Lost (Doctor Who)

***Lost*** is the seventh episode of the second series of *Doctor Who* produced by *The 56Studios*. It features the return of Missy and the appearances of three incarnations of the Master and the Silence.

## Story

Clara awoke with a start. Rolling over, she sat up and looked around. She held her head as her vision blurred in and out of focus. Emergency lights flashed periodically around her. Her head felt scrambled, like she had just been spun around on an amusement park ride. Rolling over, she got to her needs and pushed herself up. She nearly lost her balance, still dazed.

Looking at her surroundings, she saw that she was standing in a long hallway that curved out of sight in both directions. It appeared to be futuristic and otherworldly in construction. Emergency lights flashed up and down the corridor.

“What the hell?” she breathed, looking around.

Slowly, she began walking forward. Her steps echoed as she did. She was completely bewildered. What was this place? How did she get here? She had no memory of what had led to this.

Continuing down the corridor, she eventually came to a doorway. There was a panel on the side. Pressing a button, the door slid open, and she passed through. It appeared to be some kind of observation deck. Walking across the room, she stopped at a large window that looked outside. She stared in awe at it.

She was on a space station, the stars twinkling in the blackness. A blazing red nebula hovered in the distance.

“I’m in space,” Clara said to herself. “Alright. Cool. But where’s the Doctor?”

As she looked out at the vast and unending expanse of space before her, she began to remember the last thing that happened before she found herself here…

“…These are the TARDIS telepathic circuits,” the Doctor showed them the panel on the console as they transited through the time vortex.

The women looked at them skeptically. They were strange, like organic data slots. They glowed with several different colors, as if they were alive.

“How do they work?” Clara asked.

“Well, you interface with it. You let the TARDIS in, and you let it read you. Let it read where you desire to go,” he explained.

“Couldn’t you just pilot it normally?” April raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, but this allows us to travel to very specific places and times – something that manually piloting the TARDIS. You could even travel to someone specific. The telepathic circuits are a much more intimate process.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Clara crossed her arms.

“Oh no, it’s perfectly safe!” he assured them. “Mostly, anyway. There could be some potential side effects,” he gave a half smile. “Maybe.”

They glanced at each other again. Just as the Doctor was about to continue, an alert came from the console. Pulling a monitor over, they saw a red object flashing on screen, traveling through some kind of digital tunnel.

“What is that?” April asked.

“Something following us through the time vortex,” the Doctor replied, taking a closer look. “But that’s impossible.”

He stared at it for a moment before more alerts appeared as the object picked up speed. Eyes widening, the Doctor grabbed hold on the controls and began operating them. Sparks exploded from the console. Red lights flashed rapidly as alerts began to sting their ears. The Doctor moved quickly around the controls, piloting them faster. Clara and April were forced to hang onto the railings to keep from being thrown.

“What are we doing?” Clara called.

“Trying to lose it! It’s catching up with us!”

“How is it doing that?” April cried.

“I have no idea!”

They continued hurtling through the vortex. Sparks continued to fall around them. The Doctor pulled more levers and pressed more buttons, but the object closed in on them.

“I can’t do it!” the Doctor said in exasperation. “I can’t outrun it-.”

The TARDIS shook violently as the object struck them. The room filled with sparks as everything exploded. Yelling, they were thrown across the ship as everything was consumed in white.

Clara fell against the glass as the memory hit her. She was breathing heavily. Something had been chasing them, and she could only assume that the impact was the reason why she was here. How it got her from the TARDIS to this place. But how? Who had sent it?

As she recovered from the rush of remembrance, she noticed something on her left arm. Turning it over, she saw two black lines, seemingly from a marker, on her skin. Running her fingers over it, she found that the marks were still wet. Around her neck was a marker on a chain.

“Where’d this come from?” she asked herself.

Turning around, she was about to explore further into the station when she came to a stop as two tall, looming figures stood before her. They had large gray heads, their small beady eyes looking out from slits in their wrinkled skin. They had no mouths, and their noses were flat. They wore suits, which appeared to be drenched. Their breathing was rough, like some kind of gurgling.

“What are you?” Clara backed up, before another memory rushed over her. “Hang on. Haven’t I see you…? How do you do that?”

“*You are Clara Oswald. Daughter of Dave and Ellie. You are a companion of the renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor.*”

“How do you know that?”

“*We are the Silence. We know everything. We see everything.*”

Slowly, the Silents began to approach her. Grabbing the marker, she made two more marks on her arm. The two continued stalking toward her. Clipping the marker back to the chain around her neck, she took a deep breath. She had to get out of there, and quick. Glancing around, she saw a doorway on the opposite side of the observation deck.

