Fic: The Broken Key (2/4)
Title: The Broken Key (2/4)
Author: shinyopals
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: Trapped and imprisoned, with no hope of rescue from Torchwood, the Doctor and Rose are forced to go to desperate lengths to save each other and the universe from a deadly enemy who's been watching them for a long time.
Author's notes: Thanks to ginamak for beta reading and various others for encouragement!
Episode 19 and the finale of of a virtual series at the_altverse, following Clocksleepers last week.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part 1
Rose ran.
Every time her boots hit the ground, there was a comforting clap and a very familiar jolt through her body. This rhythm was one she knew. Through hail or ice or burning deserts, chasing or being chased, her legs fell into that familiar swinging pattern, driving her forwards. Inside a warehouse, her husband trapped by a crazy Time Lord, maybe half an hour from the end of the universe... and she knew they had a chance because she was free and she was running.
The explosion had been closer to the Doctor, the Master and Isabelle. She’d seen it coming - been watching the Doctor and could see that it had cost him to use the grenade - and she’d shifted so one of the guards still holding her had got most of the blast. It had been easy to pull away in the confusion. Her head was still ringing, but a tiny little Torchwood grenade had nothing on some of the other explosions she’d been caught up in. The most recent, in fact, had been the Master’s own design.
She’d made a grab at Jed’s arm but he’d jumped forward to rescue Isabelle. Whether it was the hypnosis wearing off or a sudden realisation of the urgency, he hadn’t stopped to make any speeches.
Now Isabelle and Jed were behind her, running after her as she tore through the warehouse. Behind them, who knew how many guards? She couldn’t risk slowing down enough to look.
This building wasn’t a maze the way the other one had been. The corridors and rooms were still a confusing mess, but this hadn’t been created as a game. It was what the old industrial space had looked like for years now, the doors chipped and paint peeling.
She kept running.
Another Time Lord.
Not just that, but one of the bad guys. She’d fought Daleks and other species who’d died in the war, like the Gelth, but the Time Lords were gone. He’d said he’d known that: he’d been able to feel it in his mind. Was he always so bloody wrong? she thought bitterly.
It wasn’t just a mistake, though. She’d not made much sense of their conversation but she’d seen enough to guess they’d seen each other since the war. While he was with Donna? Martha? Couldn’t he have said? Would it have hurt him to mention it, just the once?
Mentally, she sighed. Of course it would have hurt him. Even now he didn’t talk about the war. Was she being fair? She didn’t know. She’d just thought they’d got to the stage where they didn’t have any big secrets.
Still, it was no use thinking about that now.
She pulled open a likely looking door and, finding a storage room, ushered in Isabelle and Jed. There were a couple of old and slightly battered looking computers, as well as a few piles of cardboard boxes, all pushed up against the wall on some tables, with chairs piled into them.
Was it safe with Isabelle and Jed? They’d fallen into the Master’s control the second he’d arrived, and now they’d broken out of it. Except they hadn’t broken out, or Isabelle wouldn’t have been so horrified at the thought of being split up with Jed. The hypnosis seemed to have multiple layers to it.
She bit her lip as she worked her way around the different levels of hypnosis. Apparently the Master was using three sorts: getting people to watch and love the show, like her; blank, mindless drones, like the guards; and something so deep and real it had convinced whoever this poor man and woman were that they were really Isabelle and Jed. They might not be in a trance any more, but they’d only escaped that to return to a fake existence.
“Are you two all right?” she asked. At the moment they were the best allies she had, even if she had to weave some ridiculous story for them to understand.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Isabelle. “My head doesn’t half hurt.”
“You did good in there,” Rose said with a smile. At first while the Doctor and the Master had been talking, she’d been watching them as carefully as she could, trying to glean as much about their relationship as possible. At one point, though, she’d glanced over to Isabelle and Jed and seen them react. It had been barely more than a blink, but she’d seen it. And what better way to help them fight off the hypnosis than with the help of the Master gloating about his stupid show?
Isabelle smiled in return. “Nobody splits me up from Jed,” she said firmly, leaning into him and giving him a squeeze. Jed smiled down at her in a way that made Rose’s heart hurt. The stories the Master had written had been crude parodies, but in Isabelle and Jed they seemed to be taking on a life of their own.
“What’s going on, anyway?” demanded Jed, with an attempt at a dramatic, attention-grabbing pose that was more subdued than before.
For a second Rose hesitated, not sure whether to try the truth or some elaborate lie. They’d fought off one level of hypnosis, but that seemed to have made them more entrenched in their fake identities.
“The Master is the Doctor’s enemy,” she said. “He’s an alien, and he’s powerfully hypnotic. D’you remember...?”
“I remember doing a lot of standing around,” said Isabelle.
“He must be strong indeed, if I am susceptible!” said Jed.
Rose made a vague murmur of agreement.
“What’s he planning?” squeaked Isabelle, clutching Jed’s hand.
“I’m not sure,” said Rose awkwardly. “I think he wants to get back to this parallel universe- he came from a parallel universe, I mean. And he wants to get home.” She racked her brains thinking through the conversation. “He had this key,” she said slowly. Doyle had taken the key and promised to destroy it when he got home, but obviously he hadn’t. The Master had come through by accident and then broken the key for some reason. Or had someone else broken it? He’d avoided telling the Doctor, but there’d been some complication. Obviously now he wanted to fix it. “He needs to fix it so he can get back. The problem is, every time it gets used, it tears holes in the universes.”
“Isn’t one more hole better than him being here?” asked Isabelle with a shudder.
Rose had a brief image of sending the Master back to the other Doctor and shut her eyes. Her own husband had suggested that repeatedly, and she didn’t know what to think. Was that Doctor - the one who’d left her here, promising he’d be all right - really so in need of someone that the Master would do? Was it better to have another Time Lord than none, even if he was insane?
She opened her eyes again, forcing back the tears that threatened. “It might be,” she said. “But we don’t know when one more tear will destroy everything. The last time I saw this key used, the sky got ripped apart. Even fixing the key could destroy us.”
Isabelle and Jed exchanged glances: weary and afraid, but at the same time accepting. This was what their life was like, she remembered. At least, as far as they were concerned it was, anyway. It was almost a relief to not have to try and explain aliens and parallel universes.
“What was he saying about a television program?” asked Jed suddenly.
Rose blinked, as things suddenly started to crash into place. “He’s... airing a show,” she said. “How could I forget?” She shook her head and pinched her nose. Was this part of the hypnosis? Love the show and not notice how strange it was. It had to be, or else Torchwood would have shut down Clocksleepers. She sighed. Just what she needed: her own brain trying to make her forget why the universe was ending.
