A bell rang from somewhere outside the barracks, and the room came to life. Soldiers rolled out of the beds and threw on their uniforms before heading to the mess hall where a meager selection of tough food waited to be eaten.
Rose Tyler adjusted her uniform before tying her blond hair back and shoving the standard red cap onto her head. Her hazel eyes were devoid of any make up, and they had been for months even before signing up to keep an eye on the Valiant for Torchwood.
"Ready?" asked a man's voice as she stooped to tie her issued black boots. She turned her head up to give the man her signature tongue in teeth grin as she finished one foot and moved to the other.
"Just about, what about you?" He nodded and grinned back. Her companion was an average-looking man, and looked the part of a soldier to the letter. His dirty blond hair was so short it almost looked buzzed; he had green-blue eyes, a nice smile, and an ever-so-light dusting of freckles across his nose. He tossed her a green apple and a couple strips of jerky as she straightened up. "Grabbed you some food in case there was none left by the time you got there. I swear some of those guys could eat a mountain!"
Rose chuckled and dug her teeth into the apple, taking her weapon down off the wall and slinging it over her shoulder as they exited the barracks. "I take it you've eaten already, then?" He nodded.
"Unlike some people, I don't sleep late," he teased. Rose elbowed him, rolling her eyes and taking another bite before speaking.
"Right, because four in the morning is sooo late. How do you even get up earlier than that, Trent? I swear you're insane!" Trent laughed and gave wrapped an arm around her, shaking her lightly.
"Anyone remotely interesting is mad in some way or another, Rose." Out of the corner of her eye, Rose gave him a sly look.
"Are you implying that you're interesting?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Are you implying that I'm not?" She bit her lip to hide a grin, but didn't answer. "Well? Are you?" Trent pressed.
"I would answer that, but I don't want to damage your ego."
"Oi! Come on, I can take it!" Rose shrugged.
"Compared to some men I've met, you could be more 'interesting' for sure." She saw Trent's indignant face and burst out laughing. She was forced to stop and lean against the wall for a few minutes, burying her face in her hands to try and contain herself.
"I'll have you know," Trent said after she had reduced her laughter to the occasional giggle, "that I am very interesting to some women! Just because you have higher standards in interest because you met a time traveler doesn't mean I'm boring!"
Rose started to laugh again, happy tears leaking from the corner of her eye when she heard how indignant he was. When she saw his facial expression upon hearing her reaction, she laughed even harder, her whole body shaking.
"Stop laughing!" Trent pouted, making her laugh all the harder. "Stop it, you're hurting my feelings!" When Rose continued to laugh he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. By this time she was curled up on the floor and holding her ribs, her military issue gun lying by the wall. After a while, Trent looked at his watch and yelped.
"Blimey, Rose, we've got to get going! They're on air in an hour!" This quieted Rose down considerably, gathering up her weapon and the rest of her breakfast and eating it quickly. She started down the hallway before Trent's voice made her stop.
"Well, now I know how to get you moving." She turned around, confused, and now it was his turn to hold back a grin.
"What do you mean?" she asked her tone full of bewilderment. Trent chuckled.
"We woke up at four in the morning, Rose. I know it's hard to believe, but you haven't been laughing for three hours." Rose glared at him.
"One day, Trent, one day I am going to get you." After that, they both headed up the hallway.
Rose stood with her feet shoulder length apart on one side of the main stairs that led to the balcony. She held her gun across her chest in a relaxed but ready position. Trent stood the same way on the other side of the stairs.
Across the hall the door opened to admit the first guests, and Rose examined them subtly. The man seemed to have an air of mock seriousness about him, and as soon as they were in he proceeded to mock the President. He was brushed off and made his way to the leather seats around the table with his plus one, possibly his wife.
"All armed personnel will exit the room," Winters stated with that clipped tone he seemed to use for anything and everything. Rose walked out the door, passing three casually dressed guests on the way out. She felt Trent leaning over her shoulder.
"Guard the doors," he breathed, and she gave an imperceptible nod. They placed themselves in the shadows, slipping small chains holding perceptive filters around their necks as they did so. No untrained eyes would notice they were there, and the only trained eyes Torchwood knew of were in their facilities.
Every now and then, Rose caught words from the President's speech. Soon he finished, and she heard the faint buzzing noise that announced the arrival of the Toclafane.
"Where's… Master?" Rose frowned at the child-like voice of the Toclafane. What the hell was a master?
