Doctor Who fic: The Other Side of the World (30/31)
Title: The Other Side of the World (30/31)
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas: joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.
Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven. Chapter Twenty-Eight. Chapter Twenty-Nine.
If someone had asked Rose where home was, she knew the answer wasn’t London anymore. Her home was currently being rebuilt by Jack with some reluctant help from the Master. Cardiff was just a layover, a place to regroup.
She breathed in the cool night air, her head too full of thoughts for her to sleep. A few people wandered through the Plass, on their way home from a night at the clubs or making their way to another for more drinks. It was the kind of life Rose had shrugged off long ago. She had tried to return to it after the Doctor’s departure, but a part of her hadn’t been able to let go of life as a time traveller. Even now, after all she had been through, she could barely entertain the thought of leaving that world behind.
“You couldn’t sleep either?” Emerging from the darkness, Donna sat down next to her on the steps that ran around the Plass.
Rose hadn’t been expecting company at this hour, but she didn’t mind the intrusion into her solitude. “I thought this would be better than tossing and turning all night. What about you?”
“I was on the phone with my mother. It’s like I’m sixteen again and she has to know where I am at all times.”
Having met Donna’s mother at the reception for Donna’s non-wedding, Rose didn’t have a hard time picturing the conversation. “I didn’t get a chance to ask. After Christmas, how were things?”
Donna sighed. “It was mad. I couldn’t tell anyone what really happened, not even Lance’s family. I went to visit you, y’know, a few days after you disappeared.”
While Donna had mentioned she had run into Sarah Jane by chance, she hadn’t revealed the circumstances. Clearly life hadn’t been easy for Donna since Christmas. “When you came to find me, you wanted to talk, didn’t you?”
“It doesn’t drive you insane, knowing what you know? Aliens and killer robots and police boxes as time machines. What’s normal after that?” The frustration in Donna’s voice highlighted how badly she needed to talk to someone.
“The truth?” Rose gave herself a moment to think and the answer she came up with wasn’t exactly encouraging. “Nothing. You just find a new normal.”
“Like sitting in a plaza in Wales in the middle of the night.”
Rose had to admit she walked right into that one. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping ever since…” She stopped herself before she could continue and the memories could come flooding back.
“Since what?” prompted Donna. When Rose didn’t answer, she added, “You called us here to help. We can’t do that if you keep holding back.”
The last thing Rose wanted was to paint a picture of the horrors the Master had done, especially to someone who hadn’t been there. Donna was already struggling, trying to piece together a life that made sense. Rose didn’t want to confuse her further, but she needed to talk to someone and Donna’s willingness made it easier. “The things I’ve seen Donna, the things he made me watch…”
Donna wrapped her hand around Rose’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “So let UNIT handle him. The Master isn’t your responsibility.”
“You heard Sarah Jane. He’ll find a way to escape. A cage isn’t the answer.”
“You can’t just let him go.”
“No, we can’t.” Donna was right that the Master wasn’t her responsibility, but with the Time Lords gone, someone had to take care of the problem. Rose got to her feet. “So we’ll offer him another option.”
The holding cells in the lower levels of Torchwood looked dank and mouldy to the passing eye, but it was more a reflection of the many years the institute had been battling the creatures that came through the Rift rather than a state of decay. Not that the aliens the team captured cared about their housing.
“Let me know if you see anyone coming,” Rose whispered to Donna.
The woman took up a position in the doorway, but she grabbed Rose’s arm before she could move away. “What if someone comes down here? Jack or one of the others?”
The Hub had been empty when they arrived, but the likelihood of someone returning to check on the Master seemed possible. “Just… stall them. You’ll think of something.” Donna appeared less than impressed, but she let go of Rose’s arm.
The Master’s cell was at the far end of the corridor. With each step that brought her closer, Rose felt her heartbeat increase. Her palms began to sweat and she absently wiped her hands on her jeans. She hoped she appeared composed as she came upon the right chamber.
Still dressed in the same black suit, the Master watched Rose from the rear of his prison. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, his bandaged right hand resting on his knee. There wasn’t much light in the cell, but she could feel his piercing gaze bore into her. She came up right to the panel of glass that separated them and stared right back, like he was an animal on display at the zoo.
“Aw, how touching. You came to visit.”
