Disclaimer: Still don't own anything no matter how many times I do this.
A/N: A huge thank you to Brownbug for all her help and being my beta reader for this chapter. Also for listening to my moaning about being unable to write. I want to apologise to my usual beta Elfinium for not waiting for her, but I haven't been posting anything lately and I just wanted to write and post. I promise I'll stick to you as beta for later. Also thank you to the people who put the story on alert. I only wish you would have reviewed as well and let me know what you think, and why are you puting it to alert.
Torchwood, Manchester, Parallel Earth, 2007
Rose Tyler left the examination of Sam's medical chart to calmly make her way towards Mickey and his PDA. Whatever these readings were, they were - if not serious or dangerous – then at least curious enough to take his interest and confuse him. She looked over his shoulder at the readings and gasped, looking at Mickey and waiting for an explanation.
Mickey took his time studying the data before shaking his head at her and pocketing the PDA. All this secrecy was getting on Rose's nerves. She took a deep breath to calm herself and, trying not to take her frustration out on Mickey, she nodded and made her way towards the door.
"We're going to get this to the HQ and analyse the readings. I'm sorry, Tyler, but I can't make head or tail of it here. I'm a technician not a bio-scientist," Mickey told Rose, mindful of using her first name after her outburst earlier for calling her Rose.
All the time during the drive to HQ, the two Torchwood agents were silent, lost in their thoughts and speculation of what the readings from the hospital could mean and what their connection was to the Rift. Rose was trying not to get her hopes too high, because she had already been burnt once before by getting too hopeful about the possibility of breaching the void and reaching the Doctor, just to be brought back down with more pain. Now she couldn't help speculating on the possibility that what she had seen on the PDA was evidence of a bridge between the two worlds, but she tried to keep her interest in it professional rather than personal. She was wondering what Mickey was thinking about, but did not give in to her curiosity, keeping a cold distance from her friend. She didn't want to get too attached to him again, in case she found a way to get back to the Doctor. Now she could understand the Time Lord's reluctance to get attached to people he knew he would end up leaving behind. Too many goodbyes. She sighed when the car pulled into the parking lot in front of the tower that housed Torchwood's Manchester's branch.
Entering her office, Rose sat in front of her computer and started to analyse the Rift activity they had detected near the hospital. She wished she could understand the readings that the DCI in Manchester gave to the PDA. She didn't know the techs here as well as she knew her colleagues in London, but she hoped they would be quick to inform her when they found something. Her thoughts were cut off when she heard an urgent knock on the door. After a muttered "Enter," from Rose, a smartly dressed young technician came into the room, but didn't enter further or close the door.
"Agent Tyler you need to come and see the readings," the technician said urgently and exited without waiting for an answer, assuming that Rose would follow. She did, since she was no less eager to find out the results.
Entering the tech's room after him, Rose immediately made her way towards the work desk and looked at the computer. She frowned at the numbers and swirling lines on the screen, not able to understand a thing.
"What is it?" she snapped, annoyed that she had not had more time to study high technology and bio-data before starting to work for Torchwood.
"It's DCI Tyler's DNA matrix, but something is happening to it," the technician explained and pointed at the screen. "Do you see here? Look at the way it's splitting. Human DNA is a double helix, this one is trying to split into triple. It's still unsuccessful but it's connecting with some sort of energy. The DNA line is breaking and forming a succession of double helix, triple helix, double helix, double helix and so on."
Rose looked blankly at the screen for a moment and then shook her head.
"I don't know anything about genetics, so I have no idea what's going on, but what's the energy you mentioned?" she asked, still confused and not satisfied with the answers.
"It's Rift energy," the technician answered her.
As the Master opened his eyes, he realised he was standing in a clean and empty white room which reminded him of a clinical ward. He looked around with no small amount of surprise. He was back in his tailored black suit and waistcoat, finished with neat black shoes and leather gloves. He laughed - however mad and confusing this situation was, he was finally clear on who he was. The drums seemed to be vibrating through the white, featureless walls, a familiar sound mixed with something unfamiliar, resembling the beeping of a life support machine.
"Anyone..?" the Master shouted, turning around as he heard his own voice echo through the empty room, mixing with the other two sounds.
It was a strange but comforting place, a place in which it seemed that he finally had his head all to himself. Even the familiar sound of the drums sounded comforting within these walls. Interestingly, it almost seemed as if they were no longer inside his head, but instead coming from all around him. He just needed to find a way out of this sterile room, which shouldn't be that hard, he thought. If there was a way in, it was only logical that it would have a way out. The more he thought about it the more he wondered if the place was actually inside his mind. He could feel a headache starting, but it was not like any other normal headache - it was vibrating throughout his entire body. So they had attempted a resurrection and it had gone wrong. He had left clear instructions for his Cult of Saxon to follow, but he guessed it was Lucy who had managed to mess it all up. His disciples would have brought the Master back, but the empty-headed blonde girl just wanted her Harry back. He cautiously approached one of the walls and touched the smooth surface with his hand. It was vibrating and cold, but at his touch a section of it melted away to reveal another white room, complete with another occupant, who was standing in front of him staring in shock. The man would have been an absolute copy of the Master, if not for the clothes. He could recognise the jeans and the leather jacket that he was wearing just a minute ago.
"How…?" The man in the leather jacket looked around confused.
"Hello, Sam!" the Master greeted him, his face as impassive as a marble statue.
"Who are you?" Sam asked, still dazed. But the Master thought that he should give that man due credit. Sam deserved it for the way he kept calm and analytical, looking around in the vain hope of finding some clues.
"I'm the Master!" he told Sam with wicked grin.
"Are you another creation inside my head then? Because let me tell you, pal, I'm getting tired."
