Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A man sat in the living room of a little cottage on the moors, his back against the wall and his knees up to his chest.

Dried tear tracks stained his cheeks as he scrolled through the contact list on his phone, clicking on one that said 'Koschei', calling it.

A loud pitched tri-toned beep followed by, "We're sorry, but the number you are trying to reach is no longer in service," announced its failure.

He stared at the phone blankly, running back through his contact list to dial again.

"We're sorry, but the number you are trying to reach is no longer in service."

Click, clack, click.

"We're sorry, but the number you are trying to reach is no longer in service."

Click.

"We're sorry, but the numb-"

"Enough of that," snapped a young woman with bushy brown hair, plucking the mobile from his hand.

"I need that to call-"

"He's not coming back!" she snapped at him, a hard look entering her eyes.

"Of course, he is!" he suddenly yelled, a fire in his eyes, "he always comes back, even when he doesn't want to!"

"Not this time, Doctor," the woman spoke in clipped tones, "No-one can survive the Veil of Death."

Chapter Text

The feeling of gravel digging into his face greeted him as he awoke, his head felt as though it had been stuffed full of wool and he struggled to make sense of what had happened.

Groaning, he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and opened his eyes.

He was greeted to the sight of many trees and a river flowing nearby, he looked around quickly, making himself dizzy in the process and took in the sight of a small village just between the gaps in the trees.

His brows furrowed in confusion.

A village? Shouldn't he be in a basement?

His face screwed up in thought.

Basement? Why would he be in a basement?

He dragged himself over to a nearby tree and leant up against its trunk as he slowly worked his way through his memories.

Something was wrong, and it wasn't just his surroundings.

Why was he here? How did he get here? More importantly, what was he called again?

Something beginning with an 'H', perhaps? Harvey? No, that wasn't it, Herman? Hector? Hassan? Harper? Harrison? Har… Harry?

That seemed… almost correct.

"What happened?" he questioned himself aloud, his eyes slipping closed as he tried prying the answers from his confusion filled mind.

"There was a… fight?" he mused, "and then there was a feeling of falling?" he hummed for a moment, recalling the chilly free-falling feel of…

His eyes snapped open.

"The Veil."

He remembered, Harry was the name that his parents had given him, yet he was far more comfortable responding to the childhood name of his past life, Koschei.

Koschei looked over to where he'd seen the village and let out a sigh.

"Guess I should see where I ended up then."

Cardiff, Six Years Later.

A young man with long, slightly matted black hair and short messy stubble on his chin, stared up at a chapel in minor annoyance.

"They do this every week," he muttered under his breath, leaning against a stylish, for the time, cane.

"Excuse me," a man spoke as he ran up to the building, another man hot on his heels.

The young man looked over at them, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Excuse me," he repeated, "what do you mean they do this every week?"

"They've had an issue with the dead rising for the past few months," he stated, "I'm not quite sure why they don't try an exorcism at this rate, although," he paused, "this is the first time I've seen them come back with a hostage."

"Right," the man stated, "young woman, blonde hair?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful, just wonderful," he muttered.

The young man turned to look at the other person in the group and blinked in mild surprise, "are you Charles Dickens?"

"Yes," he stated, almost blankly.

"Huh," he muttered quietly before his attention was once more stolen by the chapel.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way," the man introduced himself to the younger man, who looked at him from the corner of his eyes.

"I see," he muttered, and turned to face him, tucking a strand of his hair behind an ear to keep it out of his eyes as he did so, "I am Evan," he stated, taking the Doctor's hand in a firm grip, "Evan Evans."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the obviously false name but didn't comment on it as he noticed his eyes flickering to Charles and back, likely not wanting to have a conversation about it around someone else.

How interesting, he thought.

"Well then," the Doctor started as he turned and knocked on the door, "let's get this over with then."

Koschei watched as the door opened to show the young girl who worked at the chapel, he thought her name might begin with a 'G', but couldn't quite remember for certain, even though he'd lived there for multiple years by that point.

"I'm sorry sirs, but we are closed," she stated, her eyes darting about in nervousness.

He walked up to the door behind the other two men, barely listening as Charles attempted to gain entry to the building.

His eyes scanned the entryway, noting all the small changes that had happened since the incident had begun, furniture had been moved to the sides, where they had once been strategically placed to make the place seem more homely. Or as homely as a chapel could be.

His attention was stolen as one of the gas lamps on the wall began acting up.

"Having trouble with your gas?" questioned the Doctor.

Koschei watched in fondness as he barged in, ignoring Charles' exclamation of confusion.

"You're not allowed inside, sir!" the girl cried out, as the Doctor came to a stop beside the lamp.

"There's something inside the walls," he muttered, "The gas pipes," he trailed off as Koschei wandered up next to him.

"Something's living inside the gas."

"That doesn't sound good," Koschei said offhandedly.

"No," the Doctor agreed, distracted.

A loud thump followed by a girl yelling to be let out of a room grabbed their attention.

"That's her," the Doctor spoke to Charles, and ran off down the corridor, Charles following quickly behind him and Koschei hurrying to keep them in sight.

The girl whose name might be 'Gwen' or something similar, quickly followed them.

They quickly ran into a man, whose name he had trouble recalling even more than the girl's, who began yelling at Charles.

"Let me out!" a girl's voice carried from behind one of the doors, the Doctor walked over and ran his hands over it in a slight panic, "Somebody open the door!" she began to grow hysteric, "Open the door!" she cried.

The Doctor, deciding there was no time to unlock the door lifted his foot and proceeded to kick it down.

"I think," the Doctor began, pulling the girl away from one of the walking corpses, "that this is my dance."

Charles stared at the corpses in denial, "It's a prank," he began, "it has to be, we must be under some sort of mesmeric influence."

"Big words," Koschei muttered under his breath, hiding a smirk in his shirt's collar.

"No, we're not," the Doctor stated bluntly, "the dead are walking," he turned to the girl, "hi!"

"Hi," she whispered back, "who are your friends?"

"Charles Dickens," he pointed to the man who was in shock.

"Oh, okay," she blinked, seemingly unfazed.

"And," the Doctor narrowed his eyes in Koschei's direction, "Evan Evans..."

Koschei lifted the hand that was on his cane in greeting, "Lovely to meet you, my dear."

"Nice to meet you too."

The Doctor turned to stare at the living corpse from the doorway.

"My name's the Doctor, who are you and what do you want?"

The two corpses in the room seemed to freeze before they spoke in multiple voices at once.

"Open the rift, we're dying," they spoke, "trapped in this form, cannot sustain... Help us!" they seemed to cry out in pain, before a blue gas left their mouths, heading towards the lamps.

The two corpses landed on the ground with a soft thud.

The six living people stared down at them.

"Lovely," Koschei commented.

Show Me The Way Home

As they all sat in the living room discussing what they had seen, Koschei felt a pressing worry, that something was seriously wrong.

Not that that was anything new, he mused, watching the pale golden strings dance across his vision, everything had been wrong since he'd come here.

It was just a few little things at first, but it had slowly become more apparent as he began searching for a way back to his own time.

Except it wasn't just his own time that he needed to get back to.

There was no Hogwarts, no Diagon Alley, no Department of Mysteries...

No so-called magic.

He'd somehow entered a new universe.

There was a Doctor here, however.

Koschei looked over towards where the Doctor stood, attempting to explain what the rift was to the humans in the room.

He just had to believe that this Doctor was willing to help him get back home.

As the Doctor went to speak to Charles and the girl, Rose, went to speak to the other girl, Koschei did a bit of his own snooping.

Pulling out the shattered remains of his Time-Turner, it having been broken during his trip in The Veil of Death and possibly one of the only reasons he was still alive, he slipped the chain from around his neck and placed the glass onto a wooden counter top.

He quickly pricked his finger on the sharp edge, allowing a drop of blood to land on top of it, sticking it in his mouth when he was done.

Koschei looked around quickly, making sure no-one was close, before spinning the glass in a circle, pushing his magic into it as it went.

A golden dome, visible only to his eyes expanded from the glass shard and slowly expanded to cover the entire house, feeling out the living beings inside of it.

He pushed the strings in his vision out towards the dome and felt around for anything out of the ordinary.

There, below ground.

Koschei felt dread creep up his spine and yet knew that with the Doctor around, it would be alright in the end.

He let out a shuddering breath and dropped the dome, quickly scooping up the broken time turner and clasping it back around his neck.

The Doctor always did have such interesting luck.

Show Me The Way Home

Somehow, Koschei had been dragged into a seance.

He held hands with a surprisingly cheerful Doctor and a very reluctant Charles Dickens.

"Now, Gwyneth-"

That was her name!

"-Reach out," the Doctor told the girl.

As she began to speak to the so-called spirits, the golden strings began to flow away from a point in the middle of the room, almost as if repelled by whatever had come in.

Figures began to appear behind Gwyneth, and Koschei watched in fascination as the strings began avoiding them also.

And then Rose, Gwyneth, and the Doctor all began arguing about letting these aliens live in the deceased bodies of humans.

Koschei narrowed his eyes in thought, he knew that this Doctor must still be suffering the guilt of the Time War, hell, his own Doctor was still suffering, and he'd not made it any easier on him.

The Doctor, before the Time War would have never truly considered allowing anyone to wear the dead as their own bodies, he was one of those that considered the dead to be something sacred.

He would know, after all, he himself had stolen bodies in the past, mostly intending to get a rise out of the Doctor.

No, the combination of being told that the Gelth were facing extinction as a direct result of the Time War had played into his guilt.

He just hoped that the Doctor realised his mistake, and soon.

Show Me The Way Home

The six of them walked down into the morgue, which was just a draughty basement.

He listened as Rose told the Doctor that this wouldn't work because she hadn't learnt about it in school, and the Doctor responded with the fact that time can change rather easily.

Koschei listened as they spoke to the Gelth and the Doctor helped Gwyneth get into position underneath an archway.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge and an uneasy feeling came over him, "Something bad is going to happen," he muttered under his breath.

Rose, who was stood next to him and had overheard his statement nodded in agreement.

They watched as Gwyneth created a connection for the Gelth to pass through using her body as the bridge.

Koschei saw blue gas filling the room, and the not-spirit turned a sickening red, revealing its trickery.

"I fucking knew it!" he cried out, backing as far away from the gas forms of the Gelth as he could.

"The Gelth comes through in force!" it cried.

Charles worked up his courage to call out to them, "You said that you were few in numbers!"

The red being behind Gwyneth sneered at him, "A few billion, and we all need corpses!"

They watched as the Gelth killed 'Sneed', and while Koschei would like to mock the name, he had other things to be worrying about at that moment in time, such as the fact that his fresh corpse had been taken over by the hostile aliens.

Koschei watched as the Gelth backed Rose and the Doctor into a gate, which they slipped into, closing it behind them so that the dead couldn't reach them.

Koschei decided to go back up the stairs, after throwing a look at both the Doctor and Rose in the small area of safety they'd gotten, watching as he got to the top as Charles ran out of the house, chased by a Gelth.

He looked behind himself as he heard a crash, one of the corpses had followed him, he spun around, flipping his cane upside down, and quickly removing a silver-coloured stick from the end of it.

"Incendio," he cried out, pointing the stick at the being, which screamed as it burnt.

Once the corpse had fallen still to the ground, charred from head to toe, he let the spell go and tucked his wand behind his left ear for easier access.

He flipped his cane back around as he heard Charles run back inside, a handkerchief held against his mouth.

"Turn all the gas lamps off to get rid of the flames, then turn them back on to their maximum," he stated.

Koschei's eyes widened, "Of course! Gas!"

He pulled out his own handkerchief from his coat pocket and pressed it up against his mouth, and quickly got to work turning on the gas lamps in the second floor of the building.

Once done, he ran down the stairs in time to see Charles, Rose, and the Doctor all run out the door, he followed, dropping his cane in the process.

Koschei let out a slightly annoyed grumble as they evacuated, but didn't turn back for it, knowing that there was no time for it.

The four made it out just in time to see the building explode.

"She didn't make it," Rose whispered.

None of them had to ask who she was talking about.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor began, "she closed the rift."

"At such a cost," Charles murmured, "such a poor child."

They all stared at the flaming building for a moment longer before the Doctor looked away in sadness.

"I did try to save her, Rose, but she was already dead," Koschei heard the grief in his voice that the others would no doubt miss, "she had been for at least five minutes."

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"He means that she was dead the minute she became their conduct," Koschei spoke, still watching the fire, "it was a type of possession, that, no-one could have survived it."

"But she was speaking to us!" she cried out, "she helped us! saved us!"

"She did," he conceded, "but that doesn't change what it was," Koschei remembered back to when he was still in his original universe, "when I was eleven, there was a teacher in my school who was possessed by a wraith similar to that."

Koschei took a few steps backwards and stared up at the sky.

"He was dead as soon as the possession took hold, although he looked, felt, and acted alive," he sighed and ran a hand down his face, "once the possessor left his body he dropped to the ground."

He turned to look Rose straight in the eye.

"Like a puppet with its strings cut."

She looked conflicted before she turned to stare back at the fire.

"She saved the world," she muttered, "and no-one will even know."

The Doctor stared at him with a strange look in his eyes.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei, Charles, Rose, and the Doctor all found themselves stood outside the TARDIS.

Rose made idle chat with Charles for a moment, and Koschei took that opportunity to talk to the Doctor.

"May I ask you a question?" he tried not to let his nervousness show.

"Go ahead," he nodded.

"If I were to say, admit that I was trapped in a universe, not of my own," he flicked his eyes to the ground before looking back up at him, "and maybe say that I've been trying to find you to request help?"

The Doctor blinked, "Oh, that is much better than what I was expecting," he stated, "I honestly thought you were going to try and steal my TARDIS."

Koschei stared at him for a moment, "I'm sorry?"

The Doctor shook his head and chuckled.

"It's nothing, so, why'd you decide to look for my help exactly?"

"I know the you of my universe," he stated bluntly.

"Ah," he grinned, rubbing his hands together, "well, as long as you don't mind travelling with us, I don't see why we can't keep an eye out on a way to get you home."

Koschei gave him a genuine smile, "Thank you."

The Doctor shook his head, before looking back at him, "What is your real name then, I'm sure Evan Evans is not it."

"Harry Potter," he grinned, "my mother's maiden name was Evans, and I just blurted the first thing that came to mind when I was asked about it when I first got here," he gave a slightly embarrassed cough, "I ended up sticking with it."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment before chuckling.

The two stood in silence until the Doctor decided it was time to move on.

Koschei and Rose were ushered into the TARDIS, where they watched the Doctor dance around the control panel.

"So, we're bringing Evan with us?" she asked.

"Harry, actually," Koschei corrected.

The Doctor nodded idly, "He's gotten himself in a spot of trouble, Rose."

She blinked, "Trouble how?"

Harry grinned, as the Doctor set one of the monitors to show Charles outside of the TARDIS, staring at it in slight confusion.

"He's from a different universe," the Doctor answered her question, "now, I think we should give good old Charlie one last surprise!"

And with that he threw down one of the levers, throwing them into the Time Vortex, filling Koschei's vision with countless stings that flew by in a spiral pattern.

"Wait, there are different universes?" Rose asked.

Chapter Text

A loud grinding noise could be heard briefly on the corners of a pedestrian walkway in a council-owned estate in the middle of London.

Had anyone been looking at that moment, they would have been baffled to see a big blue box appear out of thin air.

Once it had settled in place, the door opened and a young man ran out, collapsing to his knees on the asphalt.

"Oh sweet, sweet land, how I love you!" Koschei jokingly cried.

"Oi," another man appeared out of the box, "my driving's not that bad!"

"I don't know, Doctor, he might have a point," a blonde girl commented from where she leant against the frame of the door.

"What's this? Pick on the Doctor day?"

Rose rolled her eyes and walked over to him, patting him on the shoulder, "alright you, how long have I been gone?"

"About twelve hours," he stated, staring at her hand which was still resting on his shoulder.

"Well, I won't be gone long, just going to go and see my mum," she began, then turned to look at Koschei, "and you, go get some clothes."

They'd spent a few hours parked in the vortex, and Koschei had taken the opportunity to shave and have a nice long shower, untangling his hair as best as he could.

After said shower, he'd been given a set of the Doctor's clothes, minus the leather jacket to borrow, which were, in fact, a bit too big for him, but they'd do for now.

Before they'd left, the Doctor had handed him a credit card with orders to go get some clothes that actually fit, to which Koschei had responded by emptying a pouch of gold into his hands and refusing to take them back.

It wasn't like he was using it anyway.

"A trip to the hairdressers is in order too, I believe," he muttered, rolling a few strands of the dry and rather damaged hair in between his fingertips.

It was a bit too long for his tastes, preferring it at shoulder length which he typically wore in a low ponytail, a habit he could blame on the Beauxbatons female population.

"Alright you," the Doctor gently pushed Rose in the direction of her flat, "What will you tell her?"

"That I've been to the year five billion, met Charles Dickens, and that I'm travelling with an alien and a universe hopper? No, I think I'll just tell her that I spent the night at Shareen's place," she began walking off, waving her hand dismissively, "see you both later, and don't go disappearing, you hear?"

Koschei grinned at the Doctor once she'd walked around the corner, "I suppose I should go and get some clothes then," he let his grin grow teasing, "don't go causing any international catastrophes while I'm gone!"

He turned around to begin his walk into the heart of London, and chuckled as he heard the Doctor yell out a loud, jokingly offended, "oi!"

It was very easy to find a clothes shop once he got into the main shopping district of the city, and he slipped into the closest one.

He grabbed a few different types of trousers and some jeans, some shirts in silks and flannels, a nice thick jacket with faux fur lining, a few sets of pyjamas, and a couple of pairs of sturdy boots.

All in all, Koschei wasn't too fussy about how his clothes looked, knowing that with all the running he was bound to be doing, they'd end up more than a little bit messy in the end.

Comfort and practicality were a must-have for clothes whenever one was dealing with the Doctor's shenanigans.

Oh, and he also got some underwear, not that anyone needed to know that.

He then braved a trip to the hairdressers, to see if they could sort out the mess his hair had become and to also get a haircut.

And yes, he did go to a salon that was mostly aimed towards women instead of a barber's shop, because honestly, they just knew how to look after long hair a bit better than the barbers.

Good news, his hair was, in fact, salvageable, although now he had special shampoos and conditioners to use to keep his hair from becoming dry and matted again.

Expensive shampoos and conditioners.

Oh well, at least his hair was soft.

A quick check of the time noted that it was around one in the afternoon, so he decided to grab a quick bite to eat and then check out one of the local book shops to see if there was anything majorly different between the two universes that he should be aware of.

And oh boy was he glad for that decision because right there in the fantasy section in the fictional aisle was a book series named Harry Potter, which were obviously about himself going by the titles of the books, the paintings of The-Boy-Who-Lived on the front covers, and the map of Hogwarts' grounds printed on the first couple of pages.

Koschei frowned but picked up a copy of each book with a plan to read through them all to see what was thought of him by the people of this Earth.

With that done, he began making his way back to the estate the TARDIS was parked at, making a quick stop at a small corner shop to grab a packet of cigarettes.

It had been seven years and tobacco in a pipe just wasn't the same.

Show Me The Way Home

The three people watching the screens at the TARDIS console looked over to the door as it swung open.

"Well don't you clean up nice?" Rose asked rhetorically.

Koschei gave a small grin as he walked over to the Doctor, "here's your clothes back, thanks for letting me borrow them."

The Doctor eyed him silently, as Koschei walked over to Rose.

"You don't happen to have a hair tie, do you? I forgot to get a pack," he placed his other bags down on the floor where it wouldn't be tripped over, next to the console.

"Ah, yeah, just," she dug through her pockets, and pulled out a single hair tie, "here you go."

"Thank you," he gave a soft smile, and gathered his hair into a bundle, tying it into a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

"Who are you?" the third person in the room, who he did not recognise questioned him.

"Harry, and you?"

"That's Ricky," the Doctor inputted.

"It's Mickey!" he cried out in protest.

The Doctor turned to look at Koschei, a mischievous glint in his eyes that he only knew how to recognise thanks to his many years knowing his own Doctor, "doesn't even know his own name."

Koschei turned to Mickey, a worried look on his face, "It's okay if you're unable to remember your name, old age catches up to everyone eventually, it's okay to admit you need help."

Mickey gaped at him and Koschei's face twitched with a grin when Rose burst out laughing, eventually, he gave in to the urge to laugh when he heard the Doctor snicker from behind him.

"Right, anyway, as I was saying before Harry got back," the Doctor began, looking at one of the screens showing a news broadcast, "Ricky's got a car, so he can do some driving for us!"

Mickey gave a quiet sigh, "where to?"

"The roads are clearing, so let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

They all walked outside, directly into the spotlight of a police search helicopter, cars began to pull up and surround them.

"Do not move," one of the armed personnel ordered over the speakers in one of the vehicles, "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."

Koschei held his hands out in front of him before he slowly raised them behind his head, Mickey ran off before he could be apprehended.

An older woman came running over and was held back by one of the armed personnel, screaming, "Rose!" over and over.

Koschei assumed that this woman was Rose's mother from her frantic calls.

Three of the officers, soldiers really, walked up to them, one of them moved behind Koschei, grabbing his hands in a hold behind his back and walking off to one of the cars, he didn't fight, knowing it'd cause more problems than they needed at that moment.

"Raise your hands above your head, you are under arrest," he heard one of the other officer's order Rose and the Doctor.

"Take me to your leader," the Doctor responded.

Koschei snorted at the statement as he was pushed inside the vehicle.

Show Me The Way Home

"This is a bit posh," Rose stated as they travelled along the roads, "if I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested I mean, I would have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested," both Koschei and the Doctor said at the same time, the Doctor turned to look at him and he raised an eyebrow in question, he looked away and Koschei continued, "we're getting escorted."

"What, you been arrested before?" she asked him.

"Oh yes, multiple times."

Rose looked like she was going to ask him more questions, but he changed the subject.

"From what I saw on the news on the monitors when I got in, I can guess that we're going to Downing Street."

She perked up then, letting the matter drop, "You're kidding!"

The Doctor joined the conversation again, a grin on his face, "Nah, he's right."

"Number Ten? That Downing Street?"

"That's the one," Koschei agreed.

"Oh my god, I'm going to Ten Downing Street? How come?" she asked.

The Doctor grimaced, and Koschei chuckled, knowing the answer.

"I ah, hate to say it, but Mickey was right, over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times-" he was interrupted by a snort from Koschei, who he threw a glare at before continuing, "-and I've been, er, noticed."

"What, so now they need you?"

"As it said on the news, they're gathering experts in alien knowledge, and who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him."

"Oh, don't you just love it?"

"I'm telling you, Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table," the Doctor chatted to Rose and Koschei turned to look out the window as they drove along, "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know?" Rose asked, "I missed a year."

Koschei remembered the missing person poster he'd seen on the way back to the TARDIS, which he'd meant to bring up to them when he'd gotten back.

"I'm glad to see some things never change, no matter the universe," he commented, "including the Doctor's shit driving."

"Oi!"

Show Me The Way Home

"Oh, my god," Rose stated as they pulled up to number Ten.

They were all shuffled inside the building, and Koschei looked around, the décor was still as posh and polished as ever.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" he heard someone speak, "quick as we can, please, it's this way, on the right, and could I remind you all that ID cards are to be worn at all times."

he walked over to the three of them and handed a card to the Doctor.

"Here's your ID card, I'm sorry but your companions don't have clearance."

Koschei could see the protective glint in the Doctor's eyes and intervened.

"We'll be alright on our own," he said, quickly realising there had been no talk of an NDA, "you can catch us both up with what's going on when you're done."

The Doctor looked ready to argue, but he cut him off before he could begin.

"The more time you spend arguing, the longer whatever is going wrong has to set their plan in motion, besides," he smirked, "I can protect the both of us in the case of an attack."

He let the sleeve of the purple flannel shirt he was wearing fall back a little, revealing a silver-coloured stick of wood.

The Doctor's eyes widened slightly, he watched as his eyes darted up to his forehead in surprise, as he connected the very few dots he'd been presented with.

Koschei hadn't used his wand in front of this Doctor before, so this was the first time he'd seen it, having been alone when casting the Incendio on the Gelth.

"I know what you're thinking, and yes, I am."

"Right," the Doctor mumbled to himself, "right, okay," he then looked Koschei in the eyes, "don't get into any trouble."

He snorted, "that's your job."

The Doctor nodded to Rose then left for the conference.

Koschei sighed and turned to Rose, who was standing with another woman.

"Sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced, have we?" he asked her, "my name is Harry Potter."

The woman blinked, "Harriet Jones."

Rose snickered from beside them, "hello Harry, I'm Harry," he heard her mutter.

From the look on Harriet's face, he thought she heard her too.

The three began walking out of the room and Koschei got the sense that she was herding them out for a reason.

"This friend of yours, the Doctor, he's an expert, correct?" she began, "knows about aliens?"

"Why do you want to know?" Rose asked.

The woman began crying and began telling them of how she'd seen one of the people who was temporarily in charge unzip themselves, then kill another man, turning his body into a suit.

They'd ended up in the cabinet room sometime during the story.

"It's alright," Rose began, rubbing between the woman's shoulder blades, "we believe you, it's got to be an alien, there must be some serious technology behind this, if we could find it then we might be able to use it."

Rose began looking through cupboards, Koschei, deciding that it was the best chance they had peered under the table, checking to make sure they'd not attached something to the underside of it.

"Oh my god," Rose cried out, just as he'd decided the table was clean, he carefully pulled himself out from under it and looked over in her direction, "is that the-"

She was cut off when the man who was giving out IDs walked into the room.

"Harriet, for God's sake, this has gone beyond a joke," he started, "You cannot just wander-" he cut himself off as he noticed the body which he'd failed to see when he'd first entered the room, "-Oh my god, that's the Prime Minister!"

The four of them all moved to where the body of the now ex-Prime Minister laid when a woman entered the room.

"Oh!" she cried out, "has someone been naughty?"

They turned to look at her and the man? guard? honestly, he didn't care, but it was rather frustrating, not knowing a person's name looked back at the body, dismissing her as a threat.

Koschei knew otherwise, there was something just a bit off about her, with this in mind, he moved in front of Rose, he'd be damned if he let her get hurt, not after he'd said that he would make sure they were safe to the Doctor.

"That's impossible," the man said, "He left this afternoon, the Prime Minister left Downing Street!" he sounded frustrated, and the woman looked rather amused, "He was driven away!"

"And who told you that?" she asked him, and Koschei narrowed his eyes, "me," and with that last statement, they watched in horror, or in his case, disgust, as she reached up to her forehead and began unzipping herself.

Chapter Text

Rose, Harriet and Koschei watched as the, now fully unzipped alien was suddenly enveloped in electricity and took the opportunity to run out of the cabinet room and into the corridor.

"Wait!" Harriet called out, "the emergency protocols are still in there, we need them!"

Koschei rolled his eyes as they began running back to the room, only to be stopped as the alien ran out of the room towards them.

The three of them ran throughout multiple rooms in the building, dodging the alien, who was breaking down doors and destroying furniture as she went.

They ended up back in a corridor, just as the lift opened, revealing the Doctor.

"Hello!" he called to them, then distracted the alien so they could make their escape.

Koschei heard the lift close again, just as they made it to a living room area.

"Hide!" Rose called, slipping behind a drink's cabinet.

Harriet slipped behind a window folding screen, and Koschei slipped into the rather obvious position of behind the sofa, not that he minded, it gave him a better view of the area in case he had to get violent.

The alien entered the room and hummed, "oh, such fun," she began slowly walking around the room, "little human children, where are you?" she called out, and Koschei scowled, "sweet little ones, come to me, let me kiss you better! Kiss you with my big green lips!"

He saw Rose slip behind a curtain when she got too close to her spot.

Two other aliens entered the room soon after.

"My brothers!" she called to them.

"Happy hunting?" one of the two that had been identified as male asked her.

"It's wonderful," she confirmed, "the more you prolong it, the more they stink."

They all sniffed the air in unison.

"Sweat and fear," the other male agreed.

"I can smell an old girl, stale bird and brittle bones." the first male spoke.

"A ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin," the female said, "fresh enough to bend before she snaps."

"And an anomaly, both young and old at the same time," the second male spoke with wonder, "so determined, a challenge to take out."

They'd failed to notice the female walk over to where Rose was hiding until she pulled back the curtain.

Within seconds, Koschei was stood up, wand drawn, pointed at the alien, at the same time, Harriet revealed herself.

"No! Take me first!" she cried out.

"Not Harry!" he felt as though the world was a bit further away than it should be.

"Take me!"

"Please, not Harry!"

Koschei opened his mouth to cast a spell but was interrupted by the Doctor bursting into the room, holding a fire extinguisher.

He was glad for this, as he had no idea of what he'd been intended to cast, something not nice for certain.

As he watched the Doctor spray one of the two males with the extinguisher, he realised that he felt heavy.

"Out with me!" he yelled at them, then when he saw Harriet, addressed her, "who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said, then sprayed what was left in the extinguisher into the room.

They then ran back out into the corridor, and Koschei was reminded of just how exhausting doing anything like this could be, seven years of no life-threatening situations had spoilt him, even if said seven years were in the late 1800s.

"We need to head to the cabinet room," the Doctor stated.

"Back and forth like a bloody yo-yo," Koschei muttered, Rose who was running next to him snorted, the Doctor made a noise that was half disapproval and half amusement.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there, they give instructions for aliens," Harriet spoke, pretending to have not heard his remark.

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too."

Once again, they focused on running from the aliens chasing them as they found their way back to the cabinet room.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei frowned and made his way to the drawers in the table as the Doctor stood in the doorway with a bottle of alcohol in hand, which he'd picked up from a side table.

Rose and Harriet stood behind him as he began talking to the aliens.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol," the Doctor bluffed, "whoof, and we'll all go up in flames, so back off."

Koschei forced himself into a partial meditation when he heard this, that was some of the worst bullshit he'd ever heard come from his mouth, and it wouldn't do to burst out laughing, especially when the hostile aliens seemed to believe it, and had even backed off.

"Right then," the Doctor started, not moving a muscle, "question time, who exactly are the Slitheen?"

Koschei blinked from where he was stood, he'd found the file a few seconds prior, he'd been about to flick through to see if there was anything useful.

"They're aliens," Harriet spoke.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock," Koschei spoke up, "but in all seriousness, that sounds like a family name."

Harriet and Rose began talking about the Doctor's non-human status, as the Doctor tried thinking.

"Can I have a bit of hush?" he asked.

The two continued, so Koschei, feeling more than a little bit grumpy hit the two with a silencing spell.

They looked surprised as they found their voices suddenly gone and pressed their hands against their throats as though they'd been mortally wounded.

"Thank you, now then, you've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea," he began, and Koschei tuned him out to flick through the files.

He jumped slightly when metal doors closed across the windows and doors, keeping them safe, but trapped.

"Installed in 1991," he heard the Doctor say, "three inches of steel lining every single wall, they'll never get in."

"And how do we get out?" Rose asked the very obvious hole in the plan.

"Ah," the Doctor muttered in realisation.

Koschei thought the expression on his face at that moment was rather cute.

Show Me The Way Home

"These protocols won't do shit now," Koschei commented as the Doctor dragged a dead body into a storage room.

He looked down at the papers, pointedly ignoring the exchange between the Doctor and the recently unsilenced Rose and Harriet.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"All the people you'd bring in to put these protocols into effect? Laying downstairs, dead."

"What about defence codes? Can't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" she asked.

"No, those codes are kept by the United Nations."

"Could you clarify?" the Doctor asked him.

"Sure, Britain's got a pretty fucked history with big explosives, as such no-one wanted to trust the government with the access codes, the UN hold onto them and if the British government wants to get hold of the codes they have to petition the UN."

"How do you know all of that?" Harriet asked him.

"I was bored," he stated, it was true, but it wasn't like he could tell her that he'd learnt it all in another universe.

"I-" she cut herself off and shook her head, turning to face the paperwork laid out in front of him, "if only we knew what they wanted."

"Yeah," Rose frowned, "what do they want?"

The conversation continued for a few more minutes until Rose's phone buzzed, on the screen was a picture sent by Mickey of another Slitheen.

What followed was a phone call that probably put Mickey and Rose on some kind of watchlist.

Koschei couldn't make out the other side of the conversation, but Rose was frantically asking for her mother to be put on to check up on her before the Doctor whisked it away.

"Is that Ricky?" he asked, "don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

There was a pause as Mickey responded on the other end of the line.

"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, uhm, I need you."

Koschei, Rose, and Harriet watched as the Doctor fiddled with some wires while talking Mickey through hacking the UNIT website, he finally plugged it in, and the sound began coming through the speakers.

"Say again?" the Doctor asked him to repeat himself.

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo, two Fs and one L."

Koschei rolled his eyes, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but the password was the same as the one from his universe, and he knew for a fact that the password had been in use for a very long time, extremely unsecure in his own opinion.

He tuned out the conversation from there, not having anything to contribute, and then one of the Slitheen began breaking into Mickey's flat.

"If we're going to find their weakness, we need to figure out where they're from, which planet," the Doctor began, he seemed calm on the outside, but Koschei could see the real panic in his eyes.

"Judging by their basic shape, it narrows down to five thousand planets within travelling distance," he frowned, "what else do we know about them?" he asked, "any information!"

"They're green!" Rose called.

"Narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology," Harriet added in.

Koschei sat back in his chair, hands steepled under his chin as he attempted to think of anything else useful or any alien species that he knew that fit the description.

"Narrows it down," the Doctor continued.

"The spaceship in the Thames," Rose hesitated, "you said slipstream engine?"

"Narrows it down."

"It's getting in!" came a panicked shout from the phone.

"They hunt like it's a ritual!"

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute," Harriet began, "did you notice? when they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else," she frowned, "what is it? it's more like, well, erhm."

"Bad breath!" Rose cried.

"That's it!"

"Calcium decay, now that narrows it down!" the Doctor cried.

"We're getting there, Mum!" Rose yelled.

"Too late!" Mickey screeched.

"Calcium phosphate, organic calcium, living calcium," the Doctor murmured, "creatures made out of living calcium, what else? what else? a hyphenated surname? yes! that narrows it down to one planet!"

The Doctor turned and marched to the phone.

"Raxacoricofallapatorius."

"Oh yeah, great, we'll write them a letter," Mickey snarked.

"Go into the kitchen."

They waited for a few minutes as Mickey and Rose's mum ran into the kitchen and barricaded themselves inside of it.

"My god, it's going to tear us apart."

"Calcium, weakened by a compression field, acetic acid, vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Just like Hannibal," the Doctor agreed, "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?"

"It's your kitchen."

"Cupboard, by the sink, middle shelf," Rose interjected.

"Oh, give it here!" Rose's mother came through, "what do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor informed her.

"Gherkins," she muttered, "yeah, pickled onions, pickled eggs."

Koschei made a face of disgust at the listed items.

"And you kiss this man?" the Doctor asked Rose.

About a minute later, a loud fart was heard across the line, followed by a rather loud bang.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked aloud.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar," Harriet informed her.

"Oh, well, there you go then."

Show Me The Way Home

They sat in the locked room, waiting for the next big thing to rear its head, sipping at the alcohol that the Doctor had threatened the Slitheen with when Mickey spoke again.

"Listen to this."

The phone was then held up near either a TV or radio, and they all listened in.

"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads," Koschei recognised the voice as one of the Slitheen that had been hunting them, "And they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds."

"What?" the Doctor questioned.

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction unless we strike first, the United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mothership, and I beg the United Nations to pass an emergency resolution, to give us the access codes," he paused, seemingly gathering his resolve, to give the severity of the situation time to sink in, it was false of course, but effective, "A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you that Earth is at war."

"He's making it up," the Doctor began rambling, "There's no weapons up there, there's no threat, he just invented it."

"Of course they are, this is quite obviously planned, they've been here for a long time by the sounds of things," Koschei spoke.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked, and he was very tempted to let her know just how gullible humans could be but held his tongue.

"They did last time," Rose spoke.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle," the Doctor said, "they want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

"They release the defence code," Rose realised.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear."

"But why?" Harriet questioned.

The Doctor walked to the door and opened the shutters, Koschei walked over to stand behind him, ready in case they decided to attack.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there," the Doctor began, "you attack every other country on Earth, they retaliate and fight back and it's World War Three, the whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it, safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames, not crashed, just parked, only two minutes away," the female Slitheen informed them.

"But you'll destroy the planet!" Harriet exclaimed, "this beautiful place, what for?"

"Profit," the Doctor informed harshly, "that's what the signal is beaming into space, an advert."

"The sale of a century, we reduce the Earth to molten slag, then we sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chunks capable of powering every cut-price star-liner and budget cargo ship, there's a recession out there Doctor, and the people are buying cheap, this rock will become raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives."

Koschei felt rather offended for two reasons, really, because on the one hand his newest life had been born on an Earth, not this one, but a similar one nonetheless, and on the other, the part of him that was still the Master knew that Earth had far more potential than just junk fuel.

"Bargain," she commanded.

"I give you a choice, leave this planet or I will stop you," the Doctor said.

"What, you? Trapped here in your box?" she laughed.

"Yes," he snapped, "me."

With that, he shut the shutters once more.

Show Me The Way Home

They had been stuck in that damned room for an entire night at that point, Koschei was stood in the corner, away from everyone else while smoking, after all, it was rude to breathe the smoke into other people's faces.

The Doctor had taken one look at his packet of cigarettes and asked him not to smoke in the TARDIS, which was fair enough, Harriet had rolled her eyes and gone back to writing something on a piece of paper, and Rose kept staring at him as though he'd spontaneously grown a second, third, and forth head.

"What?" he finally asked her.

"It's just I didn't take you for a smoker," she admitted.

He just shrugged and put the end out in an ashtray he'd found in the storage room, which still contained dead bodies.

"Lots of people smoke, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, it was quite normal then, you understand?"

"Yeah, I sort of remember my mum talking about it when I was younger," she said.

There was a lull in the conversation and Koschei took the time to walk back over to the table, just in time to hear Rose's mother, who he'd learnt was called Jackie over the night, talk.

"Alright Doctor, I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," Harriet suggested.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked.

"There's loads of emergency numbers, but they're all on voicemail," he stated.

"Voicemail dooms us all," Harriet sighed.

There was silence for a moment.

"There's a way out," the Doctor stated.

"What?" Rose asked.

"There's always been a way out."

"Then why don't we use it?"

"Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe," he directed this towards Jackie.

"Don't you dare," she hissed, "Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing," the Doctor sighed, and Koschei could see the pure regret and pain in his eyes that he tried to hide, "if I don't dare, everyone dies."

The statement caused everyone to fall silent as they remembered that this wasn't just a small group in trouble, but the entire world.

"Do it," Rose demanded.

"You don't even know what it is, you'd just let me?" he asked her in surprise.

"Yeah."

"Please," Jackie begged, "Doctor, please, she's my daughter, she's just a kid."

"You think I don't know that?" he snapped, "this is my life, Jackie, it's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will!"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Rose challenged.

The Doctor sighed, suddenly looking far older, "I could save the world but lose you," he looked over at Koschei, "and I did promise you that I'd at least try and get you back home."

Koschei shrugged, "honestly, Doctor, I knew something like this would happen," he could tell his words surprised him, at least a little, "as many things that there are different, there are many the same."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, and he could see the beginnings of comprehension appear in his eyes.

"What are you seeing?" he asked him, almost softly, he didn't expect a response and he didn't get one, they stood there, staring at each other for a moment before Harriet interrupted them.

"Sorry to cut this short," she said, but obviously was not, "but back on the subject at hand, this decision is not yours to make, Doctor, it's mine."

"Who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded.

The moment was forgotten as they all went back to what they were doing.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North," she spoke with authority in her voice, "the only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people, and on behalf of the people, I command you, do it."

"How do we get out?" Rose asked.

"We don't," the Doctor said, grabbing the emergency protocols, "we stay here."

The Doctor then gave Mickey instructions on how to hack the Royal Navy.

"Use the buffalo password, it overrides everything."

"What are you doing?" Jackie asked.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy," Mickey seemed rather excited to share that fact, honestly, "we're in, here it is, HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, now we need to select a missile," the Doctor instructed.

"We can't go nuclear; we don't have the defence codes."

"We don't need it, an ordinary missile will do, what's the first category?"

"It's uh, a Sub Harpoon, erm, UGM-A4A."

"That's the one, select it."

"I could stop you," Jackie commented.

"Do it then," Mickey said.

The Doctor took a deep breath and continued his instructions, "are you ready for this?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, Mickey the Idiot, the world is now officially in your hands."

There was a short moment of silence as everyone seemed to prepare themselves.

"Fire," the Doctor commanded.

"Oh my god," Jackie whimpered as she saw the missile launched on the satellite imagery.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked while tapping on the walls.

"Not solid enough," the Doctor informed, "built for a short-range attack, nothing this big."

