neveralarch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
neveralarch) wrote2011-04-28 07:26 pm
neveralarch) wrote2011-04-28 07:26 pm
Entry tags:
Fic: Prey of the Cheetahs
Prey of the Cheetahs
Doctor Who, Classic Series.
Rating: PG-13
(violence, mild swearing, sexual themes)
Characters: Three/Delgado!Master, Jo, Liz, the Brigadier, Benton
Wordcount: 5,800ish
Summary: There are strange things happening at Cambridge, and they seem to be connected with the appearance of a black cat...
A/N: Written for this prompt on the best_enemies anonmeme - basically, this is Survival by way of the Third Doctor. Takes place sometime between The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos, probably.
Liz Shaw was enjoying Cambridge. There weren't quite as many opportunities for new research as there had been at UNIT, but on the other hand dealing with undergraduates was much easier than dealing with murderous aliens.
Problems arose when murderous aliens started coming to her.
"There have been two more disappearances this week," she said. The Brigadier, on the other end of the phone, murmured something about stressed academics. "No, you don't understand," said Liz, exasperated. "They disappear in the middle of the day, between classes even. There's always a black cat seen right before, and lately there have even been reports of, well, cat-people. I really think you should send the Doctor."
"I'll see what I can do," said the Brigadier. "He might take some convincing."
“I remember what he’s like,” said Liz. “Just talk to him. I’m sure he’s bored stiff at headquarters.”
---
The Doctor was hunched over his equipment, explaining some minor point of technology to Miss Grant. Alistair walked in as silently as he could. "Doctor?" he said, when he was practically leaning over the Doctor's shoulder.
The other man didn't even flinch. He simply carried on with his electronic experimentation, infuriatingly calm. Well, Alistair would get the better of the Doctor eventually.
"Ah, yes, Brigadier." The Doctor held out a hand and Miss Grant gave him a pair of pliers, flashing a sympathetic smile at Alistair. "What can I do for you?"
"Doctor Shaw has just reported some unusual goings-on up at Cambridge - a number of disappearances, possible kidnappings. She was wondering if you mind going down to take a look."
"I'm really very busy," said the Doctor.
"You were just complaining about how desperately bored you were," said Miss Grant. “A nice trip to Cambridge is just what you need.”
Alistair lifted his eyebrows. Even if he couldn’t startle the Doctor, he could usually shame him into actually doing his job with a judicious application of eyebrows. The Doctor looked up at him and made a face.
"Oh, all right. I'm sure Miss Shaw needs all the help she can get. She's probably been kidnapped herself, by now."
---
Miss Shaw - Doctor Shaw, she corrected Jo - had not been kidnapped. Instead, she gave the Brigadier, Benton, the Doctor and Jo a tour of the various important places in Cambridge, lingering especially on the last known whereabouts of each of the disappeared people.
"Seemingly random," murmured the Doctor. "And you say that there was always a black cat hanging around?"
"Black cats are supposed to be bad luck," said Jo, crouching down to look at the grass. Perhaps there was catnip or something? “Like breaking a mirror.”
"Only if you're superstitious," said Doctor Shaw. "I suspect there's something more at work."
"There are a few species that have feline appearances," said the Doctor. He started listing names, and Jo tuned him out - they didn't mean anything to her anyway. Instead she began following the trail of crushed grass she'd just noticed.
"The Tiger Men?" Doctor Shaw’s voice was a little distant now. "Is that really an alien name?"
"The Human name for the species," said the Doctor. "I'd need a cough drop before I attempted their own name for themselves. Lots of growling."
At the end of the trail, there was a black cat curled up into itself. It had one yellow eye cracked open, but it didn’t move as Jo approached.
"Hello puss," said Jo, quietly. "Here, kitty kitty."
"Everything all right, Miss Grant?" said Benton. He walked over to where Jo was crouching.
"Yes," said Jo. "I think I've found the cat - oh, don't startle him."
"Lots of cats around," said Benton. "He's a fine looking fellow, anyway."
The cat stood up and bared its teeth at them. Jo stumbled to her feet in sudden fright as the cat leapt at them, and then they were in a desert, the neat grass replaced with sand.
---
"But while Treecats might have the intelligence to do something like this, they'd hardly have the motivation." The Doctor rubbed at his jaw, at a loss. "What do you think, Jo?"
There was no answer. The Doctor and the others looked around, but Jo wasn’t anywhere to be found.
"She's gone," said Liz. "Oh God, they've gotten her right under our noses."
"She's probably just wandered off," said the Brigadier. "But Benton's gone as well- Benton! Miss Grant!"
"No," said the Doctor. He held up a hand, as much to test the air as to stop the Brigadier. "Can't you feel that? There's a transportation residue - a little oil in the wind."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Doctor," said the Brigadier. "Are you saying that Doctor Shaw is right?"
"I'm saying that I need five tins of cat food as soon as possible," said the Doctor. How could he have let her wander off like that when he had known there might be danger?
The Brigadier looked at Liz. Liz raised an eyebrow.
"I quit because I didn't want to be fetching things," she said pointedly, and, the Doctor thought, a little peevishly.
The Brigadier raised both his eyebrows at her and took up his radio.
"This is greyhound one. I need five tins of cat food, delivered immediately."
To their credit, the boys at UNIT didn't ask why, just what sort.
---
Benton was sweating under the midday sun, the hot stiff breeze doing little to help. Jo had long since abandoned her stylish but impractical feather coat.
"I think I see something over the hill!" she said. "Or the dune or however you call it."
"Right," said Benton. He could just see the speck coming toward them. "If it’s friendly, we ask it for help, if not, leave it to me and we'll make it help." He rested a hand on his gun and kept trudging forward.
The speck gradually resolved itself into a complex figure. Benton actually stopped and tilted his head to try and figure out what it was.
"A... horse? But what's that on its back?"
"It looks like a giant cat," said Jo, solemnly. "Wearing armor. Oh, and carrying some spears."
The great cat pulled back its suspiciously human-like arm and a spear thudded into the sand next to Benton's foot.
"Right," said Benton. "Well spotted. Let's run."
Luckily enough, horses are actually not very good at running on sand. Unluckily enough, that doesn't matter much in the long run when you're on foot and also not very good at running on sand.
Benton gritted his teeth and pulled Jo along, listening as the cat began to call out for reinforcements.
---
If there was one thing Liz really had missed about working with UNIT, it was exactly how ridiculous everything was. She was crouched behind a bush with the Doctor and the Brigadier, staring at a dish full of cat food. The occasional academic walked by them, their glasses coming askew as they frowned at the man in fancy dress and the soldier who were apparently lying on the ground with that eccentric Doctor Shaw. Liz was torn between being amused and being worried for her future tenure hearings.
"Are you sure it's coming?" hissed Liz.
"What else can we do?" said the Doctor. "Be patient, Liz."
Liz gave up on crouching and just sat on the ground with her legs tucked under her. At this rate she would have been cramped and stiff before the cat ever showed up.
There was a rustle in one of the bushes, and the furry black head of a furry black cat poked itself out. It inched its way to the cat food, looking in all directions, but didn't see them hiding in the flora. The Doctor held a finger to his lips and slowly rose from his crouch as the cat began to nibble and lick at the food that had been laid out for it. Liz and the Brigadier followed, trying silently to get as close to the cat as possible. They were only a few steps away when the cat looked up, startled, and ran for it.
