Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ DOCTOR WHO: APOUKALUPSIS (Revelations) ❯ THE NEUTRAL ZONE ( Chapter 10 )

Episode10

THE NEUTRAL ZONE

Return to Gamma Forests. The True Neutral Zone. But the Gamma isn't what it once used to be. The Doctor must work closely with one of his greatest adversaries to overcome the odds, and get out alive.

Scene 1:

Woken by a dream of a frizzly man in a coat and a bowtie (seen only from behind) urging a group of people and little girl named Lornamel Terrescosia Gamma, whose hand he is holding, to run for their lives, while an enormous shadowy mass of something dangerously closes in on them, the Doctor suddenly sits up on the floor of the Tardis, all disorderly and disheveled, and bent out of shape.

[The Master, sitting in a corner of the floor, away from the console, very John Simm styled, with one leg folded and another stretched out.]

Master: Would it kill you to get proper chairs and seating in here someday!?

[Cue title theme]

Scene 2:

Gamma Forests. A true Neutral zone. So much so, that it does not even need truth or psychic fields alongside anymore. The electromagnetic cluster winds also disable most weaponries and gadgets, of any origin and species. Once a lush, green, safe haven for all the Gammas; now a collapsing bind of endless green, warping into each other from both or practically any side. Anybody or anything that gets stuck in between the warping layers of the planetary crust and thick blankets of trees have no chance of coming out alive. Even the thickest Tuskers, horned jumpers, reptiloids and the fastest birds have no chance of escaping the warping subspace curvatures, even by an inch of their life. The only place safe, for now, is the high hills of the North, where the group has crash landed, The hills are so enormously high that they even reach the zenith level of the Hanging Sky Gardens; hence warping from ground level takes time. Days at least. The group learns that the core of the planet is dying. 17 truth and time fields have foreseeably opened up in that galaxy alone, coherent to something called the Time Web. This has made the core of the planet very unstable, which is one of the purest cores.

Scene 3:

To top it all, things are as wobbly and wonky as they can ever be. Actions are louder and openly basher and come from the purest of instincts. Thoughts have very little barriers. Nobody can lie. Everybody's' true nature comes forth, that they cannot hide however hard they try. Most technologies do not work. Except the Tardis and Sonics. The Master tries to use his enhanced tissue and multi-matter matter compressor made with Autonomic technology, to shrink the masses of greenery and crash debris around him, but it does not work. The Tardis psychic fields are working but a few switches do not respond. The companions display how truly amazed and terrified they are of their surroundings at the same time, with their fright outweighing a little more and that it is the presence of the Doctor that gives them hope to even set foot in an unknown world like this. The child-like Doctor keeps caressing and shushing parts of the Tardis and over-explaining and exclaiming out a bunch of stuffs. The Master could not care for much. But between the angst and disgust in his face, he keeps eyeing the Doctor, as if only his presence and safety still matters a little degree to him whatsoever, be it just for selfish gains even. Every noise made, every little whisper, every gesture comes from the basest and purest strands of thought and feels at least 10-times more amplified.

While the companions are tending to each others' wound and the Doctor helping them, the two rival Time Lords, the Master and the Doctor, find it difficult to openly interact with all the truthfulness and no psychic inhibitions between them. Their basest instincts and child-like emotions come forth, amusing the companions for a short while, but hindering any chance of survival in the long run.

The banter between them bring forth many memories and circumstantial evidences of their deeper states of mind. The Doctor blames the Master openly, for being deceitful and unhelpful as the least possible sum of the worst exponents he is made of. He says that his tomfoolery into thinking they are arch nemesis, rivals on an intellectual plain who need to prove something to one another, while the world around them burns for it - is the exact mentality of sanctimonious and selfish gesture of a typical self-proclaimed race of Lords which the Sisters have used to their advantage for years, trapping them in gladiatorial stances for years. He blames the Master for abandoning him whenever he needed his old friend the most.

