Chapter 9 Unyielding

The Master was feeling particularly smug. He'd taken over the Valiant, subjugated the people of Earth, and gained a new pair of toys in Jack Harkness and the Doctor. He'd been delighted to find that Jack could be killed repeatedly and had been expanding his already quite considerable knowledge of torture ever since. Of course, there was the down times when Jack was actually dead. But these could be filled in tormenting his old friend, the Doctor, with his most sadistic physical, sexual and psychological tricks. He's been tracking down all the humans still alive who the Doctor and Jack held close to their hearts. He delved into their minds, taking the knowledge he wanted by force regardless of their ineffectual shields.

Once captured, the humans were used to break his toys even further. He had them tortured until they screamed and begged for Jack or the Doctor to save them. The Master knew just how devastating they found these pleas, knew the heroes couldn't bear to stand idly by when there were wrongs to right. There weren't that many of their friends left to find, but the missing seemed to be the dearest to his pets – Ianto Jones, Martha Jones and Donna Noble. The Master found it incredibly frustrating that neither himself nor his minions had been unable to find these three.

The Doctor was in his cage, aged, weak, malnourished and dehydrated, dully watching the Master as he received word from one of his underlings. The Master grinned jubilantly and shouted for Jack to be brought to him, making the Doctor cringe for his old friend. If all the Master wanted was to torture and/or kill Jack, he did it below decks to avoid messing up his bridge. No, if Jack was being brought to the bridge, it was because another one of his friends had been found. As far as he knew, there were only two left to find. Ianto and Donna. The Doctor had never met Ianto, but he couldn't help remembering the feisty redhead from their brief adventure. Oh, how he hoped he wouldn't have to watch her murdered like all his other friends. He knew that the Master was particularly interested in finding Donna as she knew both the Doctor and Jack, so it was double the pain when he killed her.

Jack was dragged by his chains onto the bridge and fastened to the wall. He was trying to project his usual bravado, but the Doctor could see his fear for whichever of his friends had been found. His worse fears were confirmed when both Donna and Ianto were pushed into the room.

Ianto was maintaining his "invisible butler" persona, calmly doing what was asked of him. He'd regained his emotional equilibrium with Donna and Jack's support, maintaining it when Jack disappeared. He'd become an integral part of the team at Torchwood, since Jack's abrupt departure, steadying the others. His professional demeanor didn't match with his dishevelment, or the bruises on his face, and the Doctor could almost smell his carefully hidden terror.

"Oi! Neanderthal boy, leave your knuckles on the ground and keep your mitts off me!" Donna shoved back at Gorman, the thug assigned to terrorising the Master's "guests", with her shoulder. He backhanded her, splitting her lip, adding to the other damage. It was obvious from their injuries that neither of them had come quietly. Both Jack and the Doctor felt a quiet swell of pride mingle with their fear.

The Master walked up to his new acquisitions, observing them both curiously, before turning to Donna. "You must be Donna Noble. I've heard a lot about you."

"Well, bully for you. I've heard lots about you too, and none of it good." She threw her shoulders back, refusing to be cowed by her captor. "You'll forgive me for not shaking your hand, but mine are currently tied behind my back."

"Sorry about that, but I've been warned that you're a bit slap happy. Don't want to take any chances, do we?"

Donna's eyes widened innocently. "But I wouldn't slap you."

The Master smirked, sure that he could control her, "No?"

"Nah. Shit splatters." Shrugging, Donna assumed a look of indifference.

Jack chuckled quietly, thinking, "That's my girl."

Fury darkened the Master's features at her insolence. He reached towards the contact points on the side of her face. Just as his hand was about to touch her, sparks flew and he snatched his hands back. "What?"

The Doctor echoed the cry, drawing Donna's attention. "Doctor? What the hell has he done to you?" She shouldered the Master out of the way and ran to the cage.

The Doctor put his withered hand out through the bars and stroked her hair, the colour the only vibrant thing in his world of pain. "I'm so sorry, Donna."

Yanking her away from the Doctor, Gorman dragged her back to where Ianto stood staring at Jack. Donna turned that way and saw how Jack had been chained, his body filthy and his clothes torn and stained.

"What sort of sadistic monster are you?" Fury rolled off Donna in waves, as she struggled against Gorman, trying to get to Jack.

Moving to stand close to her, the Master smiled and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "A very successful one."

Two days after she'd been captured, Donna attempted a rescue. Waiting until the guards had been for their final "bed check", she sprung herself from her cell. Moving along the row, she found Ianto, then Jack, opening each of their doors with a gesture for them to be silent and follow her.

