Sorry about the delay. I have, however, made several updates which will be released all at once. I hope that makes up for the wait. Enjoy!
It was Christmas Eve, the prelude to the longest night of the year. The Rani had never been quite sure what the holiday was about, though she had a vague idea that someone named Santa climbed down people's chimneys at night. She wasn't sure why he wasn't arrested, but she had several defense systems on the roof to deal with him if he came here.
"Are we ready?" Donna asked, breaking the silence. The Rani blinked and then nodded.
"We'll wait until tomorrow," she said and then stiffened as a ripple in time swept over the Earth. "I think we should be ready for emergencies," she said and looked at Donna.
"What was that?" Donna asked, her head pounding with the sudden energy wave.
"That would be a TARDIS entering this timeframe," the Rani said and frowned. She hadn't told Donna everything, deciding to wait and let her realize who she was on her own, but a TARDIS meant the Doctor, at least nowadays. "I'll see if I can determine where it is."
"I need to be heading home soon," Donna pointed out. "If I remember right, I've been here before." She shrugged and then knelt to inspect the machine.
"Theoretically we could do this today," the Rani said, still trying to pin down the odd feeling. It was almost like having double vision, but in her head, a sensation that would make most humans look at her as if she were insane.
"Rani, are you alright?" Donna's voice broke in on her thoughts. Donna was looking exasperated. "I said that we should probably wait until tomorrow so we can double-check things." The Rani nodded and realized that she had been 'zoning out' as humans said.
"I'm fine, just trying to remember something," she replied. Donna gave her a look that told her that she was not fooling Donna at all, but held her peace, seeing the closed down expression that meant the Rani was thinking hard about something. "How would he come back?" the Rani finally said aloud.
"The Master?" Donna thought about the logic problem. "He could have a duplicate, but that would not be his style." She paused and then brightened. "Whatever it is, it would require a vast amount of energy, if he wanted a Time Lord body and mind, anyway. We can set up a scanner to find that."
"We'll do that tomorrow," the Rani said and waited until Donna was gone. Then she closed her eyes and tried to focus. The Vortex twisted and turned, but her mind rode the current. A Time Lord saw the whole of time and space, but focusing on a certain point was immeasurably difficult.
Then she saw the bending of space around a brown-haired man in a brown suit and smiled. The Doctor was in. But there was another bending nearby and she widened her gaze – and looked full into the mad eyes of the Master. She jerked back in her chair and gasped in shock. The vision faded, but she had the distinct impression that the Master had noticed her.
"Lovely," she muttered to herself. "The last of the Time Lords, a madman, a homicidal madman, a human who nearly dies every time she remembers things, and me, and I seem to be the sanest person of the lot." This would probably have caused anyone who had known her on Gallifrey to laugh at the thought of the Rani being the sanest of anyone, but it was true nonetheless. She sighed and stood up. "I need to find them and help," she said aloud and reached into her pocket for a jelly baby.
The Doctor was irritated at the delay but knew he should have taken a look at this Dr Anne before. Wilf had convinced him from what he had said that if she wasn't an enemy, she could be very handy. He walked up to the door and was almost knocked over by it as it opened.
"Sorry about that," said a voice from the gloomy interior. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," the Doctor said and stepped forwards, trying to see inside. "I'm John Smith, UNIT. I was told you could help me." He picked out the form of what looked like a human just inside the doorway.
"John Smith?" the voice said, heavy with amusement. "I see. I'll need to see your identification, but you can come on in. It's hard to see you out there." The Doctor stepped forward and smiled his most winning smile at the peculiar Dr Anne, pulling out his psychic paper. Then he looked at her and froze.
"What?" he said and saw her looking back with the same shock. "What?"
"What are you doing here, Doctor?" the Rani inquired, flabbergasted that she had not sensed him before visual contact. The Doctor gaped at her and she was hard-pressed not to laugh at the utter shock in his expression. Then it changed and the Doctor grinned widely.
