NLoT: The Three Amigos (Eleven, Master, Archivist

[The Master]

(OOC: Reposting from All Together Now)

The Archivist was swept up in a whirlwing, a gasp leaving her as both of her truest friends had a hold of her, and was rushing her from the building. "Boys, if my time in this form is done, do you really wish to risk me regenerating inside a TARDIS?" She said as she shuddered from head to foot. The wound had been treated mostly, but it was the inner bleeding, and the bleed out - that would get her.

It didn't help that she was too tired to really care. Five years she had been away from him, and five years of thinking she had done. Koschei, Thete... why do we all fight, why can't we work with each other, help each other. I want to go back to the old days, i want my friends back. She said to them telepathically, the tears starting as she clung to her lifelines.

[The Master]

"Boys, if my time in this form is done, do you really wish to risk me regenerating inside a TARDIS?" She said as she shuddered from head to foot.

"I've recently taken up tilting at windmills as a hobby," the Master answered. "And I just don't quite feel inclined to let the Doctor watch you die in front of him today. No more so than I was inclined to watch him drown or let you get eaten by the Racnoss last year."

The familiar, ludicrous blue box was ahead of them now. "I've got her, Doctor," he said. "Go get that antique of yours open, and tell me your medical facilities aren't as archaic as the rest of her."

---

The two Time Lords laid the Time Lady on one of the beds, and the Master looked around critically as the Doctor grabbed the diagnostic scanner. "Seriously?" he asked. "This is what you have? Why don't we just throw some leeches on her, while we're at it?"

Koschei, Thete... why do we all fight, why can't we work with each other, help each other. I want to go back to the old days, i want my friends back. She said to them telepathically, the tears starting as she clung to her lifelines.

That's not my name, he responded coldly, flinching at the telepathic sound. Telepathically, his voice sounded... odd. Different. It lacked the rhythmic beat of the drums. Koscheipopisiva has been dead for centuries. I am the Master.

And then he sighed. "I'm... sorry." The word cost him effort. "I almost think I'd like that, myself. But there's too much water - too much blood, really - under the bridge for that, I fear."

[Seren Ash]

Libby arched on the medical bed as she was placed down. Hissing as she felt the build up inside of her. "Fool sealed me up, when I've got internal bleeding." She said with a weak laugh. Her hands gripping the edge of the bed, her eyes closed as her features looked strained. "Why not let me regenerate, it'd fix all my dang problems. My fractured mind from having been Chameleon arched for seven years... My broken body from trying to strive to be like The Doctor..." She released a cough.

A bubbling laugh that had her gagging for a moment. Systems in her body where probably shutting down. Who knew what kind of things where inside of her body, the things she had been staving off for the last five years. "It's been nearly six years, since that day - for me. Where I opened my arch. Still my mind is fractured and broken. And I don't give a dang what you say, you're still Kos to me - still my best-friend." She said as she squirmed.

THe pain was too much for the Archivist, she was being brave for her Doctor. "Sides, what should it matter if I die or not. I can't have my Doctor back. He has an intended wife, and once again - it's never me."S he said with a bitter smile. "Always the Bridesmaid, never the bride. As humans are aught to say."

[The 11th Doctor]

"No. This isn't going to happen. Not again. Not again, do you hear me!?"

Eleven was frantic. He'd lost The Archivist before-thought she was dead for centuries, only to find here, alive and well, in Cardiff. But now? She was going to regenerate. He couldn't take that. Having to compensate with a new her. It would be as if she had died anyway. If she regenerated, he would regenerate with her.

Flicking out his sonic screwdriver, he scanned her. It beeped for a minute, stopped, then turned blue as it processed The Archivists injuries. As it did so, The Doctor's mind turned to the meeting of time lords down the hallway. How had things gone so wrong? The first meeting of the supposedly 'dead' race in centuries, and it had gone horribly wrong. Even now he could hear the whirring of a vanishing TARDIS.

The sonic stopped beeping, and the Doctor plugged it into the diagnostic scanner he'd pulled out.

"Oh no, no, no. Abdominal injuries, lots of them. A few serious bruises, and a very severe loss of blood. It's a miracle she hasn't regenerated yet."

The Doctor turned around.

"And I intend to make sure she doesn't."

[The Master]

Libby arched on the medical bed as she was placed down. Hissing as she felt the build up inside of her. "Fool sealed me up, when I've got internal bleeding." She said with a weak laugh.

"I could kill him for you," the Master offered. It was a weak joke, and it might not actually be a joke, but he said it.

"No. This isn't going to happen. Not again. Not again, do you hear me!?" the Doctor raged.

Her hands gripping the edge of the bed, her eyes closed as her features looked strained. "Why not let me regenerate, it'd fix all my dang problems. My fractured mind from having been Chameleon arched for seven years... My broken body from trying to strive to be like The Doctor..." She released a cough.

