Nowhen (Love Letters, Ten/Simm!Master, R) (EoT arc 1/?)
Title: Nowhen
Series | Arc: Love Letters | EoT
Age | Sequence: 908 | 1/?
Prompt: none
Author: von_gelmini
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Ten/Simm!Master, Theta/Koschei (in past)
Rating: R
Word Count: 4941
Warnings: language, one kiss
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I am not writing this for profit.
Thanks to the_redjay for beta'ing the first half of this and giving me the confidence to not pitch it in the bin :)
A/N: I know this isn't what I was supposed to be writing, but it's what came. I just can't manage to write this series in anything remotely like linear style. It comes to me all wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. The stories that are next in Warp/Weft, Drax, and Vickizarya will be coming eventually. Just gotta wait for their muses to speak up. Sorry if that's frustrating.
Nowhen
“You made me!” The Master shouts, focusing the energy into his hands. He counts the beat, screaming, driving each bolt into the hearts of the Lord President. The world goes white around him. A roar fills his ears. It is the cry of Gallifrey, the scream of the Time Lords. And then there is nothing.
~~~
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
If there is nothing, then where is the ‘nothing’ coming from? That ‘nothing’ is a something, isn’t it?
Nothing.
Stop that! If I can hear it, it can’t be nothing.
------
‘I can hear it?’ What? Is there an ‘I?’
------
There most definitely is an ‘I.’
------
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
What the fuck?
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
------
Drums?
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
------
No. Listen. Not drums. Listen.
Me. Listen.
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
Listen.
My Hearts.
------
Quiet.
Quiet. Finally quiet.
------
Nowhere.
Here, stupid.
Nowhere.
Fuck that! It’s not ‘nothing.’ It’s not ‘nowhere.’ There wouldn’t be an ‘I’ if it was.
Maybe there isn’t.
I can think ‘I’, so obviously there is an ‘I.’
------
Nowhen.
Now that might be true. How long?
Nowhen.
LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT
-------
I’ve escaped worse than this!
(I have, haven’t I?)
Yes. You have.
-------
Wait a minute. ‘You said you’ I’m not alone. Some ‘one’ has to be there to call me a ‘you.’
Yes.
Well, get me the FUCK out of HERE!
I’m trying.
Try harder, you idiot!
~~~
The Doctor left them all behind, said his farewells. The song of the Ood brought him home. To his TARDIS. To the only thing left of his world. Alone. Still clinging to life. Still fighting. Not fair! Sadness. Tears. Pain. Artron energy flowed from the Doctor, filling the console room. His regeneration was nearing its end. Soon “he” would be gone.
“I don’t wanna go.”
The TARDIS opened her console. She opened every door, every panel. She took and she took and she took. Left just enough. Just enough. Not too much. Just enough. He’s not ready. Take more. He’s not finished. Take more. Save him! Her circuits overloaded. Explosions shuddered her systems. Flames tore through her. She ejected pieces of herself. Anything. Save him! Stripped herself to her bones. Save him! The TARDIS screamed through spacetime.
She hadn’t known she could scream.
“What?” the Doctor exclaimed. “What?” He whipped his head around, taking in the chaotic scene. “What!”
He ran wildly, closing panels, pressing buttons, stretching arms and legs to do as many things at once as he could. The Doctor didn’t dare look at what he was doing. Didn’t dare look into the heart of the TARDIS. He didn’t need to look, though. He knew her controls better than his own body. (His own body? Later!) There, with the mallet! He struck. There. That lever to the right. Farther... farther... there! The roaring in his ears became quieter until he heard the familiar grind that told him the TARDIS was okay. She hadn’t torn herself apart. Good old girl. The Doctor collapsed onto the deck, unconscious.
The TARDIS shuddered into control at his hands. She slipped into the Vortex, hanging there in nowherewhen. She would need rift energy soon. For now though, she rested. He rested. He would wake before she needed him. He would! (Wouldn’t he?) The TARDIS was... frightened?
~~~
His subjective sense of time told the Doctor he had been unconscious for two days. He reached a thought to see how long it had been, but he couldn’t sense the larger flow of spacetime. He was in the Vortex. He opened his eyes slowly. The TARDIS was quiet, lights dim, her systems resting. The smallest of hums reassured him she was still alive. He spread his hand across the floor, caressing her. He felt her systems begin to come back online. The lights in the control room brightened. He blinked and looked at his hand.
His hand!
The Doctor sprang to his feet. He splayed his hands in front of him. They were definitely his hands. Same ones he’d been looking at before. Something went wrong with his regeneration. A tug of panic. Was he still dying? Would it - would he - all come apart? He took a deep breath. Felt fine. “Mi mi mi mi,” he said, testing his voice. It was the same and just fine. He touched his face. Fine. Listened to his body sounds. All fine. He felt strong, not like he had just regenerated.
“What did you do, girl?” he asked, stroking the TARDIS. “I’m still here.”
Still here. Still here. Still here. Still here. He felt the TARDIS shimmer with happiness. “I don’t wanna go.” She echoed his words back to him.
In all his regenerations, he had never said that before. He was always ready. Regretful to be sure, but ready. She had nearly destroyed herself giving him what he wanted. He felt tears well in his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, caressing her again. He bounced back with a smile. “And don’t you ever, ever do that again!” He grinned from ear to ear. “Now, let’s take care of you.” He punched in coordinates and they moved into spacetime again.
~~~
"Doc!" For a moment, Jack thought he must be dreaming. "I thought you... well, you had changed."
"Not this time. Still me." The Doctor looked around. This place was worse than the last. "Still hanging around dive bars?"
Jack shot him a look. "What would you know about it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Where were you?" he accused. "It was..."
"I know. I'm so sorry," the Doctor said sincerely. "I couldn't. Fixed point in time."
"What does that mean to you anymore. You're the last one. You could've been there!"
The Doctor nodded. "I could've."
Jack looked at him, tears threatening to pour from his eyes. "Why then?"
The Doctor closed his eyes for just a moment, sighing. "Nothing I could tell you would be enough. I could've, but I didn't. There were reasons. I just hope you can forgive me."
"I don't know." Jack looked into the Doctor's eyes, old eyes that had known infinite sorrows. "Yes. I forgive you." It was still a raw gaping wound of pain, but Jack knew that eventually it would fade. It always did. It always would. The only constant in his life would be the Doctor, a being as near-immortal as himself. He took a deep breath. "You travelling with anyone now?"
