The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS after it materialised he wore a stetson on his head and a lei around his neck accompanied by black glasses. The Stone wearing the same except having no hat. "Ah! Now, sorry." He called seeing Ood Sigma standing in the snow as they strolled towards it on the Ood sphere. "There you are. So, where were we? We were summoned, weren't we? An Ood in the snow, calling to us. Well, we didn't exactly come straight here. Had a bit of fun, you know. Travelled about, did this and that. Got into trouble. You know us."
"Sweetheart normally it's you who gets us into trouble." She gave him a pointed look, "it was brilliant though. We saw the Phosphorous Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt."
"Saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw, named a galaxy Alison." She shrugged "I still don't understand why you thought naming it 'Rita' was going to be a good idea, naming it after my human self isn't fun."
"If you say so dear." He fondly shook his head. "Got married... twice. The first time was a mistake I already mentioned that I was engaged to a beautiful Time Lady who is now my wife." He pursed his lips not looking at the Stone whose arm was linked with his.
"I wouldn't call that a marriage" she scoffed at him. "I witnessed it and I'm your wife plus nothing can break a Uniting ceremony or engagement. Bit weird seeing the Queen of England kiss my fiancé now my husband though." She hummed in thought.
"Anyway," the Doctor loudly spoke up. "What do you want?"
"You should not have delayed." Stigma said holding up his translator.
"The last time we were here you said my song would be ending soon, and I'm in no hurry for that."
"You will come with me." It then turned to leave.
"Hold on." The Doctor stopped and dived into his pocket with his free hand and then brought out a TARDIS key. "Better lock the TARDIS." He then pointed it at the TARDIS which locked making a beeping noise as the light on the top flashed. "See?" He turned to Ood Sigma. "Like a car. I locked it like a car. Like. It's funny. No? Little bit? Blimey, try to make an Ood laugh."
"I thought it was hilarious sweetheart." The Stone kissed his cheek making the Time Lord beam at her.
"So how old are you now, Ood Sigma? Ah." He looked out seeing the city.
"That's beautiful." She breathed as the Doctor nodded.
"Magnificent. Oh, come on, that is splendid." He lightly shoved the Ood shoulder. "You've achieved all this in how long?"
"One hundred years." It replied making the Stone tense a little and the Doctor stare at him.
"Then we've got a problem. Because all of this is way too fast. Not just the city, I mean your ability to call us. Reaching all the way back to the twenty-first century. Something's accelerating your species way beyond normal." The Doctor replied gently squeezing the Stones hand.
"And the Mind of the Ood is troubled."
"Why" the Stone questioned turning to it. "What's happened?"
"Every night, Doctor, Stone, every night we have bad dreams."
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Ood Sigma brought them to the Ood council where a large group of the Ood sat in an ice cave. They all wore grey robes except one who wore white. The top of it's head had s sort of brain shape to it.
"Sit with the Elder of the Ood and share the dreaming." Sigma instructed.
"So. Right. Hallo." The Doctor pursed his lips as they sat down with the Ood.
"You will join. You will join." They said in unison as they placed sown their second brain and held hands. "You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join. You will join." The Time Lords followed holdong hands with each other and the Ood on either side of them. Suddenly a face they knew very well appeard in their minds laughing. They quickly let go of the Ood amd the Doctor pulled the Stone to his chest.
"He comes to us every night." The Elder explained. "I think all the peoples of the universe dream of him now."
"That man is dead." The Stone looked at them.
"There is yet more. Join us. Events are taking shape. So many years ago, and yet changing the now. There is a man."
The Doctor looked at the Stone who slowly nodded taking his hand again and the Oods other. The Master appeard laughing once more before it changed to an image of Wilfrred looking tense and scared sitting at a kitchen table.
"So scared."
"Wilfred." The Stone said. "Is he all right?"
"What about Donna, is she safe?" The Doctor quickly added.
"You should not have delayed, for the lines of convergence are being drawn across the Earth." The Elder Ood continued. "Even now, the king is in his Counting house." The image then showed a black man who looked quite rich posing with his daughter for a photograph.
"We don't know who they are." The Doctor said.
"And there is another." The Odd continued. "The most lonely of all, lost and forgotten."
"The Master's wife." The Stone muttered as they let go still holding each other hands but no longer the Oods
"We see so much, but understand little." Sigma looked at them. "The woman in the cage, who is she?"
