Before arriving on Ceros she had studied detailed maps of the palace's grounds. The Master had been meticulous in his preparations and was pleased to find that she could memorise a map as easily as she memorised a speech for the Senate.
The main corridors could be treacherous for one who had every appearance of being a servant and so Leto took to the supposedly secret routes between the walls. They were meant for the royal family and their closest advisors, but given how few fell into that category and that she could easily detect anyone's approach long before she was seen, she saw no reason not to make use of them.
She paused at the entrance to the main laboratory, but could sense no-one within. She pushed the door open and slipped inside.
"Careful, Leto, the power units are live and they aren't grounded." The Master was working at the far end of the lab, his eyes covered by a mask and surrounded by dozen of leads and what she assumed to be the aforementioned power units.
She waited, and after a few minutes he put down his tools and stripped off the mask and heavy gloves he was wearing. "Well?"
"Casta's more discontent than the reports suggested; she's conducting something of an underground resistance, hoping to turn it into a full blown revolution."
"How very ambitious of her. Perhaps I erred in my selection. No matter; if Peron's unaware of the situation her plans cannot be close to completion."
"And there's something else. The Doctor: he's here. I saw him and Jo Grant in the guest wing."
The Master's reaction was not what she expected: he smiled, pleased. "Excellent. Well, I see no harm in letting him stumble around until he gets himself into trouble."
Leto shook her head. "This is really is just some game to you, isn't it?" she said, not quite managing to hide her irritation.
"Do you know what this is, Leto? What it will do?" He pointed at the apparatus on the bench where he had been working.
She looked; she would not give a flippant answer. "It's a mind-machine interface: it connects an organic mind to an artificial component; one thinks and the thoughts pass through into the synapses of the machine."
She glanced at the Master, saw him watching her, expecting something more. "The artefacts, they're the component," she said. "And they must need an enormous amount of power to function."
"They have been lying dormant some considerable time. Their power would naturally dissipate."
"But what are they for?"
"Ah, the question you have studiously avoided asking for quite some time." He paused. "Do you want to know, Leto?"
She swallowed, recognising that tone. She had heard it before when she first met him, when he offered his help to her people and when he had invited her to leave her world with him. Temptation, and again she found that she was unable to resist accepting. "Yes," she said. "I want to know."
"My people," and though Leto could not feel the hate in that word, she could hear it quite clearly, "my people once preferred to interact with the universe rather than rot amongst their fading discoveries. They were on the verge of understanding the nature of the universe itself and they created many objects that could be used to manipulate it at the most fundamental levels."
Leto nodded. "So the artefact is one of these objects. But why separate them? Why the elaborate security?"
"Oh, don't be naïve, Leto. When they were dispersed, it had to be made certain that only one who truly understood their power could unite them; could restore them to their true form."
"And then what?"
"You are familiar with parallel dimension theory?"
"I've heard of it," said Leto, trying to remember her schooling in physics.
"Within existence," continued the Master, "are an infinite number of dimensions. Some varying only slightly from our own, others wholly alien to our comprehension. Now while it takes relatively little energy and skill to reach a near-normal dimension, the energy patterns and safe route equations required for most are incomprehensible to the humanoid brain."
"So these artefacts allow interdimensional travel?"
The Master shook his head. "Not quite. No, the information relating to them is a little more specific than that. The Time Lord who created them allowed them to contain only one safe route; a route to a place so very different from our universe that it can change the nature of those who touch it. Transform the sentience into a power capable of manipulating energy and matter on a universal scale."
"It makes gods," she said flatly.
"Precisely, my dear. And you can see that this is no simple game. Now if you excuse me, I still have a great deal of work to do.
-+-
Leto had learned enough basic electronics from the Master to be able to secure the power units. They were an economical sort of technology: small, light and capable of storing a great deal of energy, though nowhere near enough to power the artefacts. These were meant merely to compensate for any minor disruptions in the main power flow, and that would be taken directly from the planetary grid.
It was mid afternoon when the door burst open and a half-dozen guards marched in followed by Peron himself. He was in an exuberant mood, practically skipping in a way that made Leto wish she had a pistol handy: if one was to lead, then one should at least exercise a little decorum. Even if one was mad.
She kept her eyes down and focussed on sealing the connections. She desperately wished the she could leave the room, but, of course, that was now impossible unless Peron dismissed her. His mind, even though she was not focussing on it, was a dizzying combination of waves and sharp, twisted spikes. Idly, she wondered what the penalty for throwing up in the presence of the king was.
"Beautiful," declared Peron, looking at the assembled apparatus. "Stunning. Find me a painter at once! No, no, not now. Of course not. We cannot disturb your work, but later, oh yes. There must be paintings made of this great moment."
