Can you believe that I still don't own any of this stuff? Seriously, I've been writing for ages. Doesn't that mean I own at least part if it? No? Fine. Be that way. I don't like you either BBC.
I'm just kidding. Please give me more episodes.
The Doctor gets gagged and tied to a trolley. Wilf and I are tied to chairs. The Master is his insane self. "Now then, I've got a planet to run. Is everybody ready?"
Another him answers. "Six billion, seven hundred and twenty seven million, nine hundred and forty nine thousand three hundred and thirty eight versions of us."
"Awaiting orders." I clench my teeth as powerful person, after powerful person hands over all power to the Master. Technically he is everyone. It's really unnerving. But he has power over all the firepower he could want.
And so he brags about it. "Enough soldiers and weapons to turn this planet into a warship. Nothing to say, Doctor? What's that? Pardon? Sorry?"
Wilf gets indignant. "You let him go, you swine."
"Oh, your dad's still kicking up a fuss. Your girlfriend's not bad though."The Master gets a bit in my face and I scowl at him.
"Yeah? Well, they're both my kids so back off."
"Hush, now. Listen to your Master." Before I can say anything to that a phone rings. "But that's a mobile."
"Yeah, it's mine. Let me turn it off," Wilf says.
"No, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand. Everybody on this planet is me. And I'm not phoning you, so who the hell is that?"
"It's nobody. I tell you, it's nothing. It's probably one of them ring-back calls."
"Just leave it!" I don't want to sound like I'm begging but I have to protect Donna. The Master searches Wilf's pockets and finds the revolver.
"Ooo, and look at this. Good man!" He tosses it on the floor and gets the phone.
"Donna. Who's Donna?"
"She's no one. Just leave it." I try to give Wild a comforting look but fail miserably.
The Master listens. "Who is she? Why didn't she change?"
"Don't say anything Wilf. Stay quiet," I say urgently.
"Oh, he's been teaching you well hasn't he been Earth girl. Ugh. What else has he taught you?" I bend as far away from him as I can.
The Master shouts orders. "Find her. Trace the call. Say goodbye to the freak, Granddad."
Wilf starts shouting. "Donna, get out of there! Just get out of there. I'm telling you, run!"
Another Master makes an announcement. "She's on Wessex Lane, Chiswick. Open the phone lines. Everyone on Wessex Lane. Red alert."
Wilf keeps shouting for her to run. She starts complaining of a headache and asking where the hell the Doctor is. I'm worried. If they do anything they could trigger something. "Sonna get out of there!" "Run!" And then all goes silent. Wilf begins to panic. But the Doctor is smiling, and he winks at Wilf and I. I release a breath. He gave a fail safe to protect her like before. Except this time, her memories are also protected.
The Master goes over and removes his gag. The Doctor works his jaw. "That's better. Hello. But really, did you think I'd leave my best friend without a defence mechanism?"
Wilf is confused. "Doctor? What happened?"
"She's alright. She's fine, I promise. She'll just sleep."
The Master lets it go. "Tell me, where's your Tardis?"
"You could be so wonderful," the Doctor says sadly.
"Where is it?"
"You're a genius. You're stone cold brilliant, you are. I swear, you really are. But you could be so much more. You could be beautiful. With a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour. Because you don't need to own the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the whole of time and space. That's ownership enough."
"Would it stop, then? The noise in my head?"
"I can help," he offers.
"I don't know what I'd be without that noise."
Wilf cuts in. "What does he mean? What noise?"
"It began on Gallifrey, as children. Not that you'd call it childhood. More a life of duty. Eight years old. I was taken for initiation, to stare into the Untempered Schism."
"What does that mean?"
"It's a gap in the fabric of reality. You can see into the Time Vortex itself. And it hurts." I stay silent as the Doctor and then the Master explain it.
"They took me there in the dark. I looked into time, old man, and I heard it calling to me. Drums. The never ending drums. Listen to it. Listen."
