Heh, sorry guys...i didnt mean to but i'm still really sorry for such a long wait. It's going to be hard because i'm changing the plot for the next chapter, and after that, Winter may go off by herself. What do you think?
The Sound of Hearts
Winter watched the Master walk to the steps of Saxon Headquarters after going to the Palace to have a meeting the Queen and the Royal Family. This was it.
The Master had become Prime Minister, he now basically had all of the United Kingdom under his control – not that he needed the title in the first place. The remainder of the AAN had gone up and even though Winter had got the Inhibitor to work some time ago, the Master seemed to be a natural at control.
His natural ability was so strong that for many of the humans, it was overriding any and all protection the Inhibitor gave them. It hadn't been so bad at first, but then, one by one the rest of the satalights were launched until all 15 were in space.
"Mr Saxon, this way, sir. Come on, kiss for the lady, sir." She heard a photographer ask. Winter refrained from shaking her head. It had been like this since he had won, and now – everywhere they went, they would have people stalking him and Lucy.
It didn't help that Winter was supposed to be in hiding. If her younger self saw her on the TV, it would all become very complicated, and even though she had taken measures before applying for the job, namely dying her hair a blending shade of brown, and had bought contacts that would darken the bright green eyes, she didn't want to take the chance.
The Master stood forward to speak to the press and what he said next gave Winter all she needed to know. "This country has been sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that, what this country really needs, right now…is a doctor." As he smiled, a small and unnoticed frown appeared on the brunette's face. It's time.
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Knowing what was going to happen very soon Winter made her way over to Lucy. "Excuse me Mrs Saxon?" The blonde woman looked up from a letter she was signing to Winter.
"What is it dear?" She asked kindly. Winter gave her a weak smile. Lucy Saxon was a kind woman, she had proved it quite a few times and once again it made Winter wonder why it was her, the Master had chosen.
"I uh…I feel a bit queasy Mrs Saxon. Would you mind terribly if I was to go home for the day?" She made herself look sick and a little shaky.
Lucy looked the girl over; she was pale and small tremors could be seen. Natalie had rarely missed a day of work since she had started working for her a few months ago and when she did she was very sick. And looking at the girl now, Lucy could tell it was the case again. "Of course dear. You do look quite pale, I think you should go home. Should I call you a taxi?"
Winter shook her head slightly. "No, that's fine Mrs Saxon. I think I can manage. Goodbye." She walked to a street and called for a cab. Soon one pulled up beside her. "Big Ben please." The driver looked at her through the mirror and she rolled her eyes. "There'll be a tip if you just move now!" He nodded and started driving. The plan was simple.
By now, the Doctor was back on Earth with Martha and Jack - just in time to see the Master was Prime Minister, sounded a small bitter part of her brain. She shook it off and continued going over the plan.
The Doctor was back and sooner or later the Master would make his presence known to the whole of London somehow - probably in a way that would cause as much drama as was possible - so they would have to go into hiding.
Where they would hide was tricky; they couldn't go to Martha's and Torchwood wasn't secure as the Master had placed bugs or whatever in there. Wherever they went, Winter wouldn't know. Which was why she was so grateful to Ari for giving her Jack's number.
When Winter got to the tower, she paid the man and walked round the back. There were stairs leading up around back and Winter climbed up them. Using the phone she had bought 2 days ago, she punched in Jack's number and waited for the phone to be picked up.
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With no place left to go, Jack, Martha and the Doctor went to Martha's house. It was a tupid idea, the Doctor knew but there was no place to go - the Master could have bugs anywhere. "But he's got the TARDIS. Maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for decades." It was a good idea and it would have worked.
"No." the doctor said bluntly, looking at Martha who was looking out the window.
"Why not? Worked for me."
The Doctor paused, he was wondering that as well. "Just before he was set off in the TARDIS, I tried to lock the co-ordinates, permanently. But somehow, it was already done. The Screwdriver picked it up - they were already locked between here and the year one hundred trillion - well, with a bit of leeway I suppose." The other two looked at him, the question burning in their eyes.
"How much leeway?" Jack asked. The doctor thought about it for a moment.
"Well, eighteen months, tops. The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale." Just as he said that, Jack's phone began ringing. It was shrill and loud and honestly, it made Martha jump slightly. And - as her heart was already racing - she wasn't sure that was such a good thing.
