An Unwelcome Parting of the Ways (part 2)

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 89648

Fred

Not much later we’ll find out that our unconscious "Stacy" is indeed the wayward (and now somehow transmogrified) Time Lady, but that’s after a few more shocks to our system…

It started with an exaggerated calm as Reika slowly closed her tricorder, looking a bit green around the gills as she first nervously looks at the TARDIS and then the Doctor as Rei is giving a stern warning to the newcomers NOT to use the word "wish" in any manner while standing here on THIS side of the Hellmouth.

Rei’s just getting around to explaining (with a bit of strained patience from her and a few questionable input statements from Xander) just how wishes can and are granted in usually the worst possible way— comparing it akin to an evil Djinn granting a starving child’s desire to never be hungry again by stranding him on an island with nothing but rancid bread and butter—when Reika finally manages to find her voice.


"Doctor? Mind if I ask you something?" Reika manages to ask finally, a few octaves higher than normal before swallowing a few times to calm her nerves.

She had run the results three times through her tricorder to make sure of what she’d detected with a application that had become (for some reason she hadn’t been privy to as of YET and she couldn’t well ask that mysterious chap right now since the guy wasn’t HERE at the moment) standard fare amongst the her and her sister’s NEW regular issue tricorder protocol. Her family had kept this in mind when they’d gifted her and the sisters with this updated gear, you see.

. . .

As an aside Rei and her sisters had a LOT more protocols and safeguards built into their gear than regular Champions because of the odd run of luck they’d been known to have from time to time on certain Quests.

It wasn’t paranoia if there were things out there REALLY trying to get you, you know.

Anyway, three times she had ran it and three times the same results.

The only reason why she wasn’t (exactly) in something of a panic was the fact that Buffy (our teenage cheerleader turned Vampire Slayer turned warrior angel masquerading as Buffy the human teenager cheerleader turned vampire slayer) allowed the TARDIS to come here: it was safe for the moment.

Probably would be safe for the duration of the Doctor’s visit here, but….!

"Doctor, did you perchance have a run in with someone . . .oh . .. by the name of Omega before all this business started?" the winged woman continued, holding up her tricorder (which was still flashing a red screen). "He didn’t . . .do anything to you and your TARDIS by any chance, did he? Hit you with some kind of beam or somesuch?"

THIS much antimatter (converted or not) sitting facing her and the rest of the heroes here had given her quiet the start!

Needless to say this causes a flurry of questions from all corners of the room. Some sounding confused (and annoyed) at whatever Reika is talking about. Some sound rather alarmed, at least having an inkling at what Reika was trying to get at here. Some . . .just sound confused.

"Who’s Omega and what has THAT have anything to do with . . .well . . .anything?!" Willow asked finally, shaking her head slightly in exasperation (and sending a lock of white hair down into her eyes much to her annoyance).

"Child," the Master begins, giving the drow elf female an odd look before sighing and muttering something about needless ignorance of one of the Timelord greats. "Omega was one of the founders of Time Lord civilization, standing head and shoulders with Rassilon himself . . .and that treacherous creature known only nowadays as the Other."

He gives the Doctor a dark look before continuing. Betty and Ragan blink at that one, sensing something telling in the offing.

"Because of the Other’s treachery through the use of some dark allies in a false flag operation who’s cunning made me rather envious, Omega’s life was lost and his body drawn into a black hole and never recovered," he finished up haughtily with the drow, only to turn and look oddly at Rei and her sisters, and then at Betty and Ragan (all who’d basically at least hinted at knowing something about the matter).

Something MORE than what he’d been taught in the Academy, anyway.

"Er . . .he did die in the false flag operation that that Fenris, a mercenary working for the Order of the Black Sun," the evil Timelord asks Betty almost sheepishly, seeing something in her and her red haired analog’s eyes.

Originally, he had at least pretended to listen to what Betty and Ragan had to say about certain matters. More out of humoring the "silly humans" than anything, but more and more he has begun to realise just HOW much these "silly humans" know about what’s actually going on here.

And he realizes that he could do MUCH worse than to at least seriously listen to what these women (the VLA technician ones and the winged ones) have to tell him, else he might NOT live to regret it.

Hey, every bit helps in this mess he finds himself in here if he wanted to escape with his life intact! Maybe even what passes as an afterlife in this magic rich enviroment, really.

Walker HAD promised to drag his soul down to hell by herself IF the VLA did explode and he died because of it…. And given that Walker appeared to be at least something akin to those higher planer entities like the Light Guardian and Dark Guardian . . .she might be able to do it and he’d rather skip that little piece of eternal damnation (or a reasonable fascimilie generated by this magic stuff), thanks!

