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locker_monsterTitle: The Other Side of the World (28/31)
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.
Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven.
People always described the Valiant as the Master’s palace in the sky, equating it to the throne from which he ruled his kingdom. Martha simply saw it as the airship where it had all begun, the place where she had abandoned friends. Every day she walked the Earth, she had known it was hovering in the sky above her, looming over her like one of the Master’s statues that dotted the globe.
But ships could be toppled, just like regimes.
With two armed guards flanking her on either side, Martha stepped onto the bridge of the Valiant. There was no eager staff waiting to see humankind make contact with a new species or any news cameras to capture the moment, not this time. This was decidedly a more personal event.
For the first time in a year, Martha laid eyes on the people left behind. She had constantly wondered about their fates and some of her anxiety eased when she saw that her friends were all right, so to speak. Gwen wore a stained boiler suit, her hair unkempt and covered with engine grease. Ianto stood beside her clothed in a butler’s outfit with noticeable blood stains on his white shirt. Jack was filthy, his clothes and face caked with dirt and dried blood and his shirt was riddled with holes. The three of them reacted with visible shock when they saw her. They seemed just as relieved that she was alive, but there was a slight sadness, too, that she had finally been caught.
Separated from the others, Rose stood behind the Master on the upper level of the bridge. She wore a stunning red silk dress and her hair was styled artfully in soft curls. As beautiful as she looked, it felt like a punishment to Martha. The Master had dressed Rose up like a doll, like she was his plaything. Martha was left to wonder what else Rose had to endure while in the Master’s company.
The presence of the guards in the room, a dozen in total, barred Martha from rushing forward. The pair of guards shoved her to the centre of the bridge, putting her right in front of the Master. The hardwood underneath her feet was a slightly darker shade than the rest of the floor. She realized uneasily that she was standing right where her family had been executed. Her stomach rolled but she tried not to let it show.
The Master leaned casually on the stair railing, as though he was entertaining friends. He grinned at Martha, clearly enjoying the moment. “‘The Famous Martha Jones.’” Coming from the Master, the moniker was filled with loathing, not gratitude. “You’ve been a busy little girl, spreading hope like a plague.”
There was so much Martha wanted to say but now that the moment was here, she didn’t need words. Simply standing there in defiance was evidence enough of how she felt. She was in the lair of the beast but she wasn’t unarmed.
The Master didn’t seem to mind she had no reply. “You gave yourself up. I like that. Was it meant to be some noble gesture to inspire the globe? Do you know what I think?” He leaned forward, like he was imparting a secret, his voice a sotto whisper. “I’ll have the complete Jones family. The entire set to decompose in the cargo hold.”
The Master’s laughter tore through Martha like a bullet to the gut, ripping up her insides with no discretion. She bit down so hard on her lower lip that she tasted blood. Behind the Master, Rose looked away, unable to meet Martha’s gaze any longer.
While she had promised herself she would keep a level head, standing there, facing the Master with the lifeblood of her family staining the floor underneath her feet, Martha’s hatred flared. Here and now, she could avenge her family. Her hands trembled, like they had a mind of their own and they couldn’t wait to wrap themselves around the Master’s neck.
“You’ll be with them soon enough. Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Sixty seconds to align the black hole converters. At zero, your death will be the first. What do you have to say about that, Martha Jones?”
She forced herself to look up. A digital clock on the wall ticked away the seconds. As each number flashed by she felt the tension in the room mount. Jack shifted nervously as he eyed the guards, probably gauging whether he could make a move without anyone being hurt. Rose gripped the upper railing so tightly her knuckles were white. A minute had never felt so long in Martha’s life.
From his suit pocket, the Master pulled out his laser weapon. “My children, are you ready?”
The voices of six billion Toclafane answered back, echoing across the room, “We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice!”
The Master pointed his laser weapon at Martha, like a king with his sceptre. “Kneel.” She lowered herself to the floor, her knees resting where the bodies of her family had fallen. Thirty seconds remained on the clock. “And so, it falls to me, your lord and master, to establish a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward–”
It started as a smile but it quickly turned into a giggle that escaped Martha’s lips before she could stop herself. All eyes fell on her. The clock ticked by to twenty seconds.
“What’s so funny?” asked the Master with a sneer.
Martha looked him straight in the face. Fifteen seconds, fourteen seconds... “You’ve visited this planet too many times.” Her voice rang steady, the words flowing easily. “There are people out there who’ve met you, who hate you. Australia, Brazil, San Francisco, even right here in London. And one thing connects all of them.”
