Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or the characters.
I felt like writing a one-shot on Doctor Who. All my other stories have my own characters but this won't. It's set on Gallifrey when the Master stared into the Time Vortex.
"Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight, to enter the Academy. Some say that's where it all began, when he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. We stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of Time and Space, just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad." – The Tenth Doctor, The Sound of Drums.
Chapter One
You weren't physically forced to stare into the vortex, but it was either that or spend the life as an outcast. Many would think you were a failure if you weren't 'brave' enough to stare into the Untempered Schism. There was a lot of peer pressure. It contained everything, the future, the past, life and death. Normally the young children, only eight years old, would react in three different ways.
Some would run, perfectly reasonable. It is impossible to imagine staring into such raw power. The children who reacted in this way, were normally labeled as cowards in the Academy, which is completely unjustified. Since it seems wise to run when faced with something that could turn you into almost anything.
Others were inspired and the most unlucky ones, went mad. This happened to the Master, when he was taken from his family to join the Academy, a type of school to mold young Gallifreyan's into Time Lords. The elder Time Lords who watched his initiation had never seen or heard of a reaction like his. He didn't appear afraid as he had before staring into it, he seemed utterly changed.
It isn't known if some others suffered the same drumming that the Master did, but it's unlikely. No one else ever complained or clutched there head in agony because of it. No one else tapped that four beat rhythm out, only him. So when Gallifrey was destroyed it wasn't as if he was really any more alone. After all since he had looked into the vortex, he had always been alone.
Short I know but it is kinda a character study fic. R&R