Summary: The Master and Rose face off each other. With the fate of the world precariously in a balance, it is imperative that Rose is able to stop the Master - but can she do it?
Chapter 27: The Master and the Wolf
Rose took a deep breath as she took a step outside the Tardis. She could feel her heart beat faster when Mickey bolted the lock on the Tardis door. Rose was sure this was the right thing to do, but it did not stop it from being so bloody frightening.
There was so much noise outside the doors of the small room where the Tardis was kept, the sounds of drilling and metal against metal as the soldiers tried to get into the Tardis, each bang an ominous step towards the Master. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.
She was not afraid of the Master. She was not afraid of the Master. When she opened her eyes, she nearly jumped out of her skin, for who should be leaning by the door: none other than the Bad Wolf. She seemed oblivious to the racket outside, unaffected by the vibrations and knocking against the door.
The Bad Wolf stared at Rose. Or at least she thought she was staring at her; she could not quite tell. The last time she saw the Bad Wolf, she, if she could even be called a she, had golden irises. But now even the whites of her eyes were golden.
'The man you call your father,' the Bad Wolf spoke. 'The Master has taken him.'
When the Bad Wolf spoke, her voice had a chilling quality, reverberating across the room making the objects in the room tremble despite it not being loud.
'He's always had my father captive,' Rose retorted back, her voice trembling.
'Using your father as bait,' the Bad Wolf continued dreamily. 'But I can help you, Rose Tyler. We can stop the Master. We can stop all of them. Return Earth back to order. You can have Harold Saxon back.'
The door that stood between Rose and the soldiers was beginning to splinter open. There was a loud pounding from the outside as the men tried to break the door down. Rose stared at the Bad Wolf; it reminded Rose vaguely of the time she looked into the heart of the Tardis.
'How is any of this possible? How can you possibly exist?' Rose asked. 'The Doctor removed all traces of the Time Vortex from me.'
The Bad Wolf laughed. "You don't need all of the Time Vortex to create me, child." With a mischievous grin reminiscent of the Doctor, she continued, "I am you."
Rose stiffened, and memories of a space station from long ago rose unbidden to her mind. The door broke open and a stream of soldiers burst forth. Rose put her hands up in the air as the soldiers shouted for her to put any weapon down. Rose was not listening, though. She barely noticed the soldiers — only the Bad Wolf, who had her head tilted to the side with a soundless laugh.
***
The alarms continued to blare as Rose was led to Torchwood, handcuffed. The soldiers dragged her; the steps they took were wide and hasty, as though they wanted to bring back to the Master his most prized possession.
The doors to Torchwood control opened, the doors flung wide open to the side as they led her in. Inside, a spectacle of sorts awaited her. The PCs that the Torchwood staff were manning were empty, almost all of them standing by the wall of Torchwood Control. The men and women had their eyes cast to the ground, refusing to watch what was about to unfold.
At the centre of the room, the Master stood over Pete Tyler like a ringmaster taming a tiger. In this case, the wounded tiger: Pete was on the floor with ragged breathing that could be heard even as Rose entered Torchwood Control. The Sycorax stood behind the Master, displeased with this act of showmanship, but did nothing to voice their displeasure. The Master smiled widely when Rose walked in.
'Rose, welcome back,' he purred. 'It was so rude of you to just leave.' He signaled for the Torchwood soldiers to remove Rose's handcuffs.
Rose had seen many things in her young life. So many wondrous things, so many greatly unhappy things. She had seen the love of her life, tormented and tortured, she knew that in her line of work, it was almost to be expected that her family would become a target.
Pete Tyler was a trained Torchwood operative. He had his own battle scars to show in the war against the Cybermen and the various aliens invasions. But he was family. It would never get easier.
She stood there for a second, momentarily stunned as she took in her father's bloodied features. From the newly formed bruise around his eye, to the blood trickling by the side of his face - a spark of rage grew within
The room echoed with peals of laughter, light as a bell, madder than a hatter, laughter that only Rose could hear.
'Dad…,' she said, her voice broken. She stepped forward to her father, but the soldiers held her back. Rose looked at Harry - no, the Master, and he bared his teeth in a twisted grin. She glared at him but even from the distance, his gaze was strangely hypnotic. Between the Master's gaze and the Bad Wolf, she gritted her teeth, pinched herself slightly to remain focus. The temptation to give in to the rage that was Bad Wolf was strong. 'Why?'
