Through Thick and Thin
The Final Days of Planet Earth
Shareen Costello walked into her home after a day's work. She shrugged off her jacket and ambled into the living room, which was decorated for Christmas. "Nice place you have here, Miss Costello." a familiar voice said from behind her.
Shareen froze in fear as she recognised that voice. She slowly turned round and screamed as she saw the Master standing there. "Hello. Long time no see." the evil Time Lord grinned maliciously.
"No! You can't be here, you're dead!" Shareen whimpered. "Jack shot you and Peacock burned you! You CAN'T be here!"
"And yet here I am!" the Master laughed. "Merry Christmas!" And he promptly shot Shareen with his laser screwdriver.
~o0o~
Shareen jerked awake with a scream. "Ah! Just a dream, just a dream!" she panted thankfully as she found herself alone in her bedroom. Breathing heavily, she sat up in bed and tried to calm her racing heart rate down. "Oh, god, why did I dream about him?" she asked herself. The nightmares about the Master had stopped shortly after Pompeii, but now it seemed that they were returning. Shareen got out of bed and ventured over to the window to look out at the street. It was now December and all the houses in Blackmoor Road were suitably decked out for the holidays. It was certainly a fine sight but Shareen felt apprehension; after all, all of Earth's Christmases for the last three years had involved some form of alien attack and she was worried that this year would be no exception. A figure standing on the pavement in front of her house caught Shareen's eye and she looked down to see the unmistakable figure of an Ood. The Ood seemed to study her for a moment than abruptly vanished into thin air. "Ok, that was weird." Shareen muttered to herself, realising that the Ood was likely Ood Sigma. "I dunno. I really need to stop drinking late at night." Shareen shook her head and returned to bed.
~8~
On the evening of December 23rd, Shareen was in town on her way home from her part-time job in a shop. The street was busy with last-minute Christmas shoppers and a Salvation Army band. Suddenly, above all the activity, Shareen heard a familiar voice calling to her, "Shareen?"
Shareen looked to see Wilfred Mott walking over to her. "Bloody hell, Wilfred!" she grinned. "Am I glad to see you!" And they both hugged each other in greeting.
"How are you, Sweetheart? Where's the Doctor?" Wilfred asked her when they broke apart.
"Search me." Shareen replied. "Haven't seen him in months. He dropped me off not long after we lost Donna. My sister ran into him on a bus around Easter, but I haven't seen him since he dropped me off. Why? Are you alright?" she asked, noticing that Wilfred looked tired.
"Oh, I'm fighting fit, Sweetheart." Wilfred replied. "Just been having funny dreams, that's all."
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Shareen sighed. The nightmares about the Master had been regularly as clockwork every night for the last couple of weeks.
"Seems like everyone's been having bad dreams lately." Wilfred commented. He then turned and heard the sounds of a choir singing in a nearby church. "Think I'll pop in there and pay my respects." he decided.
"I'll come with ya." Shareen said. Although she was by no means a religious person, her ongoing nightmares made her consider that maybe visiting a church would do her some good, and so they made their way inside the church.
As Wilfred and Shareen made their way up the church's centre aisle, their attention was caught by something in the large stained-glass window behind the altar. In the bottom left pane was a small blue police box: the TARDIS.
"They call it the legend of the blue box." a voice said from behind them. They turned round to see an elderly woman dressed in white standing there.
"Oh. Well, I've never been in here before." Wilfred said. "I'm not one for churches. Too cold."
"Me too." Shareen added. "I mean, I believe in God, but I'm not one of those fanatics who lives their life by the bible and all that."
"This was the site of a convent back in the 1300s." the woman told them. "It's said a demon fell from the sky, then a man appeared. A man in a blue box. They called him the sainted physician. He smote the demon and then disappeared."
"That's a coincidence." Wilfred shrugged.
"I doubt it." Shareen smirked knowingly.
"It's said there's no such thing as coincidence. Who knows? Perhaps he's coming back."
"Oh, that would make my Christmas!" Wilfred sighed, turning to look at the windowpane. True to his word to the Time Lord, he looked to the stars every night and thought of him.
"Careful what ya wish you, Wilf." Shareen remarked. "If Peacock's comin' than you can guarantee some evil alien or something is gonna be coming with him. He's a trouble magnet. He can't help it, it's just the way he is."
She and Wilfred then turned round again to see that the woman had vanished. "Huh, she moves fast." Shareen muttered.
~8~
Elsewhere in London, Lucy Saxon sat alone in her cell in Broadfell Prison, where she'd been residing for the last year and a half. Suddenly, the door opened and Lucy looked up to see an unpleasant-looking prison warden standing there. The officer nodded and Lucy stood and walked to the door.
Lucy was escorted through the corridors until she reached a large cavernous room where a well-dressed woman greeted her, "Mrs Saxon. Let me introduce myself. I'm your new Governor. I'm afraid the previous Governor met with something of an accident, which took quite some time to arrange. Miss Trefusis, if you will prepare."
The unpleasant-looking warden, Miss Trefusis, motioned to the other guards, who all positioned themselves around the room. In the centre was a stone pedestal on which Miss Trefusis reverently placed a bowl.
"You kept your silence well, Mrs Saxon." the governor said to Lucy. "Your trial was held in secret, with no jury, so no one knows who Harold Saxon was, where he came from, why you killed him. Make her kneel." she ordered a guard, who pushed Lucy to her knees. "There are those of us who never lost faith." the governor continued. "And in his wisdom, Harold Saxon prepared for this moment. He knew that he might die and he made us ready."
Miss Trefusis stepped forward.
"Tonight, Mrs Saxon... he returns." the governor finished as Miss Trefusis held out the Master's signet ring, which she'd retrieved from his funeral pyre after the Doctor had left.
Lucy gasped in horror as she realised what these idiots were about to do.
~8~
Wilfred had returned to the Noble household and was now looking out of the kitchen window at a thunderstorm which was rolling in. Behind him, the telly was broadcasting the news when it suddenly changed to show the woman from the church. Hearing the telly go silent, Wilfred turned but the woman had gone.
~8~
Shareen walked down Blackmoor Road towards her house. She heard a rumbling and looked up to see the thunderstorm approaching. "Cosmic." she muttered and ran to her house, not wanting to be outside in a storm.