The Doctor threw himself at the cat in a full-body tackle, and then the cat was gone and Cambridge was gone and the Doctor was landing in a puff of sand.
"Well," said Liz, trying hard not to be surprised. "At least we know where people have been disappearing to. It's wherever here is."
"No communication," said the Brigadier, fiddling with his radio. "We're cut off."
"Of course we are," said the Doctor, irritably brushing off his velvet suit. "We're on a different planet and you expect to still have wireless reception?"
---
The horses were catching up to Jo and Benton. There were six of the cheetahs now, and while they weren't throwing spears anymore it was probably only because they were waiting until they definitely wouldn’t miss.
Still, Jo had confidence that they'd get out of this. If she could run in sand in pumps, she could do anything.
There were more figures in the distance. Benton began to turn to dodge away, but Jo dragged him toward the figures.
"They're not cheetahs," she said, panting. "They're human."
The people caught sight of them and started running to meet them. Benton shook his head and waved a hand toward an outcropping of rock to their left, and the group of people ran behind it. Within a minute Jo and Benton were diving behind the rock as well.
"Sir!" said Benton. He unholstered his gun, now that he wasn't on the run, and peered around the edge of the rock.
"Sergeant," acknowledged the Brigadier. "Hold fire. What's going on?"
"There are giant cat people on horses trying to kill us," explained Jo. "With spears."
"Yes, the Cheetah people," said the Doctor. “I should have thought of them before.” He stood up and peered around the rock as well. Jo leaned over and saw the Cheetahs reining in their horses. The first Cheetah was approaching, cautiously.
"Permission to fire a warning shot, Sir?" Benton firmed his grip on his pistol.
"Not yet," said the Brigadier. "Doctor, who are these Cheetah people?"
"Interstellar predators," said the Doctor. "But they don't normally hunt in planets of Earth's sentience class. There's something odd going on here."
Jo could see all of the Cheetahs coming closer now, their spears readied for a throw.
"We're not going to be able to fight them all," said Doctor Shaw, her mouth in a flat unhappy line. "Run for it?"
"They'd chase us down in no time," said Benton.
"What we need is a distraction," said the Doctor, rummaging in his pockets. "Now, when I say go, I want you all to get out of here, quick as you can."
"Doctor-" began the Brigadier, but the Doctor just walked out from behind the rock, holding his hands high in the air, his sonic screwdriver held in his right hand.
Jo thought of staying behind with the Doctor, only for a moment, but when the Doctor shouted "run!" and triggered the screwdriver she just ran with the others from the wailing, screeching sound.
---
The Cheetah people had knocked the Doctor down in the end, tied him up and taken him over the bow of one of their saddles. It was a better outcome than he should have expected, but he still felt disgruntled about the whole ordeal. Especially when they got to the camp and a very familiar looking man came out from the largest tent.
"My dear Doctor," said the Master. "What a surprise."
"I wish I could say the same," said the Doctor. He stood up from where he had been dumped off of the horse and looked with despair at his clothes. They were even worse now then they had been before, and with his hands tied he couldn't do anything about them.
The Master stepped close and brushed down one sleeve, then the other. The velvet would never recover entirely, but the most of the sand fell to the ground easily enough.
"Thank you," said the Doctor, with surprise. The Master gave a quick frown and stopped, his gloved hands resting on the Doctor's chest.
This close, the Doctor could see that the Master’s eyes were tinged with yellow, and there was something wrong with the fit of his jaw. He was breathing hard through his nose as well, far more worked up than he would normally ever be.
“Everything all right?" asked the Doctor.
"Perfectly," said the Master, as if coming out of a trance. He produced a knife and cut quickly through the Doctor's bonds. Then he stepped away, growing calmer with the distance. "Now, where are your friends? I can't just leave them running around my planet."
"It's your planet now, is it?" The Doctor snorted. "I suppose these are your dangerous predators as well. You should watch out, Master. Their behavior is somewhat... catching."
"Oh, believe me, Doctor," said the Master, "I'm well aware of that." He grinned and the Doctor saw that his canines had elongated, sharpened.
"You've been infected," said the Doctor, with horror.
"It was necessary in order to cement my dominance over these beasts," The Master jutted out his lower jaw as he spoke, in that peculiar way of his. The characteristic gesture was made immensely alien by his new carnivorous teeth. "With me in charge,” The Master continued, “the Cheetahs are getting the best hunting they've had in centuries. More and more are flocking to my tribe, and soon the world will be at our mercy." He'd drawn close as he spoke and now he was looking up at the Doctor heatedly, licking the tips of his canines in a rather sensual manner. He seemed to find them just as fascinating as the Doctor did.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. He was fairly certain that the Master didn't even know what effect his actions were having, and he hoped it would stay that way. It wouldn't do for him to discover what exactly all of this... excitement had done to the Doctor. The Doctor couldn’t help having a bit of a thing for biting.
"You can join me," said the Master, his normal seductive rasp turning into a literal purr. He was nearly pressed against the Doctor, and surely he’d notice now. "Let the virus into your body and mind, and rule at my side. We could be kings of the galaxy."
The Doctor swallowed and the Master stared at the bob in his throat as if he were considering tearing it out, which was not arousing at all, or shouldn’t have been, anyway. The Doctor had to get out of this.
The Cheetah people were drifting away, assured that their leader had things well in hand. There was a loose horse nosing around on the Doctor’s left, not more than a bound or two away.
The Doctor did what anyone with a murderous enemy and the beginnings of an inconvenient erection would have done - he knocked the man down and stole his horse.
---
The four of them had made it out of the sands and onto a long flat savannah plain before stopping to rest by a disarmingly-peaceful river. Liz hesitated at the edge of the river for a moment, wondering if it was even safe to touch, then gave up and dipped her hands in it, splashing her face. The Cheetah people were humanoid and their cats were capable of surviving on Earth, so it was probably fine. Anyway, she was dripping sweat.
Beside her, Jo Grant and Benton and the Brigadier were trying to plan how to get the Doctor back. They'd grown into a team without her, and Liz felt a brief pang for her time at UNIT. She shook it off as she remembered exactly how much she enjoyed being able to do her own research. Absurdity and aliens did not make for a very respectable career.
There was a sound on the other side of the river, and everyone froze. A Cheetah rode in a horse, then falteringly dismounted, half-collapsing on the ground. She dragged herself to the water, growling, and then fell head-first into the river.
"She's going to drown," said Jo, shocked.
"Come on," said Liz. "She's obviously injured."
"Or trying to trick us," said the Brigadier.
"We outnumber her four to one," said Liz, and then just ran to the closest crossing without waiting for more discussion. The others followed, Jo much faster than Benton or the Brigadier.
Liz pulled the Cheetah out of the water, watching as she coughed and weakly batted at her own nose. Liz tried to help her, but the Cheetah opened her eyes and pushed Liz away. Liz kept herself still as the Cheetah rolled onto her stomach, propping herself up. The Brigadier and Benton moved closer, both with weapons drawn. Liz ignored them as Jo argued with the men.
"Are you all right?" asked Liz. She wasn’t sure whether to act non-threatening or very threatening indeed. "What can I do?"
"Water," said the Cheetah, as if she hadn't just been drowning.
Liz thought about asking the Brigadier for his hat, but in the end she just hurried to the river and back without a word, letting the Cheetah drink out of her cupped hands.
