Title: Armageddon
Rating: T
Warnings: Major spoilers for "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords"; violence; mild language; allusions to rape (but I promise nothing explicit or graphic)
A/N: *sheepish wave* Hi, guys. Long time, no see, huh?
I am so, so sorry for the ridiculous three month break. I swear it was not intentional. I've just had so much going on and everything just kept getting in the way of finishing this chapter. Work, being sick, getting things ready so I can (finally) start working on my BA, Writers' Block, getting a new laptop (FINALLY), and losing my flash drive with all my notes on it (finally found it after about a week, but still). Summer has been a lot busier than I expected it to be. I am so looking forward to the fall. I don't have one really good excuse, it's just been real life piling shit on top of shit, honestly. I've had more bad days than good most of the summer and that's definitely not helped, but things are evening out again now and hopefully I can have the last handful of chapters out in a more reasonable timeframe. Hopefully.
But anyway, enough of my excuses. Now on to the final chapter of Part IV!
Armageddon:
Part IV: The Last of the Time Lords
Chapter Three
Martha immediately liked Professor Docherty. She had a no-nonsense sort of attitude and didn't react as most people did to meeting her. Though she never quite met Martha's eyes and spent much of their initial meeting fiddling with an old television monitor in the hopes of getting it back online, Martha couldn't stop the surprising fondness she felt for the older woman; she reminded her a bit of Kate, but gruffer. It was nice.
Tom seemed a bit put off by her, frowning at her when she went about her business as usual rather than drop everything to bask in awe at Martha's presence like most people tended to. Martha just smiled and offered to help the woman fix the TV.
"What's so important about getting this up and running now, anyway?" Martha asked curiously.
Docherty glanced at her briefly. "We've gotten whispers over Archangel for the last few days. The Master's planning another broadcast. This is the only monitor I've got anywhere near working shape at the moment. I don't want to miss whatever it is he's planning to say, not so close to the end…"
"The Master's planning a broadcast? Now?" Tom asked, his voice rising a bit. "That doesn't sound good."
"No…" Martha bit her lip, worried. She knew how they needed things to play out. How desperately they needed the Master to believe their ploy. If he saw through the trap, if he changed his own plans… They would be ruined.
She and Tom helped Docherty as much as they could with the television, the professor doing most of the work. It took a moment, but eventually the screen fizzed to the life, lines of grainy static blurring the image for a moment before the image cleared enough for them to see the Master's grinning face already taking up most of the screen.
"My people! Salutations!" he said, his voice light and airy. Martha shivered at the cold, excited look in his eyes.
"On this the eve of War! Lovely woman… But I know there's been all sorts of whispers down there; stories of a child walking the Earth, giving you hope."
He moved back away from the camera and Martha held her breath, everything seeming to tense and freeze for a moment as the Doctor's battered form came into view, bruised and bleeding and dead-eyed. The Master placed his hands on the back of the chair the Doctor was seated in and leaned in close, eyes glittering.
"But I ask you, how much hope does this man have?"
~/.\~
Down in the bowels of the Valiant the prisoners heard the Master's voice over the speakers. Kate and Sherlock standing at the bars of their cells, staring up toward where they knew the man was broadcasting.
Further down, Jack twisted the chains around his wrists, testing their strength, and tried to ignore the Master's gloating monologue. Tish, Fran and Clive huddled together, watching the screen and daring to hope that things would work out. Daring to hope that Martha was watching as well and that she would be coming to save them and end this very soon.
Miles below, on the ground, thousands of miles spread between them all, the resistance that had risen up against the Master watched. They watched and their resolve steeled, their hopes rose in spite the Master's efforts to crush them. The time was fast approaching and everywhere across the Earth, people weren't despairing as the Master no doubt believed they should be. They were hoping.
~/.\~
In the conference room of the Valiant the Master continued his broadcast, oblivious to the hope rising in the desperate human race below him. He smiled and leaned over the Doctor, feeling the weakness practically radiating from the other Time Lord. He couldn't do a thing to stop him. The entire universe was within his grasp and the Doctor was at his feet, unable to protect even himself, let alone his precious humans the rest of the universe. He had won.
"Of course, as the rumors below have circulated, most you know that he's not really a man at all. He's an alien, like me." He reached down and gripped the Doctor's shoulder tight, grin widening when the Doctor visibly grimaced. "A much longer lifespan than you pathetic, stupid little apes…"
He stood abruptly and walked around to stand in front of the Doctor, still facing the camera. "You've all seen the things he's withstood in the last year and yet you keep trying, adorably, to kill me. You think there's some amazing Kryptonite for my people that will wipe me out. There isn't. You have no hope of killing me."
