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Description
The Commodore stands silent, stunned by what has just happened, as the Master’s TARDIS fades out of existence. He’s just lost the one bargaining chip that mattered, and he knows it. He just stands there, starring at where the clock had been, unmoving, unthinking. Then he hears a groan, and turns to see movement from Chavoso’s unconscious body on the floor. He moves towards it silently and kneels next to the Calvera as he begins to wake up.
“What…what happened?” Chavoso slurs, as he puts one of his metallic hands upon his head. “Did they get away?”
“I…I couldn’t keep him from it…” The Commodore whispers aloud, horrified at the very notion of having lost such a dangerous item. “The Master has the shard…he’s…he’s going to do unimaginable things with it…”
“History can be rewritten, Commodore. That is your name, after all…” Chasovo murmurs as he sits up from the floor and begins rubbing his chin. “We can stop him yet.”
The Commodore groans as he stands again and moves over towards the RoE’s center console. “You of all people should know it’s not that simple Chasovo. I can’t cross over into my own timestream. The paradoxes that would create…” His frustration is evident as he grabs his head and groans. “I let them get away with it…I could have ended it all right then and there, could have saved that world from such danger…” The Commodore falls silent. He’s failed, and failed worse than he can recall having done in a long time…
“Why are you just standing there?” Chasovo says with a hint of irritation as he rises to his feet. “The Master just got away with the key to the most powerful machine in the universe, and you…you just stand there?”
“Be quiet, Chasovo…” The Commodore whispers, but Chasovo continues. “We need to stop him, Commodore. We are going to stop him, aren’t we?”
“Shut up Chasovo.” The Commodore repeats a bit louder through clenched teeth, but still the Calvera speaks.
“You can’t just stand there, Commodore, we have to go and stop him-“
“Chasovo,” the Commodore says as he spins on his heels and points angrily at the imposing Calvera, “I don’t care how powerful you are, if you say another word I swear I will send you back…” Suddenly, the Commodore’s eyes go wide. “Go…back…Chasovo, I can’t cross my own timestream, but you…you can…” The Commodore slaps his forehead as if to highlight the shock of the discovery. “You can! That’s it Chasovo, you big bony…machine…thing!” He fades out awkwardly before running over to the console and beginning to throw switches. Chasovo moves up behind him, but remains silent. “
“This,” the commodore says as he yanks a chip out of the console, “has the access codes to my ship, and our security systems. I swear though, if I find you aboard without having knocked first…” He turns to face Chasovo, who is simply staring at him silently.
“Do you always threaten your friends when you’re all riled up?” Chasovo asks pointedly. The Commodore frowns, and hesitates for a moment before placing the datacard into his hand.
“Yes I do.” He says simply, shrugging apologetically as he did so. “There’s also a temporal recording of the Master’s intrustion here. Go back to Kashmir Station, win my friendship, come aboard, and take the shard, but leave that chip with me.”
“Why not just explain why I’m taking it?” Chasovo asks with concern. The Commodore shakes his head sadly.
“I know me, Chasovo, and I wouldn’t trust anyone with that shard, even if they brought me a signed note. You’re just going to have to take it.”
--oOo--
The Commodore walked briskly to an auxiliary elevator at Kashmir Station, and began descending down into the bowels of the dome. Surrounded by pipes and wiring, the elevator car rumbled mechanically as it dropped down towards the very bottom of the dome. As it did, he adjusted the combination locks on the briefcase.
“Emby,” he said quietly to no one apparent, “I’m afraid we’re behind schedule. Begin tracking the individuals on the tier one list. I want to know where they are, who they’re calling, and I want to be ready to…” He fell silent as the elevator slowed to a stop, as he realized that a figure was waiting in the shadows for him.
"Where are you leaving off to then?" The figure inquired. "I did not say that I was finished talking to "You", you started something here yes... but tell me just how do you plan to finish it? You and your Autonomous friend...”
A familiar light flashing on next to the figures head the instant they do. "What’s your scheme here? Mr. "Kashmir", and can you do it alone?"
“I tend to prefer discreet exits.” The Commodore said simply as set the briefcase down and slowly stepped out of the elevator, slipping his hands into his pockets as he did so. “My scheme? What makes you think I’m scheming?”
"Call it scheming, call it planning, or call it plotting... Me personally I just call it business. But it all means the same thing on a basic level. You setting events into motion that will eventually lead to a beneficial goal you've set for yourself... one that you can't afford missing... can you?"
