A/N: Okay, I suck. I know. Two months without an update is awful of me. In my defence, I had exams and assessments and my final project for one of my degrees that I absolutely had to finished, and PLUS, my exchange year in Switzerland is coming to an end, so packing and moving back all the way across the world is kind of on my mind. BUT, despite that, I have a new (well, not really, because I wrote this chapter like in 2015) chapter for all of you. OH, and I hope you guys had a great Christmas and New Years.
Here's the second part to The Sound of Drums and I can promise you it'll be eventful. There's a lot of Master/Rhea, Rhea/Doctor and Doctor/Master drama going on in this chapter. Anyway, hope you enjoy it, babes!
Warnings: Language, Dark Themes, Allusions to Sexual Content etc.
The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday
Chapter 74
The Sound of Drums: Conspiracy Theory
Rhea rounded on the Doctor. "Doctor, what do we do?" She snapped, her hair dancing around her face as her eyes went wild, the threat to her mother echoing through her very being and making the anger rush right through her like an unconquerable wave.
"Run for your life, Doctor!" The Master shouted.
"We run." The Doctor said, grimly.
Rhea growled. "We can't be in the open. There are surveillance cameras all over the place and he'll have people searching through the feeds for us. We need to find a place to hide out. We need complete and utter radio silence otherwise he can track us and find out where we are. Come on." She said, hurriedly.
She grabbed the Doctor's hand, motioning for the four of them to run through the shopping arcade, dodging all of the security cameras as they passed by.
"I said, run!"
Martha and Rhea walked into a disused warehouse, both of them clutching carry bags of takeaway in their hands, as they moved stealthily inside. The Doctor sat at the laptop that they had managed to swipe from Martha's apartment before the bomb went off, while Jack fiddled with his vortex manipulator.
Jack looked up at the sound of footsteps. "How was it?" He asked, concernedly. "Did anyone see you?"
Rhea snorted. "Jack, honey, no one sees me unless I want them to see me." She smirked. "It went fine." She raised an eyebrow. "But I gotta say, I'm a little offended at your lack of faith in me."
"Oh, stop complaining," Jack rolled his eyes.
Rhea threw him her bag of takeout, which hit him on the chest and he caught before it could hit the ground, Rhea shooting him an unimpressed look that he merely smirked at.
Rhea's eyes fell onto the Doctor. "Anything new?" She asked, carefully.
"I've got this tuned into the government wavelength so we can follow what Saxon's doing," Jack piped up.
"Yeah," Rhea's lip curled. "Actually, I meant about Martha's family."
"It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning," The Doctor lifted his head from the laptop and looked at Martha. He looked at Rhea, uneasily. "I checked in with your mother. She's fine."
Rhea shrugged. "I know. I called her on my superphone while we were out. She's fine. She's going out for drinks with a few friends tonight, but she promised to call me every three hours and to get my cousin to pick her up from the bar if she gets too drunk to drive home, so I know she's okay."
The three looked at her with bewilderment.
"What?" Rhea asked, defensively. "She's forty-three; she's not dead. And did you really think I'd wait to find out if my mum's okay? It's my mum." She said, slowly, as if the very idea was foolish. "I'd never let anything happen to her." She said, firmly.
The Doctor cracked a smile.
He turned back to Martha. "Tell you what, though, no mention of Leo." He said, pointedly.
Martha sighed in relief, Rhea reaching out to pat her hand in support, which Martha took gratefully.
"He's not as daft as he looks," Martha said, hoarsely, her lips quivering. She paused. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?" She shook her head to herself.
"If it makes you feel better, I've asked myself that question every single day since I started travelling with the Doctor," Rhea offered, grinning when the Doctor scowled in offence.
Jack dug his hand into the paper bag in his hand, throwing a few chips into his mouth. He sank down onto a chair. "Nice chips." He commented.
Rhea snagged one from her bag and popped it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. She groaned, tipping her head back, and looking as if she were anywhere but here. "Oh. My. God. These are fucking amazing."
Martha took a seat beside Jack. The three exchanged a pointed look and Rhea sighed in reluctant agreement when Martha nodded her head in the Doctor's direction.
Jack cleared his throat. "So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?" He asked, curiously, leaning forward.
"And what is he to you? Like a colleague…" Martha trailed off.
"Please don't say 'ex'. Please don't say 'ex'," Rhea chanted under her breath and the Doctor glared at her.
"A friend, at first." The Doctor said, his voice clipped. He turned to Rhea. "To both of us." He said, pointedly, making Rhea grimace.
"I find that hard to believe," Rhea muttered, her face twisting.
Martha scrunched up her nose. "I thought you were gonna say he was your secret brother or something."
Rhea clapped her hands. "Can I just say: oh, thank God. I, for one, was expecting something entirely different." She said, dryly, waggling her eyebrows at the Doctor, who flushed to his cheekbones. "But hey, this isn't me judging that. It's pretty hot."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I have not slept, am not sleeping and will never sleep with the Master, Rhea." He said, pointedly.
Rhea pouted. "So, does that mean I shouldn't ask about the blatant homoerotic subtext in your relationship with him?" She teased.
The Doctor scowled. "No, you shouldn't ask. But what may interest you more is the on-again, off-again friends with psychotic benefits relationship you seem to have with him." He smirked, leaning back in his seat.
Rhea shrugged. "I could be okay with that. While I think the Master is definitely a complete and utter deranged bastard and I have no problems with breaking every single bone in his body, I wouldn't immediately rule out the idea of a threesome. Just putting it out there." Jack glared at her. "Okay, fine, foursome it is." She relented with a smile.
"No. No foursomes," The Doctor said, sharply, shooting Jack a dark look, knowing that he didn't need much to get his fire going.