Not for the first time, Rose had to wonder how someone like the Master could come out of a society like the Doctor’s. She had understood the Time Lords to be benevolent and scholarly, not tyrannical and conceited. To be fair though, she knew very little about the Doctor’s people and the Master could have been the norm.
Last of the Time Lords and it had to be him.
He shouldn’t have been her problem. Rose would have gladly handed the Master over to UNIT or the ever mysterious Shadow Proclamation, but then she would have been ignoring the trouble at hand. Rose placed her hand on the glass. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life in this cell?”
“I just love the smell of mould and the sound of howling Weevil. Why would I want to leave?” He grinned at her, that malicious smile blazing from the darkness.
The alien in the cell next to the Master’s, presumably the Weevil, bared its fangs at Rose, as if it were joining the conversation, if what she and the Master were having could be called a conversation. She leaned right into the glass, so close that her breath left behind a mist on the surface. “I know you’d get out eventually, but then what? You’d be stuck on this planet in one time period. How long would you last when the whole world knows your face and knows you’re a murderer?”
The Master’s grin diminished by a fraction. “Are you threatening me, Rose?” She tried not to shudder as he spoke her name.
“I’m offering you freedom.”
With a predator’s grace, he rose to his feet and walked into the light cast at the front of his cell. Rose took one step back before she caught herself. The way he looked at her, she felt exposed, like he could see into the depths of her soul. “What’s the catch?”
It didn’t surprise her that the Master could see right through her, but Rose wasn’t about to let him have that moment of triumph. “I finally get you, after all this time.”
“Really?” The Master rested his arm on the glass, conjuring a look of rapt attention but within the depths of his eyes he was utterly bored. “Enlighten me.”
It was her turn to be bold. “If I let you go, you have to do something for me.”
“I’d rather rot in this cell than help you.”
“Even if it meant getting the Doctor back?”
At the mention of the Doctor, the Master’s right hand twitched and he winched. “You’re trying to tempt me with that? The universe without the Doctor is a perfect world as far as I’m concerned.”
“You had a perfect world and you were bored with it. You only kept me around because it amused you, remember?” Rose looked the Master right in the eye. “Every time you and the Doctor fought you always lost, and I think you did it on purpose. You liked the challenge. Don’t you want to feel that again?
“I let you go and you find a way to reach the Doctor in the parallel universe.”
If her offer intrigued the Master, it didn’t show. “But what’s the catch? Finding the Doctor is a condition of my ‘parole’. If you know me so well, how are you going to make sure I do what you want?”
Rose took a deep breath. And then she told him.
Martha ran across the Plass, her feet pounding against the pavement like a frantic drumbeat. Beside her, Sarah Jane kept pace, moving surprisingly fast for a woman of her age. In the week since she had returned to her normal life, Martha had slowly fallen into her familiar habits, but when Jack had phoned only minutes before, rousing her from a deep slumber, she had been on her feet instantly. Her life on the road would always stay with her, no matter how far she buried herself in routine. Her and Sarah Jane’s mad dash only seemed to prove that once you spent time in the TARDIS, you never forgot how to move like your life depended on it.
In her haste to leave the hotel she had found only Sarah Jane and she hoped Rose and Donna were simply out, enjoying tea and catching up at a late night café. Rose should have been there with them, but a part of Martha was glad she wasn’t. They could look after the Master for the time being. Her friend deserved more nights drinking tea and chatting with mates rather than trying to keep track of a murderous Time Lord.
Martha and Sarah Jane hurried into the tourist centre, pausing only long enough to activate the switch that slid aside the false wall. The awe from yesterday afternoon was gone now, replaced by a deep urgency. It was still beyond Martha how the Master could have escaped his cell, but Jack had been clear: the cell was empty and the Master nowhere to be found.
The lighting was low in the Hub when they entered the room. If Jack had called the others, they weren’t there yet. Their proximity to the Plass had allowed them to arrive first. Martha wandered over to the computer they had used to watch the Master, wanting to see the truth with her own eyes, but instead of seeing footage of the holding area she saw an image of a store room where the TARDIS was parked.
A store room with the TARDIS and three very agitated people.
“No,” Martha whispered to herself in disbelief. She ran over to Sarah Jane and grabbed the woman by the arm. “They’re in the lower levels.”
