Chapter 16

I am a terrible person I know, I know…I suck so badly at updating, I can only apologise. I'm sure you don't want my excuses, so I won't bother bore you with them all. Let's just say I will do my best to give you more chapters more frequently.

Okay, so Chapter 16 is now a thing!

Last time…

The Doctor had just finished concocting yet another useless plan which involved using a piece of steel string as a form of saw to cut through his chains, when suddenly a klaxon began blaring just behind his head.

"Ouch..." he groaned as the alarm screamed through his head. He closed his eyes shut tightly, gripping his head, before he realised something.

He could touch his head.

He was free from his chains.

And the door to his cell was sliding open.

"Well, that's convenient," he muttered to himself as he stepped free of his bonds and away from the screaming alarm. "I was running out of escape plans."

Rose and Lucie pounded down the corridors, swinging their heads maniacally to first check that no one was pursuing them, and secondly to attempt to get some idea of where they were. It was pointless' they were utterly lost, with no clue as to where they were, where the Doctor was and where in the compound the TARDIS was located.

They stopped abruptly in a cross-shaped junction.

"It's no use!" Rose yelled over the klaxon which was still wailing. Lucie scrunched up her face, pressing a palm to her head. She could feel a pounding in her head, which was definitely not helped by the sirens and the needles she had ripped from her head not ten minutes before. She tried to think. They needed a plan; they couldn't keep running aimlessly down the endless warren of corridors.

"We need to find the TARDIS," she shouted.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, thank you, Captain Obvious!" the sarcasm was evident even with the cacophony.

"No, seriously…wait… " Lucie rubbed her head furiously. She could feel something pricking the edge of her consciousness and she had a feeling she knew what it was. Something the Master had said was weighing on her mind.

"Lucie, we can't wait!" Rose pressed urgently. "We need to find the Doctor, he'll find the TARDIS and we can leave! They're gonna find us…wait, where are you going?"

Lucie had started making her way down the corridor to their left, hand pressed to the side of her head. Rose shouted her name and then set off at a jog to catch up with her, shaking her head. What is she doing?

They went on like this for a while, taking turn after turn after turn, Lucie never once stopping at the junctions to contemplate which direction to take. Rose called after her again and again, but either Lucie couldn't hear over the sirens, or she was choosing to ignore them.

The pace got faster and faster…faster until Lucie was moving at a flat-out run and Rose was panting as she tried to keep up.

They rounded a corner and Lucie abruptly stopped, causing Rose to run straight into the back of her. The two shunted forwards and hit a wall. Not until Rose stepped back did Rose realise what they had hit.

"Oh…my…God," she breathed, looking up at the magnificently familiar doors of the TARDIS.

Lucie put her hand out and stroked the machine. "Thanks, old girl," she murmured to it. The TARDIS vibrated softly under her fingertips and the door swung open to receive her.

"But…how…?" was all Rose could manage as she and Lucie stepped inside the ship.

"The TARDIS reached out to me," Lucie explained with a shrug. "I don't know much more, I just felt her in my consciousness. So I followed the link."

Rose just looked at her in awe. She didn't know the TARDIS could link to the mind like that, unless you were the Doctor. But she couldn't argue, considering how Lucie had just led them to the safety of the TARDIS. And at least she could hear herself think now, thanks to the ship's soundproofing.

"So what do we do now?" she asked Lucie, who had moved over to the console. The auburn haired girl looked up.

"We find the Doctor and get the hell out of here, of course."

Surely that's easier said than done, Rose mused as she perched on a stool, watching Lucie fiddling with the controls. She decided to sit back and see what the girl with the mysterious connection with the TARDIS would come up with as a rescue plan.

The Doctor too, found himself jogging down the mass of stone passageways, directionless. He didn't know what had happened, but he wasn't going to complain about being freed from the cell. Now all he had to do was find the girls, then the TARDIS…and then the Master. He needed an opportunity to talk to him.

Stopping in the middle of a corridor, he reached a hand in his pocket to pull out his sonic, only to remember that it had been confiscated.

"Damn," he muttered, hitting the stone wall in frustration before pulling it back sharply. "Ouch," he said, rubbing his hand. "That's not nearly as satisfying as people make it look."

He looked around, trying to get some bearings. His search for some form of signposting proved fruitless.

"You need to get a map down here," he said to no one in particular. "A nice, big one, with a lovely "You Are Here" arrow on it. And a little shop wouldn't go amiss, either." He sighed. "Guess I'll have to do this the good old-fashioned way, then, won't I?"

With that, he closed his eyes briefly and then turned around, striding down the passageway with renewed purpose.

"Can you hold this lever down? Just til I get a grip of this…"

Rose jumped down from her seat and walked round the console to where Lucie was holding a lever with a frown. She had spent the last five minutes or so just running her fingers over the controls of the TARDIS and muttering occasionally. Rose had watched in a mixture of confusion and admiration. The TARDIS was clearly attempting to guide Lucie through flying her, but it wasn't easy. The link between the two of them was shaky, and learning to operate a space-time machine wasn't something a person did in a few minutes. Heck, even after 900-odd years the Doctor himself hadn't fully perfected it.