The Master shrugged. 'You've been a very naughty girl, Rose.'
'I'm here now,' she said quietly. 'Let Dad go, please.'
'Rose, you shouldn't have run away,' he chastised. 'Dinner is all cold,' he continued in mock hurt.
'I can stop him,' the Bad Wolf whispered in her ear.
There must be a reason why he survived. Rose thought bitterly. She thought of the Doctor, her first Doctor, the man with the Northern accent, and felt a strange pity for this crazy creature, all alone in this universe.
'You don't have to do this,' Rose said quietly. 'There is always another way.'
'If there was another way, the universe would have spared the Doctor,' the Master repeated. 'But he died. I lived. And as the last of the Time Lords, I get to dictate how the universe should look like.'
The room was silent as he waited for her reply. It was in these moments of quiet, when the Master was not bouncing about stark raving mad, that Rose thought she saw the Harry deep inside. It went against all sense of logic, all rationality, that she could still hope despite what the Master had done.
'It doesn't have to be a universe of war and destruction. There's always other ways of living. Of surviving.' Rose said, struggling to get the words out, to put the words together. How do you reason with a mad man? 'We survived in this universe for a reason. We can be different. Things can change.'
The Master pulled out the laser screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it in Pete Tyler's direction. 'Funny, trying to talk to a Time Lord about the future. Let me assure you Rose Tyler, that the universe and time ends the same way it has since its creation. Everyone, everybody dies.'
Rose felt her heart fall, settling somewhere in between her stomach. She began to tremble, she did not mean to put her father in further danger. Stupid, stupid girl. Stupid.
Give in, Rose. Give in.
Rose thought he was going to push the button and it would all end right now, right at this point.
But he did not. The Master still stood there, laser screwdriver at Pete Tyler's head and yet nothing.
He hesitated.
It was the hesitation that cost him in the end. The Sycorax who had been impatient on the side, as the Master spoke and made his grand gesture, turned against him. With an agility that was unexpected from the lumbering mass that was the Sycorax, the leader of the Sycorax pulled from his side a whip and snapped it. There was a burst of electricity.
'No!' Lucy screamed.
The Master collapsed on the ground. Rose's breath caught in her throat, and she could not breathe — wondering if the impossible had happened. Was the Master dead?
'No!' Lucy screamed again. She left the side of the wall where she cowered earlier, to go to the Master's side. She sobbed like a grieving widow by the Master's side. His death was so sudden, so soon that Rose could not believe that it was over — just like that. There was a pang in her heart, one that she did not want to think about, combined with relief and confusion.
He was not a skeleton, so he could not be dead. Unconscious maybe? Or maybe dead beyond regeneration? Were Time Lords that easy to kill?
It was perhaps the most unexpected turn of events, a most unexpected and almost disappointing ending to the great, insane Time Lord that had conquered the planet. The last of the Time Lords and all gone in a flash.
There was for a second that awful silence as everyone in the entire room held their breath, not knowing what to do next. The Sycorax leader who had done the unthinkable stared at his whip for a second, his expression one of confusion before he roared a cry of victory. His fellow Sycorax roared back their approval — they were now the ones in control.
The Sycorax soldiers went to their respective positions, yanking Lucy away from the Master. The Torchwood soldiers looked shocked, unsure who to follow this time. Some of the soldiers backed away from her, leaving the Sycorax to drag her towards the their leader.
The Sycorax smelled of rotten meat, Rose struggled not to gag as he breathed down on her.
"The Rose Tyler, the one the Master was so keen on finding." The Sycorax spat the Master's name out. "I said that it would be his downfall." He laughed. As if on cue, the rest of the Sycorax in the room burst into laughter.
One of the Sycorax pushed Rose forward to Lucy. Rose tumbled forward and unable to maintain her balance, she crashed into Lucy and they fell onto the floor in a heap. The laughter around them grew louder.
"Sorry," Rose mumbled.
Lucy blinked several times, her eyes shining. Rose realized she was trying to stop herself from crying. 'He's gone,' she whispered.
Rose watched the still body of the Master. Could some sort of Time Lord biology render the Sycorax's weapon impotent? Was he unconscious? Or had he died beyond regeneration?
