Author's Note: This fic is moving right along, in the strangest direction possible! I'd like to dedicate this one to MichaelaRBrown. Thanks for loving my angst!

Warnings: Dark imagery, cursing, ANGST

Rewrite

'Chapter Seven'

I awoke to bright lights, and a familiar silhouette. I groaned aloud and thought that this was not something I wanted to get used to.

"I feel like this happens too often." The words were hard to form and my mouth felt dry and stuck together. I tried to lift a hand to touch my throbbing head, but I couldn't. My eyes popped open and I shot up, or tried to. There was a hand on my chest, forcing me back down, and I found that both hands were bound to the bed.

"What the hell is going on?" I snarled, still squinting against the lights at the figure of who I could only assume was the Doctor.

"Just a precaution." The Doctor's voice was quiet, and his hands were gentle as they moved over my body and checked my vitals. There was a monitor beside the bed, giving off a low hum and beeping every so often. I tugged at the cuffs that bound me again and noticed a soft glow, and a stinging each time I tugged too hard.

"A precaution for what? Bondage? Doctor, you only had to ask…"

The Doctor scoffed at me, and I watched the outline lift up a hand, and there was a click and suddenly I could see again. My vision came back to me in broken bits, as if I was viewing a puzzle and I was missing most of the important pieces. I gave another groan, and tried my wrists one more time, as if the cuffs would have fallen off in the last five minutes.

"Your attitude isn't really helping you." The Doctor muttered as he stood beside the bed, staring at the monitor and tapping a few buttons occasionally.

"Oh, and this is? Being cuffed—painfully—to a bed, and you tell me it's my attitude?" I snapped at him as I struggled to sit up as far as I could. I took a moment to glance down at my bindings and I saw a thin and glowing band of purple that sank into a blocky bit of metal and a fine chain that connected the cuffs. I gave another tug, and yelped as the thin and glowing band burned my skin.

"Bollocks! Is this your subtle torture? Burning me until I give up?"

The Doctor ignored me again. He seemed to be very good at that, though I was not good at being ignored. I glared at the side of his head, and those stupid spectacles as he narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer to the monitor.

Maybe if I started with small questions… "Doctor? What happened?" I asked, as politely as I could while gritting my teeth against the low thread of constant pain that I felt pulsing at my wrists.

There was a long silence. Longer than I liked or would have expected from the good Doctor. It seemed like an eternity before he spoke to me again, though his eyes never found my face.

"You tried to escape."

Ah. Yes, I remembered. I chuckled lightly, "You know, I wasn't really trying-"

"Shut up." The intensity of those two words cut my sentence short, "I don't need a threat like you running around my ship. I tried to trust you. Tried to give you the space you wanted, and you lied."

"Doctor..." I tried for a gentle tone, but those eyes swung back towards me and all of my words were stolen from the look in twin pools. Contempt, distrust, pain and disappointment.

"No. No, I am done trusting you, Master. You'll stay right here, chained up to this bed like a dog until I figure out what…this thing is." And his eyes turned back to the monitor, his fingers tapping at the screen as if that would work in his favor.

"Kinky."

I knew from the tone in his voice that there was no begging I could do to get out of this. I had used up the good graces I had when I tried to stumble my way… Where had I been going? I could remember a tiny voice speaking around the drums… What had it said? I remembered pain, and then blackness, and I awoke chained to the bed. Sounded like a typical night for a Timelord, really…

"Could you tell me what's wrong, anyway? I'd like to know what's eating me from the inside out."

He scoffed at my comment and turned to face, swinging the monitor on its elbow hinge so I could better see the black and red and blue and purple scan of my brain. My eyes took note of the numbers and the readings, and I couldn't help but be a little pleased at seeing my brain with readings that were higher than normal, even for a Timelord… Though there was a spot… A small spot…

"D'you see what I do? That spot, right there on your hippocampus? It doesn't exist."

I stared at the Doctor's profile, with my brow lifted, "Excuse me?"

"It's not a mass, it's not grey matter, and it's not a tumor. It simply does not exist.

"Well, since I have the ability to process and recall my memories, Doctor, I think it does exist."

The Doctor shrugged, "I was only sharing what I've found, or…Haven't found. Truly remarkable…" He murmured as he nearly pressed his nose up to the glass of the monitor. "Have you lost any time? Memories, and what not?"

