x x x
"I couldn't take it any longer, God I went crazy,
Then the feeling came upon me like tidal wave,
Started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave,
That I would love you 'til the end of time.
I swore I would love you 'til the end of time!"
-Meatloaf, Paradise By The Dashboard Lights.
x x x
Chapter 2: Deviation
x x x
Gwen sat nervously on the floor of Rhys' car... head covered by a coat, but she could still see him as he drove. She was hiding, because there were other 'people' around, and they all looked like this man. The Master. He hadn't explained anything to her, just that she wasn't safe here, and he'd proceeded to insist she had to hide.
She was surprised that this 'Master' would want to protect her, as she was certain any of the others would have killed her in an instant. She decided Rhys was responsible for the discrepancy, and was eternally grateful for it.
Right now, they were speeding out to the only safe meeting place she could think of... the only place she knew for certain would be abandoned, because Torchwood had made it be abandoned.
She had brought Rhys' favourite CD, and it was playing now as they drove, very fast. Meatloaf.
"Some days I pray for silence, and some days I pray for a soul, some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock-n-roll!"
He looked like he was trying to ignore the music. Gwen sighed, peering at the GPS she was holding, "We're nearly there... next right." she said clearly.
He leaned over, and pulled the coat off her, "It's all clear out here." he offered, and she sat up with a grateful- if still nervous- smile. It was eerie out here, really. She recognised the fields they drove through, and within minutes they were pulling up into the village itself.
"Remember everything that I told you, and I'm tellin' you again that it's true, you're never alone, 'cause you can put on the 'phones and let the drummer tell your heart what to do."
"You brought this CD with you because your husband liked it." he pointed out with certainty.
Gwen smiled, "Yeah, that's right. How'd you know?"
"His name was on the CD case." he said bluntly, holding up the offending object, "And the music was a bad idea." he turned it off sharply. "I have a headache now."
As he got out of the car and stalked towards the nearest building, Gwen looked at the CD case. Only one song left to go, too... but it was the one of Rhys liked the least, and she doubted Paradise By The Dashboard Lights would have helped at all, anyway.
With a sigh, she climbed out of the car and followed him.
"This place stinks." he muttered, slightly awed, as they stepped into the old pub, "Rotted corpse smell."
"Yeah... stay out of the basement." Gwen advised sagely. The police had cleaned the place out after the incident that had brought Torchwood here, but it did really stink, and the basements were where the worst of it had happened.
"I'll be in the basement, if you need me later." he said brightly. Her shocked and angry glare made him freeze, "What? I'm hungry!"
"Rotted corpse smells appetising to you?" she asked, disgusted.
"Well... no... but it's still edible."
"Please, don't." Gwen begged, trying to repress the memories of last time she'd been in this place, "Look, there's a burger stand just down the road about a mile or so. Unless the bloke who runs it turned into you and cleared it all out by now..."
His eyes narrowed, but he nodded almost submissively, "Wouldn't want to make you more nauseous than you already must be." he said almost snidely, as he stepped closer and lightly touched her belly.
She backed away almost immediately, utterly repulsed by this... this monster. "What actually happened?" she asked sharply, "How did everyone become... well, you?"
"They called it the 'Immortality Gate'." he said, shrugging and sitting down on a barstool, "Really poorly named, if you ask me. It was originally designed to heal planets, not grant everlasting life like the humans seemed to think it would. I... ah, reprogrammed it, so that it would transmit my genetic code across the Earth to everyone that registered as human."
"Where did this 'gate' thing come from?" Gwen asked, curiously.
"It's Vinvocci technology." he said idly, leaning over the bar and looking disappointed when he failed to find anything to drink there, "Wound up on Earth. Torchwood, actually." he said with a dark grin, "Joshua Naismith looted it when someone blew your base to smithereens." Gwen's eyes widened in surprise at this bit of information, and he laughed, "Oh, I love it when you do that. You look like a frightened deer, it's absolutely adorable!"
x x x
Avoid human contact, Gwen had told her. Simple rule, in theory. Bloody well damned-near impossible in practice.
Martha had just driven round to the quieter rear car-park of the UNIT base she had been dispatched from, and was now in the process of watching a couple of masked guards she needed to slip past to try to get to the storage room. Get her hands on an Indigo pack and she'd be home-free. Only way to travel as fast as she needed to, really.