Her gaze drifted to Rose. “They’ve travelled with the Doctor.”
The name was like a blow to the Master. He scowled, his hand tightening around his laser weapon until his knuckles popped. Behind him, Rose silently beamed and Jack stood up proudly.
“The people of the Earth, inspired by one man. He may not be here to stop you, but they’re all willing to put an end to this. I walked the Earth looking for a way to defeat you and I did. I found the Doctor’s army.”
The clock hit zero and chaos erupted. The comm behind Rose crackled to life and dozens of panicked radio transmissions filled the air. It was a garbled mess, but as she listened, she picked up on a few words that were being repeated over and over.
Army. Attack. Defences down. Outnumbered.
Rushing up the stairs, the Master went to the console and punched at the controls. For a second Rose thought he was firing up the Valiant’s weapons system and she ran over to stop him. She wouldn’t put it past him to strike out when it seemed like he had lost. When she reached him though, she saw he had called up the video feeds from all of the shipyards over the globe. Everywhere, it was the same, whether it was broad daylight or the middle of the night. Armies of people attacked the guards, overwhelming them with numbers. The people leading the charges were unfamiliar to Rose – men and women of varying ages using everything from guns to baseball bats to swords and explosives to ward off attacks – but she had no doubt that these were the former companions of the Doctor. She briefly spotted Sarah Jane leading an assault, handling a rifle with startling precision, but the woman never shot to kill.
It hit Rose right there and then that this was the Doctor’s legacy: the people who travelled with him and whose lives he touched. Even though the Doctor wasn’t around anymore, his ideals of peace and order were living on through his companions.
“You’ve lost,” Rose said to the Master. A smile touched her lips, their roles reversed for once.
He spun around and he struck Rose so hard with the back of his hand that she was knocked off her feet. She landed roughly, biting down on her tongue. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, making her gag. For a split second, as the Master stood over her with an unstoppable rage burning in his eyes, she saw the true Time Lord. Not some psychotic ruler, but a desperate man with nothing left. No home, no companions, no worthy adversaries.
She almost felt sorry for him.
The head of his laser screwdriver snapped into place. “Your friend may have an army. I have legions. My children!” The Master shouted, addressing the billions of Toclafane over the globe. “Wipe out the human race.”
A swarm of Toclafane materialized on the Valiant bridge, appearing with their usual flash of light, as the Master turned his weapon on Martha.
The spikes on the bottom of the Toclafane shot out, ready to incinerate everyone in the room. Jack took up a defensive position in front of Gwen and Ianto, his immortality making him an effective shield, but from the panic evident in his eyes he knew it would do little to save his team mates. Martha jumped to her feet but there was nowhere to go. To Rose, it felt like her friends were a million miles away. There was nothing she could do in the next second that would spare their lives.
Something rumbled deep in the bowels of the ship.
From out of nowhere, a violent wind tore through the room, throwing everyone off their feet. The force of it plastered Rose to the floor. The strength of the gale brought tears to the corners of her eyes as the maelstrom lashed at her skin and clothes. Instinct compelled her to grab onto something. The memory of a hungry white void sucking away everything dear to her flashed across her mind.
She was barely able to lift her head, let alone her arm, but in her tiny glimpse up, she saw the others splayed flat on the floor, Jack fighting to reach out to Martha and their fingertips just touched. Caught in the storm above them, the Toclafane were motionless, their deadly nature suddenly muted.
Rose blinked back tears but she couldn’t blame her distorted vision for what she saw next. The Toclafane faded away, like they were blown out of existence by the force of the winds.
Before she could question what was happening, the storm died abruptly, the sudden lack of the roaring winds making her ears ring. Rose pushed herself up into a sitting position, her whole body sore. Down on the floor of the bridge, Martha and the others slowly roused themselves. While everyone else looked utterly baffled, Martha seemed almost relieved, like she had been expecting a different outcome.
“This is UNIT Central. What’s happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated!”
The voice on the radio broke the silence of the room but it did little to alleviate the confusion. What was being described was an event that happened a year ago. The Valiant was capable of many things, but Rose was fairly sure it couldn’t travel in time despite having a Time Lord designer.
“It worked,” said Martha. Her smile was a mile wide but her good mood faltered when she turned and noticed the Master.
He had his laser screwdriver aimed right at her heart and with his hair mussed from the storm, he looked dangerously unpredictable. “The paradox machine.” The Master walked down the stairs until only a few feet separated him from Martha. “So you figured it out. What the Toclafane really are.”