Scene 4:

The Master, silent and testing the digestibility of the Doctors' blames at first, bursts out saying he is still his friend and he never abandoned him! Maybe he engaged in combat with him, wanted to probably kill him even, on many events. Abandoned him to the ends of the universe but in hopes that the Doctor has the wits to find his way back someday. Concocted plans with worst of his enemies, backstabbing him; but never abandon him on days he truly considered him his friend. He goes on saying that He, or Missy, that is, had a part inside that always could connect back to the little boy back in Gallifrey - Theta Sigma; a self-righteous little boy who wanted to pave his way through the all the stars above, but in a way that left behind a memorable footprint, a likeable one, one that heals, helps, nurtures and grows along. A boy he made a pact with to explore every star in the universe. A boy he played with on the fields, near Mount Perdition along with the Shobogans. A little boy who had many names and dreams for himself - Head Scientific interventionist, Star-lord Victorious and the Peacemaker. Things and qualities that the vast and complex psychosis of no incarnation of the Master ever felt even remotely and conceptually close with. That thrive to be a good man, or woman, depending on the season, that the Doctor had even when waging war against most of the species of half of the universe; the will to bring peace even standing on the twilight of episodic destruction, the courage to face evil and still not be one...That is what Missy responded to.

Master: She did not abandon you Doctor., which cost her own life at the hands of the only corporeal existence she should have trusted most, other than herself. She told me,..well, Saxon that she..WE, should side with the Doctor. Missy was the best of me, enjoying her little strides of ruthlessness and pain. The wavering choices between utter rivalry and frenemy, the choice to respond in the stupid and fragile languages of your companions, the choice to rise up again in the face of unimaginable and non-revived defeat, turning up without explanation, the fun she had around fooling you, the energy to carry on anyhow - a few typical 'Master' behavior; I KNOW! I am an archetype of evil. But some of it she got from you - wellll, that Scottish one, with the brows. She could have killed you at any instant if she wanted to, but she did not want to. She put up with you, played along her 'Missy' games for the same reason you put up a new façade every regeneration - for the sake of someone else. You are a being as old as this, or any other planet, yet you put up lively little faces, all gnarly teeth and curls and sideburns and bowties, just for the sake of other pitiful little souls that you save. You play dress up and act the madman when you have had the chance to be Time Lord Victorious, amongst other things, the least of which you should have taken up. Missy did the same. She got it from you and DID it for you!

Master: But Never, EVER consider and rejoice in the notion that Missy became good, Doctor! Charming and goofy as she was, she was still me- Evil! She was willing to put up with your charades and savior complex and daddy issues and your companions, to stay and act good, to be locked up in a box even, just for her old friend. Her part in this was a choice of primal behaviorism of fight or flight - little wins over complete loss. She chose friendship over loneliness of the life and stature of a Time Lord. She DID not choose Good over Evil!

Master: And neither should she have-! We put up with you Doctor, all versions of us, even though you are the polar opposite of what we stand for, even on mundane days. But you have never put up with us. Like it or not this is the whole package, Me! Evil! Master!- of deceit and torture and lies and plans to conquer all. If you cannot accept that now as it is, you might as well get onboard and ride along anyways, because THAT is not changing. If you were ever a friend, deep down you know that this is who I am and this is who I have always been, from the beginning.

The Doctor retorts back by saying if he really ever was a friend, why did he hide a locator node inside Susan's toy? Why did he kidnap CIA Agent Maris in his desperation? What were his intentions back then? Why does he remember glances of him and Jamie being caught by a truant officer who tried to mind-meld with him? Was it his own self-interest? Was it for the office of the Head Truant? Or maybe a sense of foolish rivalry that he thought existed or even for Gallifrey?

Scene 5:

Amidst their banter, the group finds remnants of a Gamma town - Dentrotos tou Solarus, and help a family stuck high up in the hills to survive from the warping forst and monstrous winds. The family consists of the Town Mother Sel Gamma, her oldest son High Son Oftasev Gamma and other siblings, along with a few uncles/aunts and neighboring families. The Town Father and Chief has been killed by a boulder. They learn that it is the duty of the oldest progeny - the High son or daughter Gamma, to step into initiation with a selfless act to become the next town chief, even if it takes their life. Without a chief, the town elders would not even consider being rescued and would gladly give up their life. Coincidentally, two boulders have crisscrossed into an X and jammed their way of escape. Come nightfall, it would be too dark to cross the boulder underneath the X, through a cascade of the thin, diverted waterfall. Oftasev Gamma, who is barely 10 Gamma years, is a puny little boy and afraid to take the chance at initiation. Naturally he is hesitant while everybody else except for his mother urge him to cross the boulder and clear the way from the other side. He is the only one small enough yet capable enough among the group to do so; plus he is the biggest of the siblings and the High Son. While the trio strongly protest against Oftasev going, the Master pays no attention. Yet the solitude and helplessness in the boys' eyes gets to him. With a corner glance, he could see the desperation in the face of the boy, who would glade run out on all he knew and cared for, turn his back on society or even jump off a cliff given the chance, to avoid the harshness and the crude norms of societal living. To avoid the burden of 'duty'. The image of his childhood flashed before his eyes, unwilling to participate and yet taken from his home at eight years of age, trained in the Academy and made to the stand before the Untempered Schism. Others would just see eternity, but he could hear it. He could see- EVERYTHING. The progression of flashes before his eyes, of times gone and yet to come, meant nothing compared to the sound of it. That endless bothering sound, Four beats, as if it came from within. But it was outside too. He look desperately at the other kids to understand why! It was calling at him! Like a war cry. That's when it all started.

Scene 6:

When the time comes, and Oftasev attempts to make the walk, he goes more than halfway before losing balance. The Doctor 'calls' his Tardis [new feature; literally just calls it around him or anywhere he wants to be, given he is nearby and has a proper psychic link], first near him, then rematerializing towards Oftasev. But the boulder to walk on is too thin for the Tardis capsule to land on. So the Doctor calls it up above the highest ledge of the cascading waterfalls with a winched line suspending him down to Oftasev. Sooner, the Doctors' attempt fails and he hangs on to the thread of the winch, with juggling Oftasev, cuddled in his chest. To everyone's utter surprise, the Master impulsively shoves past in an uncharacteristic manner at the very last moment, blasts and pushes through the X, thorns pricking at his sides from the boulder and bleeding out his right arm, most of his suit worn out, to catch hold of the boy from the remaining stem, with his prosthetic hand. With the Doctor aiding him, everyone gets temporarily saved but cannot make through. However, the Master operates little switches near his prosthetic elbow parts, to call the Tardis around him, shaped like a small vertical drop pod, fitting through the gap. It is a black-and-gray Tardis, a classic Type 45, but reshaped. The interior is more like the Fugitive Doctor's. But the color scheme is in white and gray. Little fluorescent tinges of blue can be seen from the console, rims and panels.

Doctor: WAIT-....What. How did-?

Master: You are not the only renegade Time Lord sporting a wearable sonic tech, Doctor. This,..Missy got this from you too.

While the Tardises get everybody situated up above safely on the ledge, in turns, it seems to late to save the planet. The warping has nearly reached the ledge.

Master: All this running and saving. So much for nothing! Is this how it feels like Doctor? - Blank and disappointing?

Suddenly, Roarkuxs appears out of thin air, dodging the warping in smooth little drifts mid-air.

Roarkuxs[shouting with a fulfilling and big celestial echo]: Quickly! Doctor! Master! Join Hands.

Doctor: You want us to do whaaaat!?

Master[pointing his prosthetic-arm ready]: That's enough out of you, you endangered flying hobo!

Roarkuxs: Interlock your hands and call your vehicles together. The Time Sage demands it! For your own safety.

Master: It's time-travelling capsu - Oh, whatever! [grabs the Doctor's hand in a quick claw] I've already done worse today; I've been good!

Doctor: Get off! Not so tight.

Turns out not only the truest wills of beings get amplified here, but so does the will and reach of sentient bio-mechanical beings. The Tardises get recalled around them. The Tardises rearrange themselves with the Doctor's Tardis on the forefront, facing out the open of the destroying planet. With an inch left to touch the warping destruction, the co-joined Tardises suddenly take a premeditated dive through the layers, into the core of the planet. The Time Lords could feel literal burning around their wrists, ripping off their cuffs piece by piece, turning into ashes. They shout in a long deep breath of anguish as they fall down the length of the planet. Suddenly they see a glow through their Tardises, originating from the Doctor's side. A glow that spreads all over the core. With a single burst of bright white light, everything goes boom. And then Whiteout.

