he brushed aside the tear that had broken loose from her control.
"You know I am speaking the truth… He might even be grateful…"
"No! No!" Now The Doctor was insistent, stepping forward even as his abused feet screamed their protest. "Koschei don't listen to him. It's just too hard sometime but I never wanted…I don't want you dead…I just…" He paused frustrated with his own inability to find the words, when words were the only thing he normally had to rely on and now even they seemed to fail him.
"Well I wouldn't worry about it Doctor you won't survive her by long, just long enough to see Gallifrey fall." Rassilon spat back his gauntlet now glowing as he turned it back on The Master holding it close to her face.
"Any last words my dear Master?"
"Just one." Missy replied sweetly, her gaze flicking over to The Doctor who was amazed to see her wink a wicked smile tugging across her lips. "Ooops."
Then twisting her wrist she rammed her wicked little scalpel directly into Rassilon's groin.
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