The sudden disappearance of the Toclafane and the reversal of time both made sense now. The rumble from within the ship must have been an explosion that destroyed the paradox machine. Without the TARDIS keeping the paradox in check, the timeline had corrected itself, bringing the universe back to the moment it had all began. Rose couldn’t understand why everyone on the bridge still remembered, but it didn’t matter right now.
Martha scarcely moved, as did everyone else on the bridge. “Months ago. The Toclafane are the humans we met at the Silo.”
The Master didn’t hurl any insults. His finger tightened around the proverbial trigger of the laser screwdriver.
The lift doors opened and two figures rushed off only to be brought to a halt by the proceedings in front of them. Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato, looking as though they had just escaped a war zone, with their clothes and faces stained with ash, glanced around the room as the room stared back at them.
Sensing she only had a few seconds, Rose slipped under the railing of the upper deck and landed clumsily on the floor below. Scrambling over on her knees, she grabbed the gun from the holster of a nearby guard. She aimed the weapon at the Master, her hands shaking madly.
The shot rang out. Rose felt the recoil of the gun reverberate down her arms.
The bullet tore right through the Master’s right hand, destroying his laser screwdriver as well. He dropped what remained of the weapon as he cried out in pain. Clutching his injured hand, he sank to his knees, drops of blood splashing onto the floor.
The guards stared dumbfounded at their defeated leader, allowing Jack to snatch up a pair of handcuffs. He smiled at his reunited team as he restrained the Master. The Time Lord scowled, but he didn’t put up a fight.
Rose dropped the gun with a shaky breath, the weight of her actions hitting her full on. They had stopped the Master. They were free. The room spun, like she was falling. A hand touched her gently on the arm and she looked up, her descent halted. Martha regarded her with a concerned gaze, silently imploring if everything was all right.
Rose pulled her friend into a hug. They embraced tightly, Martha lending her support as she had the first day they met.
Rating: PG
Characters: Rose, Martha
Timeline: Season three
Summary: Season three AU; After a fateful visit to Royal Hope Hospital, Rose finds herself lost in time and space with medical student Martha Jones. As they struggle to find a way home, they meet old friends, and old enemies, along the way...
Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Any borrowed dialogue belongs to Russell T Davies and the BBC.
A/N: A sequel to "The Other Side". It's not necessary reading; it just sets up the premise that it was the Doctor who was trapped in Pete's World, not Rose. And a shout-out to my awesome betas:
joking and quean_of_swords. This story wouldn't have been posted without you guys.Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven.
People always described the Valiant as the Master’s palace in the sky, equating it to the throne from which he ruled his kingdom. Martha simply saw it as the airship where it had all begun, the place where she had abandoned friends. Every day she walked the Earth, she had known it was hovering in the sky above her, looming over her like one of the Master’s statues that dotted the globe.
But ships could be toppled, just like regimes.
With two armed guards flanking her on either side, Martha stepped onto the bridge of the Valiant. There was no eager staff waiting to see humankind make contact with a new species or any news cameras to capture the moment, not this time. This was decidedly a more personal event.
For the first time in a year, Martha laid eyes on the people left behind. She had constantly wondered about their fates and some of her anxiety eased when she saw that her friends were all right, so to speak. Gwen wore a stained boiler suit, her hair unkempt and covered with engine grease. Ianto stood beside her clothed in a butler’s outfit with noticeable blood stains on his white shirt. Jack was filthy, his clothes and face caked with dirt and dried blood and his shirt was riddled with holes. The three of them reacted with visible shock when they saw her. They seemed just as relieved that she was alive, but there was a slight sadness, too, that she had finally been caught.
Separated from the others, Rose stood behind the Master on the upper level of the bridge. She wore a stunning red silk dress and her hair was styled artfully in soft curls. As beautiful as she looked, it felt like a punishment to Martha. The Master had dressed Rose up like a doll, like she was his plaything. Martha was left to wonder what else Rose had to endure while in the Master’s company.
The presence of the guards in the room, a dozen in total, barred Martha from rushing forward. The pair of guards shoved her to the centre of the bridge, putting her right in front of the Master. The hardwood underneath her feet was a slightly darker shade than the rest of the floor. She realized uneasily that she was standing right where her family had been executed. Her stomach rolled but she tried not to let it show.