“You think you know everything?” Clara readied. “Then what am I going to do next?”

The Silents glanced at each other when Clara suddenly bolted forward. She ran past them towards the door as fast as she could. They watched her go with tilted heads. Her heart pounded in her chest. When she reached it, she hit the button, watched it begin to open, and slipped through the door. Once inside, she hit the button again, and the door closed. Hitting another button, she activated a deadlock seal.

Falling against the wall, she was breathing heavily when she realized that she wasn’t in the observation deck anymore. How did she get here? Why did she feel like she had been running? She then noticed that she had two new marks on her arm.

Abruptly, there was a banging from outside the door. Clara stepped back from it, looking at it with confusion.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

Behind her, another Silent emerged from the shadows. Slowly, it approached her. Electricity crackled in its hands.

“*You will not escape,*” it growled.

With a start, Clara spun around to face it. As she watched it, she remembered them. Grabbing the marker, she crossed her score.

“How are you doing that?” she took a step back. “Why do I keep forgetting you?”

“*You will never know,*” it raised its hand to her. Electricity crackled on the tip of his longest finger. “*You will die, Clara Oswald.*”

Clara gasped as she watched the energy flicker when suddenly a shot rang out in the corridor. The Silent cried in pain before it felt to the ground, dead. There was a glowing red wound on its back. She stared at the body before looking up to see what had shot it. She nearly fell over in surprise as she saw who was standing there, her glittering eyes watching her.

“Oh, why hello there, miss Clara,” Missy lowered her device, she smiled. She had a strange device on her right temple.

“Missy?” she was dumbfounded. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, you know,” the Time Lord began circling the woman. “Chasing evil, fighting monsters, the ushe,” she appeared to dab. “Just like my best friend.”

“Have you turned good?” Clara asked.

Missy looked offended. “No! Of course not! Why would I turn good?”

“Well, you do like to help out a lot. I mean a *lot*,” she shrugged.

“I have an interest,” Missy replied. “It does not mean I’m good.”

She paused, before continuing. “So what’s going on?”

“Here,” Missy held out a device identical to the one on her temple. “Take this. It’ll let you remember the Silents. I’ll explain what’s going on this spooky little space station with the tall men in suits.”

Clara looked at the device for a moment, unsure whether to trust the Time Lord, but deciding it best not argue with her, she put it on. There was a flicker of a sensation as it attached, and she could see it light up out of the corner of her eye. A wave of memories about the Silents rushed into view. She head in pain.

“Yeah, forgot to mention that,” Missy chuckled.

Recovering, Clara groaned. Running a hand through her hair, she looked to Missy.

“So, what now? What’s happening?”

“Well, have you ever remembered when you did something terrible?”

“All the time.”

“Well, I just remembered myself doing something terrible three times on the same day,” she explained. “And while I normally wouldn’t be too bothered by what happened in the past, I remembered seeing a fine lookin’ lady who reminded me of myself, and then realized that I had been there, and so I should come and stop it.”

Clara stared at her. “What.”

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Three past incarnations of mine are plotting to kill the Doctor here, and we’re going to stop them.”

“Oh. Okay?”

“Now that we’ve wasted enough time,” Missy checked her small phone-like device. “Let’s go… save the Doctor,” she shuddered slightly.

The man stood at the window and stared out in space. His eyes were narrowed and he stroked his goatee, deep in thought. One of the devices that Missy had was attached to his temple. He wondered how long it would take for their device to find the Doctor’s TARDIS in the time vortex, but he hoped that it wouldn’t take long. He was getting uneasy with his current allies, even if some of them he knew very… intimately.

Behind him, the door slid open and another man entered. He also sported a goatee, and had the same piercing look as the first. Another memory device hung from his temple. He walked across the room and joined the other. He watched him as he approached.

“Master,” the Koschei incarnation greeted.

“Master,” the Tremas incarnation replied.

“What do you want?” he turned to him.

“Do we really need the Silence to help us?” he asked. “Three of us will surely be enough to take on the Doctor.”

“When has that ever worked?” the Koschei Master raised an eyebrow. “The Silence are not ideal allies, but they will be useful in achieving our goal. We will ally with them until we have finished our mission.”

The Tremas Master shrugged. “Perhaps. But I do not trust them.”

“Neither do I. But they are a necessary evil.”

The two incarnations of the Masters looked out into space when the door opened and another man entered. He was bald and wore a suit. Once again, a device was attached to his temple. He stopped in the doorway and looked at his two previous selves.