'I'm sorry,' Rose said numbly.
"Silence!" the Sycorax leader shouted. He strode up to Rose and pulled out a long spear and held it to the Rose's neck. Rose did not flinch.
"In the presence of your new master, I demand silence."
Lucy grabbed Rose's hand out of fear. Rose squeezed it back.
Rose took a deep breath. "I demand parlay along the lines of the Shadow Proclamation," she spoke, proud that her voice did not waver.
The Sycorax leader leaned in, sniffing her. Rose tried her best not to gag.
"Human. Yet you speak of the Shadow proclamation." He walked away, theatrical and extravagant. He stood in the centre again. "The Shadow Proclamation doesn't apply to inferior life forms of Sol 3."
Why did it always work with the Doctor and never with her? Rose swore that if she ever had a chance to travel the universe again, she would find the bloody parliament that came up with the Shadow Proclamation and read the bloody thing, end to end. And add in Sol 3 to the Shadow Proclamation.
Rose tried a different approach. "And yet your kind would fight for a planet for using a duel? How… how archaic is that?"
The Sycorax was easily riled. "It is our heritage!" he roared in protest. "An ancient heritage in a civilization greater than yours."
"Yeah? If so, then why are you going about stealing? Stealing planets."
"The Sycorax do not steal!"
"You're doing it now! There was a duel."
"There was a duel," the Sycorax snapped at her. He leered at Rose dangerously. Next to her, Rose could see Lucy flinch at the corner of her eye. She ought to be scared; she had faced them down before but sure, that was with the Doctor. Not alone.
"He lost," he continued point-blank at the Time Lord sprawled on the floor. "We are taking over your planet."
'You attacked him from behind,' Rose retorted. 'That's not a duel, cowards.'
But the Sycorax ignored Rose's remarks and instead pointed to Lucy. There was a brief flash of fear on Lucy's face. "The yellow one has what we need."
Two Sycorax soldiers marched over to Lucy's side. They grabbed hold of her. Lucy struggled but to her credit, she maintained a straight face as they manhandled her. But Lucy could not help the look of disgust that crossed her face. The soldiers pulled out the mobile from the inside of her jacket.
"I want the code," the Sycorax said.
"The Earth doesn't belong to him," Rose protested. She knew he was not paying attention to her but she had to try anyway. "He was not the representative of the Earth.
The Sycorax was losing patience. "Oh, but does he not control your planet by means of metal men? All the weapons on the planet." He reached and grabbed the mobile off from the Master's body. "All controlled by this tool?"
"No!"
Rose stood her ground, trying to look as persuasive as she could as Earth's representative. "Do you know why he was trying to find me?"
The Sycorax looked bored with the conversation. "Amuse me, red one. Why did he try and find you?"
"Because I can stop him." At the look of disbelief in the Sycorax's eyes, Rose lifted her face further, gave him the coldest and most arrogant glare she could muster. She must not allow the fear that she felt, the helplessness coursing through her veins to show in her eyes. She needed to buy time.
The Sycorax leader laughed. His laughter was like a cue for the rest to join in and walls and corridors of Torchwood echoed with the laughter of the Sycorax.
"You, little one? If you can stop the Master, tell me if you can stop this?" The Sycorax Leader took out his whip, the electric whip, and cracked his whip at one of the Torchwood employees huddled on the floor. His screams were terrifying as everyone watched him being electrocuted.
The pain he suffered through was short-lived and his skeleton fell to the ground, charred. So the whip was similar to the one in her universe. A sob escaped one of the group members. Rose did not even manage to see who it was who died. Dead. Gone. Was it an unnecessary death due to her bravado? Rose could not bring herself to look at either the bones or the people huddled close to each other. She could not bear the accusatory looks they'd give her.
"Didn't stop that, did you?" the Sycorax taunted.
"You didn't have to do that," Rose said, her voice wavering slightly. "He was innocent."
"You are like cattle. I do not need for you to surrender the planet. We control your Cybermen now. We control your weapons."
"Leave this planet, or you will die here." The fury at her colleague's death crept into her voice and for a moment, whatever fear she felt melted away. "I will stop you."
"How?"