~8~
Miss Trefusis placed the Master's signet ring in the bowl.
"As it was written in the Secret Books of Saxon, these are the Potions of Life." the governor said as the guards poured blue liquids into the bowl.
"Listen to me!" Lucy protested, trying to make these idiots see reason. "Whatever he told you, you've got no idea what you're doing!"
"Miss Trefusis, the catalyst." the governor ordered, and Miss Trefusis advanced on Lucy.
"What're you doing?" Lucy protested as the warden forcibly wiped her lips with a tissue. "Leave me alone!"
"You were Saxon's wife. You bore his imprint." the governor said. "That's all we needed. The final biometrical signature."
"You can't bring him back, you can't!" Lucy cried, but her protests fell on deaf ears and Miss Trefusis dropped the tissue into the bowl. A sprout of brilliant blue flames shot up from the bowl and turned into a whirling maelstrom which towered up to the ceiling. "I'm begging you! Stop this now before it's too late!" Lucy implored desperately, standing up again, but the prison staff were too brainwashed to listen to her.
"We give ourselves that Saxon might live!" the governor recited, and life energy was pulled out of her and all but one of the guards. They all fell to their knees.
"Can't you see?!" Lucy tried in vain. "He lied to you! His name isn't even Harold Saxon!"
"And this was written also." the governor droned. "For his name is... the Master!"
As if on cue, the naked figure of the Master manifested itself in the maelstrom. "Never!" he echoed. "Never. Never. Never. Never dying. Never dying! Never dying! Never dying! Never dying!" He saw Lucy and held his arms out. "Oh, Lucy. Sweet Lucy Saxon. My ever faithful. Did the widow's kiss bring me back to life?"
"You're killing them!" Lucy shouted, pointing to the governor and her acolytes, who were all on their last legs.
"Oh, let them die." the Master said indifferently. "They're just the first. The whole stupid, stinking Human race can fall into the pit." He put his hands over his ears. "Can't you hear it, Lucy? The noise? The drumbeat? louder than ever before. The drums. The never ending drums. Oh, I have missed them!"
Lucy's expression of terror suddenly changed into one of defiance. "But no one knew you better than I did!" she said. "I knew you'd come back. And all this time, your disciples have prepared. But so have we!" She turned to the remaining guard, who had not been an acolyte, and took a small vial filled with a black liquid.
"What're you doing?" the Master glared.
"The Secret Books of Saxon spoke of the Potions of Life. And I was never that bright, but my family had contacts. People who were clever enough to calculate the opposite." Lucy told him and removed the stopper from the vial.
"Don't you dare!" the Master roared. "I'm ordering you, Lucy. You will obey me!"
"Till death do us part, Harry!" Lucy spat defiantly, no longer the Master's obliging accomplice.
"NOOOO!"
Lucy hurled the contents of the vial at the Master and the maelstrom erupted into a tremendous explosion of blue flame which engulfed the entire room.
~8~
Shareen was relaxing in her living room when she suddenly heard a tremendous rumble from somewhere in the distance and the whole house shook. "What the hell?!" she stared and rushed upstairs. She looked out of one of the back bedroom windows to see something on fire in the distance, about a mile or so away. Shareen suddenly realised that the flames were coming from the vicinity of Broadfell prison; the very prison where Lucy Saxon was incarcerated in. Remembering her nightmares, the appearance of Ood Sigma and the woman in the church's comments, she put two and two together and realised that they were all connected. She grabbed her phone and dialled the TARDIS. There was no answer. "Oh, c'mon, Peacock, pick up will ya?!" Shareen grumbled. After several unsuccessful attempts to call the TARDIS, Shareen then dialled Wilfred's number, he having given it to her before they'd left the church. "Wilfred, it's me." she said when Wilfred answered. "I'm gonna need your help."
~8~
The next afternoon, Wilfred was getting ready to leave the Noble house. "Just going down to the Lion." he called to Sylvia, who was upstairs. "Quick little snifter. Christmas drinks. All right, ta-ta."
He stepped outside to find Shareen waiting for him at the end of the driveway. "We all set?" she asked him. They'd agreed on a plan to try and track down the elusive Time Lord.
"All set." Wilfred confirmed and pulled out his mobile phone. "Paratroop one to Paratroop two, we are mobilised, repeat, we are mobilised. Rendezvous at 13:00 hours. Over and out." They stood on the road as a mini-bus turned the corner and Wilfred waved it down. "Come on. Wahey, shake a leg!" He did a little jig before boarding the bus, which was full of his neighbours and friends. He'd decided to call in all resources to find the Doctor. "Right then, come on, let's get going." he said to Oliver the driver. "Oh, this is Sharen Costello." He gestured to Shareen, who joined him on board the bus. "She's a friend of Donna's and is looking for the same man we are."
"Hey, everyone." Shareen nodded to Wilfred's friends, who all greeted her warmly.
As the bus drove through the Chiswick roads, Wilfred explained to his friends about the Doctor. "He's tall and thin, wears a brown suit, sometimes a blue suit. He's got a long brown coat. Modern sort of hair, all sticky-uppy, right?"
"Boyfriend of yous?" one of the woman asked Shareen.
"He's not my type." Shareen snorted.
"Oh, and on page two, be on the lookout for a police box, exactly like the old ones." Wilfred continued, holding up a sketch of the TARDIS.
"I got locked inside one of them." another woman remarked. "August bank holiday 1962."
"Were you misbehaving, Minnie?" one of the men asked knowingly.
"I certainly was, wa-hey!" Minnie smirked, causing the group to laugh.
"Yeah, alright, alright." Wilfred cut in, getting back to business. "Listen, this is important. We have got to find it. Right, so phone around, phone everybody. Sally, will you get onto the bridge club?" he asked the first woman. "Winston, you try the old boys." he instructed the man from before. "Bobby, want you to ring the skiffle band, right? Between us, we've got the city covered."
"The Silver Cloak!" Minnie cheered, looking forward to doing a bit of sleuthing.
"Yeah." Wilfred nodded.
"Ya know, I really think we've got a good chance of finding him." Shareen commented, impressed at Wilfred's planning.
"Who is he, then, this Doctor?" Winston asked.