"She could be help us," said Jo, still arguing with the Brigadier. "She could tell us what's going on."
"I agree with Jo, Sir," said Benton. "We need intel."
"Oh, very well," said the Brigadier, though he didn’t holster his pistol. "Stand down, Benton."
"Hello," said Liz, quietly. "My name is Liz Shaw. You are?"
"Karra," said the Cheetah. She sounded far better than she had a moment ago. "You want knowledge."
"We were transported here," said Liz. "We want to know why."
"For the hunt," said Karra. She grinned, great yellow teeth in her odd humanlike muzzle. "You are our prey. The bearded one says that humans are a better sort of prey than the ones we used to hunt."
"This bearded one," said the Brigadier, stepping forward. "He wouldn't be a small man with black clothing, would he?"
"Yes," said Karra, and the Brigadier swore.
"The Master," said Benton, sounding more tired than anything.
Liz had to ask to be filled in, listening to the tale of the Doctor's new-old nemesis while keeping one eye on Karra's quick recovery.
---
When the Doctor rode up on a horse, Alistair was not surprised. He was only grateful that he didn't appear to be pursued by an entire army of these blasted Cheetahs.
"Ah, there you are," said the Doctor. "Now listen, I've found out who's behind all this-"
"We already know it's the Master," said Alistair. The Doctor actually pouted at being preempted, and Alistair had to cough to hide his amusement.
"But not much else," put in Miss Grant. "What exactly is going on, Doctor?"
"I've been putting it together as I looked for you," said the Doctor. He swung down off the horse, slapping its rear to send it trotting away. "You see," he continued, "the inhabitants of this world exhibit a near-unique organic spatial teleportation. The smaller cats - kitlings, I think they're called - use their abilities to retrieve prey for their more-sentient keepers. So even after the cheetahs had hunted out all the prey on this planet, they were still able to keep feeding and growing. The hunter population on this world is larger than almost any other. The Master is taking advantage of these circumstances to control a massive army with teleportation abilities. And to kidnap people, of course."
"He probably has plans to kill us, or you, as well" said Alistair. This only made a modicum of sense to him, but that was how it always was with the Master. "I assume that's why he's been taking humans?"
"Probably," admitted the Doctor. "I'm assuming he wanted us drawn in to his plan so that we wouldn't be able to stop him on Earth. We're much more vulnerable here."
"It'd be awful," said Miss Grant. "Thousands of these Cheetahs, jumping from planet to planet and taking them over?"
"I imagine that's what he has in mind," said the Doctor. "More in the millions rather than the thousands, though."
"No," growled Doctor Shaw's Cheetah friend. "The people are not his to use as he will. We are hunters, not soldiers."
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," said the Doctor. "You are?"
"This is Karra, Doctor," said Doctor Shaw. She was helping Karra to her feet. "She's been telling us about the Master."
"We are meant to run free," said Karra, fiercely. "We would not follow him if we knew his plans."
"That’s why he won’t tell you them," warned the Doctor. "I'm sure he has a clever story all ready for you."
Karra growled wordlessly and shook Doctor Shaw's steadying hands away. Alistair raised his gun again, but she just mounted her horse and galloped away.
"Do you think she'll stop him, Sir?" asked Benton.
"We can't rely on her," said Alistair, slowly. "Doctor, do you have a plan?"
“Not as such,” said the Doctor, slowly. “Why don’t we start walking to the Cheetahs’ camp and I’ll come up with one on the way?”
---
The Master was having trouble concentrating. The virus was progressing faster than he had thought it would - his skin was already becoming mottled and he suspected that his ears were changing shape. He needed some time away from this planet, but he didn’t have any way to leave as of yet.
He was trapped, and he was turning into one of them.
The Master was drawn from his thoughts when one of the Cheetahs returned from the hunt on her horse.
"News?" he called.
"Not for you, betrayer," she snarled. "But for the people.” She wheeled her horse in a circle, addressing the assembled pack. “This man wants to use us for his gain! He will not lead us to better prey, as he has promised, but to war and death."
"How dare you come here and tell such lies," said the Master. He tried for smooth and assured, but the virus was making it difficult to control his emotions. He could feel himself growing angrier, and his claws flexed, ripping through his black leather gloves.
"I will fight you for leadership," responded the Cheetah, and dismounted.
The Master didn’t stop to protest or bandy words. Instead he simply launched himself at her.
The fight was rough and bloody. The Master had never been skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and any edge given to him by the virus was more than matched by the advanced stage of the other Cheetah's infection. But he was a Time Lord as well, and his determination let him persevere. She scratched his face, leaving a long streak of fiery pain along one cheekbone. He ignored it and went for her throat, bearing her down to the ground. Her head knocked against a rock and she shook it, dazed.
The moment was all that the Master needed. The fight went on, but the other Cheetah never regained her balance. In the end, she was unconscious on the ground.
"There," panted the Master. He wiped his face with his sleeve and it came away covered in blood. "Who would like to be next?"
No one moved. The Master laughed.
"She was right. I will use you as my army. There will be prey and war and death on distant stars. But I am the Master," this was unwise, he could tell, but adrenaline and bloodlust were pumping in his veins and he wasn't about to stop, "and you have no choice but to obey me."
A few of the Cheetahs were stepping up now, their wariness defeated by their anger at what the Master was saying.
The Master laughed again and licked his claws, cleaning them of blood and shreds of leather, readying them for the fight.
---
Liz Shaw and the Doctor had come up with a really complex plan that involved physics and chemistry and probably a lot of things that wouldn't actually work. Jo had decided to just come along for the ride and be ready to improvise when things went wrong.
Which they did almost immediately.
"There's the camp," said the Doctor, pointing over the hill. "Liz, be ready with the crystals-"
"There's fighting," said Benton. "Looks like the Master might have pushed these Cheetahs too far."
"Oh no," said the Doctor, almost tiredly. "I suppose we'd better go in and keep him from getting killed."
The Brigadier started arguing with the Doctor, but Jo's attention was caught by Liz Shaw, who was shaking a little, looking at her hands where she was holding the crystals the Doctor had fished out of his pockets.
"Liz?" said Jo. "All right?" All she could see was that Liz maybe hadn’t trimmed her nails in a while, nothing to be upset about.
Liz looked up, and her eyes were yellow.
"Doctor!"
"Yes, yes, what is it? Oh, Liz." The Doctor's hand darted out toward Liz Shaw and then he stopped himself. "Liz, listen to me. You're caught the virus from Karra, I think. I need you to minimize contact with the others until we can get you back to Earth. Understand?"
"Yes, of course," said Liz. She sounded herself, but she kept moving her jaw uncomfortably, as if it hurt.
"Right. The rest of you, stay here. I'll be back in a moment."
The Doctor charged down the hill, into the fray, the Brigadier and Benton shouting after him.
Jo just sat down with Liz, trying to be comforting even though she couldn’t come too close.
"It'll be fine," she said. "You'll see."
"It always is, with the Doctor," said Liz, and Jo couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
---
The Master was very obviously not winning the fight, but he’d beaten back the first charge as viciously as he could. Now the other Cheetahs were ringed around him in a cautious circle, none of them willing to go up against his claws first. The Master snapped his jaw, daring them.
The circle was abruptly disrupted as the Doctor barreled in.
"Let's get out of here," he said, brusquely. "Where's your TARDIS?"
"Back on Earth," said the Master. He shrugged. "I happened upon one of the kitlings and got teleported even before I came up with my plan."