"Well, if I lost a memory, I wouldn't know I had it to begin with, would I?" I snapped, feeling a little more than anxious as the strange cuffs burned deeper into my skin.

The Doctor was quiet for a moment, "Okay, fair enough… Think about a memory." He asked as his hand came towards me. I stared at the appendage as if it were poison, and I tried to move away as best I could, but to no avail. His hand slipped behind my head, pressing against the swell of my skull. His fingers touched over a spot that felt both numb, and like fire, and it made me hiss, though I couldn't bring myself to speak, to tell him to stop.

After a moment, the pressure past, and I drew a cleansing breath. The Doctor seemed to not pay attention to my reaction, instead choosing to look over the monitor as he asked again, "A memory. Something strong."

I had thought to think about the rolling red fields of Gallifrey, though at the thought of red, another memory came to the front of my skull and I hadn't called it there. I had closed my eyes, and now I saw him on the back of my eyelids. The pale and bloody and smiling image of the phantom Doctor.

He looked more garish than before with sunken cheeks and great hollow holes where his eyes should have been that burned with sickly fire. The grin that stretched across his mouth was too wide for the brittle skin and his bones looked ready to tear through his skin, like brittle pages in a book. Though it was a memory, a smell began to invade my nostrils. The rank smell of rotting meat and clotted blood and of sorrow so bitter I began to choke.

'Gotcha.' The figure winked at me, and even in my memories I couldn't escape the ghost of what I had done. I watched the figure wander through the blank slate of my memories as casually as a man in his own home might.

My lips had been sealed shut, and each time I tried to scream and choke on the air around me, it came out muffled as if the air was burning through my nostrils and igniting my lungs with the smell of decay.

I was lost in myself, and distantly I knew I was still strapped to the table, and that I was thrashing and choking and that my eyes were wide open, but I could not see anything but the cruel figure in front of me. The phantom approached me, and drug a hand across my cheek and my breath hitched as I felt something thick, and cold begin to roll down my cheek.

I watched as the Doctor began to rot in front of me, still grinning even when the skin of his cheeks began to slough off, and the smell became stronger.

'Enjoying yourself?'

His voice came out strong, and clear, and part of my brain knew that was wrong. I felt like a child, all tucked into bed and no one had checked for the monsters that I knew were there.

I fought to scream again, and all I could hear was his laughter, and suddenly I could see again. I felt hands on my shoulders, and I heard the Doctor's voice, the real Doctor, calling my name to try and bring me back from the edge of the abyss.

I drew my first breath, and it was ragged and deep and it made my lungs ache. I coughed, and cried, and wheezed and took gulping breaths through my mouth so I wouldn't have to smell that wretched smell that clung to the hairs in my nose as if the corpse was sitting right next to me.

The Doctor looked as shaken as I felt. The fingers of one hand rested on the back of my neck, while the other gripped my upper arm so hard it hurt. I made a noise, and the Doctor released me, as if sensing the pain I was in.

"I have never seen anything like that before in my life." He spoke with awe stringing his words together, and his eyes never left my face. I thought it a little funny, that he couldn't keep his eyes off of me now. Before, it was all he could do to look away.

I managed a smile, though it felt weak, "I do have a fantastic brain." I croaked, turning my head to cough again.

He shook his head, and reached up to grab the monitor, showing me the image of my brain. "That little spot of nothing expanded to cover nearly your entire brain. When it reached your brainstem, you stopped breathing, and… I couldn't wake you… What memory did you find?"

I heard fear creep into his voice at the end, and he looked lost as he stared at the monitor. What memory could possibly make the Master ache so much? I saw the question flicker across his eyes before he gave the monitor a shove and sent it back to the side of the bed. I watched him run his hands through his hair, twisting the locks between his fingers and I had the urge to lift my hand and make him stop.

Good thing I was chained up. I shook my head at his question, "That's none of your business, Doctor. If it helps, I tried to think of Gallifrey… And then my thought got side tracked."

Hijacked was more like it, but I still couldn't bring myself to tell the Doctor that I was being haunted by his ghost. It just didn't sound right, and it certainly didn't feel right. I watched him ponder, and eventually his hands fell away from his hair, and me removed the hand from the back of my neck, along with a flesh colored disc, about the size of my thumb.