"No, I can't tell you that, I swear." Wilfred replied. "But answer me this; you've been having bad dreams?" he looked around them, seeing from their reactions that they had indeed "All of you? Dreams you can't remember? Yeah, well, that's why we need him. We need the Doctor, more than ever."
~8~
The Doctor was not having a good day. He'd travelled to the Oodsphere in response to a summons from Ood Sigma and the Ood had shown him that the Master was back and informed him that something dark was returning, that time was bleeding and that the Master was at the centre of it all. He'd rushed to Earth as fast as he could to try and stop the Master's resurrection but had been too late and all he'd found was a destroyed prison. He'd followed a trail of murders which had led him to waste ground in the London docklands. He climbed atop a pile of dirt and inhaled deeply, trying to catch the Master's scent. Suddenly, he heard someone banging four times on something metal and took off towards the source of the sound as it repeated and he found the Master banging on a barrel. The Master's hair was bleached blonde, his face was unshaven and he was dressed in a black hoodie and trousers; a far cry from the image he'd presented when posing as Harold Saxon.
Upon seeing the other Time Lord, the Master gave an animalistic roar and lept into the air. He landed behind a pile of gravel and the Doctor ran that way. As he closed the distance on the Master, he saw his face suddenly change to a skeleton briefly before changing back again. "Please, let me help!" the Doctor shouted to him. "You're burning up ya own life force!"
The Master simply took off running again, jumping over a pile of girders. The Doctor ran after him, but as he reached the girders, Wilfred and his friends suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Oh, my gosh, Doctor. You're a sight for sore eyes!" Wilfred grinned.
"Outta the way!" the Doctor pushed past him and scrambled onto the pile of girders, but there was no sign of the Master, he'd vanished into thin air.
"Did we do it?" Winston asked Wilfred. "Is that him?"
"Yep, that's him." Shareen confirmed.
"The Silver Cloak. It worked" Minnie grinned. "Cos' Wilf phoned Netty, who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the blue phone box, and her neighbour saw this man headin' east."
The Doctor stepped down as Minnie was speaking and turned to Wilfred. "Have you told them who I am?" he frowned. "You promised..."
"No, I just said you were a doctor, that's all." Wilfred reassured him. "And might I say, sir, it is an honour to see you again." He saluted and the Doctor gave a half-hearted one in return.
"Ooh, but you never said he was a looker." Minnie remarked, eyeing the Doctor. "Take a photo!" She handed Oliver a camera and squeezed up next to the Doctor, who looked very uncomfortable as the rest of the Silver Cloak apart from Wilfred and Shareen all squeezed up beside him.
"Me next!" Oliver grinned.
"I'm Minnie." Minnie said to the Doctor. "Minnie the Menace. It's a long time since I had a photo with a handsome man." And she squeezed up uncomfortably close to the Doctor.
"Just get off him." Wilfred said to his friends, seeing how uncomfortable the Time Lord was with the attention "Leave him alone."
"Hush, you old misery." Minnie waved him off. "Come on, Doctor, give us a smile." She pinched the Doctor's cheeks, making him give a grimacing smile.
"Hold on." Oliver pressed a button on the camera. "Did it flash?"
"No, there's a blue light." Minnie told him. "Try again."
"Oh, I'm all fingers and thumbs."
"I'm really kinda busy, ya know." the Doctor squirmed.
"Oh, it won't take a tick." Minnie waved him off. "Keep smiling." Her hand slid down the Doctor's back to his arse.
"Is that your HAND Minnie?!" the Doctor flinched as Minnie goosed him.
"Good boy." Mickey smirked, giving him a pat on the arse.
"Alright, alright. Let's give the man some room, eh?" Shareen laughed, stepping forward.
"Shareen?" the Doctor stared. "What're you doing here?"
"Looking for you." Shareen replied. "I tried phoning ya, but you wouldn't answer. Honestly, Peacock, what's the point in havin' a phone box if ya don't bother to answer the bloody thing?"
~8~
Oliver's bus stopped outside a café and the Doctor, Shareen and Wilfred disembarked. "Come on, then. Here we go." Wilfred said. "Hurry up. Bye. You behave, bye." he waved to his friends as the bus drove off, leaving the trio by themselves. "Come on, then." he said to the others as he led them towards the café.
"What's so special about this place?" the Doctor questioned. "We passed 15 cafes on the way here."
Wilfred didn't answer and instead led the way inside. The trio were soon at a table; Wilfred and Shareen on one side and the Doctor on the other. "Oh, we had some good times, didn't we, though?" Wilfred said, trying to make small talk. "I mean, all those ATMOS things, and planets in the sky, and me with that paint gun." He made a small noise, reliving the moment.
"Yeah. It was a good idea, though, Wilf." Shareen said. "Just a pity it didn't work." She then turned to the Doctor and became serious, "Peacock, I've been having nightmares about the Master again, and then last night the prison where his wife was being held burned down. I can't help but wonder, is he back? Is the Master back from the dead?"
"I'm afraid so." the Doctor replied gravely.
Shareen felt the colour drain from her face. "Cosmic." she murmured. "Some people get wise men bearing gifts for Christmas, I get an evil alien hell bent on death and destruction. Don't you dare take his side again!" she hissed crossly at the Doctor. "I still haven't forgiven you for doing that last time."
"I've said I was sorry till I'm blue in the face." the Doctor said, then he turned to Wilfred. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Wilfred Mott." the Human answered obviously.
"No, people have waited hundreds of years to find me an' then you manage it in a few hours."
"Well, just lucky, I s'pose." Wilfred shrugged.
"No, we keep on meeting, Wilf." the Doctor said thoughtfully. "Over and over again like something's still connecting us."
"Yeah, but what's so special about me?" Wilfred questioned
"Well, us meetin' Donna was destiny, so maybe it's the same with you." Shareen shrugged.
"But why?" the Doctor wandered. They were all silent for a moment then the Doctor spoke up again, "I'm going to die."
"Well, so am I one day." Wilfred shrugged.
"Don't you dare!"
"Alright, I'll try not to."
"But I was told 'He will knock four times.'" the Doctor explained. "That was the prophecy. Knock four times, an' then..."
"But you won't die, you'll just do that regeneration thing." Shareen ventured. "I mean, you've done it before. Heck, the Master did."
