"This is ridiculous," said the Doctor in a harsh whisper, glaring at the Master as they were guided into an operating theatre by two silent Judoon guards. "You can't just give yourself up."
"I don't see any other option," said the Master, hopping onto a low table and sliding into a cross-legged position. "Anyway, you don't need to worry about me. You worry about extracting that parasite."
The Doctor pursed his lips and looked around the room. It was larger than the TARDIS medical bay, and much cleaner, full of state-of-the-art equipment and scrubbed surfaces. From the brightly lit ceiling hung a surgeon robot - a spider-like creature with small sharp instruments attached to its many limbs, connected by wires to a screen on a pedestal behind the head of the operation bed.
Sitting innocently on a table beside the bed was a circular black case, like a jewellery box.
The Doctor gave it an apprehensive glance, then moved around to the screen, put on his glasses and opened the display to familiarise himself with the controls. He tapped a button and the robot's limbs spasmed outwards, nearly hitting the Master with a scalpel.
"Hey, watch it!"
"Sorry! The sensitivity is way up."
The Master sighed. "It's probably standard type 20-delta animatronic software. Drag the green dial across for manual direction."
The Doctor did as instructed, and a pair of thin gloves mapped by electronic wires slid out from a tray under the computer. He glanced up. "Maybe you should do it."
The Master grinned and held up a shaking hand. "You're the only one who can, Doctor. The Agni network has a stronger hold on all of us, now."
The Doctor took a deep breath and looked at the black case. "Yeah. Okay."
The door swished open and Martha came in, holding the metal sphere which the Master had constructed in the TARDIS. She was followed by two more Judoon guards, carrying Lord's limp form between them.
Martha walked over and handed the Master the sphere. He tossed it in the air like a football, and then held it up to the light with a critical eye.
"Not my best work, but it'll do. Keep the creature alive at the very least."
Martha glanced over at the Doctor, who was opening more displays on the computer screen as the Judoon dumped Lord unceremoniously onto the bed. Her headache had still not subsided, and her brain was refusing to focus on anything properly.
"Is this definitely going to work?" she murmured.
The Master shrugged. "Probably. The Torque is perfectly engineered mental torture. It forces you into the darkest corner of your mind and then drags you back, kicking and screaming across a thousand knife-edges. Then it repeats until you can't even remember who you are anymore. Like you're hovering between life and death." He stared into the middle distance, lost for a moment, then seemed to recover himself. "If the Agni can defend itself against all that, we never stood a chance. Anyway -" He brightened. "Even if this doesn't work, we can just skip to phase two, and kill the thing when I regenerate."
Martha sank onto the table beside him and watched the Doctor prepare for the surgery, slipping his hands into the electronic gloves. He wiggled his fingers and the surgeon robot twitched, responding to his movements. The Judoon soldiers were strapping Lord firmly down to the bed, securing his wrists and ankles, even binding his chest and neck tightly so he couldn't disrupt the surgery by moving.
Martha felt strangely hollow. She glanced at the Master, and realised something.
He had just given himself up to the Shadow Proclamation, on the chance that the Doctor could perform this surgery and save the Agni. He was trading his freedom for the life of another creature.
A question rose in her mind like a bubble.
"If… when you and Lord become one person again… will that person be you?"
The Master looked up at her. "I don't know. Why?" His tone was even, truthful.
Martha struggled to find the words.
"Because… you are better than him. And if you stay with the Doctor, you could be so much more than you were, even before that."
He laughed quietly. "Is this faith in me, from Martha Jones?"
Martha smiled. "You might want to write it down."
"Maybe I will."
"It won't be worth much if you end up rotting in jail."
He dropped her gaze. "The deal's done. Trust me, Martha. I'm probably better off rotting in jail anyway."
Martha couldn't think of anything to say to this. She stood up and left him there holding the sphere, moving to the Doctor's side as he prepared to open the black case.
