Chapter 9: A Revelation of Purpose
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"I demand to know who you are!" When the man failed to respond, the Doctor shouted, "SHOW YOURSELF!"
The man sighed. "Oh very well, if you insist."
There was a scraping of chair legs against the wood floor and creaking of springs as the man stood up. From behind, the Doctor could see that the man had blonde hair and appeared to be well dressed; at least, he was wearing a dark colored suit, and the collar of his cream colored shirt could just be seen over the suit jacket. Assuming that this man was the boss of the Grove, it was to be expected. But what shocked the Doctor more than anything else that had happened that night, what shocked him straight to the very core, was when the man turned round, illuminated by the flames of the fire, arms spread open in a mocking of a welcoming gesture.
The Doctor gasped. "You!"
"Me," the Master replied. And he grinned like a madman.
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"But…that's impossible!" was all the Doctor could say without sputtering.
"As you can clearly see, however, it is not; given that I am standing right here, right now, in this Rassilon-forsaken cabin," said the Master, now smiling rather pleasantly.
"How?" The Doctor asked.
The Master shrugged. "I'm not really sure, but I have my theories; however, we can get to those in a minute."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning you're probably curious how your precious daughter got to be here," answered the Master. "Aren't you? You've got to be at least a little curious. I know I would be."
"I'm not you," the Doctor replied.
"Fair point," said the Master. "But don't you ant to know any of the backstory of how Jenny came to here, how I came to be here, and how you and your two friends came to be here? Not even the least bit?"
"Just out with it," snarled the Doctor.
"Very well," said the Master, sighing. "First off, I suppose you already know that the only reason I had Jenny out there tonight on stage was because I knew you, Doctor, would come running just like I wanted you to. I knew precious daddy would do anything to rescue his darling daughter. Ooh, an analogy."
"Doctor, we're lost," said Jamie. "What exactly is going on here? And who exactly is this charming bloke?" he added sarcastically.
The Doctor quickly explained, with a comment here and there by the Master, all about who the Master was and how the two knew each other. Once finished, Donna spoke up and asked, "Ok, but how did you get Jenny in the first place? The last place the Doctor and I saw her was on Messaline."
"Ah, well, now that is an interesting story indeed," said the Master gloatingly. Then, catching sight of the Doctor, he added, "No need to pout. I'm getting to it."
"Then hurry up," the Doctor said forcefully.
The Master rolled his eyes. "Fine, have it your way, old man. Oh hey, remember that time I captured you and suspended your capacity to regenerate, and then showed everyone what you would look like?"
"Vividly," said the Doctor.
"Can get just get on with this?" said Donna impatiently.
"Quite right," said the Master to Donna, while the Doctor gave her a warning glance. "So, to business. I captured your precious daughter, Doctor, when she was on one of the moons of Saturn; little to earthlings know, those moons are actually inhabited. So I saw Jenny, here, trying to fight off a monster. She wasn't doing to well, so I helped destroy it. In the end, I pretended to be her friend and once she told me you were her father, Doctor, I knew it was an opportunity too good to pass up. So I captured her in hopes that you would come to get her; and, here you are! Nice family reunion, isn't it?"
"Oh shut up," Donna snarled. "I'd like nothing more than to punch you in the gut right now."
"Donna," said the Doctor warningly.
"Rest assured, if you were to "punch me in the gut," I just might have to use my laser screwdriver on you. And I'm sure you already know what that can do." Donna fell silent, so the Master continued, "I'm sure you're wondering, Doctor, why I placed Jenny on the stage in such a way tonight."
"Because you wanted me," the Doctor said in nearly a whisper.
"Correct," the Master replied. "Now, for the ceremony, we here at the Bohemian Grove usually just use a very human-like effigy, but because I knew you were here tonight, I decided to replace it with Jenny so that you would come running. Of course, after Jenny was gone from the pyre, I had her replaced with an effigy, but that's beside the point at the moment. I'm also sure you've heard of some rather interesting tales regarding missing waiters, am I right?"
When the Doctor said nothing, Jamie responded, "We heard something about it, from our boss at the café. But how did you know we knew about it?"
"All in good time," said the Master. He then continued from where he had left off, "It was really only one waiter. I had him "taken care of," so the saying goes, because he found out too much about what was going on here. As you know, during the ceremony, a human effigy is burned. Only in this case, it was the waiter."
