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Chapter 2: Hallowed
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The streetlights were out in this area, casting deep shadows everywhere. The woman ran as fast as she could, hoping to find somewhere to hide. Considering the fact she wore six-inch spiked heels, she was doing incredibly well on the running away front. It wasn't really her fault she'd been out shopping when it happened. It was the mall's fault for having that big promotional sale, how could she possibly have resisted?
She had been on her way home, with five full shopping bags precariously balanced when the attack began, but she had been wise enough to give the shopping bags up as a casualty of war and start running full pelt away from the menacing machines. Somehow they were far more frightening than anything else she had seen before, and yet at the same time they distinctly resembled giant pepper pots armed with plungers and whisks.
Miraculously managing not to break a heel, she skidded on the pavement and turned a sharp corner out into a well-lit street, not slowing down for a second.
"Exterminate! Exterminate!"
"Oh damn." she muttered, under her breath, as she came to a dead-stop facing a pair of Daleks. She stood frozen in fear for a second, before muttering an incoherent apology for being in their way and stumbling backwards, away from the monsters.
She bumped into a lamppost, or something of the sort, and cringed. This was it, she was going to die.
Oh no you don't.
Suddenly a knowledge was there in the back of her mind, and she instinctively followed the instructions. She carefully and deliberately turned the ring she wore over three times, by twisting it around her finger.
The cracked stone glowed bright red for a second, and the Daleks stopped advancing on her.
"It's been said to me often enough before, but why don't you lot just stay dead, hmm?" a heartbreakingly familiar voice asked from beside, and just behind her.
Suddenly the two Daleks found themselves being blasted apart up by a laser beam, and a beautiful sadistic laughter filled the air.
She turned to try to hug him, but her arms passed right through him.
"Tut tut. I'd have thought you would have figured that trinket out, if you managed to use it?" he said, raising an eyebrow in amusement.
Before she had a chance to explain that it really hadn't been her own thought to use the ring, a door opened across the street, and a young man ran out towards them. He skidded to a halt, shooting a cold look at the street sign over the woman's head, before saying to both of them, "Long time no see." in a slightly bemused voice.
"Damien?" the woman asked.
"You're half-right, Lucy. That never was my real name." he glanced at the incorporeal man, "You'd understand all about that, though, wouldn't you?"
Another woman, much younger than Lucy, stepped out of the same door, but she hung back warily, "You're not a ghost... but you're not solid either?"
He nodded. Unlike ghosts, his image was in full color and not in the slightest bit translucent.
"But the laser-?" she asked.
"Light. Visible, not tangible. Sonic would have worked too." he added with a slightly manic grin. Although somewhere behind his amusement were signs of pain.
Hermione returned the grin in equal measure, only where he barely showed pain she showed mild fear. Something about him scared her, as well it should, really. "Enemy of my enemy." it was a statement, rather than a question.
He nodded again, "A pleasure to meet you, Miss-?"
"Weasley. Mrs Hermione Weasley."
With a flourished bow the apparition introduced himself, "I am the Master."
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"So all that time, you were spying on me?" the Master's image asked. Draco nodded. They were holed up in the Grangers' house, discussing their current situation. "You did an excellent job of it, I'm impressed."
"Occulmency. I had lots of practice with it." Draco said, by way of an explanation. He had kept Voldemort out of his head easily enough, after some tuition from his aunt, but he'd found that resisting the Master's mind had been a much more difficult task, requiring misdirection and subtle deceptions, rather than simple solid walls around his thoughts.
"How are you here?" Hermione asked, "I thought- I mean, Malfoy told us what happened, and- well, you died."
"He knows." Draco said, nodding in the direction of Harry Potter, who had been sitting in brooding silence during the conversation. The expression of concentration on Harry's face had been the giveaway that he knew something.
"The ring." Harry said, scowling in Lucy's direction, "Where did you get it?"
"I acquired it a couple of years ago." the Master answered, "It was in an ordinary pawn shop, but I could tell there was something unique about it."
"I threw it into the Forbidden Forest ten years ago." Harry said quietly, "No one was meant to find it."
"But you're not dead." Draco said, staring at the Master calmly, "According to the reports on Voldemort's destruction, that ring is only supposed to be able to restore an illusory echo of a dead being."
"This incarnation is dead." he answered, "Harold Saxon is dead." a faint smirk appeared on his face, "I have no idea what my latest body is up to, a bit surprised I didn't stay dead, but- it wasn't the Doctor, was it?" a slight hint of fear was in that question, easily missed if you weren't looking for it.
"No." Draco said, in a tone that refused to elaborate.
