I have no words for how long it's been. I got out of the habit of writing fanfiction and just came back looking at everything on here tonight and couldn't bare to not finish the story. The next chapter will be the last.
Chapter 14
The Master left the Doctor for a while then. He went around the TARDIS, refamiliarising hi,self with the place. She wasn't happy to have him there but that just amused him more than anything. The Doctor remained on the floor, too weak, too pained, too tired to try and more or fight. The Master always knew the Doctor was pathetic, he was the weak one, the good one, the one who didn't kill but let the other's kill for him. Oh the Doctor was as bad as the Master, worse, even, the Master though it could be argued because at least the Mater knew what he was, knew what he was doing. He had seen in the Doctor's head all the people who had died or killed for the Doctor. All the weapons and monsters the other had created.
The Time War did the same. It created weapons, it created monsters out of good, decent people. It was amusing almost to see the way there was not purely good in anyone. Everyone had the bad in them, everyone had the space to enjoy the pain and suffering. It was too much, too loud, too painful. He wanted it to stop. The noise in his head that came after the war, he wanted it to go and leave and never return. He found himself leaning against one of the walls in one of the TARDIS corridors after walking aimlessly lost in his thoughts. It was always there. taptaptaptap, taptaptaptap, taptaptaptap, it wouldn't leave wouldn't pause, wouldn't go away. It hurt, it controlled his every movement.
The War would never leave, the Master was sure of it. And he was glad of the control. He needed the control and he knew control all there was of Gallifrey left. This TARDIS, himself and the Doctor. He could destroy Gallifrey completely if he wanted. He had done it once, killed billions of Time Lords and Gallifreyans and Daleks and countless smaller, insignificant planets and species. They wouldn't be missed in the way Gallifrey would be. No one would care.
The Master walked back through the winding corridors in order to return to the control room and to the Doctor, who was still lying there on the ground. The Master realised the other wasn't still there crying. Whether he was asleep or passed out the Master neither knew nor cared about. He took hold of the Doctor's head again, entering gently. He wanted him to see.
He showed him the streets, the cities, it showed them burning. He showed the Doctor a time when he had been stood on one of the creat mountains, just looking across and watching the large cities burning. There was the overwhelming colour of orange, the sun, the flames. Everything was just there burning. People screaming and dying, looking like mere ants from the distance the Master stood. He watched, he winced and cried and laughed at the pain and suffering everyone was going through. The same he was going through. Nowhere was safe during a Time War, but there were moments that were safer than others and this was one of them, here he was able to watch, like a God.
It had been from there that the Master had made the decision to kill them, all of them. It was then he had decided that Gallifrey was to be no more. And the decision had filled him with equal relief and glee. He knew the Doctor would wake remembering this like a distant memory rather than a dream. The Doctor would feel this as thugh he had been responsible for it. Gallifrey's biggest traitor deserved that after all. He let the Doctor see how he had gone to find the Moment, how he had fought the president and eventually left in his TARDIS.
He showed the Doctor the thing he knew would hurt hi the most. The Master stood by the TARDIS door as the Moment was activated, as the flames on the planet grew, as the planet itself seemed to swell out until. BOOM. Gallifrey was nothing more than ash and debris floating in dead space between two lonely suns.
The Doctor seemed to jolt awake then, blinking weakly up at the Master. His eyes wide and confused, seeing both the Master here in front of him and through the Master's eyes at the empty space where Gallifrey should've been. He shuddered weakly feeling tears pricking at his eyes. He knew what had happened, he felt it, remembered it. And it hurt. It hurt deep through both hearts and the Doctor was sure there was nothing that could make that stop hurting, though he desperately needed it to do so.
"Koschei..." he said, weakly.
The Master let go of his head but that didn't stop the images, they were a part of his mind now. They couldn't be stopped or taken away. "Don't call me that." The Master replied, bitterly and got to head feet. "Don't even speak," he hissed.
The Doctor moved himself to sit up, with his back against the wall, but didn't attempt to try and get to his feet. The Master was pacing up and down in front of him, tapping the beat of four against his lap. "I understand now," he said, softly. In his mind he knew it was wrong to destroy a planet, there would never be a time when that was an acceptable action, and that was conflicting with the part of his mind that felt the Master's feelings at doing it and understood exactly why. He felt he would've done the same and he felt that it was still the most horrendous act. There was no happy medium here.
The Master swung around to face him again, "No, you don't." he hissed. "You can see parts of it, you can feel why I did it, but you do /not/ understand," he spat at him. "You cannot even begin to understand, you runaway coward." The Doctor sighed, what was there left that he could say. He watched the Master carefully as the other moved to his knees in front of him. The Master leaned forward and stroked the Doctor's cheek gently.
"I know exactly what's going to happen now, Thete." he told him, almost gently.