He held up his screwdriver, waving it for the camera. "This little device has the ability to kill a human. You've all witnessed it. You know the power it holds…"
Suddenly the camera spun and focused on Spencer and Sarah Jane, further back in the corner beside Lucy. Spencer was standing unsteadily, gripping Sarah Jane's arm protectively as if that would somehow stop whatever it was the Master was planning. K-9 sat at their feet, his little head tilted up. For a moment Reid thought he might be glaring at the Master.
The Master smirked and glanced back at the Doctor, flipping some control switch on the screwdriver. "On this setting this small little device can bring a human being to their knees in perfect agony."
Suddenly he fired the weapon and Spencer jumped, expecting to be hit, but instead of Sarah Jane's piercing scream echoed through his skull as she crumbled to the ground, twitching. Shaking and horrified, Reid lurched down and helped to steady the older woman, watching her with anxious eyes as she slowly recovered and stood on shaky legs. K-9 hovered over her protectively.
The Master was beaming with excitement by that point. "And on this setting," he fiddled again with the screwdriver, "well, let's just see what it'll do to little tin dog, shall we?"
The words hadn't left his mouth before K-9 fired on him. The Master danced out of the way, the lasers leaving score marks on the walls before he twirled the screwdriver quickly in his hands and fired.
"NO!" Sarah Jane screamed and lunged to jump in front of the robotic dog, but she wasn't fast enough and K-9 screeched, a loud, painful sound, before shattering into pieces. Sarah Jane fell to her knees, picking up the broken pieces with angry, horrified tears in her eyes. Spencer watched numbly, not entirely sure how he could still feel so surprised at the Master's behavior after all of this time.
The Master simply laughed and turned back to the Doctor and the cameras, grinning madly.
"And if it'll do that to a silly little robot, surely it could kill one weakened little Time Lord, yes? Let's find out!"
~/.\~
Martha didn't flinch, didn't look away from the television screen as the Doctor screamed and writhed under the Master's torture. Her jaw set and she clenched her fists, feeling a surge of hate and protective anger rush through her veins. She would not let this monster continue to hurt her friends, to destroy her planet. All the people she'd met in her year long journey had had one thing, one amazing thing in common, their will to survive, to keep fighting. She was not going to let them down.
After what felt like a century, the Master released the Doctor from the torturous laser and turned to stare directly into the camera. He held up the screwdriver threateningly and motioned toward the twitching but still very much alive Doctor.
"Still breathing," he said, almost conversationally. Then his eyes darkened and he leaned forward. "Message received and understood, Miss Jones?"
The connection cut out then, ominously, and Tom reached over to gently grip her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. Martha smiled slowly, shaking her head. Hope was swelling up within her. The Master had wanted to show them, show her, that their plans to kill him would not succeed. But they weren't planning to kill him and all he had shown her, shown the entire human race, was that the Doctor could and would continue on through even the worst torture the Master threw at him.
"The Doctor's still alive," she said faintly, her smile growing. "That's what matters."
~/.\~
No one slept on the Valiant that night. Everyone too keyed up for the dawning of the next day. Jack was silent, listening as the Jones family talked, terrified and brave at the same time, of how much they longed for the Master's blood, to see the man dead. In the prison cells Sherlock and Kate sat on the floor, pressed against the hard bars on their cages, and thought about the fact that this was, effectively, their last night as prisoners. Tomorrow, no matter what happened, everything was going to end.
The Doctor was shackled to the wall in the conference room, his breathing still labored, while Sarah Jane and Spencer watched over him. He was watching Sarah Jane with tired, sad eyes.
"I am so sorry," he said, for probably the tenth time since they had been left alone. "I never meant for any of you to get caught up in this mess."
"Doctor," Sarah Jane cut him off, smiling softly. "This is not your fault. This is the Master's doing." Her throat tightened and she looked at the small pile of scraps that had once been her beloved K-9. "And once this is all over, everyone will be alright and K-9 will be good as new, just like always." Her eyes sparkled with tears. "So don't go blaming yourself for this. You're the one who's going to save us all, you and Martha Jones."
She squeezed his hand reassuringly and he smiled.
"I missed you," he said quietly. She laughed gently.
