For Gallifrey
The master had the Doctor backed against a wall of the TARDIS. A dangerous smile covered his face "You're going to pay for what you did." He told the Doctor, his voice making it undeniably clear that he was going to enjoy every moment of this.
The Doctor's expression was completely blank, he wasn't fighting back, he wasn't even arguing against it. Seeing the Doctor since the Time War the Master knew there was a part of him that had died with Gallifrey, a part of him that would never come back to life.
Good he though, bitterly. He deserved to be dead inside after everything he had done.
"Go ahead" the Doctor's voice was an empty as his expression "You can't make me feel any worse than I already do"
"Oh Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, I always thought you knew me" the Master laughed "I can always make things worse than they are. And if you really knew anything of pain you'd know that there's no end to how bad it's going to be." He grinned brightly "And boy is it going to get a lot worse for you" he clenched a fist at his side but didn't move his arm "Tell me, Doctor, tell me what it was like. Tell me all about it."
The Doctor didn't reply and the Master tightened his fist, his nails digging into the palm of his hand. He raised his arm and his fist quickly made sharp contact with the Doctor's jaw. The force of the blow caused the Doctor's head to fly back and smack against the wall.
"ANSWER ME!" The Master screamed right in the Doctor's face.
"No." the Doctor replied simply, seemingly unphased by the throbbing pain in his jaw. Another hit came quickly, this time his cheek and the side of his nose felt the Master's anger, resulting in blood falling from the Doctor's nose which neither of them took any notice of.
"You will answer me" the Master told him. "Tell me. Tell me all about it. It must have been a glorious feeling, the lives of some of the most powerful and revered races in the universe in your hands. That power would have been so so glorious"
"Stop it!" the Doctor said darkly through gritted teeth.
The Master grabbed by his shoulders, pulled him away from the wall, only to slam him against it with all his strength. "You don't get to tell me what to do. I am the Master. You do as I say or there will be hell to pay. Is that clear?"
The Doctor just stared at him, so the Master punched him in the stomach.
"I said: Is. That. Clear?"
"Yes" the Doctor spat reluctantly.
The Master's dangerous smile returned. "Yes what?"
The Doctor's stubbornness held out and he stayed silent. The Master grabbed his hair and pulled his head down the few inches to his height "Yes what?" he repeated, the eminent threat left unspoken.
"Yes, Master" the Doctor whispered.
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that," the Master taunted. "Say it again?"
"Yes, Master" the Doctor repeated, louder this time.
The Master laughed, letting go of the Doctor's hair and pushing him back against the wall "Exactly 'Yes, Master'. I could get used to you saying that. How about you say my name at the end of everything you say? How great would that be? It'd be all 'blah, blah, blah, Master'" he laughed like a gleeful child "You have to do that. And in the process tell me about the Time War. Tell me!"
"I'm not telling you anything, Master" the Doctor whispered. "I'm not thinking about it, let alone talking about it"
"Oh but you're lying" the Master pointed out "Such a bad little liar. You can't stop thinking about it, you can't think about anything else. You can't stop thinking about what you did: the pain you caused, the multiple genocides you committed, the lives and planets you destroyed. You're worse than me!" the Doctor's eyes widened slightly but otherwise he didn't react to the Master's words. "At least I know what I'm doing, at least I know I'm bad, at least I'm not going around claiming to be this high and mighty, caring, good guy who's going to save everyone. At least I'm not A LIAR"
With the last two words he grabbed the front of the Doctor's shirt and threw him to the ground. "And you know naughty, little liars have to be punished" he kicked the Doctor as soon as he hit the ground.
The Doctor made a vain attempt to get up but the Master only let him get to his knees before kicking him again. He bent down in front of the Doctor, "The drumming, Doctor, it won't go away. It won't ever stop. WHY NOT? You're the one who destroyed them; you're the one who killed all of them why am I the one being punished constantly? Why do I have to hear it? WHY?"
This time the Doctor's silence was due who his inability to answer. He didn't know. He looked at the Master hopelessly "Let me help, Master."
The Master laughed in his face "You couldn't help." The momentary amusement quickly turned back to overwhelming anger "You could never help. You killed them. How could you do that? How could you destroy your own people? Your family, your friends, the whole damn planet." He punched the Doctor again.
"Listen, Doctor, listen!" He said, leaning his forehead against the Doctor's and holding the side of the Doctor's head, his fingers digging into the Doctor's temple. "You should have to hear it."
Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. The four-bar drum beat of a Time Lord's heartbeat passed into the Doctor's head. He made a vain attempt to pull away as he felt the pain that came with it, but the Master's grip on him was too tight. The Master stayed there, forcing the Doctor to feel the constant pain of the drumming and after the first few moments the Doctor stopped struggling. He whimpered slightly as it became more and more unbearable taptaptaptap. Taptaptaptap. The whimper was a low, quiet sound which the master simply laughed at. The Doctor was shaking slightly from the shock and the pain of it all.