The guards were far more alert and attentive than was usual, standing to attention even though there was no one else to be seen. She idly wondered for a moment if they'd had the bright idea of putting their uniforms on dummies for show, but then one of them moved. Martha scowled, and continued to wait. It was getting tedious and frustrating.
Just as she was considering ways to render them both unconscious, someone caught her from behind.
A hand over her mouth and an urgent 'shhh' hissed in her ear... then she was pulled back away from the guards and turned to face a truly terrified-looking Jack Harkness. "Martha... pinch me, slap me, maybe even kill me. This is a nightmare!" he whispered almost desperately.
Martha stared at him, wide-eyed and frightened, "What's going on, Jack?" she asked, "And what are you doing here?" even as she asked, he was leading her away from the building. Away from her teleport device, and away from any chance of getting to Gwen to help.
"I saw your car. I followed you here." Jack said quickly, dragging her into said car and as soon as they were both inside he drove off, out towards the desert.
"Jack, tell me what's going on, please!" Martha asked, confused.
"I have no idea how it happened." Jack said, and she actually looked at him now. He was so pale, clearly terrified... and if the shadows under his eyes were any indication, recently dead.
"Gwen phoned me." Martha said softly, "She said everyone had changed..."
Jack nodded once, "Sounds like what I saw." he said tensely.
"Changed how, Jack?"
He shook his head, clearly not wanting to talk about it. But then something hit the side of the car. The airbag hit Martha's face, and a splatter of blood struck her from the side, causing her to let out a muffled scream.
A particularly large truck had rammed right into the driver's side of the car. Martha wasn't injured... just shaken. She scrambled out of the car and then turned to see that Jack appeared to be terribly wounded, but not dead yet.
She had started to try to pull him out when the echo of a laser-blast rang through the air, and the windscreen shattered, sending shards of glass down onto both of them.
"It's called talking, Jack!" a terrifyingly familiar voice shouted through the night air, "Now hold still and stay alive long enough to let me talk to you!"
Martha looked up to see the Master standing on the hood of the truck, staring down at them and pointing a gun at Jack. A laser gun, she assumed. There were differences, though... for a start he was blond. That was the first thing she noticed. He'd clearly not shaved in a while, either... assuming Time Lords were in any way similar to humans in that respect.
He was dressed very strangely, too, she thought. Then again, seeing him without the suit he had apparently not changed for a over year would be strange. Like that time the Doctor wore a tux... it just looked wrong. This costume, however, was downright bizarre, and most noticeable for including a samurai sword and an old-fashioned red military jacket.
Jack cringed, closing his eyes and gasping for air. At a vague guess, Martha thought the impact of the truck had crushed a lung.
"Are you listening to me?" the Master shouted, jumping down onto the hood of Martha's car.
She shrieked in fear, but he seemed quite completely focused on Jack... who continued to refuse to look at him. Martha tried to pull him out of the driver's seat, not really caring for aggravating the wounds as she would for anyone else... Jack would just get better again.
"Oh no you don't." the Master said, laughing and shooting Jack's arm, no more than an inch from striking Martha where she had been holding him.
"Run, Martha..." Jack managed to gasp, coughing up blood as he spoke.
Martha cringed at the sight of her friend in this state, but backed away, "I'm sorry." she whispered, before turning to run away.
Another laser blast hit the ground right in front of her, as she fled, and she skidded to a halt, turning back to face the Master, "Oh, please stay for the show, Miss Martha!" he shouted after her, jumping down to the ground now and stalking towards her, "I'd hate for you to miss this!"
Martha turned slowly to face him directly, and straightened up with a sort of determined pride that kind of felt like she was walking to the gallows. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, "We saw you die!"
"Hmm... you really think I would purposefully refuse to regenerate, if I didn't have a backup plan?" he asked, smirking in amusement, before gesturing with the laser gun for her to walk back over to the car. "Come on, now... be a good girl."
She glared hatefully at him as she walked back to where Jack was still trapped.
"Look at me, Jack." the Master commanded. Jack refused, adamantly turning his head away instead. The Master rolled his eyes, sighing in exasperation, "Jason!" he shouted.
Jack's head snapped around- literally making a cracking sound as he did this- to stare at the Master in surprise. 'Jason?' Martha wondered. Was that his real name? How did the Master know, if it was?
