Deadlock

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

"...Say something nice..." For a moment time seemed to freeze, the air around them stilled, the noise of the overpopulated earth dropped away and it was just them.

The Doctor could feel his two hearts pounding wildly in his chest, his hands trembling as he held Missy's device in his hand, held the weapon up against his oldest friend. The face may have been new but those eyes....sharp and icy blue like a dagger they pierced his two hearts. Yet now at the end they seemed to melt slightly, with the curve of a genuine smile not the The Master's habitual smirk pulling at those red painted lips.

"...Please..." Only this time instead of a taunt The Doctor caught the hint of something else and just this once he decided to give her what she wanted.

"You win." He spat, the words tasting like bitter poison on his tongue. He didn't want to do this, to be forced to murder his oldest friend in order to save the soul of his latest companion. Yet he was trapped between a rock and a hard place, both of the women forcing him here. He could save Clara at expense of The Master's life and his own soul.

"Thank you." Missy's reply wrong-footed him slightly and the doctor hesitated.

This was The Master, she didn't just give up...she didn't just stand there like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. There was something he was missing, something about this whole sorry business that didn't make sense...She had been winning, The Master had been at the point of victory and she had chosen to throw that away, she knew him too well to know he would always have found another way around the situation; a slippery get out clause to her deadly conundrum...conquer the universe or condemn the human race to die and be reborn as Cybermen....

"If it will help you hurry it up Doctor you can consider it a mercy kill..." The rest of her words died in her throat and The Doctor could only watch as Missy convulsed, her scarlet tipped fingers clawing futilely at her throat as she dropped to her knees, missing by a hair's breadth the pulse of blue laser fire that appeared out of nowhere.

Whirling around The Doctor stared in horror as he spotted a lone remaining Cyberman, then the metal man saluted and The Doctor was filled with a sense of knowing...The Brigadier. He had tried to kill The Master, tried and failed but it seemed someone was having far greater success but how?

Pulling out his sonic The Doctor dropped to his knees, running the beeping device over his fallen adversary he began to get basic readings...toxicity levels rising...primary and secondary respiratory systems in some sort of deadlock...both open and competing and blocking the other from functioning. That wasn't possible.... Staring down in horror The Doctor was faced with watching his oldest friend choke to death, those ice blue eyes now wild and bloodshot.

Not like this...He couldn't go through this again...The Master bleeding and dying in his arms upon the Hellicarrier had almost broken him.

Reaching out he brushed the tears from her cheeks surprised to feel the brush of her mind against his own, the sudden telepathic contact after so long alone with his own thoughts caused The Doctor to start and pull away breaking the contact. Yet the pleading look in her eyes urged him back.

The flood of thoughts...memories...emotions were overwhelming, it was like being caught in a rush of flood water and swept away and The Doctor could only make sense of snatches...of glimpses...before they were gone, it was too much too fast... Yet there was one overriding mental command that came across loud and clear and The Doctor clung to it.

THE DEVICE...NOW!

Pulling back into his own mind and body The Doctor stared down at The Master's deadly device still clasped in his right hand, his fingers trembling as they tightened on its surface. She couldn't mean...she couldn't want him to...

Please Theta

It was barely a whisper across his mind but The Doctor couldn't ignore her. Shaking he raised his hand, holding out the device his finger lingering over the trigger yet even now he hesitated.

It's...alright...silly boy

Her mental voice was so faint now The Doctor could barely hear her, yet clearly his own feelings were being broadcast loud and clear as somehow Missy managed somehow to cover his hand with her own...her fingers threading between his own.

Drowning in the icy blue of her gaze The Doctor felt it the second before...before she did what he couldn't...before she relieved him of the last burden of having to be the one to do this.

"No." The cry erupted from The Doctor's lips as the dreadful red fire rushed out as he watched it wash over her body, the last sight of her burned into his retinas, a fond smirk tugging at those painted lips.

-/-