Chapter 32
"You know, normal people would be doing their shopping, visiting relatives, eating Christmas cake," Judith commented as they pulled up to another disused facility, with a well-maintained fence-line and what they had come to see as regulation cameras, razor wire and other security arrangements.
"As you've said Judith" Harry muttered. "Do you really want to be our beating back shoppers for vomit coloured socks, or whatever?"
Judith looked at him. "Are you secretly dreaming of socks? How wonderfully fetishistic of you."
Harry shook his head. "Just thinking of Dumbledore, he did love his socks, and lemon drops."
"And masterful plans, cryptic decisions and paintings," Judith continued as they both got out of the Defender, while it appeared deserted there was still someone manning the gate and was wondering over to them a cautious hand on his weapon.
"You did some investigating while we were at Hogwarts." Harry said, though he framed it as an almost rhetorical question.
Judith didn't comment. "So how should we play this, lost tourist, lovers out for a quickie, or–"
"I might just stun him I think," he paused "you got annoyed with the last bloke." Harry muttered, some people had particularly tricky minds and hypnotism, especially as he'd had to maintain the silly fiction that he and Judith were amateur archaeologists searching for the 'legendary' burial site of Qui Quae Quod.
That was what he got accepting her challenge that he could sell any story she came up with.
It was another old warehouse. Judith looked over to Harry. "So what are you expecting to find here?"
"You're asking this now?" Harry looked at her. "Again?"
"You're looking for technology, I thought we got enough alien technology in our lives."
"I want a certain type of technology." Harry said as he tapped his wand on the door locks for the warehouse and walked in. "And this is what I've been looking for."
Judith followed him in. "Most normal people wouldn't go looking for Daleks for Christmas."
"Maybe I want to spend my Christmas with a Dalek."
"Isn't that a song?" Judith mused out loud, though Harry didn't really hear here.
He'd got to get his hands, quite literally on a Dalek, several, whilst in the 1970s, but since returning, aside from that very dead one that had been at the bottom of the ocean there hadn't been much.
It wasn't as though the Intrusion and Countermeasures Group needed them, they were more or less caught up between the ICMG and UNIT with Torchwood sticking their noses in also, and who knew whichever other defunct security services like ISIS lurking in the shadows wanting to get their hands on the tech.
And he wanted it before they stuck their hands in to take a piece of the technology pie.
Rereading the information about the so called 'Shoreditch Incident' and recalling what Ace and the Doctor had said, there should be a load of Dalek tech lying around, UNIT didn't have it when he was in the 1970s, despite UNIT being the ICMG's successor.
-/
Judith looked around the warehouse; it was, much as the other warehouses had been, with the smell of dust and old things. Like a library of technology and weaponry. Harry probably loved the smell, it was like his house and garage, only with less of a scent of engine oil, energy weapon and spell burn. She rather liked those smells.
-/
Harry ran his hands along the shelves; they were all showing signs of dust and having not been touched for years. There had been a manifest of this building, all with code numbers and nothing much else, so totally useful, if you actually had something to match it against.
He didn't, it had been boring enough just getting the building locations, trawling through even more information to get tidbits of information about what lay within these things would have sent him batty.
He turned down another corridor and jumped slightly; coming face to face with one of WOTAN's 'war machines'. He laughed.
"You have..." Harry shook his head, they really were as cumbersome as the photos suggested.
"You're laughing to yourself Harry, that's a sign of megalomania." Judith's voice drifted through the high shelving.
"No I'm laughing at something."
"More early 17th century Terileptil design?" Judith asked curiously as she walked around a corner. "No," she said answering her own question.
"Get a mind-controlling computer to design something and this is what happens," Harry said to it and Judith.
"Instead get a megalomaniac in a wheelchair to design something and you end up with something that looks like a breast fetishist went loose in the kitchen?" Judith asked.
"I'll let you do the talking if we come across a live breast-inspired kitchen-utensil loving killing machine filled with bubbling mutant," Harry called backwards to Judith as he continued his wandering along the shelving.
"How can I do that if you're shielding me from its gunfire?" Judith shouted.
"With great..." Harry paused as he rounded a corner and came face to face with said objects they were mocking. "Difficulty." He murmered to himself.
-/
They'd set up the tent, which was basically just far larger version of the expandable bags, supported by four extendable posts that could be transported in the back of the Defender.