"Alright," Rose butted in, "now I'm making the decision, I'm not going to die, we're going to ride this one out, it's like what they say about earthquakes, you can survive them by standing under a doorframe," she walked over to the cupboard, "now this cupboard's small, so it's strong, come and help me."

She began dragging things out of the cupboard, and Koschei had a moment to panic before he forced himself to calm, panicking would do nothing good in this situation, he could have a good old panic once they were safe.

"Come on!" she encouraged, and he walked over with Harriet to help remove the junk from it.

"It's on the radar," Mickey's voice was heard, "counter defence five, five, six."

"Stop them from intercepting it."

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

Koschei snorted, "he's not a dog, Doctor," he called out while hauling a box of papers out of the room.

There was an answering snort before their attentions were once again swallowed by their tasks.

"Five, five, six neutralised."

The Doctor unplugged the phone and walked over to the cupboard, where the last box had just been removed, they all then piled inside it, huddling down as best they could.

"Here we go," Harriet spoke, as the sound of the descending missile approached, "nice knowing you all, Hannibal!"

The next thing Koschei knew, the building was violently shaking, then they were being tossed about.

When it finally stopped, the Doctor pushed the door off.

Harriet stepped out, a little shaky in the legs, and muttered, "made in Britain."

"Oh my god, are you alright?" someone questioned from off to the side, as Rose, the Doctor, and Koschei all managed to untangle themselves and make their own ways out of the cupboard.

"Harriet Jones, MP, Flydale North," she informed him, "I want you to contact the UN immediately, tell the ambassadors that the crisis is over, they can step down," when he hesitated, she added, "go on, tell the news!"

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," Harriet muttered, "oh lord, we don't even have a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go," the Doctor suggested.

"Me? well I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for ya," Rose informed her.

"If I had any legal documents, I would too," Koschei freely admitted, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from the Doctor.

She looked shocked, "Don't be silly now," she shook her head and looked around, "look, I'd better go and see if I can help," sirens filled the air, and she called out, "hang on!" and began leading their way out from the rubble, "we're safe, the Earth is safe," she called.

They ran down the road towards where the sirens came from, and Harriet called out to one of the armed personnel, "sergeant!"

"I thought I knew the name," the Doctor began conversationally as they walked past an ambulance, "Harriet Jones," they paused and watched the woman walk down the street, "future Prime Minister, elected for three successive terms, the architect of Britain's golden age."

"The crisis has passed!" she called for everyone to hear.

They then walked off, back towards where Jackie lived and where the TARDIS was parked, the sound of Harriet's speech to the news echoing down the streets behind them.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei and the Doctor both went back to the TARDIS, while Rose went to reassure her mother that she was fine.

"I think I need a shower and a whole week of sleep," he joked.

"What, no food?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, that too," he sighed and reached down to one of the bags which he'd left at the console before their adventure, and pulled out a book, "were you aware that I appear to be a book character here?"

The Doctor sighed and shook his head, "I didn't really think about the possibility of magic existing in your original universe until I saw your wand," he frowned a little, "your behaviour doesn't strike me as someone who'd end up in Gryffindor, from the traits that were described in the books anyways."

Koschei snorted, "Gryffindor? me? Hermione may be like a sister to me, but I honestly don't understand how she puts up with her housemates, patience of a saint, that one," he shook his head in amusement, "no, I was sorted to Ravenclaw."

"The smart house?"

"The smart house, but it's not what it seems, not really."

The Doctor nodded but didn't ask for him to elaborate.

"So, a wizard, huh?"

"Yes."

The Doctor grinned.

"You best show us some hocus pocus then!"

Koschei gave a startled laugh.

"Sure, sure."

Chapter Text

Koschei gave a loud groan as he was thrown to the floor from where he'd been sat on a railing as the TARDIS landed.

"I told you not to sit on there," the Doctor huffed at him from where he was stood at the console.

He looked over at him and stuck his tongue out, ignoring the laughter coming from Rose's general direction, "But where else am I supposed to sit?"

The Doctor gestured at a set of chairs off to the side, where Rose was sat.

"Me, sit on a chair?" he gasped dramatically, "What do you take me for, a normal person?"

He heard Rose gasp for air as she tried to control her laughter, leaning against the back of the chair.

He watched as the Doctor rolled his eyes and turned to look back at the console with a frown.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know," his frown deepened as he looked at some readings on one of the upper screens, "It seems as though there is some kind of signal just pulling the TARDIS off her course."

Koschei frowned and walked towards the door, cautiously pulling it open and peering out the crack it opened, before pulling it open wide, revealing a dimly lit room filled with display cases, "Looks like some kind of a museum."

Rose and the Doctor both walked up behind him, also taking a look at the room before they all walked out into the space.

"So, where are we?" Rose asked.

"North America," the Doctor responded, "Utah to be exact, and, oh, about a half-mile underground."

"And, when?"

"Two-thousand and twelve," he stated, "Twenty-twelve, people thought the world would end this year, you know."

"Good old Mayans," Koschei joked.

The Doctor looked at him, an unreadable expression on his face before he turned to find the light switch, quickly flicking it on once it had been found.

"So, I'd be, what, twenty-six?" Rose muttered, considering.

Koschei walked over to one of the display cases along the side of the room, peering into it while listening to their conversation.

"An alien museum," the Doctor hummed, "Well, someone's got a hobby, must have cost a fortune," he heard the tapping of his shoes as he walked along the rows, "Chunks of meteorite, moon dust," he paused in his walking, "Oh that, now that's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."

"Hey, look at this," Rose started, "It's a bit of Slitheen!"

Koschei peered over the case he was looking at to look at the one she was stood in front of.

"It's a Slitheen's arm and it's been stuffed!"

"Oh, now look at you!"

"What is it?" Rose asked, walking to where the Doctor had found the severed head of an old Cyberman.

"An old friend of mine," he muttered, "Well, an enemy at least, the stuff of nightmares this," he took a shaky breath and let out a sigh, "I'm getting old."

Both Rose and Koschei stared at him for a moment, before Rose broke the strange silence that had settled over them, "Is that where the signal is coming from then?"

"No," he denies, "It's dead, gone, the signal is alive, something is reaching out and calling for help."

The Doctor reached out to touch the case, which set off an alarm, which, unsurprisingly caused the room to be swarmed with armed guards.

"Well, here we go again," Koschei muttered.

Show Me The Way Home

The three of them were taken to an office, where they saw a young man showing an older man a musical instrument.

"What does it do?"

"Well, you see the tubes on the side? I think it must channel something, possibly fuel."

And of course, they had absolutely no idea what they had, Koschei rolled his eyes.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that," the Doctor announced.

"Shut it," the woman who had escorted them in hissed at him.

"Really though, that's wrong."

The younger man turned to look at him, "Is it dangerous?"

"No, it just looks silly."

Koschei cracked a grin, and the Doctor reached for the instrument, ignoring the clicks of the guns around him as he did so, the older man handed it over.

"You just need to be delicate," he stated, before stroking it, producing a rather nice sound.

"It's a musical instrument," the older man stated.

"And it's a long way from home."

"Here," the man reached out for the instrument, which the Doctor released back to him, "Let me."

The notes that were produced were harsher, as he dragged his fingers along it, digging them in slightly, Koschei shared a grimacing look with Rose.

"I did say delicate," the Doctor interrupted, "It reacts to the slightest of touch."

He let up his fingers, allowing them to graze the surface ever so slightly, producing much nicer sounds.

"Very good, quite an expert," the Doctor congratulated.

"As are you," he acknowledged, then tossed the instrument to the side.

Koschei winced, knowing that for such an airy instrument, it was most likely broken from how it had impacted the floor.

"So, who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the Doctor, and who are you?"

"Like you don't know," he huffed, "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artefacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Yeah, that's about right," Koschei muttered.

"Pretty much sums it up, yeah," the Doctor said at the same time.

"The question now is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little accomplices," he gave both Koschei and Rose a once-over, "You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty, and he's quite cute."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her 'she'," Rose huffed.

"And he's not going to be held responsible for what happens to your… little neighbour… if you call him 'cute' again," Koschei snarked.

"And they're English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, got you a girlfriend," he paused and looked over at Koschei, "And a boyfriend too if you're into that."

"Not interested," Koschei interrupted quickly, "I've got someone waiting for me at home."

He could see from the corner of his eye as the Doctor gave him a sad look, and he felt his stomach drop slightly, as he remembered how he'd left his own Doctor, all for a spur of the moment idea, it had been such a… Doctor thing to do, he wondered if he questioned what had happened to him?

Did he think he was dead?

He took a shuddering gasp and shook his head, now was not the time for those thoughts, he quickly wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeve, drying the tears which had gathered there.

"This is Mister Henry van Statten," the young man introduced him.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose questioned.

"Mister van Statten owns the internet."

"Don't be stupid," Rose scoffed, "No-one owns the internet."

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?" van Statten clapped his hands together.

"So, you're just about an expert in everything, except for the things in your museum," the Doctor puzzled out, "Anything you don't understand you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?"

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

"And yet I captured you, right next to the cage," he mused, "What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

"That cage," he paused dramatically, "It contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"Blimey," Rose hissed towards Koschei, "You can smell the testosterone."

He hummed, awkwardly shifting where he stood, he'd forgotten that the Doctor being confrontational was rather… attractive.

"Goddard, inform the cage we're heading down," he ordered, "You, English, look after those two, go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you all do, and you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

Koschei felt as though something bad was about to happen and interrupted, he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately, "I go with the Doctor," he straightened his back and put on his best 'I dare you to defy my will' face, a stony expression with a steely glare.

Van Statten attempted to stare him down, but he just lifted his chin and allowed a small amount of his magic to penetrate the air, the lights flickered for a moment and then he looked away from Koschei.

"Very well," he grit out harshly.

"And you," Koschei turned to face the young man, who had not been named in this whole time, the same expression on his face, he jabbed his finger at him, "If anything happens to her, it's your head."

He gulped and nodded quickly, and Koschei relaxed, the expression melting off his face just as quick as it had been put there, the Doctor was staring at him strangely, and he understood that it had been quite a sight to behold.

"Let's go then," he huffed out.

Show Me The Way Home

"We've tried everything, the creature has shielded itself, but there are definite signs of life inside."

"Inside?" the Doctor questioned, "Inside what?"

The question was ignored, and one of the workers greeted van Statten.

"Welcome back sir, I've had to turn the power down, the Metaltron is resting."

"Metaltron?"

"Thought of it myself," the man bragged, "Good, isn't it? Although I would much prefer to find out its real name."

"Here," the man who worked for van Statten offered a pair of metallic gloves, "You'd best put these on, the last guy that touched it burst into flames."

"I won't touch it then," the Doctor denied the gloves, and the man turned to offer them to Koschei, who just shook his head.

"Go ahead, Doctor," van Statten gestured to the open doorway, "Impress me."

Both the Doctor and Koschei walked into the darkened room, the door slamming shut behind them, Koschei swore as he heard the lock click, and walked over to see if he could do anything about it while the Doctor investigated this 'Metaltron'.

"DOC-TOR?"

Koschei felt his stomach turn to ice, and spun around just in time to see the lights come on and reveal…

He froze where he stood, completely unable to move as he stared at that thing.

The Dalek.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could swear there was fire.

"EXTERMINATE!"

He breathed in through his nose and coughed, he could smell smoke.

"I DEMAND ORDERS!"

He was aware that he appeared to be missing most of the conversation but couldn't find it in himself to care as he attempted to control his breathing.

In.

Out.

"AND THE COWARD SURVIVED."

In.

Out.

They'd caused so much destruction and he'd ran from it all, just like his Doctor had run so long ago…

"HAVE PITY!"

He felt someone guide him out of the room, looking at the person from the corner of his eye, he noted that it was the Doctor, who was also being guided by another person.

"I take it you've met them before?" the Doctor asked him.

He just nodded, words escaping him for the moment.

He could freely admit to himself now that they scared him, and not just because of what they could do, but because of what they meant to him.

It had been that war that had caused his inevitable fall into insanity, from his resurrection, to the drums, his fleeing to the end of the universe, and finally…

The image of a large, sharp kitchen knife flowed into his mind, along with his Doctor's screams.

He shook his head and managed to get himself back with his surroundings, just in time to hear the same woman who'd taken them to van Statten's office speak.

"You mentioned a war?"

"The Time War," the Doctor reluctantly admitted, "The final battle between my people and the Dalek race."

Koschei grasped the Doctor's hand loosely, offering what little support he could, knowing the conversation must be difficult for him, he was rewarded with a small grateful smile as van Statten continued.

"But you survived too."

"Not by choice."

"This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth, Doctor" van Statten had a very contemplative look on his face as he stared at the Doctor, and Koschei had a bad feeling.

"And you're the only one of your kind in existence."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei found himself separated from the Doctor very quickly after that, and was thrown into a simple holding cell, which had a single tiny, barred window, the creakiest bed frame hanging from the wall, a toilet, and a sink.

So, not the worst place he'd ever been in, but he'd take UNIT's holding cells over this one any day.

He eyed up the guard who was stationed outside, taking note of his equipment, he'd been kitted out as though he was in the military, and yet there was one thing that all these people were susceptible to and had not been prepared for.

Magic.

"Well," he started pleasantly, causing the guard to startle and aim his gun at him, Koschei just stared at it as though it were a toy, "Certainly not the worst place I've been, but I've places to go, people to see," he walked to the door and pulled his wand out, "Alohomora," he stepped through, pointing his wand at the man, "You know how it is, Accio gun."

He grabbed the gun from the air, quickly looking it over and pointing it casually at the man.

"Put your hands behind your head and get on your knees," he smiled pleasantly at him as he did so.

"Do you… even know how to use that thing?" the man questioned nervously as Koschei tied him to the metal supports of the bed.

"I know how to use a," he paused, looking at the gun to quickly pin the type, "submachine gun, if that's what you mean," he finished tying the man up and walked out of the cell, locking it behind him.

He quickly put the safety on, not wanting to accidentally shoot himself in the face or foot or something equally as ridiculous.

Koschei looked up at the ceiling as someone announced for all guards to head to the Dalek's cage.

"Well, suppose I should be going," he looked back at the tied-up guard, "Good luck!"

Show Me The Way Home

Perhaps running down random corridors aimlessly while trying to get past numerous guards rushing to a single location wasn't a great idea, but honestly, what else was he supposed to do? Sit around and wait for someone to find him?

No, it was more likely that the damn thing would get to him and kill him first, so he had to keep moving.

It was simple, really, to just blank out and let his body do the moving, a soldier marching to the end, wherever that may be, the gun was out in front of him, ready to fire if necessary.

Left, right, left, right.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

A pattern that no longer existed echoed across his mind as he moved, keep going, don't let it get you.

Don't let it get them.

"Harry?" Rose's voice echoed from above him, he tilted his head in the direction of her voice and saw her on some stairs, "The Doctor says we need to get to level forty-six, the vault is being sealed off."

He nodded, and scrambled after her, following as they quickly made their way to the door, Koschei taking the rear.

They reached level forty-six, and ran along the corridor, rounding the corner, only to see that the door was closing, Adam, which was the English boy's name, ran as quick as he could and got out, and tried to encourage them, Koschei grit his teeth and pushed Rose's back, picking up the pace and shoving her through, just in time.

Rose was safe.

Koschei laughed loudly as the Dalek came around the corner.

He turned and stood, back straight, gun steady, wand at the ready.

It looked at him, and he stared at it.

"You know," he started, almost conversationally, "I've always wondered if you lot can…" he lowered the gun, quickly raising his wand instead, "Crucio."

The Dalek screamed in pain, not a very pleasant sound, but he did not let up.

"STOP," it cried out, attempting to aim its blaster at him, yet missing spectacularly when it fired.

A cruel grin plastered itself on his face.

"Beg."

"PLEASE."

Ah, so they could.

"Please… what?"

"PLEASE STOP THE PAIN," it fired its blaster once more, hitting the ceiling.

"Hm, better," he admitted, and let his spell drop, quickly aiming the wand in its direction again.

"Try and shoot me, and I'll make it feel far worse than that."

It seemed to weigh his words, before lowering its weapon.

He kept a watch on it through the corner of his eye as he turned to look at the door, luckily the thing seemed to have a brain rattling about in there, as it took his threat for the truth that it was and didn't attempt to do anything to incur his wrath.

There was a screen attached to the door, likely for communicating with the outside should something happen.

He kept one hand levelled at the Dalek with his wand, while he turned the machine on, and luckily for him, there was still an ID card lodged into the side of it, so he wouldn't need to put any of his questionable computer skills to the test.

He quickly opened a communication link with the main office, just in time to see Rose burst into tears.

"Hey now, none of that," he chastised her.

"Harry, you're okay!" she cried out before she saw what was behind him, "Look out!"

He lazily turned his head to face the Dalek, moving his wand slightly in front of its… whatever it was it used to see with, and, while not moving, he got the impression that it had flinched.

"Apparently it does not like to be tasered, who knew?"

He and his Doctor had managed to figure out that the Crucio curse had an electrical current, a few tests later and it was discovered that it was sending multiple volts through the body, at just high enough of a voltage to cause unbearable pain and possible nerve damage.

During those seven years alone, he had managed to figure out that a person could actually change the voltage if they tried hard enough.

So, he wasn't wrong when he'd said that he tasered the damn thing.

"Open the bulkhead," the Doctor ordered, and Koschei sighed, "We'll work something out to stop the Dalek, but I won't let him stay there!"

He sighed once more when he heard the pistons begin to release, then turned to face the Dalek.

He slowly stepped backwards out past the doors, keeping his wand level at the thing, and stood still once he'd gotten out, it wasn't long before he could hear footsteps heading down the hall.

Rose, the Doctor, van Statten, the lady from the office, the Adam kid, and two guards, only one of which was armed, came marching into sight.

The Doctor, van Statten, and the armed guard that he didn't know the name of were all holding guns, a bad feeling once more came over him as they aimed at the Dalek.

He was proven right when van Statten, instead of shooting the Dalek, shot him.

Koschei stumbled, quickly stashing his wand in a pocket on the inside of his jacket, then placed as much pressure as he could on the wound in his shoulder with his shaking hand.

He was lucky he hadn't shot anywhere important, but there was a lot of blood.

There was a lot of yelling and someone was helping him apply pressure to the wound, the world around him began to spin, and he only vaguely registered that Rose, the Dalek, and the Doctor had gone off somewhere.

Van Statten was being restrained.

He didn't know how long he sat there, but he did know that he was soon being led away from the area, the smell of his own blood became too much to handle, and halfway to their destination, he threw up, which only served to make him dizzier.

Their destination turned out to be the TARDIS and the person who had been leading him there was the Doctor.

He'd never even noticed that the person helping him had changed.

Unsurprisingly he was led to the med bay, where he was laid on the bed, he had a moment to watch as the Doctor stumbled about, grabbing medical equipment before he succumbed to unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Koschei wasn't expecting much when he finally woke up from his unconscious state.

He was expecting his wound to be completely healed, thanks to the technology available, which was a correct assumption, it was a little sore to move, but otherwise completely fine, albeit with a new bullet-shaped scar where it had pierced his skin.

He was expecting to have missed a few days, and likely a few adventures, again, correct, if the date on the screen, helpfully in English, not that he needed it to be, near him was any indication.

He was expecting to be wearing the horrible far too smooth hospital robes that come pre-prepared on each TARDIS, again correct, and a quick scan of the room showed his wand and very broken Time-Turner sat neatly on the side table.

Everything else that was important to him, had been left in the bedroom that the TARDIS had kindly supplied him, and he was very glad that he'd decided to keep his belongings on board at the time.

What he did not expect to wake up to was a Mauve Alert.

"Fucking hell," he gazed pleadingly at the ceiling, "Please tell me I have time to shower and change?"

The lights blinked once in confirmation and he gave a relieved sigh, "Wonderful."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei stumbled into the control room, looking about as lights flashed, he managed to catch a glimpse at one of the screens facing the inside door which showed an unidentifiable ship as they chased it through the Vortex.

"So, what we got?" he questioned aloud, causing the Doctor to smack his head on one of the overhead monitors in surprise.

"Harry!" he called, "You really shouldn't be up!"

He rolled his eyes and walked down to the console, standing next to Rose and peering at the screen.

"It was just a little bullet wound, nothing that bad."

"Nothing that bad?" Rose cried out, hitting his opposite shoulder carefully, "There was so much blood, Harry, I thought…"

He conceded that it may have looked life-threatening to someone who'd never been in a situation like that in the past.

"It would have been bad if it had hit anywhere important, my heart, or a lung for example, but it was my shoulder," he shrugged, awkwardly accepting a hug from the distraught young woman.

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, worry hidden in his eyes, but clear as day to him, and he felt touched.

"I'm fine, honestly," the Doctor appeared sceptic of his claims, "Look, I'll stay in or near the TARDIS if that makes you feel any better if we're on Earth, the worst place I'll go is a pub, have a couple of drinks, I won't push myself, promise."

He nodded and turned back to the screens, "I'll hold you to that."

And then they were off, chasing after some random ship or another, alarms blaring.

Show Me The Way Home

When they came to a stop, Rose was the first one out of the door, opening to reveal an alleyway.

"Lovely scenery," he commented, jokingly, earning an elbow to the ribs for his efforts, far lighter than it would normally be, due to his now non-existent injury.

"Do you know how long you can hang about space without bumping into Earth, or at the very least a human-controlled planet?"

"Five days?" Rose joked, "Or is that just when we run out of milk?"

"Out of all the species in the Universe and it has to be from a cow," the Doctor grumbled, before clapping his hands together, "Well, the ship must have come down somewhere close, within a mile I'd say."

Koschei leaned against the doorframe as the Doctor pondered.

"It also can't have been more than a few weeks ago, possibly a month."

"A month?" Rose questioned in surprise, "We were just behind it!"

"Yes, but it was jumping time tracks all over the place!" he announced, and Koschei bit back a snort.

Time tracks, h onestly.

"We're bound to be a little bit off course," he turned to face her with a serious look on his face, "Do you want to drive?"

"Yeah, no," she denied, smart girl, "How much is a little bit, exactly?"

"Oh, you know, a bit."

"I see."

Her face was full of doubt and Koschei couldn't help but give a snort at it.

"Right, you two, go find that ship and inevitably save London, again," he turned to face the Doctor, "If I'm not here I'll be at the pub," he nodded to the sign just off the alleyway announcing a White Hart pub for all to see.

And with that, he wondered back inside the TARDIS, shutting the door as he went.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei's room aboard the TARDIS was a rather interesting blend of chaotic and organised.

There were books stacked upon books in massive wonky piles, blankets were thrown about the place, an overfilled bin filled with discarded blueprints and ideas.

Clothes stuck out of his drawers where he hadn't properly folded them to put them away.

There was a large plush sofa, which took up the most space, thrown over the back of it was his invisibility cloak.

In front of the sofa, there was a small coffee table, which held his rather useless mobile phone, being that it couldn't call or text any of his registered contacts due to being in another universe entirely.

The bedroom had a small second floor, accessible by a small staircase, which held his bed and a bedside table, on top of which was a lamp and a couple of books that he'd found in one of the libraries aboard the TARDIS.

Under the bed, there was a large oak desk and a very comfortable leather chair.

And on top of the desk, Koschei dumped just a few more books to go over in review, as he attempted to plan his next project.

Each project that he had started while in this universe had been created with the goal of getting back to his original universe.

Sadly, each of his previous ideas had been either scrapped or had failed in their prototyping stage, which left him back at square one each time.

Sitting down at his chair, he gave a big stretch, before reaching to grab a pencil to begin making notes as he read through the large books.

He had a few hours to kill, after all.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei looked up at the sign of the slightly run-down pub that sat at the end of the alleyway, a bag filled with money from the current time held loosely in one hand.

Maybe, he pondered, it wasn't such a good idea to go drinking in the middle of World War Two, eventually, he shrugged and pushed the door open, quickly making his way to the bar.

"What's the strongest whiskey you've got?" he questioned the bartender, who looked at him as though he were mad.

"Well, I suppose it'd be this," he pulled down an old looking bottle, before holding it out for his inspection, it was half full, but of very good quality.

"I'll take the bottle."

"Are you sure lad?" he asked, seemingly concerned, to which Koschei pulled out his money and began counting, "Right, I'll get a glass for you."

By the time the man had grabbed a clean glass for him, he'd counted the money out, sliding it over, he grabbed the glass and poured some of the whiskey from the bottle into said glass, before re-stoppering it.

"Are you alone, lad?"

Koschei grabbed the glass, "No, I'm travelling with a couple of people, probably not the best climate for it, but you deal with what you have," he shrugged, then sipped at his drink.

The bartender nodded as he cleaned a glass, "So, where you from then?"

"Surrey," he scowled into his glass, "Me and my relatives didn't get on well, I left when I was eleven, been all over since then."

The man stared at him in shock, "Eleven, didn't anyone ever wonder what a young lad was doing on his own?"

He snorted and downed the rest of his glass, quickly refilling it and sitting back in his chair, "Nah, people don't question that sort of thing if you act like you belong and have a good story, 'oh, I'm just going to visit my grandmother, she lives in the next town over, so I'm just travelling through,' throw them a grin and they'll just smile at you and you can be on your way."

The bartender hummed, and gave him a considering look, "So, where you all heading to?"

He shrugged, "Wherever the wind takes us, I suppose, although, I reckon we'll probably be avoiding most of Europe for a while," he lied.

The bartender nodded, "Probably for the best."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei was more than a little bit drunk when the Doctor turned up much later that day, and it was very obvious.

"Doctor!" he cried out with a big grin on his face as he laid eyes on his friend.

The bartender looked over at the Doctor with an amused look on his face, "You turned up just in time, I was actually about to kick him out, had a bit too much."

"I'm so sorry," the Doctor apologised, to which the bartender waved it off with a laugh.

"Nonsense, the lad's been more than good company, if a little on the excitable side once he's had a bit to drink."

"Doctor!" he called out again, as he made his way over to the bar, Koschei held out the bottle of whiskey he was currently going through, having finished the half-filled bottle and another one on top of that, "D'you want some?"

"No thank you," he smiled at him, before turning to face the bartender once more to question him on his wellbeing.

Koschei looked down at his bottle, which was a quarter full at this point, before shrugging and putting it up to his mouth, taking a long swig from it.

"Alright you," the Doctor pulled him to his feet, "Say bye."

"Bye!" he called out behind him, waving with the hand that still held his bottle while the Doctor pulled him along by his other hand.

The bartender chuckled and soon they were outside in the cool air.

"So, whiskey, huh?" the Doctor questioned.

"'s good!" he chirruped at him before he tripped over the cracks in the path, the Doctor quickly reaching out to make sure he didn't fall flat on his face, "Thanks!"

The Doctor pulled him closer to his body so that he could support him better as they walked down the alleyway towards the TARDIS.

By the time they'd made it to the door, Koschei had finished his bottle, he turned his head to look down at it sadly, as the Doctor pulled him inside, causing him to stumble, and shutting the door behind them.

"Is he drunk?" came Rose's questioning voice.

"Rose!" he called out happily.

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed.

"Rose, hi!"

"Hello," she giggled at his inebriated state.

"Right, I'm going to get him to bed before we go save Captain Jack."

"Oh!" Koschei spun on his feet to look at the Doctor, falling over as he did so, "Handsome Jack is here?"

The grip the Doctor had on his hand seemed to tighten, and he frowned at him in confusion.

"I suppose you know him?"

"Sorta, not really!" he stood on his feet with help from the Doctor, "Met him once," he paused to consider, "He's got a nice arse."

Both Rose and the Doctor stared at him for a moment before the Doctor shook his head and began marching him further inside the TARDIS.

"Right, you, bed."

"Awh, but you're getting Jack!"

"You can see Jack when you're awake," the Doctor said, pulling open the door to the room which was Koschei's, "And when you're sober."

The Doctor stared at his room for a moment, before shaking his head and locating his bed.

"Right, shoes off!"

He pouted but did as he was told, quickly pushing them off his feet with the opposing feet, before walking over to his drawers and pulling out pyjamas, quickly changing, and only falling over twice once the Doctor had turned around to give him some privacy.

"Okay I'm dressed now, why'd you stay though?" he asked him.

"Because you're drunk, and I doubt you'd be able to get up to your bed on your own."

He giggled before letting loose a jaw cracking yawn, and the Doctor helped him get up the stairs to the platform that held his bed, and he only almost fell off once.

He allowed the Doctor to push him into his bed, almost immediately beginning to fall asleep, not even bothering to wait for him to leave.

There was a moment of quiet between them, the Doctor stood above him, a considering and almost guilty look on his face, not that Koschei would know that halfway into the land of dreams that he was.

"Hey, Koschei?"

He gave a sleepy hum, before replying, "Yes, Theta?"

There was the sound of a sharp intake of breath and then silence for a moment.

"Nothing, just go to sleep."

There was the sound of movement, then the door clicked shut, and Koschei drifted off into sleep.

Chapter Text

It was rather a strange experience, meeting Harry Potter for the first time.

The young man was stood outside the chapel that Rose had been taken to, with a rather annoyed look on his face, a neighbour possibly.

"They do this every week," he'd muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me," he'd called out to the man stood on the stairs.

He'd looked over at them and raised an eyebrow, leaning over on his cane, focusing his attention on them.

"Excuse me," he'd repeated, "What do you mean they do this every week?"

The man who had introduced himself with the rather obviously false name of 'Evan Evans', had been very attentive and had invited himself into the chapel along with them, helping out where he could but otherwise staying out of the way.

The Doctor's issue with the man was that he worked too well with them, with him.

Something was wrong with him, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was obviously from another period of time altogether. His mannerisms, while they'd adapted well to his environment, were very much out of place.

So, the Doctor came to the logical conclusion that the man was attempting to steal his TARDIS, something which was happily not the case.

Well, not happily, he supposed, considering the man, Harry Potter was his actual name, was stuck in a universe not his own.

Watching the dark-haired man walk about one of his kitchens, freshly cleaned and shaven, wearing a set of his too-large clothes, making them all a snack before they set off on their next adventure, he made a silent promise to keep him safe.

If he could never get back to his own universe, he would have a home here, with him.

Show Me The Way Home

When Harry had come back from clothes shopping, the Doctor had to admit that the clothes he'd picked out were very fitting.

He was wearing black torn jeans, which had a purple flannel shirt half tucked in, over which a jacket, black leather with white faux fur lining the inside, was casually thrown over the top, a pair of black military combat boots adorned his feet, which his jeans were also tucked into.

"Well don't you clean up nice?" Rose questioned, rhetorically, the Doctor had to agree.

"Here's your clothes back," Harry told him, passing him a bag filled with clothing to him, "Thanks for letting me borrow them."

The Doctor watched him silently as he pulled his hair, which had been restored from its matted mess into a silky looking stylish mess, into a ponytail.

A part of him, which he dared not look into, for fear of being saddened too much, decided that he'd look far nicer with a beard.

Show Me The Way Home

A few interesting revelations about his universe hopping guest had come about that day.

One, Harry had been arrested, multiple times if his word was correct.

This didn't come as too much of a surprise, considering the fact that he knew his alternate self, and if they'd travelled together for at least a little bit, which was what seemed to be alluded to, then it wasn't too far of a stretch to say they'd gotten into some trouble.

Two, Harry was a wizard, as in real magic, brooms, and owls flying about the place.

He didn't seem as keen on actually using his magic as he would have expected, however, seemingly preferring to take things into his own hands and do them by his own strengths, which was honestly rather admirable, considering he could quite literally get the same results by a flick of the wand as it were.

The fact that he was a literal book character was rather amusing, honestly.

Three, Harry smoked.

Honestly, that was fine by him, just so long as he didn't smoke in the TARDIS.

It was a very difficult smell to get out of the console room.

It was much later that night, after all the humans on board the TARDIS had gone to sleep and he himself was beginning to drift off that the little things he'd learnt about him tried to come together in a way he was uncomfortable with, so he pushed it to the side of his mind.

It was unhealthy to project your dead best friend on someone else, after all.

Show Me The Way Home

Walking down a large corridor to meet Henry van Statten's 'pet', the Doctor looked at Harry out of the corner of his eye.

He was walking with his back as straight as it could be, chin held high, and a rather commanding yet blank look on his face.

Henry van Statten was very obviously attempting to ignore him but wasn't successful if the nervous gazes he kept throwing him were any clue.

For such a short man, Harry Potter held the authority of a man in great power.

The way that he'd managed to make Henry van Statten submit to his will by just staring him down back in the man's office was a true testament to the man himself.

Holding yourself confidently and speaking with a commanding tone really could get people to listen to you, no matter who they were.

Show Me The Way Home

Harry had seen Daleks before.

More than that, Harry had been in a position where Daleks had caused great destruction in his life.

The way he stared almost vacantly at it while they were trapped in the cage with it had spoken volumes.

He'd been quickly dragged out of the cage after he began electrocuting it, and he'd grabbed Harry's arm, gently pulling him out alongside him as he went.

The man was very quiet after that, responding to his question with a nod of the head instead of a verbal answer like he'd been expecting.

His eyes, normally a bright green, had been shadowed in a way he'd never seen on the young man's face.

And yet, even with the trauma, he must be reliving, he could still find it in himself to offer the Doctor support, silent though it were, when he'd begun talking about the Time War.

Show Me The Way Home

"Apparently, it does not like to be tasered, who knew?"

The Doctor could see the way that he was holding himself on the screen, seemingly relaxed as he kept his wand pointed at the Dalek.

But he could see the way his shoulders trembled, hear the way his voice hitched ever so slightly.

Harry was completely terrified of the Dalek, but there was something else there too.

And yet, he hid these so well that none of the humans in the room could see it.

He was acting strong, not for the people that worked for Henry van Statten.

Nor was he acting strong for the Doctor, having already proven his terror of them in front of him earlier.

No, there was only one person that the Doctor could think of that he'd be acting strong for, Rose, who'd cried when she thought he had died, trapped in the vault with the Dalek.

The Doctor wasn't even sure that he was aware he was doing it.

But he could respect it, at the very least.

Show Me The Way Home

When Henry van Statten shot Harry, he was angry but not surprised.

A man like that does not take being told what to do lightly.

And Harry had told him what to do, he'd pushed him in a way he did not like.

And then he'd harmed his 'pet' without being told that he could harm said 'pet', even though it had been decided that the Dalek needed to die.

He was truly a petty man, and he couldn't find it in himself to feel sorry for what Goddard had planned for him.

After the Dalek had been dealt with, he'd supported him into the TARDIS's med bay, where he'd removed the bullet and had the flesh re-knit itself using one of the untranslatable medical devices, which he'd creatively renamed 'flesh re-knitter' in English.

He'd looked down at his hands, soaked in blood, human this time and sighed.

Show Me The Way Home

Having life-threatening adventures with one human, while the other was unconscious in the med bay was quite a strange experience.

The first adventure without Harry had been to a news satellite, where Adam, possibly one of the most stupid twenty-first-century humans he'd ever met, had decided to have a computer implant.

Something which he would be unable to use back in his own time, apart from possibly a very disturbing party trick.

He had a very strong feeling that had Harry been awake to see it, he would have spent quite a while just straight-up mocking the boy.

The second adventure without him had been to the day of Rose's father's death.

He'd been very worried for his wellbeing when the TARDIS's existence just stopped when Rose had saved her father's life, but once everything was resolved, he'd checked on him and he'd been fine.

Other than his moment of non-existence, it had actually been one of the least threatening adventures he'd been on.

Perhaps Harry would have appreciated pictures?

Show Me The Way Home

One of the things that truly unnerved him about Harry was his ability to accurately predict how he was feeling.

He'd been able to do it since he'd met him, going out of his way to cheer him up when he began feeling even slightly down.

He'd also picked up on the fact that this regeneration of his enjoyed bitter-tasting foods a lot more than sweet ones, bringing him dark tea instead of milky, or even coffee instead of tea, picking out dark chocolate instead of milk, because he knew the Doctor would prefer it.

The way that he'd managed to slot the Doctor into his life as though he were just an extension of himself was scary.

Because he'd only known one other person who'd managed to do it that well.

Show Me The Way Home

Everything that he'd tried not to project onto his universe hopping friend crashed down the second he dragged him into his bedroom after he'd gotten drunk.

Stacks of books piled everywhere in all sorts of languages.

Including Circular and Modern Gallifreyan.

All the little things that he'd learnt about Harry suddenly slotted together in a way that he just couldn't ignore.

So, he helped him to bed, and feeling rather guilty, he asked a question that would either confirm or deny his thoughts.

"Hey, Koschei?"

There were a few ways the Doctor could see this going.

One, he'd snap out that wasn't his name and that he knew that.

Two, he'd be confused as to who that was.

Or three, he'd just ignore it because he was drunk and half asleep.

A sleepy hum came from him and the Doctor was certain that it had been the third option until he heard him mutter.

"Yes, Theta?"

He breathed in sharply in surprise, not having expected that response of all things.

But honestly, perhaps he shouldn't have been too surprised, he was from another universe after all, who knew what the differences between the two were.

"Nothing, just go to sleep."

With that, he made his way down the stairs and out of his room.

He had to admit to himself that he felt rather guilty about asking him like that, he wasn't in a state to defend his private life, after all.

Chapter Text

When Koschei woke up the next day he was full of regret, his head was pounding, and his eyes were extremely dry.

Groaning, he stretched and then sat up in his bed, waiting for the light-headedness to pass before he got up and slowly made his way down the staircase and to the attached bathroom.

He quickly splashed some cool water on his face, then leant against the sink, forehead against the mirror on one of the cabinet doors as he tried to stave off his nausea.

Drinking on an empty stomach turned out to be a very bad idea.

Sighing, he pulled back from the mirror and opened the cabinet, quickly grabbing the pain relief medication that was stashed inside and popping two in his mouth, washing them down with water from the sink.

He stood there for a moment, before sighing and turning to the shower.

He felt awful and he stunk, a chance to freshen up before he saw Rose and the Doctor would be needed.

Show Me The Way Home

He heard laughing coming from the kitchen as he headed down the corridor, fresh out of the shower with some nice clean clothes on.

He hadn't bothered to put shoes on as he did not plan on going out on whatever adventure the Doctor managed to land them at unless there was a restaurant that sold a full English breakfast, or a takeaway at the very least, he could really do with something nice and greasy right now.

"Hey," he greeted the three people gathered in the kitchen as he made his way to the kettle, clicking it on and pulling a mug down from the cupboard above it, before he paused and looked over his shoulder, counting the people in the room.

There was Rose, sat at the kitchen table with a mug of tea in her hands.

There was the Doctor, tensely leaning against the counter and looking at him with a rather guilty expression on his face.

And there was…

"Hello, I'm Harry," he held his hand out for the man to shake.

Jack leant over the table, a flirtatious grin on his face as he grabbed his hand in greeting, "Hello, Harry, I'm Jack," he proceeded to run his eyes over the very obviously hungover man, "I must say, you look wonderful."

Out of the corner of his eye, Koschei could see the Doctor's grip on the counter become tenser, he snorted, "I look about as wonderful as the Earth is flat."

Jack pouted as he let his hand drop, Koschei quickly returning to where the kettle had finished boiling to pour himself a nice strong cuppa.

"Why does no-one here fall for my charms?"

"I don't do desperate, sorry," Koschei stated idly while stirring some sugar into his drink.

Rose, who had been taking a sip of her tea at the time, almost choked on it in shock, before bursting out laughing, with the occasional interrupting cough.

The Doctor had somewhat relaxed but was still looking at him with a very guilty look plastered on his face.

Koschei sighed into his mug of freshly brewed tea, deciding that if he was still looking at him like he'd murdered his owl, Artemis once the day was over then he'd confront him.

But until then, he'd enjoy his cup of tea.

Show Me The Way Home

Their next stop was to Cardiff for refuelling, so they'd likely end up at a local restaurant later that day, as such, Koschei had gathered his shoes to put on when they went but were currently just sat by the door as he slowly swung his feet about.

While they were sat around the console, someone knocked at the door, which Jack answered.

"Who the hell are you?"

"What do you mean 'who the hell am I?'" came the voice of Mickey, "Who the hell are you?"

"Captain Jack Harkness," he leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, "Whatever it is you're selling, we're not buying."

There was a moment of silence before Mickey pushed Jack out of the doorframe, "Get out of my way!"

"Wait, don't tell me, this must be Mickey," Jack huffed.

"Oh no, here comes trouble," the Doctor commented, "How are you doing, Ricky boy?"

"It's Mickey!"

"Don't listen to him," Rose pulled Mickey away from the Doctor who had a bright grin on his face, "He's just winding you up."

Mickey hugged Rose, "You look fantastic."

Koschei groaned at the noise, placing his head face down on the console for the coolness it gave.

"What's wrong with him?" Mickey asked, pulling away from Rose.

"Hangover," he grunted.

"Ah."

Koschei tuned out their chatter as they caught up with each other and ignored Jack's attempts at flirting with both he and the Doctor, until he was being ushered out the door, putting his shoes on as he went.