"I missed you too," she said. "But, at least you haven't been alone." She turned to take Spencer's hand with her free one and he smiled a bit at her, nodding. "Dr. Reid certainly seems to have become attached."
The Doctor laughed, though it seemed like the action pained him, and started to say something when the doors opened to reveal the Master and Lucy Saxon. Lucy's face was as blank as ever, but she was limping visibly and Spencer's stomach turned at the thought of what had caused that limp.
The Master was cheerful and bright. "Tomorrow we launch!" he announced. "We're opening up a rift in Braccatolian space. Won't see us coming." He grinned, eyes widening as he lowered his voice and bent to see the Doctor's face better.
"Kinda scary."
The Doctor pulled his hand from Sarah Jane's and glared up at him. "Then stop," he insisted.
The Master snorted. "Once the empire is established and there's a new Gallifrey in the heavens… maybe then it stops." He paused and hesitated for a moment, glancing back at Lucy where she stood, leaning against the table for support. He knelt down and paid no mind to Sarah Jane or Spencer sitting at the Doctor's side.
"The drumming…" he said quietly. "The never-ending drumbeat. Ever since I was a child, when I looked into the Vortex… That's when it chose me. The drumming. The call to war." He looked perplexed as he stared into the Doctor's eyes, almost pleading. "Can't you hear it? Listen, it's there now, right now. Tell me you can hear it, Doctor."
Sarah Jane looked away, but Spencer and Lucy watched with wide eyes while the Doctor stared right back into the Master's bottomless gaze. He leaned forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with his former friend as the Master seemed to almost desperately beg for some sort of confirmation that he wasn't alone.
"Tell me,"
The Doctor shook his head slightly. "It's only you," he said seriously.
For a moment, the Master just stood there and then his lips twitched and he shrugged. "Good," he said. He stood swiftly and looked away from the Doctor, studying Lucy where she stood, holding herself protectively. He made a face and turned back to the Doctor and his other two captives, huddled together on the floor.
"Tomorrow's a big day," he said. "I'm taking over the universe, saving the tattered remains of your precious humanity. It'd be a terrible shame not to spend the night before celebrating. After all… Tomorrow everyone you care about is going to die."
The Doctor's throat convulsed but he said nothing, simply staring up at the Master placidly.
"I haven't quite decided what to do with all of them yet," the Master mused. "Should I kill them all quickly? Should I drag it out, one by one? A mass execution for all the world? Oh, I'm so undecided…"
His eyes lit on Sarah Jane. "I think I'll enjoy Miss Smith's death very much. I'll make sure to take my time with her…" Sarah Jane just glared back at him coldly, only faintly surprised when the Doctor took her hand back in his own and gripped it tightly.
The Master turned his attention to Spencer. "But your latest little pet… Well I like him. Maybe I'll keep him, make him my own pet. Wouldn't that be simply delicious?" He bent down and reached toward Spencer, touch his face gently. Spencer jerked away from his finger and glared at him, but wisely remained silent.
He smiled and stood. His eyes fell on fragile looking Lucy and his grin showed teeth. "But why wait? I did say I wanted to celebrate and dearest Lucy isn't exactly much fun these days…" He turned to the guards posted at the door and snapped his fingers.
"Bring him to my rooms. I'll be there in ten minutes."
~/.\~
That night, hiding out in Docherty's make-shift lab, Martha unveiled the gun. Kate and Torchwood had done their best, spreading word about the weapon and the chemicals.
Docherty watched the sleek black gun with more interest than she had shown Martha since her arrival. Martha pulled out the three chemical vials that she had already collected, explaining as she went.
"A regular gun won't kill the Master and we've learned by now how resilient Time Lords are, but this…" she held the gun up, "is the product of years of watching. UNIT, Torchwood, hidden government agencies around the world have collected data on the Doctor and the Master. They've been coming here for years. It might not be easy to kill a Time Lord, but it is possible. Four chemicals, slotted into this gun. Shoot the Master with this and he's dead. Permanently."
"You said four," Tom said. "Four chemicals. You've only got three."
Martha nodded. "That's what I'm here for. The final piece of the weapon. There's an old UNIT base not far from here. We can be there by morning. Professor Docherty has the best lab in the area, so I've heard. I need coordinates and a map, and a way in without being spotted by the Master or any Toclafane."
Docherty blinked, wide-eyed, and nodded. "Of course, of course," she said. "Follow me."
