Act 4: The Master's Machinations
Meanwhile, back at the TARDIS, Chang Lee is going to investigate a mystery of his own--figuring out how to break into the weird blue box. He ducks under the police crime tape, quickly figures out that the strange, etched silver tab is actually the key to the TARDIS, and swings the door open wide, walking into the vast interior of the TARDIS. He shakes his head like "NOPE," walks back out, and circles around the TARDIS, ensuring that it is only the size of a phone booth, then walks back in. When he does, he calls "Hello?" seeing if anyone is in there--and then he catches sight of the Master--or "Bruce," as Lee knows him at the moment.
"The guy from the ambulance?" he asks. The Master simply nods.
"Bruce, don't scare me like that," Lee says, relieved. "This place is freaky enough!"
"Lee. Chang Lee, that's your name, isn't it?" the Master says, sounding almost friendly.
Lee nods, leaning against one of the girders of the TARDIS' interior--and the TARDIS springs to life at the touch. "Well, I never," the Master says. "The TARDIS really likes you!"
Lee scoffs. "What are you talking about, Bruce?"
"I am not Bruce." The Master walks forward, slowly. "It took me a minute, with the talking and the walking, but I am not Bruce. I am merely...inside his body."
"Oh yeah?" Lee grins, skeptical. "So who are you really?"
The Master removes his sunglasses, revealing his serpentine eyes, and Lee is immediately hypnotized into walking forward. "Give me the bag," the Master says, and Lee mutely hands him the bag of the Doctor's possessions. Once he's done that, the Master seems to release control over Lee, and Lee shakes his head, stunned.
"Where is he?" the Master demands.
"Who?"
"The man you stole these things from, where is he?"
"Those are mine now," Lee insists, reaching for the bag. "He's dead--"
"He's not dead!" the Master hisses, throwing Lee against the console and holding him down for emphasis. "He has stolen MY body. And I will die unless we bring him back here. You're doing to help me do that, understand?"
"Well...what's in it for me?" Lee asks, not without a little tremble in his voice.
The Master pats Lee's face, a chilling grin appearing. "You get to live."
The next scene puts us back at Grace's house, after evening has fallen; Christmas lights are still visible around the house and the trees in the street. Grace is busy looking through a microscope, visibly puzzled at what she's seeing, while Eight is putting on a pair of black dress shoes.
"Hmm, not bad," Eight says, taking a few steps in the new shoes. "And these belonged to--"
"Brian?" Grace finishes. "Yep. Keep 'em!"
"Thank you," Eight replies, smiling at her. He studies her briefly as she works at the microscope, then raises a magnifying glass, expressing curiosity. "How's my blood?"
"It's not blood." Grace's voice belies her disbelief in what she's seeing. She's still not quite convinced of everything that's happening.
Eight lets her comment hang in the air a moment. "Hmm, perhaps if I walk in them, stretch them a bit, they'll fit me better," he muses about the shoes.
"Good idea," Grace replies, a little frustration coloring her tone. "Let's go for a walk."
They walk out into the night, across the street and down a little ways. "Maybe you're the result of some weird genetic experiment," Grace muses as they walk.
"No, I don't think so," Eight shakes his head.
"But you have no recollection of family?"
"No." He pauses. "No, no, no, wait, wait, wait. I remember, I'm with my father, we're lying back in the grass, it's a warm Gallifreyan night..."
"Gallifrey?!" Grace exclaims.
"Gallifrey!" He latches on to that. "Yes, this must be where I live! Now where is that?"
"I've never heard of it!" Grace answers, confused. "What do you remember?"
In response, Eight takes a few steps and gestures broadly toward the sky, almost a dance-like move. "A...a meteor storm, and the sky above us was dancing with lights!" His hands imitate the explosions of light he saw. "Purple, green, brilliant yellow--YES!"
"What?"
"These shoes!" he exclaims, dancing in place a little. "They fit perfectly! Yes!" Then he runs off, leaving Grace pleasantly bewildered.
Meanwhile in the TARDIS, the Master is digging through a few of the small wooden drawers on one side of the console room, finding a few red drawstring bags. "Yes," he whispers, triumphant, before turning back to Lee and speaking to him:
Master: You know, this was all mine until he stole it from me. He should never have been allowed to be here.
Lee: You know, I was told he was dead. Master: (conversational) Yeah, that body had died. But now he's regenerated into a new one. You know, my body can do this 12 times, but he's taken most of my regenerations.
Lee: (scandalized) What did he do with them?
Master: (quietly) Unspeakable crimes.
Lee: Like what?
Master: Genghis Khan?
Lee: What about him?
Master: That WAS him.
Lee: No way!
Master: Yes way. Look, I'm no saint, but he is evil...and he's doing it all with my body. I was on the verge of stopping him when we got here.
Lee: (lets out a heavy breath, shocked)
Master: (wrapping a fatherly arm around Lee) What do you want, Lee?
Lee: What do you mean?
Master: If you could have anything, anything at all, what would it be?
Lee: I don't know, a million bucks?
Master: (scoffs) Only a million?
Lee: (encouraged) Okay, two million!
Master: Think bigger!
Lee: (triumphant) A billion dollars!
Master: (leading him) And what would that buy you?
Lee: (breathing the word) Power.
Master: (echoing Lee) Power. (hands Lee the two drawstring bags, walks a couple paces away)
Lee: (opens one, finds a sparkling gold powder inside) Gold dust?!
Master: (smiles) You get the rest when I get my body back. Deal?
Lee: (nods eagerly) DEAL!
The Master, visibly pleased by this development, takes Lee toward the back of the console room. "Let me show you around." He guides Lee toward a set of ancient-looking double doors, which Lee is able to open by merely reaching toward them.
"Wow, how'd I do that?"
"I told you the TARDIS likes you," the Master says. Then he gestures forward. "The Cloister Room." Ahead of them lies a great, high-ceilinged Gothic-style space, complete with the aesthetic of stone archways, ornate balconies, dust, dead leaves, and a couple of bats for good measure...along with a strange, low square wall in the center of the room, with a tall staff at each point. "Come, let me show you."
They walk forward, coming to stop at one side of the low square wall; contained within it is a sunken pit with a rounded lump in the center, carved like a stylized closed eye. "Here is the Eye of Harmony, the heart of the structure," the Master explains. "Everything gets its power from here."
"Then how will it help us find him?" Lee asks, confused.
"Well, as you know, it used to belong to me," the Master replies, matter-of-fact. "But now, it belongs to him. If we can open the Eye, we will find him."
"Cool. So you gonna open it?"
"No, you are," the Master replies, pleasantly. "See if you can pull this reflector staff from its mooring."
"This thing?" Lee grabs hold of the staff nearest him, and begins to lift.
"You can do it," the Master encourages. Finally Lee lifts the staff free, revealing a blue light streaming out of the hole that is left behind. "Good. Now, look in the beam of light. If the TARDIS really likes you, the Eye will open."
Lee's courage falters a bit. "Why don't you look?"
"You pulled the staff from the stone," the Master replies, and he forces Lee's head down so that his eyes make contact with the light. The stylized eye in the center of the structure begins to open...