"The Search For Immortality"

[notsoperfect10]

"The Search For Immortality"
Who: Broken Master & Broken Doctor
When: Sometime after the plan to rule the world!

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[themastereffect]

The Master turned his head as the Doctor cried out. Again. At this rate, he'd were going to end up dead before they could even do anything, which wasn't a good plan of action at all. The Master crossed his legs and pulled out his modulator, setting Colin to the side before giving the console a finale check over. He had auto pilot working, he could control it to pilot anywhere he wish and even got the lighting he'd installed to turn on at his whim... he still hadn't worked out how to fix that small issue of it exploding.

"Just be careful and try not to burn yourself this time, last time it set us back an hour," Course the Master could talk, the sheer amount of burns, cuts and almost lost limbs this week was staggering, especially in his case. Sometimes all this was far too dangerous. Pulling himself up and towards one of the panels, the Master sighed. Another leak he'd have to patch up, he really hoped this was water leaking through and not some sort of engine coolant that would burn him. Again.

He put the modulator in his mouth and climbed up one of the support beams so he could get to it.

[notsoperfect10]

Theta had become a taboo topic and though the Red TARDIS sat silently in Central Park, it was still on everyone's mind. When the Doctor followed the blond to the end of the service vent and peeked his head in, he knew he probably ought to not bring this up...but he was starting to think that they had no choice. The life he'd given the Master could wear out at any time. They could kill themselves with a faulty wire. Something had to be done.

"Theta wasn't wrong," he said, starting off small. "He found a way to return to life after he died. And if he can do it, a metacrisis, only half of me, imagine what we can do, Master."

This could wait. They had time on their size...literally.

[themastereffect]

As he worked out the leak, the Master used his one had to balance, his foot sticking out to brace him on the wall as he half hung out of the vent. When the Doctor mentioned, the Masters head shot up... which probably wasn't he best move when he was in such a small space. He dropped his modulator and gripped his head. Now that had hurt.

He hadn't expected the Doctor to ever speak of Theta again, especially after he'd abandoned them. Still the Doctor had a point, of sorts. "Theta never told us how he did it, did he?"

Reaching for his modulator, he turned his head behind him and gave the Doctor a small look. He didn't trust immortality, as appealing as it was. Either was always either a curse or made you wrong. "He wasn't wrong but do you really want to risk making yourself wrong? If we were to... well immortalised ourselves then we'd have to find the right method or plan."

[notsoperfect10]

"How is that a set back when we have the most brilliant minds?" The Doctor pulled the Master out of the vent and checked his head for any potential injuries. At least it was just a bump this time and there was no blood. Throwing himself into a flight seat -- which Colin had luckily just vacated -- the Doctor frowned and put on his very best thinking face.

Every culture, every planet, had it's own mythologies about ways to keep young, ways to return from the dead. There was truth in some of those methods, but never anything solid. And some of the side effects were less than brilliant, really.

It's going to take work in research and in finding counter remedies in the right ways, he thought at the Master after revealing his plan. Charms, incantations, biological alteration... And it will be dangerous. But less dangrous than working on this piece of junk.

[themastereffect]

"Brilliant minds won't help us when were freakshows," The Master pointed out, taking a seat on the controls, careful that he wasn't pressing anything as he looked down at the Doctor. Oh, he wanted to be immortal and always had, even as a boy. The thought of death was not a pleasant one and he'd had far too many close calls in his lifetime. He just needed to be sure that he wouldn't end up a itchy, dizzy wrong freak like Jack Harkness.

We could narrow it down to the planets that have the strongest beliefs in immortality, check each one out and pick the most stable theory? he suggested, using his feet to balance on his rather uncomfortable seat, though it was the closest one to the Doctor. Provided we don't have to regenerate to find such things, then I am in agreement. We need this.

They're job would get much trickier and if they were to rule Earth then he wanted immortality. Last time he'd been shot, something he didn't want to repeat again. This time, he wanted to live forever, sharing his victory with the Doctor.

[notsoperfect10]

The Doctor put his hand on the top of the Master's boot. He was not as clingy as he use to be, but little physical connections were always nice. It made him remember that he was part of a whole now. The Master and the Doctor had always been two sides of the same coin, but now it was better to think of the coin and their connection rather than as being just a side left spinning out of control.

"No Hearts of the TARDIS. No vortex. We'll just see what fits and borrow the best of it."

Their adventure began the next day after an all night crash course in immortality research. They had a list of five best places and times to visit and ten others as secondary possibilities. An hour's sleep left them recharged and then they were off.

First stop? The 17th Century and an alchemist called Thomas Vaughan.

[themastereffect]

The Master seemed content with their new-found plans, though he was sceptical about seeing an alchemist of all people. Regardless, after some quick sleep he was much more open to the idea, though he wasn't prepared to change his clothes to fit in with the era.

"We don't have to dress up, do we?" The Master complained as he pulled on his boots. "I'm not overly fond of that look any more, makes me feel like a clichéd villain."

He set Colin on the seat in the control room, giving him a quick pet on the head. Some trips were too dangerous for Colin and if they were toying with immortality, he didn't want Colin to get hurt.

