Plotting...planning...procrastinating

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Title: Universes Collide
Series: A Good Old Normal, Human Life (12/13)
Word Count: (total) 16,990
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What happens after the Doctor leaves Rose and his human counterpart behind on Pete's world?
Pairings: TenII/(Alt)Master (bit of TenII/Rose & Hart/Jones)
Character/s: The (Human) Doctor, Harold Saxon/Master, Rose, Tish Jones, Ianto Jones, John Hart 
A/N: This fic is now COMPLETE! The last chapters will be posted weekly.
Most screen caps from the sonic biro site and the power of google-fu 

Catch Up: Prologue, Welcome to Number Ten Mr Smith, Saxon and Smith, Enter the Judoon, A Good Expositional Explanation, Extreme Pictionary and a bit of Snogging, Not the Slow Path, Observation Station, Mend Your Ways, Banished to Eris, Dangerous Driving 

UNIVERSES COLLIDE

“None of that now,” the Master tutted.  Ianto continued to clutch his head and groan.  The Master nudged him with his foot.

“Get off him,” Rose crouched down beside Ianto.  “What is it?”  He only moaned more and curled up tighter.

“Oh for-” the Master grumbled and began rooting around under the control console, he pulled out a small device and aimed it at Ianto.  “It’s a scanner,” he said pre-empting Rose's protest.  “Oh dear,” he murmured a moment later.

The Doctor leaned over his shoulder; Rose let her mind gloss over how closely he leaned.  “That’s very bad,” he said and took the scanner from the Master before he held it against each of them in turn.  “Very very bad.”

“It’s not just Ianto?” Rose asked.

“No, it’s everyone,” the Master said.

“Everyone?” Rose frowned.  Ianto had quietened and now blinked up at them, forehead still creased in a pained frown.

“Everyone on earth,” the Doctor said.  He looked down at the device in his hands and back at her.  “On both Earth’s.”

“What did you see?” the Master asked Ianto.

“Flashes of people, memories maybe?  Owen was there and...”

“Jack?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes, and Gwen and Tosh...  How do I know them?  I feel like I know them.”

“This is not good,” the Master muttered.  He threw the machine the Doctor had been holding back under the console and started pressing buttons.  The Tardis lurched for a moment.

“Those flashes we had earlier?” the Doctor asked quietly.

“Exactly.  Someone needs to fix this, and I have a horrible feeling you’re going to insist it should be us.”

The Doctor grinned.  That was practically yes to a question he hadn’t even had to ask.  Maybe this would work out fine.

“What’s going on?” Rose demanded as the engines stopped whirring.

“Your universe and this one are converging,” the Master said.  “They were never meant to be split the way they were and now it looks like they’re collapsing in on each other.”

“We’ll have to check one of the rifts to be sure,” the Doctor said.  “But this is very bad.”

“Why?” Rose asked.

“We can’t just fit back together again,” the Master rolled his eyes.  “The universes are too different now; different paths taken by billions of people.  The pieces don’t fit.”

“So what’s going to happen?” Ianto asked.

“They’ll both be destroyed,” the Doctor said.

“Actually, I think you’ll find that we are going to save the day, the world, the universe!”  The Master grinned.  “Right up your alley,” he smirked at the Doctor.  “Just a little bit of restructuring on the rifts, figure out if anything else is causing the collapse and then a party!” he jumped around the other side of the console and started to prod furiously at buttons and study the screens closely.

“Was it us?” Rose asked.  “Is it our fault?”

“Oh,” the Doctor paused and looked slightly guilty.  “Maybe, all that back and forth between parallel universes, might have had a negative effect.”

“Might have?” the Master snorted.

“What can we do?” Ianto asked as he pulled himself to his feet.

“Nothing yet, we’ll need to scan the Cardiff rift, from both sides,” the Doctor said.  He wandered round to where the Master was working and glanced at the screens.

“Actually there is something you can do,” the Master looked up at them.  “Leave.”

The Doctor pinched him.

“Well they aren’t coming with us are they?” the Master looked up, eyebrows raised.

“Where are you going?” Ianto asked.

“Cardiff, there’s a rift in Cardiff,” Rose recalled.

“Well we can come with you then.  There’s a Torchwood base in Cardiff, we can use some of the facilities there to help,” Ianto said.

“We’re not going to this Cardiff,” the Master said.

“That’s not the entire truth is it?” the Doctor asked.  “A short stop off there to refuel and determine the weakest point in the rift to travel through will be necessary.”

The Master glared at him.  “A short stop off where I may kick every one of you out of my Tardis, might also be necessary,” he said pointedly.

“Right,” the Doctor said shortly.  That was a dismissal if ever he heard one.  The Master had either changed his mind or never intended to really take him with him.  “Let’s go,” he said quietly to Ianto and Rose and hustled them toward the door.

The Master sighed dramatically seconds before the Tardis jumped in to flight.  “Really John, you’ll need to be thicker skinned than that when you’re travelling with me.”  He held out his hand and the Doctor rushed over to him and took it.

The Master placed their joined hands over a button, “Cardiff here we come,” he said and grinned at the Doctor as they span the Tardis through the sky toward Wales.

x-posted to dwfiction and slash_lords
Read the concluding part: Off to Save the Universe