"Look at me." the Master insisted, "Really look. Come on, now. You're a bright boy, you can figure this out can't you?"
Jack stared darkly, "No... I don't want to-"
"You know it's still me, Jack." the Master purred, leaning on the undamaged doorway of the car, and looking down so they were almost face-to-face now, "I believe- it's difficult to- to recall- to understand- the memories are faint... but..." he was hesitating here, flinching slightly, and frowning in concentration as he spoke, "...you often called me 'barely human'. It can be taken literally, as well as morally."
"No..." Jack choked, "Please no."
"Jack, what's going on?" Martha asked shakily.
"Every human on the Earth has been changed." the Master said gleefully, standing up straight and turning to face her now.
"I got that part." Martha said darkly, hating where she guessed this might be leading. And she was proved right as he continued.
"Into me." he held his hands out to the side to show off, as if she'd ever want to look at him. "I always doubted that Jack was human... I'm surprised by you, Miss Jones... but this one-" he gestured to himself, "-was just human enough to turn... but..." he twitched slightly, a hand moving up to the side of his head, "There's still... memories... emotions."
"Humanity?" Jack asked with a cold and mirthless laugh.
"Do you think this one had that psychological trait to begin with, Jack?" he asked coldly.
"Note the sarcasm." Jack hissed weakly.
This made the Master laugh, "Oh, but you know me, Jack... would the words 'dangerous obsession' sound better to you? Or can I get away with calling it true love?"
"For a sociopathic nihilist... it could be called love." Jack grumbled weakly, "But you're not him now."
"Didn't you hear me?" the Master yelled, kicking the side of the car violently, "Residual memory and emotions! Isn't that enough?"
Jack looked up at him with a coldly calculating stare, "I'd trust you less than the Master, even if you were still human." he said darkly... before smirking weakly, "But if you get me out of here and kill me cleanly so I can recover faster, I'll consider giving you one chance?"
Martha was staring in shock, having no idea what on Earth was going on.
But then without another word, the Master charged around the car, leapt up into the truck and reversed it away from her car before climbing out and pulling the driver's side door open with some effort. Jack turned to face him, only to have the Master put a hand on either side of his head and pull hard to the side, snapping his neck.
Martha shrieked, and backed away in horror, her mind starting to go numb as the Master pulled Jack's body out of the ruined car.
He looked up at her, and rolled his eyes, "You people really need to learn to listen! He asked me to kill him!" he shouted, pointing the laser at her now, "Get over here, Miss Jones. Right now." he commanded.
Reluctantly, Martha obeyed.
She had barely made it around the car, before Jack resurrected, gasping for air as always, and staring up at the Master with blatant shock.
"Well, now do you believe me?" the Master asked him idly, offering him a hand to help him stand.
Jack warily accepted the offered hand, "You look good blond." he said idly, "I think he would, too."
The Master snorted with bemusement, "One Buffy joke, I'll kill you a dozen more times."
Jack laughed nervously, "Wouldn't dream of it."
"J-Jack... what's going on?" Martha asked weakly.
"Martha... this is- used to be, I'm not quite sure- my ex-lover, John Hart." Jack glanced at her, "We were partners at the Time Agency."
"Why'd he call you Jason?" she asked, now, watching the Master- John Hart, whatever- very carefully.
"Long story..." Jack said, laughing weakly.
"It involved a weekend spent intoxicated, watching one too many twentieth century horror movies." the Master answered brightly, "The Time Agency modelled itself on the legends of the Time Lords, idolising and aspiring to be like them." he laughed, "And look at me now!" he crowed gleefully, spinning on the spot to show off the fact that he now was a Time Lord.
Jack rolled his eyes, "We never used our real names in case someone looked us up and made us cease to exist by altering our past. Completely paranoid, the lot of us." he explained, "The one movie too many might have been Freddy versus Jason. We spent our next two years at the Agency using those names as our aliases."
"Jason Voorhees?" Martha asked sceptically.
"It was funny at the time." Jack admitted, unrepentant, "It was the only alias John ever knew for me, before I left. That weekend was just after we were assigned as partners. They were going to, ah... retire him, if I hadn't agreed to work with him. So he wanted to celebrate."
"The hesitation on the word 'retire' sounds bad." Martha noted.