"The Order of the Black Sun is a time-active enemy of the Time Lords from the future," Reika explained softly to a confused looking drow female (who’d happened to not be totally up on certain Dr. Whovian trivia). "They sabotaged the stasis halo of Omega's Starbreaker so as to expose it, and the Starbreaker's crew, to the fury of the black hole in the experiment that made time travel possible for the Time Lords."

"No . . .he got sucked into an anti-matter universe but survived . . .at least up until an encounter or two with the Doctor," Ragan blinked, not having expected THIS latest hiccup in the scheme of things. "But . . .why is you sister ASKING about such things? I mean just how would that tricorder looking device . . . ?"

"It is a actual Star Trek tricorder . . .just a bit more upteched with two centuries worth of progress," Fred Takahashi interrupts helpfully from the side.

"We get around the multiverse a lot," Fred adds sardonically in the ensuing silence as Betty and Ragan stare at him. "Part of the job, you know."

"Uh . . .right," Ragan mutters before shaking her head slightly and turning back to the Master. "

First....

Walker HAD promised to drag his soul down to hell by herself IF the VLA did explode and he died because of it…. And given that Walker appeared to be at least something akin to those higher planer entities like the Light Guardian and Dark Guardian . . .she might be able to do it and he’d rather skip that little piece of eternal damnation (or a reasonable facsimile generated by this magic stuff), thanks! He might not put stock in such metaphysical things back in his home reality but dared not test his beliefs in a reality were "fantasy" was not so . . . imaginary as he would wish it to be.

Not after solving some of his more vexing personal problems as of relatively recently, you better believe.

"The Order of the Black Sun is a time-active enemy of the Time Lords from the future," Reika explained softly to a confused looking drow female (who’d happened to not be totally up on certain Dr. Whovian trivia). "They sabotaged the stasis halo of Omega's Starbreaker so as to expose it, and the Starbreaker's crew, to the fury of the black hole in the experiment that made time travel possible for the Time Lords."

The Master only listens with half an ear (interesting though that tidbit had been . . .things had been a bit different in his home reality) as Ragan brings him up to speed.

"No . . .he got sucked into an anti-matter universe but survived . . .at least up until an encounter or two with the Doctor," Ragan blinked, not having expected THIS latest hiccup in the scheme of things. "But . . .why is you sister ASKING about such things? I mean just how would that tricorder looking device . . . ?"

"It is a actual Star Trek tricorder . . .just a bit more upteched with two centuries worth of progress," Fred Takahashi interrupts helpfully from the side.

"We get around the multiverse a lot," Fred adds sardonically in the ensuing silence as Betty and Ragan stare at him. "Part of the job, you know."

"Uh . . .right," Ragan mutters before shaking her head slightly and turning back to the Master. "Bottom line, at least in some--maybe not yours—in SOME timelines Omega survived and lived on in the antimatter universe . . .or . . . .a matter universe if Rei’s sister over there is to be believed. Now how did . . .?"

Of course the Doctor has to interrupt, having enough of this nonsense.

"What errant nonsense it this about me and Omega and this Other chap I’ve never heard of before?!" he nearly shouts, clearly at the end of his rope. "Yes I did rather happen run into raygun totting monsters sent my way that hit me and the TARDIS and sending me on quiet a tangent for a small bit of time I found the mocking message the Master left by his flunkies TAPED to my time capsule’s doors, bragging about ending the Earth with the rather trite ‘Twins of Doom’ gambit and. . ."

"Wait! Wait!" the Master interrupts, shaking his head not able to believe some of the things the Doctor just said. "Why in Rassilon’s name would I EVER tip my hand by such an idiotic manner like that? I mean maybe at one time with the Drums beating in my mind I might have been so foolish admittedly but . . . You might as well have me having grown a handlebar mustache for me to twirl as I fiendishly regale in monologue in how I shall cleverly destroy you and such.

"I fear, dear Doctor, that I’ve grown OUT of such childish behavior! Even gone so far as . . .What can I do for you Rei?" The Master asks in a somewhat strained voice. Frankly, he’d been feeling a pretty good rant coming on and felt like really laying into the Doctor for this latest insult to his intelligence.

REALLY! Even at his worst with those damnable Drums egging him onward he’d never would have stooped so low as to . . . .

Well . . .maybe near the end before he’d found that solution to his ills that wouldn’t have involved that rather over the top plot to garner a much needed Regeneration (or or three) with the President of the Time Lords and Galifrey plot.

Frankly, looking back at THAT scheme was more than a bit cringe worthy in his book in how . . .silly it looks in retrospect. Worthy of a child TV show he was sure.