Donna, Jamie, the Doctor, and Jenny were horrified. "That's just…" Donna began.
"Disturbing? Horrible?" The Master assisted.
"It's so you," said the Doctor, glaring at his nemesis. "Although why you didn't just use your tissue compression device…"
The Master waved his hand dismissively. "I've used that so many times in the past, it was losing its thrill. I wanted something different."
"And you got it," said the Doctor, disgusted. "Innocent lives, taken away. And for what? Just a few seconds of enjoyment? You're nothing but a crazed lunatic."
"And a killer, though I generally don't like to waste talent if I can find it," said the Master. "But you should have seen this waiter, Doctor; couldn't tell left from right."
"That doesn't make it right."
"Oh but it does, Doctor," said the Master, grinning eerily. "Considering it's me, it's perfectly right. But I'm getting off track. I want to tell you how I came to be here, although I won't do it in chronological order. Not as much fun that way."
"You're right disgusting, you are," said Jamie in his Scottish brogue.
"Coming from a Scotsman, I'll take that as a compliment."
"OI!! Now wait just one minute, you swine-!"
"Jamie," the Doctor warned. "The Master is liable to injure all of us quite badly if you continue."
"Right you are, Doctor," said the Master.
"One thing I want to know," Donna interrupted. "How did you keep everyone from discovering who you really are? How did you do all of…" she waved her hand in the direction of the main area of the encampment, "…this?"
As if he were a child eagerly showing off his favorite Christmas present, the Master began, "As you know, influential people and political figures from all over the world come here year. So I put a hypnotic spell on everyone here at the Grove so I could control them and, through them, take over the world via the economy, laws, and other political moves and mishaps. Since I failed with the Toclophane, I figured I'd try the more subtle route, you understand, Doctor."
"So that's why the world is in tatters," Donna muttered under her breath.
"Correct. And this time, Doctor," the Master replied, spitting out his enemy's name, "I will not let you stop me like you did last time."
"True, it will be more of a challenge," said the Doctor. "No ArchAngel network this time. But I have other ways of thwarting those who seek to destroy Earth."
"I doubt it," the Master snorted.
"Och aye, want to bet, you bloody leech-!"
Much to everyone's surprise, the Master began laughing. "That's one thing I've always liked about Scotsmen… they have spirit!" The Master's tone then grew more serious and threatening, yet he retained the pleasant smile. "Let me tell you a story about my time ring, here," and he lifted his hand to show the ring on his ring finger. "Did you know I was brought back to life with this ring?"
"What?!" exclaimed the Doctor in disbelief. "That's impossible!"
"Supposed to be impossible," said the Master, "though it isn't. But I was brought back to life with this time ring by a scientist who stumbled upon it, although I'm not going to give out any names. I'm sure, Doctor, that Jamie told you how he was brought back to life as well with a ring that had strange symbols on it?"
The Doctor stared at his enemy for a second then, eyes widening in realization, said, "No! You didn't!"
"I did," the Master confirmed, gloating. "I brought Mr. McCrimmon, here, back to life with the same ring that had been used to bring me back; there was only just enough Time Lord energy to do so. As you know, Doctor, I wanted to get back at you for thwarting me the last time. So I brought Jamie to life, de-aged him a few decades, and I put a mind-control hypnotic spell over him. It was just subtle enough so that you would be unable to detect it, Doctor. This hypnotic spell allowed me to know where Jamie was and if he was with you."
Everyone turned to look at Jamie, who was in shock.
"You mean…you've been in my head all this time? I was brought back just so I could help you capture the Doctor?"
"Correct," said the Master. "And, just so you know, it was I who arranged everything, including you meeting the Doctor on the spaceship. I knew in order to destroy the Doctor, I had to arrange a meeting between the two of you."
"When I get my hands on you…" Jamie growled.
"You'll what?" The Master taunted. "Growl at me?" He laughed.
"So are you the one who provided Cadger and Davis with the space ship?" the Doctor asked, fire in his eyes.
The Master nodded. "I also gave them instruction on what to do, because I know you Doctor. I know you can't resist getting to the bottom of a mystery. So I knew you would immediately want to investigate, and that you'd find out what was going on, thus leading to your capture and meeting with your old traveling companion."
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Two more chapters left (with a sequel to follow)!!