The Doctor and her friends made their way to the underbelly of the citadel with Trev and his firing squad waiting. “Now, Trev,” chided the Doctor, “we’re unarmed. Where’s the fight in shooting unarmed people? Where’s the honor?”
“Doctor, you’re known for using your brain, a very useful weapon,” replied Trev. “I’d hardly call you unarmed.”
“…I’m…flattered?”
“You should be, because it means I intend to have you executed swiftly! Squad, present arms!” The shooting party presented arms.
“WAIT!” called Lurra Rus’ voice as she joined the group.
“Ah, the last non-Gallifreyan target,” chuckled Trev. “All that’s left is our puppet.”
“General, he’s got worse plans than you! I beg you to listen!” urged Lurra Rus.
“Worse plans? But he-!” protested Rassilon.
“Lady Rassilon, whatever he is, the Master is worse!” insisted Lurra Rus.
“…I can’t believe I’m feeling generous to a member of a species that’s extinct,” scoffed Trev. “What is it?”
“Yes, what is it?” asked the Doctor. “How is the Master’s plan worse?”
“The Master is planning to destroy us!” replied Lurra Rus.
“…He couldn’t even if he tried!” grunted Trev. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves. And accusations are not evidence.”
“Not us personally,” explained Lurra Rus. “Our economic systems! General Trev, do the Sontarans have a stock market?”
“Of course we do,” replied Trev. “I have stock in Imperial Armaments. They make the best weapons.”
“Imperial Armament shares will become worthless with what the Master has planned,” said Lurra Rus.
“He told you this?” asked Amy.
“He was trying to recruit me and the Doctor by proxy,” replied Lurra Rus.
“Why would he do that?” quizzed Trev.
“He claimed that he needed me,” answered Lurra Rus.
“Why?” asked the Doctor.
“Yes, why?” repeated Trev. “I’d love to know.”
The Master smirked as he approached a console and opened a communications channel. He held a crystal similar to the Heart of his TARDIS. “That is not credible!” scoffed Trev’s voice. “He can’t sum up the economy of a single planet on a mere computer drive, much less any intergalactic economy!”
“The Master’s a genius!” replied the Doctor.
“He’s an engineer like you, Doctor! Not an accountant!”
“You can’t take the risk, General,” urged Lurra Rus. “The Doctor’s right. He’ll destroy every single economy.”
“I was under the impression, given your story,” remarked Trev, “that such a goal is what you want.”
“Look, the corporations are bad, but what the Master is planning is far worse.”
“Don’t tell me,” muttered the Doctor, “he sees time and space as one big concentration camp with him as the commandant.”
“Yes,” replied Lurra Rus.
“Can you imagine it, Trev?!” urged the Doctor. “All the factories of time and space producing weapons, warships, armies of combat robots, and tanks! Every skyline full of smoking chimneys, every worker a slave-!”
“Doctor, you’re describing heaven to us,” interrupted a Sontaran Trooper. “The only wrinkle in that plan is that the primitive known as the Master intends to be at the top of the heap.” The Master wasn’t taking that lying down! He allowed for two-way communication.
“I think you’ll find, Sontaran,” he hissed, “that YOU are the primitive, not me!”
“Master?! Where’s that voice coming from?!” yelped the Doctor.
“Twi’lek, what is that in your hand?” asked Trev.
“You mean this?” asked Lurra Rus. The Master guessed that Lurra Rus was showing off the weapon.
“What in the name of the Sash of Rassilon-?!” spluttered Romana.
“I fitted a radio link in that little…gift I gave you,” chuckled the Master.
“What is that device?” asked Trev.
“It’s a weaponized TARDIS heart!” replied Rassilon. “A crude singularity bomb!”
“What in Sontar’s name-?!” yelped Trev. “Where did you get that cowardly weapon?!”
“From the Master, believe it or not,” replied Lurra Rus. “He claims that Romana ripped it out of his TARDIS to act as a deterrent against you lot.”
“So, a President of the High Council of Time Lords decides to play the coward!” hissed Trev.
“I haven’t been anywhere near the Master’s TARDIS!” insisted Romana. “That kind of weapon is immoral, illegal, and Rassilon over there never thought of such a weapon even at her maddest because, like you correctly said, General, it’s cowardly! What use would I have for that kind of weapon?!”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find it to be VERY versatile,” purred the Master. “With this one, I plan to kill a whole multitude of birds with one stone!”
“I knew it! You haven’t changed a bit!” snarled Amy.
“I can’t, Miss Rose! I see that now! Listening to everyone has confirmed that the universe MUST pay for my madness!”
“There’s still the matter of that weapon Romana constructed!” hissed Trev.
“I doubt she built such a thing,” replied Rassilon.
“She didn’t, Lurra Rus,” confirmed the Master. “I’m afraid I built it while everyone was running around like headless chickens. I faked the evidence against her. I believe people in your galaxy call it a…smoking blaster!” He then laughed.
“There’s no reason to panic,” soothed Lurra Rus. “It’s useless without the trigger.”
“Lurra Rus,” interjected the Doctor, “do you know what the trigger to that kind of singularity bomb looks like?”
