Well, this is a long chapter to make up for the previous short one… let's just say that this Master is happiest when he's playing with people's minds and making them suffer…..
Chapter 10
"Ian, wake up!" Barbara hissed at her unconscious companion slung over a reptilian hunter's shoulder. She was in the same predicament as well. She reached out to Ian's hand and found hold of it. He slightly raised his head and half-smiled at Barbara.
Their hands were suddenly wrenched apart when the reptilian carrying Barbara increased his walking speed. A few moments later, they came to the door of the white room. The reptilians opened it and dropped them in before shutting and locking the door.
Ian and Barbara saw the crimson marks on the floor and table before they noticed the limp body of a young woman laying a little bit away from the main blood pool.
"Sarah Jane!" both of the teachers realized, rushing over and kneeling at her side. They gingerly turned her over onto her back. Barbara gasped.
Ian ran his hand over his face. "Now I understand why Tengu wouldn't tell us what happened to her."
The history teacher nodded and checked Sarah's wrist for a pulse. "Ian, she's still alive."
"She'll die of blood loss or shock soon."
"Her right hand is burned and broken."
Ian examined it. "Her hand and wrist aren't just broken, the bones have been shattered." He managed to skip over Sarah's hip-cut torso and looked to her legs. "I don't think the Master wants her to die just yet." He pointed to the knife gashes still visible underneath the black-red burns. "He cut her leg open, then cauterized it."
"He wants her to suffer. Tengu said that killing Sarah would've been an act of mercy," Barbara commented before gazing at Sarah's face. "Ian, she looks… at peace."
Barbara was right. Sarah's face was one of absolute serenity. Her lips moved, and a barely-whisper escaped from her throat.
"Our place," the unconscious girl breathed.
"Sarah Jane?" said Ian.
"Peace… Our place…"
"Sarah Jane," said Barbara. "Where are you?"
"Can't tell… won't be our place… if I tell…"
"Whose place?"
"His and mine…" Sarah answered before drifting back to silence again.
"She must mean her Doctor," the science teacher concluded.
"Even though he isn't with her, he's still doing his best to help her."
"Would you expect anything else from the Doctor? Any of them?"
The two teachers flinched when the door slid open.
"I do hope you're in a cooperative mood," said the young-faced Master. "Sarah Jane wasn't."
"Are you Koschei- the Master?" inquired Ian.
"Always and forever."
Barbara told the Master from her position at Sarah's side, "You didn't need to do this to her."
The Master menacingly approached Barbara. Ian stood next to her, ready to fight if necessary.
"If you're uncomfortable with this poor girl, Sarah Jane, being treated like this, then maybe I'll replace her with someone very near and dear to your hearts. Namely, Susan."
"You can't! She's only a child," Barbara was first to protest.
"You are all in my game, on my playing board. I can do anything I want."
Ian's nostrils flared in fury and he took a step forward. The Master wasted no time in firing his laser screwdriver. The power of the shot sent the science teacher spinning backwards through the air. He landed hard on his side.
"Ian!" Barbara shouted, getting up to go to him.
"Stop," ordered the Master, aiming the laser screwdriver at her.
Barbara halted, still visibly concerned about her friend. The evil Time Lord let out a laugh before kicking the down man in the chest.
Ian gasped, "Bastard." His reward for that outburst was a kick to his face. Barbara protested and started to move again.
"Miss Wright, don't move, or I will shoot him again, on a higher setting," The Master warned before motioning to the mirror.
"I'm alright, Barbara," Ian assured, grimacing as he got up to his hands and knees.
Three reptilians came in. two of them roughly yanked Ian to his feet and started taking him out the door. Barbara cried out when the remaining guard slashed her arm and pulled her along by her hair.
Ian couldn't see her. He shouted, "Don't you dare hurt her!"
"Humans are such fun," the Master commented before he crouched down next to the unconscious and still peaceful-looking Sarah. "See what you've done now, Sarah Jane? Your refusal of my offer caused me to capture two of your friends. I guess you can imagine what I'm going to do to them." He stroked Sarah's cheek. "When I'm done with them, I'll have something better in mind for you." He stood and left her alone again.
The Master went into a grey room, which showed no modesty in its purpose. Barbara was tied to a chair. The tight bindings also served as a tourniquet for her bleeding arm. Ian had been stripped to the waist and strapped down to a now vertically-standing table. The bindings were around his ankles, wrists, bare chest, and neck. Evidence from the earlier shot from the laser screwdriver was a patch of blackened skin on his otherwise pale chest.