"She's going to try and do it herself, lock onto his co-ordinates," Lucie explained abruptly. "All we have to do is stablise her while we're in the vortex. That's these two levers," she pointed the one Rose was holding and one on the other side of the console.

"Okay…" Rose said hesitantly.

Lucie took a couple of deep breaths. "Okay," she said. "Let's do this."

Working her way round to the other stabiliser, she gripped it as hard as she could. "Ready when you are, beautiful," she murmured to the machine.

The gears started up and the central column began to pulsate. The girls locked glances, each mirroring the same worried hope as the TARDIS began to dematerialise.

The Doctor was starting to get tired of the wailing sirens. Surely they could be turned off now, regardless of whether the security breach had been restored? He was pretty certain everyone in the complex had been well and truly alerted.

Still he walked, feeling the TARDIS getting closer to him with every corner he turned.

And then suddenly, he could no longer feel the connection.

There was nothing.

"What?" he said, stopping dead in a small circular cavity with six different passageways leading off of it. That had never happened to him before. He could always feel a connection to his TARDIS, however small.

Where had she gone? The Doctor only had one possible explanation; the Master had done something to his ship.

He paced up the corridor, trying to figure out what he was going to do now.

"Guess I'll just have to find him…" he murmured.

"Find whom, exactly?" came a voice from behind him. The Doctor spun round; he hadn't registered the sirens stopping, but it was the only way the Master, who stood before him now, could have heard what he'd said.

"You, actually…ooh, that's convenient, I do love a bit of convenience…" he replied breezily. "You have some of my property, so I'd like that back now, if you don't mind."

"If you're referring to the two charming young girls who make up your entourage, I'm afraid they are no longer in my possession," the Master said silkily.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," the Doctor said quietly. "And the girls are not my property."

"Really? Could have fooled me… you've left quite a mark on that delightful Italian."

There was something about the Master's tone that caused the Doctor's blood to run icily cold. "What did you do to her?" he growled. "If you hurt her, I will kill you."

The Master let out a short sharp laugh. "You couldn't kill me before. You wouldn't let me die before…you probably couldn't do it again," he said with a shrug. "But, by all means, do try."

The Doctor took a sudden step forward, closer to the Master, who took a calm step backwards, holding up a hand. "Calm there, brother, Miss Pagliari is most safe… or at least I hope she is. She is the cause of all this chaos, you know." He gestured vaguely.

The Doctor frowned slightly. Had Lucie caused the security breach? Good girl, he mused. At least she – and hopefully Rose with her – had managed to get free. He only hoped neither of them had been hurt.

"I'm not your brother," he said softly but with as much authority as he could muster.

"You've changed your tune, then," the Master retorted. "So, are you going to kill me this time?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious. "You didn't manage it last time, left all the dirty work to my dear wife."

"If I have to, I will."

"That would make things a bit difficult for your little prophecy, wouldn't it, now?"

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "What prophecy?"

"Come now, Doctor, don't act all ignorant. Your precious little prophecy about you and that girlfriend of yours. What was that about destroying a foe three times before killing it for good? Now, who could that refer to, I wonder…?"

The Doctor's mind was racing as he thought over the Ood's prophecy.

The foe will follow you, and will be destroyed thrice by you before dying for good.

Could this be it? Could the Master be the enemy that the prophecy referred to? If so, he only had to destroy him three times before that part of the prophecy would be complete. And with Donna gone, and the pursuit of Lucie…all that was left was the destruction of the foe. And if that was the Master... then the prophecy would be complete on his third destruction of this reborn Master: Yana and then Saxon.

So would killing him now count as the third destruction? Or did he have one more?

What if the Master wasn't the foe at all?

"I can't kill you," the Doctor was frowning darkly as he said it. "I can't risk it."

The Master's face broke open into a huge beam. "Ah, how the mighty have fallen!" he proclaimed dramatically. "Poor Doctor, tied up by Fate." He raised an eyebrow. "So, what are you going to do?"

The Doctor stared ahead, blankly. The truth was, he had no idea. He needed the Master where he could keep an eye on him, but how in the universe was he going to manage that?

The TARDIS jolted and groaned as the girls desperately tried to keep a hold of the stabilisers, for all the good they seemed to be doing.

"We're gonna die…!" Rose moaned, and Lucie rolled her eyes. She had every faith in the TARDIS being able to find the Doctor, she just wished the ride was a little less…turbulent.

There was suddenly a huge jolt, larger than normal, and it felt as if the ship had made contact with something quite tangibly hard. Then, there was nothing as the ship went quiet.

Lucie and Rose lay on the floor, panting, and yet, when they caught each other's eyes, they couldn't help but grin. No matter how many bruises you got being thrown around in the TARDIS, you couldn't help but enjoy it.

"Did we manage it?" Lucie wondered aloud, getting to her feet and working out the twinges in her back. She held out a hand to Rose and helped her up.

"Let's find out," Rose muttered as she dusted herself down. The two of them made their way to the doors.

"So, what are you going to do?"

The Master was stood, cockily awaiting an answer; an answer that the Doctor didn't have. His grin grew wider and wider.

