Act 5: I Know Who I Am!
At the same moment the Eye of Harmony begins to open, Eight's face is lit by its same kind of blue light for a moment, frozen in a look of shock. He staggers and grasps hold of the nearest tree.
"What is it? What is it?!" Grace tries to help Eight as he begins to gasp for breath, but nothing she does is helping.
"Something's happening--something's happening--something's happening--" Eight gasps out...then, all of a sudden, he smiles, broadly. "I know who I am!"
Grace laughs with relief; Eight pulls her to him in a brief, spontaneous kiss, surprising them both. Then he states proudly, "I am the Doctor!"
"Good!" Grace replies, grinning at him. "Now do that again!" And Eight is quite happy to oblige.
Back in the TARDIS, the Eye of Harmony is now completely open; Lee steps back a little, looking afraid of what they've unleashed...and a semi-transparent image of the Seventh Doctor appears hovering above the open Eye. "There's the guy I took to the hospital!" Lee exclaims.
"The Doctor's past life," the Master says, offhand.
"...Doctor?" Lee queries.
"That's what he calls himself," the Master replies. He mimicks the Doctor's British accent: "Doc-tah!"
The image of Seven vanishes, replaced by an image of Eight; the Master sighs, as if relieved. "The new Doctor! He's so young." The image zooms in suddenly, to a close-up of the Doctor's eye. "Fascinating," the Master continues. Then his attention sharpens on one critical detail. "See that?" he asks, pointing to part of the image. "That's the retinal structure of the human eye. The Doctor is half-human!" He pauses, and a cold grin spreads across his face. "No wonder."
Meanwhile, Eight and Grace are still, um, celebrating the Doctor's memory returning with a kiss, when this conversation ensues:
Eight: (pulls away from Grace) No!
Grace: (annoyed) What?!
Eight: (fearful) No--I saw him, the Master is here. (He starts to walk away from her)
Grace: (moving to block him from leaving) What are you talking about?
Eight: (slowly realizing) He is planning to take my body...so that he will live and I will die! (terrified) Oh--no!
Eight pulls away from Grace, holding onto a nearby tree because he's still a little unsteady on his feet. "He has opened the Eye of Harmony!"
Utterly confused, Grace faces him and asks, "What is the Eye of Harmony?!"
"No--no, wait," Eight replies, pausing a moment. At this same moment, Grace's image, unbeknownst to her, appears in the Eye of Harmony...meaning she is now visible to the Master and Lee.
"There, we're seeing what he's seeing," the Master explains.
"I know that woman," Lee adds.
Eight closes his eyes, and the image of Grace in the Eye vanishes; the Master lets out a frustrated grunt.
Eight: I'm closing my eyes so he can't see you, Grace, but I'm afraid it may already be too late.
Grace: What is the Eye of Harmony?
Eight: (quickly explaining) It's the power source at the heart of the TARDIS.
Grace: (super confused) The TARDIS? What's a TARDIS?!
Eight: (impatient) The TARDIS is my ship--it carries me through time and space. T-A-R-D-I-S; it stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.
Grace: (trying to piece it together) And this Master, is he like the Devil?
Eight: (with emphasis) The Master is a rival Time Lord.
Grace: (skeptical) Time Lord.
Eight: Pure evil! I was bringing home his remains from Skaro, where his final incarnation had been exterminated by the Daleks--or so we thought!
Grace: (officially done with this crap) You really are insane, aren't you? (begins to walk off)
Eight: (taking hold of Grace) But he wasn't dead! It's a trap! Don't you see, it's a trap. (beginning to rant a little) He wants me to look into the Eye; if I look into the Eye of Harmony, my soul will be destroyed, and he will take my body...
Eight's desperate words are being heard through the Eye of Harmony as well; the Master waves dismissively. "Listen to all those lies."
"Who should believe him?" Lee asks.
"I don't want to deal with this," Grace says, trying to pull away.
"Grace, listen!" Eight holds her a little more tightly.
"That's enough!"
Eight tries his hardest to explain everything. "If the Eye of Harmony isn't closed, this planet will be sucked through it! Grace, I need to fix the timing mechanism on the TARDIS and close the Eye. I need an atomic clock. Grace, please, help me find one."
Grace pulls away from him at last, leaving her coat in his grasp; his eyes are still tightly closed. "Grace...?" he asks. "Grace...Grace?" Then he opens his eyes, and sees her running back fast toward her house. He takes off after her--she's his only hope and only ally now.
In the TARDIS, the Master laughs, evilly. "So that's how he intends to destroy me."
"How?" Lee blurts out.
Not deigning to answer Lee's question, the Master simply says, "We must get to the Doctor before he finds a clock."
"I know that woman," Lee says again. "She was the surgeon who operated on him last night."
"Hmm," the Master replies, thoughtful. "Well, if we find her, we'll find him."
The scene switches back to Grace and Eight, the former of whom has locked herself in her house--she catches sight of Eight through the window, gasps, and runs to make sure her door is secure.
From outside, Eight calls, "Grace!"
"Just stay away from me!" she retorts, double-securing the door.
Eight runs up to the door and tries it, finding it locked. "Oh, come on, Grace, just let me in," he says, exasperated, hands on hips.
"No!" comes the stubborn reply.
Finally Eight stoops to look through the mail slot. "Grace. Let me in, we can sit down, we can have a cup of tea and talk about this, reasonably."
"Sure, Time Lord to earthling!" Grace snaps,
"Yes, that's right, I'm a Time Lord," Eight responds, patiently.
"I thought you were a doctor!" Grace exclaims, frustrated.
"I thought YOU were a doctor!" Eight says, with no little irony.
After pausing a beat, Grace says, forcing herself to be calm, "I am calling an ambulance to take you back to Psychiatric from which you've obviously escaped!"
"Grace, we don't have time for this." Eight is firm in this. "The Eye of Harmony is open and if I don't close it, get in my TARDIS, and get the Master off this planet, this PLANET will no longer exist!"
"I'm calling the ambulance!" Grace warns, getting up away from the door.
"Grace! We have until midnight!" he says.
But Grace is already at the phone and dialing. So Eight knocks on the wall-height windows facing into the living room, getting her attention again. "Grace! I shall prove to you the Eye of Harmony is open--look at this." As she watches, Eight is able to push his hand against the glass and warp it as if it were plastic wrap around his fingers. "You see, already the molecular structure of the planet is changing."
"Hi, I'm gonna need an ambulance as soon as possible--this is Dr. Grace Holloway," Grace says into the phone, toneless, not sure how to take in what she's seeing happen in front of her.
Eight continues describing what's happening to the planet's molecular structure, saying, "At first in subtle ways, but soon in catastrophic ways." Then he proceeds to walk straight through the window, the glass snapping back into shape behind him like a bubble.
Grace sinks to her knees, flabbergasted. Still holding the phone, she says into it, "I need a bed in Psychiatric."
"By midnight tonight this planet will be pulled inside out," Eight says, walking further into the living room. "There will be nothing left."
Grace glances up at the clock--it's just now chiming 9:00 PM. "I think you better make that two beds," she amends.
In the TARDIS, the Master tuts. "Doctor, Doctor..." Then he motions to Lee. "Come on--she needs an ambulance." Together they leave the Cloister Room with its open Eye.