"Hello?" It was a hesitant hello, Jack didn't quite know who had this number apart from Torchwood. As he thought of Torchwood his heart fell to his stomach. Where was Ari? He hadn't seen her, she hadn't contacted him at all. For all her knew she was - no! No, he wasn't going to think about that.
"Jack!" He knew that voice, and a guilty feeling washed over him as he realised he hadn't thought of her at all either.
"Winter!" A small smile on his face. "Hold on, let me put you on speaker." He took the phone from his ear and held it out ignoring the small scowl Martha had on her face. "Winter what happened to you?"
"That's what I'd like to know," The Doctor said taking off the glasses he had managed to put on some time ago. There was a pause from the other side of the phone.
"That's not important," they heard her say. "What you need to know is that the Master has been using the ArchAngel Network as a phone network to broadcast his hypnosis worldwide. Everyone has a phone with the AAN." The Doctor's eyes widened hugely and grabbed Martha's phone from the side table.
Taking off the back, he soniced it, and then read the results. Sure enough, there was a strong but subtle sound coming from the phone. Dum-dum-dum-dum. Dum-dum-dum-dum. Over and over again.
"He faked the pictures and the documents, up until about 20 months ago, he didn't exist, and then when he did, he put up the AAN. I've been working on a Phrenic Inhibitor to-"
"Working on what?" The Doctor had grabbed the phone off Jack and was holding up to his mouth, making his voice sound louder than it was - and it was already loud. "How are you doing that? Humans don't even have the beginnings of the mental development needed too make it, never mind the technology!"
"It doesn't matter," she began again but the Doctor wasn't having it.
"No, it does matter! You show up out of nowhere and have knowledge that no human could have. Who are you!" It wasn't a question, it was a demand but Winter was not going to give anything up, at least not yet.
"You're just going to have to trust me." She told him quietly. Everyone could hear her sigh over the phone.
"Trust you? I don't even know you. For all we know, you could be working with the Master." The other two held their breath, waiting for the girl to blow up, but nothing happened.
"Then don't trust me. Ask Jack what Ari told him before she left - oh and if you need more proof, scan for an increase in psychic development. The Sonic will tell you it's coming from an external source. That's the Inhibitor." There was a pause before she began talking again. "Just make sure that your out the house in the next seven minutes because if I'm right, then the Master would have been waiting for you too."
There was a click indicating the end of the phone call and the Doctor chucked the phone back at Jack before rushing around the room checking for something.
Less than thirty seconds later, he found what he was looking for.
There behind the T.V, was a pipe bomb set off to explode in six minutes. Winter was right.
Using the Sonic, he disabled the bomb and took it from behind the T.V where Martha gasped.
Tugging on his hair, he groaned. That woman was a menace. There was no way that she was telling the truth, much less was a human. No, there was something odd about her and the Doctor was going to find out what it was.
"I was going to vote for him." Martha said, sounding shocked at what she had just found.
"Really?" Jack asked. He had seen the reaction the Doctor had had to Winter's call and had found it extremely funny. The man was getting a taste at what he dished out at others - sure, it wasn't bad what he did, it just left everyone in the room confused and dazed. And that was kind of what Winter had done to him.
"Well, it was before I even met the Doctor, or you," she said nodding in the Doctor's direction. "And I liked him."
"Yeh, me too." Jack agreed. "But then it must have been the Master's voodoo hypnosis thing 'cause I don't even remember why. All I know is that a few months ago, he started sounding…off." Jack frowned in recollection. Now that he thought about it, it had been around the time the Master got a new secretary. He remembered seeing her and thinking she was pretty hot for a secretary.
"But, it was like you could trust him." The Doctor watched, his eyed widening as Martha started tapping on the table, a beat of four - dum-dum-dum-dum. Dum-dum-dum-dum. "Just nice. He spoke about. I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice."
As the Doctor watched, he realised what had happened. "Winter was right!" It was annoying to say it but he had to. "The Master must be using something to broadcast the hypnosis but-" Something blared out from the laptop and a pop up showed Saxon Broadcast All Channels, in bold letters. The Doctor turned on the TV, waiting to see what the Master would say. "Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom."
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Winter sighed as she dropped her phone. She knew it would be hard - of course it was going to be hard. She was trying to change something that she was sure was going to happen anyway. She trying to stop a psychopath from destroying her home, her friends, her planet, and she was trying to do it from a small room inside of Big Ben.
It was a crazy but very thought out plan that she wouldn't be able to do without the help of the TARDIS. She owed that girl her life, and she didn't know how she was going to repay her, but she was.
