Hello! I've had half of this written for a very long time. I wasn't expecting to follow so close to the Master in this, but I have. I have no regrets. Things are starting to get intense and I am getting SO close to the scene / s that gave me the idea for this entire story.

I will try and get some more of 'Through the Stars' written. But I seem to be getting a lot of my smaller stories done. I've even finally finished the second chapter of a story I haven't touched in forever. Probably only a few more chapters of this left. I love finishing stories. It's always a great feeling...

Plus I have so many stories that I haven't even posted yet. So it will give me more time to focus on them too.

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Leverage

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Donna spent the rest of the short ride worrying and attempting to think of ways that they could escape. It didn't take long till they were pulling up into the fancy looking grounds of the Naismith Mansion. The place was pretty huge. And guards dressed in black uniform and helmets with visors could be seen paroling the grounds, guns in hand.

...Okay, so not escaping outside.

She looked over at Rose to check on her condition to find that she had fallen asleep on the drive. The car pulled over to a stop.

"Rose," she said, giving her an awkward prod with her cuffed hands. "Rose, we're here. Wake up." She lent over and shook her shoulder. Rose stayed unconscious and she turned to the driver in worry. "She's not waking up!"

A Master in uniform and one in a lab coat opened their doors and had to catch Rose when she almost fell out.

"What happened?" the guard demanded.

"I don't know! She's not waking up!" she panicked. "Is she breathing? Oh god, please tell me she's breathing."

Lab coat Master went over to her and started checking. "She's breathing, but it's a little shallow, and her pulse is low. Get her into the lab, quick. Get her stable."

Some more of the Masters in black uniform came along and helped carry Rose away.

"No, wait. Where are you taking her?" Donna said as she was dragged out of the car by the Cop Master. "I'm not leaving her. You take me to where she is or so help me I'll-"

"You might be able to see your little friend later. You've got someone else to pay a little visit to first." He gave her a small push and knowing better, she started walking. She was led through a bunch of corridors – constantly searching for something that could lead to a way out – until she was brought into a room with a huge glass roof. About ten Masters were in here, one in a dirty black hoodie stood in the middle of the room. His back was facing her, but he turned out the sound of them entering.

"Ah! Donna!" he said gleefully. "How nice to meet you."

"Not quite sharing the sentiment," she told him. "I take it you're Master number one."

"I am."

"Right, since that's out of the way, then, what have you done with Rose?"

"That's a good question," he said. He turned to Cop Master. "Where is miss Tyler?"

"She fell unconscious on the drive over. We've taken her to the lab to stabilize her. But you might want to see this." He handed the file from Rose's bag over. The Master read over them, his eyebrows rising.

"Interesting. I have to admit, I've never seen anything like this before. Must be from absorbing the Time Vortex. Wonderfully stupid Rose." Lastly he came to a letter and didn't hesitate to open it. As he did, a big grin spread across his face. "Ohh, this is too precious. Looks like she needs the TARDIS to stabilize her properly. Now here's what I call leverage."

"If you touch her, I'll-"

"You'll what?" he said. "You're in a building full of me, and your only back up is coma-d out on a gurney. But don't worry, I won't harm her... much. She's way too valuable to get rid of."

"Because she means something to the Doctor. And you want to use her as leverage against him."

"Oh, my dear, she means so much more than something to him. But no, Donna, do you even know what your friend has become? She is a walking vessel of the Time Vortex. Able to access unlimited power and knowledge from across time and space. She'll even know about alternate time lines and universes... And right now her mind is weak and vulnerable. It won't be hard to at least keep her under my control. Besides, the Doctor's hidden the TARDIS and she needs it to live. Shouldn't be too hard for him to see the upside of telling me where it is."

"No! I know what you did to the TARDIS last time. I won't let you do that again."

The Master sighed. "Why would I do that again? Nope, that ship has sailed. After all, there is so much out there."

"You don't-"

"Ohh!" he groaned, "do you ever shut up!" He clicked his fingers. "Take her away."

"He's going to stop you," she called as two guards grabbed her by the arms and dragged her away. "And if you do anything to her, he'll kill you."

"I'd like to see him try," he chuckled to himself.

