Everything Old Becomes New - writers_muses
Season 5 AU
Episode: 5
Title: Charisma and Regeneration
Prompt: Writer's Muses #85 ."Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change." - Peter Drucker
Characters: Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble, The Doctor, Dr. Harold Jones (The Master), The Rani, Jethro Cain, Rose Tyler, Gwen Cooper, Jenny, Astrid Peth, Martha Jones, Ianto Jones, Pete Tyler, Little Pete Tyler, the Ninth Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness.
Rating: PG-13 for character death
Word Count: 2116
"And on this day, let it be known that a new world order shall be..." The Master stood on the podium, speaking to the soldiers and the prisoners alike, intoning his commands as though it would be captured for all eternity.
"Oh, God...can't you get a new speechwriter? I'm about to nod off here." Martha's sneer was far more bold and contemptuous than a woman bound to a surgical table should have been able to muster. The Doctor, from his own table, shot her a supportive grin, coupled with a wink.
The Master's eyebrow rose, high enough that Rose wondered if his face might stick like that, the way her mother threatened when she was a child.
"I'm giving you both one last chance. Stop this. End it now, and I'll keep both of you safe on the TARDIS." The Doctor wondered how, after all these centuries, these two Time Lords could have gotten so very far away from what they had been in their youth. Was it always there, or had the destruction of their entire world rendered them without the roots that bound them to each other?
"I have my own TARDIS, and soon will control yours." The Rani's expression was smooth, without a trace of emotion. Gone was the wild, shrieking harridan of old, and instead she was now as cold as the tables her victims laid upon. "Poor Doctor. Destroyer of worlds, including ours, and now responsible for the deaths of all these companions."
"At least none of them will have their entire memory wiped out, as though it all meant nothing." Donna's anger seethed into her words, and she walked over to stand in front of the Time Lord, before reaching out to slap his face. The echo of the hard contact went through the cold, impersonal lab, and the Master smirked in triumph as he saw the red print of her hand rise on the flesh of his enemy. "You arrogant freak, you spaceman! You didn't even ask!" Donna pulled her hand back and slapped him again, on the other cheek, making his head snap from the force.
"That's enough, darling." The Master soothed her, condescendingly chiding even as he enjoyed the thrill of the abuse. "Now, where was I?"
"We were going to kill him?" The Rani rolled her eyes, and held up her hands, palms forward. "Stop dawdling and get this over with."
"Would you like the honors, Donna?" Leading the ginger woman over, away from the Doctor, the Master set her in front of the console. "One push of that button, right there, and he dies." It seemed only right that his own best mate companion finish him off, once and for all.
"Will he really die?" Donna queried, turning to look both at the Master, then the Rani. "You're sure? He won't regenerate into some barely legal teenybopper with worse hair and even more skinny?"
"No, I've blocked his ability to regenerate, and sparkle, just in case." The Rani nodded, understanding the fear that any adult female might have. "I promise, Donna, he'll be dead."
"Well, alright then." Donna held her hand over the big, red button, while her other hand slipped into her pants pocket, posing as if a photo were being taken.
"Donna, stop! My darling girl, don't let them do this to you!" Wilfred stepped forward, but was jerked back by a guard.
"Sorry, Gramps, but this has to be done." Simultaneously, she pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket, and slammed her palm down on the button. Pointing the sonic device at the controls, she held on as it sizzled and snapped.
"What is she doing? Master?" The Rani flew over to the monitor banks, and saw that the numbers were climbing to dangerous levels. The alarms screeched, and the Master turned on his heel to see the Doctor watching him.
"You wouldn't listen to me. You never listened, and this is why you always fail." Donna ran over to the tables, and unlocked the bonds on all of the prisoners, last freeing the Doctor. He rubbed his wrists, and gave her an annoyed look. "Oi...you didn't have to hit me so hard. You enjoyed that, didn't you?"
"We don't have time for this." The building began to shake, and explosions began to go off down the halls. Donna pointed the sonic screwdriver at the control lock to the lab, and it sparked before the sliding metal door opened, and Jack Harkness came in with Ianto Jones and Pete Tyler, fully armed, behind him.