"You mean we don't have a way to get out of here?" The Doctor shook the Master's shoulders. The Master's eyes darted to the surrounding Cheetahs, but they were watching the show, apparently unsure of what to do.
"Early-stage infected can only go between home and the planet," he said. "I'm sure neither of us wants to make a jump to Gallifrey."
"No, but-" the Doctor stopped. "Wait, neither of us?"
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" asked the Master, dreamily. The Doctor still hadn't taken his hands away, and he could feel the warmth of them through his jacket. "Your eyes are a lovely shade of yellow."
The Doctor cursed and shoved him away, and suddenly things weren't at all nice any more. Centuries’ worth of anger and rejection rose up in him and the Master pounced, carrying the Doctor to the ground just as he had his last challenger. His teeth were so close to the jumping muscle in the Doctor’s throat, one bite and there would be blood everywhere.
"I'll kill you for that," growled the Master, forcing his eyes up to meet the Doctor’s. "You- Rassilon, you're hard again-"
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you," said the Doctor, and rolled them over, pinning the Master with his arm on the Master’s throat and his free hand tracing claws over the Master's belly. The Master went still, his instincts not sure whether to fight against the captivity or go limp into it.
"If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals," said the Doctor, softly. "The more we exert ourselves, the faster the virus moves through our systems."
"What if we-" began the Master, his thoughts falling into another track.
"Or if we do anything else like animals," said the Doctor, as he wasn't the one who had started it in the first place.
The Master heard the tell-tale pad of paws on sand as the Cheetahs started closing in again. They'd probably gotten bored now that the two Time Lords were just lying in the sand and talking.
"Come on, run," said the Doctor, releasing him and pulling him up.
"Where to?" asked the Master, following all the same. "I told you, our choice is between here and Gallifrey."
"Ah, but one of my friends is infected, and her home is Earth," said the Doctor, with a smile. "We should be out of here in no time."
"I couldn't have planned it better myself," said the Master, grudgingly. They were nearly to the top of the hill, and the Cheetahs were falling back as the Brigadier and his Sergeant Benton fired shots over their heads.
"You'd have to be incredibly manipulative to plan something like this," said the Doctor. "Liz! Liz, we need you to take us home."
A red-haired woman who was apparently Liz was hunched up, hands worrying at her teeth. Miss Grant was standing to the side, looking helpless.
"My canines have grown in size, but there shouldn't be room in my jaw for that," she was muttering. "I've still got my wisdom teeth as well. How can it be changing the size of my jawbone?"
"Liz," said the Doctor, crouching down beside her. There were spears thudding around them, sending up clouds of sand. "Never mind all that. Listen to me, think of Cambridge. Cambridge, have you got that? We're going home."
"Home," repeated Liz, and then they were on a perfectly manicured lawn in the middle of Cambridge.
The Master stepped away on to the paving before anyone came to tell them to get off the grass.
---
The Doctor had hoped that the virus would fade with their contact to the planet severed. Sometimes things had a way of sorting themselves out like that.
Only not this time, apparently. Yellow eyes for the three of them yet, and he could feel the hunt singing louder, louder in his veins.
"Liz, we have to get to your labs," he said, urgently. They only had a short window of time before they infected someone else or all lost higher reasoning or so on.
Liz nodded and led the way, her normal elegant strides lengthening, her steps almost gliding. Beautiful, but a bad sign. Jo and the rest followed silently, the Brigadier keeping his gun on the Master to make sure he came along.
Once in the lab, the Doctor started grabbing chemicals at random, setting the ones he thought he needed on the main table while pushing the others to the side.
"What are you going to do?" asked Liz. "Make an antidote?"
"This isn't a poison," said the Doctor. "We need something that will actually treat the damage the virus has already done to our bodies."
"You don't mean-" began the Master.
"We'll have to reverse the polarity of the virus," said the Doctor, decisively. "That should revert all of us back to normal. And put an end to your ridiculous plan." He added, as an afterthought. They'd pretty much put paid to this latest universal domination scheme, in any case.
"Do you know anything about biology at all?" asked the Master. "That's not how viruses work. You can't reverse everything's polarity."
"That's what they said about the neutron flow," sniffed the Doctor, and set to work.
Liz had some similar tiresome objections, but luckily enough Jo was there to hand him test tubes. It wasn't too long before the Doctor had a concoction.
"Try this.” He offered the test tube to the Master.
"Why doesn't Doctor Shaw try it first?" asked the Master. "She's in the most danger, given her inferior immune system."
"And you're the alien criminal," put in the Brigadier. "Drink."
The Master glared at the Brigadier and drank the test tube down.
Nothing happened.
"I'm not dying," announced the Master. "Not yet, anyway." He was still speaking around sharp elongated teeth, and there was a tightness in the Doctor’s chest as he wondered whether the chemicals had had any effect at all.
"Jo, penlight," said the Doctor. He shone it in the Master's eyes. The yellow was receding, revealing the Master's normally brown irises. "It's working," he said. "Just slowly. Liz, can you make the same thing for all of us?"
"Well done, Doctor," said the Master, with a combination of amusement and bitterness and affection and frustration. The Doctor grinned at him and realized that their faces were currently very close indeed. He took a step back, clearing his throat and ignored the way the Master’s gaze followed him.
"Here we are," said Liz, passing him a test tube. Benton, Jo, and the Brigadier got one as a precautionary measure as well.
"That's that," said the Doctor. "An end to this catastrophe."
Everyone in the room gave him a dirty look, except for Jo, who started laughing.
---
Doctor Shaw was staying at Cambridge, and Miss Grant had gone home. The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton, after some persuasion on the Doctor's part, had left the Master with the Doctor for the sake of observation. This was the cue for the Master's escape. But something made the Master linger - the set of the Doctor's mouth, perhaps, or something even more subtle.
"You know," he said, lightly, "I wonder what effect a... sustained bout of physical activity would have on our recovery?"
"Well," said the Doctor, thoughtfully, "earlier it would have advanced the virus' progress. But since I've now reversed the polarity of the virus-"
"I wish you'd stop saying that-"
"-I think it would actually be a very good idea. Especially while you still have those lovely teeth."
The Master smiled at the Doctor's conclusion, and stepped closer just as the Doctor did the very same thing.
---
Outside, Benton was on guard. There had been murmurs for a while, the Doctor and the Master discussing something. Then silence, followed by footsteps and louder murmurs. Then a crash and a curse, and Benton had been ready to go in there until he had heard the Doctor laughing.
The sounds that were coming from the room now were not of the sort Benton particularly wanted to listen to while guarding the chief scientific officer and a major prisoner. He thought about interrupting, or calling the Brigadier. Then he thought about what would happen immediately after that. And then after that. The Brigadier would want an explanation for any behavior he discovered, and the Doctor would probably give it, in detail.
Benton decided to just guard the door from the other end of the corridor instead.
Doctor Who, Classic Series.
Rating: PG-13
(violence, mild swearing, sexual themes)
Characters: Three/Delgado!Master, Jo, Liz, the Brigadier, Benton
Wordcount: 5,800ish
Summary: There are strange things happening at Cambridge, and they seem to be connected with the appearance of a black cat...
A/N: Written for this prompt on the best_enemies anonmeme - basically, this is Survival by way of the Third Doctor. Takes place sometime between The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos, probably.
