Author's Note: Hello again! Big thanks to everyone who was kind enough to review the first chapter yesterday, you all made me very happy - MayFairy, mericat, Imorgen, PhoenixWormwood137 and SawManiac211.

To SawManiac211: The system is being silly again at the moment and won't let me reply to your review - So thanks very much for your comment and all I can say to you is "Mwa ha ha ha ha!" - LOL!

Thanks again to Theta'sWorstNightmare for looking over this before I posted it.

CHAPTER TWO

The Master looked into the mirror and smiled in satisfaction at the man staring back at him.

Harold Saxon. The ultimate lie.

The man in the mirror had neatly cut brown hair; strong, handsome, youthful features; and a pair of intense, compelling whiskey-coloured eyes. He was dressed in a beautifully cut dark suit from one of the best London tailors. Harold Saxon was a patriot through and through – no Italian-made couture for him. His white shirt was immaculate, worn with a plain black tie, the overall effect sober but extremely stylish. Damn, but this incarnation looked good in a suit!

Harold Saxon. Cambridge graduate. Rugby Blue. Successful businessman. Published author. Happily married man. Up and coming young politician. Former Minister of Defence. Self-proclaimed Renaissance Man of the 21st century. Soon to be Prime Minister of Great Britain.

And all of it, all of it, a complete and utter fabrication, which the people of planet Earth had eagerly swallowed, hook, line and sinker. He nearly laughed out loud at the sheer beauty of it. The stupid, stinking apes had no idea what was in store for them.

It was the perfect disguise. Almost as perfect as Professor Yana had been. The main difference was, this time around, he was entirely aware of who was hiding inside himself, behind the thin, plastic veneer of Harold Saxon, just waiting for the right time to emerge.

He was the Master. In a few short days, he would be ruler of this loathsome little planet. And, after that, ruler of the entire Universe, as was only fitting for one of the last Lords of Time. His plan was foolproof and no-one could stop him. It was all his for the taking.

As always, his mind drifted to the Doctor and his daughter, stranded at the end of the Universe on the planet Malcassairo, trying to fend off a horde of invading Futurekind with Captain Freak and the human girl, Martha Jones. Any one else would just do the expected thing and die, there and then. But the Master knew the Doctor far too well to believe that. The other Time Lord had an almost supernatural ability to escape the most life-threatening of situations. And Tejana wasn't exactly a slouch when it came to getting out of a tight corner either. No, they were still alive, both of them – he could feel it like an icy breeze on his skin. They were alive and they would come for him, sooner or later. It was not a question of 'if', but a question of 'when'.

His hands moved to straighten his tie. He could feel the weight of the laser screwdriver, concealed in the inner pocket of his jacket, and his lips curved in a smile of cold amusement. Let them come. He was more than ready for them. The Lazarus technology was the ultimate in a series of carefully laid traps, just waiting for him to spring on his unsuspecting enemies. Because, until he triumphed over the Doctor, his victory could not be complete. Then, and only then, after centuries of battling his arch-enemy, would the Master finally have won.

"Harry, the car has arrived," a soft voice said from behind him, interrupting his thoughts. "We need to hurry, or we'll be late."

Turning, he saw his human wife, Lucy Saxon, slender and lovely in her cream Chanel designer suit. Another part of his perfect disguise. Gorgeous. Blonde. Upper class. Well connected. Adoring. And absolutely brainless.

He had chosen her so carefully, the ideal companion to have on Harold Saxon's arm, endlessly loyal and pathetically eager to please. But sometimes – like now, for instance - the sight of that vapid, doll-like face just made him want to backhand her across the room, irritating him beyond bearing. She was so boring. Boring, boring, boring! Boring to look at, boring to talk to, boring in bed. Every time she opened her mouth, her utter stupidity grated on him more and more.

"I'm sure they'll wait for us, sweetheart," he replied mildly, comforting himself with the thought that he only had to keep up the charade for a few more days. "But you're right, we'd better get going."

They were heading for a charity banquet for homeless people, just the sort of philanthropic cause that Harold Saxon was supposed to be vitally interested in.

Homeless people! the Master sneered contemptuously to himself. The humans really didn't need to worry about that sort of thing any more. Once he came to power, there would be no more need for charity banquets, because there would be no more homeless people. Under his rule, there would only be two types of human...those who could work and those who were dead.

"Oh, Harry," Lucy twittered, reaching out to him and fiddling nervously with his tie. "I'm so proud of you."

Resisting the urge to slap her hand away, he forced himself to smile at her. "Thank you, darling. I'm proud of you too. Shall we, then?"

She put her arm in his and, with one last glance at his reflection in the mirror, he led her courteously out of the door.

"Aha!" the Doctor exclaimed triumphantly, joining two wires together with the sonic screwdriver, ducking aside as a shower of sparks cascaded down on his head. "That should do it."

"Do what, exactly?" Amy inquired.

"Manual override," he said, jumping down from the maintenance sling he had been sitting in, suspended under the console platform. "Rory, check the navigational computer. Let's find out where we are."

Rory turned and climbed back up the stairs to the console. Sure enough, everything looked normal again, the control panels twinkling with lights and the screens free of any interference. He circled around until he could read the data on the required terminal. "London, May 2008."

Down below, the Doctor stopped stock still, as if Rory had just slapped him. "2008? Did you say 2008?"

"Yeah," Rory confirmed. But then, seeing the shocked look on the Doctor's face, he asked suspiciously, "Why? What's wrong with 2008?"

"It's a weak spot in the causal nexus," the Time Lord frowned. "Time has already been re-written here at least twice – the "Year That Never Was", then the "Year That Never Was, That Never Was"...oh blimey, this isn't good, this isn't good at all. We shouldn't be here, we have to..."