"…adopt mastery… God's will."
"Stupid… Master is our friend!" Rose shifted her gun slightly, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Trent do the same. She moved closer to the door so as to hear better.
".. is it my capacity to laugh at myself? I dunno, it's crazy!" She frowned. What was Saxon going on about? Evidently the president shared her thoughts as well.
"Saxon, what are you talking about?" The president demanded. Rose opened the door a crack and peeked through. Saxon had his back to the door, and the president stood on the balcony, the Toclafane hovering about him.
"I'm taking over, Uncle Sam," Saxon stated, his voice cold. "Starting with you. Kill him." He directed the last comment at one of the Toclafane, and it immediately obliged, swooping forward and hitting the president in the chest with a red beam of light. With a cry of shock and pain, the president was reduced to fluttering ashes.
"We need to get in there," Trent hissed into her ear. He had come to stand behind her sometime during the exchange, and she opened the door and slipped inside with him following behind.
Saxon, or apparently the Master, Stood in the same place as a dead man had not two minutes before. "Now then!" He cried, and he had the air of one who was immensely enjoying a trick he had played on a friend. "People of the Earth, listen carefully! STOP HIM!" A man had rushed forward and was now restrained by two men. Rose gasped.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
"Rose? Rose, what is it?" Trent asked urgently, but Rose couldn't find the words to reply.
"We meet again, Doctor." The master laughed to himself. "I love saying that!"
"Rose, are you alright?" Trent's whispered voice in her ear meant nothing.
"It's him," Rose whispered.
"Stop this! Stop it NOW!" the Doctor cried, and Rose felt her breath catch.
"Rose, I think he can see us…" Trent whispered, and an edge of uneasiness was in his voice.
"As if perception filters were going to work on me," the Master scoffed. His gaze landed on Jack Harkness and a dark young woman Rose didn't know. "And look, it's the freak and the girly. Though I'm not sure which is which," he mused and Jack rushed forward, only to be shot down by a beam of light from something in the Master's hands.
"Laser screwdriver," he explained to the Doctor. "Who'd have sonic? And the best part is he won't stay dead! I get to kill him again!" He sounded positively joyful. The dark woman was bent over Jack' body, and sure enough, he was showing signs of life.
"Master, just calm down," the Doctor pleaded, and Rose bit her lip. She had never seen the Doctor beg for anything, and she didn't want to. "If you could see yourself…" However the Master was ignoring him.
"Oh do excuse me, just a bit of personal business," he said to the camera, addressing the population. "Back in a minute. Let him go," he said to the guards, and the Doctor fell and caught himself on his hands before standing his knees once more.
"That drumming, that sound in your head, what if I could help?" the Doctor asked, trying to buy time for Jack, his dark companion, and the world.
"How to shut him up?" the Master asked himself, obviously weary of the Doctor's pleading. "I know!" He pointed his laser screwdriver at the Doctor's kneeling form and made to press the button, when several large bangs shook the air around them. The Master's head snapped around to look for the source of the noise, and when he saw it a manic grin spread across his face.
Rose's gun was pointed straight upwards, and there were a few small holes in the first layer of the ceiling. "Don't you dare hurt him," she said her voice low and menacing.
"Or what?" the Master asked, seeming genuinely curious. Rose didn't answer. The master looked at the Doctor, then back at her. "Do you know her?"
The Doctor had spun around at the sound of her voice, and she looked away from the Master for just a moment to see horror written across his face. The Master chuckled and crouched down beside him, looking between the kneeling Doctor and Rose.
"You do know each other!" He cried. He waved at a couple of nearby guards. "Bring her over here, boys, this could be good!"
Rose backed up until she hit a wall, and she lowered the gun barrel to chest height. "Go ahead and try," she snarled at them, and they approached her, confidently at first, until she shot one in the shoulder. After that little incident, they were a little more cautious.
"Trent, get out of here and inform Torchwood!" Rose yelled when she saw him hesitate, she lowered her guard for a split second to scream at him. "GET OUT!" A moment later there was a flash of blue and he was gone.
During all this, the Doctor had grabbed the dark woman and given her hurried whispered instructions. She held Jack's vortex manipulator in her hands and tears ran down her cheeks. Rose continually moved her gun between the three men advancing on her, keeping one eye on them and one on the Master. He was taunting the young woman.
"Ah, the would-be doctor," he crooned. "But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in! All the way from prison!" He gestured to the door, where two women and a man stood with their hands tied in front of them. They must be her family.
