Chapter Text
“So,” the Doctor asked, pointing to a random bit of scribbling she had put on the ridiculously old chalkboard, “we have two dimensions to keep as dimensions. We called it a tether before but I’m thinking more of a bridge.”
“What’s with the circles?”
Oh.
You hadn’t realized it. Of course humans couldn’t read Gallifreyan. Why would the translation circuit bother translating their native language? Not to mention, if it could, their enemies could use their academic texts against them. The thought of the daleks having the ability to time travel was a horror you could not even imagine.
But still… You would have attempted to write the simple math equation in human English if you had remembered.
“Sorry,” you said to all of them, getting up from the library couch, “not used to doing work like this in a different language.”
“Language,” Yaz asked, “Wait, the circles mean something?”
You turned to her, your head tilting, “Yes?”
“Thought it was a fancy design, I did!” Graham replied indignantly, “Who’d have thought all those circley bits were a language!”
That… Kind of hurt, actually. It was hard to imagine that your language had been no less than a cute design to put on furniture. If these humans had found something Gallifreyan out in the universe, they wouldn’t even regard it as important.
You supposed that was the point… But it still brought a familiar ache in your chest. There were now three Time Lords in all of existence and yet you felt alone in your grief.
The Doctor made a grab at the chalk before you could, wagging it at you dramatically and distracting you, “translating this would be a nightmare. Trust me, I nearly bored Einstein to death trying to explain interdimensional physics. Humans don’t have symbols or meanings for anything relating to time travel.”
She met Albert Einstein? How - what… Was that allowed? You had only traveled where time was the most flexible. She had spoken to a famous physicist? That was… Madness. It had to be madness!
“What, like, ever? We never figure out time travel?” Ryan asked, distracting you.
Right, okay… Focus on the current present.
“There’s the Time Agency,” you assured him, “the captain had a vortex manipulator.”
“Cheap and nasty time travel,” The Doctor muttered solemnly to you, looking absolutely disgusted, “come on, fam! We’re bending the rules of physics as we know it! Something like this hasn’t been done!”
“For good reason,” you said, grabbing at your own chalk, mulling it over, “the last Time Lord that attempted to try something like this split their atoms across multiple time streams, the two TARDIS’s flung so far into the past and future that it took a team four months to find them.”
“That’s the spirit!” The Doctor said as you studied the human’s slacked jaws, “being smarter than the Time Lords of old! Come on, Professor, show me what you got!”
Huh?
You blinked stupidly as she gestured to the board, looking over the very start of your work. You had written out the formulas you had remembered from your studies as a young Time Lord, knowing that the Doctor would likely need them for when she figured out how she did this bridge.
“Gotta start somewhere, eh?” She asked, smiling kindly at you, “how much energy will we need to begin the process?”
You rolled the chalk between your fingers, your hearts beating wildly. It felt like a test that wasn’t a test. The Doctor may be one of the nicest teachers you would ever have the pleasure of learning from but that didn’t take away the years of watchful eyes from your Academy professors. The Academy was harsh and…
You would leave the description there.
So, shaking just a tad more than you would like, you moved closer to the chalkboard, reminding yourself that it was a simple bit of math and no real danger.
“We’ll need the same amount of energy that a TARDIS gives off,” you said softly, writing out the equation that runs a TARDIS’s heart, “and for it to equal the space around the double TARDIS’s shields.”
“Exactly right,” The Doctor said, going towards the table where she had laid out various books, “I meant what I said about a bridge. If we can keep that amount of energy over a long period of time, there’s no risk of one TARDIS losing another in the vortex.”
“They’re talking another language, they are,” Graham said, interrupting you, “like Star Trek !”
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Ryan said to Yaz.
“Oh yeah,” Yaz replied, smirking, “lunch at our usual spot?”
It was a bit like being a time tot again, funny enough. You remembered feeling isolated as you were shoved into your classes, your peers already having groups of friends. Your family came from low town and you were chosen at random, unlike the aristocats you were forced in front of.
You were lonely for a long time until you could prove yourself. You earned your friends through your intelligence, which was almost insulting. Still, it was better than being alone.
These humans weren’t snotty but there was a history that was already there between the Doctor and themselves. You felt out of place, even next to the last Time Lord.