He broke off abruptly, his eyes scanning the console room, his brain clicking into gear as he suddenly realised that something important was missing and had been for a while. "Where's Tejana?"

Concerned at the uncharacteristic alarm in his voice, both Amy and Rory looked around them in surprise. "She was here a few minutes ago," Amy replied with a small shrug. "Maybe she went up to her room."

But the Doctor slowly rotated on his heel until he was facing the door, a cold sensation trickling down the back of his neck. "No," he muttered. "Oh, no, no, no...she wouldn't, would she?"

"Wouldn't what?" Rory queried, getting impatient with the Time Lord's cryptic behaviour.

The Doctor didn't reply. Instead, he rushed over to the TARDIS doors and tried to open them. They stuck fast, refusing to move.

"Dead-locked!" he muttered, tugging uselessly at the interior locking mechanism, which also would not budge. In desperation, he applied the sonic screwdriver to the lock, but to no avail. He was frustrated, but not surprised - the screwdriver had never been able to breach a dead-lock.

Whirling around, he glared up at the TARDIS console. "You're doing this, aren't you?" he yelled angrily. "You're not helping her by coming here, you know!"

Rory shot Amy a bewildered glance. "Erm, oooo-kay...is he shouting at the TARDIS now?" he whispered.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Amy demanded.

"The TARDIS has taken it upon herself to play fairy godmother and has very kindly sent Tejana to the ball!" the Doctor growled sarcastically, his voice still raised, to make sure the time machine could hear every word, loud and clear. "Only, when the clock strikes midnight and everything turns back into a pumpkin, who do you think will have to pick up the pieces? Me, that's who!"

Amy sighed with exasperation. "What are you talking about?"

"16 May 2008. Four days before the British elections. Right now, here in London, Harold Saxon is preparing to give one of the last speeches of his campaign, at a charity banquet at the Claridges Hotel."

Amy's eyes widened in horror as she suddenly understood what he was getting at. "Harold Saxon? You mean she's gone to see...?"

"The Master," he finished grimly.

Rory raised his hand like a kid in school. "OK, I'm still not following. Harold Saxon was the Prime Minister that went mad, wasn't he? The one that murdered the U.S. President in cold blood and then shot himself. What's he got to do with Tejana?"

"Harold Saxon wasn't human, Rory," Amy told him. "He was really the Master. He enslaved the Earth and then tried to conquer the Universe. The Doctor stopped him and reversed it all, so none of it ever happened. That's why it's called 'The Year That Never Was'."

"The Master?" Rory repeated incredulously. "As in, Tejana's dead boyfriend, the Master? He did all that?"

"It's...complicated," the Doctor said. "They weren't together back then. The point being, if she finds him in this time-line, before any of that happens, if he so much as sees her, let alone if she speaks to him or touches him, she could potentially cause a paradox that would change the whole course of human history."

"Yeah, but this is Tejana we're talking about. She's your daughter, so she must know all this stuff about potential paradoxes," Rory responded. "She's not going to do anything too stupid, is she?"

"Rory's right," Amy chimed in. "Maybe she just needs to see the Master from a distance one last time as some sort of closure, so she can get past his death and move on with her life. The TARDIS obviously trusts her not to stuff it up, maybe we should too."

The Doctor closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples, reminding himself that they were human, not Time Lords, and couldn't possibly fathom how serious this situation could get. He remembered Jack telling him how he had watched a young Rose growing up on her housing estate from a distance, after he thought she had been killed at Canary Wharf, without ever speaking to her, in case he caused a paradox. Somehow it had helped him grieve for her loss. But Tejana was not Jack, and the Master was not Rose. This was one of the most dangerous and unstable points in the history of the Earth, and Tejana and the Master were two of the most significant players in the way it had all turned out. The potential for catastrophe was immense. The Doctor could easily empathise with Tejana's driving need to recapture something of what she had lost - he had lost too many people himself not to get that. But what worried him was that he no longer knew how far she would be prepared to go to do it.

"Yes, she's my daughter," he agreed. "But she was also, to all intents and purposes, the Master's wife. And she's grieving. I've never seen her quite like this before – it's as if she thinks she's got nothing left to lose. All of which makes her a loose cannon and very dangerous. I'm not sure what's she's capable of any more."

Glancing back up to the TARDIS console, he spoke to his ship again, his tone no longer angry, but sad and weary instead. "I know you care about her. Really, I do. But you're not doing her any favours. Whatever he became, whatever they ended up being to each other, the Master from this timeline can never be good for her. You should know that better than anyone. Or have you forgotten about the Paradox Machine?"

For a few seconds, there was a heavy, loaded silence in the room, as if the TARDIS was considering his words. Then there was a quiet, almost sheepish click, as the dead-lock disengaged.

"Thank you," the Doctor said fervently, swinging the door wide. "Now, come along, Ponds. We have to stop her, before something goes wrong."

Hurriedly, Amy and Rory pulled on their jackets and accompanied him outside. The TARDIS had apparently landed in the mouth of an alleyway, leading on to a crowded London shopping strip. The time machine's perception filter was obviously in fine working order, since scores of people rushed up and down the street, passing the tall, blue box without even a cursory glance. Or maybe it was just that Londoners were too used to strange things, so it was very hard to attract their attention. The air was very chilly, but overhead the sky was a clear, pure, cloudless blue.

Amy shivered and drew her coat more closely around her. "If Tejana is Cinderella, the Master is the handsome prince and the TARDIS is the fairy godmother, does that make the Doctor the evil stepmother and us the ugly stepsisters?" she joked to Rory.

But Rory didn't smile back as he took her hand and they followed the Doctor up the street. "Yeah, and look how well it turned out for them," he muttered grimly.