" I can still die." the Doctor told her. "If I'm killed before regeneration, then I'm dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead." He then noticed Wilfred looking at something outside. "What?" He and Shareen followed Wilfred's gaze to see saw Donna getting out of her car.
"I'm sorry, but I had to." Wilfred told them. "Look, can't you make her better?"
"Stop it." the Doctor pleaded.
"No, but you're so clever. Can't you bring her memory back? Look, just go to her now, go on. Just run across the street. Go up and say hello."
"If she ever remembers me, or Shareen, her mind will burn, and she will die." the Doctor said seriously.
They turned back to the window to watch Donna shouting at a traffic warden "Don't. You. Touch. This. Car!"
"Hmm, still the same old Donna." Shareen smiled sadly. She missed hanging around with the fiery ginger.
"Oh, there he is." Wilfred said, nodding to a handsome black man walking over to Donna with shopping bags. "Shaun Temple. They're getting married in the spring."
"Good for her." Shareen smiled.
"Hold on, she's not gonna be called Noble-Temple?" the Doctor asked. "Sounds like a tourist spot."
"No, it's Temple-Noble." Wilfred replied.
"Is he good to her?" Shareen asked him. "Is she happy?"
"Yeah, he's sweet enough." Wilfred replied. "He's a bit of a dreamer. Mind you, he's on minimum wage, she's only earning tuppence, so all they can afford is a tiny little flat. And then sometimes I see this look on her face. Like she's so sad, but she can't remember why."
"She's got him." the Doctor tried.
"She's making do." Wilfred said.
"I guess we all are." Shareen shrugged.
"Yeah. How about you, Doctor?" Wilfred asked the Time Lord. "Who've you got now?"
"No one." the Doctor replied. "Travelling alone. I thought it was better. But I did some things. It went wrong. I need..." He suddenly lost it and had to wipe the tears from his eyes as he remembered his recent trip to Mars.
"Blimey, Peacock, what happened?" Shareen asked, surprised to see the Doctor like that. The only time she'd ever seen the Doctor that upset was after losing Rose at Canary Wharf.
The Doctor recovered. "Merry Christmas, both of you." he said, changing the subject.
"Yeah, and you!" Wilfred reciprocated.
"Look at us!" the Doctor laughed bravely.
"Well, don't you see? You know you need her." Wilfred said. "I mean, look, wouldn't she make you both laugh again? Good old Donna, eh?"
"Yeah." Shareen sighed as they watched Donna drive away.
~8~
Presently, the Doctor bid goodbye to Wilfred and resumed his search for the Master, only this time with Shareen accompanying him. The Doctor had tried to convince her to go home and leave it to him but she wouldn't hear of it. "I don't trust you not to take his side again." she'd told him. "Besides, I've got a score to settle with that looney bin."
As nightfall came, they tracked the Master down to an an abandoned smelters in the docklands. There they found him, sitting in the shadows gnawing a bone. He stood up at the sight of his arch-nemesis and his companion. "Well, if it isn't the Doctor and his spiky little pet." the Master said contemptuously. "How's your chest, Miss Costello?" he taunted.
"Better now that I'm gonna get my revenge!" Shareen snarled and abruptly charged towards the Master.
"Shareen, no!" the Doctor warned but it was too late.
The Master blasted a bolt of electrical energy out of his hands, which struck Shareen and sent her flying back like a rag doll. She crashed to the ground beside the Doctor, not seriously hurt but knocked unconscious. The Master then fired another bolt of energy, this time at the Doctor, hitting him in the chest. The Doctor managed to weather the storm until the Master stopped his attack , then he fell to his knees and the Master walked over to him.
"I had estates." the Master said. "D'you remember my father's land, back home? Pastures of red grass stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky." He knelt down beside the Doctor. "Look at us now."
"All that eloquence." the Doctor panted. "How many people have you killed?"
"I am so hungry."
"Your resurrection went wrong. That energy... Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself!"
"And that's Human Christmas out there." the Master continued, ignoring him. "They eat so much. All that roasted meat, cakes and red wine. Hot, fat, blood food. Pots, plates of meat and flesh and grease and juice. And baking, burnt, sticky hot skin. Hot! It's so hot!"
"Stop it!" the Doctor hissed. The bodies he'd found had had their flesh stripped clean off their bones, as if Vashta Nerada had been at them, quite nasty to see
"Slice! Slice!" the Master continued.
"Stop it!"
"It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! It's mine! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!"
"Stop it!" the Doctor said angrily, appalled at the Master's gleeful description of his cannibalism.
The Master took a breath and regained control of himself.
"What if I ask you for help? There's more at work tonight than you and me."
"Oh, yeah?" the Master scoffed.
"I've been told something is returning."
"And here I am!" the Master crowed gleefully.
"No, something more."
"But it hurts." the Master said, holding his head.
"I was told the end of time..."
"It hurts, Doctor, the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor. One, two, three, four, stronger than ever before! Can't you hear it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Listen, listen, listen, listen! Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is... calling to me, Please, listen." He crawled closer to the Doctor.
"I can't hear it." the Doctor shook his head.
"Listen." The Master grabbed the Doctor's head in his hands and pressed his forehead to the Doctor's, causing him to hear a four-beat drum rhythm in the Master's mind.
The Doctor gasped and pulled away. "But that's...!"
"What?" the Master questioned.
"I heard it!" the Doctor said. "But there's no noise. There never has been. It's just your insanity, it's the... What is it? What's inside your head?"
"It's real!" the Master laughed. "It's real! It's REAL!" he roared and launched himself in the air, landing on a mound of dirt just outside the building. The Doctor ran over to him. "All those years, you thought I was mad!" the Master said gleefully. "King of the wasteland. But something is calling me, Doctor, what is it? WHAT IS IT?"
Suddenly, a search light shone on the Master from above and he looked up to see a helicopter hovering above him. Line descended from it and armed men in black uniforms abseiled down them. One of the men held the Master, while another injected him with a syringe.
"Don't!" the Doctor yelled, running forward, but two other men fired at his feet, forcing him back and he could only watch as the unconscious Master was winched up to the helicopter. "Let him go!" the Doctor demanded, rushing forward, but one of the men whacked him on the back of his head with their gun, knocking him out and he fell face forward in the dirt.