As abrupt as she was, Sarah Jane didn’t question Martha and they took off down the set of stairs that led further underground. Jack had given them a tour of the Hub yesterday, so Martha had a vague idea of where they needed to go, but it wasn’t until she heard the shouting that she knew they were in the right place.
Everything being said was incomprehensible as heated words overlapped. Jack pointed his gun at the Master and he seemed to be demanding that the Time Lord step away from the TARDIS. The Master appeared indifferent that he had a gun pointed at him for the second time in as many days and his casual nature only served to rile the captain further. Rose stood between the two men, doing her best to break up the encounter, but neither listened to her.
The Master was the first to notice them and he rolled his eyes. “Great, the gang’s all here,” he said, loud enough that Martha heard him. The arguing instantly came to a halt but Jack kept his gun levelled at the Master. Sarah Jane touched him on the arm and shot him a stern look. He reluctantly lowered his weapon but didn’t holster it.
“Did we miss something?” asked Martha. She tried to sound like she was joking but she couldn’t quite capture a jovial tone. The last thing she expected was to find Rose down in the Hub.
“Only the Master trying to kidnap Rose in the TARDIS,” said Jack. He looked ready to throttle the Time Lord.
“Is that what this looks like?” The Master laughed. “Who do you think let me out of that ridiculous holding cell?”
“You hypnotized her,” Sarah Jane said with certainty.
As likely as that sounded, a nagging feeling told Martha otherwise. She looked to Rose but her friend refused to meet her gaze. Unless the Master had the foresight to plant a suggestion in her mind in case he was captured, Rose had come down to the Hub under her own free will.
“No, I let him out.” Though the words came from Rose herself, it was still hard to hear.
“Rose…” Jack took a step forward, his hand reached out to her, like if he could get her away from the Master she would regain her senses.
Rose shook her head. She put her hand to Jack’s chest to stop him from coming any closer. She stared up at him for a second longer before looking to the rest of the room. Judging from the weary determination that weighed down her features, Martha knew Rose wasn’t making this decision lightly. “This is the only way. If he stays here, he’ll just conquer Earth again.”
Behind Rose, the Master smirked, acknowledging the truth of her statement.
“He may agree to leave Earth alone,” said Sarah Jane, “but there are millions of inhabited worlds out there.” Her conviction gave a slight tremble to her voice.
“He won’t harm any of them.”
“How can you know that?” asked Jack.
Rose sighed softly. Her gaze drifted past Martha to the door. “Because we’ll make sure.” Martha turned, the clacking of suitcase wheels announcing Donna’s entry into the store room. She didn’t know how long Donna had been standing there, listening to the conversation. The woman walked casually past the three of them to join Rose and the Master at the TARDIS.
The Master frowned. “We didn’t agree upon this.”
“Well tough,” said Donna. “You can’t always have everything your way.” For the first time, the Master looked displeased with his arrangement. He tried to escape into the TARDIS but the doors didn’t budge. He gave the time machine a good thump before he slumped back against the doors, his arms crossed over his chest.
The unintentionally comedic moment broke some of the tension in the room and the inevitability of Rose’s plan began to sink in. They could talk all they wanted but Martha doubted they would be able to sway Rose and Donna.
“Here.” Jack holstered his gun and he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a key ring weighed down with multiple keys, but he only chose one among the bunch. Slipping it off the ring, he handed it to Donna. “Something tells me you’re going to need this.”
“Key to the TARDIS? Are you sure we’re not rushing things?” Jack chuckled weakly as Donna pocketed the key.
“Are you sure about this, Donna?” asked Sarah Jane.
“You’ve all been out there. Now it’s mine turn. It’s time I did something more with my life.” It seemed Sarah Jane couldn’t argue with this. The two women hugged and Martha saw a flash of the friendship they had shared in the other timeline.
Martha turned to leave the room. She needed some space to think and being underground was, by default, claustrophobic. She glimpsed Rose talking to Jack before she walked out into the hallway. She only had a few moments to herself before Rose found her contemplating a decade’s old stain on the concrete floor.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” echoed Martha.
“You didn’t say much back there.” Rose leaned against the wall across from Martha, the width of the hallway separating them but the gap felt much bigger.
Finding the right words for any situation was an essential skill for a doctor, but for the first time, Martha wasn’t sure how to express herself. “Why didn’t you say anything?” The question sounded petty to her own ears, but it was the foremost thought on her mind. In all that time they spent travelling in the TARDIS together, they rarely kept anything from each other.