He hadn't yet got it to the size he was happy with, at the moment it wasn't as big as a conventional wizarding tent, nor as well equipped, but you could walk in, or drag things; like a dead Dalek or 4 into it.
He didn't like spending too much time within the tent-bag thing, it had been slightly freaky testing it when one side of the supports had collapsed, he'd managed to blast a hole out after the entrance slipped out of view. But it had been a slightly worrying time, especially given the fact he couldn't have apparated out, given he had been perfecting them at his house.
Though the benefits of having an apparition 'dead zone' out weighed any of the downsides.
"You done, pilfering the great British establishment?" Judith asked wondering to him. "These looked interesting." She said passing him several rolled plans. "Well" She started. "Interesting to someone fascinated by breast-obsessed kitchen-wisk-fancying aliens."
Harry exhaled, he knew if he ever came across a live Dalek he'd end up with Judith's commentary in his head. He wondered as he pulled out a smaller piece of paper that seemed to describe what was in the tube, if, thinking of them as breast-kitchen obsessed beings was better than 'bubbling pots of hate'.
"Interesting." Harry murmured to himself, it was from the British War Office. "Something to look into later I think," Judith said looking back towards the doors.
"Company?" Harry asked, he hadn't heard anything, but that didn't mean that nothing was present. For all they knew there could be ghosts in this building, or spirits, or just generally invisible aliens who'd lost their purple cloaks.
Judith smiled mysteriously at him. "No, I'm just trying to hurry you up. You're really paranoid Harry."
Harry resisted to urge to punch her. "Anything else in your wonderings?"
"A painting here and there, some old Magpie electronics, a Spitfire, nothing all that interesting."
"A Spitfire?" Harry repeated as he packed up the tent, pulling the straps together so it could be carried.
"Important?" Judith asked. Then she looked at him hard. "Leaving aside your fascination with fast things with engines."
"Everything here's important, though useful is another thing." Harry said looking around. "I think leave now, while I've got what I wanted."
Judith patted him on the back. "You're learning Harry." She said, satisfied.
Harry looked to her. "Not that I care, but what have I learnt?"
"Not to want to look into everything and take it just in case, that's how hording starts," Judith said simply.
"And I haven't really got the room for an airfield."
"Not with your monitoring network across your fields, no." Judith mused as they walked out of the doors.
"Which is useful," Harry challenged.
"Is, or will be?" She asked as he re-locked the doors.
"Both. Probably."
-/
Harry spun the wheel of the Lotus and changed gear, despite being, very late in fact on Christmas Day the streets of Cardiff were busy. He'd had a rather pleasant day, very pleasant in fact.
Daphne had visited, practically on Christmas Eve and departed just as the sun had begun to rise on the day, though technically they'd spent Christmas Day together.
Though she had "things to attend to", Harry assumed it was family things, but he could never be sure with here. She did linger, wondering what he would do.
He did wonder, for a little bit, if the Doctor or Magister would show up, but no such visits had occurred. Soon, he'd be seeing the Doctor, soon their pasts would collide. Likely making his life more complicated. Especially considering it was his past and the Doctor's present and future.
He still wasn't sure if he would meet his friend, breaking into the Doctor's soon to be present life. 2004, soon to be 2005 in less than a week, then everything changes.
Then his life became contemporaneous with the Doctor's but not the Doctor with him, the Doctor would go on, meet Rose, and have all their adventures together, and then meet Jack Harkness; grifter, conman, (former) Time Agent and who knew what else.
Harry suspected that Jack didn't know some of the time, he had, at least obliquely said he had some missing memories.
Speaking of the devil in World War II clothing...
Harry drove up to Roald Dahl Plass, where Jack was waiting mysteriously, or maybe that was just the effect of the biting wind that was flapping his coat around.
Getting out of the car he patted to make sure his gun and wand were where he'd put them and wrapped a scarf around his neck.
-/
"Nice scarf." Jack complimented, with a smile.
Harry snorted, it was his Tinclavic scarf that the Doctor had given him, several years ago, it was still as it was; new. A pity so many of the memories formed during his school times also still as fresh. Much like the wind.
"You drag me out here on a freezing Christmas night and that's all I get. No wonder you're out here being mysterious Jack-" Harry's mock complaining was cut short as Jack enveloped him in a hug.