The Doctor shook his head.
"Want some company?"
The Doctor grinned and Jack grinned back. "Let's go."
~~~
It took Jack some time, in bits and pieces that the Doctor let slip, but eventually he found out what happened after he'd left Earth.
"And is he dead now?" Jack asked, the anger and hate barely disguised in his voice.
"No. And yes," the Doctor said sadly. "They're all gone this time. He saved my life, Jack. At the end, he..." the Doctor trailed off.
Jack would never understand how despite everything the Master had done, the Doctor still forgave him. He thought about it. Maybe he would. After 900 years, everyone he knew gone, maybe he would.
"Where is he then?" Jack asked, more kindly.
"Time Lock." The Doctor turned and suddenly gave him a smile. "Where to next? I know this great planet, just a little one, hardly worth mentioning..."
Jack laughed. "Lead on." A fine pair they were. Two broken beings, out of time, trying desperately to find a thread of hope to grasp, alone together.
After a while, the Doctor could tell Jack was getting restless. "Back home, Jack?" he asked.
Jack nodded. "Torchwood... It'll need rebuilding. You can't always be there and the Earth needs it, Doc." He paused. "And I need it."
~~~
The Doctor slipped the TARDIS back into the Vortex. He rarely came out into spacetime these days. There seemed little point. I shouldn't have fought regeneration, he thought. A new body, a new perspective, might've done good. Instead, he wandered the TARDIS aimlessly, endlessly. She tried to keep him busy. New rooms appeared, new problems to be worked on. But she knew he was deeply unhappy, as unhappy as he'd been right after his ninth regeneration, after the Time War, before he found Rose.
Nothing.
The Doctor sat bolt upright in his bed. A dream. A nightmare, but at a distance with no fear. Not actual nothingness, but a word, a thought not his own.
Nothing.
And then it faded.
The Doctor suddenly found himself standing on the wall, the floor and ceiling to the right and left of him. "What the...?"
He climbed out of his room and worked his way to the control room. "What's the matter girl?" he asked from his perch on the rail near the console. Orientation circuits had blown completely off. He could see the dark char where they used to be. One of the few parts he did not already have onboard. He gave the console a suspicious look. "Well, I guess we'll just have to go get a replacement. And of course one of the best places to look just happens to be Earth. Not very subtle, you know." He thought he felt the TARDIS laugh.
~~~
Avoiding all the places with bad memories on Earth. That was getting harder to do. He'd been so many places and lost so many friends. But the parts needed for the orientation circuits were eventually found. It was a lovely day and he hesitated to go back to the TARDIS. He wandered the London streets doing his favorite passtime -- people watching. Humans were so amazing, every one of them.
He passed the department store in which he'd first met Rose. It was all rebuilt. Stopping by one of the display windows, he reached his hand out and touched it. Maniquins in the window. Maniquins chasing the two of them. "Run." he muttered to himself. The first thing he'd told her to do. Run. It was something he was good at. Running away. Isn't that what he was doing now? He had all of time and space before him and he was sitting in the Vortex, moping. Not what any of his lost companions would want him to do.
He turned and headed back to the TARDIS. After he'd repaired the orientation circuits, he stood at the console. Setting the appropriate dials and levers, he stood with his hand above the button. "Take me somewhere, girl. Somewhere interesting." He pressed the randomizer. Sitting back on the jump seat, he stretched his legs out, propping his feet on the console. He leaned his head back and smiled. He might not have a new body, but he had a new life. It was time to live it.
Nowhere. Nowhere.
He'd been daydreaming, watching the TARDIS pillar moving hypnotically up and down.
Nowhen.
His thoughts still drifted. It was an odd turn of phrase, but a common one on Gallifrey. A Time Lord would use it. But he was the last.
Wasn't he?
LET ME OUT!
The cry jolted him out of his seat.
LET ME OUT!
It echoed in his mind over and over again. Panicked screams coming from somewhere. He almost recognized the voice. It was just out of reach.
He felt a deep pang of lonliness as something buried deep inside the dark corners of his mind was touched. Something that hadn't been touched in centuries.
"Koschei?" he whispered. He closed his eyes. Inside the construct of his mind, he put his hand on a thick stone wall. Solid, well built and plastered tight over the years. He knew what lay behind it. That was one memory he tried hard to never, ever revisit. Of all his losses, that one was just too painful to bear.
But that voice. He recognized it. It couldn't be. The Master was gone. Locked in with Rassilon and the other Time Lords. Unreachable. Nothing could escape the barrier, not even a thought, not even a touch on a bond walled off and buried miles deep in the lost sands of the Gallifreyan desert.
I've escaped worse than this! Haven't I? the voice asked.
"Yes. You have," he said.
The voice was plaintive now. Frightened. Not the Master's voice, but one he hadn't heard for 600 years. Koschei's voice. His first voice. The voice from their days at the Academy.
To break through that wall would hurt. It would be unbearably painful. But the Doctor's mind provided a pick leaning a little ways down the wall. He walked to it and hesitated. He wasn't sure he could do it. The pain was so much more than what he felt losing Rose, losing Sarah Jane, losing Jo, losing Jamie. It would shatter him.
He leaned his head against the wall and listened to the screams and cries. Tears welled in his eyes and ran down his face. He hadn't cried so much in any regeneration since his loomling body. He cried easily then. Tears of hurt. Tears of joy. Tears of love.
"Koschei," he said softly, his voice breaking. He felt the reply. A touch that broke the rhythm of his hearts. He felt but didn't hear. Not like the other words. He felt an image of blue. Almost TARDIS blue. The indigo of his eyes when he was still a loomling. The color brought a smile to his lips and a sense of happiness. Blue of the TARDIS. Blue of his eyes. Blue of joy.
With a sigh, he took up the pick and swung it at the wall. By the time he heard stones falling on the other side, he had shed his coat, his jacket, and his tie. He stood there, his sleeves rolled up and his shirt sweat-stained. He didn't yet dare to bend down and look through the hole he'd made. The sands of his home were there. They didn't exist anymore. Nowhere but in his mind. Gods how he missed it. The fields and mountains, the deserts and rivers. All gone now. He'd destroyed it all to save the universe. Sacrificed everything and everyone he knew. Family, friends, strangers, all gone. Lover, husband, friend. That had been gone long before. But now the chance of reunion was forever out of his reach.