“What are you doing?” the Bald Master asked, obviously suspicious.

“Not plotting against you, if that’s what you’re wondering,” the Koschei Master replied.

“At least, not at this moment,” the Tremas Master chuckled.

Their future self was not amused. “How long until the Doctor arrives?”

Just as the words left his mouth, a console in the room suddenly lit up with an alert. The three of them walking over to it, they saw that the alert read that a teleport signal had been detected on the station. Smiles broke across their faces.

“There he is,” the Tremas Master rubbed his gloved hands together. “We got him!”

“Or her,” the Bald Master pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter which Doctor,” the Koschei Master looked darkly at the display. “As long as the Doctor finally *dies*.”

Slowly, the Doctor pushed himself off the metal floor of the TARDIS. The console room was dark – as if the ship had simply just died. Smoke hung in the air, residue from the apparent attack. April lay unconscious a few feet away. Getting to his feet, he went over to her and shook her awake.

“April,” he said. “Wake up.”

Coughing, the woman came to. Looking around, she saw the Doctor helping her up. Holding her head, she used the console to push herself up. Sparks fell from the ceiling.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice rough.

“Whatever attacked us shut down the TARDIS,” the Doctor pulled a lever, which had no effect. “Completely killed the system.”

April ran a hand through her hair before she realized something. “Where’s Clara?”

Immediately, the Doctor realized that she was indeed missing. Quickly, they looked around the console room, but she was nowhere to be found. Pulling out the sonic screwdriver, he scanned around, and read the results.

“She’s not on the TARIDS. Anywhere,” he declared.

“Then where the hell is she?” April said.

“I don’t know, but that’s the least of our concerns,” he moved around the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers to no avail.

April was surprised by the lack of regard for Clara. “And what’s the least of our concerns?”

The Doctor stood there for a moment before running across the console room to the doors. Grabbing the handle, he pulled them open, and they were blinded by an intense light. They recoiled before the glare began to fade. Looking out, they stood in awe of what lay before them. He stood there, and April came to join him.

“Wow,” April gaped.

“Wow, indeed,” he agreed.

There was a massive galaxy glowing through the doors before them. It glittered in space, shining like a flame in the black. They were slowly drifting towards it through the void.

“At least the air shield’s still working,” he remarked.

“You didn’t know whether it was or not?” she was startled.

“No.”

She sighed, returning her focus to the task at hand. “What can we do?” she asked him.

“We need to get the TARDIS power back otherwise we’re going to drift aimlessly through space forever.”

April became determined. “Then let’s get to work. To find Clara.”

The Doctor looked at her and nodded. “To find Clara,” he agreed.

Closing the doors, they ran to the console and got to work.

Clara and Missy slowly made their way through the station. It was much bigger than Clara had anticipated. It was also a maze, with each hallway and corridor they traveled down being nearly identical to the other. They hadn’t yet encountered any more of the Silents, which Clara was glad, especially now that she could actually remember them. Missy explained that the Church of the Silence had collapsed, and the Silents were now scattered, despite most of them being executed.

After a while, Clara decided to break the silence once again. “So why did you try to kill the Doctor? Three times?”

She nearly laughed out loud. “Oh, I’ve tried to kill the Doctor more times than I can count. This one specifically just happens to involve three versions of me. Others involved multiple Masters, but this one I need to be there for. Time can be a real bitc-.”

“Hang on,” Clara stopped, looking around. “Do you hear that?”

“What?” Missy said before they heard a low noise coming from around them.

From the shadows, half a dozen Silents emerged. Electricity crackled in their hands. The two women stood back to back as the creatures surrounded them. Missy produced her device again and readied it.

“I wouldn’t do it if I were you,” she growled.

“*You should not be here,*” they said. “*You are not the Doctor… you shall die!*”

A look suddenly came across Missy’s face, as if she had had a revelation. “You want to kill us because we’re not the Doctor?”

“*That is correct,*” they replied.

She smiled. “Well, you can’t kill us, then.” the Time Lord lowered her weapon, her eyes flashing. Clara looked at her with confusion.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Shut up and let me handle this,” she said under her breath.

“*And why is that?*” they collectively cocked their heads.

“Because I’m the Doctor.”

The Silents stopped in their tracks, staring at her through their narrow eye slits. One by one, they lowered than hands.

Seeing that she had fooled them, Missy stepped forward. “Take me to your Masters.”

“How are we going to get power?” April asked as the Doctor worked on the console.

“There has to be some power relay somewhere,” he said.