A thin grin settles across the face of the man they called Kashmir. “That certainly isn’t the most inaccurate thing I’ve heard about myself. In fact, it might even be true.” The Commodore shrugged slightly and sighed. “Story of my life. Lots of people saying things that might or might not be accurate. For you though,” he says as he slowly reaches into his jacket and removes his sonic screwdriver, “You…I’d admit that perhaps. Unfortunately, I might not have time to…shall we say, tie up my own loose ends. Bigger things are in play now…” He looks up at Chavoso’s headpiece, a good head above his own. “And if I don’t solve them I’m going to find myself without a world of my own…again.”
Inside, Chasovo is conflicted. The Commodore won’t know why he’s being robbed, and the timecaster is aware of the implications of this. Their partnership may never occur…but it was the Commodore’s plea to him that they keep the shard out of the hands of the Master. He knows he must go through with it.
“You still haven’t answered my question?” Chasovo noted pleasantly, his jaw inching forward in a manner strangely suggestive of a smile. But it never was a smile though; it was his face as he realized what he was going to have to do. He knew what the Commodore was going to say before he said it, and every familiar moment was almost painful for him. Time was being rewritten.
The Commodore chuckled. “All right bones, you want answers? We’re all schemers, and the trick is to know what people want. I want to live. I want a home. And I want this world to stop teetering on the edge of desolation. Cordell,” the Commodore says as he gestures up to the command center above them, “wants money, and adventure, and prestige. So,” the Commodore says as he pauses long enough to set his sonic screwdriver, “I give him money, and he’s going to give me the things I want.” The sonic screwdriver buzzes, and with an almost intangible gust of wind, the transarch shimmers into existence. “So there are two questions you’re going to be wanting to ask now.” The Commodore says mischievously as he pauses outside the transarch. “I’ll tell you the second if you tell me the first.”
Chasovos jaw inches forward even more, opening slightly as he lets out a soft chuckle.
"Nows that's Exactly the attitude I was looking for. We all have something we want... with Cordell it is adventure, with Gersavio, it is wealth, and you... Now you have a truly admirable one... Your tired of watching places, but never belonging to one yourself..." he shrugs with only his shoulders. the aperture of his eye expanding silently as its upper blast shield lowers slightly, giving him a serious look.
"But the problem remains, how to achieve all of that?... not so simple is it?. Save the world form its own destruction." he says, putting his hands into his coat pockets. "And the question... How do you plan to save the world?"
He takes a calm step or two forward towards the TransArch, pausing in front of it. He motions politely for the Commodore to enter before him. "Please... She is your ship after all, and I am only a guest."
The Commodore pauses hesitantly. “You know, admirable things sometimes require ignoble actions. If you want that answer, and I mean really want that answer, you’re going to be an accessory to things I doubt you imagine as yet.” He backs through the arch, which he leaves open in a strange sort of invitation. “And the other question you should be asking yourself is this: what happened to my briefcase?”
Chasovo turns around, and looks back in the elevator. The briefcase is gone. But he knows what happened to it this time. He knows that now there are nanites tunneling under the Kashmir domes, preparing for the Commodore’s ultimate scheme here…and Chasovo wonders if it will ever come to fruitition.
"Hmm." Chasovo muses to himself silently. "Now that... that's intriguing right there." He turns back towards the Commodore, the vague smile returning to his jaw.
"Very well then... I'm in. Although the title of accessory sounds so... antagonist like. Let’s call me an accomplice to your plans." He says. Raising his right hand, his Zeit staff materializing in it. "An accomplice. A little bit more capable then your other... accessories" He gestures slightly with the staff, and the Trans-Arch flickers closed behind him. "Now then." he says. turning to face the commodore. "Help me…in imagining this plan of yours."
--oOo--
“It’s a bit complicated, actually,” the Commodore begins, turning his back to Chasovo as he begins working the console. “But I think you’ll like it-“
Chasovo wasted no time. With a simple gesture, the Timecaster used his staff and sent the Commodore flying into the far wall. He lay there gasping, stunned and surprised, as Chasovo walked up to him, his shadow stretching out like some kind of demon’s hand.
“You’ll understand in time. I’m sorry.” Chasovo says sincerely, as he sets the chip down by the Commodore’s foot. The Commodore, gasping for air, is unable to move as Chasovo walks over to the china cabinet, removes the shard, and heads for the transarch. Before leaving though, Chasovo looks back at the stunned man lying on the floor. “I’ll see you around, Commodore.”