"She was... It wasn't her fault, she was... The Master, he's a Time Lord, like us. I can show you." He took the Oods hand again showing them what happend in the year that never was as the Stone gently rubbed his arm. "The Master took the name of Saxon. He married a human, a woman called Lucy. And he corrupted her." He explained. "She stood at his side while he conquered the Earth. I reversed everything he'd done so it never even happened, but Lucy Saxon remembered. I held him in my arms. I burnt his body. The Master is dead."
"And yet, you did not see." He replied.
"What's that?" He asked. It then showed a woman picking up the Maatera aignet ring.
"Part of him survived." He looked at the Stone clutching her hand. "We have to go!"
"But something more is happening, Doctor." The Elder said making both the Time Lords stop looking at the Ood who held red eyes. "The Master is part of a greater design, because a shadow is falling over creation. Something vast is stirring in the dark. The Ood have gained this power to see through time, because time is bleeding. Shapes of things once lost are moving through the veil, and these events from years ago threaten to destroy this future, and the present, and the past."
"What do you mean?" The Stone frowned.
"This is what we have seen, Doctor, Stone. The darkness heralds only one thing."
"The end of time itself."
The Doctor and the Stone slowly backed up then spun around running as fast as they could through the snow to get to the TARDIS. The Doctor raised the key and unlocked the door both of them running inside putting the TARDIS in flight and placing the Coordinates for the Prison. "He's still alive." The Stone muttered shaking her head as they ran around the TARDIS which began to spark. The TARDIS reached its destination and they ran outside to see the ruins of the prison. "And I thought he was actually gone this time." She shook her head staring at the ruins. "I should have known better."
The Doctor let out a breath and slowly pulled the blonde to his chest resting his head on hers. "With him, he could do anything but we will stop it just like we always do." He whispered gently rubbing her back.
"I'm just worried about what he has installed for the human race. If its anything like last time..."
"Shhh," he continued to rub her back, "you're not going anywhere I won't be, not this time."
"You can't promise that sweetheart." She looked at him then took his hand. "Come on I expect he's nowhere near here now." She slowly walked back to the TARDIS the Doctor following.
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The Doctor and the Stone stood on a small cliff of rubble glancing around. The Stone slowly made her way down the cliff looking around then deeply sniffed the air. The Doctor did the same before looking at each other shaking their heads at one another. "Anything?" The Doctor asked, the Stone slowly made her way back up.
"There was something... it was faint but it's gone now. He's trying to hide his scent from us and it's actually working." She sighed before they looked up hearing a loud bang of the four drum beats. The four on the Masters' head. The Doctor and the Stone sprinted off running through a large pile of girders on a dockside until they stopped seeing the Master stood there. He grinned at them for a moment then made a large jump. Once more the Time Lords sprinted off to follow and chase down the other Time Lord.
The Master stood waiting for them on a pile of girders and his skeleton briefly flashed.
"Please, let us help." The Doctor shouted. "You're burning up your own life force." He begged before the Master left again. The Doctor sprinted ahead of the Stone. Wilfred then stood there.
"Oh, my gosh, Doctor. You're a sight for sore eyes." He said walking towards the Time Lord. The Doctor dodged the man and shouted. "Out of my way!" He ran up and looked over the dock as the Time Lady groaned running up to him then blinked. "Wilfred?"
"Did we do it?" A man walked up with a group of people "Is that them?"
"Tall and thin, big brown coat, woman wears vans and a black blazer."
"The Silver Cloak." An older woman said. "It worked. Because Wilf phoned Netty, who phoned June, and her sister lives opposite Broadfell, and she saw the police box, and her neighbour saw this man and woman heading east."
"Wilfred? " the Doctor looked at him
"Yeah?"
"Have you told them who we are?" He whispered into his ear turning away from the group as the Stone listened. "You promised me."
"No, I just said you were a doctor and she's your friend, that's all And might I say, sir, ma'am it is an honour to see you both again." He saluted them.
"Oh, but you never said he was a looker." The older woman walked up making the Stone snort. "He's gorgeous. Take a photo."
"Not bad, eh? Me next."
"I'm Minnie. Minnie the Menace." She introduced as the Doctor stood there not knowing what to do. The Stone leant against a wall her arms and legs crossed finding the sight hilarious. "It's a long time since I had a photo with a handsome man."
"Just get off him." Wilf looked at them. "Leave him alone, will you?"
"Hush, you old misery." Minnie looked at Wilf. "Come on, Doctor. Give us a smile." She pinched his cheeks forcing him to as the Stone snorted another laugh. "That's it."
"Hold on. Did it flash?" The man holding the camera asked.
"No, there's a blue light. Try again."
"I'm all fingers and thumbs."
"I'm really kind of busy, you know."
