Chapter Nine- Dropping Bombs

"Grab onto something!" the Doctor shouted. He was barely audible over the strained wheezing of the TARDIS, the sound of the cloister bell tolling, and the various bumps and crashes and sparks that accented the cacophony. "Oh you poor thing," he muttered to the TARDIS. "This must be torture for you." If he wasn't so busy trying to steady them he would have stroked the console comfortingly. She was stressed out enough having the Master in here, this chase would do nothing to ease her nerves.

His two passengers had suitably braced themselves. Leah was clinging to the Captain's chair, clearly thinking that would provide her with the most support. The Master stayed balanced easily from his casual position leaning against the pillar. It was clear that he understood the seriousness of the situation, he just wasn't going to do anything about it. The Doctor decided to believe that he just figured everything was in good hands, even though he knew that wasn't likely to be true.

"Hold tight, this is going to get rough!" The TARDIS shook a bit, then shook a lot, then tumbled out of the vortex until finally... thunk. "We've landed. I have no idea where, but we've landed." The Doctor leapt forward and barrelled towards the door. The Master glided smoothly after him with Leah following shakily in their wake.

"When you say landed you mean... Oh." Leah's breath caught in her throat as she stepped through the TARDIS doors. "We've landed."

Neither Time Lord was paying the girl any sort of attention; they were both far too preoccupied with what lay before them. They had moved alright. The TARDIS had been running, and she had taken them to a far off and desolate land.

All around them lay heaps of burning rubble and piles of ash, and crumbling buildings were all that remained of a once great city. There were stretches of downed magnetic monorail tracks and destroyed trains lining them. The area was dotted with multiple military grade airsip crash sites. Over the horizon lay barren land with nothing in sight for miles. Whatever had been out there was levelled and completely disintegrated. The air smelled of smoke and metal and death, but underneath that there was a distinctive twang of fresh cut grass and cherries.

The Doctor picked up that scent, which gave him an idea of what planet they were on. To confirm it he stooped down, ran a finger across the dust and brushed some of the dust across the tip of his tongue. The Master made a face at this, but the Doctor ignored him.

"Just as I thought," he muttered. Turning to the other two he declared "This is bad. This planet, Selerias, should be thriving. Something's come here and destroyed it."

"But what could do all of this?" Leah marvelled. "A war? This would take massive firepower."

"Rassilon," the Doctor replied darkly.

"Sorry?"

"One man, an alien like us, has done all of this. Just one, but a planet like this would be child's play to him," snarled the Master.

"He's dangerous and powerful, bad enough to make the Master team up with me," added the Doctor. The significance of this was lost on Leah, but to the Doctor this meant a great deal. Now that he was seeing just what they were up against it meant even more. It also meant that they had to get this girl out of there as soon as possible.

"I think he was trying to bring us here," the Doctor continued. "Somehow he was pulling the TARDIS and she was fighting back. She couldn't excape the spatial link, but she did manage to break the temporal pull, the clever girl. Unfortunately we're here too late to stop all of... this. I don't know what he's up to, but if he's willing to do this much, it's going to take a lot to stop him."

"Any bright ideas, then?" said the Master.

"No," replied the Doctor. "But I'll think of something. Now leave me alone, I need to think. Go talk to the girl, she looks like she could use a few kind, comforting words."

"And you think I'm the one to do it?"

"No, you're the worst person for the job, but I'm busy, and you're the one who brought her along. Now go."

Leah was sitting on a boulder that overlooked the valley of destruction below them. Scenes like this were commonplace for the Master, but the girl was regarding the place with a vacant expression. The Master figured that she was either deep in thought or her mind had shut down at the sight. He was betting on the latter. He walked over and took a tentative seat next to her. Be nice, the Doctor said. That wasn't part of the deal. When he decided to team up with the Doctor he hadn't bet on having to be nice to anyone.

"Are you... alright?" he tried. The words were kind but his tone was a little bit strained. He wasn't used to this, and it wasn't as easy as the Doctor made it look.

"Yeah I suppose," Leah sighed. If she noticed the Master's awkwardness, it didn't bother her. "Just in shock I guess. Trying to process it all. We're on another planet you say? That's wild..."

"You're taking this all rather well."

Leah crinkled her nose. "Am I? I thought I was freaking out a little bit. How do people usually take these things? I don't belong here, in the middle of this fray. This is your business, and I'm an intruder. If Jack was here I'd probably be OK, but I feel very... frazzled. Though I suppose I could be freaking out a little bit more. I mean, I'm out a couple of grand because of travel costs, I missed Christmas and now all of this. I just don't know how to process it."