Alarms blared in Torchwood Control. The Sycorax looked at each other in confusion. Rose nearly jumped at the sound but maintained control. It was a dangerous game she was playing and stakes were high.
"What is the meaning of this!?" the Sycorax leader bellowed. His footmen looked at each other confusedly.
It was, surprisingly enough, Lucy who spoke. "It's Torchwood's alert system. It alerts us when an unknown alien technology is used on the planet."
Nothing Lucy could have said could have made Rose smile as widely as she did now. Mickey had done it. When Rose spoke, she spoke with pure confidence and to an extent, a certain amount of vitriol.
"You hear that. That is the sound of the Archangel Network going down. That is the work of Torchwood. The Torchwood I represent. You no longer have any control of the Cybermen."
"What?" roared the Sycorax Leader.
He barked to his subordinates in Sycoraxic and they rushed to computers, smashing their thick fingers to get them to work. On the screens, pictures from all over the world streamed through the computers of Torchwood, showing the satellites of the Archangel Network blinking off before plummeting from the skies, burning on entry.
Outside of the Torchwood building, there was an explosion. There were screams and gunfire, chanting of "Delete, delete, delete" interspersed with the buzzing of electricity. It was the start of a new Cyberwar.
Rose closed her eyes momentarily, praying that her decisions were the correct ones, that she did not inflict a greater amount of pain on the human race. When she opened her eyes, she saw the Sycorax Leader whipping out his electric whip and the next thing Rose knew, the whip was collared around her neck.
Rose fell to her knees as she began to choke. She began to pull against the tight hold of the whip, struggling against the pressure. That was when the low hum began, and the pain as electricity poured through the whip and into Rose's body.
Rose was not sure if she screamed. She might have, but she remembered seeing sparks.
"The yellow one. Tell me the codes to your weapon or she dies," the Sycorax threatened.
Even through the haze of pain, she could see Lucy falter. She so much wanted to say, don't do it. Let her die here.
But Lucy was unused to seeing so much death and destruction around her. Even though she had attached herself to the Master, with the Master she was distant and removed from the pains of war. Now, being subjugated over and over with death and destruction, Lucy faltered.
"Stop!" Lucy screamed. She put her hands to her head. "The code is 251209," she whispered hoarsely. "Don't kill her, please. No more. We surrender."
The hum of the electricity stopped, and the coil of the whip around Rose's neck loosened. Rose collapsed on the floor, coughing and choking. Lucy rushed to Rose's side, tears streaming down her face as she helped Rose up.
"Let this be a lesson to you cattle, do not challenge the Sycorax!" he said menacingly. On Lucy's phone, he punched in the codes.
"Warning, launch codes activated," echoed a mechanical voice. "Launch in T-10, 9, 8…"
"Stop the launch," Rose said, her voice scratchy from the strangulation.
"I can't," Lucy whispered, the horror evident in her eyes. "I've condemned the planet."
"One. Launch activated for regions alpha, beta…"
Lucy began to weep quietly, and the group of humans held each other as the thousands of nuclear missiles were launched from its base to different parts of the planet. The Sycorax began to laugh again but Rose could not hear it.
The room had grown silent. The movement of every being in the room had slowed down but Rose could hear a rush of movement, a rush of sound from the beatings of the hearts of every living being in the room. Each of her senses heightened, the smell of fear and death permeating strongly. Blood and power.
And there was the singing. Rose felt herself going under. The song enveloped her until she was barely aware or conscious of those around her.
***
Here was Rose once more, seated on the soft-as-velvet apple grass of New New York. Rose smiled. It was in New New York where she had one of her fondest memories of the Doctor. It was here they just lay down on the grass, bathing in the sunlight. She remembered wishing if they could just be like this forever.
Rose was alone though. But funnily, she didn't mind. She didn't feel alone. The world was silent but Rose felt abuzz with life. She could feel stars bursting into life and then dying with a whimper. The movement of atoms, the dance of the electrons and songs of planets and stars. She could hear and see them all. She saw day collapse into night, and night give birth to day. And she was getting giddy from it all.
"Rose."
Rose wondered if this was what the Doctor felt as a Time Lord. There was a time when all this used to hurt. Now, Rose could lose herself to the song of Time and stay this way forever. There was no loneliness, just peace.
"Rose."
