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The explosion licked at his heels as he ducked through the doorway of the TARDIS he had stashed just outside the Matrix Chamber. It wasn’t happy with him, making its opinion of his actions quite clear in the flashing lights and shrill noises it started up as soon as he entered. “Yeah, I know you hate me.” He muttered, shutting the door and running to the console. “But right now, you need me to get you out of here, so you’re going to have to deal with me.” He hastily flew through the startup sequence, slamming down the dematerialization lever. He could feel the impact of the explosion outside buffeting against the TARDIS’s shields, but he was just in time.
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The familiar sounds of a TARDIS in flight filled the console room as she slumped against the floor. Tears filled her eyes, splashing to the floor. She brushed them away angrily. “Why am I even crying?” She said out loud, forgetting there was no one around to hear her. “He was trying to kill me and destroy the universe. Why should I care if he’s dead?” Despite her protests, the tears continued to fall until they were interrupted by the impact of a sudden collision. Jumping up, she ran back to the console just in time to grab on as they were thrown violently out of the vortex. The landing was rough enough to dislodge her grip, and she was thrown across the floor, head hitting one of the pillars as everything went black.
When she woke up, the room was filled with a thin film of smoke, but nothing seemed to be actively on fire. Her head was aching, but she pushed the pain away to deal with later. The TARDIS was the priority right now. She dove into the wires under the console, repairing and reconnecting them. As she worked, the air cleared, and the high-pitched whining the ship had been making since they landed died away.
It didn’t take long to finish the repairs, and soon she reemerged, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “There we go.” She announced, patting the console. “I’ll just give you some time to reset, and you’ll be good as new. I’ll go and have a look around, see where we landed.” She stepped through the doorway, squinting against the bright sunlight. Before her eyes could adjust, she ran directly into someone in front of her, instinctively grabbing their arms to keep herself from falling. Thick fabric crumpled under her grip, and she looked up to see a familiar face glaring down at her. Drawing back quickly, she straightened, ready for a fight.
The Master laughed mockingly. “I’m not going to fight you, Doctor. I’m too tired. Why don’t you just get back on your ship and fly away? Leave me alone for once.”
“First of all, you’re the one who never leaves me alone. It’s not my fault. And I can’t just ‘fly away’ right now. Someone crashed into my TARDIS. I’m guessing that was you?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “Probably. I stole a TARDIS, and I’m pretty sure it hates me.”
“I can’t imagine why.” She remarked dryly, and he tried to stifle a laugh. “Is your ship still working?”
“No. I already repaired what I could, and the reset will do the rest, but it’s going to take about fourteen hours.”
She smiled up at him proudly. “Mine will be ready in twelve.”
“I guess we’re stuck here until they’re done, then. Why don’t you go over there, and I’ll go wait over here?” He marched over to the side he had picked for himself. She debated leaving him alone for a minute, but ended up following him, plopping down gracelessly on the ground next to him. “Of course.” He muttered, turning his back to her.
“We’re stuck here for a while. Don’t you want to talk?”
“Only you, Doctor. No, I don’t want to talk. I just want to be left alone until my ship finishes its repairs, and I can leave this place.”
“Ok.” She said quietly, wrapping her arms around her knees, fighting to keep the hurt out of her voice. She had hoped this could be a second chance for them, but if he wasn’t willing to talk, there wasn’t much she could do.
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It took approximately four hours before she couldn’t take it anymore. She had tried to sleep, but her mind was too busy to relax. The clouds had been entertaining for a while, but the wind had blown them all away an hour ago, and she had been left counting rocks in the riverbed in front of them. Somewhere around twelve thousand the silence had finally gotten to her. Glancing up at her silent companion, she stubbornly set her teeth. He was going to talk to her whether he wanted to or not.
She undid the laces on her boots, kicking them off along with her socks so she could stick her feet in the cool water. The feeling of mud in her toes distracted her for a few minutes, but it didn’t take long before she remembered her purpose. She kicked the water up, watching the way the falling drops sparkled in the sunlight. She did it again, enjoying the feeling as a few of the drops landed on her bare shins, watching them as they rolled down her legs to drop back into the water. The third time, she kicked the water high enough to splash on her face. And all over him.
