Title: Journey’s End
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: implied Ten/Master
Summary: Picks up at the end of 'The Stolen Earth' - “She was just there to protect you, Doctor.”
Word Count: Approx. 4,000
Warnings: major spoilers up to 30x12, character deaths
A/N: With an episode like that (which I wasn‘t particularly fond of), I just had to try and twist all the foreshadowing/clues to make it into a Doctor/Master reunion.


“I’m sorry, it’s too late. I’m regenerating.”

Then a bright light flooded the room, so strong that Donna couldn’t bear to look at the Doctor. She turned away, shielding her eyes from the sight while trying not to give in to the fear that clutched at her heart. Rose was acting like the end of the world had come again and Donna couldn’t bear it if anything bad happened to the Doctor.

“You’ll protect him, Donna Noble. Just make sure he doesn’t
regenerate near the end, it would ruin everything.”
A switch went off in her head as the man’s voice rang in her ears. Donna couldn’t remember where she heard those words before, but the order resounded through every cell in her body. All the worry and fear slipped away as she straightened from her bent position.

There was work to be done and a Doctor to be saved.

She was dimly aware of Jack and Rose yelling something at her, but Donna couldn’t bring herself to care. The hand at her feet, encased in glass, was the key. Donna bent down with a detached calm, opening the container. His hand felt clammy in her warm palm, the cold a startling contrast with the heat the Doctor was generating.

“That hand’s the key. You’ll know what to do when
the time comes, I’ll make sure of that. It’s perfectly
preserved, with enough traces of regenerative energy left to
heal him before he changes. And you will use it, my dear Donna,
you will.”
Yes, she did know what to do. The knowledge was ingrained in her system like an animalistic instinct. Donna stepped forward, mindless of the heat and the energy that crackled against her skin, and made her Doctor’s flesh meet with a part of him long separated.

***

Something was wrong with the regenerative process. He barely had time to react before a searing pain swept through his body. All the energy imploded around him, forcing its way back inside his body in a wave of gold. The Doctor could feel the unused energy rippling under his skin, healing the wound without changing his body.

His legs gave out from under him at the onslaught. Then hands were on his shoulders, propping him up. A voice, calling to him, registered in his head, growing clearer with every passing second.

The Doctor blinked, his vision sharpening as his body adjusted itself to the unexpected change. Rose hovered right next to him, and he smiled at her tear-stained face, “What happened?”

Her voice was so soft that he almost didn’t hear her answer, “Donna Noble.”

Confusion flittered across his thoughts. He struggled to sit up, turning to face his recent companion with bewilderment painted across his face. Donna was just standing there, staring at him, with a blank look in her eyes that did not sit well with the Time Lord. He dimly registered Jack’s presence, staring at Donna also, body rigid and ready for action.

“Donna?” The Doctor prompted, struggling to his feet, “What did you do?”

A sense of utter dread, one like he hadn’t felt in a long time, coiled in the pit of the Doctor’s stomach as she met his eyes with an empty gaze. “It’s time,” Donna announced, her whispered words echoing around the TARDIS console room. “He told me that when it was assembled, I will achieve my sole purpose.”

She reached into her pocket, causing Jack to jump into action for fear that it was something dangerous. Only the Doctor’s strangled shout prevented him from stopping her. Jack spun towards his friend, “Why?”

The Doctor licked his lips, wetting the dry flesh, “She’s in a trance-like state. Breaking her out of it like that might destroy her mind.”

“So what do we do?” Rose asked, hands wrapped around he Doctor’s arm as she provided him with much needed support.

He didn’t answer for a moment, focusing on Donna as she removed a small box from her pocket, “We wait and see what happens. I should be able to break the trance once I understand what she’s trying to accomplish.”

Donna didn’t appear to take notice of the conversation that took place around her, or the weary way the others stared at her. Her mind was completely focused on the precious object held in her hands. “A perception filter,” she said in a monotonic voice when she opened the box. “He didn’t want me to see it until the time was right.”

“Who didn’t want you to see it?” The Doctor asked in a loud voice, “Donna? What is it?”

She looked at him, acknowledging his presence for the first time since he began talking. A wry smile crossed her face, “Did you know that before I began traveling with you, I used to love to wear red nail polish?”