Rose opened her eyes. Hovering over her was the Doctor. No, it was the Tardis, taking the shape of the Doctor.
Rose smiled. "It's you."
The Tardis shaped as the Doctor shrugged with a smile. "Yes, it's me. Well, not quite me."
"Just a shape I'm familiar with," Rose said.
The Doctor nodded.
Rose sat up as the Doctor sat down next to her.
"The Bad Wolf has taken over your body, Rose," said the Doctor.
Rose nodded. "I know."
The Doctor looked surprised. "You knew? I had assumed she had gone all kamikaze on you and taken over."
"I made a choice. I'd let the Bad Wolf live and Rose die, if the world could be saved. Mickey would not be able to disable the satellites on time, and with the rockets going off…" Rose's voice trailed off. She smiled. "But now that you're here, it means that I'm not dead."
The Doctor shook his head.
"How?"
The Doctor smiled. "The Time Vortex on its own is not sentient. It's just energy, raw energy of time and space. It does not live. The Time Vortex and Rose together - now that is the Bad Wolf."
Rose took a deep breath and thought about the times she saw the Bad Wolf on its own. "But it lives," Rose countered. "I've seen her. Walking about. The Bad Wolf couldn't be me. I would remember."
"The conscious Rose does not remember," the Doctor corrected. "The conscious Rose hides here when the Time Vortex comes to fore," he continued waving around. "This is your safe place, where your conscious mind hides and protects itself when things get a little hairy.
"The Time Vortex requires a mind to direct its energy," the Doctor continued gently. "When the conscious Rose has run away, the Bad Wolf reaches for — "
"The subconscious," Rose said quickly. Rose swallowed, the realization slowly dawning upon her. She laughed mirthlessly. "Each time I hear the song, I hear the power of the Time, I thought I was letting go. I thought the Bad Wolf was another entity."
The Doctor shrugged. "To an effect, she is another entity. The Bad Wolf functions on your unconscious. Your basic wants and desires. She functions on your instinct. But the key word here is you. Your basic wants. Your desires. Your instinct."
Rose listened and interned all of the Doctor's words. If what the Doctor was saying was true, it meant —
"Four years ago. I was on a space station. There was a song and that was when the Bad Wolf first appeared. I could not remember much," Rose began, talking out the logic through. "When I came to, the Doctor was dying and the Daleks were dead."
The Doctor nodded.
"Each time I tried to remember, it always sort of left me. I thought it was the Doctor's doing. It wasn't, was it? I did it. I shut down so that I couldn't see so that I didn't have to deal with what I did." Rose looked away. "But if I allow myself to access my memory…"
The Doctor nodded.
Tears filled in Rose's eyes as the memories start trickling back to her consciousness of a time that was long forgotten. The tears fell and she couldn't stop. She destroyed an entire race; she had blood on her hands.
"And I could be doing it again, right now. At this very moment." Rose wiped the tears from her eyes, biting her bottom lip forcing the memories away, locking them. "Why does it have to hurt?" she whispered.
"The universe always does," replied the Doctor. "That's why he tried to heal it."
***
When Rose opened her eyes, she could immediately feel the pain and the throbbing of the Time Vortex as it coursed through her veins. She could see the men and women in the room, trembling at her power. She could feel and taste their fear, hear each and every person's heartbeat. Feel the confusion of the Sycorax and their panic and rage.
Rose could feel the spinning of the Earth, the sun in the air, every atom and every molecule. She could feel herself going under again, the call to her safe place beckoning. But she held on, steadfast.
Rose could hear the Bad Wolf speak. She spoke about the destruction, the addiction to destruction the Sycorax wanted. With a wave of her hand, the rockets and missiles meant to destroy the planet vanished, leaving in its wake, ashes floating in the wind.
The Bad Wolf turned its attentions to the Sycorax. Rose realized with horror what the Bad Wolf was about to do. She had to stop the Bad Wolf before she destroyed the Sycorax, dematerialize the entire race out of its existence. She shouted and screamed but her voice was drowned by the singing of the Time Vortex. Her body moved not out of her own volition. The real Rose Tyler remained asleep whilst her unconscious controlled the events as it unfolded.
Stop, please, Rose begged. Stop!
The Bad Wolf stopped. Rose breathed hard. Was it possible that the Bad Wolf could finally listen to her? Could she finally gain control of her body and senses.