"We'll just have to keep you here, then…" The Master pulled out a communications device from his pocket and began keying in numbers.

Abruptly there was a breeze that whipped around their feet; an impossible breeze this far underground.

"What—" the Master began turning on the spot, but this time it was the Doctor's turn to smile. Behind his adversary was the unmistakable shape of his TARDIS materialising.

"But how—" the Master stood, slack-jawed, before turning to the Doctor and frowning. "What did you do?" he demanded, to which the Doctor simply shrugged in response.

The TARDIS finished her materialisation and stood, silent and glorious. The Doctor took two steps towards it before the Master flung out an arm and stopped him. "We're not finished here yet," he growled.

The door opened slowly, and Lucie and Rose stepped out tentatively, their hands loosely linked. When they'd taken in the scene before them, they looked on in surprise and then concern.

"Well…" Lucie began. "Looks like we managed it, and not a moment too soon," she said, throwing a dirty glance towards the Master before focusing on the Doctor. She held his gaze for a few seconds, silently letting him know she was okay, as well as checking on his well being.

"What's going on?" Rose demanded.

"Rose! So good to finally speak to you," the Master turned fully to the girls and spread his arms wide. "It's a shame you disappeared before we got fully acquainted."

"Take a step closer and you'll regret it," Rose warned.

The Master turned to Lucie now. "Mia cara, once again we meet," he said, beaming. The beam switched off abruptly. "You broke a lot of expensive equipment, you know," he said, adopting the tone of a teacher scolding a naughty child. Lucie shrugged.

"It was lame equipment anyway, if a mere human could break it," she said, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow. "Now, we came for the Doctor, so if you don't mind…" she gestured a "move aside" signal with her hand.

"Oooh, she's feisty, isn't she, Doctor?" the Master said, rubbing his hands with glee. "I can see why you like her."

The Doctor stiffened. Lucie looked over to him in reassurance. She could handle the Master, but the Doctor was having nothing of it.

"Shut up," he hissed. "Just shut up." He grasped the other Time Lord's shoulders and began to push him towards the TARDIS. The Master looked confused, then panicked and finally determined in the space of a few seconds,

"What do you think you're doing?" he spluttered. "I'm not going in there, unless it's completely without you."

The Doctor just carried on pushing, past the girls and into the TARDIS.

"Come on," he hissed to them both. Exchanging a look of bewilderment, Lucie and Rose stepped inside, to find the Doctor had already disappeared down a hallway, presumably with the Master.

"What's he doing?" Rose voiced Lucie's thoughts. The dark-haired girl shrugged in response.

Five minutes later and the Doctor was back, hands in pockets and exuding nonchalance. He approached the girls and smiled broadly.

"Well," he said. "I guess I owe you two a thank you!" He stepped forwards, arms open to pull them into a hug. Rose accepted the hug, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face into his chest, but Lucie stepped back and didn't say a word.

The Doctor caught her eye from over Rose's head and frowned, hurt flashing in his brown orbs. Lucie merely raised an eyebrow and continued to stare coldly at him.

Untangling himself from Rose, he stood back, watching the girl who was glaring at him.

"Luce?" he said questioningly. "No hug?" he spread his arms again, experimentally.

Lucie raised both eyebrows incredulously. "Hug?" she sputtered out. "Hug? You are so…so…unbearable sometimes!"

And with that, she stormed off.

The Doctor turned to Rose. "What did I say?" he asked, bewildered. Rose merely shook her head.

"I think she'd appreciate some explanation as to why you brought the crazy dude on board…" the blonde began slowly. "And then I think she'd like a bit more than a hug, if you get my drift."

"Oh. Oh…" the Doctor said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "Oh, so um…I'd better do that then."

"Ya think?" Rose raised a sarcastic eyebrow.

"Okay, okay!" he exclaimed. "I'll go find her. Women…"

"Oi!"

"Fine! Okay, Miss Tyler, you can stop with the glare already. You look more and more like your mother every day…"

"Watch it, Doctor…"

The Doctor sighed and began down the corridor that Lucie had taken.

"Doctor?"

He turned back to face Rose. "Mm-hm?"

"What did you do, you know, with the Master and that?"

The Doctor's expression was grim. "Just put him into storage until I decide what to do with him. He won't bother us, don't worry."

And with that, he disappeared down the corridor, leaving Rose in the console room with a worried frown on her face.

Somewhere deep inside the TARDIS, on a white floor, surrounded by white walls and a white ceiling, the Master slumped, looking for where a door might be. There wasn't one. But doors had never stopped the Master before, and he wouldn't let them thwart him this time.

"Oh, Doctor, did you forget I'm a Time Lord too?" he murmured. "I'll find a way out of here, and when I do, I'll destroy you for good. You and that delightful lover of yours."

So I hope you liked it! I'm prioritising my writing commitments and I need to put a couple of them to bed before I can start new ones that I've got plot bunnies for. And I have a vague idea as to how this can finish, so I'm going to start with it. Fingers crossed for more updates! This update is dedicated to Michael, who reminded me that I needed to continue this. You legend, Michael.

Review please? I hunger for your comments/criticism. Love you all, and thanks for sticking with me! Xx