Waiting On A Rival

Chapter 6

The Master cried out for his 'children' and pulled out the vortex manipulator. The Doctor, the Master and I appeared off the ship. "Now it ends, Doctor. Now it ends," he promised.

A thunderstorm added to the effect. "We've got control of the Valiant," I reminded, "You can't launch."

"Oh, but I've got this." The Master pulled out a little button. "Black hole converter inside every ship. If I can't have this world, Doctor, then neither can you. We shall stand upon this Earth together, as it burns."

The Doctor sighed, "Weapon after weapon after weapon. All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do. Give that to me." The Master, close to hysteria, shakily handed the black hole converter to him.

The ground shook as the Doctor and the Master struggled for the vortex manipulator. They disappeared together. Typical. How many times am I going to get left behind?

Almost instantaneously, the Doctor appeared and answered, "Never again." He kissed my forehead fondly and we transported back to the Valiant.

The ship is in complete chaos. I yelled, "Everyone get down! Time is reversing!"

The trembles stopped. He explained, "The paradox is broken. We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning." He checked. "Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored."

"None of it happened," I added gladly, "The rockets, the terror. It never was."

Martha stood next to me. "What about the spheres?"

"Trapped at the end of the universe."

"But I can remember it," Ms. Jones insisted. I guiltily replied, remembering how I treated her, "We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know." I looked up hopefully at everyone. I knew I couldn't be forgiven, but Martha hugged me tightly. Tish joined with tears in her eyes. Even Leo wrapped his arms around us.

Breaking apart from them, I approached Ms. Jones carefully. She looked at me almost differently, but she smiled happily and hugged me as tight as Martha did.

While we were distracted, the Master ran for the door. Fortunately, Jack was just coming in. "Whoa, big fella! You don't want to miss the party." He cuffed the Master. "Cuffs. So, what do we do with this one?"

Mr. Jones immediately said, "We kill him." My jaw dropped in disbelief.

But as shocked as I was, I was even more shocked when Tish agreed, "We execute him."

"No, that's not the solution," I decided, "Don't let this man make a murderer of you."

Ms. Jones ignored me and pulled out a pistol. "Oh, I think so. Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them." She aimed it at him. Did she have that when we hugged?

"Go on," the Master provoked, "Do it."

"Francine, you're better than him," the Doctor told her. The hysteric Ms. Jones lowered the gun slowly and went to Martha for support.

"You still haven't answered the question," the Master pointed out, "What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on," he deemed, "The only Time Lords left in existence."

Jack insisted, "Yeah, but you can't trust him." He noticed how quiet I was. I felt awful of how I treated everyone. I threatened to kill Jack continuously. Smiling crookedly a bit, I raised my eyebrows as a sign of forgiveness. He smiled widely and nodded.