“What are you trying to do?” April looked over. “Trying to jump start the TARDIS like a car or something?”

“The TARDIS is not a car,” he replied, continuing his work. “The TARDIS is more complex than any Earth analogy you’re capable of making. The TARDIS took thousands of years to be developed, and I will not allow one of the last remaining aspects of my culture to be degraded to a *car*.”

“Yeah, but you are trying to jump start it,” April pointed at him trying to attach to wires.

The Doctor sighed. “Yes. I am trying to jump start it. We need to restore power, otherwise the systems could be irreparably damaged.”

“Wait, that could happen?”

“Yes, which is why we need to get the systems started.”

Crossing several wires, and apparently rigging up a makeshift power supply, he got up and moved to the other side of the console. Taking hold of a lever, he forced it down. No response. Trying again, he looked expectantly at the console, but nothing happened. Angrily, he began pressing buttons at random, but there was no power.

“I don’t think that it’s working, Doctor,” April said.

“Obviously it’s not!” he replied. “But it’s supposed to!”

“Why isn’t it working?”

Giving up, he leaned on the console. “There’s no power going to the systems. I can’t jump start it because there’s nothing to jump start it with.”

He stared at the central column for a long moment before his face lit up. Reaching into his pocket, he produced the sonic screwdriver again and quickly ducked under the console. He began connecting wires to the device at a rapid pace. April, looking quizzically, knelt down and joined the Time Lord.

“What are you doing?”

“We can use the sonic screwdriver to power the console long enough to run a diagnostic to find the problem with the TARDIS,” he said excitedly.

“Will that work? Won’t the sonic run out of juice powering the ship like this?”

He nodded. “It will, but it’ll last long enough for us to find out what’s going on.”

The Doctor continued working. He plugged more cords into it. After it looked like something that might start a fire, April thought, the Doctor set it down and got up. Moving to the console, he took another lever. Taking a deep breath, he pulled it down once again. The console suddenly flared into life. The displays lit up with information.

“It worked!” April said excitedly, putting her hands together.

A smile on his face, the Doctor set to work. He pressed buttons, turned knobs, and pulled levers. On one of the screens, a series of symbols and other readings appeared. April watched the Doctor work with incredible speed, looking on in awe. The console abruptly sent out a spray of sparks, forcing them to duck.

“We’re losing it!” the Doctor exclaimed, working quicker. “We’ve almost got it-!”

Another spray of sparks erupted from the console, this one bigger than the last. The ship shuddered slightly around them. The Doctor’s hands were a blur of motion as he worked. A moment latter, a scan of the TARDIS exterior appeared on the screen. Through the chaos, the Doctor saw a red object on the hull, blinking as the ship detected it.

Suddenly, the console exploded in a massive spray of sparks. He and April were thrown back by the shockwave, sent crashing onto the deck. They took cover as fire fell around them, before the console abruptly went out, submerging them in darkness again.

The fires fading, April and the Doctor got to their feet. April held her head again. “What happened?”

Reaching down, the Doctor picked up the sonic screwdriver. Pressing the button, nothing happened. Sighing, he pocketed it.

“The TARDIS drained the sonic screwdriver,” he replied before turning to the doors. “But not before I saw…”

Not finishing his thought, he strode forward. April watched him as he approached the doors again. Opening them, they were blinded by the light of the galaxy again. Looking out, he stuck his head around the right side of the TARDIS. On the hull of the ship was a small circular device, blinding with a red light.

“There are you are,” he frowned.

Grabbing the door for support, he tried to take hold of the device, but it was out of his reach. He tried again, but without leaving the TARDIS, he could not get to it. Frustrated, he gave up, and returned to the console room.

“What is it?” April asked, crossing her arms. “What’s out there? Did you find what’s doing this?”

“Yes,” the Doctor nodded. “A small device capable of traveling through the time vortex and latched itself to a TARDIS. The Daleks developed them during the Time War to trap Time Lords.”

“So the Daleks are behind this?”

He shook his head. “No. The technology’s been updated with a teleportation matrix. Someone else did this and is just using Dalek technology.”

“So that’s what happened to Clara?”

“Most likely,” he steepled his fingers.

“How do we find her, then?”

He looked at her for a moment before turning and descending the lower level. He began rummaging through crates for something. “We need to get that device off the hull. It’s blocking power from the ship, and therefore stranding us here. And we don’t have an easy way to do that without the sonic screwdriver.”

“Don’t you have another one around here somewhere?” April leaned over the railing.

“Not on hand, no,” he replied. “I used to.”