I already warned you once, flyboy. Don't make me do it again.
The Doctor shook his head. "You've been watching too much HBO." He told Rhea, almost wagging his finger at her.
Rhea shrugged, nonplussed and hardly remorseful. "It's a guilty pleasure. Have you seen how hot Ellaria Sand is? I've imagined being that prostitute in that orgy with her and Oberyn and Olyvar so many times. What I wouldn't give to re-enact that scene with them." She shook her head, mournfully. "Oh, and Jaime Lannister." She purred. "That man can do things to me and I wouldn't say 'no'."
The Doctor and Jack stared at her, both of them jaw-dropped and stunned with shock at her bold statement. Jack shifted in the chair, tugging at his collar. The Doctor swallowed past the lump in his throat and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, until he finally realised his jealousy at her last statement and he scowled.
Rhea winked over at an amused Martha, who had learned to take Rhea's often brazen words in stride a little while ago.
Jack cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the Doctor, before he started to obsess over the pictures Rhea had painted for him. "But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect." He protested.
The Doctor sighed, his eyes tightening at the corners as the memories shoved themselves to the forefront of his mind. "Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was, it was beautiful." He said, wistfully, leaning back against the chair.
Rhea bit her lower lip, something inside of her urging her to reach out for his forlorn figure and curl him up against her breast.
But she stopped herself just as her fingers itched to move at her side.
She was pretty sure that she would be inviting all kinds of unnecessary, incapacitating emotions into her life if she was stupid enough to do that – and honestly, she wasn't sure she had the emotional stability for that now – even if the Doctor had rocked her world not twenty-four hours before.
But, all the rationalisation in the world didn't stop the way her heart sliced open at the pain in his eyes.
"They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems," The Doctor hummed. "And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords…" He swallowed hard. "The oldest and most mighty race in the universe… looking down on the galaxies below… sworn never to interfere… only to watch…" His voice hardened. "Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child… that's when the Master saw eternity." He mused. "As a novice, he was taken for initiation, it's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old… staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired… some would run away… and some would go mad."
Rhea cleared her throat and she licked her lips. "What about you?" She asked, hoarsely.
The Doctor chewed on the chips, thoughtfully. "Oh, the ones that ran away. I never stopped." He said, his mouth full. "Of course, that may have been due to someone else's constant nagging." His eyes snapped to Rhea, who narrowed her eyes.
"I don't nag," Rhea said, threateningly, waving her plastic fork at him, the twist of her lips into a smile belying her amusement.
If the implication behind his last sentence bothered her, – or dawned on her, rather – she didn't want to give it a moment's pause.
Yes, I am wilfully delusional. No, I don't have any fucking problems with being wilfully delusional, thank you very much.
Jack's vortex manipulator beeped and everyone turned to him.
"Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it," Jack explained, his brow furrowed, looking down at the device in his hands.
The Doctor frowned. "Patch it through to the laptop."
Rhea strode over to the table where the Doctor was seated, falling to his side, her ribs brushing against his shoulder blades as she hovered behind him. He smiled at her warmth.
Jack joined them, slowly. "Um, since we're telling stories, um, there's something I haven't told you." He said, grimacing.
The laptop flashed, as Jack fiddled with his vortex manipulator, and a logo appeared on the screen, with the words 'Torchwood' stretching out at the bottom in big, bold letters, Jack staring at it with dread, waiting for the inevitable explosion from the Doctor.
"You work for Torchwood," The Doctor said, darkly.
"Fuck," Rhea muttered under her breath.
"I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now," Jack said, earnestly, gazing at Rhea and the Doctor with desperation, his eyes lingering on Rhea, knowing that if anyone would believe him and at least try to be open-minded, it would be her.
"Everything Torchwood did and you're part of it?!" The Doctor asked, angrily.
He would've surged out of the chair if it weren't for Rhea's stilling hand on his shoulder.
"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it, I changed it. And when I did that, I did it for you, in your honour," Jack's voice was sincere, threaded with the urgency that willed them to believe him.
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something else when Rhea squeezed his shoulder in a pointed gesture.
She cleared her throat. "Okay, enough." She said, firmly. "I get that this a particularly controversial issue with you both. I get that you feel betrayed." She looked at the Doctor. "And you feel like you need to plead your case." She looked at Jack. "But there's a psychotic nutcase dickhead out there trying to kill us all and may very well kill the people that we – at least Martha and I – love the most and we need to stop him. So, I need you to please just stow your crap for now. Can you do that?" She asked, sharply.
The Doctor chose to acquiesce to Rhea's pleading by glaring at Jack, finally, before opening the file on the laptop. A middle-aged woman, seated at a desk, appeared on the screen.
"If I haven't returned to my desk by 22:00 hours, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means, if you're watching this, then I'm…" The woman trailed off, clearing her throat. "Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."
The screen flickered and showed a graphic of a spinning Earth with satellites.
"What's the Archangel network?" Rhea asked, confused.
Martha pulled out her mobile. "I've got Archangel." She added. "Everyone's got it." She told them.
"It's the mobile phone network," Jack explained. "'Cause, look, it's gone worldwide."
"Yeah, right," Rhea snorted.
"Just go with me, would you?" Jack said, dryly. "Archangel is the network behind the other networks. They're all carried by Archangel in some way."
The Doctor flashed his sonic screwdriver against Martha's phone and his eyes widened. He jumped to his feet, crowing.
"It's in the phones!" He shouted, gleefully. "Oh, I said he was a hypnotist!" He growled. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold on." He tapped the phone against the table and it began to beep in the same rhythm as Martha had tapped earlier that morning. "There it is." His eyes were mad. "That rhythm, it's everywhere. Ticking away in the subconscious." He said, quietly.
