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Something was off about O.
He still looked exactly like he had when she first met him, but something was different. He felt off. Smelt off? Hard to describe Time Lord senses with the crude human language but that was as close as she could get with putting the feeling into words.
So she kept an eye on him. Even when she invited him into the Tardis, when she told him he was brilliant. He really was brilliant. Perhaps too brilliant for a human.
Then came the plane and she finally found out what that weird buzz at the back of her head was. Another Time Lord on earth. Even hidden the Master was impossible to miss. She could have left it at that. She could have explained her weird feeling about O with him being the Master, thwarted his evil plan and forgot about it but she didn’t. There was more to this. She knew it.
So she kept watching. He banished her to another dimension, she escaped and then their chase across time and space began. She kept looking, kept searching for the cause of this feeling. Even while he attacked those people with his tissue compressor, even while he told her to kneel.
Then he knelt before her too, told her to stay dead if he arranged for her to die. While he said that, his fingers were tapping a beat to the ground. Normally she would have ignored it, written it off as his usual rhythm of four but she didn’t. She watched and listened.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Taaap. Taaap. Taaap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Three short, three long, three short.
SOS
Suddenly everything made sense.
Why O had felt so off, why he was doing this after all that had changed while he was Missy, why he acted so crazy again, why he pretended not to care, why there was true fear in his eyes.
Even as he lied, his eyes spoke the truth.
So she did the same and even as she taunted him and made her escape, her eyes told him she was coming for him if he only held on. And she knew he understood.
Their chase went on. Every time they met, there would be two conversations at the same time. One full of spite and hate, spoken with words and actions, and another one, spoken only with their eyes.
He had nice eyes in this incarnation. Pity they were full of such sadness. She wanted to make him better. Wanted to make him smile again.
“Soon “, her eyes promised and the corner of his mouth would lift into just a hint of a smile.
It was hard to exchange information only through eyes. She did not know exactly what forced him to do this. She only knew bits and pieces she managed to find along the way, hidden in the dark brown of his eyes. She knew he did not want this, did not want to hurt her. She saw the glint of metal when his sleave lifted just a tiny bit while he moved his arms.
They were keeping him bound.
She did not know how, did not know who ‚they‘ were but she knew they would pay for hurting those she loved.
“Soon “, his eyes promised.
So she waited and continued their dance as if nothing was wrong. Their actions and insults meant nothing though. They put just enough into it to convince those around them. Only they knew the truth, spoken with their eyes.
Their actions meant nothing but they could still hurt. Her eyes apologized as the nazis dragged him away and she knew he forgave her. She still felt guilty for it. He had already suffered too much. Still she watched and waited and continued their dance until they met again and she could make everything right.
And then that moment finally came.
They were in that warehouse where he hid the figure that allowed the Kasaavin to enter this dimension. Way too obvious. She liked to think that even if she hadn´t been watching, she would have noticed that something was wrong now. She was propably lying to herself there but she didn´t care.
Normally she would have made a big speech now about what she had heard the Master admit on the Eiffel tower but what would be the point. He had been lying anyway. She didn´t even tell them about the virus she had placed in their machine during her journey through the past. In fact, she didn´t acknowledge them at all and just went straight to the Master who had just finished complaining about having to live through the 20th century.
Trusting her eyes to convey her apology both for that and for what she was about to do, she reached into her pockets (god, she loved having pockets) and took out her improvised taser. 10.000 V. Enough to kill a human but just right to fry all electronics connected to a Time Lord but not enough to kill him. Not exactly pleasant but very effective.
And then she zapped the Master with it. He let out a surprised scream and fell to the floor. His clothes were smoking.
“WHAT THE HELL?!”, he yelled. Was he still being controlled? She had no idea. So she zapped him again.
“OWWW!!!”
“Are you yourself again?!”
“BLOODY HELL, YES!!! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE WITH THAT BLOODY THING!!”