Reaching a box and opening it, he exclaimed in delight before grabbing a bright orange object and yellow space helmet from it. Returning to the main deck, he unfolded it to reveal it being an orange space suit. She looked at it with surprise.

“*You’re going out there*?”

“I have to,” he removed his coat and began putting on the suit. “There’s no other way. I’ll have to crawl along the outside of the TARDIS and manually deactivate that device.”

“Is it safe?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he put on the suit. “Either way, we’re dead in the water here, and Clara is God-knows-where in some kind of danger, most likely from the people who sent that device. We have to act quickly.”

April gulped. “How can I help?”

“Grab a tether,” he picked up the helmet. “I don’t fancy getting stuck in the void between galaxies. Do you?”

The large door opened and Clara and Missy were pushed through by the Silents. They appeared to be in some kind of command center. Computer consoles lined the walls of the room, with the far wall being made of glass and overlooking the nebula that the station seemed to be orbiting.

In the room also were a few other Silents and three men. Two of them wore dark clothing and the other had a suit. Two of them had hair and goatees, the other was bald. Yet, they all had a very strangely similar look to them. Their eyes flashed as they entered in the same way that Missy’s eyes flashed. Clara could only assume that these were Missy’s earlier incarnations – the Masters.

The Silents abruptly forced to the two women to their knees in the middle of the room.

“Hey!” Missy protested. “That’s no way to treat a lady!”

“*Silence,*” one of the Silents growled.

“That’s funny, coming from you,” she chuckled.

“Do not speak to them,” the Koschei Master barked, stepping forward, hands behind his back.

“I can speak to whoever I want, Beardy,” Missy replied. “Wait, hang on. There are two of you with beards. Could one of you shave? Then I can have Beardy, Hairy, and Baldy.”

“You will be quiet!” the Bald Master sneered.

She looked at the three of them. “Whoa, you boys need to work on your anger management. That’s gonna come back to bite you, you know.”

“What are you talking about?” the Tremas Master asked.

“Don’t engage her,” the Koschei Master said to him. “She’s just trying to elicit a rise out of us.”

“Guilty as charged,” she admitted.

“When has the Doctor ever been antagonistic?” the Bald Master inquired of the others.

“I’m trying something new,” Missy said, winking awkwardly.

“It doesn’t matter what you try,” the Koschei Master ended the discourse. “We brought you here for our final and ultimate revenge upon you, Doctor.”

“Revenge? What kind of revenge? Does it involve torture? I love a good torture seshe.”

“Why are you so irritating?” the Tremas Master raised an eyebrow.

Missy looked affronted. “I like to think that I’m hilarious.”

Clara leaned over to her. “What are you doing?”

“Just play along, deary,” she replied.

“Our revenge does not involve torture in the traditional sense,” the Koscehi Master began pacing around the room. “Now, because there is no way to stop us, and this is our final victory, we shall let you in on the plan.”

The Bald Master stepped forward. “This station is a remnant from the one of the Cyberwars, whichever one was most recent. We’ve obviously stocked it with the stragglers of the Church’s purge. We’ve also made the station’s core to explode and create a singularity upon impact.”

“Impact with what?” Clara asked.

The three Masters looked at each other and laughed loudly. They laughed for several moments. Missy looked down and sighed. She looked to Clara.

“They’re going to crash this station into Earth and create a black hole in your solar system that’ll destroy everything, for good measure.”

“Oh! Very good!” the Tremas Master chuckled.

“How’d you figure that out so quickly?” the Bald Master raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, it’s obvious? I mean, it’s pretty clichéd. How many times and how many people have tried to destroy the Earth because of the Doctor? Get some new ideas already.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think about it!” the Koschei Master said. “You’re the one who’s going to suffer because of the destruction of the world you love so much!”

“Sure. That’ll work,” Missy rolled her eyes.

Clara was appalled, however. “You can’t do that!”

“You can say that,” the Tremas Master smiled. “But your word means nothing, girl.”

“Your plan won’t work,” Missy said.

“Why won’t it?” the Bald Master asked.

“Because it never does,” Missy replied. “Process of deduction. When have any of your plans ever actually worked when it comes to fighting me, the Doctor, hm? Like, you’re just so incredibly bad at everything you do.”

“SILENCE!” the Bad Master snarled. Walking towards her, he produced a small device that vaguely resembled the sonic screwdriver. He aimed it at Missy, and she stared at it with a look of recognition.

“You have no leverage here! You are powerless, Doctor! We have won! And if you try anything… well… you remember the tissue compressor eliminator, don’t you?”

