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Jo walked briskly through the halls of UNIT headquarters. The Doctor was working on Bessie in the garage, and he’d sent her back to the lab to get a part. She suspected the Doctor was using that as an excuse to get some time alone. He was grumpier than usual today, so she didn’t mind. Everyone needed a few minutes to themselves once in a while, even if they were a Time Lord. She decided she’d get the part and then have a chat with Mike or Sergeant Benton before she went back to the Doctor.
She stopped in her tracks at the entrance to the lab. A woman stood at the Doctor’s table with her back to the door. She was dressed beautifully in purple, her hair done up to perfection. She turned to face Jo, and Jo almost felt weak in the knees. She was absolutely striking, with a cold and calculating stare. Her gaze softened a fraction as she looked at Jo.
“Hello,” Jo said, “Can I help you?”
“I’m just revisiting some old memories,” she purred, “Is the Doctor here?”
“No,” Jo replied, “He’s working in the garage.”
“Of course he is. That car of his…” The woman looked around the lab wistfully.
Jo should get someone, Mike, or the Brigadier. The woman didn’t have a visitor’s pass, and it was protocol to report anyone without a pass. Jo knew that, but she was intrigued. She walked further into the lab and closed the door behind her. There was something oddly familiar about the woman standing before her, although Jo was fairly certain she had never seen her before.
“Sorry, who are you?” Jo asked. The woman looked at her once more.
“Oh Jo dear, don't you recognize me? You wound me.” She practically oozed charisma, but there was danger behind it, in a way that reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t place who. Jo examined her once more, and the feeling of familiarity only grew. The woman stepped around the table and in front of Jo. “I was shorter then. Still am a bit shorter than I’d like, but these shoes fix that.” She tapped her heels together for emphasis, and Jo was briefly reminded of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Jo noticed that she was holding an umbrella, and the vision of Dorothy was replaced with Mary Poppins. “I finally understand why you wear those ridiculous boots! Not the most practical, but… Such is the price of femininity.”
“I know you,” Jo stated, struggling to place how.
“Course you do, Jo,” she replied, “Or I suppose it should be Miss Grant. That’s what I called you back then. I was so preoccupied with being a gentleman that incarnation.” The final piece snapped together in Jo’s mind. Jo furrowed her brow in confusion. “Oh! There it is! I knew there was a reason you were my favorite of all the Doctor’s humans.”
“Master?” Jo said. The corners of the other woman’s mouth curled into a cheshire grin.
“Call me Missy, dear,” She said.
“Missy,” Jo repeated. She was still trying to understand. “You’re another incarnation, yeah? From the Doctor’s future?” She thought the Doctor might have mentioned the Master having been a woman if he knew.
“Yes, dear. And quite a long way, too.” Jo took a step closer to her, as if to examine her closer. Missy watched her, concealing her amusement. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Well…” Jo said, “I knew Time Lords could change their appearance, but not… You know.” Missy sighed in exasperation.
“You humans and your silly obsession with gender! Really, my race is infinitely more advanced… Of course we can change gender when we regenerate. It’s perfectly common.”
“But you still call yourselves Time Lords,” Jo said with a small smile.
“That is a translation issue. Your language doesn’t have a gender neutral equivalent. We’re above your silly concerns of gender.” Which was not entirely true, Time Lords had their own issues, but she was not about to let a human know that.
“I can see it now,” Jo said, “You remind me of him. The other you, I mean.” Missy didn’t quite know what to make of that.
“I take back what I said about you being my favorite,” Missy said, turning away from Jo promptly and sitting in a chair. Not that she was as embarrassed by that version of herself as she was by some of the others, but she liked to think she had advanced far beyond her past. Jo laughed a bit, then she stopped herself. She still didn’t really know what Missy was doing here, so she couldn’t let her guard down.
“Do you have some sort of evil plan? You usually do,” Jo said.
“No plan, not today, don’t worry.” Jo relaxed. “Boldly invading UNIT HQ isn’t my style this time around. Too simple, too boring.” Are we… bonding? Jo wondered, Having girl talk? She suppressed a smile at that thought.
“Then why are you here, if not to take over Earth?” Jo asked. Missy sighed and leaned back in her chair. She propped her feet up on the Doctor’s table.
“I was feeling nostalgic,” Missy replied, “A bad habit for a Time Lord, I know. Maybe it’s a good thing the Doctor wasn’t here. He doesn’t meet me, this me, for centuries… Don’t want to mess with the time lines.” She did miss him, though. This Doctor, the Dandy. It was the last time they’d been anything close to friends, the last time she had thought that maybe they could work it out. Her eyes grew misty. Perfect, she thought. Cry in front of the human. At least the Doctor wasn’t there to see it. She refused to cry in front of him. He hadn’t seen her cry since they were at the academy together, and she was going to keep it that way.
She slid her feet off the table and stood up, facing the Doctor’s TARDIS. She pretended to inspect it as she willed her eyes to dry.