Pity, she had sorta hoped for three times´ the charm situation but this was even better. She didn´t hesitate. She dropped the taser where she was standing and rushed in to hug her old friend. His clothing smelt of smoke and his hair was sticking up like, well, like he had just been tased by someone but she didn´t care.
She had her friend back.
“Excuse me, what the hell is going on?”
Oh, right. Her friends. This probably looked really weird right now. Just waltz in after being taken to another dimension, Kasaavin mysteriously vanish back into the statue, tase the person who blew up the plane you were on and then hug them. Pretty weird. Her typical Wednesday. She should still probably explain.
She vaguely gestured between herself, the Master and them.
“Uhhhh... really long story but he is actually my oldest friend and was only being controlled but I electrocuted him, so he’s fine now.”
That was a great explanation. Really on point. She was proud of herself. Unfortunately the others did not appear to agree with her. Three equally confused faces looked back at her. The Master had to stifle laughter but then cut of with a wince. That got her a tiny surge of satisfaction that was quickly replaced with worry and a little smidge of guilt. Electrocution really sucked.
Graham cleared his throat and rescued them from the awkward silence.
“I honestly have no idea what’s going on but for now I’m just going to accept this.”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, we don’t want to ask any prying questions about you and your friend.”
Yaz giggled. “Yeah, your ,friend’.”
The Doctor frowned. She was missing something. They too were having two different conversations at once, though theirs involved eyebrows instead of eyes. She had the feeling she was supposed to understand what they were talking about but she really didn’t. The Master seemed to do though. She’d ask him later.
For now she put that particular mystery to the side and focussed on the much more interesting mystery of what the hell was going on and how it involved the Master.
“Okay, now. What happened? “
He groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. He gestured vaguely at everything too. It seemed to be a Gallifreyan thing. Or just a Them thing.
” Time Lords. I went back to Gallifrey after the thing with the colony ship. My own past incarnation killed me; can you believe that? And you took the Tardis too, so I wanted to steal a new one. Everything was a mess back home. Apparently they had found some big secret in the Matrix about a ´Timeless Child‘ or something. Everyone was loosing their minds. Still managed to catch me though. Slapped this cuff on me and told me I had to kill the Doctor. No idea why. “
For a minute she was tempted to laugh. She could totally picture his past self doing that. They had all been a bit crazy. Then what he had said truly sunk in. The Time Lords had meddled in his life again. Had hurt him again. After all they had already done. After the Time War. After the Drums.
Her eyes were dark as storm clouds as she paced around the now empty warehouse. Every trace of the cheerful personality she had displayed just a few moments ago was gone. Don´t let that fool you. If you hurt her friends, she will stop at nothing to get revenge. In moments like this you really saw why they called her the oncoming storm. Their conversation switched to Gallifreyan. No need to bother her friends with this.
“I’m going to kill them. I’m going to wipe out the whole planet for what they did to you. First the drums and now this! “
The Master just sighed.
,,You’re overreacting, dear. Besides, you’d have to find them first. They hid the planet in some kind of pocket dimension. It now appears to be destroyed whenever you go there. They seemed to be really scared of something. Of someone. Propably whoever that Timeless Child is. “
She could always trust him to talk her down when she got like this. Just as she would always stop him when he went too far. It was just what they did. Constantly pushing each other up and balancing each other out again. Like a dance.
She knew he was right. There was nothing she could, nothing she should do. Knowing that didn’t stop it from frustrating her though. Especially when his words struck a chord in her mind that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Now it was the Doctor’s turn to sigh.
"I know I heard that name somewhere before. I just can’t remember where. But it’s no use now.”
She clapped her hands and turned to her friends who were just awkwardly standing around and seemed unsure of what they should make of this situation. Her usual smile was back in place as she continued their conversation in English as is nothing had happened.
“Come on, guys! Back to the Tardis! You now have two amazing aliens to guide you around! “
THE END