“Everyone in the world with a TV is watching that show at the same time,” she explained. “They’re watching that right now. And the dimension cannon - my equipment - told us the world is gonna fall apart while the show is playing. He’s gotta be using the energy, right?” She turned to Jed and Isabelle for confirmation. “The show is sort of hypnotic, so everyone’s watching. Maybe it’s just a distraction, but maybe... I don’t know, everyone’s TV being on means he can use their power to fix his key.”
Jed looked a little dubious, but he hadn’t seen the dimension cannon readings. Besides, she’d seen people use TV sets to get power before, all the way back in 1953. If some easily-defeated creature like the Wire could do it with that technology, the Master would have more than that ability. She just hoped nobody was going to end up losing their faces - or worse.
“Look,” she said, “we need to stop this show broadcasting, and we need to try and stop the Master separately, too.”
“Is... is the Doctor in danger?” asked Isabelle quietly, eyes full of sympathy Rose wasn’t sure she could deal with at the moment.
“The Master won’t kill him if he can help it,” said Rose. That much she was certain about. He’d been playing with them for months now: breaking the TARDIS and setting off these bombs and probably kidnapping her mother and Tony too. There was no way he was going to kill the Doctor quickly. Possibly not ever.
Probably, she thought, as a new and nasty thought occurred to her. The Master didn’t seem to know the Doctor was half-human. What if he still expected him to be able to regenerate?
“We’ve got less than half an hour to deal with this!” she snapped, not wanting to think about the possibilities.
“Shhh!” hissed Jed.
Rose froze, then spun around to see a shadow in the frosted glass outside the door. Without stopping to think, she grabbed the nearest chair and shoved it under the door handle right as the figure tried to open it.
“Jed! Keep him out! You’re the strongest!” she ordered. He grabbed the chair and she jumped forward into the room. “Isabelle, help me find a weapon.”
“But we cannot-“
She whirled around to face Jed again, pointing her finger at him. “If you let go of that chair for a single instant to make a dramatic speech about weapons and how terrible they are, I’ll...” she searched around for a threat that wouldn’t make him think she was still evil, “shave off your hair!”
Jed looked horrified.
Point well made, Rose turned back to Isabelle, who had upturned one of the cardboard boxes. She ignored the mutter of “I thought you’d reformed,” from Jed and concentrated instead one what they had.
DVDs. More specifically, Clocksleepers DVDs, still in their packaging.
“This is-“ Isabelle began, staring at the pictures of herself on the cover.
“The Master is using you in his show,” said Rose quickly. “It’s no good, though, we need some sort of...” She trailed off and stared at the computers.
“What are you-?” demanded Isabelle and she jumped forward and began pressing power buttons and checking plugs.
“Get those DVDs out of their cases!”
“Hurry!” yelled Jed. “There’s more than one now!” He was leaning against the door with the full force of his weight, straining against the guards trying to force entry.
Rose grabbed the DVDs that Isabelle handed her and desperately prodded at the DVD drives of the computers that were starting up. Of the old machines, three had started up, but only two were loading properly. She really only needed the one, though...
She bounced up and down on her toes. Just a little bit longer. All they needed was a little bit longer.
“I can’t- I need-“
Isabelle jumped back to help him, but even with her assistance the door burst inwards seconds later. Five of the guards were pushing in.
Rose leaned forward to smash the play button just as someone swiped her from behind, pulling her backwards suddenly. She shouted out in pain and kicked backwards, but against two of them she had no chance. One pushed her down to the floor, his knee in the small of her back, winding her at the sudden force. She struggled in his grasp, kicking, but an added pressure on her legs and... that music.
It was an even, regular drumming beat that made her heart flutter in anticipation. The show! It was on!
She struggled to turn around but needn’t have worried because the hold on her loosened. The others knew she had to watch, then. They knew how important it was. This was a new episode, too. She’d finally get to see how Isabelle and Captain Jed met...
She was suddenly yoinked backwards and out of the room, the door being slammed shut after her.
“But I-“ she started, making to move forward again. The same hands that had pulled her out held her back and she struggled.
“Rose!” Isabelle’s face appeared in front of hers, eyes open wide and worried.
Rose blinked stupidly at her for a moment. Something was... the show... she wanted... she screwed her eyes shut tight.
“It’s hypnotic, like I said,” she said through gritted teeth as her mind began to return to her. She did not want to watch Clocksleepers. She had to save the world. “Weren’t you two affected?”
“It’s about us,” said Isabelle, sounding appalled.
“How does this Master know so much?” demanded Jed.
“Hypnosis?” suggested Rose weakly, opening her eyes again. She didn’t have it in her to think up of any cleverer response.
“But... those names,” said Isabelle. “The names in the credits. Anna Chapley. I know that name. I don’t know from where, but I know it from somewhere. And she’s supposed to be the actress who plays me.” She turned to Jed. “Hugo Denton is supposed to be you. Do you know that name?”
Jed - or should that be Hugo? - hesitated. “It sounds... familiar,” he said.
Before Rose could stop her, Isabelle jumped forward and pushed open the door. Rose caught a brief glance of the five security guards sitting quietly before she forced her eyes to shut and stepped backwards along the wall. She couldn’t hear anything worth listening to. It was just noise. Background noise. Nothing she wanted to see or hear.
They had to stop the show. She focussed her mind on that. It went against everything she wanted but she knew they had to. It was the only way to stop the Master.
She just wished she had time for a bit of TV first.
“That’s us! It’s really us!” hissed Isabelle, as she shut the door again.
Rose opened her eyes but continued to walk down the corridor in the direction they’d come.
“Who is Anna Chapley?” demanded Isabelle. She ran a little to catch up with Rose and tugged the other woman’s arm. “What’s going on?”
Rose sighed and rubbed her forehead. What the hell could she do? Isabelle - Anna - was figuring it all out anyway. Even Jed looked like his brain wasn’t calmly accepting this new information, and he’d found it a lot harder than Isabelle to break the hypnosis so far (Rose guessed because the Master could paint a better picture of the Doctor than he could of Rose).
“Anna Chapley is an actress,” Rose said quietly. “She went to an audition one day and got the part of Isabelle Buchanan. Then, when she was done filming, the Master wiped her mind and made her believe she really was Isabelle.”
“But- I- You- That can’t-“ Isabelle/Anna stepped backwards, face white with fear. “I’m Isabelle,” she said at last.
Jed leaned forward to grab Rose’s arm and push her against the wall, more roughly than she’d expected given who he was based on. This was definitely affecting him too.