Scene 7:

Roarkuxs: You can let go now.

The Roarkuxs goes on to explain that a strand of the Change Engine lies within each Artron energy Conversion bar, near the space-time elemental Heart of the Tardis. The strands, in rare conditions and emergencies, can impart the essence of life itself, the same way it imparts the power of systematic regeneration in beings. But the will of the sentient biomechanical vessel or jump ship, or at least the time beast that acts as a carriage for such strands has to be largely amplified, which the Time Sage knew the Planet would do. Years ago, the Change engine strand were put there just in case-

Doctor: Just in case what-? I might end up saving a planet. Come to think out of it who did the putting!? Who is this Time Sage?

Roarkuxs: Patience, Doctor. Like I have said Doctor, I do not know this Time Sage, only his work.

Master: OHHhhhh, he is getting on my nerves, can I be done with him? I have been good today! And it happens I have a tissue compressor handy.

Roarkuxs: That would not do much damage to me Time Lord. I feel your anxiety Doctor. Our kind would not lie to you. You were revered as the symbol of hope and all things good even in our corner of the pocket in Logopolis. We have seen you work and we do respect you. But imagine a whole part of a planet, on the run from a calamity that destroys their home, only to find themselves in a foreign time. We were humanoids living on scrapes, picked off by other species one by one. Circumstances our great minds alone could not get us out of. And then we get approached by the Time Sage, who knew about Logopolitan engineering more than us ourselves. He gave us enhanced liquid-metal flight suits. He gave us miniaturized Block Math copy pulsar devices, like Your Eye of Harmony, to power our shelters indefinitely. He sourced our safe habitation better than we could have ever done it ourselves.

Doctor: And then what?

Roarkuxs: After we designated a bare moon for ourselves, we got to rebuilding our society with the few hundreds we had left in the prolonged time we were offered. Our part of the system was empty for about 7 planetoids, without no one to intervene. We called ourselves proto-Roarums, and kept the liquid metal suits on just in case anybody came asking. With the disguise on, we were barely distinguishable from any other modern-age science enthusiast humanoid form. We did not want to stir up events after the Flux. The reintroduction of Logopolitans would be tough, given the current circumstances. Soon, the Time Sage offered us more help in exchange for a few physical errands. He knew the specs to the psycho-telemetric circuitry and dimensions of your Tardises.

Doctor: But-that's impossible! It's a new model! Like Me! It's redesigned on how to make a docile Battle Tardis.

Rorkuxs: He knew how to disable your internal force field generators by sabotaging dimensional warp regulators on both your Tardises so I can phase through in my flight suit and co-join them.

Doctor: The strand. Is it how HE tracks me?

Roarkuxs: I do not know Doctor. But If I had to venture an educated guess, I would say he has a psychic link to you somehow. I have seen him meditate in one of our empty tents.

Doctor: The mind touches!

Master: The what?

Doctor: I have been getting them- these shrill little psychic touch, wherever I am.

Master: But how did he know how to find me? After the Autons, I have been keeping a low profile.

Roarkuxs: The Time Sage says finding you would not have been tough in any scenario. You are too predictable in more ways than you realize.

Doctor: Blimey! He steals my peace, he steals my lines.

Master: And what of these technologies, where does he get them?

Roarkuxs: He builds most of them with our help. With parts he gets from Osterhagen Systems Corporation.

Master: Osterhagen. Where have I heard that before?

Doctor: You would not believe me if I start telling you.

Master: And what about him?

Roarkuxs: We have a limited span left. We are thankful that we Logopolitans got any at all. Our debt with the Time Sage is thus paid. We will spent our days away from all, building and learning, as always. But should you ever need any help Doctor, we would be happy to oblige.

Scene 8 and continued

Later on, up above they see that parts of the planet have been restored, full of life. The Tardis on the other hand has used up the power of its strands. The Artron energy bars glow bright blue, recharging for hours. While the planet has been saved, the answers haven't been resolved yet. Much to their dismay the companions learn that the Master has agreed to stay on a little longer while they reach the end of this mystery.

