The pain was excruciating as the cold steel sliced through flesh and muscle and found its target.
He cried out with the pain and the convulsion of the thing he was carrying.
He cried out again when he felt it try and force him to stop. He could feel the muscles in his arm begin to seize as it tried to stop him.
"No!" he cried and will sheer force of will he pushed and the agony increased and he knew he'd done it.
Fire poured into his head as the thing inside him tried one more time to stop him and as he felt it die he pulled the knife free and dragged it out of his belly.
The wave of agony that burnt through him made his knees buckle and he landed heavily.
"Isha!" he spat and dropped the knife.
The Master was about to take aim on another armed guard when it hit him. He staggered back as he felt the pain of something slicing through his gut and ripping it open.
An image of his love on his knees, with blood pouring from his midriff and burnt into his mind.
Then the link was gone in a wave of intense pain.
"No..no..no...what have you done!"
He blinked and tried to understand what had happened; why would the Doctor do such a thing to himself?
Then it came to him, there could only be one reason and it wasn't suicide...White Coat had done something perverse; so perverse that the Doctor had mutilated himself.
He needed to find him before he could complete the ritual and activate that cursed device and to do that he had to rid himself of one Captain Jack Harkness.
He swivelled round and without any pre-amble or guilt he shot Jack and didn't even bother to watch him fall to the floor.
"Time I started being the Master and not a love-sick puppy."
He plucked the psychic tracer from Jack's dead hand and snorted. "As if," and smashed it.
He closed his eyes and gathering his strength he reached out for the bond and found it easier than he thought to break through the barrier his lover had put up. He opened his eyes and with a smile moved off.
White Coat glanced at the screen of his tracker and smiled; he was getting closer. He'd been receiving reports that his men were being over-run and realised that yet another base was lost.
He shrugged his shoulders, he would find his property and start again and this time he had something extra.
Yes, he could see this experiment being very profitable.
He came to door that led to an emergency exit and he stopped when he saw something metallic on the floor.
It was one of his knives and it was lying in a pool of blood.
Yet again he regretted not immobilising his property and now it had cost him dearly; he would have to punish it severely for that.
"Find him and if he resists, shoot to immobilise."
His guards nodded and split into three groups and one of them stayed with White Coat.
"He may be outside," White Coat said and opened the door and was about to step through it when the Tr'voc attacked.
The Doctor was virtually crawling up the steps. He could feel the draught of cold air on his face; he knew he must be close to relative freedom.
He stopped when another wave of pain rippled through him. Dragging out the knife had caused more damage than he'd expected; he must be bleeding inside.
He let out a cry of frustration as he sank against the wall; he was so close now, he couldn't die yet, he needed to complete the h'ast misa.
"Come on!" he yelled at himself and moved again, leaving a sticky hand print as he once again began his ascent.
The pain was becoming all encompassing and somewhere on the periphery of his hearing he thought he heard gunfire.
He felt something tickle at the back of his mind...the Master. He shuddered as another wave of pain hit him. He was too tired and too weak to bolster the barrier.
"Too late Inari," he whispered and moved again.
He needed to stay alive for a little longer. If he died before he completed he would regenerate and it would begin again. That's why he needed to stay alive to perform the h'ast misa; no m'eas meant there would be no regeneration.
How many more steps he thought? He could feel the beginnings of death tugging at his mind; time was running out.
Gritting his teeth he pushed himself to his feet and groaned with the pain and began climbing again...one painful step at a time.
Ianto and Gwen watched as the last or at least they hoped of the patients and staff that were left alive.
The sounds of the fire-fight had receded as the Tr'voc had advanced inside the building.
Gwen and Ianto began to move towards the destroyed section of the Institute.
"Where are you going?" Doctor Stoneleigh asked. "Didn't your superior order you to stay here?"
Gwen and Ianto looked at him. "We're not always good at taking orders," they said together.
Doctor Stoneleigh smiled. "Neither am I," he said.
He threw a look at the two men in suits who were walking towards them. "Time to go, I think."
The trio stepped through the gaping hole and ignored the shouts.
Jack breathed back into life. He sat up and looked round.
The corridor was empty and the sounds of gun-fire were distant. There was no sign of the Master; not that he expected there would be.
It was then that he saw the wrecked tracer and he scowled; he knew he shouldn't have trusted him.
"Dammit, how the hell am I going to find him now?"
"I's can help you," a voice said.
Translation
Isha se- I curse you