“Well, you’ve won until backup arrives,” Missy replied.

The three Masters stopped. Clara looked to Missy. She looked at them, confused.

“What ‘backup?’” the Koschei Master asked.

“Oh. Did I say that out loud?”

The Doctor was approaching the doors in his spacesuit. April was making sure the tether was firmed attached to the console. He stopped and pulled on it to ensure that it was as well. Seeing that it was, he moved to the threshold. Turning back, he gave a thumbs up to April, who hesitantly returned it. Looking back out into space, he stepped forward.

Grabbing onto the outside of the TARDIS, he climbed around to the device. April looked out as best she could from the doors. He floated in the vacuum of space, and used his left hand to steady himself. Reaching into one of the pockets on his suit, he produced a small tool. Taking it, he began to work on the device.

He had only seen one of these before during the Last Great Time War, and it had exploded when he tried to open it up and look inside. Therefore, he had to be very careful with what he did with this one.

Slowly, he began loosening the bolts that held the main panel in place. After several moments, he managed to detach the panel. Throwing it away, it floated out into space. Looking inside, he saw the intricate wiring and machinery.

“Aside from the genocide, the Daleks know how to engineer,” he said to himself.

Taking up to the tool again, he readied to start working on the device. However, just as he touched the first inside piece with the tool, it exploded in a ball of fire. April dove back into the TARIDS as the flames rushed around to doors. The shockwave from the blast threw the Doctor from the ship and sent him flying through space. As he flew further out, he reached the end of tether. As soon as it stretched out, it snapped.

With the tether snapped, the Doctor was left floating helpless through space. He thought about ways out of this, but nothing was coming to him. With the TARDIS getting further and further away from him, his options were dwindling fast.

Inside the TARDIS, April got herself off the floor. She saw that the tether had snapped, and realizing what had happened, she ran to the doors and looked out. Silhouetted against the galaxy was the small speck of the Doctor, drifting further and further away from him.

“Doctor!” she yelled into the void.

The three Masters were standing before Missy. They each had their own version of the tissue compressor eliminator in hand.

“What do you mean… ‘backup,’” the Koschei Master said slowly.

“Did I say backup? I meant…” she trailed off, seemingly being at a loss for words.

“Seriously?” Clara was surprised.

“I can’t have clever comebacks all the time,” Missy protested.

The Tremas Master pointed his weapon at her. “What do you mean by ‘backup!’”

“Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag on this one,” Missy sighed. “When I learned about the Silents, I made a call to the Federation, alerting them to the stragglers you’ve been harboring here. When they received it, they promptly came on their way.”

They stared at her. “*What*.”

“Yeah, I obviously wasn’t going to take care of these guys by myself, especially when I have exterminators on call.”

The Bald Master abruptly pointed his weapon at Clara. “If you don’t call them off, your companion will die!”

Missy shrugged. “I don’t care.”

He was taken aback. “Wait, what?”

She shrugged again, looking into Clara’s shocked face. “Do it. I don’t care.”

The three Masters took a step back and stared at Missy, their eyes wide. “You’re… not the Doctor,” the Tremas Master said.

“That took you a long time to figure out,” she groaned.

“Who are you?” the Koschei Master asked, pointing his tissue compressor eliminator at her again.

She smiled. “Isn’t it obvious?” her eyes flashed.

They gasped as they collectively realized who she was. “You’re us?” they said together.

“Now you’ve got it,” she got to her feet, brushing off her dress.

“What are you doing here?” the Bald Master was dumbfounded. “Where’s the Doctor? We specifically programmed the device to find the Doctor!”

“Yeah, well, you got me instead,” Clara got up.

“You killed several of the Silents,” the Tremas Master said. “You said that you were the Doctor, and you’ve been working to undermine us this entire time. Why are you working against us?”

“I’m on a new path now, and you’re not going to be able to change that path,” Missy began pacing around the room.

“What? You’re turning good?” the Bald Master looked appalled.

“No! I’m not turning *good*,” she looked equally appalled. “I’m just trying to do some things that aren’t evil.”

“That’s disgu-,” the Koschei Master was about to say when the consoles lit up with an array of alerts.

Quickly, the Bald Master rushed over to one of the consoles. Pressing a button, the display showed a security feed from what appeared to be an airlock. Outside, a large ship was docking with the station.

“How is the ship docking?” the Tremas Master stepped forward. “How is that possible?”

“It’s overriding our security protocols! Every encryption!” the Bald Master replied.

“Who is it?” the Koschei Master asked, but Missy chuckled.

“Who do you think?” she smirked.