Shaking, the Commodore grabs the temporal recording and with trembling hands plugs it into the console. A hologram appears instantly, and the Commodore begins to watch…
…he sees a clock materialize inside the Reign of Embers, and a mysterious bearded figure steps out and identifies himself as the Master. The Commodore watches wide eyed as he sees himself on the screen panicking slowly, becoming more and more desperate until he reaches the point that he’s threatening to destroy himself and the Reign of Embers to keep the shard. And then he watches as the Master simply walks out, taking the one thing he’d been tasked to defend with him.
…and then the Commodore understands. With a start, he rushed over to a chest near the china cabinet, and pulls out a smaller wooden box, which he opens and drops onto the floor. He sticks the revolver into his jacket right as the sound of the grandfather clock arriving begins. Frantically, he rushes over to the center console and turns off the video recording…right as the Master steps out from the clock.
--oOo--
"So you're the Commodore, eh?" The Master says with a small smile.
"I answer to that name, yes. Who are you?"
“I...am the Master. an old...associate of yours mentioned you.” The Master says without any false humility. “I admit I was eavesdropping...”
"You're...you're the Master?" The Commodore pretends to be a bit surprised, but eventually gives up the act. "Of course! Yes, you, the Master, right. Previous incarnation. I've never seen you with a beard before..."
“I am simply here to answer a few questions I overheard you have about my employer.” The Master responds pleasantly.
The Commodore freezes momentarily, but gradually continues moving towards the Master, slowly moving himself so that he's inbetween the grandfather clock and the man himself.
"Your employer? You don't strike me as the type who works for others."
The Master casually slides a small device out of his sleeve, still keeping his eyes on the Commodore.
"Oh, rest assured, it's more of a partnership... with benefits"
The Commodore grins slowly, but with a strange apprehensiveness visible in his face. "I told them not to trust you, and then you and all the rest of your kind just...poof," the Commodore gestures, "vanish."
"I must admit, this," he says as he points back to the grandfather clock, "this is amazing. I've never seen anything track RoE down like this before."
"How'd you get inside?"
"Indeed" he tosses the device into the air, catching it like a baseball. "As for my entrance...i have resources event that spiky-haired fop doesn't have."
The Commodore freezes and falls silent, this time for a longer time than ever before…or even the time before that.
"What did he tell you about you, and him...and me..."
"Oh," he pauses, casually glancing towards the tea cabinet. his smile grows wider, though his eyes remain bemused, "a few things."
"I wouldn't trust a word he says," the Commodore warns quietly, "anymore than I would trust you. If you're looking for a trinket, I'm afraid you'll have a problem.” The Commodore lies again. He remembers seeing himself say these words, and he can imagine the desperation he must have felt as he said it. “Pawn shop on the edge of the galaxy. Needed a fix. Fair price." Beneath the tea cabinet, the dust stirs ever so slightly, just like it did in the video…the Master lazily presses a button on the device. all of a sudden, a high-pitched whine echoes through the chamber, and the dust falls to the floor, unmoving.
"There. now we are actually alone."
"Did he tell you about the end?" The Commodore says with increased agitation, as he considers whether or not he should draw the revolver concealed inside his jacket. He’s familiar enough with guns to feel confident that he could draw faster, but…he’s not sure it’s the time yet. "Did he tell you about that?"
"More like another me. Little blond chap. has an obsession with drums."
"As for why i'm truly here... i assure you, it has nothing to do with the pink-skinned bastards who want that little gem."
"The who?" The Commodore asks, his mind racing.
"Ah, that's right. you're not quite..In the know" He turns, and before the Commodore can stop him, strides over to the tea cabinet and flips it open. The Master smiles mischieveously at the teapot, knowing full well the discomfort his show is causing him. To the Master, the Commodore is now powerless…
"Ah yes, there you are..." the Master whispers, as he looks back at the Commodore.
"He kills everyone!" The Commodore shouts, only this time it’s not out of desperation so much as it is simply trying to keep things happening the same way. “All the Timelords, all of Gallifrey, annihilated. Your people, Master, all of them gone at his hands, and you...you toy with miniscule worlds while your home and family burn. Think about that, and while you're thinking, listen! I know what it's like to hate that man. Believe me. He condemned me...to eat my own flesh, trapped in the time Vortex." This time though, the Commodore speaks more calmly than he saw himself in the video. He’s much more controlled, though the tension is still present in his words.
“I know.” The Master says simply, “Oh, i don't hate him. Fear him? Yes. Despise him? Yes. Wish to make him rue the day he was born? Yes. Love him?.....goodness yes"
"But I do. And this world is my only connection to him now. He likes it. Wants to save it. And it is my only chance to avenge what he's done..." The Commodore replies. He almost appreciates the irony out of just what he’s avenging this time…and if you're going to take away the one piece of bate that'll keep him where I can see him..."