This was perfect. He held all the cards, and this time he had the trump card. Rose. As long as he had Rose, the Doctor wouldn't do a thing against him. Naismith had set this place up wonderfully. A good prison. There was a lab to test him in, an a room to lock him in. He knew that there was no possible way to escape the room without the right tools. It would be a good place to hold the loud-mouth redhead for now. Leverage over the Doctor and the old man. And Rose was in the lab, his men trying to stabilize her... trying to find out what makes her tick.

...It was time to give the girl a visit. After all, he needed her for something.

?...DW...?

The Doctor sat in the dead ship with a furrowed brow. Thousands of possibilities and worries flying through his head.

"And she was herself?" he asked again. "She wasn't in some sort of... state like last time? She knew what she was doing?"

"I'm telling you, Doctor, it was her. Clear as day. She knew who you are, talking about spaceships. Nothing. She was fine. She said she could remember."

"This doesn't make sense!" He ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Does it have to? Look, you can sit there and think of bad things if you wan. But my Donna's fixed. I don't care, because she's alright now."

"But that's the thing, Wilf. She may not be. I can't think of anything that would be able to restore her mind back to how it was."

"I know, but... you have to hope."

The Doctor looked up at him with eyes much too old for his face. "I've hoped too many times."

"Doctor!" a voice suddenly boomed through the speakers. The Masters voice. "Doctor, are you there?"

"It's an open broadcast," Addams said from the other room. "Don't answer it! He'll know where we are."

"I know you're having fun floating around up there, but we need you back here on Earth. Well, one person does. See, we found someone. One of your little friends. And I'm afraid the poor dear is in quite the situation. We've got her here in the lab, trying to keep her stable. She's dying, Doctor. She's dying because of you. And there's only one thing that can save her. The TARDIS."

"Dying?" Wilf gasped. "Oh, Doctor, he's not talking about Donna, is he?"

"She needs you, Doctor. She won't last long. I give her a couple of days tops. And by then... well, I'm not sure how much of her mind will be left to save. W-" The air was punctuated with a pain filled scream, making everyone wince. "Up the Morphine and give her more sedatives," the Master muttered to someone on his end. "Sorry about that. Poor thing woke up. We'll look after her till you get back, but you might want to hurry. You know how I am with curious things. And this one is... interesting."

The transmission cut off, leaving Wilf and the Doctor staring at each other in horror.

"He's got Donna!"

"Now, hold on Wilf, we don't know that for sure. That scream didn't quite sound like her. It could have been anyone."

"But everyone else is him."

"...Yeah... Good point." He pursed his lips a moment. "Could have been a recording..."

"We've got to get her. Who knows what that madman would do to her!"

"We can't, Wilf."

"And why the hell not?! She's my granddaughter, Doctor!"

"I know, I know. And I'm sorry. She's my best friend too, but he's trying to lure me in. He's trying to use her as leverage. If we go in now, we walk into a trap and she's doomed anyway. I don't think he'll harm her. He needs her, and she's too interesting."

"But... What are we going to do?"

"We bide our time. We wait. We come up with a plan. Besides, how are we going to get back to her in a broken spaceship?"

Wilf sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I just wish I could do something."

"So do I, Wilf. So do I."

?...DW...?

The Master looked down at the prone figure before him. Rose was pumped so full of sedatives that she wouldn't wake up for a good long while. It was all he could do to stop her screaming. She was clearly in a lot of pain. Even now she wasn't fully at rest. She was making noises and faces as she slept.

He didn't even have to bother torturing her. Her body was already doing that to her... Took the fun out of it, really. He'd already run a few tests, but what he really wanted was to see her in action. He wanted to see her change everything with the power of her mind.

Ooh, he couldn't wait to see into her mind. He really wanted to see the look on her face when he smashed down any barriers around her and took her mind as his own... but he was impatient and her mind was more than likely weak.

With a wicked grin, he placed his hands on her temples and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. Forcing himself through her weak barriers, he was slightly surprised when he hit another stronger one further in. Something was trying to protect her mind from the outside. But it wasn't strong enough. It was too distant, too disconnected.

He grinned when he realised what it was. The TARDIS. The TARDIS was trying to protect the girl. Only, she was somehow separated from this world. She wasn't just too far away. She would still have a connection then. Perhaps if the ship was out of this time then it might be too weak. But the Doctor had the ship here. Unless... Time! The Doctor had hidden it out of sync with this time! The clever bastard.