"Rani!" he said and before she knew it, he was hugging her tightly. For a moment she was too surprised to react but then hugged back. Their minds touched and both could feel each other singing with joy at the other's presence.
"It's me, Doctor," she said and kicked the door closed. "I am very glad to see you again." The plain words would have sounded fairly stilted to humans, but to the two Time Lords, a universe of feeling was in them. The mental link was easier to reestablish then the Rani had thought and they could feel each other's joy. The Rani felt like staying like that, but she knew that the Doctor had come about something urgent. "So what's the problem?" she asked and pulled back to see his face, a new one since she had last seen him but one she knew from pictures.
"Why do you always assume there's a problem?" the Doctor asked with a smile. The Rani gave him the same look she usually gave and he grinned widely.
"I assume that you came here to see if I was using your former companion for something nefarious," she said and gestured him towards a seat. The Doctor nodded and then raised an eyebrow.
"Are you?" he asked playfully. The Rani rolled her eyes. He really didn't change at all.
"I've been trying to figure out how to solve the metacrisis in her for a while," she said and shrugged. "I have a few ideas, naturally. I always was better at that then you." She grinned at him and he laughed.
The Doctor realized that he hadn't felt this delighted since he had turned and seen Rose running towards him. He stared at his old friend. It was odd how little she had changed since he'd seen her last.
"I suppose we should get down to business," he said and leaned back. "You probably know about the dreams people have been having," he began.
"Donna told me about them," the Rani said, nodding. "The Master is returning?"
"He has returned," the Doctor said, closing his eyes and letting her go through the memories. "I need your help finding him. We may even be able to help him, working together," he added thoughtfully. The Rani frowned thoughtfully.
"Possibly," she said and then nodded. "I will be glad to try. As to locating him, that is a bit trickier. How did you learn of his arrival?"
"Ever heard of the Ood?" the Doctor asked her. She blinked at the apparent non sequiter and shook her head. "They contacted me and warned me that something is returning. A telepathic race, they were able to show me a great deal." He sent the memories of the link into her mind and saw her blink in shock.
"This is disturbing," she said and stood up and began to pace. "The faces of those humans, they looked familiar somehow." She turned to face him. "I'll try to remember them. In the meantime, we need to find the Master. He is somehow crucial to whatever will happen."
"We can use our combined minds to dowse for him," the Doctor said and stood up as well. "Once we've found him, I'll bring him here and we can figure out the rest of the people then." The Rani nodded. The Master was more likely to listen to the Doctor than her.
"Be careful," she said and the Doctor looked at her with wide innocent eyes.
"When am I not careful?" he asked with a grin. The Rani gave him a look that she had seen Donna use several times to quell people. It seemed to have no effect.
"Let's see what we can see," she said instead and closed her eyes. The Doctor was physically several feet from her, but their minds had become almost completely intertwined during their hug. It was almost ridiculously easy for the two of them to locate the third Time Lord on Earth.
"I'm glad to see you as well," the Doctor said as they opened their eyes. "But I am glad that we don't have to tell each other where we've been. That would be rather tedious."
"Don't think you're off the hook," the Rani said with a teasing smile. "I'll expect a full account of what you've been up to since I last saw you. But that can wait." She watched him run off and smiled. She had forgotten how it felt when the Doctor was around. But she had a feeling that things would not go as simply as he had said.
Donna was worried. Her Time Lord mind was almost screaming that there was a problem that meant time itself was in jeopardy, but she could barely approach those senses without a burning headache. She had been tempted to use the device at once but a sense of caution made her want to be absolutely sure that it was ready. Tomorrow was Christmas Day and generally the bad things seemed to happen at that time, so she still had time.
The Master lurked, though the word seemed to lack class it seemed appropriate, in the warehouse. He had felt the Doctor looking for him and knew that he was coming. Well he was ready. His botched revival had made him dependent on draining life-energy from people, but even the Doctor would be daunted by the bolts of life-energy that he could throw.