The earliest Master scowled and turned to the Silents around the room. “Go out and confront the Church. Your former masters are here to exterminate you. Show them that you are now in control, and that you are your own masters now. Kill them all.”

“*This will die,*” one of the Silents said.

Together, the Silents talked out of the room, leaving the Time Lords and the human alone. The Masters again turned their weapons on the duo. Clara stepped behind Missy.

“Just because you called for help does not mean that you are getting out of this,” the Koschei Master growled. “For your transgression, you will die. Or regenerate, if you will.”

“If anyone’s regenerating today, it’s one of you three,” Missy pulled out her own device. The three Masters tensed at the sight of it.

“Don’t you dare,” the Bald Master said.

“You should know that I’m willing to do anything,” Missy smiled.

The doors to the airlock opened and more than a heavily armed soldiers spilled out. Their armor clanked as they moved. The lead one stepped forward and looked down the corridor.

“Alright. Fan out. The Federation was alerted of Silents here, and we’ve got to exterminate them. So let’s move!”

“Yes sir!” rang the chorus.

Just as the soldiers began to move, however, a bolt of electricity shot from the darkness and hit one of the soldiers. They screamed in pain before dropping to the ground. The soldiers tensed as more than a dozen Silents emerged from the shadows. Their hands flickered with electricity. The soldiers readied their weapons.

“Open fire!” the leader barked.

Immediately, the soldiers opened fire. The bolts struck the Silents, sending them crashing to the ground, roaring in agony.

“Keep it up!” the lead soldier ordered. “We’re getting them!”

The soldiers kept it up as the Silents continued falling to the ground.

The Doctor was floating aimlessly through space with no hope of rescue. The TARDIS was miles away from him and getting further by the second. The momentum generated by the shockwave was not going to wear off unless acted upon by an outside force, and there was no force coming, he thought. Sometimes the Time Lord cursed physics.

In the TARDIS, April watched him disappearing with a look of hopelessness. There was nothing she could do, and the Doctor was going to be stranded.

Suddenly, she heard something in the room behind her. Turning, the lights around the room began to turn on. The console flared into life, a low humming accompanying the glow of the controls. April’s face lit up with a broad smile. Rushing forward, she arrived at the console and began looking at the controls, but she had no idea what to do. She had seen the Doctor pilot the TARDIS a dozen times, but she couldn’t do it herself.

Walking around the console, she tried to think of something, when she saw the telepathic circuits. She remembered the Doctor showing her and Clara the controls just before the attack. Stepping up to them, she held her hands over them. There was a strange warmth to them. Deciding that this was her only option, she slowly inserted her fingers into the circuits. It was oddly disgusting, like they were alive.

She suddenly felt a rush of energy, and it was like she was connected with the TARDIS on a mental level. She felt as those she had full control over the TARDIS, and could do anything that she could think of.

Taking a deep breath, she thought about the Doctor. She concentrated hard, very hard. Suddenly, the ship shuddered, and a moment later, it began moving through space. She saw this and laughed.

“It’s working!” she chuckled. “It’s working!”

The TARDIS spun through space towards the galaxy. Miles away, the Doctor was trying to think of a solution when he noticed the blue box coming closer and closer towards him. He raised an eyebrow but then noticed that the lights were on.

“It worked,” he muttered. “But how is it doing that…?”

As the TARDIS approached, he saw that it was slowing down. Reaching out, he grabbed onto the door frame and pulled himself in. Caught in the gravity, he fell to the ground with a clatter. Immediately, April disconnected herself from the telepathic circuits and rushed over to the Doctor. She helped him off the ground as he removed his helmet.

“Doctor!” she said. “Are you alright?”

“How did you-?” he was panting.

“The telepathic circuits,” April smiled. “I guess that they work.”

“Good,” he got to his feet. “Now we need to find Clara.”

He began walking to the console. April looked at after him in confusion before following herself. She joined him as he closed the doors with the press of a button and began moving on the controls.

“How are we going to find Clara? We don’t know where she is.”

“She still has her TARDIS keys on her, and we can use those to track her. If she’s in the same time period, that will make it easier,” he began taking off his suit. “So let’s go.”

“I’m so ready to be done with this,” April looked at the panels above the console as they began to rotate.

They could hear the gunfire coming down the corridor towards them.

“Why are you doing this?” the Bald Master demanded. “Are you trying to impress the Doctor? Maybe he’ll dump this sack of flesh and he’ll make you his companion?”

“Why would I ever want to travel with the Doctor?” Missy replied. “That’s the last thing that I could possibly want. I’m just following the timeline.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” the Tremas Master asked.

