Sorry for how long it took but i did say i had exams to complete. I've finished them - well most of them so i have no more school which means i have nothing but time for you lot.
Okay, BIG thank you to:
grapejuice101, Brownbug ( thanks for the spelling thing. I fixed it) , monica, KatieTheBaka (Thank you for wanting more. SOrry it took so long.), skidney, CrazyLife247 and Lexi (I'll fix the mistakes asaic)
Thank you also to all those who Favorited/ read. I love you guys.
BTW, there is a lot of changes in this one so make sure you read the whole think okay?
One Moment in Time
The Doctor watched as the planet he loved became a world of destruction and death. This was not what he wanted; this was never what he wanted. The burning, and the screams of pain - they all took him back to The Moment. That one fatal moment when he had to decide whether or not his planet lived or died. But this time, he didn't have the choice.
The Master was going to destroy everything, and he had to stand there and watch it happen, because until the year was over, there was nothing he could do as he sat and listened to the Master - his voice full of glee. "It's ready to rise, Doctor." The Master told him, his grin gleaming in the glass.
"The new Timelord Empire. It's good, isn't it? Isn't it good? Anything? No? Anything? Oh, but they broke your hearts, didn't they, those Toclafane, ever since you worked out what they really are." And they really had. It had crushed his hearts as he came to understand what had happened. "They say Martha Jones has come back home, accompanied by Handsome Jack. Now why would they do that?"
"Leave them alone." He could stand the taunting, the boasting - and as much as he had to, he watched as the Earth burned. But what he couldn't take was the Master's threats towards Martha, or Jack.
He didn't want them hurt, and he especially didn't want Martha to be a part of this - he should never have told her what he had - but there was no other choice. Either Martha travelled, or the world became another one of the Master's toys. At least she had Jack with her. The Doctor knew that Jack would do anything to make sure Martha was safe.
"But you said something to her, didn't you?" The Master asked. "On the day I took control. What did you tell her?"
"I have one thing to say to you. You know what it is."
"Oh no, you don't!" The Doctor had barely finished his sentence before the Master cut him off. He pushed the Doctor's wheel chair away from the window and faced it towards the wall.
"Valiant now entering Zone Oneairspace. Citizens rejoice." A voice sounded over the intercom.
"Come on, people! What are we doing?" He clapped his hands together. "Launch Day in twenty four hours." Making sure he didn't get caught, the Doctor held three fingers against his thigh as Francine walked by. She repeated the signal to Clive, who was mopping the deck in a corridor and he passed the signal on to Tish. With a slight nod, she walked down to the belly of the ship where they were holding the prisoner.
She was covered in dirt, her once white hair was still brown and stringy. She looked up as Tish walked into the room and she felt a shiver through her body. Tish had never seen Winter smile, not once - though she didn't think that there would be a reason to smile.
For some reason unknown to anyone, the Master had taken a…interest in the woman. She had been the one to send Jack down to Earth with Martha, and Tish was thankful to her for that. Her sister would be more safer with someone else than if she were by herself. But still, even as she fed her, she felt the coldness radiating off the woman.
"It won't work," Tish jumped, but held back a squeak of terror. The woman's lips hadn't moved an inch - in fact, they were still eating the food that Tish had been feeding her. She looked around to make sure that none of the guards had seen her but they were all minding their own business.
"Wh - what did you say?" She whispered.
"It won't work. The Master is not some stupid human. He will have some sort of failsafe for his screwdriver." The voice in her head was calm, and clear but her eyes were still cold.
"We have to try." The woman said nothing after that, but it still left Tish wondering if she was right. The Master was dangerous, and if their plan went wrong, then they would probably end up killed. She just had to pray to God that it would work because it had to.
Tish soon left, it would be suspicious if she were to stay around the prisoner without a reason, but when she left, Winter would be on her own. She had tried so hard to stop it, anything and everything. She had tried to sabotage the ship, but she had been stopped. She tried to hack into the database and lock the missiles, but she couldn't. She had tried to send the Toclafane back to where they came from but she had been caught. And once she had been caught, the Master had began the torture.