He then blinks and remembered that his (and the Doctor’s) life HAD been chronicled on a British scifi TV show and sighs.

Sometimes it just did NOT pay to get out of bed in the morning (as thus far this day was proving to fit that criteria). REALLY, he was going to have WORDS with his soon to be ex-employer for having INSISTED that he was to us that fascinating data from Logopolis. Insisting that he was to use it in this operation to bring about an explosion to usher in a nuclear winter, thus paving the way for colonization for the invading fleet, had been a non-negotiable point throughout the mission briefing he’d gotten soon upon being contracted.

Frankly, the Master had all been for a much more simple (but effective) method of just using his TARDIS to drag one of several candidate asteroids into a collision course (after placing a stealth field to help avoid it’s detection by Earth based telescopes before the deed was done), but his employer had been MOST insistent!

Sigh, what he as a paid mercenary who specialized in the blackest of black operations to make ends meet! If only he’d caught on before now and

Sigh, never mind. Nothing was accomplished by whining about the situation he’d been manipulated into nowadays. Manipulated or not, he’d made his own bed and now he’d sleep in it (at least until he managed a better "bed" with a LOT of effort).

Now this! Well, at least Rei had been a MOST polite hostess/captor up until this moment. Eh . . .actually perhaps the MOST polite hostess/captor the Master could recall in recent (and NOT so recent memory). That fact, coupled with the small faux pas upon their initial meeting—where he’d slipped into using Oriental customs when he’d realized Rei and her friends haled in one fashion or another from Japan-- by his using Rei Takahashi’s personal name (Rei) vice the more socially accepted practice of using her family name (Takahashi) he’d allowed her the privilege of using that shortened version of his name from time to time. He’d meant to use "Mrs. Takahashi" instead of Rei but had stumbled slightly, having grown rather used to using Occidental customs when addressing another vice Oriental. Too much time in Europe (mostly England) and whatnot…

Sighing, he’d tolerate her interrupting his "discussion" with the Doctor BUT . . .

"Not to be blunt but with the clock still ticking on the Master’s life here," Rei begins, giving the Master a meaningful glance. "And by extension Betty’s Earth as well! Do we REALLY have time to argue over relatively trivial matters?"

Yes, while the question of whether OR not Omega was responsible for the rather ALARMING readings that Lilith’s tricorder had displayed – only "rather Alarming" vice "pant soiling alarming" due to the fact that Buffy had said mentally somewhat a bit earlier that INDEED she was using her angelic powers to halt Doctor and his TARDIS from going critical for the duration of his stay here in Sunnyvale—was of a MUCH higher priority right now.

Questions about that OTHER stuff is something that Rei’s group would rather put off in handling until later (like something akin to something AFTER the heat death of Betty’s universe, i.e. NEVER). Frankly they had these more pressing concern here and now, you dig?

The Time Lord IN question has the good grace to at least look slightly embarrassed when what Rei’s saying processes through his mind. As for the Doctor, he’s giving her an odd look.

"Er . . .quite right there Rei," the Master coughed, actually slightly embarrassed for having lost track of that rather important goal. "Sorry for that unseemly display there."

The Doctor, meanwhile, is actually looking a little bugeyed at this display, looking first at the Master’s display and then at Rei, clearly at a loss at how THIS just happened.

"Excuse me?" he blinks.

The Master actually apologizing for something like . . .that?!

"Now, as for this ‘Omega nonsense business’ with you being converted anti-matter and such," Rei continues calmly, all the while cursing to herself at this LATEST development.

No way in HELL can the Doctor ever be allowed to accompany her group back to Betty’s Earth. No way in Hell could he be allowed to do it else all that anti-matter, when it converted back to normal would . . .

No way was there going to be a Doctor to be there (at least physically) to counteract any dark deeds that the Mater may wish to unleash if she or any of her group give him half a chance.

OH, she’d been bending herself over backwards (as flexible as her body was that was ever a tall order even for HER) to be polite and not give cause for the Master to feel a need to betray them. Had tried at the same time to show a strong front with subtle hints that she and her group wasn’t a pushover, something to use as a tool.

Heck, even that one magic item she’d given him (in some part to bring him to the bargaining table for something later on here) had been partly to show off her power, even IF it wasn’t a cure all for what made Rei cringe, remembering ANOTHER analog of the Master who had finally turned back up (after having done something ill advised attempt at Inquirer’s life very EARLY in her lifetime). She (yes, SHE) had gone missing for decades after apparently been humiliated by a rather . . .intoxicated Inquirer (never EVER shoot a Golem with a TCE, many are VERY mean drunks).

