Author's Note: Hi to babybluepineapple, my sole reviewer for the last chapter, thanks for the encouragement (I must have bored everyone else, lol!)
CHAPTER THREE
By the time the rosy fingers of dawn crept tentatively over the horizon, Tejana was already awake. A bubble of excitement fizzed in her chest. This is how human children must feel on Christmas morning, she thought happily. She didn't really know about that – Gallifrey had never had anything like Christmas. Or any other occasion that could remotely be called fun. Like everything else in the restrictive Time Lord society, Gallifreyan festivals had always been full of pomp and ceremony and long, dry speeches from crusty old councillors.
She stirred impatiently in the blankets, only to feel the Master's arms tightening around her in his sleep. They were lying on the ground in a pretty forest glade, the glowing remains of a camp-fire close by. She looked up at the fading night sky. Sleeping out under the stars with the Master like this reminded her of the time they had spent together in The Matrix – although, on the Eye of Orion there would be no rain or snow or thunderstorms or any of the other bizarre weather they had experienced back then. In a way, Tejana wished there would be a dramatic weather change – that at least might break the monotony. As she had originally suspected, after three months of unchanging sameness, the peace and quiet of Orion had definitely become incredibly tedious.
That was why today promised to be so exciting. The TARDIS overhaul was finally finished. She and the Master had been camping outside for two nights while the block transfer computation took effect and the interior architecture was reconfigured. Today they were going to see the results.
It had been a long and intensive process. The ancient time machine had certainly been overdue for a service, by several thousand years. The Master had been an exacting overseer, reviewing every component, every calculation, in minute detail. After many years travelling with the Doctor, Tejana was used to an extremely haphazard and spontaneous attitude to maintenance. The Master's more disciplined and meticulous approach had therefore come as a bit of a shock. For a man who generally took pleasure in spreading chaos and discord wherever he went, it was amazing how much he prized order and organisation on board his own ship.
Suddenly, she felt his hands moving over her naked skin in a long, slow caress and she realised he was awake.
"Wriggling about like that isn't going to make the sun come up any faster," he murmured sleepily. "If you wanted help to pass the time, you should just have said."
Before she could say anything, he deftly rolled her beneath him and began to kiss her insistently, his tongue deep in her mouth, his hands sliding to hold her wrists firmly above her head. Tejana shuddered in helpless response and arched towards his touch, all thought of the TARDIS slipping to the back of her mind, as a different sort of anticipation filled her, hot and urgent.
Christmas might be one exception, but there were some recreational activities that Time Lords would always be much better at than humans.
Things being what they were, the sun of Orion was fairly high in the sky by the time they eventually stood outside the TARDIS. The exterior of the time machine had metamorphosed upon their arrival on the Eye of Orion, taking on the semblance of a large oak tree and blending into the surrounding forest perfectly. Tejana was still getting used to the concept of a functioning Chameleon Circuit. Centuries of zipping around the Universe in a blue police box tended to make the fluctuating appearance of the Master's TARDIS somewhat disconcerting for her.
"Well, are you going in? Or are you waiting for me to carry you over the threshold?" the Master asked dryly.
She shot him a caustic look. "Hardly," she retorted. "Wouldn't want you to throw your back out."
He laughed mockingly and, before she could protest, lifted her easily into his arms and carried her into the TARDIS.
"Oh, very funny...not," she said crossly, as he set her none-too-gently on her feet.
But then she got her first look at the new control room and she caught her breath in wonder. Like the Doctor's TARDIS, it now had three levels - the lower area under the console, the glass platform which supported the console itself and the upper level leading to the interior rooms. But there the resemblance ended. The Doctor's TARDIS décor was all about bright colours and sparkling lights and polished copper walls. The walls of the Master's TARDIS were formed from a crystal lattice of aragonite, giving them a translucent mother-of-pearl lustre, the light reflecting and refracting gently from the nacreous surface in an ever-changing iridescent glow. Six graceful pillars crafted from transparent selenite crystal rose from the corners of the hexagonal console platform to support the roof, meeting at the top of the slender, elegant glass time-rotor column. The room was stunningly beautiful.
"Well, what do you think?" the Master enquired complacently, clearly pleased by her arrested expression. "Good, isn't it?"
