xxxxx Chapter 14 Angels and Demons
The Master dreamt of rocking horseflies and angry dormice playing drums, when he was woken up by Jack's voice in his ear, "You know, when you let your guard down, you make it very obvious where your hearts really lie."
His face still buried in the Doctor's hair, the Master's eyes flew open. He turned his head to look up at Jack who was hovering over him, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Jack chuckled when he saw the pompous and emotionless Master blush slightly. The Master looked away, only to see that almost everyone else, who was currently in residence on the TARDIS, was staring at him. Rose Tyler (Tyler-Smith), The Abomination (John Smith), Martha Jones (Smith), Mickey Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Wilfred Mott, Letitia Jones (Tish), Francine Jones, Leo Jones, Clive Jones, Gwen Cooper with the infant (Anwen Cooper-Williams), The Dead Man (Owen Harper), Toshiko Sato, Pete Tyler, Jackie Tyler with the small one (Tony Tyler), The One with Adult ADHD (Jake Simmonds) and of course, The Freak (Captain Jack Harkness). Most of them were smirking, others were gaping, John was covering his face with his hand.
"I still can't get over this room," Martha muttered, looking up at the ceiling.
"Me either," Gwen said, looking around.
The Master groaned and pulled the blanket over his head. A few people laughed, Jack settled onto the bed behind the Master, leaning against the headboard. Rose climbed onto the bed and lay on the Doctor's other side, her head propped up on her elbow. She reached over the Doctor and rubbed the Master's arm through the blanket.
"Nothing wrong with showing that you love him." Rose smiled. The Master grumbled something no one could hear, in a language no one spoke, except John. He was mostly human, but he still had the Time Lord hearing.
"Oy! Watch your language!" John yelled. "Did you kiss your mother with that mouth?" he asked sarcastically.
"I never kissed my mother," they heard the Master's muffled response. "Killed her the first chance I got." The mothers in the room made sounds of indignation.
"The sad part is," John started. "I believe you."
"She was insufferable and she had it coming!"
"You said the same thing about your dad." John sighed.
"He had it coming centuries in advance. He was the biggest asshole Gallifrey ever produced, myself included." The Master was still buried under the blanket.
John laughed. Rose, Martha and Jack couldn't help but chuckle even with the grim subject. Tish giggled a bit with Gwen and Tosh.
"All before you could even graduate. What about the TARDIS driving instructor?" John asked. "You killed him too, before he could even give out the results of the test."
"That's what he got for failing the Doctor, just because of his lineage."
"Oh, you're so sweet."
"His lineage?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, we never told you?" John looked bemused. "The Doctor's part human."
"WHAT?" everyone shouted. Their shocked faces quickly turned into huge smiles.
"I thought that Architect lady was kidding just to rile up the Master," Pete said, shrugging his shoulders.
"No. His mother was human," John explained. "But the Council decided to alter his DNA in the womb. Said they didn't want that stain on Gallifrey's name. So, he's mostly Time Lord. They couldn't remove all of the human DNA without endangering the viability of the embryo."
Sounds of outrage were heard, several of them were looking at the Doctor with a new found love and respect. They were feeling more akin to him, now that they had learned he was one of them and some of his mystery had dissipated.
"First Time Lord born naturally in... Oh, what was it? Five million years?" John added.
"What do you mean, 'born naturally'?" Rose inquired, her hand on the Doctor's cheek, her thumb stroking his cheek bone.
"It's complicated," was all John said, tilting his head to one side. "Anyway, back on topic. Is our friendly mass murderer going to get out of bed? Or do you want to snuggle into the Doctor's hair some more?"
"Will you people get lost, so I can get dressed?" the Master muttered from under the blanket.
"No," was John's blunt answer.
"Why not?" was the Master's exasperated response.
John laughed a little. "Because I am dying to see how red your face is right now."
The Master growled.
"I don't think I've seen you blush since the academy days," John continued. "Not since that time Ushas grabbed your crotch in front of the whole class while you were trying to solve a complex equation on the blackboard."
The Master sighed. The women giggled. The men chuckled. The Master groaned, getting angry.
"Who's Ushas?" Rose asked, still lying next to the Doctor.
"A classmate that Koschei here had a crush on." John smirked. The Master growled. John continued, "She was always doing strange experiments. That time she was attempting to make Koschei's face change into something that wasn't a scowl. She succeeded. Little Koschei's face turned beet red and his eyes looked like a deer caught in the headlights."
"They don't need to know that and don't call me Koschei!" the Master shouted from under the blanket. John chuckled.
"You know, when we first met him, he came across as a real monster," Tish mused. "Even on the Valiant, during that year he was just a hateful beast. But the more I see him in this situation, it's easier to see that he's just a person, with troubles too big for him to handle. Just like the rest of us. He's just smarter and has a longer life span."