Martha felt guilt twist in her stomach as she and Tom followed the woman. She was eager and willing to help them find the UNIT base and the coordinates. It was a bit father than Martha thought, but close enough that her presence shouldn't seem suspicious to Docherty. She watched the older woman, feeling a bit bad for lying to her, but she knew that they needed this to work out just right.
As she and Tom prepared to leave the lab, Docherty wished them luck and offered to let them stay with her for the night rather than risk traveling so late and getting caught. Tom was quick to assure her that they should move.
"There's slave quarters in Bexley, we can stay there for night and be on our way from there by morning." He smiled kindly at the older woman. "Professor, thank you for all of your help."
She blinked and nodded stiffly. "Oh and you," she said. "Good luck."
Martha smiled and hugged the woman and kissed her lightly on the cheek before starting to leave.
"Martha!" Docherty called, stopping her. "Could you do it?" she asked. "Kill the Master?"
Martha hesitated. "I've got no choice," she said.
Docherty seemed unconvinced. "You might be many things but you don't look like a killer to me," she said. Martha's heart sank at the words, but she set her jaw and turned away, ignoring the gnawing in her stomach. This is what they needed to happen. No turning back now.
~/.\~
Spencer was awakened in the early hours of the morning by banging on the Master's bedroom doors. Lucy was sitting up groggily in bed while the Master leapt up, nearly stumbling over the young man where he lay on the floor—the Master having insisted, after having had his "fun", that if Spencer was going to be his pet he would have to sleep on the ground at his side like any good pet would. He'd kindly provided an overly large dog bed, which was a step up from the sleeping arrangements in the conference room…
Spencer sat up and eyed the Master and the guard who had woken them. They were whispering at the door and the Master face was becoming more and more bright and open. Spencer's stomach churned at the thought of what could make the Master so happy. He was beaming by the time the guard left, throwing his robe on and too excited to even glance back at Lucy or Spencer before leaving the room.
Spencer looked over at Lucy, still staring blankly at the spot where her husband had just been standing.
"What do you think's happened?" he asked quietly, hoping to get her to talk, to break through the numb, cold exterior of the woman.
She turned to him with dead eyes and stared for a long moment before responding.
"Does it matter?"
~/.\~
Spencer soon found out what the Master was so excited about when he returned, giddy and grinning, to announce to the entire ship that he had captured Martha Jones. Spencer's stomach twisted. The end was so close that he could taste it and once he, Lucy, Jack, the Jones and the other prisoners were dragged into the conference room, he could feel the tension and cautious hope pulled taut between them all.
The Master, predictably, had the cameras rolling for Martha Jones's imminent public execution. Spencer hoped that the plan worked. Everything was in place, everything was the way it was supposed to be, the way the Doctor said it needed to be. It had to work.
Martha's eyes went to her family, her mother and father and sister, the second that she walked in. Her steps were a slow and steady death march, her head held up as she took in all of the prisoners, all the people slated to die after her, because of her, because of their defiance of the Master. She saw Jack, Sarah Jane, Kate and Spencer. She felt her gut twist at the sight of their bruised, battered, pale and tired faces. Tears watered in her eyes and she did her best not to let them fall, not to let any of these people see her cracking.
When she passed the Doctor, he met her eyes and nodded just briefly. A well of determination seemed to fill her and she turned her eyes forward, toward the Master, coming to a slow stop directly in front of him. He looked at her and tilted his head, holding out his hand.
"Your teleportation device. In case you thought I'd forgotten."
Martha pulled the Vortex Manipulator from her pocket and tossed it to him, breathing evening. There was no more need to jump between spaces, to run from Toclafane and guards. It was over. The end was fast approaching. All she could do now was wait, wait and hope.
The Master's lips twitched into a smile as he caught the device.
"And now… kneel."
Martha's gut tightened, but she knelt without protest. She had expected there to be more fear at this stage of the plan, expected to feel herself shaking and falling to pieces, but she felt nothing but calm. The weight was off of her shoulders now. Whatever happened after this point happened and there was little more she could do. She hoped she'd done enough.
The Master looked up and addressed the cameras and the room.
"Down belo2, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe." His eyes lit on Martha again and he smiled a slow, sinister sort of smile. He moved over to a communication panel on the wall and pressed the button.
"Are we ready?"
"The fleet awaits your signal, rejoice!" a faintly metallic voice sounded back through the speakers.
