CHAPTER 21
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As The Master detected the Rutan's presence on board the station with the sensors of his TARDIS, he began to softly cackle.
"This should be interesting! Maybe I can find some way to use this to my advantage," He said quietly to himself.
He watched The Doctor and his entourage on the monitor as they got to know the three crew members. Then, he changed the view on the monitor to focus on Rose.
"I know that it's you! It has to be. The two of you are too much alike for it to be a coincidence. The Doctor must be blind not to see it!" The Master shouted to himself in anguish.
It has to be you! He thought, almost in despair.
Arkytior had been his only friend other than The Doctor. She had believed him about the drums in his head being real when no one else did including The Doctor. She had kept him from going mad from their constant sound just by being there. She had been his rock. She had become someone that he could always rely on. Then, she was gone. A part of him died when she did. That was the day he gave up trying to fight the madness within him. That was the day that the Master was born!
If she were back though, then maybe things would be better for him. Maybe he could actually become his old self again with her influence back. She had always made him a better man. That was the kind of person that she was. She made everyone and everything around her better.
Rose Tyler was exactly the same way from what information that he had gathered about her. He had become interested in her back when he had heard The Doctor and Captain Jack discussing her back on Utopia. When he had heard the stories about her manipulating the power of the Vortex, he had immediately dared to hope that it was his old friend.
After becoming Prime Minister, he had had his people do serious research into her background until he knew everything about her. He had personally interviewed friends and family of hers as Harold Saxon by telling them that he was considering giving her a posthumous award since she was supposed to have fallen at Canary Wharf as a hero.
He had learned so much about her life and personality. Everything that he had found out made him believe that Rose Tyler was Arkytior even more.
He still didn't know how she could have escaped her destruction by the Daleks on Earth, but he did know that the power that she had could have saved her if she had used it. He had often wondered why she had not saved herself. How could she have allowed herself to die? He knew that if he had her power, that he would have never let himself be destroyed.
He had given up centuries ago on waiting for her to return though. Then, to hear about her when he was least expecting it! Memories about her had come rushing back to the surface and had aided him in changing back to himself from Professor Yana.
The Doctor may have given up waiting on her to return as well, but The Master knew that he had still been unconsciously searching for her all the same. He could see it in the choices of companions that he had made. He could see that they all shared certain personality characteristics or traits that would certainly bring her to the Doctor's mind. He often thought that that was why he was always traveling with those Earth girls. It wasn't just that he was lonely but because he was trying to fill the empty hole in his heart. Every time he found another companion it was as if he was still trying to find her. Arkytior had always been more like a human than a Time Lady after all. She and the Doctor had always shared a love for Earth and its people, even as Time Tots. It seemed that part of the Doctor couldn't quite accept that she was gone either.
The Master couldn't help but grin at the fact that The Doctor had finally found her without even knowing it. He laughed at the irony that The Doctor's one true love had been right in front of his stupid face the whole time, and he hadn't even known it!
He knew that she would not like the man that he had become and would certainly not approve of his constant attempts to kill the Doctor. He could only hope that she would still have some compassion for him left and would not totally reject him when her memories returned.
He silently promised himself that he would protect Rose and would make sure that she survived this ongoing war between the two Guardians. Even if she would now hate him, she was still his good friend from long ago. If only for that reason alone, he would make sure that she was with him when he assembled the Key and made himself Master of All! Maybe he would even let the Doctor live, if she asked him to long enough. He had to have a court jester to amuse him, after all.
For the first time in hundreds of years, he began to have a feeling of hope in his hearts. The hearts that he had thought had become cold and empty years ago.
He pushed these thoughts aside. Now, it was time for him to leave the TARDIS and step onto the station himself.
He began to disguise himself. He used to be very good at disguises. Hopefully, he still had it.
Soon, he would work use the Rutan's own strategy to his advantage. He would do it while using the Rutan as an unknowing, unwitting pawn the whole time, and then The Master would be victorious!
Next: The Master and the Rutan spy begin to turn the inhabitants of the station against each other and the whole station descends into paranoia!