"What is it, mind control?" Martha asked, curiously.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no, no. Subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it." He pointed out. "But contained in that rhythm, in layers of code… Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Whispering to the world." His lip curled into a smile. "Oh, yes!" He shouted. "That's how he hid himself from me. 'Cause I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. I should have known way back. The signal cancelled him out." He nodded to himself, feeling giddy at the thought of solving the mystery that had plagued him for the past few hours.
"Can you stop it?" Rhea asked, carefully, stepping closer to the Doctor.
The Doctor shook his head. "Not from down here." He pursed his lips. "But now we know how he's doing it." He offered.
"And we can fight back," Martha said, determinedly.
The Doctor grinned at them all. "Oh, yes!"
Once the Doctor pulled apart the mobile and the laptop, Rhea promising Martha that she'd pay for replacements all-the-while muttering to herself why she had to, Martha and Jack handed him their TARDIS keys and the Doctor pulled out another two from inside his coat pocket. He ran his sonic screwdriver over them, welding circuitry to the keys, and then he tied them to string he had fashioned into lanyards, so that they could be work around the neck.
"Four TARDIS keys, four pieces of the TARDIS with low-level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in," Rhea raised an eyebrow and the Doctor amended his statement. "Well, sort of, but… Now!" He cleared his throat. "The Archangel Network's got a second low-level signal. Weld the key to the network and…" He looked at Martha. "Martha," He took a step back away from the table. "Look at me. You can see me, yes?" He asked.
"Yep!" Martha nodded.
"What about now?" The Doctor asked, slipping the key over his neck.
Martha blinked, her vision veering off to the right of the Doctor, despite her best efforts to keep her eyes on him, her head starting to throb. Rhea and Jack chuckled.
"No, I'm here. Look at me," The Doctor's voice echoed through Martha's mind, but she couldn't seem to focus on him.
"It's like…" Martha frowned. "I know you're there but I don't want to know." She mused.
"And back again," He took the key off his neck. "See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just unnoticed." He said, proudly. His eyes widened. "Oh, I know what it's like. It's like-it's like when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist. That's what it's like. Come on!" The Doctor said, turning his back on them and walking towards the door to the warehouse.
Rhea shook his head. "I swear, he's such an oblivious idiot." She muttered, Jack and Martha nodding in agreement.
The Doctor scowled and paused when he realised no one was following him. He double-backed, reached for Rhea's hand and dragging her along with him, amidst her vehement protests that I can fucking walk, I don't need your help and I'm not a fucking invalid, alien boy, so would you mind letting me go. But the Doctor, who had spent years perfecting the skill of disobeying Rhea's sometimes inopportune sense of independence – and he stressed the word sometimes because if he ever actually confessed that to her, she may very well ask the TARDIS to lock him up and throw away the key and his ship would do it because it was Rhea and she loved her and he may be just the tiniest bit jealous that his ship liked Rhea more than him, but then again, everyone, including him, liked Rhea more –, chose to keep her by her side in favour of letting her out of his sight for even a minute – he knew the Master and the lunatic's lifelong obsession with his Rhea.
They walked out onto the streets in the middle the night, the chilly air the first thing they noticed.
The Doctor turned to Rhea, his voice lowering to a whisper. "Do you have your blaster on you?" He asked, lowly.
Rhea nodded, firmly, her thumb running over the hilt of her gun, which was tucked into her jeans and hidden from plain sight.
"Always," She promised, grimly.
She didn't show mercy to those who would harm the people she cared about – future pseudo friend-slash-enemy or not.
The Doctor nodded and looked up at the sky. "Don't run." He ordered, quietly, addressing all of them. "Don't shout. Just keep your voice down. Draw attention to yourself and the spell is broken. Just keep to the shadows." He murmured.
"Like ghosts," Jack hummed.
The Doctor shot him a look of almost pride and satisfaction. "Yeah, that's what we are. Ghosts."
The four each placed a key around their necks before heading into the city.
The Master and his wife, Lucy, arrived with an escort onto the tarmac, as the President stepped out of a large black vehicle, surrounded by the Secret Service.
The Master stood in front of him, cheerful as ever. "Mr President, sir!" He saluted, mockingly, his eyes crazed.
The President grimaced. "Mr Saxon. The British Army will stand down." He ordered. "From now on, UNIT has control of this operation." He told him.
The Master hid his grin. "You make it sound like an invasion." He said, innocently.
The President scowled. "First contact policy was decided by the Security Council in 1968. And you've just gone and ignored it." He said, coldly.
The Master shrugged, half-heartedly. "Well, you know what it's like. New job, all that paperwork." He joked. "I think it's down the back of the settee. I did have a quick look. I found a pen, a sweet, a bus ticket and uh…" His eyes widened and he paused. "Have you met the wife?" His eyes fell on the pretty blonde thing cloistered against his side.
The President was shocked into silence at the Master's – or at least, he thought of him as Harold Saxon – indifferent and irresponsible attitude to what could either be a remarkable or devastating occurrence to their race as a whole.
The President frowned. "Mr Saxon, I'm not sure what your game is, but there are provisions at the United Nations to have you removed from office. Unless you are very, very careful. Is that understood?" He said, threateningly, and the Master mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key, only serving to anger the President further. "Are you taking this seriously?" He snapped. The Master nodded, soberly. "To business. We've accessed your files on these… Toclafane. First contact cannot take place on any sovereign soil. For that purpose, the aircraft carrier Valiant is en route. The rendezvous will take place there at 8:00 am." The Master mimed an attempt to talk through zipped lips. The President blew out a furious breath "You're trying my patience, sir." He hissed.
