I apologise if this has been done before, but I just found the idea intriguing so I thought...why not? This is an AU where Rose and the Doctor were never seperated during Doomsday, so kept on travelling with him during series 3. Martha still joined them on their travels, so really the addition of Rose is the only mega change you should note. I doubt I'll write 365 chapters for each day of this year, so you may find it jumping a couple of weeks at a time here and there. but I do hope you enjoy! xx
Day 1
Rose blinked at the sudden harshness of the light streaming through the bars of her cage. As the room bust into light, a flurry of movement occurred about her all at once. The doors opened and he came dancing in, spinning and grinning, their lord and master. His wife followed behind him obediently, swaying and singing to the song being played over the intercom. Guards filed into the room behind them, followed by his ring of servants, immediately Rose noted Trish and Martha's mother amongst them.
But the only movement she was concerned about came from the Doctor's tent. After the night fell, the Master had ordered for a tent and a cage to be brought to the control room. The piece of fabric that you could barely excuse as a tent was dirty and torn, and Rose's cage was rusting with years of decay. In a way, she was glad that Martha had escaped this fate. But knowing that she was somewhere roaming the planet with bloodthirsty Toclafane flying about was almost as bad. If not worse. The activity must have come to the Doctor's attention also, as the flap to the tent opened. The way he crawled out of it seemed so weary to her, it hurt to even look at. His face no longer held the youthful exuberance that she was used to. Instead there was only tiredness.
The Doctor's eyes found hers and immediately Rose offered him a smile of what she hoped look like optimism. A shadow of the smile that she had practically memorised crossed his own face, so faint that Rose wasn't even sure it had been there at all. Spending the night so near and yet so far from him hurt. All she had wanted to do was to crawl into the tent beside him and tell him that it would be alright. They would be alright. But she had had to endure the cold metal bars separating them.
"So, day 1 of the Time Lord empire, Doctor. What to do, what to do…" With a flick of his screwdriver the music shut off, leaving only the Master's voice to fill the room. Either he was oblivious to the cold reception and stony faces, or he just didn't care. It was more than likely the latter. He strolled leisurely to the tent where the Doctor now sat outside.
"Don't you love it, Doctor? All of time and space is mine to control. It quite literally is, my playground." Rose frowned at the man with distaste. He was like a kid. A huge kid with too much power.
"The Toclafane…what are they?" The Doctor's voice reached her ears and Rose shuffled forwards, straining to hear what he had to say. He even sounded tired. Wrapping her hands around the rough metal of the bars, she listened to the hushed conversation.
"Wouldn't you like to know." The Master taunted, a grin crossing his face.
"Tell me."
"I don't want to break your hearts now, do I?" The Doctor made no comment, and it seemed as of the Master had gotten bored of him. He made to walk away, only freezing when he heard Tish mutter.
"You're pathetic." The air in the room froze, no one dared move for fear of something that they couldn't quite place. The footsteps of the Master seemed to echo as he turned and crossed the room to reach Tish.
"Say it again?" Her eyes were large with panic, darting around the room looking for anyone to help.
"I'm sorry, I didn't say anything-"
"Oh no, I distinctly heard you mutter something. The acoustics are rather bad in here, so I really do need you to repeat that." He seemed to leer at her, using his height to back her against the wall.
"Please, I'm sorry-"
"Just leave her!" Rose called out before she could stop herself. The Doctor whipped his head around, gazing at her with a mixture of pride and sadness.
"So…the companion speaks at last." The Master clapped his hands with some perverse form of glee, practically skipping to her cage.
"Now. What did you say?"
"I said leave her alone." Rose wasn't sure if her hatred for the man gave her the courage to speak to him like that, or whether it was the cage that separated them.
"Oh, feisty one aren't you? I like it. Very much so." He wrapped his own hands around the bars.
"Well, too bad. Cause I'm not keen on you." She said back, feeling the bravery well up inside of her. Glancing over his shoulder, she could see the Doctor give a little shake of his head. The message was clear. Be quiet.
"Do you know why I put you in a cage my dear Rose?" Biting her lip to keep from retorting to the master's use of my, she gave a little shrug.
"Because you're a bad wolf. A very bad wolf. We can have dogs like the Doctor in tents, but not wolves. You can't house train a wolf. They need to be locked up, kept away from everyone else. Don't you think?" Rose said nothing. The Doctor had caught her eye, trying to offer her as much reassurance as he could.