"We're going to get food, right?" he asked tiredly.

"I mean, we can, we've got the time," the Doctor confirmed, quickly looking away from him when he noticed him looking.

Koschei frowned slightly, looking at the Doctor with worry before he pushed it to the back of his mind, it could wait until later.

"Wonderful," he groaned instead.

Show Me The Way Home

The restaurant they'd gone to was rather nice and located next to a beach, so they had some nice views of the ocean, not that Koschei was really in any state to appreciate this.

He'd ordered himself a large full English breakfast, opting for fried bread instead of toast, and fried egg instead of scrambled, he'd also got a pot of tea with it.

He groaned as he bit into the fried bread, while greasy food wasn't typically his favourite thing to eat, when hungover it was absolutely the best thing a person could ask for.

"Hey now," Jack complained, "The only time I want to hear groaning like that is when I'm in bed."

Koschei turned to look at him with the blankest face he could muster with a mouth full of food, "The fact that you think people would be groaning like that in bed with you is depressing."

"Oh wow, that really hurts," Jack mock pouted at him, at the same time Mickey burst out laughing.

Koschei pointed his fork at Jack, "I'm sure you'll find someone who can look past that face of yours," he proceeded to stab a hash brown with his fork, bringing it to his mouth, he paused just before taking a bite, "Eventually," he shrugged.

"Ow."

Soon after, Jack began telling a story, which he tuned out, blankly eating the rest of his food, and slowly growing more tired, the slight ocean breeze bought along with the smell of saltwater, which helped him to relax just a bit more.

"And I was having such a nice day," the Doctor suddenly commented, showing them the newspaper that depicted the female Slitheen which they'd previously encountered at Downing Street.

"I hope you don't mind, Doctor," he began, continuing once his focus was on him, "But I think I'm going to sit this one out."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best," the Doctor winced at how his words sounded, but he waved it off.

They walked out of the restaurant, "Think I'm going to go back to bed for a bit," Koschei muttered before he split off from the rest of them, walking towards the TARDIS while they went to the City Hall.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei awoke a few hours later feeling far better than he had when he'd been awake previously, the TARDIS was silent, just the two of them, and he revelled in the temporary peace.

He was in a very good mood too, and with that good mood, he decided he wanted to do a bit of baking.

He made his way to the closest kitchen and began digging through the cupboards, grabbing the things needed to bake a nice red velvet cake, one of his favourites.

Looking at the expiry date on the buttermilk, Koschei was glad that the TARDIS came fully equipped with stasis cupboards and fridges, good as the day it was bought, fifty years out of date.

He lost track of time as he prepared the batter for the cake, he'd just put the two cake tins into the oven when it felt as though an earthquake had ripped through the TARDIS, things were shaking and falling all over the place.

Koschei frowned, something like that shouldn't be possible, what with the TARDIS being on her own dimensional plane than the rest of the universe.

Wiping his hands on a tea towel that he'd grabbed from the countertop, he began making his way to the console room to try and figure out what was going on.

As he neared the doorway he called out, "Hey, what's going-" but the words died in his mouth once he got close enough to see.

His eyes grew wide as he saw the console of the TARDIS wide open, glowing golden light pouring out of it, Rose and Jack were looking away as the Doctor went to close it, quickly Koschei raised his arm to his eyes to block the light out, dropping it once it died down.

Blinking rapidly, he attempted to dispel the dark spots that had taken up residence in his vision.

He slowly made his way over to the chattering trio, attempting not to bump into anything, which was quite a challenge when you were temporarily blinded, although, by the time he'd made it over to them, it had mostly cleared up.

"So, what happened?" he questioned.

"Margaret the Slitheen is now Margaret the Egg," the Doctor informed him.

"Ah," he looked around, "And where's Mickey?"

"He's gone," Rose admitted, "I don't blame him, he deserves better."

Koschei frowned at her and placed a supporting hand on her shoulder.

"You know what'd make you feel better?"

"What?"

"Cake, it's still cooking, but it'll be ready in about, what," he looked at the analogue clock that was being displayed on one of the screens at the console, "forty-five minutes?"

She gave a small smile, "Yeah? What type?"

"Red velvet."

"Didn't know you could bake," Jack interrupted.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," he informed him.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as the Doctor looked over at him with that guilty expression again.

Koschei ignored it for the moment, "My godfather loves homemade cakes, but he can't cook for shit, managed to almost burn down a hotel room we were renting out trying to microwave some instant noodles."

"Really?" Rose cried out in surprise.

"Oh yes," he nodded, "I banned him from any kitchen after that point, especially because I actually enjoy cooking," he gave a small smile as he remembered Sirius's catastrophic cooking attempts, "So, since I could cook and enjoyed it, he often asked me to bake a cake or two."

"Yeah, well, who else thinks we should get Harry to cook us all a cake each week?" Rose jokingly asked.

"I'll second that," Jack said, "Gotta love a bit of cake."

The Doctor snorted from his place at the console, "If I said no, I'd be outvoted, so I suppose I should say yes, looks like you're on baking duty."

Koschei shook his head in amusement.

"Chilli cake next week then?"

"No!" Rose and Jack cried at the same time.

The Doctor burst out laughing from where he was stood.

Show Me The Way Home

"Alright you, spill," Koschei all but demanded of the man sat on the single-seat sofa in the library, he was leaning against the doorway closest to the chair.

There was no chance of the other two walking in on their conversation, considering they'd gone off to bed two hours prior.

The Doctor jumped in surprise, obviously not having noticed his approach, "Spill what?" he asked nervously.

Koschei frowned at him, pushing away from the doorframe, and walking closer, leaning against the arm of the sofa next to him.

"You've had this guilty look on your face all day whenever you look at me," he gave him an unimpressed look, "So out with it."

He looked uncomfortable and Koschei sighed, "Look, whatever it is I'm not going to get mad or anything, I'm not one to dictate your life, so-"

"I invaded your privacy," the Doctor interrupted him.

Koschei reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose and gave another sigh, "Doctor, you've seen me naked, I doubt you could have invaded my privacy much worse than that."

The Doctor blushed and then paled at the reminder of his stint in the med bay, "Not like that."

"Then how, Doctor? Enlighten me."

"I asked you a very personal question while you were drunk," he admitted, before correcting himself, "Well, it wasn't really a question, more of a confirmation."

"And that was, what?"

The Doctor grew shuffled awkwardly where he was sat, refusing to make eye contact with him, then he said something that he had to strain to hear, it was so quiet, "Koschei…"

"Doctor that is not private information."

The Doctor turned his head to look at him so fast that Koschei was worried he might have cracked something.

"But you didn't say anything about it, I thought that you wanted to keep it secret."

"The fact that I never bought it up wasn't out of a want for keeping it secret, at first it was because I didn't know how you'd react, new universe and all that rot, not to mention that this regeneration of yours is a prior regeneration of the Doctor in my universe."

He sighed and hopped up onto the arm that he'd been leaning against, "After that, it just never came up, never felt the need to," he shrugged.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes as the Doctor digested this information, and then the Doctor grabbed him in a hug.

"I'm still sorry."

He sighed, wrapping his arms around him in return, "It's fine."

Chapter Text

The TARDIS landed far softer than normal, thanks to the Doctor roping Koschei into piloting with him, although he'd kept control of the steering, wanting to keep their destination a surprise.

"So, now that we've finally arrived, do you wish to tell us where we are?" he asked him.

"Well, I thought we could all use a break from our adventuring," the Doctor admitted, casually walking to the door with his hands in his pocket, "so I bought us to a holiday planet, theme parks, spas, warm beaches, that kind of thing."

He opened the door and ushered them all outside, "I believe it was named 'Relaxation' by the owner."

Koschei walked out after both Rose and Jack had left, pausing just outside of the door, "ah," he muttered, "this place."

"You've been here?" the Doctor asked, pouting.

He looked around, feeling somewhat numb, "you could say that."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment before shrugging and locking the TARDIS.

"Come on," he said, gently grabbing his and Rose's arm, tugging them along, "I think the queue for the entry wristbands is this way."

They followed the Doctor to the entrance line, and Koschei looked towards the large skyscraper that held the staff offices.

This was going to end horribly; he just knew it.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed as he walked along the beach, red sand beneath his bare feet, and sparkling orange ocean water gently splashing against his ankles.

He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, the weather being too hot for anything else, a metallic red bracelet on his left wrist announced him as a level five visitor, the most expensive pass one could buy, not that the Doctor really cared about money.

They'd been there for four days at that point and had been doing their own things since the second, he believed Rose had plans to visit one of the spas, and Jack had found the paintball arena.

Thanks to their level five status, they got a private beach to themselves, and so he was alone.

He stopped and stared out into the horizon, he could almost pretend that the sand was grass and that the water was orange from the reflection of the suns, but no, there was only a single sun, and the tangy ocean air was too different from the muddy smell of fields.

The sound of crunching sand behind him alerted Koschei to the fact that one of the others had entered the beach, and they were running towards him with a surprising speed, he turned to face the person and got a fist to his nose in return.

He gasped, and staggered backwards slightly, leaning forwards, holding his hand to his nose, he could feel blood trickling out of it.

Before he could do anything, his assaulter shoved him to the ground, pinning him with their knees to his stomach, their hands around his neck, pressing in enough to make him wheeze for air.

He cracked his eyes open and was greeted by the sight of the Doctor looking down at him with pure rage on his face.

"Doctor?" he wheezed out, "what are-"

He was cut off as the Doctor landed another blow to the side of his face, "you knew," he accused him, and he frowned.

"Knew what, my de-"

"Don't 'my dear' me," he hissed out, "you knew who owned this place, you knew that the 'staff members' are really just slaves."

He frowned up at him, this was not good, the Doctor really didn't know what he was getting himself into, not if the reason behind this planet was the same as it was in his universe, "you don't have the full story."

"I know what I saw," he growled down at him, the pressure on his neck increasing, "making excuses for your alternate self, you're no different than him!"

Koschei carefully schooled his face into a blank mask as he said that, feeling rather hurt.

He shoved the Doctor off of him, and scrambled up from the ground, walking further away from him, before turning to stare down at him.

"I am nothing like him."

The Doctor laughed bitterly, "and didn't I believe that? I was a fool, wasn't I, Master?"

He sneered at him, "I haven't been the Master since he committed suicide!" the words slipped out before he really thought about it, and his expression slipped, showing just how lost and upset he was.

They stood there in silence for a moment, the Doctor with a horrified look on his face, before Koschei turned and started to walk off of the beach.

"You don't know what you're messing with this time, Doctor."

"Wait, Kosch-"

"You've made your opinion rather clear, Doctor, I'll leave you and your friends alone now, you've bought me far enough now, I'll be able to figure out a way back now, eventually," he spoke bitterly while walking, not giving the other man a chance to talk.

He followed him as he made his way towards the transport area, stepping into a staff tube and slamming the door shut behind him so that the Doctor would be unable to follow him.

He typed in the key code that his past life had set it to in his universe, and sure enough, it was the same here.

He stared blankly out of the glass door as he input the destination for the hangar, not reacting as the Doctor banged on the door, yelling at him.

Koschei looked at him as he pressed the button, face not betraying a single emotion as the man stared at him in regret before he was teleported away.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed, pulling his items from his pockets, and setting them on a table in the bedroom before he made his way to the shower.

The bedroom was in the hangar for pre-flight preparations and post-flight resting, made by the Master for their own comfort, he could, of course, get in because he knew all the passcodes, as they were the same in his own universe.

He'd already picked out an outfit for his flight, as well as some spare sets of clothes, as he'd be living in the spacecraft for about a month, the travel time in his fastest ship to the closest spaceport.

It was pre-stocked with non-perishable food and water, with a recycling system, enough to last half a year.

He only had his wand, and his invisibility cloak on him, his mobile phone had been left on the TARDIS, as he'd classed it as too precious to lose, as it had all of his texts and photos with his Doctor on it.

He wasn't as worried for his wand or invisibility cloak, as the cloak couldn't be damaged and constantly came back to him if he misplaced it, some kind of family magic he guessed, and his wand was needed just in case he had to use it for self-defence.

He quickly finished up in the shower, dried off, and pulled on the comfortable trousers, long-sleeved shirt, and blue hoodie, before putting on some socks and the sturdy pair of shoes. The best part about the room being the Master's room, was the fact that all the clothes and shoes had been provided in multiple sizes, after all, one never knew how tall or how short they'd be in any given regeneration.

Sighing, he pulled his hair into his normal ponytail, then stood, shoving his cloak and wand into one of his pockets, then grabbing the bag with his spare changes of clothes, and one of the spare bank chips that had been left in the room, he left the bedroom and made his way towards the ship that the staff had prepared for his departure while he'd been preparing himself.

He was greeted by a happy young woman, seemingly in her late twenties, the difference between a human and this species, was the fact that she looked very much like a tropical bird, with arms instead of wings.

While they couldn't smile, thanks to their beaks, they were very expressive with their tail feathers, and could honestly give the same impression with them.

"The ship's all ready for you, Sir, the tower will give you clearance to take off in the next thirty to forty-five minutes," she informed him.

He smiled gently at her, before frowning slightly, "I'm sorry I can't stick around to stop the Doctor, I need you to inform your elders that he is going to try, and most likely succeed in freeing you all."

A dark expression overcame her, "I see."

"Are the bunkers holding well?"

"Yes Sir, but there's not nearly enough space for us all, it's been set to elders, children, and caretakers first before any free space is filled by the rest."

He sighed, "good luck."

She nodded sadly, walking away as he entered the ship, the door shutting behind him.

He walked towards the sleeping quarters and put his bag down on the bed, putting his wand, cloak, and bank chip into the little locker in the wall, before making his way to the cockpit.

The ship was a one-man operated one, with an autopilot built-in for when they'd gotten to clear space so that the pilot could go off and do other stuff should it be needed.

There was easy access to the engine room, a small living space, with a sofa, a small computer, and a table, there was a small dining area, with the food stocks and rehydration machines, his sleeping quarters, which held his bed, a locker, a desk, and a small drawer for his clothes, and there was also a bathroom, with a shower, sink, and toilet.

It was very small, but it didn't need much space.

Sighing, he strapped himself into the pilot's chair, pulling on the headset that was set next to the seat, he hummed to himself as he input his destination into the navigation equipment and waited for his permission to leave.

Koschei saw the Doctor, Rose, and Jack run through the hangar doors just as he gained permission to leave the building and then take off.

He drove out to the runway and didn't look back.

Chapter Text

"I can't believe he's gone," Rose whispered as she stared into the sky from the open hangar doors, the setting sun dying it in pinks.

The Doctor stared down at the ground, guilt bubbling up inside of him, he should have given the other man a chance to explain himself, to explain why he'd not mentioned it to him.

There really hadn't been much in the form of communication between the two of them, either before or after he'd figured out that the man was an alternate version of the Master, of Koschei.

Perhaps he should have questioned how the other man had gotten stuck in their universe in the first place?

"-Or..."

And he'd killed himself, he didn't know how to feel about that, if the Master of this universe had killed himself when he'd been alive, he didn't know what he would have done.

"Doc-"

How was his alternate self coping with both their Master's death and then his reappearance and then his following disappearance?

"-Ctor..."

Oh Rassilon, did he think he was dead again?

"DOCTOR!"

His head snapped up, and he stared at Jack, who was stood directly in front of him.

"Finally, we've been trying to get your attention for fifteen minutes, we," he gestured between himself and Rose, "want to know what you plan on doing about the issue at hand."

"Well," he sighed, looking around the hangar, "we could give chase to him, or we could figure out his destination and wait for him there."

They stared at him blankly, before Rose spoke hesitantly, "we meant about the enslaved staff."

"Oh right, that, yeah," he sighed and walked over to the door which kept them out of the main building, before pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the door, using it to unlock it.

It opened with a hiss, and he kept his screwdriver in hand as they crept along the corridors.

"Enslaved race first, and then we'll get Ko-Harry," he corrected himself quickly, knowing that the two with him didn't know that name.

Show Me The Way Home

The Doctor, Rose, Jack, and two of the bird-like aliens, who were named 'Amethyst', and her wife, 'Onyx', were stood hidden behind a boulder, hiding from a large black and green canine, which was about the size of Big Ben.

Amethyst and Onyx both had small silver necklaces on, which was the only thing keeping them from succumbing to the same fate as the rest of their species who weren't hidden inside of the bunkers.

It had come to the largest settlement as soon as it felt their psychic bond to the Master snap, freeing them from their slavery.

Except it hadn't been slavery, merely protection, which they paid for with work.

He made sure they had their own towns and cities, that they had proper education and healthcare, that none of them would go hungry, and in return, he made the planet into a holiday paradise, each building built to blend in and enhance the scenery, some were even completely organic, and had been grown like that.

He got profits, a place to relax, and subjects that didn't fear his every move, and in return they were free.

The psychic bond was needed, as, without it, this canine had come back, controlling each and every one of them into its service, having them fight each other, sacrifice one another to its hungry maws, and catering to its every whim.

And now the Doctor had to clean up the mess he'd made of the whole situation.

He shut his eyes and sighed, Koschei had been right, he hadn't known what he'd gotten into.

He was wrong.

Show Me The Way Home

The bunkers were being opened for the hiders to come out now that the threat was gone.

He deliberately did not look at where the massive canine, the beast, they called it, lay dead on the ground, Onyx knelt in the ground near it, covered in its blood, tears falling down her cheeks as she cradled the top half of her wife's corpse, the bottom half having been bitten off.

It was a gruesome sight, a small part of him was glad that it wasn't him who'd had to kill the beast, but at the same time, his hearts ached for the woman.

He sighed and spotted the one he'd seen manning the towers when Koschei had left coming out of one of the bunkers, followed by a small boy.

Frowning, he walked over to her, calling out, "hey."

She looked at him, giving off an unimpressed look, "can I help you?"

"I, ah, was wondering," he started, pressing on despite the look she was giving him, "if you knew where Koschei went when he took off."

Her tail feathers puffed up, and a glare was set on her face, "of course I know where he went, I had to approve his flight plan, after all," she took a step forward, jabbing her finger into his chest, "but why should I tell you? you're the reason he left, after all, if it weren't for your meddling, we wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place!"

He looked down at the ground guiltily, "I know, I wanted to apologise to him."

She gave off the impression of a frown, and her hand dropped to the side of her body, "truly?"

He nodded, "yes."

There was a sad look about her, and she admitted, "not many people do that."

"Do what?" he asked her, brows furrowing in confusion.

"Apologise to him," she tilted her head, "he told me about his being an alternate version of our Sir," she shook her head, "but it is not my story to tell."

The Doctor felt hurt that Koschei had told someone he barely knew more about him and his past than he'd told him, they'd been with each other for months now, and the most he knew was that he went by Koschei, he still liked his stupid detective books, he liked baking, and was Harry Potter.

"Please tell me where he went."

She gave him a searching look, before nodding and pulling out an electronic pad that looked similar to a tablet, and scrolling through the star map it displayed, pointing to a highlighted spaceport.

"With the ship he's taken, it will take him around a month of travelling to get there," she informed him, once he'd gotten the coordinates memorised.

He nodded, and began walking towards Rose and Jack, "thank you."

He swung his arms around the two humans and began tugging them away, "come on you two, it's time to go get Harry."

Rose frowned, "he could be anywhere now, though."

The Doctor smiled, "could be, if he hadn't planned his flight."

"Going to knock some sense into that sweet little head of his?" Jack leered.

The Doctor scowled at him, "actually, I'm going to apologise."

Jack blinked and opened his mouth to respond but cut himself off as they came upon the TARDIS.

The door was tugged open, and Rose and Jack were left to get settled, one of the locals quickly rushing up to them with the stuff they'd left in their rooms, which they took.

"Thank you," Rose said to him.

He cooed happily and scampered off, just as the Doctor came by to close the door.

"Hope you two don't mind waiting around in a spaceport for a week or so," he informed them as he walked back to the console to begin their flight, "he could get there a few days before or after the expected month flight time, so I want to arrive a few days before, just in case."

They nodded and soon they were gone from the planet.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei huffed as he landed in the spaceport, quickly finding the hangar he'd been allocated to park in.

He couldn't wait to interact with people again, thirty days alone could really make you miss even just a smile from a passer-by.

Once he'd pulled to a stop and the parking brakes were all on, he pulled the headset off his head, placing it on the console and sat there in silence for a moment.

Sighing, he got up and headed towards his sleeping quarters, grabbing his bag, cloak, wand, and bank chip, and heading out of the ship, locking it after him.

He would spend a few days recovering from the flight before cleaning the ship and restocking the supplies, then he'd make a plan from there.

He made his way out into the check-in area, just before the hangars let out into the rest of the spaceport to register his presence on board, then made his way out into the hallways.

He passed multiple other hangars as he made his way towards the hotel to grab himself a room, he turned a corner and found himself being grabbed by the shoulder.

"Koschei..."

His mood plummeted, and he knocked the arm off.

"Leave me alone, Doctor," he growled out, stalking off down the hallway at a faster pace, which the taller man kept up with easily.

The prick.

"Koschei, just let me talk," he begged.

"You're always talking," he spat, "and yet you never listen, do you?"

From the corner of his eye, he could see the hurt look on his face, and he felt guilty until he remembered the bruise on the side of his face that had taken three weeks to clear up, and the broken nose that he'd had to keep a realigner on for three days, and the pain it caused each time he breathed through it for two weeks after, not to mention the accusations he'd made without listening to his side of the story.

"Look, I'm sorry," the Doctor told him.

He froze in his walk, and didn't dare to move, the Doctor too stood still, before all of his words tumbled out, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to explain, and I'm sorry I bought up what could only be painful memories if your words were right."

They stood in silence for a moment before the Doctor walked up behind him, pulling him into a hug, letting out a sad noise as he felt Koschei tense in his embrace.

"You were right," he whispered into his ear, "and I was wrong, so very wrong."

He slowly relaxed into the hug, finally, he sighed, looking at the ground and feeling so very tired.

"I think we need to have a nice long talk."

Chapter Text

Koschei and the Doctor sat rather awkwardly on two armchairs in a small living room in a room that Koschei had rented out at the spaceport's hotel.

He didn't want to have the following conversation in public, nor did he wish to have it on board the TARDIS, where Jack or Rose could walk in by accident.

Koschei stared down at the mug in his hands, the heat spreading into his legs from how he'd curled up on the chair feeling rather comforting.

"So," the Doctor began, quickly trailing off when Koschei's eyes flicked up to meet his own.

They sat there in silence for a moment longer, and he began tracing the edge of his mug with his finger, looking back down at it and refusing to make eye contact with him again.

The Doctor let out a sigh, and he could hear the fabric of his chair creak as he leant back in it.

"How did you end up in this universe in the first place?"

He frowned slightly, removing his finger from the mug's lip, and looking at him once again, eyebrows furrowed, "that's not the question I expected you to ask," he admitted.

"Yes, well," he coughed lightly, "I thought it would be best to start somewhere less sensitive."

Koschei frowned before leaning over to the coffee table to set his mug down, quickly rearranging himself on the armchair so that he could hug his knees to his chest, looking stubbornly at the floor.

"I threw myself through the Veil of Death."

The Doctor stared at him in open shock, "I'm sorry, what?"

"We were in the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries," he elaborated, "Voldemort was in front of us, gloating, we'd just destroyed his last Horcrux," he looked down at his fingers, picking at the skin around his nails, "he was so close to the Veil, Doctor, I ran out and tackled him into it, we both fell through," he swallowed in nervousness and lifted his head to stare directly into the man's eyes, "he died, I felt him dissolve under my hands," he whispered, "I thought I was dead too."

There was silence for a long moment, before he continued, "I woke up in this universe and started looking for a way back almost immediately, and when I couldn't find one by myself I knew I'd need help," he sighed, "since I couldn't find a way back quick enough, I was constantly on the move across the country to find someone, anyone, who could help, eventually I took on a job, officially I was a detective, unofficially a paranormal investigator."

"That's why you were in Cardiff," the Doctor realised.

He nodded, "there were reports of unnatural happenings going on there for years, I'd been there for eight and a half months before you arrived."

Koschei sighed and slipped his legs off of the chair and onto the ground, leaning over and grabbing his drink to take a mouthful as the Doctor sat in thought.

"You said that you," he gulped, "that you killed yourself."

He set the mug back down onto the table, "I did."

"How," he shook his head, "why did..."

He looked at the Doctor who was struggling to form a coherent question and turned to face away from him as he began answering.

"What you first need to understand, Doctor is that this is a completely different universe to mine, I don't know what the me of this universe has done to prevent his death in the Time War, or if he even survived."

The Doctor took a sharp intake of breath at the mention of the war, but stayed his tongue, afraid that he'd stop talking if he interrupted.

"I went under a Chameleon Arch and sent myself to the end of the universe, where I lived out a life with the goal of saving the last humans in existence," he sighed, "then one day this really tall bloke turns up with two of his friends from absolutely nowhere, a woman who I won't name due to," he gestured at the Doctor and the air around them, getting a nod in understanding, "and a man named Jack."

The Doctor choked, "that's where you knew him from?"

Koschei gave a somewhat sad smile, "I knew him for less than three hours, yet he left quite the impression."

He snorted in agreement, "he does do that."

"My watch was opened, and my mind was jumbled, I ran into the TARDIS and locked it shut behind me," he sighed, "I regenerated then and there but it left my mind so gloriously clear for just a moment."

He stared at the table for just a moment.

"So very clear..."

Show Me The Way Home

He stumbled about in the TARDIS console room as his regeneration energy finished reconstructing his body, his clothes were far too large for this shorter body, and he could feel the sleeves falling past his hands.

The Master stood, staring wide-eyed at his hands before he cautiously lifted his left hand to his temple.

It was quiet.

He tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes in thought.

Thoughts that he could actually control.

A sudden spike of pain in his mind alerted him to the drums, something which had been a constant in his mind since the Time War, slowly coming back to the surface of his mind, threatening to wash his conscious thoughts away, to take his mind for its own use.

No.

No, he refused to be a puppet to that damning noise once more.

He was the Master!

How could he be the Master if he couldn't even control his own mind?

His feet moved on autopilot as he rushed through the halls of the TARDIS, coming to a stop once he'd located a kitchen.

He stared at the drawers built into the counter and stared.

A heavy feeling settled in his stomach, and he took a step back from the door, pausing when the drums seemed to grow louder in response.

His eyes narrowed and he gathered what little determination he could and quickly walked towards the draws, pulling them open and searching.

If the choice was insanity, to lose control of his own body and mind or death by his own hands...

So be it.

He grasped at a long knife, large enough to hit both sides of his chest at once, and refused to let himself think, lest he hesitate too long.

The knife entered the right side of his chest, hitting one of his hearts, and he fell back, landing on the floor.

He grunted, forcing the knife to stay in, despite the still active regeneration energy trying to push it out, and instead slowly dragged more of it in.

He could feel it crunch through his bone, could feel his blood slip down his body and onto his hands, as the end closest to the handle finally struck his other heart.

He steadied his hand on the handle and bought his other hand up to press down on the other half of the knife, determination forcing his strong hold to continue, despite his breaths coming in through struggles.

He felt himself fall onto his back as his regeneration energy finally gave up and he began to truly die.

In the corner of his eye, he could see the Doctor stood at the doorway, pale as a ghost with his hands covering his mouth.

"I'm so sorry, Thete-"

His words cut off as he gasped for air, and suddenly the Doctor was stood over him, looking down at him as he lay on the ground covered in his own blood, he could see grief in his eyes.

"The drums," he whispered, as the Doctor knelt next to him, "I couldn't let them take my mind."

He could feel tears filling his eyes as the Doctor gathered him into his arms, holding him.

He let his arms fall away from the knife, its job was done now, he couldn't fight his death anymore, instead, he lifted a hand to cup at his face, smudging his blood across his cheek.

He could feel tears hit his face as the man cried.

"Why didn't you tell me?" it was a desperate question, "I could have helped you."

The Master gave a broken laugh, which caused him to heave in deeper breaths as his body attempted to regain the little air it had lost.

"It wouldn't have mattered, Theta," he drew in another breath, "not in the end."

He could see the Doctor's grief plain on his face, it was the last thing he saw as his vision was slowly engulfed by black, he could hear the Doctor sob, could feel his tears hitting his face faster as the man whispered desperately.

"Koschei..."

It was the last thing the Master ever heard as he gave a final shuddering breath and stilled.

Show Me The Way Home

The Doctor stared at Koschei in horrified silence as he finished recounting his past life's suicide.

Koschei stood next to his armchair, gripping the arm so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"When I was born, the drums were there," he admitted, "they weren't the same, however, and they slowly changed as I joined Hogwarts and started gaining the memories of my past life," he took a calming breath, "once I ended up in this universe and all of my memories came to me, the drums vanished, from what I understand, they took on that form because I recognised them."

He could feel tears building up in his eyes, "I never wanted to die, Doctor," he admitted, allowing the tears to fall freely, hitting his hands and the fabric of the chair, where they were quickly absorbed, "I wanted to be free, I wanted my mind to be mine, Doctor, but I didn't want to die."

The Doctor stood from his chair and walked over to him, quickly grabbing him in a hug and pulling them to the floor, he leant with his back against the chair as he pulled Koschei into his lap, petting his hair as he pressed himself into his chest, crying.

"I didn't want to do it."

"I know," he whispered reassuringly.

"I couldn't think of another way."

"I know."

"I'm an awful person."

The Doctor frowned, "no you're not."

"But I am," he insisted, "I killed myself in front of my Doctor, and then I forced myself back into his life when I had less than twenty years of my past self's memories," he took a shuddering breath as he tried and failed to calm himself, "and then I went and jumped into the Veil of Death right in front of him, he wasn't even recovered from the first time I killed myself, now he has to think I did it again!"

The Doctor tried to interrupt, but at this point, Koschei was on a roll, "I broke him the first time when I first saw him in that regeneration, he was so... bouncy and lively, and then, when I first saw him when I was me, he was too quiet and sad and I did that to him, and he looked so sad every time he looked at me, y'know?"

"Koschei..."

"It's my fault," he muttered into his chest, his tears had finally stopped, but he didn't dare to move, "I should have just stayed dead the first time."

"KOSCHEI!" the Doctor yelled at him, hitting him on the back of the head, he looked up at him in surprise, and the Doctor took the chance to grasp at his shoulders, pushing him back so that they were face to face, "Don't you ever say that again!"

"But..."

"No," he growled at him, pressing his face closer to his own, "my other self would have been ecstatic to have you back, he just needed time to adjust to having you back, this time as a human with, from what I can tell, actual morals."

"But I-"

"Fucked up, yes, I am very aware of that, but that's not to say my alternate hasn't also had his fair share of fuck ups."

"But..."

"If my alternate self is as much like me as you say he is, even if he is a further incarnation of myself, I can tell you for a fact that once you get back he will be hesitant to get close to you, for fear of losing you again," he whispered into his ear as he pulled him back into the hug, "you'll just need to stay with him, show him that you won't leave again."

"I-"

"You don't actually want to do that to him again, right?"

"Of course not!" Koschei protested.

"Then don't."

"But I'm human now, I'll die before he does," he whispered.

The Doctor hummed and rested his chin on top of his head, "and I'm certain you'll figure something out, you always seem to."

They sat there in silence, watching out of the window as a comet flew past the spaceport.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the agreement between the Master and the Hyarbyxyn," he mumbled.

"No," the Doctor sighed, "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and taken it out on you, there was always the chance that you didn't actually know about it and the circumstances of the planet were different in your universe."

"You broke my nose," he informed the man.

The Doctor winced, "sorry."

"And bruised the side of my face," he continued.

"Would you like to hit me back?"

Koschei hummed for a moment, thinking it over, "no, I think I've caused enough pain to last you a while, emotionally, I mean."

The Doctor hummed and they both sat there for a while in comfortable silence, the Doctor running a hand through Koschei's hair.

After a few minutes, the Doctor looked down at him, a mixture of confusion and amusement alight in his eyes, "are you aware that you're purring?"

Koschei grinned slightly, "it's a side effect of my Animagus form."

The Doctor blinked, "you're an Animagus?"

He nodded, morphing into his feline form where he was sat, engulfing the man in his fur.

The Doctor looked down at the Maine Coon in his lap, his fur was a light black, with darker black spots along his back and tear markings along his face, his eyes were a vibrant blue, and across his chest was a white marking which stretched from one side to the other, like the path of a knife.

The cat wore a faded blue bandana, with a TARDIS key instead of a tag hanging from it.

Koschei chirped at him once he noticed that he'd finished inspecting him, and changed back, throwing them both off-balance, causing them to land in a heap on the floor.

They both snickered as they got up off of the floor and made their way back to the armchairs.

"So, what are you going to do with that ship you took?"

Koschei frowned, "sell it maybe? unless you want to dock it?"

The Doctor grinned slightly, "well, docking it might be the better idea," he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Why?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I might not have an additional spacecraft docked on the TARDIS?"

"Wait, so what if there was an emergency and you needed to get everyone off of the TARDIS then and there?"

"Weeellll...."

"Oh, for fuck’s sake, Doctor," he groaned, pressing his face into his hands.

The Doctor grinned cheekily at him, glad that things were starting to come back to normal between the two of them.

He could admit that he was jealous of his alternate self, that he knew, but he also knew that they both needed each other, he couldn't be selfish and keep him, Koschei needed his Doctor, not him.

But for now... he was his, he would keep him safe.

Even if that meant from himself.

Chapter Text

Koschei groaned, pressing his hand against his head as he sat up from where he was laying on the floor, he frowned in confusion and lifted himself into a sitting position, looking around the room he'd found himself in.

The last thing he remembered was returning to the TARDIS with the Doctor once they'd made up, Rose and Jack happily welcoming him back onboard, it had taken an hour and a half to dock the ship he'd used, which was named the sunbird, by closest translation into English, and after that, the Doctor had set off to the next destination, Japan if he remembered correctly, but he'd remained behind to make sure his things were sorted correctly in the time he'd been gone.

Once he'd finished, he went and read in the console room while waiting for them to return, they'd unsurprisingly got caught up in something while out, and had barely got back unharmed.

They'd been retelling the story to him, laughing the whole while, when a white light had seeped through the walls, and then he woke up here.

A quick glance around his surroundings showed no signs of the Doctor, Rose, or Jack, and Koschei found himself growing worried.

"Quickly, quickly," a woman rushed up to him, passing him a pair of swimming shorts, a t-shirt, and a life jacket, while he scrambled to stand up, "come on now," she spoke, pulling him along to a door once he was on his feet, "you need to take your place before the show starts."

Koschei frowned, "I didn't sign up for a show."

"You are listed as contestant 'Harry Potter', you need to take your place."

He huffed but decided to go along with it, honestly, some of the stuff the Doctor could get them into was insane, really.

He peered around the door to find the room mimicked the outdoors, with great grassy hills surrounding a water-based obstacle course.

"Oh you have got to be joking," Koschei muttered to himself.

"Come along," the woman spoke again, grabbing his arm and directing him towards a small room off to the side, "the show starts in fifteen minutes, once you've finished changing you should head to the starting point," she gestured to a small area close to the course, where he could see a few people already gathered.

Before he could ask her any other questions, she shoved him into the room and left.

Koschei stared after her, wide-eyed, before turning to look at the clothes he'd been given, shrugging, he quickly undressed and slipped the shorts and t-shirt on in place, carefully folding his clothes into a pile, placing them near the door he'd been ushered through, as it seemed like the way out, and there was no way he'd be staying through the whole thing because something just felt too off about the entire situation.

Once he'd slipped the life jacket on and had it properly secured, he made his way over to the starting point of the course, thanking his luck that he was a cat Animagus, and thus had a lot more agility and balance than the average human, something that he just knew would be a massive help in the course.

Once he was in place, he looked around at the other contestants and caught a glimpse of the android judges.

Koschei frowned as he thought about where he was, it was obviously some kind of television studio, possibly based around game shows, but to know exactly which studio he'd ended up on, he needed to know the year, something that as a human, even with the strings that he'd been ignoring since encountering this universe's Doctor, he couldn't tell.

One thing that he was certain of, however, was that it was highly likely that the Doctor, Rose, and Jack were also somewhere in this studio, and since none of them were on the same set as him, they were either on another showing of this program or a different show altogether.

An alarm went off, and he and all the other contestants turned to face the judges as they got ready to start the show, a light turned on over the now shut door, and the cameras closest to the host turned to face the android.

Koschei turned to look at the course, taking in all of the obstacles he would be facing, plotting the best-looking paths, and only tuned in to what the host was saying when the show was introduced.

"This is Total Wipeout."

Koschei ignored the other contestants as they talked amongst themselves, instead walking as close to the starting line as he dared to go, watching as one of the people in the crowd was called to be the first to go through the course.

The other contestants fell silent when an air horn was sounded and the woman carefully made her way down the wet slope and onto a floating foam bridge, where she was pelted with balls by some androids which were stationed at the edge of the course, away from the water.

He watched carefully as she made her way across the course, being pushed into mud and water along the way before she finally reached the finishing platform.

There were twelve people before him, and then he found himself being called to the starting point.

"Contestant thirteen, Harry Potter."

He frowned as he made his way over to the starting point, peering down at the slope in front of him, once he heard the airhorn, he carefully slid down, making his way onto the foam bridge.

The multiple foam blocks that made up the bridge felt somewhat unstable beneath his feet, constantly feeling like they were going to tip to the sides, luckily his balance allowed him to walk across it fairly easily, but the projectile balls added a fair challenge to that, but even with the added difficulty, he made his way across to the next obstacle without falling into the water.

The next obstacle was a wall with a small ledge, rock climbing handholds, and holes with pressurised boxing gloves that occasionally moved out to punch you off and into the pit of mud below, he got about a third of the way through it before he was knocked off.

He quickly made his way out of the mud and up the slope to the next obstacle, the big red balls as they were called, despite being somewhat out of breath, Koschei refused to waste any time, he had a feeling that something bad would happen if he didn't make the top twelve.

Koschei took a deep breath before leaping at the first ball, grabbing it with all of his limbs to stop himself from falling off, and once he felt steady again, he pushed up with his knees and forward with his feet, carefully grabbing the second as he had the first, then repeating it for the rest of the balls until he fell to the platform on his hands and knees with a soft thud.

It wasn't a fast method by any means, but it still ended up being quicker than if he'd fallen and swam.

In front of him was a set of foam stairs, at the top of which was another slope which led to another ball which was on a big rope, the top of which was covered in a net for people to grab onto.

Another deep breath and he pushed forward, determined to finish the course soon and escape the set, something bad was going to happen soon, he just knew it.

The slope was damp, and he had trouble keeping upright as he slipped down it, quickly grabbing the netting once he was close enough, and using his momentum to turn the ball as it moved so his back would be facing the finishing platform instead of having the ball in his way, once the ball was close enough, he pushed away from it as hard as he could, instead of landing on the platform, he landed half on the platform and half on the stairs, and quickly pushed up to the platform so that his time would end.

He ended with a time of two minutes and thirty-four seconds, something which had felt more like an hour as he'd been doing it.

Once his run was over, he made his way to the group that had been collected in a small room off to the side of the set, walking through the door had him blasted by water, followed by a high powered dryer, the process taking less than a minute to complete.

He gave a deep sigh as he walked further into the room and saw a chair with his name on it, walking over, he flopped down onto it and watched the screen with the rest of the contestants, carefully ignoring the fact that the contestant who had the slowest time in the group had started to cry.

Soon all twenty of them had finished the course, and the times were being shown on the screen, Koschei had made sixth place, and was thus safe, but the eight who'd been knocked out were taken off to the side, lined up together and then blasted with a bright red laser which left some ash and dust in its wake.

"Our eight slowest contestants have wiped out, we will be back after a fifteen-minute break," the android host spoke, and Koschei saw the screens begin to show advertisements.

Koschei looked around the room and saw one door other than the one he'd entered through, a quick peek out of the window to the course showed that the objects were being swapped out for the next course, so he wandered over to the second door, the window showing the same corridor that lead to the changing area, and the door out of the set, and likely into the studio.

The door was, unsurprisingly locked, Koschei frowned, he didn't have his wand on him either, but instead of giving up, he placed his hand over the lock and closed his eyes in concentration.

"Alohamora," he muttered, focusing as much as he could on his desire to unlock the door, "Alohamora," he spoke again, this time a little louder and firmer, his eyes snapped open as he heard a click, and he quickly slipped out of the room, grabbing his stashed clothes and changing back into them as he walked to the door, pausing every so often to wrangle another item of clothing onto his body.

The door leading out into the studio was unlocked, which, considering the room that held the contestants in was supposed to be firmly locked, didn't surprise him, and he quickly made his way out into the hallway, walking past multiple other sets which held other showings of Total Wipeout.

Koschei found the Doctor, Jack, and a woman he didn't recognise in a lift as it stopped on the floor he was on, eighty-seven, the plaque above the lift and stairwell said.

"Oh good, you're out, come on, we've got to go get Rose," the Doctor rushed his words out, and he hurried up and got onto the lift, "floor four hundred, and seven."