Wherever the Mistress (as Inquirer had nicknamed her) had been for all that time had NOT done a single solitary good thing for her sanity. Whatever and wherever she’d gone, those damnable drums of war had increased to a horrendous volume. So powerful were they before some one had put the poor evil Time Lord (Lady?) out of her misery even SHE could hear them (slightly).

AND THAT HAD been . . .from across town!! Her death had been a mercy killing and a gift. Ending it was a blessing for at that point nothing else would have helped the poor thing!!

There was no way that Rei was going to let even a DOG be tortured like that, thank you. And tortured like that Rei figured that the Master was eventually fated to become as the centuries rolled on and on.

The magical pendant she’d given him to muffle the drums wasn’t a cure, but it was a start; something to show that she KNEW things and perhaps knew things that could interest him enough to buy his contract out? Hopefully enough of an incentive later to perhaps listen to her when she tried to bargain for that one Earth the Master had actually been contracted to destroy before this fiasco began.

Not like she could go and STOP him once they parted ways…

Slim hope but maybe there was some slight chance if the gob smacked look the Master has right now is any indication.

She had to smile for it seemed that a discussion with "her" Betty about the same thing soon after the "Mistress" incident had been correct…


"No!" Rei protested, shaking her head and holding up her hands in protest. "I’d use it as a peace offering of sorts to get him to not be so . . .erratic. That or as part of a bargaining chip if I got myself and my sisters into a tight spot with him."

The very idea that Rei would even THINK that she could use such magicks as a mean of controlling the Master was . . .ludicrous at best. The Master was a sociopath. A madman who morality was nothing more than an exercise in intellectual games and as such understood morality in only those terms.

Oh, he understood consequences and such but . . .that wasn’t the avenue that she was trying to get a feeling for for one of of those "just in case" scenarios she may find herself in, sometime in the future.

"So with that in mind," the blue haired woman continued. "I now ask you how would the Master react to a magic artifact that would silence the drums?

After hearing those wretched things, she’d done her homework to understand what she’d been hearing (and still had a headache despite the mental shields she wore as a matter of course, being a mage and all). She knew that the Master heard war drum on a constant basis "24/7" from SOME kind of incident in his formative years.

"Would it be a Bad idea? Good idea?" she finally finishes up, gesturing slightly in frustration. "Frankly, I would have asked Diane Walker but she’s away on a diplomatic mission so . . .should I even think about trying such a thing, Betty?"

"It's hard to say with the Master," Betty says after giving Rei a looking and then giving it some thought. "Frankly, I’d not try it but then again . . .I think you could probably justify expecting any reaction you wanted or DID not want, really. He is very unstable and unpredictable, especially in later incarnations, but . . .

"But . . . he'd probably very much like said drums to stop," Betty finally conceded, not being able to seem to sway Rei in this perhaps hare brained scheme she’d concoted for perhaps misplaced sense of mercy. "And I can imagine it being a great relief to him if they did."

Trying to put her old life behind her and live something of a more positive was nice and all, but wasn’t this a bit much?!

Rei knew Betty had those qualms for she could see it in her eyes, but still . . .


It might work and the seeds planted might blossom into a saved planet, Rei thought to herself, hoping.

But First, she had to finish up with the Doctor before she started anything like some kind of endgame (or whatever) to bargain for the fate of a world. He looks rather . . .peekid at the moment , having confirmed with his TARDIS’ sensors after some adjustment (their default settings wouldn’t have done for this task).

Yes sir, even if he’d defeated the Master earlier and saved the VLA, that damnable Twins of Doom prophecy that apparently one Author Scott Chen (or perhaps even that Randall Flagg chap) set in motion would have struck.

Maybe on that one planet dedicated to medical pursuits he’d have used to try to heal Stacy’s lost memories? Maybe while in transit to deposit Betty back home, safe and sound?

Whatever the case, the sudden return to his normal matter (anti- matter?) state would have interacted with the surrounding matter of that universe and . . . ONE BIG BOOOOOM and a shattered planet or three?

"I really don’t believe I care for this Scott Chen character," the Doctor whispered to himself, somewhat abstracted.

"Doctor, we can still use your help with a lift from you and your TARDIS but we’re going to part company the moment you rematerialize back in Betty’s reality," Rei said softly after coughing delicately to get the Time Lord’s attention. "Please do be a good chap and dematerialize back into the limbo between and return home to your home reality because an anti-matter blast is NOT the way I want to end the day, thank you."

Well, the Doctor and the TARDIS wasn’t going to destabilize the immediate moment of return to Betty’s reality and all that, but . . .why borrow trouble?

  1. "So . . .if you don’t mind opening the TARDIS up so we can do a ‘hot drop’ back down to the VLA. . . "

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8/18/2010 11:27:45 PM

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