"Then let's find it. You and me." I don't know why the Doctor is making this offer. He has a wife and child to protect. But that is why isn't it. If he can save the Master, maybe his child won't be alone in the end. Maybe his son won't have to take on his burdens. Before, he wanted to save the Master so he would have someone. Now it's so his son will. But then the Master begins to have an idea and the Doctor gets worried.
"The noise exists within my head, and now within six billion heads. Everyone on Earth can hear it. Imagine. Oh. Oh, yes." I jump as his Skelton flashes again.
"The Gate wasn't enough. You're still dying."
"This body was born out of death. All it can do is die. But what did you say to me, back in the wasteland? You said the end of time."
"I said something is returning. I was shown a prophecy. That's why I need your help."
"What if I'm part of it? Don't you see? The drumbeat is calling from so far away. From the end of time itself. And now it's been amplified six billion times. Triangulate all those signals. I could find its source. Oh, Doctor. That's what your prophecy was. Me!"
The Master hits the Doctor and I wince. "Where's the Tardis?"
"No. Just stop. Just think," are Doctor pleads.
The Master sneers and then stocks over to me. And then he does something that shocks me. He yanks my head back and crashes his lips to mine in a fierce and punishing kiss. He releases me just as roughly and I try not to gag from the intrusion of his tongue. The Master smirks and then walks back to the Doctor who looks livid.
Understanding dawns on me. The Master thinks I'm the Doctor's girlfriend. He's trying to hurt him. "Kill her." Yep. Definitely trying to hurt him. A guard points a gun at my head but I'm not worried. I remember how this works.
"I need that technology, Doctor. Tell me where it is, or the girly is dead."
"Don't tell him," I say calmly.
"I'll kill her right now!"
" Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone dead stupid."
"Take aim." I just smile. I can tell that unnerves the crazy man.
"You've got six billion pairs of eyes, but you still can't see the obvious, can you?"
" Like what?"
"That guard is one inch too tall." The guard knocks the Master out with the butt of his gun. He removes his helmet to reveal the green man from before.
"Oh my God, I hit him. I've never hit anyone in my life." The green woman runs in.
"Well, come on. We need to get out of here fast." She untied Wilf and I while her partner gets the Doctor.
"God bless the cactuses!" I laugh at Wilf's exclamation.
"That's cacti," the Doctor corrects.
" That's racist!" The green man cries. What would the politically correct word for green be I wonder?
They don't manage to get the Doctor untied so we just start to wheel him out. And of course he complains about it. He tries to lead us to the TARDIS but I stick to the script and follow the cacti. I don't really remember if that's important to do but I definitely don't want to lead the Master to the TARDIS where Rose is bidding. That would be bad. Good thing I decide that because the Master is right behind us. And then the cacti beam is up to their ship in orbit.
The Doctor gets on his feet immediately. "Where's the flight deck?"
The green people try to convince us that we're safe up in space. Yeah right. I decide to remind them of a little fact. "Maybe we're in space. But he's got access to every long range missile on earth."
"Good point."
With the Doctor running off to deal with the threat it's left to me to help Wilf. I pull him from the window. "We're in space!"
I smile. "Really? I hadn't noticed." We make it to the deck just in time to see the Doctor destroy the panel in order to keep us hidden. The Cacti people begin to scold him and call him an idiot. Wilf tries to get reassurance that there is a plan. But the Doctor just looks at me. Silently asking if he did the right thing. I give a nod. At least it was the right thing last time.
DWDWDW DWDWDW DWDWDW DWDW
Time passes around us as we wait. I stand by the Doctor as he fiddles and tinkers. I look out the window. And then he asks me a question. "We can do this can't we?"
I smile at the ground. "We don't have the luxury to fail."
"That's not an answer."
"I think we can. It won't be easy. Especially for you I think. But it something that must happen."
He pauses for a moment and I think he's done, but he asks something else. "How do you do it? How do you get through each day? You're so much younger, but you've lost just as much. I've been given time to heal in between but you...how do you do it?"