The Master mimed unzipping his lips. "So, America is completely in charge?" He asked, curiously
The President scowled. "Since Britain elected an ass, yes." He scowled. "I'll see you onboard the Valiant."
He turned to leave when he heard the Master's voice behind him.
"It still will be televised, though, won't it?" The Master asked. "Because I promised, and the whole world is watching." He smirked.
The President sighed. "Since it's too late to pull out, the world will be watching." He paused. "Me." He said, pointedly, walking over to his waiting car.
"The last President of America," The Master muttered to Lucy, who simpered at his side. "We have a private plane ready and waiting." He told her. "We should reach the Valiant within the hour." He explained, motioning for her to go in front of him. "My darling." He said, fondly, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
The Master turned to watch the President drive away. Suddenly, he turned around, staring at an empty space in front of the fence that bordered the tarmac, where the Doctor, Rhea, Martha and Jack were standing in subdued, seething silence. A siren echoed in the night and a police van pulled up, the imprisoned Jones family strongarmed out of the back by men in black. The Master rushed up to them, acting the part of old friends, his arms thrown out.
"Hi, guys!" The Master cackled. "All will be revealed!" He waggled his eyebrows.
"Oh, my God," Martha breathed, horrified, her hand shifting at her side.
Rhea's fingers curled around her wrist and clamped down like a vice, warning her to stay still, the pain from her grip forcing Martha's limbs to lock. Martha could see out of her peripheral vision, Rhea standing next to her, staring at the Master with unfathomable, emotionless, indifferent eyes, and she wondered, with just the slightest bit of disgust, how can she do that? How can she just watch this happen and do nothing and look like she couldn't care less?
"Don't move," The Doctor ordered, lowly.
"But…" Martha protested.
"Don't," Rhea said, coldly.
They all watched with horror and regret as the Jones family was transferred amidst their struggling to a Land Rover.
"I'm gonna kill him," Martha hissed.
Rhea hummed in agreement under her breath.
"I could use this perception filter to walk up behind him and snap his neck," She murmured. "Or I could slit his throat." She purred.
"I'll hold him down," Jack growled.
The Doctor looked at him, coldly. "Now that sounds like Torchwood."
Jack shrugged. "l like Rhea's plan. It's good."
The Doctor made a small noise of protest. "He's a Time Lord, which makes him my responsibility. I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him." He told them, sharply.
Rhea snorted. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You don't rationalise with psychopaths, Doctor. It's impossible. And do you even think he's capable of being saved? Or if he even wants to be saved?" She asked, slowly.
"Are you asking about the Master or yourself?" The Doctor asked, quietly, low enough that only she heard.
Rhea tensed. "I don't need saving." She said, coldly.
Jack looked down at his vortex manipulator, his fingers flying over the buttons at the bottom of the device. "Aircraft carrier: Valiant. It's a UNIT ship at 28.2N and 10.02E."
Rhea frowned. "How do we get onboard?" She asked.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes, looking over at Jack. "Does that thing work as a teleport?" He asked, curiously.
Jack nodded. "Since you revamped it, yeah. Coordinates set."
The Doctor placed all of their hands on the vortex manipulator, making all of them were touching the device before activating it, all of them disappearing in crackle of smoky, white light and arriving in one of the Valiant's engine rooms. Martha and Jack groaned, feebly, leaning up against the nearest structure to prevent them from falling down. Rhea grit her teeth, managing to steady herself on her feet, her ribs aching and her stomach heaving from the teleport, but definitely in a better position than Martha and Jack.
"Oh, that thing is rough," Martha moaned.
"I've had worse," Rhea said, darkly.
The three visibly paused and hitched in a breath at Rhea's blunt words, looking as though their brains had short-circuited and needed to be rebooted for them to actually process what she had said.
Jack cracked his neck when the awkward silence became too much for him to bear.
"Welcome to the Valiant," Jack said.
Martha's brow furrowed. "It's dawn." She commented, seeing the rays of sunlight glinting through the small window hatches on the wall. She walked over to one of the portholes and frowned, as she looked down. "Hold on, I thought this was a ship. Where's the sea?" She asked, confused.
Jack grinned. "A ship for the 21st century. Protecting the skies of planet Earth." He said, cheerfully.
Rhea, intrigued, joined Martha at the porthole, looking out into the sky, her breath catching in her throat as she realised that the Valiant was no ship – it was a massive aircraft carrier in the guise of a ship, floating in the sky, surrounded by three, large landing strips and clouds as far as the eye could see.
The Doctor, Rhea, Martha and Jack ran through the maintenance corridors, heading straight for the central hall where the Master was most likely tucked away, sitting pretty and waiting for the end of the world with a smile on his face.
Suddenly, the Doctor stopped in his tracks.
"We've no time for sightseeing!" Jack snapped, hurriedly.
Rhea narrowed her eyes, a throbbing echoing in the back of her head, making her feel uncomfortable. And then, something sliced through her mind like a white-hot knife and she choked in pain, her spine arching as the agony washed over her and she was suspended in one brutal moment.
Her legs buckled and her feet skidded against the floor, which was rushing towards her aching head, as her vision lopsided, when the Doctor caught her by the waist, holding her up against him to steady her.
"Woah," The Doctor hummed in her ear, stroking his fingers through her curls in a soothing manner until she was pliant in his arms and curling against his side. "S'okay, lovely, take a breath. I know. You're fine. We'll fix this." He crooned in her ear, his lyrical voice lapping at her until the pain slithered away.
It took her a while before she realised what she was doing and whom she was doing it with and in front of whom she was doing it and she felt like kicking herself.
Clingy little fool.