"If not for him,” The Master notes as he runs his finger around the rim of the teapot, “I would not be the man i am. yes, he's foiled me, yes he's cost me many regenerations, yes, he's a stuck-up, smarmy little prick who can't help but stick his nose into other people's business...and if not for him, the universe would have been destroyed long ago"
"WAIT!" another voice cries out. the Commodore, surprised even after seeing the video, turns....to see a young woman, perhaps only 17, step out of the Clock.
"I understand. I know how you feel. to be betrayed by him, abandoned, i mean." The waifish girl pleads sincerely. “He left me behind as well. so many years ago... I thought he was doing me a favor. Then, the reason i was left went away, and i was all alone. Can you imagine that? You've been alone so long, but that's not the same: i COULDN'T love anyone, because i knew the pain would come again and again. You were trapped. and so was i"
"No..." the Commodore murmurs softly, his eyes darting back between the Master and the strange girl. "No, no I haven't been alone. He trapped me with ghosts. You had the world. I had the past."
"And now, i need to find him as much as you do." The girl adds sympathetically.
The Master reaches for the teapot slowly, as if drawing out the moment.
“Either way lady,” the Commodore says, as he puts his hands on his waist in nonchalant preparation to draw the gun, “the past is history. There's only the future...and as best as I can tell, you're trying to take that away."
"What world was there?" the girl asked, "a world that flew by like the ages?" I was trapped on a ruined world. I've been all over it, literally, three times. and i saw the same child as a baby, an adult, and as an invalid on his deathbed." She stared past him at the wall now. “I need to find him.... he's the only future I've got…"
“And I need this..." the Master said "to ensure a future for all of us."
"Oh," the Commodore says with a trace of dark cynicism in his voice, "well we're all looking for something dear, and God help us if we find it...are you sure you know what you’re doing, Master? Because I’m only saying this once: leave with your dignity intact.”
The girl sighs. “Master?"
Before the commodore can stop him, the Master aims the device at her, and pushes the button. The girl collapses in a heap without a sound.
"Emby can't hear you, Commodore" the Master says uncommonly flatly.
"...if that was true, *Master*," the Commodore says quietly, "then I wouldn't be here either...you see, I had to do horrible things to stay alive, and the worst wasn't my doing at all. I was running from a psychophage-perhaps you've heard of it. It alters you in so many strange ways...and then when I, near death on this," the Commodore says as he gestures around him, "this ship...this ship assimilated our intelligences. The Haze. My memories. We're a strange sort of trinity now, Master. How else would you think I could hear it all these years, from so many millions of miles away?"
Before the Commodore can continue, the girl seems to burst into a ball of light, before suddenly sitting up from her prone position. Even after seeing this on the video, he’s almost frightened by it, and still utterly confused. "Now do you understand?" she asks, her dark hair replaced by swirling blond locks that reach her shoulders and a rounder face dotted with freckles.
The Commodore stares intensely at the Master, before whispering one word as he tenses up in anticipation of what comes next.
"Explain."
--oOo--
The Master reaches past the Commodore, before removing the top of the teapot. And here our stories diverge. The Master freezes as he lifts the lid off the teapot. He had felt the shard’s presence there, and it had been assured to him by the Millenial Princess that it would be there. But he had no time to react to it’s unexpected absence, as he suddenly felt a gunbarrel jab into the back of his head.
“Looks like someone beat you to the punch, beardy. There was a time…” the Commodore whispers softly, “that I told you that I was never really good with threats. I don’t expect you to remember that though. You mentioned that you’d overheard my conversations with the Doctor, and with Varek. Perhaps you recall me saying there were two guns in the multiverse that can fire in here?” The Commodore asks as he reaches around the Master and plucks his Enfield revolver from its holster. The Master turns, and realizes that the Commodore now has a Webley in each of his hands.
“Probably should have mentioned it was a matching set.” He notes with a smirk, before gesturing towards the clock with one of the guns. “Relax lady,” he says without looking at the mysterious girl, “I don’t shoot old men when there are guests present.” The smirk fades from his face, and the Commodore says four more words.
“Get off my ship.” He cocks the hammers back for emphasis, and without another word, the Master moved past him, ushering the girl into the clock. Pausing in the doorway, he looked back at the Commodore for a moment.
“You can’t protect it forever.” He warns with simple ominousness, before the clock closed and vanished from sight.
The Commodore stands in the empty ship, and shrugs.
“No…no I suppose I can’t.” He says as he tucks the guns into his belt, and begins descending into the bowels of the RoE, “But I’m damn well going to try.”

