Evil Incarnate Part 2.
"Have you been moving things in here Brigadier?" The Doctor paced around the lab within the Unit HQ that he had for some years called home. "I would never have left that Bunsen burner there, and that beaker was on that shelf there, I remember it like it was yesterday."
"Uhm, Doctor?" Rose interjected, the Doctor spun around to face her, his eyebrow raised in askance. "Priorities, Doctor. Priority one, who is the Master? Priority two, are you serious? Yetis?"
The Doctor bounded the space between him and Rose, he grabbed her, "That's what I like about you, you don't let me ramble too much, of course, you're right. Point one, the Master is a renegade Timelord."
"Much like you by all accounts Doctor." A smirk crossed the Brigadiers lips as he thought his jibe would prick this new Doctor's ego.
"He was nothing like me." The Doctor snapped back, "he lived only to conquer, to rule."
"Why are you talking about him in the past tense?"
"What? Am I? Sorry Brigadier, sore point you touched on there. But, back to the matter in hand. What do you think of the new me then?" The Doctor's smile beamed across the room at the Brigadier.
The lab door opened and another familiar face appeared. "I'm just about to head off to Devesham Brigadier, any final orders?"
"No, no new orders, just bring Crayford home safely, he's been in space longer than any human, present company probably excluded" He looked around at the Doctor and his companions.
"Oh, hello Doctor." Benton smiled as he stepped all of the way through the door. Where's Donna?"
"Who? The Doctor asked."
"Oh no. This is that time isn't it?" A look of panic crossing the sergeants face.
"What time?" The Doctor asked in a serious tone.
"The time when I'm supposed to pretend I'm meeting this you for the first time. Oh no, have I just destroyed the space time continuum telling you that?"
"No, you haven't" The Doctor laughed, just don't tell me anything more about what happened, or will happen from my point of view."
"Huh?" Mickey asked.
"Don't worry Mickey, it's time travel, it just means that I'm going to meet the Sergeant here at some point in my personal future, which from his perspective is his personal past."
"Huh?" Mickey asked again.
"Oh, I give up. You just run along to the Space defence station Sergeant, I suppose I'll see you soon, in more ways than one really." The Doctor smirked, as the bemused Sergeant left the lab.
"Now, where was I? Ah yes, The Master. Evil Timelord, determined to rule the Universe, sees Earth as a perfect launching point for that goal. The Yetis, well, they're not the real Yeti, they're android constructs, made by another evil force that called itself the 'Great Intelligence', not very big on the modesty, either of them."
"But, another Timelord? How is that possible?" Rose asked.
"What, you know, it hasn't happened yet. We've slipped into established events, it shouldn't happen, but that's probably why it did."
"But if the war hasn't happened yet, can't you warn them?" Mickey asked.
"Rose can answer that one." The Doctor replied. "Well, Rose? Can I alter established events? Can I create a paradox? Can I stop them from dying?"
"No." Rose looked forlorn, memories of her father and his death, rising in her memory. Then she looked up at the Doctor, "So, how do we find him, and how do we stop him?"
"Oh, finding him is the easy part, a very clever young woman told me once that I should just do a scan for alien tech. I think it was Yoko Ono."
"John Lennon's wife told you to scan for alien technology?" The Brigadier asked.
"Oi. Credit where it's due mister." Rose said as she playfully punched the Doctor's arm. The Doctor laughed with her, knowing that the bitter memories of her father had been pushed to one side once more. He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, and touched a control on the device.
"What good is that old thing going to do Doctor?" The Brigadier asked in increasing exasperation.
"Oh, I've upgraded it a bit since your day Brigadier."
"What? Is it a laser screwdriver now?" The Brigadier snorted.
"A what? A laser screwdriver? What would I want a stupid thing like that for? I mean, who does lasers nowadays? They're passé, almost retro chic, but not quite." The Doctor held up the device and activated it, as he swung the small screwdriver around the pitch changed slightly. He focussed in one direction, extending his arm than pulling it back to him. "One hundred and twenty two miles North north west. What's in that direction?" The Doctor moved over to a blackboard and spun the board until a map appeared. He examined it closely. "Battersea power station. Well, it figures, if he's to have any hopes of reactivating the Yetis he's going to need a lot of power to do it." As the Doctor turned around to face the others in the room, he keeled over, grasping his temples as though in agony, letting out a small whimper as he hit the ground.
Rose was at his side in a split second, the Brigadier was also in motion, grabbing the phone from its cradle. "We need a medic in the Doctor's lab, now" he bellowed so loudly that the phone almost became an unnecessary appendage in the flow of communication. With the order given, he turned to the prone figure of his friend, Rose sitting stroking his head as she cradled him, rocking him gently.
She looked up at the Brigadier and Mickey. "Both of his hearts have stopped." Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke.
To be continued.