(no subject)
Title: End of the Line.
Summary: The final battle to bring down Harold Saxon's regime.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Prompt: Execution.
Warnings: Major character death, bad attempts to write action scenes, angst, and rusty writing skills.
Author's Notes: Don't know how well the beginning turned out -- I was pretty nervous. Think I did okay, though, considering the circumstances.
The day is finally here.
She's spent so much time raising an army if only to get the Doctor out. And though most live in fear, some still somehow supporting the Master after what he's done, so many people are willing to fight.
She's traveled the world, from Cardiff to France and so many other places, rallying an army, simply by telling them a story. A story about the Doctor. She's told them of the man who saved their lives so many times over, even though they haven't always seen him. She's told them of this brave, good man -- perhaps the only person who can save them from this hell.
And now she is here. Here with so many people behind her. She can see the Master standing above her on one of the platforms, proud and arrogant and cruel, and she wills herself, internally, not to shake.
"Rose Tyler. How wonderful to see you." There's something almost slimy in the Master's voice -- something that almost sickens her. "The Doctor's told me all about you -- haven't you, Doctor?"
The Doctor crawls out of the dog kennel-like prison that the Master's made for him, and Rose sees his face. Almost emaciated, bruised, haunted -- even now, the only thing that keeps her from weeping openly at the sight of what the Master's done or must have done to this brave, good, kind, wonderful man, is one of the older women in the Resistance, former Prime Minister Harriet Jones (who, though she had not parted with the Doctor on good terms after the Sycorax incident, to say the least, was more than willing to help, if only to save the Earth), turning to look at her. //Stay strong,// the look says, //We will overthrow Saxon. Don't you fear.//
"The people say you've been traveling around the world, looking for a gun that can kill a Time Lord. Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yes. But it wasn't a gun."
A pause.
Then the Master laughs.
"That's it? I heard in times of old you could absorb the Time Vortex itself, Rose Tyler. Is this the best you can do?"
"I told them about the Doctor. Because," Rose says, voice near-cracking as she remembers what the Doctor had said once, "no government should be built on the back of fear. And what you have done to the people is inexcusable. If you stand down and call off the Toclafane, perhaps we can resolve this peacefully."
A pause.
"And surrender to someone such as you? Never."
//Should have expected that.// The Master, after all, is highly arrogant -- and that will be his downfall.
"Rose, go! Destroy the Paradox Machine! I'll hold him off!"
"I'm not leaving without you." She vowed never to let the Doctor down. She can't abandon him like this.
"Remember, Rose -- you need to stop the Paradox machine. That's what's most important."
"I know, Doctor."
Rose takes a deep breath, steadying herself, before running towards the direction of the TARDIS with Jack and the others. She promised long ago not to let the Doctor down. And she's going to keep that promise.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a flash of light, and both the Doctor and Master, now grappling, are gone.
***
It's here that the Doctor realizes that they're no longer on the VALIANT. Instead, they're in the middle of what looks like nowhere. Or at the very least, he would say it was if he hadn't known better. It's not nowhere -- it's a ravaged landscape. One of the many things that the Master conquered -- and bloody hell, the Master even had the gall to erect a statue of himself there. Or have someone else do it. Either option is something the Doctor loathes.
"Why did you bring us here?"
"Simple, Doctor. See this?" The Master holds up an explosive device. "Seismic charges beneath the Earth. One press of the button and the Earth will be gone. Because if I can't have this planet, Doctor -- "
" -- no one can. Yes, I know." Even now, the Doctor can only pray that Rose and the others are doing their best to reverse the paradox machine. He has to convince the Master. Even though something in his head is telling him that it's not going to work, that the Master is completely insane, that the Master's rejected him before...he has to try. "But what for? What's the point?" His voice cracks even as he speaks. "Isn't there another way? Outside the killing, outside the conquering, outside just about everything else? Isn't there something outside that life?"
For a moment, something in the Master's face falters, and the Doctor sees the boy the Master used to be. Koschei. His dearest friend, his other half, a genuinely good man. For a moment, he remembers Professor Yana, and Chantho, vulnerable, gentle, brave Chantho -- and everything the Master could be.
//You could be so beautiful...// It's such an odd thought, or at least such an odd choice of wording -- not perfect, not brilliant, not even fantastic, but beautiful -- but true. He can still see the paradise they built for themselves on Gallifrey, back in their glory days. Watching meteor storms, counting stars and trying to pick out constellations, running through fields of red grass shouting to the sky, playing soldiers vs. Sontarans, studying, sabotaging one another's homework...
The Doctor hates him. At the very least, he hates the man who stands before him, and hates himself further -- he created this man long ago. The Master is his magnum opus -- true, the Master may have broken some things on his own, but the Doctor knows, more than anything that what he did was worse.
Because he helped.
And yet he can't hate Koschei. The boy the Master used to be. He wants to shut down any idea of the Master having any good in him to begin with -- after what he did to the Joneses and Tylers and Lucy and Jack -- but he can't. For one thing, what kind of Doctor would he be if he did that? And for another, there's too much history between them for the Doctor to throw away.
The flicker of vulnerability in the Master's eyes, however, is gone as quickly as it comes. "Honestly, Doctor -- you're going to pull that card? The 'I Know You're In There Somewhere' card? Are you honestly that dense?"
"No. Not because of that. Not at all."
"Then why?"
There are so many reasons -- because he's tired of fighting, because he can't sink to the Master's level, because it's better to be dense than a murderer -- but in the end, he says, "Because there's still hope for you -- if you can only see. And besides, what use is there in blowing up the Earth? You'll just get yourself caught in the blast, and that's the last thing you want, isn't it?"
