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without an outer casing was rough. Valarie had gripped tightly onto a different array of limbs when Jack had used the vortex manipulator still on his wrist. Her whole body went rigged as did everyone's, Martha and Jack's hands around her limbs comparable to death grips. They let go once they had escaped the room they were within. Groaning and stretching, bones cracking as it felt like they had held the position forever. In a way, she had. Her head pounded.

"Time travel without a capsule. That's a killer." The Doctor groaned popping his neck. Once regaining some comfortable mobility and loosening up they left alley way they had appeared in. It seemed Jack's vortex manipulator worked the one time it really needed to.

"At least we made it." Jack commented. "Earth, twenty-first century by the looks of it." In fact it seemed to be no later then two or three days after Valarie had left prior. "Talk about lucky." Jack laughed, knowing it could have ended up much worse.

"That wasn't luck, that was me." The Doctor corrected. Only moments prior they all had their bodies pressed against that wooden door, threatened to be eaten alive by what was on the other side. The Doctor had grabbed Jack's wrist, using the sonic on it while shouting for him to hold still. He seemed to have fixed it.

"Well, moral of the story is if you get trapped at the end of the universe, make sure you have an ex-time agent and his vortex manipulator."

"But this Master guy, he has the TARDIS. He could be anywhere, anytime." Valarie commented, her thoughts on this Time Lord.

"No, he's here. I know it."

"But the voice in the TARDIS, that wasn't the Professor." Martha added.

"He must have regenerated. New face, new voice, new body. New man." Jack explained. The Doctor's attention turned to the posters lining the streets. 'VOTE SAXON' seemed to be plastered on every street corner in bold black letters. A homeless man sat beneath one, tapping a four beat rhythm away on his cup. The Doctor had heard that rhythm before.

"But his voice, Jack. I've heard it before. I know I have, I just can't remember where." Valarie added as they stood among the busy city block. Valarie couldn't remember where she had heard him speak before, but she knew she had.

"And if he has changed how will we find him?"

"I'll know it when I see him." The Doctor stated. Valarie's eyes drifted to around her. She took notice in all of the Harold Saxon posters, and suddenly an ugly truth dawned on her.

"We missed the election." Martha added as she soaked in the sight.

"Oh dear god. Saxon is the Master." Valarie said, as tv's on the block showed a news channels broadcast of 'Harold Saxon's return from Buckingham Palace.

"The Master is prime minister of Great Britain." The Doctor was horrified at the idea. On the television the Master then shared a kiss with a woman at his side. "The Master and his wife."

"This country is sick." The Master began. His eyes seemed to stare into the four from all directions, as if he knew exactly where they were and how they were watching. "This country needs healing. In fact, I'd go as far to say what this country needs, is a doctor."

__

They had decided to go to Martha's flat to hunker down for a short period of time. The Doctor began asking for anything, a phone, a laptop, anything. He put his glasses on as Jack pulled his phone.

"Jack, who could you possibly be calling now?"

"Just some friends, but they won't answer." He sounded extremely concerned. Valarie had found Martha's laptop, opening it and pulling a web page up.

"This is his website. Saxon has been around for ages." She pulled a video up, showing an array of celebrities and citizens alike giving their testimonials as to why they were voting Saxon.

"Former Minister of Defense, he first came to prominence for shooting the Racnoss down on Christmas Eve." Jack explained. They slid through an array of images, showing off a fictitious life that must have taken years to craft.

"He used the TARDIS to set this whole life up years ago." Valarie added. The Doctor shook his head.

"He couldn't have. Before he stole it I was able to lock the coordinates from outside. Only places he can go is the year one hundred-trillion, and right here, right now." Valarie leaned back, her face scrunched in confusion. She was absolutely positive she had been hearing about him from her older brother for years now! Her brother absolutely loved his ideas, and even tried to help his campaign on a local level.

"But he was giving a speech on my mums TV when I was there?"

"Okay, that was probably his first real appearance. But eighteen months tops is the earliest he arrived. And that's if he was lucky."

"But how?" Jack asked.

"Well, the Master was always sort of hypnotic. But never anything on this scale." The Master had an entire country fooled.

"I was gonna vote for him." Martha revealed. She looked ashamed of her. "That was before I knew you."

"I was too." Jack added on sheepishly.

"What? Why? What were his policies?" The Doctor questioned, shocked at how even they fell under his spell.

"I don't know, something about the way he spoke just made me want to. He sounded," Valarie's face relaxed some as she spoke, leaning in a chair across from the Doctor with a hand rested on the arm. "good." Her hand subconsciously began to tap against the wood, echoing a four beat rhythm. The same as the homeless man from earlier. Jack and Martha almost immediately had their eyes stuck on her, leaning in slightly as she tapped away. Her eyes were practically glazed over.

"He just made it seem like everything would be alright. When he spoke it was so good, you didn't really care what he did to make it alright. You just liked him."

"What is that?" The Doctor asked, causing her to jump and stop the rhythm. "That tapping, why were you doing it?'