Liz Shaw was enjoying Cambridge. There weren't quite as many opportunities for new research as there had been at UNIT, but on the other hand dealing with undergraduates was much easier than dealing with murderous aliens.
Problems arose when murderous aliens started coming to her.
"There have been two more disappearances this week," she said. The Brigadier, on the other end of the phone, murmured something about stressed academics. "No, you don't understand," said Liz, exasperated. "They disappear in the middle of the day, between classes even. There's always a black cat seen right before, and lately there have even been reports of, well, cat-people. I really think you should send the Doctor."
"I'll see what I can do," said the Brigadier. "He might take some convincing."
“I remember what he’s like,” said Liz. “Just talk to him. I’m sure he’s bored stiff at headquarters.”
---
The Doctor was hunched over his equipment, explaining some minor point of technology to Miss Grant. Alistair walked in as silently as he could. "Doctor?" he said, when he was practically leaning over the Doctor's shoulder.
The other man didn't even flinch. He simply carried on with his electronic experimentation, infuriatingly calm. Well, Alistair would get the better of the Doctor eventually.
"Ah, yes, Brigadier." The Doctor held out a hand and Miss Grant gave him a pair of pliers, flashing a sympathetic smile at Alistair. "What can I do for you?"
"Doctor Shaw has just reported some unusual goings-on up at Cambridge - a number of disappearances, possible kidnappings. She was wondering if you mind going down to take a look."
"I'm really very busy," said the Doctor.
"You were just complaining about how desperately bored you were," said Miss Grant. “A nice trip to Cambridge is just what you need.”
Alistair lifted his eyebrows. Even if he couldn’t startle the Doctor, he could usually shame him into actually doing his job with a judicious application of eyebrows. The Doctor looked up at him and made a face.
"Oh, all right. I'm sure Miss Shaw needs all the help she can get. She's probably been kidnapped herself, by now."
---
Miss Shaw - Doctor Shaw, she corrected Jo - had not been kidnapped. Instead, she gave the Brigadier, Benton, the Doctor and Jo a tour of the various important places in Cambridge, lingering especially on the last known whereabouts of each of the disappeared people.
"Seemingly random," murmured the Doctor. "And you say that there was always a black cat hanging around?"
"Black cats are supposed to be bad luck," said Jo, crouching down to look at the grass. Perhaps there was catnip or something? “Like breaking a mirror.”
"Only if you're superstitious," said Doctor Shaw. "I suspect there's something more at work."
"There are a few species that have feline appearances," said the Doctor. He started listing names, and Jo tuned him out - they didn't mean anything to her anyway. Instead she began following the trail of crushed grass she'd just noticed.
"The Tiger Men?" Doctor Shaw’s voice was a little distant now. "Is that really an alien name?"
"The Human name for the species," said the Doctor. "I'd need a cough drop before I attempted their own name for themselves. Lots of growling."
At the end of the trail, there was a black cat curled up into itself. It had one yellow eye cracked open, but it didn’t move as Jo approached.
"Hello puss," said Jo, quietly. "Here, kitty kitty."
"Everything all right, Miss Grant?" said Benton. He walked over to where Jo was crouching.
"Yes," said Jo. "I think I've found the cat - oh, don't startle him."
"Lots of cats around," said Benton. "He's a fine looking fellow, anyway."
The cat stood up and bared its teeth at them. Jo stumbled to her feet in sudden fright as the cat leapt at them, and then they were in a desert, the neat grass replaced with sand.
---
"But while Treecats might have the intelligence to do something like this, they'd hardly have the motivation." The Doctor rubbed at his jaw, at a loss. "What do you think, Jo?"
There was no answer. The Doctor and the others looked around, but Jo wasn’t anywhere to be found.
"She's gone," said Liz. "Oh God, they've gotten her right under our noses."
"She's probably just wandered off," said the Brigadier. "But Benton's gone as well- Benton! Miss Grant!"
"No," said the Doctor. He held up a hand, as much to test the air as to stop the Brigadier. "Can't you feel that? There's a transportation residue - a little oil in the wind."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Doctor," said the Brigadier. "Are you saying that Doctor Shaw is right?"
"I'm saying that I need five tins of cat food as soon as possible," said the Doctor. How could he have let her wander off like that when he had known there might be danger?
The Brigadier looked at Liz. Liz raised an eyebrow.
"I quit because I didn't want to be fetching things," she said pointedly, and, the Doctor thought, a little peevishly.
The Brigadier raised both his eyebrows at her and took up his radio.
"This is greyhound one. I need five tins of cat food, delivered immediately."
To their credit, the boys at UNIT didn't ask why, just what sort.
---
Benton was sweating under the midday sun, the hot stiff breeze doing little to help. Jo had long since abandoned her stylish but impractical feather coat.
"I think I see something over the hill!" she said. "Or the dune or however you call it."
"Right," said Benton. He could just see the speck coming toward them. "If it’s friendly, we ask it for help, if not, leave it to me and we'll make it help." He rested a hand on his gun and kept trudging forward.
The speck gradually resolved itself into a complex figure. Benton actually stopped and tilted his head to try and figure out what it was.
"A... horse? But what's that on its back?"
"It looks like a giant cat," said Jo, solemnly. "Wearing armor. Oh, and carrying some spears."
The great cat pulled back its suspiciously human-like arm and a spear thudded into the sand next to Benton's foot.
"Right," said Benton. "Well spotted. Let's run."
Luckily enough, horses are actually not very good at running on sand. Unluckily enough, that doesn't matter much in the long run when you're on foot and also not very good at running on sand.
Benton gritted his teeth and pulled Jo along, listening as the cat began to call out for reinforcements.
---
If there was one thing Liz really had missed about working with UNIT, it was exactly how ridiculous everything was. She was crouched behind a bush with the Doctor and the Brigadier, staring at a dish full of cat food. The occasional academic walked by them, their glasses coming askew as they frowned at the man in fancy dress and the soldier who were apparently lying on the ground with that eccentric Doctor Shaw. Liz was torn between being amused and being worried for her future tenure hearings.
"Are you sure it's coming?" hissed Liz.
"What else can we do?" said the Doctor. "Be patient, Liz."
Liz gave up on crouching and just sat on the ground with her legs tucked under her. At this rate she would have been cramped and stiff before the cat ever showed up.
There was a rustle in one of the bushes, and the furry black head of a furry black cat poked itself out. It inched its way to the cat food, looking in all directions, but didn't see them hiding in the flora. The Doctor held a finger to his lips and slowly rose from his crouch as the cat began to nibble and lick at the food that had been laid out for it. Liz and the Brigadier followed, trying silently to get as close to the cat as possible. They were only a few steps away when the cat looked up, startled, and ran for it.
The Doctor threw himself at the cat in a full-body tackle, and then the cat was gone and Cambridge was gone and the Doctor was landing in a puff of sand.
"Well," said Liz, trying hard not to be surprised. "At least we know where people have been disappearing to. It's wherever here is."
"No communication," said the Brigadier, fiddling with his radio. "We're cut off."
"Of course we are," said the Doctor, irritably brushing off his velvet suit. "We're on a different planet and you expect to still have wireless reception?"
---
The horses were catching up to Jo and Benton. There were six of the cheetahs now, and while they weren't throwing spears anymore it was probably only because they were waiting until they definitely wouldn’t miss.
Still, Jo had confidence that they'd get out of this. If she could run in sand in pumps, she could do anything.