"What's going on?" he asked, hoping that one of them would answer.

"We're on the Game Station, used to be Satellite Five," the Doctor informed him, "we were all split up and put into different games, Rose is on The Weakest Link, floor four-oh-seven."

"I'm assuming that's not a good thing if my show was any indication?"

"Which show were you on?" Jack questioned him.

"Total Wipeout, eight people got knocked out and took a laser to the face, only ash and blood left of them."

The Doctor winced.

"Told you," the woman he didn't know muttered to the Doctor, "Wipeout speaks for itself."

The next few hours were a bit of a mess, if Koschei was honest, they'd arrived too late to save Rose, got arrested, escaped the arrest, then made their way up to the uppermost floor, floor five hundred.

A woman plugged into wires, made into a human transmitter, Jack seemingly killed the woman the Doctor had found, only to reverse it, a transmat, and the woman in the wires was taken away. The game station was a blanket, hiding a signal beneath its broadcasts, hiding two hundred ships.

It was a rather numbing experience, to realise that no matter what they'd done to them, they kept coming back.

Half a million Daleks, nightmares and beasts trapped in a metal shell, only to bring destruction in their path.

Koschei lifted his head when a holographic screen popped up, one of the Daleks in view.

"I will talk to the Doctor," it spoke.

"Oh, will you?" the Doctor asked in a friendly manner that Koschei knew was hiding his anger, "that's nice, hello!"

The Dalek ignored his greeting and made its business known, "the Dalek stratagem nears its completion, our fleet is almost ready, and you will not intervene!"

"Oh really?" the Doctor's words were somewhat mocking, "why's that then?"

"You will obey," it cried out, "or she will be exterminated."

The screen panned to the side and Rose was shown on the screen.

"No."

Koschei wanted to scream, everything was going too fast, apart from his breathing which seemed to be going too slow, faster breaths did nothing and the world was spinning.

They were here again.

Again.

Again.

Every single time they would come back, hadn't they done enough?

Koschei barely felt himself being lead somewhere, and he only realised vaguely that he'd been sat on the chairs by the console of the TARDIS, someone said something to him, but he didn't understand what, as everything seemed too fuzzy.

There was about half a million of the Daleks.

There was two of them, well not even two, because Koschei wasn't a Time Lord, he was just the reincarnation of one.

The Doctor's sacrifice of Gallifrey had been useless.

So useless...

Chapter Text

Koschei came back to awareness when Rose began shaking him.

"Come on Harry, you've got to calm down," she whispered.

He slowly blinked up at her as she continued shaking him, "what's happenin'?" he muttered.

"The Doctor's sent me back home, there's only us, he stayed behind, sent the TARDIS to my home, with the intention of letting it rot."

Koschei blinked slowly as the words registered in his mind, before springing up quickly and running to the console, he was aware of Rose staring at him in mild shock as he navigated the computers to find prior travel logs, only to come face to face with a biological lock.

"Damn it, Doctor," he hissed out as the TARDIS rejected his use.

"What's happening?" Rose questioned.

Koschei half turned to face her, keeping an eye on the screens as he attempted to bypass the lock, "the Doctor's gotten ahold of some of my DNA, likely from my hair," he paused for a second to type a complicated sequence of Gallifreyan into the keyboard, "or he had a sample from when I got shot, both of them are plausible," another sentence typed in, "the Doctor's used this to lock me out of the TARDIS' systems, so I'm unable to fly her back, or at all."

Rose walked up next to him and scrunched her face up at the words on the screen, "you know how to fly the TARDIS?"

"And read Gallifreyan, yes."

"But how? I thought the Doctor said it was too complicated for a Human to learn?"

"Normally yes," he agreed, "the circumstances that lead to my knowledge of these are," he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "complex."

"Oh really?" she questioned, crossing her arms, "try me."

He stared at her for a moment, taking in her serious expression, then stated, "reincarnation."

She blinked, Koschei couldn't tell if it was confusion or shock she was expressing, perhaps both, "pardon?"

"Reincarnation, it's where a soul is reborn into a new body once someone has died."

"I know that, we studied Buddhism in our secondary school in our religious education classes, but I didn't know that reincarnation was real."

Koschei shrugged, "it is, but it's not as complex as it's made out to be in that religion."

There was silence for a moment; save for the tapping of the keyboard under Koschei's fingers.

"So what, you were the same species as the Doctor in your previous life?"

He nodded, "yep."

She blinked, "really?"

"Yes but," he paused and took a shaky breath, "I really don't want to talk about it, if that's alright with you."

She nodded and they stood in silence for a moment longer as Koschei tried to get around the Doctor's safeguards, eventually, he pulled away with a sigh.

"It's no use, he's tailored it against me specifically," he shoved his hands in his jacket pocket, looking down at the ground as they left the TARDIS.

He carefully ignored her tears, instead focusing on his own emotions, sadness, guilt, anger, fear, hatred, it all pooled in his chest and he quickly squashed it down, because now was not the time to succumb to them.

The Doctor had sent them away, sent them to safety, while he and Jack remained behind to face down half a million Daleks.

It... hurt.

And yet he was somewhat glad that he wasn't there, that he wasn't facing down the creatures that had been the starting point of it all.

If the Daleks hadn't gone to Gallifrey...

If the Time War never happened...

He sighed and shook his head, it didn't help to think about the what-ifs, he instead needed to focus on the what now.

Show Me The Way Home

He'd been dragged to a cafe along with Rose by her mum and Rose's friend, Mickey, a container of chips and a cup of tea were sat in front of him, but all he could do was stare into the cup, not eating or drinking, not even moving.

Mickey and Jackie were idly chatting about some new restaurant or something before Jackie turned around and spoke to them both.

"Oh Rose, Harry, have something to eat will you?"

Koschei frowned and lowered his head, pulling his cup closer to his chest as Rose spoke.

"Two hundred thousand years into the future, and he's dying out there, he's dying and there's nothing I," she paused and rested a hand on his shoulder, "nothing we can do to help."

"Well," Jackie started, and he could tell that he wasn't going to enjoy what she was about to say, "it's like you said, it's two hundred thousand years, that's way off!"

Koschei pushed the current conversation out of his head, not wanting to listen.

Two hundred thousand years, facing half a million Daleks.

He felt someone, Rose, grab his hand and pull him out of the cafe, he went without a fight, wanting to get out of the stuffy building, the air a welcome feeling.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei watched in mild worry from the seats by the console as Rose attempted to pry it open, he had to admit that getting into the heart of the TARDIS was a very clever way to get back to her previous destination, but it was a highly dangerous one too.

Humans couldn't handle the full force of time flowing through their heads, hell, he could barely handle the strings in his own universe, something that was much worse in this universe due to it being a bit too wrong, thus he did his best to push them to the side of his vision, to ignore them.

Rose and her mother had another argument awhile back, something to do with her dad, apparently the Doctor had taken her to meet him, and she'd held his hand while he died.

"Mum was right," Koschei heard Rose say, "maybe we should just lock the door and walk away."

Koschei had tried to open the console through the computer about an hour prior, but his DNA had also been locked out of that too, in fact, when he'd looked into it a bit more, the Doctor had locked him out of all but the basic computer functions, so he could use it as a computer and nothing else.

"I'm not having that," Mickey spoke, "I'm not having you just... just giving up now, no way, we just need something stronger than my car."

Koschei blinked as he saw past them as they stood by the door, "something like that?" he pointed at a recovery vehicle that had just pulled up behind them.

Rose and Mickey turned to look where he was pointing.

"Yeah," he breathed, "something like that."

"Right then," he heard Jackie's voice as the door to the vehicle opened and she stepped out, "you've only got until six o'clock with this thing, so get on with it."

Koschei blinked at her change of heart, and also at the truck she'd somehow managed to get ahold of, he didn't realise that Jackie knew how to drive, let alone had a licence or a heavy vehicle licence.

"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?" Rose asked.

"Rodrigo," she told her, "he owed me a favour," she waved them off, "nevermind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart," she admitted, "he was full of mad ideas, and this is exactly what he would have done," she threw the key at Mickey, who stumbled to catch it, "now, get on with it before I change my mind."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei held onto the railings close to the stairwell leading to the living quarters of the TARDIS, eyes firmly shut as the console flung open.

He heard the door slam shut, and felt the TARDIS begin vibrating in a way that he remembered as being very not good.

A gasp left him involuntarily as he remembered that since the Doctor wasn't there, the TARDIS was unlinked to a psychic host who could help stabilise her inner processes, something that was extremely dangerous on an ordinary day, but with her console wide open...

He didn't think twice before unravelling his Occlumency barriers and offering his mind to the TARDIS, offering her stability, he could feel her worry as she took his offer, leaning onto him as the harsh rocking vibrations calmed down to her typical bumpiness as they flew through the vortex.

He gasped in his breaths as his head began pounding from the pressure put on his mind from the stabilisation, the TARDIS was worrying, for him, for Rose, for the Doctor, for Jack-

They landed and the door flew open, Rose stepped outside, the Doctor was surprised, his breathing grew shaky, and he felt liquid dribble down from his nose, he was having a nosebleed.

He opened his eyes, and felt panicked, he couldn't see, there was pressure, his head was pounding, blood, bleeding.

Humans were not supposed to be able to stabilise a TARDIS, if they had psychic power, their minds weren't strong enough to handle it, it wasn't a matter of ego, it was a matter of biology, a human with psychic strength equal to that of a Gallifreyan who'd completed the schooling to become a Time Lord didn't have the biological strength of the mind to hold it.

These were the consequences of holding a TARDIS's stability as a human.

He felt hands on his shoulders, turning him, he shakily turned to face whoever it was.

"K-Harry, you need to pass her back," it was the Doctor.

He let go of the TARDIS, allowing her to leave, and gasped out, "Doctor, you need to help Rose."

"I know," he whispered.

"Help her," he said, weakly pushing him, and quickly grasping the console once he'd done so.

"Will you be okay? and," he hesitated, "is your vision alright? Your pupils are blown very wide right now."

Koschei ignored the question about his eyes, "I'll be fine, Rose needs help now, so go!"

"Alright," the Doctor murmured, and he felt the hands drop from his shoulders, heard his footsteps go.

And he felt weak, so weak and tired, he closed his eyes for just a moment.

Just a moment.

A loud thud echoed in the TARDIS, and the Doctor and Rose turned around from where they were stood, Rose somewhat dazed and panicked, and the Doctor fighting off his regeneration energy for as long as possible to speak of his regrets.

Koschei had fallen to the floor, blood beginning to well on the side of his head from where he'd hit it on the edge of the console on the way down.

They rushed over to his side, the Doctor stumbling as the energy tried rushing out.

"Koschei!"

"Harry!"

Before they could do anything further, the Doctor seemingly exploded into golden light, and Rose panicked as a different person suddenly stood before her.

"Ooohhh, new teeth!"

Chapter Text

Koschei, Harry, the Master awoke, or at least it seemed like he'd awoken, but he didn't remember falling asleep, to an expanse of black, with small white orbs scattered around.

It was beautiful.

As he sat down in a small circle of the orbs, he was hit with a wave of déjà vu.

He felt as though he'd been in this exact situation before, but instead of feeling unsettled by this, he felt strangely relaxed and instead allowed himself to stare out into the darkness.

It took him a while to realise that the orbs were actually miniature stars and that the black expanse mimicked space, he looked around and was able to spot different constellations from different start systems that he knew of.

It was... nice.

"You are back," he heard a deep voice speak.

He blinked and looked towards the direction of the voice, coming face to face with an entity of sorts, it was covered in a long black cloak that covered its entire body, save for its hands, and its face seemed to change constantly, unable, or perhaps unwilling to settle.

"Back? back where?" he asked, curious as to where he was, as he didn't remember ever being here.

"Your first visit here during this life was at the age of twelve, you were bitten by a Basilisk," it informed him, "this is my realm, the between worlds if you will."

Koschei stared at it in realisation, "you're Death, aren't you?"

It smiled, "I am indeed."

He sighed and stared out at the orbs scattered around him, "I suppose it was a bit of an unrealistic dream to think I'd ever get back to my own universe in the end."

Death chuckled, "you can still find your way back," it informed him.

Koschei frowned, "but I'm dead."

It hummed, and then waved a hand, an image of his invisibility cloak appearing in front of him, "at the age of eleven you gained the ownership of a cloak."

Another wave of the hand and an image of the wand that was owned by Albus Dumbledore appeared, "at the age of sixteen you gained the allegiance of this wand through the defeat of your Headmaster in a duel, and thus became its owner."

Koschei's eyebrows raised in his surprise, he hadn't known that.

A final wave of its hand showed an image of the stone that Dumbledore had left to him in his will, "once again at the age of sixteen, you gained ownership of this stone."

"Right, and what do those have to do with anything?"

Death chuckled once again, "you never read the tale of the three brothers, did you?"

Koschei shook his head, he'd been more interested in learning than in reading a children's book.

"I'll summarise it for you then, three brothers outsmarted me, so I tricked them into picking some gifts that would lead to their early deaths, I will admit that the brother who picked the cloak did outsmart me once again, but that doesn't matter."

Koschei hummed as it spoke to him, understanding that these items that he'd apparently gathered were those objects.

"But these also had another purpose, to find a person, a person who would become a... friend of sorts, many people attempted to gather all three items due to the legend surrounding them, but I made it so that only a person meeting certain criteria could possess all three at once. Someone who could handle the... role, someone who wouldn't get bored easily, someone who had experienced both the good and the bad, had been the good and the bad. Someone like you."

Koschei had a feeling that there was a lot more to it than the being was letting on.

"You said a friend of sorts, but also said something about a role?"

Death hummed, "I suppose it wouldn't help to keep it from you, since you've already become it," it tilted its head to the side, "you will eventually learn the ins and outs of death, you will become worthy of the title that you have picked up."

Koschei felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and gulped slightly.

"You have become my Master," it spoke. "The Master of Death."

He gulped at the words, and it chuckled.

"You need to let go of your fear towards the title of Master, your past actions have no holding on your current actions, and ultimately it is your title, your name. You need to stop fearing yourself, you see only the bad that your past self did, see only the insanity that plagued him at what was essentially the end of his life, you need to see the good that he did, because there was indeed good. The Master was ultimately, just a man, one who was twisted into something he never wanted to be, and when he had control and saw what he'd become, he ended it."

Koschei blinked and stared down at the ground, or what felt like ground anyway, carefully avoiding looking at Death.

"You liked being Koschei, and that's why you began calling yourself by that name once again, but you refuse to acknowledge the man that he became, you accept part of him, yet deny the majority of him, even going as far as to refuse the name you were born with in this life out of shame because of it being the human name you used as the Master the most out of all of them because ultimately it was his favourite name to pick, that and all the different variations that could be shortened into Harry also."

Death stared at him for a long moment, allowing the silence to gather, before speaking once again, "as much as you like to refuse it, you are the Master, and the Master is you, and now you are my Master."

The silence that hung between the two lasted what seemed like a decade, before Koschei spoke, changing the subject, "so, my stabilisation of the TARDIS actually killed me then?"

"No," Death denied.

Koschei looked up at it, shocked, "then what did?"

Death hummed, it seemed to do that a lot, Koschei noticed, "you passed out and hit your head on the console on the way down, after having such an immense pressure placed on your mind, the hit caused a lot more problems than it would have, you died mere seconds after the Doctor regenerated."

"So if I hadn't hit my head I wouldn't have died?"

"No," it agreed, "you would have been in a coma for six months while your mind healed itself, however."

"Oh," he scratched his head, before a thought came to him, "oh! when I was twelve I came back to life, even though I highly doubt I should have, why?"

"It wasn't your time," Death spoke, "normally I take those who pass before their time, as they still died, and I must collect a soul during a death, but you had a Horcrux in your head, a small fragment of a soul, I took that instead, and so you lived."

Koschei blinked, that made sense.

"So, what now?" he asked it.

"Now you go back, your assistance is needed, and I am certain you would like to return to your universe, to your Doctor, as soon as you can."

Koschei hummed, "can you tell me how he is?"

"Your Doctor is currently travelling around the universe, attempting to find any book he can with information about what the mortals call The Veil of Death, he is hoping to find a way to bring you back. He is upset."

He gulped and nodded, tears springing up to his eyes.

"Ah, before I forget, I have taken that visual annoyance away from you," Death informed him, confusing Koschei, "I have instead made it useful to you, and pushed it to repair a certain time-travelling device of yours."

Koschei didn't have time to process that before Death grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet and leading him off to the side.

"It is time for you to return to the realm of the living, Master."

And before he could say anything, Death had pushed him and he was falling through the expanse of black, and he had the sudden realisation that all the orbs were souls.

And then he woke up on a bed in a very pink room.

"Harry!"

Chapter Text

Koschei carefully sat up on the bed as Rose walked in, a glass of water in hand.

"Careful, you got quite the nasty bump to the head," she spoke carefully, a strange look on her face.

He grunted and lifted his hand to grab the water, finding his arm shaky and his vision somewhat blurry, still, it was better than the sightlessness he'd had before he'd collapsed.

"How bad was it?" he asked, taking a sip of the water as Rose sat on the side of the bed, her bed from the looks of it.

"Harry," she whispered, "you stopped breathing, you had no pulse."

He took a deep breath and sighed slightly at the confirmation, placing the glass of water down onto the bedside table. He'd hoped it had been some kind of strange dream bought upon by the stress he'd caused to his mind.

"The Doctor landed the TARDIS near my house, crashed more like it, after he, I dunno, set on fire and became someone else?" she stared at her hands for a moment before continuing, "Mum and Mickey came over once they saw it and helped carry him into the house, we came back to the TARDIS to figure out what to," she gulped, tears welling up in her eyes, "what to do with your body, and then you just..."

He frowned and pulled her into a hug as she started crying, "you died, Harry!"

Sighing, Koschei slowly rubbed circles between her shoulder blades as she continued to cry, it was almost ten minutes later when she pulled back, rubbing her face into her sleeve and sniffing.

"Sorry," she muttered, "it's just I was so sure you were gone, and I didn't know what to do, and then you just start breathing again, your heart beating again, and the Doctor couldn't help either because he's also unconscious and not the same, and-"

"Calm down, Rose, come on, take a deep breath," he told her, grabbing onto her shoulder, "I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere, my dear."

He watched as she took some deep breaths and slowly calmed down, letting go of her shoulder once her breathing was back under her control.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"No need to say sorry, if anything I should be the one apologising to you."

"What?" she questioned him, wide-eyed, "why would you need to apologise? you've done nothing wrong."

"Well, for dying in front of you," he explained, before frowning, "although if what you're telling me is right, the Doctor would have done that anyway, even if I hadn't."

"Pardon?"

"You said he's changed faces?"

"Yeah," she muttered.

"Then he's regenerated," Koschei sighed, and stretched, rubbing at his no longer blurry eyes, "it's a quirk of Time Lord biology, a way to put death off for just a bit longer."

"Regenerated?"

"Mhm," he hummed, "a Time Lord is gifted twelve of them, for a total of thirteen bodies, thirteen lives," he tilted his head to the side slightly, "regeneration only happens if a Time Lord is about to die, could be from an accident, murder, old age, or other things," he sighed and stared Rose in the eyes, "a Time Lord can also force their regeneration to just... not happen if they so wish."

He saw understanding bloom in her eyes as he spoke about it, understanding that was quickly clouded by sadness as she realised that he'd wanted to die.

"Well," he sighed, "that's enough of that, we've got a Doctor to sort out," Koschei stated, pushing the duvet off of himself, and getting up from the bed, before making his way out of the room and down the hallway to where he remembered the kitchen being, Rose quickly following behind him.

Jackie was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper when they entered, and Koschei made a beeline to the kettle, pulling two mugs down from the cupboard above it.

"Oh, you're awake then," Jackie stated, "thought you were dead, you know."

"Oh, I was."

Jackie looked up at him in shock at that, and Koschei threw her a cheeky grin.

"I got better, as you can tell."

She snorted, "nothing's changed with you then."

Koschei chuckled as he quickly made up two cups of tea, then turned to Rose, "lead me to the Doctor then, will you?"

She nodded and led him back down the hallway into another bedroom, this one Jackie's.

They entered the room, and Koschei got his first look at the Doctor's newest regeneration, and froze, grin slipping from his face. He let out a shaky breath, and walked over to the bed, setting the two mugs down on the top of the small drawer, and sat gently on the bed.

He gulped and reached a hand out, as though to touch his face, but stopped himself, snatching his hand back as though he'd been burnt.

The Doctor had regenerated into the same regeneration his Doctor was on, his face was burnt into his memory, the shock, the sadness, the pain, the happiness...

"Harry, are you alright?" he heard Rose ask him, and he nodded, quickly wiping away the tears that had begun to build up onto the bottom of his t-shirt.

"Yeah, it's just," he sighed and gestured at the Doctor, "he looks like my Doctor now."

He took another shaky breath and grabbed one of the mugs, tilting the Doctor's head up just enough that he could bring the mug in front of his nose.

He was rewarded to the Doctor groaning, and shooting up, Koschei only just moving the mug away in time to avoid getting knocked over.

"Is that tea?"

Instead of answering him, Koschei shoved the mug into his hand, watching in amusement as he eagerly drained the cup of its contents, looking down at it sadly once it was empty.

Rose grabbed the empty mug from his hands and passed him the full one, not quite understanding why Koschei had bought either of them but getting the idea that it was for the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned, this time drinking the tea at a slower pace, sighing in content as the tannin worked its way into his system, helping to sort out the jumbled mess that was his brain.

"Tea, just the thing to help out with a regeneration!" he exclaimed, before turning to Koschei, "you know, tea is one of those great things that humans made that I kept telling you about when we were younger, I mean, all of the tannin available from just a single mug is amazing."

Rose raised an eyebrow at Koschei as she listened to the Doctor ramble, he just sighed and waved his hand as though to say 'later'.

The Doctor hiccupped and a burst of golden energy escaped his mouth, "oh, that's not good, who knows what I've been attracting, lying here letting all that out."

Koschei frowned, "actually, that's a good point," he muttered.

"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, flinging an arm around Koschei's shoulders, his previous train of thought long gone, "Koschei, guess what I've got!"

He sighed, "what have you got, Doctor?"

The Doctor leaned in closer to him, as though to whisper a secret, "I've got a mole."

He snorted, and the Doctor pouted at him.

"I do though, it's between my shoulder blades," he then grinned, "love the mole."

Koschei sighed, "at least your vocal cords are alright," he then narrowed his eyes at the Doctor, "you are aware that you're supposed to do a warmup before using your vocal cords in a new regeneration, right?"

The Doctor set his now empty second mug down on the bedside table and waved his now free hand in dismissal, "never had any problems before, why should I start now? I'm certain the instructors taught us that just to mess with us anyway."

"I'm sorry," Rose cut in, "I'm a little bit lost here, what's going on?"

The Doctor turned to her and grinned, dragging Koschei closer to him, his arm dropping down from his shoulder to his waist as he did so, Koschei grunted as he suddenly became a human teddy bear.

"Well, me and Koschei here grew up together," he paused, "well, not this Koschei, but this universe's Koschei," he hummed, "and this Koschei grew up with his universe's me, and as far as we can tell, our universes are the same up until a specific split-off point, which for us was likely when Koschei arrived in this universe from his own."

Rose blinked at the fast-paced words the Doctor was spewing out, and Koschei couldn't blame her.

"We were best friends, you know," the Doctor gushed out at her, "but things changed, and we grew apart," he frowned, and Koschei felt the grip on his waist grow stronger at the Doctor's complete understatement, "but now here he is!"

He pushed Koschei towards Rose, who just blinked at him.

"Your name is Koschei?"

He sighed, "sort of, I was named Harry at birth in this life, however."

She nodded in understanding.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, Jackie came bursting in through the door, slamming it shut behind her.

"The Christmas tree's trying to kill me," she cried out, before the tree smashed through the door, rotating violently.

Koschei sighed, a small grin on his face as the Doctor quickly scrambled up from the bed.

He'd died and the Doctor had regenerated, they'd barely been up for two hours, and yet it was already back to business, it seemed.

If only it was his universe and his Doctor, then it would be perfect.

Chapter Text

Koschei scowled as he stared at the door, Jackie, Rose, and the Doctor all crowded around him as the Christmas tree tore through the bedroom.

The Doctor quickly grabbed his Sonic Screwdriver and flicked through the settings, before pointing it at the deadly tree, and Koschei hissed, ducking his head behind his arm as it exploded.

"It's remote-controlled," he heard the Doctor mutter.

He narrowed his eyes and walked over to the smoking remains of the electronic mess, "but who's controlling it?" he questioned.

He heard the Doctor hum in agreement as Jackie fussed over Rose, who was carefully brushing some ash off of her sleeve, "exactly."

Koschei slipped his hand into his pocket, feeling around for the familiar wooden feel of his wand, grateful that his trousers were comfortable, and still intact.

He made his way out of the bedroom, towards the front door slowly, pulling the wand out as he went, he heard the other three shuffle after him.

Once they made it to the door, he moved to the side slightly so that the Doctor could access it, before pausing as he noticed what he was wearing.

"What's with the dressing gown?"

"Well, I'm in pyjamas!" he beamed at him, to which Koschei just raised an eyebrow and the Doctor pouted.

Deciding that the Doctor's state of dress was not the most important thing at that moment in time, Koschei pushed the door open for them, the four of them quickly pushing their way out of the flat and peering down at the street below.

Three Santa animatronics turned to look up at them, one of which was holding a controller, likely for the tree.

Koschei frowned and slipped his wand back into his pocket as the Doctor aimed his screwdriver at them.

Magic wouldn't do much good against Pilot Fish anyway.

He frowned as they were beamed away and tuned out of the conversation that the other three were having.

There was something very wrong about to happen.

"An apple in my dressing gown?"

Koschei blinked, before turning to look at the Doctor, who was now holding an apple.

"Oh, that's Howard," Jackie waved him off, "sorry."

Koschei blinked, "what?"

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry."

"He gets hungry in his sleep?" Koschei questioned in confusion.

"Sometimes," she shrugged.

He stared at the apple as the Doctor turned it around in his hand in bewilderment.

Honestly, humans could be so... weird.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei frowned as he sat upside down on the sofa in Jackie's living room, chewing on the nail of his thumb in a rare display of anxiety.

He could hear the Doctor, Rose, and Jackie all chattering in the dining room as the Doctor looked into figuring out whatever it was that the Pilot Fish were following.

The television was on, BBC One playing some news about some alien that had hijacked the channel earlier that night, which was highly likely to be the ones that the Pilot Fish had been scavenging off of.

Yet despite all of these going on, Koschei found his mind wandering back to his... death.

More specifically, what the entity had told him.

"You are the Master, and the Master is you."

As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew that the being was right, his fear of his past life was preventing him from doing a lot of things.

How could he move on with his life, how could he interact with the Doctor, even, if he refused to accept a large part of his past?

It wasn't like he'd never fallen back on his old habits either, the carved skin of that one DADA teacher, Umbridge, he believed, the carefully sliced runes forcing her to take the form of a cat, permanently, spoke volumes of what he was willing to do.

Deep down inside, he was still the Master, he knew that.

And it scared him.

Koschei let out a deep sigh, before turning himself around on the sofa, sitting up normally and leaning back against the back.

There was only one way he knew he'd be able to get over his fears, he would have to live through his memories, from start to finish, something that would take a while, and the only way he knew how required a potion, plenty of ingredients, a stable brewing environment for a month at least.

He sighed again and ran a hand down his face.

He was going to have to stay behind when the Doctor and Rose left next.

Show Me The Way Home

A commotion outside caught their attention, and Rose walked to the door, the Doctor quickly following.

Frowning, Koschei quickly called to Jackie as she made to follow, "could I talk to you for a moment?"

Her brows furrowed, but she nodded, quickly making her way over to him.

"What's wrong?"

He sighed, before looking her in the eyes.

"Do you think I could stay here for a month or two?"

Jackie blinked, before setting herself on the sofa next to him, "could I ask why?"

He nodded, "there are a couple of things that I need to sort out," he ran a hand through his hair, "at least one of these things requires me to be in a more stable environment for at least a month," he hesitated for a moment before letting his hand drop to his lap, clasping it together with his other hand, "I'd also like to possibly look into some therapy for some pre-existing issues."

They sat in silence for a moment, before Jackie moved and threw an arm around his shoulders.

Koschei stiffened under the unfamiliar touch, before slowly relaxing, pretending that he didn't see the worried look on her face.

"So long as you pay some of the rent, I don't mind."

Koschei nodded, that was fair, and he did have an unlimited credit card under the Doctor's name anyway, so it's not like the money was an issue.

"Yeah, I can do that."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei could hear the Doctor messing with something in the dining room, frustration coloured his voice as whatever it was didn't cooperate with him.

Rose was sat with him, trying to offer support when she didn't know what he was doing but still wanting to help, and Jackie was making tea.

Koschei frowned as she rushed out of the kitchen with another mug, placing it in front of him and taking the untouched mug that had been on the table before.

Apparently, when stressed, she made tea, as his fifth mug could attest to.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Koschei turned to stare at the television, eyes growing wide as he recognised the woman on it.

"Harriet Jones," he whispered.

"If I may take a moment during this terrible time."

"Oi, Doctor, Harriet Jones is on the television, you might want to come and see this," he called out.

He heard the scraping of wooden chairs against the floor, and moments later, the Doctor, followed by Rose, and a visibly stressed Jackie, came walking into the living room, sitting down on the sofas around.

Koschei stiffened for a moment as the Doctor sat next to him, flinging an arm around him, but forced himself to relax.

He ignored the concerned look that he shot him, instead tuning back into whatever Harriet had been saying.

"This crisis is unique, and I'm afraid to say that it might get much worse."

Koschei snorted at just how much she'd downplayed that, after all, there were millions of people across the globe just standing on the edge of roofs, and there was the possibility that whoever, or whatever had done it, could send all of them to the ground with just a single command.

"I would ask you all to remain calm, but I do have one request," she took a deep breath, "Doctor if you're out there, we need you."

He tuned the rest of her pleading out, closing his eyes to mentally prepare himself for what was likely going to happen.

Of course, that's the moment that the ship decided to enter the atmosphere, causing all the glass in the area to shatter.

He opened a single eye and glanced at the shards of glass, sighing.

"Wonderful."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed as he stood at the console of the TARDIS, carefully adjusting some dials as the Doctor ran around getting the course set for the invading spaceship.

Jackie had been frantic when she found out that they were going up there to see what was going on, and to put a stop to it.

Koschei was very glad at that moment that he'd been the one to wake up first so that he could sort the Doctor out before this all went down.

Honestly, this would have been a nightmare had he still been dealing with regeneration sickness while also trying to stop an invasion.

And no, despite what the Doctor thought, Koschei would not have been able to deal with it on his behalf, after all, his first reaction would be to blow the ship up, taking those on board with it.

The Doctor wouldn't have been happy with that.

Just as they were about to take off, the TARDIS was caught in some kind of beam, and transported into the ship.

"Well, that's convenient," Koschei muttered, as he let go of the dials.

"Tell me about it," he heard Rose mutter.

They walked towards the door, Rose quickly opening the door, and letting out a scream as she was grabbed by something as soon as she stepped outside.

"Rose!" Koschei's eyes widened, and he ran out after them, he didn't think, just reacted, his wand being pulled from his pocket and aimed at the hostile alien.

He, or at least Koschei thought they were a he, looked at it and laughed, pushing Rose away.

He didn't hear his taunting words, instead narrowing his eyes and standing between the humans and his foe.

Koschei snarled, lips pulling upwards, revealing his teeth, anger pooled in his stomach, and he cried out, "Bombarda!"

The alien's eyes widened in horror as the explosive spell hit, the entire ship fell silent as blood dripped from his abdomen, hands shakily falling to cover the wound.

Vaguely, Koschei could hear someone calling his name, but it wasn't important, what was important was dealing with this threat.

He raised his wand again, a spell on the tip of his tongue.

Just before he could cast the spell, however, a hand pressed up against the back of his neck, and suddenly the world turned dark.

Chapter Text

Koschei awoke slowly, the light above his head shining harshly into his eyes, groaning, he turned on his side, falling off of the bed that he was laying on, down to the cold stone floor.

He frowned, and slowly sat up, looking around.

The room was white, every piece of furniture was attached to the floors and walls in a way that made it impossible to move them, and he had the sudden realisation that he was in one of the TARDIS' holding rooms.

There was a pounding in the back of his head, and Koschei struggled to remember just what had happened to cause such pain.

He heard the door open, but didn't bother to move, if he was in a holding room, the only person who would be allowed near him would be the Doctor.

Footsteps grew closer to him, before the Doctor paused in front of him, crouching next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder, a glass of water was pressed into one hand, and some pain medication in the other.

"I had to knock you out," the Doctor informed him.

Koschei hummed as he took the medication and drank some of the water, eyes sliding shut.

That would explain the pain.

The Doctor remained crouched next to him as he pursued his memories of the lead-up to him knocking him out, the downside to being psychically knocked out was that it made a good ten or so minutes of memory before it happened very hazy.

He remembered Harriet Jones on the television, it took him a moment to muddle through his hazy memories to figure out that they'd been beamed onto the invading ship, and even longer to remember how Rose had been grabbed.

How it had sent him into a deadly rage.

Koschei let out a shaky breath and the Doctor rubbed his hand across his back in a calming manner.

"Did I..." he trailed off, looking away from him.

"No, you injured him, but I managed to knock you out before you could get a killing blow in."

He nodded, swallowing a gulp of water, he knew the tone that the Doctor had spoken with, he might not have gotten the blow in, but someone else had.

He took a deep breath, "what happened after you knocked me out?"

The Doctor frowned, "they were wary of us thanks to your attack, but I managed to get them to agree to duel against me for the Earth," he took a breath and slid down to sit on the ground next to him, leaning back to look at the ceiling, "I lost an arm, it grew back," he made a show of waving his arm, and Koschei rolled his eyes, "I won, however, and they retreated."

"That's good then," he muttered, narrowing his eyes at the expression on the Doctor's face, "right?"

"Harriet Jones got in contact with Torchwood and had the ship shot with five high-powered laser beams, green in colour."

"She what."

"There was ash everywhere, Rose thought it was snow."

Koschei gaped at him.

"I corrected her, of course."

They sat in silence for a moment, gathering their thoughts, before Koschei turned to the Doctor.

"I want to remain on Earth for a while," he saw the Doctor open his mouth to protest and raised a hand to stop him, "there's something I need to do, and it requires me to remain in one place for a month or so, no travelling around," he sighed, shoulders slumping, "plus I think I need therapy."

The Doctor gaped at him, "you're sure?"

Koschei nodded, "I was put into therapy with Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts in my fourth year, but I was always reluctant to go to the sessions, not to mention the fact that I only had a tiny portion of my memories as the Master at the time," he sighed again, "I believe it would be for the best."

The Doctor was silent for a moment before he pulled him into a hug, Koschei stiffened, before relaxing.

"If you're sure, then I'll support you," the Doctor murmured into his ear, and Koschei felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, "have you got a place to stay?"

"Jackie said I could stay with her if I paid part of her rent."

"What about the therapy? You can't exactly go to a normal therapist, you know?"

Koschei chuckled slightly, "I was going to see if I could get into contact with Mr Lethbridge-Stewart, I know he worked for UNIT, not sure if he still does, but he most likely either knows a therapist in the know or knows someone else who does."

The Doctor hummed, pulling back from the hug, "I think I still have his contact information lying about, I'll see if I can find it and I'll talk to him for you."

Koschei nodded, "thank you."

The Doctor stood up, before grabbing Koschei's arm and helping him up off the floor, "now let’s get you to a shower, you've been in here for long enough that you're starting to stink," he joked.

Koschei placed a hand over his heart and gasped dramatically, "rude!"

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed as he walked through the small greengrocers, the fresh fruits and vegetables releasing a relaxing scent.

It had been a week since he'd willingly been left behind by the Doctor, and he was finally picking up the last of the ingredients needed for the potion he'd memorised all those years ago.

He'd managed to grab the needed equipment from the TARDIS before he left, which meant that he didn't need to worry about creating a contaminated potion, he was also lucky that all the needed ingredients were plant-based and non-magical, which meant that they were available in this universe also.

He'd memorised the recipe in the hopes that when he got his memories back, a majority of them would be nice enough that he'd enjoy going and looking back at them, something which had not happened, due to the nature of said memories.

But now Koschei knew it'd be best to live through them, for his own mental health.

He looked between two different pomegranates, trying to figure out which seemed the ripest between the two when someone bumped into him.

"I apologise," the man said, his eyes wide in apology, "I wasn't looking where I was going."

Despite the man's body language, Koschei could see the calculating look in his eyes, a small spark of madness hidden in the depths.

He was sure that if he could still see the strings, they'd be twisting around the man, agitating his vision with how wrong they were due to being in the wrong universe, begging him to just take a little peek at the man's timeline.

Something about this man seemed familiar too, and he didn't know why, it wasn't the way he looked, but his voice, the way he dressed, and the way that he held himself, it all screamed that he should know him.

"It's alright," Koschei said, placing the pomegranate that was in his left hand into the basket, replacing the one in his right on the shelf, "it is quite a small shop, after all, quite easy to bump into someone by accident."

The man's grin grew wider, even as his brown eyes narrowed, he held a hand out to Koschei, "Harold Saxon."

He grabbed his hand, shaking it, "Harry Potter."

With that awkward exchange out of the way, Koschei quickly made his way over to the Kiwis, something about that man made the hairs on the back of his neck stick up on their end.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei hummed to the tune of the song that was being played on the radio as he worked in the kitchen, multitasking on both brewing his potion and cooking dinner.

Many of the leftovers from the potion could be used to make a great stew, just needing a bit of meat added to it, so as he was chopping, dicing, slicing, and crushing the ingredients, he also prepared what was left and slipped all of the edible bits into the slow cooker, ready for him to add the rest of the ingredients once he was finished brewing.

The potion itself was steadily bubbling away, a soft lilac colour that swiftly became magenta as he added in some potato skins.

Once this first stage of brewing finished, he would have to cover it, and store it in a cool dark place for at least three weeks, after which he would need to reheat it and add in some raindrops freshly collected at midnight, the closer to the full moon, the better, but it wasn't necessary, just something that made the potion more potent.

After that, he'd need to let it cool for another twenty-four hours, before he could take it, and finally relive his memories.

He was anxious, and scared, but also a little bit excited.

Who knows what he'd rediscover? Anything was possible with how he'd been ignoring the memories after all.

Chapter Text

Koschei hadn't been expecting Mickey to call him, so when the man had called Jackie's mobile phone to ask for him, he'd been curious.

Grabbing the phone from Jackie's outstretched hand, he pulled it towards his ear, "what is it?"

"Hey, you're in contact with Rose and the Doctor, right?"

Koschei hummed and got up from where he was kneeling on the floor at the entrance to the wardrobe, he was using to store his potion, "I am, why?"

He could hear Mickey sigh on the other end of the line, "I've noticed something suspicious going on, and it all seems to be centred around a school."

He frowned and walked over to the laptop he'd purchased a few days prior, quickly booting it up, "which school?"

"Deffry Vale High School."

"I thought High Schools were an American thing?" he asked in confusion.

There was silence for a moment before he heard a snort of laughter on the other end.

"Oi!" he huffed.

"Sorry, it's just high schools do exist here, they're just nowhere near as common due to our typically different schooling system."

"Right, well, back to the problem at hand, there's been suspicious activity surrounding the school?"

"There's been a few students disappearing while at the school over the last three months, multiple others getting ill, record grades from students who'd previously been practically failing the subjects. I had a quick look into it and around that time, three months ago, I mean, most of the staff members had been replaced out of nowhere, the night before there were multiple UFO sightings in the area also."

Koschei blinked, that was quite suspicious.

"The staff are also acting strange, avoiding topics that involve those students and changing the subject any time they're bought up."

He sighed, "I'll give him a call, I know he has a phone out in case I needed something."

"Thank you."

With that, Koschei hung up and walked over to the bedside table he'd kept his own phone on.

The phone was old now, he'd had it since he was fourteen, nine years ago now, the smartphone had taken a rather large battering, and he'd had to get the battery replaced once the Doctor of this universe had allowed him to travel with him, after all, seven years without being charged is quite damaging to batteries.

Despite its damage, Koschei couldn't find it in himself to replace it, after all, his Doctor had gifted it to him, and it held so many photos, so many memories, that even the thought of getting a new phone made him cringe.

Grabbing the phone, he unlocked it, smiling slightly at the background image of himself at age fifteen being side hugged by the Doctor as they stood by a fence, laughing at something behind the photographer.

Sighing, he quickly tapped his contacts, and scrolled past 'The Doctor' to find 'The Other Doctor', pressing the contact, he hit the call button and listened as the ringtone played.

Finally, after waiting for five minutes, and needing to call a second time as it wasn't picked up the first time, he heard Rose speak.

"Hello, Harry?"