He gripped her hand, waiting for the Doctor's medical scan to work. Her pulses were erratic, he noticed, and her color was poor. Greyish.

"Why not?" the Master echoed, watching the Doctor work. "Because that would be giving up. And the Doctor and I? We have a poor track record of giving up." He winced as her hand tightened painfully on his. "Besides, seven years isn't that long. I did twenty-two, myself."

A bubbling laugh that had her gagging for a moment. "It's been nearly six years, since that day - for me. Where I opened my arch. Still my mind is fractured and broken. And I don't give a dang what you say, you're still Kos to me - still my best-friend." She said as she squirmed.

His eyes darkened at the use of that ancient name, but he forced a smile. "It's been about twelve for me - I've been keeping myself busy." His smile grew a little wistful. "Things with Kamali didn't work out the way I might have hoped, though." He did a few calculations. "And I suspect that it's been both five hundred and about two hundred years for the Doctor."

"Sides, what should it matter if I die or not. I can't have my Doctor back. He has an intended wife, and once again - it's never me."S he said with a bitter smile. "Always the Bridesmaid, never the bride. As humans are aught to say."

"The Bridesmaid is a terrible title," he joked, his voice a little hollow. "The Archivist suits you better." He squeezed her hand. "And I don't think the Doctor knows why. Not all of it, anyway."

He blinked as her words sank in. "Wife?"

"Oh no, no, no. Abdominal injuries, lots of them. A few serious bruises, and a very severe loss of blood. It's a miracle she hasn't regenerated yet."

The Doctor turned around.

"And I intend to make sure she doesn't."

The Master looked at him thoughtfully, then nodded. "Right, then. Let's do this."

[Seren Ash]

The Archivist released a sound halfway between a sob and a gasp, as more pain wracked through her. Her abdomen distended and obviously starting to look bruised. "Boys, if you are going to try to save me, I'd do it quickly." She said as she shuddered. Her eyes closed as she gripped the edge of the bed with a hand that was slowly starting to slacken. "And no need to kill him, for making the mistake of sealing me up." She said as she shook her head.

The Master's words ringing through her mind, from that day long ago. She would have married Thete in a heartbeat. She would have lived her whole life with the man she would happily die for. "A new me might not be that bad, new look. Might even be ginger again." She joked weakly, the pain spreading further as she released a low moan of pain. Her head fell back and her eyes closed, a cold sweat breaking out across her body. Too bad they couldn't take her to a human medical facility.

Hadn't there been a thing on TV recently, about a human with two hearts? It was a medical anomaly that happened rarely, with them. Perhaps they could sneak that past. "You boys better do something quick, or you're gonna have to watch me die." She said in a shaking voice. Her head lolling a little as she felt the pain continue to build in higher and higher degrees. A numbness spreading through her, as she took a shaking breath.

[Seren Ash]

(( I was just giving this a bump, since 11 seems to have forgotten it. ))

[The 11th Doctor]

(Never fear, the Eleventh is here! Oh, wow. That's just...cheesy.)

Eleven glanced down at The Archivist, who's face was contorted with pain. He glanced at the surgical tools on the trolley beside him. He could operate, but there was a chance it could go wrong.

What do I do? What do I-

"Keidos. I'm a fool. All of time and space, and I've forgotten about Keidos. The hospital-world. Millions of inhabitants, and every single one of them a doctor or a nurse. They cured the Blood Plague on Earth in 21st century, they even wiped out the Garthia disease of the Boeshane Peninsula in 7086."

He ran up a flight of stairs to the control room, shouting directions to The Master.

"Check her status! Keep her alive till we get to Keidos!

The Eleventh flung up a switch on t he TARDIS console, pressed a button, and grabbed the railing as the TARDIS began to rumble.

[The Master]

"Check her status! Keep her alive till we get to Keidos!"

The Master watched the Doctor sprint out of the room. "You must have me confused with someone that takes orders from you!" he shouted out the door.

Then he looked back at the Archivist, lying on the table. Slowly, uncomfortably, he sat down next to her and checked the readouts.

"So..." he said, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. He patted her hand awkwardly, and then sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, Archivist. I'm not a doctor. I do have fairly extensive medical experience, but I'm not a doctor. But these readouts do not fill me with hope for your current incarnation."

He paused, looking around the room. "I suspect you know this. I know from experience that we tend to know when we've been fatally injured."

He could feel the Doctor's antiquated TARDIS trembling as its Time Rotor roared to life. "And I know - from long and bitter experience - that he will keep fighting as long as he can to keep you from dying. It's what he does."

Another pause. Genuine concern came hard to him, after so many centuries. "Is there anything I can do, to make your more comfortable?"

