Freedom of Speech
Apr. 13th, 2011 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonofmemoryFreedom of Speech
By: Memory Dragon
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor do I make any claim to.
Characters: Tenth Doctor/Simm Master, Fifth Doctor/Ainley Master, Donna, Tegan, and Turlough
Warnings: This is very, very silly. I do mean that. What possesses me to write these things, I'll never know... Also, it's unbeta'ed. Go easy on it? -_-;;; And it's slightly AU, mainly because it changes a few of Donna's reactions in the fourth series finale and because the Master isn't quite as dead as he would like the Doctor to believe.
Notes: Written for the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
best_enemies ¡Viva la Revolución! Russian Hacker challenge. It is utterly silly and has roughly the same concept as the awesome Sixth Doctor response written by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tardiscrash (great minds think alike!), but hopefully is different enough to still be interesting. It does also have a slightly different twist to it... Anyway, enjoy!
UPDATE: Now with awesome art from![[info]](https://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=2)
pride1289 in the comments!!!
~
The Doctor clicked furiously at the web browser, growing increasingly frustrated with the stupid machine that refused to connect. "No, no, no, no!" he yelled at the computer, kicking it as if that would help connect to the site he wanted to check. "Oh, you stupid... Come on!" He drew the 'n' out, in a vain hope that maybe if he shouted at it enough the site would start working.
"Having problems?" Donna asked, leaning over his shoulder curiously.
He glared at her, more annoyed at the internet being down than her, but if she were going to present herself as an outlet to his frustrations he wouldn't deny it to her. "The connection's out! I was supposed to be meeting with an old friend right now too."
As he mourned the lack of connection, Donna pulled out her phone worriedly. A look of relief crossed her face as the phone brought up the internet. "I'm still connected, look! I've still got the CN up and running and it looks like Google still works."
"Hold on, what's the CN?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at her. Google he knew, hard to miss that one, but 'CN' was new to him. Which it shouldn't be, considering he knew every single major social networking and search site in the 21st-25th centuries. Considering Donna couldn't plug in a toaster if her life depended on it, he'd like to know where she found it.
Donna held up her phone for him to see. It looked like a knock off version of facebook, complete with messaging and photos. Except... Oh, no. No. It couldn't be. That was never, ever supposed to happen and how did Donna- "It's the Companion Network," Donna explained to him as if he were the technological idiot, not her. "Martha suggested it, actually. She said it'd be nice to talk to other people who have traveled with you and I thought it would be a great idea to contact the others! Sort of an outer space facebook. All I had to do was look up a few things in the TARDIS databanks with Martha's help."
Donna looked awfully pleased with herself at this, where as the Doctor felt his stomach plummet and twist itself into knots. Whether it was fighting or laughing at him, the Doctor had learned that past companions meeting each other always ended up badly for him. He was definitely going to have to voice lock those files in the future. "Where did you get the lay out?" he asked, his mouth suddenly very dry.
"Oh, Mel made it. You remember Mel, don't you? She was more than happy to set everything up." Oh, he remembered Mel. He also remembered she was a brilliant programmer and with Donna's phone being able to reach any time period... He was really going to have to be careful of what he let his companions do, really. This was ridiculous. "Tegan and I have become great friends. Though really, Doctor? Celery?"
If he hadn't wanted to bang his head against the wall before, he did now. That was exactly why his companions really shouldn't talk to each other. He could only hope companions of his sixth regeneration would keep quite about that coat he'd been so fond of, though in reality he already knew he was doomed. "Look, just see if you can pull up LiveJournal on your phone," he asked resignedly.
Shrugging, Donna did so while he checked other websites just to be certain. His growing suspicion proved true as all other websites worked and Donna shook her head in a negative. "That means it's just the site... Not now! Not again! This was important and it's the third time this week we've missed a meeting!"
"Why don't you just move the TARDIS to a time when the site is working again?" Donna asked.
"Because it doesn't work like that!" For one thing, his friend wouldn't have a time machine to do such a thing; they would have to wait till the the end of the site's crash to get back on. For another, they were in the vortex, outside of time and space and that meant whoever was disrupting LJ was doing so in a way that threatened the site's very existence. The color drained from his face as he realized what that meant. "Come on. We've got free speech to save."
Instead of trotting after him like good companions did, however, Donna slipped into his vacated seat at the computer and clicked at the browser pointlessly. "What's so important about this website?" she asked finally, going through the file menu and clicking the work offline feature when the Doctor impatiently looked at his watch. "It's just a bunch of blogs, isn't it? Are they run by aliens or something?"
"It's not just any group of blogs, Donna." The Doctor grabbed his coat that had been hanging over the chair, pulling it on with one swift movement. "It's the best unregulated form of free speech Russia has, eventually one of the best political forums on the planet. Right now it's one of the one of the few places people can openly criticize the Russian government and be heard and it's essential to the continuation of freedom of speech in the next century. If that goes down..."
"You'll also lose all your whiny, emo blog entries?" Donna finished for him, though that wasn't how he was going to end his sentence given a choice.
"What?" he asked, looking over at her sharply. From his angle, he couldn't see the computer screen but he had a sudden dread of what she was looking at. This really wasn't his day, was it?
Donna looked over at him with a look of no sympathy, then back to the screen as she started reading off from the screen in a flippant tone. "'Today I found one of my old books from school. In the margins were notes I used to doodle to myself. They were all about him and now he's all I can think about. Every day I find just another reminder of how he didn't stay with me, choosing to leave me to a place I couldn't follow to instead.'" Donna cleared her throat, threw him an unimpressed look and crossed her arms in front of her. "Come on then, spaceboy. Who's him? Are you going to tell me or do I have to use the CN to find out?"
That was blackmail and another good reason to never let his companions in on one big network. Depending on how in depth this 'CN' might be, the Doctor decided some damage control might be in order. For example, if she asked Jo... Yes, best just to tell her now and hope she didn't broadcast the information. "He's... an old friend from when I was a child. My best friend. He was brilliant, far more clever than me, and I looked up to him a lot. He was the reason I started traveling, actually, because he always talked about leaving Gallifrey. I stole a TARDIS so I could chase after him and find him again." Then he turned psychotic and started destroying whole planets just to get what he wanted, but the Doctor chose to remember him as they were children, still innocent to the ways of the world.