"You know" he whispered into Harry's ear. "I could warm you up much better than that scarf could, really heat things up."
Harry felt Jack's hands wander down his back. "Drifting hands Jack." He warned.
Jack breathed in, through his nose and then stepped away from Harry giving him a look. "You've had sex," He paused and then added "recently."
"Can anyone join this conversation or is this a private talk about sex in the middle of the plass?"
"Suzie Costello, meet-" Jack's introductions were cut off.
"Harry Potter, LPI" Harry said holding up a hand in greeting and then shoving it back inside his coat.
"LPI? Jack are you bringing home toy boys again?"
"Meet Mr Potter, from the League of Paranormal Investigations."
"We cover the crap UNIT and Torchwood doesn't, plus the stuff it wouldn't want to," Harry surmised.
"And occasionally temporal criminals bent on altering the timeline and murdering anyone in their way" Jack grinned at him. "An ex of yours I seem to recall."
"Thanks Jack," Harry glared at him, he didn't need reminding of Ginny.
"We've found another of them Jack," Suzie Costello patted the case she was holding. "This is why you're here Harry Potter, a search of the UNIT database showed up a name Thascalos, according to the database, you should be contacted if there's any trouble," she continued as she put the case down to open it up.
Harry was silent for a moment, he suspected what was in the case. "Was there a name who added this information?"
"James Alistair Bowman, mean something?" Jack asked watching his reaction.
"What sort of trouble?" Harry looked between the two Torchwood agents. "Aside from shrunken bodies?" Harry said.
"He's good," Costello commented having paused in removing what Harry assumed to be evidence from the case.
"People turning up, not remembering a thing, hypnotism, it's something you like to break out isn't it Harry? A specialty of yours..." Jack wondered, his questions almost leading.
Harry remained silent, instead looking around the plass.
"You've never said where you learnt it," Jack continued.
"You've not told me a lot of things about you Jack either," Harry replied as he continued to look around the plass. It was doubtful there would be a horsebox, 1970s computer bank or a grandfather clock anywhere around here. "There's plenty of things you know that you haven't told me about, I think if we knew everything about one another then life would be very boring."
"And murder livens things up doesn't it?" Jack asked, his tone was...somewhat unfathomable, mocking with a touch of cynicism?
"Murder can be justified Jack, it just depends why you're doing it," Harry countered back.
"Have you got any good reasons?" Jack asked.
Harry shrugged. "Anything connecting them?" Harry shivered and wondered if he could cast a warming spell on himself, Jack seemed to be immune to the freezing winter wind and the Costello woman was watching him like a hawk for any sudden movements.
"You can come down to the hub," Jack said after a moment's thought.
"Finally I get to see your lair," Harry replied with a grin.
-/
"Well." Harry said as the door rolled open to reveal Torchwood Three.
Jack had already swanned over to work station.
"Well," Harry said again as he walked forward, gazing up at the water covered monolith that when down into the bowels of Torchwood Three.
Torchwood was written on tiles on one far wall.
"Well," Harry walked over to the central area.
"You've said that three times Harry Potter," Jack drawled with a smile.
"Not seen something like this before?" Suzie Costello asked.
Harry snorted. "I've seen whole worlds inside a small box, castles beyond your wildest dreams and crazy bitches who wanted to tear my throat out with their bare hands and re-write causality."
"We've all had girlfriends like that." Costello said with a sly shrug.
"So, what'd'ya think?"
"Whoever designed this place liked the 'factory chique'," Harry said tapping his hands on the hand rail.
"I'm sorry?" Costello asked looking at him.
"And this is what use to tame the beast," Jack tensed, but Harry continued. "The Torchwood rift, spewing its temporal goodness into the world."
"Like some massive temporal bukkake across Wales," Jack winked at him.
Harry shuddered. "That's a disturbing mental image, especially since I've flown through said slurry."
Costello shook her head. "It's been like this from day one."
"Sexual innuendo, flirty, arse grabbing, occasional flights with death and then down the pub for a pint?" Harry replied.
Costello laughed. "You've worked with him before?"
Harry nodded. "And I've regularly done that, well the last three, but that was the 1970s and a more professional organisation than Torchwood."
Costello commented. "The first three's Jack all the way."
"Hey. I'm right here, and your CiC" Jack proclaimed. "A little respect."