It was true - he already had a whole police station and city inside his head. The possibility that he was also imagining a spooky room with a crazy guy inside was too much.
"Actually, you're inside my head," the Master said, leaning against one of the white walls. "Make that our head."
"Enough riddles, tell me what's going on!" Sam snapped at the Master, who didn't even blink. He thought it would be easy, but now the hard part was coming. How to explain to a stupid ape what was happening, when he was only just starting to understand it himself.
"You are lying in a hospital bed and I'm inside a ring that was supposed to resurrect me, but a stupid monkey had to mess it up again," the Master replied, while trying to actually sort it out in his head. He didn't really care if one of the mentioned monkeys understood what he was saying.
He could see the blank look on Sam's face and wondered if he ever looked like this. It was strange to look at a completely human mirror version of himself. He pushed away from the wall and started to circle the other man, looking him over. He had seen the different incarnations of the Doctor meeting, and it felt strange, but this was even more so. This wasn't just a different version of him, this wasn't even him and yet…and yet it was.
"So, am I dead then?" Sam asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Not necessarily, no," he said thoughtfully. "But you are dying in a hospital."
Sam took a step back and once again looked at the Master quizzically, earning him a sardonic smirk from the Time Lord. How could this monkey even think that he would understand anything the Master told him?
"I've had enough cryptic messages from everyone I imagine in my head," Sam protested. "Am I dead, am I dying…? I thought at least my alter ego would have been more cooperative."
The Master laughed, letting out all the boiled up insanity and frustration from the last few days. Alter ego? As if he would even imagine having an alter ego who was human!
"I'm not your alter ego, you little human," the Master spat. "I have a life of my own, and oh what a life it was, until one of your stinking human kind messed it up. No, you are not dead, and yes I'm technically dead, but only in body. Something happened when a Rift opened and now we are stuck together."
He didn't know how to explain it better, and he didn't think he would be bothered doing it even if he could. Let the stupid human work it out for himself, isn't that why they were starting to develop brains? He just wanted for the guy to be gone, so he would be left alone with his thoughts and plans. Sam, however, seemed to have different ideas and persisted on pressing for an explanation, his deductive mind not letting him drop the matter without further interrogation.
"What, like Jekyll and Hyde?" Sam asked, worried.
"No, if it was Jekyll and Hyde, we would be two separate people in one body. We share body and mind in a more complex realm," the Master started to explain, hoping that the DCI would shut up after he got his answer. The drums might not have been inside his head at the moment, but they were starting to get louder and louder, causing him a headache nevertheless. "It's something that my race calls a Biological Metacrisis, something that you won't understand because you humans have such limited brains. Think of it like this. You are half Sam, and half Master. And I'm half Master, and half Sam."
"Okay…" Sam said slowly, as if to let the Master know that he understood, while inwardly preparing to call the white coats. "Can I please wake up now?"
The Master laughed mirthlessly, shaking his head and looking at Sam with something that would have been pity, if he was able to feel pity. But then, as if in response to Sam's request, the lights started to gradually become brighter and the noises louder, a cacophony of sound that was not only mixture of life support machine beeping and four beat drums, but also voices. Voices that were calling him and Sam to their own realities, pulling them apart and melting the walls around the room until only the light was visible in front of the Master's eyes.
"NO!" he shouted at the light. He didn't want to go back there, not when he had finally found a place where he knew everything and recognised who he was.
However, as the voices become a bit more clear, he realised that they weren't waking up. The voices were urgent and raised, the voices of medics urging someone to hold on. With a start, he realised that Sam Tyler was dying and the human doctors were fighting for his survival. Now he understood how it was possible to meet in his head. They were both unconscious. He started to get worried, afraid that if Sam died he would cease to exist as well. The last thing he heard before the noises were swallowed by the light was the panic of the medic who was shouting.
"We're losing him!"
Torchwood, Cardiff, Earth 2008
Lucy was cowering on the floor in the corner of the cell, doing her best not to take notice of any of the occupants of the other cells. People thought that her Harry's Toclafane were scary, but they were just metal balls with cute childish voices. These here were brutes. She rocked back and forth, humming some nursery rhymes that her nanny used to sing to her when she had trouble sleeping as a child. But no matter what she did, she could still hear the snarls of the Weevils and the other creatures around her. Just when she thought that she might run out of nursery rhymes and go mad, the door to her cell was mercifully opened and the young Welshman in the nice suit led her outside into a white interrogation room.
The room contained only two chairs and a table in the middle, apart from a CCTV camera in one of the corners. Lucy thought that they might be leaving her there alone to see if the silence would be any more effective at making her crack than listening to the creature's howling. Unconsciously she started tapping on the table, a four beat rhythm that she had heard her husband tap so many times.
A while later the door opened and the same young man dressed in an immaculate three piece suit entered the room, bringing her a steaming cup of coffee.
"I'm surprised," Lucy said to Ianto, smirking. "The Captain doesn't strike me as a cavalier or as someone who cares for the comfort of his prisoners."
Ianto just smiled at her, calmly and politely.
"It wouldn't do to be blamed for mistreating the widow of the late Prime Minister," he told her.
"Of course. I should have known that the tea boy would look after his position," Lucy commented. "Maybe when my husband comes back, I might recommend you to him and spare your life." She smiled at him. The man still looked unaffected by her comments and threats. She wondered if Ianto possessed feelings at all. She would have thought he would have shown at least surprise or annoyance at her bold attitude, since she was nothing more than Torchwood's prisoner. But his face remained polite and empty of emotion.
"Very kind offer, but I'm afraid I have to decline, madam. Now, if you'll excuse me," he told her and opened the door. "The Captain should be with you shortly."