Realization dawned in Donna's eyes and her expression softened, losing its teasing light. "He was another Time Lord," she said quietly.
"Yup," he said, drawing out the word and popping the 'p' in a careless manner, as if he were unconcerned with the subject matter. "Gone now, just like the rest of them." And the Master had died in his arms after the war, refusing to regenerate just to spite him. He was really gone this time, with no Matrix file tucked safely away so that he could be brought back.
Donna looked like she was about to get up to try and comfort him, so the Doctor shook himself and smiled brightly at her. The Master was nothing but a dream now, a sorrowful dream that he could visit in the dark of night when no one would see him sob himself to pieces. Right now wasn't the time to go into all of that. "Hang on," he said, putting a bounce back into his step to reassure her as he leaned in to see the computer screen. "How did you get this working again?"
"Didn't." This time where he could see, Donna reached up and hit the file menu, showing him that it was working offline. "When the system's down, secretaries still have to do their work. It was cached on the computer, so I just told it to work offline."
He had a new found respect for Donna. Humans never ceased to amaze him with their resourcefulness, even if this time it was working against him. Point in case, Donna's next question. "So this friend of yours you're trying to meet, is it this heartsmet12 guy? How'd you meet him?"
At least this was an easier subject, despite being something he'd have preferred to keep quiet. He was just reminded quite painfully of her abilities as a secretary to find out what she wanted, however, and he decided again it was much better to tell her than to let her find out on her own and read through his non-blog posts. "Met him in a writing community. He really liked the stories I wrote about... about the two friends traveling the universe together." Which had been all the daydreams he'd had as a child, imaging what their life would be like after they got out of the academy and were running across the stars. "We started talking a lot after that, role playing a bit. His boyfriend is a bit of a jerk, cheating on him and lying to him all the time. He's not even around half the time, mostly ignoring him. I keep telling him to move on and find someone better, but he says he can't get over him. He's been having a really hard time of it recently, what with working really hard to impress the guy and his boyfriend got angry at him for it and... well, I wanted to be there if he, you know, needed someone to talk to."
Donna was only half paying attention to what he was saying, he noticed with no small amount of annoyance. In fact, her eyebrows were raised to the point of... oh, no. What was she looking at? Quickly glancing back to the screen, the Doctor felt his cheeks and neck heating up to unbearable levels. "Donna," he said, swallowing heavily, "I can explain that."
"It speaks pretty loudly for itself, actually," she said, not quite succeeding in hiding a laugh over her look of mock disapproval. "This roleplay of yours doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? And master/sex slave relationships? You need to get out more. Though, I am just a bit surprised at how dominant you're writing him..."
"He's actually much better at playing the master than me, but he likes being the sub... We don't have time for this! Donna, freedom of speech could be destroyed!" He reached over and stole the mouse from her, exiting out of the browser like he should have done when she first started asking questions. She made a noise of disappointment as he next cleared his internet history and cache. Not that he thought that would really stop her, but at least it would give him some piece of mind for right now. "Come on, Donna. We have a universe to save."
He pulled Donna along now that she was more or less willing to come since she'd gotten the upper hand in teasing him for the next month. She pulled the Doctor to a stop before they managed to get to the console room, pulling out her phone again as it vibrated. "Wait a moment, I'm getting a message from Tegan. She says to tell you to remember Russia, 2011?"
"Russia? Did we go to..." The Doctor thought back, trying to remember. He'd gone to Russia with Turlough, but that had been after Tegan left. Had they gone before and - "It can't be," he said, sighing heavily as he suddenly remembered. The urge to bang his head against the wall surged upward again and he shoved his hands in his pockets mournfully. His memory of what had happened was a little fuzzy, but it would be with the amount of vodka and ginger beer he'd had that night. That, plus the general haziness around events when his own personal timeline was tampered with left him with very few actual memories of what had happened.
"Right," he said as they reached the console room. His fingers flew over the controls as the TARDIS rocked in protest at the movement, quickly moving around the center console to reach different buttons and levers as he needed them. "The Russian Federation, three years into your personal future. Good year, 2011. Though... don't plan any trips to northern Japan. And no, I didn't have anything to do with that one, honestly. Natural disaster." He hoped. Pompeii was enough of a Time Lord-made disaster to last him a while and he really didn't need more guilt right now. Just to be on the safe side, he would avoid 21st century Japan for a few hundred years.
"Why are we going there?" Donna asked, clinging to the console and trying not to fall over.
"To meet up with one of my past regenerations... I've got a major bone to pick with him." Hand resting on a lever, he looked over at Donna seriously. What he was about to do was not only dangerous, but could rip a hole into the fabric of the universe. "Hold on tight. This is going to be a rough ride." Donna grinned at him and he pulled the lever that sent them both sprawling.
"Allons-y!"
* * *
Donna was not happy with him. When the Doctor had said they were going to St. Petersburg, she had assumed that she would get to see the beautiful city and maybe tour a cathedral. The Doctor, unfortunately, had to dash those hopes as he materialized in the underground and they took the subway to the edge of the city and then had to walk three miles to get to an abandoned building.
Needless to say, Donna was not thrilled.
She let him know this quite vocally, as his companions were occasionally inclined to do when his TARDIS navigational skills weren't quite up to par. The Doctor, still fuming over missing his meeting with heartsmet12, ignored her in resigned silence as he thought of all the things he was going to say to his past regeneration. His younger self should know better too, since he had long since been good friends with his LiveJournal roleplaying partner in his fifth body! What had he been thinking, disrupting the network enough to throw the social networking site out of the time line!
After a while, Donna seemed to realize that he was sulking and not listening to her. With a huff, she pulled up her parka and listened to her iPod to ignore him back. Not that the Doctor noticed. When they finally got to the dreary old bed and breakfast he knew his past self had taken up residence in for the duration of the DDoS attacks, he mentally prepared a proper dramatic entrance. He burst through the doors with an furious energy, using his sonic to unlock the room... then relock it again quickly with a hasty apology to the couple inside. While Donna sorted out the owner of the bed and breakfast, he found the correct door and made a second grand angry entrance.