Harry put up his hand. "I'm not part of your organisation, so, man in the coat lording it over your minions, what've you got?"
Jack grinned at him. "The victims that were all..." He looked to Suzie.
"Minimised."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the term, not that Magister had ever used a term to describe what his weapon did. It wasn't really something they'd discussed in any real length. He knew peripherally that Magister had used it, when he'd been working with UNIT.
"Lived and worked in Cardiff." Jack was explaining while he'd been internally musing.
"All their lives?" Harry asked after a moment's pause.
Jack typed something into his computer, Harry stared at it for a moment, it seemed to be running some unfathomable operating system, with a lot of swirling pulsing stuff in the background. He briefly wondered what sort of desktop theme they were running here, and on a tangent how they dealt with the water that was dribbling down the monolith.
Harry opened his mouth and then closed it, forgetting momentarily that Judith wasn't there to mock him about his 'dribbling monolith' mental comment.
"Hmmm..." Harry cautiously leaned on the guard rail, it made a noise, but didn't seem like it was going to break off an allow him to plummet into the likely freezing cold water in the middle of an industrial-influenced hub of design. "Any other linking factors?"
"Except they all liked going out drinking and partying," Costello commented.
"Making them pliable and more persuasive," Harry pondered to himself. He wondered what Magister, if it was him, though evidence so far suggested it was him, what was he up to here? In Cardiff.
"Jack pull up a map of Cardiff," Harry paused, briefly looking back to the table where case was, Costello had opened it up when they'd got in. Inside were the bodies, each in evidence bags. "Including where the bodies were found, overlay any nightclubs and bars, and then also add in where they've lived for the past 10 years."
"Yes sir," Jack grinned. "I like this Harry, you giving the orders, me obeying, it's like a new position for our relationship." Jack started typing on the computer. "Have a wander, give me a moment to set it all up."
-/
Harry stepped away from where he was standing, inhaling deeply and gazing up at the ceiling and wondered how, while they were redeveloping the area here they somehow managed to miss entire secret underground lair.
Harry felt Costello slip up near him, moving the short distance away from where Jack was hammering away at the keyboard. "How'd you find the hub?".
"Hub?" Harry wondered for a moment. "So, how come you're not off enjoying Christmas night?"
She shrugged. "No one around who deserves spending time with and you?"
"I...had a nice morning and a quiet day," Harry answered.
Suzie Costello didn't say anything to his statement.
"Alright, Mr Potter," Jack called. "I've enacted your orders, now what do you want of me?"
"And a bit of death and murder to finish my day off." Harry said pushing himself away from the barrier.
"Spices life up," Costello said with a smile behind him.
"Death or murder?" Harry pondered.
"Murder's more interesting." Costello said from behind him.
"Here; your map is prepared," Jack said bashing the keyboard. The computer made some weird noises, but the blue swirling background continued to swirl.
Harry wondered if he should ask Jack if all the monitors had been bought on the cheap, as blue seemed to be the dominant colour.
"All within a few miles of the rift, I see where ya going here, you think they're all connected to the rift," Jack said looking at him with a new respect.
"I'm not just a pretty face," Harry commented and then realised he shouldn't have thrown that to Jack.
"Not just a pretty face, one smoking body and–"
Jack was cut off by Suzie Costello. "Can you keep your flirting out of this."
"Jack, keeping his cock in his pants?" Harry arched an eyebrow, though noticed Costello smile out of the corner of his eye.
"Which bars were those bodies from, and any others you've encountered obviously." Harry asked, Jack stepped slightly more closely to him and typed something into the keyboard, the screen flashed and the pulsing in the background continued. Harry didn't want to think about what else was pulsing in the background beside him.
"So, that leaves us a few bars, what do you people need with that many places to drink?"
"Harry lives down in the South West," Jack explained to Suzie.
"Oh..." There was a tone of realisation in her voice.
"What? Just because I don't like to go out and drink until a spew?"
"You're missing a lot Harry, teenage years and all that." Costello said.
"Missed that, bit of a case of psychopathic murder, and general death of a large selection of friends and family to deal with," Harry bit back a little viciously.
For a few moments he hub was silent, aside from the water dribbling down into the pit below, and whatever noises the computers were making.