He grinned, "hey Rose, could you pass me to the Doctor?"

He heard a crackle on the other end before the Doctor's voice came through the line, "K-Harry?"

"Hey, Doctor," he grinned.

There was a scraping sound, followed by what sounded like something metal being thrown onto stone before the Doctor responded once more.

"What's wrong?"

Koschei sighed, and the grin faded into a small frown, "there's been some strange activity reported to me, I was asked to get into contact with you."

He heard the Doctor hum, "who asked and what kind of strange activity?"

"Mickey, and possibly some aliens taking over a school, impersonating faculty."

There was a sigh, "it does sound like something we should check out," there was a pause before the Doctor continued, "will you be coming?"

To anyone else, his tone would have been calm and nonchalant, but to Koschei who knew the Doctor like no one else, he could hear the hesitation and insecurity behind it.

He huffed, "you know what? yeah, my therapist says it's good to get out of the house."

He could practically hear the Doctor grinning as he responded, "great, it's a date!" before hanging up on him.

Koschei stared down at the phone, a small blush staining his cheeks.

"Bloody Theta."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed as he waited by the school's front gates for the day to end, the bell had rung just a moment prior and as such he was expecting to see a wave of children leaving to meet their parents, friends, or go home.

He'd been informed that there wasn't a meeting that evening and that the members of staff were allowed to plan their lessons and grade from their homes, so all that needed to be done by the Doctor was to tidy the classroom and gather his stuff, the kitchen staff would be finishing their clean up shortly, so he wouldn't be waiting too long for Rose.

Sighing once more, he flipped the page of the book he was reading, well, it was more like staring at it, as he hadn't taken a single word in from it since five pages prior, but he was too stubborn to admit that, even to himself.

He blinked, quickly looking up as a somewhat familiar-looking woman with brown hair rushed past him, he furrowed his brows and returned to staring at his book, although he now had a strange craving for some jelly babies for some strange reason.

Shortly after that, Rose joined him outside the gate, and they didn't have to wait too long for the Doctor to join them after.

"Who's ready for some late-night infiltration?" he grinned.

Koschei rolled his eyes with a grin on his face as Rose snorted.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei stared at the darkened school in wonder, it was nothing like walking around Hogwarts after curfew, there were no flickering candles to guide you about, nor were there ghosts or paintings to break the silence.

It was creepy.

"Oh, it's so weird seeing a school at night," he heard Rose comment, "it just feels wrong."

He saw Mickey nod in agreement.

"When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in the school," she muttered.

Koschei hummed, "at my school they did," he tilted his head to the side slightly, "but then again, my school was a boarding school, so everyone slept in the school."

"All right, team," the Doctor clapped his hands together once to grab their attention, "oh, I hate people who say team," he muttered, "er, gang? comrades? whatever."

Koschei snorted and the Doctor sent him an offended look in return.

"Anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil," he turned to face Mickey, "Mickey, the new staff are all Maths teachers, so go and check out the Maths department."

The man saluted, and the Doctor turned to face him.

"Ko-Harry, check out the reception, there might be some paperwork or a file on the computer or something."

Koschei nodded.

"I'm going to go and take a look in Finch's office, meet back here in ten minutes, Harry, the reception’s in the same direction as his office so it'd be easier to follow me," and with that, the Doctor grabbed his hand and dragged him off to the reception, leaving Rose and Mickey behind to face their own tasks.

The Doctor and Koschei walked down a corridor on the way to the reception, which also held the corridor that the offices were held in when they noticed a woman standing in front of an opened storeroom door.

The storeroom that the TARDIS was parked in.

Koschei recognised her as the woman who made him crave jelly babies earlier and frowned at the way she stood, unmoving.

The Doctor sighed and set a hand on Koschei's shoulder, before moving in front of him, "hello, Sarah-Jane."

Oh right, Sarah-Jane Smith, he remembered now.

Koschei gave her a once over, taking in the changes that time had done to her.

He was interrupted from his staring, and the other two from their conversation at the sound of a rather feminine shriek.

Rose ran up to them, a concerned look on her face, "did you hear that?" she questioned, before noticing Sarah-Jane, "who's she?"

"Ah," the Doctor's eyes lit up in realisation, before gesturing between Rose and Sarah-Jane, "Rose, Sarah-Jane," he grinned, "Sarah-Jane, Rose."

He saw Sarah-Jane eyeing up Rose and snorted, causing her attention to snap to him.

"And what about him?"

Koschei blinked, before grinning a rather shit-eating grin, causing the Doctor to narrow his eyes at him in suspicion.

"Oh, so you recognise the Doctor, but not me, my dear? I'm hurt," he pressed his hand to his chest and pouted, she stared at him in confusion, and he snorted, "I'm teasing, we've only met once, from what I recall," he tilted his head to the side, "or twice, I'm not too sure, actually," he admitted.

She couldn't seem to recall him, but that was fine to Koschei, instead, he stuck his hand out, "Harry Potter, lovely to meet you in a more relaxed setting, Sarah-Jane Smith."

She took his hand and shook it, and Koschei grinned as he heard the Doctor sigh in exasperation.

"Let’s just go and see what Mickey found that caused him to feel the need to wake the dead," he muttered.

Koschei's grin widened as the handshake was dropped and he stepped up next to the Doctor as they rushed to wherever Mickey had gotten himself.

They quickly found themselves in a classroom, where Mickey was standing near some overhead cupboards surrounded by.

"Vacuum-packed rats!" he heard Rose exclaim as he tuned back into the conversation around him.

He sneered at the rats, kicking one of the packets off to the side.

"And you decided to scream?" the Doctor questioned him as he carefully manoeuvred Koschei away from the packets on the floor so he would stop kicking them.

So he still had some pent-up frustrations over Pettigrew, sue him.

"It took me by surprise!" Mickey argued.

"Like a little girl?"

"It was dark, I was covered in rats!"

"Nine, maybe ten years old? I'm seeing pigtails, a frilly skirt," the Doctor looked at Koschei, "what about you?"

"One of those frilly white t-shirts to match and a white summer hat," he nodded in agreement.

"Hello?" Rose snapped, "can we focus?"

Koschei coughed, "sorry."

She sighed and shook her head, but continued talking, "does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?"

He sighed as Sarah-Jane and Rose continued to bicker but followed along as the Doctor dragged him by the hand, seemingly refusing to let go in the fear that he'd go back and do something to the rats.

Well, he wasn't wrong, Koschei would have definitely done something to them, maybe a strong acid? or perhaps a bonfire...

And then the Doctor opened the door to the Headmaster's office, revealing a swarm of giant bats sleeping on the ceiling.

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei sighed as he sipped the coffee that he'd purchased from the little cafe that they'd gone to while the Doctor attempted to fix up K-9.

The chatter of Sarah-Jane and the Doctor washed over them, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose and Mickey picking at a portion of chips.

In this moment of quiet, Koschei took a moment to really look at the Doctor, watching as he worked, how he moved, how he talked.

It... hurt.

This Doctor was so similar to his own, and yet so different, when he'd been in his prior regeneration, Koschei had found it easy to just pretend that he was another regeneration of his Doctor.

But he wasn't and now he had to face that.

The Doctor would turn and look at him with a wide smile, and it hurt.

When the oil had been analysed, Koschei offered to help Sarah-Jane and Mickey get K-9 back into the boot of her car, and only caught the tail end of their conversation.

"What about you? Where do you fit in the picture?" Sarah-Jane questioned Mickey.

He didn't catch his reply as he moved to secure K-9 from the side, before pulling himself out and shutting the boot.

"And what about you?" she questioned him.

Koschei stared off into the distance for a moment, before answering, "I'm just trying to get home."

And all at once, the weight of the past seven years hit him, and an overwhelming sadness overcame him.

"Oh my god," he whispered, shutting his eyes and resting a hand over them, "what the fuck am I doing here?"

"Harry?" he heard Mickey speak, concern in his voice, but he ignored it.

He moved his now shaking hand down to cover his mouth as he took a shuddering breath in, swallowing thickly as tears gathered in his eyes.

Slowly he moved so that he was sitting on the floor, and for once, he didn't care who saw him as he broke down crying then and there.

He heard footsteps approaching them but paid no mind to them as tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

"What happened?" he heard the Doctor question Sarah-Jane and Mickey.

Koschei took another shuddering breath, as a sob tore itself from his throat, "I want to go home."

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei was placed in Sarah-Jane's car with Mickey following his mental breakdown, the emotional exhaustion taking its toll, leaving him in a foul and generally unhelpful mood.

He was jolted into the moment by Mickey slamming K-9's head, he sent a dirty look to the man as the robotic dog started up.

"You shouldn't treat technology like that," he huffed, scowling.

"I've seen you do worse to that laptop of yours," he shot back.

Koschei scowled and looked out the window of the passenger seat.

"System restarting, all primary drives functioning."

He frowned, interrupting Mickey as he began talking, "what about your secondary drives?"

"Three secondary drives functioning correctly, two are corrupted."

Mickey interrupted before he could continue, "okay, that's well and good, but we don't have time for you to do a rundown of the tin dog's entire systems," he turned to K-9, "we need to get inside the school, do you have like, a lock picking device or something?"

Koschei scowled, "we're in a car."

"We are in a car," K-9 said at the same time.

"Maybe a drill attachment?"

He groaned.

"We are in a car."

"Fat lot of good you are."

"We are in a car."

"Wait a second," Mickey looked like he could slap his hand into his face, "we're in a car."

"Congratulations, Sherlock, would you like a medal?"

Mickey ignored him and instead spoke to the child that was standing next to the window of the driver's seat, "get back!"

And with that, Mickey drove Sarah-Jane's car through the doors of the school.

Koschei sat up straight, hands grasping at the seatbelt with wide eyes, "man I thought the Doctor's driving was shit."

Mickey unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door and slid out, "come on!"

Cautiously, Koschei made his way out, helping K-9 get out of the car too.

He walked alongside K-9 until they stumbled across the Doctor, Sarah-Jane, Rose, Mickey, and a student, all hiding under tables.

Koschei pulled his wand out of his pocket as K-9 activated his laser beam, downing one of the bats, before they could get their bearings about, he pointed his wand at another and called out, "Stupefy," watching in satisfaction as it fell to the ground, stunned and unable to move.

It would take a few hours to wear off naturally, and Koschei was not willing to cast the counter spell.

"K-9!"

"I suggest that you engage running mode, mistress."

A hand grabbed his own, unsurprisingly the Doctor's.

"Come on!" he called out as they began to run towards the doors of the canteen.

The Krillitanes that were still able to move, eleven of them, kept trying to attack them, and the Doctor gritted his teeth before speaking, "K-9, hold them back!"

They made it to the doors, and Koschei was shoved through as the Doctor made sure the rest of them got out before him.

"Affirmative, Master, maximum defence mode."

The Doctor shut the door and Koschei caught a glimpse of one of K-9's laser beams hitting another Krillitane before it closed fully, the Doctor pulling his screwdriver out and sealing the door shut.

Koschei frowned as the Doctor rambled, and for once he didn't stay put.

Bats had a few weaknesses, one of which being their sensitive hearing to help them echolocate.

Koschei ran up to the fire alarm, nodding at the student who'd come to the same conclusion, he aimed his wand up at the fire alarm's bell, "Sonorus!" he cast, at the same time as the student shattered the glass case, setting the alarm off.

And oh boy was it loud.

He moved his hands to cover his ears and noticed that the student had done the same, Koschei gestured for the boy to follow him and led him out to safety, meeting up with Mickey and the other students that had been freed from whatever control the Krillitanes had over them.

Not even ten minutes later, the Doctor, Sarah-Jane, and Rose all came running out of the building, which quickly went up in an explosion.

Koschei stared at the flaming building, not even moving as the Doctor came over and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"You know, I thought you'd be the one person who wouldn't wander off."

He hummed, "well, my dear, at least I'm the most qualified of any companion that you've had to be wandering off."

The Doctor sighed, "well, you've got me there."

They stood and stared at the roaring fire together for a moment before Koschei huffed.

"My therapist is going to have a field day when I tell her what happened."

"How's that going for you?"

He shrugged, "it's therapy, it's going shit right now, but it's working, even if it's only a little bit."

"Well," the Doctor scratched his chin in thought, "that's good, right?"

He nodded.

"It is."

Chapter Text

Koschei sighed as he stood by the oven, carefully reheating his potion on the stove, a mug of rainwater sat on the countertop next to him.

Rain pelted against the window, helping to instil a sense of calm into him as he gently stirred the potion with a glass rod.

It had been three weeks exactly since he'd begun work on the potion, and in a stroke of luck, it had been raining all night, eager to finish the potion, he'd ran outside to collect the needed rainwater when midnight had struck, and while it wasn't a full moon, it had only passed four nights ago, meaning that the potion would be decent, and certainly strong enough for him to go through his memories.

Koschei hummed along to the radio which was quietly playing some gentle classical music, to complete the mood, he'd decided to light some candles and turn the lights off, seeing as it was twenty minutes to one in the morning, the atmosphere and calming music made him feel as though for once in his life, he fit in with the other magic users of His Universe.

A moment where for once he felt like Harry Potter.

Shaking his head, Koschei once again focused on the potion, grinning as he noticed its shade changing from its bright magenta to a much paler shade of pink, signifying that the potion was fully reheated.

He carefully poured some of the collected rainwater onto a spoon, then gently moved the spoon above the pot, allowing five drops to drip off and into the potion.

It turned a shimmery pink where the drops had fallen, and Koschei gently stirred it in a pattern of five times clockwise and five times anti-clockwise for ten minutes, watching as the potion gradually turned into a shimmering silver colour.

He carefully removed it from the stove once more, allowing it to slowly drop to room temperature before he'd once again cover and store it for the final twenty-four hours needed for the potion to complete.

Show Me The Way Home

His first thought was that he was dreaming, as he lay on his back, next to Theta, long red grass towering over them as they giggled, whilst looking up at the setting twin suns above head.

"We'll be best friends forever, right Theta?" he questioned.

He turned his face to look at him, a bright grin on his face as he moved his hand to grasp Koschei's.

"Of course, Kos, and one day we'll explore the Universe together!"

Koschei grinned back, entwining his pinkie finger with Theta's, "it's a promise then."

He turned his head back to the rapidly darkening sky above and remembered the potion he'd taken.

It wasn't a dream, but a memory.

Show Me The Way Home

"Hey Kos, what are you making?"

Koschei looked up from his workstation to look at his friend as he walked into their shared room.

"Just a miniature motorised engine for our engineering assignment that's due in two days."

He watched as Theta froze before he slowly turned to face him, eyes wide.

"That's in two days?"

He snickered and turned back to his soldering work, "yep!"

Theta yelped and rushed to his workstation on the opposite side of the room, a loud thump told Koschei that he'd tripped in his rush to get over there, and his snickering turned into full-blown laughter.

"Hey, that's rude!"

Show Me The Way Home

The sound that had been quietly sitting in the back of his mind since he'd looked into the Schism had been growing slightly louder in the past week.

Typically, he was able to ignore it, but something was causing it to become more of an annoyance than it typically was.

He didn't know exactly how to describe it, but if he had to compare it to anything, it was like a quiet thudding noise, like someone running on wooden stairs in the distance.

It became more prevalent whenever he and Theta discussed their plans for the future, or whenever Koschei had an idea for an invention that would be useful for communities, as though the sound was disagreeing with him.

The few times they'd covered weapons and other destructive objects in their classes, the sound would seemingly push him towards them, as though it wanted destruction.

It scared him.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master grinned as the Doctor glared at him from where he'd tied him up to his chair, he practically danced over to the other Time Lord, his most recent semi-destructive invention in hand.

"You know, I do love seeing you all tied up for me, My Dear," he grinned.

The Doctor groaned before letting out a snort as the Master ran a gloved finger down his jaw.

"I don't suppose you'd let me out?"

He snorted, "and ruin my fun? of course not, Dear."

Show Me The Way Home

That damn sound was back and louder than before.

The Master was on his last regeneration, which was why he'd even sought out his old friend, he didn't want to go without seeing him at least once more.

Of course, seeing him had bought his feelings to the surface again, the love-love-love-hate that seemed to force itself down his throat at the mere sight of him.

It wasn't just the feelings that had him avoiding him in the past, however, but that sound, the thumping noise, it seemed to grow stronger around him, seemed to crave more violence whenever he was around.

This time, however, it craved more life.

How could the Master die before the Doctor?

He couldn't, the Master needed to live.

Don't die, don't die. Don't die, don't die.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

One, two, three, four.

Show Me The Way Home

Stealing a body was concerningly easy, but the Master supposed he shouldn't be the one to complain.

It felt a bit like wearing an ill-fitting suit, however, too tight around his consciousness, the body not meant to house a Time Lord.

But it was better than dying-

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

One, two, three, four.

-So, he really had nothing to complain about.

Show Me The Way Home

Okay, so maybe going to the Cheetah Planet wasn't his best idea, contracting the Cheetah Virus was not on his to-do list but it had given him control over the Kitlings.

While his original plan of having the Kitlings teleport a bunch of Humans to the Cheetah Planet was to get the Doctor's attention so he could get him away from the Planet, the Virus worked fast with his corrupted DNA, instincts taking place where there were none before.

He needed to get away, needed to help his people, the Cheetahs, needed to live.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

One, two, three, four.

The Planet was alive, its presence pushing against his mind.

Get away, help them, survive, hunt, live.

Show Me The Way Home

The fact that the damned Daleks had put him to death was honestly rather amusing to him, there was even a trial and everything where all of his wrongdoings were listed out for the Universe to hear.

He'd requested that the Doctor be the one to take his remains back to Gallifrey, he did pick up his remains, which allowed his plan to come to fruition, bringing himself back to life.

Honestly, the fact that the Doctor was surprised by this was rather amusing, it's not like it was the first time he'd kept himself going after death, and it wouldn't be the last.

Show Me The Way Home

Half human on his mother's side.

He wasn't anywhere the Doctor could see him, he made sure of that, but the memory came to an abrupt halt as he overheard him say those words.

It was wrong.

No, it was right, it was what he remembered.

But it was wrong, and Koschei knew it, a feeling of ice washed through him as he realised what that meant.

Someone had been screwing with the Doctor's past, and the only reason he knew was due to his death and reincarnation, followed by his reliving these memories.

The current incarnation of the Master he was living through was on the more batshit side of sanity, the drums, those godawful drums had really impacted this one, he'd even attempted to steal the Doctor's body of all things!

Something which, Koschei had noticed, none of the prior incarnations had even dared of thinking, even the Cheetah Virus-addled version of himself hadn't gone that far.

Show Me The Way Home

The Time Lords had bought him back to life, a whole new body with a whole new set of regenerations, all to fight in the war against the Daleks.

The drums were there, stronger than ever before as he threw himself into battle against them, violence and destruction on his mind as electronics and mutated flesh scattered across the ground.

The drums signalled war.

And the Master would come out on top.

Show Me The Way Home

Yana rushed out into the hallway, an anxious energy filling his steps as he moved.

A group of people he'd not seen before came into view and he quickly moved towards them.

"The Doctor?"

The tall one wearing a long coat turned to look at him, grinning, and a sense of familiarity hit Yana before he brushed it off.

"That's me!" he informed him.

"Good!" he cried out, grabbing his arm and beginning to lead him into his lab, "good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good!"

The Doctor looked at the two people following as he was pulled along.

"That's good apparently!"

Show Me The Way Home

Clarity, the drums weren't there for a moment, but he could feel them pushing against his mind.

No, he couldn't let them win again.

A knife in hand.

Bone, blood, hearts.

"I'm so sorry, Thete-"

The voice was... familiar...

"The drums," he whispered, "I couldn't let them take my mind."

That voice...

He'd heard it somewhere else before.

Show Me The Way Home

"Harry, as in Harry Potter?"

Harry blinked, staring at the red-haired boy.

"No, Harry Houdini."

"But-"

"I'm being sarcastic."

"Oh."

Harry rolled his eyes.

Show Me The Way Home

"Hey, Theta?"

Koschei felt hopeless, but he knew what needed to be done.

"Yes?" the Doctor looked up from his Sonic Screwdriver, and Koschei pulled his head towards him, pressing a firm kiss to his lips.

Using the moment of shock he'd created, Koschei ran, barrelling into Voldemort and sending them both through the Veil of Death.

Show Me The Way Home

"Who are you, lad?"

Koschei looked up from his drink, the pub was near empty, which was unsurprising given the time of day, especially when one took into account the unusual abductions that had been happening recently.

The man who'd spoken to him looked to be in his forties, and his breath stunk strongly of mead.

"Evan Evans," he greeted, sticking his hand out for the man to shake.

"Well Mr Evans, it's not every day you see a stranger in these parts, what brings you here?"

Koschei blinked but sat up straight.

"I'm a specialist detective."

The man hummed, "ah, so you're here for the disappearances then?"

Koschei nodded, grimacing slightly as the man thumped him on the back.

"Well, I wish you luck!"

Show Me The Way Home

Koschei was looking between two different pomegranates when someone bumped into him.

"I apologise."

It was the voice.

"I wasn't looking where I was going."

Koschei did a once over of the man, recognising the spark of madness in his eyes.

"It's alright," he spoke, placing one of the pomegranates into his basket, "it is quite a small shop, after all, quite easy to bump into someone by accident."

The man's grin grew wide, and he held a hand out to Koschei, "Harold Saxon."

This time, as Koschei grabbed his hand, he knew with frightening clarity that he was shaking the hand of this Universe's Master.

"Harry Potter."

Show Me The Way Home

Silence lingered in his mind as he put together his thoughts over what he'd relived, and while there was a lot to put away, a few things stuck out as important to him.

The first was the fact that someone or something was so blatantly messing with His Doctor's past, to the point where his own species had been overwritten.

He remembered the Doctor's species as being completely Gallifreyan, he'd even shown a younger Koschei the exact loom he'd been loomed in, but the fact that at least one memory had him being even half human was worrying.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do about it until he got back to his own Universe.

The second thing that stuck out as important to him was the fact that Harold Saxon was the Master, and once again, there was nothing he could do on that front until this Doctor's timeline caught up with this Master's.

It was frustrating because he couldn't even let the Doctor know that this Universe's Master was alive, since it would mess with his direct future.

The third thing was his realisation that Death was right.

Going through these memories had reminded him that his past life wasn't completely batshit insane, or evil, morally grey, yes, and definitely following the laws and traditions of Time Lords, but until the drums had begun impacting him to the point he could no longer ignore them, he'd been functioning just fine, and would even sneakily help the Doctor a lot of the time too.

He'd originally picked the name of the Master, not to show dominance over others, but in celebration of his mastery over certain subjects and hobbies, of how he put in his all to learn all he could about the things he enjoyed.

And while yes, he could be a dick, and certainly had a darker side, one where he wouldn't hesitate to maim or kill others should he need to, there truly was nothing different there, as in his current life, he could be quite an asshole if he tried, and he'd definitely maimed people, as Umbridge and Malfoy could attest to, and pushing Voldemort through the Veil of Death most definitely counted as killing someone.

Finally, as though someone lifted a thick sheet of smoke, he felt a sense of acceptance and understanding of himself that he'd refused for his whole life.

And in Rose Tyler's bedroom, for the first time in twenty-three, almost twenty-four years, the Master opened his eyes.

Chapter Text

The Master groaned as he stretched out his limbs, sighing as his joints cracked, the potion had put his body into stasis to prevent any problems with his muscles, but he'd still been laying still for around a week.

He huffed before sitting up and sliding off of the bed, making his way out into the hallway and slipping into the bathroom, quickly shaving and taking a shower to freshen himself up.

Once he was done and had dressed in clean clothes, he made his way into the kitchen and flicked the kettle on, pulling out a mug and humming as he prepared a cup of tea for himself.

As he was pouring the hot water into the mug, the Master heard the front door open and turned to greet Jackie, a small smile on his face.

"Good afternoon, Jackie."

The grin quickly fell, however, as Jackie dropped the three carrier bags filled with shopping onto the floor, her face pale as she stared at him in shock.

"Jackie?" he questioned, quickly walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder, guiding her to one of the chairs in the kitchen, concern slipping onto his face as she sat down.

He left her to gather her thoughts while he picked up the spilt shopping and shut the door, carrying the bags back into the kitchen and placing them on the counter before turning back to Jackie who'd gathered some composure.

"You alright?" he asked.

"You wouldn't wake up," she muttered.

The Master looked at her, a look of confusion plastered on his face, "I did tell you that the potion would make me sleep for a week," he turned and grabbed his mug of tea, taking a sip and relishing in the feel of getting rid of his dry mouth.

Her frown deepened, "Harry, you were asleep for a month."

The Master choked on his tea, eyes widening as he coughed, realising where he'd messed up.

The potion's stasis time was based on a human experiencing one lifetime's worth of human memories, but the Master had gone through not only his human life's memories, but his past life's memories too, his past life, who was a Time Lord with a much longer lifespan to a human.

He groaned, pulling a chair out and falling into it.

"I can't believe I didn't realise it'd take longer for me."

Jackie sighed, reaching over and patting his arm.

"We all make mistakes, love, I for one am just happy to see you up and about again."

The Master snorted, "washing machine broke again?"

She huffed, "well yes, but I've got a nice young man coming over to fix it up for me later."

He raised an eyebrow, "should I get out of the house for a bit then?"

She let out a bark of laughter and he smirked into his mug at the sound.

"I promise I'll be mostly behaved while he's here."

He snorted, "we'll see."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master frowned, turning away from the laptop he'd bought for his stay on Earth to look at the bedroom door from where he was sitting at the desk in Rose's bedroom.

Jackie sounded very upset.

He heard the front door slam shut, and decided to investigate, he quickly shut his laptop and made his way into the living room where he heard Jackie crying.

"Hey Jacks, you alright?"

She sniffed before huffing, "he was just looking for information on the Doctor and thought he could get to him through me."

The Master narrowed his eyes before he threw himself onto the sofa next to her, "well forget him," he huffed, before throwing an arm around her shoulders, "how about this, I know it's your day off tomorrow, so let’s get some takeaway and ice cream, watch some shitty soaps on the TV, and then we can go out tomorrow and have a treat day, get our hair and nails done and go for a bit of shopping, hm?"

She giggled, and he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"And before you say anything about the money, don't forget I have access to the Doctor's credit card, and he doesn't care if I spend it on a girl's day out."

"You're not a girl though, Harry," she said with a teasing grin on her face.

"Pah, gender schmender," he said, waving his free hand in dismissal, "I've worn dresses and makeup before, I'll do it again if I want."

"You really don't care, do you?" she said, chuckling and shaking her head.

"Nope," he said grinning, "so how about Chinese?"

"I'd love Chinese."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master huffed, walking down the street, a backpack slung across a single shoulder.

While he didn't know exactly where he was going, he had a rough idea, thanks to a combination of what Jackie had told him and a little bit of hacking.

He also knew he wouldn't be the only person visiting the man that day either, Jackie had called Rose and told her about what happened, and from what he'd overheard, the Doctor and Rose would be making their way back to Earth to see Jackie and get more information.

He could have waited for them to return and caught a ride with them, but he couldn't wait, the anger curled in his chest like a wild cat that needed to be let out.

Elton Pope really had no idea just what he'd unleashed upon himself by playing with Jackie Tyler's feelings like he had.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master turned another corner, scowling as he walked down another alleyway, honestly, the amount of alleyways in this area was unbelievable, luckily with this turn, he spotted the man he'd been looking for, on his knees unknowingly facing him.

He quickly suppressed the slight feeling of thrill that ran down his spine at the action, pushing the thought of that into the back of his mind to be looked at in private, since it very much would not do to fall into some kind of world domination relapse or something.

The Master spotted another figure heading towards Elton, and frowned, slipping back around the corner and peering around the wall so he wasn't spotted, his frown deepened as he overheard the conversation.

Honestly, hearing the alien attempt to convince him to be absorbed by him was rather disturbing, but honestly still not in his top ten horrifying things from across the universe.

Before he could decide if he needed to intervene or not, he heard the tell-tale sound of the TARDIS materialising, and quickly ducked back around the corner, coming to stand by her as she solidified.

The door swung open, and the Doctor walked out, his gaze quickly landing on Elton, "someone wants a word with you," he announced, before spotting the Master and grinning, quickly walking over to him and slinging an arm over his shoulders, "you alright?"

He pouted, shrugging the bag off of his shoulder, carefully readjusting the Doctor's arm as he did so, making sure he didn't dislodge it.

"I was about to put the fear of whatever god he believes in into him," he huffed.

The Doctor frowned, and the Master rolled his eyes, unzipping the bag and pulling out a metal pipe, "took a trip to B&Q for this, I was just going to chase him about for a bit and threaten to break his kneecaps."

He snickered slightly as the Doctor dropped his arm from his shoulder and bought his hand up to rub at his face, sighing.

"Really?"

The Master shrugged and nudged the Doctor's foot with his as he saw the alien attempt to get up close to them, "you might want to deal with that."

He frowned and nodded, walking away from the Master, who leant against the TARDIS with his arms crossed, sitting back to watch Elton and the alien get torn into for separate reasons.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master snickered as Rose and the Doctor took turns telling Jackie about the tale of Elton and the Abzorbaloff from Clom.

He sipped at his tea, quickly swallowing his mouthful and grinning widely at Jackie as she stared at him with wide eyes while the Doctor informed her of his plan to threaten Elton.

Of course, the Master's favourite part of the story definitely had to be.

"So, you managed to transfer her conscious and face to a slab of concrete?" Jackie questioned incredulously.

"Yep!"

The Master howled in laughter, as Jackie proceeded to ask twenty questions about the situation.

Chapter Text

"Harry, Harry, come on, wake up!"  

The Master groaned as he was shaken awake by Jackie, eyes cracking open slightly, only to be greeted by the blonde-haired woman standing over him with a wide grin on her face.  

"That's it, up and at 'em, love."  

Slowly he raised a hand to cover his eyes, "what time is it?"  

"Half six."  

Groaning, he rolled over and buried his head under the pillow, in an attempt to go back to sleep, only to let out a startled yelp as the duvet was ripped away from him.  

"Ah-ah, no can do," she tutted at him, "we need to go shopping, so I need you up, showered, dressed, and fed by 8."  

He groaned more, before sighing and muttering out a "why?"  

"It's a surprise, you'll find out later!"  

He could hear the excitement in her voice, it was so strong that he could even swear that he could sense the emotion as he was once able to do, back in his previous life.  

All the Master could do, however, was let out another groan in protest at the early wake-up call.  

He listened as Jackie let out an amused chuckle and walked out of the room, giving him the privacy, he needed to properly wake up, he huffed as the door clicked shut and sat up in the bed, glaring at the curtains as they let in the tiniest sliver of sunlight.  

"Bloody half six," he muttered before shaking his head, sighing and standing up off of the bed, he let out another groan as he stretched out in a rather cat-like fashion, hearing his joints crack as he did so.  

He managed to stumble his way down to the bathroom, and into the shower, the warm water helped him to wake up and he groaned as what she'd said finally registered in his head.  

Shopping was fine, he could deal with that and even enjoyed it to an extent, but an all-day shopping trip was a little different, hell, the Master didn't even know what shops opened before ten in the morning.  

It took another ten minutes until he was dry and dressed, after which he stumbled his way into the kitchen, where Jackie promptly placed a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal in front of him.  

Jackie herself was already dressed and only had a mug of tea in her hands, but he noticed an empty bowl in the sink waiting to be washed, letting him know that she'd already eaten.  

He sighed, but picked up the spoon, shovelling it full of cereal and began eating.  

Jackie hummed and picked up a pen that he hadn't noticed before and wrote something into a small notepad.  

He swallowed what he had in his mouth and pointed at it, "anything interesting?"  

She hummed again before setting the pen back down, "just writing down a list of the shops we need to pop into while we're out."  

He looked at the page warily, spotting at least eight shops on the list, "and where are we going first?"  

She clapped her hands together and grinned, "Mountain Warehouse."  

The Master blinked, taken aback, "isn't that a shop for hiking and camping supplies?"  

"Yep!" she confirmed.  

He blinked again.  

"Come on, love, eat up!"  

Show Me The Way Home

The Master followed after Jackie as she led him into another shop in bewilderment, so far he'd been unable to figure out what it was that she was planning for with all of the things that she was buying through the Doctor's credit card, at first he'd thought it was camping, but she'd thrown that off when she'd gone and bought some rather interesting makeup, including packets of those stick-on gems, as far as he knew people going camping didn't need body gems.  

At the same time, she had bought two tents, one tent for both of them, as well as all of the items needed for camping.  

To make things easier for both of them, she'd rented a car to hold all of the items she was buying so that they weren't trudging them around for hours.  

Their next stop was a big Tesco, as she led him over to the trolleys and had him grab one of the larger ones and follow her inside of the shop.  

He watched silently as she filled it with an assortment of food, snacks, and drinks, both soft and alcoholic.  

They walked into the aisle that contained confectionaries, and he paused by the hard sweets, his eyes quickly falling onto a bag filled with assorted lollipops, he picked a packet up and frowned down at them.  

Jackie walked over to him, placing an armful of different sweets and chocolates into the trolley as she did so, "what's that?"  

"Lollipops," he mumbled, still looking down at them, "I loved these before I came here."  

She blinked and frowned slightly, before grabbing them out of his hand and placing them into the trolley too, "better those than your cigarettes," she huffed, grabbing his arm and pulling him and the trolley out of the aisle and into the next, "oh, I forgot to ask, you do have a passport, don't you?"  

The Master blinked, "uh, no I don't."  

She sighed but shook her head, "anything that you can use in place of one in a pinch?"  

He hummed but nodded, he knew he had a bit of the Doctor's psychic paper lying about somewhere, which he could definitely use in place of a passport if needed, especially in conjunction with a Confundus, "I do, yes."  

"Good."  

"Why?"  

She grinned, "you'll see."  

Show Me The Way Home

It wasn't until two days later that he found out why Jackie had been so intent on going shopping and him needing something that passed as photo ID, as she herded him into the same rental car, that she'd apparently rented for two weeks at six in the morning.  

It was once they'd been on the road for an hour and had stopped at one of the roadside service stations for a stop to the loo and some coffee that she started to explain.  

"The Doctor told me while I was on the phone with Rose that you had your 24th birthday during the time that you've been staying with me."  

The Master blinked, frowning, he tilted his head as he thought, before his eyes widened in realisation, "I completely forgot," he informed her, "this still doesn't explain what you've been up to for the past few days."  

Jackie gave him a smug grin as she took a sip of her coffee, "you've been saying that you're having a lot of issues connecting with humanity, so I figured I'd take you to one of the best things I know to help you with that, you'll see some of the best, as well as some of the grossest that humanity has to offer while we're there."  

He sent her a confused look.  

"We're going to a music festival, Harry."  

He blinked, "oh."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master had never been so high on life, festivals on Gallifrey were a thing of politics, of showing off and looking good to everyone you could, there was no loud upbeat music, no stumbling to your tent at three in the morning drunk out of your mind, only stuffy formal robes and music that sounded like it belonged in an opera, the only similarities he could point out were that both were large outdoor events.  

No one cared if you were a bit odd or you dressed strangely, most people were too high to care about other people, simply focused on their own enjoyment of the festival.  

To the Master, who had never been able to find a moment like this in his prior life, or earlier in this one, even during his travels, it was, ironically, otherworldly.  

He'd seen so many things, but the atmosphere at that moment, in such a small spot in the Universe was one of the best things he'd experienced.  

Music blared so loud that it seemed to shake the very ground he stood on, lights flashed, fireworks went off at night, and freshly cooked foods of all different kinds permeated the air, all of this with an added buzz from alcohol made it all somehow feel magical.  

He'd seen someone get injured and before he could even think about doing anything, several people had all offered to help them get to the first aid tent so they could get the proper medical attention, whereas he'd often see people ignore injured people out in London, except to complain about them being in the way, until someone finally took pity on them.  

He had to wonder, as he stood next to Jackie as they listened to yet another band he didn't know if this was what the Doctor had seen in humanity all those centuries ago.  

Show Me The Way Home

The Master groaned from where he was laying on the grass, head pounding, he'd not even bothered to crawl into his tent, and he could hear Jackie snickering at him from where she was sitting in front of her tent.  

He was glad it hadn't rained during the night, at least, but sleeping on the mud definitely hadn't done him any good at least.  

"You doing good there, Harry?" she questioned him.  

He groaned in response and pushed himself up into a sitting position, regretting his decision immediately as he grew dizzy and nauseous.  

Jackie huffed and walked over to him, offering support as he tried to not throw up all over the ground, passing him some painkillers as she did so.  

"You ready to get everything packed up?" she joked.  

He sent her a half-hearted glare as he took the painkillers from her and popped them in his mouth, happily accepting the bottle of water she passed him to wash them down, "do I look like I'm ready to do anything but pass out?" he grumbled at her.  

She snorted, "absolutely not, you should be glad I didn't drink yesterday so I could get everything sorted."  

"I thought you didn't drink yesterday because you had to drive us back to London today?"  

She huffed and waved her hand dismissively, "that too."  

He watched from the floor as she started to pack everything up, getting up and giving her a hand with the packing once he no longer felt as though he would fall over as soon as he stood, together they got themselves packed up and back to the rental car in the span of two hours.  

Once they were on the road, with the Master laying down in the back seats, Jackie turned on the radio to one of the news stations for a bit of sound, seeing as she wouldn't be getting much conversation out of the Master while he was dozing.  

"In other news," the radio host spoke, "Downing Street has announced that the strange spectres we've been seeing up and down the country are, in fact, Ghosts."  

The Master shot up at that, groaning and holding his head as he did so, "what?" he hissed out.  

Jackie frowned at him through the rear-view mirror before returning her attention to the road, "Ghosts apparently."  

"That can't be possible," he denied, "Death wouldn't allow every single person in a country to just be able to suddenly see Ghosts."  

"Officials are now calling the brief periods that they appear Ghost Shifts and are urging people to not be alarmed at this new Global phenomenon."  

"Global?" the Master narrowed his eyes, "Death definitely wouldn't allow that," he blinked, "wait, how did we not notice this?"  

"We were at a music festival, Harry, we probably wouldn't have noticed a lot more serious things too," she admitted.  

He huffed, "yeah that's true," he laid down on the seats again, "either way whatever this is, they can't be Ghosts."  

Jackie hummed, "is this one of those things that will need the Doctor?"  

"I don't know," he admitted, "I'll have a look into it once I've had rest when we get back to yours, if it does, I'll give him a call."  

He saw he nod her head and sighed, "and Jackie?"  

"Yeah?"  

"Please don't get swept up into this Ghost hype."  

She chuckled, "I have you to keep me out of the hype, so that shouldn't be a problem." 

"True," he grinned, getting a huff in response.

Chapter Text

The Master frowned as he looked out of the window towards the so-called Ghosts, the grey figures simply walked along the streets, suspiciously at the same times each day, as though they were on a schedule to be there, like someone had planned for them to exist. 

"Alright, Harry," Jackie called from the hallway, he turned to look at her and saw her pulling her jacket on, "do you have your thing ready to go?" 

He rolled his eyes and grabbed a thick metal disc from the coffee table in front of him, "it's a wavelength scanner," he muttered.  

"Yes, your thing," she smiled, "shall we go then?"  

He stood up and followed her as she left the house, locking it behind her, they headed over to the rental car that Jackie still had for another two days, and he slipped into the passenger seat, quickly buckling himself in and propping his scanner onto the dashboard, where he flipped it open and powered it on.  

He hummed as Jackie slipped into the driver's seat, "it should have a location in about five minutes," he informed her as she clicked her seatbelt into place and started the car.  

She hummed and they both watched as the grey figures wandered across the street as they waited for the device to finish its scan.  

The Master hummed down at the tiny screen as it made a soft pinging noise, pulling out his phone, he opened a map app and input the coordinates that had shown up.  

"It's coming from one of the local parks," he muttered, turning his phone so that Jackie could see the screen.  

She hummed and nodded, before pulling the car out of the car park, "I know where that is, we'll be there in about ten minutes."  

He watched as they drove past several streets, families happily interacting with the not Ghosts, something like anticipation settling in his stomach as they got closer to the park.  

He didn't wait for Jackie to finish parking the car as they reached the park, unbuckling his belt and opening the door as the car slowed down, stumbling as he left the vehicle due to the movement, he followed his phone's directions until he reached the spot that the scanner had output.  

He quickly set the device on the ground, pressing a couple of buttons so that it would scan the area more in-depth now that it was next to the spot it had detected.  

Jackie caught up to him mere moments later and they both stood there, waiting for the scan to finish.  

When it did so, The Master picked it up and frowned down at the screen.  

"What's wrong?" Jackie questioned him, a worried look on her face.  

He hummed, "these readings, they're similar to Cybermen."  

"Is that bad?"  

"Very," he hummed, and pulled his phone out once again, scrolling through his contacts, and tapping on to 'The Other Doctor', and hitting call as he spoke, "we're going to need the Doctor for this one." 