His younger self looked up, all blond fringe and boyish charm and stupid stick of celery, topped off with the brainy specks he didn't even need, his fingers pausing over the keyboard as a crestfallen expression turned to anger on his face. "Oh, not you again. What do you think you're doing, barging in here? Last time you nearly ripped a hole in the universe!"
"Oh, yes. Which is nothing compared to completely derailing one of the most influential sites for political discourse in the 21st century!" He strolled in as if he owned the place, pulling the laptop from his protesting younger self's hands. "Not to mention interrupting an important meeting! Do you have any idea of what you're doing?"
"Hey, Doc, who is this guy?" a young woman with an Australian accent asked from behind him. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him as if he'd been the one to keep missing Heathrow airport. Well, technically he had, but not in this body.
"He's me," they both said at the same time, then turning to glare at each other. The Doctor sometimes wondered why it was that he never could seem to get along with any of his other regenerations, even the ones he particularly liked. Tegan looked like she had a few theories on that matter, but neither of the Doctors wanted to hear them at the moment.
"He's you? Don't tell me he's another one."
"Yup," he said, popping the p and spinning around to see her. He was met with Turlough instead, who was holding up a chair that he'd been about to whack the lankier Doctor with. "No, Turlough. Just don't. Really, don't. Got a bit old, to be honest."
Turlough looked surprised, taking a step back as the younger Doctor explained. "He's one of my future regenerations, Turlough, so don't let him surprise you."
"And Tegan!" The Doctor set the laptop down and bounded over to Tegan, picking the slight girl up and spinning her around as she screamed at him to put her down. "That's brilliant, really it is. Look at you. Still following me around and complaining, I bet. Donna does that. Things haven't changed much, come to think of it."
"Is he really one of you, Doc?" Tegan asked, leaning around the older Doctor to look at hers.
The younger Doctor took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets, a habit that the current Doctor had picked up from him with very fond remembrance. "Yes, I'm afraid so, Tegan. He's a skinny babbling idiot, but he's definitely me sometime in the future. I do worry what will become of me."
The Doctor clicked his tongue at her with a charming wink. "Oh, you should, knowing the one that comes after you. That coat..."
The blond Doctor winced, sighing theatrically. "Yes, I've had the misfortune of meeting that insufferable buffoon as well. That's neither here nor there, however. Are you going to give me back that laptop?"
"No," the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes.
He'd been about to say more when Donna burst into the room, looking very angry with him. "Oi! Spaceman!" She held her hands up in a particularly patronizing manner as she marched up to him. "Care to explain to the land lady why you're busting in here and disturbing her guests? She's about to call the police on you and I don't fancy getting arrested because you can't pick the right door."
His younger self coughed politely, turning to his two companions with a charming smile. "Turlough, Tegan, why don't you go down and sort things out for us? I'm sure Ms. Ivanova will come around if you talk to her."
"Hold on, Tegan?" Donna looked around, spotting the shorter girl in the rather loud 80's dress. Oh, the 80's, the Doctor thought fondly. He missed those. Really, he needed to go back sometime. Donna interrupted those thoughts as she walked over and shook Tegan's hand with a large grin on her face. "I'm Donna, Donna Noble. I know you don't know me yet, but we're going to be great friends in the future! I've been waiting to meet you in person!"
As Donna and Tegan continued talking animatedly, the younger Doctor turned to Turlough with a pleading expression. "Alright, alright, I'll go," Turlough said, not really managing to cover his sulking. "Just don't expect me to make tea this time."
The older Doctor clapped the young man on the back with a grin, watching after him with fond reminiscence He'd enjoyed traveling with him and Tegan, meeting his other selves, fighting the Master in over the Magna Carta and the whole incident with the Queen of May... Good times, those, really good times.
Back to settling the dispute over the hacking attacks. His younger self was still looking expectantly at the laptop behind him, waiting for him to give it back. "What do you think you're doing, anyway?" The Doctor asked, with a scolding tone.
"I don't have much choice!" his younger self said, glaring at him as he folded his glasses away. "The Master's using a hidden code to brainwash all LiveJournal users. If I don't disrupt the site, he'll have half of Russia converted and he'll be elected President by the next election!"
"What?" the Doctor asked, blood draining from his face. "What?" It couldn't be... "What?" Oh, that idiot would. "You sure?" His younger self sighed and nodded.
Hanging his head, he handed the laptop back to his past self who snatched it away from him moodily. It occurred to him that he had been in the middle of a fight with heartsmet12 at the time and he could suddenly remember wishing to be able to stop the attacks long enough to try and make up with him. Sighing, the Doctor sat down beside his younger self and pulled out his own glasses. "Two heads are better than one, hey?" he asked, only slightly sulking.
His blond self nodded, looking just as forlorn. Well, might as well get to it. Suggesting that they mix up various journals and put a political one as everyone's homepage to throw people off their scent, the Doctor got started in derailing one of his favorite sites.
* * *
A few hours later, Donna and Tegan were now fast friends and Turlough had managed to charm the innkeeper into letting them all stay. The Doctors worked tirelessly writing the new code that would hopefully lead lj to revamping enough to prevent the Master from taking over. Finally, they received a PM from the Master, asking if they could talk.
After glancing at each other in silent conference, the younger Doctor set up a Skype video chat. His old nemesis' face appeared on the screen, all beardy and velvet and nothing short of wonderful to see, after spending most of the past year mourning the Master's more permanent death. The Doctor's hearts ached to see him and he quickly moved out of the camera's view.
"My dear Doctor. How nice to see you again," the Master said acidly, though his hearts really weren't in it. In fact, the Master almost looked like he was sulking.
"I wish I could say the same," his younger self responded. There was a cold pleasantness about his voice that the older Doctor remembered far too well. In that regeneration, he'd never quite been able to forgive the Master for what he'd done. Even now the old feelings of resentment were still strong, yet the Doctor was able to look past it. "I suppose it's too much to hope for to ask if you're calling to say you'll end this nonsense."