The Master was at a loss. Usually he was the one causing distress, not the one picking up after it. "There, there," he said, patting her head awkwardly.

She returned this gesture with a confused look. "Umm, thanks? Look, don't worry about me. Clearly this isn't your forte."

The Master let out a sigh of relief. She didn't want his comfort and he was grateful for that. "I'll leave you with your thoughts then." He was about to get up when the girl spoke again.

"I'm still not sure what to think about you though."

"Excuse me?" He sat back down.

Leah chewed her fingers a moment while she considered her response. "I just... Well, let's review the last couple of days. I drag you in off the streets and you're this lovely, if a little bit spaced out guy. Then I drive you to the airport to get you home, going out of my way to help you. I spent far too much on those plane tickets I didn't need to buy, though somehow you managed to get us into first class at a discount. That lady saw that paper and let us on without a second thought. Then I discover that you're actually evil and you got here through time travel and now we're on another planet with an alien like you who claims that you've tried to kill him... a lot. So who are you? And why am I here? How did I let myself get taken in by you?"

The girl talked a lot and asked a lot of questions. The Master usually stuck to explaining evil schemes, but he supposed he at least owed her a bit of explanation. She had saved his life after all, and even evil genius Time Lords had an honour code. "OK, you want answers? I'll give you answers. As a human I never should have been able to save the Doctor, but things slipped through. The urgency of the situation tapped into my subconscious and allowed me to access some of my Time Lord knowledge. For instance the plane: I showed that woman psychic paper. It's a little slip of paper that shows whatever I want on it. She thought I was an ambassador and you were my assistant, so we easily got seats. Getting you to come along with me must have been important, otherwise you would still be at home. I'm very good at... persuasion, so that must have bled through and got you to come along. You're job's over now, and you won't be safe if you stay with us any longer, but the Doctor will get you home."

"That's another thing," Leah piped up, "you and him. What's your deal? Are you guys enemies?"

"The Doctor and I... have known each other for a very long time," the Master said. "We've got a lot of history. Usually our interests differ and we find ourselves opposing one another, but this time there are more important things than a petty feud. When all of this is over we'll go back to fighting, even if the Doctor has convinced himself otherwise."

"Sounds complicated."

"Oh it is, believe me. More complicated than you could ever know."

They sat for a moment in silence. It seemed that their conversation was at an end, and the Master decided to leave the girl to gather her bearings. Before he left, he turned to her one last time. "You know, under any other circumstances I would have killed you or made you suffer. Don't go thinking I'm a nice person."

"Good to know," she replied dryly.

Secretly he felt responsible for her, though he would never admit it. The thought scared him, so the Master did his best to detatch himself from her. "When this is all over I probably still will."

"Right," she called back. "I'm looking forward to it."

She was an interesting sort of girl. Most humans made the Master sick to his stomach, the revolting species that they were. She only made him feel a little bit nauseous. Her intelligence left a lot to be desired, but she had kept a reasonably level head throughout this entire ordeal. Not to mention her indifference to his death threats. Either he was losing his touch or she was tougher than she looked.

The Master wandered over to where the Doctor was pacing. He had traced out a path for himself in the dust and was muttering under his breath. The Doctor was always one of those people whose thought process was a very verbal one. At least it was verbal when he was trying to piece together a mystery. When it came to thwarting schemes his thoughts were regrettably silent.

"Any progress?" asked the Master.

"Selerias – home to the Dorgari – has the most fantastic blue grass," the Doctor rambled. "Nutrients in its roots leach into the soil and are released into the air by the frequent rain. That's what gives the planet its distinctive odour. The grass is gone but the nutrients are still in the soil. They're just... soiled by all of the destruction and bloodshed."

"Doctor," the Master interrupted him. "I'm not one of your little pets. I know all of this. Have you figured out what we're doing about Rassilon yet?"

The Doctor ignored the question and barrelled on. "Why destroy Selerias? Why bring us here? What's the significance of... location!" A lightbulb lit up behind his eyes as the Doctor whirled around and locked eye contact with the Master. "It was bothering me before, but now it makes even less sense. Why Canada? Your escape could have brought you anywhere, so why Canada? By all means it should have brought you to where you needed to go, so why didn't it? The significance of location... There's something there but I just can't... Ooh, I thought I had something. We can't confront Rassilon without more information, we can't get more information without talking to Rassilon. That's one damning paradox."

"Doctor!" the Master interrupted again, a little bit more sharply this time. "Calm down. Why Canada? I don't know, but the state I was in it was lucky I even made it to Earth at the right time. We can figure out the significance of location later, but first we need to worry about finding and stopping Rassilon. If you're not going to come up with anything, then I've got a few ideas."