Forever. He saw the circles and lines of the word written in Gallifreyan. Forever. How often he'd written that word back then, when he was young, before he really knew what it meant. Forever. Forever yours, Koschei.
He bent down and looked through the tiny hole he'd made in the wall. Burnt orange sky, sparkling ruby sand shot through with gold from the light of the suns. Gallifrey. With the pick he made the hole large enough to crawl through.
In the distance, he saw the thick chain of their life together. Theta and Koschei. The Doctor and the Master. The links lay broken and cut and scattered in a line atop the sand, stretching in both directions as far as he could see. He sat beside the line.
Wait a minute. ‘You said you’ I’m not alone. Some ‘one’ has to be there to call me a ‘you.’
"Yes"
Well, get me the FUCK out of HERE!
"I’m trying."
Try harder, you idiot!
He nearly laughed. That was just so him.
Down far beneath the broken chain, he knew there was another. Delicate and golden and unbreakable. Not time nor emnity could shatter it. That just drove it deeper away, but it would be there forever. Until the end of tim he'd pledged. Was that why he fought so hard against Rassilon's plan? The end of time would break that chain, and deep in his hearts he still never wanted it broken. He always hoped that some day, some how, he and the Master would be together again.
He put both of his hands along the broken line and reached out for the bond, for the symbol of the oath they made when they married. He cleared his mind and searched below the sand. It was there but buried deep.
Starting with the Master’s sacrifice to save him from Rassilon, The Doctor worked his way back through his memories. The battles that raged across time and the universe. The rare and brief interludes when they gave into their lust and were together despite themselves. He brushed away each remembrance as if he were brushing away layers of sand.
He came to their first battle and its result. When the young Doctor couldn’t bear to stay on Gallifrey one second more. When he stole his exiled father-in-law’s TARDIS. When he knew he couldn’t stay with the Master, his Koschei slipping ever farther away into his madness.
He led that memory for a long time, gentling his younger self. His leaving had turned the Master into the mad villain he’d become. He finally admitted it. At last forgiving - not the Master, but himself. He drew his loomling body into an embrace, tearfully whispering comfort and forgiveness into Theta’s ear. He let Theta fade from his mind, back into his proper place in his memories, a little less painful to touch, to revisit.
The thin golden chain once buried so deeply, glittered on top of the ruby sand beside the shatters of the larger. It ran warm and pulsing beneath his palms. He closed his fingers around it. Fear and panic filled him.
Theta!
“Koschei.”
Let me out.
“Where are you?”
I don’t know. It’s cold and it’s white and it’s out of time. I’m nowhere, nowhen.
“You’re in the Time Lock.”
No. I’m alone. None of them are with me. No Time Lords. No Daleks.
The Doctor thought on the problem. He’d seen the Master disappear into the Time Lock when it closed. Hadn’t he? If so, the others should be there. The Master should be trapped forever experiencing the unending repetition of Time War.
“No Time Lords,” he muttered to himself.
What the fuck did I just say? No. No Time Lords.
“Oh, yes, right. Well,” he drew out the word. “I suppose you’re in the space between.”
The space between what?
“Well, the space between reality and the Time War. You’re stuck in the Time Lock itself.”
Fantastic. Now break it and Get. Me. Out!
“Umm. Can’t.”
What?
“If I break the Time Lock, they all come back. The war comes back.
Well yeah, if you break it with a hammer, you dolt.
“What?”
Rassilon, Theete! Hmm. Somehow that curse just doesn’t work for me anymore.
The Doctor felt the Master smile. “Me either.” He smiled back.
Fuck then. Nice short harsh to-the-point. Sort of the universal curse, don’t you think?
“Yes. Now what were you going to say after the curse?”
Ah yes. Let’s see. Fuck, Theete (yeah, that works). Use a little finesse this time. Pretend you’re me.
He felt the Master grin from ear to ear. “I didn’t exactly have a lot of time when I made the damn thing,” he muttered, piqued by the Master’s barb. “The Daleks had begun to take Gallifrey itself and Rassilon started in with his insane plan.”
He’s gone now.
The Doctor felt the hatred in the Master.
He’s gone and you have time. Figure something out.
“Would be easier if you helped, Kosch. You know you were always better at temporal mechanics than I was.
That is not my name, the Master said wearily and with a much-put-out eyeroll. Whatever. I have to rescue myself. You’re bloody useless.
“Not useless, Master. You need me out here working on the gadgetry and gizmos we’ll need to extract you and not crack open the Time Lock. And besides,” the Doctor smiled, “I’m better at the maths than you.”
Are not.
“Maybe not back then, but while you’ve been wasting your time with your daft plots to take over the universe, I have been known to crack a book now and again.”
Oh all right. Can we get started? It’s kind of cold and white and nowhen in here.
“White boards, lunch and a lot of strong hot coffee.” He stroked the TARDIS and the things he needed appeared in the console room. But he also felt her wariness and disapproval. “It’s Koschei, old girl. I can sense it. He feels different. We can’t just leave him there.” Why not? he felt her ask. “I know he hurt you.” The TARDIS shuddered at the memory of her year spent as a paradox machine. “I won’t let that happen again. I promise.” She calmed back down and the Doctor ate his sandwich, thinking on the problem.
A few days later, and nearly a dozen psychic white boards were filled with equations, scattered around the console room. The Doctor paced around their circle. He was close. Each time his solution came a little closer. But each time it fell apart with the inevitable breaking of the Time Lock, and that he couldn’t allow. Not even to rescue his husband.
He paced the circle again, this time with the Master’s presence in his mind, him double checking the equation.
Look, would it be such a bad thing if the Time Lock broke?
The Doctor glared at the Master.
No, I mean it. With Rassilon gone, the rest of the High Council might be more reasonable.
“And the Daleks?”
Oh.
“Yeah, oh.”
What about figuring out how to minimize what comes through between the time you get me out and you get the Time Lock resealed?
“That’s...” the Doctor started to dismiss the Master’s suggestion out of hand, but then he stopped his circling in front of the sixth white board. Mentally he erased everything after. “Brilliant! Bloody brilliant. I could kiss you!”
You are such a fucking puppy this regeneration, the Master said with a chuckle. Get me out of here and I’ll hold you to that kiss.
“Oh, yes,” he said, and was distracted by the equation again.