“Aw!” The Doctor complained, looking genuinely disappointed, “chips at Lenards? But-”
“Found a new spot, actually,” Yaz said, something just a bit forceful in her tone. You watched in confusion as the Doctor tensed, her eyes going to the rest of the humans.
“Right,” The Doctor said, “Of course. Yeah… I’ll leave you to it, then?”
“Yeah,” Ryan answered, the same strange tone, “we’ll bring something back.”
Yaz turned to you suddenly, her hardened eyes softening, “good to see you on your feet, Professor.”
“Oh,” you said dumbly, “thank you. You’re leaving?”
It was… You had never heard of a group of Time Lords leaving the TARDIS with one person left behind. It was just - it was expected that everyone went together, no matter what, especially while traversing other planets.
But this wasn’t another planet for them, was it? This was home. The humans still had their own lives to get back to, to experience, and from one moment to the next you were looking at them a tad differently.
You wondered if the Doctor felt the same, as if she was an arm’s distance away from the people she so lovingly called her family.
“Jack’s waiting for us,” Ryan said, as if that was a consolation prize, “he said he had to go back soon… Wherever that is.”
The captain wasn’t a usual passenger? You could have sworn he was close to the Doctor, at least enough to give her a nickname. Stars, it was far too confusing. How did all of this work?
Graham hesitated as the two younger humans moved to the doorway without another word. He looked genuinely apologetic as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Me and math have never mixed,” he laughed, “but I promised to be there for my grandson… And right now he’s hurting, doc. Give them both some time, yeah?”
What in Rassilon’s name was a grandson?
“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed instantly, “probably best. Gonna work on the TARDISes for a while.”
Graham glanced towards you, “it was nice meeting you. And up and about, eh? Seems nothing can bring you Time Lords down.”
“Not much, at least,” you said awkwardly, “enjoy… Chips?”
Then, as if by a curse, all three humans were gone.
You turned slowly to the Doctor, feeling off kilter yet again, but it was her lingering gaze upon the now closed door that kept you silent. You didn’t know her, only in the whispers of stories you had heard back home, and it made you realize just how strange it must have been for her as well.
“I could go with them,” you asked her softly, “just to make sure they’re alright?”
But you didn’t really know what you were offering. You were the one on an alien planet with nearly no knowledge of it. The humans the Doctor trusted would have a better understanding if something was safe or not.
All you knew was that you didn’t like that the Doctor seemed so… So miserable, in a way you couldn’t put your finger on.
“Nah,” she said, turning back to the chalkboard with a note of excitement, as if them leaving hadn’t mattered in the slightest, “we’ve got work to do, don’t we? Come on then, let’s figure this out.”
You smiled back at her, feeling something in your chest that was undefinable.
Maybe later, after you figured out what she meant by bridge, you’d call it hope.
“Good, good! Steady!”
“We should rethink this, Doctor! I mean, the energy required for this is just… There’s not even a safe way to test this theory!”
“No, no we’ve got it! Come on, Professor, trust yourself.”
Now you really felt like a Time Tot, watching nervously as the Doctor ran in circles around her console, twisting dials and pushing down levers… She was animated, not scared at all, while you stood behind her in some sort of terrified awe.
Which was why you jumped at least ten feet in the air when the door to the Doctor’s TARDIS opened. You were ready for quite literally anything - what was it the humans said? Fight or flight - you weren’t really sure, but you found yourself backing up anyway, waiting.
Stupidly waiting, it seemed, as the humans walked calmly into the Doctor’s TARDIS, saying greetings and asking questions. Your heart rate was sky high, not used to beings that didn’t announce themselves before entering a home, but you were still new to this whole thing.
“Figured it out then?” Yaz asked, eyes lingering on the chalkboard that had made its way to the Doctor’s console room, “your equations got bigger.”
“Never linger on hypotheticals, Yaz,” the Doctor said, winking at you, “we were just about to try it. Oh, actually - fam, how about you follow the Professor to her TARDIS. We’re just about to start the connection.”
Were you? You were, apparently, taking a glance at the Doctor’s screen with less than a critical eye then you would like. You had watched her go over everything with a fine-tooth comb yourself - still in awe at it, how fast she had managed to puzzle through an entirely new science - and yet you had a very bad feeling.