Ian noticed the blood dripping from Barbara's arm onto the grey floor beneath the chair. "You hurt her," he growled.
The Master dismissed the three reptilians. He grinned at Ian before serving a backhand to Barbara.
"Stop it!" the science teacher protested, straining to get free.
The Master whispered to Barbara, "Watch this." He went to Ian and said in a mocking tone, "Aww, did the big bad Master hurt your little girlfriend?"
Ian's breathing intensified from anger.
"But, what are you going to do about it? What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing."
Ian tried to lunge at the Time Lord, but his restraints stayed taut.
"Don't listen to him, Ian," Barbara warned.
'"Don't listen to him, Ian,"' the Master mocked. "Humans are so much fun, with all their emotions and loyalties," he commented. Then he took out a knife, pulled Barbara's head back by her hair, and pressed the blade on the exposed skin of her neck.
Ian shouted in protest. The Master put pressure on the blade, breaking Barbara's skin. A drop of blood trickled down from the cut. Ian immediately fell silent. The silence lasted for a long moment.
"What do you want from us?" the science teacher finally asked.
The young-faced Time Lord made another small cut in the history teacher's neck. She and Ian winced. The Master answered, "Cooperation." He finally removed the knife from Barbara's throat. "I want you to be m helpers… assistants… companions, as the Doctor calls you all."
"You can't be serious," replied Barbara.
The Master sighed. "And here I was, thinking that I had convinced you of that very thing. Maybe targeting Susan…"
"No," objected the teachers. Barbara continued, "You've assured us of your sincereness."
"Good. Well, what do you say?"
Ian answered, "You know we can't join you and betray the Doctor."
"Really? Why not? Oh wait, let me guess. He's your friend, therefore, you are loyal to him. But, let me ask you this. How can you consider a man who kidnapped you from your proper place and time, because he was afraid that you would expose him as an alien traveler? And, I almost forgot, he can't even get you back home."
Ian glanced to his friend before answering with, "We can live with not getting home. We couldn't live with helping a monster like you."
The Master appeared to ponder this for a moment. Then he shot at Barbara with his laser screwdriver. She let out a frightened yelp as the beam missed her head by a hair's-breadth.
"Leave her alone!" Ian yelled. "You put me up here. Do anything you like to me. Just, leave her alone."
The master muttered, "Loyalty," before taking out the knife again. He stood behind Barbara. "Tell me, Ian Chesterton, what can you do to prevent me from doing this?" he asked and casually added another slash to Barbara's already injured arm. She bit back a scream, but a high-pitched whimper escaped through her lips. A tear ran down Ian's face. The Master told him, "Absolutely nothing. Sarah Jane and her Doctor were also in this predicament. At least, her Doctor was. You see, she didn't even know he was watching, but he saw and heard everything I did to her. Rather tragic, isn't it?"
"Only a monster could gloat about the pain he inflicts upon others," Barbara spat.
"Am I really a monster, Miss Wright? Consider this. I offered her the same thing I offered you. I offered her to become my companion, with a promise of no more pain. I offered the girl to end the torture. The stupid girl refused." The Master said in a mock-Sarah voice, '"He means everything to me… I love him. I love my Doctor."' He snorted. "That was her reason for refusing. Love… but you two would know all about that."
Ian and Barbara said nothing.
"Fine. Give me the silent treatment."
Ian suddenly cried out when the Master shot him again, right below the previous shot. The teacher didn't have much of a chance to recover when the Time Lord reset his screwdriver and aimed it at a control box near the table. Almost instantly, Ian tightly closed his eyes and whimpered. The Master rolled his eyes and hit the control box again. This time, Ian screamed as the electric current dramatically increased.
"Stop it! Please, leave him alone!" Barbara sobbed.
"I can't leave you both alone," the Master told her over Ian's cries. "It would defeat the purpose of this session."
Beads of sweat stung Ian's eyes as they trickled down his face. Blood started to flow from his nose and over his lips.
"He won't be able to take much more," the history teacher cried.
The Master sighed and switched off the electric current. He said, "Fine, if you won't agree to be my companions, at least answer me a question." He was met with silence. "I'll take that as a yes. What did Sarah Jane say while you were in that room with her?"
"Is that needed for your vengeance or whatever you want to call it?" inquired Barbara.
"I'm asking you, so it must be significant," the Master seriously said.
"What she said was gibberish," Ian said. "It didn't make any sense." That remark earned him another round of electrocution.