I watched him tuck the little pad into his pocket, and then pass a hand over my wrists, giving a hiss and jerking his hand away as he touched the slender purple beam.

"Yeowch! Let me get Jack down here to uncuff you—I had no idea they were plasma… I'm sorry."

I couldn't stop myself, "Plasma cuffs? Bloody—Are you trying to do me bodily harm?! Why would you ever let Jack cuff me with anything in the first place!" I yelled as I strained my wrists against the cuffs, smelling the stink of singed hair and slowly burning flesh.

"Calm down! Stop yelling!" The Doctor shouted over me as he moved to the far wall, to a small panel with sleek buttons to the side and a screen about the size of my palm. He held a button down, and spoke into the monitor.

"Jack? You in the kitchen?"

There was a moment of silence as the Doctor waited patiently, flashing me a grin that was entirely inappropriate for the situation. The screen flicked then, and I saw a small image of Jack's face, mostly his eyes and his mouth.

"Yeah. You want anything while I'm down here? I found some blue stuff that's pretty good. Not sure what it is…"

I watched the Doctor shake his head, "No, ah…Could you come back to the infirmary? I need those cuffs removed from the Master."

"What?! Why! He tried to run off! You're asking me to let a dangerous psychopath loose on your ship. Doc, I just don't think—"

"Then don't think, Jack." The Doctor cut him off coolly and I felt my hearts give a little flutter, "I will take care of whatever happens…. Trust me."

How he managed to do it, I had no idea, but with those two simple words, Jack severed the connection with a soft noise, and the Doctor turned back to me. "You'll be free in a jiff… I really am sorry about that. I wanted you contained, but not like that."

"Oh?" I lifted a brow, "Not like how? Tied to a bed, or cuffed with something volatile?" Just then, I had a thought, "Doctor, why don't you sonic them undone?"

"Can't. Plasma and sonic doesn't mix."

"… Why?"

The shrug I received said it all. I wondered if he ever really knew what he was talking about… In no time at all, Jack was there, looking flustered and irritated as he brushed past the Doctor to reach for my wrists.

"Just so you know, blondie, I think you should stay right where you are." He gave me aggressive eye contact as he removed a small remote from his pocket, and pressed it against the little box that powered the thin beams. There was a whirring click and the cuff fell away. He did the same to my other wrist and as soon as I was free, I drew my hands to my chest and began to rub my wrists. I sat up and swung my legs over the cot, enjoying the feeling of being mobile.

I smiled at Jack, "Well, it's a good thing I never asked you for your opinion."

The Captain grumbled at me, and turned back to the Doctor. "I don't have anything else that'll hold him."

The Doctor gave him a critical gaze, "You have miles of rope and a box of handcuffs."

"… Not for that kind of binding, Doc." The man flashed a flirtatious grin, and winked and I had to stop myself from gagging. The Doctor found humor in everything, so he laughed, and clapped a hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Well, thanks for trying… Next time, though? Don't hurt my guests."

"No problem, Doc." And Jack left, with nary a comment. I, on the other hand, had many.

"Oh, I'm your guest? Goodness, Doctor, I would hate to see how you treat your prisoners." I drawled as I rubbed at my left wrist. It seemed to have gotten the brunt of the day.

"I don't take prisoners. Now!" He clapped his hands together, moving towards the infirmary door, and pausing beside it. "Come on. Up and at 'em. We're going to the Library."

I gave the brunette a strange look, tilting my head and doing my best to look like a puzzled puppy. It made him laugh, and I smiled in return as I waited for him to continue.

"I have research to do. And I can't exactly tie you up anywhere, and you'll get out of whatever room I put you in and I won't chance you getting loose and…blowing up my ship. In short, I don't trust you enough to let you out of my site."

Well. No words were wasted as I stood, and lifted my chin arrogantly. I smoothed down my lapels and adjusted my suit as I moved to step past him and out the door.

"Make sure you stand in front, or to the side. No more than three paces in front." I heard the whirring noise of his sonic device.

I scoffed at the command, and slowed my steps to walk beside the Doctor. A confused puppy, indeed…

-TBC-