There were more figures in the distance. Benton began to turn to dodge away, but Jo dragged him toward the figures.
"They're not cheetahs," she said, panting. "They're human."
The people caught sight of them and started running to meet them. Benton shook his head and waved a hand toward an outcropping of rock to their left, and the group of people ran behind it. Within a minute Jo and Benton were diving behind the rock as well.
"Sir!" said Benton. He unholstered his gun, now that he wasn't on the run, and peered around the edge of the rock.
"Sergeant," acknowledged the Brigadier. "Hold fire. What's going on?"
"There are giant cat people on horses trying to kill us," explained Jo. "With spears."
"Yes, the Cheetah people," said the Doctor. “I should have thought of them before.” He stood up and peered around the rock as well. Jo leaned over and saw the Cheetahs reining in their horses. The first Cheetah was approaching, cautiously.
"Permission to fire a warning shot, Sir?" Benton firmed his grip on his pistol.
"Not yet," said the Brigadier. "Doctor, who are these Cheetah people?"
"Interstellar predators," said the Doctor. "But they don't normally hunt in planets of Earth's sentience class. There's something odd going on here."
Jo could see all of the Cheetahs coming closer now, their spears readied for a throw.
"We're not going to be able to fight them all," said Doctor Shaw, her mouth in a flat unhappy line. "Run for it?"
"They'd chase us down in no time," said Benton.
"What we need is a distraction," said the Doctor, rummaging in his pockets. "Now, when I say go, I want you all to get out of here, quick as you can."
"Doctor-" began the Brigadier, but the Doctor just walked out from behind the rock, holding his hands high in the air, his sonic screwdriver held in his right hand.
Jo thought of staying behind with the Doctor, only for a moment, but when the Doctor shouted "run!" and triggered the screwdriver she just ran with the others from the wailing, screeching sound.
---
The Cheetah people had knocked the Doctor down in the end, tied him up and taken him over the bow of one of their saddles. It was a better outcome than he should have expected, but he still felt disgruntled about the whole ordeal. Especially when they got to the camp and a very familiar looking man came out from the largest tent.
"My dear Doctor," said the Master. "What a surprise."
"I wish I could say the same," said the Doctor. He stood up from where he had been dumped off of the horse and looked with despair at his clothes. They were even worse now then they had been before, and with his hands tied he couldn't do anything about them.
The Master stepped close and brushed down one sleeve, then the other. The velvet would never recover entirely, but the most of the sand fell to the ground easily enough.
"Thank you," said the Doctor, with surprise. The Master gave a quick frown and stopped, his gloved hands resting on the Doctor's chest.
This close, the Doctor could see that the Master’s eyes were tinged with yellow, and there was something wrong with the fit of his jaw. He was breathing hard through his nose as well, far more worked up than he would normally ever be.
“Everything all right?" asked the Doctor.
"Perfectly," said the Master, as if coming out of a trance. He produced a knife and cut quickly through the Doctor's bonds. Then he stepped away, growing calmer with the distance. "Now, where are your friends? I can't just leave them running around my planet."
"It's your planet now, is it?" The Doctor snorted. "I suppose these are your dangerous predators as well. You should watch out, Master. Their behavior is somewhat... catching."
"Oh, believe me, Doctor," said the Master, "I'm well aware of that." He grinned and the Doctor saw that his canines had elongated, sharpened.
"You've been infected," said the Doctor, with horror.
"It was necessary in order to cement my dominance over these beasts," The Master jutted out his lower jaw as he spoke, in that peculiar way of his. The characteristic gesture was made immensely alien by his new carnivorous teeth. "With me in charge,” The Master continued, “the Cheetahs are getting the best hunting they've had in centuries. More and more are flocking to my tribe, and soon the world will be at our mercy." He'd drawn close as he spoke and now he was looking up at the Doctor heatedly, licking the tips of his canines in a rather sensual manner. He seemed to find them just as fascinating as the Doctor did.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. He was fairly certain that the Master didn't even know what effect his actions were having, and he hoped it would stay that way. It wouldn't do for him to discover what exactly all of this... excitement had done to the Doctor. The Doctor couldn’t help having a bit of a thing for biting.
"You can join me," said the Master, his normal seductive rasp turning into a literal purr. He was nearly pressed against the Doctor, and surely he’d notice now. "Let the virus into your body and mind, and rule at my side. We could be kings of the galaxy."
The Doctor swallowed and the Master stared at the bob in his throat as if he were considering tearing it out, which was not arousing at all, or shouldn’t have been, anyway. The Doctor had to get out of this.
The Cheetah people were drifting away, assured that their leader had things well in hand. There was a loose horse nosing around on the Doctor’s left, not more than a bound or two away.
The Doctor did what anyone with a murderous enemy and the beginnings of an inconvenient erection would have done - he knocked the man down and stole his horse.
---
The four of them had made it out of the sands and onto a long flat savannah plain before stopping to rest by a disarmingly-peaceful river. Liz hesitated at the edge of the river for a moment, wondering if it was even safe to touch, then gave up and dipped her hands in it, splashing her face. The Cheetah people were humanoid and their cats were capable of surviving on Earth, so it was probably fine. Anyway, she was dripping sweat.
Beside her, Jo Grant and Benton and the Brigadier were trying to plan how to get the Doctor back. They'd grown into a team without her, and Liz felt a brief pang for her time at UNIT. She shook it off as she remembered exactly how much she enjoyed being able to do her own research. Absurdity and aliens did not make for a very respectable career.
There was a sound on the other side of the river, and everyone froze. A Cheetah rode in a horse, then falteringly dismounted, half-collapsing on the ground. She dragged herself to the water, growling, and then fell head-first into the river.
"She's going to drown," said Jo, shocked.
"Come on," said Liz. "She's obviously injured."
"Or trying to trick us," said the Brigadier.
"We outnumber her four to one," said Liz, and then just ran to the closest crossing without waiting for more discussion. The others followed, Jo much faster than Benton or the Brigadier.
Liz pulled the Cheetah out of the water, watching as she coughed and weakly batted at her own nose. Liz tried to help her, but the Cheetah opened her eyes and pushed Liz away. Liz kept herself still as the Cheetah rolled onto her stomach, propping herself up. The Brigadier and Benton moved closer, both with weapons drawn. Liz ignored them as Jo argued with the men.
"Are you all right?" asked Liz. She wasn’t sure whether to act non-threatening or very threatening indeed. "What can I do?"
"Water," said the Cheetah, as if she hadn't just been drowning.
Liz thought about asking the Brigadier for his hat, but in the end she just hurried to the river and back without a word, letting the Cheetah drink out of her cupped hands.
"She could be help us," said Jo, still arguing with the Brigadier. "She could tell us what's going on."
"I agree with Jo, Sir," said Benton. "We need intel."
"Oh, very well," said the Brigadier, though he didn’t holster his pistol. "Stand down, Benton."
"Hello," said Liz, quietly. "My name is Liz Shaw. You are?"
"Karra," said the Cheetah. She sounded far better than she had a moment ago. "You want knowledge."
"We were transported here," said Liz. "We want to know why."
"For the hunt," said Karra. She grinned, great yellow teeth in her odd humanlike muzzle. "You are our prey. The bearded one says that humans are a better sort of prey than the ones we used to hunt."
"This bearded one," said the Brigadier, stepping forward. "He wouldn't be a small man with black clothing, would he?"