Description
The Commodore stands silent, stunned by what has just happened, as the Master’s TARDIS fades out of existence. He’s just lost the one bargaining chip that mattered, and he knows it. He just stands there, starring at where the clock had been, unmoving, unthinking. Then he hears a groan, and turns to see movement from Chavoso’s unconscious body on the floor. He moves towards it silently and kneels next to the Calvera as he begins to wake up.
“What…what happened?” Chavoso slurs, as he puts one of his metallic hands upon his head. “Did they get away?”
“I…I couldn’t keep him from it…” The Commodore whispers aloud, horrified at the very notion of having lost such a dangerous item. “The Master has the shard…he’s…he’s going to do unimaginable things with it…”
“History can be rewritten, Commodore. That is your name, after all…” Chasovo murmurs as he sits up from the floor and begins rubbing his chin. “We can stop him yet.”
The Commodore groans as he stands again and moves over towards the RoE’s center console. “You of all people should know it’s not that simple Chasovo. I can’t cross over into my own timestream. The paradoxes that would create…” His frustration is evident as he grabs his head and groans. “I let them get away with it…I could have ended it all right then and there, could have saved that world from such danger…” The Commodore falls silent. He’s failed, and failed worse than he can recall having done in a long time…
“Why are you just standing there?” Chasovo says with a hint of irritation as he rises to his feet. “The Master just got away with the key to the most powerful machine in the universe, and you…you just stand there?”
“Be quiet, Chasovo…” The Commodore whispers, but Chasovo continues. “We need to stop him, Commodore. We are going to stop him, aren’t we?”
“Shut up Chasovo.” The Commodore repeats a bit louder through clenched teeth, but still the Calvera speaks.
“You can’t just stand there, Commodore, we have to go and stop him-“
“Chasovo,” the Commodore says as he spins on his heels and points angrily at the imposing Calvera, “I don’t care how powerful you are, if you say another word I swear I will send you back…” Suddenly, the Commodore’s eyes go wide. “Go…back…Chasovo, I can’t cross my own timestream, but you…you can…” The Commodore slaps his forehead as if to highlight the shock of the discovery. “You can! That’s it Chasovo, you big bony…machine…thing!” He fades out awkwardly before running over to the console and beginning to throw switches. Chasovo moves up behind him, but remains silent. “
“This,” the commodore says as he yanks a chip out of the console, “has the access codes to my ship, and our security systems. I swear though, if I find you aboard without having knocked first…” He turns to face Chasovo, who is simply staring at him silently.
“Do you always threaten your friends when you’re all riled up?” Chasovo asks pointedly. The Commodore frowns, and hesitates for a moment before placing the datacard into his hand.
“Yes I do.” He says simply, shrugging apologetically as he did so. “There’s also a temporal recording of the Master’s intrustion here. Go back to Kashmir Station, win my friendship, come aboard, and take the shard, but leave that chip with me.”
“Why not just explain why I’m taking it?” Chasovo asks with concern. The Commodore shakes his head sadly.
“I know me, Chasovo, and I wouldn’t trust anyone with that shard, even if they brought me a signed note. You’re just going to have to take it.”
--oOo--
The Commodore walked briskly to an auxiliary elevator at Kashmir Station, and began descending down into the bowels of the dome. Surrounded by pipes and wiring, the elevator car rumbled mechanically as it dropped down towards the very bottom of the dome. As it did, he adjusted the combination locks on the briefcase.
“Emby,” he said quietly to no one apparent, “I’m afraid we’re behind schedule. Begin tracking the individuals on the tier one list. I want to know where they are, who they’re calling, and I want to be ready to…” He fell silent as the elevator slowed to a stop, as he realized that a figure was waiting in the shadows for him.
"Where are you leaving off to then?" The figure inquired. "I did not say that I was finished talking to "You", you started something here yes... but tell me just how do you plan to finish it? You and your Autonomous friend...”
A familiar light flashing on next to the figures head the instant they do. "What’s your scheme here? Mr. "Kashmir", and can you do it alone?"
“I tend to prefer discreet exits.” The Commodore said simply as set the briefcase down and slowly stepped out of the elevator, slipping his hands into his pockets as he did so. “My scheme? What makes you think I’m scheming?”
"Call it scheming, call it planning, or call it plotting... Me personally I just call it business. But it all means the same thing on a basic level. You setting events into motion that will eventually lead to a beneficial goal you've set for yourself... one that you can't afford missing... can you?"