"Good." and suddenly he was too cheerful again, especially for what he said next, "Either way, one thing I do know is that it's causing me some pain to be here in this form."
"Why do you stay, then?" Ron asked.
"Because only Lucy can dismiss me."
Lucy Saxon looked down at the ring she wore with a cautious frown. Everyone was looking at her now, "But we can't fight these things alone. And he's not here, Master."
"Who's not here?" Ron demanded.
The Master's illusion stared at Lucy for several moments, before answering the question, "The Doctor."
"He must be coming to help us, though." Hermione protested, "I mean a big thing like the Earth being moved to another system won't go unnoticed."
"But what if this Doctor guy can't find it now it's been moved?" Ron asked. For having the lowest tested IQ in the room, he'd made the most intelligent observation. Not even Time Lords could see everything, maybe the Doctor really wouldn't be able to find them in time.
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After Ron's suggestion that the Doctor might not be able to find them, the Master had grudgingly agreed to help them so long as, once he did, Lucy would release him from the ring. If he really was in pain, it was a good thing to blackmail or bribe him with, depending on which way you looked at it. Her fear seemed to encourage him to want to act, as well. As if he actually cared for her, on some level.
So it was that they had made their way outside to the blue dumpster. As soon as they all entered the TARDIS and the door closed behind them, the illusion of the Master approached the central console with great reverence, and tried to touch the controls. When his hand passed through them he seemed visibly upset for a moment. But he quickly regained his composure and turned to stare at Draco, "How did you find her?"
"About an hour and a half ago. You could say I was sent to her by someone a bit more omniscient than you."
The Master sneered at the suggestion that there was someone out there who knew more than a Time Lord, but didn't retort, because he really hadn't known where his TARDIS had gone, but obviously whoever helped Draco had known. That made Draco's statement true enough not to be worth arguing with.
"I suppose we ought to signal the Doctor's TARDIS. Call for help. He always did scare the Daleks more than me, for some reason." the Master said, reluctantly, examining the console. "Humanity, I can terrify in a heartbeat or two, but Daleks all but ignore me. They even had the nerve to execute me once." He showed irritation when he saw that the readouts were displayed in English, and he looked at Draco suspiciously, "She has been communicating with you?"
"How else do you think I got her here?" Draco asked, trying his best to look innocent but failing miserably. The Master looked as offended as if he thought his wife had been cheating on him with this mere human. Random humans were not supposed to be able to access any TARDIS so easily.
The Master automatically made to turn a couple of the controls, but when his hands passed right through them he swore. Draco was sure he'd heard the word somewhere before, probably on the Valiant, but it was not English, that was for sure. After glaring at Draco for several seconds, the Master beckoned him angrily, "Get over here and turn this dial two points counter-clockwise, shol'va."
"What did you call me?" Draco asked, his tone ironic and a bit too cheerful, as if even though he really did not understand the word he considered whatever insult it could have been to be a compliment or a joke.
"It means traitor." the Master growled, continuing to point to the dial in question. Draco approached and casually turned the dial as instructed. "Now press that button."
Draco complied, while asking in far too innocent a tone, "How can I betray someone to whom I was never loyal to begin with?"
The Master did not answer, but simply continued to give instructions, and soon the screen displayed information. It didn't make much sense to any of the humans in the room, but the Master quickly interpreted it, "Someone's already trying to call him." he said bluntly, "Torchwood, probably." he reached for another button, and when he failed to be able to touch it, Draco pressed it without waiting to be told. The display changed and the Master spoke again, "Their signal is getting through, but it's broken. Something is hiding us from him."
Three buttons in sequence and another dial. Draco followed the Master's hand-movements carefully, doing everything only about half a second behind.
"I knew I kept you around for a reason, you learn fast." the Master muttered, torn between displeasure at the fact he needed this human's help and approval of said human's ability to actually be useful.
It only took a few seconds for the Master to figure out what the problem was.
"That's clever." he declared. Hermione grinned, causing him to scowl, "Oh shut up." he snapped at her for even thinking that his exclamation had been even the slightest bit Doctorish. Just because that was something the Doctor did say rather often. But this really was clever, though, and even the Master had to admit it.
"What's clever?" Ron demanded to know.
"We're out of phase with the rest of time by about point-nine-nine-seven of a second. They could have picked a better number." the Master answered. This did not enlighten Ron. "It means anyone in the normal time-stream can't see us, and it would be a right pain trying to get to us, too. You need to know where to look to find it."
"So tell him where to look." Ron said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Really, it kind of was.
"Not so easy." Draco interrupted, before the Master could speak, "I encountered the Doctor after this event in his time-line. He never mentioned you." he was looking right at the Master, "Or any of us trying to contact him."