Jack broke the silence, stepping even closer to him. Harry could just about feel his body heat, maybe he'd have to do something extreme to get Jack to back off. Maybe kick him in the nuts...actually, Jack would probably take that as foreplay.
"We can discount a few of those, they've been closed for the past few nights with power troubles, the last major rift activity jostled the power lines around a bit," he tapped at the computer again. "That leaves us those."
"Enough for us each to search about 3 clubs," Costello surmised.
"Good. Well I think we can manage that," Harry deliberately stepped back into Jack. "You're mighty close there Jack," he said, trying to sound oblivious to Jack's invasion of his personal space.
Jack grinned at him "Just tryin' to keep you warm Harry Potter."
"I'll get a blanket Jack, or maybe I'll eat something, or do something else."
"You don't wanna snuggle with a captain?" He asked as he slipped on his coat.
"Not the way my broom swings Jack," Harry said following Suzie toward the exit.
"Who said anything about swinging? Just a bit of a ride!" Jack called after him.
-/
Harry walked through the club, the music inside the club was beyond loud, with the sub-frequencies thundering in his chest. Harry wondered if the club's patrons knew they could get the same sensations going toe to toe with a several dozen puffskeins that had been hyped up on the mineral salts extruded by a salivating klakluk.
The lasers that punctuated the club along with the strobe light made the pulsing crowd seem stilted, like time was jumping, out of phase, were it not for the music, which, whoever was producing it had had a real go with the harmonic oscillator and which was at what he assumed was the correct rate and not jumping as it would if he were trapped in an alternating time field.
Harry wondered once more if he'd missed something in his early life being here, jumping, pulsing to the music, instead, here now, he was worried he was in a temporal event as the strobes started again, fracturing the crowd. One thing, which was useful, if he needed to start firing off spells, it was highly unlikely anyone would notice; the lasers were the perfect cover. Which was quite likely why he had chosen clubs, or at least part of the reason. Were one to remove people from the streets it would be far more noticeable.
Harry hadn't come up with a concise reason why Magister would be doing this, though some of his other plans had been somewhat unfathomable at the time too, so, he wasn't sure.
Harry also wasn't sure which incarnation that Magister would be in, the one he knew him most of all in; from the 1970s, it somehow seemed unlikely, this 'scene' as Costello had called it was not where he imagined him fitting in, nor, the man, scarred and burnt, when he had met him back before Bill and Fleur's wedding, he didn't think he would be here, that left two possibilities, a future incarnation he didn't know about...
"Or someone else," he said out loud to himself, even though he couldn't hear anything above the music. Someone whom he'd only had described to him.
Not for the first time Harry wondered if the Doctor had deliberately put his name in UNIT's information, relating to the Master, maybe to punish him for his association with 'the Master', maybe to make him responsible. But then, it had never really been the Doctor who had an issue with his association with Magister, it had been some of his companions. Even the Brigadier was willing to leave him be.
If anything though, the Doctor would have put his name down because he would know what to do, should the Doctor not be there himself.
Harry even knew how to kill a Time Lord, if push came to shove, well he knew at least one of the ways, one of the more vicious, bloody ways to do so.
Harry was starting to hope that no one was in here, so he could leave, he equally hoped the other location chosen for him wasn't somewhere with such an amazingly loud speaker system.
But then the music changed tone and speed, the music flattened out to one long droning noise and the lights brightened, blowing out his vision; having acclimated to the darkness-punctuated light it was like looking into the eye of a star.
But as he squinted he saw something, someone.
Years ago, the Doctor had said that Anceyln, a man from another universe had recognised him, not by his face, but his manner, that betrayed him. The Doctor never said who he was in this other universe.
Harry'd had some experience of knowing that, with the Doctor though he always knew him, but he was a friend, whom he had known most of his life.
Magister though, was far more deceptive, harder to know, really, know, he was, in more ways than one a 'Master of disguise'.
In the few seconds of squinting glare he saw someone across the club, he didn't look like his friend, but he had the standing, the manner of his friend, associate, conversation partner.
Looking around Harry realised he'd never get through to the other side of the club where an emergency exit door was.
Harry burst out into the freezing Cardiff night and ran around to the other side of the building.
He grinned to himself as he saw a figure walking, almost sauntering down the narrow street.
"STOP!" He shouted, taking in another breath of the freezing night air. The figure didn't stop moving.
