Author's Notes: So, I wasn't planning on even having the prologue written until next weekend, as I wanted to get Alice's story written … but she developed cold feet (maybe literally … when I woke up this morning, it wasn't even forty degrees). Koschei, on the other hand, had plenty to say. He has promised to explain why his later self didn't recognize/remember Jack at another time. Also, this is the Master as played by Anthony Ainslie (who is my favorite Master, although Michelle Gomez' Missy is growing on me). I absolutely loved him in The Five Doctors. I've also incorporated some of the actual Miracle Day revelations in this, but chose another explanation. One that I think (hope) makes a little more sense. This story will also see the revelation of the ultimate force behind the Families … and it wouldn't surprise me if a few of you have already guessed it. Master of the Game follows not just the recently-completed Dite's Favor, but also Riding the Storm Out. This takes place about two months after Riding the Storm Out and nearly eight months after Dite's Favor. So. In this prologue, we have the Miracle (or more properly, Abomination) being conceived.

Disclaimer: Captain Jack Harkness, Esther Drummond, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, John Hart, Suzie Costello, Angelo Colasanto, Rassilon, the Master (in all his incarnations), the Doctor (ditto), and the Families do not belong to me (not that I'd claim the Families). They belong to the BBC and Starz. Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor, Pepper Potts, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanova, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and all things Avengers do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel. Lucas North also doesn't belong to me, he belongs to Kudos by way of Spooks/MI-5. Anyone you don't recognize (such as the Tregarths, et al), on the other hand, do belong to me. You can borrow them … please just ask first, and return them intact.

Prologue

From a Certain Point of View

New York City, New York

1928

The artron energy was what drew him to this ape settlement … to watch as a young man was murdered over and over by his own kind. The boy was an immortal … in a manner of speaking, at least. He watched clinically as the young man's blood was collected. And these were the beings the Doctor was so desperate to save! He shook his head, disgusted. But he watched. And he saw what others missed, including the arrival of three apes, who bought that collected blood. Hmm. Interesting. He watched long enough to see a much younger man cut down the immortal, tenderly cleaning him, and then turned his attention to the three newcomers.

It took him very little time indeed to find them, but in that time, he'd put together a proposal and a plan. While the Doctor was inordinately fond of his human pets, he himself had become enchanted by Earth itself. It wasn't Gallifrey, no, but there was only one Gallifrey. However, if you got rid of the humans … well. He and the Doctor weren't the only troublemakers among the Time Lords. If he got rid of the apes, this could be a lovely colony for those who weren't good little Time Lords and Ladies … or just wanted to be left alone. Thus, he approached the men who collected the blood of the immortal with that proposal and plan. He knew of a place where that blood would do the most good … or bad. And, when the time was right, he could make them masters of this planet. What did it cost him? Why, nothing … nothing at all. No, all they had to do was follow him to the gap in the world, and he could help them put things into motion.

Immortality could be a Blessing or a Curse. It all depended on your perspective. Or, to use a phrase that would become known in a set of movies, fifty years from now, 'the truths we cling to depend very much on our point of view.' And he had with him some Gallifreyan technology that, along with the gap and the artron-soaked blood, could make every human being on this planet immortal. Oh, it wouldn't turn them into a Fact, like the young man he'd seen murdered over and over again. But it would make them immortal. It would take only a short time for resources to run out, and when it did … when it did, he would turn off the machine that turned up the human radio to full blast … and every last ape, aside from this Fact, would die (and arrangements would need to be made for the Fact … perhaps he could be recruited?).

Not that he told his new partners-in-crime that, of course. They would die as well. But for now, he would let them believe that they were in control. They weren't. Because people like that, people so impressed with their own superiority and intelligence were among the easiest to lead. There was only one thing he told them the truth about … well. The whole truth, at least, and that was his name. When one man asked his name, he answered truthfully, "Among my people, we have many names. Names have power, you see. But you can know me by the name I chose for myself, how my people and my best enemy know me. I am the Master."

TBC