~8~
Next morning, Wilfred opened a Christmas present from Donna, finding that it was a book called 'Fighting the Future' by Joshua Naismith. On the cover was a picture of Naismith; an arrogant-looking black man. "Now then, steady on, never too late for margaritas, that's what I say." Donna laughed from behind him. "I forgot to get lemons so I used oranges instead. It's all fruit, same difference."
"Oh, now, look at that." Sylvia said, holding a blouse Donna had brought her. "Absolutely beautiful. 'Love from Donna'. Did ya keep the receipt?"
"Yes, I did." Donna rolled her eyes and turned to her grandfather. "C'mon, Gramps, you've been a right misery ever since ya got up. D'ya like it then? The book?"
"Joshua Naismith?" Wilfred frowned. This wasn't the sort of book he was interested in. "I mean, what d'you get me this for?"
"I dunno." Donna shrugged and seemed to fall into a trance. "I just saw it in a shop, an' thought of you. It just felt like the sorta thing you should have."
"Oh, now look at that!" Sylvia laughed, snapping Donna out of her trance. "That's from Charlie Morton, isn't that rude?"
Donna came over to see the card she was holding and both women laughed at it, while Wilfred studied the book in concern.
~8~
Meanwhile, the Master found himself strapped to a wheeled chair and being brought to Joshua Naismith. "If you would, Mr Danes." Naismith said to his butler, who removed the strap covering the Time Lord's mouth.
"I'm starving." the Master said once his mouth was free.
"You've my daughter to thank for this." Naismith said, going over to his daughter. "It's all her idea. She heard rumours of Harold Saxon, his disciples, his return. It's the sort of thing she finds rather thrilling."
"And I was right." his daughter grinned in a creepy way. "He's back. The very man we need, and he's here. Oh, this is going to be wonderful."
The Master merely smirked at this, realising that these insolent primitives needed him for something and maybe he could use it to his own advantage.
~8~
That afternoon, Shaun Temple arrived at the Noble house with his presents for them. "Aye-aye, here are the presents." he greeted them. "I couldn't afford much, but not for long, if President Obama ends the recession tonight! C'mere!" He grabbed Donna and pulled her into a hug, both of them laughing.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, keep it quiet, you lot." Wilfred said, heading for the living room. "It's the Queen's speech. Now c'mom, sit down, show some respect."
"Merry Christmas, Mr Mott." Shaun handed him a present.
"Thank you." Wilfred nodded and let his future grandson-in-law hug him. He liked Shaun; he was a good man, unlike that treacherous swine Lance. "Will you behave?!" Wilfred laughed as Shaun gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Honestly. Alright now. She's on, she's on. It's our sovereign." He went into the living room and sat down in front of the telly, where the Queen's speech was about to begin.
Suddenly, the screen went to static and when it cleared, Wilfred saw the woman in white he'd met at the church on screen. "Events are moving, Wilfred." the woman said.
"Eh?" Wilfred blinked.
"Faster than we thought."
"Can you see that?" Wilfred called to the others, who were all still in the kitchen.
"Frankly, I'd tell Her Majesty, it's time for trouser suits." Donna scoffed.
"No, no, no, no." Wilfred began. "That's not..."
"Only YOU and Miss Costello can see." the woman told him. "Only you stand at the heart of coincidence."
"Why?" Wilfred questioned. "What've I done?"
"You're an old soldier, sir. Only you were too late. The war was won and passed you by."
"I did my duty."
"You never killed a man."
"No I didn't. No, I did not, no, but don't say it like it's shameful." Wilfred was quite proud of the fact that he'd been a soldier, but had never taken another person's life. He only shot to incapacitate, never to kill.
"The time will come when you must take arms."
"Who are you?" Wilfred frowned, growing uneasy.
"Tell the Doctor nothing of this." the woman told him. "His life could still be saved, as long as you tell him nothing." And with that, the telly changed back to the Queen's speech. Wilfred turned back to the others, considering for a moment to tell the others, but then decided against it, knowing it best not to.
Seeing that the others were otherwise occupied, Wilfred slipped off upstairs to his room. He shut the door and pulled out a battered old trunk from under his bed. Opening it, he pulled out a smaller box and opened it to reveal his old service revolver. As he checked to see if it was still loaded, he heard something strike the window. He pulled the curtain aside to see the TARDIS in the street outside, the Doctor and Shareen standing by it. He grabbed his coat, putting the gun in the pocket and went outside to meet them.
"We lost him." the Doctor said once he spotted Wilfred. "I was unconscious. He's still on Earth. I can smell him, but he's too far away."
"And he can shoot lightning out his hands now like the Emperor from Star Wars." Shareen added. "He just keeps gettin' worse an' worse."
"Listen, you can't park that there." Wilfred said, pointing to the TARDIS "What if Donna sees it?"
"You're the only one, Wilf." the Doctor said. "The only connection I can think of. You're involved, if I could work out how. Tell me, have you seen anything? I don't know. Anything strange, anything odd?"
"Well, there was..." Wilfred began thoughtfully.
"What? What is it? Tell me."
"Well, there was... No, it's nothing."
"Tell us, Wilf. Ya never know, it might be something." Shareen said.
"Well, Donna was a bit strange." Wilfred told them. "She had a funny little moment this morning, all because of that book?"
"What book?" the Doctor asked.
Wilfred led them round the side of the house to the back door. He slipped inside and returned with the book. "Here you are." he told them. "His name's Joshua Naismith."
"Yeah, I've heard of him. He runs Neon, the mobile phone company." Shareen explained to the Doctor.
"That's the man." the Doctor nodded. "I was shown him, by the Ood."
"The what?" Wilfred blinked
"The Ood."
"What's the Ood."
"Aliens." Shareen told him. "We met 'em with Donna once."
"But it's all part of the convergence." the Doctor mused. "Maybe touchin' Donna's subconscious. Oh, she's still fighting for us, even now. The Doctor-Donna."
Then came Syliva's voice, "Dad, what're you up to?" She stepped out of the house and saw the Doctor and Shareen. "You two! But... Get outta here!"
"Oh, that's nice(!)" Shareen snorted.
"Merry Christmas." the Doctor said smartly to Sylvia.