He bought the phone up to his ear waiting for it to begin calling, only to pull it away with a hiss as it let out a series of high-pitched scratching sounds. 

"What the fuck?" he muttered, looking down at the phone with narrowed eyes, the text on the screen had become somewhat scrambled, the letters rearranging themselves in nonsensical patterns, he let out a huff and ended the call.  

Before he could shut off his phone and put it away, a notification came through with a ping, and his heart leapt to his throat as he looked at it. 

A text message.  

From his Doctor.  

With shaking hands, he opened it, all of the characters were messed up, and he couldn't make out a single word, but it was a text from him.  

Without thinking, he typed out a message and sent it.  

'I'm here, I'm alive, I'm going to come home.'  

He let out a shaky breath as his phone sent him the notification that it had been sent.  

"Everything okay?" Jackie asked him, he looked over to him and spotted a worried look on her face.  

He frowned and looked back down at his phone and sighed, "yeah, I'm alright, but I also know what's going on now."  

"Oh?"  

"Something's torn the barrier between Universes," he muttered.  

"That doesn't sound good," she replied, and he could hear the worry in her voice.  

"It's not."  

A ping sounded from his phone, and he looked at the notification.  

Message delivered. 

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed from his spot on the sofa in Jackie's living room, his laptop was perched on his lap, with his phone carefully balancing on his leg.  

He had it plugged into the laptop and was attempting to decrypt the text he'd received from his Doctor.  

There wasn't much he could do about the possible Cybermen from another Universe until the Doctor came back with Rose, and he couldn't call him currently due to the weakened Universal barrier, as his phone was from out of Universe.  

Sure, he could attempt to call him from a different phone, but there was no guarantee that he'd pick up from a number he didn't recognize, and he wasn't too sure if Rose kept her phone on her at all times anymore due to not wanting to accidentally leave the technology in the past.  

As such it was a waiting game now, and he had to keep himself busy somehow, hence trying to see what his Doctor had sent him, and perhaps having some small amount of contact, even for just a little while.  

He sighed as he typed out another line of code into the command box that he'd opened, hitting enter to run it once he'd done so, it took the laptop ten minutes for it to run, and it returned an empty result.  

He huffed in frustration, turning his head away from the computer as he heard Jackie walk in, she passed him a mug of tea and sat next to him.  

"Thanks," he muttered.  

"Any luck?" she asked, gesturing at the technology he'd covered himself in.  

"Not yet," he sighed, "I'm not too surprised though, decrypting a heavily corrupted text isn't easy when it's from the same Universe, let alone a completely different one."  

She hummed, "what if you tried corrupting it more, would it end up so corrupted it uncorrupted itself?"  

The Master hummed in response, opening a new command window to start typing anew, "honestly, anything's worth a shot at this point."  

The only sounds in the living room for the next hour were those of the news that was playing on the television and typing from his keyboard as he tried his best to get any results from the text message.  

Unsurprisingly Jackie's suggestion had only made it worse, but as he'd said, anything had been worth trying with how badly corrupted the message was.  

It wasn't until that hour had finished that he'd finally gotten a result, while the message was still quite messed up, he could read some of the words, which told him he was on the right track, and so with renewed determination, he made as many improvements to the code as he could, keeping parts that helped and removing ones that made it worse.  

It took him another twelve hours of constant trial and error before he finally managed to get the message uncorrupted.  

He stared at the words, tears pooling in his eyes as he read the message, "oh Theta, I'm so sorry," he murmured.  

'I love you, please come back.'  

"I will," he whispered, "I promise."  

His phone pinged once again, and he looked over, noticing a new scrambled message from his Doctor, which he ran through the command box, a small smile settling on his face as it too was successfully uncorrupted.  

'Koschei?'  

He grabbed the phone and began to type.  

'It's me, I'm here, Theta.'  

And once again, the message was delivered. 

Chapter Text

The Master looked up from his laptop when he heard the front door open and then shut, he only had to wonder for a moment when he heard Rose call out into the flat.  

"Mum, Harry, it's us, we're back!"  

He heard footsteps as Jackie walked into the hallway from wherever she'd been, "oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone," he heard her say, "you never use it!"  

"Oh, shut up," Rose jokingly huffed out, spreading her arms apart, "come here."  

"Oh, I love you," Jackie told her, engulfing her in a hug.  

"I love you!"  

He heard footsteps approach him where he was still sitting on the sofa.  

"I love you so much!"  

The Master turned to look at the Doctor and pointed out to the hallway where Rose and Jackie were squeezing the life out of each other and pulled a disgusted look, getting a smile and a snort in response.  

"How are you doing then?" the Doctor asked him.  

He closed his laptop and set it on the coffee table, along with his phone, "I'm doing good, there's been a bit of an interesting development while you were gone though."  

"Oh?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow in question.  

Jackie and Rose took that moment to walk into the living room, and Jackie held a metallic object in her hand.  

"Bazoolium," the Doctor informed him.  

"Ah," he gestured at the sofa, "I was just about to inform the Doctor about the Ghosts."  

"Ghosts?" Rose questioned.  

Jackie grimaced, "ah yes, the Ghosts."  

"What Ghosts?" the Doctor asked.  

The Master stood up from the sofa and walked over to the shelf where he'd stored the scanner he'd built, he'd made sure that the results had been saved before turning it off, he plucked it from its place, almost knocking a book off in the process, he quickly placed the book back in its place and made his way back to the sofa, opening and turning the scanner on as he did so.  

"Here, have a look at these," he muttered, passing it to the Doctor who carefully took it.  

The Doctor frowned at the screen and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, running it over the scanner, he pulled it away and his frown deepened as he compared the results together, "but this is..."  

"I know," he agreed.  

"Well," the Doctor muttered, clapping his hands together, "looks like we have some investigating to do."  

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed from next to the TARDIS console, listening for the Doctor's instructions from where he, Rose, and Jackie were all stood out in the park, there wasn't much he could do without getting in the way, the Doctor had a rather single-minded determination with this issue, and Rose and Jackie were talking about what he would class as a somewhat personal issue.  

He hummed as he noticed the three wander back inside, the Doctor talking about the so-called Ghosts.  

"Those Ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point," he said, gesturing the Master to walk to other side of the console, "we can track down the source, allons-y!"  

The Master looked up at him and blinked.  

"I like that," the Doctor muttered, and he rolled his eyes as he started muttering about the word.  

He flipped down a lever as the Doctor turned a knob and pressed a button, the TARDIS dematerialising as they did so.  

"My Mum's still on board," Rose announced.  

The Master blinked and turned to face her, out of the corner of his eye he could see the Doctor doing the same.  

"If we end up on Mars, I'm going to kill you."  

He was about to say something when the TARDIS materialised somewhere and he heard the Doctor mutter, "oh well there goes the advantage of surprise."  

He watched as Rose bickered with the Doctor before he finally stepped outside of the TARDIS, not even five minutes later, he reached his arm in and pulled Jackie out.  

"But here she is, Rose Tyler."  

The door was shut once she was out, and the Master looked over at Rose.  

"Your Mum's going to go mental."  

She snorted, "you can say that again."  

Show Me The Way Home

The Master followed after Rose as she walked out of the TARDIS, grabbing a lab coat and slipping it on as Rose did the same, they crept out of the room that the TARDIS had been secured in and made their way down a random corridor.  

They followed a scientist they spotted as he made his way down the corridor, and then into a room.  

Rose looked at him and then took a piece of psychic paper out of her pocket, tapping it against the card reader and pushing the door open when it unlocked.  

They walked in and spotted a large sphere.  

Rose froze, staring at it, as though in a trance, and the Master frowned, placing a hand on her shoulder, "you alright?"  

"Yeah," she muttered, "I just..."  

"Can I help you?" a man spoke.  

"I was just," Rose started, but trailed off, still looking at the sphere.  

"Try not to look, it does that to everyone," he informed them, "what do you want?"  

"Sorry," Rose muttered, turning away from it, "they sent us from personnel, said something about a man being taken prisoner?"  

"Some sort of Doctor," the Master chimed in, keeping his voice calm.  

She nodded, "we're just checking the lines of communication, did they tell you anything?"  

The man narrowed his eyes, before holding out a hand, "may I see your authorisation?"  

"Sure," Rose nodded, passing him her psychic paper.  

He looked down at it and frowned, "that's lucky," he muttered, "you see, everyone here at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training."  

The Master groaned, raising a hand to his face.  

"This paper is blank, and you're both fake," he turned from them, "seal the room and call security, Samuel," he called out to another man who was working in the room, "can you check the door locks? They both just walked right on in."  

The man turned around and to his surprise, it was Mickey, who sent Rose a thumbs up, "doing it now, sir!"  

"Well," the man hummed, "if you'd both like to take a seat?" he offered, gesturing at two empty chairs.  

He hummed and swiftly sat in one of the free chairs, Rose quickly joining him, he heard the man start up a video conference with another room in the building and was about to turn to watch when he heard his phone ring.  

Frowning, the Master pulled his phone out of his pocket and suddenly it felt as though the whole world had frozen.  

"Who is it?" he heard Rose hiss.  

"The Doctor," he muttered.  

"But the Doctor's on this video conference and he doesn't have his phone out."  

He swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous, "it's not this Doctor who's calling me," he took a shuddering breath and clicked the button to accept the call, "it's mine."  

He bought the phone up to his ear, hesitating for a moment before speaking, "hello?"  

He could hear a short gasp from the other end of the line, no matter how crackly and slightly distorted it was.  

"Koschei?"  

The Master felt tears pooling in his eyes as he whispered back to him, "Theta."  

"You're alive!"  

"I am!" he grinned, although he knew he couldn't see it.  

"You sound a lot older than you did," he heard the Doctor mutter.  

His grin softened into a small smile, "I'm twenty-four now, Doctor."  

"Seven... eight? years," he trailed off, "where are you?"  

"An alternate Universe," he informed him, "one without magic," he looked over at Rose who was looking at him in curiosity, "it does have a version of you in it, however, I'm currently travelling with him to try and make my way back to our Universe, I have a few theories right now, but I can't try any of them just yet."  

He could hear the Doctor breathing, each exhale crackling harshly through the speaker.  

"You're travelling with a version of me and we're just now able to make contact," he could hear him mumbling, "you aren't travelling with a Rose Tyler by any chance, are you?"  

He blinked, "how did you know?"  

He sighed, "this happened in our Universe too, Torchwood was messing with the walls between the Universes, the energy produced by it interfered with something they'd found, and they were trying to open it, unfortunately, that object just so happened to be a Void Ship, specifically a prison one built by Time Lords to house Daleks."  

The Master groaned, "what about the not Ghosts?"  

"Cybermen from another Universe, they piggybacked off of the energy used for the Void Ship that Torchwood has been producing, this mix of everything just so happened to cause the walls between the Universes to become paper thin."  

He frowned and waved over at Rose, who was talking with this Universes Doctor through the video conference, putting the phone on loudspeaker, he spoke, "we have a problem."  

"What is it?" he heard this Doctor call out.  

Theta huffed in surprise, "wow you really weren't kidding, were you?"  

He could see the Doctor's eyes widen at the voice on the other end of the phone, he pointed at the sphere, "Time War prisoner ship, contains Daleks."  

"Shit," the Doctor hissed out.  

"There's also Cybermen to deal with," Theta helpfully informed him.  

The Master hummed, "we actually did somewhat know about that one, managed to get a scan of the not Ghosts and it came back with readings far too similar to be anything but."  

"Is there anything we can do before the situation gets worse?" Rose questioned.  

He looked at the Doctor through the video call, before he blinked and looked away, "I don't know," he admitted.  

He could hear Theta groan in frustration from the other end of the line and heard him shuffling about before he heard the Doctor let out a hiss of alarm, looking over, he saw the Doctor wave him off.  

"Something's going on over here, keep on the phone with this other me, I'll be fine," before he left the screen.  

He looked over at Rose, who looked back at him and shrugged.  

"The Other Doctor left?" Theta asked worriedly.  

"Yeah," he admitted.  

"Shit," Theta muttered, "there's an automatic lock on that room, isn't there?"  

The Master turned to look at the scientist, who nodded.  

"Yeah."  

"You need to duck for cover."  

He blinked, and his eyes widened as he saw the sphere begin to shake violently, "oh."  

It took a moment for what he was seeing to register properly, but once he did, he grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her under one of the desks with him.  

He could hear Theta shuffling papers around and pressing buttons, likely on his TARDIS's console, and could also hear as he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, "hey Kos?"  

"Hm?"  

"I hate to ask this of you, but well," he hesitated.  

"Spit it out, Thete."  

He could hear him take a sharp breath, before exhaling it, "do you think you could override the automatic locks on the door?"  

He blinked, before turning to look at the door, narrowing his eyes as he did so, "possibly, why?"  

"I need you to leave."  

The Master froze, "pardon?"  

"I need you to get out of that room and into this Other Doctor's TARDIS," Theta elaborated.  

He frowned, "what, why?"  

"Because," he heard Theta speak, his voice sounding lost, "if you don't, I'll lose you forever."  

He blinked, "what do you mean?"  

"Take me off of the loudspeaker, Kos."  

Still frowning, he pressed the button to take it off of the loudspeaker, and pulled it to his ear, "Theta, what's wrong."  

"Koschei," he heard him murmur, "if you're outside of the TARDIS once this Other me gets this all under wraps, there's a high chance you will be pulled into yet another Universe, one without a Doctor or any technology that you'd be able to use to come home, not to mention the walls around that Universe will slowly repair themselves, while the walls between this one and the one you're currently in likely have a tear caused by your exit and entry."  

He took a shaky breath as what Theta told him sunk in.  

"I," he paused, looking over at Rose, who was staring at the prison, she turned to face him, and smiled when she saw him watching her, he looked away, "what about..." he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.  

"Rose will be fine, so will Jackie, and Mickey, and I'm certain that the Other Doctor will understand."  

He frowned, "but..."  

"You know, sometimes I miss when you cared more for your own self-preservation," Theta hissed out.  

The Master narrowed his eyes at the way he was speaking.  

"Sure, you were a bit more of a cold-hearted bastard, but at least you didn't go throwing yourself face-first into an almost guaranteed Death."  

He felt a sneer plaster itself on his face, "so you preferred me when I was suffering from insanity? You preferred it when I tried to kill you and your little pets?" he spat out.  

He could hear Theta gasp slightly, after all, he hadn't regained his memories before he left that Universe, "no I didn't mean it like that."  

"Well then, what did you mean? Oh, do enlighten me, my dear, would you rather I go ahead and attempt a bit of world domination while I'm at it?"  

"No, M-Koschei, that isn't what I meant."  

He scowled, "tell you what, Theta," he hissed his name out in irritation, "I'll get myself into the TARDIS, but there is no way I will be forgetting this conversation any time soon, while we may fall out of contact after this issue is resolved, I will be finding a way home, and I will be there as soon as I am able to be."  

The only thing he could hear on the other end of the line was Theta's breathing.  

"And when I am back home? Oh, Theta you won't get rid of me, I'll be like a rash, all over you."  

"What?" Theta sputtered out.  

The Master grinned, although there was a slight hint of malice behind it, "you heard me, I won't die, I won't leave you be if you drop me anywhere, I'll just come back, again, and again, and again," he tightened his grip on his phone, before letting out a shaky sigh and taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, "sorry," he muttered out.  

"Are you alright?"  

"No," he hummed, making his way to the door and casting an Alohomora at it, frowning when that didn't open it.  

He cast a Bombarda and gave a small smile when the lock broke and the door was able to be pushed open, humming slightly as Rose and Mickey rushed out of the room.  

He pulled the lab coat off and dropped it on the floor, "but I might be alright one day."  

He made his way back to the room that held the TARDIS and frowned but opened the door, slipping inside.  

"Alright Theta, I've made it to safety, happy now?"  

"Very," he muttered.  

He sat there, remaining on the phone with his Doctor until it suddenly cut out and this Universe's Doctor came walking back in.  

He opened his mouth to explain why he hadn't helped but he just shook his head, "don't worry, I know, I would have demanded the same thing if things were the other way around."  

He frowned and walked over to the Doctor, hugging him from behind, "I'm sorry."  

He leant his head back to rest against his, "don't worry, Koschei, I understand." 

Chapter Text

The Master frowned at the Doctor as he stood by the console, the power of a supernova was immense, exactly the sort of power needed to send a projection into a closed off Universe.  

While he wished he could say goodbye to Rose and Jackie, he knew that adding him to the projection would just cause it to become even more unstable, something which wasn't useful.  

Instead, he comforted himself by listening to the one side of the conversation he could hear, imagining what it was that Rose was saying in response.  

Eventually, the energy ran out and the Doctor stood there for a moment, simply staring off at nothing.  

Suddenly a bright golden light entered the TARDIS and solidified into a woman.  

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed.  

"Who are you?" the woman demanded.  

"But-"  

"Where am I?"  

"What?"  

"What the hell is this place?"  

"Will you both shut up for a moment, please."  

The Doctor and the woman turned to face him.  

"Doctor, shut up," he sent him an offended look, "ginger woman-"  

"Donna."  

"Donna," he corrected, pulling out the psychic paper he'd nabbed from his pocket, "we're not sure how you got here, nor should it be possible, this is a government experiment and we're deep in space right now."  

He passed her the paper, which he'd nudged to look like an official-looking government ID of some sort, she frowned down at it, then looked up at him.  

"Will the Government reimburse the cost of my wedding then?"  

He could see the Doctor pull a face at that remark, but the Master nodded, "of course, we'll get you home as quickly as we possibly can, explain the situation to those who would be attending and reimburse the costs to any of those who were affected by this issue," he made a show of frowning thoughtfully, "however, we will need to investigate whatever caused this, I hope you can understand that this is a serious security issue."  

She frowned but nodded, "that does make sense, I suppose."  

With that, the Master allowed the Doctor to take over, running damage control whenever necessary.  

Eventually, the decision to take her to her wedding was reached.  

Show Me The Way Home

"Fucking Pilot Fish," the Master mumbled as he attempted to keep the TARDIS running alongside the taxi while the Doctor tried to talk Donna into jumping across, "seriously, what is it with you and Pilot Fish?"  

"Oh, I don't know," he admitted, "I think they know aliens like to invade this planet periodically."  

"And somehow you always get caught up in things that involve them scavenging."  

He felt the TARDIS jerk to the side slightly and grunted as he moved around the console to readjust her alignment, so they moved smoothly once more.  

Eventually, he managed to convince Donna to jump into the TARDIS, and he shut the doors from the console and sent them up into the air, away from the traffic so they were no longer blocking the road.  

"So," he called out, as the Doctor helped Donna up off of the floor, "where to next?"  

Show Me The Way Home

The Master set a serious frown on his face as he followed Donna and the Doctor into the building where her wedding reception was supposed to be held, he could see the bio-damper glisten in the light on her finger as they walked.  

It was a strange atmosphere that greeted them as they walked in, and he stepped away from them as they did, walking over to the DJ and showing him his psychic paper, still with the false ID displayed, the DJ cut the music and he took the microphone from him.  

"Hello, may I have everyone's attention, please?"  

The people who were all gathered turned to him, murmurs of confusion arose from the crowd, and he hushed them.  

"Alright, good, hello everyone, I'm Evan Potter, I work for a rather secret part of the Government, and as such I'm not allowed to tell you anything else, unfortunately, Miss Donna Noble got caught up in one of our experiments earlier today, this caused her to miss her wedding, obviously."  

He waited for the chattering that had started up again to die down before continuing.  

"We will be offering monetary compensation for those who have been affected by this, I will be placing a box near the door where you can submit all of your contact information, home address, phone number, and email are what we're looking for, after that we will make contact with you within two weeks, after which you should receive a check for a set sum of money."  

He looked around the room, to make sure everyone had taken it in, "thank you for your time."  

The Master passed the microphone back to the DJ and stepped down from the booth, walking over to the Doctor to grab the box that he held out for him, and then over to the door.  

He sat on a chair and watched as the Doctor frowned down at a camera, obviously watching something that the man had taped, the Doctor looked up at him and rushed outside, there was a commotion before he rushed back inside.  

"Pilot Fish," the Doctor muttered as he rushed past him.  

The Master groaned, "again?"  

He stood as the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the sound system, frowning and walking over to him, "you get to the bottom of this, I'll get everyone here out and get some medical help."  

"Are you sure?" the Doctor questioned.  

He nodded, "I don't think I'm up for anything more than this at the moment, besides, they all think I'm a government official."  

The Doctor nodded before rushing off, and the Master turned to look at the panicking crowd.  

He clapped his hands together, "alright everyone, those of you with a phone call the emergency services, ask for medical help at this address, those of you who are uninjured help those with injuries outside and away from the building, everyone else please hang tight, we'll get you all to safety, I promise."  

The Master watched over as people helped each other to safety, it wasn't long before he could hear the sound of several ambulances, and he went outside to greet them.  

After showing them the paper, he guided them inside, where the worst of the injured people still remained.  

It took an hour and a half before all of the people who had been injured were safely on their way to the hospital to receive proper medical care.  

It wasn't long after that when he heard a loud bang, looking up to the sky, he saw something explode, which scattered across the ground, and soon after that, the Doctor made a reappearance.  

"We drained the Thames," he announced.  

The Master blinked, "you drained the Thames?"  

"That's what I said, yes."  

He blinked, then looked over at Donna who had followed him, she gestured at him with her thumb, "he told me he'd give me a lift home."  

"Right then," the Doctor said, walking into the TARDIS, which he'd parked practically next to him, "shall we get going?"  

He helped the Doctor pilot the TARDIS to Donna's house, where they managed to park across the road, he then watched as he scanned her to check that the Huon particles had all left her body, which they had, thankfully, and soon they were once again alone.  

"So then," he started, looking over at the Doctor, "what now?"  

The Doctor frowned at the console as they set her to drift in the timestream, "I'm not too sure, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."  

They stood together in silence for a moment before the Master spoke up, "would you like me to cook something for us?"  

"Like what?" he questioned.  

"I dunno, a roast?"  

"Do we even have the ingredients needed for a roast dinner in the kitchen?"  

He shrugged, "don't know, I'm sure I'll find out though."  

The Doctor frowned in thought, before smiling, "sure go on then."  

The Master grinned as they began to walk further into the TARDIS together, heading to the kitchen.  

Things may not be alright at that moment, but something told him they would get better sooner rather than later. 

Chapter Text

It was quiet, unnervingly so, considering how the Doctor had been the past few days, on and off moping as he mourned the loss of Rose and ended up being rather clingy with the Master because of it.

He’d hoped that the encounter with Donna would have cheered him up a bit, considering he’d dragged her off to deal with the problem, letting him take charge and calm the masses, but apparently, she’d decided that she didn’t want to travel with him, which had obviously dampened his mood quite a bit.

Even so, the Master had gotten used to the Doctor barging into his room to watch as he worked on several different concepts of potential machines that could possibly be used to send him back to his original universe, commenting on different aspects of his notes and helping him to work out problems that may arise.

While he didn’t work on them so much that they’d take up all of his time, he had made sure to put an entire day away each week to work on his problem and had several failed prototypes of different attempts all piled up in a corner in one of the workrooms in the TARDIS.

When the Doctor wasn’t watching him work and giving his input, he’d been tinkering with his own projects and attempting smaller repairs on the TARDIS, or reading out loud in the library in an attempt to make the quiet less oppressing, or sleeping, but the Master would know when the Doctor wanted to sleep, since he’d taken to using him as a human teddy bear, not that he minded much.

And so, the quiet was strange, unsettling even.

Sighing, the Master stood from his desk, tucking the chair under it before humming and walking over to the stairs that doubled as a wall for his under-platform desk, plucking his shoes off of the second step and turning to sit on them to put the shoes on.

Once the shoes were on, he made his way to the door of his room and flung it open, carefully shutting it behind him as he walked down the hallway, passing the Doctor’s room, which after peering into it he confirmed was empty, sighing once more, he made his way to the console room, where the TARDIS chirped at him in greeting.

He didn’t have to move any closer to see the screen that had been changed to a human news station, one broadcasting the disappearance of an entire hospital in London.

“Please tell me he’s not in there,” he pleaded, to which he received a feeling similar to a shrug in response.

He sighed once more, and walked to the door, carefully opening it and stepping out, finding himself in an alleyway just around the corner from the reported missing hospital.

“I can’t believe he left me behind,” he huffed.

“Who left you behind?” an eerily familiar voice questioned from behind him.

The Master spun on his feet eyes wide, placing a hand to his chest, “you scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry,” Harold Saxon, the Other Master apologized, seeming anything but apologetic as he did so.

The Master frowned at him, pretending to think about where he recognized him from, before allowing his eyes to widen, and snapped his fingers to make a show of remembrance, “ah I remember now, you bumped into me at that greengrocer in Hoxton.”

Harold frowned slightly before giving him a grin that the Master recognised as the one that he gave when he wanted something from someone, “ah you didn’t answer me, who left you?”

The Master sighed, “my friend, John,” he took note of the slight tensing of his shoulders, “he went to the hospital, can’t remember what for, and well,” he gestured at the empty space the hospital once sat, “as you can probably guess, I’m not exactly pleased with this situation,” he huffed, before letting out a slightly amused chuckle.

Harold huffed lightly at his admittance, before looking him up and down and smirking, “well, it wouldn’t do to leave you all by yourself if you’re waiting for your friend to return with the hospital,” his smirk turned into a somewhat lopsided grin, “would you care to join me for some coffee while we wait?”

He blinked, “pardon?”

He chuckled slightly at his confusion, “I too am waiting for the hospital to return, I have some paperwork I need to pick up, and I can’t see why we couldn’t wait for its return together,” his grin turned smug, “I’ll pay.”

Honestly, now that he was thinking about it, coffee did sound good, but he huffed at the Other Master, “I can pay for my own coffee, you know.”

A slight frown pulled at his lips, before it returned to a grin, “oh no, Mr Potter, I do insist, I have plenty of money to my name, a single coffee is nothing.”

The Master furrowed his brows, wondering what it was that Harold wanted with him enough to practically demand to buy him a coffee, “but.”

“No buts,” the Other Master cut him off, somewhat amused, “I’m paying,” he purred out.

He huffed as Harold began walking in the direction of the nearest café, nudging the Master’s elbow gently as he went as though to encourage him to follow, which he did, while pretending that he definitely wasn’t sulking, “I’m not holding back on the coffee I buy if you don’t let me buy my own,” he informed him.

He chuckled, “that’s fine by me, do your worst, you couldn’t make a dent in the amount of money that I have.”

“I’m taking that as a challenge.”

The two entered a cosy looking café, and the Other Master ordered a simple latte before gesturing at the Master to order his own drink, the Master glanced at him through the corner of his eyes before ordering an abomination of a coffee just to spite him, “yeah, I’ll have an extra-large cappuccino, semi-skimmed milk, please, with thirty-six additional shots of espresso,” he watched in amusement, carefully keeping his face as blank as possible as the barista stared at him with wide eyes, “and ten pumps of the caramel syrup.”

The woman working behind the till blinked, “uh, right, well,” she coughed, “that’d require multiple cups, would that be okay?”

“That’s fine,” the Other Master cut in, to the Master’s annoyance, he didn’t seem annoyed with his order, if anything he seemed strangely pleased, “he’ll take one portion for drink in and the rest to go, if that’s alright.”

The Master wanted to roll his eyes as he took over, but he honestly couldn’t blame him this time, he would have done the same anyway, he watched as Harold paid for their drinks, not caring at all at the absurd price due to his choice of drink.

He followed him as he made his way to a table outside, one with a good view of the still-missing hospital as they waited for their drinks.

The Master expected the Other Master to interrogate him for every last piece of information he could about the Doctor now that he was stuck with him for at least the duration of the coffee.

“So, what do you do for work?” Harold questioned, genuine curiosity tinging his words, making the Master pause.

“I’m a supernatural detective,” he answered as if on autopilot, not having expected his alternate self to show interest in him, although he supposed he was one of the Doctor’s companions, it’d make some sense for him to want to learn what he could about those who travelled with him.

The drinks arrived at that moment, and a cup of coffee was placed in front of him, a brown bag filled with to-go mugs of the remainder of the drink was placed on the floor by his feet, another cup with a plain latte was placed in front of the Other Master.

“Thank you,” he muttered to the woman who’d served them, before he picked up the mug, taking a sip of the over-caffeinated abomination of a coffee he’d ordered.

He hummed and licked his lips as the syrup in the drink caused it to cling to his top lip, noticing in slight confusion that the Other Master was staring as he did so.

“So,” he spoke up as he placed the mug back onto the table, “anything else you wish to know?”

“You seemed quite hurt earlier when you said that your friend John had left you behind, are the two of you dating?”

He let out a huff of surprise at the question, chuckling slightly, “me and John? Nah, it’d never work,” he gave a sad smile, “he reminds me too much of someone I lost contact with a long time ago, sure we flirt, but it’s more friendly banter than anything,” he admitted, ignoring the relief he could see in his eyes at the statement, “it’d be a bit too strange to date him,” he shrugged.

“I see,” the Other Master hummed before changing the topic, “so, a supernatural detective? How does that work?”

After that moment, their conversation seemed to flow surprisingly easily, the Master hadn’t realised how much time had passed until Harold spoke up after they’d finished a discussion on small electronics such as mobile phones and how they could be connected to all sorts of different wireless forms of communication.

“It would seem as though the hospital has returned.”

The Master looked over to the area that had been empty and sure enough it had returned, the Other Master stood and walked over, offering him a hand up and out of his chair, rolling his eyes he took it, opening his mouth to make a joke as he did so, only to be cut off as the Other Master kissed him.

Oh.

Oh.

The Other Master pulled back, with a playful grin, “I had a wonderful afternoon with you, Mr Potter, and I do hope to see you again.”

All the Master could do was stare, mouth agape as he sauntered off towards the hospital.

Around ten minutes later, the Doctor wandered over, “Harry, there you are!” he called out, frowning down at him as he noticed his expression of shock.

“Are you alright?”

“I, maybe?” he coughed out.

The Doctor frowned, “did something happen?”

“Yes?” He frowned, “no, I mean, yes, something happened, but it’s in your direct future,” he huffed out.

The Doctor placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling gently at him as he did so, “it’s alright, I understand.”

“Thank you,” he muttered, not saying anything else as the Doctor picked up his bag of now cold coffees and lead him back to the TARDIS.

The Master didn’t really realise the Doctor had a new companion, and instead took himself back to his room to process what had happened.

This Universe’s version of him, the Master, had taken him on a date without him realising.

The Other Master had been looking at him, in a way that he felt stupid for not realising sooner meant that he found him attractive.

The Other Master had kissed him.

More importantly, the Other Master had made his move on him in a way that told him that he was serious about it too.

The Master groaned.

At least he knew now and could make sure that it wouldn’t happen again.

He felt grossed out just thinking about it.

Chapter Text

The Master grunted as the TARDIS jolted to the side, knocking him into the wall of the hallway where he’d been walking, gagging slightly as the lollipop he’d had in his mouth hit the back of his throat.

“Bloody hell, what the fuck is Theta doing?” he grumbled once he’d pulled the sweet from his mouth.

As he resumed walking, this time in the direction of the console room, another jolt had him stumbling through the door, and clinging onto the railings as he went.

“The-“ he started but cut himself off as he saw that there was another person aboard the TARDIS, one who seemed very familiar.

“Have you opened it?” the woman questioned him.

Yana looked at her, baffled, “why would I? It’s broken.”

“How do you know it’s broken if you’ve never opened it?”

The Master’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, hitting the wall as he did so, and sliding down to his knees, hands reaching up to his neck as he gasped for air, lollipop forgotten on the ground as he did so.

“Harry?” he could faintly hear the Doctor call his name in concern.

The drums, drums, drums, drums.

The never-ending pattern of four.

One, two, three, four.

“Harry?”

Laughter, quiet, pain, silence.

“I’m so sorry, Thete-“

A hand was placed on his shoulder, dragging the Master from his spiralling memories.

“Koschei,” a voice whispered, and he narrowed his eyes, focusing on the person who’d spoken his name, slowly coming to the realization that it was the Doctor.

“Doctor,” he whimpered slightly, leaning forward to rest his head on the Doctor’s chest.

“Are you alright?” he questioned him.

He sighed, slowly closing his eyes and nodded, “I am now.”

Pushing back slightly, he looked over to the other occupant of the TARDIS’s console room.

“Hello, Martha Jones.”

The woman blinked, “how do you know my name?”

The Master laughed.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master sighed as he watched the Doctor and Martha go off on their own, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to join them, because he did, Elizabethan England was a very interesting point in time in his opinion, there was just something itching at the back of his mind, pulling him elsewhere.

With his hand in one of the front pockets of his jacket grasping his wand, he wandered the streets alone, carefully following the pull, keeping on high alert as he did so in the event things went south.

He came across a dreary-looking street where the pull seemed strongest, nothing seemed out of place, the only thing of note being a young girl playing with a doll in her front garden as her mother hung the washing out on the line, water dripping slightly from the clothes as the woman pulled them from the bucket and wrung them out.

He waved at them as he passed, getting a wave in return, but nothing too unusual, in fact, the only thing that seemed out of place was a steadily rising pressure in his head and nose.

“He… …us… …on’t… wo… …il…”

He frowned, pausing in his walk and scratching at his head in confusion.

“…Need to find Koschei…”

He spun on his feet, turning back towards the way he came, eyes wide, rushing back towards the busier streets in London.

“Looks like someone’s forgotten something.”

“God, young people these days, they're always in a rush.”

“I wonder what’s for dinner.”

The Master turned a corner and slammed directly into a person.

“Ah, Koschei I was just looking for you!” the Doctor spoke, grinning.

“Oh Rassilon, he looks like shit.”

He opened his mouth to respond when the pressure that had been building up seemed to intensify, and he could taste blood.

“Koschei?” the Doctor called in alarm.

“The show must go on…”

He winced, holding his head, idly he felt himself being lowered to the ground, hands steadying him.

“It’s alright, I’m a doctor, the poor lad’s overdone himself,” he could faintly hear the Doctor explaining to the people who had obviously gathered around to see what was happening, but the Master struggled to focus on anything but the things he was hearing...

The things he was hearing…

His eyes snapped open, and he stared at the Doctor.

The Doctor was watching him in worry, fingers pinching his nose in an attempt to stop the nosebleed he’d been experiencing.

“I hope Koschei’s alright,” he heard the Doctor murmur.

The Doctor’s lips hadn’t moved.

The Doctor hadn’t been speaking.

“I…” he tried speaking but trailed off.

Eyes wide, he turned his head to look around him, gaze landing on Martha who was looking at him in concern, “first a panic attack and now this, I sure hope he’s alright, could be a sign of a more worrisome illness…”

“Shakespeare will release us…”

“Doctor,” he hissed out, waiting until he had his attention to speak, “I think something’s going to happen to Shakespeare, either tonight or tomorrow,” he winced, grabbing at his head as the pressure rose once more.

The Doctor looked concerned, “I’ll keep an eye out,” he promised, “but first let’s get you into the TARDIS and to your bed.”

He nodded and allowed the Doctor to pull him to his feet and guide him back into the TARDIS, sleep sounded very good at that moment.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master gasped awake, grasping at the soft covers of his bed, heart racing.

He faced the door of his room, frowning as he calmed down from whatever it was that had woken him up so suddenly.

A sense of urgency had him rushing to get dressed and get out of the TARDIS, trusting his instincts he rushed down the road, his feet leading him to the Globe Theatre, his heart dropping as he saw a bright red light filling the sky, winds growing stronger as the moments passed.

Whatever his instincts had been warning him of was too late.

“It is time!” echoed in his mind.

A clinking of something metal hitting the floor had him looking towards the cause of the sound, a thin necklace had hit the ground next to his feet, and his eyes widened in realization.

He lifted his hand to his neck, pulling out the necklace that contained the now repaired Time Turner, courtesy of Death, and with a shaky breath, he turned it once, closing his eyes and feeling the woosh of Time itself all around him as he fell back one hour.

Once the air died down, he opened his eyes.

No more red light, no more screaming, nothing.

He wasn’t too late.

He let out a sigh of relief, and made his way out of sight, waiting for a few moments until he saw the Doctor, Martha, and Shakespeare all enter the Globe, he silently followed them, watching as the events that caused the red light the first time around happened.

“Foul Carrionite spectres.”

The Master frowned and carefully pulled his wand from his pocket, realizing that they were taking a bit too long and the Carrionites were finishing whatever it was they were doing before they could finish their banishing.

A silencing spell wouldn’t be useful here, as the banishment required spoken words, and he’d need to cast a blanket silencer, but perhaps he could distract them enough that they couldn’t pay attention to finishing their spell...

Something distracting enough, something like blinding them.

His eyes widened and he lifted his wand, “Lumos Maxima!”

The Master looked away and smirked slightly as he heard the Carrionites scream from the sudden onslaught of incredibly bright light.

His smirk widened slightly as he heard Martha help to complete the banishment, using the Expelliarmus spell to do so.

“Finite,” he whispered once it was all over, turning to face the Doctor once it was over, staring at him for a moment.

It wasn’t until the audience began cheering that he looked away, blinking slightly in astonishment at the number of people that had obviously been watching them.

“Oh Rassilon, he looked so hot doing that…”

The Master choked slightly and turned to face the Doctor once again, cheeks bright red.

“Excuse me?”

There was silence for a moment before the Doctor’s eyes widened.

“You heard that?”

“How could I not? It was quite loud, Doctor.”

The Doctor gaped at him.

“Koschei,” he whispered, just loud enough for him to hear and no one else who was nearby on the stage, “I didn’t say that out loud.”

The Master’s eyes widened before he remembered what had been happening the previous day, he lifted a hand to his forehead and bought it down to his nose.

“The nosebleed,” he heard the Doctor murmur.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he looked up at the Doctor, noticing the concern on his face.

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on that, Kos, you’re human, you’re not supposed to be able to tap into this type of telepathy,” he tutted, “it could just be your magic tapping into something you once knew to do in your past life, but it could just as easily be some type of illness.”

The Master nodded, and the Doctor pulled him into a hug.

“It’s alright, we’ll figure it out,” the Doctor then grinned and pulled out of the hug, tugging him along as he moved, “but for now, let’s enjoy the rest of our time here with Shakespeare while we make sure everything’s alright to leave.

The Master chuckled.

“Yeah, I think I deserve a drink after all of this.”

The Doctor grinned, and the Master found himself smiling back at him.

Yeah, he was sure that with the Doctor keeping an eye on things, he’d be alright.

Besides, it’s not like it’d cause him to die permanently if it were something dangerous.

Chapter Text

The Master sighed as he walked down the hallway of the TARDIS, reaching a hand up to his neck to scratch at the new necklace that hung around his neck, this one to prevent him from wandering the thoughts of other beings, for his own safety as the human mind was not built to cope with the telepathic range of a Time Lord.

A stack of papers containing several different sketched out schematics for a few prototypes for machines that may be able to help him to return to his own universe was tucked under his other arm as he made his way to one of the many labs that were onboard the TARDIS.

As he walked past the door that led to the console room, he heard the Doctor call out to him, “Harry, we’re going out, we’ll be back in a bit!”

The Master hummed, “Have fun.”

He heard the door close and continued his walk towards the lab, quickly slipping into the room when he found it, placing the papers down on the table that was in the middle of the room before he went around pulling out all of the equipment and parts that he’d need to begin his work on the first prototype in the pile.

Wires, sheets of metal, a drill, screws, and many other things slowly piled up on the table, once he had the items ready, he compared the paper to one of the sheets of metal and began to carefully mark where he’d need to cut it with an erasable marker.

Hopefully, this batch of prototypes wouldn’t end in complete failure as the last batch had…

Show Me The Way Home

Three hours had passed by the time the Master made his way out of the lab with a huff, his newest attempt had quite literally blown up in his face, he was just glad that he’d been wearing protective gear, including a welding mask at the time it had occurred.

He shut the door with a snap, hearing the ventilation begin to work to clear out the smoke the explosion had caused while he pulled the safety gear off himself and set them into a small box that had been placed outside of the door for that exact reason.

“What’s that, attempt number twenty-seven now, is it?” he questioned aloud.

The TARDIS chirped in agreement, and he sighed.

“Is the Doctor back yet?”

A feeling that he took to mean, “no,” came across him and he sighed again, before making his way towards the console room.

“Where was he going again?” he questioned as he walked over to the monitors on display and he tutted as he read them, “New New York?” he hummed, “what could be holding him up here?”

The TARDIS sent him a feeling that reminded him of a shrug, and he sighed, reading the outside temperature and huffing, walking past the coat he’d tossed onto the seats near the console the last time he’d passed by it, ignoring the coat and walking out of the door.

“Guess I’ll go see what’s going on,” he gently closed the door as he left and pulled his wand out of the pocket in his trouser, laying it flat on his hand.

“Point me the Doctor,” he called out, watching as it spun around to face left, and he huffed walking in the direction it was pointing in.