"Can't literally make it so a person never exited, without undoing the work they did for the Agency as well... but they can do the next best thing." the Master said bluntly, "All record of the Agent's existence is destroyed or locked in the Agency vaults. The Agent's memories are erased, and anyone who was close to them is made to forget them as well."
"That's horrible!" Martha cried.
"How much of this information is from John's memories, anyway?" Jack asked.
"Surprisingly little." the Master said bluntly. "Only the bit about your name, and how I knew it... really."
"Worrying." Jack muttered, and the Master grinned evilly at this. Jack shook his head, "What do you want, now?" he asked.
"You. Simple, isn't it?" the Master laughed, "I'll probably end up helping you if you really want me to... and you will. I know you will."
"We need to get back to Britain." Jack said bluntly, "Any... ideas...?" he trailed off as the Master had pulled up the sleeve of his coat while Jack had been asking... to reveal a wrist strap that strongly resembled Jack's own. "That still works?"
The Master grinned brightly, "Oh, yes."
x x x
The teleport brought them directly to the Brecon Beacons. Jack didn't like the choice of location, but couldn't fault Gwen on her ability to find somewhere deserted to hide out.
Or at least, Jack had thought it would be deserted.
One of the Master-clones was waiting outside a building, and waved to them as they approached, "Been expecting you." he announced, grinning maniacally, in spite of the fact that Jack now held him at gunpoint. But then he explained, "She's just inside. Quickly, now, before more of me show up."
Jack scowled at this one, unsure how to react, "And you are...?"
"Who do I look like?" he snapped, "I... just don't want to see her get hurt."
"Gwen?" Martha asked, stepping into the building the clone had indicated they enter.
Gwen's voice called out enthusiastically, "Martha! Jack! Thank god you're okay!" but then she froze as the two Master-clones followed them into the building, "Unless this one stole those clothes, Jack... I'm gonna kill him."
"I did steal these clothes, Gwenny darlin'." the John-Master- for want of a less annoying way to think of him- said cheerfully.
"Go to hell, Vera." Gwen hissed coldly.
"Nice to see you again, too." he sniped.
"Least you recognise me..." Gwen muttered darkly, but then, "Wait a minute... how do you recognise me?"
He stared at her, "Not sure." he admitted, "I blame human evolution. Curse the fifty-first century!" he laughed for half a second... but then froze, "Damn it!" he snapped, hitting the nearest flat surface with his fist, "Now I just found a logical reason to help you. I won't ever even exist if I don't."
"So who was he, then?" Jack asked, nodding to the other one.
"Rhys." Gwen admitted sadly, "Except he doesn't remember anything about being human, now." Jack frowned, but nodded slowly, completely understanding how she was so upset by it.
"We need to stop this." Jack said with determination.
"How?" both Master-clones asked together.
"Not that we don't want to help you..." John observed, "But... you've gotta admit that you're a bit outnumbered here."
"Just a bit?" the other one- formerly Rhys- laughed mockingly, "We're at about one point three billion to one, by my count!"
Martha blinked wide-eyed, "Yes? So? I beat six billion to one odds, last time!" Everyone looked at her, and she grinned smugly at the dark look both Master-clones gave her for this, "Step one. We need a plan."
Jack frowned, "Even if we don't figure one of those out, we will need the Doctor." he pointed out. Martha nodded slowly, in agreement.
"But he's being held prisoner." Gwen put in, nodding to the Master-clone that used to be her husband, clearly indicating him as the source of her information, "Somewhere in London, with the... the real Master."
"Hey, I'm still real!" the Rhys-Master pointed out, "I just... didn't feel like killing you, that's all."
"Why's that, then?" Martha asked, curiously.
"How should I know?" he defended, "Bloody human's wearing some sort of pheromone-perfume, or something!"
"No, I confiscated those when I found out Owen was using them on the pull, Friday nights." Jack said, smirking at this exchange, "I know why John's on my side though... even if I wouldn't trust him much more than the rest of your clones, right now." he added.
"I love you too." the John-Master said snidely.
"See? That's exactly why." Jack said almost smugly, earning a dark glare from John.
"So how do we get the Doctor?" Gwen asked, "If he's being held prisoner?"
"Again." Martha muttered.
"I have a plan." John said with a grin, "Jack, take off your clothes!"
x x x