Jack stared at the sonic pen in her hand. "Where've you been hiding that?"

"You don't want to know…" Donna muttered, before chuckling, "Actually, knowing you, you probably do want to know but now's neither the time nor place. C'mon."

Grabbing his hand, she motioned for him to take Ianto's and moved further into the shadows. Leaning in, she hissed in his ear, "Do you know the way to where the Doctor's kept?"

"Yeah, follow me."

Stealthily, they made their way up to the lion's den. The Doctor was displayed in the cage on the bridge during the day, but at night he was entertainment for the Master.

"How the hell are we going to get him out of the Master's room, with him in there, Jack? Time Lords don't sleep that much, do they? That's what the Doctor's Torchwood/Unit file says." Donna had gotten them out of the cells, as far as she was concerned, it was Jack's turn to come up with something brilliant now.

Just as Jack opened his mouth to answer her, another voice chimed in, "Now what are all you children doing out of your beds at this time of night? Perhaps you'd better come in."

Groaning in frustration at being caught, Donna was forced to relinquish her sonic pen. The Master seemed delighted with her ingenuity, making lewd comments on her hiding place.

That night was the first night of many, where Ianto and Donna added rape to their lists of abuse. The Master's wife Lucy forcing the Doctor to watch, as the Master forced himself on first Ianto, then Donna. Gorman held Donna as Ianto was violated and she could feel his arousal against her as she struggled to get to Ianto, who was screaming for her to help him. When the Master was finished with Ianto, he grabbed Donna by the hair, grunting as she attempted to knee him in the groin. Donna lay still and quiet as he raped her, refusing to add to his sick pleasure by struggling or screaming. He again tried to attack her mind, but was once more forced back by her shields. Slapping her, he screamed at her to lower her shields, but she remained stonily silent. Infuriated beyond reason by her passiveness as he raped her, then her refusal to obey him, the Master knocked her to the ground before kicking her repeatedly. Ianto and the Doctor screamed at him to stop, which merely caused him to switch his attentions to Ianto. Donna stood shakily, unnoticed by anyone and pulled the Master off her friend, punching him hard enough to fell a man. Sadly, it wasn't hard enough to fell a Time Lord. The Master hit her back and she fell into darkness.

Donna and Ianto were thrown into their separate cells downstairs afterwards. Every day, they were taken out independently and tortured for hours on end by Gorman and his thugs, before being thrown back into their cells. They were starved, beaten, deprived of water, light and basic sanitation, they were taunted and belittled and subjected to all manner of depravity.

The Master used his telepathy on Ianto, making him scream and beg for mercy. He discovered Ianto's natural empathic abilities and delighted in torturing Jack near him to cause them both more pain. But whenever the Master tried to use his mind on Donna, it had no effect on her at all. He forced the Doctor to try to get around her shields, but the Doctor was a weaker telepath, never having developed it as a weapon like the Master. Nothing that was done to her, or to Jack, Ianto or the Doctor as inducement, could make her shields drop. As she pointed out, time and again, she hadn't consciously erected the shields, so how was she supposed to know how to drop them. This above all else, infuriated the Master. He wasn't used to being defied, nor was he accustomed to having his way thwarted.

Donna was dragged to the bridge on more than one occasion, where she was whipped, beaten and sexually abused by Gorman or the Master, all the while being urged to scream for the Doctor to save her, as her fellow companions had. Every time her answer was the same: "How can I expect him to save me? He's as helpless as I am. No. I will not yield."

As the weeks progressed, Donna always tried to draw the attention to herself and away from Ianto, but it wasn't long before the inevitable.

A month after their capture, she was woken by the sound of the door of her cell opening, the Master appearing. Donna schooled her features into their usual mask of defiance, even as her soul quivered with fear. She'd been raped, beaten and abused so many times now that she'd forgotten what it was like to feel human. The only defense left to her was her shell of bravado, as it seemed to amuse him almost as much as it frustrated him. So she prepared herself to entertain him yet again.

The Master had something else in mind however. Grinning maniacally, he gestured to someone behind him telling her, "I can be kind, Donna Noble. I'm granting Ianto's last wish. He wanted to see you and Jack before he died. You first…" With that, Ianto was thrown into the cell with her and the Master left, laughing.

