Hello again! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you guys are great. If you're reading this, please do review. I do update quicker if I get more reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
xxx
Martha and Jack quickly ran outside after the Doctor, and were met by darkness. They were standing in the middle of a spotlight, the area around them in pitch black. Martha could see the Doctor in front of her, looking around.
"Hello again, Doctor," came a voice from the darkness. The Doctor and Jack instantly recognised it, and a shiver went down their spine. A man stepped into the light, dressed completely in black, with his hands behind his back, and a smirk upon his face.
"Master," the Doctor greeted deadpan. The Master almost instantly noticed Martha standing behind the Doctor watching him nervously.
"Oh I say! You've got yourself a new friend," he said, taking a step towards the Doctor. "And who might she be?"
"This is Martha," the Doctor introduced, "Martha, this is the Master, one of the most evil people in the Universe."
"Oh you flatter me," the Master said sarcastically, "But do tell me – what happened to Rose?" The Doctor stared at his enemy with a pain burning in his eyes.
"She's gone," he said quietly.
"Oh? Gone where?"
"Just… gone. I lost her," his voice was shaking as he tried not to show a weakness to the Master, who nodded slowly.
"I see," he said, pretending to look sympathetic, "she died. How very tragic. Well, that's what you get when you fall in love with a human." Martha's eyes widened and she stared in astonishment at the Master. Was he right? Had the Doctor loved Rose? "Too bad, she was such an integral part of my plan."
"She's not dead!" The Doctor shouted suddenly, surprising everyone present. "She's out there somewhere, living her own life, just the way she should be, safe and away from people like you!" His voice shook with anger as he glared at the Master, who looked at him in confusion.
"If she's alive," he said, "then why aren't you with her?" his voice was surprisingly calm despite the Doctor's outburst. The Doctor looked to the ground; he clearly didn't want to talk about it. The Master took a step closer to him, and almost whispered to him. "Did she leave you?" he asked, almost mockingly.
"No," the Doctor said quickly, looking up at the Master.
"Then where is she?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. The Doctor didn't say anything for a few moments.
"She's trapped," he said finally, "in a parallel universe. Somewhere you can never get to her!" The Master looked at the Doctor as a frown crossed his features.
"I thought you said since the Time Lords were gone it was impossible to travel between universes?" he asked sceptically.
"There was a hole in reality. A breach, connecting the universes. But the breach is now closed and I can't get back through," the Doctor explained. The Master stared at him for a long moment, his eyes wide as he ran this through his mind.
"And I bet you'd do anything to get back to her," he stated rather than asked. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at him, confused and angry at the same time. "Interesting," the Master said thoughtfully. "Ironic, isn't it, now that the Time Lords are gone you can't get back to her. After what you did to them," the Doctor stared at the Master wide-eyed, as the Master's voice took on a tone of bitterness, "I know what really happened. Murderer."
"I had no choice," the Doctor argued, trying to defend himself.
"How does it feel," the Master asked, "knowing that you killed your own species?" The Doctor took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself and not do something he would regret.
"How do you know what happened?" he asked after a moments pause. A smirk replaced the look of hatred on the Master's face.
"I asked someone who was there," he said. The Doctor frowned as the Master stepped to the side, and looked back into the darkness, as a familiar blue light began to fade into view. Jack and the Doctor both stared in horror as it glided into the light.
"Alert! Alert! It is the Doctor!" the familiar metallic voice shouted, "Exterminate!!" the Doctor took an instinctive step backwards as the gun pointed up towards him, but the Master put his hand out to stop it.
"Now, now, we don't want him dead," he said calmly, as the Dalek looked up at him, "Yet." The Doctor eyed the black Dalek suspiciously.
"How are you here?" he asked it, ready to run if it decided not to obey the Master and kill him anyway.
"When you opened the breach I initiated an emergency temporal shift," the Dalek explained.
"And why are you with the Master?" he asked, looking between his two enemies. The Master answered this question.
"The Dalek wants to open the breach, to release the other Daleks, but to do that a TARDIS is required. If I help, then in return I will received a new cycle of regenerations," the Master said.
"You're… going to help the Daleks?" the Doctor said disbelievingly.
"Yes."
"The Time Lords' enemy?"
"Yes."
"The race that killed the Time Lords?"
"You killed the Time Lords."