The Master checked his watch, biting his lip. "Three minutes to align the Black Hole Converters." He glanced up at the large digital clock on the wall. "Counting down!" He shouted, a playful smirk on his face. "I never could resist a ticking clock."
Martha fought hard not to smile with him. The Doctor had been right. Everything was happening the way it should. It was nearly over.
"Children!" the Master suddenly yelled. "Are you ready?"
At once the metallic, childish voices of Toclafane rang out through the speakers.
"We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice!"
Chills ran up Martha's spine at the sound. She would never be quite able to stomach those creatures, those things that had once been human.
The Master returned his spot in front of Martha, glancing back at the clock counting down the time. "At zero, to mark this day, the child, Martha Jones, will die."
Martha fought not to react, not to look at the Doctor, or Spencer, or Jack or her family or anyone else in the room. She kept her eyes trained on the Master, her face still and expressionless.
"My first blood," the Master chuckled. "Any last words? No?" He shook his head sadly, turning to the Doctor. "Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the Time Vortex! Companions with some steel in their spines, like Miss Smith over there…" his eyes flicked to Sarah Jane. "This one's useless."
He lifted his screwdriver and Francine clutched at Clive's hand while Tish watched with wide, terrified eyes.
"Bow your head,"
Martha did so without a word, staring down at the floor, counting the seconds down in her head. It was almost time. The Master continued to prattle on, playing it up for the cameras.
"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—"
And Martha couldn't help it, couldn't stop herself. The time was ticking down and all she had to do was stall him a little longer. She laughed, it was a tight and bitter sounding laugh, but it was a laugh none the less. The Master lowered the screwdriver, narrowing his eyes and looking incredibly put out.
"What? What's so funny?"
Martha wasn't quite sure how to put it into words. How to explain the relief flooding through her at how perfectly he had fallen for their trap. How to explain to him how ridiculous it seemed that a man as powerful and intelligent as he was had allowed his own ego and bloodlust cloud his judgement, had allowed himself to underestimate an entire species so thoroughly.
"A gun?" she asked, raising her head, an incredulous look on her face.
"Yes, what about it?"
"A gun in four parts?" she demanded, stressing the words, wondering at how he really hadn't seen through them.
The Master bristled at her tone. "Yes, and I destroyed it."
Martha shook her head, amazed. "A gun in four parts, scattered across the world? I mean, come on! Did you really believe that?"
The Master frowned, cocking his head. Martha could see the unease, the faintest traces of panic beginning to well up within him. "What do you mean?"
"As if I would ask her to kill you," the Doctor spoke up, his voice raspy from screams and hard breathing. He pushed himself up until he was standing, still chained to the wall. He legs shook beneath him but his eyes were fierce and clear.
Maybe he was really that blind or maybe he was just desperately hoping that this was a joke to distract him. The Master laughed, shaking his head in denial. "Well it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her."
Martha was looking decidedly calm for someone apparently about to be executed.
"I knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son. I told her about the gun so she could get me here, at the right time."
The Master laughed, shaking his head. "But you're still gonna die."
Martha tilted her head curiously, a smile playing on her lips. "Do you wanna know what I was doing? Traveling the world?"
He smirked at her, rolling his eyes and sitting down on the steps. "Tell me,"
"I told a story, that's all," Martha said. "No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said." Words were spilling out of her, softly, gently. She wanted to make sure that the Master understood just what she had done, just what the Doctor had wanted. "I walked across the continents, all on my own. And everywhere I went I found people and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor. I told them to pass it on so that everyone would know about the Doctor."
The Master seemed completely unimpressed. "Faith and hope? Is that all?" He said the words like faith and hope meant nothing, like they weren't the very backbone of humanity. Martha sighed.
"No, 'cos I gave them an instruction." She was smiling outright now as she stood, her voice growing stronger. Her eyes strayed to the Doctor and briefly to the ticking clock behind the Master. "Just as the Doctor said. I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time—"
"Nothing will happen!" the Master cut her off, jumping to his feet. His gaze was manic and angry. "Is that your weapon? Prayer?"
Martha ignored him. He had no idea that he'd already lost.
"Right across the world," Martha said. "One word, just one thought, at one moment, but with fifteen satellites…"
That got the Master's attention. He paled a bit and straightened his spine.
"What?"
"The Archangel Network," Jack said from the back.
"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!" The count was ticking away. Just a handful of seconds left now. Martha met the Master's eyes and her gaze dared him to look away.
"And that word is 'Doctor'."