"Everything alright in here?" Jack's cocky grin was belied by the deadly look in his eyes as he pointed his machine gun at the guards, who quickly laid down their weapons.
"Jack!" Gwen got up on her feet, and ran over to where he stood, hugging him. "The rift!"
"Closing, as we speak, which means Pete and Rose better get back." Ianto stepped in front of Gwen to shield her, just in case.
"And us!" Jackie came in, carrying little Pete, protected by UNIT troops that were flooding the building.
"No...we can't. We should stay. Mickey's here, and there's nothing there for us to go back to, really. We could stay here. Mum..." Rose turned to her mother, who looked over at Pete Tyler. Pete just nodded, and hugged Rose with one arm. With the other Doctor gone, taken by the Master, it was just too much to expect Rose to go back to that world.
"I know a place you two can get jobs." Jack slapped Pete on the back, and hugged Rose tightly to him, as the room cleared of extra men.
"What about them?" Jenny spoke up, pointing at the Rani and the Master.
Jack turned to check out the pretty young blonde, big smile on his face. "And who do we have here? I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?"
"Stop it." The Doctor was too far to pull his daughter back from Jack, but his expression was a warning shot to his friend.
"What? I was only saying hello."
"My...daughter." The Doctor lifted a brow.
"Right. Got it." Jack tapped down his natural instincts, and came down the steps to stand beside the Time Lady, who was glaring at him. "What have we here? A lady Doctor?"
"Time Lady." The Rani snarled. "You freak."
"Why do you people always call me that?" Jack slapped binders on her slender wrists. "If I were a more sensitive sort, my feelings might be hurt." Jack thought he heard Ianto snicker, but couldn't really tell.
"You're not right. Time Lords can tell." The Master took a few steps back, towards the steps, and Donna pointed the sonic screwdriver at him. "Donna...I had such high hopes for you."
"Really? Is that why you drugged me, and tried to make me think we were lovers?" Donna walked over, and reached into his jacket, taking his own laser device. "You underestimed me. I am just like you, I can see the past, the present, and all the possible futures, Master."
"Which is why I initially blocked her memories." The Doctor walked over, and took his sonic Screwdriver out of her hand. "I knew she would burn, but she had already seen you, both of you, and the tech that would let her survive. So, in a way, you did create a new generation of Time Lords." His grim smile was without humor, but tinged with sadness. "Her humanity allowed her vision that I couldn't have. All we needed was time, and you both came through. Now things are as they should be."
"Except for him...the other Doctor. He killed him." Rose was near tears, having lost the half human, half Time Lord that she had accepted as her future.
"Oh...no, Rose. He didn't kill him. He absorbed him." The Doctor stood over the Master, looking into his eyes. "If he regenerates, then it's possible that the other me will take over, and he will control, fully, more Time Lord than human."
"Let's see that, then!" Wilfred angrily shouted, and pulled at the gun Jack slung over his shoulder, firing two bullets into the Master's chest. The Doctor shouted, as Jack pulled the gun away, and the Master pitched forward into the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor lowered him to the cold concrete floor, shaking his head at the memory of the last time. "I've got you."
"We really have to stop meeting like this." The Master groaned, as the blood pumped out of his chest, across the shirt. "It's getting more boring than Dalek invasions."
"Come on. Don't fight it. Just regenerate." The Doctor was watching him, wondering if the part of him inside would fight to lay claim to the body.
"No." Clenched teeth, and a shake of his head.
"Yes. You can't stop it, not this time. You've got too much of me inside you."
The Master fought, but the half human Doctor that he had taken over took back, and in soon the regeneration process began. The Doctor stepped back, and watched, his expression cold and unemotional, as the man changed. When it was over, and they all dropped their hand from their eyes, a collective gasp went around the room.
"Blimey, but he's bloody handsome!" Both Donna and Martha spoke up, grinning in delight.
Jackie's jaw dropped, and she handed little Pete off to his father, before walking over to stare. "It can't be."
But it was Rose who came over, stopping by Jack to smile, as though it was as it always should have been. Finally, she came over to stand in front of the man, her head tipped to the side. "Is that you, or him?"