"I, I don't know! It's just a habit I guess. I didn't realize I was doing it." The laptop screen beeped, a message appearing alerting them that he was speaking. The Doctor rushed to Martha's tv, turning it on. The Master was on screen, sat behind a desk.

"Britain, Britain, Britain. What extraordinary times we have ahead of us. Just a few years this world was so small, and then they came. Falling out of the skies. You've seen it." Footage from Big Ben being destroyed years prior. Valarie remembered that, she was still living at home. Her mother fainted at the sight of it. Images of the 'ghosts' that walked the streets before and the robotic things that appeared in their places showed. Valarie also remembered that one. She was watching her young niece and nephew, and hid in a compartment in the hall way. She remembered having to muffle the toddler's cries for their parents, and her own cries as well. Then, an image of the Christmas star that destroyed city blocks. The last few Christmas's in London hadn't been lucky ones, to say the least.

"My purpose here today is to tell you, citizens of Great Britain, that I have been contacted. A message for humanity, from beyond the stars." The broadcast changed from him to a floating orb with blinking lights.

"People of the Earth, we come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring wisdom, knowledge, and protection. All we ask for is your friendship." Valarie felt uneasy, as the orb's voice was soft and feminine.

"They are called the Toclafane. And tomorrow they will appear to not just us, but everyone. Diplomatic relations with a new species. Every man, woman, and child will take their place in the universe. Every farmer, taxi driver."

"Every," he paused. "intern?" Valarie felt the hairs on her arms stand up at the mention of her previous employment. It felt too exact for it not to be an acknowledgment to her. If the Master had been here even three months prior, he definitely knew about Brion and he for sure knew about the incident.

"And oh, I don't know, every medical student?" Eyes flew to Martha and Valarie. A beeping echoed from behind the television. The Doctor quickly turned it, to reveal what seemed to be explosives on the back.

"Out!" He shouted, as they rushed to leave the flat. The Doctor snagged the laptop on his way out. Within seconds of them entering the streets the windows blew out, flames erupting and consuming the top floor. Glass fell around them, and the smell of smoke was suddenly strong.

"Everyone alright?" The Doctor turned to look, spotting Martha opening her phone.

"He knows about me, what about my family?"

"Don't tell them anything."

"I'll do what I like!" She snapped to him, raising the phone to her ear. Valarie's phone began to buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out, but before she could open it the Doctor had grabbed her shoulders.

"Look at me, you don't tell them anything. It could save them." She nodded hesitantly, before answering.

"Valarie! Where are you?!" Her mother practically screamed into it.

"I'm, I'm with friends. Why?"

"Your brother called, your flat is on fire. There was some boom and it was in flames and we couldn't find you!"

"Mum, I have to go."

"But Valarie-"

"Mum, just promise me if anyone comes asking about me, you don't know anything. You haven't seen me recently at all." She hung up the phone quickly. She winced, knowing what fear she just probably placed on her mother and she didn't even tell her she loved her. Suddenly Martha was on them, rushing them to her car that had been parked nearby.

"They got my family, we have to go after them." She ignored the Doctor's pleas, shoving him into the passenger seat as Valarie and Jack climbed into the back. Martha drove recklessly, barely missing curbs and lampposts as she raced for her family.

"What about your folks? Are they alright?" Jack asked Valarie. She looked to him with a panicked face.

"I really don't know." They wheeled onto a street. Martha slammed on the breaks, gasping in horror at the sight of her mother and father being herded into a van. Everyone froze as a woman overseeing those arresting them gave a command.

"Target identified."

"Get out of here!" Her mother screamed.

"Take aim." The woman instructed. Men in full body police uniforms aimed automatic rifles at the car.

"Martha, reverse." Martha changed the gears as the command was given. "Reverse!"

"Fire!" An array of bullets was unloaded on the car, it swinging backwards as Martha gunned it. The back windshield was blown out almost immediately, with Jack shielding Valarie's body with his own as he tried to press them down further into the seat.

Suddenly, the four were Britain's most wanted.

__

They ditched the car under a bridge by Jack's command. As they left it Valarie's phone buzzed again. She pulled it out, hesitantly answering it.

"Valarie?" Mabel asked.

"Mabel. What's wrong."

"What the hell is going on? Mum just called me in a frenzy, and these people just showed up to their home looking for you. We can't get a hold of mum or dad now."

"Oh god." She froze.

"Valarie Scott." A new voice entered the phone line. "Haven't seen you in what, one hundred-trillion years?"

"Saxon you bastard!" She suddenly yelled into the phone. "Leave them out of this!" The Doctor turned to her, taking the phone as he saw the opportunity to speak to the Master directly. He stepped away. Valarie looked to Martha with tears. Both of the women were neck deep in anxiety and fear for their families well being. How could Valarie have been so reckless? To even have the TARDIS outside of her parents home in broad daylight? But how could she had possibly known she was being watched the entire time? They followed the Doctor around a corner, where TV's in a window display played another news broadcast. To Valarie's horror, an image of the Doctor, Jack, Martha and her displayed with the words 'Nationwide Hunt for Terrorist Suspects'

The Doctor suddenly turned and looked up to a security camera as the Master spoke to him over the phone. He pulled his sonic out and aimed it at it, causing it to short wire.

