Act 9: To Hell in a Handbasket
Grace and Lee enter the Cloister Room, wheeling an unconscious, strapped-down Eight into the Cloister Room on the gurney from the ambulance. As they pull it to a stop next to the Eye of Harmony, Eight begins to awaken, painfully. His vision comes back into focus, and the first thing he sees is Grace, with her changed eyes, bending over him. "Oh, not you, Grace," he says, with regret. He struggles in his bonds. "This is no time to play doctors and nurses."
"It's no good talking to her," Lee says scornfully, standing at the end of the gurney. "She's possessed!"
Eight recognizes Lee almost immediately. "You. You took my things--where are they?"
"They're not YOUR things anymore," Lee taunts, grinning. "Pretty soon everything around here is going to belong to the Master again."
"Again?" Eight latches onto that word. "What's he been telling you?"
"When he gets his body back from you, I'm gonna be rich," Lee boasts.
"And you believe him?" Eight is utterly incredulous.
Lee shrugs. "Why shouldn't I?"
As Lee walks away, Eight calls after him, "I suppose he neglected to mention that there won't be any place left to spend your money--" But Grace slaps him to stop him from talking further.
"Which is why we have no time to waste." The Master's voice echoes from somewhere above them, on the second level of the Cloister Room.
"But time to change?" Eight asks, the words dripping with irony as the Master begins to descend the stairs, now dressed in an ornate, stiffly structured robe of black, gold, and red instead of Bruce's utilitarian paramedic attire.
"I always dress for the occasion," the Master says, adopting a brief triumphant pose on the stair landing.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you were aware of the gravity of the situation," Eight replies, with no little amount of snark.
"I never liked this planet, Doctor," the Master says, continuing his descent down the steps.
"Well, that's good, because any minute now it shall cease to exist!" Eight snaps. "What's the time?"
"Time enough for me to get my body, get out of here, and take Lee with me," the Master replies, smoothly. Lee joins the Master on the stairs. "Lee is the son I have always yearned for." And the Master kisses Lee on the forehead, somehow a little too forcefully to be genuine. Lee, for the first time, looks a bit discomfited by the Master's attention.
"Ugh, please," Eight says, disgusted.
Ignoring Eight's distaste, the Master calls to Grace. "Grace! Put it on him--I suspect you know how."
Obediently, Grace reaches under the gurney; alarmed, Eight locks eyes with Lee across the room, desperate to convince Lee of the truth. "Lee, this is my TARDIS, this is my Eye, and I am in my own body!"
The Master begins to laugh derisively, but Eight continues: "The Master has run out of all his lives, and now he plans to steal mine! That's the truth. Look at Grace," he says, just as Grace is handling a strange, torturous-looking metal band pierced with nails all around it. "She's possessed by evil, not goodness!"
At this, Lee nearly starts toward Eight, but the Master yanks him back; Grace moves toward Eight's face, wielding the metal device, and the Master begins to cough, strategically, as if to distract Lee from what's about to happen. As Grace gets closer, the Master reassures Lee, "This won't hurt...much." Grace begins to fit the metal band around Eight's head as the scene cuts away.
Meanwhile, at the hospital's New Year's Eve party, it's 11:55 pm and everyone's having a good time in costume; Pete (the morgue attendant) is enjoying the party with his Nixon mask on. And at the Institute, Professor Wagg looks up at the atomic clock, saying reverently, "My life's work," before beginning to chant meditatively.
Cutting back to the Cloister Room, Grace is busy putting the finishing touches on Eight's restraints; he is now chained standing up on the second level of the room, facing the Eye, his hands fastened to a metal bar above his head, and additional metal bits coming down from his "crown of nails" over his eyes, holding his eyes open. "In 700 years, no one has managed to open the Eye," Eight states, looking down at the Master on the ground floor. "How did you do it?"
"Simple," the Master replies. "Lee is human, and you are only half. Lee, open the Eye for me, please." The Master smiles, triumphant; meanwhile, at the Institute, someone taps on a glass to get the attention of the gathered crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Professor Wagg says into the crowd of microphones and flashbulbs in front of him, "in 3 minutes, the world will enter a new millennium, and with it, a new standard of accuracy will come to how we measure time!" He gestures grandly back toward the giant atomic clock. Everyone applauds, and then Gareth approaches Wagg, whispering something in his ear. Wagg covers the microphone briefly. When Gareth is finished, Wagg, looking aghast, looks up at the clock, and the workers surrounding it. "What do you mean, it won't start?" A random scientist on the second level shrugs as if to say "No idea what's going on!"