“What?” The Doctor responded, his perplexity evident in the tone of his voice.

He just managed to see glimpse of what Donna held in her hand as she held it aloft. It was round, almost like a ring, but then all thoughts of that object flew from his mind when she reached for the TARDIS console.

Within seconds, Donna was pressing a series of buttons, pulling levers, and bringing the TARDIS to life. “Stop!” The Doctor shouted in a panic, pulling Rose with him as he lunged for Donna, “Jack, stop her!”

Jack flew into life, grabbing at Donna’s hand in an attempt to wrench her away. He was too late, she shoved the circular object into a part of the TARDIS the Doctor didn’t recognize and all hell broke loose.

***

The ship shook with such a powerful force that Rose felt like it would tear apart at any second. She heard a bell in the distance as the lights began to flicker. Only the Doctor’s hand, gripping hers, offered some comfort as they were thrown around the room like rag dolls.

With a strength she barely knew existed, Rose reached forward to grab Donna’s limp hand. The poor woman had collapsed after instigating whatever this was, but that problem didn’t concern her at the moment.

Donna’s hand was cold.

For a moment, Rose felt real fear. She knew Donna would die soon, while stuck in her own dimension patches of this place’s future appeared on Torchwood’s monitors every so often. This wasn’t the place where Donna died. She fell in another place, going limp as someone said, “She was there to protect you, Doctor.” If she died now, than what would happen to the Doctor?

The limp hand in hers twitched, weakly gripping back. Relief flooded Rose, now she could concentrate on saving the universe and her Doctor.

***

Donna let out a low groan. Her head hurt and the insistent babbling above her didn’t help with the massive migraine she felt coming on. Only when a worried voice called out her name did she bother to crack open her eyes.

The light was almost blinding, but the Doctor’s relieved face helped her deal with it. “What happened?” She wondered out loud, slowly sitting up.

“You can answer that a lot better than we could,” Donna turned to see Jack standing next to her with his arms crossed and a weary expression on his face.

“What?” She reiterated, bringing her attention back towards the Doctor.

He looked worried, “Do you remember anything?”

Donna blinked, contemplating the loaded question in her head before trying to answer it. “You were ’regenerating’ or whatever it was, and then there was a bright light. I’m guessing something went wrong, because that’s all I remember.”

She saw him exchange concerned glances with the other two, and the foreboding feeling in the back of her head intensified, “Doctor, what happened?”

“I,” he began before pulling her to her feet with an obviously fake grin on his face, “I’ll figure out what happened to you once I understand what happened to the TARDIS, since you seem fine right now and she doesn't look so well.”

Jack looked like he was going to protest, but a look from Rose and the Doctor quieted him. Donna watched their silent exchange, wondering if she did anything wrong. Jack was looking at her with a mistrust that didn’t exist before and Rose…

…well, Rose looked like someone just died.

“What the…”

Donna’s attention snapped back towards the Doctor, who was gaping at the screen. She moved next to him, staring at incomprehensible the lines and circles spread across the monitor. Rose asked the question on the tip of her tongue, one that everyone seemed to be repeating at the moment, “What?”

“The planets don’t fit together like an engine, Donna, they are an engine. The Medusa Cascade’s unique position in time was used to generate huge amounts of energy, and the key that started all of this was…” The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, reaching around the console in a frantic attempt to find this 'key'.

She watched as he finally tore his gaze away from the screen to really look, only to find nothing, “It must’ve been a one-time-use only thing, the chemical composition dissolving with the bombardment of so much energy,” the Doctor continued to murmur in a way that suggest he completely forgot about everyone else in the room. “But whoever did that used the TARDIS to channel the energy, and that requires knowledge that no one else has so…”

“Doctor, I’m sure the energy was focused somewhere. Why don’t we just go and check it out?” Jack grinned at the three sets of eyes which turned to stare at him, “I’ll go first if it makes you feel better.”

The Doctor shrugged, smiling, “Sure, why not? It’s a lot more exciting than sitting around here trying to understand it. We’ll probably discover what happened to Donna there too.”

With a renewed energy, he began to furiously work at the controls. Donna turned to Rose, because she knew when the Doctor got like that talking to him was hopeless, “What happened to me?”

