(A/N: So, this is my first story with my brand new computer. I'm re-learning the keyboard, so it is going to be a bit strange for a while. The keys are in slightly different places. I'm weird with the shift keys. Anyway, I don't own Doctor Who, and I don't plan on doing so any time soon. This is Doctor/Master, pre-series era like Academy age, I say 11th in the character section because this is going to be the back story for several fics featuring 11/Master later on down the line. On with the show!)
The Making of the Master and the Doctor
Voiceless from screaming, he tapped out the rhythm of his distress: one, two, three, four. He beat his fingers against the bed over and over, occasionally flicking his wrists and thumping his hands against it. The boy was lost again, and he wasn't going to be brought back easily.
Theta watched from the bed that butted against the opposing wall, he felt fear, and panic choking him. He wanted to help; he wanted to touch his Koschei, to pull the other boy into his arms. It was so incredibly painful for him to be needed and to be unable to help. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't help without hurting.
But another anguished cry from an already abused throat sent Theta off of his bed. Briefly his hands hovered over the other boy's heated skin. Koschei was flushed; sweat dampening his soft blonde hair and soaking his Academy uniform. Then a softer cry fell from his lips.
"Theta," the gasp was barely audible, but it stalled the older boy's hearts and his face hardened into determination. His Koschei was still in there.
"Kos…I know you are in there, and I'm coming in," Theta breathed, pulling Koschei into his arms as he climbed into the other boy's bed. He tried to meet his lover's gaze, and found only maddened brown eyes staring vacantly back at him. With a gulping swallow, Theta pressed their foreheads together and opened the mind-link they had shared so many times.
The once beautiful mindscape that had greeted him time and again upon entering his lover's consciousness had fallen to pieces. All that remained of the sprawling fields and open skies was the darkness of a tiny room and that driving four-part rhythm that all Time Lords knew so well. For so long they had fought against it, and together they had protected Koschei's mind from true madness.
"You will never see that fool Theta Sigma again, ever. He is beneath you and I will not tolerate this debauched 'relationship' any longer," the words of Koschei's father rang cruel in both of their minds, set on the same endless loop as the drumming noise that dominated Koschei's life. Theta understood why, over the holiday weekend, his lover's fragile mind had finally given in and the entire structure collapsed. Koschei was convinced that without Theta as his Doctor, that his entire world would break apart.
Hands, much bigger than his or Koschei's began to tear at the back of his uniform, attempting to remove him from the other boy. But he clung on, keeping his connection open with his lover.
"Theta, my Doctor, the only Doctor that can ever help me. They are going to take me away from you, my love. But you can save me, let me in, take me with you," Koschei's thoughts were desperate and Theta kicked someone hard just so that he could stay close to the blonde boy. And damn if he didn't try to save the young man he loved. But Koschei was tied down in chains and that hammering pulse beat.
"I can't Kos. You have to be the Master of your own mind to give a piece of it away. Please focus, come to me. Before they take you away from me my love. I will take any piece of you that I can have. We can see the universe together," Theta begged, and felt a sharp pressure in his mind mere moments before a heavy blow left him unconscious in Koschei's bed, his arms clinging to nothing.
Theta did not have to see the blank and uncaring look that adorned his lover's face as he was walked out of the room. No, the husk that was Koschei cared nothing for Theta Sigma, the other boy meant nothing.
Hours later, Theta finally woke.
"Oh, Doctor, so good of you to join me," came a voice from a place he knew to be within him, it was a voice he recognized, so innocent.
"Kos? They took you from me…didn't they? I wasn't strong enough," Theta breathed aloud, blushing slightly at being called Doctor, such a title, to be a healer, a fixer of things, wise where others were not. But if that was the name that Koschei had picked for him, he would take on the title, and bear it as he would have as an adult when he would have formally selected it.
"Not me, not this one. They took the other me. The Master. He's who I put in charge of the body. We were working on making him, the power that he had over the drums. He can protect my mind and body while we find a way to fix it. I took everything that the drums hadn't corrupted and brought it with me. But we will fix him, won't we my dear Doctor?" The Koschei in his head said, his voice was pure and sweet, ringing with vibrant clarity. The other boy hadn't been so comprehensible since before they were taken to the Untempered Schism.
"Of course we will fix him. If I'm ever going to hold you in my arms again, I've got to fix him. Have you settled on your name then as well my beloved?" the young man that would henceforth call himself Doctor said softly.
"I picked yours; it is only fair that you pick mine. Besides, he liked it," Koschei replied softly, his voice almost seeming real to the Doctor's ears.
"Well then, I think I should get started on this whole, making you one person again thing. If I'm the Doctor I'd better damn well start acting like it. Let's go borrow a TARDIS and see if we can't find a way to fix you," the Doctor said as he pulled himself to his feet. He ignored the pain in his head and began packing away their clothes and favored possessions. He even packed Koschei's ridiculous scarf that on more than one occasion had been wrapped triple around both of their necks to keep back the cold.
Once their room was nearly empty, everything packed into one bag, which thanks to Koschei's tinkering had the space of a small store room, the Doctor snuck away from their room, taking with him the name placard that had denoted it as theirs. Together, because they would never do anything alone again, they slunk into one of the TARDIS production areas. The Type 40's were due for decommission soon, and knowing that one wouldn't be missed, the Doctor slipped into the only one with an unlocked door. They chartered a course for a planet they had both ready about with great interest: Earth.
(A/N: Yes folks, I am implying the 4th Doctor's scarf came from their childhood. And that the Master has always and will always, in private at least, be a part of the Doctor. I hope you liked it.)