She pushed herself away from him, deliberately forgetting the way his face contorted with hurt and resignation, shaking her head and running her fingers through her hair until she could breathe (albeit through lungs that felt like sandpaper) without that insane feeling that she was disappointing something intrinsic inside of her by being apart from him.
The Doctor cleared his throat, understanding and regret flashing in his eyes before he turned to Jack and Martha, while Rhea took control of herself.
"Wait. Shh, shh, shh. Can't you hear it?" He asked, pointedly.
Jack frowned. "Hear what?"
Martha looked at the Doctor, incredulously. "Doctor, my family's on board." She said, harshly, striding past, cursing him silently.
The Doctor paused and beamed. "Brilliant! This way!" He ordered.
His hand hesitated briefly before curling around Rhea's wrist and pulling her along in a different direction that only seemed to make Rhea's head throb worse. They ran through more corridors until they came upon a set of doors, which the Doctor then threw open to reveal the TARDIS.
"Oh, at last!" The Doctor breathed in relief.
Rhea stumbled into the room, her face pale and sick, looking as she always did the moment before she disappeared in a flash of white light to another point in the Doctor's timeline.
"Oh, yes!" Martha laughed, clapping her hands, something in her heart lightening.
Jack shook his head. "What's it doing on the Valiant?"
"Something's wrong," Rhea said, weakly, wrapping an arm around her stomach as bile rose in her throat.
"Let me help you," The Doctor said, lowly, and held out his arm, his eyes earnest and pleading.
Rhea's teeth sank into her lower lip and she nodded, reluctant gratitude on her face, as she gripped onto his arm with both hands and leaned against him before his arm slid around her waist to tuck her against his side. His lips brushed her hairline, but he took no further liberty, as he opened the doors to the TARDIS to let them all in. Inside was a very different console room, bathed in an eerie red light. Cables stretched across the floor were and were in a tangled mess around the console.
"What the hell did he do?" Rhea choked out, her head spinning.
"Don't touch it," The Doctor said, sharply, to Martha and Jack, keeping Rhea up against him as her eyes threatened to roll back into her head.
Jack snorted. "I'm not going to." He looked at Rhea, worriedly. "You okay, beautiful? You look like you're gonna throw up." He walked over to Rhea, gripping her free arm and helping the Doctor hold her in the air.
"I think I might," Rhea chuckled, harshly.
"What's he done though?" Martha shook her head. "Sounds like it's… sick." She murmured, her face twisted. She rushed to Rhea as well, running her cool palms over Rhea's flushed face, checking her pupils.
"Okay, can you stop groping me, Dr Quinn? I'm fine," Rhea grumbled.
The Doctor snorted. "You can barely keep yourself on your feet, lovely. You're not fine."
They all looked at the TARDIS console with worry, the Doctor and Rhea's face etched with horror at the way it had been stripped of certain parts and caged off, gruesomely.
"It can't be," The Doctor hissed. "No, no, no, no, no, no, it can't be." He snarled.
"Doctor, what is it?" Rhea asked, worriedly, her voice sticking in her throat.
"He's cannibalised the TARDIS," The Doctor bared his teeth in disgust.
"Is this why I'm feeling like I'm having the hangover to top all hangovers?" Rhea asked, hoarsely. "Is it–is she doing this to me?"
The Doctor pursed his lips.
"Doctor?" Rhea asked, reading the hesitation in his eyes.
"I can't-" He broke off midway. "Spoilers." He said, grimly, and Rhea rolled her eyes. "I will not disturb your future and your timeline because of the Master." He said, sternly. "But some of it, I can tell you. This… what the Master's done to the TARDIS… it's preventing you from leaving this point in my timeline."
"And that's what's making me so sick?" Rhea asked. "Because I should be leaving and I can't."
The Doctor nodded. "Well, not necessarily right now, but sometime in the future, you would have to leave here and the Master made it so that wouldn't happen. He wants to keep you here. And whatever makes you flash in and out of my timeline," He paused, momentarily. "It's turning back on you and making you ill."
"You know what makes me do it, don't you? Why I jump around in your timeline? You're hesitating because you know and you don't want to tell me," Rhea said, suddenly.
"Spoilers." The Doctor repeated, grimly.
"That is not even remotely funny," Rhea muttered, turning her head into the Doctor's coat. She smelled parchment and petrichor and something dark and wistful and powerful that she imagined was time itself. For some reason, it soothed her. "I hate you so hard."
He kissed her hard on the crown of her head. "No, no, you really don't."
Rhea managed to pull herself away from the comfort of his embrace, briefly. "So, what is it? What did he do to the TARDIS?" She asked, hoarsely, a hot feeling of protectiveness surging inside of her.
The TARDIS had been nothing but good to her.
The Master just kept adding to his tally.
Jack paled, finally understanding. "Is that what I think it is?" He asked, horrified.
"It's a paradox machine," The Doctor said, coldly.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "As soon as this hits red," He tapped on a gauge attached to the caged console. "It activates. At this speed, it'll trigger," He looked, quickly, at Jack's watch. "At two minutes past 8:00."
Jack frowned. "First contact is at 8:00 and then two minutes later…" He trailed off, grimacing.
Martha looked at the violated TARDIS with disgust and curiosity. "What's it for? What's a paradox machine do?" She asked, confused.
"More importantly, can you stop it?" Rhea asked, harshly, her head between her knees, as she sat down on the floor, her head still spinning slightly.
The Doctor shook his head. "Not until I know what it's doing. Touch the wrong bit and blow up the solar system." He explained.
"Well, that's not good," Rhea muttered.
"Then we've got to get to the Master," Martha said, sharply, looking at the other three.
Jack nodded. "Yeah. How do we stop him?"