And yet, the hardest and probably the most stupid thing about this whole situation was how hard it had been to be around this Doctor.
Winter laughed at her own stupidity and the tears rolling down her eyes but it was the truth. She was breaking apart from the inside because the man she had fallen in love with - after only a few short months with him - was somebody else.
The Doctor she was used to was kind, funny, talked a thousand miles an hour and was silly and very clumsy. This doctor, he was alien.
Sure he still talked like he had been drinking RedBull and had taken a dose of speed on the side, but he wasn't silly, he wasn't clumsy, he was…older in a way. And while the rational part of her brain knew that wasn't true and was in fact, the exact opposite, the other part told her that he was.
And it was odd. But Winter couldn't really deal with that now. The Master was about to make his grand speech - the stepping stone to the end of the world. And all she could do was sit back and wait.
Because by now, if the Doctor had listened to her, they should have found whatever the Master had planted and hopefully disabled it. But still, Winter knew it wouldn't be enough. The Master was going to make the Doctor's life as miserable as he could once this whole thing started, that she knew.
But that didn't mean that he wasn't going to make this hard for him now.
Winter got up from the makeshift seat and walked over to the tower window. Wherever you are Doctor, good luck.
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"Master." The Doctor had known that they should have just left but he understood why Martha had needed to check up on her family. He also understood the panicked faces Jack seemed to be making every time he couldn't get through to Ari on the phone. Rassilion knew what the Master had done to them.
"I like it when you use my name." He could just imagine the grin that was on the Master's face right now.
"You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day."
" As you chose yours. The man who makes people better." He spat through the phone. "How sanctimonious is that?"
"So, Prime Minister, then."
"I know." Again, the smile that must be on his face. "It's good, isn't it?" Somewhere, at the Back of the Doctor's mind, he could almost convince himself they were back in their Academy days, talking about something so much more innocent and happy. But then, he brought himself back to reality.
Gallifrey was gone, and the Master was no longer the man he knew, the friend who would help him with almost anything. "Who are those creatures? Because there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made up name, like the Bogeyman."
"Do you remember?" The Master asked, solemn now. "All those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids." Oh The Master remembered alright. The amount of times he had scared the Doctor with those stories when they were children. "Back home. Where is it, Doctor?"
"Gone."
"How can Gallifrey be gone?"
"It burnt." Was the Doctor's short reply.
"And the Time Lords?"
"Dead." He replied, knowing what the Master was going to ask. "And the Daleks, more or less. What happened to you?"
"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War." There was the clear bitterness in his voice as he recalled what had once happened. "I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared."
"I know." The Doctor told him sincerely. Sadly.
"All of them?" He asked but didn't wait for a response. "But not you, which must mean-"
"I was the only one who could end it. And I tried. I did. I tried everything."
"What did it feel like, though?" And it was from then, that the Doctor knew that the Master was only going to get worse. "Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?"
"Stop it!" He demanded, not wanting to hear it.
"You must have been like God." He needed the Master to stop. He needed it so badly because the truth was, that when he had been standing there, watching what he had done, hearing their faint screams, the Doctor, for one brief, short moment, had felt like God. And that had scared him more than anything in the world.
"I've been alone ever since. But not anymore. Don't you see? All we've got is each other."
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
"You could stop this right now." He offered. "We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that's what you want, but not on Earth."
There was a small pause, as if the Mater was thinking about it, and the Doctor had a small sense of hope. But soon, it was dashed as the Master told him, "too late."
But still, the Doctor had to keep trying. "Why do you say that?"
"The drumming." As though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."
"I could help you. Please, let me help."
"It's everywhere. Listen, listen, listen. Here come the drums. Here come the drums."
And then the Doctor heard it. He turned around and watched as a man, standing against the wall began tapping out the beat on his thigh, completely unaware of what he was doing. "What have you done?" The Doctor asked horrified. He hadn't known that the Master had this much control over everyone. "Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures? Tell me!"
From the Cabinet Room, the Master watched as the three of them dances around, smiling to himself. "Ooh look. You're on TV."
"Stop it. Answer me!"
"No, really. You're on telly. You and your little band, which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there you are." The ticker was saying they were terrorists, it even had their pictures. And a news reporter was telling the world that they were all incredibly dangerous.
"You're public enemies number one, two and three." The Doctor could hear the grin back on the Master's face now. "Oh, and you can tell handsome Jack that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them."