“Don’t you dare go saying that to my Isabelle!” he snapped at her, sounding so much like the Doctor’s anger at the Master whenever he’d talked to Rose, that she laughed, unable to stop herself. This entire situation was already such a mess and she still had no idea what to do.
“How can you say that?” demanded Isabelle, through tears, eyes entreating Rose. “Say you’re lying!”
“If I did, would you believe me?”
Jed reached over and took Isabelle in his arms. “You’re just an agent of the Movridons!” he proclaimed. “Isabelle, this is real. Don’t listen to her, she’s trying to trick us.”
Rose felt the sting of jealousy. Right now anything could be happening to the Doctor and here she was, doing nothing. She started off down the corridor again. There wasn’t time to wait. Isabelle and Jed didn’t follow her and a glance over her shoulder revealed they were still clinging to each other. Fine, then. So much for her allies. If she had to do it by herself, then so be it.
Now if she could just work out what she was doing.
~*~
The Master sent for more of his guards. Some he kept surrounding the room, others he ordered to find Rose, Isabelle and Captain Jed.
“Bring them back alive if you can,” he told them simply.
The Doctor felt an odd rush of relief in with the sick worry. ‘Alive if you can’ meant Rose wasn’t so important that the Master wanted to linger over her death. That was better than so many alternatives.
A tiny little part of him was desperately hoping she’d leg it all the way out the building and get to safety, but he wasn’t quite so stupid to believe she’d ever leave him. He wondered if the Master knew that.
The Master was looking at him again now, eyes cold and penetrating. Some of the guards brought back a chair and some restraints, and soon the Doctor was secured in place at his hands, feet, waist and neck. It was only with duct tape, but it was more than enough.
Only then did the Master approach again, sitting on one of the still-standing desks and propping his feet on either side of the Doctor’s legs, spinning the chair a little as he did.
“You,” he began, “brought a bomb.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “strictly speaking, it was more of a grenade.”
“You don’t use grenades,” said the Master. “I’ve known you long enough to say for sure that if there’s one thing you don’t do, it’s use weapons.” He pointed at the floor, where one of his security guards was still lying unconscious. “You nearly killed him!”
He sounded like he didn’t know whether to be impressed or horrified.
“I didn’t, though,” said the Doctor, trying not to wince at the body. The man was still breathing, that much he could see, but he clearly needed some sort of medical treatment and the Master didn’t seem inclined to give it.
“What, so now it’s OK to blow things up as long as everybody is lucky enough to live?” the Master demanded incredulously. “What has this world been doing to you?”
“Following your example,” said the Doctor.
“Ooh, yes, I was forgetting that lovely bomb of mine!” The Master clapped his hands, then removed a small device from his suit pocket, which he pointed at one of the screens behind him. Suddenly there was a picture on the screen - a security camera feed of Rose inside the warehouse trying to stop the bomb. There was no sound, and the picture quality wasn’t much good, but he could read the desperation and defeat in her pose.
He turned away sharply before anything happened, finding the Master watching him hungrily, eyes filled with glee.
“I could make popcorn if you wanted something with your evening viewing?” he offered mockingly.
“Enough!” snapped the Doctor, wishing for a moment he had another grenade.
Behind the Master, the silent play continued, but the Master wasn’t watching it. He kept his gaze fixed on the Doctor, eagerly watching the horror on the other man’s face.
“And that’s why we don’t play with bombs,” he said in a sing-song voice.
“What now?” asked the Doctor.
“What?”
“What are you planning on doing now? You’re fixing the key, right? In half an hour’s time the universe starts to implode so you can fix the key. What? You’re going to wait it all out in the TARDIS while two universes collapse?”
“Oh, but it’s not going to be two universes,” said the Master, spinning the Doctor’s chair on a full loop with his feet, giving him a quick view of the guards surrounding the room. “This universe, maybe, but who cares about this one? Our home universe is all safe and snug because I happen to know there are some people there who are looking after it. ” He considered. “Maybe I’ll take you back with me.” The Doctor briefly had a vision of his other self discovering he was there without Rose and with the Master. He suspected it would not be the warmest welcome he’d ever received. “We might get bored with only the one Doctor, after all.”
“We? What? And what do you mean about people back there?”
The Master smirked and leaned forward. Clearly this was a story he’d been looking forward to telling. The Doctor did his best to keep his face impassive.
“Have you ever heard of... an immortality gate?”
The Doctor blinked. Clearly this was not the sort of dramatic reaction the Master had hoped for, because he sighed and tutted.
“No sense of storytelling,” he said. “It’s technology some idiot humans salvaged and then were nice enough to ask me to help fix.” He grinned. “Funny how easy it is to reprogram something when nobody around knows what you’re doing.”
“What did you do?” asked the Doctor wearily.
The Master looked affronted. “Are you interested or not?”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
“I replicated my own DNA onto every single human being on Earth.”
There was silence.
“You what?”
The Doctor stared stupidly up at the grinning Master. Of all the- Had he really-? He was not joking.
“So you’re not the Master?”
The Master raised an eyebrow. “Coming from you, I-“
“Not the original, then,” interrupted the Doctor with a roll of his eyes. “There’s a human being somewhere underneath that body.”
The Master wrinkled his nose and then brushed down his sleeves, ridding himself of imaginary lint. “There’s no human left in me,” he said. “Pure Time Lord. All six and a half billion of us.”
Flopping back in his chair, the Doctor stared up at the ceiling. Well, he supposed he no longer had to feel even a smidgen of guilt about wanting this Master to go back to their original universe. When there were six billion for the other him to deal with, an extra one didn’t make a lot of difference.
“Oh, but you haven’t heard the good bit yet!” complained the Master.
“You’re going to have to learn to farm bananas, or else you’ll starve?” suggested the Doctor, too overcome by the situation to even try and take it seriously any more. This universe was going to be torn apart, and the other universe was apparently relying on being saved by six billion of one person who regularly tried to destroy it.
“No,” scoffed the Master. “We’re going to bring back Gallifrey. Ha! That got you sitting up straight!”
That had got him sitting up straight. He gaped at the Master, bottom jaw moving up and down a few times as he tried to form the words his brain was thinking. Impossible. Except with that many Masters, there might just be a way to break the Time Lock...
“You idiot!” he managed at last.
The Master smirked.
“It turns out, Doctor,” he said, “that they planned my drumbeat. They looked on me and saw I was their saviour from you. So now I’m bringing them back!”