“You miss him,” Jo said gently. She didn’t know what to make of Missy. On the one hand, she was the Master; Jo could see that same cruelty in her that she saw in the other version of the Master. But Missy seemed older, so much older, and she was as different to her past self as she was similar. Missy whirled around and advanced towards Jo.
“I don’t want your pity,” she snarled. Jo flinched. Missy felt satisfied with that. Humans were far quicker to pity her now that she was a woman, and she hated it. She remembered Jo’s saccharine sweet sympathy all too well now, without the rose tint of memory. The worst part was that it was completely genuine. How had the Doctor put up with it?
Jo was not one to be scared into silence.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?” Jo asked. Missy laughed bitterly.
“The last time I saw the Doctor, he left me to die on Skaro.” Jo stared blankly. “The planet of the Daleks?” Jo nodded in understanding. “I’m sure I deserved it. But he’s been sulking, holed up on some tourist planet with his wife…” Jo’s eyebrows shot up.
“The Doctor has a wife?” Jo asked. Missy realized her mistake. This was exactly why she shouldn’t be messing with timelines.
“Ah. No, not when you know him. Much later in his time stream,” Missy pointed a threatening finger at Jo, “And you can’t mention that to him. Your Doctor, I mean.” Jo raised her hands in surrender.
“Mum’s the word.”
“None of this is of your concern anyway. I shouldn’t be here. I’ve caused enough trouble with the time line as it is, talking with you.”
“I don’t understand you at all,” Jo said, “All you and the Doctor ever do is talk, but you never actually say anything! Clearly something is bothering you, but you won’t say anything about it. For all your talk about Time Lords being more advanced, it seems like you’re really a bunch of emotionally constipated teenagers!” Missy blinked in surprise at the outburst. Jo continued, “You clearly still care about him. Why don’t you just tell him how you feel, plain and simple? After how ever many centuries, you owe each other that much.”
“The Doctor doesn’t respond to emotions,” Missy replied coldly, “He never did.”
“When’s the last time you tried?” Jo asked. Missy was quiet for a moment, thinking. Jo bit her lip. She wasn’t sure why she was trying to help Missy. She’d kidnapped Jo on several occasions and killed plenty of innocent people… But not this time. This version of the Master was just here to see an old friend, and she was almost vulnerable. She gave off an impression of desperation, of this being a last ditch effort. Jo couldn’t help but want to help her. The Doctor would have tried to help, if the Master ever let him, but Jo could tell Missy didn’t want to talk about it more, and Jo didn’t particularly want to provoke her to lash out again.
“I can call the Brigadier in here, if you think that will cheer you up,” Jo offered, only partly joking. The Brigadier had always seemed to amuse the Master. This got a small smile out of Missy.
“As much as I would love to watch good old Lethbridge-Stewart try to work this one out… No, that won’t be necessary. I should be going.” Jo nodded in understanding. “You cannot tell anyone you met me, do you understand? Especially not the Doctor. Or my younger self, for that matter.” Jo nodded.
“I know,” she said, “I won’t.”
“I really should just erase your memory of this meeting,” Missy said, “But I’m feeling nice today. Don’t make me regret it.” She fixed Jo with a glare that served to remind Jo that she was still every bit as dangerous as her past self, if not more so. Jo shook her head emphatically.
“Jo?” the Doctor’s voice drifted from down the hall, “Did you get lost?” He must’ve actually needed that part, or else he got bored of waiting for her to return.
“Time to go,” Missy said, “Dad’s here.” Jo stifled a giggle. Against her better judgement, she decided to say one more thing. As Missy turned to leave, Jo caught her arm.
“Think about what I said, please, Missy? All the Doctor wants is for you two to be on the same side.” Missy smiled a sad, wistful smile.
“Me too.”
The Doctor pushed the door to the lab open and stopped when he saw the two of them.
“Jo, there you are,” he said, glancing at Missy curiously, “Who’s this?” Jo opened her mouth to reply, but Missy answered before she could.
“I’m just a visitor,” she said, “And I’m on my way out.” She stepped directly in front of the Doctor and stared at him. He seemed unnerved at the proximity. She looked at him with such deep love and sadness that Jo felt her heart break on Missy’s behalf.
“Yes, well…” the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck as he did when he was uncomfortable.
“It was good to see you again Jo,” Missy said without removing her gaze from the Doctor’s face. Missy leaned upwards and tenderly kissed the Doctor on the cheek, as if he would shatter from the touch. With that, she stepped around the Doctor and out the door, not looking back. The Doctor reached up an touched his cheek where she had kissed him. His cheeks flushed slightly.
“Jo, who was that?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
“Dunno,” Jo lied, “Seems like she knows you, though. Don’t you know her?” She wondered if the Doctor would figure it out. He rubbed his chin in thought.