"I do have as much of a right to free speech as you, Doctor." The Master mustered up enough of a scowl to actually be convincing, a sly smile settling over his features. "I would have thought you would be protecting my right to say such things, or have you changed your mind now that I've tried my hand at democracy?"
Donna came over to stand by him, silently questioning him with her eyes. The Doctor didn't take his attention away from the screen for a second, however, though he did reach out and take her hand. She squeezed it gently in comfort which he soaked up as much as he could, staring moodily at the Master's face.
"I'm all for free speech, Master, but only when it doesn't infringe on anyone else's ability to do so. Brainwashing them all into your loyal subjects rather defeats the purpose," the younger Doctor said, crossing his arms in front of his chest in lieu of his pockets. Shoving your hands in your pockets while you're sitting down really doesn't work as well, which was a fact he sometimes forgot in this regeneration.
The Master's lip curled up in a snarl, but he merely nodded his head as an admission. His eyes briefly flickered to someone who was out of the camera's view and oddly enough, his annoyance grew. "Unfortunately, Doctor, I have called to bid adieu to this childish game. There are other matters which have come to my attention and I've found a better use for my time."
The younger Doctor blinked, immediately confused by the sudden turn of events. "You're giving up? Master, I hardly believe that you could do such a thing."
"Believe what you like," the Master said with a sneer. "You've won this round, but don't expect me to go so easy on you next time. Good-bye, Doctor."
"Wait-" But the Master had already clicked off his side of the conversation. The younger Doctor looked back at the older, baffled by the Master's behavior.
The Doctor didn't have any better idea than his younger self did. He shrugged, looking just as confused. "I don't remember much of what happened here, but I think he was telling the truth. I'd have remembered if he were still doing it in the morning."
"So that Master bloke," Donna asked, placing her hands on her hips as she tested the idea out in her head before voicing it. "Ex-boyfriend?"
Both Doctors immediately fell into denials as Tegan rolled her eyes. Donna hid a smile, pretending to believe them. "Right, alright. Not an ex-alien boyfriend. Does that make him this heartsmet guy then?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised at the question. "What makes you think that?" he asked, curious as to how she came to that conclusion.
"Don't either of you know your anagrams?" Donna asked, tilting her head to the side as she waited for one of the big space idiots to clue in.
It was Turlough that got it first though, snapping his fingers together. "I get it. You rearrange the letters of 'hearts met' and you get 'the Master'. Who is heartsmet though?"
The Doctor was too busy gaping at the revelation to pay Turlough any mind. His younger self wasn't doing much better as far as the shock department went. No. No... No way. It couldn't be. The Master wouldn't go a blog site to complain about the Doctor, would he? He wouldn't. But if it was the Master, did he know he was talking to the Doctor? Rassilon, this was a headache waiting to happen. "Completely impossible," he said dismissively a few seconds later than he should have to sound sure of himself.
"Absolutely ridiculous," his younger self agreed, equally shaken by the knowledge.
There was an awkward pause where no one said anything, until finally the Doctor grinned madly. "I think it's time for a drink."
"Ginger beer?" the younger Doctor suggested, looking just a bit too eager.
"Brilliant. Ginger beer. I'm sure we can find it somewhere in Russia. Allons-y!"
And so, for the second time, the Doctor strode off to make sure he completely forgot the events of that night.
The next day, the Doctor woke up with the worst hangover and only a vague memory of the night's previous activities. Donna assured him that she and Tegan had taken plenty of pictures and maybe she'd tell about it one day. Once both him and his blonder regeneration were a bit more awake and less grouchy, they all bid their farewells, parting on very good terms. It had been nice to see Tegan and Turlough again, though what had possessed him to break through the time barrier to double back on his own time stream like that...
The Doctor paused in the threshold of the TARDIS, looking at at the cool morning of St. Petersburg. "I can feel them now," he told Donna, clutching at the door. "The other Time Lords. I could warn them. I could save them. I could save him..."
A look of infinite sadness crossed Donna's face as she took a step closer to him. "What would happen if you did that?"
Closing his eyes, the Doctor's breath hitched. What would happen if he did that? All hell would break loose. Not waiting for his reply, Donna hugged him tightly, pulling the Time Lord back into the TARDIS. "Come on, spaceman. Let's go someplace really spectacular."
The Doctor smiled, glad his best friend was here to cheer him up even though he thought it would be a while before he was alright again. "Allons-y!" he said, with a bit less energy than normal, but every bit of heart that he could muster.
* * *
The Master whacked his younger self up the side of the head as the bearded man glared at him. "Next time you try to take over this miserable planet, don't use LiveJournal and annoy your elders. And stop sulking and apologize to lostexile already."
He left his younger self to sulk by himself, enjoying the night crisp night air of Novosibirsk. Now that he'd taken care of that problem, it was time to go back and see if lostexile was on. The Doctor still didn't know he was alive again yet, but the Master in this time line was doing his own sulking. The fool had laid to waste the empire he spent months creating for him in a matter of minutes. Still, talking with lostexile helped, especially since his online acquaintance was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear. Perhaps they could finally get on with that angel master/reformed demon servant roleplay too, now that they weren't going to be interrupted every time they tried to get online. Things had just been getting interesting and he'd convinced lostexile to make his angel character a little rough...
Right. Better find a hotel room and some internet access before it got too uncomfortable to walk around. If he were lucky, his friend will have managed to post the next chapter of his story in one of the brief periods LJ had been online and working. If not, he could always go through his saved 'memories' for some of the particularly good sex chapters.
Little did either the Doctor or the Master know that a few government hackers were positively inspired by their DDoS attacks...
~FINI~
Quote of the Fic:
"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice."
-Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
By: Memory Dragon
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor do I make any claim to.
Characters: Tenth Doctor/Simm Master, Fifth Doctor/Ainley Master, Donna, Tegan, and Turlough
Warnings: This is very, very silly. I do mean that. What possesses me to write these things, I'll never know... Also, it's unbeta'ed. Go easy on it? -_-;;; And it's slightly AU, mainly because it changes a few of Donna's reactions in the fourth series finale and because the Master isn't quite as dead as he would like the Doctor to believe.
