The pain in the Master’s voice was obvious, and though he didn’t plan on focusing on that, it still tugged uncomfortably at the Doctor’s hearts. He hadn’t been the one to try and manipulate the other Time Lord, but he was well aware that it just as easily could’ve been. The dice roll just happened to favor him that time around.
“Yes, well, I’m sure he would. Ego’s clearly been my downfall more than once, and he’ll still be chalk full of it.” Not that he wasn’t, of course, some things couldn’t change entirely, but it was far more rational these days, or so the Time Lord hoped. Seemed that way.
The Master’s question was similar to the ones he’d been asking himself for months. You already know how he thinks, Bucky had told him, plan for it. But it hadn’t been quite so simple as that. On his own the Doctor was pulling bits and pieces of the situation at a time, trying to fit them together. The way the Master piled everything together was probably a better was to approach this, and it made him think it through from a different angle. Hadn’t thought about Donna.
There’s a heavy sigh, but other than that the Doctor stayed quiet for a moment as he thought it all over. What would he do? What would he be feeling? It was hard to say, not knowing the details of what the other Doctor had gone through, but if he could guess, and make it close, well at least that would be something.
“I’d want to see her, obviously, but no matter what the Master has done to his head, if he still cares for her, I can’t see him putting her in harms way. And anywhere near the other Master would certainly be that, unless…hold on, putting you on speaker for a moment. Need to check something.”
The moment he’d hit the button he was already scrolling through old text messages, looking for his most recent conversation with the other Doctor, and trying to remember the details of what the Master had shown him from the time spent on board their ship.
“Following along that pattern, here’s a question for you. Say you’re stuck on board a TARDIS that isn’t yours, and never will be, with a version of me that has no real interest in you that’s angry and desperate to get back at the duplicate of himself with the family he abandoned you for in the first place. I mean, I can see why getting rid of all of us would be appealing to the Master, but I don’t think the other Doctor would let that happen. So why go along with any of it?”
“And I’d appreciate that,” he continued, whatever mild stress he was feeling waning a bit at the offer. Safest option would be for the Doctor to keep his distance as he had been, of course, but if there was an emergency, it was nice to know he’d have somewhere to go. “Either way, I wouldn’t want to bump into any of your soldiers by mistake.”
“Well, considering she’s regrettably stuck with me as her other father, having you as her advisor might not be such a bad idea, at least to start,” the Doctor replied, chuckling again. “I’m absolute rubbish for anything along that vein, so hopefully she wound up with your superior genes. Suppose once she gets a little older, her organizational habits would be a fair tell.”
The Master snorted. Ego was plenty a problem for both of them. It was just that the Master wasn’t above swallowing his to make sure he came out on top. He smile slightly into the phone. “At least you’re consistent in that respect.”
He watched Donna as he listened to the Doctor, trying to think how the other Doctor could get what he had to want. Other Master or not, he didn’t believe for a second that getting Donna wouldn’t be the end goal. In a hurry to make sure he and the Doctor were on the same page, he nodded to the guards to watch over Donna while he headed for his TARDIS.
The other Doctor was still a bit of a mystery to the Master. It was hard to know just how badly this had gone. The other Master, on the other hand, was everything he might have become if the timeline had gone just a little differently. He wasn’t quite that monstrous, but he understood it.
“It would have to be worth it to me,” he mused, chewing at the inside of his cheek as he thought on what circumstances would meet that criteria. “Either I plan to double cross the Doctor and take the TARDIS, I have reason to believe the Doctor is going to cave to my preference to kill everyone, or my end goal isn’t to change the future... but maybe the past instead. I’ve rewritten the universe to my liking before. Even better, that doesn’t stop me from double crossing the other Doctor.”
He hadn’t seen enough of the interaction between the other Master and the other Doctor to have much idea of what was true, but it was a start. Inside the TARDIS, he made a beeline for the console, transmitting the data he’d collected. “I’m sending you everything I’ve got on them. Hopefully, it helps.”
Whatever his intentions, he was a bit glad that his endeavors left the Doctor with a safe place, even if it was just a last resort. “I’d rather you didn’t run into them either. They’re quite effective.”
“Hang on.” He pulled the phone away from his ear to send a picture. Maybe visiting wasn’t a good idea, but whatever fell out between the two of them, the Master wasn’t interested in keeping Donna from the Doctor. The picture he sent was of her on absurdly ornate throne in the Illyrian capital. ‘Absurdly ornate’ captured Illyria as a whole, really, judging by the ridiculous number of flounces on her dress, and the Master’s crown that sat, lopsided, on her head. She grinned widely, one eye peeking out at the camera behind the metal and gemstones. “Whatever she got from me, she’s terribly charming. I guess she must be at least a little bit yours.”
