ashes ➝ Doctor Who²

XXXIX

"Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe."
- The Master, Last of the Time Lords

Martha had been called all sorts of things in her life. Not really that unexpected. But when telling Penelope of her plan, the woman had called her insane, and then gave her a run down on all the reasons she was insane. Not the worst she had ever been called, but certainly the most accurate.

And despite the fact that Penelope thought the idea was completely insane, it was those kinds of plans that usually worked out for the Doctor.

That was how she found herself stock still behind Jack onboard the Master's flying ship. Gun aimed at him, ready for the alien to do something stupid. Martha had given her the story of what happened and what she as really doing, travelling the Earth. And Penelope knew this blonde man was responsible for Jasper.

She could still feel his blood on her hands. But she was reassured that this should be reversible, as long as everything went to plan. If it didn't then they would die, and she would see Jasper again anyway. Martha had been giving some kind of speech in her back-and-forth with the Master, and Penelope had been listening for when she was supposed to start paying attention.

"-but I knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son. I told her about the gun, so she'd get me here at the right time." Penelope readied herself as the Master raised what she knew to be his sonic screwdriver, but a little more deadly.

"Oh, but you're still going to die." She shot at him, finally revealing herself, surprising everyone in the room. Including Martha, as they had agreed she would only be back up. But the Master lowered his sonic when faced with Penelope, confused at how he didn't notice her.

"Please give a reason, I beg you." He liked it when she begged. But he shook that off and lowered his sonic, letting Martha talk and pretending he wasn't beyond attracted to this woman that just shot at him.

"Don't you want to know what I was doing, travelling the world?"

"Tell me."

"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor. And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor." He laughed incredulously, not quite believing what he was hearing.

"Faith and hope? Is that all?"

"No, because I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said." Martha stood up slowly, still wary that the man could shoot her, but thankful for Penelope. The Master did move a little as she got up, but Penelope walked out from behind Jack, going to stand next to her friend.

"Please, a reason, that's all I ask." The Master could barely contain his excitement at a new player in his game - an attractive one at that - who he has never seen before. And he kept threatening him, which was so much better.

"I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time."

Martha had gotten a lot braver with this woman beside her, the Master could tell, but he tried not to let it show how nervous that made him. Besides, how bad could it really get?

"Nothing will happen. Is that your weapon? Prayer?"

"Right across the world, in word, just one thought at one moment but with fifteen satellites."

"What?" Jack grinned from across the room, he'd had enough of being murdered the last couple of months.

"The Archangel Network."

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor."

They could almost feel it, the moment the clock hit zero. The psychic wave of people all thinking of the Doctor basically rocked the ship. It caused the Master to panic; the Doctor's companions weren't as helpless as he once believed.

"Stop it. No, no, no, no, you don't." He raced around, trying to get close to the group in front of him, but Penelope wasn't intending on letting him leave this ship alive. Martha however, forever influenced by her Doctor, begged her to wait. Just to wait for the man to give her a reason.

He couldn't get any closer as the people around him chanted for the Doctor, praying to him like the God the Master tried to ignore.

"Don't."

He was really starting to panic now, but there was truly nothing he could do with Penelope watching his every move. He couldn't go yet, not when his plan could still work. But she didn't care, this had to work, she couldn't live without Jasper.

"Stop this right now. Stop it!"

The Doctor changed, and Penelope found it hard not to look at him, she remembered Martha calling it a 'centegenarian form'. While she didn't know what it meant, she was glad it was

"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices."

"I order you to stop!" He points that sonic at the Doctor and Penelope, despite everything she believes right now, steps closer to him. Aiming sharply between the Master's eyes.

"Don't even look at him wrong if you want to get off this ship alive." Neither the Doctor nor Penelope could believe that she was saying this about him. But in all honesty, her belief is what he needed to finally get back to normal.

"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking." He puts one hand on the small of Penelope's back, the other pushing the gun down. He was very aware of the dried blood on her hands and the dead look in her eyes, it reminded him of when he.. they lost Rose. And she wouldn't go anywhere without Jasper, not with how the world is.

"Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this."