Chapter Text
BANG! The Master felt the bullet crash into their chest like a fireball, passing clean through one of his hearts. He stumbled backwards, his vision blurring as he looked from the Doctor to… Lucy. Of course it was Lucy. They really needed to stop underestimating those humans. Well. He supposed it was too late for them to stop doing anything now. He attempted a congratulatory smile in his treacherous wife’s direction, as if to say, “Well done Lucy dear. It’s not easy to surprise a madman”. She just stared at him blankly, keeping a death grip on the barrel of the gun. Honestly, the Master thought, some people have no sense of drama.
The Doctor’s arms were around him in an instant, easing them to the ground like they were an injured child. His face was filling the Master’s vision, expression full of infuriating compassion.
“I’ve got you, I’ve got you.” their nemesis murmured, cradling them in his arms. The Master tried to squirm but he could feel his one remaining heart starting to fail already. Drum-DRUM, drum..DRUM, drum-
“Always… the women…” they managed to say, trying to come up with something witty despite the pain-induced hysteria clouding his mind - not that hysteria was anything new for the Master.
“I didn’t see her.” the Doctor replied through gritted teeth. The Master ignored him, captivated by the sound of his own heartbeat, not double anymore. His all-consuming drumming, cut short by a bullet fired by a mere human. They would have laughed if it didn’t hurt.
Drum..DRUM…drum…DRUM…drum….DRUM… The slowed down beat was so peaceful, more peaceful by the second. Not a call to war anymore, but a funeral march, a promise of a darkness free of drumming.
They smiled deliriously up at the Doctor, “Dying in your arms. Happy now?”
The soon-to-be-endling looked confused, his concern morphing into panic, “What? Of course you’re not dying, don’t be stupid. It’s only a bullet, just regenerate.”
“...No.”
“Come on!”
“No.”
“One little bullet, come on!” Oh, he was really panicking now. This was more like it- seeing the doctor panicking again. The Master stayed silent.
“Regenerate, come on, regenerate!” Those big brown eyes welled with tears, that once-confident voice choked up with sobs.
“Nnno.” he said petulantly, smile widening, “M’dying rrright here, and yyyou are gonna watch me do it, Dddoctor. I wwwin. Isn’t that ggggreat?”
“No…no! Master, you can’t! Can't end like this! You and me! All the things we've done. Axons! Remember the Axons, and the Daleks, and... We're the only two left. There's no one else. You- y-you- you can’t, please!”
Drum…. drum… Drum….. drum… Drum…… drum…
The Master sighed, the last puffs of breath escaping from their lungs, “Gggoodbye, Ddddoctor…”
They shut their eyes, trying to tune him out, to better hear the slowing drumbeat, “M-my drums… they’re… stopping…”
The Doctor’s expression hardened, that oh-so-sweet look of raw desperation turning back to his annoying old self-righteous, determined glare, “Alright, you’re clearly not able to see sense at the moment. I have to figure this out on my own. The drums aren’t stopping yet, Master!”
The Master’s eyes flared open at the last sentence. They tried to cry out in protest but could only gap uselessly for breath. Every nerve in their body was burning, desperately trying to regenerate, but he fought it, clinging to his dying body like the helpless, petulant child the Doctor seemed so sure he was.
Just as his last traces of painful breath ran out and his eyelids fluttered shut, the Master suddenly felt themself being yanked upwards by the collar of his shirt. Before he could so much as squeak in surprise, the Doctor had closed his lips around theirs and something incorporeal but burning hotter than fire was rushing down his throat.
Regeneration energy. The Doctor’s regeneration energy.
The Master let out a muffled yell against the Doctor’s lips, horrified to feel his lungs working again, and desperately tried to push away from the other time lord, but he had wrapped his arms around them in a death grip – well, technically a life grip. Their head swam from the shock, freezing him in place as the golden energy poured into their system.
Drum…DRUM, drum-DRUM, drum drum-drum DRUM, drum drum-drum DRUM, drum drum drum-drum DRUM…
The war march in The Master’s head was taking up its relentless two-hearted drumbeat once more, and his cells screamed with pain and relief in equal measure, the Doctor’s regeneration energy already triggering his own immune system. By the time the Master broke away from the clumsy kiss, it was too late. His brain was shutting down and they were falling. Falling out of consciousness, falling out of their last moments in this body, and falling into the arms of their gleeful arch-nemesis.
Drum drum-drum DRUM
Damn you, Doctor.
***