Notes: Written for the
best_enemies ¡Viva la Revolución! Russian Hacker challenge. It is utterly silly and has roughly the same concept as the awesome Sixth Doctor response written by tardiscrash (great minds think alike!), but hopefully is different enough to still be interesting. It does also have a slightly different twist to it... Anyway, enjoy!UPDATE: Now with awesome art from
pride1289 in the comments!!!~
The Doctor clicked furiously at the web browser, growing increasingly frustrated with the stupid machine that refused to connect. "No, no, no, no!" he yelled at the computer, kicking it as if that would help connect to the site he wanted to check. "Oh, you stupid... Come on!" He drew the 'n' out, in a vain hope that maybe if he shouted at it enough the site would start working.
"Having problems?" Donna asked, leaning over his shoulder curiously.
He glared at her, more annoyed at the internet being down than her, but if she were going to present herself as an outlet to his frustrations he wouldn't deny it to her. "The connection's out! I was supposed to be meeting with an old friend right now too."
As he mourned the lack of connection, Donna pulled out her phone worriedly. A look of relief crossed her face as the phone brought up the internet. "I'm still connected, look! I've still got the CN up and running and it looks like Google still works."
"Hold on, what's the CN?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at her. Google he knew, hard to miss that one, but 'CN' was new to him. Which it shouldn't be, considering he knew every single major social networking and search site in the 21st-25th centuries. Considering Donna couldn't plug in a toaster if her life depended on it, he'd like to know where she found it.
Donna held up her phone for him to see. It looked like a knock off version of facebook, complete with messaging and photos. Except... Oh, no. No. It couldn't be. That was never, ever supposed to happen and how did Donna- "It's the Companion Network," Donna explained to him as if he were the technological idiot, not her. "Martha suggested it, actually. She said it'd be nice to talk to other people who have traveled with you and I thought it would be a great idea to contact the others! Sort of an outer space facebook. All I had to do was look up a few things in the TARDIS databanks with Martha's help."
Donna looked awfully pleased with herself at this, where as the Doctor felt his stomach plummet and twist itself into knots. Whether it was fighting or laughing at him, the Doctor had learned that past companions meeting each other always ended up badly for him. He was definitely going to have to voice lock those files in the future. "Where did you get the lay out?" he asked, his mouth suddenly very dry.
"Oh, Mel made it. You remember Mel, don't you? She was more than happy to set everything up." Oh, he remembered Mel. He also remembered she was a brilliant programmer and with Donna's phone being able to reach any time period... He was really going to have to be careful of what he let his companions do, really. This was ridiculous. "Tegan and I have become great friends. Though really, Doctor? Celery?"
If he hadn't wanted to bang his head against the wall before, he did now. That was exactly why his companions really shouldn't talk to each other. He could only hope companions of his sixth regeneration would keep quite about that coat he'd been so fond of, though in reality he already knew he was doomed. "Look, just see if you can pull up LiveJournal on your phone," he asked resignedly.
Shrugging, Donna did so while he checked other websites just to be certain. His growing suspicion proved true as all other websites worked and Donna shook her head in a negative. "That means it's just the site... Not now! Not again! This was important and it's the third time this week we've missed a meeting!"
"Why don't you just move the TARDIS to a time when the site is working again?" Donna asked.
"Because it doesn't work like that!" For one thing, his friend wouldn't have a time machine to do such a thing; they would have to wait till the the end of the site's crash to get back on. For another, they were in the vortex, outside of time and space and that meant whoever was disrupting LJ was doing so in a way that threatened the site's very existence. The color drained from his face as he realized what that meant. "Come on. We've got free speech to save."
Instead of trotting after him like good companions did, however, Donna slipped into his vacated seat at the computer and clicked at the browser pointlessly. "What's so important about this website?" she asked finally, going through the file menu and clicking the work offline feature when the Doctor impatiently looked at his watch. "It's just a bunch of blogs, isn't it? Are they run by aliens or something?"
"It's not just any group of blogs, Donna." The Doctor grabbed his coat that had been hanging over the chair, pulling it on with one swift movement. "It's the best unregulated form of free speech Russia has, eventually one of the best political forums on the planet. Right now it's one of the one of the few places people can openly criticize the Russian government and be heard and it's essential to the continuation of freedom of speech in the next century. If that goes down..."
"You'll also lose all your whiny, emo blog entries?" Donna finished for him, though that wasn't how he was going to end his sentence given a choice.
"What?" he asked, looking over at her sharply. From his angle, he couldn't see the computer screen but he had a sudden dread of what she was looking at. This really wasn't his day, was it?
Donna looked over at him with a look of no sympathy, then back to the screen as she started reading off from the screen in a flippant tone. "'Today I found one of my old books from school. In the margins were notes I used to doodle to myself. They were all about him and now he's all I can think about. Every day I find just another reminder of how he didn't stay with me, choosing to leave me to a place I couldn't follow to instead.'" Donna cleared her throat, threw him an unimpressed look and crossed her arms in front of her. "Come on then, spaceboy. Who's him? Are you going to tell me or do I have to use the CN to find out?"
That was blackmail and another good reason to never let his companions in on one big network. Depending on how in depth this 'CN' might be, the Doctor decided some damage control might be in order. For example, if she asked Jo... Yes, best just to tell her now and hope she didn't broadcast the information. "He's... an old friend from when I was a child. My best friend. He was brilliant, far more clever than me, and I looked up to him a lot. He was the reason I started traveling, actually, because he always talked about leaving Gallifrey. I stole a TARDIS so I could chase after him and find him again." Then he turned psychotic and started destroying whole planets just to get what he wanted, but the Doctor chose to remember him as they were children, still innocent to the ways of the world.
Realization dawned in Donna's eyes and her expression softened, losing its teasing light. "He was another Time Lord," she said quietly.