“No,” he said, “I don’t think so. She must be from my future…” He shrugged it off. “Now, let’s get that part, hm?” Jo nodded, slightly disappointed that the Doctor didn’t recognize Missy as his old friend. Time Lords were psychic, after all, as Jo had seen on multiple occasions. Maybe the Doctor didn’t want to recognize her; denial was a strong force.
The next time Jo saw the Master, it was when he walked into her cell on Earth during the business with the Draconians. She was not thrilled that the Master was involved, nor was she thrilled to be his prisoner, but still- devil you know, and all that. At least he was polite to her, unlike the guards on Earth. From one prison to another, she thought as the Master escorted her onto his ship. She didn’t bother to resist; he was her best bet at seeing the Doctor again. As they walked the short distance to her new cell, she thought about her encounter with Missy a few weeks earlier. She glanced at the Master. He had an infuriatingly smug expression on his face, like a cat that got the canary.
“I met another version of you,” Jo said as he unlocked the cell door, “From the future.” See what he’d make of that.
“Did you now?” He replied, opening the door. Jo checked his face for any kind of reaction, but his expression remained largely unchanged, except for maybe a hint of curiosity. “Tell me,” he said, keeping his tone light, “What did the Doctor think of this other me?”
“He wasn’t there. You - the other you, I mean - left before he got a chance to meet you.”
“Pity,” the Master said. He gestured for her to enter the cell, which she did. He closed the door and locked it. Jo sighed and sat down on the bed, expecting to be left alone once again.
“What did you think?” the Master asked instead, standing a few feet away from the bars. Jo pursed her lips and began to think about how to answer that question without giving too much away.
“Physically you looked about the same age,” she said, “But I could tell that you were much older. You were different, but it was still you. Same ego, same obsession with the Doctor…” That got a reaction out of him. The Master scowled at her. Clearly, he didn’t like what she was implying.
“I am not obsessed with the Doctor,” he insisted. Jo gave him a skeptical look.
“Tell that to your future self,” she mumbled.
“You shouldn’t tell me anything else about my future,” he said, “It could cause a paradox.”
“Yes, the other you said the same thing,” She sighed. The Master’s scowl lessened to a mere frown.
“Good to know I still have some sense in the future,” he said, “Is there anything else you need before we take off?”
“Umm… There is something I’ve been wondering actually. So, obviously, Time Lords can change their appearance.”
“Yes,” the Master replied, “It’s a process known as regeneration. Did the Doctor tell you that?”
“Sort of,” Jo said, “I met another version of the Doctor, from the past.” The Master smiled at that.
“Which one? The old, white haired one?”
“No, although we saw him too. It was the short one with the black hair and the recorder.”
“Ah,” the Master mused, “Yes, that was a rather irritating incarnation. I’m not even surprised that he broke the first law of time, meeting himself. He never had any respect for rules.” Jo felt the need to defend the Doctor.
“It wasn’t him, it was the Time Lords…” A thought occurred to Jo. Those anti-matter creatures had been searching for Time Lords. Had they caused any trouble for the Master? “Hey, where were you during all of that?”
“During what?” the Master asked impatiently.
“There were these… Anti-matter creatures chasing Time Lords, draining the Time Lords’ energy…” The Master shook his head. “You didn’t notice?” She asked. The Master shrugged.
“My dear Miss Grant, I try not to stay in one place long enough for something like that to be able to find me.”
“That’s probably a good thing,” Jo said, “I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happen if Omega had found you rather than the Doctor.” The Master’s eyebrows shot up.
“Omega? The Omega?” He asked, his tone rising in incredulity. Jo nodded. “That’s impossible!” he scoffed.
“That’s what the Doctor said too. Both of them, actually.”
“How?” The Master asked with great interest.
“I don’t really understand all the details. He got trapped in a black hole, somehow, and continued to exist by sheer force of will, or something. I don’t know! I’m not a scientist!” Jo said, exasperated. They were getting off topic of what she wanted to talk about. “Ask the Doctor about it, not me!”
“My apologies, Miss Grant.”
“It’s fine, but what I really want to ask you is, can Time Lords change gender? Y’know, when they regenerate.” Of course, she already knew the answer to that, thanks to her meeting with Missy, but it was her next question that she was really curious about.
“Yes,” the Master replied, “It’s quite common.” Jo feigned surprise. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” the Master said, “We need to take off.” He turned around to leave.
“Wait!” Jo protested, and he faced her again, eyebrow raised. “Has the Doctor ever been a woman?” The Master smiled, chuckled softly, and began to leave again.
“Why don’t you ask him that,” he said as he walked away, “We’ll be picking him up soon.” He exited the room and turned down a hallway.
Jo sighed, disappointed. Asking the Doctor seemed too risky, he might make the connection with her question and Missy… She would just have to wonder. She imagined the Doctor as a teenage girl, and the image made her giggle to herself. She looked around her cell for a potential means to escape, found none, and settled down to wait for take off. She’d feel much better upon seeing the Doctor again.