“Because I knew you’d talk me out of it. Or you would want to come along.” Martha began to protest, but Rose interrupted her. “You have too much for you here, Martha. You shouldn’t have to give that up, not after what you’ve been through.”
The sight of her family being executed by the Master still haunted her dreams. Her nightmare hadn’t happened as far as the universe was concerned, but that didn’t mean she could forgive the Master for everything he had done. Having him roam free with Rose in the TARDIS sounded like a reward, not a punishment. “What about what you’ve been through?”
Rose got a distant look in her eye, but her expression was unreadable. “It’ll be fine,” she insisted.
She didn’t believe for one second that it was the truth, but this was Rose Tyler. The young woman could be selfish but she always had the best of intentions. Crossing the space between them, Martha pulled Rose into a hug. They embraced each other tightly, knowing that in a few moments, their paths were going to diverge once more. “Thank you, for everything. Everything we saw and did, it was worth it.”
With a heavy reluctance, Martha let go of Rose and they walked back into the store room. Donna unlocked the TARDIS doors and nudged the Master inside with the edge of her suitcase. He snapped at her but she barely seemed to care. Donna paused on the threshold to speak with Sarah Jane.
“I left a message on my mother’s phone, saying I was hired on a temp job last minute. Do me a favour and send her a postcard from, I don’t know, Paris or something.”
“I’ll have Mr. Smith set something up.”
While Donna looked on from the TARDIS, Rose exchanged a lengthy hug with Sarah Jane before moving onto Jack. She kissed him briefly on the lips, but she didn’t linger, and she missed the look of longing on Jack’s face. Martha came up beside him as the three of them watched Rose enter the time machine with Donna.
“Look after the planet while I’m gone,” she said just before closing the doors. To Martha, she added, “And try not to chase after unfamiliar aliens.”
“Get back to Earth when you can,” said Martha. Oddly, Rose said nothing back and she closed the doors.
Various emotions raged within Martha - sadness, anger, hope - as the time machine faded away, leaving Earth for parts unknown. Jack’s hand found hers and they linked fingers, trying to lend each other strength.
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas: joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.
Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven. Chapter Twenty-Eight. Chapter Twenty-Nine.
If someone had asked Rose where home was, she knew the answer wasn’t London anymore. Her home was currently being rebuilt by Jack with some reluctant help from the Master. Cardiff was just a layover, a place to regroup.
She breathed in the cool night air, her head too full of thoughts for her to sleep. A few people wandered through the Plass, on their way home from a night at the clubs or making their way to another for more drinks. It was the kind of life Rose had shrugged off long ago. She had tried to return to it after the Doctor’s departure, but a part of her hadn’t been able to let go of life as a time traveller. Even now, after all she had been through, she could barely entertain the thought of leaving that world behind.
“You couldn’t sleep either?” Emerging from the darkness, Donna sat down next to her on the steps that ran around the Plass.
Rose hadn’t been expecting company at this hour, but she didn’t mind the intrusion into her solitude. “I thought this would be better than tossing and turning all night. What about you?”
“I was on the phone with my mother. It’s like I’m sixteen again and she has to know where I am at all times.”
Having met Donna’s mother at the reception for Donna’s non-wedding, Rose didn’t have a hard time picturing the conversation. “I didn’t get a chance to ask. After Christmas, how were things?”
Donna sighed. “It was mad. I couldn’t tell anyone what really happened, not even Lance’s family. I went to visit you, y’know, a few days after you disappeared.”
While Donna had mentioned she had run into Sarah Jane by chance, she hadn’t revealed the circumstances. Clearly life hadn’t been easy for Donna since Christmas. “When you came to find me, you wanted to talk, didn’t you?”
“It doesn’t drive you insane, knowing what you know? Aliens and killer robots and police boxes as time machines. What’s normal after that?” The frustration in Donna’s voice highlighted how badly she needed to talk to someone.
“The truth?” Rose gave herself a moment to think and the answer she came up with wasn’t exactly encouraging. “Nothing. You just find a new normal.”
“Like sitting in a plaza in Wales in the middle of the night.”
Rose had to admit she walked right into that one. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping ever since…” She stopped herself before she could continue and the memories could come flooding back.