“Did you think they’re going to-? That you’ll just-? What are you-?” He broke off, mouth still unable to form the sentences he wanted to get out. He thought of those last days of the war: of Rassilon and the council and their plans. Plans for a victory for Gallifrey at any cost, including the rest of the universe. “Did you not think that when someone like me destroys two entire civilisations that maybe, just maybe, I’ve put a bit of thought into it?”
A momentary disconcerted look crossed the Master’s face, before he scoffed.
“You had no choice - you said it yourself.”
“I had no choice because they - and this is the Time Lords, not the Daleks - were going to destroy the universe in order to save themselves.”
It was the Master’s turn to stare stupidly at him.
“You weren’t there,” snapped the Doctor. “You didn’t see the end of the war because you’d run off. Too afraid of the Daleks! And now what? You’re inviting them back? Them and the Time Lords, who are much worse, by the way.”
“Rassilon would never sacrifice himself,” hissed the Master, leaning forwards. “Neither will the rest of those jumped up cowards. I won’t have any need to. I’ll have saved them. Saved them from you.”
The Doctor just laughed hysterically.
“How long have you been here?” he asked eventually. “One year? Two? More than enough time to create an entire TV series. I tell you one thing: if the other me wasn’t successful in stopping all six billion of you, there’s no universe for you to even go back to.”
For a moment, it looked like the Master was thinking about it, before the light in his eyes suddenly returned. “No matter,” he said. “Once we have the key and the TARDIS, we can go back and check, and if that doesn’t work we can find any universe. You felt how strong the key was. It can be adapted, made to work with the TARDIS. We could go anywhere, you and me.” He grinned. “How about it?”
“You’re mad,” said the Doctor faintly, visions of a universe-hopping life stuck as the Master’s prisoner stretching out before him. At least it would only be the one life. At least Rose wouldn’t have to suffer.
The Master leaned forward and patted the Doctor’s hair. “I’ve always wanted a pet!” he said cheerfully.
“You had one at the academy,” the Doctor pointed out. “You drowned it.” That had been about the time their friendship had started to sour.
He waited with bated breath to see if the brief physical contact was enough. Had the Master felt the warmth of his skin or the single heartbeat? Would he realise now that he wasn’t talking to the Time Lord he thought he was?
Nothing. The Master merely grinned.
And then into the silence came an all-too-familiar groaning of engines. The TARDIS!
Slowly, almost uncertainly, hovering for some moments in a transparent unreality before solidifying, the TARDIS materialised. The blank-faced guard walked out, returning the key to the Master.
“He can fly her?”said the Doctor stupidly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said the Master. “Humans don’t have the brains. Why do you think she’s been breaking down so often for you?” He waved the small remote he’d earlier used on the TV screens. “I’ve been trying to control her. My friend here just installed the final piece, so at last, I’ve been successful!”
“How did you do that?” demanded the Doctor. Certainly, the TARDIS was young, and perhaps he hadn’t made security his highest priority, but it should be well beyond the ability of any single Time Lord to make her break down quite so effectively without access.
“Oh, that’s a great idea! Why don’t I tell you exactly how I did it to give you a chance to stop me?” The Master rolled his eyes.
Then he pushed the Doctor’s desk chair over towards the doors, now hanging open for all the world to see.
“I didn’t realise she was a new one until you said you were a clone,” he added conversationally. “I thought you were just using the old one. But I suppose the other you got to keep her and you got Miss Rose Tyler and a lump to grow in exchange for being packed off to this universe. Which of you lost the coin toss?” The Doctor kept his face blank. He was the lucky one, but the Master could never appreciate that. “Bit new, I suppose, but it makes her easier to change. Your old one was just like you: all stuffy and awkward.” He reached forward to pat one of the wooden panels. “I’m sure this new one won’t even object to fixing your ridiculous Chameleon Circuit.”
“She’s of the same beginnings,” said the Doctor bitterly, resenting these words about his and Rose’s home.
“Oh, of course,” said the Master, waving a hand. “Where else would you grow one from? But she’s still young and impressionable.” He leered. “Just like how you normally like them. Miss Martha Jones was twenty-four. Dear Rose was twenty-one when she died back home. She never even finished school. It’s so much easier to manipulate the ones who don’t know better, isn’t it?”
If the Master expected him to be fazed by this argument, he was going to be disappointed. The Doctor merely smiled softly, remembering grabbing Rose’s hand in that shop all those years ago and not knowing what to make of her. He suspected she’d known more about life by nineteen than he’d done by a hundred and fifty.
“Mustn’t dawdle, anyway,” said the Master cheerfully. “Things to do.”
Stepping forward, away from the Doctor’s chair, the Master pushed the doors open further and walked inside. From his vantage point just outside the doors, the Doctor could see the Master slowly circle the TARDIS, flicking switches and levers and stroking the table lovingly. The lights inside were bright and the hum of the engines was content. The TARDISes had always lived above Time Lord squabbles and the Master being in there wouldn’t bother her unless he tried to tear her apart. As much as she was the Doctor’s TARDIS, she couldn’t forget his half-human-ness. This hadn’t bothered him overmuch before: the connection had remained quietly in the background. Now, though, he felt a twinge of jealousy and a spike of resentment over the Master’s easy connection with her. He couldn’t have that, not any more.
Standing where he knew he was in full view, the Master reached inside his suit pocket and pulled out a black oblong box of shiny metal. He smoothed the edges with his fingers before carefully opening it. From it, he pulled three objects. From the distance he was sitting, the Doctor couldn’t see them clearly, but he didn’t need to. The strong perception filter and equally strong universe-crossing power both shone through, warring with each other and making the broken key both the least and most noticable object in the room simultaneously.
The last time he’d seen it, it had been in Conan Doyle’s hands in one piece. The sky had been breaking around them at its use. Then... quiet. From Holmes’ time to modern day London, nothing had happened. The key had been trapped in another universe, handed down from generation to generation. Nobody had ever brought themselves to destroy it, but nobody had tried to use it either.
Inside the TARDIS, the Master was at work. The nature of the symbiotic relationship between a Time Lord and a TARDIS meant that an unfamiliar console took scant minutes to get used to. The Doctor was too far to see exactly what the Master was doing, but the easy smoothness with which he moved gave the process an odd elegance. The Master seemed more relaxed and at home than the Doctor had ever thought possible.
In no time at all, he seemed to finish inside. After that, all he did was run a set of cables out to his own computers on the wall behind, then press a few buttons.
“And... done!!” he proclaimed, spinning around and practically skipping back over to the Doctor and the TARDIS. There, he leaned against the side of the TARDIS and checked his watch. “And with oh, hardly more than fifteen minutes to spare,” he said cheerfully.
“So what now?” asked the Doctor bitterly.
