Part 1 - Phone conversation...

So the Master was Prime Minister? The Doctor supposed it made sense. After all he always had liked power. He sighed. Why couldn't things be like they were before? Back on Gallifrey at the academy. Back when Koschei and Theta were two innocent carefree young boys... well as innocent as you could expect for two young boys to be anyway... well more innocent than they were now, with the blood of many staining their hands. Back then they had been free to be friends... lovers, whispered a voice at the back of the Doctor's mind. A voice he quickly pushed away. Those days were long gone, and now? Now they were doomed to fight each other - enemies through time and space, although the Doctor has wondered, on occasion, whether the Master might not wish as much as he does that things could be the same again. Like they used to be. No. He scolded himself. He couldn't dwell on that now. Mustn't. Whatever it was the Master had planned with those so-called 'Toclafane' must be stopped. He mustn't let past feelings come into it.

He turned to Martha, on the phone to her brother, telling him to hide. Why was it that everything he did lead to someone else getting hurt on his behalf? People he knew and loved. People he'd never even met. Martha's words suddenly broke into his thoughts...

"Let them go Saxon!" She cried down the phone.

The Doctor hurried over to where she had stopped.

"Do you hear me? Let them GO!" she practically screamed.
The Doctor calmly retrieved the phone from her hand and raised it to his ear, as he separated himself from his two friends.

"I'm here." He stated, mentally brushing all thought of what had once been to the back of his mind. He had to concentrate on the task at hand. There was a pause as the Time Lord masquerading as Harold Saxon removed his phone from his pocket, and put it to his ear, turning off the speakerphone.

"Doctor!" The other Time Lord breathed into the phone.

"Master." Came the response.
Unseen by the Doctor, the Master smiled an almost seductive smile.

"I like it when you use my name!" he replied.
A blush spread across the Doctor's cheeks as memories rose unbidden to mind. He fervently hoped that Jack and Martha would not notice. It wouldn't do for them to know what sort of history there was between them. As he spoke he kept his voice calm, rational and controlled.

"You chose it. A psychiatrist's field day."
The Doctor had always wondered about that choice. Was it purely, as everyone else thought, because of the insanity - the wish to rule over and be master of all, or was there more to it than that? Was it in memory of those days? Or to taunt him about them?
The Master smirked at the Doctor's response, before replying.

"As you chose yours. The man who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?"
Oh how he wished that were true. That he made people better. But it never worked out that way. All those companions over the past few hundred years. He thought of all those who he had left behind. Alone. Of those who had died on his behalf. He thought of Martha's family, imprisoned because of a vague connection. And of Rose. His Rose. Trapped in that parallel universe and all because of him. But no. Now was not the time to dwell on that. Quickly he moved on before his emotions overwhelmed him.

"So! Prime Minister then?" he commented - a fairly safe bet, given that the Master never could resist a bit of a gloat.

"I know! It's good isn't it!" The Master responded.
The way he spoke, the Doctor couldn't help but imagine him smirking. But now it was time to try to get to the hearts of what was going on.

"Who are those creatures? Because they're not the Toclafane; that's just a made-up name like the bogeyman."
The Master raised his eyebrows. So that was the way he wanted to play? Fine. Time for a little trip down memory lane!

"Do you remember all those made-up tale about the Toclafane when we were kids? Back home? Where is it Doctor?"
The Doctor sighed. He remembered those tales all too well. Back home. Back before... well he'd known he'd have to tell the Master about Gallifrey at some point. He'd just hoped it would have taken longer for the subject to come up. Still, maybe it was better to get it over with...

"Gone." He said, simply.
There was genuine shock in The Master's voice as he replied. He quite honestly hadn't known.

"How can Gallifrey be gone?" he asked incredulously.
The Doctor mentally hardened himself. It would take all his strength not to break down after everything that had happened.

"It burnt." He replied, unable to bring himself to say more.

"And the Time Lords?" asked the Master, although the Doctor felt sure that he had guessed at the answer.

"Dead." He paused momentarily, allowing it time to sink in. "And the Daleks. More or less. What happened to you?" he added, longing to move the subject away from what had happened. What HE had done.

"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War. I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. I made myself human so they would never find me. Because... because I was so scared." The Master answered, obviously finding it somewhat difficult to admit out loud, for the first time in his lives, that he had been scared.

Deep in the Doctor's hearts stirred a sympathy for the Master. He knew how his old rival had felt. Terrified by the events unfolding around him. He knew what it was to run. To run so far away. If only things were different, he knew that he could once again have loved the Master, as he had used to when the names Doctor and Master were unknown and they were merely Theta and Koschei. But he couldn't allow it. Not now. But that didn't mean he didn't understand.