The Doctor blinked. "Oh, I've got a way." The other three stared at him in disbelief. "Sorry, didn't I tell you?" He grinned.
"Ass," Rhea muttered under her breath.
The President stood on a thin staircase in the central hall, facing downstairs and towards the corner of the room, where a camera was pointed towards him.
"My fellow Americans," The President addressed the camera, a small, polite smile on his face. "Patriots, people of the world… I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity, a role I will undertake with utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much, but that is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew."
The Doctor, Rhea, Jack and Martha entered the room, quietly and inconspicuously, Rhea still heavy on her feet as she forced herself to control every single movement without collapsing to the floor. She registered the Master's smile fading and she wondered if they had been caught out. She wanted to say something to the Doctor when another searing jolt of pain stole her voice and made her see black spots in her vision. She gripped onto the nearest wall with white fingers, but her lungs ached with every movement. She cracked her neck, but all it did was make her muscles ache.
"For as long as man has looked to the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone…"
"This plan, you gonna tell us?" Jack muttered.
"If I can get this…" He held up the key around his neck. "Around the Master's neck… cancel out his perception, they'll see him for real." He explained. "It's just hard to go unnoticed with everyone on red alert. If they stop me… you've all got a key." He said, pointedly.
"Yes, sir," Jack nodded.
"Got it," Martha said, darkly.
"Is the neck snapping plan still off the table?" Rhea asked. The Doctor glared at her. She sighed. "Okay, fine, don't worry, I'll get him."
"You looked like you were going to pass out just a few moments ago," Jack muttered.
"I've had bullets in my stomach and it's never stopped me before," Rhea said, coldly. "I'll get him."
"And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you… the Toclafane," The metal spheres from the television appeared around him. "My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President-Elect of the United States of America and designated representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon." He said, politely.
"You're not the Master," One of the Toclafane hummed.
"We like the Mr Master," Another Toclafane said.
"We don't like you," The last Toclafane said, firmly.
"I…" The President stumbled on his words. "Can be Master, if you so wish. I will accept mastery over you if that is God's will." He said, hesitantly.
"Man is stupid," The last Toclafane hissed.
"Master is our friend."
"Where's my Master, pretty please?"
Finally, the Master couldn't handle the suspense any longer.
"Oh, all right then. It's me," He jumped to his feet. "Ta-da!" He laughed. "Sorry. Sorry, I have this effect. People just get obsessed."
"Oh, for the love of-" Rhea muttered.
"Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy!" The Master grinned.
"I might kill him just for that monologue alone," Rhea mused.
"No one's killing anyone," The Doctor muttered, sharply.
"Saxon, what are you talkin' about?" The President snapped.
The Master faced the President, a bored look on his face, as if it were beneath his dignity to be talking to him – although, in the Master's mind, it probably was.
"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam," He said, firmly. "Starting with you." He looked over at the Toclafane. "Kill him." He growled.
"Doctor," Rhea snarled. "We need to act now."
But before the Doctor could do anything, one of the Toclafane shot the President with a laser and he disintegrated in the middle of the air. Chaos erupted as everyone desperately tried to escape the room, but all of the Master's men pulled out their weapons and barricaded the doorways, preventing them from leaving.
The Master laughed, as though he found the humans' panic the funniest thing in the world. "Guards!" He called out.
"Nobody move! Nobody move!" The guards shouted.
The Master looked directly at the camera in the corner that was still rolling. "Now, then, peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully."
The Doctor snapped and rushed forwards, haphazardly and in a panic.
"Stop him!" One of the guards shouted.
Rhea blocked the punch the first guard threw towards her with her forearm, her eyes narrowing. Her arm ached where it had halted his fist, but she twisted to her left, using her momentum to elbow him sharply in the gut, making him double over. She kicked his legs out from underneath him, sending him to the floor. She spun around in time to duck under a blow from the second guard. She grabbed his wrist, yanking it behind his back and placing pressure until she heard the bone snap. She kneed him in the back and he sank to the floor, clutching his broken arm, pain etched across his features.
"Stop her!" The Master roared. "Do something, you fools."
When she turned around, two guards already had the Doctor kneeling on the floor. The adrenaline from her earlier encounter with the guards started to fade and her foot slipped against the floor.
Not him. Please, not him.
Suddenly, a searing pain spread across the small of her back, making her gasp, her heartbeat suddenly going haywire. She found herself on the floor, her muscles convulsing for a few moments, her body going sluggish and her eyes glazing over, staring up at the guard who loomed over her, a Taser clutched in his hand.
"We meet at last, Doctor. Oh, ho! I love saying that!" The Master purred, tipping forwards on the staircase in the Doctor's direction. He looked over at Rhea's recovering form. "And my lovely Rhea. Oh, darling, you are so very young. But I missed you all the same." He crooned.
"Fuck off," Rhea groaned, curling in on herself.
"Stop this! Stop it now!" The Doctor shouted.
"As if a perception filter's gonna work on me," The Master rolled his eyes in sheer disappointment. His eyes shifted to Jack and Martha, who were still pressed against the wall. "Oh, and look, it's the girlie and the freak." He said, mockingly. "Although, I'm not sure which one's which." He mused.
Jack gritted his teeth and rushed at him. The Master raised the screwdriver in his hand, a laser beam firing out and striking Jack in the chest, and Jack fell to the floor, completely still, making Rhea clench her fist.
"Laser screwdriver, who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" The Master crowed, cheerfully.
Rhea crawled over to Jack, slower than she should have been, Martha joining her side, soon after.
"Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself…" The Doctor said, urgently, his eyes earnest.
The Master sighed and turned to the camera. "Oh, do excuse me, little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." He turned to the guards holding the Doctor. "Let him go." He ordered.