Jack swore profusely. What had that son of a bitch done to them? Done to Ari? "Now, go on, off you go. Why not start by turning to the right?"
They did as they were told and looked towards the right. There was a CCTV camera that was showing them, themselves. "He can see us." The Doctor zapped the CCTV with his Sonic Screwdriver.
"Oh, you public menace." He said, grumpily. "Better start running. Go on, run."
"He's got control of everything." The Doctor told them.
"What do we do?" Martha asked worriedly. They were trapped.
"We've got nowhere to go." Jack added, still mad about not knowing what had happened to his team.
"Doctor, what do we do?"
With his ear still near the phone, the Doctor heard the Master's command. "Run, Doctor. Run for your life!" And they would have to do the only thing the Doctor could think of.
"We run."
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Martha had just come back from getting some takeaway. They had to eat after all, even if they were now…fugitives - at least, in the eyes of the public. "How was it?" Jack asked, looking up from what he had been doing.
"I don't think anyone saw me." He nodded in relief at that and continued with what he was doing. "Anything new?"
"I've got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing." He showed her the computer screen but Martha couldn't make heads or tails of the thing. But she didn't exactly care that much about Saxon right now.
"Yeah, I meant about my family."
"It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning." He saw Martha's face drop and so continued. "Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo."
She smiled at that. "He's not as daft as he looks. I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?"
"Nice chips." Jack had tucked into the bag of fish and chips that Martha had brought back.
"Actually, they're not bad." The Doctor said, agreeing with Jack.
"So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"
"And what is he to you? Like a colleague or…" Martha trailed off, waiting for the Doctor to fill in the missing pieces.
"A friend, at first."
"I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something." Martha joked. Well, she was kind of joking. You never knew when it came to the Doctor, and he had said - or at least implied that he had lost a brother when he had first met her as John Smith, in the hospital.
"You've been watching too much TV." The Doctor said rolling his eyes, but grinning at her.
"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." Jack had remembered those legends. The way people told it, Gallifrey was a beautiful planet - both the scenery and the people.
"Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was. It was beautiful." He got a faraway look as he recounted his home. "They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below.
"Sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation.
"He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad. Brr. I don't know."
"What about you?" Martha asked delicately. He had never really talked about his past, and when he had it was when Martha herself had pulled up a chair and promised him she wouldn't leave until he told her the truth. Even then, it had only been about what his planet had looked like - never about himself.
"Oh, the ones that ran away, I never stopped." He smiled at her a little just as Jack's bracelet beeped.
"What was that? Martha asked, going to stand next to Jack.
"Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it."
"Patch it through to the laptop." The Doctor told him, moving over to stand by his side quickly.
Jack hesitated for a minute, knowing what he was going to tell the Doctor wasn't something that he would particularly like."Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you." As he said that, the Torchwood logo appeared on the screen of the laptop.
"You work for Torchwood!" The Doctor shouted, not quite believing what he was seeing.
"I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now." He promised. But that got him once again wondering where they were.
"Everything Torchwood did," he said angrily. "And you're part of it?"
But still Jack persisted. "The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you in your honour." The Doctor hit play, not wanting to be reminded about what had happened then.
A woman appeared on the screen. "If I haven't returned to my desk by twenty two hundred, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means if you're watching this, then I'm... Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the ArchAngel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the ArchAngel Network."
"But we already knew that. Winter told us." Jack remembered. Look, it's gone worldwide. They've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by ArchAngel now." And he wondered how he hadn't noticed that. Even his phone had the ArchAngel Network.
"Yes but how did she know? How did she know the Master was using the ArchAngel network to hypnotise, and how did she build the Phrenic Inhibitor?" He didn't expect answers, really he was just thinking out loud. "For all we know, she's in league with the Master. This could all be a trick. Because whatever it is he's doing, he's used that rhythm, in layers of code, Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Whispering to the world. Oh, yes!
"That's how he hid himself from me, because I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. I should have known way back. The signal cancelled him out."
"Any way you can stop it?"
"Not from down here. But now we know how he's doing it."
"And we can fight back." Martha said happy to finally be able to do something.
"Oh, yes!" He disassembled parts of the phone and the laptop, and welded them sonically to their each of their TARDIS keys, explaining as he went along. "Three TARDIS keys. Three pieces of the TARDIS, all with low level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in. Well, sort of.
"But now, the ArchAngel Network's got a second low level signal. Weld the key to the network and Martha, look at me. You can see me, yes?"
