- Chapter Ten - Search and Rescue -
By Mad Eye Maddi
Disclaimer : I do not own Doctor Who, it's characters, scenarios etc.
I don't own James Bond, LOL- wish I did for both counts though :D
Author's Note : I am SO sorry it has taken so long for me to update. I honestly have been working on this chapter for ages, and it has been driving me absolutely mad. I couldn't get it right, and school kept ton getting in the way (Bloody nuisance LOL)
But here it is, chapter ten…I really hoped you like it, and I am really sorry for taking so long to update.
Please, please, please review, because reviews are the Bricks in the wall of my education.
-- Doctor Who --
- One Year Previous -
"This is such a bad idea," stated the Doctor, for what had to be the seventh time in the last ten minutes.
"No it's not," answered the Master, smirking to himself, but not looking up from the surface of the clean, metal examination table that he was sitting on, where his finger's were tapping out the sound of drums, somewhat of their own accord.
"Why are you doing this?" asked the Doctor, his voice screaming how much he wanted to know the answer. The Doctor actually sounded desperate at that moment.
So the Master decided to grace him with a proper explanation. Not looking up from his tapping fingers, he murmured, "The drumming. With every day, every hour, they get louder. It's like, being in the dark with a mosquito…just when I think they are going to quiet down for a bit, they get louder, and quicker. The only time they do quiet down, is when I am doing something horrendous."
"Is that why you do the stuff you do?" asked the Doctor, both curious for an answer and shocked by the one he had just received.
The Master nodded, ceasing his tapping, before looking up at the Doctor, and saying, "That is why I need to do this, I know it's a risk, but I can't take this for another couple hundred of years…It's quite literally doing my head in."
Sighing slightly, the Doctor nodded his understanding. He looked up at the clock that was fixed above the door, and announced, "The local should have taken affect, it's now or never."
The Master flashed him an enthusiastic grin, slipping off the table and onto an uncomfortable plastic chair, lying his now numb arm onto the metal surface, and replying, "Let's do it."
The Doctor nodded, and began to wipe disinfectant onto the marked out skin, asking casually, "Why your arm?"
"Well," began the Master, drawing out the word like the Doctor often did, "You remember that James Bond movie we watched the other week? The one with Daniel Craig-"
-- Doctor Who --
- Present Day -
The guard crushed the inhibitor under his heavy boot, reviling in the feel of the metal of the small device folding in on itself. However, before he could so much as move his boot away from the small mess, the man that they had been hired to 'rough up a little', collapsed to the ground completely, letting out such a tortured scream that anyone would think that he had caught fire.
Quickly the bulky guard jumped away from the man, and stumbled over to his friend, pushing his bulk against the metal grating of the cell front. They watched in horror, as the man curled himself into a tight ball, hands still fighting against the rope that held them tight behind his back.
Both guards exchanged bewildered glances as the tall, blonde woman who had hired them, raced over to the fallen man, dropping to her knees and attempted to untie the rope. Tears were rolling quickly down her face, as she struggled with the coarse line.
If the guards had not turned tail and ran out of the door that second, they would of heard Lucy Saxon stumble through her tears, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I love you…I'm sorry."
-- Doctor Who --
The TARDIS slowly materialised in the back of another alley, right beside the building the Doctor insisted the Master was inside.
The second they were fully materialised, the Doctor sped out of the tall blue box, quickly followed by Rose, Jack, Martha and finally Mickey.
They quickly looked around, to discover that they had landed themselves in yet another dark, damp, claustrophobic, litter filed alley. Only the severity of the situation at hand stopped Rose from commenting sarcastically, "You take us to the nicest places."
The Doctor quickly instructed them to split up, and search for the door that would grant them entrance to the building on the right side of the alley. So Rose quickly raced to check the front of the alley, while Jack started to shift rubbish at the back, leaving the Doctor, Martha and Mickey to search in between.
After a couple of minutes of groping in the dark, the odd cry of disgust echoing through the small passage when somebody found something particularly disgusting, Mickey caught sight of what looked like a door handle, and frantically began to move the rubbish covering it, shouting, "Doctor, I think I found something."
The Doctor quickly ran over also, and together Mickey and he shifted all the rubbish standing in their way, to reveal an old, warped wooden door, that barely looked like it was being held up by its hinges.
The Doctor quickly spun around to face the rest of the group, who had raced over with him at Mickey's call, and announced in an authoritive voice, "Right, you three stay here, Jack, with me."