"Yes," said Karra, and the Brigadier swore.
"The Master," said Benton, sounding more tired than anything.
Liz had to ask to be filled in, listening to the tale of the Doctor's new-old nemesis while keeping one eye on Karra's quick recovery.
---
When the Doctor rode up on a horse, Alistair was not surprised. He was only grateful that he didn't appear to be pursued by an entire army of these blasted Cheetahs.
"Ah, there you are," said the Doctor. "Now listen, I've found out who's behind all this-"
"We already know it's the Master," said Alistair. The Doctor actually pouted at being preempted, and Alistair had to cough to hide his amusement.
"But not much else," put in Miss Grant. "What exactly is going on, Doctor?"
"I've been putting it together as I looked for you," said the Doctor. He swung down off the horse, slapping its rear to send it trotting away. "You see," he continued, "the inhabitants of this world exhibit a near-unique organic spatial teleportation. The smaller cats - kitlings, I think they're called - use their abilities to retrieve prey for their more-sentient keepers. So even after the cheetahs had hunted out all the prey on this planet, they were still able to keep feeding and growing. The hunter population on this world is larger than almost any other. The Master is taking advantage of these circumstances to control a massive army with teleportation abilities. And to kidnap people, of course."
"He probably has plans to kill us, or you, as well" said Alistair. This only made a modicum of sense to him, but that was how it always was with the Master. "I assume that's why he's been taking humans?"
"Probably," admitted the Doctor. "I'm assuming he wanted us drawn in to his plan so that we wouldn't be able to stop him on Earth. We're much more vulnerable here."
"It'd be awful," said Miss Grant. "Thousands of these Cheetahs, jumping from planet to planet and taking them over?"
"I imagine that's what he has in mind," said the Doctor. "More in the millions rather than the thousands, though."
"No," growled Doctor Shaw's Cheetah friend. "The people are not his to use as he will. We are hunters, not soldiers."
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," said the Doctor. "You are?"
"This is Karra, Doctor," said Doctor Shaw. She was helping Karra to her feet. "She's been telling us about the Master."
"We are meant to run free," said Karra, fiercely. "We would not follow him if we knew his plans."
"That’s why he won’t tell you them," warned the Doctor. "I'm sure he has a clever story all ready for you."
Karra growled wordlessly and shook Doctor Shaw's steadying hands away. Alistair raised his gun again, but she just mounted her horse and galloped away.
"Do you think she'll stop him, Sir?" asked Benton.
"We can't rely on her," said Alistair, slowly. "Doctor, do you have a plan?"
“Not as such,” said the Doctor, slowly. “Why don’t we start walking to the Cheetahs’ camp and I’ll come up with one on the way?”
---
The Master was having trouble concentrating. The virus was progressing faster than he had thought it would - his skin was already becoming mottled and he suspected that his ears were changing shape. He needed some time away from this planet, but he didn’t have any way to leave as of yet.
He was trapped, and he was turning into one of them.
The Master was drawn from his thoughts when one of the Cheetahs returned from the hunt on her horse.
"News?" he called.
"Not for you, betrayer," she snarled. "But for the people.” She wheeled her horse in a circle, addressing the assembled pack. “This man wants to use us for his gain! He will not lead us to better prey, as he has promised, but to war and death."
"How dare you come here and tell such lies," said the Master. He tried for smooth and assured, but the virus was making it difficult to control his emotions. He could feel himself growing angrier, and his claws flexed, ripping through his black leather gloves.
"I will fight you for leadership," responded the Cheetah, and dismounted.
The Master didn’t stop to protest or bandy words. Instead he simply launched himself at her.
The fight was rough and bloody. The Master had never been skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and any edge given to him by the virus was more than matched by the advanced stage of the other Cheetah's infection. But he was a Time Lord as well, and his determination let him persevere. She scratched his face, leaving a long streak of fiery pain along one cheekbone. He ignored it and went for her throat, bearing her down to the ground. Her head knocked against a rock and she shook it, dazed.
The moment was all that the Master needed. The fight went on, but the other Cheetah never regained her balance. In the end, she was unconscious on the ground.
"There," panted the Master. He wiped his face with his sleeve and it came away covered in blood. "Who would like to be next?"
No one moved. The Master laughed.
"She was right. I will use you as my army. There will be prey and war and death on distant stars. But I am the Master," this was unwise, he could tell, but adrenaline and bloodlust were pumping in his veins and he wasn't about to stop, "and you have no choice but to obey me."
A few of the Cheetahs were stepping up now, their wariness defeated by their anger at what the Master was saying.
The Master laughed again and licked his claws, cleaning them of blood and shreds of leather, readying them for the fight.
---
Liz Shaw and the Doctor had come up with a really complex plan that involved physics and chemistry and probably a lot of things that wouldn't actually work. Jo had decided to just come along for the ride and be ready to improvise when things went wrong.
Which they did almost immediately.
"There's the camp," said the Doctor, pointing over the hill. "Liz, be ready with the crystals-"
"There's fighting," said Benton. "Looks like the Master might have pushed these Cheetahs too far."
"Oh no," said the Doctor, almost tiredly. "I suppose we'd better go in and keep him from getting killed."
The Brigadier started arguing with the Doctor, but Jo's attention was caught by Liz Shaw, who was shaking a little, looking at her hands where she was holding the crystals the Doctor had fished out of his pockets.
"Liz?" said Jo. "All right?" All she could see was that Liz maybe hadn’t trimmed her nails in a while, nothing to be upset about.
Liz looked up, and her eyes were yellow.
"Doctor!"
"Yes, yes, what is it? Oh, Liz." The Doctor's hand darted out toward Liz Shaw and then he stopped himself. "Liz, listen to me. You're caught the virus from Karra, I think. I need you to minimize contact with the others until we can get you back to Earth. Understand?"
"Yes, of course," said Liz. She sounded herself, but she kept moving her jaw uncomfortably, as if it hurt.
"Right. The rest of you, stay here. I'll be back in a moment."
The Doctor charged down the hill, into the fray, the Brigadier and Benton shouting after him.
Jo just sat down with Liz, trying to be comforting even though she couldn’t come too close.
"It'll be fine," she said. "You'll see."
"It always is, with the Doctor," said Liz, and Jo couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.
---
The Master was very obviously not winning the fight, but he’d beaten back the first charge as viciously as he could. Now the other Cheetahs were ringed around him in a cautious circle, none of them willing to go up against his claws first. The Master snapped his jaw, daring them.
The circle was abruptly disrupted as the Doctor barreled in.
"Let's get out of here," he said, brusquely. "Where's your TARDIS?"
"Back on Earth," said the Master. He shrugged. "I happened upon one of the kitlings and got teleported even before I came up with my plan."
"You mean we don't have a way to get out of here?" The Doctor shook the Master's shoulders. The Master's eyes darted to the surrounding Cheetahs, but they were watching the show, apparently unsure of what to do.
"Early-stage infected can only go between home and the planet," he said. "I'm sure neither of us wants to make a jump to Gallifrey."
"No, but-" the Doctor stopped. "Wait, neither of us?"
"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" asked the Master, dreamily. The Doctor still hadn't taken his hands away, and he could feel the warmth of them through his jacket. "Your eyes are a lovely shade of yellow."