The guards pushed the Doctor to the floor. Rhea made to move to help him but Martha yanked her back.
"Wait, not yet," She hissed in Rhea's ear.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Rhea snapped. "He'll kill him."
"It's that sound, the sound in your head. What if I could help?" The Doctor asked, helplessly.
The Master rolled his eyes, crouching in front of him. "Oh, how to shut him up? I know. Memory Lane! Professor Lazarus. Remember him? And his genetic manipulation device?" His eyes glinted.
The Doctor, Rhea and Martha's eyes widened at that.
The Master narrowed his eyes. "Did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence?" He asked, incredulously. "I thought the guest list would've been a dead giveaway." He shook his head in disbelief. "I've been laying traps for you all this time. I must say, Rhea, you're not as on point as you usually are." He winked over at a seething Rhea, who had her fists clenched. "And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver…" He paused, smirking. "But, ooh, if I only had the Doctor's biological code." His eyes widened, comically. "Oh, wait a minute, I do!" He rushed over to a silver case and snapped it open, revealing Jack's bubbling glass case that contained the Doctor's hand. "I've got his hand!" He crowed, triumphantly. "And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another… hundred years?" He mused, threateningly.
"No!" Rhea gritted out, lunging forwards, still weak enough that Martha was able to yank her back before she was caught in the crossfire.
The Master aimed the screwdriver at the Doctor, who screamed in agony as he convulsed uncontrollably, his genetic makeup altering as he was swallowed up into what looked like a wormhole. At that moment, Jack took a deep breath and his eyes snapped open.
Jack and Rhea shared a look and Rhea nodded, shakily.
"Teleport," Jack said, hoarsely, handing Martha his vortex manipulator.
"I can't," Martha bit out, staring at Rhea and Jack, helplessly. "I can't leave you guys."
"We can't stop him," Rhea hissed. "Not now. Not here. You need to get out of here. Get out now." She snapped.
The Master pulled away and the Doctor fell to the ground, in the body of a very old man. Rhea, despite the pain tugging at her limbs, crawled to his side immediately, Martha joining her soon.
"Doctor, I've got you," Rhea murmured in his ear, holding him up against her, resting his head on her shoulder.
"Aw, isn't that adorable? Jasmine and her Aladdin," The Master said, mockingly. "And she's a would-be doctor." He said, looking over at Martha, who glared up at him. "But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown 'em in all the way from prison-"
The doors slid open and guards pulled in a struggling Francine, Clive and Tish.
"Mum," Martha breathed, horrified.
Francine sobbed. "I'm sorry."
"The Toclafane, who are they?" The Doctor panted, staring up at the Master with desperate eyes. "Who are they?"
"Doctor," The Master knelt down in front of them. "If I told you the truth, your hearts would break." He crooned, pressing his hands to the Doctor's chest.
"Is it time?" One of the Toclafane asked, urgently.
"Is it ready?"
"Is the machine singing?"
The Master looked down at his watch. "Two minutes past." He mused. He mounted the steps and stood by a trembling Lucy. "So! Earthings. Basically, um, end of the world." He shrugged, holding up the screwdriver. "Here… come… the drums!" He roared.
Rogue Trader's Voodoo Child began to blare through the speakers.
The Master stared out of the window. Above the Valiant, a rift reared open in the sky, revealing red sky in the tear. Toclafane by the thousands flew in through the rift, while the Master and Lucy watched from the bridge.
A sharp pain bloomed in Rhea's chest and she tipped over onto her hands and knees, convulsing on the floor, blood spilling from her mouth, which she wiped off on her wrist haphazardly, leaving long red streaks staining her skin. Her hands scrambled against the floor as her skin went slick with sweat, her eyes almost rolling back in her head, until Martha wrapped her arms around her and held her up.
"How many do you think?" The Master asked, curiously.
"I don't know," Lucy whispered.
The Master smirked. "Six billion." He switched on the outside speaker. "Down you go, kids!"
The Toclafane swarmed down to Earth, zeroing in on all the major cities, firing indiscriminately.
"Shall we decimate them?" The Master asked Lucy. "That sounds good." He mused. "Nice word: decimate." He looked out of the window, his voice coming through the outside speaker. "Remove one-tenth of the population!" He ordered.
Rhea closed her eyes, hearing the messages coming in from Earth, the screams and the cries of people being ripped apart, her stomach feeling as if her insides were being gouged out, vaguely feeling the Doctor pull her desperately into his lap and run his long fingers, now wrinkled and aged, through her dark hair. She could still dimly hear Martha sobbing next to her, as the Doctor whispered something to her frantically, as the blood roared in her ears. She could feel herself slipping in and out of consciousness as the TARDIS' pain wreaked a havoc on her body, but she clung to that faint light in her vision and the Doctor's hands on her, which allowed her to keep awake.
No. I'm stronger than this. I've had worse. I'm not weak. He doesn't get to win. He doesn't get to fucking beat me.
I'm not weak.
I'm not weak.
I'm not weak.
Stay awake.
Stay awake.
STAY AWAKE.
"Valiant, this is Geneva! We're getting slaughtered down here!"
Rhea's hooded eyes turned on Martha, dazed. "Go. You need to go. Now." She slurred. She clutched at Martha's hand, pressing something into her palm.
Martha looked down in surprise, a black-hilted throwing knife sitting in her palm, sharpened to a point.
"Be safe," Rhea garbled, mouth streaked with blood.
Martha nodded, tearily, standing, while the Doctor held onto Rhea.
"Help us, for God's sake! Help us! They're everywhere!"
"This is London, Valiant! This is London calling! What do we do?!"
Martha looked over at her family.