"Oh, it won't take a tick. Keep smiling."
"Is that your hand, Minnie?" He looked at her shocked while the Stone unable to stop herself burst out laughing almost falling to the floor.
"Good boy." Minnie laughed patting his bum.
"Okay... okay..." the Stone breathed. "I think that's enough of making him uncomfortable." She snorted again. "As amusing as it is..."
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The minibus stopped and let Wilfred, the Doctor and the Stone off. "Come on, then." He called over his shoulder to the Time Lords. "Here we are, hurry up. Bye." He waved off to the others as the Doctor and the Stone stepped off. "You behave, bye." He warned Minnie. "Over here, come on." He walked over and into a cafe making the Doctor and the Stone frown before they followed him. "What's so special about this place?" The Stone questioned.
"We passed fifteen cafes on the way." The Doctor added as Wilf nodded. "Yeah. Afternoon."
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Wilfred sat on one side of the table while the Doctor and the Stone sat opposite, the Doctor sat cross-armed staring at the man blanked face just as the Stone did while Wilf started to speak. "Oh, we had some good times, didn't we though? I mean, all those ATMOS things, and planets in the sky, and me with that paint gun." He chuckled for a moment before his face fell becoming serious. "I keep seeing things, Doctor, Stone. This face at night."
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm Wilfred Mott."
"No." He shook his head. "People have waited hundreds of years to find us and then you manage it in a few hours." He said. "The only one that good at normally finding me is the Stone and that's back when she had her own TARDIS."
"Well, I'm just lucky I suppose."
"No, we keep on meeting, Wilf." He went on. "Over and over again like something's still connecting us."
"What's so important about me?" He questioned.
"Exactly. Why you?" He looked away for a moment then at the Stone before he turned his attention back to Wilfred. "I'm going to die."
"Well, so am I, one day." He joked.
"Don't you dare." The Stone looked at the man.
"All right, I'll try not to."
"But I was told." The Doctor said. "He will knock four times. That was the prophecy. Knock four times, and then..."
"Yeah, but I thought, when I saw you before, you said your people could change, like, your whole body."
The Stone swallowed and took the Doctors hand. "We can still die, Wilfred. If we're killed before regeneration then we die."
"Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying." He swallowed thickly tears in his eyes. "Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away, and I'm dead." He looked at Wilf whose gaze was fixed between both of the Time Lords looking into the distance. "What?" He looked around at the same time as the blonde both of them seeing Donna getting out of a car.
"I'm sorry, but I had to." Wilf apologised. "Look, can't you two make her better?"
"Stop it." The Doctor looked at him.
"No, but you're both so clever. Can't you bring her memory back? Look, just go to her now. Go on, just run across the street. Go up and say hello." He begged.
"If she ever remembers us, her mind will burn, and she will die." The Doctor said in a shaky breath.
They looked at Donna once more and heard her shouting at a traffic warden. "Don't you touch this car!"
"She's not changed." The Stone chuckled with the Doctor.
"Nah." He shook his head. "Oh, there he is." He nodded at a man walking up to Donna.
"Shaun Temple," Wilf said watching them. "They're engaged. Getting married in the spring."
"Another wedding." The Doctor hummed.
"Yeah."
"Hold on, she's not going to be called Noble-Temple?" The Doctor frowned. "That sounds like a tourist spot."
"No, it's Temple-Noble."
"Right." He nodded.
"Is Donna happy?" The Stone questioned. "Is he nice?"
"Yeah, he's sweet enough." Wilf smiled. "He's a bit of a dreamer. Mind you, he's on minimum wage, she's earning tuppence, so all they can afford is a tiny little flat. And then sometimes I see this look on her face, like she's so sad, but she can't remember why."
"She's got him."
"She's making do."
"Aren't most people?" The Doctor shrugged.
"Yeah, how about you two?" Wilf asked. "Just before Donna left with you after those ATMOS things she said you two got engaged."
"We got married." The Stone beamed showing her rings as the Doctor softly smiled rubbing his thumb over her hand in his before his smile fell.
"But we're travelling alone." He started to choke up. "I thought it was better. But I did some things. It went wrong. I need..." He started to cry running the hand not in the Stones over his face.
"Oh, sweetheart." She choked up herself wishing she could do more to help him. "Please don't cry or I might start." She sniffed. "And then we would never stop." She gently rubbed his arm entwining their fingers.
"Oh, my word." Wilfred help a hand to his mouth not seeing them both look so broken. "I'm sorry."
"Merry Christmas." The Doctor scoffed to himself.
"Yeah, and you two."