"He can see us, everywhere and anywhere."

"What do we do?" Martha asked.

"We run."

__

The only place he couldn't possibly follow them was a place with no electricity. They had taken refuge in an abandoned warehouse. Martha returned from a run for food, handing Jack the sack and slipping Valarie's coat that she had used to conceal herself with off.

"Think anyone saw you?"

"No." Martha explained.

"I got this thing tuned into Saxon's network." Jack showed her his vortex manipulator. While Martha had went away Valarie had aided him in rewiring and attempting to connect it. Well, as much as she could help when it came to alien technology. "It says the Jones family is in questioning. But it seems your brother, Leo, is still out and free." No mentioned had came of Valarie's parents. They took seats with the food around a wooden stool that the laptop was propped up on. The Doctor searched it for any information he could.

"So, who is this Master? How do you know him?"

"Well, he was a friend. A long time ago."

"But all the legends of Gallifrey say it was perfect. How could they create a psychopath like him?" The Doctor took his glasses off, and leaned back folding his arms.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was. It was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavor, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe. Looking down on the galaxies below." Valarie would think about the Time Lords often, and their god-like status. How humans were comparably the downgrade of them. How, in a way, she was a mere mortal in love with a god.

"Sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the untempered schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space. Just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad."

He shook his head, mumbling a 'I don't know' as he shook his daze off. The Doctor always had a look when he talked about Gallifrey. But Valarie was sure if she watched her planet burn, she would too. She was afraid she was about to watch her planet burn.

"And what about you?" Martha asked. When he gave her a confused look she explained. "When you saw the schism."

"Oh! One of the ones that ran away! And I never stopped running." Jack's vortex manipulator buzzed.

"New files. Which, if we are telling stories, I need to tell you something." Jack took the laptop, hooking the manipulator to it. The screen displayed a logo. A large 'T'. Torchwood.

"You're apart of Torchwood?" The Doctor asked in almost disgust. As Jack pulled the new file up, a video of a blonde woman Valarie did not recognize, he explained himself.

"Look, the old Torchwood was wiped after Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it for you, in your honor."

The video began as the woman explained a concept completely foreign. Valarie felt utterly stupid compared to them. All she could grasp was it had something to do with the Archangel network. It was a phone network practically everyone had. It the phones. The Doctor stuck his hand out to Valarie, asking for her phone. She handed it over. He held the sonic pressed a button, and there it was. That same rhythm.

"Oh my god. He's been chipping away at us for a long time."

"It was in our heads the entire time."

"It is in everyone out there's too, which is why I made these." The Doctor rose to his feet, handing Valarie her phone and presenting them with four keys on strings. "Four TARDIS keys, with low level perception filters. Here." He stepped in front of Martha and pulled Valarie with him ,slipping one on his neck and the other he placed around hers.

"Martha, Jack, I want you to look straight at us." The task seemed easy enough, but it took no time for their eyes to drift to the side. Up, down, left, right, anywhere but the two in front of them.

"Hello, right here." The Doctor waved a hand. For a second they were able to focus in on the two, then their eyes drifted again. Martha shook her head.

"It's like I know you are there, but I don't want to." She told them. The Doctor pulled the key off as she did too and Jack and Martha's eyes could focus on them again.

"And we are back again."

"How does it do this?" Valarie asked holding the key in her hands.

"Just shifts your perception a little bit." He turned to her. "I know! It's like when you fancy someone, but they don't even acknowledge it. Like you're invisible."" He walked away with Martha following. Valarie watched him walked away with a look of almost annoyance and sadness on her face. She looked over, Jack having a knowing smile. He pointed a finger at her.

"You too huh?"

__

They were like ghosts. No one had even acknowledged them. People bumped into them as they walked the dark side walks, but didn't even check up on who they had collided with. It was like they were completely invisible. They had even managed to walk right into a landing strip in a secure government area. Jack had received a notice that the Master was meeting someone here. They stood away from the circle of soldiers, government officials, and the Master and his wife. A small plane had landed with a seal on it. Air force one. The Master was meeting with the President.

"Mr.President, sir." The Master greeted with a salute.

"Mr.Saxon. The British army will stand down. Unit will have control of this operation now."

"You are making it sound like an invasion." He retorted to the President's stern attitude towards the first contact.

"First contact policy was decided by the Security Council in nineteen-sixty-eight and you have chose to go and ignore it."

"Well, new job." The Master's attitude was light and condescending.

"We have accessed your files on the Toclafane. Contact cannot take place on any sovereign soil so the air-carrier Valiant is on route."

"So America is taking control?" He asked.

"Because Britain elected an ass, yes. Be at the rendezvous point for the Valiant at eight am."

"But the world will still get to watch right? I already promised." The Master seemed hellbent everyone see the first contact.