Choice, what choice...
Jack stumbled out of the room and was sick again.
The Matriarch was standing patiently waiting until he finished and took in a gulp of air to quell his stomach.
"They showed you a possible future, there are infinite possibilities. The timelines have been twisted and some have shattered."
"And you're saying it's because of the Doctor being with the Master?" Jack said.
The Matriarch shook her head. "It was the birth of the twins that have altered everything. You have seen what they have become, what the Doctor becomes to protect them. That cannot be allowed to happen."
Jack laughed. "You think a prison and an asylum are going to keep them from their children?"
"Of course not, we are not fools," the Matriarch replied. "The Master as I said has other crimes to answer for."
"And the Doctor?"
"It is necessary that people believe he was clinically insane and that after treatment at our facility he has fully recovered and has returned to the Time Lord he should be. There are things that he has yet to do, things that must been done."
"Well the first thing he'll do is find his children and the Master and then obliterate this place."
"That is not going to happen...we have something in mind and you Captain Harkness will be essential to it."
Jack's trouble radar pinged into life at those words and the suspicious side of his nature came to the fore.
"Well it better involve wiping his memory or it'll never work."
The look the Matriarch gave him told he that was exactly what they were going to do.
"There's no way you can wipe his memory, his mind has more safe guards than the Galactic Bank," he said to the medic who had been introduced a Doctor Selah.
"I have been studying Time Lord Physiology for ten years, Captain Harkness. I am well aware of their psychic and mental defences. However, they only kick in if the whole of the mind is under attack. What we are going to do involves only a small portion of the memory centre. Did you think we were going to remove all of his memories, what good would that do? He would be an emotional and mental wreck if we did that."
Doctor Selah flicked a switch and light poured into a room that had been dark.
Jack stared at what was inside. "Is that what I think it is?"
"It's a memory extractor."
"Those things are illegal on every civilised world. The Shadow Proclamation banned them and they're going to use one on the Doctor...you hypocritical bastards," he said to the Matriarch.
"Semantics have nothing to do with this Captain. We have no choice but to do this, the Doctor has his place in the timelines and he must be there, but he cannot be allowed to roam free as he is now. He must be rid of the Master's influence and the only way to do this is extracting his memories of not just the Master but of his children."
Jack blinked. "His children, you taking the memory of them away...that's cruel and I think he'll notice there's three Time Lords."
"That to will be dealt with. I believe you have heard and used a perception filter. The one we have designed for the children will mask their Time Lord side but not mask them physically and stasis will hide the Master."
Jack looked again at the machine and said. "The children, are you going to lock them up too?"
The Matriarch scowled. "We do not lock up infants. This is where you will help us Captain."
Jack tensed. "Really...help you."
"The children will need somewhere that no-one will think to look for them, where they will go unnoticed...somewhere that is out of bounds to other races...Earth."
"You want me to take his kids...no way."
"This is not a request. It is a Holy Edict from the High Council, one that you will obey. You will also be responsible for keeping this a secret from the Time Lord."
"No way, I'm not doing your dirty work!"
The Matriarch turned and faced him. "If you will not do this out of duty, then do this for the Time Lord. If you truly love this Time Lord you will do this...we cannot allow the future you have seen to come true. If you do not do this then the High Council will execute the Doctor and the Master and his children will be euthanized."
Jack swallowed hard; they were giving him no choice at all.
He hung his head and the Matriarch took that as a yes.
"As for your colleagues, you will ensure that they do not remember either. You have supplies of Ret-con. No-one but you must know what has transpired."
"Err, about that, there's one problem?"
The Matriarch listened. "The deal with it and we shall proceed with the extraction."
"And what about the Master, are you going to do the same to him?"
"He has other crimes to answer for and is being transported to his accusers for trial. He will not trouble the Doctor again."
The Master spat curses as he was dragged towards the transporter. He'd lost everything within a day; his children, his lover and the child he'd been carrying was dead, and his newly formed Empire.
But he would not be defeated; it wouldn't matter what Rassilon-forsaken place they were taking him to, he would come back and get his revenge and get back what was his.
He was the Master and they would fear his name again.
Gwen wondered what Jack wanted to talk to her about as she was escorted into the room.
The first thing she noticed was a large window that showed another room and there was some sort of machine inside.
Then she saw Jack and he looked utterly miserable.
"Jack?"
He looked up then and there were tears in his eyes.
"Gwen," he said. "I have something to ask you?"
As she listened her eyes got wider and her temper boiled...how could they ask him to be part of such a horrible thing?
"Oh Jack...they haven't given you any choice, have they? Of course I'll help you...they can't execute the Doctor and kill those babies. Are they going to take his memories soon?"
"In a few minutes, they allowed me to talk to you first."
They turned to the window as a door opened and the Doctor was brought in and he instantly began to struggle and he was screaming at his guards and Doctor Selah and there was nothing Jack or Gwen to do to help him.
Gwen turned away as he was forced into the chair and was strapped down and she tried to close her ears to the sound of the machine as it fired up and then to the screams as the machine did its work.