At first, it was mental. He had forced his mind into hers, trying to find out how the stupid ape had managed to almost get into something he had designed, but she had shut her mind up in a box and locked the key in a memory that was guarded by stone.
It seemed that when the Angel had taken her over for that short time aboard the Byzantium, it had made a impenetrable place in her mind. Winter hadn't cared though; she had actually wanted to thank the Angel, because soon after the mental torture had stopped working, the Master had used physical torture.
She had burns, cuts, and bruises all over her body but because of that place her mind was in, she couldn't feel it. All she knew was that the Master had hurt her, and that she would never let any one of the Doctor's she had, or would meet, find out what had happened to her. Because if he did…well Winter shuddered to think.
Suddenly, there was a loud blaring noise that jolted Winter out of her thoughts. They had tried. She sighed as she watched it play over in her head and she knew what had happened. They had failed. And the Master was punishing the Doctor for it. And now the Master was sending a message. She could see it on the screen.
"What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate? All nine hundred years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?" The Master pointed his screwdriver at the Doctor and he began thrashing around, faster than possible and groaning in pain. "Older and older and older. Down you go, Doctor. Down, down, down the years." It seemed like years before it finished but finally the thrashing ended and the Doctor was revealed.
For the first time in a year, Winter Swann felt tears slip down her cheeks.
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"I'm sorry you're so sad." He was proud of Amy, that much he was sure of. She had battled whatever had been thrown her way, and it had always been with a cheeky smile or a joke - but the Doctor couldn't help but feel guilty.
"But I'm not. Sometimes these moods torture me for weeks, for months. But I'm good now. If Amy Pond can soldier on, then so can Vincent Van Gogh."
"I'm not soldiering on. I'm fine." And that right there was why he felt so guilty. She had lost someone she loved, Amy had lost Rory and she couldn't even grieve properly for him because she couldn't remember! It had been his fault, it truly had. If he had just moved faster, pulled Rory out the way he could have saved him. But he hadn't been able to save him, just like he couldn't save Winter.
That's a lie! A part of his mind told him. You could save her, you just don't want to! No, that wasn't true; of course he wanted to save Winter! He loved her, and it hurt him too much to explain at what he knew was happening to her - what the Master was doing to her, and every fibre of his being hated himself for leaving her.
But he had to. Winter needed to be there, because if she wasn't…who knew what would happen.
But, the Doctor vowed to himself, once I have her back, nothing will keep her away from me again. Until then, he would have to carry on. Because who else was going to do it? "Okay. Okay. So, now, we must have a plan." And plan he would.
[][][]
The Master had pulled Winter out onto the main deck. She had put the barriers back up - it would be counterproductive for her to suddenly feel the need to show emotion in front of the Master. It would mean she was now capable of being able to feel pain. Still, she wondered what it was he was doing.
Neither Clive, Tish nor Francine were on the flight deck - probably in the cells - and Winter was being made to stand. Her hands tied behind her back and shackles on her bare feet in case she tried to run. But run where? There's no where left to turn.
There was no one else on the deck apart from the Doctor and herself. He was in a bird cage, hanging two feet above the air and she was doing her best not to look at him. She could feel him staring at her, but she just couldn't bring herself to look at him. It hurt too much to see the Doctor so weak, so…unable to fight. Because though she knew he had a plan, she also knew that while he waited, he suffered. And the Bond made her all the more aware of it - her Doctor or not.
Finally, she heard the door slide open and Lucy's telltale heels. "Tomorrow, they launch. We're opening up a rift in the Braccatolian space. They won't see us coming. It kind of scary."
"Then stop." But they all knew he wouldn't.
"Once the Empire is established, and there's a new Gallifrey in the heavens, maybe then it stops. The drumming. The never ending drumbeat. Ever since I was a child. I looked into the vortex. That's when it chose me. The drumming, the call to war. Can't you hear it? Listen, it's there now. Right now. Tell me you can hear it, Doctor. Tell me." He was almost pleading. Winter could hear it in his voice. Almost, but not quite.
"It's only you." The Doctor whispered and whatever speck of humanity Winter had seen was gone in an instant.