"They're killing us! The Toclafane are killing us!"
With one last tortured look at the Doctor and Rhea, Martha activated the vortex manipulator. The Doctor and Jack exchanged a look before Rhea started convulsing again in the Doctor's lap.
Martha toppled down in the middle of a field, overlooking the destruction of London.
"I'm coming back." She growled, running off.
The Master had the Doctor and Rhea pressed up against the window, albeit with a stronger hold on Rhea, lest she crumple to the ground if he let her go.
"And so it came to pass… that the human race fell and the Earth was no more. And I looked down upon my new dominion as master of all and I thought it… good," He purred.
The Doctor grit his teeth, helplessness flashing on his face.
The Master sighed and turned around, gripping Rhea by the waist before she collapsed from another wave of agony that rocked through her body.
"Don't touch me," Rhea snarled, muffling the whimper that rose when she felt her kidneys start burning.
"I don't know if you could stop me right now," The Master teased. He clucked his tongue. "I'm sorry about what the Paradox Machine is doing to you. I'm sure it'll get easier once you get used to it though, Rhea." He brushed her hair away from her face, Rhea flinching away from his touch. "It was just a way to keep you pliant. Couldn't have those carve-your-eyes-from-your-skull, gut-you-like-a-pig killer hands near me, now, could I? You might actually do a lot of damage, young, reckless thing that you are." He said, mockingly.
He turned to the guards at the bottom of the staircase. "Take her away. Throw her in the hole for a couple of days. Maybe she'll be better behaved after that." He looked over at Rhea, a glint in his eyes. "I've had a special room made just for you. Chains to tie you to the floor. All sorts of new toys I'm itching to try out. I modelled it after something in your past. I'm sure you'll love it." He purred.
Rhea struggled as meaty hands surrounded her – fight, fight, FIGHT, but something knocked her on the head and she saw nothing but black, falling to oblivion.
"No, let her go!" Jack shouted from the bottom of the staircase, fighting against the guards who had trapped him.
"That's enough, Master," The Doctor growled, helplessly, cursing the aged body he now found himself in, his hearts clenching painfully at the sight of Rhea being dragged away from him. He couldn't do anything to help her. "She has nothing to do with this. Leave her alone!"
"She has everything to do with this, though," The Master said, solemnly, and then he smirked. "Oh, come now, Doctor. You know I can't do that. She's too special for me to leave her alone. I've got it all figured out. Don't worry. You'll get a ringside seat for what I've planned for her."
And then the guards dragged her away.
He kept his eyes on her until they disappeared out the door.
She looked so still.
It was almost as if she were dead.
A/N: So… I don't know what to say about this chapter. Rhea kind of went back and forth in this chapter, didn't she? While she and the Doctor have definitely reached a new stage in their relationship, she's still trying to protect herself from him, so she's denying herself his comfort, which is sad. But I think she kind of gave up the second she started feeling the effects of the Paradox Machine. Now, with the whole Rhea staying in one place thing, I was wondering how I was going to make it work and I thought the Paradox Machine might be a good tool for that. Don't ask me to go into detail because I could never do it though. And we got a hint that maybe the TARDIS has something to do with why Rhea jumps around the Doctor's timeline.
I plan on doing an interlude about the Year That Never Was in the next chapter, so you can see exactly what the Master has planned for Rhea over the next year. In that chapter, expect a whole lot of crap. And Rhea will definitely be letting her inner crazy girl. Expect a lot of crazy, violent Rhea.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to drop me a line if you liked it. My Tumblr and my Inbox are always open to chat!
Reviews:
grapejuice101: Well, I mean, the Master has met her before, so that kind of implies that she will, at some point, go to Classic Who, but as to when I'll actually cover that or if I ever will, I don't know.
NicoleR85: I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
TimeladyAlly: Yeah, there's no rape, I can promise you that. There's a fair amount of physical assault and maybe some indecent assault (I wrote the actual violent chapter a long time ago so I don't really remember), but no rape. I think Rhea's been through enough without adding rape to it. Not that physical and possible indecent assault is better, but she'll react better to it.
Guest: Well, it's kind of in his name.
LookAliveSunshine03: Yeah, I would prepare yourself. The next chapter is pretty… intense. Yeah, he definitely needed someone at that point and while she doesn't really know the circumstances of it all, she's pretty much going in blind, but it was her instinct to comfort him then.
PrincessMagic: Well, I hope you've liked it so far.
ImsebastianstanButter: It is happening. I know. I suck. I'm writing it, I promise. I just wanted to finish the actual story first. But real-life kind of got away from me. The first story took me like a month to write and the second is now going on 3.5 years (and in my defence, 2017 was the best year for that story, I wrote like nine chapters). I've finished 24 out of a total 27, so maybe even by the end of the year (which is like my maximum, I promise).
FireheadHuntress: Thank you so much!
deathb4beauty: Oh, yeah, I could totally see all of that happening. And I'm so glad you love Rhea! She is my baby, so I take it as a personal compliment.
Teenwolfgirl20: Well, it is my jam. I had to include something somewhere.
RandomFandoming: I am really sorry about that. But hey, here's another chapter! I'm glad you like it so far.
Guest: No, really, it is not odd at all. You have no idea how many 12/Rhea fantasies I've had since Peter Capaldi took on the role. I've written bits and pieces for them and it will be pretty intense and emotional because it's a little out of their comfort zone (not his appearance, of course, I think Rhea may want to enact a daddy kink) seeing as she's never seen him in that regeneration and as far as he's concerned, he's already met her for the first time. IT WILL HAPPEN. I PROMISE.
Lipstick Survivors: I will admit, your review kind of kicked me to get the chapter I was working on finished. So, thank you for that!