Rose offered her a small smile, “You went into a trance and stopped the Doctor from regenerating. Then you instigated the whole energy-thing.”

“I did what?!” Donna yelled as the Doctor stepped back from the console.

Donna forgot her own prolems when she saw the expression on his face. He turned to his companions, serious, “Davros’s ship, that’s where the energy went, straight to the Daleks.”

***

“Someone is creating energy! We must stop them!”

Davros slowly spun around, glancing at the array of monitors in front of him as his children dashed around, “They’re doing what we hoped to accomplish.”

“Wrong. He is doing what you hoped to accomplish.”

All activity stopped at once, every Dalek in the room turning to face the intruder. The man grinned, unconcerned about the hostile aliens surrounding him, “I didn’t expect to land here of all places, but it’ll have to do.” He looked around; drawing something from his pocket and remaining relaxed even when every Dalek’s weapon aimed for him. “It makes sense in a way, since you’ve already set up a feed to the ‘powerhouse’; all the energy did was travel back through the line you set up.”

By this time, many of the Daleks were about to fire, beginning to simultaneously chant “Exterminate!” Davros stopped them by raising his hand. This man intrigued him; an average being could never materialize aboard one of his ships. His curiosity only increased, and caution joined it, as a familiar sound echoed throughout the room.

A large pillar appeared behind the man, who barely spared it a glance. Instead, he remained focused on Davros, the manic grin on his face never fading, “Did you like that little trick? Stattenheim remote controls work wonders, I’m glad I managed to find it on my ship.”

“You are not the Doctor,” Davros pointed out, keeping the worry out of his voice. He thought that all of the Time Lords died in the war. If they still existed then it only meant trouble that he couldn’t afford.

“Wow, you are a genius, aren’t you?” The man replied in a mocking tone, eyes widening in false amazement.

“Our enemies are dead, only the Doctor remains,” the Supreme Dalek affirmed with a confidence suitable to members of his race.

The intruder nodded, “They died all right, including me. Alas, I died on purpose. I escaped the war, but then found out that my beautiful Lady President planted a little disease in my fob watch - psychic drums meant to slowly kill me if I decided to flee.”

He stopped talking as the Supreme Dalek moved closer to the man, coming up right beside Davros, “This is meaningless. If you are a Time Lord than you will be exterminated.”

Laughter echoed throughout the room, originating from the Time Lord, “And this is the thanks I get for helping you achieve all of this? Typical Dalek.”

“What are you talking about?” Davros asked, coming even closer to the being before him.

“Did you think Caan managed to break through the time-lock by himself? Don’t make me laugh. I made sure he succeeded in bringing you back, knowing that you’d try to create this wonderful little place in the Medusa Cascade. This way, I had the power to return."

The disbelieving silence only prompted the man to continue, confidence rining in every word. "I shoved my biodata in a very nice little ring, along with data for some clothes and this thing,” he waved the remote around. “The energy used to reform my body would purge those stupid drums from my head, and all it cost was a simple regeneration.”

Davros felt true anger invade his system, “You used us.”

“Bingo.”

The Supreme Dalek mirrored his creator’s feelings in a more violent manner, “Come and be exterminated! Obey!”

“No,” The man’s grin widened further, “I am the Master, and you will obey me.”

It took quite some control for Davros not to laugh in the Master’s face, “I refuse.”

“Then you all die.”

***

The Master took the device hidden in his other pocket and glanced at it with some fondness. He prepared himself for the Daleks refusal a long time ago, creating this wonderful little homing device made to destroy everything with a certain DNA pattern.

It worked wonders.

“That’s why you don’t create clone races,” the Master said to the dead husk of before him, chiding it as if Davros was a child. He tossed the device away, not caring where it landed. By this time, the lethal attachments would be scattered across the planets, hunting down every Dalek in sight.

The Master never understood how the Doctor always struggled so hard against these pathetic beings. It must be that Achilles’ heel of his, the sympathy and forgiveness he constantly felt. He, on the other hand, had no reservations about showing no mercy.

Pity his people didn’t try the same tactic, not that his little device would’ve worked well during the Time War.

“It’s not over…”

He started at the voice, before realizing who it was, “Of course, you weren't one of his clones.”