Back home, back before the war, there would be dozens of Time Lords to ask. They thrived off of experimentation after all, loving the thrill of discovery. Your planet may be stupidly political with far too many rules, but it had valued discovery and knowledge. There would be no shortage of people who wanted to work on something like this.
Now? Now it was two Time Lords and a bunch of humans. You almost laughed.
“Professor?”
“Sorry,” you apologized immediately, “okay. Yes, I’ll start the sequence as soon as I’m aboard my ship.”
The Doctor gave a… A… Uh, her hand formed a fist, but her thumb was fully extended, and she pointed said thumb up towards the sky…? You decided that you had dealt with enough strange things and took that for what it was - some sort of confirmation - and began a steady march outside of the Doctor’s TARDIS.
You hadn’t actually been outside yet, you realized, and you found yourself stopping just outside the Doctor’s TARDIS, taking in the sight before you.
Earth, wherever you were, was pretty! You don’t exactly know what you expected, having read their history and general intelligence level from Gallifreyan texts, but pretty wasn’t your first go-to. But, looking out over a field of green grass, a yellow sun high in the sky, the breeze in the air wafting the smells of the forest… It was easy to admire the beauty this simple planet provided.
“Alright, Professor?”
You hummed at Yaz, eyes still on the sky, taking in the view, “haven’t seen much of your planet,” you admitted, “and what I have hasn’t been this time period by any stretch of the means. It’s nice.”
“It’s just a hill,” Ryan said, “not much of a nature person.”
Your thoughts went to a hill just like this one, the colors of home mixing with the current scenery. You hadn’t been much of a nature lover either - addicted to your friends rather than the way your trees would sway in the breeze. It was funny what you missed when you no longer had it.
You rolled your shoulders, a small smile on your face as your eyes found your ship, glad to see them as always. Without a word, you opened the doors to your home, eager to be inside once again.
You glimpsed something on the inside of your ship, something different, and you found yourself stepping onto familiar yet completely different ground.
“I love you,” you said to your ship, mouth falling open as you looked over your new desktop, hardly daring to touch in case you ruined it, “I love you, I love you, I love you!”
Rather than the stark white walls that your ship had been for centuries, it had changed completely. In fact, you found your hands going to the console just to make sure it was your ship! But no, the ringing in your mind - the familiar buzz around your thoughts - confirmed that it was your beautiful ship that had done this complete metamorphosis.
Book shelves lined every inch of the wall, filled with the texts you had managed to find scattered among the universe. Thousands of black-iron lanterns with dimly glowing candles lit up every inch of your console room, hung steady by an immobile, vine-like chains of different lengths. The shelfs were lined with all types of flora, in fact, some of them you even recognized from back on Gallifrey.
The floor was all dark hardwood now, as well, with the console glowing the same hue of orange the candles provided. You spotted a winding staircase going to what you assumed was a loft and you squealed in joy like a child.
“You. Are. Amazing.”
Because your ship was and, laughing, you raced towards the stairs, climbing up them nearly on all fours.
“Professor?”
Not even the Doctor entering your home could stop your exploration and, upon finding what exactly your ship had made for you, you squealed again. A beautiful deep red sofa with what could only be a tea dispenser had you putting a hand to the wall, showing your ship just how thankful you were.
You ran to the edge of the loft, looking down at the Doctor and her family, a smile nearly splitting your face in half.
“A loft, Doctor!” You said in pure excitement, “I love a book nook! And tea! They’ve given me access to all the tea I could ever want!”
The Doctor was smiling, her hands going to her hips as she glanced around the room with you.
“It’s brilliant,” she said, “First desktop change, then?”
You spotted something a little to the left of your eyesight and realized bizarrely that it was some sort of pulley system from the loft down to the main level again.
Just before your hand could wrap around the rope to test the strength of it, you felt something in the air shift. A change that had the hair on the back of your neck standing up. Your hands tightened on the rails of what you were leaning against and, without realizing it, you had crouched down, waiting for anything to happen.
And, in what seemed to be this regeneration’s luck, you watched in shock as a familiar figure appeared next to the Doctor, looking quite ruffled and panicked as his eyes went left and right, looking for something.