Another week passed and the white boards multiplied by two. Too long a line for a circle; they formed a spiral now, which annoyed the Doctor because he couldn’t follow the problem without backtracking. He took a break and went to the console. A dozen buttons and levers and such later, the console room nearly doubled in size. “I know, I know. We’ll stop in Cardiff and refuel as soon as I’m done.” He rearranged the boards and began circling again. “I am not going to wear a hole in your decking. It’s impossible to do that, you know? It tickles? You’re silly.” The TARDIS’s lights flickered trillingly. “Oh all right.” The Doctor came to a halt and leaned on the console. “There. No more pacing.”
He had stopped where the beginning and end of the equation met. “You’re very good,” he said admiringly. The tails of the equation were a perfect mirror reflection of one another. “Kosch, look at this,” his construct said.
What now? Oh, hold on a minute. The Master turned the 3D projection model around on its diagonal axis. If I connect a spatial regulator here... the part appeared where he wanted it. And then a non-linear tesseract extrapolator opposite and then wire between them and then...
“Reverse the polarity once you’re free. How many do you think?”
Will escape? The Doctor nodded. The Master gave a sheepish shrug. A few hundred? The Doctor looked skeptical. Certainly no more than a few hundred... thousand.
“Gallifreyans, Daleks, or both?”
I can try to put a filter on it. Can’t guarantee it will work in the time we’ve got, though. Which would you prefer?
The Doctor bit his lip. His first instinct was to say Gallifreyans of course. But if they were still bent on destroying time, even without Rassilon? Daleks he knew he could defeat. Some had already escaped, hadn’t they? And he dealt with them. No, Rose and his meta-crisis self had dealt with them. He had failed each time.
“Time Lords.”
Sentimental fool. They’ll go right back to their meddling non-meddling, you know. Pompous bastards.
“They won’t have Gallifrey.”
They’ll just found a new one.
“Maybe it’ll be different.
The Master paused in thought a minute and then gave a satisfied laugh. Maybe it will. He made a few more adjustments to the bio-filter. It would slow down the reaction time, letting a small percentage of Daleks through, but it would be worth it. Ready. It’s a lot of information and you have to get it all correct. So don’t muddle up your mind while I send the plans.
“Muddle up my mind,” the Doctor muttered, insulted.
Like that.
His construct gave the Master a gesture he’d picked up in London.
The Master laughed. How rude!
The Doctor had the TARDIS bring up another psychic white board. He sat cross-legged on the mesh decking and opened his mind, careful not to muddle it up. The plans flowed through him and were immediately drawn on the board.
He began digging through the TARDIS storerooms for parts. He dragged them into a lab and started to piece it all together.
If you weld it like that, it won’t hold.
“Long enough.”
It won’t hold.
“If I do it the way you want, it will melt the transposition circuit.”
Pause. Oh.
“Once I’ve got the shielding on the circuit, I’ll redo the welds.”
Good.
It took several weeks before he came across a part that he didn’t have. “I’ll be back. I have to go pick up the switch for the loop lock on Trilauria.”
Hello? Mental construct here. You’re not going anywhere without me, you idiot.
“Oh. Yeah. Forgot. You seem so real.”
I am real.
Right.
The Master shook his head. Go get the bloody part, Theete. Gods you remind me so much of him this incarnation. You’re all scatterbrained and brilliant and hyper. You even look a little like him. Not ginger though. Miss that.
“I know! Me too! I never thought I’d say that.”
I always liked your hair.
The Doctor blushed.
And that.
The Doctor smiled.
And that too.
He laughed.
Oh gods, that the most. It’s blue again. Not pale like it was before. Brilliant blue just like your stupid TARDIS.
The Doctor swallowed, trying hard to not cry. “I missed you so much, Kosch.” He felt the Master wince at his old name. “You might not want to accept it, but you feel different. Like you again.”
They’re gone, the Master said so softly the Doctor almost didn’t hear.
“The drums?”
The Master nodded. I don’t just mean quieted. I mean gone. They went when Rassilon went.
“I hate him even more now than I did during the War,” the Doctor said. “How could he have done that to you?”
He fucking ruined our lives.
“Nope. Not our lives, just part of our past. Our lives can still be ahead of us.”
If you hurry up and build the damn device, anyway, the Master said gruffly, trying to hide the sniffle that had escaped him.
It took another three days of steady work to almost finish the device. He left it on the bench nearly complete. And then he did something he hated to do. He began to pull back from the mindscape, to close doors and climb back over walls.
What are you doing? There was an edge of panic in the Master’s voice. Don’t want me to see, huh?
“No. You can see. Once I’ve finished. I need to do this next part on my own.” He shut the last door. “I’ll be back soon.” He exited his mindscape for the first time in over a month.
~~~
“I’m back.” The Doctor reentered his mindscape once the TARDIS landed on the planet he had chosen to be New Gallifrey. It had twin red suns, only one moon though, and a more temperate climate. And no sentient life to be forever outsiders. It would do perfectly.
Don’t do that again!
“I won’t. Ready?”
Of course.
The Doctor put the finishing touch on the device, a bright red toggle light switch from Earth, and wired it to the polarizing matrix. “There.”
Oh that just figures.
“I would’ve gone for a button, but the switch works better. On for opening, off for closing.” He grinned. The Master rolled his eyes.
Fine. Fine. Just get me out of here.
The Doctor hesitated.
WHAT NOW?
“Are you going to behave?”
Yes.
The Doctor raised a skeptical eyebrow.
Oh fuck. I don’t know. I don’t know who I am anymore without that damn noise in my head. What’s me and what’s it? No idea. Is that honest enough for you?
The Doctor grinned. “Yep.” He closed his eyes, threw the switch and then as fast as he could, he turned it off again.
He squinted open his eyes and saw the Master standing in front of him. Before he could move, the Doctor was swept up into a crushing kiss.
“Owed you that,” the Master said breathlessly. He looked around the console room. “Where’s everybody else?”
He pressed a button and the TARDIS doors both opened. “New Gallifrey. Population...” He looked at the display. “Four hundred eighty seven Time Lords, zero outlanders and Gallifreyans, and three Daleks.”
Indeed, the Master could see the small crowd milling about outside the door. The Daleks huddled together, ludicrously shouting ‘Exterminate.’ One of the Chancellery Guard open rapid fire. The three Daleks stood smoldering and broken.
“Shall we go out and tell them what happened?” the Doctor asked.
The Master reached over to the console and pushed the button that had opened the door. It closed again. “Hell no!”
Laughing, the Doctor flipped a switch and the TARDIS began grinding, fading from view, leaving the Time Lords and New Gallifrey to their own devices.