"Good." A sphere entered and everyone but Winter turned to look at it. The year she had down in the basement had left her a lot of time to figure everything out and when she had, she had created a bigger barrier or stone to block the emotions.
"Tomorrow, the war. Tomorrow we rise, never to fall." It's child-like voice said gleefully.
"You see? I'm doing it for them. You should be grateful. After all, you love them so very, very much." But then his gaze turned to Winter. She felt it before she saw it, and instantly, she took on an emotionless look in her eyes. She had perfected it after all. "Don't you?"
The Doctor already knew what would happen. He had seen the bruises and burns, he had felt the her scattered mind, but all the time he prayed to whatever would listen that the Master stopped harming Winter.
The Master looked at her and suddenly she dropped to the floor, convulsing and curling into herself. Just because she couldn't feel the pain didn't mean her body hadn't reacted to it, and Winter hated herself for giving the Master a physical reaction.
Behind the wall, she could see what was happening. It was like someone was taking a burning poker and shoving it through her mind, frying all her nerves - at least, that was the sensation she could see. She could feel nothing however behind her wall.
"Stop it." She faintly heard, and it did stop. Winter let the barriers up slightly and felt the lasting pain. In self preservation she slammed the barrier back down lest she show anything.
"Oh but you don't love this one do you Doctor?" The Master's gleeful laugh echoed through the room. He had felt it, he had taken the girl by surprise and at last she had felt pain. Oh how sweet it tasted, the ability to torture. Still though, whatever shield she had was strong.
Much too strong for a pathetic human."What is she?"
"I don't know."
"Liar!" He shouted, moving over to Winter and jerking her up by her hair. "What are you?"
She could feel nothing, and that helped her. Looking into his eyes, Winter smiled a sly chilling smile. "The Master in the Valiant doesn't know. Doesn't know, doesn't know." She teased. It was the wrong thing to do. But at the back of her mind, Winter now understood why her Doctor had momentarily frozen when the Atraxi had said that.
The Master threw her against the wall with enough strength that everyone in the room heard the distinctive crack. Nobody helped her, nobody could but she didn't care. Winter began laughing. She turned over to her side to look at him. "Oh is the poor Timelord throwing a tantrum? Couldn't get his way? Poor baby."
Fury blazed in the Master's eyes as he turned to look at her. "What did you say?" The fact that he wasn't shouting was probably scarier than him shouting but Winter had switched off her emotions. She no longer cared what danger she was in.
"Don't Winter." The Doctor urged. She ignored him.
"Your nothing but a child throwing a tantrum because nobody is paying him any attention." She laughed again as the Master picked her up. "You're not a Timelord Saxon. You're a brat." The Master barely noticed the grey surrounding her eyes as he lifted his screwdriver.
"You insolent ape!" The Doctor watched the Master as he began to press the button on his Screwdriver. He was afraid for Winter – the Master wouldn't hesitate to kill her.
"Uh uh uh." She tutted. "Kill me and your paradox machine goes kaput." The Master didn't lower his screwdriver but he did let her drop. She let out a hiss of pain as she figured out what was broken – her right leg.
"What are you talking about?" He spat.
"You don't really think I wasted that time as Lucy's PA did you?" She asked. "Oh no. Throughout the whole eighteen months I was tuning myself into the TARDIS. I welded my DNA into her heart ensuring that I became connected to her." From the corner of her eye, Winter saw the Doctor's eyes widen. To do something like that was too advanced for anyone except Timelords to accomplish – and in addition, to connect oneself to a TARDIS like that meant that you felt everything the sentient ship felt.
And she truly did feel every slash of pain the TARDIS felt. Not even the barrier she had could keep that pain away.
"That's not possible!" Winter turned back to the Master and grinned a manic smile.
"Would you call my bluff Saxon?" It was infuriating the Master to be called by his human alias and she knew that but she didn't care. "Go one. I dare you." The Master did nothing. She was unusual enough to make him wonder if she had actually had done just what she said she had.
"Take her away." He wasn't going to try it. It was too risky and if the stupid bitch was telling the truth then all his plans would end with her death and that wasn't what he wanted at all.