“Since what?” prompted Donna. When Rose didn’t answer, she added, “You called us here to help. We can’t do that if you keep holding back.”
The last thing Rose wanted was to paint a picture of the horrors the Master had done, especially to someone who hadn’t been there. Donna was already struggling, trying to piece together a life that made sense. Rose didn’t want to confuse her further, but she needed to talk to someone and Donna’s willingness made it easier. “The things I’ve seen Donna, the things he made me watch…”
Donna wrapped her hand around Rose’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “So let UNIT handle him. The Master isn’t your responsibility.”
“You heard Sarah Jane. He’ll find a way to escape. A cage isn’t the answer.”
“You can’t just let him go.”
“No, we can’t.” Donna was right that the Master wasn’t her responsibility, but with the Time Lords gone, someone had to take care of the problem. Rose got to her feet. “So we’ll offer him another option.”
The holding cells in the lower levels of Torchwood looked dank and mouldy to the passing eye, but it was more a reflection of the many years the institute had been battling the creatures that came through the Rift rather than a state of decay. Not that the aliens the team captured cared about their housing.
“Let me know if you see anyone coming,” Rose whispered to Donna.
The woman took up a position in the doorway, but she grabbed Rose’s arm before she could move away. “What if someone comes down here? Jack or one of the others?”
The Hub had been empty when they arrived, but the likelihood of someone returning to check on the Master seemed possible. “Just… stall them. You’ll think of something.” Donna appeared less than impressed, but she let go of Rose’s arm.
The Master’s cell was at the far end of the corridor. With each step that brought her closer, Rose felt her heartbeat increase. Her palms began to sweat and she absently wiped her hands on her jeans. She hoped she appeared composed as she came upon the right chamber.
Still dressed in the same black suit, the Master watched Rose from the rear of his prison. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, his bandaged right hand resting on his knee. There wasn’t much light in the cell, but she could feel his piercing gaze bore into her. She came up right to the panel of glass that separated them and stared right back, like he was an animal on display at the zoo.
“Aw, how touching. You came to visit.”
Not for the first time, Rose had to wonder how someone like the Master could come out of a society like the Doctor’s. She had understood the Time Lords to be benevolent and scholarly, not tyrannical and conceited. To be fair though, she knew very little about the Doctor’s people and the Master could have been the norm.
Last of the Time Lords and it had to be him.
He shouldn’t have been her problem. Rose would have gladly handed the Master over to UNIT or the ever mysterious Shadow Proclamation, but then she would have been ignoring the trouble at hand. Rose placed her hand on the glass. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life in this cell?”
“I just love the smell of mould and the sound of howling Weevil. Why would I want to leave?” He grinned at her, that malicious smile blazing from the darkness.
The alien in the cell next to the Master’s, presumably the Weevil, bared its fangs at Rose, as if it were joining the conversation, if what she and the Master were having could be called a conversation. She leaned right into the glass, so close that her breath left behind a mist on the surface. “I know you’d get out eventually, but then what? You’d be stuck on this planet in one time period. How long would you last when the whole world knows your face and knows you’re a murderer?”
The Master’s grin diminished by a fraction. “Are you threatening me, Rose?” She tried not to shudder as he spoke her name.
“I’m offering you freedom.”
With a predator’s grace, he rose to his feet and walked into the light cast at the front of his cell. Rose took one step back before she caught herself. The way he looked at her, she felt exposed, like he could see into the depths of her soul. “What’s the catch?”
It didn’t surprise her that the Master could see right through her, but Rose wasn’t about to let him have that moment of triumph. “I finally get you, after all this time.”
“Really?” The Master rested his arm on the glass, conjuring a look of rapt attention but within the depths of his eyes he was utterly bored. “Enlighten me.”
It was her turn to be bold. “If I let you go, you have to do something for me.”
“I’d rather rot in this cell than help you.”
“Even if it meant getting the Doctor back?”
At the mention of the Doctor, the Master’s right hand twitched and he winched. “You’re trying to tempt me with that? The universe without the Doctor is a perfect world as far as I’m concerned.”
“You had a perfect world and you were bored with it. You only kept me around because it amused you, remember?” Rose looked the Master right in the eye. “Every time you and the Doctor fought you always lost, and I think you did it on purpose. You liked the challenge. Don’t you want to feel that again?