"I don't care."
"Actually, I think you do. You can't bring yourself to press that button because if you do, you'll also die -- and that's the last thing you want."
//And because I'm here too,// he realizes. There's another flicker in the Master's eyes, and the Doctor realizes something else -- a weakness the Master has usually used in his favor, but is now failing him.
//You still love me.//
Because the Master no doubt also remembers Gallifrey and the history between them. Granted, the Master hasn't had any qualms about killing the Doctor, or at the very least, he's pretended he's never had any qualms -- Logopolis, for example -- but in this moment, it's starting to slip, if ever so subtly.
//You love me. And it's killing you.//
***
It's back on board the VALIANT. Reuniting with Martha, Rose, Jack and the others. Even now, Lucy looks over at the Doctor and he cannot help but smile, if slightly. They've done it. The Paradox machine has been destroyed -- granted, the TARDIS is going to need to recover for quite some time regarding what the Master did to her in the name of conquering Earth, but even so...
Even now, as Jack places the Master in handcuffs, the Doctor has a feeling he should be happy, and yet somehow -- somehow he's not. Though they have technically righted time and saved the world, though Rose and the others saved the world by sheer resourcefulness and loyalty and courage --
He isn't sad about that. If anything, they were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And he doubts he could be prouder of them.
But at the same time...
He doesn't know where to go from here. Putting the Master on trial for war crimes, perhaps? It sounds logical enough, at least. Take the Master into the TARDIS?
It's almost absurd, really -- if anything, the Master would never agree. And yet at the same time...
"So now what do we do?" The way Jack looks at him says volumes. //Your call, Doc. What do we do?//
The Doctor feels almost as if he's poised on the edge of a knife. Over by the side, he can see Lucy, standing still as if debating something in her mind, Rose, comforting her mother, who quite clearly is overjoyed to see her, if also a bit angry -- more than angry, really. If anything, if there's anything that the Doctor's learned about Jackie Tyler, it's that she deeply cares about her daughter. It's a trait the Doctor has admired in the past -- and in a way, still does.
Martha's also standing off to the side, comforting her mother. Even looking around, the Doctor cannot help but feel old anger towards the Master bubble up once more. //How could he -- how dare he -- ?//
He can't hate the Master -- or at least Koschei. But it doesn't mean he forgives the Master either.
"You're my responsibility from now on."
The Master laughs; it's almost a bark of laughter. "What?"
"It's the least I can do. I've caused too much suffering for a lifetime. Perhaps I can do some good for once."
Another laugh. "I should have expected that from you, Doctor. Always the self-righteous one. Frightened of who you are, of what you are."
"Doc," Jack says, "What he's done -- "
"I know what he did!" It comes out as a shout, an almost anguished scream, a scream that scares himself. He sighs, struggles to collect himself, before speaking again. "I know what he did," he says, slower now, calmer. "But I'm not killing him. It's what he wants."
There's a sound of a gunshot.
The Master falls. The Doctor catches him. From across the room, he can see Lucy Saxon, holding the gun, a look of such suppressed, almost tranquil fury in her eyes, that for a moment, something in the Doctor's heart breaks.
The Master doesn't seem to care. "Always the women," he mutters, almost as if it's more of an inconvenience than anything else. An annoyance.
"Don't talk like that."
The Master, again, doesn't seem to care. If anything, he seems to be drifting into a state of what seems like complacency. "Dying in your arms. Imagine that. Happy, Doctor?"
"Just stay with me." In spite of himself, the Doctor's voice cracks -- he's lost too many people he cares about. Adric. Susan. Romana. Too many to count, really. And the Time War...the Doctor is surfeited of destruction, of death, of darkness, this seemingly never ending thread of misfortune. "It's only a bullet. Just regenerate."
"And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you? Never."
Something in the Doctor snaps, but even now, he barely notices, as he's all but ordering the Master to stay. To not simply give up.
"You never give up. Please. Stay."
For one last time, he sees something in the Master's eyes that reminds him of Koschei. Vulnerable, scared, kind, self-described "nobody" Koschei. "Would it stop, then? The noise in my head?"
"I don't know."
Even the promise of being able to stop the drums isn't enough to save the Master as he goes still in the Doctor's arms. There is something in his face that the Doctor can't quite make out. It seems to be a combination of odd joy, as if he had died with everything he'd ever wanted, and fear -- fear of the drums, fear of Death herself. The last thoughts of the monster the Doctor had created, reflected with such macabre intensity on his face. In his eyes.
The Doctor, meanwhile, is tired. Worse than tired. Something in him breaks, like a trigger being pulled, and he finds himself weeping. Weeping for Koschei, weeping for Jack, weeping for Martha and Lucy and Rose, weeping for the Joneses, the Tylers, the dead past and present -- weeping for all of them.
***
It's later that he burns the Master's body. Back on Earth, an Earth that wasn't ravaged by the Master's -- Harold Saxon's -- rule, he burns it. He says a few old prayers over it, Earth prayers -- speaks his old love for Koschei, a man who was once like his brother, to the sky -- speaks his memories to the sky, in a way. It shouldn't have had to end like this. Rose was fantastic, they were all fantastic, but there should have been another way.
Then, after a while, he stands and walks away with Rose and the others, letting the Master's pyre burn into the night. He lets the body of the man he once cared for burn, lets what was once their friendship burn on the pyre with the Master, knowing it will live forever.