It is now 11:58 according to the little clock on the hospital wall. Back in the Cloister Room, Eight bellows, "Lee, this is your last chance!"
"This is my only chance!" Lee retorts.
"He's right, Doctor," the Master adds. "There's nothing for him here, no family, no gangs, only death. But with me, he gets to see the universe."
"This is his last chance to stay alive, and you know it!" Eight shouts.
"What do you know of last chances?" the Master hisses.
"More than you!" Eight sounds stronger than ever, despite his chains.
"I have wasted ALL my lives because of you, Doctor," the Master retorts. Behind him, Lee's eyes widen--this is very different from the lie the Master has been feeding him all this time, that Eight stole the Master's lives. "And I will be rid of you." He begins to turn away.
"All your lives?" Eight says, latching on to the inconsistency. "Didn't you tell Lee I'd stolen your lives? Lee, he's lying! He's used all his lives, and now he wants mine! Like I told you, this is my TARDIS, this is my body!"
As Eight speaks, Lee's expression slowly changes from skeptical to believing. The Master, turned away from Lee, doesn't see this change. "Don't believe him," he says over his shoulder. "Open the Eye."
Eight grasps at the chains above his head, tension evident in his voice. "He said it himself, Lee, he's wasted his lives--all of them!"
"Open the Eye!" the Master demands.
"No!" Lee cries. The Master turns to him, slowly, dangerously. "You lied to me," Lee explains, with a tremble in his words.
All Eight can do is watch; the Master begins to walk toward Lee. "Lee...Lee. I would never lie to you." He reaches to clasp Lee's face in his hands, a gesture of affection. "I would only...protect you." Then, with a sharp sudden movement, the Master snaps Lee's neck, and allows him to fall to the ground beside the Eye.
Eight lets out an anguished "NO!" The Master turns to look at Eight, shrugging slightly--he had no qualms about killing Lee at all. "How will you open the Eye now?" Eight asks, hoarsely.
"Grace," the Master says, smiling and motioning toward her. "Come here."
"Unless I'm mistaken," Eight says as Grace obeys the Master, "in her present state of mind, that won't work! Her eyes aren't human anymore!"
"Watch!" The Master lays a powerful, almost sucking kiss on Grace, as if he's going to devour her; when he releases her, her eyes are no longer black, but back to their natural color. "See? NOW they're human," the Master hisses. He forces her to start walking toward the bright blue light on the side of the Eye.
"No, Grace!" Eight calls. "Close your eyes!" But the Master forces her to bend, and the light strikes her eyes, reopening the Eye of Harmony.
"Too late!" the Master taunts. Grace staggers back from the light as the Master runs up to the second level of the room; the Eye's light is now focused through a staff pointed straight at Eight.
Grace stands up, clutching her head, trying to clear her vision, with no success. "I'm blind!" she screams.
"Your sight will return, Grace!" Eight shouts over the noise of the Eye opening. The Master ascends the stairs and gets into position on the other balcony, where another beam of blue light from the Eye is directed. Once he gets there, a connection of electric light crackles between him and Eight.
Blinking hard, still dealing with blurred vision, Grace sees the connection happen but doesn't understand it. "What's happening?!"
"He can't move, so long as the Eye links us!" Eight yells. "Remember, Grace, remember!"
Grace's eyes light with recognition. "Reroute the power!"
"In the console room, go!" he bellows.
"But you'll die if I leave you!" Grace cries.
"We'll all die if you don't!" Eight yells. The rapid flicker of the blue light across his face catches the glistening of a single tear. "Run, Grace! Run!"
Finally she runs back to the console room; the Master smirks, "I'm taking your lives, Doctor!" He doesn't see Grace as a threat at all.
"Run!" the Doctor shouts again.
Outside the TARDIS, the dark sky clouds over and lightning crackles; a fierce wind whips up. The Master is overjoyed, bathing in the life and energy flowing through the link between him and the Doctor. "I can hear your thoughts, Doctor!" he calls, as flashes of Eight's experiences appear before him. "I can feel your memories--oh, oh, oh..."
"This just can't be--how it ends," Eight pants, desperate, as in the console room the TARDIS itself begins to spark with the energy arcing through it. "Please--STOP!"