Series | Arc: Love Letters | EoT
Age | Sequence: 908 | 1/?
Prompt: none
Author: von_gelmini
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Ten/Simm!Master, Theta/Koschei (in past)
Rating: R
Word Count: 4941
Warnings: language, one kiss
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. I am not writing this for profit.
Thanks to the_redjay for beta'ing the first half of this and giving me the confidence to not pitch it in the bin :)
A/N: I know this isn't what I was supposed to be writing, but it's what came. I just can't manage to write this series in anything remotely like linear style. It comes to me all wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. The stories that are next in Warp/Weft, Drax, and Vickizarya will be coming eventually. Just gotta wait for their muses to speak up. Sorry if that's frustrating.
Nowhen
“You made me!” The Master shouts, focusing the energy into his hands. He counts the beat, screaming, driving each bolt into the hearts of the Lord President. The world goes white around him. A roar fills his ears. It is the cry of Gallifrey, the scream of the Time Lords. And then there is nothing.
~~~
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
If there is nothing, then where is the ‘nothing’ coming from? That ‘nothing’ is a something, isn’t it?
Nothing.
Stop that! If I can hear it, it can’t be nothing.
------
‘I can hear it?’ What? Is there an ‘I?’
------
There most definitely is an ‘I.’
------
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
What the fuck?
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
------
Drums?
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
------
No. Listen. Not drums. Listen.
Me. Listen.
Duh.Duh.Duh.Dum.
Listen.
My Hearts.
------
Quiet.
Quiet. Finally quiet.
------
Nowhere.
Here, stupid.
Nowhere.
Fuck that! It’s not ‘nothing.’ It’s not ‘nowhere.’ There wouldn’t be an ‘I’ if it was.
Maybe there isn’t.
I can think ‘I’, so obviously there is an ‘I.’
------
Nowhen.
Now that might be true. How long?
Nowhen.
LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT LETMEOUT
-------
I’ve escaped worse than this!
(I have, haven’t I?)
Yes. You have.
-------
Wait a minute. ‘You said you’ I’m not alone. Some ‘one’ has to be there to call me a ‘you.’
Yes.
Well, get me the FUCK out of HERE!
I’m trying.
Try harder, you idiot!
~~~
The Doctor left them all behind, said his farewells. The song of the Ood brought him home. To his TARDIS. To the only thing left of his world. Alone. Still clinging to life. Still fighting. Not fair! Sadness. Tears. Pain. Artron energy flowed from the Doctor, filling the console room. His regeneration was nearing its end. Soon “he” would be gone.
“I don’t wanna go.”
The TARDIS opened her console. She opened every door, every panel. She took and she took and she took. Left just enough. Just enough. Not too much. Just enough. He’s not ready. Take more. He’s not finished. Take more. Save him! Her circuits overloaded. Explosions shuddered her systems. Flames tore through her. She ejected pieces of herself. Anything. Save him! Stripped herself to her bones. Save him! The TARDIS screamed through spacetime.
She hadn’t known she could scream.
“What?” the Doctor exclaimed. “What?” He whipped his head around, taking in the chaotic scene. “What!”
He ran wildly, closing panels, pressing buttons, stretching arms and legs to do as many things at once as he could. The Doctor didn’t dare look at what he was doing. Didn’t dare look into the heart of the TARDIS. He didn’t need to look, though. He knew her controls better than his own body. (His own body? Later!) There, with the mallet! He struck. There. That lever to the right. Farther... farther... there! The roaring in his ears became quieter until he heard the familiar grind that told him the TARDIS was okay. She hadn’t torn herself apart. Good old girl. The Doctor collapsed onto the deck, unconscious.
The TARDIS shuddered into control at his hands. She slipped into the Vortex, hanging there in nowherewhen. She would need rift energy soon. For now though, she rested. He rested. He would wake before she needed him. He would! (Wouldn’t he?) The TARDIS was... frightened?
~~~
His subjective sense of time told the Doctor he had been unconscious for two days. He reached a thought to see how long it had been, but he couldn’t sense the larger flow of spacetime. He was in the Vortex. He opened his eyes slowly. The TARDIS was quiet, lights dim, her systems resting. The smallest of hums reassured him she was still alive. He spread his hand across the floor, caressing her. He felt her systems begin to come back online. The lights in the control room brightened. He blinked and looked at his hand.
His hand!
The Doctor sprang to his feet. He splayed his hands in front of him. They were definitely his hands. Same ones he’d been looking at before. Something went wrong with his regeneration. A tug of panic. Was he still dying? Would it - would he - all come apart? He took a deep breath. Felt fine. “Mi mi mi mi,” he said, testing his voice. It was the same and just fine. He touched his face. Fine. Listened to his body sounds. All fine. He felt strong, not like he had just regenerated.
“What did you do, girl?” he asked, stroking the TARDIS. “I’m still here.”
Still here. Still here. Still here. Still here. He felt the TARDIS shimmer with happiness. “I don’t wanna go.” She echoed his words back to him.
In all his regenerations, he had never said that before. He was always ready. Regretful to be sure, but ready. She had nearly destroyed herself giving him what he wanted. He felt tears well in his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, caressing her again. He bounced back with a smile. “And don’t you ever, ever do that again!” He grinned from ear to ear. “Now, let’s take care of you.” He punched in coordinates and they moved into spacetime again.
~~~
"Doc!" For a moment, Jack thought he must be dreaming. "I thought you... well, you had changed."
"Not this time. Still me." The Doctor looked around. This place was worse than the last. "Still hanging around dive bars?"
Jack shot him a look. "What would you know about it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Where were you?" he accused. "It was..."
"I know. I'm so sorry," the Doctor said sincerely. "I couldn't. Fixed point in time."
"What does that mean to you anymore. You're the last one. You could've been there!"
The Doctor nodded. "I could've."
Jack looked at him, tears threatening to pour from his eyes. "Why then?"
The Doctor closed his eyes for just a moment, sighing. "Nothing I could tell you would be enough. I could've, but I didn't. There were reasons. I just hope you can forgive me."
"I don't know." Jack looked into the Doctor's eyes, old eyes that had known infinite sorrows. "Yes. I forgive you." It was still a raw gaping wound of pain, but Jack knew that eventually it would fade. It always did. It always would. The only constant in his life would be the Doctor, a being as near-immortal as himself. He took a deep breath. "You travelling with anyone now?"