In an unknown isolation room in the Tardis, the Doctor and Master spend a considerable amount of time mind-melding about what and how much the Doctor knows.

Master: So I have had a proper regeneration after Missy? A whole life after the Lumiat that I cannot even retrace back. I always thought I got that face after that. And I was shot? Me! The Master!

Doctor: It might come to you someday. We both might have had regeneration in between we would like to remember. We are becoming ancient relics of a time gone by.

Master: No I am still in top-shape. I am just too memorable to forget[smirks]. But these deviations from truths. These past few months have been quite an ordeal, hasn't it Doctor? And here I kept thinking all these years that I would win it, hoping to a put a dent in your day. Gunning for your attention.

Doctor: I know. I have been a Doctor. A warrior. A thinker. An educator. A helper. A brash renegade. A brilliant woman even. Few times maybe. But I have never gotten this lost. I have no idea how to come to terms with where I come from and what I have done for them. To trap somebody in his own confession a billion years because you are too afraid to go to war again, wars the likes of which you yourselves have indulged in with your pitiful and appalling tendencies of sanctimony. The capacity to maintain belief in an institution higher than your own, gone! Broken by their own actions. To lie and cheat your way into survival. To be willing to destroy everybody else around to get to the top. To sacrifice even your own, to go to edges of extremism. To break the sanctity of time itself. It's no wonder I ran. But now even that isn't clear why. A past life. Regeneration gone. An origin unknown. What else is there that made me run!? How much did I know? What else don't I know? And then I learn all I have been doing for over thousands of years haven't even made a dent into the bad around me.

Master: All would resolve itself after a while. Give it some time.

Doctor: I am not too sure about that. I am all alone in this journey.

Master: But you have those two...your pets. I am not so sure about that one. But the girl is not half as bad.

Doctor: There is a major universe of difference between ‘alone’ and ‘lonely’. it’s true...I am not lonely. I have them. I have always had them The Sarah and Roses. Jamie and Amy. K9 and Strax. And now Layla and Daniel. But I am all alone. You can be surrounded by a thousand people and still find yourself in solitary, in your own journey. I have loads they couldn’t bear. I have problems they could never know. The Tardis lands with minimal proportions, only a percentile of her weight, lest she should crack a planets’ surface. So do I. The Doctor is but a superficial facade, a role that brings promise of hope to others. And in part, by doing so, to the Doctor themselves. If I were to unload all that I know, all my troubles, they would sooner crack and break. I have already caused enough trouble for some of them just by mere contact. Uprooted their lives even. I cannot dare to think of doing more. I have them. But I have no one to share my problems with. The Time Lords are gone. Gallifrey is gone. Even if they stayed, I do not know what secrets they held, and how much they knew about me.

Master: Well, I could tag along...for a while. You would have me.

Doctor: You. You are 40 percent of my problems. On a good day too!

Master: 30.

Doctor: 50!

Master: Fine, we’ll call a rebate later.

Doctor: You destroyed Gallifrey.

Master: I know...I was there.

Doctor: You are ego-maniacal and overbearing even on most mundane days! To destroy one’s own home!

Master: I was a bit erratic that time around. The then-Master I mean. Being back-stabbed by Missy, dying as Lumiat. And then learning about all the secrets. I did more than I should have. I know. It just didn’t take well with me.

Doctor: Are you okay? You don’t sound yourself.

Master: Well...tough. That is all you are ever going to get from me. Ever. [Sotto] The fields of Gamma have really done their work on me.

Doctor: Okay.

Master: What?

Doctor: Okay. You can travel with me. For a while. As long as you behave. Like Missy used to. Well, mostly. Well...sometimes.

Master[fiddling with the console]: What are you going to do Doctor? Time Webs. A Savior probably as evil as me. A Time Sage. Lies from the Sisters. Where does it all lead to? And where to now?

[Jokingly] I usually make pit stops where there are most Cybermen and Autons or where I could find you next.....

Doctor: Honestly, for once in my life. I have no idea.