The Master leaned casually on the stair railing, as though he was entertaining friends. He grinned at Martha, clearly enjoying the moment. “‘The Famous Martha Jones.’” Coming from the Master, the moniker was filled with loathing, not gratitude. “You’ve been a busy little girl, spreading hope like a plague.”
There was so much Martha wanted to say but now that the moment was here, she didn’t need words. Simply standing there in defiance was evidence enough of how she felt. She was in the lair of the beast but she wasn’t unarmed.
The Master didn’t seem to mind she had no reply. “You gave yourself up. I like that. Was it meant to be some noble gesture to inspire the globe? Do you know what I think?” He leaned forward, like he was imparting a secret, his voice a sotto whisper. “I’ll have the complete Jones family. The entire set to decompose in the cargo hold.”
The Master’s laughter tore through Martha like a bullet to the gut, ripping up her insides with no discretion. She bit down so hard on her lower lip that she tasted blood. Behind the Master, Rose looked away, unable to meet Martha’s gaze any longer.
While she had promised herself she would keep a level head, standing there, facing the Master with the lifeblood of her family staining the floor underneath her feet, Martha’s hatred flared. Here and now, she could avenge her family. Her hands trembled, like they had a mind of their own and they couldn’t wait to wrap themselves around the Master’s neck.
“You’ll be with them soon enough. Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Sixty seconds to align the black hole converters. At zero, your death will be the first. What do you have to say about that, Martha Jones?”
She forced herself to look up. A digital clock on the wall ticked away the seconds. As each number flashed by she felt the tension in the room mount. Jack shifted nervously as he eyed the guards, probably gauging whether he could make a move without anyone being hurt. Rose gripped the upper railing so tightly her knuckles were white. A minute had never felt so long in Martha’s life.
From his suit pocket, the Master pulled out his laser weapon. “My children, are you ready?”
The voices of six billion Toclafane answered back, echoing across the room, “We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice!”
The Master pointed his laser weapon at Martha, like a king with his sceptre. “Kneel.” She lowered herself to the floor, her knees resting where the bodies of her family had fallen. Thirty seconds remained on the clock. “And so, it falls to me, your lord and master, to establish a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward–”
It started as a smile but it quickly turned into a giggle that escaped Martha’s lips before she could stop herself. All eyes fell on her. The clock ticked by to twenty seconds.
“What’s so funny?” asked the Master with a sneer.
Martha looked him straight in the face. Fifteen seconds, fourteen seconds... “You’ve visited this planet too many times.” Her voice rang steady, the words flowing easily. “There are people out there who’ve met you, who hate you. Australia, Brazil, San Francisco, even right here in London. And one thing connects all of them.”
Her gaze drifted to Rose. “They’ve travelled with the Doctor.”
The name was like a blow to the Master. He scowled, his hand tightening around his laser weapon until his knuckles popped. Behind him, Rose silently beamed and Jack stood up proudly.
“The people of the Earth, inspired by one man. He may not be here to stop you, but they’re all willing to put an end to this. I walked the Earth looking for a way to defeat you and I did. I found the Doctor’s army.”
The clock hit zero and chaos erupted. The comm behind Rose crackled to life and dozens of panicked radio transmissions filled the air. It was a garbled mess, but as she listened, she picked up on a few words that were being repeated over and over.
Army. Attack. Defences down. Outnumbered.
Rushing up the stairs, the Master went to the console and punched at the controls. For a second Rose thought he was firing up the Valiant’s weapons system and she ran over to stop him. She wouldn’t put it past him to strike out when it seemed like he had lost. When she reached him though, she saw he had called up the video feeds from all of the shipyards over the globe. Everywhere, it was the same, whether it was broad daylight or the middle of the night. Armies of people attacked the guards, overwhelming them with numbers. The people leading the charges were unfamiliar to Rose – men and women of varying ages using everything from guns to baseball bats to swords and explosives to ward off attacks – but she had no doubt that these were the former companions of the Doctor. She briefly spotted Sarah Jane leading an assault, handling a rifle with startling precision, but the woman never shot to kill.
It hit Rose right there and then that this was the Doctor’s legacy: the people who travelled with him and whose lives he touched. Even though the Doctor wasn’t around anymore, his ideals of peace and order were living on through his companions.
“You’ve lost,” Rose said to the Master. A smile touched her lips, their roles reversed for once.
He spun around and he struck Rose so hard with the back of his hand that she was knocked off her feet. She landed roughly, biting down on her tongue. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, making her gag. For a split second, as the Master stood over her with an unstoppable rage burning in his eyes, she saw the true Time Lord. Not some psychotic ruler, but a desperate man with nothing left. No home, no companions, no worthy adversaries.