"Please stop it" he whispered, his voice shaking.
"No!" the Master replied cruelly. "You deserve to hear it. The constant drumming, the constant pain. You deserve it. I don't! It's not fair. So you will listen"
The Doctor bore it for a few moments longer, before whimpering once more "Please, Master."
"You're pathetic" the Master spat, pushing the Doctor away from him. The Doctor let out a shallow breath of relief as once again all that was in his head was his own thoughts. "Pathetic!" the Master repeated, jumping to his feet, pacing with his back to the Doctor.
Slowly the Doctor got to his feet, stepping towards the Master "Let me help you."
The Master spun around quickly, slapping the Doctor hard across the cheek "I don't want your help."
"What do you want?" asked the Doctor.
"You to shut up!" the Master retorted.
"I'm not going to shut up because I think I know what you want" the Doctor was forcing himself to stay where he was and no take a step backwards. Taking a step back would show the Master he was afraid of him, something the Doctor didn't want to admit to.
The Master raised an eyebrow "Care to enlighten me then?"
"You want Gallifrey" the Doctor replied simply, understanding written in his sad eyes "You want Gallifrey and because of me you can't have it. Because I went too far, because I took the steps that even you could never have taken, because it's gone. Because I destroyed Gallifrey"
"SHUT UP!" The Master screamed before launching blindly at the Doctor. He hit out no caring where he hurt the Doctor, only caring that he did. Each hit came harder and harder than the one before and the Doctor just took it. He didn't even attempt to fight back or step out of the way, he just took it. Not long past before the Doctor fell to the ground and the Master continued his attack, kicking blinding, only caring that he hurt him. Only caring that the Doctor was in as much pain as possible. He was aware of the Doctor becoming weaker and weaker, he was aware of the tears and blood that were mixing on the Doctor's face but he didn't care. The Doctor deserved it.
He grabbed the Doctor's shoulders and pulled him to his feet, pinning him against the wall. "You know nothing about me" he hissed before letting the Doctor fall back to the ground. He kicked him one last them and stopped.
He breathed deeply, trying to catch his breath, aware of the Doctor's ragged breathing on the floor beside him but ignoring it. He felt all of the anger seep out of him. He sat down, leaning on the wall opposite the Doctor, just watching him.
The Doctor struggled to sit up properly, so remained slumped against the wall.
The Master laughed but there was nothing behind it and it quickly changed into a sigh.
"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked. His voice was weak and he winced in pain, holding his jaw after speaking.
"Why would you care?" the Master hissed.
The Doctor stayed quiet, gently rubbing his cheek and avoiding looking at the Master.
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" the Master added, the bitterness in his voice was forced now, and when he continued his voice was softer "Are you?" he wasn't sure why he asked that, it just slipped out.
The Doctor looked at him, shocked. This entire body hurt both physically and psychologically, and his wide brown eyes told of this. "No" he shook his head gently "I'm never all right"
"I hate you" the Master told him, though his tone of voice didn't give the anger or passion that the words would normal have. He wasn't trying to get a response, he was simply stating a fact.
"I hate me too" the Doctor shrugged, then winced.
"I look at you and I just want to kill you" the Master continued, his voice still uncharacteristically soft.
"But you won't"
The Master snarled before half jumping, half crawling across the room to kneel in front of the Doctor. "But why not? Why can't I kill you" He used the Doctor's tie to pull him into a proper sitting up position. "Why? I hate you. I hate what you did. I hate what you do. I hate everything about you so why can't I kill you?"
"Because I'm all that's left" the Doctor stated simply, no emotion behind the words, just matter of fact.
"Of all the Time Lords there's just me and you" the Master scoffed "How's that for ironic?"
The Doctor stayed quiet not knowing what the Master wanted him to say or do. The Master began subconsciously tapping on the Doctor's tie, taptaptaptap, taptaptaptap, taptaptaptap. After a moment he became aware that he was doing so and stopped, keeping his hand gripped on the tie. Without even thinking about it, he used the tie to pull the Doctor closer to him and kiss him.
The Doctor looked at him, his hearts beating faster through confusion, shock and even fear. "What are you-?"
"I-" The Master shrugged, he knew the Doctor was watching him waiting for his next words or action. He had complete control. He was truly the Master. The Doctor was completely in his hands and both of them knew it. He didn't say anything for a moment, he had no answer to the Doctor's unfinished question, and it wasn't as if he had to answer to the Doctor anyway. "Why didn't you fight back?" he asked eventually "Why did you just take it?"