Dalek Caan met the Master’s eyes, “The Dark Lord has come, it’s not over…”

“But it is for you,” The Master drew out his tissue compression eliminator and effectively snuffed out Caan’s pathetic life. “What a useless Dalek, unable to fight and only telling people what they already know.”

A sigh escaped the Master’s mouth. Now was the hard part - waiting. His little puppet succeeded in bringing him back, all he needed now was the Doctor’s presence.

After all, the ‘Dark Lord’ had come, and even he needed help to beat that menace.

***

The Doctor was just about to set the coordinated when the TARDIS’s monitor flashed to life. Jack was in front of the ting before the Doctor had a chance to move, “Ianto?”

“Jack, what happened? All the Daleks were suddenly wiped out by a bunch of small, unidentifiable black objects. Was it you?” Ianto asked as everyone crowded around the screen.

They all looked at each other in complete befuddlement before Jack answered, “No.”

He moved aside for the Doctor, who began asking a plethora of questions at such a fast pace that Ianto needed him to repeat half of them. As they went over the events occurring on earth, Donna discreetly grabbed the Doctor’s cell phone. She needed to make sure that her family was alright, despite the reassurances Rose gave her before she dialed.

The sound of her mother’s voice when she answered the phone made Donna happier than she had been in ages. “Is everyone okay?” She asked, leaning against the TARDIS console.

“Yes, but not for long.”

Donna wasn’t quite sure if she heard that right, “What?”

Her mother’s voice lacked any emotion, “Our purpose is finished, Donna. You don’t need us anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” Donna asked louder than usual, heedless of the attention she was drawing from Rose and Jack.

“You’ll need to appear normal, so I think a family’s in order.
How many members do you want me to create, Donna?”
All her mother said was “goodbye.” Then, there was a sound like the phone hitting the floor and nothing more. Donna yelled into the phone, hoping that at least her grandfather would pick up and tell her it was some big joke, but there was nothing. She knew then that they were dead, with a certainty that she could not explain.

The next thing Donna knew, the Doctor was standing in front of her, gently prying the mobile from her grasp. He begged her to tell him what happened, so she did as her body shook from the shock.

“I can’t take this anymore,” Donna confessed once she finished. “Why is all this happening to me?”

The Doctor turned back to the console with a hardened expression on his face, “Let’s find out.”

***

When the four carefully emerged from the TARDIS, they were not expecting the sight before them. Hundreds of Daleks stood motionless throughout the entire room, their metal bodies ripped apart.

It stole their breath away.

“You took long enough. I almost fell asleep waiting for you, Doctor.”

The Doctor’s head snapped around, quickly followed by the rest of his body. He froze when he saw the man sitting there, at the foot of a pillar which obviously did not belong, recognizing him in an instant, “How?”

A smirk formed across the Master’s face, “That energy your dear companion created was for me. The key, my ring, imputted a blueprint and controlled the energy, forming a body for my biodata to inhabit.”

Donna stepped forward, not caring who this mysterious man was; she was angry and wanted answers, “Why me? What did you do to me and my family?!”

“I gave you life, Donna Noble. I cloned you and your family from human guinea pigs at Lazarus Labs. You brought me back, thus completing the purpose of your existence,” The Master snapped his fingers.

She crumpled immediately and the Doctor barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground. He frantically searched for a pulse, but couldn’t even find a hint of life. With shaking hands clutching the body, he faced the Master, “Why did you do that?”

“Donna Noble is no longer useful to me. She brought me back and,” he stood up to approach the Doctor, “she was there to protect you, Doctor. I can’t have you all weak in a new body, not now.”

The click of a gun made the Master glance up from the Doctor, cradling Donna’s fallen form on the ground. Jack and Rose were pointing weapons at him, a matching determination on their faces, “Oh, your companions have gotten more violent now. It’s a pity that they won’t work.”

He stared straight at Jack, a smile playing across his lips, “My TARDIS will protect me, freak.”

Rose frowned, not understanding what was going on. How could he have a TARDIS?

Jack’s indrawn breath drew her attention to him, and she saw that his face was a few shades paler than normal, “The Master.”

“Yes,” the Master spun around in a taunting manner. “Do you like my new body? I think it’s quite fetching.”