Donna hurried to Ianto as fast as her broken body would take her, gathering him into her arms. Looking at him in the dim light, he resembled nothing so much as a walking corpse, his features gaunt and almost unrecognisable. His eyes, once so beautiful, were dull and struggled to focus on her. She ran her hand over his face, making him flinch until he realised she wasn't hurting him. Turning his face into her chest, he whispered her name.

"Yes, cariad. It's me. I've got you." She murmured further endearments and reassurances in his native Welsh, thinking he'd find it more comforting. She projected feelings of love, comfort and safety, knowing that he'd feel them.

"Donna. Thank. You. Love. You." Ianto's words came haltingly between shallow, panting breaths which rattled in his chest. "Tell. Jack. Sorry. Love. Him."

"I love you too, cariad." Tears streamed down her face, as she realised that Ianto had lost the fight for his life. He wouldn't get to see Jack. She screamed her pain and loss, rocking as she clutched her friend's body to her own.

Jack heard her from his cell and screamed along with her, knowing that Ianto or the Doctor's death was the only thing that would make Donna break like that.

"How touching. Well, better take him to the freak now. I did promise that I'd take him to you both." The Master leaned nonchalantly on the door frame.

Donna was heartbroken. She sat, helpless as Gorman came in and took Ianto's body from her, whispering, "At least you can't hurt him anymore."

"No. Pity. He was so much more pliable than you are. But still. Bright side is that I still have you." Donna shuddered at the lecherous tone.

Minutes later, she jumped as a shot rang out. Jack had obviously tried to kill the Master, when confronted with Ianto's body. She heard the Master telling Jack's corpse, "Ah, ah, ah! Is that anyway to behave when all I've done is bring you a friend? We'll leave him here for you when you wake up."

Gesturing to Gorman, he ordered, "Lay the freak and his boy out on the floor in an embrace."

They left, laughing cruelly. It wasn't long 'til Donna heard Jack's scream of denial, before she heard heartbroken sobbing and Ianto's name being moaned over and over. Curling herself into as small a ball as possible, Donna cried for the loss of her friend.

Five months after her capture, Donna was dragged up to the bridge. The Doctor moaned softly in despair, as he saw her. Jack rattled in his chains, fighting to get to Donna and help her. Her glorious mane of red hair was unkempt and lank, hanging over her face and hiding it from prying eyes. Her clothes were mere rags, barely covering her modesty, and she was practically skeletal. She was covered in welts, burns, scars and lacerations from various torture sessions. As she was forced to walk forward, she walked with a discernible limp as she dragged her left foot, and she held herself in a manner that indicated broken ribs and possible internal injuries. She stumbled to a halt in front of the Master and was knocked to her knees by the thug who'd brought her in. The Master looked down at her with undisguised disgust, before squatting down in front of her and trying to shift her matted hair so he could see her face.

"Have you broken her thoroughly?" He looked up at his henchman.

"She took a lot longer than any of the others, but yeah, she's broken." Gorman looked obscenely proud of his work.

Straightening, the Master slapped Donna, ordering, "Look at your Master!"

A shudder ran through her, but she threw back her hair in a gesture of defiance, fixing her clearly sightless eyes in the direction of the hated voice. In a voice that was hoarse from screaming, she spat, "That's gonna be a bit difficult, you git."

Even the Master was taken aback at the strength of venom in the voice that came from the ruined husk of woman in front of him. The Doctor sobbed and Jack gagged. Donna had had most of her teeth pulled forcibly, or knocked out, her lips ragged from multiple cuts. One side of her face was covered in barely healed burn scars and the other half was covered in bruises and blood. Both her eyes showed milky white only.

Donna cackled when she heard the Master's shocked hiss, as he took in the damage to her face. "What's the matter, lover? Don't fancy me anymore?"

Shaking his head in unwilling awe, he whispered, "Still you defy me? All you have to do to stop the pain is lower your mental shields and yield to me. I promise you a merciful death, if you do."

Slowly, a sound emerged from Donna's chest which grew into full fledged laughter. As the laughter was suddenly overtaken by coughing, Donna spat bright red blood onto the floor at the Master's feet. "I'm already dead, Time Lord. AND I WILL NEVER YIELD!" Her voice rang around the bridge, following by silence broken only by the sobbing breath of the Doctor and Jack.

Tilting her head towards the sound, she said softly, "Goodbye, boys. Sorry I couldn't save you. Remember I'll love you both, always."

Another fit of wet coughing overtook her, before she slumped to the floor with a last gurgling sigh, her strength of spirit finally overcome by the damage to her body.