The Doctor shook his head.
"Want some company?"
The Doctor grinned and Jack grinned back. "Let's go."
~~~
It took Jack some time, in bits and pieces that the Doctor let slip, but eventually he found out what happened after he'd left Earth.
"And is he dead now?" Jack asked, the anger and hate barely disguised in his voice.
"No. And yes," the Doctor said sadly. "They're all gone this time. He saved my life, Jack. At the end, he..." the Doctor trailed off.
Jack would never understand how despite everything the Master had done, the Doctor still forgave him. He thought about it. Maybe he would. After 900 years, everyone he knew gone, maybe he would.
"Where is he then?" Jack asked, more kindly.
"Time Lock." The Doctor turned and suddenly gave him a smile. "Where to next? I know this great planet, just a little one, hardly worth mentioning..."
Jack laughed. "Lead on." A fine pair they were. Two broken beings, out of time, trying desperately to find a thread of hope to grasp, alone together.
After a while, the Doctor could tell Jack was getting restless. "Back home, Jack?" he asked.
Jack nodded. "Torchwood... It'll need rebuilding. You can't always be there and the Earth needs it, Doc." He paused. "And I need it."
~~~
The Doctor slipped the TARDIS back into the Vortex. He rarely came out into spacetime these days. There seemed little point. I shouldn't have fought regeneration, he thought. A new body, a new perspective, might've done good. Instead, he wandered the TARDIS aimlessly, endlessly. She tried to keep him busy. New rooms appeared, new problems to be worked on. But she knew he was deeply unhappy, as unhappy as he'd been right after his ninth regeneration, after the Time War, before he found Rose.
Nothing.
The Doctor sat bolt upright in his bed. A dream. A nightmare, but at a distance with no fear. Not actual nothingness, but a word, a thought not his own.
Nothing.
And then it faded.
The Doctor suddenly found himself standing on the wall, the floor and ceiling to the right and left of him. "What the...?"
He climbed out of his room and worked his way to the control room. "What's the matter girl?" he asked from his perch on the rail near the console. Orientation circuits had blown completely off. He could see the dark char where they used to be. One of the few parts he did not already have onboard. He gave the console a suspicious look. "Well, I guess we'll just have to go get a replacement. And of course one of the best places to look just happens to be Earth. Not very subtle, you know." He thought he felt the TARDIS laugh.
~~~
Avoiding all the places with bad memories on Earth. That was getting harder to do. He'd been so many places and lost so many friends. But the parts needed for the orientation circuits were eventually found. It was a lovely day and he hesitated to go back to the TARDIS. He wandered the London streets doing his favorite passtime -- people watching. Humans were so amazing, every one of them.
He passed the department store in which he'd first met Rose. It was all rebuilt. Stopping by one of the display windows, he reached his hand out and touched it. Maniquins in the window. Maniquins chasing the two of them. "Run." he muttered to himself. The first thing he'd told her to do. Run. It was something he was good at. Running away. Isn't that what he was doing now? He had all of time and space before him and he was sitting in the Vortex, moping. Not what any of his lost companions would want him to do.
He turned and headed back to the TARDIS. After he'd repaired the orientation circuits, he stood at the console. Setting the appropriate dials and levers, he stood with his hand above the button. "Take me somewhere, girl. Somewhere interesting." He pressed the randomizer. Sitting back on the jump seat, he stretched his legs out, propping his feet on the console. He leaned his head back and smiled. He might not have a new body, but he had a new life. It was time to live it.
Nowhere. Nowhere.
He'd been daydreaming, watching the TARDIS pillar moving hypnotically up and down.
Nowhen.
His thoughts still drifted. It was an odd turn of phrase, but a common one on Gallifrey. A Time Lord would use it. But he was the last.
Wasn't he?
LET ME OUT!
The cry jolted him out of his seat.
LET ME OUT!
It echoed in his mind over and over again. Panicked screams coming from somewhere. He almost recognized the voice. It was just out of reach.
He felt a deep pang of lonliness as something buried deep inside the dark corners of his mind was touched. Something that hadn't been touched in centuries.
"Koschei?" he whispered. He closed his eyes. Inside the construct of his mind, he put his hand on a thick stone wall. Solid, well built and plastered tight over the years. He knew what lay behind it. That was one memory he tried hard to never, ever revisit. Of all his losses, that one was just too painful to bear.
But that voice. He recognized it. It couldn't be. The Master was gone. Locked in with Rassilon and the other Time Lords. Unreachable. Nothing could escape the barrier, not even a thought, not even a touch on a bond walled off and buried miles deep in the lost sands of the Gallifreyan desert.
I've escaped worse than this! Haven't I? the voice asked.
"Yes. You have," he said.
The voice was plaintive now. Frightened. Not the Master's voice, but one he hadn't heard for 600 years. Koschei's voice. His first voice. The voice from their days at the Academy.
To break through that wall would hurt. It would be unbearably painful. But the Doctor's mind provided a pick leaning a little ways down the wall. He walked to it and hesitated. He wasn't sure he could do it. The pain was so much more than what he felt losing Rose, losing Sarah Jane, losing Jo, losing Jamie. It would shatter him.
He leaned his head against the wall and listened to the screams and cries. Tears welled in his eyes and ran down his face. He hadn't cried so much in any regeneration since his loomling body. He cried easily then. Tears of hurt. Tears of joy. Tears of love.
"Koschei," he said softly, his voice breaking. He felt the reply. A touch that broke the rhythm of his hearts. He felt but didn't hear. Not like the other words. He felt an image of blue. Almost TARDIS blue. The indigo of his eyes when he was still a loomling. The color brought a smile to his lips and a sense of happiness. Blue of the TARDIS. Blue of his eyes. Blue of joy.
With a sigh, he took up the pick and swung it at the wall. By the time he heard stones falling on the other side, he had shed his coat, his jacket, and his tie. He stood there, his sleeves rolled up and his shirt sweat-stained. He didn't yet dare to bend down and look through the hole he'd made. The sands of his home were there. They didn't exist anymore. Nowhere but in his mind. Gods how he missed it. The fields and mountains, the deserts and rivers. All gone now. He'd destroyed it all to save the universe. Sacrificed everything and everyone he knew. Family, friends, strangers, all gone. Lover, husband, friend. That had been gone long before. But now the chance of reunion was forever out of his reach.
Forever. He saw the circles and lines of the word written in Gallifreyan. Forever. How often he'd written that word back then, when he was young, before he really knew what it meant. Forever. Forever yours, Koschei.