The Doctor shrugged, he was having the concentrate on his breathing to ignore the pain pulsing through his body.
"Doctor, answer me" the Master ordered.
"You were right" the Doctor said simply.
The Master smirked "I was, was I?"
"I deserved… deserve to hurt for what I did"
"Yes, you do" the Master agreed with no doubt in his voice. He looked at the Doctor, taking in for the first time the dried blood on his face and the bruises which were already forming. He gently ran a finger over the bruise on his right cheek. The Doctor tensed as the Master touched him "But you're already hurting, aren't you? So so much, even before I got here. And it's never going to go away for you. It's all right there in the front of your mind all the time" he laughed "Oh I was write, wasn't I? I said it could always get worse but I was wrong, nothing I do could hurt more than what you're already feeling."
The Doctor used no words to deny or confirm it, but the helpless, lost look on his face was confirmation enough. Eventually the Doctor spoke "You have no idea what it was like." He closed his eyes and the Master knew he was back on Gallifrey in its last moments "You don't know what it's like." He continued speaking without thinking about it first "If you cared so much for Gallifrey why did you run away?" His eyes snapped open and he froze as he realised that was probably up there with worst possible things to say.
The Master watched him, amused by the level of fear the Doctor had towards him. "I had to" he replied, his glare was strong but it didn't reach his eyes which were avoiding the Doctor's. "They brought me back to life to fight for them. The Master, the perfect solider, that's what they thought. But they didn't understand, you don't understand. I hated Gallifrey, I had everything they stood for. I was a Time Lord but I couldn't fight for them. But I wasn't a traitor" now he met the Doctor's eyes, the unspoken unlike you hung between them. "I couldn't fight against them, so I ran."
"I'm sorry." The Doctor said.
"Sorry?" he repeated, "You're 'sorry'?" He shook his head "Perhaps when we were in the Academy Theta" he practically spat the Doctor's old name "perhaps then such an inadequate five letter little word would have had some meaning but we're not little kids at school on Gallifrey anymore. We'll never be on Gallifrey again because. Of. You."
"No one's called me that for a long time" the Doctor said, trying to pull away but the wall was directly behind him. "Not since the Academy. Lifetimes ago."
"Back before you committed genocide." The Master muttered.
The Doctor flinched but nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, back before the War. What about you? Anyone called you Koschei since the Academy?"
"I am the Master and nothing else" the Master told him, "I think if anyone called me that now I'm probably kill them without even thinking about it"
"What about me?" the Doctor asked. He appeared to be getting fearless, saying things which would probably get a negative reaction from the Master but in truth he was getting careless. He didn't care how the Master reaction. "What if I called you Koschei?"
The Master glared, pure anger written in his eyes "I'd kill you…" the anger left his eyes quickly, a more vulnerable look entering them momentarily "If I didn't love you." The anger returned instantly "And you can forget you ever heard that." He glared.
The Doctor stared at him, his eyes wide and shock written over his face. He shook his head slowly, trying to make sense of the words. "No I can't."
The Master continued to glare at the Doctor, the bitterness re-entering his voice "I may love you but I hate you a lot more."
"I don't blame you for hating me but what if…" the Doctor said and paused. He met the Master's eyes and continued with a stronger voice "What if I told you I love you too?"
The Master didn't reply instantly and the Doctor watched him carefully, wondering what he was thinking. "I-" the Master started but stopped no knowing what to say. He continued with the only think he'd ever known: anger. "You're everything I despise in life. You're pathetic, you're cowardly, you're an emotional wreck, you're a hypocrite but worst of all… Worst of all…"
The Master cut off and grabbed the Doctor, pulling him close to him and kissing him quickly, deeply, passionately. "Worst of all" he hissed, in the Doctor's ear "You're everything I need."
"I know" the Doctor whispered, letting the Master kiss him deeply, letting the Master wrap his arms around his neck. After a moment he even kissed him back. "Gallifrey's gone"
The Master tensed and growled, pulling away from the Doctor, his arms still looped around his neck. He scowled at him.
"I can't change that" the Doctor continued. "But I'm here now…"
The Master let out a small, humourless, bitter laugh "My own little piece of Gallifrey" he muttered, sarcasm entering his voice as he added "And what a great piece I got."
The Master pushed the Doctor to the ground, and leaning over him he kissed him, like he was a drowning man and the Doctor was oxygen that could save him.
A/N: This started as something to write because I was annoyed and wanted to take it out on a fictional character (Sorry Doctor), but then it progressed and became a little obsession which me writing all through the college day and all evening until it was done. I've never wrote a Doctor/Master fanfic before because I worry about writing the Master OOC but I think I've done ok, but I'm going to need you to let me know. Please R&R,
Love ya, Carly. x