Harry started to run and then swore, to himself and judged the distance and hoped that the mist or steam or whatever was just that and that the rift energy wouldn't rip him into constituent molecules.
-/
His eyes widened as a man appeared, some distance away, obscured by the steam from the 'clubs' in the lower reaches of the streets. He appeared to be pointing two weapons at him.
He had appeared from nothing, the air rushing away from him in an implosion.
"When I said stop, I meant you," the man's voice was familiar. "Time Lord."
-/
Harry added the Time Lord bit, just so Magister wouldn't try something unwise. From what he recalled of what the Doctor had said when he and Peri had visited, this incarnation of 'the Master' was less than stable.
"And who might I be addressing?" Harry saw through the steam and mist Magister remove a long black shape with a bulbous head.
He motioned with his wand, muttering a soft Expelliarmus, it flew into this hand and he briefly juggled it, his wand and his gun.
It was...oddly shaped for a weapon, he was fairly sure that Jack would've had some words to say about what he could do with it.
Harry silently cursed to himself, the fact he'd even thought that meant he'd spent too much time around the rogue Time Agent.
Slipping the weapon into a pocket he stepped through the steam towards his old friend.
Looking at him now, with clarity, unlike the Doctor, whom he had seen and known across regenerations, he saw a lot less of his friend in this man.
Even in his extremely injured, almost burnt, charred appearance, that singular time he had met him, there was something of man he had known, but here, now, he had changed.
There was something deeply wrong here.
"So, it is you." Harry said after a moment.
Magister stepped forward a broad smile on his face. "Ah, my dear Harry Potter." He chuckled softly. "It has been some time, for me." He continued to chuckle to himself. Harry continued to hold his weapons, both pointed at the man's chest. Supposedly you could kill a Time Lord by stabbing them in both hearts, preventing regeneration, supposedly anyway. A gun and crushing spell to the hearts would theoretically also do the trick.
"It seems the Doctor has swayed you in your opinion of me, hmmm?"
Harry lowered his wand and replaced it in his pocket. "The Doctor has always been firm that my friendship with you was of my own choice, his travelling companions are another story," Harry said lightening his tone slightly.
"So, I am to be trusted Harry?" He stepped closer, had goosebumps not been on his skin from the cold night they would have risen up. Something...something he couldn't place was not right with this man, who he had at one point thought of as a close friend.
"Enough," Harry answered, fighting the urge to take a step back as Magister...no...Harry thought to himself, this man, wasn't Magister, but he needed to know. "So, Magister" Harry paused, the man before him twitched, ever so slightly. "What brings you to Cardiff?"
"I usually prefer to be referred to as the Master, Harry," he said in a soft tone, laying a soft gloved hand on his shoulder and then walked back around him, looking up at the sky. Harry patted his pocket, in the time the Master had been close to him, he'd picked his pocket for his big black...whatever it was.
"A tissue compression eliminator," the Master said turning the weapon over in his hand and then chucked it at Harry.
Harry caught it effortlessly. "Still the fine Quidditch player I see."
"This is what you used on the people from the club," Harry said in a neutral tone.
"Ever perceptible my dear Potter," he chuckled again. "I am surprised the ever imaginative Doctor did not inform you of this."
The Master watched him, seemingly wanting affirmation of the Doctor's knowledge of him.
It was something Magister never seemed to want in the past. The Doctor and he, in the past were many things, friends, rivals, annoyances, but this man...something about him.
"He may have mentioned it," Harry said vaguely. The Master smiled to himself. "Master" Harry drawled in his best drawling voice. "Why are you here?"
"This rift in space and time provides the perfect filter, but it needs a biological process to make it more compatible."
"For what?" Harry repeated, unnecessarily, as the Master seemed to be talking to himself, or maybe quietly ranting, he wasn't sure. Harry wondered if he should just shoot the man and damn the timelines.
"I have recently acquired an energy source for my TARDIS and..." he trailed off, looking briefly to Harry and then looking down at himself.
"Oh..." Harry said. "I should have realised. The Xeraphin."
"The naive Doctor has informed you of our recent encounters, I wonder what else he has told you of me?" A predatory look cross the Master's face and Harry disengaged the safety his gun.
"Would you harm your old friend Harry?" He asked, gazing at him.