[][][]
Finally. Finally the Master had some good news. "Martha Jones and Jack Harkness located. Coordinates 325/098." With a manic grin, the Master sprung down the stairs towards the Doctor. "Guess what."
[][][]
"Martha. Martha Jones. I can see you! Out you come, little girl. Come and meet your master." He waited. Nothing happened. "Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing? Positions. I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself. What would the Doctor do?"
"Come on Martha." Both Jack and Martha took of their keys – the same ones that had allowed them to travel undetected for the year – and walked out the door.
"Oh, yes. Oh, very well done. Good girl. He trained you well. Bag." He ordered. "Give me the bag." When Jack moved towards the Master he held a hand out to stop him. "No, stay there. Just throw it." Jack threw the bag towards the Master and it hit the ground. Within the blink of an eye, the Master had whipped out his Laser Screwdriver and destroyed t."
"And now, good companion, your work is done." The Master pointed his laser at Martha but before he could do anything, Tom ran out of the house.
" No!" He cried. The Master killed Tom without a moment's hesitation. This human he could kill, this ape would bring no consequences and it felt good.
"But you, when you die, the Doctor should be witness, hmm? Almost dawn, Martha, and planet Earth marches to war."
[][][]
"Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe." The guards had brought Clive, Francine, Tish and Winter in to the main room under clear orders to not allow Winter anywhere near the Doctor. "Your teleport device, in case you thought I'd forgotten. He glared at Winter with hatred but she only smiled at him as Martha threw Jack's vortex manipulator to the Master he weapon.
"And now, kneel." They did as they were ordered. "Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?"
"The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!"
"Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?"
"We will fly and blaze and slice. We will fly and blaze and slice." The spheres childlike voice came through the speakers and the Master clapped his hands together in happiness.
"At zero, to mark this day, the child and the freak, will die. My first blood. Any last words? No? Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex. These ones are useless." He spat. "Bow your head. And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward – "
Winter watched as both Martha and Jack started laughing, efficiently cutting the Master off.
"What. What's so funny?" he asked, finally not being able to take it anymore.
" A gun." Jack stated. His chuckles had turned into full blown laughs.
"What about it?"
"A gun in four parts?" Martha asked. Winter watched, not understanding what was going on.
"Yes, and I destroyed it." He was angry now, everyone could see it.
"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean, come on, did you really believe that?"
"What do you mean?"
Winter's head whipped towards the Doctor as she heard his soft voice through his cage. "As if I would ask her to kill."
"Oh well, it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her."
"Oh I'm hurt." Jack teased. Winter rolled her eyes. Only Jack would be teasing about the Master ignoring him. He was an odd person.
"But we knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son. I told her about the gun, so she'd get us here at the right time." She said smiling.
"Oh, but you're still going to die." It was a desperate attempt to control his surroundings. It was like everything he had was on the verge of being lost – and the Master was right to worry about that.
"Don't you want to know what we were doing, travelling the world?" Martha asked. Her voice was teasing, hiding something and if there was one thing everyone aboard the Valliant had learned, it was that the Master hated things being hidden for him.
And just like that, he fell for the bait. "Tell me."
"I told a story, that's all." She said smiling. "No weapons, just me, Jack and words. We did just what the Doctor said. We went across the continents, and everywhere we went, we found the people, and I told them our story."
"We told them about the Doctor." Jack added grinning at the Doctor. "Told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about him."
"Faith and hope? Is that all?" The Master sneered.
"No, because I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said." Martha stood up no longer afraid of the Master. He was just a man. "I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time –"
"Nothing will happen." The Master interrupted. "Is that your weapon? Prayer?"
"Across the whole world, in word, just one thought at one moment but -" Jack held up a finger, "with fifteen satellites."
"What?" Winter laughed as she saw the realization on the Master's face. He wasn't going to walk out of this alive.
"The ArchAngel Network."
"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor." And, like Martha had timed it perfectly, at those words the Doctor began to glow a golden hue in his cage.
"Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't." But it was no use. All around him, the Master could see people standing and whispering the words that would lead to his downfall.