The regenerated man looked down, and touched his face, before flipping his fingers against his ears. Then he broke out in a broad, cheeky grin, and swept the blonde woman up in his arms for a hug. "It's me, Rose, back as good as new. Fantastic! Oh, there's a bit of him, down in there, but it's not enough to worry about. Jackie, come here and give me a hug."
Jackie just shook her head, and smacked him on the arm. "Oi! I don't think so." But her grin was as delighted as her daughter's, and Jack's.
"Now what? What about her?" Jenny had no idea who the person was, or that he was the previous incarnation of her own father. All she knew was that people seemed happy, and that was good enough.
"Rani! Hullo. Yes, well, I think I'll be needing a TARDIS, so that Rose and I can do a bit of traveling. Since you'll be cooling your heels in the Torchwood basement cells, you won't mind, will you?" The Other Doctor turned to the Doctor, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. The Doctor considered the idea for a moment, then nodded in assent.
Much later, when most everyone had left, Donna walked in to find the Doctor standing in the middle of the lab, reading a monitor and clicking on keys.
"Don't." It was all she said, holding onto the railing of the walk above him.
"What?"
"You know what. Don't try to figure out if this procedure or these drugs will protect me forever, or if they'll wear off. I'm not letting you wipe my memory again." Donna was rock solid in her words, and in the resolve behind them. "You and I have places to go, and I'm not going to spend a single minute worrying if I might burn fifty years from now."
"Or five?" He put his hands in his coat pocket, fighting the urge to do what she didn't want.
"Not even five hours. Look at you. You can't stand that someone else is in control. The old you gets to be with Rose. Your Jenny is alive. We all are just fine, so stop trying to control it all. What will be, will be." Her smile was understanding, though she would fight him if he tried. "Come on, spaceman. We have places to go see, together. Planets. History. Tailors who can make you a new suit."
She turned, walked to the door, then held out her hand. He slipped a disc out when her back was turned, and slipped it in his pocket before he bounded up the steps to join her, and get into the TARDIS.
"How come the previous version of you was so much more manly looking?" Her voice, and his indignant retort, were drowned out by the vwoorp vwoorp sound of the TARDIS taking them to some new place, together. Best mates.
Episode: 5
Title: Charisma and Regeneration
Prompt: Writer's Muses #85 ."Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change." - Peter Drucker
Characters: Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble, The Doctor, Dr. Harold Jones (The Master), The Rani, Jethro Cain, Rose Tyler, Gwen Cooper, Jenny, Astrid Peth, Martha Jones, Ianto Jones, Pete Tyler, Little Pete Tyler, the Ninth Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness.
Rating: PG-13 for character death
Word Count: 2116
"And on this day, let it be known that a new world order shall be..." The Master stood on the podium, speaking to the soldiers and the prisoners alike, intoning his commands as though it would be captured for all eternity.
"Oh, God...can't you get a new speechwriter? I'm about to nod off here." Martha's sneer was far more bold and contemptuous than a woman bound to a surgical table should have been able to muster. The Doctor, from his own table, shot her a supportive grin, coupled with a wink.
The Master's eyebrow rose, high enough that Rose wondered if his face might stick like that, the way her mother threatened when she was a child.
"I'm giving you both one last chance. Stop this. End it now, and I'll keep both of you safe on the TARDIS." The Doctor wondered how, after all these centuries, these two Time Lords could have gotten so very far away from what they had been in their youth. Was it always there, or had the destruction of their entire world rendered them without the roots that bound them to each other?
"I have my own TARDIS, and soon will control yours." The Rani's expression was smooth, without a trace of emotion. Gone was the wild, shrieking harridan of old, and instead she was now as cold as the tables her victims laid upon. "Poor Doctor. Destroyer of worlds, including ours, and now responsible for the deaths of all these companions."
"At least none of them will have their entire memory wiped out, as though it all meant nothing." Donna's anger seethed into her words, and she walked over to stand in front of the Time Lord, before reaching out to slap his face. The echo of the hard contact went through the cold, impersonal lab, and the Master smirked in triumph as he saw the red print of her hand rise on the flesh of his enemy. "You arrogant freak, you spaceman! You didn't even ask!" Donna pulled her hand back and slapped him again, on the other cheek, making his head snap from the force.