"Merry Christmas." Sylvia replied. "But she can't see you two! What if she remembers?"
"Mum, where're those tweezers?" Donna's voice called from inside the house.
"Go!" Sylvia urged the Doctor and Shareen.
"Alright, keep ya hair on!" Shareen grumbled.
"We're going." the Doctor said as he and Shareen made for the street.
"Yeah, me too." Wilfred said, following them.
"Oh, no you don't!" Sylvia hissed and chased after them.
"Mum? Gramps?" Donna asked, poking her head out of the door, but finding no one there
"Dad, I'm warning you!" Sylvia hissed as she chased her father down the side alley onto the street, where the TARDIS was waiting.
"Bye, see you later." Wilfred waved her off, following the others towards the box.
"I'm a bit old for hide an' seek." Donna grumbled, shutting the back doors.
"Stay right where you are!" Sylvia demanded as the trio reached the TARDIS.
"Ya can't come with us." the Doctor told Wilfred as he unlocked the door.
"You're not leaving me with her!" Wilfred said hastily.
"Dad!" Sylvia yelled, almost on them.
"Fair enough." the Doctor conceded and held the door open for Wilfred.
"Oi, and be nice to Donna!" Shareen called to Sylvia. "Or I'll be back!"
And with that, she and the Doctor followed Wilfred into the TARDIS.
"Just you listen to me!" Sylvia yelled. "I forbid it! Get outta there! Doctor, bring my father back! Doctor!"
The TARDIS dematerialised in front of her.
"Come back here! Come back here, I said! Come back!"
"Are you shoutin' at thin air?" Donna snorted as she stepped outside to find her mother.
"Yes." Sylvia nodded. "Possibly. Yes."
~8~
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor dashed around the console while Shareen looked on and Wilfred stood on the ramp and took it all in. Donna had told him about the box being bigger on the inside and he'd believed her, but seeing it for himself was still quite an experience. "Naismith!" the Doctor said, handing Wilfred the book back and inputting co-ordinates "If we can track 'im down..." he tailed off when he saw Wilfred looking around in bemusement. "Ah, right, yes. Bigger on the inside. D'you like it?"
"I thought it'd be cleaner." Wilfred remarked, eyeing the somewhat grungy state of the room.
"Cleaner?!" the Doctor burst out, offended.
"He's got a point." Shareen remarked. "I mean, I like the TARDIS but it's messier than my old flat!"
"I could take the both of you back home, right now!" the Doctor said indignantly.
"Just you try it, Peacock." Shareen retorted.
"Listen, Doctor, if this is a time machine, that man you're chasing... why can't you pop back to yesterday and catch him?" Wilfred questioned.
"I can't go back inside my own timeline," the Doctor answered hurriedly, "I have to stay relative to the Master within the causal nexus. Understand?"
"Not a word." Wilfred shook his head, moving over to join them by the console.
"Welcome to my world, Wilf." Shareen snorted.
"Welcome aboard." the Doctor said to Wilfred, shaking his hand.
"Thank you." Wilfred nodded, accepting the handshake.
~8~
At the Naismith mansion, the Master had been released from the chair and forced into a straightjacket. Naismith, his daughter and two armed guards escorted him through the house to a room where a large alien-looking gateway was standing prominently. "You can demonstrate." Naismith ordered a blonde female technician, who nodded and tapped a few keys on her computer. Electricity crackled through the gate.
"Ooh, that's not from Earth." the Master remarked, intrigued at the technology.
"And neither are you." Naismith remarked. "A perfect combination, don't you think?"
"Excuse me, sir?" a dark-haired male technician cleared his throat. "If I could check the basement? "We're getting fluctuation on the power cords."
"Of course, Mr Rossiter." Naismith agreed.
"Miss Addams?" Rossiter nodded to the blonde woman and they both left the room.
The Master was soon released from his straightjacket and Naismith explained to him about the gate, "The gate was found inside a spaceship. Buried at the foot of Mount Snowdon. It was moved to an institute known as Torchwood. But when Torchwood fell, well, let's say I acquired it." he smirked.
"I like you." the Master remarked, eyeing the arrogant Human.
"Thanks." Naismith said smugly.
"You'd taste great."
Naismith was somewhat unnerved by that. "Mr Dannes?" He stood up.
"The prisoner will be given food." Dannes announced, and a servant entered the room with a covered dinner tray. He placed it in front of the Master and removed the cover to reveal a whole turkey. The Master promptly devoured it like an animal, much to the bemusement of the Humans.
"Anyway." Naismith continued once the Master had finished, "the device came equipped with it's own power supply, a nuclear bolt." He gestured to two clear booths standing side-by-side on the side of the room. A technician was locked inside one booth. A second technician entered the other booth and pressed a button, locking his booth and unlocking the other one. "One technician remains in charge of the feedback, 24 hours a day." Naismith explained. "And the power feeds through to the gate. It encourages some sort of cellular regeneration. Miss Collins was our test subject."
A female technician walked over.
"She carried some burns, as a result of an accident when she was a child, down her left side. If you could?" he gestured to Miss Collins, who rolled up her left sleeve to reveal a completely healed arm. "The gate mended her. Thank you."
Miss Collins returned to her station.
"But what do you want it for?" the Master questioned, though he had a pretty shrewd idea of why.
"We calculate that if this device can be fully repaired by your good self, it can restore the body, forever. Hence it's given title, the Immortality Gate." Naismith replied. "Because that's what I want. Not for me, but for my daughter. I want her never to die. My gift to her. She will be immortal."
"Abigail." the daughter said smugly. "It means 'bringer of joy'."
The Master smirked at that. Humans were so very much like Time Lords; just as arrogant and self-centred. And these two fools had given him a perfect opportunity on a plate. Suddenly, he felt the presence of another Time Lord. He knew what that meant; The Doctor had arrived. "Better get to work." he said and began typing things into the computer in front of him.
~8~
The TARDIS materialised in the mansion's stables and the Doctor, Shareen and Wilfred stepped out "We've moved!" Wilfred gasped, taking in their new surroundings.
"You two should stay here." the Doctor told the Humans.
"Not bloody likely!" Wilfred scoffed.
"You said it, Wilf." Shareen concurred.