"It's...absolutely amazing!" she replied in an awestruck voice. "You really are a genius."
Not one for false modesty, he merely gave a small nod, accepting her words as his due.
"And I've got something else for you," he added briefly, handing her a slim gold and silver device. "Laser screwdriver...like I've said before, who'd have sonic? You were pretty handy with mine back on Gallifrey...I thought you should have one of your own."
Tejana looked down at the screwdriver. For a moment, she had a wild urge to laugh. The gift was so typical of the Master. Other men might give their woman a bunch of flowers...the Master gave her a lethal killing device. All the same, it was exquisitely made, not as bulky as his own, more delicately crafted to fit her smaller hand perfectly.
"It's got all the same functions as your sonic, but with the laser technology as well," he told her.
"Thank you, Koschei," she said softly, thinking a little sadly of the old sonic screwdriver in her jacket pocket. It was the same one the Doctor had given to her centuries ago, when she had first run away from Gallifrey to travel with him. It was ancient and battered now, somewhat temperamental and unreliable. She had been meaning to ask the Doctor for a new one for a while, but had sentimentally kept putting it off. Now it looked like the decision had been taken out of her hands.
"So...where are we going next?" he asked, leaping up the stairs to the console. "The Diamond Coral Reefs on Kataa Flo Ko? The garden planet of Chumeria? The second moon of Ororous, to see the famous carmine ocean?"
"Anywhere but here," Tejana said fervently. "Believe me, I've had enough of the Eye of Orion to last me for quite some time!"
Wearily, Captain Jack Harkness sat down on a park bench, a newspaper-wrapped packet of chips in his hand. Sometimes he thought the world was going mad. The dwindling Torchwood team had been nearly run off their feet in the last few months. Several strange "ghost" sightings had been reported in different locations all over Britain, but by the time Jack and his team arrived, there was never anything to find. People were scared. Prime Minister Denise Riley had been on the phone to him three times already that week. Jack didn't believe in ghosts, but for now he was at a loss to explain the sightings in any other way.
Just then, his mobile phone rang.
"Yeah, Gwen?" he answered tersely. Then, after listening for a moment, he said, "No, I can't, I'm caught up here. And Mickey is already on assignment too. Yeah, I know that, but I can't be in two places at once. Get on to Martha, would you, see if we can borrow her for a bit? Yeah, thanks, talk to you later."
Putting his phone back in his pocket, Jack sighed deeply. There was no doubt about it, Torchwood was stretched much too thin these days. There was no avoiding it, he was going to have to recruit some more staff, whether he liked it or not. For a moment, his mind wandered to Tejana. Her departure had left a massive hole in his professional as well as his personal life. For a while he had clung tenaciously to the hope that she would change her mind and come back, but it didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon.
Finishing his chips, he tossed the newspaper in the bin and resolutely strode away, his long coat flapping in the breeze. Behind him, yesterday's headline stared up at the sky in bold black print:
NAISMITH DAUGHTER RESTORES FAMILY FORTUNE.
Something was wrong – very, very wrong. Tejana sat bolt upright in bed, her breathing laboured as though she had been running. The dark pressed about her, the TARDIS still deep within the sleep cycle.
She listened intently, but there was only silence. There had been a sound, she was sure, something so dreadful it had dragged her from sleep. It was gone now, but the sense of it still lingered inaudibly, like something poisonous in the air.
Had it been a nightmare? Once upon a time, those had been all too common, but since she had been travelling with the Master, her sleep had been inexplicably peaceful, almost as though the closeness of the other Time Lord had cancelled out the negative energy from her memories. It was an unlooked-for gift, but one which reassured her that she was doing the right thing, against every logical argument.
The Master! Her hand shot to the other side of the bed. It was empty, the sheets cold. She felt a surge of fear. She still didn't...couldn't...fully trust him, as much as she wanted to. There was a lot of water under the bridge. He knew that she still found it difficult, but it didn't seem to bother him. The one thing she did know for sure was that he would never intentionally harm her. Few people could say that about the Master.
And now? This strange feeling in the air and he was gone.
