Chapter Text
It was dark, a complete lack of light and heat, no up or down, no left nor right, nothing, simply the void.
He struggled to understand, to remember what he was doing here, why he was in the nothing, the machine held tightly in his hand let out loud beeps in warning as he drifted, the endless darkness threatening to swallow him whole.
A voice whispered in his ear, both loud and near silent, beckoning him.
“Harry…”
A thin hand grasped his wrist, and he looked down at it, it was pale, and half rotted, bones poking out here and there.
“Koschei…”
He glanced at the person the hand belonged to, seeing only a deep black cloak pooling around it as it floated next to him.
“Master…”
And he noticed that the voice was coming from it, he looked further upwards, seeing its face, shifting and rotten, half its skull visible, and he blinked.
“Death?”
It chuckled, and the grasp on his wrist grew stronger, “come, Master, let’s take you home.”
Death began leading him through the darkness, and the Master found that he couldn’t shake an odd feeling of familiarity by the entity’s actions.
“How come you’re rotting?” he frowned, “last time I saw you, you definitely weren’t showing bones.”
Death hesitated for a moment before sighing, “something’s happening, I can’t tell you what it is,” it paused, taking a deep rattling breath, “you will learn, eventually.”
The Master rolled his eyes and Death let out a hollow sounding chuckle, “patience, dear Master, you can’t know before it’s time, as you are well aware.”
They came across a somewhat translucent wall, and Death pushed him towards it, the Master pressed his hand against it and noted that it felt cold and somewhat smooth.
“Go,” Death encouraged him.
He glanced at Death, then pushed his hand through, and to his horror Death appeared to disintegrate in front of his eyes as he passed through the wall to his Universe.
Iter Mortis
The Master landed in a heap on the ground in the middle of the same woods he’d left the other Universe and looked around with a frown.
The sun was high in the sky, barely a cloud to be seen and birds chirped in the trees.
Growing heat near his hand had him looking down, and he noticed that the machine he’d made and used to blast his way out of the other Universe was cracked down the middle, he huffed and undid the buckle keeping the wrist strap firmly in place, the machine, which was now sparking and letting out puffs of smoke dropped to the grass with a soft thud.
It began letting off more sparks, and his eyes widened, “shit.”
He didn’t wait around, and instead ran towards the trees, making it past two lines of trees before it exploded, and he winced, knowing that it would likely cause a fire, and knowing that he couldn’t put it out himself, he didn’t know a spell to do so, nor did he have the equipment on him to put it out.
He hit the pavement outside of the woods, and looked around, spotting a small shop on the other side of the road and rushing across the street and inside.
“Call the fire brigade!” he called out as he entered the building.
The man behind the counter looked at him in confusion, “why?”
“There was an explosion in the woods,” he informed him, “I saw fire.”
The man paled and picked the phone up, dialling the emergency services, and the Master took the opportunity to leave, looking at a newspaper for the date as he passed the stand.
May 7th, 2008, the same day he’d left the other Universe.
So, at the very least, the time and space matched up, he mused as he wandered down the streets, heading closer to the centre of London from where he’d been at the edge.
A fire engine passed him, and he winced, at least he wouldn’t have to deal with that.
Iter Mortis
The Master still hadn’t seen anything that would prove that he was in his Universe, hadn’t seen anything magical looking, but, as he came upon one of the many public parks in London, Millbank Gardens, he spotted a TARDIS.
He knew by talking to the Doctor over the phone in Torchwood in the Other Universe that for every year he’d been gone, a month had passed, he’d been a month away from turning seventeen before he’d thrown himself through the veil, and he’d turned twenty-four around five and a half months prior, not counting the paradox year.
That meant that around seven and a half months should have passed in this Universe and should be the date he aimed for if this was truly his Universe.
He sighed and took a deep breath, then walked up to the TARDIS and knocked on the door.
He didn’t have to wait long, when the door was flung open and the Doctor poked his head out, mouth open as though to say something, then froze.
His face scrunched up in confusion, then he spoke, “Koschei?”