[Seren Ash]

"Remember the old days Koschei? When we fought in the tournament? When we sparred against other students?" The Archivist said finally as she looked over at him. It was evident in her eyes and her face, that this current body was going to the end of it's run. The sweetness of this one was evident, but she was hoping to return to a little bit of a harder run. Her eyes closed as she coughed again, the rattle in her throat was painful.

She whined faintly, and let the pain rush through her for a moment. Already the golden glow was starting around her. "I remember it all. Like photos in my mind. My mind still has a private place for you and him. All those memories stored and cherished. Koschei, my dear old friend. Despite hating your name, you're still my dear old friend Koschei." She said as she felt the tears squeezing from the outer edges of her eyes.

"I was always trying to keep up with you two. I'm way behind on incarnations. This'll be my fourth regeneration... funny. I'm such a baby in them, next to you two."

[The 11th Doctor]

"No. No. NO! Not now, of all times!"

The TARDIS, as the TARDIS was wont to do had started pulling them off course, towards Earth. No matter what buttons The doctor pressed or switches he flipped, the TARDIS kept on hurtling towards that tiny little speck in time and space.

"No..." There wouldn't be enough time to get the TARDIS turned around now. By the time he had started up the dematerialization sequence, she would have started regenerating.

But he could still try. Even as the TARDIS set down in Chicago, America, Eleven was already flipping switches, making the time rotor start up again.

"This isn't going to happen. Not again. NOT AGAIN!"

[The Master]

Koschei.

The name seemed to burn when she said it, a white-hot probe tearing at his defenses, reawakening old memories. Old dreams. Reminding him that there had been a time before, before he learned what the Council had done to them, before he drenched the Royal Road in blood and burned his way across the stars. A time when the possibilities seemed endless, and he'd believed that the future was filled with promise.

"I remember it all. Like photos in my mind. My mind still has a private place for you and him. All those memories stored and cherished. Koschei, my dear old friend. Despite hating your name, you're still my dear old friend Koschei."

"I don't... I don't hate the name," he said, looking away. "But Koscheipopisiva died, centuries ago, when his hopes of making a better world of Gallifrey died." He sighed. "All that is left, for good or ill, is the Master."

"I was always trying to keep up with you two. I'm way behind on incarnations. This'll be my fourth regeneration... funny. I'm such a baby in them, next to you two."

He smiled, sadly, and patted her hand. "I don't think either one of you will be able to beat my record. I'm on my..." he did some calculations, "nineteenth - no, twentieth - if you count in the bodies I stole. But it's no great feat, to have managed to die nineteen times in a thousand years."

Her hand was cool, colder than it should be in his grasp. He swallowed hard. As he did, he noticed the roar and vibration of the Time Rotor dying away. "Have we arrived, already?"

[Seren Ash]

The hand in his own got colder and colder. The breath shallower and shallower. "I want a new Gallifrey, it's why I answered her call. I want... I want a better world. One were we don't have to fear for our children's lives." She said in a shaking voice, the laugh gurgled a little, and there was blood seeping from the corners of her mouth. She watched him, her eyes misting over for a moment.

"I wanted a child with him so badly, Koschei. I wanted to carry Thete's baby. I wanted to be the mother of his children. But he never asked, and I felt it too forward to make the statement." She said with a small weak laugh. "Live birth was frowned upon. But I was a live birth, and my father - he... he was found under a cabbage leaf in a garden. Funny that, my father went from a nobody into one of the greatest forefathers of TARDIS creation." She murmured as she held on to her friends hand.

"Kos - I'm cold... " She murmured as she squeezed his hand as tightly as she could. "I don't think we'll make it. It's ok... I don't mind being a new person in a new body... Maybe I'll be Libby again, and not feel so confused... maybe I'll have the courage to take him from the woman I've never met... Oh... I wish Amy was here... I wish she and Rory were here, I want to say goodbye..." She said as she laughed weakly.

[The First Doctor]

(OOC: Hello? Eleven? It's been like, two weeks.

Should I just start puppeting your character for you?)

[The 11th Doctor]

(OOC: No. No you shouldn't. I'll post. Been a little busy with Christmas and stuff, so...I slacked off a little. But I'm posting. Now. -11)

The TARDIS was already dematerializing when The Doctor began to feel it. She was regenerating. A tear slipped down Eleven's face. He smashed his hand against the console.

I failed. Again.

Eleven began flicking off the buttons that ended the dematerialization sequence. As he pulled the final lever, the engines of the TARDIS began to come to a stop. He glanced at the TARDIS readout and sobbed slightly.

The TARDIS had arrived at Keidos. Too late. He'd been too late..again. Eleven descended the stairs, entering the operating room.

"I'm sorry. I...I failed. I'm so sorry."