She slipped from the bed and wound a sheet around her naked body before quietly making her way to the TARDIS console room. He was there, sitting in the dim light emanating from the instruments. He was dressed only in a pair of hastily pulled-on trousers, his head resting in his left hand, his elbow supported by the TARDIS console.
Standing in the doorway, Tejana felt a split second of pure relief.
He just couldn't sleep, she thought, no big emergency after all.
But then she heard it and her blood turned to ice in her veins.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The fingers of his right hand were tapping on the console, a simple, repetitive, terrifying rhythm.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
A small sound, maybe, innocuous to most – but it instantly brought Tejana's universe to a screaming halt.
"No!" she gasped. "No, it isn't possible!"
His head shot up, his face strained. Even in the poor light, she could read the conflict in his expression, the war against the returning insanity which was already threatening to consume him.
"They're back," he said hoarsely, his fingers still beating out the dreaded tattoo. "The drums are back."
Louder and louder and louder.
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!
TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!
Tejana ran down the stairs to him and seized his hand. "Stop it! STOP IT!"
He grabbed her by the shoulders, his face close to hers. "It started as soon as we left the Eye of Orion, as soon as we passed beyond the psychic barrier. It's so strong, Ana, worse than ever before. It hurts so much!"
She stared at him in horror, the implications churning and tumbling in her mind.
"Koschei, it isn't possible. Rassilon is gone. He died on the Last Day of the Time War. There's nothing left – the Time Lords, Gallifrey, all of it, all gone!"
"Listen to me, Ana!" the Master gritted out. "What happened to the White Point Star? Did the Doctor ever mention it to you? Did he ever tell you what happened to it?"
Tejana's eyes widened, the awful truth suddenly sinking in. The White Point Star. An artefact of Gallifrey. An artefact of Rassilon, still on Earth.
"The Doctor destroyed the machine," the Master continued. "But the Star is indestructible."
"It must have been left," she answered, fear welling up in her throat. "It must have been left in the mansion."
"If someone picked it up, it could easily be used to resurrect Rassilon," he said bitterly. "It was the diamond from the Lord President's sceptre – all his power, all his authority resided there. More than enough to bring him back, if it was done properly."
He jumped to his feet and began to pace, cradling his head in his hands, trying to shut out the painful, insistent drum beat, trying to think!
"But who?" he demanded. "Who would be able to do it? There are only three Time Lords left. It wasn't you or I and the Doctor would never do it. So who on that backward planet would have the knowledge to perform a Time Lord resurrection ceremony?"
And then Tejana knew, in a flash of insight which left her sick to her stomach.
"The Cult of Saxon," she whispered.
He whirled around in shock. "What?"
"There are still some of them left," she explained rapidly. "They still have the Secret Books of Saxon, which you left for them with full instructions for your resurrection. Their High Priestess is Abigail Naismith."
"Who?"
Tejana clicked her tongue impatiently. The Master never bothered to retain much information about humans, unless it was going to benefit him in some way.
"The daughter of the man who owned the mansion, Joshua Naismith."
"Abigail...bringer of joy," the Master muttered sarcastically, suddenly remembering the smug little rich girl. "The girl who wanted immortality."
"Apparently, she used her family connections to get out of jail. Her father is still confined, their little empire is in ruins. She believes you can get it all back for them, when you return again," Tejana told him. "She's really into all that witchcraft mumbo-jumbo."
"So if she has the White Point Star...and the Books of Saxon..." he said slowly.
Tejana's face paled, her cheeks ashen. "Oh stars...she thinks she's bringing you back, but instead..."
"Rassilon!" the Master finished grimly.
"But...the catalyst? I don't know much about resurrections, but won't they need Rassilon's biometric signature?"
"No, because the White Point Star is of Gallifreyan origin – there's no need for a biometric signature," he replied briefly. "The Star is enough on its own. Whatever they use, the result will still be the same."
Just then, a sonorous clanging began, deep within the bowels of the TARDIS.
The Master groaned, running a hand jerkily through his blonde hair. "The cloister bell. This just keeps getting better and better. All I need now is a strings section and I'll have a full orchestra in my head!"
"We have to get back to Earth," Tejana said urgently. "We have to stop this from happening. If he manages to smash open the Time Lock, all hell is going to break loose."