It didn’t take him long to find a large building, which he entered and began scaling the flights of stairs until he reached the room the Doctor was standing in, which contained a large number of wires and other electronic parts, a cat nun, and a large face inside of a tank of some sort that seemed somewhat familiar.

The cat nun turned to face him and hissed out in warning, moving as though she were about to attack him, which in turn had him hissing back and taking on a protective stance as the instincts that had come with his Animagus form had him recognising the threat.

“Hame, no!” he heard the Doctor call out, “that’s my friend, he can help.”

The two continued to stare each other down until the Doctor walked over and flicked the Master on his ear, “Harry no, you should know better.”

The Master turned to look at him, his arms crossed, with a pout on his face, “she started it.”

“Koschei!” he quietly scolded him.

He huffed, before following the Doctor as he ushered him towards the computers.

“We need to get more power to the computers to get at least one working,” he explained to him, “if you could deal with the wires to the right, I’ll go sort out the wires on the left and I think we should be able to get this all sorted out quicker than if I were to do it alone.”

The Master nodded and walked over to the wires that were scattered along the floor, carefully pulling them apart and untangling them, putting the wires that would be of use to one side and placing the rest out of the way.

He didn’t know how long he’d been working through the mess of wires when the Doctor came over and started to move the pile of useful wires towards the computers, he continued to work on the wires until the Doctor tapped on his shoulder and gestured to the computer he had gotten working, and he nodded, walking over to it, swapping out wires when the Doctor told him to, and on one occasion stripping a wire to add it to another.

He could hear as the jarred head, the Face of Boe, and the cat lady, Hame spoke to one another, speculating on the work he and the Doctor were doing to the single working computer.

Not too long after that, the Doctor called out happily, “that’s car four six five diamond six!”

The Master poked his head up to look at the screen, seeing the tracking that the Doctor had discovered on the car that Martha had been taken hostage in, as the Doctor had explained it to him.

“Could you keep holding that in place please, Harry?”

The Master nodded, tuning out the rest of the conversation around him as he focused on keeping the wire in place, knowing that even the slightest movement could cause the whole thing to break.

It wasn’t until a loud clanking sound reached his ears that the Doctor told him it was alright to drop the wires, and he did so, turning to look at the other people in the room, frowning when he saw the Face of Boe look far more exhausted than he once did.

“Are you alright?” he questioned him, worried.

The Face of Boe chuckled slightly, a strange look in his eyes, ignoring him as Martha came running in.

The Master watched as his tank broke and the Face of Boe was exposed to the open air once again, the giant head took a deep breath and let out a large sigh, “it is good to breathe the air once more.”

“Who is he?” Martha questioned.

“I don’t even know,” the Doctor admitted, “legend says that the Face of Boe has been alive for billions of years,” he turned to face the face, “isn’t that right? And you’re not about to give up now.”

The Face of Boe chuckled again, and looked over at the Master, “you worry about a lot,” the Master blinked and pointed at himself, receiving yet another chuckle, “I am indeed speaking to you, oh Harbinger, but know this, you are much kinder and far more merciful than not only the you that resides in this universe, but also the person you were previously.”

The Master paled at his words as Martha mouthed, “Harbinger?” at him, getting a shrug in return from him.

The Face of Boe once again looked to the Doctor, “everything has its time, and you know that better than most, old friend.”

“The legend says more,” Hame spoke up.

“Don’t,” the Doctor cut in, “there’s no need for that.”

“It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller,” she continued, ignoring him.

“Yeah, but not yet,” the Doctor rushed out, “not now, who needs secrets, hey?”

The Master sighed, walking over to the Doctor and placing an arm around his shoulder, not saying anything as he felt him lean into his side for comfort.

“I have seen so much, perhaps too much,” the Face of Boe hummed out, “I am the last of my kind, as you are the last of yours, Doctor.”

The Master saw how the Face of Boe flicked his eyes over to him before returning them to the Doctor.

With that glance and his previous words, he came to the conclusion that he was also aware that the Master of this universe was running around doing Rassilon knows what on Earth.

“That’s why we have to survive,” the Doctor objected, “both of us,” he almost whispered, “don’t go.”

“Please…”

The Master sighed and closed his eyes, bringing his free hand up to the telepathy-blocking necklace, with how emotional things had gotten, he wasn’t too surprised that something had slipped past it, he was actually surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner.

“I must,” he spoke, calmer than the Master would have ever expected anyone facing their imminent death to be, “but know this, Time Lord.”

The Master cracked his eyes open to look over at the Doctor, noticing the tears gathering in his eyes, and frowning, dropping the necklace to wipe the tears from his eyes and getting a small watery smile from him.

“You are not alone.”

And with that, the Face of Boe was gone.

It took another three hours before they were able to return to the TARDIS, and when they did, Martha made her way to the kitchen to get a snack before heading to the library, and the Doctor dragged him off to use as a human teddy bear while he grieved for his lost friend.

As the Master drifted off to sleep in the Doctor’s death grip, he had to wonder over the Face of Boe’s final words.

He was after all, very curious to find out why he’d called him Harbinger.

Chapter Text

The Master hummed a cheerful tune as he walked down the winding halls of the TARDIS, headed towards the main kitchen with a small stack of papers tucked under his arm.

As he neared the kitchen he grinned as he heard Martha yelling something as the Doctor calmly responded, once he'd made it to the door, he leant against the doorframe to watch as Martha ran up to the Doctor with a fire extinguisher, the pan he'd been cooking some unidentifiable substance in was completely engulfed in flames.

"Honestly Martha," he huffed as she let it loose on the fire, "it's not that bad, it would have been perfectly edible!"

The Master snorted from the door causing the two to turn to face him.

"Don't believe him Martha, that man has burnt water before."

The Doctor gasped at him in offence, "Harry, I'm hurt that you'd tell her that."

He smirked as he walked towards the kettle on the counter next to the oven the Doctor had been cooking with, "why it's only the truth, my dear," he flicked it on and set the stack of papers down next to it as he pulled out three mugs while the Doctor and Martha began to clean the mess up, "I know for a fact that when you're without someone who can actually cook you rely on your food replicator."

The Doctor swatted his arm with his free hand as he rinsed out a cloth in the sink and he snorted, bringing the now-filled mugs with tea to the table, then gathering his papers and bringing them to the table to sort through as he sipped at his drink.

"What's that?" Martha questioned, gesturing to the now scattered papers filled with equations and machine plans as she placed the now soaking cloths into a laundry bin, the mess now cleaned up.

The Doctor peered over his shoulder to read through them and whistled, "that looks quite dangerous, Harry."

He hummed, "they're mostly theoretical plans for a possible machine that would be able to punch a temporary hole from one Universe to another," he flipped a paper revealing even more equations.

The Doctor frowned down at the papers, "this one in particular looks like it might work, but you'd need his blood for it."

Martha looked between the two in confusion, "why would you want to go to another universe, and why would you need someone else's blood for it?"

The Master looked down into his mug of tea for a moment, before sighing, "it doesn't really matter."

"But-"

He cut her a sharp look, "Martha, look, it's personal, and I'd really rather not talk about it if that's alright."

She frowned but nodded, "alright, I'm sorry for prying."

He sighed again, finishing the last of his drink and swiping the papers into a neat pile before turning to face the Doctor who was watching him with a grin.

"Alright, so where are we off to today then, Doctor?"

The Doctor turned his head to whisper in his ear so that Martha wouldn't overhear him, "I was thinking about a trip to New York, the Earth one, I mean, the one with the Statue of Liberty."

The Master snorted and lifted a hand to bat at the Doctor's hair as he giggled and moved to sit back in his chair.

"That'd be nice actually, I know I've been to that country before, but I've never really had the chance to look around," he smiled slightly, "might be nice, actually."

"Are you talking about that time you got executed by Daleks and I had your ashes in the TARDIS and then you came back while I was suffering from a bout of amnesia?"

He groaned slightly in embarrassment, "yes Doctor, that is what I'm referring to."

Martha looked over at them in curiosity, "what's a Dalek? Also, what do you mean Harry got executed, he's right here?"

The Master sighed and waved at the Doctor as he stood up, "I'm going to let you explain this, Doctor, I'll go get ready while you do."

The Doctor shot him a betrayed look as he scooped his papers back up and dropped his mug in the sink as he made his way out of the kitchen.

He shot him a smug look as he made his way out into the hall, chuckling slightly to himself as he heard the Doctor's quick and somewhat evasive explanation as to what a Dalek was slowly fading as he walked down the hall.

He came to a stop in front of the door to his room and sighed, before opening it and stepping inside, "wonder what we'll encounter today."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master let out a huff as the TARDIS came to a halt, letting go of the lever he'd been holding down, quickly moving his head so he wouldn't get hit by it as it reverted to its resting position.

"Alright Martha, just a fair warning, it is 1930, so you might deal with some unpleasant people," the Master called out as she headed to the door with the Doctor while he grabbed his coat.

"Got it," she called back to him.

The Master sighed, looking around the console room before also heading outside, closing the door softly behind him.

Once outside he turned and looked up at the Statue, taking it in for the first time.

"Impressive, isn't it?" the Doctor questioned him.

He turned to look at him, noticing that Martha was also admiring it, and hummed, "it's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be."

"And you didn't come here in your," Martha paused, looking concerned before she took a breath in, "in your past life?"

He looked at her and chuckled, "nope, didn't see a need to look at fancy little human sculptures," he admitted, before turning to look at the Statue once more, "I can say I definitely missed out, it's certainly something to see."

He frowned after a moment as a feeling of unease began to settle in his mind.

"Doctor," he called out.

"Yes?"

"I feel a need to take a stroll through the city by myself," he turned to look at him, noticing his frown, he smiled, "the Empire State Building should be built or in the process of being built now, correct?"

The Doctor nodded, and he noticed Martha looking at him in confusion.

"I think it would be best if we meet up there later?"

The Master watched the Doctor as he studied him, concern written plainly on his face, before he sighed and nodded.

"Take your phone with you, I'll text when we're on our way."

He pulled his phone out of the left pocket in his trousers from where it sat next to his wand, the screen lighting up to show a picture of Artemis that he'd taken once he'd been gifted the phone, "don't need to worry about me not having my phone, Doctor, but I know your habit of leaving yours lying around."

The Doctor simply rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion with his hands, and the Master chuckled as he made his way over to the small port to catch a boat to the mainland.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed as he walked down the streets, carefully keeping away from the alleyways where he'd seen a few shadier-looking people eyeing him up, the joys of an economic crisis.

He paused in his walking as he finally came across the type of shop he'd been looking for and quickly stepped inside, looking at the various displays.

"May I help you?" the man behind the counter questioned, giving him an odd look.

The Master hummed, "I'm looking for a set of five blank dog tag necklaces, gold, if possible, silver if not."

The man blinked before hurriedly walking into a room off to the side of the shop, returning a good ten minutes later with five gold necklaces, all with a blank gold dog tag.

"This'll be expensive, you know that, right?"

The Master nodded, "I can pay upfront," he said, pulling his wallet out, which he'd filled with time-appropriate money while he'd been getting ready earlier in the day.

"Right, that'll be two hundred and ninety-eight."

The Master pulled out several twenty-dollar bills, correctly dated, and counted out fifteen, passing them to the man for inspection.

He nodded and boxed the necklaces up, placing them into a paper bag and passing them over to him, "do you want a receipt?" he asked as he moved to get him his change.

"I'll be alright without one, and don't worry about the two dollars, keep it."

"Are you sure?"

The Master hummed and began to walk towards the door, "yes, I'm sure."

He quickly shoved the bag into one of the pockets of the jeans that he'd taken from the room of his past life so that he wouldn't have to deal with carrying a bag around with him and made his way down the road, intent on finding a cafe or restaurant to have his lunch.

It was as he was leaving a small cafe that he'd discovered on the corner of a small street with his lunch in hand that he overheard a man mumbling to himself.

"And if I don't sort this out for my Dalek masters tonight, I'm going to be dead meat," he'd growled as he hurried down the street, attempting to fill out some paperwork as he went.

The Master groaned and began to follow the man, munching on his sandwich as he did so and attempting to look like he was minding his own business so that he wouldn't catch him following him.

"Something always has to happen whenever we go anywhere," he grumbled to himself.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master stared down in horror from the vent system of the Empire State Building at the laboratory being run by Daleks that he'd discovered by following the man on the street.

He watched as they began to run an experiment on one of the four Daleks present, Sec they'd called it.

The room was also filled with a somewhat large selection of humans in stasis, and a few humans who'd been modified with the genetics of pigs to create some sort of Hybrid for the sole purpose of obeying orders from the Daleks.

Once upon a time, the Master would have been fine with all of this, hell, he'd probably have done it himself if he'd been given the idea, but now all he could think of was Hermione, her parents, Sirius, Remus, and all of the humans he'd met and gotten along with in this Universe, such as Rose, Jackie, Jack, and Martha and the idea made him feel somewhat ill.

His train of thought came to a halt when he noticed the Doctor and Martha being escorted into the room as prisoners, right as the Dalek undergoing the experiment finished its metamorphosis.

Once it had emerged, it spoke, "I am a human Dalek, I am your future," it took a wet-sounding breath before continuing, "these humans," it gestured to all of the humans in stasis, "they will become like me."

The Master could see the look of horror flash in the Doctor's eyes before he began to edge his way behind some of the equipment.

"Prepare them for hybridisation," Sec ordered the pig humans.

"Leave me alone!" Martha called out as some of the pig people attempted to grab her, "don't you dare!"

Before they could do anything more, a song started playing, and the Doctor emerged.

"What is that sound?" Sec questioned.

"Ah," the Doctor hummed, catching the Dalek's attention, "well, that would be me," he stated, while placing a radio down on one of the counters, "hello," he spun slightly, "surprise, boo, etcetera!"

"Doctor," Sec hummed.

The Master took his chance to knock the vent cover off and jump down, catching the attention of those in the room, "don't forget me at this party."

"And who is this?" one of the other Daleks cried out at his appearance.

"Harry," the Doctor called out to him.

The Master hummed as he sauntered over to him, pulling his wand out of his pocket and twirling it in the air as he went, "not at this moment, my dear," he came to a stop and flung his right arm over his shoulders as he continued to twirl his wand in the air.

"I'm hurt that you'd remember the Doctor and not me," he spoke idly, "your lot did execute me, after all, had a whole trial and everything, the Doctor even picked my ashes up!"

Sec stared at him for a moment, "the Time Lord known as the Master?"

He hummed slightly in agreement, "not exactly a Time Lord's body, but that's me."

"Not one, but two of the Dalek's enemies," one of the other Daleks interjected.

The Master nudged the Doctor slightly as he removed his arm from his shoulder, pushing him slightly in the direction of the Dalek Human hybrid known as Sec, as he stood in front of the three non-hybrid Daleks.

"And what are you going to do about it?" he questioned, watching from the corner of his eyes as the Doctor proceeded to talk to Sec.

They seemed to think for a moment, their weapons pointed at him, just as he had his wand aimed at them, before one of them spoke.

"Your crimes against the Daleks have been paid for, records show that the Doctor is also your enemy," it lowered its weapon slightly, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend, is that not correct?"

The Master scoffed, before bursting out laughing, "sure that's the saying," he stopped laughing and glared at the Daleks, "but your kind isn't just the enemy of the Doctor, you're not even just the enemies of Time Lords," he took a deep breath, "you're the enemies of Gallifrey, all Gallifreyans, not just Time Lords."

The Daleks lifted their eyestalks to look him in the eye, and the Master's glare hardened.

"In a case where it's the Doctor against Daleks, I would side with the Doctor every time."

He said that, knowing that it'd be true, even for this Universe's version of himself; siding with the Daleks for anything, after they'd executed him and had been their enemy in the Time War, was laughable at best.

"Very well," the Daleks spoke, ignoring him as Sec called over to them.

The Master simply kept his glare aimed at them as the Doctor and Martha wandered over.

"Is everything alright?" Martha asked him.

"I don't trust them," he admitted.

The Doctor sighed, "neither do I, but I feel like I need to give it a try, at least once."

The Master raised an eyebrow, and the Doctor sighed again.

"Sec," he gestured at the hybrid talking to the three non-hybrids, "feels humanity and emotions, feels guilt," he leant in to whisper in his ears, "Sec wants to hybridise the new Daleks that are meant to be made with the humans, wants the other three to follow with the hybridisation."

The Master's eyes widened, "you're joking."

The Doctor shook his head, eyes gleaming in excitement, "I'm not."

The Master looked over at the Daleks.

"Human Daleks, now there's something I never thought I'd hear."

The Doctor hummed in agreement.

Show Me The Way Home

"I knew it," the Master hummed in a sing-song tone of voice.

"How was I meant to know that the Daleks would disobey Sec?" the Doctor huffed as they rushed to the lift, making it just in time for the doors to shut in the pig people's faces.

"I mean, it was rather obvious, Daleks don't do feelings, after all," he mumbled.

The Doctor sighed, "Well we've only got a few minutes before the gamma radiation needed for their experiment reaches the Earth and we need to get to the top of the building."

The Doctor looked over at Laszlo, one of the unfortunate people to get caught by the Daleks, and the only one to get away with being partially transformed into one of the mindless pig people.

"Laszlo, what's wrong?"

The Master had to agree that the man looked rather ill.

"It's nothing Doctor, we've escaped them and that's all that matters."

The Master hummed slightly, and they remained in silence until the lift stopped and Martha and Tallulah, the actress they'd come into contact with were waiting.

He proceeded to ignore the following conversation and followed the Doctor as he made his way to the mast, climbing up with him.

"You don't have to come with me," he huffed as they made their way up.

He hummed, "but I want to."

They finished their climb in silence, and the Master began helping him in his attempt to remove the panels that the Daleks had installed into the mast, using his wand to cast loosening charms that seemed to have no effect.

The Doctor growled slightly as he dropped his Sonic Screwdriver.

"Shit," the Master huffed, leaning to the side it had fallen slightly, he aimed his wand downwards, "Accio Sonic Screwdriver."

"It's too late," the Doctor hissed out, as he pulled his fingers back from the panels, he'd been trying to pry up with them, the Master tutted as he noticed the lines across them from where he'd been gripping it too hard.

The Master's eyes widened, just as the Screwdriver slammed into his hand with his wand, watching as the Doctor began to climb the mast.

"Are you insane?"

The Doctor hissed out, "what choice do I have?"

He could see his shoulders slump slightly even as he gripped onto the top as hard as he could, and he turned his head to look at him, "I'm trusting you to make sure I'm alright after this."

His eyes widened as lightning struck the mast, causing the Doctor to light up and scream.

He watched in horror as the Doctor began to fall, unconscious, off of the mast once the lightning had finished, and he rushed to catch him, carefully lowering him to the more stable base.

It felt as though his world had stopped for the moment it took for him to check him for a pulse, and he sighed in relief once he found it, the two separate beats were slightly faster than they should be, but the Doctor would not be seeing another regeneration on the rooftop.

It took several minutes for the Doctor to wake up, "Oh my head," he groaned, peeling his eyes open.

The Master slapped him across the face.

"Oi, what was that for?"

"Don't fucking do that again, Doctor, or I swear I will go back to my old ways just to drag your sorry ass through time to watch my stupid ass do dangerous shit."

The Doctor stared at him, mouth open in shock, "you were worried."

The Master narrowed his eyes, "of course I was worried you dumbass."

The Doctor smiled slightly and placed his hand on his cheek, "every day I'm reminded just how different you are from the person you used to be."

"Oi, lovebirds," Martha called out, causing the Master to blush slightly and the Doctor to get up from where he was lying down, "we need to get going."

The Master took a deep breath in as he made his way from the base of the mast with the Doctor, "hey Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Do I have permission to use the Killing Curse on the Daleks if it comes to it?"

The Doctor was silent for a moment, before he responded.

"Yes."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master sat on top of one of the crates filled with props in the theatre as the Doctor waved his Sonic Screwdriver around, eyes scanning the area, ready for a fight.

He wasn't paying much attention to the conversation that was going on around him, too high on alert to care for anything that was being said, although he did catch the part where Martha compared the Doctor ordering Martha to leave in an attempt to save her from whatever they'd be dealing with to being ordered around by the Daleks, and he let out an aggravated hiss at it.

"What is he some kind of cat?" he vaguely heard Tallulah question Martha but ignored it.

He leapt up to his feet as the side doors were broken down and the Daleks in human bodies came marching in, followed by two Daleks and Sec in chains.

"Where's the third one?" he hissed out, with no response.

He listened with half an ear as the Daleks spoke, and Sec was exterminated, causing him to pull his wand out and have it in hand.

He walked to stand next to the Doctor, eyeing up the two Daleks as the Doctor aggravates them into giving orders to the Dalek humans.

The Master watched with a bored expression as they aimed their weapons at them, but refused to fire, his eyes widening slightly as they began questioning their orders.

"What?" he whispered in slight amazement.

"Sorry," he heard the Doctor say, completely unapologetic, "I got in the way of the lightning strike, Time Lord DNA got all mixed up in it, just that little bit of freedom."

"If they will not obey, then they must die," one of the two Daleks called out, shooting one of the hybrids, which caused them to turn and fire at the Daleks.

The Master raised his wand, "Protego Maxima!" he called out, shielding the group from harm as debris was thrown about from the fight.

After a few minutes, the hybrids came out victorious, and the Master felt his eyes grow wide.

"You know, today is full of surprises," he commented to Martha who'd walked over to him, as he dropped the protection spell, just as the hybrids were killed off.

He stared blankly at the theatre, before he turned to the Doctor, "there's one left."

"Yeah."

"I can't go with you."

The Doctor grinned at him softly, "I know, I can tell this has affected you quite a lot."

He pulled him in for a hug and the Master hummed as he leant into his chest.

He pulled away after a minute, and the Doctor passed him his copy of the TARDIS key.

"We'll meet you back at the TARDIS," he patted his shoulder, "go have a nice long bath or something."

The Master snorted, "be careful," he turned to face Martha, "you as well," she nodded, and he turned to face the other two in the group, "you two also be careful, alright?"

They also nodded and the group made their way out of the theatre, where he split from the group, making his way back to the ferry to the island where the Statue of Liberty stood.

The Doctor had a point, a bath sounded very nice at that moment.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed as he danced about the kitchen in a pair of fluffy pyjamas that he'd scavenged from the bedroom of his past life, placing a tray filled with cookie batter into the oven, and turning to click the kettle on to make himself a cup of tea.

A soft laugh startled him out of his little bubble, and he turned to look at the door where Martha was stood laughing, and the Doctor was behind her, looking at him with a fond look that had him turning to look away.

"How did it go?"

The Doctor sighed, "the Dalek got away."

The Master frowned, but Martha cut in before he could say anything.

"Laszlo was ill, apparently the Dalek's experiment made his DNA unstable and he was dying," she gestured at the Doctor as she made her way to the table and sat down on one of the chairs, "thank you," she muttered as the Master placed a mug in front of her, "he managed to make something to stabilise him."

The Master placed another mug down for the Doctor, before sitting in a chair with his own mug.

"He's going to live a normal Human lifespan now," he hummed, sitting next to him, and picking up his mug, "thank you."

Martha looked over at him with a serious look on her face, "now that we've told you what's happened, I've got to know," she gestured to his pyjamas, "what's with the pink pyjamas with little cheetahs on them?"

The Master huffed and looked away, blushing slightly, "gift from him," he gestured at the Doctor, "in my past life, it's a long story."

She grinned into her mug, "we've got time, don't we?"

The Doctor hummed, "we do," he leant over and whispered into his ear, "this is payback from earlier."

He groaned.

Chapter Text

The Master watched from the console as Martha opened the door and stepped outside, the Doctor following her.

He'd decided to wait inside, knowing that this would be where Martha was dropped off home, at least he had intended to when the Doctor poked his head inside, "Martha's sister is on the TV, BBC News, turn it on will you?"

He shrugged and tapped at one of the monitors on the console, bringing the news channel up and watching in silent amazement.

"With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human."

He could see a woman standing next to the man who said that who shared a resemblance to Martha and hummed.

The Doctor wandered back in and shut the door, but before he could send the TARDIS into the Vortex, he looked over at him.

"You heard what he said too, didn't you?"

The Master hummed in agreement, "I did."

He groaned and turned around, sauntering to the door, and tossing it open, "he said that he was going to change what it means to be human, didn't he, I just want to triple-check."

He could see Martha nod, right as the Doctor groaned once again, and he shared a look with her before they both started laughing at him.

"This isn't funny you two."

Show Me The Way Home

"It's only a plus one, Harry," Martha told him apologetically as she read the invitation, she'd received from her sister to go to the public relations event being held by Tish's workplace.

He hummed and nodded, "that's fine, I'll see if I can find anything about the company here," he pointed at the console, before he frowned, "I might need to go out for it, but I'll send you a text if I do, something about this whole ordeal is really bothering me."

The Doctor came stumbling in with a tie tangled in his blazer and he sighed, walking over to him and untangling him.

"You and proper suits do not mix well in this regeneration, my dear."

The Doctor grinned sheepishly as the Master helped him to do up his tie.

"It's not my fault that these arms are so long."

Martha snorted, and he felt his lips twitch upwards slightly before he responded.

"Well, I suppose they do need to match those lanky legs of yours."

The Doctor gasped in mock offense and the Master turned to face Martha.

"I'm not going to need to deal with your clothing too, am I?"

"Might need you to do up a strap on the back for me."

He glanced at the Doctor who was now putting his blazer on, before turning back to her, "I mean, that's better than the mess he came out here in."

"Oi."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed as he pursued the documents available on the internet that spoke about Lazarus Laboratories, frowning as he looked at news articles and business journals, cross-referencing what he saw.

Up until a year prior, it looked as though the company was on its last legs, taking out massive debts in order to stay afloat, then seemingly overnight a phone company had taken interest in them and had given them financial aid.

It was after this point that they changed focus to their current project, the one that the Doctor and Martha had gone to check out the unveiling of.

With that information, he turned his attention to looking up the Archangel Network, sighing, he took a sip of his tea, before clicking on the website for the phone network and spat it out once it loaded in, the company's owner displayed proudly on the front page.

Harold Saxon.

This Universe's Master.

"Well, shit."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master stepped out of the TARDIS, locking the door as he went, not that it mattered, quickly typing out a text to Martha with his free hand to let her know that he'd gone out as he'd promised her.

He hurried down the street, intent on getting to the closest shop that sold SIM cards for phones.

As he was turning the corner, he bumped into someone, scowling he looked up before pointing at the man.

"You," he growled.

The Other Master looked down at him in amusement, "well if it isn't Mr Potter."

His scowl deepened, "what the fuck do you want?"

He hummed, before grabbing his arm and pulling him down the road, "our date got interrupted the last I saw you, so I thought I'd make it up to you."

"One, are you stalking me or something?" he huffed out, trying to pull his arm out of his grip and failing, "and two, that wasn't a date, I'm not interested in you."

The grip on his arm tightened and he let out a hiss, before it was loosened.

"I'm sure I can change your mind," the Other Master hummed, ignoring his question about the possible stalking.

He pulled him into a fancy-looking restaurant, which happened to be empty, and he scoffed, while also feeling rather out of place in his casual clothing.

"I booked the whole restaurant for us," he hummed as he pulled him to one of the tables, making sure he sat down before sitting himself across from him.

"Now then Harry," he paused as the waiter poured them each a glass of red wine, "can I call you Harry?"

He narrowed his eyes at him, "no."

The Other Master simply took a sip of his wine before setting the glass down on the table, "Harry," he said, completely ignoring his rejection, "I always get what I want," he informed him.

The Master simply stared at him, unwilling to budge on his decision.

The Other Master huffed, "now then, while your adamant refusal to even give me a chance is rather cute," he admitted, "it would be much easier on you in the long run if you'd at least try, I'd hate to have to break you, after all."

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and he frowned, "what the hell does that mean?" he wanted to hiss, but held it in, the instincts gifted to him by his Animagus form on high alert.

"It means, darling," he chuckled, leaning over the table to cup his chin, "that if it comes to it, I will make you love me," his grin was sharp and full of teeth, "no matter what."

The Master stood up and ran from the building, ignoring him as he called out to him.

"Don't forget Harry, I get what I want."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master ran, and he didn't stop running until he was grabbed by the shoulders.

"Harry?"

The Master recognised Martha's voice and turned to look at her, barely noticing the Doctor standing next to her.

"Harry, are you alright?"

He blinked before he took a shaky breath and raised a hand to his face.

"No," he admitted, "but there's nothing I can do about it."

It was a lie, he knew it, at this point with how far the Other Master had gone, he could blurt it out to the Doctor, and he would find a way to keep him away from him, but if he did that, he'd be throwing the timeline into chaos, he knew that the Doctor couldn't know that his alternate self was alive until the right time.

"Are you sure?" she questioned again.

"Yes," he snapped, before sighing at the hurt look she sent him, "sorry, I'm a little bit shaken by it, but there really is nothing I can do about it."

"Right," she nodded, before running down the road, the Doctor in tow, and he quickly followed them.

"What's happened?"

"Lazarus has messed with his genetic code in an attempt to revert his age," the Doctor huffed, a frown on his face, "he's tapped into a tossed-out evolution and mutated into it."

He raised an eyebrow, "so where are we headed?"

Martha huffed, "he's gone to the Cathedral, and we need to stop him," she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, "he's been eating people."

"Ew."

It didn't take long before they entered the Cathedral, and the Master stood back as the Doctor attempted to talk the man down.

It didn't work and before long, the man had mutated once again, and Martha was taunting it.

Her sister, Tish, came running in, pulling Martha along with her and out of Lazarus' grasp.

And in that moment, the Master had enough.

Pulling his wand out, he aimed it at the heavily mutated man and snarled out, "Avada Kedavra."

They all froze, himself included, as the man dropped to the ground, dead, the mutations wearing off as his body stopped working.

The Doctor, Martha, and Tish all turned to look at him, their faces pale, and he realised that he must look like a mess.

"Harry," Martha whispered.

The Master dropped his arm, his eyes widening as he realised what he'd done.

"Harry," the Doctor muttered, taking a step towards him.

He turned and ran, not stopping until he'd reached his room in the TARDIS, slamming the door behind him.

He leaned against the door and slid down to the floor, resting his forehead in his hands.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" he whispered to himself.

He received no response.

Show Me The Way Home

A knock sounded on his door.

The Master ignored it.

"Koschei, I know you're in there."

He ignored him.

"Koschei."

Once again, he didn't respond, and he heard the Doctor sigh.

A soft thump against the door informed him that the Doctor had sat against the other side of it.

"I'm not mad if that's what's bothering you, I just want to understand what caused you to do it."

He remained silent and the Doctor continued.

"Because I've known this version of you for long enough that I know that you wouldn't have done that without a reason, and I know that you weren't around Lazarus long enough to want to kill him."

A piece of paper was slid under the door, and the Master lifted his hand to look down at it, seeing a picture of himself, the Doctor's prior incarnation, Rose, and Jack all standing on a beach grinning.

"I saw your research left open on the console, did this Harold Saxon have anything to do with this?"

The Master slammed his hand into the door.

"Shut up."

There was silence for a moment, before the Doctor continued.

"He does, doesn't he."

He sighed, "I can't tell you."

"Why?"

He felt a sob tear itself from his throat against his will.

"Koschei?" he could hear his concern.

"It has to do with your direct future, Doctor."

There was silence for a moment, before he heard more thudding, and he was pushed along with the door and the Doctor stepped in, crouching down next to him.

The Doctor was frowning, before he sat next to him and pulled him into a hug, and the Master found himself crying into his chest.

"This once, Koschei, I don't care."

He looked up at the Doctor's face, frowning, "but."

"No buts," he pressed his lips to the top of his head, before pulling back, "tell me everything."

And so, he did.

And the Doctor listened, horror growing inside of him as he learnt about Harold Saxon, no, the Master, his Master, and what he was currently doing.

Chapter Text

The Master hummed along to a song that was playing on the radio he'd put into the workroom that he'd taken over as he carefully engraved a line into one of the dog tags he'd gotten from 1930.

While he had a lot of problems with the Master of this Universe, there was no way he was just going to walk away without at least giving him a way to get rid of the Drums, even if it required the aid of a magically powered necklace.

He knew what they did to a person, knew how it felt to be unable to sleep because there was a pounding repeating in his mind, over and over again.

"You'd never want me to appear."

He checked his notes to make sure that he was following the plotted runes correctly, then turned back to start the next line.

"You'd never want it to be over."

The TARDIS let out a shudder and the tool he'd been using to engrave the runes sliced down the dog tag, ruining the runes.

"Shit," he swore, placing the tool down.

"You never wanted to reach out to the edge of time-"

He turned the radio off and stood up, quickly making his way out of the room and down the hall, throwing the door to the console room open once he reached it.

"What happened?"

"Distress signal," the Doctor said, waving his concern off.

The Master frowned and walked over to Martha, helping her up off of the floor as the Doctor pulled himself up and looked over at him, pouting.

"Oh, so you help Martha up but not me?"

He rolled his eyes, "unlike you Martha doesn't ogle my ass."

She laughed, "I wouldn't be too sure about that, Harry."

He sent her a mock offended look and dropped her hand to grasp at the necklace blocking him from hearing their thoughts.

"Why Martha, I'm hurt."

She slapped his arm, chuckling, "shut up."

He laughed.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master rolled his eyes as he leaned against a wall while a bunch of humans bickered over the dead engines of the ship they'd landed on.

Martha looked lost in the conversation, and he honestly couldn't blame her, especially since they were all aware that they'd been locked away from the TARDIS, which had made the Doctor incredibly frantic.

Sighing, he tapped Martha's shoulder, "he's going to be like that for a while," he said as she turned to him, "want to go snoop? Maybe we'll find some food."

She turned to look at the Doctor pacing around, trying to get answers from the humans while also trying to help them sort their engines out, before turning to face him, "yeah, why not?"

He grinned and they slipped out into one of the unlocked hallways, peering at the walls that surrounded them.

"You know, ships like this get classified as a biological hazard in a few centuries."

She looked at one of the pipes that was sticking out of the wall in suspicion, "really?"

"Oh yeah, apparently one of the main chemicals helping to power the heat regulations is toxic at long exposure."

They turned a corner and came across a door locked with a keypad with a window at the top.

Humming he peered through and grinned, "here we go Martha, the kitchen."

"How are we going to get in?" she raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

He hummed, pulling away from the door, and reached into his pocket to remove his wand, aiming it at the keypad, "Alohomora."

The keypad beeped and sparked, and the door unlocked, before smoke began to pour from the handle.

He stared at it for a moment, "ah."

Martha simply rolled her eyes, and they watched as the smoke died down, but not before setting the fire suppression system off in the hallway.

They slipped inside the kitchen to avoid the water and she slapped the side of his head.

"Oi, what was that for?" he pouted.

She rolled her eyes again, "I've read the books, I know electronics and magic don't mix."

He scratched the side of his head with his wand, pouting as she plucked it from his hand, "it actually does if you know what you're doing."

She sighed and gestured at the kitchen, "so what's good in here?"

He perked up at the question and began to rummage through the cupboards, pulling out anything that looked interesting, or he remembered tasting good in his past life.

Show Me The Way Home

The Doctor frowned as Martha and the Master wandered back to the main room holding fruits.

"So, it was you two who set the fire suppressors near the kitchen off," one of the ship's crew spoke, seemingly disinterested in their rummaging.

"Actually, it was just him," Martha pointed at the Master with his wand, and he pouted again.

"How the hell was I supposed to know casting an unlocking spell would cause it to short circuit like that?" he huffed, "I've used it on several doors in the TARDIS without issue before."

"You know, out of all of the people I'd expect to wander off, you weren't one of them, Harry," the Doctor huffed.

The Master rolled his eyes and wandered over to him, leaning his chin on his shoulder and holding a large yellow fruit up in his hand so that the Doctor could see it.

"Doctor, I'm more than capable of keeping myself and Martha safe, besides, look what I found!"

The Doctor sighed and looked at the fruit before his eyebrows shot up in bewilderment and he grabbed it.

"This is," he cut himself off with a frown and turned to face the person who appeared to be in charge of the ship's crew, "where did you get this fruit?"

The man shrugged, "got it in a fruit bundle the last place we stopped at, couldn't tell you what it is," he frowned for a moment, "you're free to have the rest of those ones, none of the crew like them."

The Master perked up, "there were at least five more of these in the kitchen."

The man huffed at his words, "you can give us something back from your ship though, what with you two rummaging through the cupboards without even asking."

He shrugged, "that's fine."

The Doctor sighed and passed the fruit back to the Master, "go get the rest of them, will you?" he then smiled slightly, "there's a garden that can grow them in the TARDIS."

The Master grinned and saluted him, "of course."

As he marched off down the hall, he heard Martha question the Doctor.

"So, what are those fruits anyway? Harry wouldn't tell me."

"They're fruits from a tree native to Gallifrey, it's gone now, so I never thought I'd see them again, never thought to plant any trees from home, and I regret that a lot."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hadn't been paying attention, one minute everything was hectic but under control, the next Martha and one of the crew members, Riley, if he'd been paying enough attention had gotten trapped in an escape pod.

The Doctor was attempting to get the pod to re-magnetise, but it wasn't working, and he could see him getting frustrated.

"Move," he hissed at the humans, tearing the airlock next to the one the Doctor had gone through open, he didn't have time to get a suit on like the Doctor had, but he was unable to die, he just hoped that he could hold his breath for long enough to get to them.

He quickly changed to his Animagus form as the airlock opened, revealing open space and the searing heat from the sun, hissing, he leapt out onto the side of the ship, running over to the airlock the Doctor had come through.

The Master saw the Doctor gesture at a box just beyond his reach and he carefully made his way over, before throwing his weight at the cover, knocking it off.

The Doctor pulled the lever that it had been covering, then grabbed him, pulling him back into the airlock with him.

When the airlock had recompressed, he took several deep breaths, his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen, he could feel the Doctor holding him close as he struggled to catch his breath.

A few moments later, he forced himself to change back, opening his eyes slightly and noticing the Doctor's eyes glowing an eerie white.

He couldn't hear anything, but he could feel a heat emanating from the Doctor, one that would kill him if it wasn't taken care of, and the Master scowled.

He stood on shaky legs, ignoring how his vision shook with each movement and stumbled over to the Doctor, laying his hands against his chest as he caught him.

With the aid of his magic, he pulled the heat from the Doctor out and into himself.

He could see the Doctor's eyes widen, could see his lips moving at a fast pace, and he just smiled.

"I'm dying anyway Doctor," he wheezed out, "no protection in the vacuum of space, and that close to the sun?" he let out a tired sigh and leaned against him, "I'll see you when I wake up, my dear."

He let out a sigh and willingly slipped into the darkness.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master groaned as he woke slowly, a soft chirp and the lights dimming had him coming to the conclusion that he was in the TARDIS, most likely the med bay if he was remembering what he'd done correctly.

"I'm a fucking idiot," he grumbled, shutting his eyes before turning on the bed to get comfortable.

"You can say that again," he heard the Doctor mutter.

He huffed, refusing to open his eyes, "to be fair, I was dead the moment I stepped out of that airlock, if I hadn't taken whatever the hell that was from you, you and everyone else would have likely died."

He heard a scoff, "I could have frozen it out."

"So you didn't have to become a Gallifreyan ice cube, you're welcome."

He heard a sigh, before he felt a hand run through his hair and he hummed at the soothing feeling.

"Go to sleep, you need to recover your energy."

Chapter Text

"No."

The Master glared at the Doctor as he spun a wheel at the console of the TARDIS to avoid a blast as they ran from their pursuers.

"What do you mean 'no'?" he questioned him from where he stood, pocket watch dangling from his hand as Martha looked between the two of them.

"Absolutely not," he hissed back.

"But-"

He turned a glare at him, before turning to Martha, "could you leave the room real quick? I need to say something to him," he gestured at the Doctor, "that I don't think he'd be happy if you overheard."

She frowned but nodded, "I'll go make us all some tea."

The TARDIS shook and they all stumbled before the Master flipped a lever to stabilise them.

"Probably for the best, there's a gyroscopic stabilizer in the kitchens," he commented as she made her way into the hall, shutting the door between them.

He waited for a moment before he rounded on the Doctor, who was standing with his arms crossed.

"Theta Sigma Lungbarrow," he hissed out.

The Doctor looked taken aback, hearing his name for the first time in decades, he opened his mouth to respond, but the Master spoke faster, not giving him a chance to talk.

"What the hell are you thinking? A Chameleon Arch? Simply because you don't want to face them, or because you don't want to kill them?" he narrowed his eyes, "what the hell do you think would happen if they found you while you were like that? That they'd leave you alone? That I wouldn't kill them."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he talked as the realisation that no, the Master would not spare them like he would, that their pursuers would be dead either way.

"And don't get me started on where we would land? Don't you know what humans are like prior to the twenty-first century? Racist, that's what, and with your shitty luck we'd end somewhere far enough back that Martha would have to endure that bullshit. She doesn't deserve that, Theta."

There was silence for a moment, where they just stared at each other, it was interrupted as the TARDIS shook once again.