One of the men made a sudden lunge and grabbed one of her arms, and she fired a shot into the ground, it drew the attention of many of the room's occupants, and Jack echoed Rose's earlier cry. "Go! Get out of here, Martha! GO!" and she was gone.
Now they had the Master's attention all to themselves. By this time Rose had been restrained, and in the minor scuffle her cap had fallen to the floor and her uniform was askew. Tendrils of her hair framed her face, and she was bleeding from a small cut on her lip. She fought on for a short while, but fell into a sort of daze when on of them gave her a sharp punch to her chin, snapping her head back. She went limp. The two guards dragged her forward so that she was beside her Doctor, and he hurled himself towards her as she was released, cradling her in his arms.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair, gently kissing her forehead and rocking her slightly. He was hauled back roughly and restrained by two guards as Rose fell to floor, just barely catching herself before her nose smashed into the ground.
"She's strong," the Master mused to himself. "It's quite impressive. You definitely choose the spunky ones, don't you, Doctor?" He started down the stairs from the balcony, jumping the last few stairs and kneeling on the same level as Rose. "I wonder…" he began, addressing himself. Then his hands shot forward and landed on each of her temples, and before Rose could try to push the unwelcome contact away her mind exploded.
Images, swirling colors and a multitude of sounds ravaged her mind, delving into the darkest corners and tormenting them. The Master forced images from the Time War into her head, the screams and cries of the helpless merging with the endless pounding of the drums of war. He showed her the fall of Arcadia, the burning of countless planets that were forever lost, fire and rage and hate and fear and cold and hot and wind and rain and thunder and lightning and turmoil…
Ever so faintly she could hear the Doctor screaming, screaming at the Master to stop, his voice just one more of countless others pleading for mercy, just another far off desperate cry for something else, anything, take him hurt him instead, please, he was begging…
The Doctor's voice grew more and more prominent, the scenes from the Time War being shoved away by something else in her mind, something far stronger and more powerful that Rose didn't know.
It built walls, walls of bolted steel to keep out these images and sounds, freeing her mind from the Master's power. Suddenly the Master stopped pushing, and Rose could see what was actually happening around her once more.
The Doctor had been gagged with his own tie, but he still tried to cry around it, and his face was written over with the pain and anguish of someone who had seen terrible things, someone who had done terrible things. His eyes were wide and frightened, and his face was pale and a tear dripped slowly down one side of his face. He had stopped struggling for a moment, and the Master was grinning at him.
"I showed her the Time War," he said, standing up, and if was possible the Doctor looked more pained than before. "I showed her what you did. The burning, the cries and screams, the rage…" he trailed off, letting the Doctor's tortured mind envision the rest. The Master leaned in close before continuing to speak in a gleeful tone "And she pushed me out! Not her, herself," he gestured to Rose, "but the thing inside her! The Time Vortex is still in there somewhere Doctor, and I am going to have so much fun testing it. I'll even let you watch!" He straightened up and said to the guards, "Bring him up here, he can watch my children destroy his precious Earth."
The Doctor stubbornly refused to move, instead trying to make his way to Rose to see if she was alright. If anything happened to her here, it would be his fault, and he was not going to see her harmed on his account. When the Master took notice of his efforts, he rolled his eyes and pointed his laser screwdriver in her direction. He let out a beam and it caught Rose squarely in the chest.
Her reaction was instantaneous. Her eyes flew wide open and she fell to the floor, but she did not have the time to scream because the pain was gone as soon as it came. The Master glared at the Doctor reprovingly, keeping his toy trained on Rose. "Listen or she'll get more," he scolded, and the Doctor allowed himself to be hauled to his feet and marched up the stairs to stare out the window.
The Toclafane poured out of a jagged hole in the sky, swarming down to the Earth in droves. "Kill one-tenth of the population," the Master ordered, and the Toclafane flew to carry out his order.
"And so it came to pass that the human race fell…" the Master began, and he threw an arm around the Doctor's shoulders. "And the Earth was no more. And I looked down on my dominion and I thought it good."
The Doctor stared unseeingly at the swarms of Toclafane, the fires burning down below, the smoke filling the skies, the screams of the injured and the dying, and he felt his hearts break. He had sent the Master to this time period and in doing so had caused all this.
"Isn't it wonderful?" the Master whispered.
A/N: So there it is, the first chapter of my very first Doctor Who fic. Please tell me what you think, and (as always) reviews are love!