"Yes." Martha told him.
He put the string with his key on it around his neck, "what about now?" He asked, and just like that, Martha found it almost impossible to look straight at him.
"No, I'm here. Look at me." He told her, hands in his pockets.
"It's like," she began, trying to explain it. "I know you're there, but I don't want to know."
The Doctor took the key off and instantly she could see him again. "And back again. See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just unnoticed. Oh, I know what it's like. It's like, it's like when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist. That's what it's like. Come on."
Jack looked at Martha, noticing the look of bewilderment, shock and embarrassment on her face. "You too, huh?"
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Later that night, Winter walked behind Lucy and the Master. She had called back, saying she was feeling much better and Mrs Saxon had told her to come in straight away. It seemed, almost as if the woman trusted her - if only a little. The Master didn't even seem to notice she was in the car on the way there. Just how she liked it.
Winter watched as the Master saluted the President of the United States. If she were being honest, she didn't even know his name. Oh it's not like I care anyway, she thought.
"Mister President, sir." The Master said with a smile on his face.
"Mister Saxon, the British Army will stand down." He told him, no room for argument. "From now on, UNIT has control of this operation."
"You make it sound like an invasion." There was still a smile on his face. Winter couldn't see it this time, but she could hear it in his voice.
"First Contact policy was decided by the Security Council in 1968, and you've just gone and ignored it."
"Well, you know what it's like. New job, all that paperwork. I think it's down the back of the settee. I did have a quick look. I found a pen, a sweet, a bus ticket and er, have you met the wife?" Winter roller her eyes discreetly. Apparently, all Timelords had the ability to fall completely off track.
What's-his-face President wasn't amused at the Master as much as Lucy probably was. "Mister Saxon, I'm not sure what your game is but there are provisions at the United Nations to have you removed from office unless you are very, very careful. Is that understood? Are you taking this seriously? To business. We've accessed your files on these Toclafane.
From the corner of her eye, Winter saw movement. She took out her phone and used it to check the reflection. Sure enough, she saw Martha, Jack and the Doctor move away and she smiled to herself slightly. It never occurred to her though, that she shouldn't have been able to see them.
When she brought herself back to the conversation, she found she must have missed a lot because the President had walked away and the Master and his wife were talking in hushed tones. "We should reach the Valiant within the hour. My darling."
One of the armed guards came and escorted Lucy away. She turned and told Winter to go with her and true to her part, Winter followed the woman. Just as she began leaving, she turned to see the Master looking at the place where the three of them were and her heart spiked in fear, wondering if he could actually see them.
She didn't get to answer the question though because Lucy pulled her into the Valliant. "Oh look at this place Natalie. Isn't it amazing." Winter nodded eagerly. She pulled up the plans on her phone, it had been slightly tampered with so she could see everything.
She also used it as a locater, much like Ari's teleport, it used people's DNA to find their location. She didn't have the Doctor's or Martha's DNA, but she did happen to have Jack's. Ari had given it to her before she left, along with the idea of her locator. All Winter had done was condense the technology onto her phone. It had taken up a lot of memory but she had just made sure to get additional hard drive for her phone.
She checked her phone, and sure enough, Jack had popped up on the screen in the engine room. She smiled slightly to herself and looked up. "Excuse me Mrs. Saxon. I'm going to see if there's anywhere to get a coffee. Would you like one?"
"Oh yes, thank you Natalie. I think I'm going to need one tonight." Lucy said still looking around the room.
"You're usual, Mrs Saxon?" Winter asked. Lucy only nodded and Winter went off to the engine room. She would have to make sure she remembered to get the coffee for her. Now that she thought of it, she could actually go for something to drink herself.
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"Oh, that thing is rough." Martha complained, holding onto her head and breathing hard for the second time that day.
"I've has worse nights." Jack told them, remembering fondly - well before Ari had come along. "Welcome to the Valiant."
"It's dawn?" Martha had seen out of the window noticing the sun peaking through. But that didn't make sense. "Hold on, I thought this was a ship. Where's the sea?"
"A ship for the twenty first century, protecting the skies of planet Earth." When they looked out again, Martha could see the other planes flying around and the large strip of runway for the planes.
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Winter's phone beeped again notifying her that they were on the move once again. They were going to the Engine Room centre, which was closer to her. She smiled again and changed her course.
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They had been running to find Martha's family when the Doctor suddenly stopped. "We've no time for sightseeing." Jack told him.