The Master spat in his face after he turned the current off. "I ask you what she said, not your opinion of what she said."
'"Our place,'" Barbara spoke up. "That's all she said."
"Where was this place?"
"She wouldn't say."
The Master nodded. "See, it wasn't too hard to cooperate, now was it, Miss Wright? Ian here could learn a lesson from you." The Master untied Barbara and set the table at a flat angle and lowered it. He then bowed out, saying he had more important manners to attend to.
As soon as he was gone, Barbara was at Ian's side. Ian spoke first. "He hurt you…" he said, looking at her arm.
"It's not bleeding too badly," Barbara brushed off.
With the reason for him putting on a brave face gone, Ian closed his eyes and moaned in pain. His fingers twitched form the residual shock and the ends of his hair were singed. Barbara started running her hands through his sweat-dampened hair. With her other hand, she traced his eyebrows and the bridge of his nose.
Barbara laid her head on Ian's chest, being careful to avoid the laser burns. She whispered, "Are you alright?"
"Better, now that you're with me," he answered. Ian grunted in frustration after he tried to break free of the wrist restraints.
"What's the matter?"
"The one time that we're completely alone, and I can't touch you. I can't hold you in my arms."
Barbara slightly smiled as she interlaced her fingers through Ian's. "After this is all over," she sighed. She raised her head to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "Try to get some rest," she advised, laying her head back down on his chest.
I had been walking during the entire vision.
"Well?" asked One.
"He showed them mercy," I replied. "They answered his questions, but did not agree to help him in the way he wanted them to. Yet, he showed them mercy."
"But, why not show Sarah the same mercy?" asked Rose. "What does he have against her?"
"It's Sarah he really wants. I have a theory."
"Do you mind sharing it?" prompted Five.
I took a breath and glanced up at the purple-blue sky. "Susan and Sarah are the Doctor's shatterpoints. Anything Koschei does to them will influence the rest of the Doctor's incarnations."
"Then, why not go for me?" asked Susan. "It would be achieve a greater effect."
"It would," I admitted. "But, Koschei, for whatever reason, still feels some sense of loyalty to your Doctor."
"We were good friends in the Academy and afterwards," One shared.
"Exactly."
"But, then there was an accident," Three continued. "Near the end of my second life. Our TARDISes were caught in a black hole vortex. I figured out a way to escape it, and tried to help him. But, it was too late. He was trapped. The next time I saw him, he claimed to be on his last life. He had also been on his second life before the accident."
"So, he lost most of his lives and blamed you for it?" inquired Jo.
"Yes, he's blamed us ever since," I answered.
"Wait a minute," said Rose. "Back to the whole using Sarah to influence the rest of the Doctors theory. What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Susan, Sarah, and you, Rose, are the Doctor's only shatterpoints. Koschei's not using Susan because of his subconscious loyalty to One. He's not using you because you are too late in the Doctor's timeline."
"What would happen if the Master was successful with this shatterpoint?" asked Bashir.
"It will utterly destroy the Doctor from his fourth life. And, the ones who come after him will become avenging shadows of the men they are now."
Tegan looked to her Doctor and let out a low whistle. "Scary thought."
"Indeed," Five agreed.
"But, something must have motivated him to do this in the first place," Susan reasoned.
"In my time, Gallifrey is dead," Nine stated. "And the Master died in my eighth incarnation. I haven't met this version of him."
Bashir suddenly said, "Tengu, you're not supposed to a Doctor."
"I know, but Koschei started this regeneration."
"You're not getting it," replied the medical doctor. "Time Lords have thirteen lives, right? We only know of these nine. Maybe the Master is doing this because of something Doctor number Ten, Eleven, Twelve, or Thirteen did."
"That does make sense," commented One.
"But, since there are only nine of us here, I think our tenth self did something to anger the Master so," reasoned Three. "Our real tenth self."
"He's trying to destroy our real tenth life, through the rest of us," I realized.
"Yes, but what will we do to him that will make him want to do this to us?" asked Five. "I've foiled many of his plans before, and he usually runs away and comes back later."
"This version of Koschei is very different from all his other various selves," I stated. "This last unorthodox regeneration he did has severely affected his mind. He's more unstable than his last selves were."
"That's hard to imagine," muttered Tegan.
"And, I take it that this instability makes him more dangerous than he was when you all knew him?" One inquired.
I sighed and nodded.
"Oh, joy," Rose sarcastically summed up. And that was the end to that conversation.
I quietly groaned when another vision came to my mind two hours later.