Doctor… the name whispered through the air. It was almost like the Master could see the telepathic strands that were making their way to the Doctor and it was disgusting. But then he noticed the same strands floating about Winter. They travelled towards her, growing stronger and more vibrant before whispering towards the Doctor and the Master's rage grew. Whatever that maggot had done had strengthened the link - and what was worse was she knew it.
" I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices." He was fully back to his old self, converses and all.
"I order you to stop!" The Master screamed as the crowds' shouts of the Doctor's name intensified.
"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking. Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this." Now that they were safe from the Master, Martha ran to Francine and Tish, hugging them as tightly as she possibly could.
"No!" In a desperate attempt to fix things, the Master fired his laser screwdriver at the Doctor, but the energy field around him only made the beam bounce off.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whispered.
"Then I'll kill them." It was a promise they both knew the Master would fufill and the Doctor couldn't let him do that. With a flick of his hand, the Screwdriver flew from the Master's hands and unknowingly, straight into Winter's.
She picked it up and used it to dematerialise the chains that were still on her hand; she was still too weak mentally from the torture both she and the TARDIS had to go through. She watched as the Master refused to accept his fate, and she watched as the Doctor did what he always strived to do: forgive.
In one last attempt to escape, the Master took out the manipulator he had taken from Jack and activated it. "Doctor!"
There was nothing she could do for the Doctor right now, Winter just had to trust that he would find a way to get back. The rest of them still had a problem. "The Master called for all the spheres. They're all heading right towards us!" Just as she said that, some of the spheres that the Master always had on deck attacked.
Winter aimed the Screwdriver at them and fired three quick progressive shots. The Spheres dropped to the floor dead. Winter smiled - it had been so easy to take them down. With a flick of a button they were dead and they weren't going to harm anyone again.
Suddenly, the spheres that were outside the Valiant disappeared and the ship began to shake. Holding on for dear life, Winter and the other's waited until it stopped.
"Everyone get down! Time is reversing!" Where did he come from? Winter wondered but she did as she was told. The winds of time were creating havoc and panic on the ground, until finally the people, the rockets and the statues disappear.
"The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning."
As proof, a man began talking over the radio. "This is UNIT Central. What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated."
"Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was."
"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.
"Trapped at the end of the universe."
"But I can remember it." Francine said. She was scared. If she remembered, that meant that the rest of her family would as well. As if the nightmares weren't bad enough.
"We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know. Oh, hello. You must be Mister Jones. We haven't actually met." Jack raised a brow at the Doctor's ability to completely get off topic.
Using the Doctor's distraction to his advantage, the Master ran for the door, straight into Jack. "Whoa, big fella! You don't want to miss the party. Cuffs. So, what do we do with this one?"
"We kill him." Clive spat.
"We execute him." Tish snarled.
"No," the Doctor opposed. "That's not the solution." He tried to get them to see but failed to notice Francine picking up the gun that had dropped beside her and aiming it at the Master - hatred in her eyes.
"Oh, I think so. Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them."
"Go on." The Master urged Francine. "Do it."
"Francine, you're better than him. If you do this, then you'll be just like the Master." Francine's eyes widened in disgust and she threw the gun away from her, right next to Winter. The Doctor went over and hugged her, comforting her as best as he could before letting her go to Martha who embraced her mother tightly, not letting go.
"You're my responsibility from now on." The Doctor told the Master solemnly. "The only Time Lord left in existence."
"Yeah, but you can't trust him." Jack said unhappily. Jack had refrained from slamming his fist into the Master's face ever since he had seen him. He wanted to know what had happened to his team. What had happened to Ari.
"No. The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."
"You mean you're just going to keep me?" The disgust was evident on the Master's face and that in itself helped Francine a little. To know that he was going to be kept like a - like a pet - just as they had been was better than him getting no punishment at all.
"Mmm. If that's what I have to do." It was too much for Lucy. The Doctor wasn't going to do anything to this monster. The Master had used her and abused her for his amusement and where was the Doctor when that had been happening?
Quietly, she walked towards the gun unnoticed by all except Winter. Lucy looked at the odd woman. She had been tortured even more that she had. Surely she wanted revenge as well. Winter's purple eyes followed Lucy's movements as she reached for the gun. Is she going to try to stop me? Lucy wondered.