"No, wait. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Can't you hear it?" They both quietened down trying to hear what the Doctor was hearing but they couldn't.
"Doctor, my family's on board." Martha reminded him frantically, but it seemed like he wasn't paying attention.
"Brilliant. This way." They ran down past a gangway to level 4, then opened a door at the end. "Oh, at last!" The Doctor exclaimed in happiness as he saw the TARDIS.
"Oh, yes!" Martha said as well, just as happy to see the TARDIS standing there.
"What's it doing on the Valiant?" Jack asked frowning slightly.
"Well where else would he keep it?" They all whirled around and were shocked to see a brown haired woman with dark eyes, smiling a sad smile as she saw the TARDIS. She held up a hand and they say a tray of coffee cups. "Coffee?"
It took him a moment to recognise her but in after a few seconds, the Doctor noticed the unique tattoo's on the woman's right wrist and it finally clicked. "Winter?"
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"What the hell's he done?" Jack asked. They stood the TARDIS after Winter had insisted that it was safer for them to stay outside. It wasn't just her, everyone could tell that there was something wrong with the TARDIS.
"Don't touch it." The Doctor told them, but he was watching Winter particularly. He still didn't know if he could trust her, and she seemed to be eyeing the TARDIS a lot.
"I'm not going to."
"What's he done though?" Martha asked. "Sounds like it's sick."
"That's because she is sick." Winter said sadly. The Doctor frowned at her but she ignored it. "The Master must have done something to the TARDIS after I got out."
The Doctor's eyes widened as he realised what must have happened. "It can't be. No, no, no, no, no, no, it can't be."
"Doctor, what is it?" Martha asked him, worried that he was worried. She gave the cup of coffee that she had taken when Winter had offered it to her back to the woman. She didn't want to admit it but she was hungry and cold, and if anything, the Coffee was warming her hands, but now the Doctor was worried, and there wasn't time to be drinking anything.
"He's cannibalized the TARDIS." Winter's eyes narrowed in anger. That was why the TARDIS couldn't communicate with her anymore. She must have been in so much pain; she was going against her basic, programmed function.
"He didn't," she whispered so quietly that not even the Doctor - with his Timelord hearing could have heard her. "He couldn't have."
"It's a paradox machine!" Jack's eyes widened with realisation and Winter's only narrowed again. Martha was the only one that didn't understand what was going on, what a paradox machine was.
Once again, Winter's phone beeped. It was a message from Mrs Saxon asking where she was. Everyone looked at her and she looked up from her phone. "I'm needed." She told them. "Don't get caught down here."
She didn't even turn around when they called for her, she didn't stop when she heard the Doctor's angry voice calling her. If she did, she wouldn't be able to carry on and then her plan would go to waste. She needed to finish this.
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Winter got there just in time to see the President begin his speech. "My fellow Americans, patriots, people of the world. I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity, a role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much, but what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew."
She turned and saw that the Doctor, Jack and Martha had walked into the room quietly. She turned to see the Master smiling and frowned. He was too happy, and she didn't like it that she didn't know why.
"For as long as man has looked at the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone. No longer unique in the universe. And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane." Four sliver spheres entered the room and flew around a little.
Winter froze a little, there was something wrong with them, she had seen something when the TARDIS had shown her what was going to happen but she couldn't recall what had been so important about them.
All she knew, was that they were wrong. "My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and designated representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon."
One of the spheres began talking. "You're not the Master." Winter froze again. This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.
"We like the Mister Master." Another said, this time with a young girl's voice.
"We don't like you." Another said.
Winters was stuttering slightly, not quite knowing what to say."I can be master, if you so wish. I will accept mastery over you, if that is God's will."
"Man is stupid," the male one said. "Master is our friend."
"Where's my Master, pretty please?"
"Oh, all right then." Everyone looked up at the Master. "It's me. Ta da! Sorry, sorry, I have this effect. People just get obsessed. Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy."
"Saxon, what are you talking about?" Winters asked, outraged.
"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam, starting with you. Kill him." A sphere pointed its weapon at Winters and blasted him into little pieces. Chaos erupted and the army drawing their guns but the Master only laughed and applauded.
The plan was going to start soon. As soon as Martha left. Because she knew what would happen to her if she stayed. The Master would kill her family one by one, and they wouldn't come back.
Jack would get tortured if he stayed as well and she couldn't let that happen to him. Ari would never forgive her if that happened.