"Alright, but stay close, both of you." the Doctor conceded. "Hang on." He took out his TARDIS key fob, making the box dematerialise again. "Just a second outta sync. Don't want the Master findin' the TARDIS, that's the last thing we need."
"Huh. Pity ya never thought to do that last time." Shareen muttered.
The trio cautiously left the stables and crossed the grounds towards the house, when the Doctor pulled them back against the side of an archway. He peered round to see two armed guards march past. "That book says he's a billionaire." Wilfred explained. "He's got his own private army."
"Huh, compensating for something?" Shareen remarked.
"Down here." the Doctor said, and led them to a door leading to a wine cellar. He unlocked it with his sonic screwdriver and the trio snuck in.
The cellar was full of electronic equipment. The trio hid round a corner, watching Addams looking at a monitor which displayed a video feed of the gate. "Miss Addams, we're getting encouraging results from the ratio-foldback." Rossiter's voice said over the comm. "Can you confirm?"
"The man's a miracle." Addams replied. "All the systems are slotting back into place. The shatterheads have harmonised and the multiple overshots have triplicated."
"Nice gate!" the Doctor remarked as he, Shareen and Wilfred came out of their hiding place
"Hello." Wilfred waved.
"How're ya doin'?" Shareen chimed in.
"Look, sorry, don't call security, or I'll tell 'em you're wearin' a shimmer." the Doctor said to Addams, walking into the room. "'Cos I reckon anyone wearin' a shimmer doesn't want the shimmer to be noticed or they wouldn't need a shimmer in the first place."
"I'm sorry, what's a 'shimmer'?" Addams asked innocently.
"Shimmer." the Doctor said simply, flashing her with his sonic screwdriver and she promptly turned into a spiky alien, similar to Bannakaffalatta, but taller and with green skin.
"Oh my Lord, she's a cactus!" Wilfred exclaimed.
"Miss Addams?" Rossiter called over the comms. "Miss Addams?"
~8~
In the room with the gate, Rossiter gave up on the comms. "If you'll excuse me." he said to Naismith and hurried off towards the cellar.
"Now, please don't assume I'm a slave driver." Naismith said to the Master. "We can resume work on Boxing Day, Mr Saxon."
"My name... is the Master." the Time Lord replied, pressing a key on his computer. The lights in the room dimmed and the gate powered up, an energy field appearing in the archway of it. The Master leaned smugly back in his chair.
"Oh, excellent!" Naismith crowed. "Excellent. Mr Danes?"
"The visitor will be restrained." Dannes ordered, and a guard came forward with a straightjacket
"What?" the Master pretended to be surprised. "But I repaired it!"
"I'm not an idiot!" Naismith retorted. "Don't let him near that thing." he ordered the guard.
~8~
In the cellar, the Doctor was looking at the readings from the gate. "He's got it working, but what is it?" he wandered.
Just then, Rossiter arrived. "What's working?" he questioned. "What are you doing here?"
"Shimm-er!" the Doctor said, and without even looking at him, flashed Rossiter with his sonic screwdriver, revealing him to be another spiky green alien. "Now then, tell me, quickly, what's goin' on? The Master, Harold Saxon, Skeletor, what's he doin' up there?"
~8~
In the gate room, the Master had been strapped into the straightjacket. "Your reputation precedes you, sir." Naismith told him. "I have no doubt you've laid traps. Perhaps explosives, a means of escape and murder. But everything you've done to the gate will be checked and double-checked before before anyone stands inside, yet alone my daughter."
The Master merely smirked. Humans could be so thick sometimes, and they were playing right into his hands.
~8~
"But I checked the readings." Rossiter said to the Doctor. "He's done good work. It's operational."
"Who are you two, anyway?" Shareen quizzed. "I mean, we met an alien like you once. He was great, saved our lives, but he was all little an' red."
"No, that's a Zocci." Addams said flatly.
"We're not Zocci, we're Vinvocci." Rossiter added. "Completely different."
"And the gate is Vinvocci." Addams said. "We're a salvage team. We picked up the signal when the Humans activated it, and as soon as it's working, we can transport it to the ship."
"But what does it do?" the Doctor questioned
"Well, it mends, simple as that." Rossiter said "It's a medical device to repair the body. It makes people better."
"No, there's gotta be more." the Doctor shook his head. "Every warnin' says that the Master's gonna do something colossal."
"Yeah, somehow I don't think Looney Bin is interested in healin' people." Shareen agreed.
"So that thing's like a sickbed, yeah?" Wilfred asked the Vinvocci, eyeing the video feed of the gate room
"More or less." Addams shrugged
"Well, pardon me for asking, but why is it so big?"
"Oh, good question. Why's it so big?" the Doctor concurred.
"It doesn't just mend one person at a time." Addams snorted
"That would be ridiculous." Rossiter added
"It mends whole planets." Addams said
Both of the Doctor's hearts nearly stopped at this revelation. "It does what?!" he stared.
"It transmits the medical template across the entire population." Addams told him.
"Oh, you're kiddin'!" Shareen breathed, and she and the Doctor both took off running towards the gate room, both realising the sort of damage the Master could do with this sort of technology.
~8~
"But it's time for the broadcast." Naismith said to the Master. "The President's grand initiative. You might want to see this, sir. Proof that the Human race can mend it's own problems." He turned the telly on.
"And now, anticipation mounts as we go live to Washington." Trinity Wells announced. "Here, on Christmas Day, the President has promised an instant and radical solution to the worldwide depression. Barack Obama will lead us all into a new age of prosperity."
The shot changed to a shot of a conference room in the White House. "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States." an official introduced, and Barack Obama took the podium.
"I'd like to speak briefly about the state of our economy..."
Just then, the Doctor and Shareen burst into the room. "Turn off that gate right now!" the Doctor yelled.
"At arms!" Danes ordered, and the guards aimed their rifles at the two intruders.
"Just listen, you idiots!" Shareen hollered. "Don't let that nutter anywhere near that thing!" She gestured to the Master.
"Oh, like that was ever gonna happen!" the Master sniggered and promptly burst out of his straightjacket and lept into the gate before anyone could stop him.
"Oh, that's just cheating." Shareen muttered.
"Homeless, was I?" the Master crowed. "Destitute and dying? Well, look at me now!"
"Deactivate, all of you!" the Doctor yelled to the Humans. "Turn the whole thing off!"