The humans screamed loudly, running towards the doors of your ship, and you watched, terrified, as this new problem finally came into clear focus. It wasn’t a enemy, not really, but it was certainly a surprise to find him in your ship once again.
“I leave a brand new Time Lady with you for one moment,” he growled, pointing an accusing finger at an equally shocked Doctor, “and I’ve already felt a psychic-”
“ Master?”
His head shot up towards you, his eyes going even wider at your words… At the words you had suddenly realized you had been saying the whole time.
“Sorry,” you said to the Time Lords, pushing yourself away from the railing to hide your face, “didn’t realize I was speaking…”
Gallifreyan. You hadn’t realized you were speaking Gallifreyan. No wonder the humans hadn’t said anything, it had probably been complete gibberish to them. The blush on your face could probably singe the flowers around you.
“Perfectly fine,” the Doctor called back cheerfully, “understandable, really. Always a shock to the system to see a TARDIS change.”
“At least the Professor has better tastes than you,” the Master said, and you could hear him walking around your home, making you nervous, “shocked it managed it so quickly with the shields the way they were.”
The shields.
This time there was no hesitation as you placed a foot inside the bit of rope that formed a circle and, knowing by instinct alone somehow, you easily made your way down to the console controls again. Falling had always been fun for you and you trusted your ship with your lives.
“Oh, that’s badass.” Ryan said as you landed.
You smirked at Ryan, giving him a dramatic wink, “ lots of practice, I promise you. Maybe you can learn.”
“You’re on,” Ryan replied, and you found yourself surprised at how easily you assumed Ryan would be back in your ship again. Maybe this was how the Doctor became so familiar with this species.
“The shields,” you repeated, glancing at both the Doctor and the Master, “my ship really shouldn’t have had enough power to manage a desktop change.”
The Master rolled his eyes, “well, after I fixed that taped up version of a power converted you had on the floor, it may-”
You felt your jaw tense as you considered what he was implying, “you fixed my shields? Without my permission?”
It was a hell of a law to break - touching someone else’s ship - and despite how far away Gallifrey was, how destroyed their culture may be, you still put value in it. He had no right to fix your ship without asking you and, even if he had saved your life, you felt violated that he would dare to try such a thing.
The Master looked anything other than worried about your rather dark tone, “your ship latched onto my timestream, child,” he said, and you felt yourself bristle at the dismissal, “it was my duty to ensure your safety.”
“Master,” the Doctor admonished, “now isn’t the time-”
You could feel a certain fury rising up within you. You actually had to turn your back to him, your hands going to the brand new dials and levers, distracting yourself.
He had saved you, you had to remind yourself. He had saved you.
But it was your home - it was built by your hands, held together with your mind, and you felt insulted that someone had dared to “fix” them without consulting you-without having the decency to even ask.
Not to mention… Child? He called you a child, really?
“Fine then,” you muttered, “Then as the creator of this ship, I demand you show me how you did it.”
You turned just in time to catch the look on the two Time Lords faces - the Doctor, mouth slightly ajar, looking shocked and the Master, utterly devoid of emotion as he considered your words.
After all, you may have had no powerful titles or names on Gallifrey, but you knew its politics better than most. The Lord of Oakdown wouldn’t dare turn down a challenge like this one. And, being from house Oakdown, the Master had knowledge - knowledge that you would happily ask about if you had ever graduated from the Academy.
Then, under your brutal anger, the Master laughed. He laughed so hard that he leaned his hands against his own knees, hunching in on himself.
“Come on, now,” The Doctor said to him, her own arms crossing at the Master’s ridiculous behavior, “she has a right to ask.”
“You know,” Yaz said all of a sudden, reminding all three of them that humans were on this ship, “I forget you’re aliens sometimes.”
“You’d think with a time machine, you’d remember, eh?” Graham added, “but you lot have your own customs and what-nots.”
The Doctor sighed, “it’s considered rude to touch-”
“Illegal,” you muttered, “highly illegal.”
“Illegal,” the Doctor corrected, nodding her head side to side as the Master scoffed, “to touch another’s TARDIS without permission. Even if it was a gesture of good faith that the Master intended to be…?”