"Oh?" inquired the Doctor. "By all means, what do you suggest?"

"We need firepower and lots of it. There must be some we can salvage from around here, they won't be needing it anymore. We take what we can find then track down Rassilon. If he was trying to bring us here, then we can use the TARDIS to trace where the summons came from and home in on him. Then we jump out, fire away, and take him down." The Master thought it was foolproof. Get in and get out as fast as they could and stop him before he could do any more damage.

"Absolutely not," replied the Doctor. "We're not killing him."

"This is no time to get sentimental," the Master snapped. "You know better than I do what he's capable of, he needs to be stopped at any cost!"

"We are not killing him," the Doctor insisted. "During the Time War he had fleets of Time Lords at his disposal. Now he's alone and we should have no trouble stopping him without having to resort to that."

"We don't know that he came alone!" argued the Master. "Besides, look at what he's done here. Even if it is just him, he's managed the destruction of this place single handedly. And don't go telling me that this could have been caused by anything else, you and I both know that this was his doing."

"This only happened because we weren't here to stop it," the Doctor retorted. "And who's to say that he did this all by himself. We don't know how long he's been out of the Time Lock relative to universe Time, so he could have had time to scrape together an army to take this place down."

"Then that's even more reason to take up arms! If he's got fleets at his disposal then we're going to need to fight our way through. I didn't escape the Time War just to get killed by Rassilon anyway."

"The answer is no. You wanted my help, we'll do this my way. If he does have armies, chances are he's talked them into it. We might be able to get them on our side. But we cannot kill him, not as our first resort. He created the Time Lords, we can't just kill him like that."

The Master snorted derisively. "Oh I see how it is. You won't allow yourself to kill an idol. You always did admire him back at school. That explains why you were so willing to shoot me back at the mansion. In the friend or idol decision, you always choose the one you look up to."

"Shut up!" the Doctor shouted. "In case you didn't notice, I was hardly willing to shoot you. And in case you didn't notice, I didn't actually shoot you, so you can shut up now." He glared at the Master for a moment, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. He was calm when he spoke again. "Listen, I've got a plan. You're just going to have to trust me."

"You gonna let me in on this plan anytime soon?"

"Hey guys!" Leah called out before the Doctor had a chance to reply. "I'm sorry to interrupt your little... domestic tiff over there, but I think you're going to want to see this. That box – the tardy did you call it? Well, whatever it is, the one we came in on... It's glowing and making noise."

"No!" cried the Doctor as he leapt forward. He closed the distance between where he was standing and the TARDIS in a few long strides and motioned for his companions to follow. "Time to go you lot! She's being pulled again, and she'll shift in just a moment. Get inside now, unless you want to be stuck here."

Leah and the Master obliged and all three piled inside the TARDIS. She was shaking violently again, but this time the Doctor was ready. He danced around the console and steadied her a little bit. They had to get away from Rassilon's pull.

"This is perfect!" called the Master. "Just follow the pull and then we can take him out." He pulled out a gun. "I'm ready for him."

"Where the hell did you get that?" the Doctor shouted back. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and disabled the handgun before the Master did anything stupid with it. The Doctor continued over the other Time Lord's protests. "We can't go there on his terms. The pull is stronger this time, but we can still escape it. Then we'll seek him out and catch him by surprise."

Any other conversation was drowned out by the cloister bell. This was turning out to be more difficult than he thought it would be. The TARDIS was still tired from their last escape and this next capture attempt had come too soon after the last one. Rassilon was wearing down their defences and the Doctor had no doubt that the other Time Lord knew this. They had to act quickly and find him before he found them again. If they were caught before they were ready it could turn out to be disastrous.

This meant some quick thinking on the Doctor's part. He didn't really have a plan, he only said that to shut the Master up. He had some ideas, but nothing more than he usually had. Advance preparation wasn't his strong point. Improvisation simply wouldn't be enough this time, and the Doctor knew they had to have some sort of plan of action before confronting Rassilon if they were to have any hope at beating him. He was determined to solve this without resorting to violence – sending Rassilon back into the War seemed like their best bet – but if he didn't figure out how to do this soon, they would have to go with the Master's plan.

The Doctor continued to dance about the TARDIS console, appearing to the casual oberver to be no more frantic than usual. In fact he was flying her more intricately than he had ever needed to, stretching his driving abilites to the very extent of their limits. He had to use evasive manoeuvers while trying to keep her steady enough to find a place to land – not an easy task. But finally, after several more stressful minutes of manic lever flipping, frantic button mashing and strategic mallet banging, they landed.