Rec [Fic]: And the Last Age Should Show Your Heart (Missy, Twelve) by Quanna

[eve11]

Recs bingo! Here is my card and this is my fourth row, fifth column fill for the prompt: New/Old

Title: And the Last Age Should Show Your Heart
Creator: Quanna
Rating: General audiences
Word Count: 1854
Creator's Summary: The Doctor saves the Master, one final time, and gives her the universe to look after in his place. A post 'the Doctor Falls' AU in which the Doctor dies, and the Master goes on; without hope, without witness, without reward.
Characters/Pairings: Missy, Twelve, Clara (mentioned)
Warnings/Notes: Major Character Death (as noted in the summary)

Reasons for reccing: When I looked at the word count for this story, I was surprised it was not longer. Because its not even 2000 words cover such a scale--of time, of life, of emotion and growth--that it feels like an epic. The old Doctor has died a lot in canon, leaving us with someone new who isn't exactly sure about who they are, aside from that stalwart set of values that maintain hope in (as Craig Ferguson so aptly put it) the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism. The Doctor always entrusts this to his successors--it's just in this case, Missy is not re-learning who she always was, but in the travels of a newly gifted life, understanding how to become someone entirely new herself, and yet as ancient as the Doctor has always been. Poignant, bittersweet, sad, and brilliant. Don't miss it.


**
She finds new clothes, cuts her hair, gives herself a new name, and buries the raw anger deep inside. She becomes a traveler too curious for her own good, someone from the next town along. The locals appreciate her handiness with machines and for a while she lives amongst them, eats their food and keeps herself warm by their fires. She watches them fight their war, cleans the blood off their shaking hands, and wonders who the hell she is.

When she finally leaves, she burns only their ammunitions factories, and considers it a victory for everyone.

**


Link: And the Last Age Should Show Your Heart

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, yes, I remember you (I think?) reccing this before on your journal, and it is a really great one!

[eve11]

Yeah I recced it a few months ago (ETA: O-kay over a year ago, time slow down, eh?), but I figured I'd share it more broadly. Plus it's a perfect fill for that prompt :)

[thisbluespirit]

Absolutely!

[ravenskyewalker]

Ahh, I loved that story when I first read it, and still do. Her efforts to do what the Doctor would appreciate; the TARDIS so angry at her but coming to accept her... Wow.

[eve11]

Yeah, the parts with the TARDIS and their shared grief were just heartbreaking.

[grassangel]

It's not quite time for me to read this again, but I agree how the fic feels like it spans far more than its rather bare word count, which does neatly illustrate how the Doctor lives on, even when the Doctor is dead.