Steady as the Beating Drum
Chapter 10: The Master exposits a lot
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Donna attacked the door with a barrage of attacks. And she didn't stop when the door opened. Her knocks and slaps assailed the tall, skinny man behind it with the righteous force of a woman wronged.
"You," slap, "STUPID!" slap, "SKINNY!" slap, "SPACEDUNCE!" and a sharp kick to the shins. "WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"Donna!" the Master exclaimed, warding off the assault to the best of his ability. "This is not cute, what are you doing?"
"Doctor, what did you do to me? Where did you go? Just because you get all sad last-of-the-Time-Lords and all that bollocks, does not mean you get to take away my memories and drop me off where I came from." She spat this in his face so hard that she seemed to exhaust herself with the emotional effort it took.
"Donna, what do you remember?" asked the Master, tentatively.
"Midnight," she took a step forward and for the first time laid kind hands on his cheeks, cradling his face. "They were wrong about you."
"Oh Donna," he smiled crookedly. "I know now, I know how wrong I was. I found you; it's all right now. I promise." He was saying all the things he knew that she desperately wanted to hear from his old friend. The Master knew that he had her now; he had succeeded. All that was left was moving on to the final phase of his plan.
"But I swear, I didn't do this. Someone took you from me."
"Who?" she gasped, laying a hand over her heart. It was beating so fast, adrenaline surged through her veins. What in the hell had happened to her?
"The Master." There was a long dramatic pause where he let his declaration sink in. "That's not all… Donna, I need your help."
"Me? What do you need my help for?" Donna demanded. "And what's the Master got to do with anything?" the Doctor had only mentioned him in passing, speaking of old memories from their days spent underneath two Gallifreyan suns. Martha had tetchily mentioned walking the entire (bloody) Earth once or twice…
"I don't know yet. He's the one who took your memories," he stroked his chin and appeared deep in thought. "How many times have I said 'Don't wander off'?" the git joked.
"Why should I listen to you? Apparently you make a habit of losing track of your companions! How many do I make?"
"That's not the point," the Master cut in, eager to get back to the point. "Donna, I need your help. Do you understand?"
"I don't see what I could do. I'm just a temp from Chiswick." She nudged him with her elbow.
The usual anticipated burst of "Brilliant!" did not come; the man who she thought was the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Must be serious," she misinterpreted. "What do you need, Doctor? Of course I'll help you."
He smiled.
The real Doctor was ready to tear his hair out. He had neither the time nor patience for their usual toxic brand of banter. Martha didn't mind; she was having a grand time filling the sass vacuum.
"You go around seducing earth girls now? Long way to fall from total planetary dictatorship," Martha was saying. The Doctor was glad he'd brought her; she was very bright. Keeping the Master talking was the trick with him. Too bad that he was in no mood for the self-restraint necessary to do it himself.
The Doctor continued to seethe over the implications of the conversation. It's all very not-at-all set in stone, but in the current timeline he at least got through this. (And apparently had a heart to heart with Koschei about his vast array of issues with women). But it was not himself who the Doctor was worried about.
Enough was enough.
"Enough is enough!" hm. Alright… that could have been put better. The Doctor held up Martha's mobile and tried to look calm and threatening. "If you don't tell me what your plans are, I'm ending this loop. All I need to do is press this- wait." He looked closer at the device. "Martha, this is a smart phone."
"So?" she demanded in exasperation.
"So I need your code, could you-?" he rolled his eyes and twitched his entire body in the process before whipping out the sonic. "It's fine, alright." A buzz and it unlocked. "There. I have someone on the other end of the line that will end this loop at my say so," he threatened through clenched teeth.
"Do it," The Master dared. He licked his teeth and grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
"I will."
"I'm telling you to."
The Doctor narrowed his eyes and dialed the most recent number. It rang. And rang. Then went to voicemail.
"Hold on." He held up a finger and rang Mickey again. This time he picked up.
"Hello? Did it work?" he asked.
The Doctor slumped. "No. Did you push down the plunger?"
"Yeah."
"All the way?"
"Yeah Doctor."
"Did you accidentally unplug it maybe?"
"No. It just isn't working. What do I-?" The Doctor hung up the phone, cutting him off.
Yards away, the Master was smirking in a self-satisfied manner. "Hate to say I told you so."
Donna followed the Master back to the office. It was the middle of the night and the milling denizens of the London hub were missing from the familiar scene. It was eerie, like visiting a famous person's grave. You know a lot about this man or woman who used to occupy space in the world, and are visiting the space they now occupy in the ground; it's all downright weird.
"Ok, now that I've had time to think about it all, I'd really like to give you a good kick. I mean, what exactly do you think you're doing, waltzing on in here and not explaining a damn thing."
Inwardly, the Master rolled his eyes at her chatter.
"Like who's Maisie? Is she your companion? Because excellent choice." And now I feel a lot less weird about what happened between us. Donna bit her lip and contemplated the awkward situation. She'd all but shagged her best friend. Well shit.
Meanwhile, the Master was mildly put out at having to actually tell Donna the truth about any aspect of his plans. 'Companion… that would have been better.' But he couldn't very well change their story now. She might realize something was amiss.
"No, er, Maisie's… a little hard to explain. It'll make more sense when we get there."
"When we get where?"
Just then, they arrived at the R&D department's back anterooms. He typed in a six-digit combination (which she mentally catalogued, as all assistants do, whether they admit it or not) and the doors opened with a whoosh of changing air pressure.
Inside, there was no one. It was circular and at the very center was a familiar console, reminiscent of the Tardis. It had a disestablishing mechanism bobbing up and down within a glass column. The words came to her, but Donna could find no meaning in them. She felt afraid and a little lost in this vast room full of half-familiar alien devices.
"I think now's a good time to start explainin'," she huffed, trying to cover up her unease.
"Sure, of course," the Master conceded but did not elaborate.
"Any day now sunshine."
"Right!" he snapped back to his place in front of her so quickly that he almost fell ankles over shoulders. "Questions?"
"Yeah. WANNA TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"
He reared back and blinked. The Doctor actively chose to take this one with him? Or did she bully him into letting her aboard?
"Er…"
And then after some feigned need for prompting the Master explained.
"The Master separated us and kidnapped you. I searched everywhere, but when I found you, he'd already made you forget me." He made a great show of looking devastated, drawing on his brushes with the Doctor's sentimental side. "I've just been travelling since then."
Donna's head tilted to the side as she regarded him through narrowed eyes. The Master expected a little yelling about that, before he could eventually get to his point. "I'm glad you found someone," she said with sincerity. "You seem happier, alright." If he hadn't already established a strong link to her mind he wouldn't have known about the hurt she was hiding. He didn't know why she bothered hiding it- for the Doctor's benefit he supposed. The Master had never bothered to hide his emotions to spare anyone's feelings.
"I've been alright," he assured the ape. "I wouldn't have come back, but I need your help."
Donna bit her lip and nodded as if she understood, she took his hands in hers. "Anything Doctor, what do you need?"
He leaned in very close; close enough for them to share breath. He held steady eye contact and pressed two fingers into her left temple. "I need that big brain of yours."
She snorted. "No."
"I'm serious."
"Ha!"
"Donna, I need your help to bring back Gallifrey."
She stopped laughing.
Sorry this took so long. Exposition is a real slog, I'm telling you. Thanks for reading!