"You must not be seen." Hermione whispered, echoing Dumbledore's instructions on messing with your own past.
The Master rolled his eyes, "What, I get forced to help him save his pathetic pet planet and I don't even get to rub it in his face that he needed me?" then he thought about it and after a few seconds he added, "You know what, better he doesn't know, seeing as I was blackmailed so beautifully, he'd end up being the one gloating, wouldn't he?"
"Yep." Draco answered with a grin.
With a defeated sigh the Master started moving his hands over the controls again. Draco copied him to actually activate said controls. Soon they had done something important, though only the Master knew what. "I added to Torchwood's signal. A repeating pulse distortion at point-nine-nine-seven of a second, it's about as blatant as I can reasonably get without actually sending the message myself."
"Let me guess, it repeats every four beats?" Draco asked, trying not to laugh. The Master pretended to ignore this, making it obvious that the answer was 'yes'.
"How will he notice that?" Hermione asked.
The Master shrugged, "I'd notice it."
"That's good enough for me." Draco said actually laughing now, "Those two are equally insane geniuses."
No sooner had Draco said that than a message flashed up on the screen telling them in plain English that another TARDIS had entered their displaced little pocket of space. "See, I told you that would work." the Master said smugly.
"So what now?" Harry asked. It was obvious that he was just itching to get out there and fight the Daleks.
"Absolutely nothing." the Master answered a bit too brightly, but the illusion of cheerfulness was shattered as he seemed to flinch in pain, "Just. Stop. Thinking. Please, Lucy."
"What?" she asked, startled.
"Your thoughts are controlling the ring." he growled, still obviously in pain, "You're thinking about something that happened last year. Stop it now."
She blushed a little, and looked down, as if trying to concentrate on anything else.
"Tell a human to stop thinking about something, you're guaranteeing they'll keep thinking about it." Draco noted, amused.
The Master snarled, and loomed over Lucy, as if he wanted to slap her. She flinched away, and whimpered an apology, even though they all knew he was incorporeal, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, Master, I'm sorry."
Draco stepped in between the Master and Lucy, holding his hands up in a placating way. He wasn't exactly unafraid, but he was pretty certain that at least he wasn't going to receive the threatened slap aimed at Lucy, seeing as the Master had no physical presence. That and he's seen the Master threaten Lucy to no end on the Valiant, but never once had those threats been serious, never once had he harmed her.
"We have more important things to think about, there must be something else we can do here. Arguing isn't helping anyone." Draco said, in as diplomatic a tone as he could manage.
The Master stared at Draco coldly for a moment, "There was always something about you... as if I could trust you, like I knew you before I met you." he said quietly.
Draco smirked, "That's because you did. But let's not go into that level of- as the Muggles like to call it- technobabble right now, please?"
A sharp bark-like laugh was the Master's only answer to that, "What exactly do you suggest we do now? If the Doctor cannot defeat the Daleks, then precident has been truly misleading."
"Never hurts to have a plan B. And C, D, E and F, too, for that matter." Draco said smugly.
"What was your plan B the night Dumbledore died?" Harry snapped. He'd never gotten over that one, had he?
"Actually, I ended up using plan D." Draco muttered, "Plan A, 'buy time'. Plan B, 'get someone else to do it'. Plan C, 'run away'. Plan D... well, that was the Doctor's fault." He then glanced at the Master, "Last year I got through it all on plan A, though. That was a first for me. Then again, plan B last year had been 'die and wait for the Doctor to undo the year, which I knew all along would happen'."
"Smug dumb ape." the Master grumbled, glaring at an innocent button on the control panel as if Draco's successful deception was somehow its fault.
But before anything else could be said or done, the Master looked up skyward, startled by something. And then he swore, a continuous string of multilingual curses, ranging through Gallifreyan, English, French, Greek, Latin, and a few others no one else recognised, all referencing things Captain Jack would probably be interested in. Finally, he turned to the controls without explanation, and began trying to manipulate them. Draco did not question him, instead following his hands to activate the controls for him.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, a bit frightened by the outburst.
"Something very bad." Draco answered. The Master was too focused to respond himself.
"How do you know?" Ron demanded.
"I heard about it in the past tense." Draco said. The Master spared him a sharp look, but did not stop what he was doing. "What exactly are you doing, then?" he asked the Master, who didn't deign to answer the question.
Suddenly the TARDIS shuddered, as it moved location. The Master turned sharply and left, being incorporeal he didn't even need to open the door. Draco followed unquestioningly. The others exchanged worried glances then followed as well.
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