Still, the distance of the ship made the extra barrier easy to smash through. The silly ship must be very protective over the girl to attempt such a thing.

Once he was inside her mind, he was suddenly awash with flame. Her mind was burning. He was able to resist the heat, but not for overly long. The Time Vortex was freely running through her, and it was burning her up. Her mind had changed a lot from that of a human, but she was missing one final thing. As the letter had said, she needed to be stabilised by the TARDIS. A last and final splice of DNA...

This girl wasn't just a vessel for the Time Vortex, she was practically a walking TARDIS! So much TARDIS DNA had been fused to her structure that it was becoming difficult to find the human. The TARDIS had been doing this for a long time, trying to protect her from the increasing flow of Vortex energy. ...He had never heard of a ship so actively trying to save one mere person.

Yes, TARDISes were sentient, but it seemed the Doctor's was so old it had developed a darn personality. And a strange attachment to the no longer human girl.

He observed her mind a bit more, but was unable to gain any new information before it began to burn him too. Withdrawing with a grunt, he supported himself on the gurney.

"Well, Rose Tyler," he panted. "You are something, aren't you?"

He had big plans for her. Many, many plans. But now he was unsure about his plans with the Doctor. He was tempted to just finally off him this time. But it was way too fun to torment him. And he knew that this woman was the key to that torment. Oh, the things he could do to her that would drive him absolutely insane.

With a wicked smile, he brushed his hand down the golden tendrils of her hair.

"Hold in there just a little longer, Rosie. You're really going to be needed."

Once he felt he had regained enough energy, he stood straight and left the room. He walked into the main room to think. There were so many possibilities. The girl could easily cure him of what was happening to him. Once her mind had settled down he would break in and take it as his own. He could make her do whatever he wished.

"Sir," one of his men interrupted.

"What?"

"The other companion is locked up and secure."

"Right. Thank you."

Ah, yes. The Noble woman. In truth, he had forgotten about her in the excitement about Rose. She could be useful too. She was most certainly interesting. A biological human – Time Lord metacrisis. But she seemed very stubborn. Very much her own person. He could probably work on her over time, or use her as leverage. She still meant quite a lot to the Doctor. His best friend, he had said.

But for now, there was work to do. He walked into the centre of the main room.

"Night has fallen," he said calmly. "Are we ready?"

"Every single one of us is prepared," replied the Master who had once been Naismith.

"Then we listen. All of us, across the world, just listen." He closed his eyes and lolled his head back, focusing on the drum beat that had always haunted him. "Concentrate. Find the signal... There!" His eyes snapped open. "The sound is tangible. Someone could only have designed this. But who?"

He looked back in the direction of the lab. He would bet everything that the girl in that room knew the answer. But he was distracted when the sound grew louder. He could hear it. His head turned upwards.

"The sound," the Naismith Master said. "It's coming from above."

"It's coming from the sky!" he cried. He ran out the doors to the balcony in time to see something bright streak across the sky. The sound was so loud. "There!" he pointed to it. "Find it. Get out there and find it!"

"Yes, sir," the guards replied. They walked past him and he headed back into the main room. Ever the impatient man, he began to pace back and fourth. It was about fifteen minutes till his voice came over the radio.

"It's a diamond, sir. Oh. The most impossible diamond. You won't believe this. It's a White Point Star."

The Master grinned, his head tilted back and he laughed to the sky. A relic from 'home'. A stone that should no longer exist, yet here it was. The Time Lords were returning! Now this was what he was talking about. If a threat to someone who he cared about hadn't sent the Doctor running, this sure would. Without a seconds hesitation, he began the process that would bring them back into this world. A world that would be run by him.

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By the time he set up the radio for another open broadcast, the sun was starting to rise. It was the dawn of a new age. And the Doctor would not want to miss it.

"A star fell from the sky," he said. "Don't you want to know where from? Because it makes sense, Doctor. The whole of my life. My destiny. The star was a diamond. And the diamond is a White Point Star. And I have worked all night to sanctify that gift. Now the star is mine. I can increase the signal and use it as a lifeline. Do you get it now? Do you see? Keep watching, Doctor. This should be spectacular! Over and out."

He grinned and ran to grab the stone from his home planet. This is where it got good.