oOo
Why, the Doctor thought, why did it never go to plan?
Ace had managed somehow to wrestle the weapon away from the Master, but that was the only thing that seemed to be going well. Every time the Doctor thought he had an opening, they would inch closer to the cliff's edge, or the Master would have his hands wrapped firmly around Ace's neck, or something else would stop his forward momentum. He studied the scene before him, then finally decided he was over-thinking the problem.
He leapt forward, tacking the two combatants, bringing them both slamming to the ground and not incidentally knocking the breath out of himself on the way. The gun went rolling one way, but Ace and the Master remained in a stubborn tangle. The harder the Doctor tried to hold on, the harder they kicked themselves free of his desperate grasp. "Stop fighting me!" he shouted when he got his breath back, only to be rewarded by a smart rap to the side of his head from someone's wildly flailing–and heavily shod--foot. With a grunt of pain, he reflexively loosened his grasp, and the other two went rolling toward the edge of the cliff.
Shouting a warning, he lunged forward, ignoring the ringing in his head, and grabbed desperately for a leg–Ace's, as it turned out. Someone screamed, he wasn't sure who, and he dug in his elbows and tightened his grasp on Ace's leg. Which seemed much heavier than it should be, a fact which turned out to be because the Master had gone fully over the cliff's edge and was hanging by Ace's hand. A Time Lord on either end, she was half-way over the edge herself, but managed to stop herself once the Doctor's grasp tightened. "I'm backing up now," the Doctor said in a loud, clear voice. "Ace, try and dig your feet in until I can get your arms up over the edge."
"Come on, you bastard, you're not getting away that easily," was Ace's only response, and it obviously wasn't to him. "Grab my other hand!"
Slowly, painfully, the Doctor pulled himself backwards until the sudden easing of the weight told him that Ace was fully back on the cliff. He spared a glance, saw that she was secure, then hurried forward to help her bring the Master back up as well.
He was grinning up at them, the smile widening as he saw the Doctor's head peering cautiously over the edge. "Well, well, not quite the meeting I had planned, Doctor, but then they never seem to go the way I intend."
The Doctor ignored the bitter words, extending his hand to join Ace's. "It's over, Master. Time to take your medicine. We've got John safely stowed away, and I've no doubt I'll be able to find the Sacred One since he's still on the planet, or so I've been assured. A unique bio-signature shouldn't be too difficult for the TARDIS to trace." He leaned forward precariously. "Take my hand. You have no other choice."
"Haven't I?" The bitterness reached his eyes, and his mouth twisted in a grimace of disdain. "You've won this time, Doctor, but never fear; I shall prevail next time." With those words, he reached up with his free hand and swiped viciously at Ace's fingers. She yelped with pain, her hand spasming, releasing the Master, who fell without a sound until his body crashed into the rocky coast below.
Ace and the Doctor stared after him for a long moment in stunned silence. When Ace spoke again, it was with a stream of invective that had more of desperation than anger to it. "No," she whispered. "Not again, you're not getting away without giving me back my daughter!" But the evidence was clear; the Master was dead, and the Doctor as usual was left to clean up after his rival's mess.
He put an arm around Ace's shoulders and very gently pulled her back from the cliff's edge. "There's nothing we can do about him, but we really should check on Kyris and the others," he said, his voice as gentle as his hold. "Come one Ace, there's a girl; live to fight another day and all that."
She glared at him, but weakly, as if her anger had fallen to the bottom of the cliff with the Master. He thought he saw a glimmer in her eyes that might have been tears or might have been the remains of that anger, but either way he would never know. She pulled out of his embrace, came to her knees and then her feet, and strode to Tegan's bungalow without a backward glance.