"Yup," he said, drawing out the word and popping the 'p' in a careless manner, as if he were unconcerned with the subject matter. "Gone now, just like the rest of them." And the Master had died in his arms after the war, refusing to regenerate just to spite him. He was really gone this time, with no Matrix file tucked safely away so that he could be brought back.
Donna looked like she was about to get up to try and comfort him, so the Doctor shook himself and smiled brightly at her. The Master was nothing but a dream now, a sorrowful dream that he could visit in the dark of night when no one would see him sob himself to pieces. Right now wasn't the time to go into all of that. "Hang on," he said, putting a bounce back into his step to reassure her as he leaned in to see the computer screen. "How did you get this working again?"
"Didn't." This time where he could see, Donna reached up and hit the file menu, showing him that it was working offline. "When the system's down, secretaries still have to do their work. It was cached on the computer, so I just told it to work offline."
He had a new found respect for Donna. Humans never ceased to amaze him with their resourcefulness, even if this time it was working against him. Point in case, Donna's next question. "So this friend of yours you're trying to meet, is it this heartsmet12 guy? How'd you meet him?"
At least this was an easier subject, despite being something he'd have preferred to keep quiet. He was just reminded quite painfully of her abilities as a secretary to find out what she wanted, however, and he decided again it was much better to tell her than to let her find out on her own and read through his non-blog posts. "Met him in a writing community. He really liked the stories I wrote about... about the two friends traveling the universe together." Which had been all the daydreams he'd had as a child, imaging what their life would be like after they got out of the academy and were running across the stars. "We started talking a lot after that, role playing a bit. His boyfriend is a bit of a jerk, cheating on him and lying to him all the time. He's not even around half the time, mostly ignoring him. I keep telling him to move on and find someone better, but he says he can't get over him. He's been having a really hard time of it recently, what with working really hard to impress the guy and his boyfriend got angry at him for it and... well, I wanted to be there if he, you know, needed someone to talk to."
Donna was only half paying attention to what he was saying, he noticed with no small amount of annoyance. In fact, her eyebrows were raised to the point of... oh, no. What was she looking at? Quickly glancing back to the screen, the Doctor felt his cheeks and neck heating up to unbearable levels. "Donna," he said, swallowing heavily, "I can explain that."
"It speaks pretty loudly for itself, actually," she said, not quite succeeding in hiding a laugh over her look of mock disapproval. "This roleplay of yours doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? And master/sex slave relationships? You need to get out more. Though, I am just a bit surprised at how dominant you're writing him..."
"He's actually much better at playing the master than me, but he likes being the sub... We don't have time for this! Donna, freedom of speech could be destroyed!" He reached over and stole the mouse from her, exiting out of the browser like he should have done when she first started asking questions. She made a noise of disappointment as he next cleared his internet history and cache. Not that he thought that would really stop her, but at least it would give him some piece of mind for right now. "Come on, Donna. We have a universe to save."
He pulled Donna along now that she was more or less willing to come since she'd gotten the upper hand in teasing him for the next month. She pulled the Doctor to a stop before they managed to get to the console room, pulling out her phone again as it vibrated. "Wait a moment, I'm getting a message from Tegan. She says to tell you to remember Russia, 2011?"
"Russia? Did we go to..." The Doctor thought back, trying to remember. He'd gone to Russia with Turlough, but that had been after Tegan left. Had they gone before and - "It can't be," he said, sighing heavily as he suddenly remembered. The urge to bang his head against the wall surged upward again and he shoved his hands in his pockets mournfully. His memory of what had happened was a little fuzzy, but it would be with the amount of vodka and ginger beer he'd had that night. That, plus the general haziness around events when his own personal timeline was tampered with left him with very few actual memories of what had happened.
"Right," he said as they reached the console room. His fingers flew over the controls as the TARDIS rocked in protest at the movement, quickly moving around the center console to reach different buttons and levers as he needed them. "The Russian Federation, three years into your personal future. Good year, 2011. Though... don't plan any trips to northern Japan. And no, I didn't have anything to do with that one, honestly. Natural disaster." He hoped. Pompeii was enough of a Time Lord-made disaster to last him a while and he really didn't need more guilt right now. Just to be on the safe side, he would avoid 21st century Japan for a few hundred years.
"Why are we going there?" Donna asked, clinging to the console and trying not to fall over.
"To meet up with one of my past regenerations... I've got a major bone to pick with him." Hand resting on a lever, he looked over at Donna seriously. What he was about to do was not only dangerous, but could rip a hole into the fabric of the universe. "Hold on tight. This is going to be a rough ride." Donna grinned at him and he pulled the lever that sent them both sprawling.
"Allons-y!"
* * *
Donna was not happy with him. When the Doctor had said they were going to St. Petersburg, she had assumed that she would get to see the beautiful city and maybe tour a cathedral. The Doctor, unfortunately, had to dash those hopes as he materialized in the underground and they took the subway to the edge of the city and then had to walk three miles to get to an abandoned building.
Needless to say, Donna was not thrilled.
She let him know this quite vocally, as his companions were occasionally inclined to do when his TARDIS navigational skills weren't quite up to par. The Doctor, still fuming over missing his meeting with heartsmet12, ignored her in resigned silence as he thought of all the things he was going to say to his past regeneration. His younger self should know better too, since he had long since been good friends with his LiveJournal roleplaying partner in his fifth body! What had he been thinking, disrupting the network enough to throw the social networking site out of the time line!
After a while, Donna seemed to realize that he was sulking and not listening to her. With a huff, she pulled up her parka and listened to her iPod to ignore him back. Not that the Doctor noticed. When they finally got to the dreary old bed and breakfast he knew his past self had taken up residence in for the duration of the DDoS attacks, he mentally prepared a proper dramatic entrance. He burst through the doors with an furious energy, using his sonic to unlock the room... then relock it again quickly with a hasty apology to the couple inside. While Donna sorted out the owner of the bed and breakfast, he found the correct door and made a second grand angry entrance.
His younger self looked up, all blond fringe and boyish charm and stupid stick of celery, topped off with the brainy specks he didn't even need, his fingers pausing over the keyboard as a crestfallen expression turned to anger on his face. "Oh, not you again. What do you think you're doing, barging in here? Last time you nearly ripped a hole in the universe!"
