Notes: Jamie's encounter with the Master, where the Valeyard was the subject of discussion was part of my Jamie drabble series (chapter 15). The call forwards to "The Deadly Assassin" serial are intentional. And my "Gallifreyans are humanoid crocodiles" headcanon returns here.

The Doctor stared at the Master in stunned silence.

"That's it!?" he exclaimed. "Three days—with only two-and-a-half left!?"

"If you wish to recalculate the figures, you are more than welcome to do so," the Master replied.

"But, Doctor, that shouldn't be too difficult," Zoe said. "As I recall, it took us less than three days to resolve the matter on Neo Serenity."

"That may be, Zoe, but we knew exactly what course of action to take on Neo Serenity," the Doctor said. "We shall have to take the time to figure out what to do in this case, and then go about implementing it."

"'We?' I believe I have done enough by allowing you access to my TARDIS," the Master said. "And I shall also grant you full access to the controls of the weather machine—remotely, of course. If you believe that you can come up with the answer, then you are free to do so."

"You are in as much danger as we are!" the Doctor countered. "You had better give us all the help you can—and that includes the mental work!"

"You are in no position to be giving me orders, Doctor!"

"Please, help us!" Victoria pleaded. "You just heard the Doctor say that you'll suffer the same fate as us!"

The Doctor now spoke to the Master in their own tongue. Jamie could understand a little of the conversation from the lessons the Doctor had given him; the Doctor was, indeed, trying to appeal to the Master for help. The Master seemed to remain unmoved.

"Och, let him do whate'er he wants, Doctor!" Jamie said, hating to see the Doctor pleading with the Master. "We don' need his help! We solved the Neo Serenity mess withoot him!"

"But if the Doctor is right about us needing time to figure out what to do, an extra brain working with us would be very helpful," Zoe pointed out.

"And appreciated," Victoria added for the Master's benefit; he was still in an argument with the Doctor, however, and didn't seem to hear her.

"Yes," Zoe agreed. "In fact, I don't think it would be a bad idea if we went to the Brigadier and asked him to let Salamander come back here to help us with this problem, as well!"

"Aye? Then let's go ahead and invite the Great Intelligence to help, while we're at it!" Jamie shot back, sardonically.

"That was an absolutely unnecessary comment, James McCrimmon!" Victoria snapped. "I'll admit that I'm not thrilled at the idea of asking Salamander for help—"

"Aye, but ye seem more than willing to ask him for help!" Jamie said, indicating the Master.

"Jamie, I told you, he saved my life! I owe him some benefit of the doubt for that, don't I?"

"Seeing as though he hypnotized ye, I don' think so!" the piper countered. "Anything he owed ye was nullified by that!"

"Jamie, he could have killed me afterwards, but he didn't! He let me go!"

"Och, and that makes him a saint, does it!?"

"WILL YOU ALL BE QUIET!?" Zoe yelled, at the top of her voice.

Both sets of arguments stopped in midsentence as the other four people in the console room turned to stare at the astrophysicist.

"You've already made it clear that we don't have much time left," Zoe said, glaring at all of them. "So kindly stop arguing; you are more than welcome to squabble after we resolve the problem! And we need every available source to solve the problem—that includes the Master and Salamander!"

"Yes, I was trying to convince him of that," the Doctor said, giving a look to his former friend.

"And I say that there's too great a risk in working with the Master," Jamie said. "I'm willing t' work with Salamander. He, at least, has ne'er played aroond with us, and we know how his mind works. But this one…" Jamie now glared at the Master. "He's nae but a crocodile, and ye cannae trust a crocodile!" The piper then flinched, realizing his faux pas as he looked to the Doctor. "Except ye, of course."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence, Jamie, despite my crocodilian ways," the Doctor replied, with a wry smirk.

"Well, crocodile or not, I am fairly certain that the Master must have some amount of a self-preservation instinct," Zoe said.

"Yes, I would rather not fall victim to an explosion in the time vortex," the Master assured her. In reality, he had wanted to hear the Doctor plead for his help first.

"Then you'll help us?" Victoria asked.

"Yes, I suppose I will offer to you the benefit of my intellect for this matter," the Master agreed.

"Och, I feel so much better aboot this whole thing now," the piper said, with a voice that dripped even more sarcasm than before. "Just aboot every doubt has been banished from my mind—"

"That will do, Jamie," the Doctor said. "Now that we've gotten all of this settled, I would like one of you to go to the Brigadier and tell him what's going on—and that we need Salamander here on the double."

"I'm nae leaving ye here with him!" Jamie said, clinging to the Doctor's arm. "We still don' know the circumstances of yer regeneration, and I don' want it t' be here and now! I am staying with ye."

"It would be highly improbable for the Doctor to regenerate now," the Master pointed out. "His exile was only recently lifted. …Although, I suppose it would be rather like Goth to see that you've regenerated and then exile you to the point in time a few years prior. …Let's say that it's only slightly probable."

"Aye, well if there's any probability aboot it, then I'm nae leaving him with ye for a moment!" Jamie stated.

"Hold on just a moment," the Doctor said, frowning. "How do you know Goth so well? He only made a name for himself after we had both left Gallifrey! You couldn't possibly have gone back to Gallifrey—they'd have put you on trial, just as they did to me! So how do you know him?"

"How, indeed?" the Master mused. "Let's just say, Doctor, that I have been more mobile than your third self these past few years. And I keep an ear to the ground."

"I'll bet you do," the Doctor said, darkly.

Jamie wasn't exactly sure what the Doctor meant by that, but, regardless of what it was, he didn't like it. As much as Jamie distrusted the Master, he hated and despised Goth even more—and the thought of the two of them somehow being connected was a concept too horrible for the piper to imagine.