As expected, Rose and Martha both gaped at him, and yelled in unison, "What!"
However, before they could say anymore, the Doctor cut them off, saying, "Listen, there is no way that I am going to risk your lives unnecessarily. First, Jackie and Francine would murder me, second, the people who are doing this didn't have any problem with shooting Jack down in cold blood, I would hazard a guess that the same goes for you, and you three can't regenerate or revive yourselves."
And as much as they would have liked to, or wished it were otherwise, neither Rose nor Martha could think of an argument against those facts. All any of them could offer was a grudging, "Be careful."
In return, the Doctor gave them one of his manic grins, before turning to Jack, and jerking his head towards the door.
Quickly he took out his sonic screwdriver, and began to work on the settings, saying distractedly, "Just hold on a sec, I gotta set the righ-"
But before he could finish the sentence, a loud bang echoed through the alley. The Doctor's head quickly snapped up, to find Jack stepping back from the doorway, rubbing his shoulder and grinning at him smugly.
After a couple of seconds, the Doctor noticed that he had been staring, and that he was still holding the sonic screwdriver up at eye level. Quickly his bewildered expression gave way to a nonchalant shrug, mumbling sourly, "Or you could do that."
He then quickly span around to face the others, who were smirking at him, and ordered in a serious voice, "Right, you three, back to the TARDIS."
"But what if you get hurt?" asked Rose, biting her lip nervously.
The Doctor smiled at her, replying, "Better me than you…besides, I won't." And with that, he turned on his heel, and dashed into the derelict building, completely consumed by the dark from inside.
Jack offered them an apologetic glance before quickly following him.
-- Doctor Who --
A thick darkness fell over both Jack and the Doctor, as they made their way further into the derelict building. It appeared they were inside a condemned factory of some sorts, which made searching both better and worse for them.
On one hand, there wasn't as many rooms that the Master could be in, and that would save them time…however, on the other hand, a factory would usually be far larger than an apartment building, and the closer the Doctor got to his fallen companion, the more overwhelmed he was becoming by the psychic power flowing through him. Jack also was starting to feel some discomfort through his own low-level of telepathic ability…he shuddered to think how agonising it would be for the Master.
So the sooner they found him, the better.
However, finding someone was always made far more difficult when you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face., because it was that dark.
So the Doctor quickly whipped out his sonic screwdriver, and held it out at arms length so to provide them with as much light as possible. Following his lead, Jack pulled out his own small torch from his coat pocket, and held it level with his Webley revolver.
"Would you put that gun down," hissed the Doctor, as they set off down the halls once more.
Jack rolled his eyes, and hissed back, "I know what you think about people with guns Doctor…but I think I would rather have mine ready if those guards are still here."
"That's so Torchwood," growled the Doctor, not really angry at Jack or Torchwood at all, but the small argument was a good distraction from his worry over the Master, and Jack was probably the only one of the group who understood he needed it.
So instead of being insulted, Jack bit back, "That may be, but if you get shot and have to regenerate…Rose and Martha will put that year with the Master to shame."
The Doctor opened his mouth to respond to Jack, but the words seemed to get caught in his throat. He stopped dead in the middle of the hall, eyes widening and his heart rate increasing with dread.
Jack stopped also, turning to the skinny Timelord with a look of concern and confusion on his face.
Before he could ask what was wrong, the Doctor murmured, "Can you hear that?"
Cocking to his head to the side in surprise, Jack listened hard, expecting to be met with only silence. SO he was surprised when he heard a faint groan, which sounded like it had come from-
"This way!" cried the Doctor, spinning on his heel, and hurdling down the hall they had just come down, wrenching open a door near the end of it.
Both Jack and the Doctor sped down the set of stairs that stood behind the door, and found themselves standing in another narrow hall.
Jack could hear the pained moaning better now, they were close to finding the Master.
They didn't have far to travel, before they found the makeshift cell.
If the Doctor didn't know that the likelihood of both of his hearts stopping at once, was practically nil, then he would have sworn that they did the moment he saw the Master. He was lying on the hard concrete floor, curled into a ball, pained moans escaping from his lips. There was a rope, still attached to one hand, that was clutching at the side of his head, in an attempt to relieve some of the pain…while the other had was clutching something else…another hand.
It was only then, the Doctor noticed Lucy Saxon, sitting next to his fallen companion, staring hopelessly at her one time love.
"You," he gasped in surprise. Of all the people, races and/or organisations he would have guessed had been behind the Master's abduction, Lucy Saxon was definitely at the bottom of the list.