He bent down and looked through the tiny hole he'd made in the wall. Burnt orange sky, sparkling ruby sand shot through with gold from the light of the suns. Gallifrey. With the pick he made the hole large enough to crawl through.
In the distance, he saw the thick chain of their life together. Theta and Koschei. The Doctor and the Master. The links lay broken and cut and scattered in a line atop the sand, stretching in both directions as far as he could see. He sat beside the line.
Wait a minute. ‘You said you’ I’m not alone. Some ‘one’ has to be there to call me a ‘you.’
"Yes"
Well, get me the FUCK out of HERE!
"I’m trying."
Try harder, you idiot!
He nearly laughed. That was just so him.
Down far beneath the broken chain, he knew there was another. Delicate and golden and unbreakable. Not time nor emnity could shatter it. That just drove it deeper away, but it would be there forever. Until the end of tim he'd pledged. Was that why he fought so hard against Rassilon's plan? The end of time would break that chain, and deep in his hearts he still never wanted it broken. He always hoped that some day, some how, he and the Master would be together again.
He put both of his hands along the broken line and reached out for the bond, for the symbol of the oath they made when they married. He cleared his mind and searched below the sand. It was there but buried deep.
Starting with the Master’s sacrifice to save him from Rassilon, The Doctor worked his way back through his memories. The battles that raged across time and the universe. The rare and brief interludes when they gave into their lust and were together despite themselves. He brushed away each remembrance as if he were brushing away layers of sand.
He came to their first battle and its result. When the young Doctor couldn’t bear to stay on Gallifrey one second more. When he stole his exiled father-in-law’s TARDIS. When he knew he couldn’t stay with the Master, his Koschei slipping ever farther away into his madness.
He led that memory for a long time, gentling his younger self. His leaving had turned the Master into the mad villain he’d become. He finally admitted it. At last forgiving - not the Master, but himself. He drew his loomling body into an embrace, tearfully whispering comfort and forgiveness into Theta’s ear. He let Theta fade from his mind, back into his proper place in his memories, a little less painful to touch, to revisit.
The thin golden chain once buried so deeply, glittered on top of the ruby sand beside the shatters of the larger. It ran warm and pulsing beneath his palms. He closed his fingers around it. Fear and panic filled him.
Theta!
“Koschei.”
Let me out.
“Where are you?”
I don’t know. It’s cold and it’s white and it’s out of time. I’m nowhere, nowhen.
“You’re in the Time Lock.”
No. I’m alone. None of them are with me. No Time Lords. No Daleks.
The Doctor thought on the problem. He’d seen the Master disappear into the Time Lock when it closed. Hadn’t he? If so, the others should be there. The Master should be trapped forever experiencing the unending repetition of Time War.
“No Time Lords,” he muttered to himself.
What the fuck did I just say? No. No Time Lords.
“Oh, yes, right. Well,” he drew out the word. “I suppose you’re in the space between.”
The space between what?
“Well, the space between reality and the Time War. You’re stuck in the Time Lock itself.”
Fantastic. Now break it and Get. Me. Out!
“Umm. Can’t.”
What?
“If I break the Time Lock, they all come back. The war comes back.
Well yeah, if you break it with a hammer, you dolt.
“What?”
Rassilon, Theete! Hmm. Somehow that curse just doesn’t work for me anymore.
The Doctor felt the Master smile. “Me either.” He smiled back.
Fuck then. Nice short harsh to-the-point. Sort of the universal curse, don’t you think?
“Yes. Now what were you going to say after the curse?”
Ah yes. Let’s see. Fuck, Theete (yeah, that works). Use a little finesse this time. Pretend you’re me.
He felt the Master grin from ear to ear. “I didn’t exactly have a lot of time when I made the damn thing,” he muttered, piqued by the Master’s barb. “The Daleks had begun to take Gallifrey itself and Rassilon started in with his insane plan.”
He’s gone now.
The Doctor felt the hatred in the Master.
He’s gone and you have time. Figure something out.
“Would be easier if you helped, Kosch. You know you were always better at temporal mechanics than I was.
That is not my name, the Master said wearily and with a much-put-out eyeroll. Whatever. I have to rescue myself. You’re bloody useless.
“Not useless, Master. You need me out here working on the gadgetry and gizmos we’ll need to extract you and not crack open the Time Lock. And besides,” the Doctor smiled, “I’m better at the maths than you.”
Are not.
“Maybe not back then, but while you’ve been wasting your time with your daft plots to take over the universe, I have been known to crack a book now and again.”
Oh all right. Can we get started? It’s kind of cold and white and nowhen in here.
“White boards, lunch and a lot of strong hot coffee.” He stroked the TARDIS and the things he needed appeared in the console room. But he also felt her wariness and disapproval. “It’s Koschei, old girl. I can sense it. He feels different. We can’t just leave him there.” Why not? he felt her ask. “I know he hurt you.” The TARDIS shuddered at the memory of her year spent as a paradox machine. “I won’t let that happen again. I promise.” She calmed back down and the Doctor ate his sandwich, thinking on the problem.
A few days later, and nearly a dozen psychic white boards were filled with equations, scattered around the console room. The Doctor paced around their circle. He was close. Each time his solution came a little closer. But each time it fell apart with the inevitable breaking of the Time Lock, and that he couldn’t allow. Not even to rescue his husband.
He paced the circle again, this time with the Master’s presence in his mind, him double checking the equation.
Look, would it be such a bad thing if the Time Lock broke?
The Doctor glared at the Master.
No, I mean it. With Rassilon gone, the rest of the High Council might be more reasonable.
“And the Daleks?”
Oh.
“Yeah, oh.”
What about figuring out how to minimize what comes through between the time you get me out and you get the Time Lock resealed?
“That’s...” the Doctor started to dismiss the Master’s suggestion out of hand, but then he stopped his circling in front of the sixth white board. Mentally he erased everything after. “Brilliant! Bloody brilliant. I could kiss you!”
You are such a fucking puppy this regeneration, the Master said with a chuckle. Get me out of here and I’ll hold you to that kiss.
“Oh, yes,” he said, and was distracted by the equation again.