But no one did, they all just starting wincing and shaking their heads, including Shareen. "What is it? What's wrong?" the Doctor asked her.
"He's... inside my head!" Shareen whimpered.
"Get out of there!" the Doctor yelled at the Master, and attempted to rush at him, but the Master simply blasted him with a bolt of energy, knocking him to the floor.
Just then, Wilfred came rushing in. "Doctor! Doctor, there's this face." he winced.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked him. "What can you see?"
"Well, it's him." Wilfred pointed to the Master. "I can see him! I can see his face!"
The Doctor glanced at the telly and saw that Obama was affected too. The Vinvocci were right, this gate did affect entire populations. He rushed to a computer and frantically started mashing keys. "I can't turn it off!" he groaned.
"That's because I locked it, idiot." the Master sneered.
Thinking quickly, the Doctor ushered Wilfred into one of the booths. "Get inside, you too, Shareen!" he urged, ushering Shareen inside as well, then he stepped into the other booth. "Just need to filter the levels..." he muttered, adjusting the controls.
"Ah, ah, that's better." Shareen panted in relief, regaining her bearings.
"I can see again." Wilfred agreed. "He's gone."
"Radiation shielding." the Doctor told them. "Now, press the button, let me out."
"You what?"
"I can't get out until you press that button, that button there." the Doctor said, pointing to a big red button.
"Yeah, hang on, Peacock." Shareen said and pressed the button, locking hers and Wilfred's booth and unlocking the Doctor's, allowing him to step out.
"50 minutes and counting!" the Master grinned.
"To what?" the Doctor asked, certain he wouldn't like the answer.
"Oh, you're gonna love this!" the Master cackled.
The Doctor tried everything he could to stop the gate, but it was no use; the Master had deadlocked the system. Wilfred's mobile suddenly rang and he accidentally pulled out his revolver. "Hello?" he called, then realised what he was holding. "Oh Gawd."
"Woah! Mind where ya pointin' that!" Shareen squirmed.
Wilfred quickly put the gun away and pulled out his phone. It was Donna on the other end. "Donna?"
~8~
"Where are ya?" Donna asked frantically from the Noble house. "It's mum an' Shaun." She looked at them. They were both wincing and shaking their heads.
"But wait a minute, I mean, what about you?" Wilfred asked. "Can't you see anything?"
"I can see them." Donna answered. "Isn't that bad enough?"
~8~
Wilfred's phone beeped and he saw that it was Winston calling. "Not now, Winston!" he groaned as he answered.
"Wilfred!" Winston's voice said over the other end. "Those dreams, I can remember the face! Wilfred, it's everyone!"
Shareen heard her own phone beep and she checked the screen to see that she had a ton of calls coming in from her parents, grandparents, Martha, Mickey and Sarah Jane. "Sh*t! He's affecting everyone!" she realised.
"What is it?" the Doctor demanded to the Master. "Hypnotism? Mind control? You're grafting your thoughts inside them, is that it?"
"Oh, that's way too easy!" the Master snorted. "No, no, no, they're not gonna think like me, they're gonna become me! and ZERO!" He threw his arms out and a burst of energy shot out of the gate.
~8~
In the Noble house, Donna could only watch in horror as her mother and fiancé were engulfed in a blue glow.
~8~
In the Naismith mansion, all the Humans except Wilfred and Sharee were engulfed in the same glow. "He can't have." the Doctor breathed in horror as he realised what was happening.
"What the hell has he done?!" Shareen stared as she and Wilfred could only watch helplessly from inside their booth.
~8~
In the Noble house, the blue glow faded and Donna's eyes widened as she saw that Sylvia and Shaun had both changed into a stubbled blonde man with an evil face. "But they've changed!" she said into her phone. "Granddad, that's like... like the sorta thing that's happened before." She suddenly had flashes of horrifying creatures in her mind. "My head! Oh, my head!"
~8~
"Doctor! She's starting to remember!" Wilfred called anxiously to the Doctor.
The blue glow around the Humans faded and they all dropped to their knees. "What is it?!" Shareen glared at the Master. "What've you done, ya evil bastard?!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" the Master said smugly
Naismith stood up, now looking exactly like the Master. "Or to me?"
Abigail stood up too, also looking like the Master. "Or to me?"
"Or to me?" Dannes asked, looking like the Master too.
The guards lifted their visors, revealing that they'd turned to the Master too. "Or to us?"
On the telly, Trinity Wells was now the Master too. "Breaking news, I'm everyone. And everyone in the world is me!"
The shot changed to show that Obama was now the Master too. "I'm president! President of the United States. Look at me! Ooh, financial solution... deleted Ha-ha!"
The original Master stepped out of the gate and stood by his doppelgängers. "The Human race was always your favourite, Doctor." he gloated. "But now, there is no Human race. There is only... the Master race!"
And all the Masters around the world laughed manically in triumph, revelling in their triumph while the Doctor, Wilfred and Shareen could only look on helplessly.
~8~
And so it came to pass on Christmas Day that the Human race did cease to exist. But even then, the Master had no concept of his greater role in events, for this was far more than Humanity's end. This was the day upon which the whole of creation would change forever. This was the day the Time Lords returned and the end of time itself would come.
To be continued...
Author's notes: And we're back with Shareen and begin the 10th Doctor's swansong. Unfortunately for Shareen, she has to contend with the Master coming back from the dead, which as we can see, she's not happy about at all! When planning this chapter, I thought it'd be interesting to see how hearing about the Master returning would affect a companion who'd suffered at his hands during the series 3 finale. We've also got Wilfred taking prominence, which we can't get enough of. R.I.P Bernard Cribbins, you're sadly missed. Having watched the trailers for the 60th anniversary specials, I noticed Shaun Temple in one shot. I hope he gets a larger role in the specials, as he didn't get much involvement in The End of Time so it'd be interesting to see him in action and find out what sort of person he is. As an aside, it's a pity RTD decided to remove the scene where the Doctor visits Trinity Wells to get information about the destruction of Broadfell prison, as it would fill in the gaps as to what the Doctor was doing in-between arriving at the aftermath and finding the Master at the waste ground. So, hope you like this chapter and I'll see ya next time for Peacock's last stand.
