The Ultimate Re-Master: Retribution

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The Master twirled in the middle of the command room. Dead technicians lay in the chairs where he had shot them with the guard's staser. He stopped turning, closed his eyes and listened. The distant 'whoomphs' of sky trench armories pulsed; the ground shook with explosions. A particularly violent explosion was coupled with the cracking, snapping and colossal tinkling of shattering glass. If he listened very hard he could hear them screaming and crying for help. A smile played across his lips as he opened his eyes.

"Why?" His eyes fell upon her. She in her crimson armor, a staser pointed at him. The General's dark eyes glared at him. "Why are you doing this?"

He laughed and lifted the staser he had taken. "We deserve this. We are monsters, we are…"

"Time Lords! Minister-"

"THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" The Master shouted, as his smile curled into a frown and his amusement burned into rage. "Really? I know I'm a good hypnotist but even I thought the debriefing went a little too easy…I thought you were in on it!"

"In on what!?" The General growled.

"Everything…" The Master said shaking his head. "But you don't know. You don't know anything at all, just like the rest of us. Is that how we were meant to absolve ourselves? How we were to forgive ourselves our self-contamination….?"

"If you aren't the Minister of Chance, then who are you?" The General narrowed her eyes.

"Oh come on, you might be military but you aren't dumb…" The Master said quietly as he tilted his head. "My biodata expunged from the record…I'm destroying Gallifrey, starting with the opening of the Panopticon, unsheathing the Eye of Harmony, I hacked the defense systems of the sky trenches to turn the batteries on the planet….who could do all of that, hmm? I'll make it easy; I'm not the good one…"

"Master…" the General hissed. The shot came from the staser. The Master dropped behind one of the dead technicians.

"See, this is the kind of thing I miss when I'm chasing the Doctor! The willingness to shoot first!" The Master laughed as he peered over the shoulder of the dead technician. "Or should I call our sainted Doctor what they really are…the Timeless Child."

The General's lips pursed. "So that's what you've been doing in the Matrix…I knew I should've monitored you more. But I had hoped…"

"I know…I could feel it." The Master said with a smile on his lips. "You loved the Minister didn't you…?"

"How? How did you know the code phrase?" The General growled as she pointed the gun at the Master.

"Eh, that; found him, oh so long ago, during the Time War…cornered by some untold monstrosity from another reality…begging for help, begging to get message back to home…" The Master said as he moved across the room, crouching behind the dead, and consoles. He put his back to one of the alcoves of computer banks and smiled as he remembered it. "I watched him burn, I used him as bait to kill the thing. His dying breath, he told me the phrase; some last hope to warn you all I'm sure…"

"He was my friend." The General said, her voice coming from the Master's left. The Master turned, and found himself at the deadly end of a staser.

"I know." The Master said as he dropped his staser and put his hands up. "That's what made it easy."

"No-pick it up." The General snarled. "I want to make this look good for the paperwork."

"There it is…" The Master said smiling. "The ruthless efficiency of a military bureaucrat…" The Master said as he started to reach down for the staser, "but maybe, still too naïve."

In a single motion his arm came up, the tissue compressor slipping down the sleeve of his jacket, his finger pressing the actuator. There was a whir; the General's staser fell to the ground next to a tiny, simulacrum of the General laying next to it. The Master knelt down and looked at the miniaturized figure and sighed.

"The only problem with tissue compression is it's a little too neat…" The Master said quietly as he stood back up, "there's no blood, no gurgle, no satisfying thump of a dead body, it's really too good for them."

He turned and looked at the bodies. The skin of one of the dead Time Lords was still glowing. The body was still trying to regenerate; in spite of him killing the Time Lord. Just like the Doctor…never knew when to give up. He walked up to the body, sliding a knife from his jacket pocket and started stabbing.

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DIE!?" The Master screamed as he stabbed the dead body. Blood flew; the regenerative energy flickered and then died. The Master was breathing hard now, deep angry breath dragging in and rushing out of his nostrils. A smile started to play across his lips, a gratifying smile. "I have to find the Doctor. I have ever so much to tell him. About all that I've been doing since he left me to die…"

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AN: I apologize for this extended interlude. This miniseries…of sorts…as much as…I find disfavor with the current direction the show maker has made vis-à-vis the Doctor…I find the effect it could have on the Master kinda…intriguing…considering how so many people seem to think it's overwritten World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls…which I don't think it did. I also kinda apologize for this being so short.