"That's enough, darling." The Master soothed her, condescendingly chiding even as he enjoyed the thrill of the abuse. "Now, where was I?"
"We were going to kill him?" The Rani rolled her eyes, and held up her hands, palms forward. "Stop dawdling and get this over with."
"Would you like the honors, Donna?" Leading the ginger woman over, away from the Doctor, the Master set her in front of the console. "One push of that button, right there, and he dies." It seemed only right that his own best mate companion finish him off, once and for all.
"Will he really die?" Donna queried, turning to look both at the Master, then the Rani. "You're sure? He won't regenerate into some barely legal teenybopper with worse hair and even more skinny?"
"No, I've blocked his ability to regenerate, and sparkle, just in case." The Rani nodded, understanding the fear that any adult female might have. "I promise, Donna, he'll be dead."
"Well, alright then." Donna held her hand over the big, red button, while her other hand slipped into her pants pocket, posing as if a photo were being taken.
"Donna, stop! My darling girl, don't let them do this to you!" Wilfred stepped forward, but was jerked back by a guard.
"Sorry, Gramps, but this has to be done." Simultaneously, she pulled the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket, and slammed her palm down on the button. Pointing the sonic device at the controls, she held on as it sizzled and snapped.
"What is she doing? Master?" The Rani flew over to the monitor banks, and saw that the numbers were climbing to dangerous levels. The alarms screeched, and the Master turned on his heel to see the Doctor watching him.
"You wouldn't listen to me. You never listened, and this is why you always fail." Donna ran over to the tables, and unlocked the bonds on all of the prisoners, last freeing the Doctor. He rubbed his wrists, and gave her an annoyed look. "Oi...you didn't have to hit me so hard. You enjoyed that, didn't you?"
"We don't have time for this." The building began to shake, and explosions began to go off down the halls. Donna pointed the sonic screwdriver at the control lock to the lab, and it sparked before the sliding metal door opened, and Jack Harkness came in with Ianto Jones and Pete Tyler, fully armed, behind him.
"Everything alright in here?" Jack's cocky grin was belied by the deadly look in his eyes as he pointed his machine gun at the guards, who quickly laid down their weapons.
"Jack!" Gwen got up on her feet, and ran over to where he stood, hugging him. "The rift!"
"Closing, as we speak, which means Pete and Rose better get back." Ianto stepped in front of Gwen to shield her, just in case.
"And us!" Jackie came in, carrying little Pete, protected by UNIT troops that were flooding the building.
"No...we can't. We should stay. Mickey's here, and there's nothing there for us to go back to, really. We could stay here. Mum..." Rose turned to her mother, who looked over at Pete Tyler. Pete just nodded, and hugged Rose with one arm. With the other Doctor gone, taken by the Master, it was just too much to expect Rose to go back to that world.
"I know a place you two can get jobs." Jack slapped Pete on the back, and hugged Rose tightly to him, as the room cleared of extra men.
"What about them?" Jenny spoke up, pointing at the Rani and the Master.
Jack turned to check out the pretty young blonde, big smile on his face. "And who do we have here? I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?"
"Stop it." The Doctor was too far to pull his daughter back from Jack, but his expression was a warning shot to his friend.
"What? I was only saying hello."
"My...daughter." The Doctor lifted a brow.
"Right. Got it." Jack tapped down his natural instincts, and came down the steps to stand beside the Time Lady, who was glaring at him. "What have we here? A lady Doctor?"
"Time Lady." The Rani snarled. "You freak."
"Why do you people always call me that?" Jack slapped binders on her slender wrists. "If I were a more sensitive sort, my feelings might be hurt." Jack thought he heard Ianto snicker, but couldn't really tell.
"You're not right. Time Lords can tell." The Master took a few steps back, towards the steps, and Donna pointed the sonic screwdriver at him. "Donna...I had such high hopes for you."
"Really? Is that why you drugged me, and tried to make me think we were lovers?" Donna walked over, and reached into his jacket, taking his own laser device. "You underestimed me. I am just like you, I can see the past, the present, and all the possible futures, Master."