"Now then, peoples of the Earth. Please attend carefully." Winter watched as the Doctor took off his key and ran forward. Two men in black grabbed him before he could get to the Master. "We meet at last, Doctor. Oh, ho. I love saying that."
Winter carefully removed the locator from the inside of her phone and flipped a switch. It was now a teleporter. She extracted Martha's DNA from the cup she had held and programmed it into it.
Turning up the level on her perception filter, she walked over to Jack and handed him something. He looked at her and she pleaded with him silently, begging him to take it. He didn't know why, but there was something about her that he trusted, and whatever Winter had given him, he knew that it wouldn't hurt him.
"Stop it! Stop it now!" The Doctor demanded.
"As if a perception filter's going to work on me." Jack's eyes locked onto the necklace that was showing through her top and she nodded silently, and then stood still. "And look, it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which one's which. Tell me, did you ever find out what happened to your little team?" Jack ran forward, ready to strangle the man when the Master zapped him with his screwdriver.
"Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" He laughed.
"Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself-"
He turned to the camera, still recording live. "Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." He turned to the guards. "Let him go."
"It's that sound." The Doctor tried. "The sound in your head. What if I could help?"
"Oh, how to shut him up? I know. Memory Lane. Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence?
"I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooh, if I only had the Doctor's biological code. Oh, wait a minute, I do." He turned and opened a large metal briefcase and showed them a hand.
"I've got his hand. And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?" The Master aimed his Screwdriver at the Doctor, who went into rapid convulsions." Winter bit her lip to stop the gasp escaping.
Slowly, Winter began lowering the level on the perception filter again. She needed the Master to see her, then he would stop hurting the Doctor and hopefully focus on herself. She only needed Martha and Jack to get away first.
Looking over, Winter saw that Jack had been revived and Martha ran to the Doctor. "Doctor? I've got you." She told him.
"Ah, she's a would be doctor. But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in all the way from prison." Clive, Tish and Francine were brought in, their wrists fastened together with cable ties, and a guard was pushing and shoving them.
"Mum!"
"I'm sorry." Martha's mother mouthed to her.
"The Toclafane. What are they? Who are they?" The Doctor asked, his voice weak from physical age.
"Doctor, if I told you the truth, your hearts would break." Come on Martha, leave. Winter thought.
"Is it time? Is it ready?" One of the male spheres asked, with what Winter realised, was eagerness.
"Is the machine singing?" The female one asked. She - if that was what she was - sounded like a child waiting for her lollipop and Winter held back a disgusted shiver.
The Master looked at a watch. "Two minutes past. So, Earthings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!" A song that Martha would never again want to hear began.
"Here come the drums. Here come the drums. Baby, baby, baby. You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child. Don't say maybe, maybe."
From a window, Lucy could see a tear shape open up in the sky and millions of the spheres came flying out. "It's supernatural. I'm coming undone. Baby, baby, baby. You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child. Don't say maybe, maybe. It's supernatural. I'm coming undone. Baby, baby, baby. You are my voodoo child, my voodoo child."
"How many do you think?" The Master asked happily, brining Lucy into his arms.
"I, I don't know."
"Six billion. Down you go, kids!" The spheres headed down to the population centres and Winter could only assume, they began to kill everyone.
"Shall we decimate them? That sounds good. A nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population!" Winter noticed the Doctor whisper to Martha and she moved away from him, holding Jack's bracelet.
All around, where reports coming into the Valliant about people getting killed, towns getting destroyed but the Master only laughed. While this was happening, Martha managed to teleport away and Winter smiled.
She turned to Jack and pressed a button on her phone. Moments later, he was gone. She had managed to get him to where Martha was. The rest was up to them. Now, she had to distract the Master.
The Master and Lucy held up the now ancient Doctor so he could watch the slaughter.
"And so it came to pass that the human race fell, and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion as Master of all, and I thought it good."
Winter took a deep breath and took off the perception filter. The Master, noticing her, turned to look at her and she smiled grimly. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
The Doctor watched her carefully. He was the only one to notice her eyes turning from the green it had been to a sturdy grey.
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Somewhere, Martha and Jack watched their home burning, and heard the cries from others. Clutching their keys, they both made a promise to the Doctor.
They promised him they would come back.
So what do you think will happen to Winter? She got rid of Jack so is it possible that the Master will take it out on her? What do you think about her eyes? Can anyone guess?
R&R pleassssse