“Now we wait,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
Part 3
Author: shinyopals
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Rose/Ten II
Summary: Trapped and imprisoned, with no hope of rescue from Torchwood, the Doctor and Rose are forced to go to desperate lengths to save each other and the universe from a deadly enemy who's been watching them for a long time.
Author's notes: Thanks to ginamak for beta reading and various others for encouragement!
Episode 19 and the finale of of a virtual series at the_altverse, following Clocksleepers last week.
Virtual Series Masterlist
Part 1
Rose ran.
Every time her boots hit the ground, there was a comforting clap and a very familiar jolt through her body. This rhythm was one she knew. Through hail or ice or burning deserts, chasing or being chased, her legs fell into that familiar swinging pattern, driving her forwards. Inside a warehouse, her husband trapped by a crazy Time Lord, maybe half an hour from the end of the universe... and she knew they had a chance because she was free and she was running.
The explosion had been closer to the Doctor, the Master and Isabelle. She’d seen it coming - been watching the Doctor and could see that it had cost him to use the grenade - and she’d shifted so one of the guards still holding her had got most of the blast. It had been easy to pull away in the confusion. Her head was still ringing, but a tiny little Torchwood grenade had nothing on some of the other explosions she’d been caught up in. The most recent, in fact, had been the Master’s own design.
She’d made a grab at Jed’s arm but he’d jumped forward to rescue Isabelle. Whether it was the hypnosis wearing off or a sudden realisation of the urgency, he hadn’t stopped to make any speeches.
Now Isabelle and Jed were behind her, running after her as she tore through the warehouse. Behind them, who knew how many guards? She couldn’t risk slowing down enough to look.
This building wasn’t a maze the way the other one had been. The corridors and rooms were still a confusing mess, but this hadn’t been created as a game. It was what the old industrial space had looked like for years now, the doors chipped and paint peeling.
She kept running.
Another Time Lord.
Not just that, but one of the bad guys. She’d fought Daleks and other species who’d died in the war, like the Gelth, but the Time Lords were gone. He’d said he’d known that: he’d been able to feel it in his mind. Was he always so bloody wrong? she thought bitterly.
It wasn’t just a mistake, though. She’d not made much sense of their conversation but she’d seen enough to guess they’d seen each other since the war. While he was with Donna? Martha? Couldn’t he have said? Would it have hurt him to mention it, just the once?
Mentally, she sighed. Of course it would have hurt him. Even now he didn’t talk about the war. Was she being fair? She didn’t know. She’d just thought they’d got to the stage where they didn’t have any big secrets.
Still, it was no use thinking about that now.
She pulled open a likely looking door and, finding a storage room, ushered in Isabelle and Jed. There were a couple of old and slightly battered looking computers, as well as a few piles of cardboard boxes, all pushed up against the wall on some tables, with chairs piled into them.
Was it safe with Isabelle and Jed? They’d fallen into the Master’s control the second he’d arrived, and now they’d broken out of it. Except they hadn’t broken out, or Isabelle wouldn’t have been so horrified at the thought of being split up with Jed. The hypnosis seemed to have multiple layers to it.
She bit her lip as she worked her way around the different levels of hypnosis. Apparently the Master was using three sorts: getting people to watch and love the show, like her; blank, mindless drones, like the guards; and something so deep and real it had convinced whoever this poor man and woman were that they were really Isabelle and Jed. They might not be in a trance any more, but they’d only escaped that to return to a fake existence.
“Are you two all right?” she asked. At the moment they were the best allies she had, even if she had to weave some ridiculous story for them to understand.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Isabelle. “My head doesn’t half hurt.”
“You did good in there,” Rose said with a smile. At first while the Doctor and the Master had been talking, she’d been watching them as carefully as she could, trying to glean as much about their relationship as possible. At one point, though, she’d glanced over to Isabelle and Jed and seen them react. It had been barely more than a blink, but she’d seen it. And what better way to help them fight off the hypnosis than with the help of the Master gloating about his stupid show?
Isabelle smiled in return. “Nobody splits me up from Jed,” she said firmly, leaning into him and giving him a squeeze. Jed smiled down at her in a way that made Rose’s heart hurt. The stories the Master had written had been crude parodies, but in Isabelle and Jed they seemed to be taking on a life of their own.
“What’s going on, anyway?” demanded Jed, with an attempt at a dramatic, attention-grabbing pose that was more subdued than before.
For a second Rose hesitated, not sure whether to try the truth or some elaborate lie. They’d fought off one level of hypnosis, but that seemed to have made them more entrenched in their fake identities.
“The Master is the Doctor’s enemy,” she said. “He’s an alien, and he’s powerfully hypnotic. D’you remember...?”
“I remember doing a lot of standing around,” said Isabelle.
“He must be strong indeed, if I am susceptible!” said Jed.
Rose made a vague murmur of agreement.
“What’s he planning?” squeaked Isabelle, clutching Jed’s hand.
“I’m not sure,” said Rose awkwardly. “I think he wants to get back to this parallel universe- he came from a parallel universe, I mean. And he wants to get home.” She racked her brains thinking through the conversation. “He had this key,” she said slowly. Doyle had taken the key and promised to destroy it when he got home, but obviously he hadn’t. The Master had come through by accident and then broken the key for some reason. Or had someone else broken it? He’d avoided telling the Doctor, but there’d been some complication. Obviously now he wanted to fix it. “He needs to fix it so he can get back. The problem is, every time it gets used, it tears holes in the universes.”
“Isn’t one more hole better than him being here?” asked Isabelle with a shudder.
Rose had a brief image of sending the Master back to the other Doctor and shut her eyes. Her own husband had suggested that repeatedly, and she didn’t know what to think. Was that Doctor - the one who’d left her here, promising he’d be all right - really so in need of someone that the Master would do? Was it better to have another Time Lord than none, even if he was insane?
She opened her eyes again, forcing back the tears that threatened. “It might be,” she said. “But we don’t know when one more tear will destroy everything. The last time I saw this key used, the sky got ripped apart. Even fixing the key could destroy us.”
Isabelle and Jed exchanged glances: weary and afraid, but at the same time accepting. This was what their life was like, she remembered. At least, as far as they were concerned it was, anyway. It was almost a relief to not have to try and explain aliens and parallel universes.
“What was he saying about a television program?” asked Jed suddenly.
Rose blinked, as things suddenly started to crash into place. “He’s... airing a show,” she said. “How could I forget?” She shook her head and pinched her nose. Was this part of the hypnosis? Love the show and not notice how strange it was. It had to be, or else Torchwood would have shut down Clocksleepers. She sighed. Just what she needed: her own brain trying to make her forget why the universe was ending.