"Look at us." The Stone shook her head wiping her eyes. "We're sat in a small cafe like this." She sighed resting her head on the Doctors shoulder.
They stayed for a while longer before heading out of the cafe, the Doctor throwing on his long coat as they headed back to the TARDIS to search for the Master.
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It was now dark, the Doctor and the Stone reached an abandoned warehouse after searching for the other Time Lord throughout the day. They stood side by side staring at the Master who stared back at them. The Doctor and the Stone started to slowly walk towards the Master who fired a bolt of energy at the Doctor and missed creating a small fire behind him before trying once again and missing the second time. On the third try, he managed to be on target. except the Stone pushed the Doctor out of the way taking on the full force of power stopping her from moving forward causing immense pain making the Stone cry out. The Doctor looked at her in shock before jumping in front of her taking the pain as she fell to the ground on her hands and knees panting with her eyes tightly closed. The Master looked at the Stone horrified and disgusted that she would even do that before the energy stopped and the Doctor also fell to the ground only to be caught by the Master before being dropped crashing beside the Time Lady.
"You shouldn't have done that." The Doctor called into her mind as he reached out to cup her cheek.
"I wasn't going to let you take all of that yourself, sweetheart." She looked at him then glared up at the Master who crouched on the toes of his feet in front of them.
"I see you both have been busy." He looked at them then eyed the rings on the Stones' hand. "You disgust me cousin." He looked in the Stones eyes. "You also regenerated."
"Your wife shot me." She replied gritting her teeth. "Maybe if you didn't do what you did and actually treated her nicely she wouldn't have shot you."
"And you're in a position to talk about marriage?" He scoffed. "Wasn't it your husband who tried to kill you on Gallifrey?"
"You don't have a right to talk about either of my marriages, especially this one." She spat at him knowing that he would end up bringing it up again.
The Master just laughed at her then looked at the Doctor. "I had estates. Do you remember my father's land back home?" He asked. "Pastures of red grass, stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky. Look at us now."
"All that eloquence. But how many people have you killed?"
"I am so hungry."
"Your resurrection went wrong." The Doctor told him through the pain. "That energy. Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself."
"That human Christmas out there." The Master sat back on the ground. "They eat so much. All that roasting meat, cakes and red wine. Hot, fat, blood, food. Pots, plates of meat, and flesh, and grease, and juice, and baking, burnt, sticky hot skin." He said happily almost making the Stone sick to the stomach "Hot. It's so hot."
"Stop it." She begged as the Doctor looked away.
"Sliced. Sliced. Sliced."
"Stop it." The Doctor growled.
"It's mine. It's mine. It's mine to eat and eat and eat."
"Stop it. What if we ask you for help?" He looked at the Master who held his head in his hands before shooting his head up looking between both the Time Lords on the ground. "There's more at work tonight than you and us."
"Oh yeah?" He looked at them
"We've been told something is returning."
"And here I am." He laughed at them holding his arms out.
"No" The Stone shook her head. "Not you, something more."
"But it hurts."
"We were told the end of time." The Doctor looked at him
"It hurts. Doctor, the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor." The Master moved onto his hands and knees making a fist with his hand and hitting the air to the beat. "One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Stronger than ever before. Can't you hear it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Listen, listen, listen, listen." He moved closer to the Doctor. "Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is, calling to me." He said looking into the Doctors eyes. The Stone winced knowing what he was going to do. "Please listen." He placed his hands on the Doctors head making them both lightly touch at their foreheads before the Doctor jumped back.
"What?" The Master looked at him as the Doctor grabbed the Stone keeping his arm around her.
"But." He looked at the Stone who looked quite sick at the current moment.
"What!" The Master shouted looking at them.
"I heard it." The Doctor breathed slowly standing up the Doctor and the Stone using their weight to help pull the other up. "But there's no noise. There never has been. It's just your insanity. What is it? What's inside your head?"
"It's real. It's real." He shouted. "It's real!" Suddenly the energy came out of the Master's hands making him fly off. The Doctor and the Stone forced themselves to run following where they could see the Master had headed to. They followed him then stopped as he stood on rubble shouting at them. "All these years, you both thought I was mad. King of the wasteland. But something is calling me, Doctor, Stone. What is it? What is it? What is it?" A bright light then shone down on the Master. A second one then landed on the Doctor and the Stone. a pair of what looked like soldiers came down on some rope and grabbed the Master injecting him to knock him out.