[notsoperfect10]

"Humans tend to see what you'd like them to," the Doctor said, fingers following the Master's as he stroked down Colin's back to the tip of his tail. The Cat gave an appreciative little mew and then curled up to watch his Time Lords and their plans for themselves. Had be been able to speak, he might have asked them to bring him some milk, or stay a bit more for a massage.

The Doctor stretched, checked his pockets, and they headed back to the Golden TARDIS for their trip.

"Oh, better yet," the Doctor said as he put in the coordinates, set us fifty years later. We'll just take his notes." The Master had stolen the information about this encounter from the Hub's computer systems, and that included the location of the immortal alchemist's burial area where he had stashed his experiment notes.

[themastereffect]

The Master watched with a small smirk as they took the short cut, whatever helped them get their immortality was fine by him. It seemed that trip to the hub was more that useful, now they had all the data they needed without having to do the research... the boring part that the Master usually hated.

"Right, once we have his notes, then what?"

Did they even know what they were doing? He didn't want to screw up, he had a lot riding on being immortal. They could finish their wiring jobs without fear of death, his both my stabilise and they'd never leave one another. Besides he'd made a promise to the other Master that he'd help fix him... now maybe he could share life without dying?

[notsoperfect10]

"Once we have his notes," the Doctor said calmly, "we begin to do careful research. There was a problem with his methods. We'll sort it out and then keep the parts that make the most sense and throw out the corrupted bits. It will be like making a cake!"

That made him hungry a little as he pushed open the TARDIS doors and headed out into the old streets. He did like cobblestone, even if it was a bit annoying to walk on with such thin soled shoes.

The Doctor wasn't quite so sure as to where he was going, but he wasn't in any rush really. They were just going grave robbing!

[themastereffect]

"I always hate the research part, can't we skip it or something? Hire an inferior version of you and me to handle the grunt work?" The Master suggested, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking down at the cobblestone with a small frown. Whoever invented such rubbish should be shot, tarmac was far more pleasant.

"Where are we going Doctor?" he asked finally, after wondering around for several minutes. They hardly had a map or any descent sense of direction in these parts so they'd end up wondering round and round for hours.

He'd rather do something more productive, personally.

[notsoperfect10]

"We're going to find the alchemist's tomb." The Doctor glanced around the buildings, frowning slightly and scrunching up his face and nose before he headed right over to the wall. Much to the Master's probable distain, he licked it for a moment and then tilted his head. "Yes, right time, right place. He faked his death a bit ago, he did, and now we need to get his notes. I will not be letting another you or another me have our research. I want to be better than they are."

And he wasn't going to share immortality with them. He and the Master -- they would be special. They would become the next Rassilon...though their time would be eternal and their judgements would be just.

The Doctor, as luck would have it, managed to stumble onto Thomas Vaughan's grave not all that long after, secluded and covered. "Oh, you're in luck!" he finally said to the Master. "Now we get to dig." Or use his screwdriver, but the Doctor figured tiring his Master out would even out his mood.

[themastereffect]

The Master pulled a face of disgust as the Doctor licked the wall. That was horrible! He'd have to kiss that mouth later as well, it made him feel ill inside, so many germs on this planet. His favourite hoodie had already felt the wrath of pathetic human germs.

He hurried along after the Doctor, crouching down and inspecting the tomb with a small frown. "Digging? You expect us to dig with... what?"

The Master gestured around him with a small frown, unless they were to do it by hand then he was honestly rather stumped. He did, however, start to dig his nails into the ground, attempting to dig up the ground below him, much like a fox or a badger. "This better be worth it Doctor, or I will be very unhappy. And so find me a shovel, my fingers are killing."

[notsoperfect10]

"A little dirt under your nails should make you feel at home," the Doctor said, wandering off just the same to look for a spade to assist in the digging. The area was not quite soft, after all, and the mausoleum looked a bit inpenatrable. According to Jack Harkness's memos in the system the Master stole, in a few hundred years, this whole graveyard would be escavated.

Generally, the Doctor tried not to mess up timelines so much, but he honestly didn't care this time around.

When he returned without a digging implement, he crouched beside the Master and looked up at the giant statuary before he dug into his pocket for the sonic and handed it over. "Try that."

[themastereffect]

"Its not about feeling at home, its about getting the damn job done," the Master complained as he clawed at the ground, already making a small little hole as he slowly scopes the dirt out and wriggled his hands through.

He paused all movement and stared at the sonic for a moment, blinking slowly before giving the Doctor a look of disbelief.

"You... I was digging and ... I hate you at times," the Master complained, snatching the screwdriver off the Doctor and muttering unhappily, tossing the handful of dirt he had left at the Doctor.

[notsoperfect10]

The Doctor laughed, not minding the dirt in his mouth as he watched the Master twist around the sonic until it was at the proper frequency to blast away the dirt from the hidden slab doors. Less than half a minute later and there it was, lashed down with chains which were easily broken through with another adjustment of the screwdriver.

"Oh, there we are, well done!" the Doctor said, falling back into his usual speach pattern of praise with the Master as he leaned down to pull open the stones. As expected, there were steps leading further into the complex.

"There are always steps like these," he remarked, going first into the darkness. "It's a pre-requisite for rob-able tombs."