She almost felt sorry for him.
The head of his laser screwdriver snapped into place. “Your friend may have an army. I have legions. My children!” The Master shouted, addressing the billions of Toclafane over the globe. “Wipe out the human race.”
A swarm of Toclafane materialized on the Valiant bridge, appearing with their usual flash of light, as the Master turned his weapon on Martha.
The spikes on the bottom of the Toclafane shot out, ready to incinerate everyone in the room. Jack took up a defensive position in front of Gwen and Ianto, his immortality making him an effective shield, but from the panic evident in his eyes he knew it would do little to save his team mates. Martha jumped to her feet but there was nowhere to go. To Rose, it felt like her friends were a million miles away. There was nothing she could do in the next second that would spare their lives.
Something rumbled deep in the bowels of the ship.
From out of nowhere, a violent wind tore through the room, throwing everyone off their feet. The force of it plastered Rose to the floor. The strength of the gale brought tears to the corners of her eyes as the maelstrom lashed at her skin and clothes. Instinct compelled her to grab onto something. The memory of a hungry white void sucking away everything dear to her flashed across her mind.
She was barely able to lift her head, let alone her arm, but in her tiny glimpse up, she saw the others splayed flat on the floor, Jack fighting to reach out to Martha and their fingertips just touched. Caught in the storm above them, the Toclafane were motionless, their deadly nature suddenly muted.
Rose blinked back tears but she couldn’t blame her distorted vision for what she saw next. The Toclafane faded away, like they were blown out of existence by the force of the winds.
Before she could question what was happening, the storm died abruptly, the sudden lack of the roaring winds making her ears ring. Rose pushed herself up into a sitting position, her whole body sore. Down on the floor of the bridge, Martha and the others slowly roused themselves. While everyone else looked utterly baffled, Martha seemed almost relieved, like she had been expecting a different outcome.
“This is UNIT Central. What’s happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated!”
The voice on the radio broke the silence of the room but it did little to alleviate the confusion. What was being described was an event that happened a year ago. The Valiant was capable of many things, but Rose was fairly sure it couldn’t travel in time despite having a Time Lord designer.
“It worked,” said Martha. Her smile was a mile wide but her good mood faltered when she turned and noticed the Master.
He had his laser screwdriver aimed right at her heart and with his hair mussed from the storm, he looked dangerously unpredictable. “The paradox machine.” The Master walked down the stairs until only a few feet separated him from Martha. “So you figured it out. What the Toclafane really are.”
The sudden disappearance of the Toclafane and the reversal of time both made sense now. The rumble from within the ship must have been an explosion that destroyed the paradox machine. Without the TARDIS keeping the paradox in check, the timeline had corrected itself, bringing the universe back to the moment it had all began. Rose couldn’t understand why everyone on the bridge still remembered, but it didn’t matter right now.
Martha scarcely moved, as did everyone else on the bridge. “Months ago. The Toclafane are the humans we met at the Silo.”
The Master didn’t hurl any insults. His finger tightened around the proverbial trigger of the laser screwdriver.
The lift doors opened and two figures rushed off only to be brought to a halt by the proceedings in front of them. Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato, looking as though they had just escaped a war zone, with their clothes and faces stained with ash, glanced around the room as the room stared back at them.
Sensing she only had a few seconds, Rose slipped under the railing of the upper deck and landed clumsily on the floor below. Scrambling over on her knees, she grabbed the gun from the holster of a nearby guard. She aimed the weapon at the Master, her hands shaking madly.
The shot rang out. Rose felt the recoil of the gun reverberate down her arms.
The bullet tore right through the Master’s right hand, destroying his laser screwdriver as well. He dropped what remained of the weapon as he cried out in pain. Clutching his injured hand, he sank to his knees, drops of blood splashing onto the floor.
The guards stared dumbfounded at their defeated leader, allowing Jack to snatch up a pair of handcuffs. He smiled at his reunited team as he restrained the Master. The Time Lord scowled, but he didn’t put up a fight.
Rose dropped the gun with a shaky breath, the weight of her actions hitting her full on. They had stopped the Master. They were free. The room spun, like she was falling. A hand touched her gently on the arm and she looked up, her descent halted. Martha regarded her with a concerned gaze, silently imploring if everything was all right.
Rose pulled her friend into a hug. They embraced tightly, Martha lending her support as she had the first day they met.
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