"Don't!" The Doctor warned him and the Stone moved forward only to be shot at by other guards. They, however, did not stop and ran towards the Master dodging and running while the guns fired. They watched helplessly as the guards hoisted him up into the helicopter. "Let him go!" The Stone screamed before her and the Doctor were shot in the back.
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After waking from the unconsciousness the Doctor and the Stone headed back to the TARDIS to think. That was after the Doctor repeatedly checked that the Time Lady wasn't harmed from laying in the rubble half the night and suddenly jumping up to search for the mad Time Lord. The Doctor lightly tossed a small pebble at Wilfred's window after seeing the man inside. Seeing that the old man had seen him he proceeded to hide behind the TARDIS where the Stone was waiting for Wilfred to come out the house.
"We lost him. We were unconscious. He's still on Earth, we can smell him, but he's too far away." The Doctor said as they both came out of hiding seeing Wilf walk up to them.
"Listen, you can't park there." He waved his hands around. "What if Donna sees it?"
"You're the only one, Wilf." The Stone spoke up. "The only connection either of us can think of."
"You're involved, if we could work out how. Tell me, have you seen anything? I don't know. Anything strange, anything odd?" The Doctor asked.
"Well, there was a-" he stopped in thought.
"What?" The Time Lady raised a brow. "Wilf, we need to know what is it?"
"Well, it was..." he then shook his head. "No, it's nothing."
"Think-a think-a think." The Doctor mumbled. "Maybe something out of the blue. Something connected to your life. Something."
"Well, Donna was a bit strange." He said making both Time Lords raise their brows at him. "She had a funny little moment, this morning, all because of that book."
"What book?" They asked in unison.
"His name's Joshua Naismith." He said going to the back of the house with them both following before he entrusted the garden and then the house.
Wilf quickly came back out and showed them both the book with the image of the man they had seen from the Ood. "That's the man." The Stone tapped the book. "We were shown him by the Ood."
"By the what?" Wilf blinked.
"By the Ood." She repeated.
"What's the Ood?"
"They're just the Ood." The Doctor said. Any other time and the Stone would have explained but now was definitely not the time for stories. "But it's all part of the convergence. Maybe? It may be touching Donna's subconscious. Oh, she's still fighting for us, even now." He beamed at the Stone then Wilf.
"The Doctor Donna."
"Dad, what are you up to?" They heard Sylvite coming outside making the Stone wince. The more people who saw them both especially around here the worse it was going to get. "You two." She pointed at the Time Lords. "But. Get out of here."
"Merry Christmas." The Doctor nodded at her while the woman stared at them.
"Merry Christmas." She replied not sure what else to say before she shook her head. "But she can't see you. What if she remembers?"
"Mum, where are those tweezers?" They heard Donna from inside the house making the four Time Lord hearts break.
"Go," Sylvia whispered shooing them away.
"We're going." They both nodded going out the side garden exit the same way they entered quickly going to the TARDIS.
"Yeah, me too." Wilf nodded following them.
"Oh no, you don't." Sylvia looked at him also following as they walked towards the TARDIS the Doctor bringing out his key.
"Dad, I'm warning you."
"Bye, see you later."
"Stay right where you are." She warned him.
The Doctor blinked and looked back at the man as the Stone headed inside waiting to dematerialise the TARDIS before Donna wondered where her Mother and grandad went. "You can't come with us."
"You're not leaving me with her." Wilf protested nodding back at his daughter.
"Dad!" She shouted at him.
"Fair enough." The Doctor nodded. "Don't tell the Stone I said that." He quickly added then walked inside.
"Don't tell me what?" She raised a brow pulling the lever.
"Nothing." He sheepishly looked at her.
"You were being rude against weren't you?" She rolled her eyes at him then pointed. "Rude and not ginger."
"You read me like the back of your hand." He groaned. "Anyways Naismith." He nodded running around the TARDIS himself before looking at the monitor where the Time Lady stood. "If I can track him down... Ah. Right." He looked at Wilfred who he had just handed the book to. "Yes. Bigger on the inside. Do you like it?"
"I thought it'd be cleaner."
"Cleaner?" They both looked around the time rotor and frowned at him.
"I could take you back home right now." The Doctor pointed at the man then went back to looking at the monitor wincing as the Stone hit him around the head.
"Listen, Doctor, Stone, if this is a time machine, that man you're chasing, why can't you just pop back to yesterday and catch him?"
"We cant go back inside our own timelines. We have to stay relative to the Master within the causal nexus. Understand?" He asked.
"Not a word."
"Basically no popping back to yesterday." The Stone summed it up then grinned holding out her hand. "Welcome aboard."
"Thank you." He shook her hand then watched as they both ran around the console.