Voodoo child.
Here come the drums, but when one of the Doctor's most trusted allies finds herself on the wrong side, will she be able to infiltrate the Master's schemes and save his victims even though she's one herself?
AS WITH MOST MASTER/R FICS, THERE IS A CURRENT OF NON-CON, DEATH AND VIOLENCE UNDERLYING THIS STORY.
If that disturbs you, then please read on with caution. There won't be anything graphic unless it's consensual, but there will be mentions of it every now and again.
Rated M for strong language, dark themes and possible consensual sexual descriptions later on in the story.
The skies above London.
19th September 2007
The woman turned away from the windows lining the walls of the Valiant just as the elevator on the other side of the room pinged, telling her that someone was coming, and it didn't take a genius to work out whom. She sighed and began the descent on to the main deck, taking her time, watching the doors slide open to reveal the newly-elected Prime Minister of Great Britain (and certified nutcase), along with three of his... "Little Friends", hovering lazily around his head like a child's mobile.
Harry smiled widely and held his arms out in a fake hugging motion, whilst the woman just managed to resist the urge to smack him around the head with a rounders bat, instead smiling in a fairly convincing manner. Lifting the hem of her revealing scarlet dress to stop herself from falling, she reached the bottom step and waited.
"Rose," he crowed, striding quickly across the centre of the deck to reach his wife, the Toclafane remaining in the lift as the doors slid shut. Wrapping her in a bear hug once he did, he kissed the side of her forehead. "Do you like it? I hope you do, we'll be spending lots of time here soon... as you very well know."
Harry kissed her visible collarbones and buried his face in the crook of her neck as he spoke the last five words. When Rose remained unresponsive, he sighed, covered her hands- which had been flaccid at her sides- and moved them until they rested loosely at his waist, before moving his own until he held her by the dip at the bottom of her back.
"That's better now, isn't it?" He whispered, hands moving down little by little.
"Harry, don't." When he ignored her, she tried to back away, but he pressed her closer to him. "No, I'm not feeling well." Rose looked away and lied as Harry looked up, knowing that he was gentler when she was ill.
Well, most of the time, anyway. Sometimes, when he was bored of waiting for the Tardis to be ready, nothing would stop him and she'd have to lie there and take it if she wanted to survive the night, only moving when he'd fallen asleep so she could clean herself up.
"One of your headaches?"
"Yeah," Rose whispered as he raised an eyebrow. "One of my headaches."
Looking disappointed, Harry sighed dramatically and turned around, walking back towards the elevator, motioning for her to follow. Once she did, he pressed the button to bring it to that level.
"We should get you some medicine for them, you're even worse than me. At least I'm insane; yours are just annoying... and inconvenient. So inconvenient, in fact, that I'm beginning to suspect that you put them on." As he finished talking the lift arrived, so he grabbed Rose and pulled her in with him.
The toclafane had gone, thankfully- something in Rose recognised them, some primal part of her that she refused to remember, but she couldn't deny that they were wrong and out of their time and shouldn't exist. She never told anyone that, obviously, because then they really would think she was crackers, even more so than they already did, what with her headaches and her dreams and the way she would sneak off to see the Tardis even though she knew Harry would hit her when he found out- which he always did, because he had too many people scared of him for him not to.
(Rose couldn't imagine what they'd think of her if they knew about who Harry really was.)
Harry looked at her disdainfully and she remembered that he was accusing her- of something she was actually doing, but still.
"Why would I do that?" she scoffed, staring at the glowing button on the elevator panel instead of at him.
"So that you can hold me off until your pathetic boyfriend arrives to try and save the day." Harry said cheerfully, jerking forward slightly as the lift shifted a few inches, before gliding slowly. "Don't treat me like I'm thick, ape. I know when you're lying."
Rose shook her head slowly, meeting his eyes when she spoke again.
"The Doctor's not my boyfriend. He never was, as you know."
"Oh yes, I forgot, he didn't love you enough, did he... did I tell you about his new companion? These headaches make me forget." Harry said conversationally.
"I don't-" Rose stopped as the elevator did, waiting until they had stepped into the below-deck Teleport Park before speaking up. "You know that you did." She finished quietly as they began walking towards one of the larger teleports, less than a few inches of space inbetween them.
"Oh no, but I don't- that's the whole point, silly. Did I tell you that she was a trainee Doctor?"