“Everyone in the world with a TV is watching that show at the same time,” she explained. “They’re watching that right now. And the dimension cannon - my equipment - told us the world is gonna fall apart while the show is playing. He’s gotta be using the energy, right?” She turned to Jed and Isabelle for confirmation. “The show is sort of hypnotic, so everyone’s watching. Maybe it’s just a distraction, but maybe... I don’t know, everyone’s TV being on means he can use their power to fix his key.”
Jed looked a little dubious, but he hadn’t seen the dimension cannon readings. Besides, she’d seen people use TV sets to get power before, all the way back in 1953. If some easily-defeated creature like the Wire could do it with that technology, the Master would have more than that ability. She just hoped nobody was going to end up losing their faces - or worse.
“Look,” she said, “we need to stop this show broadcasting, and we need to try and stop the Master separately, too.”
“Is... is the Doctor in danger?” asked Isabelle quietly, eyes full of sympathy Rose wasn’t sure she could deal with at the moment.
“The Master won’t kill him if he can help it,” said Rose. That much she was certain about. He’d been playing with them for months now: breaking the TARDIS and setting off these bombs and probably kidnapping her mother and Tony too. There was no way he was going to kill the Doctor quickly. Possibly not ever.
Probably, she thought, as a new and nasty thought occurred to her. The Master didn’t seem to know the Doctor was half-human. What if he still expected him to be able to regenerate?
“We’ve got less than half an hour to deal with this!” she snapped, not wanting to think about the possibilities.
“Shhh!” hissed Jed.
Rose froze, then spun around to see a shadow in the frosted glass outside the door. Without stopping to think, she grabbed the nearest chair and shoved it under the door handle right as the figure tried to open it.
“Jed! Keep him out! You’re the strongest!” she ordered. He grabbed the chair and she jumped forward into the room. “Isabelle, help me find a weapon.”
“But we cannot-“
She whirled around to face Jed again, pointing her finger at him. “If you let go of that chair for a single instant to make a dramatic speech about weapons and how terrible they are, I’ll...” she searched around for a threat that wouldn’t make him think she was still evil, “shave off your hair!”
Jed looked horrified.
Point well made, Rose turned back to Isabelle, who had upturned one of the cardboard boxes. She ignored the mutter of “I thought you’d reformed,” from Jed and concentrated instead one what they had.
DVDs. More specifically, Clocksleepers DVDs, still in their packaging.
“This is-“ Isabelle began, staring at the pictures of herself on the cover.
“The Master is using you in his show,” said Rose quickly. “It’s no good, though, we need some sort of...” She trailed off and stared at the computers.
“What are you-?” demanded Isabelle and she jumped forward and began pressing power buttons and checking plugs.
“Get those DVDs out of their cases!”
“Hurry!” yelled Jed. “There’s more than one now!” He was leaning against the door with the full force of his weight, straining against the guards trying to force entry.
Rose grabbed the DVDs that Isabelle handed her and desperately prodded at the DVD drives of the computers that were starting up. Of the old machines, three had started up, but only two were loading properly. She really only needed the one, though...
She bounced up and down on her toes. Just a little bit longer. All they needed was a little bit longer.
“I can’t- I need-“
Isabelle jumped back to help him, but even with her assistance the door burst inwards seconds later. Five of the guards were pushing in.
Rose leaned forward to smash the play button just as someone swiped her from behind, pulling her backwards suddenly. She shouted out in pain and kicked backwards, but against two of them she had no chance. One pushed her down to the floor, his knee in the small of her back, winding her at the sudden force. She struggled in his grasp, kicking, but an added pressure on her legs and... that music.
It was an even, regular drumming beat that made her heart flutter in anticipation. The show! It was on!
She struggled to turn around but needn’t have worried because the hold on her loosened. The others knew she had to watch, then. They knew how important it was. This was a new episode, too. She’d finally get to see how Isabelle and Captain Jed met...
She was suddenly yoinked backwards and out of the room, the door being slammed shut after her.
“But I-“ she started, making to move forward again. The same hands that had pulled her out held her back and she struggled.
“Rose!” Isabelle’s face appeared in front of hers, eyes open wide and worried.
Rose blinked stupidly at her for a moment. Something was... the show... she wanted... she screwed her eyes shut tight.
“It’s hypnotic, like I said,” she said through gritted teeth as her mind began to return to her. She did not want to watch Clocksleepers. She had to save the world. “Weren’t you two affected?”
“It’s about us,” said Isabelle, sounding appalled.
“How does this Master know so much?” demanded Jed.
“Hypnosis?” suggested Rose weakly, opening her eyes again. She didn’t have it in her to think up of any cleverer response.
“But... those names,” said Isabelle. “The names in the credits. Anna Chapley. I know that name. I don’t know from where, but I know it from somewhere. And she’s supposed to be the actress who plays me.” She turned to Jed. “Hugo Denton is supposed to be you. Do you know that name?”
Jed - or should that be Hugo? - hesitated. “It sounds... familiar,” he said.
Before Rose could stop her, Isabelle jumped forward and pushed open the door. Rose caught a brief glance of the five security guards sitting quietly before she forced her eyes to shut and stepped backwards along the wall. She couldn’t hear anything worth listening to. It was just noise. Background noise. Nothing she wanted to see or hear.
They had to stop the show. She focussed her mind on that. It went against everything she wanted but she knew they had to. It was the only way to stop the Master.
She just wished she had time for a bit of TV first.
“That’s us! It’s really us!” hissed Isabelle, as she shut the door again.
Rose opened her eyes but continued to walk down the corridor in the direction they’d come.
“Who is Anna Chapley?” demanded Isabelle. She ran a little to catch up with Rose and tugged the other woman’s arm. “What’s going on?”
Rose sighed and rubbed her forehead. What the hell could she do? Isabelle - Anna - was figuring it all out anyway. Even Jed looked like his brain wasn’t calmly accepting this new information, and he’d found it a lot harder than Isabelle to break the hypnosis so far (Rose guessed because the Master could paint a better picture of the Doctor than he could of Rose).
“Anna Chapley is an actress,” Rose said quietly. “She went to an audition one day and got the part of Isabelle Buchanan. Then, when she was done filming, the Master wiped her mind and made her believe she really was Isabelle.”
“But- I- You- That can’t-“ Isabelle/Anna stepped backwards, face white with fear. “I’m Isabelle,” she said at last.
Jed leaned forward to grab Rose’s arm and push her against the wall, more roughly than she’d expected given who he was based on. This was definitely affecting him too.