The Master's shoulders were tight and his eyes shot to where the Doctor was chained. Almost as soon as Martha had finished the Doctor took another step forward and light burst forth around him, bright and white, nearly blinding them all.
The Master's eyes were wide. "Stop it! No, no, no, no you don't!"
Sarah Jane closed her eyes, smiling, whispering "Doctor" under her breath. Beside her, Spencer did the same, taking her hand. Tish, Clive and Francine stood together, chanting the word "Doctor" under their breath. Jack was smiling despite the grime and bruises covering him, saying the name like a prayer.
Sherlock stood with Kate, chains wrapped around their wrists. He heard Kate's voice chanting with everyone else and the faintest of smiles traces his lips as he too joined in.
The Master was starting to feel the panic rise up in his chest. "Don't… No! Stop this right now, stop it!"
But it was too late. Everyone in the room, everyone across the world, was putting all their effort into their last hope, their best hope. Even blank, numb Lucy Saxon had a tiny spark in her eyes as she chanting the words desperately.
The Doctor was rapidly regaining strength, the aches in his muscles, the bruises and blood and cuts, the bone-deep exhaustion vanished as the psychic energy of the entire human race connected to heal him, to bring him back to be their savior.
"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices," he told the Master. The Master wasn't even paying attention. Trying to get everything back in order, yelling at everyone to stop, to listen to him.
The Doctor shook his head sadly. "The one thing you can't do is stop them thinking," he said. Standing firmly on his own feet for the first time in ages. Feeling whole and healed and better than he had since before this disaster began.
"Tell me the human race is degenerate now," he demanded, "when they can do this."
As he lifted off the ground, surrounded by the faintly blue and white light, the Master fired at him. The laser bounced off, having no effect. Everyone in the room was watching in awe. Martha ran to her family and embraced them, feeling the last piece of herself click into place as she held them in her arms again. She could hear the Doctor still talking at the Master.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."
The Master scowled, desperate and angry. He spun, wielding the screwdriver, and aimed at Sarah Jane and Reid where they stood.
"Then I'll kill them!"
Before he could fire the weapon flew from his hands and cross the room as he watched, dumbfounded. He turned toward the Doctor, who was slowly approaching him with surprisingly gentle eyes. He back up slowly, shaking his head over and over.
"You can't do this! You can't! It's no fair!"
"You know what happens now," the Doctor said, continuing his slow approach. The Master shook his head and scream, terrified. He ended up cowering in the corner as the Doctor knelt down and slowly embraced the shaking Time Lord.
"You wouldn't listen," he said quietly, "because you know what I'm gonna say."
The Master seemed to be sobbing from where the Doctor held him. He leaned down and whispered three words quietly that made the man shake even more than he had before.
"I forgive you…"
Toclafane were rushing back to keep the Paradox Machine from unraveling the paradox that held them together. Alarms and sirens were going off. The missiles were getting ready to launch and suddenly the Master lurched forward, snatching the Vortex Manipulator where he'd thrown it.
"NO!" the Doctor yelled and tried to snatch it from him but it was too late and he found himself yanked from the ship, landing on the planet below, in the yard with the weapons preparing to be fired.
The Master grinned, straightening up and throwing his arms out toward the missiles.
"Now it ends, Doctor," he said.
"We've got control of the Valiant, you can't launch!"
"But I've got this!" The Master said, pulling out a small device from inside of his jacket. "Black Hole Converters inside every ship. If I can't have the world, Doctor, then neither can you!" There was a horrible, twisted look on his face and the Doctor felt his hearts break all over again at how far his former friend had fallen.
"We should stand upon this earth together as it burns!"
"Weapon after weapon after weapon," the Doctor said. "All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years, and all these disasters, I've always had the real secret. I know you. Explode those ships and you kill yourself. That's the one thing you could never do."
He stepped closer and closer to the Master as he spoke, holding out his hand. "Give that to me."
Aboard the Valiant Jack fought his way into the TARDIS and destroyed the horrible mess that the Master had created out of her. The Earth shook below the Doctor's feet and he and the Master stumbled and fell, scrambling for the Vortex Manipulator, which carried them back onto the ship in time to feel the full effects of the destruction of the Paradox Machine.
The ship rocked and twitched in the air and the Doctor yelled over the noise.
"Everyone get down! Time is reversing!"