"You taught me Master, don't try that on me" Harry said, meeting the man's gaze.
The Master chuckled again.
"I think it's time to leave Master. Cardiff is not a safe place for ill-equipped individuals."
"Very well Harry, I shall bow to your greater knowledge and experience. This time," Harry stepped back and allowed the Master to pass and looked down the street, as he did so he saw Suzie Costello walking across looking around.
Harry turned quickly to follow.
-/
The Master's TARDIS was standing in front of a set of shops, it was a column, seemingly made out of sandstone.
"Hardly incongruous," Harry commented.
The Master raised an eyebrow. "And the Doctor's joke of a TARDIS is? My, my, Mr Potter, I did not think you so judgmental."
Harry wasn't sure if he meant his comment or in general. "Harvesting whatever from humans isn't something I thought you were into, that's more the Rani's forte."
The mention of the Rani seemed to take the Master by surprise. "Fascinating, the dear Doctor has told you all about our old academy days," then he muttered to himself. "The Rani...hmmm..."
Then someone with an American accent shouted out his name.
"You are a popular person Harry Potter," the Master looked past him as a door opened in the side of the column. "I could show you time and space, more wonders than the Doctor would ever desire to."
The idea of stepping into this man's TARDIS made his skin crawl, though he still couldn't place what was wrong.
"You'd better go, Master..." Harry said, looking back down the street, Jack was running at full pelt, with Suzie following. "But..."
"Yes?" The Master asked in a curious tone as he looked at him.
"What happened to you?" Harry asked, almost pleading, softly, the unspoken question of 'what happened to my friend'.
"A reprieve granted despite meddling by the Doctor, not once but twice, in spite of the Doctor's meddling." The Master said with vitriol.
Harry blinked slowly and then removed the tissue compression eliminator from his pocket and held it for the Master.
"Keep it, Harry. I can always build another," he said with a cruel smile.
-/
"Farewell." Harry said as the door closed on the column and the TARDIS faded with less noise and grandeur than the Doctor's.
Several second later Jack rushed up, and then looked at his wrist strap.
"Evidence of a major temporal dematerialisation here." Jack fixed him with a look. "Who was that?"
"The remains of an old friend, one whom I hope to see again earlier in time."
"What?" Costello said. "I saw you with a guy, in black."
"Yes, time" Harry paused looking up at the sky sadly. "Time passes for different people, different ways."
"Harry? Are you alright?" Jack looked at him, a worried look playing over his face.
"Not really. But I will be."
-/ - \\-
Harry leaned back in his chair and poured another glass of brandy, it had been a gift from Jack, from the vaults of Torchwood for helping out.
The afternoon sun was beating down outside and here, at his house, it was far warmer than Cardiff.
Boxing Day, and there was nothing, no alien invasions, no one shooting at him, just the sounds of the universe playing through the laptop, a relay from his monitoring network hidden amongst the fields and paddocks around his house.
The noise of the universe however was punctuated at that moment by the wheeze groaning noise of a time space ship. Harry pushed himself out of his chair and wondered around, and there, next to the Lotus was a blue police box.
"Ah, Harry, how good to see you. The old girl had particular problems landing in this year. Rather busy temporal events wise, she gets a bit flustered."
Harry just stepped forward and hugged him, it was good, to see him, the Doctor, in his frilly shirt and cape and everything. From when his friends, both Time Lords were still sane, well one of them continued to be sane, the other...
"Have you been drinking Harry old chap?" The Doctor asked in all seriousness as he stepped away seemingly surprised considering the many times he'd gone out with the UNIT guys to the local pub.
Harry stared at the Doctor. "Brandy Doctor."
"Brandy? Hmm..." The Doctor stroked his chin. "That won't go well with the meal I've brought along a late Christmas meal, but I have a delightful red Harry, you must try it."
-/
"Harry." The Doctor was watching him carefully, they'd finished a rather nice meal and returned to where Harry had been, sitting outside looking to the edges of his property.
"Hmm?" Harry turned to look at his old friend.
"Is everything quite alright?"
His expression must have said something to the Doctor. "Ah, I see."
"It's a loaded question Doctor," Harry said after a while.
"Look...you don't have to, I mean I..." The Doctor seemed genuinely flustered for a moment.
"I met the Master recently," he finally said after a long pause.