“Don’t you dare go saying that to my Isabelle!” he snapped at her, sounding so much like the Doctor’s anger at the Master whenever he’d talked to Rose, that she laughed, unable to stop herself. This entire situation was already such a mess and she still had no idea what to do.
“How can you say that?” demanded Isabelle, through tears, eyes entreating Rose. “Say you’re lying!”
“If I did, would you believe me?”
Jed reached over and took Isabelle in his arms. “You’re just an agent of the Movridons!” he proclaimed. “Isabelle, this is real. Don’t listen to her, she’s trying to trick us.”
Rose felt the sting of jealousy. Right now anything could be happening to the Doctor and here she was, doing nothing. She started off down the corridor again. There wasn’t time to wait. Isabelle and Jed didn’t follow her and a glance over her shoulder revealed they were still clinging to each other. Fine, then. So much for her allies. If she had to do it by herself, then so be it.
Now if she could just work out what she was doing.
~*~
The Master sent for more of his guards. Some he kept surrounding the room, others he ordered to find Rose, Isabelle and Captain Jed.
“Bring them back alive if you can,” he told them simply.
The Doctor felt an odd rush of relief in with the sick worry. ‘Alive if you can’ meant Rose wasn’t so important that the Master wanted to linger over her death. That was better than so many alternatives.
A tiny little part of him was desperately hoping she’d leg it all the way out the building and get to safety, but he wasn’t quite so stupid to believe she’d ever leave him. He wondered if the Master knew that.
The Master was looking at him again now, eyes cold and penetrating. Some of the guards brought back a chair and some restraints, and soon the Doctor was secured in place at his hands, feet, waist and neck. It was only with duct tape, but it was more than enough.
Only then did the Master approach again, sitting on one of the still-standing desks and propping his feet on either side of the Doctor’s legs, spinning the chair a little as he did.
“You,” he began, “brought a bomb.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, “strictly speaking, it was more of a grenade.”
“You don’t use grenades,” said the Master. “I’ve known you long enough to say for sure that if there’s one thing you don’t do, it’s use weapons.” He pointed at the floor, where one of his security guards was still lying unconscious. “You nearly killed him!”
He sounded like he didn’t know whether to be impressed or horrified.
“I didn’t, though,” said the Doctor, trying not to wince at the body. The man was still breathing, that much he could see, but he clearly needed some sort of medical treatment and the Master didn’t seem inclined to give it.
“What, so now it’s OK to blow things up as long as everybody is lucky enough to live?” the Master demanded incredulously. “What has this world been doing to you?”
“Following your example,” said the Doctor.
“Ooh, yes, I was forgetting that lovely bomb of mine!” The Master clapped his hands, then removed a small device from his suit pocket, which he pointed at one of the screens behind him. Suddenly there was a picture on the screen - a security camera feed of Rose inside the warehouse trying to stop the bomb. There was no sound, and the picture quality wasn’t much good, but he could read the desperation and defeat in her pose.
He turned away sharply before anything happened, finding the Master watching him hungrily, eyes filled with glee.
“I could make popcorn if you wanted something with your evening viewing?” he offered mockingly.
“Enough!” snapped the Doctor, wishing for a moment he had another grenade.
Behind the Master, the silent play continued, but the Master wasn’t watching it. He kept his gaze fixed on the Doctor, eagerly watching the horror on the other man’s face.
“And that’s why we don’t play with bombs,” he said in a sing-song voice.
“What now?” asked the Doctor.
“What?”
“What are you planning on doing now? You’re fixing the key, right? In half an hour’s time the universe starts to implode so you can fix the key. What? You’re going to wait it all out in the TARDIS while two universes collapse?”
“Oh, but it’s not going to be two universes,” said the Master, spinning the Doctor’s chair on a full loop with his feet, giving him a quick view of the guards surrounding the room. “This universe, maybe, but who cares about this one? Our home universe is all safe and snug because I happen to know there are some people there who are looking after it. ” He considered. “Maybe I’ll take you back with me.” The Doctor briefly had a vision of his other self discovering he was there without Rose and with the Master. He suspected it would not be the warmest welcome he’d ever received. “We might get bored with only the one Doctor, after all.”
“We? What? And what do you mean about people back there?”
The Master smirked and leaned forward. Clearly this was a story he’d been looking forward to telling. The Doctor did his best to keep his face impassive.
“Have you ever heard of... an immortality gate?”
The Doctor blinked. Clearly this was not the sort of dramatic reaction the Master had hoped for, because he sighed and tutted.
“No sense of storytelling,” he said. “It’s technology some idiot humans salvaged and then were nice enough to ask me to help fix.” He grinned. “Funny how easy it is to reprogram something when nobody around knows what you’re doing.”
“What did you do?” asked the Doctor wearily.
The Master looked affronted. “Are you interested or not?”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
“I replicated my own DNA onto every single human being on Earth.”
There was silence.
“You what?”
The Doctor stared stupidly up at the grinning Master. Of all the- Had he really-? He was not joking.
“So you’re not the Master?”
The Master raised an eyebrow. “Coming from you, I-“
“Not the original, then,” interrupted the Doctor with a roll of his eyes. “There’s a human being somewhere underneath that body.”
The Master wrinkled his nose and then brushed down his sleeves, ridding himself of imaginary lint. “There’s no human left in me,” he said. “Pure Time Lord. All six and a half billion of us.”
Flopping back in his chair, the Doctor stared up at the ceiling. Well, he supposed he no longer had to feel even a smidgen of guilt about wanting this Master to go back to their original universe. When there were six billion for the other him to deal with, an extra one didn’t make a lot of difference.
“Oh, but you haven’t heard the good bit yet!” complained the Master.
“You’re going to have to learn to farm bananas, or else you’ll starve?” suggested the Doctor, too overcome by the situation to even try and take it seriously any more. This universe was going to be torn apart, and the other universe was apparently relying on being saved by six billion of one person who regularly tried to destroy it.
“No,” scoffed the Master. “We’re going to bring back Gallifrey. Ha! That got you sitting up straight!”
That had got him sitting up straight. He gaped at the Master, bottom jaw moving up and down a few times as he tried to form the words his brain was thinking. Impossible. Except with that many Masters, there might just be a way to break the Time Lock...
“You idiot!” he managed at last.
The Master smirked.
“It turns out, Doctor,” he said, “that they planned my drumbeat. They looked on me and saw I was their saviour from you. So now I’m bringing them back!”