"I think you're mad." She said. The Masters mouth twitched into a half smile as he regarded her. Just when his stare was becoming too uncomfortable to meet, he pushed himself away from the cage to address the room.
"So, I was thinking. How do I break the Doctor? How do I get to him? How do I push all of those little buttons that he has locked away? how do I chip away at those hearts of his? Then I thought, of course! How could I have missed it? To break him, I need to break everything that he loves."
"Stop it." The Doctor warned, eyes following the man. But what surprised Rose was that his eyes held no contempt for the Master. Only pity. There was a story behind them and their relationship, more than the Doctor has originally told her.
"So I made a list!" The Master turned from her, listing things off on his fingers now, speaking so nonchalantly as if they were his friends round for tea.
"He loves his ship. So I stole it, stripped it of everything that was his and made her mine. He adores the universe. I kill one tenth of it. Well, one tenth of Earth, but he has this funny little fetish with humans so it's a start. But still, he seems to have this rather annoying fighting spirit left inside of him. So how do I kill that?" Pulling a face of mock thought, he pulled out his laser screwdriver and turned to Rose again.
"It's a quite simple one that really. I kill you."
"Leave her!" The Doctor's voice ripped through the room, making the Master pause.
"Why would I do that?" With a twist of his fingers, the screwdriver began to light up, energy building at it's tip.
"Don't touch her, please. Hurt me if you have to, but leave her alone." Ignoring the ache in his bones, the Doctor stood, gripping onto the railing for support.
"But killing her would be so much fun." Rose backed away against the furthest wall of her cage, waiting with baited breath.
"Please…I…I'm begging you, Master. Don't harm her."
"Oh, when you say it like that, it just makes me want to kill her more." A high pitched whine filled the room as the screwdriver's power came to a head. Without thinking, the Doctor moved as quickly as he could to stand in front of the cage, and the Master watched with a face of unadulterated joy as the green beam of light hit him square in the chest. The Doctor had braced himself, expecting waves of pain to roll over him. He opened his eyes warily when it didn't happen.
"What-"
"I wasn't really going to kill her you fool. Why would I kill a creature that could harness the time vortex? Not when I could use that to my advantage. I set it to stun a human. Not a Time Lord. It had no effect on you so stop worrying." The Doctor remained in front of the cage, unsure if he was bluffing.
"Then why-"
"To see how much she means to you. I mean, how much she really means to you. You didn't know that it wouldn't kill you." Unseen by the Master, Rose slipped her fingers through the bar to clutch at the Doctor's own. Even his fingers felt frail to her. It was not the strong grip that she was used to.
"What does it matter? I'd sacrifice myself for anyone in this room." The Master shook his head with a smirk.
"Not without thinking first. That was instinct. You love her don't you?" Rose's heart skipped a beat and the Doctor's hand tightened on her own.
"I love all of my companions. She's my best friend. And you haven't answered my question. What does it matter?" The Master grinned at him.
"Because if that's how much she means to you, then she's my biggest bargaining chip on this ship." There was a moment of silence, almost as if he was contemplating what to do with this new piece of information. He rolled the words around his mouth before calling out to the guards.
"Take her away. Put her in a cell, and I want guards around her at all times." Protests came streaming from the Doctor and Rose as the soldiers moved to open the cage. The Master easily restrained the aged Doctor, and felt a well of triumph at the hurt in his old rivals face as they watched Rose being dragged away by the guards. She struggled of course, but three soldiers easily took her strength and matched it with their own.
"Rose, it's alright. Just…I'll get you out. I promise." The Doctor called out as she stopped struggling and dutifully let them lead her away.
"Alright, I can walk by myself you know!" Wrenching her arms from the guard's grip, she walked amongst the guards. Before the doors closed behind them, she threw the Doctor a small hope filled smile.
"How sweet." The Master breathed into his ear, the glee evident in his voice.
"What do you want with her?" The Doctor demanded, tired of riddles.
"I don't know yet. But I think its going to be a lot of fun, don't you?" With that, he let the Doctor drop to the floor, landing with a painful thud.
"This is the first day of a beautifully eternity together, Doctor. And I will find Martha Jones and destroy her. I'll take this universe as my own, and you…well, we'll see what fun I have planned for you." He grabbed Lucy by the waist and sauntered out of the room, only pausing to call over his shoulder.
"The first day of the rest of your lives Doctor. Enjoy."
I have the next few chapters planned out, so it really depends if people are interested in reading it or not. So tell me what you thought! x