She shifted her gaze from the Master to the Doctor, her expression of hopelessness quickly giving way to one of relief and hope. Gathering her wits about her, she yelled, "What are you doing,? Help him!"
Ignoring the fact that the Master wouldn't need helping if Lucy had not done anything to him, the Doctor followed her instructions, and raced into the cell, crouching beside him and Lucy, who was still clutching at his hand.
"Master, Master…can you here me. Koschei please," begged the Doctor, terrified that the onslaught had caused some serious neurological damage.
However, when the Master cracked open his eyes to glare at him, and hissed in a pained voice, "That's not my name," the Doctor could have laughed out loud in relief.
He grinned down at the Master, and asked gently, "What's going on in that head of yours Koschei?"
Sighing in frustration, the Master answered, "A lot of things, at once…and they're all hurting. Would you hurry up and do something."
"I'm working on it right now," murmured the Doctor, closing his eyes, and focusing on his own telepathic walls, attempting to make them as strong as possible…otherwise what he was about to do would REALLY hurt.
It took a moment, but the Doctor was convinced that he had blocked every sensitive and important part of his mind, and quickly pressed the tips of his fingers onto the Master's temples. He quickly looked up to Jack, who had crouched down next to him as well, and had fixed him with an understanding gaze, telling him without words- that he knew what the Doctor was about to do, and he would take care of everything.
Nodding gratefully, the Doctor closed his eyes, and whispered to the Master, "Now Master, I want you to open your mind, and don't try and fight me okay."
"You sure you know what you're doing?" asked the Master, concern evident in his pained voice.
"Oi, I was able to, if you would remember, infiltrate you silly satellites without you noticing."
Smirking weakly, the Master opened up his mind to the Doctor, who opened up his own- and absorbed the energy that was attacking the other Timelord. Letting out a small gasp of pain, the Doctor drained all of the energy from him, absorbing it completely, before falling limp beside the Master's unconscious form.
-- Doctor Who --
Rose and Martha were both still fuming at their exclusion from the Master's rescue…both seeing the reasoning behind it, but promptly choosing to ignore that in favour for the injustice of the situation.
However, any ill feeling toward the Doctor was instantly forgotten, when the TARDIS door swung open, revealing a tall, blonde woman, who walked straight inside.
Behind her, shuffled in Jack. He had the Master's limp body hauled over his left shoulder, and was half carrying, half dragging the Doctor's.
Mickey quickly rushed over to help, while Martha and Rose stared in horror.
"What happened to them?" Martha asked, recovering first thanks to her medical experience.
"Are they alive," asked Rose, also gathering herself, and walking over to where Jack had settled the Master's body on the grating floor, the Doctor beside him.
"Yes, they're both alive. The Doctor took on all of the energy from the Master, and absorbed it…so they have both gone into a sort of healing hibernation," answered Jack, trying his best to sound reassuring and to keep his own worry out of his voice.
"Like when the Doctor regenerated?" asked Rose.
"Exactly."
Martha knelt down and placed her middle and forefinger on the side of the Doctor's neck, stating, "His heart-rate is normal…well, for him anyway." She spun around to the Master, and checked his pulse as well, commenting, "It's weird having someone other than the Doctor with a double heartbeat…but his is stable also."
Everybody in the room visibly relaxed, a feeling of relief washing over all.
However after a moment, Jack remembered their latest passenger, and turned to glare at Lucy, who had her eyes fixed on the Master. "Mickey, take Ms Saxon to one of the rooms please, and be sure to lock the door behind you."
Looking confused, but obeying none the less, Mickey lead the way through the halls of the TARDIS, Lucy following and having no apparent desire to do otherwise.
"Who's she?" asked Rose, staring after the odd woman in confusion.
"That's Lucy Saxon Rose, the Master's…well, Harold Saxon's wife," Martha answered, glaring after the woman.
Rose's eyes widened in surprise, but before she could ask anymore questions, Jack stood up and walked over to the control console, and began to set co-ordinates, announcing over his shoulder, "Right, first we have to drop in and check up on my kiddies…let them take care of Lucy for a bit, before the Doctor…and the Master can decide on what to do. And then, I reckon it's probably best if we popped in and said hi to your mum."
Rose grinned broadly, sitting down in between the Doctor and the Master, clutching both of their hands, and replied, "Brilliant idea Jack."
Once again, PLEASE review. I really hope you liked the chapter, sorry for taking so long.
I promise, give my word, everything, that the next one will be up within a couple of days.