A thin grin settles across the face of the man they called Kashmir. “That certainly isn’t the most inaccurate thing I’ve heard about myself. In fact, it might even be true.” The Commodore shrugged slightly and sighed. “Story of my life. Lots of people saying things that might or might not be accurate. For you though,” he says as he slowly reaches into his jacket and removes his sonic screwdriver, “You…I’d admit that perhaps. Unfortunately, I might not have time to…shall we say, tie up my own loose ends. Bigger things are in play now…” He looks up at Chavoso’s headpiece, a good head above his own. “And if I don’t solve them I’m going to find myself without a world of my own…again.”
Inside, Chasovo is conflicted. The Commodore won’t know why he’s being robbed, and the timecaster is aware of the implications of this. Their partnership may never occur…but it was the Commodore’s plea to him that they keep the shard out of the hands of the Master. He knows he must go through with it.
“You still haven’t answered my question?” Chasovo noted pleasantly, his jaw inching forward in a manner strangely suggestive of a smile. But it never was a smile though; it was his face as he realized what he was going to have to do. He knew what the Commodore was going to say before he said it, and every familiar moment was almost painful for him. Time was being rewritten.
The Commodore chuckled. “All right bones, you want answers? We’re all schemers, and the trick is to know what people want. I want to live. I want a home. And I want this world to stop teetering on the edge of desolation. Cordell,” the Commodore says as he gestures up to the command center above them, “wants money, and adventure, and prestige. So,” the Commodore says as he pauses long enough to set his sonic screwdriver, “I give him money, and he’s going to give me the things I want.” The sonic screwdriver buzzes, and with an almost intangible gust of wind, the transarch shimmers into existence. “So there are two questions you’re going to be wanting to ask now.” The Commodore says mischievously as he pauses outside the transarch. “I’ll tell you the second if you tell me the first.”
Chasovos jaw inches forward even more, opening slightly as he lets out a soft chuckle.
"Nows that's Exactly the attitude I was looking for. We all have something we want... with Cordell it is adventure, with Gersavio, it is wealth, and you... Now you have a truly admirable one... Your tired of watching places, but never belonging to one yourself..." he shrugs with only his shoulders. the aperture of his eye expanding silently as its upper blast shield lowers slightly, giving him a serious look.
"But the problem remains, how to achieve all of that?... not so simple is it?. Save the world form its own destruction." he says, putting his hands into his coat pockets. "And the question... How do you plan to save the world?"
He takes a calm step or two forward towards the TransArch, pausing in front of it. He motions politely for the Commodore to enter before him. "Please... She is your ship after all, and I am only a guest."
The Commodore pauses hesitantly. “You know, admirable things sometimes require ignoble actions. If you want that answer, and I mean really want that answer, you’re going to be an accessory to things I doubt you imagine as yet.” He backs through the arch, which he leaves open in a strange sort of invitation. “And the other question you should be asking yourself is this: what happened to my briefcase?”
Chasovo turns around, and looks back in the elevator. The briefcase is gone. But he knows what happened to it this time. He knows that now there are nanites tunneling under the Kashmir domes, preparing for the Commodore’s ultimate scheme here…and Chasovo wonders if it will ever come to fruitition.
"Hmm." Chasovo muses to himself silently. "Now that... that's intriguing right there." He turns back towards the Commodore, the vague smile returning to his jaw.
"Very well then... I'm in. Although the title of accessory sounds so... antagonist like. Let’s call me an accomplice to your plans." He says. Raising his right hand, his Zeit staff materializing in it. "An accomplice. A little bit more capable then your other... accessories" He gestures slightly with the staff, and the Trans-Arch flickers closed behind him. "Now then." he says. turning to face the commodore. "Help me…in imagining this plan of yours."
--oOo--
“It’s a bit complicated, actually,” the Commodore begins, turning his back to Chasovo as he begins working the console. “But I think you’ll like it-“
Chasovo wasted no time. With a simple gesture, the Timecaster used his staff and sent the Commodore flying into the far wall. He lay there gasping, stunned and surprised, as Chasovo walked up to him, his shadow stretching out like some kind of demon’s hand.
“You’ll understand in time. I’m sorry.” Chasovo says sincerely, as he sets the chip down by the Commodore’s foot. The Commodore, gasping for air, is unable to move as Chasovo walks over to the china cabinet, removes the shard, and heads for the transarch. Before leaving though, Chasovo looks back at the stunned man lying on the floor. “I’ll see you around, Commodore.”