Leto studied the Master carefully, but he hid his irritation well and bowed to Peron with all the sincerity needed to convince the king of his allegiance. "Majesty, we are honoured by your presence, but beg you to keep your distance. Your mortal self is still vulnerable and the apparatus is not yet safe."
"Of course, of course." Peron turned away on his heel, cloak whirling behind him and Leto hoped he might choose to leave. Instead she felt that mad mind draw closer to her. "And what is this?"
Leto did not meet his eyes but stood and bowed. "My name is Leto, Your Majesty." It was easier now, to call herself that and to forget her family name.
"Ah, yes, of course. And are you a good servant, Leto? Are you loyal to your master?"
She pushed down any twinge of anger at the questions. "Yes, Majesty." Holding no illusions about her situation was one thing; articulating them to a stranger, on the other hand, was not pleasant. Still Peron seemed satisfied and she was relieved that he had no more questions for her.
"Now, now, yes! That is why I came, of course!" He waved at the closest guard. "Bring them in, bring them in!" He turned to the Master. "A gift for you, noble messenger. A gift for your good works in my name."
The door opened again and the Doctor and Jo were escorted in, hands bound and a guard with his weapon drawn on either side of them. "We found them in our palace. Nominally with our dear treacherous Chancellor's consent, but it was soon made clear what their true purpose was. To cast me down! To revolt!" He calmed quite suddenly, then said, "But then, I am merciful and since they are known to you I thought it would be best to leave their fate in your hands. So, tell me, what should I do with them?"
The Master was clearly delighted, and took his time in replying, savouring the moment. "If it pleases Your Majesty, I would very much like to be the one to dispose of these heathen."
"Wonderful," said Peron. "Perfect. It shall be so. But not yet, no, no, I shall require a sacrifice for my ascension, and what better gift to the Pantheon than these two blasphemers?"
"As you wish, Majesty."
"Seal them in an isoward," ordered Peron. He glanced at the Master. "You are not using them, are you?"
"No, Majesty."
"Good, good. Number three, if you please, Captain. Number three."
Leto felt herself pale as she watched the guards shut them in one of the units. Seven, all along the far side of the main laboratory, designed for testing, curing, a makeshift hospital if there was a crisis in the palace. Still she had been able to ignore them until now.
Determinedly, she turned back to her work, not even noticing when the king and his guards left.
-+-
The isowards was sealed off from the main laboratory and the Master had shut down the intercom and closed the window but wasn't about to trust that the Doctor would sit still and not interfere. He left Leto to set up the scanner and within a few minutes the inside of the cell was shown on one of the lab's monitors.
Then it was only a matter of time before the Master could no longer resist taunting his enemy. If he merely wanted him dead, he could have done it before now, killed him a thousand times. But it was more than that, and Leto was beginning to understand that the Master needed something from the Doctor. And whatever it was worth infinitely more than just his death.
She didn't need to hear any of these arguments, but found herself without an excuse to leave. Instead she looked at Jo, and was unnerved to find that the human was looking back at her.
"...could destroy the whole of creation!" The Doctor. Hyperbole. The Master might crave power but Leto did not believe he craved destruction for its own sake. In revenge, certainly; for knowledge, perhaps, but never simply to destroy. Universal armageddon was as appealing to him as any other sane sentient.
"...gained! No more death, no suffering, no one would ever have to know pain again."
"And no choices for anyone; a far greater evil than any suffering one might endure."
"What would you know of suffering, Doctor? What have you lost?"
She didn't hear the answer, but a few moments later, Leto noticed their eyes turn to her, and she suddenly felt like a specimen under a microscope. "Is this what you want, Leto? A universe of no choice; no freedom?" The Doctor was looking at her, pleading, compassionate.
She returned his stare and spoke quite calmly: "What I want is irrelevant."
The Master turned back to the Doctor, his eyes narrowing. "Hardly the best person to appeal to, Doctor. With the power of the artefacts I can restore her world, her people. No-one need ever have died."
The Doctor shook his head. "Everything has its time. That's part of life, part of what living is." He looked at me again. "Leto, if you let this happen countless worlds will be enslaved, billions upon billions of people whose lives will become meaningless."
The Master glanced at her, noted her discomfort. "Nobody need die, Leto. Nobody. This machine has the power to bring life, to bring back your daughter."
Leto paled, grasped the edge of the bench to stop her hands shaking. She could not look at him, but managed to say, "I said nothing of her to you." He did not reply. She nodded, stood up, managed to compose herself. "It was no accident that it was my aide that found you. The time you chose to arrive; the technology you offered. Every detail planned."
"Yes," he admitted.
"I may have been a politician, but I have been so very naïve." She glanced at the Doctor. "But it was still my choice and your words change nothing, Doctor."
She left the room then, sick of listening to the Time Lords argue and desperate to find something on this planet that vaguely resembled tea. Small comforts, she thought, small comforts.