Then he looked down at his hands and realized that they were trembling. He was afraid. The thought made him want to scream in anger but there was no denying it. The Doctor had beaten him, time and time again; no matter how perfect his trap or detailed his plan, the Doctor always won in the end, even when he lost at first. It was infuriating and terrifying, but true.
The Doctor walked calmly through the warehouse, feeling the presence of the Master, flickering and angry, moving towards him. He reached an alley and saw the Master standing at the far end. They stared at each other and then the Doctor began walking forward. The Master stepped back and then thrust out his hand, focusing a lightning bolt through it. The Doctor ignored it as it struck a pile of debris several feet to his left and continued walking. The Master backed up again and bumped into the wall. This seemed to hearten him and he lashed out again. This bolt struck to the Doctor's right but closer. He smiled faintly and the Master glared in rage and lashed out again, striking the Doctor at last.
The Doctor felt the blast of energy and slumped at the unexpected power. He had been prepared for the blast that a Sith could have used but he had left out the fact that the Master was a Time Lord. His attack was fueled by the failed regeneration and all the energy that sustained a Time Lord for centuries without dying was being poured into the blast. He collapsed to his knees and saw through the pain that the Master was approaching with a worried expression.
The Rani stared into the Vortex and felt a headache coming. Something was affecting the entirety of time and space, which should have been impossible. The only ones who had the capability to do this were the Daleks and the Time Lords, and only the three of them were left. That either meant the Doctor or she would mess up, or the Master would cause it. The latter was more likely but she had to be careful. The only thing she had as an indicator was the dreams and those were very cryptic.
She sighed and walked over to the covered table. She had been careful to keep Donna from knowing what she was building, just as a precaution. Only the Time Lords had the capability to come back from the dead even from the deadliest weapons ever made. This had naturally led to them learning how to make weapons to kill each other despite this. She picked up the small weapon and smiled grimly. If needs be, she would use this on the Master and let the Doctor be angry rather than let this world die.
The Rani sighed and stretched out her mind to the Doctor – and found him giving off signs of injury. The Master was farther away and seemed angry. From what she could determine, he had been captured and for a moment, she wondered if UNIT had been following the Doctor. But no, she would have been contacted by now. Someone else, the ones the Ood had seen, were interfering. This was worrying. She holstered her weapon carefully and walked over to the closet, pulling out a specific lab coat. All of them were designed with extra-dimensional pockets, but this one was bullet-proof and could even ward off most energy weapons on its force field. She draped it over her sparse frame and wondered idly if she should bring the equipment that she had made for Donna's condition.
Donna was tossing and turning, her mind unconsciously sensing the currents of time as the Rani had. The Doctor was too focused on the Master and the drums were beating too loudly for the Master to sense it, but her mind was free to feel. She had already almost broken the shields around her mind and the ripples were making it even worse, tearing away the boundaries. She fought her panic down and closed her eyes. The Vortex was there but she reached into her mind and shored up the walls of thought. Tomorrow it would be over, but she resolved to go to the lab as soon as she could.
The pieces were in place, the Time Lords beginning their return. But they did not know their enemies power, nor saw the puppeteer that ever so carefully moved to counter the End of Time. She smiled and it was a smile that promised destruction.
"My dear Doctor, once again you will protect these worlds as you have before," she said and bent over the chessboard. The pieces were carved to resemble the players, the mad Time Lord the Master, the Doctor, healer and protector, the Rani, scientist and seeker of knowledge, and the human who would become so much more on the next day. The opposing side was imposing, the Council itself ranged against them and the menacing figure of Rassilon. She smiled at the figure and the smile was predatory. "You will never know how much I hate you, my old friend. The only thing I want to see before I die is your death." Her voice was calm and deadly. "You tried to strike down my Doctor and you will die, and so will I. The Time Lords will live on in these few. And you will no longer exist!" She struck the board and the pieces shuddered. "For the good of the universe, for the one you drove mad by your machinations and for Time itself, you must die. I am sorry." She closed her eyes and reached out. "Wilfred Motts, you must aid the Doctor. And bring your gun."
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