Title: "Axiom"
Status: Ficlet; complete
Fandom: Doctor Who (New Series)
Characters: The Master (undefined)
Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC, Steven Moffat and others - not mine. I could weep...
Rating: K
Warnings: unbeta'ed
Summary: The Doctor and the Master.
Note: A little something akin to a character study, to ease me into the fandom. Feedback? Welcome.
Axiom
'A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.'
He remembers the moment he said it with distinct clarity, back then, in a younger chapter of his life. At a time and place where the essential parts of being the Master were arranged differently, but combined to serve his purpose of existence as always.
A Time Lord is an ever-changing puzzle with million pieces in various shapes that still neatly fit together after being shuffled in the blazing agony of regeneration.
Contemplating this, for once idle in his waiting for the Doctor to arrive and spring his trap, the Master chuckled darkly. His fingers tapped a forgotten staccato on his kneecap. He loved that the two of them existed contrary to the natural order of things and got even preserved as such, out of necessity. Because his regard for the Doctor, all-consuming, as much shared as fought across the universe in bitter, outraged denial... It is – singular, infinite. A fact in the flow of time.
A fact that makes both their skins crawl with the screaming feeling of wrongness. The icy touch along their spines: abomination. It ties them together as much as it repels. And the Doctor, never staying, never facing the consequences of his doing, cruelness that wants to be kindness, always running – can't see it.
"A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about," the Master muttered softly.
It didn't. Because there was no Doctor without the Master – the universe, time, space: all seeks to maintain balance. And as for himself... Well, he has a long-standing personal investment.
The sound of a TARDIS materializing reverberates through the endless halls around him. It's time to start the game anew.
End