The Doctor cursed and shoved him away, and suddenly things weren't at all nice any more. Centuries’ worth of anger and rejection rose up in him and the Master pounced, carrying the Doctor to the ground just as he had his last challenger. His teeth were so close to the jumping muscle in the Doctor’s throat, one bite and there would be blood everywhere.
"I'll kill you for that," growled the Master, forcing his eyes up to meet the Doctor’s. "You- Rassilon, you're hard again-"
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you," said the Doctor, and rolled them over, pinning the Master with his arm on the Master’s throat and his free hand tracing claws over the Master's belly. The Master went still, his instincts not sure whether to fight against the captivity or go limp into it.
"If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals," said the Doctor, softly. "The more we exert ourselves, the faster the virus moves through our systems."
"What if we-" began the Master, his thoughts falling into another track.
"Or if we do anything else like animals," said the Doctor, as he wasn't the one who had started it in the first place.
The Master heard the tell-tale pad of paws on sand as the Cheetahs started closing in again. They'd probably gotten bored now that the two Time Lords were just lying in the sand and talking.
"Come on, run," said the Doctor, releasing him and pulling him up.
"Where to?" asked the Master, following all the same. "I told you, our choice is between here and Gallifrey."
"Ah, but one of my friends is infected, and her home is Earth," said the Doctor, with a smile. "We should be out of here in no time."
"I couldn't have planned it better myself," said the Master, grudgingly. They were nearly to the top of the hill, and the Cheetahs were falling back as the Brigadier and his Sergeant Benton fired shots over their heads.
"You'd have to be incredibly manipulative to plan something like this," said the Doctor. "Liz! Liz, we need you to take us home."
A red-haired woman who was apparently Liz was hunched up, hands worrying at her teeth. Miss Grant was standing to the side, looking helpless.
"My canines have grown in size, but there shouldn't be room in my jaw for that," she was muttering. "I've still got my wisdom teeth as well. How can it be changing the size of my jawbone?"
"Liz," said the Doctor, crouching down beside her. There were spears thudding around them, sending up clouds of sand. "Never mind all that. Listen to me, think of Cambridge. Cambridge, have you got that? We're going home."
"Home," repeated Liz, and then they were on a perfectly manicured lawn in the middle of Cambridge.
The Master stepped away on to the paving before anyone came to tell them to get off the grass.
---
The Doctor had hoped that the virus would fade with their contact to the planet severed. Sometimes things had a way of sorting themselves out like that.
Only not this time, apparently. Yellow eyes for the three of them yet, and he could feel the hunt singing louder, louder in his veins.
"Liz, we have to get to your labs," he said, urgently. They only had a short window of time before they infected someone else or all lost higher reasoning or so on.
Liz nodded and led the way, her normal elegant strides lengthening, her steps almost gliding. Beautiful, but a bad sign. Jo and the rest followed silently, the Brigadier keeping his gun on the Master to make sure he came along.
Once in the lab, the Doctor started grabbing chemicals at random, setting the ones he thought he needed on the main table while pushing the others to the side.
"What are you going to do?" asked Liz. "Make an antidote?"
"This isn't a poison," said the Doctor. "We need something that will actually treat the damage the virus has already done to our bodies."
"You don't mean-" began the Master.
"We'll have to reverse the polarity of the virus," said the Doctor, decisively. "That should revert all of us back to normal. And put an end to your ridiculous plan." He added, as an afterthought. They'd pretty much put paid to this latest universal domination scheme, in any case.
"Do you know anything about biology at all?" asked the Master. "That's not how viruses work. You can't reverse everything's polarity."
"That's what they said about the neutron flow," sniffed the Doctor, and set to work.
Liz had some similar tiresome objections, but luckily enough Jo was there to hand him test tubes. It wasn't too long before the Doctor had a concoction.
"Try this.” He offered the test tube to the Master.
"Why doesn't Doctor Shaw try it first?" asked the Master. "She's in the most danger, given her inferior immune system."
"And you're the alien criminal," put in the Brigadier. "Drink."
The Master glared at the Brigadier and drank the test tube down.
Nothing happened.
"I'm not dying," announced the Master. "Not yet, anyway." He was still speaking around sharp elongated teeth, and there was a tightness in the Doctor’s chest as he wondered whether the chemicals had had any effect at all.
"Jo, penlight," said the Doctor. He shone it in the Master's eyes. The yellow was receding, revealing the Master's normally brown irises. "It's working," he said. "Just slowly. Liz, can you make the same thing for all of us?"
"Well done, Doctor," said the Master, with a combination of amusement and bitterness and affection and frustration. The Doctor grinned at him and realized that their faces were currently very close indeed. He took a step back, clearing his throat and ignored the way the Master’s gaze followed him.
"Here we are," said Liz, passing him a test tube. Benton, Jo, and the Brigadier got one as a precautionary measure as well.
"That's that," said the Doctor. "An end to this catastrophe."
Everyone in the room gave him a dirty look, except for Jo, who started laughing.
---
Doctor Shaw was staying at Cambridge, and Miss Grant had gone home. The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton, after some persuasion on the Doctor's part, had left the Master with the Doctor for the sake of observation. This was the cue for the Master's escape. But something made the Master linger - the set of the Doctor's mouth, perhaps, or something even more subtle.
"You know," he said, lightly, "I wonder what effect a... sustained bout of physical activity would have on our recovery?"
"Well," said the Doctor, thoughtfully, "earlier it would have advanced the virus' progress. But since I've now reversed the polarity of the virus-"
"I wish you'd stop saying that-"
"-I think it would actually be a very good idea. Especially while you still have those lovely teeth."
The Master smiled at the Doctor's conclusion, and stepped closer just as the Doctor did the very same thing.
---
Outside, Benton was on guard. There had been murmurs for a while, the Doctor and the Master discussing something. Then silence, followed by footsteps and louder murmurs. Then a crash and a curse, and Benton had been ready to go in there until he had heard the Doctor laughing.
The sounds that were coming from the room now were not of the sort Benton particularly wanted to listen to while guarding the chief scientific officer and a major prisoner. He thought about interrupting, or calling the Brigadier. Then he thought about what would happen immediately after that. And then after that. The Brigadier would want an explanation for any behavior he discovered, and the Doctor would probably give it, in detail.
Benton decided to just guard the door from the other end of the corridor instead.
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Also:
"We'll have to reverse the polarity of the virus," said the Doctor, decisively.
I laughed. Hard. And then wanted to smack him one for it, but adored him nonetheless.
Poor, poor Benton...
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"I'll kill you for that," growled the Master, forcing his eyes up to meet the Doctor’s. "You- Rassilon, you're hard again-"
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you," said the Doctor
<333 You've made my day.
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"What if we-" began the Master, his thoughts falling into another track.
"Or if we do anything else like animals," said the Doctor, as he wasn't the one who had started it in the first place.
*dies laughing* And like everyone else, I love "reversing the polarity of the virus" in all its ludicrous glory. Oh Doctor.
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The three era would have been an interesting setting for the Survivor episode! And your Delgado is VERY good, he sounds very canon-like.
Ah, the ending X'D
"The sounds that were coming from the room now were not of the sort Benton particularly wanted to listen to while guarding the chief scientific officer and a major prisoner. He thought about interrupting, or calling the Brigadier. Then he thought about what would happen immediately after that. And then after that. The Brigadier would want an explanation for any behavior he discovered, and the Doctor would probably give it, in detail."
I basically dies of laughter XD Benton's face would be priceless
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