I don't know how to answer that. But he needs to hear an answer from me. "I don't know. I suppose...I suppose it's because I must. I see what needs to be done and I focus on it. Find a reason to live. Find a reason to die. Remember who I am and who I want to be. I think...I think I do it by looking at it like I'm not actually here. Like I'm seeing it from the outside and not really living it. I'm...disconnected. And you say time heals, but...I think you're wrong. Despite time, you would have healed. If only for Rose. Love heals. I do it because I love and i am loved. There's Rose and Donna and Wilf and you and your son. Even Meta for a time and I'm grateful for that. I do it with love."
It's a revelation to me as much as him, but Wilf reruns from his exploration before the Doctor can comment. "Aye, aye. Got this old tub mended?"
" Just trying to fix the heating."
"Oh. I've always dreamt of a view like that. Hee, hee. I'm an astronaut. It's dawn over England, look. Brand new day. My wife's buried down there. I might never visit her again now. Do you think he changed them, in their graves?"
I cringe at the thought and so does the Time Lord. "I'm sorry."
"No, not your fault."
" Isn't it?" I sigh at the Doctors answer but Wilf continues.
"Oh, 1948, I was over there. End of the Mandate in Palestine. Private Mott. Skinny little idiot, I was. Stood on this rooftop, in the middle of a skirmish. It was like a blizzard, all them bullets in the air. The world gone mad. Yeah, you don't want to listen to an old man's tales, do you?"
"I'm older than you," the Doctor reminds him.
"I know. Doesn't matter though. Listen, I, I want you to have this. I've kept it all this time, and I thought..." He offers his revolver.
But he won't take it. "No."
"No, but if you take it, you could..."
"No. You had that gun in the mansion. You could have shot the Master there and then."
"Too scared, I suppose."
"I say too brave." Wilf smiles a thanks at me.
" I'd be proud."
"Of what?" He wants to know.
"If you were my dad. And you were my sister." The show didn't quite get the Doctor's expression right. Or maybe it's so much deeper because it's more true now. Wilf has been a dad. And I'm his wife's sister.
"Oh, come on, don't start. But you said, you were told he will knock four times and then Jane dies. Well, that's him, isn't it? The Master. That noise in his head? The Master is going to kill her."
The Doctor won't grace that with an answer so I do. "Yeah."
"Then kill him first."
"And that's how the Master started. It's not like I'm an innocent. I've taken lives. I got worse. I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own. Sometimes I think a Time Lord lives too long. I can't. I just can't." I don't accept the offer either. Mostly because I know the Doctor will in a moment.
"If the Master dies, what happens to all the people?"
He's hesitant to answer but finally does. "The template snaps."
"What, they go back to being human? They're alive, and human. Then don't you dare, sir. Don't you dare put him before them. Now you take this. That's an order, Doctor. Take the gun. You take the gun and protect our Jane. Please don't let her die."
As much as he wants to keep me safe he won't take the weapon. He shakes his head. "Never."
And then the Master's voice comes over the intercom "A star fell from the sky. Don't you want to know where from? Because now it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond is a Whitepoint Star. And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular. Over and out."
I close my eyes shut to prepare myself mentally. Wilf doesn't know to do that. "What's he on about? What's he doing? Doctor, what does that mean?"
"A Whitepoint star is only found on one planet. Gallifrey. Which means it's the Time Lords. The Time Lords are returning." I can see his thoughts spinning out of control.
"Well, I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, that's your people." He ignores Wilf's words. He looks at me and I see fear in his eyes. Fear for Rose and his for his son. Maybe for me too, but I'm not as much apart of his family as they are. With the Time Lords returning, he needs to think of then. Without a word, he snatches the revolver from Wilf and bolts from the room. And like always, we follow him. This is where everything is about to get intense, and the outcome won't surprise me no matter which way it goes.