As his fingers neared, its upper layer melted away to reveal the Torque, tarnished and burnt, nestled in the black velvet like a venomous snake.
The Doctor looked down at it with an expression of loathing. Martha placed a hand on his arm in what she hoped was a comforting way.
"How long will it take to get the parasite out?"
The Doctor breathed in slowly. "About an hour."
He lifted up the Torque. The white jewel set into it glittered wickedly in the harsh clinical light. Martha watched in silence as he reached down, unclasped it and then placed it around the unconscious Lord's neck. It seemed to cling to him as soon as it touched, energy beginning to pulse through it. Lord's hand twitched, and his eyelids flickered.
At the same moment, Martha felt the pressure decrease in her own mind, like someone had just pulled a knife out of it. The Agni had switched priorities.
"Wakey wakey," murmured the Doctor, twisting his hands to manoeuvre the surgery bot's limbs into position over Lord's trembling form. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
The surgery lasted two and a half hours.
Twice, Lord broke out of the restraints and needed to be held down by the Judoon until they could be attached again. Afterwards the surgeon robot had to be carefully re-adjusted, and the second time it nearly caused a severe bleed inside Lord's brain.
His screams echoed around and around the room, never-ending. They couldn't risk using any kind of tranquilliser or anaesthetic in case the Agni took back control. Martha forced herself to stay by the Doctor's side, watching the Torque glimmer and Lord's body shake until tears stained her cheeks and she had to leave the room.
The Doctor focussed completely on his work, only stopping to take the occasional sip of the tea Martha had brought him. The Master remained sitting on the table, staring into empty space.
Finally, the Doctor cleared his throat and looked up at the Master. Lord's screams had descended into whimpers of pain now.
"Ready."
The Master slid calmly off the table as if he'd only been there a few seconds, and carried the metal sphere over to the bed. He pressed a button and the top of the sphere retracted with a faint hiss, revealing a section of pink, squishy substance.
"Be quick. The synthetic brain tissue needs to stay moisturised."
The Doctor lifted his right hand, his fingers pinched together inside the glove, and one of the surgeon robot's spider-like limbs rose from the mess of blood that was Lord's brain. At the end of it was a tiny pair of tweezers, and inside them was a grey speck, maybe half an inch across.
It twitched feebly in the bright light. For a moment the two Time Lords just stared at the parasite, the creature which could have wiped out the lives of billions.
The Master let out a half-laugh. "It's so tiny."
"I know." The Doctor allowed himself one more second of awe before blinking back to reality. He moved his hand gently, transferring the parasite over to the sphere. He hovered the tweezers just above the surface of the artificial brain, and then, hardly daring to breathe, slowly opened them.
The tiny grey worm wriggled free and dropped, disappearing into a fold of the wrinkled pink flesh. The Master quickly pressed the button again and the sphere sealed closed, a blue light flashing happily on its side.
There was a moment of silence as the two Time Lords processed what they had just done.
"We've saved it," breathed the Doctor. A smile crept onto his tired face.
The Master placed the sphere carefully on the table and then reached down to remove the Torque from around Lord's neck. The Fission Clone gave a gasp of relief as the metal unclasped, and his eyes flickered open, trying to focus on them.
"What…" he croaked, his voice hoarse from screaming. "What happened?"
"You're free. We're all free." The Master looked down at him with a half-smile. "Sorry, by the way."
Lord blinked, taking in his new surroundings, the straps pinning him to the bed. His eyes travelled to the Torque in the Master's hands, and widened fractionally.
Then, unexpectedly, he laughed.
"Oh! You just had to get your own back, didn't you?"
The Master leaned down and pressed a finger to his lips. "Hush. Your brain is still wide open."
"You're sadistic, you know that?" Lord grinned and closed his eyes again as the Doctor prepared the surgeon robot to finish the operation.
The Master turned away, still smiling. "I have my moments."
Illustration for chapter 31 on DeviantArt: atlantihero-kyoxei/art/Operation-Agni-877270020