"Oh, yes. Which is nothing compared to completely derailing one of the most influential sites for political discourse in the 21st century!" He strolled in as if he owned the place, pulling the laptop from his protesting younger self's hands. "Not to mention interrupting an important meeting! Do you have any idea of what you're doing?"
"Hey, Doc, who is this guy?" a young woman with an Australian accent asked from behind him. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him as if he'd been the one to keep missing Heathrow airport. Well, technically he had, but not in this body.
"He's me," they both said at the same time, then turning to glare at each other. The Doctor sometimes wondered why it was that he never could seem to get along with any of his other regenerations, even the ones he particularly liked. Tegan looked like she had a few theories on that matter, but neither of the Doctors wanted to hear them at the moment.
"He's you? Don't tell me he's another one."
"Yup," he said, popping the p and spinning around to see her. He was met with Turlough instead, who was holding up a chair that he'd been about to whack the lankier Doctor with. "No, Turlough. Just don't. Really, don't. Got a bit old, to be honest."
Turlough looked surprised, taking a step back as the younger Doctor explained. "He's one of my future regenerations, Turlough, so don't let him surprise you."
"And Tegan!" The Doctor set the laptop down and bounded over to Tegan, picking the slight girl up and spinning her around as she screamed at him to put her down. "That's brilliant, really it is. Look at you. Still following me around and complaining, I bet. Donna does that. Things haven't changed much, come to think of it."
"Is he really one of you, Doc?" Tegan asked, leaning around the older Doctor to look at hers.
The younger Doctor took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets, a habit that the current Doctor had picked up from him with very fond remembrance. "Yes, I'm afraid so, Tegan. He's a skinny babbling idiot, but he's definitely me sometime in the future. I do worry what will become of me."
The Doctor clicked his tongue at her with a charming wink. "Oh, you should, knowing the one that comes after you. That coat..."
The blond Doctor winced, sighing theatrically. "Yes, I've had the misfortune of meeting that insufferable buffoon as well. That's neither here nor there, however. Are you going to give me back that laptop?"
"No," the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes.
He'd been about to say more when Donna burst into the room, looking very angry with him. "Oi! Spaceman!" She held her hands up in a particularly patronizing manner as she marched up to him. "Care to explain to the land lady why you're busting in here and disturbing her guests? She's about to call the police on you and I don't fancy getting arrested because you can't pick the right door."
His younger self coughed politely, turning to his two companions with a charming smile. "Turlough, Tegan, why don't you go down and sort things out for us? I'm sure Ms. Ivanova will come around if you talk to her."
"Hold on, Tegan?" Donna looked around, spotting the shorter girl in the rather loud 80's dress. Oh, the 80's, the Doctor thought fondly. He missed those. Really, he needed to go back sometime. Donna interrupted those thoughts as she walked over and shook Tegan's hand with a large grin on her face. "I'm Donna, Donna Noble. I know you don't know me yet, but we're going to be great friends in the future! I've been waiting to meet you in person!"
As Donna and Tegan continued talking animatedly, the younger Doctor turned to Turlough with a pleading expression. "Alright, alright, I'll go," Turlough said, not really managing to cover his sulking. "Just don't expect me to make tea this time."
The older Doctor clapped the young man on the back with a grin, watching after him with fond reminiscence He'd enjoyed traveling with him and Tegan, meeting his other selves, fighting the Master in over the Magna Carta and the whole incident with the Queen of May... Good times, those, really good times.
Back to settling the dispute over the hacking attacks. His younger self was still looking expectantly at the laptop behind him, waiting for him to give it back. "What do you think you're doing, anyway?" The Doctor asked, with a scolding tone.
"I don't have much choice!" his younger self said, glaring at him as he folded his glasses away. "The Master's using a hidden code to brainwash all LiveJournal users. If I don't disrupt the site, he'll have half of Russia converted and he'll be elected President by the next election!"
"What?" the Doctor asked, blood draining from his face. "What?" It couldn't be... "What?" Oh, that idiot would. "You sure?" His younger self sighed and nodded.
Hanging his head, he handed the laptop back to his past self who snatched it away from him moodily. It occurred to him that he had been in the middle of a fight with heartsmet12 at the time and he could suddenly remember wishing to be able to stop the attacks long enough to try and make up with him. Sighing, the Doctor sat down beside his younger self and pulled out his own glasses. "Two heads are better than one, hey?" he asked, only slightly sulking.
His blond self nodded, looking just as forlorn. Well, might as well get to it. Suggesting that they mix up various journals and put a political one as everyone's homepage to throw people off their scent, the Doctor got started in derailing one of his favorite sites.
* * *
A few hours later, Donna and Tegan were now fast friends and Turlough had managed to charm the innkeeper into letting them all stay. The Doctors worked tirelessly writing the new code that would hopefully lead lj to revamping enough to prevent the Master from taking over. Finally, they received a PM from the Master, asking if they could talk.
After glancing at each other in silent conference, the younger Doctor set up a Skype video chat. His old nemesis' face appeared on the screen, all beardy and velvet and nothing short of wonderful to see, after spending most of the past year mourning the Master's more permanent death. The Doctor's hearts ached to see him and he quickly moved out of the camera's view.
"My dear Doctor. How nice to see you again," the Master said acidly, though his hearts really weren't in it. In fact, the Master almost looked like he was sulking.
"I wish I could say the same," his younger self responded. There was a cold pleasantness about his voice that the older Doctor remembered far too well. In that regeneration, he'd never quite been able to forgive the Master for what he'd done. Even now the old feelings of resentment were still strong, yet the Doctor was able to look past it. "I suppose it's too much to hope for to ask if you're calling to say you'll end this nonsense."
"I do have as much of a right to free speech as you, Doctor." The Master mustered up enough of a scowl to actually be convincing, a sly smile settling over his features. "I would have thought you would be protecting my right to say such things, or have you changed your mind now that I've tried my hand at democracy?"