"Which is why I initially blocked her memories." The Doctor walked over, and took his sonic Screwdriver out of her hand. "I knew she would burn, but she had already seen you, both of you, and the tech that would let her survive. So, in a way, you did create a new generation of Time Lords." His grim smile was without humor, but tinged with sadness. "Her humanity allowed her vision that I couldn't have. All we needed was time, and you both came through. Now things are as they should be."
"Except for him...the other Doctor. He killed him." Rose was near tears, having lost the half human, half Time Lord that she had accepted as her future.
"Oh...no, Rose. He didn't kill him. He absorbed him." The Doctor stood over the Master, looking into his eyes. "If he regenerates, then it's possible that the other me will take over, and he will control, fully, more Time Lord than human."
"Let's see that, then!" Wilfred angrily shouted, and pulled at the gun Jack slung over his shoulder, firing two bullets into the Master's chest. The Doctor shouted, as Jack pulled the gun away, and the Master pitched forward into the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor lowered him to the cold concrete floor, shaking his head at the memory of the last time. "I've got you."
"We really have to stop meeting like this." The Master groaned, as the blood pumped out of his chest, across the shirt. "It's getting more boring than Dalek invasions."
"Come on. Don't fight it. Just regenerate." The Doctor was watching him, wondering if the part of him inside would fight to lay claim to the body.
"No." Clenched teeth, and a shake of his head.
"Yes. You can't stop it, not this time. You've got too much of me inside you."
The Master fought, but the half human Doctor that he had taken over took back, and in soon the regeneration process began. The Doctor stepped back, and watched, his expression cold and unemotional, as the man changed. When it was over, and they all dropped their hand from their eyes, a collective gasp went around the room.
"Blimey, but he's bloody handsome!" Both Donna and Martha spoke up, grinning in delight.
Jackie's jaw dropped, and she handed little Pete off to his father, before walking over to stare. "It can't be."
But it was Rose who came over, stopping by Jack to smile, as though it was as it always should have been. Finally, she came over to stand in front of the man, her head tipped to the side. "Is that you, or him?"
The regenerated man looked down, and touched his face, before flipping his fingers against his ears. Then he broke out in a broad, cheeky grin, and swept the blonde woman up in his arms for a hug. "It's me, Rose, back as good as new. Fantastic! Oh, there's a bit of him, down in there, but it's not enough to worry about. Jackie, come here and give me a hug."
Jackie just shook her head, and smacked him on the arm. "Oi! I don't think so." But her grin was as delighted as her daughter's, and Jack's.
"Now what? What about her?" Jenny had no idea who the person was, or that he was the previous incarnation of her own father. All she knew was that people seemed happy, and that was good enough.
"Rani! Hullo. Yes, well, I think I'll be needing a TARDIS, so that Rose and I can do a bit of traveling. Since you'll be cooling your heels in the Torchwood basement cells, you won't mind, will you?" The Other Doctor turned to the Doctor, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. The Doctor considered the idea for a moment, then nodded in assent.
Much later, when most everyone had left, Donna walked in to find the Doctor standing in the middle of the lab, reading a monitor and clicking on keys.
"Don't." It was all she said, holding onto the railing of the walk above him.
"What?"
"You know what. Don't try to figure out if this procedure or these drugs will protect me forever, or if they'll wear off. I'm not letting you wipe my memory again." Donna was rock solid in her words, and in the resolve behind them. "You and I have places to go, and I'm not going to spend a single minute worrying if I might burn fifty years from now."
"Or five?" He put his hands in his coat pocket, fighting the urge to do what she didn't want.
"Not even five hours. Look at you. You can't stand that someone else is in control. The old you gets to be with Rose. Your Jenny is alive. We all are just fine, so stop trying to control it all. What will be, will be." Her smile was understanding, though she would fight him if he tried. "Come on, spaceman. We have places to go see, together. Planets. History. Tailors who can make you a new suit."
She turned, walked to the door, then held out her hand. He slipped a disc out when her back was turned, and slipped it in his pocket before he bounded up the steps to join her, and get into the TARDIS.
"How come the previous version of you was so much more manly looking?" Her voice, and his indignant retort, were drowned out by the vwoorp vwoorp sound of the TARDIS taking them to some new place, together. Best mates.