Several people mumbled their agreement. The Master growled again, louder this time.
"How could you say that?" Clive asked. "After everything he's done, you laugh at his morbid jokes and paint him to be a good person and compare him to us?"
"You laugh at the Doctor's jokes. Don't you, Dad?" Martha asked him, frowning. John frowned himself, he saw where this was going.
"Well, yes. He's the Doctor," Clive answered, looking bemused.
"No matter how many people the Master has killed," John said, looking grim. "The Doctor is still leading the statistic for 'Lives Lost'."
Clive looked sad and thoughtful, like he was trying to come up with an excuse for the Doctor. Several excuses came to mind, but they sounded like just that, excuses.
"Will you stupid, tiny little apes get lost?" the Master ground out.
"There's no need to be rude," Gwen said.
"Leave! Or I'll slaughter all of you and eat you for dinner!"
"Well, there's an exaggeration, if I ever heard one," Martha mumbled.
"It's not an exaggeration. I've eaten humans before, I won't hesitate to do it again. You taste quite good."
A shocked silence fell over the room.
"You know how they say everything tastes like chicken?" the Master continued. "Well, you don't taste like chicken. More like a salty pork flavor with a little hint of beef. Kind of stringy."
"All right you lot," John told everyone, plastering a fake smile onto his face. "Get yourselves to the kitchen and help yourselves to breakfast, give the Master a chance to make himself presentable before he gets too cranky and starts eating people or throwing things. Preferrably before he finds his laser."
He ushered them all through the door to the kitchen, that was still there from last night. Everyone left, except for John, Jack and Rose. John climbed onto the bed and settled behind Rose. He leaned against the headboard and sighed.
"I thought you were going let me get dressed?" the Master grumbled from under the covers. "Why are you still here? Are you going to leave on your own or would you prefer that I break your necks and throw you out."
John sighed again, a little exasperated with the Master, "I think I need to have a chat with you."
"Oh? About what?"
"About your constant facade."
"What facade?"
"The facade you put up to make yourself look scary, to protect yourself with. Though, what you need protecting from here, I haven't the foggiest. You're a Time Lord, for heaven's sake! I thought you said that you were superior to everything else in the universe? So what are you so afraid of?"
"I am superior to everything else and it's not a facade or a mask or anything like that. I'm not hiding from anything!"
"Really? 'Cause you look like your hiding pretty well under that blanket," Jack said.
The Master flung the blanket off and glared at Jack.
"Oh, there you are!" Jack said with a cheeky smile gracing his chiselled features.
The Master's face was still slightly red, though from anger, humiliation or just from being under the blanket, they didn't know. Probably a little of each.
"Tell me something, Freak?" the Master started, putting a manic grin on his face. "Do you enjoy being eviscerated?"
"See! There it is! The mask of the villain!" John yelled. "It's a compulsion with you, isn't it?"
"It's not a mask or a facade," the Master said, grinning. "It's me!"
"It is a mask! You're always trying to make yourself scary, trying to chase your demons away by making yourself look worse. Though, you would probably say 'stronger'. But that's not you, I know it's not. I've seen the real you, when you were younger. I don't know what happened to make you change so much or where the drums came from but there's no need for you to hide behind the stony face of some villainous leviathan. Why can't you just act like the person that you are?"
"I rather like the sound of 'villainous leviathan' but what's your point?" The Master was obviously furious.
"My point is: If you make yourself too frightening and try too hard to get rid of them, you don't scare away your demons. You become one of them and you scare away your angels. Once their light is gone, you're lost forever. You should stop before you chase them all away. This time, when the Doctor offers to help you, you should take his offer and at least let him try." John flew off the bed and headed for the kitchen without another word. Rose followed quickly, wanting to comfort her husband.
Once they left the room, Jack said, "He may only be part Time Lord, or an 'abomination' as you say. But you have to remember that he is a copy of the Doctor, with the Doctor's thoughts, feelings and memories. Everything he said, was from the Doctor's personal experiences, the things he learned the hard way. I know that lesson all too well myself. I scared away all of my angels, but when I realized what I'd done, I took the scary mask off and found some more bright shining and magnificent angels and waited for my lonely angel to return. Why do you think the Doctor always has a companion with him? So he can find his way in the endless darkness. So that there's someone there to keep him from stumbling and to pick him up when he falls."
Jack got up and went to the kitchen, leaving the Master alone with the sleeping Doctor.
The Master propped himself up on his elbow and tipped the Doctor's head to face him. He stared at him for a minute, deep in thought.
After a few minutes contemplation, the Master leaned over and kissed the Doctor on the lips. Not quite passionate, but not quite chaste either. When he pulled away, he sighed and got out of bed. He went to the closet to find clothes that weren't tattered and were a little more his style.
TBC