Donna came over to stand by him, silently questioning him with her eyes. The Doctor didn't take his attention away from the screen for a second, however, though he did reach out and take her hand. She squeezed it gently in comfort which he soaked up as much as he could, staring moodily at the Master's face.
"I'm all for free speech, Master, but only when it doesn't infringe on anyone else's ability to do so. Brainwashing them all into your loyal subjects rather defeats the purpose," the younger Doctor said, crossing his arms in front of his chest in lieu of his pockets. Shoving your hands in your pockets while you're sitting down really doesn't work as well, which was a fact he sometimes forgot in this regeneration.
The Master's lip curled up in a snarl, but he merely nodded his head as an admission. His eyes briefly flickered to someone who was out of the camera's view and oddly enough, his annoyance grew. "Unfortunately, Doctor, I have called to bid adieu to this childish game. There are other matters which have come to my attention and I've found a better use for my time."
The younger Doctor blinked, immediately confused by the sudden turn of events. "You're giving up? Master, I hardly believe that you could do such a thing."
"Believe what you like," the Master said with a sneer. "You've won this round, but don't expect me to go so easy on you next time. Good-bye, Doctor."
"Wait-" But the Master had already clicked off his side of the conversation. The younger Doctor looked back at the older, baffled by the Master's behavior.
The Doctor didn't have any better idea than his younger self did. He shrugged, looking just as confused. "I don't remember much of what happened here, but I think he was telling the truth. I'd have remembered if he were still doing it in the morning."
"So that Master bloke," Donna asked, placing her hands on her hips as she tested the idea out in her head before voicing it. "Ex-boyfriend?"
Both Doctors immediately fell into denials as Tegan rolled her eyes. Donna hid a smile, pretending to believe them. "Right, alright. Not an ex-alien boyfriend. Does that make him this heartsmet guy then?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised at the question. "What makes you think that?" he asked, curious as to how she came to that conclusion.
"Don't either of you know your anagrams?" Donna asked, tilting her head to the side as she waited for one of the big space idiots to clue in.
It was Turlough that got it first though, snapping his fingers together. "I get it. You rearrange the letters of 'hearts met' and you get 'the Master'. Who is heartsmet though?"
The Doctor was too busy gaping at the revelation to pay Turlough any mind. His younger self wasn't doing much better as far as the shock department went. No. No... No way. It couldn't be. The Master wouldn't go a blog site to complain about the Doctor, would he? He wouldn't. But if it was the Master, did he know he was talking to the Doctor? Rassilon, this was a headache waiting to happen. "Completely impossible," he said dismissively a few seconds later than he should have to sound sure of himself.
"Absolutely ridiculous," his younger self agreed, equally shaken by the knowledge.
There was an awkward pause where no one said anything, until finally the Doctor grinned madly. "I think it's time for a drink."
"Ginger beer?" the younger Doctor suggested, looking just a bit too eager.
"Brilliant. Ginger beer. I'm sure we can find it somewhere in Russia. Allons-y!"
And so, for the second time, the Doctor strode off to make sure he completely forgot the events of that night.
The next day, the Doctor woke up with the worst hangover and only a vague memory of the night's previous activities. Donna assured him that she and Tegan had taken plenty of pictures and maybe she'd tell about it one day. Once both him and his blonder regeneration were a bit more awake and less grouchy, they all bid their farewells, parting on very good terms. It had been nice to see Tegan and Turlough again, though what had possessed him to break through the time barrier to double back on his own time stream like that...
The Doctor paused in the threshold of the TARDIS, looking at at the cool morning of St. Petersburg. "I can feel them now," he told Donna, clutching at the door. "The other Time Lords. I could warn them. I could save them. I could save him..."
A look of infinite sadness crossed Donna's face as she took a step closer to him. "What would happen if you did that?"
Closing his eyes, the Doctor's breath hitched. What would happen if he did that? All hell would break loose. Not waiting for his reply, Donna hugged him tightly, pulling the Time Lord back into the TARDIS. "Come on, spaceman. Let's go someplace really spectacular."
The Doctor smiled, glad his best friend was here to cheer him up even though he thought it would be a while before he was alright again. "Allons-y!" he said, with a bit less energy than normal, but every bit of heart that he could muster.
* * *
The Master whacked his younger self up the side of the head as the bearded man glared at him. "Next time you try to take over this miserable planet, don't use LiveJournal and annoy your elders. And stop sulking and apologize to lostexile already."
He left his younger self to sulk by himself, enjoying the night crisp night air of Novosibirsk. Now that he'd taken care of that problem, it was time to go back and see if lostexile was on. The Doctor still didn't know he was alive again yet, but the Master in this time line was doing his own sulking. The fool had laid to waste the empire he spent months creating for him in a matter of minutes. Still, talking with lostexile helped, especially since his online acquaintance was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear. Perhaps they could finally get on with that angel master/reformed demon servant roleplay too, now that they weren't going to be interrupted every time they tried to get online. Things had just been getting interesting and he'd convinced lostexile to make his angel character a little rough...
Right. Better find a hotel room and some internet access before it got too uncomfortable to walk around. If he were lucky, his friend will have managed to post the next chapter of his story in one of the brief periods LJ had been online and working. If not, he could always go through his saved 'memories' for some of the particularly good sex chapters.
Little did either the Doctor or the Master know that a few government hackers were positively inspired by their DDoS attacks...
~FINI~
Quote of the Fic:
"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice."
-Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 11:31 pm (UTC)I laughed a /lot/.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-13 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 12:28 am (UTC)(and since you asked and it gave me something to participate with:
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 01:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 03:26 pm (UTC)I'm glad you had fun reading it! <3
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 09:33 pm (UTC)The CN was definitely one of my main reasons for actually writing this plotlet. It was completely unnecessary to the actual plot but it was all like... if I'm having the Doctor and Master on LJ, I might as well. <3 I would like to see everyone's profiles... I keep picturing Turlough with one of those emo myspace photos. ^_^;;; And don't think that the drunk photos of the two Doctors weren't up on the CN the very next morning. XD
I'm glad you liked it though! Thanks for the comments! <3
no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 09:08 pm (UTC)