Shaking, the Commodore grabs the temporal recording and with trembling hands plugs it into the console. A hologram appears instantly, and the Commodore begins to watch…
…he sees a clock materialize inside the Reign of Embers, and a mysterious bearded figure steps out and identifies himself as the Master. The Commodore watches wide eyed as he sees himself on the screen panicking slowly, becoming more and more desperate until he reaches the point that he’s threatening to destroy himself and the Reign of Embers to keep the shard. And then he watches as the Master simply walks out, taking the one thing he’d been tasked to defend with him.
…and then the Commodore understands. With a start, he rushed over to a chest near the china cabinet, and pulls out a smaller wooden box, which he opens and drops onto the floor. He sticks the revolver into his jacket right as the sound of the grandfather clock arriving begins. Frantically, he rushes over to the center console and turns off the video recording…right as the Master steps out from the clock.
--oOo--
"So you're the Commodore, eh?" The Master says with a small smile.
"I answer to that name, yes. Who are you?"
“I...am the Master. an old...associate of yours mentioned you.” The Master says without any false humility. “I admit I was eavesdropping...”
"You're...you're the Master?" The Commodore pretends to be a bit surprised, but eventually gives up the act. "Of course! Yes, you, the Master, right. Previous incarnation. I've never seen you with a beard before..."
“I am simply here to answer a few questions I overheard you have about my employer.” The Master responds pleasantly.
The Commodore freezes momentarily, but gradually continues moving towards the Master, slowly moving himself so that he's inbetween the grandfather clock and the man himself.
"Your employer? You don't strike me as the type who works for others."
The Master casually slides a small device out of his sleeve, still keeping his eyes on the Commodore.
"Oh, rest assured, it's more of a partnership... with benefits"
The Commodore grins slowly, but with a strange apprehensiveness visible in his face. "I told them not to trust you, and then you and all the rest of your kind just...poof," the Commodore gestures, "vanish."
"I must admit, this," he says as he points back to the grandfather clock, "this is amazing. I've never seen anything track RoE down like this before."
"How'd you get inside?"
"Indeed" he tosses the device into the air, catching it like a baseball. "As for my entrance...i have resources event that spiky-haired fop doesn't have."
The Commodore freezes and falls silent, this time for a longer time than ever before…or even the time before that.
"What did he tell you about you, and him...and me..."
"Oh," he pauses, casually glancing towards the tea cabinet. his smile grows wider, though his eyes remain bemused, "a few things."
"I wouldn't trust a word he says," the Commodore warns quietly, "anymore than I would trust you. If you're looking for a trinket, I'm afraid you'll have a problem.” The Commodore lies again. He remembers seeing himself say these words, and he can imagine the desperation he must have felt as he said it. “Pawn shop on the edge of the galaxy. Needed a fix. Fair price." Beneath the tea cabinet, the dust stirs ever so slightly, just like it did in the video…the Master lazily presses a button on the device. all of a sudden, a high-pitched whine echoes through the chamber, and the dust falls to the floor, unmoving.
"There. now we are actually alone."
"Did he tell you about the end?" The Commodore says with increased agitation, as he considers whether or not he should draw the revolver concealed inside his jacket. He’s familiar enough with guns to feel confident that he could draw faster, but…he’s not sure it’s the time yet. "Did he tell you about that?"
"More like another me. Little blond chap. has an obsession with drums."
"As for why i'm truly here... i assure you, it has nothing to do with the pink-skinned bastards who want that little gem."
"The who?" The Commodore asks, his mind racing.
"Ah, that's right. you're not quite..In the know" He turns, and before the Commodore can stop him, strides over to the tea cabinet and flips it open. The Master smiles mischieveously at the teapot, knowing full well the discomfort his show is causing him. To the Master, the Commodore is now powerless…
"Ah yes, there you are..." the Master whispers, as he looks back at the Commodore.
"He kills everyone!" The Commodore shouts, only this time it’s not out of desperation so much as it is simply trying to keep things happening the same way. “All the Timelords, all of Gallifrey, annihilated. Your people, Master, all of them gone at his hands, and you...you toy with miniscule worlds while your home and family burn. Think about that, and while you're thinking, listen! I know what it's like to hate that man. Believe me. He condemned me...to eat my own flesh, trapped in the time Vortex." This time though, the Commodore speaks more calmly than he saw himself in the video. He’s much more controlled, though the tension is still present in his words.
“I know.” The Master says simply, “Oh, i don't hate him. Fear him? Yes. Despise him? Yes. Wish to make him rue the day he was born? Yes. Love him?.....goodness yes"
"But I do. And this world is my only connection to him now. He likes it. Wants to save it. And it is my only chance to avenge what he's done..." The Commodore replies. He almost appreciates the irony out of just what he’s avenging this time…and if you're going to take away the one piece of bate that'll keep him where I can see him..."