“…Well, no,” replied Lurra Rus.
“Well, give me that! See, here? Trigger!” At the Doctor’s declaration, the Master cackled.
“Don’t imagine you can defuse it in time, Doctor!” he warned.
“Master, whatever you want, we can talk!” insisted the Doctor.
“You’ve always known what I want, Doctor!” replied the Master. “I tried to change on numerous occasions! I really thought I could, but you were right!”
“Scant consolation!” argued the Doctor.
“It wasn’t meant to be ANY kind of consolation. …I will miss you, Doctor.” He then keyed in a command. “That singularity bomb, on the other hand, well, it CAN’T miss you at that range!”
Below the citadel, the singularity bomb beeped as the Master laughed. “HE’S ACTIVATED THE DETONATION SEQUENCE!!” warned the Doctor. “GIMME!!”
“We can’t outrun that kind of blast, Doctor!” replied Rassilon as the Doctor took the device from Lurra Rus and ran.
“YOU STAY THERE!!” called the Doctor.
“What is she doing?!” demanded Trev.
“She’s going to one of the old temporal mine shafts,” replied Romana. “She probably intends to drop the bomb down there. I hope she drops it far-!” That was when the explosion ripped through the caverns.
The computers warned of a massive explosion and release of temporal radiation. As the alarms sounded, the Master cackled. He then got to work and headed to the vault of the Eye of Harmony.
Thankfully, the Doctor’s allies survived, but there was still the matter of the Doctor and the Sontarans. The group was surrounded by an energy field. Rassilon checked the device that was deploying the energy field. “There,” she said. “That should keep the temporal radiation from affecting us.”
“But the Doctor-!” yelped Amy.
“The field should surround her too,” assured Rassilon. “We’ll find her.”
“How far do the mines go?” asked Susan.
“Pretty far,” replied Romana, “but the temporal radiation will reach the capital before we get there. That’s sure to affect the Eye of Harmony!”
“That’s if the Master didn’t think to seal the Vault in time,” remarked Rassilon. “And I’m betting he’s there with the heart of the Doctor’s TARDIS.”
“…You think he’s taken the TARDIS’s heart?” asked Amy.
“Won’t that-?!” asked Lurra Rus.
“Strand you, yes,” replied Rassilon. “That is until we deal with the Master and make a new TARDIS for the Doctor, but I doubt it’s going to be a Type 40 like hers.”
“What do we do, then, Rassilon?” asked Romana. By now, everyone was looking to Rassilon for guidance.
“What do you think we do?” replied Rassilon. “We’re protected from the temporal radiation, but the Sontarans aren’t. So, we find the Doctor, confirm her survival or death, and stop the Master!”
“Sounds like a good plan, let me help speed that along!” called the Doctor’s voice.
“Doctor!” called Amy.
“Just a second,” interjected Rassilon as she pulled out a device. She waved it over the Doctor, then sighed in relief. “Sorry about that, Doctor.”
“Making sure I’m not an illusion as a result of the explosion, very wise,” replied the Doctor.
“Grandfather, how will we be getting into the citadel?” asked Susan. “The temporal radiation will surely affect things and the Master will have locked himself in there!”
“True, but we have three people that have presidential codes,” replied the Doctor.
“Three?” asked Susan.
“I was made President until Romana was elected to the position,” explained the Doctor. Susan tried to hold back laughter.
“You?” she snickered. “Grandfather, when were you elected?”
“Oh, after that business with the Death Zone,” replied the Doctor.
“…The High Council really ISN’T infallible,” chuckled Susan.
“OI!”
The Master continued his work. With the old Eye now disconnected, he had to use alternative power sources to continue. The Type 40 Heart had grown to the size of the original Eye of Harmony and was now being connected up. “Perfect!” he said. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Doctor! You never understood! It is everyone else that is to blame for my madness! The only cure is to sieze power! Laws will be MINE to create! Not to follow! All of time and space, in the palm of my hand! I shall be a wise and tolerant dictator. Swift but fair in retribution. I shall be the new Lord President Eternal! Gallifrey will be the center of an empire that shall span throughout eternity! And once all is finally under my total control, I shall sieze the next universe and the next! The whole of creation will be MINE to command! And all the Gallifreyans wishing to come back need merely swear an oath of loyalty, then they shall be reloomed into my servants!”
“Thank you for discussing your master plan as usual, Master,” came the Doctor’s voice. The Master turned to see everyone standing there.
“Ah, temporal illusions,” he scoffed. “Well, I’m quite happy to have illusions to be the last images of my old friend. Admit it ‘Doctor’, you’ve lost! I shall be the savior of Gallifrey! I shall rule the Eternal Time Lord Empire!”
“Oh, very good, very good,” mocked the Doctor. “…Just one problem.”
“And what’s that, ‘Doctor’?” asked the Master. The Doctor then slugged the Master in the jaw.
“NOW!” shouted the Doctor. Rassilon, Romana, and Susan quickly took over the controls as the Master readjusted his jaw and realized something; temporal illusions CAN’T slug someone in the jaw!