The Master let out a deep sigh of relief at his words, “oh thank fuck.”
The Doctor’s confusion grew as he pushed past him to enter the TARDIS, “Koschei what are you doing here? And why are you crossing your own Timeline?”
He huffed out a laugh, “let’s just say I went on a very interesting adventure, and I need you to drop me back home, yeah?”
He blinked, then grinned, “alright! Any particular time?”
“Seven and a half months after June 30th, 1997.”
“That’s quite specific,” he gave him a once over and frowned, “and you’re older than seventeen by quite a bit.”
“Place I was at had a bit of a wonky passage of time,” he said, “talking to you, a month here for a year there.”
The Doctor winced, then nodded, “right,” he shut the door and they both walked over to the console, “seven and a half months.”
The Master hummed in agreement, then paused, pulling his phone out and frowned, then turned to the Doctor, “hey, can I borrow your phone for a second? I need to do something that I believe was me.”
The Doctor blinked, then shrugged and pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to him, the Master caught it and swiped it open, “you should really put a passcode on this,” he muttered.
The Doctor hummed, “you're probably right.”
He tapped onto the texting app, and clicked his own name, and began typing.
‘Koschei.’
He hummed, glancing over at the Doctor as he danced around the console, preparing the TARDIS for a trip to get him back to his proper time, then glanced back at the phone as it buzzed.
‘What do you want? It’s like three in the morning.’
He grinned, typing back.
‘So, you don’t shower at this time anymore?’
He could remember the scowl on his face as he replied.
‘If that’s all, I’ll be going back to sleep now.’
‘Wait, no, I wanted to tell you I found out how tall you’ll end up being and when you finish growing!’
It was this string of text messages that had given him hope that he would return home, and after a while, when he grew to be five foot nine at age twenty-three, he knew that something was up with the messages, knew that it also reminded the Doctor that he had seen an older version of him at one point.
‘Isn’t there a law against telling me that or something?’
The Master shrugged, not that his younger self could see.
‘Well, there’s not really anything you can do to stop yourself growing, and I doubt you’d attempt to make yourself shorter.’
‘Yeah, okay, fine, can you just tell me so I can get back to sleep? I know you don’t need much of it, but I’m a human now and do need it.’
He snorted and the Doctor glanced at him, the Master simply grinned at him and raised a finger to his lips, causing the Time Lord to roll his eyes.
‘Alright, alright, you end up at five foot five and you finish growing at twenty-five.’
‘Remember when I was taller than you?’
He remembered that he’d sulked at the fact that the Doctor always seemed to have taller regenerations, and he grinned.
‘Yes?’
‘Let’s go back to that.’
‘You wish.’
He clicked the Doctor’s phone shut and walked over to the console, passing his phone back as he glanced at the screen.
“Ready to go home, Kos?” the Doctor questioned him, and he gave him a soft smile.
“More than you’ll ever know,” he admitted.
The Doctor grinned and pulled down a lever, sending them off, he grabbed the rails, watching in silence as he ran around, steering them to the correct destination, or as correct as Theta could make it, considering he’d never actually passed his driving test.
The driving teachers had hated him at the academy and feared him ever stepping foot in a TARDIS that he’d be required to pilot.
“You better not be mentally monologuing about my driving,” the Doctor commented as they landed, and he looked away.
“Of course not,” he informed him with a jokingly mocking grin.
“Oi.”
The Master glanced at him and snorted at the playfully offended look on his face.
“I’ll have you know I actually got to the right time for you,” he pointed at the screen.
He glanced at the screen and felt his eyebrows rise, “oh wow, you actually did,” he turned to the Doctor, who was now pouting, “good job, Thete!”
The Doctor sighed and shooed him out of the door, “I’m sure I’m eagerly awaiting your return.”
He smiled and walked over to the door, opening it, “thank you, Theta,” he muttered, walking out and shutting it behind him.
He walked a safe distance away and watched as the TARDIS vanished, then sighed and walked towards the train station.
It was time to go home.