"If not for him,” The Master notes as he runs his finger around the rim of the teapot, “I would not be the man i am. yes, he's foiled me, yes he's cost me many regenerations, yes, he's a stuck-up, smarmy little prick who can't help but stick his nose into other people's business...and if not for him, the universe would have been destroyed long ago"
"WAIT!" another voice cries out. the Commodore, surprised even after seeing the video, turns....to see a young woman, perhaps only 17, step out of the Clock.
"I understand. I know how you feel. to be betrayed by him, abandoned, i mean." The waifish girl pleads sincerely. “He left me behind as well. so many years ago... I thought he was doing me a favor. Then, the reason i was left went away, and i was all alone. Can you imagine that? You've been alone so long, but that's not the same: i COULDN'T love anyone, because i knew the pain would come again and again. You were trapped. and so was i"
"No..." the Commodore murmurs softly, his eyes darting back between the Master and the strange girl. "No, no I haven't been alone. He trapped me with ghosts. You had the world. I had the past."
"And now, i need to find him as much as you do." The girl adds sympathetically.
The Master reaches for the teapot slowly, as if drawing out the moment.
“Either way lady,” the Commodore says, as he puts his hands on his waist in nonchalant preparation to draw the gun, “the past is history. There's only the future...and as best as I can tell, you're trying to take that away."
"What world was there?" the girl asked, "a world that flew by like the ages?" I was trapped on a ruined world. I've been all over it, literally, three times. and i saw the same child as a baby, an adult, and as an invalid on his deathbed." She stared past him at the wall now. “I need to find him.... he's the only future I've got…"
“And I need this..." the Master said "to ensure a future for all of us."
"Oh," the Commodore says with a trace of dark cynicism in his voice, "well we're all looking for something dear, and God help us if we find it...are you sure you know what you’re doing, Master? Because I’m only saying this once: leave with your dignity intact.”
The girl sighs. “Master?"
Before the commodore can stop him, the Master aims the device at her, and pushes the button. The girl collapses in a heap without a sound.
"Emby can't hear you, Commodore" the Master says uncommonly flatly.
"...if that was true, *Master*," the Commodore says quietly, "then I wouldn't be here either...you see, I had to do horrible things to stay alive, and the worst wasn't my doing at all. I was running from a psychophage-perhaps you've heard of it. It alters you in so many strange ways...and then when I, near death on this," the Commodore says as he gestures around him, "this ship...this ship assimilated our intelligences. The Haze. My memories. We're a strange sort of trinity now, Master. How else would you think I could hear it all these years, from so many millions of miles away?"
Before the Commodore can continue, the girl seems to burst into a ball of light, before suddenly sitting up from her prone position. Even after seeing this on the video, he’s almost frightened by it, and still utterly confused. "Now do you understand?" she asks, her dark hair replaced by swirling blond locks that reach her shoulders and a rounder face dotted with freckles.
The Commodore stares intensely at the Master, before whispering one word as he tenses up in anticipation of what comes next.
"Explain."
--oOo--
The Master reaches past the Commodore, before removing the top of the teapot. And here our stories diverge. The Master freezes as he lifts the lid off the teapot. He had felt the shard’s presence there, and it had been assured to him by the Millenial Princess that it would be there. But he had no time to react to it’s unexpected absence, as he suddenly felt a gunbarrel jab into the back of his head.
“Looks like someone beat you to the punch, beardy. There was a time…” the Commodore whispers softly, “that I told you that I was never really good with threats. I don’t expect you to remember that though. You mentioned that you’d overheard my conversations with the Doctor, and with Varek. Perhaps you recall me saying there were two guns in the multiverse that can fire in here?” The Commodore asks as he reaches around the Master and plucks his Enfield revolver from its holster. The Master turns, and realizes that the Commodore now has a Webley in each of his hands.
“Probably should have mentioned it was a matching set.” He notes with a smirk, before gesturing towards the clock with one of the guns. “Relax lady,” he says without looking at the mysterious girl, “I don’t shoot old men when there are guests present.” The smirk fades from his face, and the Commodore says four more words.
“Get off my ship.” He cocks the hammers back for emphasis, and without another word, the Master moved past him, ushering the girl into the clock. Pausing in the doorway, he looked back at the Commodore for a moment.
“You can’t protect it forever.” He warns with simple ominousness, before the clock closed and vanished from sight.
The Commodore stands in the empty ship, and shrugs.
“No…no I suppose I can’t.” He says as he tucks the guns into his belt, and begins descending into the bowels of the RoE, “But I’m damn well going to try.”