But Winter didn't even move. As Lucy looked at her, she noticed acceptance in her eyes. Taking that as allowance, Lucy picked up the gun and turned. Raising her hand, she aimed the gun at the Master. She shot.
Lucy watched as the Doctor caught the Master in the fall and lowered the gun. A hint of a smile was on her face and for the first time in months, she felt relief. "Put it down." The man who wouldn't die told her. Lucy happily gave the gun to him. Her revenge was completed.
"There you go. I've got you. I've got you." He told the Master.
"Always the women." The Master wheezed. Lucy's shot had grazed his heart. Already it was getting hard to breathe as he felt the heart stop. One down, one to go.
"I didn't see her." It was an unspoken apology. The Doctor had always been good at apologising - and forgiving now that the Master remembered it.
"The girl did." The Master said happily. It seemed that the Doctor knew who he was talking about because his eyes widened and flew to Winter who was just standing there, watching them quietly.
A sudden hate flew into his eyes as he regarded the girl. It was a look the Master knew well. "Dying in your arms. Happy now?" The Doctor turned back to look at his old friend sadly.
"You're not dying. Don't be stupid. It's only a bullet. Just regenerate." But he wouldn't. He knew the Master wouldn't.
"No." It was said with a smile.
"One little bullet. Come on." The Doctor pleaded. He needed him, he didn't want to be alone again.
"I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse."
"No! Don't!" But it was too late. The Master had already made up his mind; he wouldn't change it for anyone. And if anyone knew this, it was the Doctor.
"How about that. I win. Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?" And those were the Master's final words. It was mere seconds later that the Master died with a smile.
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"Time was, every single one of these people knew your name. Now they've all forgotten you."
"Good." He was watching Winter constantly out of the corner of his eye but she wasn't moving anywhere. The pure hate for her was fuelling his constant anger, doubling the intensity of his anger for her. And she was making it worse by just sitting there.
"Back to work."
He was drawn out of his anger for a moment to look at Jack. "I really don't mind, though. Come with me."
Jack shook his head slightly. "I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was, and I kept thinking about Ari. Life's short - well for most. I think I'm gonna ask her to marry me."
"Looking after family. Can't argue with that. But I can argue with this. " The Doctor took Jack's hand and exposed the vortex manipulator on his wrist.
"Hey, I need that." Jack exclaimed but smiled at the Doctor all the same.
"I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport. You could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologise."
"You know Ari will just fix it if I ask her." Jack said smiling cheekily at the Doctor.
"I've keyed in a message to her from me. I'm sure she'll see it my way."
"But I have ways I can get her to change her mind." The innuendo was high in the air and the Doctor rolled his eyes at Jack.
"You are impossible Jack Harkness." He told him seriously.
"Been called that before. Sir. But I keep wondering. What about aging? Because Ari and I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?" They could hear the worry in his voice but the Doctor couldn't answer the question.
"I really don't know." He told Jack apologetically.
"Okay, vanity. Sorry. Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me. Hmm. I'll see you." Saying goodbye, Jack walked off to the entrance of the Hub, smiling softly.
"No."
"It can't be." She said not believing that the Face of Boe - that wise, kind face was…Jack.
"No. Definitely not. No. No." The Doctor said - agreeing wholeheartedly with what Martha was thinking.
"Right then," the Doctor said snapping into action. He still hadn't forgotten Winter but he would deal with her later. "Off we go. The open road. There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or back in time. We could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth. I know. What about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie. I bet she's brilliant. Okay."
"I just can't." Martha told him sadly.
"Yeah." He had know it would happen - Martha had to put her family first - like Jack. He understood.
"Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them."
"Of course not." He agreed. "Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world."
"Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good." The Doctor smiled proudly at Martha, thinking of how far she had come from when he had first met her.
"You going to be all right?" She asked - momentarily her eyes wondered towards Winter. She had seen how angry the Doctor had been when she had let Lucy shoot her, and honestly, she was quite scared for the girl.
"Always. Yeah."
"Right then. Bye." She walked outside the door but then paused. She couldn't leave him like that.
