Soul's Shadow (Doctor Who - SI)

Part XV (XII)

"He what?" Martha stared at the door, mouth opened.

The Master grunted, rushing past me. "Oh, this bloody idiot. Not thinking again!" He tore the doors open, shouting, "Doctor! Don't you dare..."

Martha and I quickly exchanged a look and followed. She wasn't even complaining about the fact that the Master had left the TARDIS.

Donna stood there, outside, hurling around with tears shimmering in her eyes, whilst Wilf seemed to be shocked, biting his fist and glaring at a large round and open chamber in the room. A young man stood nearby, his whole posture sunken together.

We were in what seemed like a laboratory, or maybe some sort of science class room. I barely had a moment to take a proper look when my attention was caught by the Master, who practically ran towards the alien machine, frantically ripping out a panel and tearing at wires.

I shared a look with Martha and she seemed confused, watching wordlessly what was, obviously, an act of growing desperation.

"The idiot fried the controls from the other side!" The Master ruffled his hair, gritting his teeth.

"That's not good," muttered Wilf. "He's all alone with them aliens up there."

"Y... you can't bring him back?" Donna sounded shocked, as if she had been counting on him to fix this somehow. The Doctor had probably left her and Wilf as quickly as he had rushed out of the TARDIS, not allowing any of us to really process what he was planning.

But why? As I watched the Master fumbling with wires and his laser screwdriver, I asked myself that question over and over again. Why? Why was he so ready to get himself killed, only to save... us? Humans, the earth. What could we possibly be to him that was so important that he was sacrificing his friends for it? Or maybe... A dark voice inside of me had another idea, another thought, gnawing on me. What if he never did get used to everyone around him always leaving? Dying. How many times already had he lost... everything?

"No no no no no!" The Master slammed the control panel with both hands. "Don't do that to me, Doctor! Don't you dare doing this to me! You promised!"

"G... get away." The boy I had seen before had stepped to him, his posture no longer sunken in, but now straight.

"I'm not letting him kill himself for a primitive bunch like you!" spat the Master.

"Yeah." The young man nodded. "And I know how this teleporter works. I - I can fix it. It's quicker and we don't have much time."

The Master leaned down to his eye level, voice low as a growl. "You will beg me to let you die if you fail this. Or if you try to trick me."

The young man only nodded and then they swapped places, the Master watching intently. It took less than a minute before the young man looked back up, a grim smile on his face, his flat hand hovering over the button.

"What are you doing?" Donna seemed to sense something, her voice alarmed.

But the boy only smiled. "Something clever." And then he slammed the button and vanished in a short flash of faint light.

I swallowed, watching the Master rush to the portal. "Oh no, you don't! I'm going to shred you into-"

He was silenced by another flash, then a thud. The Doctor appeared out of thin air, literally crashing into the Master and clawing at his clothes to not fall down. Confused, he looked up, blinking with an open mouth at the other man.

And the Master, recovering from the surprise rather quickly, was furious.

"What did you even think?" he shouted, slamming the Doctor against the round wall.