The world spun and twisted around them, yanking everyone and everything backwards and the universe sought to restore order and break the Paradox. Slowly, it stopped. Everything came to a surprisingly gentle standstill and the Doctor leapt to his feet, looking around the small, battered group of survivors. The people who would never forget what had happened.
"The paradox is broken. Timeline's been restored. We've gone back to right after the president's assassination, but just before the appearance of the spheres. One year, one day. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror, it never was."
He was speaking rapidly, aware of the angry, bloodthirsty thoughts of some of the people in the room. Aware that fixing the horror that they'd lived through didn't erase it for them and revenge looked appealing from where they stood.
"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.
"Trapped at the end of the universe," he assured her.
Francine's eyes were lock on the Master as he struggled to stand. "But I can remember it," she whispered.
"We're in the eye of the storm," the Doctor explained. "The only ones who'll ever know." He looked around at them all again, at Spencer, Sherlock, Kate and Sarah Jane. At the broken bits of K-9 that needed to be pieced back together. At Lucy and her dead-eyed stare. At Martha and her family.
Suddenly, the Master made a run for the door, feet sliding across the floor. Jack caught him just as he reached the exit, smiling at him.
"Whoa there big fella. Wouldn't wanna miss the party." He turned to one of the officers standing nearby and held out his hand. "Cuffs," he demanded. They handed him a pair of handcuffs and he quickly locked them around the Master's wrists.
"So," Jack asked, leading him back into the room. "What do we do with this one?"
"We kill him," Clive spoke up at the same as Tish, who insisted that he be executed as well. The Doctor shook his head frantically.
"No! That's not the solution."
Behind him, the sound of a gun's safety being click off made his ears ring and he turned to see Francine Jones holding a gun, her eyes red from crying and her voice shaky as she pointed the gun at the Master.
"Oh, I think so…" she said quietly, her fingers resting on the trigger. "'Cos all those things… they still happened. Because of him. I saw them."
The Doctor let her talk, approaching her quietly from behind. The Master egged her on, encouraging her to shoot him. The Doctor glanced between her and the Master and reached up slowly.
"Francine, you're better than him," he said softly as he pulled her hands down until the gun clattered to the floor and he wrapped the sobbing woman into his arms. His chest was tight as he thought about the fact that she was not the only one in the room suffering from the last year of hell. These people, these broken, hollowed out people, would never forget, wouldn't be able to just move on.
He certainly couldn't expect any of them to merely return to their normal lives after this.
The Master watched with a look of disdain on his face as Fran was led back to her family.
"You still haven't answered the question," he said. "What happens to me?"
The Doctor swallowed hard and met his eyes. "You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lord left in existence."
"You can't trust him," Jack insisted, watching the Doctor anxiously.
"No," the Doctor nodded. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."
The Master raised a brow. "You mean you're just gonna… keep me?"
"If that's what I have to do," the Doctor said. "It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long…" He looked at all the broken people again and guilt ate him. They all blamed the Master for their pain, but he was as much to blame. "Now I've got someone to care for." He looked back at the Master, then his victims. More than one someone, really.
The sound of a gunshot yanked him from his thoughts and he spun to see dead-eyed Lucy Saxon holding the gun she'd just used to shoot her husband.
The Master lurched backwards, mouth dropping open with a faint little 'O' of pain and the Doctor raced toward him, catching him before he could fall to the ground. The room around him shrank to nothing but his former friend's pale and dying face as he clutched at him.
He looked up at the Doctor and smirked faintly.
"Dying in your arms. Happy now?" he asked quietly.
"You're not dying, don't be stupid. It's just a bullet. Regenerate."
The Master coughed, shaking his head. "I guess you don't know me so well," he said. "I refuse."
Ice filled the Doctor's veins at those words and he clutched harder at the Master's shoulders. His friend, his enemy. The only other Time Lord still alive. The last thing he had connecting him to Gallifrey. He begged, his cried and held the Master close to him as he died, but he refused to regenerate, refused to save himself.
The Doctor's hearts were already broken so many times over that he felt it should have been impossible to break them again, but the Master stuttered out his last breath slowly and it was over.
~/.\~
A/N: So. I hope this was worth that ridiculously long wait. This chapter did not go the way I intended. Of course, after the struggle I had I'm just glad it went anyway. Still.
This ends Part IV. Part V will be the final part. We'll see a bit of the end of the "Last of the Time Lords" episode and then I've got an epilogue-ish few chapters planned.
Never thought I'd actually get this far so I am so glad that this is finally over. Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for the end!