“Yes,” The Master said strongly, looking at you as he said the word. Just for a laugh, you were tempted to throw up a rather rude gesture. Was that what this body liked? Being a rebel?
“It was…” The Doctor glanced at you for the word.
“It was rude of you to do this without asking,” you told the Master, “even if it helped. Especially since I must have been in a healing coma at the time you did it, yes?”
The Master smirked - just the slight lifting of his lips, and you felt as if you were the child you claimed to be. It was frustrating to be so small against two giants and, for a moment, you found yourself wondering if the Master finding you was a curse rather than a gift.
Even amongst your own people, you felt like an alien.
“ You remind me of my daughter,” The Master said quietly, in Gallifreyan, “stubborn as a mule and too eager to learn.”
How hard it must be to look upon someone like you and see another person entirely. You had known that the Doctor and the Master had children, maybe even nodded politely to their eldest in the Academy hallways, but it hadn’t clicked. You may have lost your friends and the people you considered family, but they had lost a child.
Your eyes went to the Doctor, only to find that her attention had gone to the shelves of your TARDIS, fingers trailing over the various titles as she very obviously tried to ignore them.
You felt like doing the same… But you had never been a runner.
“Then teach me,” you said back to him, “two of the brightest Time Lords to ever leave the Academy? I could learn so much from the two of you.”
The Master huffed, his eyes rolling, “I-”
“And,” you said, this time in earth English, hoping to diffuse the tension, “I’ll let you read the Time Lord texts I found scattered around the universe.”
The time, the Master’s laugh had nothing to do with his own actions, “I promise you, any texts you have found I have already known about from the Matrix. Besides-”
“Where in the world did you find volume twenty-three of the Engineer’s original journal?”
You had a very funny feeling that the Doctor was trying to help in her own way. You made a mental note to ask her about it later.
“Hold on a minute,” She continued, now in actual disbelief, “ every volume?”
The Master’s eyes widened dramatically at that little tibet. You felt your own shit-eating grin on your face.
“Show me what you did,” you repeated, “and my library is yours. I think that’s a pretty fair deal, yes?”
“Sorry, wait,” Yaz said, “are you seriously inviting him onto your TARDIS?”
You really, really had to figure out what the heck TARDIS stood for. It was getting ridiculous.
“Of course I am,” you told Yaz, “besides the illegal touching, I do owe him a life debt. I think.”
“You do.”
You made a dramatic hand gesture towards him, as if to say, see, human, this makes sense. Yaz looked anything other than convinced by your little show. If anything, she looked worried.
“You know he tried to kill off the entire earth population a couple of months ago.”
“I stopped him!”
You blinked, processing that information at what felt like wasn’t enough time. Humans were… Well, humans weren’t Time Lords. You had told the Doctor that they weren’t less either and you believed that, but you could understand how someone like the Master could see them as, well, smaller than themselves.
You remembered how he pushed into you after you had mentioned the Doctor. He was a terrifying creature, one that you would have avoided at all costs back home… Anyone on the High Council had scared you. But there was something about the Master’s heartfelt confession that reminded you he had lost even more than yourself.
That kind of understanding would never go away.
“My opinion on apes is of little concern.”
You could feel a headache coming on.
“These humans travel with the Doctor,” you reasoned, “that must mean something about their character, yes?”
The Master huffed out a laugh, but you cut off whatever he was going to say.
“Do not hurt a single soul on this ship - and no hurting humans, any humans, while you’re traveling with us… Agreed?”
“I haven’t agreed to share my knowledge with you, little one.”
“ And no calling me a child,” you added, just because it was probably your only chance too, and you were convinced he was going to say yes considering he had shown up here with still slightly ruffled clothing over your very loud, telepathic happiness. You had a funny feeling that, despite his very alarming personality, some part of him had liked you already.
“You’re not invited on my TARDIS, just so we’re clear.”
You turned your head towards the Doctor, finding that she looked every bit of the Time Lady she was as she stood stone faced in front of the Master. She was somehow terrifying all of a sudden, the aura around her ancient and old, and you wondered how much it took for someone like her to be so… So weary of the Master.
You had questions resting on the top of your tongue… But not in front of the humans, and especially not in front of both of them.