“I let you go and you find a way to reach the Doctor in the parallel universe.”
If her offer intrigued the Master, it didn’t show. “But what’s the catch? Finding the Doctor is a condition of my ‘parole’. If you know me so well, how are you going to make sure I do what you want?”
Rose took a deep breath. And then she told him.
Martha ran across the Plass, her feet pounding against the pavement like a frantic drumbeat. Beside her, Sarah Jane kept pace, moving surprisingly fast for a woman of her age. In the week since she had returned to her normal life, Martha had slowly fallen into her familiar habits, but when Jack had phoned only minutes before, rousing her from a deep slumber, she had been on her feet instantly. Her life on the road would always stay with her, no matter how far she buried herself in routine. Her and Sarah Jane’s mad dash only seemed to prove that once you spent time in the TARDIS, you never forgot how to move like your life depended on it.
In her haste to leave the hotel she had found only Sarah Jane and she hoped Rose and Donna were simply out, enjoying tea and catching up at a late night café. Rose should have been there with them, but a part of Martha was glad she wasn’t. They could look after the Master for the time being. Her friend deserved more nights drinking tea and chatting with mates rather than trying to keep track of a murderous Time Lord.
Martha and Sarah Jane hurried into the tourist centre, pausing only long enough to activate the switch that slid aside the false wall. The awe from yesterday afternoon was gone now, replaced by a deep urgency. It was still beyond Martha how the Master could have escaped his cell, but Jack had been clear: the cell was empty and the Master nowhere to be found.
The lighting was low in the Hub when they entered the room. If Jack had called the others, they weren’t there yet. Their proximity to the Plass had allowed them to arrive first. Martha wandered over to the computer they had used to watch the Master, wanting to see the truth with her own eyes, but instead of seeing footage of the holding area she saw an image of a store room where the TARDIS was parked.
A store room with the TARDIS and three very agitated people.
“No,” Martha whispered to herself in disbelief. She ran over to Sarah Jane and grabbed the woman by the arm. “They’re in the lower levels.”
As abrupt as she was, Sarah Jane didn’t question Martha and they took off down the set of stairs that led further underground. Jack had given them a tour of the Hub yesterday, so Martha had a vague idea of where they needed to go, but it wasn’t until she heard the shouting that she knew they were in the right place.
Everything being said was incomprehensible as heated words overlapped. Jack pointed his gun at the Master and he seemed to be demanding that the Time Lord step away from the TARDIS. The Master appeared indifferent that he had a gun pointed at him for the second time in as many days and his casual nature only served to rile the captain further. Rose stood between the two men, doing her best to break up the encounter, but neither listened to her.
The Master was the first to notice them and he rolled his eyes. “Great, the gang’s all here,” he said, loud enough that Martha heard him. The arguing instantly came to a halt but Jack kept his gun levelled at the Master. Sarah Jane touched him on the arm and shot him a stern look. He reluctantly lowered his weapon but didn’t holster it.
“Did we miss something?” asked Martha. She tried to sound like she was joking but she couldn’t quite capture a jovial tone. The last thing she expected was to find Rose down in the Hub.
“Only the Master trying to kidnap Rose in the TARDIS,” said Jack. He looked ready to throttle the Time Lord.
“Is that what this looks like?” The Master laughed. “Who do you think let me out of that ridiculous holding cell?”
“You hypnotized her,” Sarah Jane said with certainty.
As likely as that sounded, a nagging feeling told Martha otherwise. She looked to Rose but her friend refused to meet her gaze. Unless the Master had the foresight to plant a suggestion in her mind in case he was captured, Rose had come down to the Hub under her own free will.
“No, I let him out.” Though the words came from Rose herself, it was still hard to hear.
“Rose…” Jack took a step forward, his hand reached out to her, like if he could get her away from the Master she would regain her senses.
Rose shook her head. She put her hand to Jack’s chest to stop him from coming any closer. She stared up at him for a second longer before looking to the rest of the room. Judging from the weary determination that weighed down her features, Martha knew Rose wasn’t making this decision lightly. “This is the only way. If he stays here, he’ll just conquer Earth again.”
Behind Rose, the Master smirked, acknowledging the truth of her statement.
“He may agree to leave Earth alone,” said Sarah Jane, “but there are millions of inhabited worlds out there.” Her conviction gave a slight tremble to her voice.