“Jack…” Rose prompted, but he shushed her. The look on his face, anger and frustration and a twisted understanding, stopped Rose from pressing the matter.

Instead, she lowered her apparently useless weapon and watched as the Master dismissed them like they were nothing. He turned all his attention back on the Doctor, whose questioning gaze never left his body.

The Master apparently understood the Doctor’s silence, “Did you really think that I couldn't undo the lock you put on your TARDIS? You should’ve known that I was better than that; it didn’t take much to go back to the Silver Devastation for my own TARDIS. Then, with that freedom, setting all this up was easy. I‘m not scared to cross my own timeline.”

The Doctor didn’t flinch when the Master knelt in front of him, reaching forward to cup the other Time Lord’s face with one hand. “Donna Noble was your most faithful companion; she was perfect for you, because I made her that way. I’m surprised that you couldn’t tell she was something new and unbroken, living only months in a body that should’ve seen years.”

“Her inner strength and the coincidences surrounding our coincidental meetings - that was all you, wasn't it?” The Doctor didn't need to see the Master's nod of assent to know it was true.

A stray tear fell down his cheek, but the Master brushed it away with his thumb before it could go far. “Oh yes, I organized it all to get those drums out of my head. You’re glad I did it too, I can tell. Really, Doctor, I expected better of you.”

He brushed his thumb across the Doctor’s bottom lip in a once-tender gesture from their past. In return, the Doctor jerked away, the strength flowing back into his eyes. The Master could see his mind working om overtime to try and formulate some hastily concocted plan. The Doctor laid Donna’s body on the ground and stood to face him, “Why protect me? You were never one to care much for my safety.”

“The Dark Lord has come,” the Master intoned, mocking Caan though the Doctor didn't realize it. “That’s what the Daleks believed and they’re right, though the title Dark Lord is a bit over dramatic.”

The Doctor tried to hide his confusion and failed mieserably, “The Dark Lord?”

“Yes,” the Master confirmed. He jerked his chin at Rose, “She knows all too well that the walls between dimensions are falling apart. That has nothing to do with me, before you bother to ask, I don‘t want it happening just as much as you do. There‘s no point in coming back just so the universe could end.”

“Who is this ’Dark Lord’?” the Doctor repeated, ignoring the dread that lingered in the back of his head. He needed to focus on this problem with everything he had. That way, he could try and forget the grief he felt over Donna and the guilt for his joy at the Master's return.

The Master smirked, but it lacked any feeling, “You know him better than anyone else. With the walls collapsing, he can finally cross over again.”

“Who is he?” The Doctor demanded, impatience resulting from the fear that was growing in his stomach.

All the Master did was trace a simple symbol in the air, remaining silent as he waited for the Doctor to figure it out. Rose repeated his gesture to herself from a few feet behind the Doctor, “What does that mean?”

Jack supplied the answer, perplexed at its meaning, “It’s a Greek letter...”

The Doctor wasn’t paying attention to them. His wide eyes were staring straight into the Master’s serious gaze as he spoke the name of a man whom he hoped died long ago.

“Omega.”


Part 2



***
Should People Want It Continued - Next Time…

“Why should I?”

“She’s nothing to you. Just bring her back, please.”
*
“This is a treat, the Doctor at my mercy.”
*
“I won’t work with him!”

“Well, it looks likes she still has some spunk.”
*
“You slapped me!”

“Yeah, and you deserve a lot more than that!”
***






In case you’re interested, here’s the list of quotes/information/foreshadowing I used from The Stolen Earth (in the order of which I used them). Did I miss any?

Doctor’s Last Words: “I’m sorry, it’s too late. I’m regenerating.”

“The planets rearranged themselves into the optimum pattern…twenty-seven planets in perfect balance. All those worlds fit together like pieces of an engine. It‘s like a powerhouse.”

(I would like to note here that Stattenheim remote controls do exist in the Doctor Who universe, for when I brought it up with my friends while writing this fic they found the device oddly convenient.)

“I gave myself to them…each one [Dalek] grown from a cell from my own body.”

“He is here, the Dark Lord has come.”

To Donna: “I’m so sorry for your loss…I mean the loss that is yet to come.”

“Death is coming, I can see it, everlasting death for the most faithful companion.”

To Donna: “You are something new.”