The Eighteen Months.

The Master smirked as he sat in his office in Downing street, sipping coffee as he read the reports and papers that littered his desk. The Master hated the idea of bureaucracy because it bogged him down, there were always those who felt they deserved better, so they established rules over policies that should be as simple as blinking in the light of a sun.

It was a necessary evil though, for what he had in mind. He only needed to endure it for only a certain amount of time.

The last eighteen months had been gruelling but worth it.

The Master hadn't had a fixed plan in mind when he left the Doctor and Lady Romana at the end of the universe, but now his plan was in the makings.

He'd only needed to study the TARDIS databank for information about what his enemy had been doing since the war ended, cursing the TARDIS as he did. Why, of all TARDISes did the Doctor have to pick one that was obstinate and seemed to have a grudge against him ?

The Master had brooded over the information the TARDIS had given him, unwillingly, and for a long time he pondered over it, thinking of ways to exploit a weakness here and there. Then he'd studied the damage the Doctor had done, underestimating the Doctor was a dangerous thing to do as quite a few enemies of the past would testify.

The Doctor certainly had a better link to the TARDIS than ever, the navigational co-ordinates were locked by the Doctor's isomorphic code.

It was exactly the sort of thing the Master would've done to one of the TARDISes he'd used in the past.

Then the plan formed in the Master's mind.

He did it in stages.

One, if you're going to rule the universe, set up a power base, no matter how small and plan out the next move. The Master had used the old backdoors he'd set up in the early seventies when he'd first arrived at this backwards planet, the TARDIS had been resistant to that, the clapped out old piece of junk was as stubborn and moral as her owner, but in the end it was easy to set up a background.

It had been a stroke of fate and good fortune really, that the government was in such upheaval after the downfall of Harriet Jones, former Prime minister. It hadn't taken much effort to become the new Minister of Defence

Two, Archangel. What's the point if you run for prime minister no one actually votes for you ? The Master wasn't going to waste his precious schedule to democracy, if such a thing even existed. The telepathic field enabled him not just prominence for his contribution but also enabled him to tap into people's minds and get them to vote for him when the time was right.

There was something poetic about his old enemies, people who'd travelled with the Doctor, voting for him.

The Master smirked even more at the thought.

Three, Torchwood. It had been remarkably easy to gain access to Torchwood, thanks to Yvonne Hartman, even though the Master truly had wanted to kill her for her arrogance. How could the stupid foolish woman believe Torchwood was superior when the races whose technologies she'd had plundered were nothing compared to the higher life forms ?

She'd been difficult to control, even with subtle hypnotism, but once she'd been converted into a Cyberman, sad that, not, the Master had only needed to control her mind to protect the Doctor and stop the Daleks and the Cybermen from ruining his main plans before they'd even taken off.

After the battle, the Master had gone into Torchwood to salvage what he could. It was amazing, the amount of junk left behind. The Humans, in their arrogant stupidity, didn't have a clue about the potential of the devices they'd plundered in the last century.

The second stage of Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness. Harkness was a Time agent, the Master had seen the vortex manipulator on his forearm and the sexual innuendos were a dead giveaway. The Captain was dangerous, his knowledge of the history of the human race, combined with his technical ability and the combat prowess made him an exceptionally dangerous enemy. Solution, make him an ally.

It had been the Master, as Harold Saxon, that had enabled Jacky boy the chance to remake Torchwood into something completely different. Unfortunately, depending on the point of view, it meant that the Master had direct control of Torchwood, meaning if he told them to jump off a cliff they'd do it.

Torchwood had been seriously damaged by the Battle of Canary Wharf and the Master had used that to his advantage.

Four, the Toclafane. They'd changed a great deal of the Master's plans in more ways than one. The Master, using the TARDIS, had travelled into the future to the end of the universe, the only place he could go. He'd stumbled across the Humans in Utopia by accident. Instead of the ridiculous myths his human self had heard over the many years he'd spent trying to get them to Utopia, there was the exact opposite.

Darkness. Never ending darkness. The Humans, struggling to survive yet again, became difficult. They'd put all their collective hopes in a dream, only to discover that the dream was as rotten as a tree stump in the rain. The Master, always one to seek an advantage, hypnotised them with a powerful command.

Then he'd left them to it, only returning to continue pushing them.

The Humans regressed into children, beginning their final evolution. Like the Daleks, they cannibalised themselves, placed themselves into shells. Smaller and more compact than the bulky pepper pots the Daleks favoured, proving Human superiority.

The Toclafane replaced Humanity, now they were his. Using Archangel and his own hypnosis, the Master was able to control them and now they all looked to him for guidance and protection.

Five. The final piece of the plan. That would be a surprise the Doctor wouldn't expect

The Doctor was coming, the Master knew. Only this time, the Doctor knew the truth and he was prepared to confront the Master.

But the Master himself was ready, even more so and now the Doctor would finally meet his Master.

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