“He won’t harm any of them.”
“How can you know that?” asked Jack.
Rose sighed softly. Her gaze drifted past Martha to the door. “Because we’ll make sure.” Martha turned, the clacking of suitcase wheels announcing Donna’s entry into the store room. She didn’t know how long Donna had been standing there, listening to the conversation. The woman walked casually past the three of them to join Rose and the Master at the TARDIS.
The Master frowned. “We didn’t agree upon this.”
“Well tough,” said Donna. “You can’t always have everything your way.” For the first time, the Master looked displeased with his arrangement. He tried to escape into the TARDIS but the doors didn’t budge. He gave the time machine a good thump before he slumped back against the doors, his arms crossed over his chest.
The unintentionally comedic moment broke some of the tension in the room and the inevitability of Rose’s plan began to sink in. They could talk all they wanted but Martha doubted they would be able to sway Rose and Donna.
“Here.” Jack holstered his gun and he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a key ring weighed down with multiple keys, but he only chose one among the bunch. Slipping it off the ring, he handed it to Donna. “Something tells me you’re going to need this.”
“Key to the TARDIS? Are you sure we’re not rushing things?” Jack chuckled weakly as Donna pocketed the key.
“Are you sure about this, Donna?” asked Sarah Jane.
“You’ve all been out there. Now it’s mine turn. It’s time I did something more with my life.” It seemed Sarah Jane couldn’t argue with this. The two women hugged and Martha saw a flash of the friendship they had shared in the other timeline.
Martha turned to leave the room. She needed some space to think and being underground was, by default, claustrophobic. She glimpsed Rose talking to Jack before she walked out into the hallway. She only had a few moments to herself before Rose found her contemplating a decade’s old stain on the concrete floor.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” echoed Martha.
“You didn’t say much back there.” Rose leaned against the wall across from Martha, the width of the hallway separating them but the gap felt much bigger.
Finding the right words for any situation was an essential skill for a doctor, but for the first time, Martha wasn’t sure how to express herself. “Why didn’t you say anything?” The question sounded petty to her own ears, but it was the foremost thought on her mind. In all that time they spent travelling in the TARDIS together, they rarely kept anything from each other.
“Because I knew you’d talk me out of it. Or you would want to come along.” Martha began to protest, but Rose interrupted her. “You have too much for you here, Martha. You shouldn’t have to give that up, not after what you’ve been through.”
The sight of her family being executed by the Master still haunted her dreams. Her nightmare hadn’t happened as far as the universe was concerned, but that didn’t mean she could forgive the Master for everything he had done. Having him roam free with Rose in the TARDIS sounded like a reward, not a punishment. “What about what you’ve been through?”
Rose got a distant look in her eye, but her expression was unreadable. “It’ll be fine,” she insisted.
She didn’t believe for one second that it was the truth, but this was Rose Tyler. The young woman could be selfish but she always had the best of intentions. Crossing the space between them, Martha pulled Rose into a hug. They embraced each other tightly, knowing that in a few moments, their paths were going to diverge once more. “Thank you, for everything. Everything we saw and did, it was worth it.”
With a heavy reluctance, Martha let go of Rose and they walked back into the store room. Donna unlocked the TARDIS doors and nudged the Master inside with the edge of her suitcase. He snapped at her but she barely seemed to care. Donna paused on the threshold to speak with Sarah Jane.
“I left a message on my mother’s phone, saying I was hired on a temp job last minute. Do me a favour and send her a postcard from, I don’t know, Paris or something.”
“I’ll have Mr. Smith set something up.”
While Donna looked on from the TARDIS, Rose exchanged a lengthy hug with Sarah Jane before moving onto Jack. She kissed him briefly on the lips, but she didn’t linger, and she missed the look of longing on Jack’s face. Martha came up beside him as the three of them watched Rose enter the time machine with Donna.
“Look after the planet while I’m gone,” she said just before closing the doors. To Martha, she added, “And try not to chase after unfamiliar aliens.”
“Get back to Earth when you can,” said Martha. Oddly, Rose said nothing back and she closed the doors.
Various emotions raged within Martha - sadness, anger, hope - as the time machine faded away, leaving Earth for parts unknown. Jack’s hand found hers and they linked fingers, trying to lend each other strength.