The Doctor's eyes went wide. "The Master, I thought you knew him as-"
Harry cut the Doctor off. "Yes, but he'd changed."
"Another regeneration?" The Doctor pondered.
"Something like that. But he'd changed," Harry emphasised.
"He always was a rogue," the Doctor rubbed his chin, thinking.
"Yes, but an interesting, fascinating to know rogue, this...man...he was different."
"Harry," the Doctor looked at him intensely. "we Time Lords, we change, you, perhaps even better than me know that."
There was something of a sadness, or a longing in his voice. Harry wondered if he wanted to know how many more bodies, how many regenerations he had ahead of him. He was positively young, compared to his future, the future that Harry had seen, the future that was swiftly catching up with Harry, with everyone. He didn't pretend to understand how the Doctor whose future and present were catching up with his present could be from a time when the Time Lords were gone and yet here, the Doctor had his future, his TARDIS and if he wanted could return to Gallifrey, for him the Time Lords were still around they were the annoying overbearing non-interfering overlords.
Harry exhaled in annoyance. "Sometimes it gives me a headache, knowing what I know."
The Doctor chuckled. "That's the complexities of time travel, old Blinovitch knew that quite well." The Doctor looked at him again holding his gaze. "And, Harry, when we do change, a part of us continues to live on inside." He tapped his head. "The scarecrow, he's in here, they visit, in my dreams sometimes," he said softly. "The Master has many facets, the man, whomever he may be, whatever has happened, there would still have been a trace of the man you know."
"Perhaps," Harry replied.
Then the Doctor stood up. "Now, Harry you must show me these cars you've got, they look most interesting," the Doctor rubbed his hands with a gleam in his eye.
-/
It was fairly late when it came to Harry and the Doctor standing in front of the TARDIS.
Harry had to admit, this had been the best Boxing Day in a long time, he'd said as much to the Doctor.
"Well," the Doctor said stuffing his hands into his pockets, briefly not sure what to say.
"Look after yourself Doctor," Harry looked at him seriously.
"Harry Potter, I don't do anything but," he looked seriously at Harry. "I should be saying that to you."
Harry smiled gently. "Maybe we both need to take care of ourselves, we only have one life, no matter the regenerations one has."
The Doctor smiled warmly. "Quite right Harry, sound advice, especially for a Time Lord."
"Well..." Goodbyes were always the hardest, in the past he and the Doctor never seemed to have the luxury of time, sort of ironic really.
"Visit again, will you?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Perhaps. If the old girl can land, the early 21st century seems to give her a bit of indigestion," he patted the side of the TARDIS.
"It's when everything changes," Harry said.
The Doctor gave him a look. "You've said that before Harry, to the Brigadier, as I recall."
"It's the truth. But I shouldn't say more," Harry tapped his nose.
The Doctor gave him another look and then nodded, stepping into the inner reaches of the TARDIS.
The noise of the dimensions being parted as the blue police box faded from existence filled his ears, and for a moment his heart as it disappeared from view.
-/
A/N:
I know this is another 2004 set chapter. 2005 and future years are difficult because they involve even more timey-wimey complexities.
I also know I've done the timey-wimey thing with the Third Doctor turning up again, but that's still the Doctor visiting Harry. It's him dropping in on Harry's adventures, not the other way around in the present at least.
But next chapter will most definitely be set in 2005 and will feature some of the Auton's attempt on Earth, it may even feature the Doctor and Rose.
Harry meets the Master after Time-Flight and before Mark of the Rani.
Which means the Master Harry meets is not the Master that is described to him by the Doctor and Peri in Chapter 08 (as that chapter for the Doctor and Peri occurs after Mark of the Rani).
This is Anthony Ainley version of the Master, whom I've held off from including until now.
Early on I didn't want to write him because of all the possession baggage that went with him and didn't really work with Harry fighting Voldemort.
It's taken me to now to work out how to write him and Harry effectively without detracting from the Delgado Master that Harry's come to know.
The Torchwood stuff is obviously before Series 1 of Torchwood. I wanted to use Suzie Costello because she's a character who doesn't get a lot of screen time, and it's easier to write just two Torchwood characters rather than adding in Owen (whom I'm not sure is part of Torchwood yet).
I've recently done an edit of this chapter (in 2018) and I think I did a poor job of editing it when I originally posted it back in 2011.