“Crystal clear, my dear,” the Master said with a smile full of teeth, then, glancing at you with the same manic glee, “I accept… Teen.”
You felt yourself roll your eyes. Of course he would already find a loophole.
At least the Doctor thought it was funny.
“You want to create a tether-”
“Bridge.”
“ Tether, the Professor’s word is better, believe me… Between the two TARDISes by… What is this? Who did this math?”
“The Doctor!”
“Oi, I’m telling you right now that the Professor did everything to the right of this board and-”
“It’s to the left!”
“Eh, no way! Show me!”
You watched as the Master pointed out the Doctor’s now glaring mistake. It must have been fate that stopped them from trying it their first go around, otherwise you were fairly convinced both of your ships would have fallen into the void… Or worse.
The Doctor made a noise of disagreement, “what are we, Time Tots? Look, here - if we use my equation, including a dash of dimensional physics because, obviously, it’s needed, we’ll…”
The Doctor continued her speech but your eyes drifted somewhere else. It had been exactly an hour and while it was unbelievable and awe inspiring to see two Time Lords rant and argue over theories, you had to admit other questions were on your mind.
Looking at the Master now, you almost couldn’t believe there was some sort of plot to destroy the earth. He was animated - limbs flying everywhere, eager to interrupt the two of them, even more eager to prove them both wrong… He was passionate, almost scary in his need to be better, but he didn’t seem evil.
He saved you, you kept saying as a mantra… An evil man wouldn’t save anyone, let alone someone like you.
You listened again as the Doctor physically grabbed the Master to bring him in front of a different board and, sighing, you realized you were simply too tired to follow their line of thinking.
By now, if you were alone, you’d be curled up with a book and talking mindlessly to your ship, taking the very barest of hints of home and ignoring the urge to go out into the universe. You still feared traveling - daleks weren’t the only monsters out there - and yet you craved it something fierce.
But going out was what killed you in the end.
You shuddered, eyes going around your new desktop. The humans had gone up to the loft, happy to explore, and you were almost bitter that they had found a secret door before you had. In fact, thoughts running wild, you had a funny feeling it would take the both of them quite a while to notice you were missing…
As quietly and quickly as you could, you carefully snuck up the spiral staircase, a wicked smile of success on your face when they didn’t notice you leaving. It wasn’t that you were trying to be disrespectful, it was simply the allure of your home being entirely new that was too much.
It was truly spectacular, looking out over the handing lanterns. You realized now that the candles were actually very realistic holograms and you found yourself even more impressed with your ship. You stared at the elegant sofa, running a hand over the soft material. Without realizing it, you were sitting down on it, nearly moaning at the way you sunk into the comfy cushions. You realized very suddenly that besides fainting into a literal coma, you hadn’t actually stopped yet.
You regenerated. You hadn’t even properly looked in a mirror yet. In fact, you gripped your slightly longer hair, staring at the strands with a closer eye, realizing that the hue was slightly different than before - thicker as well, with curls that just wanted to happen at the ends of it. You hadn’t processed the change, not really, and you found the very idea of it exhausted.
Your elbows went to your knees, rubbing at your new eyes. It was something else to hear two people bicker below you, as if the new change went hand-in-hand with an entirely new life… And while you didn’t hate that idea, you had a sudden, insane longing for the isolation of your life before. You weren’t good with normal people, not after the war, and yet… Yet the Time Lords down below weren’t normal, were they?
Your head hurt, something that was new as well. Without meaning to, you were leaning on your side on the very, very soft new sofa. In fact, the comfort of it made you smile, very much reminded of how while your ship may have changed, they’re personality hadn’t.
“Thank you,” you said to them, a hand trailing on the grated ground of the loft, “you’re too good to me.”
Going by the low vibrating against your hand, your amazing ship had a mild disagreement. Still, that only made your lips twitch into a smile, glad to have something stay the same.
“Still you and me, eh?” you told them, “you, me, and every planet out there. Fair deal?”
With the ringing confidence of the ship buzzing happily in your mind, the two almost familiar voices of Time Lords of olds beneath you, and the sheer exhaustion you had, you had no choice but to close your eyes and fall into a deep sleep.