"Shit," the Master huffed, flipping a switch, as the Doctor silently turned a rotary switch.

The two of them piloted the TARDIS in silence, focused on attempting to lose their pursuers.

A few minutes later, the Doctor sighed, "you're right."

He looked up from where he was messing with a button, staring at him blankly.

"About the Chameleon Arch," he huffed, "it was a rash idea and I didn't think it through properly, I forgot to account for you and Martha, forgot to think about how it would make you feel, let alone the fact that you would kill them if I didn't," he ran a hand down his face, letting out a sigh, "but I'm not sure what to do," he admitted, "they're still following us, and I'd really rather not kill them."

The Master hummed, "what if we lay out a trap for them? If we get the drop on them, we could take their Vortex Manipulator, then drop them off to the Shadow Proclamation or something."

The Doctor groaned, "but I hate the Shadow Proclamation."

He chuckled, "you don't like any law enforcement, Doctor."

He just groaned more in response.

Show Me The Way Home

Martha huffed from where she was standing next to the TARDIS door, glaring at the people walking in the distance.

The Master couldn't blame her, the year that they had landed in was 1913, and as he'd predicted, people were terribly racist towards her, a fact that had caused the Doctor to wince as the facts that he'd ignored until they'd been thrown in his face were proven true.

The humans had quickly discovered their existence after they'd landed and had soon learnt to stay well away from them, which gave them plenty of room to work with as they plotted their trap for the group that was hunting them.

The Master huffed, twirling the orange-flavoured lollipop he'd been enjoying as it stuck to his tongue, his movements gaining Martha's attention.

She frowned at him for a moment, before pointing at his arm, "what's that?"

He looked down to where she was pointing, the heat had caused him to wear a loose cotton t-shirt instead of his thicker shirts, which showed off a square that looked similar to a plaster.

"It's a nicotine patch."

She blinked, "you're giving up smoking?"

He nodded, "I had a few realisations a couple of days ago and decided I didn't want to be ruled by addiction anymore."

She walked over to him and patted his shoulder, "I'm proud of you."

He gave her a lopsided grin, "thanks."

"Oi, Harry," his attention was caught by the Doctor calling him, "could you go get an artron stimulant pouch from the med bay, please?"

"Yeah," he called back, turning to the door and walking inside.

"Martha, could you see if you can find a VHS player? There should be one in the back of the entertainment room, if it's not there, then there should be one in one of the storage rooms," he heard him request.

"On it," she called back, before following him inside.

Despite being actively hunted, this was one of the calmest trips he'd had with the Doctor for a while.

Show Me The Way Home

"Hey, move it you-"

The Master stopped the brat who was about to say something awful to Martha with a quick fist to the nose, the crunch telling him that he'd broken it.

The teenager stumbled backwards and looked at him in shock, his blood coating the Master's fist.

"I suggest you leave her alone, if I were you."

"But she's-"

He glared down at him, "I don't care what you think of her," he sneered at him, "but I can tell you that I think you're a spineless coward who can't think for himself."

The boy reminded him far too much of the Malfoys, he was honestly lucky that he'd only broken his nose, the older Malfoy had it a lot worse.

"Just because your Daddy says it's alright, doesn't mean there won't be people who are willing to oppose you, verbally or otherwise."

He took a threatening step towards the teenager, who turned and ran off.

Sighing, he turned to Martha, "you alright?"

She stared at him wide-eyed, "you broke his nose."

"He was about to call you some really nasty shit, Martha."

She gaped, and he sighed, gently tugging on her arm.

"Let's just get back to the TARDIS."

Show Me The Way Home

Tap.

Tap, tap.

Tap, tap, click, tap.

Tap.

"Will you please stop that?" Martha hissed, slapping the small metal cube from the Master's hand.

He huffed, bending over and picking it up, "unfortunately, I do need to build these containment chambers for our pursuers."

She sighed, before sitting on the floor to watch as he clipped small metal sheets together, "I know, I'm sorry, I'm just a bit frustrated."

He sent her a wry grin, "I get it, the people here aren't very nice, are they?"

"They don't like you because you broke a kid's nose," the Doctor interjected from where he was leaning against the console, tapping something on one of the screens.

"Well yes, but he deserved it."

Martha snorted, before she sighed, "I thought the discrimination I was receiving at school was bad enough," she carefully leaned back until she was lying down, "sure it's still not ideal, but it's way better than dealing with this."

The Master hummed, "do I need to break someone else's nose for you?"

The Doctor threw a pen at him, which hit his head, and he pouted, while Martha snorted.

"I hope not."

Show Me The Way Home

"Father of Mine, I have spotted the TARDIS."

The Master pretended not to hear the child talking but made note of it and began his walk from the bakery to the TARDIS, loaf of bread in hand.

He hummed a tune as he made sure that they weren't following him, then slipped into the barn that was housing the TARDIS, pulling the door open and stepping inside.

"I got the bread," he announced.

"Woo!" Martha called out, "it's sandwich time."

He snorted before he frowned and turned to the Doctor, "they're here."

His head poked up from where he was frowning over some string, "already?"

He nodded and the Doctor stood, walking over to the door to peer outside, before he shut the door with a firm click and walked to the console to lock it.

"If we've managed to set this up correctly, all we need to do is wait for them to come to the TARDIS, they'll set off the dispensers and the containers will activate, trapping them in place."

The Master sighed, "and if it doesn't work?"

There was silence for a moment before the Doctor turned to him.

"You can pretend they're this Universe's version of yourself and do what you want."

He gaped at him, and the Doctor shrugged.

"All I can really say is you were right about what you said, and best case scenario we can pass them to the Shadow Proclamation," he faked gagging at that, causing both him and Martha to roll their eyes, "worst case scenario, you get to relieve some stress."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master peered around the door as he heard screams.

One of the family members, the daughter, he believed, had gotten trapped, unfortunately, it had tipped the rest of the family off that what lay before them was a trap.

He could see from the gap he'd opened that the other members of the family were attempting to grab the containment cube in hopes to free her, while also keeping away from the trap's trigger.

He could hear the Doctor sigh in disappointment as the realisation that they'd failed to trap them set in.

He peered backwards to look at him, and he just rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion with his hands, a very obvious gesture for him to get it over with.

Clearing his throat, the Master stepped outside of the TARDIS, pulling out his wand as he went.

The older male sneered at him and made to step forward, only stopped by his wife pulling him back, "where is the Doctor?"

"Inside," he shrugged, paying more attention to his wand as he carefully spun it.

"Tell him to let my daughter go."

He looked at him, expression blank, "no."

He growled and made to move towards him.

The Master lazily raised his wand, "Crucio."

The faces of the family all became pale as the older male dropped to the ground screaming in agony before he released the spell after a few seconds.

He lay there, gasping for breath as his limbs twitched from the agony, and the Master simply stared at him.

"You know, none of this would be happening if you'd just left us alone," he hummed.

The male child growled and began running at him in an attempt to attack him.

"Bombarda," he muttered, flicking his wand in the boy's direction, only blinking as the boy screamed and became nothing but a blood splatter against the barn walls.

The mother's face went even paler as she watched, her eyes flicking to her twitching husband and the cube that contained her daughter before she turned to run away.

The Master tutted, "Wingardium Leviosa," he called out, the woman lifting into the air, unable to escape the barn.

"As fun as it could be to play with you all, I'd actually rather not," he admitted, "now, while the following spell is illegal for being an instant killing spell, it is also the most painless spell there is."

He hummed and shrugged, "Avada Kedavra," the green light hit them all, one after another, and he sighed, casting it at the container too, knowing that there would be no way to save the daughter with her family gone.

With that taken care of, he walked back inside, straight into the Doctor's arms, where he gave him a hug, Martha following shortly after.

"Next time you get to do it," he grouched at the Doctor, who gave an awkward chuckle.

"Let's hope there is no next time."

He hummed in agreement, he didn't really enjoy murder, although his past life could make several people think otherwise.

Chapter Text

"Er..."

The Master looked over at the door from where he was typing on one of the screens at the console, searching for the best place to have lunch in London in 2007, hopefully as far away from the Other Master's stalking as he could get.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor called to Martha from where he was looking something up on another screen on the other side of the console.

"We appear to be surrounded by statues."

"Oh no," the Master hissed out, beginning to walk over to the door as the Doctor pulled up the outside surveillance on his screen.

Once he was stood next to her, he gently pushed her behind him and carefully peered around the side, before huffing and closing the door.

"Lock it," he called out to the Doctor, refusing to move until he heard the lock click into place.

"What's going on?"

"Lonely Assassins," he answered her.

The Doctor walked over to the door to scan their energy through it, "they're also known as Weeping Angels."

A thud sounded and the lights flickered overhead.

"Oh, you're joking," the Master huffed as the door creaked.

"What are they here for?" Martha questioned.

"Probably to get at the time vortex to get at all of that potential energy," he answered her, before shooing the Doctor away from the door and pulling his wand out.

He waited until the Doctor had gone back to the console to unlock the door, then cracked it open slightly, "Bombarda," he hissed out, humming in satisfaction as the arm of the Angel he'd hit crumbled, causing it to screech.

He pulled his arm back inside, and shut the door, peering over at the screen that the Doctor was watching them on to take note of the damage.

"Looks like magic beats out their quantum-locking," the Doctor called out to him, before he returned to teaching Martha about the Angels and their danger.

The Master shrugged and opened the door once again, "guess I'm on pest control duty then."

Martha snorted.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master hummed as the three of them walked down the street, headed towards a cafe that Martha had mentioned she'd been to before that served good food.

They turned the corner and his good mood immediately dropped.

Harold Saxon looked at the group, then beamed as his gaze landed on him.

"Harry!" he greeted.

"I said no, you can't call me that," he spat at him.

He frowned slightly, but took a step towards him, scowling when the Doctor pushed the Master behind him.

"And you are?" he questioned the Other Master, knowing exactly who he was from his description.

He huffed, but stuck his hand out, eyes narrowing slightly, "Harold Saxon, Prime Minister."

The Doctor took his hand and shook it, "John Smith," he introduced himself, refusing to let the Other Master know that he knew who he was, "this is Martha Jones," he gestured at her from where she was standing next to the Master.

"Now then, may I know why you're harassing my friend?"

The Other Master scoffed slightly, "we're dating."

"We are not," he hissed out, calming slightly as Martha squeezed his shoulder gently.

He could see him scowl at his words, but he quickly masked it and extended his hand towards him, "of course we are, and I'm being incredibly forgiving, considering you ran out from our last date."

"You know," the Doctor started, taking a step closer to the Other Master, catching his attention, "I'm far more inclined to believe Harry in this, especially with the panic attacks he's been dealing with because of you."

Harold frowned at his words, "he's been having panic attacks?" he questioned, seemingly genuinely concerned.

The Master frowned and took a slight step behind Martha as his gaze focused on him, and the Other Master grew visibly upset by his reaction.

His shoulders slumped and he sighed, "I suppose I have been coming on a bit strong."

"A bit?" the Doctor scoffed.

"A lot strong then," he spat, turning to glare at him, "it's not like I realised he was so uncomfortable with my advances, Mr Smith."

"His denial of dating you and refusing to allow you to use his first name should have been a big enough hint," Martha retorted, before she sighed, "John, I'm going to take Harry back, he seems quite shaken."

The Doctor nodded, and as they made their way back to the TARDIS, he managed to catch the Doctor talking to the Other Master.

"If I catch you stalking or harassing him again, you will wish that you'd never stepped foot in London."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master sighed as he put the finishing touches on the contraption, he'd created in an attempt to return home he wouldn't be able to test this one for at least a month, as it needed to charge up.

He sighed as he set it down, the screwdriver he'd been using clicking against the worktop as it was also set down, and he eyed up the sandwich that he hadn't touched.

He and Martha had made themselves the sandwiches once they'd returned as they'd been unable to eat out at a cafe like they'd intended, and he'd retreated to the workrooms soon after in an attempt to forget about the interaction.

He sighed once more and picked the sandwich up, quickly finishing it off, and making his way out of the room and towards the kitchen to return the dirty plate.

Martha waved at him from where she was sitting at the table using a laptop, and he waved back, before placing the plate into the sink and walking back out of the room and down the hall towards his own room.

His door came into view, and he pulled out his wand, right as the Doctor turned into the hall.

"What are you doing?" he asked, curiosity blatant in his tone.

He hummed, "I feel as though something bad is going to happen soon," he admitted, "to do with the Other Master, and I don't want to leave it to chance that he might stumble upon my room and figure out who I am."

The Doctor frowned at that, "yeah that would be bad, bad."

"So I'm casting a blood-based privacy ward," he shrugged slightly as the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "I have the blood of a human, he won't get in," he then sighed, "I'll also be going through the security footage in the TARDIS and removing any mention of myself being who I am, I don't want to take any chances."

The Doctor nodded, "after today I really don't blame you."

He smiled slightly, as the Doctor stayed by his side and made small talk as he cast the wards.

Once they were in place, he carefully moved his creation into his room.

He really would not be taking any chances at all.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master sighed as he watched the Doctor move about the console, knowing exactly where they were going.

"You don't seem happy," Martha commented, "do you know where we're going?"

"Cardiff," he grunted.

She frowned, "Cardiff?"

"There's a rift in Cardiff, it lets the TARDIS refuel," the Doctor commented, as he threw a pen at the Master who caught it, "it won't take long, then we'll be on our way."

"So, it's a pit stop?" Martha hummed.

"Exactly," the Doctor grinned as they landed, and he flipped a lever to allow the TARDIS to soak the energy up.

"Yeah, but it's Cardiff," the Master huffed.

"What's wrong with Cardiff?"

"Ah, here we go, all powered up!" the Doctor announced, spinning the time rotor to get them moving, before a loud bang was heard.

The Master groaned, "the problem with Cardiff is that it attracts all sorts of beings from across the Universe due to that rift."

The TARDIS shook and they all held on tight, as the lights on the console flickered in alarm.

"What's going on?" Martha questioned in alarm.

"We're accelerating," the Doctor huffed out.

"Accelerating?"

The Master stared at the screen that was flashing hurriedly in numb shock.

"To the end of the Universe."

Chapter Text

The Master made his way out of the door with Martha and the Doctor, peering around he was reminded of his time as Yana, before he'd offed himself in his Universe, and frowned slightly as he remembered the human hunts that occasionally occurred.

"Oh my god!" he heard Martha yell, and he wandered over to her, peering down at what she'd spotted and sighed.

She ran back into the TARDIS and reappeared a few moments later with a first aid kit.

He hummed slightly as he pronounced the man lying on the ground dead, then chuckled slightly as he took in a sudden breath and grabbed Martha's arm, causing her to scream.

"Jack," he greeted the man, who looked at him.

"Harry!" he called, quickly standing up and grabbing him in a hug, then letting go, "who's this beautiful lady?" he questioned him, throwing Martha a flirty glance.

She blushed and held a hand out for a handshake, "Martha Jones."

"Martha Jones," he hummed, grabbing her hand and placing a kiss on the top of it.

"Oi, pack it in you," the Doctor called out, causing him to spin around and walk over to him with a grin.

"Doctor!" he went in for a hug, but the Doctor avoided him, causing Jack to pout slightly.

The Master pulled out two lollipops from his pocket and unwrapped it, ignoring as the three others conversed, focused on slipping the wrapper into his pocket and humming as the strawberry flavour hit his tongue.

Their attention was stolen as a man ran through the city, followed by a tribesperson, and the Master sighed.

"It's a hunt," he murmured, following after the other three as they ran after the fleeing human.

Show Me The Way Home

The Master looked around the entrance to the Silo, old memories of his time as Yana coming back to him as he followed the Doctor, Martha, and Jack further into the corridors.

This place was home for a time, no matter how run down it was.

The only safe space on the only remaining planet in the Universe, with one man and his assistant scrambling together what they could to attempt to find any last bit of safety among the cold dark void that used to contain stars.

To find a non-existent Utopia.

"The Doctor?" a familiar voice questioned, and the Master turned to face the man who'd called out.

Yana.

He took in a deep breath as the Doctor responded, "that's me."

Yana grinned and grabbed his hand, "good! good!"

He began pulling him away and they followed after them.

"Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good!"

The Doctor chuckled slightly and looked over his shoulder at them, "it's good apparently!"

The Master said nothing as they followed Yana to the laboratory that had practically been his room for the years that he remembered living in the Silo.

"Chan welcome tho."

Everything looked exactly as he remembered, there was even the useless dangling wire that seemed to do nothing but couldn't be removed without causing a power outage in the entire Silo stuck in the same spot with a hammer somehow tangled in it.

He had to force himself to not move to not walk over to the computers to attempt to calibrate the machine, it wasn't his Universe, and he wasn't Yana.

He sighed and sat on one of the chairs that had been offered to him, and took the chance to glance over at Chantho, alive and well, he frowned and turned to face the Doctor, guilt bubbling up in his chest.

He couldn't save her, if he did then she would be forced to live the rest of her life fending off the futurekind before succumbing to the heat death of the Universe, and if the Doctor brought her with them through time, she wouldn't be able to cope with it.

As much as he wanted to stop his alternate self from killing her as he had, he knew it would be kinder to let it happen.

He sighed again, and Martha wandered over to him, setting her hand on his shoulder, "you alright?"

He hummed and leaned back to look up at her, "honestly, I don't know," he turned to watch the Doctor play with some of the wiring, managing to power some of the machines with his Sonic Screwdriver.

Show Me The Way Home

"Harry?"

The Master looked up from where he was holding two wires together while Chantho used some tape to stick them together, a third being held in his mouth.

He dropped the wire from his mouth when she held her hand out for it, and carefully readjusted his grip as she manoeuvred to add it to the two that he was already holding.

"Yeah?"

"When you're done with those wires, could you go and smack that monitor as hard as you can?" Yana pointed at the monitor near the door, the problematic one, if he remembered correctly.

Martha was already on refresh duty for the least problematic one, and everyone else was busy.

"Will do," he hummed, standing up when Chantho tapped his arm, letting him know he was free to go.

He stretched, then made his way over, glancing at the screen which was half black, and half red, and frowned, giving it a smack, which only caused the screen to cut off.

"That's a shame," he heard Yana comment, and the Master frowned, glaring at the screen, and hitting it again.

"Oh, come on, you piece of shit," he muttered, ignoring the snort that Martha gave out at his annoyance.

"It's alright," Yana sighed, "it's been on the verge of giving out for years now."

His frown deepened and he balled up his fist, punching it as hard as he possibly could, "you fucking piece of shit electronics, work you asshole."

The screen suddenly lit up, the colours correcting and the whole screen working, which, if he remembered correctly, it hadn't done in at least seven months by the end of it all in his own Universe.

"Huh," he muttered.

"Well," Yana coughed, and the Master turned to face him, taking in his wide eyes, "I never would have guessed to try fixing it like that."

"Chan me neither tho," Chantho commented.

The Master gave a mocking bow, "thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night to hit your electronics."

Yana grinned, "good, because we might just need that!"

Show Me The Way Home

The Master ducked behind some of the machines as Yana opened the watch, just his luck that he'd be the only one of their group around when it happened.

He frowned and looked around the room for anything he could use to defend himself from the Other Master as he murdered Chantho.

He heard the Doctor on the other side of the door, begging him to not open the watch, and he sighed, frowning.

"It's too late, Doctor," he called out, leaping behind a different machine as the wire was thrown at him, "he's already opened it."

"Tut-tut, Harry," he could hear the Other Master speak, "don't you know it's rude to help a person's nemesis?"

He rolled his eyes as the Other Master seemed to lose interest in killing him, likely too busy trying to figure out an escape, he peered around the corner, ignoring the thudding that the Doctor, Jack, and Martha were making to try and get into the room.

The Other Master was walking into the TARDIS to disconnect the wire that he'd been using as a weapon, wandering back out with it so that it wasn't anchored down, and the Master took it as a chance.

He leapt up from where he was hiding and ran at him, throwing a punch, and grinning as he heard his nose crunch under the force, before he darted behind the machines once more, peering out carefully to watch.

The Other Master stared at the spot he'd run from, wide-eyed, before lifting a hand to his nose, and pulling it away to look at the blood that was now coating it.

There was silence for a moment before he grinned and laughed.

"You," he called out to him, not bothering to search for his hiding spot, "I like you."

"Ah," the Master muttered, suddenly realising why this Universe's Master was so interested in him, "whoops."

The Other Master ignored him, his grin growing wider, "I guess it helps that for a human you are very attractive."

The Master gagged at that and was very grateful that Chantho took that moment to shoot him.

The Other Master's grin dropped as he stared at the wound in shock, before he snarled and grabbed the jar with the Doctor's severed hand in and ran to the TARDIS, locking the door after him.

The door slammed open, and the Doctor ran in, followed by Jack and Martha.

It wasn't long before the golden light of regeneration was seen through the window, and the Doctor and the Other Master had a back-and-forth before Martha frowned.

"Wait a second, I know that voice," she huffed out.

Jack looked at her in confusion, "you do?"

"That's Harry's stalker."

Jack stared at her, then turned to look at the Master, then turned to face the Doctor, who was at the TARDIS door begging the Other Master to give up on whatever he was planning, to no avail.

Jack frowned from where he was holding the door shut, "I can't hold the door much longer, Doctor," he called out.

The Master frowned and walked to the door to help him, distracted momentarily by the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising, leaving the four of them stranded at the end of the Universe.

"Shit," the Doctor swore, before turning to look at the three of them crowded around the door, "shit," he swore again, running over to them, and yanking Jack's arm out in front of him, running his Sonic Screwdriver over it.

"Everyone grab on," he called out.

The door broke open, revealing the futurekind as he and Martha grabbed Jack's arm and the Doctor flicked a switch, sending the four of them hurtling through the Time Vortex.

Once they landed, the Master turned around, bent over and threw up, as Martha groaned and held her head.

"Time travel without a capsule," the Doctor muttered, "that's a killer."

The Master stood back to his full height and stared at the wall of the alleyway they were standing in, taking note of the giant poster stuck to it.

Vote Saxon.

Chapter Text

The four of them were in Martha's flat, the TV playing in the background as Jack made them all tea.

The Master wasn't paying much attention, focusing on how they could get the TARDIS back from the Other Master instead.

Ta-ta-ta-tap.

The Master blinked at the noise, turning to look at its origin.

Ta-ta-ta-tap.

Martha's finger made the agitated movement, and he focused in on what she was saying.

"The things he said, it was like you could just," ta-ta-ta-tap, "trust him."

Ta-ta-ta-tap.

He blinked.

Ta-ta-ta-tap.

He turned to face Jack, who had also started tapping against the countertop, and his face paled.

"Martha, what phone company are you with?"

She blinked, "the Archangel Network, why?"

He hummed, and the tapping continued, "Jack?"

"I’m also with the Archangel Network."

"Doctor, if you were proficient in hypnosis and had the largest satellite phone company in the world, what would you do?"

There was silence for a moment, "shit," the Doctor swore.

"Remove your SIM cards," the Master hissed at Martha and Jack.

Jack frowned, but removed it, while Martha shook her head.

"I can't."

He frowned but nodded, eyeing the phone in her hand wearily.

"Britian, Britian, Britian," Harold Saxon announced suddenly on the TV, a special news broadcast.

It wasn't long after the announcement occurred that the four of them were running out of Martha's flat and getting into Martha's car after it had been blown up by explosives that the Other Master had set behind the TV.

Martha was on a call to her Mother, the call on loud for them all to hear it, there was a mad rush of voices and conflicting words, and Martha sped off to her Mum's house, just in time to see them get carted off by the special services.

"Get out!" the Doctor called, "now!"

Martha quickly turned the car around and sped off as bullets were fired at the car.

The Master ducked in the back seat next to Jack as the rear windshield was shattered from impact.

It wasn't long after that when they pulled over in an underpass and abandoned the car, Martha made another call to a friend of hers, which was quickly taken over by the Other Master.

The Doctor took the phone from her hand and spoke to him, trying once more to get him to stop, not that it would work, something that he unfortunately knew as fact.

"You chose it, psychiatrist's field day."

The Master wanted to shoot the Doctor and offended look, but knew better than to react, what with the Other Master watching them.

While they were walking, they passed a shop with a selection of televisions playing in the window, which the Other Master had obviously turned his attention to.

"Three Armed Terrorist Suspects are on the loose, suspected to be holding esteemed Detective Harry Potter captive."

The Master scoffed, "is he still at this?"

Jack peered over his shoulder at the news, before tugging his arm gently as they made their way down the road, "don't worry, esteemed Detective, I'll be a nice captor," he joked.

The Master rolled his eyes as they rushed down the road, not stopping for several hours, until they came upon an abandoned warehouse with no CCTV in sight.

Show Me The Way Home

Hours passed in the warehouse, Martha managed to grab them all some takeaway, and the Master sat on the floor with a laptop in front of him, keeping an eye on the news and doing what he could to keep on top of what the Other Master was doing.

He looked up when the Doctor came over to him, and watched as he sat next to him, sighing heavily.

"You alright?" he questioned quietly, slipping into Gallifreyan for his comfort.

The Doctor looked at him for a moment, before he pulled his Sonic Screwdriver out of his pocket and passed it to him.

"Doctor?" he questioned.

"Koschei," he hummed, "I don't want you coming with us, I have a nasty feeling that we won't be able to stop him at first," he paused and sighed again, "I want you staying here, in the case that something goes wrong, I want you to act on my behalf."

The Master's eyes widened, his grip on the Doctor's Sonic growing tight, "what are you saying?" he hissed out.

"If something goes wrong, I reckon we can get Martha out of there," he continued, ignoring him, "I don't want to risk you getting stuck, and you of all people know how to deal with the Master, even if you need to distract him."

"Doctor," he hissed out in warning.

"Koschei," he interrupted, "something big is going to happen, it's going to be bad, and it's going to last a long time," he grabbed his free hand with both of his and gave it a squeeze, "please, I need you to be here, and I need you to act as me if I can't be here."

He grit his teeth, but nodded, "alright, Doctor, I will."

He gave him a sad smile, "in that case, until the time that you return the Sonic Screwdriver to me, you're me."

He frowned, "won't be the first time I've pretended to be you."

The Doctor chuckled slightly, "it can be a massive prank."

The Master gave him a lopsided grin, slipping the Sonic into his pocket, "I suppose it is kind of fitting, it's all a game, after all."

He sighed, "I'd say it's true, but I feel like he's forgotten that, this seems too far."

"Yeah, you're right," he huffed, "I think the worst thing we did before this was, what?" he narrowed his eyes for a moment, "Atlantis?"

"I still can't believe you summoned Kronos," the Doctor muttered under his breath at the reminder, "but I think Logopolis was worse."

He winced, "I forgot about Logopolis," he huffed, "that was an accident, and you know that."

There was silence for a moment.

"Well, no, Logopolis itself wasn't an accident, it was the whole Universal decay that came from it that was the accident."

The Doctor snorted, "exactly."

"But this does seem different," the Master admitted, "it's like he's not trying to make it for you to defeat him, all of the plans before the Time War, they were made to keep you busy, you know?"

"I know," the Doctor admitted, "I'm glad you did, I'm sure if you hadn't kept me busy, I would have caused worse," he sighed, "that's why it was a game."

"Come stop me."

The two of them trailed off into their own thoughts until it was broken by Martha.

"So, what were you two talking about?"

The Master blinked and sent her a sad smile, "just memories."

Show Me The Way Home

The Master sat in the control room of one of the army bases that the Other Master had set up, twirling the Sonic Screwdriver in his hand idly as he worked through some of the security protocols that had been set up.

One of the screens turned itself on and he scowled as the Other Master popped up on screen.

"I see you're still being a little pest," he commented.

The Master hummed in agreement, ignoring the slams of people banging on the door.

"You could still give up, darling," he purred, "I promise I won't punish you too harshly for going against me, you could rule the Universe alongside me!"

He looked at the screen from the corner of his eyes, before he turned his attention back to the computer screen, typing another password in.

The Other Master had no idea that the humans hadn't been putting secure passwords in place, none of them cared enough to secure them, just enough to get the job done so that the Toclafane wouldn't kill them.

"No thanks," he hummed.

He could hear the Other Master growl in frustration, "you know, I'm not too sure that you aren't the Doctor," he hissed, "I know you're working on his behalf, but you're just as irritating as him, and you also seem to know far too much about this technology."

The Master blinked before he tilted his head and smirked, he'd played the part of the Doctor many times in the past, and he knew the man just as well as he knew himself. He also knew that the Other Master knew that he was from a different Universe, even if neither of them talked about it, it would be so easy to mess with him, and honestly, he deserved it.

"Took you long enough," he hummed, trying his hardest to not burst out laughing as the Other Master's eyes went wide from the shock.

"I mean, honestly, Koschei-"

"Don't call me that," the Other Master spat, and he grinned.

"Oh, why not?" he raised an eyebrow, "it's not like you deserve the respect of being called by your current name, you know?"

He could tell that he was seething, and the Master tapped a button on the keyboard.

"Well, it was nice to talk with you," he gave him a mock salute, "but I must be going before the blackout occurs."

"Wait the what?" the Other Master asked in alarm.

He grinned again, "oh nothing, I just made the powerline cut out."

"No!" he growled out, "that will cause the bombs to go off prematurely and flatten the whole base," he narrowed his eyes, "I thought you disliked killing, Doctor?"

He hummed, "well, considering that this is a Paradox, of your creating, might I add, I don't feel as bad as I might do."

"But th-"

The Other Master was cut off as the power shut off, and the Master apparated several miles away, just in time to feel the Earth rumble under his feet from the blast of the bombs.

He sighed and looked up at the sky, dark from the heavy pollution that the Other Master's reign was causing.

The radio he'd stolen several months prior clicked to life, and Martha's escape from Japan was announced, and he smiled, glad that he'd distracted him for long enough.

"Go on, Martha, you've got this."

Show Me The Way Home

"So."

The Master glanced at the screen of the cracked television in the abandoned shop that he'd stepped into, it was due to be torn down in two days for its scrap, so he'd decided to see if there was anything worth salvaging before there was nothing left.

"Did you want something?" he huffed, leaning down to pick up a bottle of water, a rare sight nowadays.

"I've been thinking."

"That's dangerous."

"Will you shut up?" he snapped, before sighing, "I can't keep calling you the Doctor, and the Doctor up here the Doctor."

He hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him.

"You going anywhere on Earth at the moment signals that you're going to mess something up for me," he hissed, "Harbinger would be fitting, don't you agree."

He paused in his movements, before fully standing up and facing the screen, "I don't particularly care."

The Other Master beamed, "and once I get my hands on you and sort all of your misbehaving out, I'm sure with your abilities you'll be signalling the arrival of the New Time Lord Empire."

He blinked, before huffing, "let's keep it as 'Harbinger of the Master's doom' for now, shall we?"

The Other Master snarled, "I will have you," he hissed, "I've wanted you ever since you broke my nose at the end of the Universe," he took a deep breath, "every time that I've seen you after that I've been reminded just how pretty you are, how unafraid to harm you are."

He grinned, took a breath and leant back in his throne, shutting his eyes slightly, "I had a secretary who tried flirting with me, I could have taken her as my wife to make my presented image more appealing to the masses, but I decided that I wanted you more," he hummed, "poor little Lucy, found dead in a ditch in Surrey, you know?"

The Master grimaced slightly at his words, "you're obsessed."

The Other Master just laughed, and he heard the sound of cars pulling up to the shop.

"Oh, better run, Harbinger," he purred the word, "unless you actually want to come to me?"

He huffed, "I'd rather throw myself into a supernova," and with that he apparated away once more.

Show Me The Way Home

"Harbinger!" a man called out from across the road.

He was wearing one of the Master's army uniforms, but seemed frantic as he waved him over.

Raising an eyebrow, he decided to walk over and see what he wanted.

"I am so glad you're here," he hissed out, keeping his voice on the quieter side, "I don't know what to do."

"What's going on?" he sighed.

"It's the Master," he looked around for a moment, before stepping closer to him, "he's doing something with the Toclafane, in Mumbai, we've got orders to wipe out the whole city, it's going to be chaos."

"Where?" he hummed.

"There's a large warehouse on the northern outskirts with two statues of the Master next to it, you can't miss it, it goes thirty stories down, and twenty-five are filled with Toclafane doing god knows what."

"Got it," he hummed.

It didn't take him long to track down the warehouse, and it took even less time to rig the building with explosives, the explosion after left his ears ringing, and he took the opportunity to return, to just look.

The area was covered in singed grass, chunks of rock, twisted and warped metal, and blood, so much blood.

The Master wasn't stupid, he knew what the Toclafane were.

He stood there until the sun had long since set and looked up at the sky.

The pollution had gotten bad enough that he couldn't make out any of the stars, and with it being a new moon, the sky was simply dark.

Show Me The Way Home

"Martha Jones, the woman who walked the Earth," the Other Master huffed out, before facing him, "and Harbinger, the man who has been an annoying little pest, unable to do massive damage to my plans, but enough to be a thorn in my side."

The Master shrugged, "I never said I was trying to stop your plans fully," he sighed, "I don't think I would have been able to, even if I tried," he grinned, "but I think my distractions paid off well enough, Martha did manage to get around without problems, after all."

The Other Master growled, before he paused and smirked, "you frustrate me," he took a step closer to him, "but unfortunately for you, I win."

He took a step back and the Master and Martha were handcuffed and escorted into cars, before long, the two of them were stationed on the Valliant.

The Other Master paced around gloating, and the Master couldn't help but chuckle as the countdown began to come to an end, causing Martha to also laugh, dragging his attention back to the two of them.

"What?" he barked out, causing them to laugh harder, "what's so funny?"

"Oh, do you really think the Doctor would get Martha to get a gun and shoot you?" he raised an eyebrow, and the Other Master turned to him with a frown.

"What the hell are you blabbering on about?"

He shrugged, letting Martha and the Doctor take over from him.

It wasn't long before the Doctor was returned to normal, and from that point it took less than ten minutes for the paradox to be reverted, but not before the Other Master tried one last shot at taking the Doctor down.

He watched as Martha's mum aimed to shoot him but was talked down by the Doctor.

Sighing, he walked over to the Doctor and the Other Master, a gunshot rang out and the Master frowned, quickly moving slightly to the right so that he would get shot instead of the Other Master.

He sighed in annoyance as he fell to the ground and his vision grew dark.

"Guess it's naptime then."

Chapter Text

The Master sighed as he woke once more in the med bay.

"I'm starting to hate this bed," he commented to the TARDIS, who gave a tired chirp in greeting.

He groaned as he sat up and turned to get off the bed, stretching as he went.

"Where is everyone?"

The screen of the single computer in the med bay flashed with directions to the console room and he nodded, "alright," he frowned, "is the Other Me there?"

The TARDIS let out a very good impression of a growl, that he took as a yes and he sighed.

"Best get that necklace of mine then," he muttered, "and some clothes too," he frowned down at the bloodstained shirt he was wearing, then wandered out of the med bay and headed towards his room.

He opened the door and stood, staring at it for a moment, everything was exactly as he'd left it, nothing out of place, sighing, he walked inside, stripped off his clothes and made his way to the joined bathroom, quickly cleaning the blood off of himself, then wandering back into his room and pulling some fresh clothes out of the draws.

He quickly put them on, then slipped on his shoes, sighing as he felt how soft they were compared to the clothes he'd been wearing for the past year.

After a moment, he walked towards the coffee table in the middle of the room, picking up the dog tag necklace that contained the completed runic sequence that he'd created to block out the drums.

"Well, time to say hi," he chuckled to himself, before walking back out of his room towards the console room.

As he neared the door, all he could hear was yelling, and he sighed, stepping through to see Jack and Martha attempting to convince the Doctor to hand the Other Master over to the human authorities to deal with.

He rolled his eyes, knowing it was a lost cause, the Doctor would never let him out of his sight now that he was here, after all.

The Other Master was tied up to a chair, glowering at the humans who were bickering with the Doctor, enough that he didn't notice him step into the room and make his way behind him.

He only noticed he was there when he'd slipped the necklace around his neck, and he was forced to exist without the drums for the first time in centuries.

"What the fuck!" he cried out, eyes wide as he tried to pull away from him.

The Master simply hummed and walked around him to sit next to the console.

"Should you be up yet?" Martha questioned him, worried, "you only died about an hour or so ago."

He waved her off, "I'll be fine."

She frowned but didn't argue, and instead turned to watch as the Doctor inspected the necklace around the neck of the panicking Time Lord.

"This is quite impressive, but are you sure this will hold?"

He scoffed, "are you doubting my ability to create a simple runic structure, Doctor?"

"Ah, no," he turned to him with a sheepish look, "I’m just worried that it might break."

He rolled his eyes, "it'll be fine until you can work out a permanent solution to the problem."

The Doctor hummed and flicked it, before he pulled away from the Other Master who had locked his eyes on the Master.

He watched as his eyes narrowed, obviously working out the new piece of the puzzle that had been presented to him.

"You," he hissed, his eyes widening.

The Master sent him a bored look, "me."

"You're not the Doctor."

He chuckled, "nope."

"But you," there was silence for a moment, "you're me," he suddenly hissed.

"Ding, ding, ding!" he shot the Other Master finger guns, "you want a gold star sticker for your excellent deduction?"

The Doctor smacked the back of his head, "behave."

He pouted, "you wound me, my dear."

"What did he do to you?" the Other Master asked in a panicked tone, "he's broken you."

He shot him a dirty look, "no one broke me but the drums," he grinned, "I got rid of them."

"How?" he seemed almost desperate.

His grin turned nasty, and he leant in towards him, "I killed myself."

The Other Master paled.

Show Me The Way Home

"Here comes Mr Needle," the Master chirped gleefully, as he approached the Other Master, who was tied down to a chair in the med bay, a scowl on his face.

He gently wiped his arm and pressed the needle into his skin, drawing blood, only taking as much as he needed.

The blood was carefully deposited into two vials that were then sealed, and the Master turned to clean the Other Master's arm, he even gave him one of the pretty princess plasters that he'd found in the top drawer in the desk to cover the tiny wound left.

"I hate you," the Other Master hissed.

The Master grinned as he placed the vials into a stasis box.

"And I hate you as well, honestly you bring out all of that self-hatred that I had forgotten I had, and lucky for me, you happen to be wearing the face I hate the most!"

He scowled, but the Master ignored it, placing the used needle and gloves into the biohazard bin, and carefully cleaning up the workspace.

"You know," his alternate self started, "you could untie me."

"I could," he agreed.

"So?"

"So what?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Why don't you?" he hissed out.

"Oh, that's simple," he beamed, "I don't want to."

"You're an asshole."

"So are you."

Show Me The Way Home

"Are you sure this will work?" Martha questioned from where she stood five feet away from the Master in the middle of the woods.

The area was being patrolled by UNIT personnel to make sure no one got in.

"Not really," he shrugged.

The Doctor, Jack, and the Other Master were also gathered, it was a rather spectacular send-off, all things considered.

He double-checked his pocket to make sure he had everything.

His phone, his invisibility cloak, time turner, wand, the other wand that he'd gotten from Dumbledore, that little smooth stone.

In the other pocket, a photo album that this Doctor had made for him, filled with pictures of his time with him, pictures of his prior incarnation, pictures of Rose, and Jack, and Martha, and everyone else, Jackie included.

That pocket also contained the stasis box with an additional vial of the Other Master's blood, just in case he managed to blast himself into yet another Universe, so he wouldn't have to go through finding another Master again.

The first vial was plugged into his machine, ready to go, but the Master wasn't.

He sighed and looked up at the sky, memories of his time in this Universe swirling in his mind.

"Go," the Doctor huffed out.

He looked over to him, and gave him a smile, "if you don't go now, you'll just find yourself putting it off more and more."

He sighed and closed his eyes.

"Your Doctor is waiting for you, and so are your humans, and your owl."

He chuckled slightly, "you're right, as usual," he hummed.

Sighing once more, he let out a stretch, before grabbing the leather strap and tying it to his wrist so that he wouldn't accidentally let go of the machine while it was working.

"I guess this is it then," he stated, flipping the power switch and watching as the lights all powered on and the blood began to drain from the vial.

"It is," the Doctor agreed.

He could see tears in both the Doctor and Martha's eyes, threatening to fall, and he smiled.

"Live good lives, will you?"

Before he could hear a response, the machine let out a loud groan, three flashes of a dark orange colour, the same as the blood of a Gallifreyan blinded the clearing, and once it faded all that remained was a circle of flattened grass.

The Doctor let out a sigh.

"He's gone."

They all stood there for a long time, before Martha walked to the middle of the grass and sat down.

"He gave me a lot of confidence, you know?" she admitted.

And with those words, it was like a dam had burst, and the Doctor, Jack, and Martha, all sat down and shared their memories of him, the Master, no longer the Other Master, joined them, his mind clear of the drums, eager to listen to the stories, but unwilling to show it.

Day turned into night, the only thing to show for it was a roaring fire.

"Get home safe," the Doctor whispered to the night sky, filled with stars once more.