"I know" he said, with such conviction no-one could ever have doubted the sincerity behind his words.

"All of them?" asked the Master, backtracking slightly. "But not you. Which must mean..."

"I was the only one who could end it," the Doctor cut in, finding it easier to say it, than to hear it from the Master's lips. "And I tried. I did. I tried everything" he added, trying to justify himself, not to the Master, but to his own conscience. The Master smiled. He could sense the Doctors inner conflicts and turmoil.

"What did it feel like though? Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh tell me how did it feel?" he urged, pushing at the very boundaries of the Doctor's sanity.

"Stop it!" The Doctor snapped, this new attack of the Master's breaking through a level of the defence he had tried to build up. The Master smirked, relishing this first small victory.

"You must have been like God."
Yes, thought the Doctor, he supposed he had. And since then a lonely God. Oh sure there had been human companions. Even someone he loved. But that wasn't the same as another Time Lord. One of his own people. He swallowed back some of the pain of his thoughts.

"I've been alone ever since. But not any more. Don't you see? All we've got is each other!"
The Master smiled incredulously. It was more than he could have hoped for. He could play upon this new revelation, although he had always suspected that the Doctor still felt something for him after all those long years.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" he asked, trying to hide the longing for it to be true behind a mask of scorn.
The Doctor blushed a bright scarlet. If only things were that simple. If only things were different and he could ask the man he had loved all those years ago on a date. But it wasn't to be. However much he wished things could be the same again, he knew they couldn't. Unless...

"You can stop this right now. We can leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations if you want, but not on Earth." He hoped against hopes his rival would agree, his blush deepening as his mind once again drifted to their youth at the academy. Rassilon, he hoped Martha and Jack wouldn't notice. That would be embarrassing to have to explain. The Master's voice cut through his thoughts, once more shattering those hopes.

"It's too late." The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, intrigued.

"The drumming." Stated the Master, tapping out a four beat rhythm on the table - da-da-da-dum - a beat that was so familiar. "Can't you hear it?" (Da-da-da-dum) "Inside my head." (Da-da-da-dum) "I thought it would stop. But it never does." (Da-da-da-dum) "It never stops. Inside my head." (Da-da-da-dum) "The drumming, Doctor, the constant drumming." (Da-da-da-dum)
The Doctor thought about this. It had never seemed to bother the Master this much in his previous regenerations, but maybe it was what the Doctor needed. A chance to make someone better for once. To cure the madness that lay within. To give them a chance to start again.

"I can help you. Please let me help." He pleaded.

"It's everywhere. Listen. Listen. Listen. Here come the drums..." he started tapping out the rhythm again - da-da-da-dum "Here come...; the drums..."
Out of the corner of his eye the Doctor saw a stranger, leaning against a wall, listening to music and subconsciously tapping out a rhythm on his legs... da-da-da-dum, da-da-da-dum...

"What have you done?" the Doctor asked, all thoughts of the past gone now. "Tell me how have you done this? What are those creatures? Tell me!" the Doctor demanded, getting more and more tense by the second, as he walked towards the row of shops by which the lad was leaning, still tapping da-da-da-dum...

"Ooh look you're on TV!" the Master exclaimed, further trying the Doctor's patience.

"Stop it! Answer me!" he demanded, his frustration breaking through.

"No, really, you're on telly!" The Master insisted, allowing a note of triumph to enter his voice. "You and your little band, which by the way is ticking every demographic box, so congratulations on that. Oh, there you are." The Doctor looked through the window of the shop ahead of him, in time to see himself Jack and Martha appear on the screen of a television inside. "You're public enemies 1, 2 and 3. Oh! And you can tell 'Handsome Jack' that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himilayas, so you won't be getting any help from them." The Doctor glanced over at Jack. Who was this little gang of his? And why had he not seen fit to mention them before? "Go on, off you go, why not start by turning to the... right." The Master said, laughing slightly at the expression on the Doctor's face as he turned in the suggested direction, looking up into the camera.

"He can see us!" the Doctor called to his companions as he snatched his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and turned it on the camera, shutting it down.

"Oh! You public menace! Better start running. Go on... run!" taunted the Master. The Doctor shut off the phonecall, knowing he wouldn't get anything more out of the Master this time.

"He's got control of everything." He stated, slightly stunned.

"What do we do?" asked Martha, as the Doctor thought back over the conversation he had just had. Over the situation.

"We've got nowhere to go." Stated Jack, echoing the others thoughts.

"Doctor. What do we do?" Martha asked again, more urgently this time, snapping the Doctor out of his thoughts.

"We run." He stated simply, before taking off down the row of shops, his two companions following closely behind him.