“Did you think they’re going to-? That you’ll just-? What are you-?” He broke off, mouth still unable to form the sentences he wanted to get out. He thought of those last days of the war: of Rassilon and the council and their plans. Plans for a victory for Gallifrey at any cost, including the rest of the universe. “Did you not think that when someone like me destroys two entire civilisations that maybe, just maybe, I’ve put a bit of thought into it?”
A momentary disconcerted look crossed the Master’s face, before he scoffed.
“You had no choice - you said it yourself.”
“I had no choice because they - and this is the Time Lords, not the Daleks - were going to destroy the universe in order to save themselves.”
It was the Master’s turn to stare stupidly at him.
“You weren’t there,” snapped the Doctor. “You didn’t see the end of the war because you’d run off. Too afraid of the Daleks! And now what? You’re inviting them back? Them and the Time Lords, who are much worse, by the way.”
“Rassilon would never sacrifice himself,” hissed the Master, leaning forwards. “Neither will the rest of those jumped up cowards. I won’t have any need to. I’ll have saved them. Saved them from you.”
The Doctor just laughed hysterically.
“How long have you been here?” he asked eventually. “One year? Two? More than enough time to create an entire TV series. I tell you one thing: if the other me wasn’t successful in stopping all six billion of you, there’s no universe for you to even go back to.”
For a moment, it looked like the Master was thinking about it, before the light in his eyes suddenly returned. “No matter,” he said. “Once we have the key and the TARDIS, we can go back and check, and if that doesn’t work we can find any universe. You felt how strong the key was. It can be adapted, made to work with the TARDIS. We could go anywhere, you and me.” He grinned. “How about it?”
“You’re mad,” said the Doctor faintly, visions of a universe-hopping life stuck as the Master’s prisoner stretching out before him. At least it would only be the one life. At least Rose wouldn’t have to suffer.
The Master leaned forward and patted the Doctor’s hair. “I’ve always wanted a pet!” he said cheerfully.
“You had one at the academy,” the Doctor pointed out. “You drowned it.” That had been about the time their friendship had started to sour.
He waited with bated breath to see if the brief physical contact was enough. Had the Master felt the warmth of his skin or the single heartbeat? Would he realise now that he wasn’t talking to the Time Lord he thought he was?
Nothing. The Master merely grinned.
And then into the silence came an all-too-familiar groaning of engines. The TARDIS!
Slowly, almost uncertainly, hovering for some moments in a transparent unreality before solidifying, the TARDIS materialised. The blank-faced guard walked out, returning the key to the Master.
“He can fly her?”said the Doctor stupidly.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said the Master. “Humans don’t have the brains. Why do you think she’s been breaking down so often for you?” He waved the small remote he’d earlier used on the TV screens. “I’ve been trying to control her. My friend here just installed the final piece, so at last, I’ve been successful!”
“How did you do that?” demanded the Doctor. Certainly, the TARDIS was young, and perhaps he hadn’t made security his highest priority, but it should be well beyond the ability of any single Time Lord to make her break down quite so effectively without access.
“Oh, that’s a great idea! Why don’t I tell you exactly how I did it to give you a chance to stop me?” The Master rolled his eyes.
Then he pushed the Doctor’s desk chair over towards the doors, now hanging open for all the world to see.
“I didn’t realise she was a new one until you said you were a clone,” he added conversationally. “I thought you were just using the old one. But I suppose the other you got to keep her and you got Miss Rose Tyler and a lump to grow in exchange for being packed off to this universe. Which of you lost the coin toss?” The Doctor kept his face blank. He was the lucky one, but the Master could never appreciate that. “Bit new, I suppose, but it makes her easier to change. Your old one was just like you: all stuffy and awkward.” He reached forward to pat one of the wooden panels. “I’m sure this new one won’t even object to fixing your ridiculous Chameleon Circuit.”
“She’s of the same beginnings,” said the Doctor bitterly, resenting these words about his and Rose’s home.
“Oh, of course,” said the Master, waving a hand. “Where else would you grow one from? But she’s still young and impressionable.” He leered. “Just like how you normally like them. Miss Martha Jones was twenty-four. Dear Rose was twenty-one when she died back home. She never even finished school. It’s so much easier to manipulate the ones who don’t know better, isn’t it?”
If the Master expected him to be fazed by this argument, he was going to be disappointed. The Doctor merely smiled softly, remembering grabbing Rose’s hand in that shop all those years ago and not knowing what to make of her. He suspected she’d known more about life by nineteen than he’d done by a hundred and fifty.
“Mustn’t dawdle, anyway,” said the Master cheerfully. “Things to do.”
Stepping forward, away from the Doctor’s chair, the Master pushed the doors open further and walked inside. From his vantage point just outside the doors, the Doctor could see the Master slowly circle the TARDIS, flicking switches and levers and stroking the table lovingly. The lights inside were bright and the hum of the engines was content. The TARDISes had always lived above Time Lord squabbles and the Master being in there wouldn’t bother her unless he tried to tear her apart. As much as she was the Doctor’s TARDIS, she couldn’t forget his half-human-ness. This hadn’t bothered him overmuch before: the connection had remained quietly in the background. Now, though, he felt a twinge of jealousy and a spike of resentment over the Master’s easy connection with her. He couldn’t have that, not any more.
Standing where he knew he was in full view, the Master reached inside his suit pocket and pulled out a black oblong box of shiny metal. He smoothed the edges with his fingers before carefully opening it. From it, he pulled three objects. From the distance he was sitting, the Doctor couldn’t see them clearly, but he didn’t need to. The strong perception filter and equally strong universe-crossing power both shone through, warring with each other and making the broken key both the least and most noticable object in the room simultaneously.
The last time he’d seen it, it had been in Conan Doyle’s hands in one piece. The sky had been breaking around them at its use. Then... quiet. From Holmes’ time to modern day London, nothing had happened. The key had been trapped in another universe, handed down from generation to generation. Nobody had ever brought themselves to destroy it, but nobody had tried to use it either.
Inside the TARDIS, the Master was at work. The nature of the symbiotic relationship between a Time Lord and a TARDIS meant that an unfamiliar console took scant minutes to get used to. The Doctor was too far to see exactly what the Master was doing, but the easy smoothness with which he moved gave the process an odd elegance. The Master seemed more relaxed and at home than the Doctor had ever thought possible.
In no time at all, he seemed to finish inside. After that, all he did was run a set of cables out to his own computers on the wall behind, then press a few buttons.
“And... done!!” he proclaimed, spinning around and practically skipping back over to the Doctor and the TARDIS. There, he leaned against the side of the TARDIS and checked his watch. “And with oh, hardly more than fifteen minutes to spare,” he said cheerfully.
“So what now?” asked the Doctor bitterly.
“Now we wait,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
Part 3