She turned around and walked back into the TARDIS. "But the thing is, my friend, Suzy, she did something terrible and her partner wouldn't forgive her…" Martha trailed off looking towards Winter.
"Is this going anywhere?" The Doctor asked, slightly frustrated.
"Well yes." She answered. "Because Suzy did some remarkale things, and she went through pure torture because of her bravery but he couldn't see it. He was just so angry at her for doing something that - honestly, would have probably been better for them. And I told her that it wasn't her fault and he shouldn't blame her for what she did."
From where she was standing, Winter smiled slightly and the woman. She had come a long way from the petty jealousy she had towards Winter and silently, she thanked her for what she had to say.
Martha nodded at her, accepting the thanks before chucking her phone at the Doctor. "Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?"
"Got it." And he was telling her that he did. He wasn't going to be as harsh on Winter but he still couldn't forgive her for what she had done.
"I'll see you again, mister." Martha left the TARDIS and the Doctor smiled gently at where she had left. Taking a deep breath, he set the TARDIS into standby mode and left it there. Leaning on the console, he turned to face Winter who hadn't moved at all.
"Why didn't you stop her?" He asked. He watched Winter. There were no signs of remorse on her face as she stared back at him. Honestly, she looked broken.
He waited for her answer but it didn't come so he asked again. "Why didn't you stop Lucy?" The quiet anger brewed under the surface and Winter watched as it rose to his already cloudy eyes.
"Because you didn't see what the Master did to her." Her voice was calm but small at the same time. It wasn't from fear though - it was from her drowsiness.
"So you let her kill him?" Anger was evident on his face.
Winter snapped. "Don't you dare judge me!" She cried out, slamming a hand on the console. "How can you stand there being angry at me for doing almost the exact same thing as YOU!"
"What?" She couldn't know. There was no way she could know what he did.
"Oh yes I know what you did to Gallifrey. You stood there and watched as your people DIED! You were even the one that pulled the trigger so don't you DARE tell me what I did was wrong! And what's worse, is you enjoyed it!" The Doctor stood there and stared at her.
"How did you know?" He asked angrily. How does she know?
"It doesn't matter."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW?" He roared marching over her and grabbing her by the arm. Pure fury crashed over Winter and she raised her arm. Without any indication, the Doctor was flung back off his feet and against the wall hard.
He tried to move but found he couldn't. Whatever Winter was doing, she didn't want him up. "Don't. Touch. Me!" She spat furiously.
With that, she ran out of the TARDIS, tears streaming down her face.
Something changed in her from that moment. A dam broke, and all her pain, anger and fury circulated her body. Winter looked up from her shaking hands and smiled a grim smile.
No one was ever going to hurt her again.
And with that, her stone grey eyes looked around the Earth. Never again.
[][][]
The Doctor had been sitting under the TARDIS console for hours. Amy had gone to take a shower after their journey. She had been shaken and upset when she had found out that Vincent had still died and he could understand why. Amy was a good person. Though she had her faults, she always tried to help when possible.
In a way, she was almost like the Doctor. That was why when she saw him just sitting there, she went over to him to try and help him.
"What's wrong Doctor?" He looked up to her and smiled a sad smile before looking down and tracing the patterns over his right wrist. Amy had seen him doing that many times while she had been with him and almost every time she had seen him trace the patterns, she would try and see what they were.
"Nothing Amy." But it was a lie.
"Does this have to do with Winter?" The reaction to the name was instant. His shoulders tensed and the frown on his face deepened. She could almost see the self hatred on his face.
"I hurt her Amy. I hurt her so badly and I can't do anything about it." There were tears in his eyes as he said this and Amy's heart broke for the Timelord. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his and pulled him close. At first he stiffened, but eventually he crumpled against her, crying.
As she comforted the broken man she wondered what she could do. It had taken her some time, but she had eventually figured out that whoever Winter was, she meant a lot to the Doctor and it hurt her to see him like this.
The TARDIS seemed to respond to the Doctor, if not to anyone else so Amy tried. Please, just this once. If you can hear me…help him. He needs her.
The TARDIS listened to Amy's pleads and the Doctor's tears and hummed in acknowledgement. It was high time her Swann came home.
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