"Aye? Well, I like t' keep an ear t' the ground, too," Jamie said, after a moment. "And so I'll stay here."

"Jamie…" Zoe said, rolling her eyes. She then abandoned whatever it was she wanted to say to him, remembering how stubborn he could be. "Never mind; I'll go back and speak to the Brigadier."

"No, no," Victoria said. "They need you and your cleverness here; I'll go talk to the Brigadier." She paused, and then turned to the Master. "The Brigadier will most likely want to come here—to keep an eye on Salamander. And you. And he may bring others with him. You don't mind, do you?"

"It is apparent that I don't have a choice in the matter, Miss Waterfield," the Master replied, as he brought up some calculations on a screen on the console. "I want you to make it very clear to them, however, that I cannot guarantee their safety if they decide to wander around my TARDIS."

Victoria nodded.

"Of course. And… thank you—for helping us, I mean."

The Master gave her an unreadable glance as Victoria left his TARDIS. Zoe walked up to him now, inquiring as to what was on the screen. As the Master went over the calculations with her, the Doctor took Jamie aside momentarily.

"Doctor, I don' like it," the piper said to him, before he could say anything. "I don' like the idea of working with the Master. What if he betrays us!?"

"I understand why you would think that, Jamie. But I have known him longer than you have, and I do know that his self-preservation instinct is very strong indeed. He won't attempt to cross us until we are guaranteed to be safe. Once that moment has come, however, we shall have to be extra-vigilant—especially for Victoria's sake."

"Aye, and that's the other thing that still bothers me," Jamie said, as he cast a glance over at the Master to make sure that he wasn't attempting to hypnotize Zoe. "Why does Victoria want to trust him? Is she still under his influence?"

"The hypnosis that the Master used on her would have worn off long ago, Jamie," the Doctor assured him. "She was very taken to him right from the beginning, as you remember. And I feel that he did seem to take a liking to her—though he'll never admit it. He… has that effect on people. He was always very charismatic, even in our younger years; it was always a thrill to be around him."

Jamie stared at the Doctor now; he could've sworn that he sensed a hint of admiration in the Doctor's voice.

"Doctor…!" Jamie quietly exclaimed. "Nae ye, as well!"

"Don't worry, Jamie; those days are long gone," the Doctor sighed. "While we were on Darkheart, I had hoped that there was a chance that I… that we could have returned to those days. But it quickly became clear that it would never be like that again. I have accepted that."

"I see…" Jamie said, quietly—though it didn't sound as though he really meant it.

The Doctor also cast a glance to make sure that Zoe was alright before continuing with their conversation.

"You have to understand, Jamie… Koshei and I were once as close as you and I are now. You never can forget something like that, can you?"

"No," Jamie admitted. "E'en when Goth and the others modified my memories, I could still remember bits and pieces of things. And yer memories havenae been altered."

"No, indeed," the Doctor sighed.

"Aye, I understand," Jamie said. "I'd feel the same way if Alexander was alive and was somewhere."

"Naturally," the Doctor agreed. "But Koschei isn't Koschei anymore; he's the Master. He threw away what we had for his own ambitions, which is something that you never did—and I am confident in saying that you would never do so."

"Ne'er," Jamie vowed. "They would have t' kill me, and I'd still ne'er betray ye; I'd defend ye with my dying breath."

"I do hope it never comes to that," the Doctor said, sincerely. "And that is why I trust you now. Which is why I want you to know something in the event that the Master so much as looks at Victoria or Zoe the wrong way."

Silently, the Doctor placed his hand over Jamie's and used his touch-telepathy to transmit his message—

"The Master has no regenerations left."

Jamie looked to the Doctor for a moment and responded with a nod. He understood what the Doctor was trying to say.

"Mind you, I am trusting you with this information for a reason," the Doctor added. "So… for my sake, Jamie, use it only as a very, very last resort. I am a sentimental old fool—you know that. I'd rather he remain alive."

"Aye," Jamie said, quietly. "I give ye my word."

Satisfied, the Doctor gave Jamie's shoulder a squeeze before joining the Master and Zoe at the console and adding his knowledge towards solving the problem.

There wasn't really much Jamie could do, other than make sure that he was well-armed in the event that something did go wrong. He had his trusty knife hidden in his sock, as always, and he had some aspirin in his sporran for his own use—which he had learned long ago was highly toxic to Gallifreyans. Between those and his own strength, he was confident he could handle things.

But there was one thing still puzzling him. The Master he had met—the one who had warned him about the Doctor becoming the Valeyard—had not looked like this Master. If he had no regenerations left, then how had he changed? Had he somehow managed to get another one? Or was there something else at work?

Jamie shook his head, wanting to put it out of his mind, but something else soon began to bother him. Remembering the warning about the Valeyard was forcefully reminding Jamie of the corrupted Doctor he had met in the alternate timestream. Even though that had been the Great Intelligence's doing, this other Master had made it clear that even in this timeline, the Valeyard's existence was to happen—but as a separate entity from the Doctor. But there wasn't much else that Jamie knew—other than the fact that the Master, corrupted as he was, seemed to fear the Valeyard.

Jamie glanced back at the two Time Lords and Zoe; all three of them were in deep conversation, talking about things that were sailing over the piper's head. They seemed concerned, but that was to be expected.

Just as important as resolving the crisis with the time vortex was ensuring that the Valeyard failed in attaining an early existence through the Doctor. And to ensure that, Jamie would have to find out everything the Master knew about him.

However much he hated the idea of trusting the Master, the piper realized that he would have to do just that.