"Because of the Daleks," The Doctor looked between them again, hardly able to believe the Master was doing this. "They won't give you want you want, you know that. They've always killed the people that have helped them once they get what they needed."
"Lies!" the Dalek shouted, "You will receive your regenerations in return for opening the breach!" The Doctor could see the doubt on the Master's face, but it didn't last long.
"And why should I believe you, Doctor?"
"Because it's the truth!" the Doctor warned, "I'm telling you now, the Daleks wont do as they say. They never do. Stop this now if you want to live," the Doctor looked at the Master with genuine concern, but he wouldn't be convinced.
"If I help them, I will rule the universe with them. Why should I give up that chance?"
"They're going to kill you!"
"And what makes your word any better then theirs?" the Doctor could only stare in disbelief.
"I tried to warn you," he muttered, then turned and ran into the TARDIS. Jack and Martha quickly followed him in, and the Master watched as the TARDIS dematerialised, a smile spreading across his face. Things hadn't gone exactly to plan, but that didn't matter.
They'd gone better.
xxx
The Doctor angrily attacked the consol as the TARDIS went into flight, the room rocking violently before calming down. He looked down at the consol, breathing deeply.
Martha was still amazed. She didn't know a thing about the Doctor's past, and she'd never been able to ask about his home planet. But what that man had said – he'd killed them. He'd always stood up for what was right and had always tried to save everyone, but he'd killed his own people. She felt a wave of fear wash over her, she really had no idea who this man was and what he was capable of. She couldn't trust him anymore. And if all his people were dead, did that mean he was the last one? She had to know what had happened, but now didn't exactly look like a great time to ask.
Then there was Rose. She'd just assumed they were friends. She'd known the Doctor was close to her, she could tell, but she couldn't imagine him being someone's boyfriend. It didn't seem right. And the fact that Rose wasn't actually dead also hit her hard. Everything she'd thought about the Doctor seemed to be turning upside down.
Jack ran from her side to the Doctor's, and watched the screen as the Doctor fiddled with the controls.
"What's happening?" Jack asked. The Doctor shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.
"They're trying to open the void," he said, "like the Master said, they need a TARDIS. But one TARDIS isn't enough. He needs mine as well, he needs me to open the breach, and I'm guessing he was planning on kidnapping Rose again and forcing me to do it."
"But he couldn't do that, so he can't open the breach," Jack said, looked at the Doctor, whose gaze remained on the screen. The Doctor had a deep frown, that gently faded.
"If we open the breach I can get back to Rose," he said quietly.
xxx
The Master sat in his TARDIS as the engines worked, watching the screen. He'd tapped into the Doctor's TARDIS, and was watching as the Doctor realised he could get back to Rose.
The Doctor had been right about his plan – he had planned to kidnap Rose and force the Doctor to open the breach. But now he didn't need to. This gave the Doctor a chance to get back to her… and that was more convincing than any threat could be.
xxx
The Doctor looked up at Jack, his eyes lost.
"I could get back to her," he whispered, "endanger the whole universe and risk the Daleks killing everyone…" he looked back at the screen, breathing deeply, "I can't do that." Jack knew that the Doctor would never risk the lives of millions of people just so he could do something, no matter how much he wanted it. But he couldn't let this opportunity pass.
"Doctor, you can come back and stop them. You've done it before. Just go to the other universe, find Rose, then come back seconds after you've left," he suggested. The Doctor looked up at him, his expression helpless and confused.
"But I can't navigate through the void, we could end up a hundred years after the Daleks were released. I might not be able to stop them. I can't risk the whole universe just to get back to her… can I?" he mentally raced through the possibilities, as his eyes burned with pain and loss and possibility, his mind split with indecision.
"Do it," Jack ordered, sounding more certain of this than nothing he'd ever said before. A manic grin spread across the Doctor's face, as he went to the controls and sent the TARDIS hurtling into the void.
xxx
The Master watched with a satisfied smile as the Doctor's TARDIS began to fade off his scanner. He knew there was no way that the Doctor could give up the chance of seeing her again. The beeping from his consol grew louder and louder as the breach was ripped open, and the Doctor's TARDIS disappeared completely.
After being in the Time War, the sight of Daleks swarming across a planet would usually numb someone with fear and shock them to the core, but not this time. This time the Master thought it was beautiful.