“Would you stop fidgeting?” She glanced over to see him wiping droplets of water from his skin, face twisted in a sneer. “I know they taught you better than this at the Academy. You are merely waiting, Doctor, not resisting torture. This should not be this hard for you.”
She curled her legs under her, muttering under her breath. This had been her plan, but faced with his anger, it was difficult to stand her ground.
“What was that?” His tone was mocking, exactly as irritating as he no doubt intended it to be. “I couldn’t quite hear you.”
She steeled herself, raising her voice to match his. “I don’t want to sit here and be quiet.” she protested angrily. “It’s too quiet, okay? I hate the quiet. I hate being still. When I’m quiet and still, I have time to think. And I don’t want to think. Besides, this is all your fault. I’m a good pilot. I don’t crash into things. If you hadn’t crashed into us, we wouldn’t be stuck here. If you hadn’t brought the Cybermen to Gallifrey, we wouldn’t have been running away. If you hadn’t lured me to Gallifrey, I wouldn’t have even been there in the first place.” She paused to take a breath, her anger running out and only leaving hurt in its place. “If you hadn’t destroyed our home…”
His anger, it seemed, was just beginning. “Oh, so this is all my fault? All I ever wanted was your attention, Doctor. I just wanted to be your friend again. And what did you do? You left me behind, you trapped me in a vault for a thousand years. You refused to believe in me.”
“And I was right, wasn’t I? I offered for you to stand at my side, practically begged you to stay with me, and you left. You said all you ever wanted was to be friends again, but when I gave you the chance, you threw it away.” She was on her feet now, anger returning. “You left me to die. You tried to kill me. You destroyed our home. How is that wanting to be friends?”
“I tried to come back to you, you know?” Suddenly he was up too, shouting in her face. “I tried to stand with you, and I got shot in the back. I never made it. And by the time I woke up, you were gone. So I tried to make the best of it. I made a life for myself. What do you think I was doing all that time at MI6? I was pretending to be O because I got to spend time with you once. And I kept up the charade because I wanted to see you again. Because occasionally, once every few months, you would remember me and text me. Years I spent like that, living as a human, all because I wanted to pretend I was your friend again.” He threw his hands up in the air, turning away from her, unable to stand still. “And finally I got bored. I missed you. So I went home. And what I found out there nearly drove me mad again. Even destroying them all didn’t stop the anger. I needed you back. So I invented a mystery you would have to solve. Created a problem that would keep you busy for a while. That would keep you with me. And it worked. You came to my home, you wanted me with you. It felt just like old times. And then, I slipped up on that plane. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn’t have noticed, but you were always too smart for me, Doctor.” The self-loathing was back in his voice. “But I had planned for that. I always had contingencies in place, just in case, and I took my chance to get away. I knew you would be fine, and I knew you would follow me.”
“And then you brought the Cybermen to Gallifrey. You turned the Time Lords into their enemies. That was going too far.”
He walked back from where he had paced, reaching out to grab her only to drop his arms before he touched her. “I know. I was so angry with them for what they did to you. I wanted them to suffer, wanted them to go on suffering, forever and ever. I wanted you to be as angry as I was, because I don’t think I can handle this on my own. I know I messed up. I’m sorry.”
Her breath caught at the unfamiliar words. Even when they were children, the Master had hated saying he was sorry for anything. She reached out, drawing him into her arms. He went willingly, collapsing into her hold, the sudden weight nearly knocking her to the ground. “I am angry. I am so angry at all they took from me, everything I’ve lost because of their pointless crusade. But nothing they did to me justifies doing even worse things to them. We have to be better than them.”
It was a long moment before he answered, and when he finally did, his voice was thick with tears. “How? You were always the good one, Doctor. Without you, I don’t know how to be good.”
“Then stay.” She offered impulsively. “Stay with me. I can help you, and I really don’t want to be alone right now.”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t pull away either, and she took that as her answer. She couldn’t help the smile that crept across her face. She wasn’t naive enough to think things would be perfect now, but at long last, she finally had her friend back. It was worth all the pain, all the heartbreak they had gone through, all the work it would take them in the future. It was worth anything.
He was worth anything.