Another week passed and the white boards multiplied by two. Too long a line for a circle; they formed a spiral now, which annoyed the Doctor because he couldn’t follow the problem without backtracking. He took a break and went to the console. A dozen buttons and levers and such later, the console room nearly doubled in size. “I know, I know. We’ll stop in Cardiff and refuel as soon as I’m done.” He rearranged the boards and began circling again. “I am not going to wear a hole in your decking. It’s impossible to do that, you know? It tickles? You’re silly.” The TARDIS’s lights flickered trillingly. “Oh all right.” The Doctor came to a halt and leaned on the console. “There. No more pacing.”
He had stopped where the beginning and end of the equation met. “You’re very good,” he said admiringly. The tails of the equation were a perfect mirror reflection of one another. “Kosch, look at this,” his construct said.
What now? Oh, hold on a minute. The Master turned the 3D projection model around on its diagonal axis. If I connect a spatial regulator here... the part appeared where he wanted it. And then a non-linear tesseract extrapolator opposite and then wire between them and then...
“Reverse the polarity once you’re free. How many do you think?”
Will escape? The Doctor nodded. The Master gave a sheepish shrug. A few hundred? The Doctor looked skeptical. Certainly no more than a few hundred... thousand.
“Gallifreyans, Daleks, or both?”
I can try to put a filter on it. Can’t guarantee it will work in the time we’ve got, though. Which would you prefer?
The Doctor bit his lip. His first instinct was to say Gallifreyans of course. But if they were still bent on destroying time, even without Rassilon? Daleks he knew he could defeat. Some had already escaped, hadn’t they? And he dealt with them. No, Rose and his meta-crisis self had dealt with them. He had failed each time.
“Time Lords.”
Sentimental fool. They’ll go right back to their meddling non-meddling, you know. Pompous bastards.
“They won’t have Gallifrey.”
They’ll just found a new one.
“Maybe it’ll be different.
The Master paused in thought a minute and then gave a satisfied laugh. Maybe it will. He made a few more adjustments to the bio-filter. It would slow down the reaction time, letting a small percentage of Daleks through, but it would be worth it. Ready. It’s a lot of information and you have to get it all correct. So don’t muddle up your mind while I send the plans.
“Muddle up my mind,” the Doctor muttered, insulted.
Like that.
His construct gave the Master a gesture he’d picked up in London.
The Master laughed. How rude!
The Doctor had the TARDIS bring up another psychic white board. He sat cross-legged on the mesh decking and opened his mind, careful not to muddle it up. The plans flowed through him and were immediately drawn on the board.
He began digging through the TARDIS storerooms for parts. He dragged them into a lab and started to piece it all together.
If you weld it like that, it won’t hold.
“Long enough.”
It won’t hold.
“If I do it the way you want, it will melt the transposition circuit.”
Pause. Oh.
“Once I’ve got the shielding on the circuit, I’ll redo the welds.”
Good.
It took several weeks before he came across a part that he didn’t have. “I’ll be back. I have to go pick up the switch for the loop lock on Trilauria.”
Hello? Mental construct here. You’re not going anywhere without me, you idiot.
“Oh. Yeah. Forgot. You seem so real.”
I am real.
Right.
The Master shook his head. Go get the bloody part, Theete. Gods you remind me so much of him this incarnation. You’re all scatterbrained and brilliant and hyper. You even look a little like him. Not ginger though. Miss that.
“I know! Me too! I never thought I’d say that.”
I always liked your hair.
The Doctor blushed.
And that.
The Doctor smiled.
And that too.
He laughed.
Oh gods, that the most. It’s blue again. Not pale like it was before. Brilliant blue just like your stupid TARDIS.
The Doctor swallowed, trying hard to not cry. “I missed you so much, Kosch.” He felt the Master wince at his old name. “You might not want to accept it, but you feel different. Like you again.”
They’re gone, the Master said so softly the Doctor almost didn’t hear.
“The drums?”
The Master nodded. I don’t just mean quieted. I mean gone. They went when Rassilon went.
“I hate him even more now than I did during the War,” the Doctor said. “How could he have done that to you?”
He fucking ruined our lives.
“Nope. Not our lives, just part of our past. Our lives can still be ahead of us.”
If you hurry up and build the damn device, anyway, the Master said gruffly, trying to hide the sniffle that had escaped him.
It took another three days of steady work to almost finish the device. He left it on the bench nearly complete. And then he did something he hated to do. He began to pull back from the mindscape, to close doors and climb back over walls.
What are you doing? There was an edge of panic in the Master’s voice. Don’t want me to see, huh?
“No. You can see. Once I’ve finished. I need to do this next part on my own.” He shut the last door. “I’ll be back soon.” He exited his mindscape for the first time in over a month.
~~~
“I’m back.” The Doctor reentered his mindscape once the TARDIS landed on the planet he had chosen to be New Gallifrey. It had twin red suns, only one moon though, and a more temperate climate. And no sentient life to be forever outsiders. It would do perfectly.
Don’t do that again!
“I won’t. Ready?”
Of course.
The Doctor put the finishing touch on the device, a bright red toggle light switch from Earth, and wired it to the polarizing matrix. “There.”
Oh that just figures.
“I would’ve gone for a button, but the switch works better. On for opening, off for closing.” He grinned. The Master rolled his eyes.
Fine. Fine. Just get me out of here.
The Doctor hesitated.
WHAT NOW?
“Are you going to behave?”
Yes.
The Doctor raised a skeptical eyebrow.
Oh fuck. I don’t know. I don’t know who I am anymore without that damn noise in my head. What’s me and what’s it? No idea. Is that honest enough for you?
The Doctor grinned. “Yep.” He closed his eyes, threw the switch and then as fast as he could, he turned it off again.
He squinted open his eyes and saw the Master standing in front of him. Before he could move, the Doctor was swept up into a crushing kiss.
“Owed you that,” the Master said breathlessly. He looked around the console room. “Where’s everybody else?”
He pressed a button and the TARDIS doors both opened. “New Gallifrey. Population...” He looked at the display. “Four hundred eighty seven Time Lords, zero outlanders and Gallifreyans, and three Daleks.”
Indeed, the Master could see the small crowd milling about outside the door. The Daleks huddled together, ludicrously shouting ‘Exterminate.’ One of the Chancellery Guard open rapid fire. The three Daleks stood smoldering and broken.
“Shall we go out and tell them what happened?” the Doctor asked.
The Master reached over to the console and pushed the button that had opened the door. It closed again. “Hell no!”
Laughing, the Doctor flipped a switch and the TARDIS began grinding, fading from view, leaving the Time Lords and New Gallifrey to their own devices.