“I remembered what happened here today. Vaguely, anyway. And I remembered seeing myself here stopping my diabolical plan, so I figured that I had to fulfill the future,” she shrugged.

“Since when are we beholden to the laws of time?” the Koschei Master inquired. “We’ve changed the past dozens of times. Why start now?”

“I’d rather not get erased from existence, would you?” Missy responded. “Four incarnations of the same Time Lord in one place? Does that not scream fixed point to you? Maybe you should’ve paid more attention at the Academy.”

The Bald Master rubbed his head. “If you are what we become, I’d rather die as the Master than become the Mistress. I say we kill her and change the future when we get there.”

“Why are you so self-destructive?” the Tremas Master asked. “Why would you even consider such an action?”

“Look at her! She’s betrayed us!” he pointed his weapon at her. “We have to stop it!”

“If you kill me you *will* be killing yourselves,” Missy said. “You know that, right?”

“That’s a price that I’m willing to pay,” the Bald Master growled.

Aiming his weapon at her, he readied to fire. The other two Masters watched in suspense, while Missy aimed her device at him.

A wheezing noise began to fill the room. They looked around as a breeze rustled their clothes. They then turned around and saw the TARDIS materializing in the middle of the control room. Clara’s face lit up while the Masters looked on in anger. Missy’s expression was neutral, but the corners of her mouth twitched.

The doors to the TARDIS opened as soon as it solidified. The Doctor and April emerged from the glare of the console room. The Doctor carried his sonic screwdriver in hand. He stopped and took in the scene. The three Masters stared at him, holding their weapons tightly. He saw Clara standing with Missy. The gunfire was getting closer. He frowned.

“What’s going on here?”

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” the Koschei Master raised his weapon.

“I asked you first,”the Doctor replied sharply.

“They want to destroy the Earth,” Clara interjected. “They’re trying to get revenge on you.”

“Well, isn’t that pathetic?” the Doctor said, striding around the room. “For centuries you’ve been plotting revenge against me, through countless lives and countless schemes on countless worlds, we’ve fought each other for so long and for so many reasons. Why do we keep doing this?”

“Don’t try to reason with us!” the Bald Master barked. “You can’t corrupt us like you’ve corrupted Missy! Don’t event try.”

“Missy is an enigma to me,” he glanced at her. “Not really sure what to think about her.”

“Thank you,” she smiled.

“It doesn’t matter!” the Tremas Master said. “The Federation is here and they’re getting closer! The Doctor’s here now! Let’s just blow the station and go!”

“Blow the station how?” the Doctor asked.

The Tremas Master stared at him for a long time before he began to chuckle. “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

Suddenly, he vanished in a flash of light. The other two looked at where he had been standing in surprise before they smiled also.

“That’s a good idea,” the Bald Master nodded, before he vanished also.

The Koschei Master looked to the four as the gunfire drew closer. “Maybe you’ll survive, but we’ll meet again one way or another, Doctor,” he laughed before disappearing.

Immediately, more lights and alerts began to flash around them as they were told that the core was about to go critical. They heard the gunfire die out and the yells of the soldiers ordering a retreat.

“Come on,” the Doctor said. “Into the TARDIS!”

Together, they piled into the TARIDS, but Missy remained outside. The Doctor stopped and looked at her. He held out his hand.

“Come on!” he said. “Come with me!”

She shook her head. “I’ve got my own ship. I’ll see you around,” she readied her device.

The two stared at each other. “Why did you help Clara?” the Doctor asked. “Why are you helping us?”

Missy looked at him for a long moment before smiling. “Goodbye, Doctor.”

In a flash of light, she was gone. The Doctor stared at her before disappearing into the TARDIS. He rushed to the console and began taking off. The ship shuddered as they faded away into the time vortex. Just as they vanished, the station exploded in an awesome ball of fire, which began to collapse in on itself becoming a hole of black.

The ship was just hit by the shockwave as it slipped into the vortex, shaking it slightly. They regained their footing as caught their breath. There was silence between them. April then noticed the marks on Clara’s arm.

“What’s that?”

The Doctor cast a glance at it. She sighed. “It’s a long story.”

## Characters

* Twelfth Doctor
* Clara Oswald
* April Leigh-Morgan
* Missy
* Koschei Master
* Tremas Master
* Bald Master
* The Silence
* The Federation

## Gallery

Promotional cover for the story.Textless version.
## Trivia

* The "Koschei Master" is the first seen incarnation of the Master, portrayed by Roger Delgado.