"Yes."
"And that she had a little crush on the actual Doctor?"
"Yes."
"And that she was pretty?"
"Yes."
"Did I mention how she wasn't some uneducated chav from a council estate where you're more likely to have an ASBO than an A-level?"
Rose nodded.
"And did I mention that-"
"YES!" she shouted, exasperated.
Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her to the cool concrete wall behind them, shouting in her face as she held back a scream of pain. Feeling a sticky warmth at the back of her head, Rose tried to lift a hand towards it, but Harry moved his hands until he had her by the wrists, almost crushing the thin bones.
"Don't- you- dare- shout at me, you thick- is it my fault that he left you?" He growled, breath ghosting over her eyelids as she shut her eyes tightly. "Don't blame me because he didn't love you- just like Mickey never loved you, or Jack, or Jimmy."
"That's why you were so clingy, isn't it? He reminded you of Jimmy," he continued, ignoring her struggling and whispered no's, trying to look at her eyes even as she kept them closed. "All those dreams and the travelling and the excitement, keeping you on your toes. At least Stone gave you a good fuck every now and then, whereas your precious Doctor didn't even like you in that way."
"You're wrong." Rose cried, finally opening her eyes to look the Master- in all his mad glory- straight on. "That's why he left me behind, because he didn't want to see me die."
Silence passed for a few seconds, and then he smiled, a truly terrifying one- it wasn't mad, or insane, just a small quirk of the lips on one side. It was the smile of a man who knew who was winning but still insisted on keeping his cards close to his chest. He leant close to Rose's right ear before whispering gleefully.
"You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart."
He removed his hands from her, letting her fall to the ground as blood congealed in her hair from where her head had hit the wall. Gazing at her derisively, he waited until she tried to stand up until pushing her back towards the lift.
"And get yourself to the Medical room quickly, you're an absolute state. I'll wait here. Be back in twenty minutes or I'll come for you- I want to get back to London."
That night, as Harry (or the Master, or whoever else he was channelling at that moment) lay sleeping and sweaty and satisfied, next to her, Rose remembered the events that had led her into this way of life that she had never wanted- even stuck on Krop Tor, never to see her mum or anyone she had known for the rest of her life hadn't been as dismal as this. At least then she'd had the Doctor, whereas now... she had no-one.
No-one even knew she was alive.
The Powell Estate
2 hours after the Battle of Canary Wharf
"What, so you're just going to leave me here? After everything?" Rose shouted at the Doctor, not caring as tears began to run down her face. "After I left everyone so that I could stay with you, like I promised?"
Even from across the room, she could hear him swallowing. If the lump in his throat was as restricting as hers, then no wonder.
"I can't – can't just stand next to you, Rose, whilst you keep giving everything up for me. You're twenty and I've ruined you. Wait-"he said, sensing that she was about to interrupt. "Jackie's in another universe, Mickey's long gone, and all the people you grew up with are now years older than you because I can't even land in the right time anymore."
"Then why are you leaving me here with them?" Rose whispered, walking towards him slowly. He held out his hands to keep her back.
"Because it shouldn't be like that. I can't get you back to Jackie, and I'm sorry for that, I'm so, so sorry for that, but at least you can meet up with your friends. You can have a normal life again." The Doctor turned back to the Tardis, Rose's key clutched tightly in his hand, and only stopped for a moment when Rose called him.
"But I don't want a normal life. I want you. I want to travel with you."
"I'm sorry."
The Tardis door shut behind him and a few seconds later the whole thing was dematerializing, but she didn't watch. If he decided to look on the console, he wouldn't even see her cry.
I'll put this here in case anyone has any questions.
- Rose is left by the Doctor in early 2007, because she met the D in 2005, and then he landed wrong and they were missing for a year. Until last year, I just always thought that series 2 took place in 2006, but I don't think it could- I'm pretty sure that Series 2 should be set in 2007, which is also when Series 3 is set (which the Doctor said in Human Nature). So, by my working, the Master would have been on Earth from late 2005/early 2006...whatever, maths isn't my strongpoint, but he WOULD have arrived when Rose was missing.
This won't be updated until at least the 21st, because my internet won't be working until then... and I'm not always the most regular of updaters for WIPs anyway. Whoops. But please review anyway, just because we all love a little master fic every now and again (even though it won't be that little- I'm aiming for at least 20 chapters).
Chloe xxx