The Bad Wolf smiled. Rose could sense what the Bad Wolf sensed. The Master.
The Bad Wolf turned and faced the Master. The Master stood at the corner of the room, where he once lay on the floor. He was not dead.
"What are you supposed to be?" Rose could hear the Master ask.
"I am the Bad Wolf."
"No, really? What are you?" he asked.
The Bad Wolf smiled. "I looked into the Tardis. The Tardis looked into me."
The Master chuckled bitterly. "Figures. What are you going to do? Punish me? Destroy me the same way you destroyed those rockets?"
"I can give life. You may die. Harold Saxon can live."
Rose watched the myriad of emotions cross the Master's face. Surprise. Amusement. Bitterness. As much as she'd loath to admit it, if the Bad Wolf could bring back Harry…
The glow of the Bad Wolf diminished a little. "You are the last of the Time Lords. And it is death you seek. Shall I bestow it for you?"
The Master smiled a bitter smile. "Death is a gift."
"And death you shall receive."
The Master's face remained blank and emotionless as the Bad Wolf doled out her gift. He grinned before closing his eyes, tilting his head to the sky, arms wide open, welcoming death.
The Master was smooth; he was almost as good as the Doctor when it came to hiding his emotions. But Rose had traveled with the Doctor for a long time, for her to know when someone hid their emotions. Rose saw a flash of despair right before he closed his eyes.
No, she would not let him die. She would not make that choice.
"No!" she shouted and Rose was shocked to hear that the voice was her own and not the ethereal voice of the Time Goddess. Rose raised her hand and was relieved to find her body was responding to her. She was in her own body again; the Bad Wolf had retreated to the recesses of her mind.
The exhaustion filled Rose immediately and she collapsed to her knees. Her breathing was ragged and Rose could feel that she was losing consciousness. She cast an eye towards the Master. Shock was evident on his features. Perhaps she made a mistake, saving a madman.
She would not be the one to choose who shall live or die. She gave the Master a meek smile.
The Sycorax barked something to each other. She could barely understand it, she was so tired.
The Sycorax leader marched up to her, shouting. Rose could barely keep her eyes open. There were screams around the room, panicked screams. What was going on?
"Answer me!" shouted the Sycorax. The Sycorax leader pulled out its whip and with a crack of it had the sharp line around her neck. Rose choked and her hands automatically came up to her neck and tried to pull the whip off. The exhaustion disappeared as the instinct to survive kicked in.
It all happened so quickly. Rose struggled against the rope garroted around her neck. She pulled, scrabbling around her throat, coughing and choking. And somewhere in her struggles, Rose could hear the hum of electricity and feel the static buildup within her.
She was going to die.
And as clichés went, as she teetered on the edge of death, time slowed down. The world slowed down, the world grew silent and all Rose could hear was her ragged breathing. Despite the severity of the situation, Rose could not help but wonder if her life would flash before her eyes and the white light would stream down from the ceiling to greet her to heavens beyond. Would the light be the same colour in this universe?
A flash of orange and a burst of ozone saturated the air and time returned to normal again. The world came back to the fore, loud and forceful. The whip around Rose's neck went slack and Rose pulled against the rope forcefully and scrabbled away from the Sycorax.
The Sycorax did not protest. Rose watched the fallen Sycorax's features twist from anger to shock before settling on agony. But even that emotion did not last long as the Sycorax's eyes rolled into his eyes and he crashed into the floor.
There were screams, presumably Rose thought from the humans witnessing the event. There were roars, this time, Rose decided, from the Sycorax. They were shocked, Rose supposed, that their leader had died.
The tips of her fingers were tingling and Rose could not feel her toes. Her throat hurt and was sore and Rose knew that the bruise would mar her neck for a few weeks as she recovered. God, as she recovered, she was given a chance to recover. She would live, thanks to -
Rose turned to look at her saviour, the Master, laser screwdriver in hand, pointed to where the Sycorax once stood. His face was steel, grim with fury. He remained standing in the pose until it seemed that he was satisfied that the Sycorax was dead enough. He looked at Rose and nodded before putting away the laser screwdriver in his coat pocket.
The Master was the last thing Rose saw before exhaustion claimed her and her world turned to darkness.
