It came down to this, everything ready, everyone in position, waiting with bated breaths, trillions and more lives counting on them succeeding, but Paul had only chance.
Admittedly, the stress mounts against Paul as he took necessary preparations down to cutting his hair.
Taylor did what she could to alleviate it, but even she could not hide her fears and woes from him any better than he can from her.
With Straxus's help, the TARDIS tracks the Master's machine throughout worlds at a safe distance, as they prepared to trick it into going after the TARDIS.
"Once it detects the fake energy, it won't stop chasing us," Paul went over the plan as he tries reminding himself every little detail to it while Taylor helps him move the bomb towards the door.
Securing the bomb to the designed railing that will shoot it into the gaping maw of the machine, Taylor assures him his plan will work.
With backings by the Cybermen, the other Doctors, and Straxus, surely this will go smoothly, she insists.
Running a hand through his shortened hair, Paul admits he is fretting about something going wrong.
Something usually does when it comes to things like this, the fact he does not know how or when it'll happen frightens Paul that he questions why Taylor would stay by his side despite the risks involved.
Looking at him with her vibrant green eyes, Taylor proclaims one last faucet of the Master's existence destroyed would bring about peace for her and her strange family, "I have to see this through, for all of us."
Seeing the conviction in her eyes, Paul nods as he commends her bravery, and she lovingly squeezes him as she commends his own.
"We only have but a few seconds to get away from the machine the moment it takes the bomb," Paul reminds her of how close to the hilt they are playing the moment they start.
Affirming with a nod, Taylor comforts him once more, and he goes up to the console.
Using it, he sends messages to everyone across the known galaxies about their readiness, and once they all confirmed they were ready to end the machine's reign of terror once and for all, Paul sucks air through his teeth.
As he does, he hears his beloved uncle over the speakers saying something to them all.
"Pugnator sum temporis, usque in diem moriar. Ego sum parvulus temporis et, quando morior, revertar ad principium temporis," Hammond recalls the words of his and his brother's late uncle.
Hearing it over the speakers, Paul pauses as he takes it in, and he then says aloud, "Let's get the bastard."
And with that, they're off to lure the machine from wherever depths of the worlds its feeding from, every step of the way, Paul dreads it sensing the TARDIS, and it chasing after them the moment of detecting the energy the TARDIS's emitting.
Reminding himself how far he came that he could not turn back now, Paul pushes himself forward as they're going to a dead zone where they can trap the machine once it eats the bomb.
Running simulations and having the TARDIS check itself routinely before setting out on this mission, the idea would have them out of the dead zone before it begins collapsing as the bomb takes effect in the machine.
Of course, Paul is not foolish not to consider the machine attempting to thwart them by any means necessary if it catches on to what they are doing, but he hoped its insatiable hunger would cause it to throw caution in the wind.
Unstable, though, the machine remains unpredictable to the point that it gave Paul pause several times as he likens to them dealing with a rabid animal.
He would consider it a saving grace they are not at risking contracting the prion disease, but he did have fears of the machine trying to brute force its own AI into the TARDIS as means of preserving its existence.
Which the TARDIS assures him it will not allow that to happen, after all, it
had enough time on its nonexistent hands to consider everything, and Straxus embodying it with protective measurements against the rogue AI helps it too.
Never thought the day would come where Paul would trust the clone of the Master or even the Cybermen to pull through with helping them create the bomb, but here he is, as he waits with Taylor for the blip on the scanners for the machine to come into view after picking up the energy reading from the TARDIS.
"Grace, whatever happens…" Paul turns his head towards her as she waits beside him.
Turning her head towards him, Taylor reaches for his hands as she urges him to remain calm, but Paul insists that he say this, now.
"I love you, Grace. You've always been by my side even at my worst," Paul says with a warm smile.
Holding him close to her, Taylor proclaims her undying love for him, thanking him for his help discovering the uncomfortable truths, before Paul cheekily reminds her that he was the Doctor, it's his job.
Their loving embrace was cut short when the TARDIS alerts them of the machine's movement.
Catching the scent, the machine became hellbent chasing after the source, and it is faster than it looked souring through the empty black drop of space like a torpedo.
His hands on the console, Paul proceeds to pull every lever, Taylor helping by pushing buttons as they can feel the air changing around them as the machine has them in its sights.
Unyielding, the machine blasts through the darkness of space, hyper focused on catching its prey that it did not even absorb the slightest of energy from the worlds around as the energy signatures the TARDIS produces kept it salivating for a bigger target than what the universe can give.
Air thickening around them, it made breathing difficult, that Paul and Taylor had no choice but to use oxygen masks as they prepped for the final showdown between them and the last remnant of the Master.