Disclaimer: No. Absolutely not mine. But look, a shooting star *makes a wish*
A/N: I know, I promised Saturday, but I was a bit distracted by an exam I had to take on Wednesday (a big, big, very big English test, and I do really hope I passed with a good mark) and couldn't translate the chapter as quick as I wanted to. But nevertheless, here it is :D And I hope I'll get as many reviews as the last time …
By the way, I love you, all who reviewed and put my story on Alert/Favourite List!
Again betaed by oddood. :D *waves and gives a hug*
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Chapter Five – Mind
The Doctor had expected pain. Fire. Worlds, trapped eternally in war and agony. The constant drumming, which maltreated the Master's psyche.
However, it was silent. A gentle breeze played with his coat and the red grass under his feet. He looked from a small hill on a wide valley, and not far from him were some buildings, which were of the same colour as the earth and grass he stood on.
He knew exactly where he was.
The buildings belonged to a small estate, which he knew very well. He had spent the better part of his childhood there, and the Master had grown up there, too.
Actually, he shouldn't be surprised. This was the place where the Master must have been happy for the last time. A sanctuary.
He acted on impulse as he approached the estate, but he did not forget to watch his surroundings. Travelling in the mind of others was also dangerous because he couldn't control what he saw. A little puddle could easily become a lake in the fantasies of a confused Time Lord, and the vice versa. One couldn't be sure in such a world where top and bottom, left and right were.
Surprisingly quick, he reached the front gate of the estate. Another thing he had to reckon with: distances were not what they looked like.
His fingers touched the dark wood of the great door. It swung up easily and without any noise, something that didn't coincide with his memories. The door had always opened heavily and had scratched incredibly on the floor.
He entered and looked around the great and open atrium. Everything was painted in the red light of the rising second sun, which falsified the original colours of the glorious wall paintings a little, but nevertheless he instantly felt as if he was a child again.
He was at home …
No. He shook his head. He was not here to loose himself. He had to find the
Master, to bring him back and …
Someone cried.
It was the clear and desperate weeping of a child.
*DW*
The short grass on the endless lowlands glowed in the light of the setting suns like dried blood; a dark, hideous crimson.
He bent down and plucked some blades, played with them until they melted between his fingers and dripped to the ground, to join their brothers and sisters. He stood without movement on an ocean of blood, the blood of those that had died through him.
So many.
The Master examined his hands. Not a single patch of skin was white; all was covered with dried blood.
First a smile, than a broad, mad grin, then he laughed, so loud.
Laughed, because everything was so pointless.
The tears that had been cried for the countless number of victims.
The emotions one inevitably had to feel for something.
Life itself, which everyone thought was so precious.
And his laughter resounded with the endless waves of scarlet blood, which swirled around his naked feet.
*DW*
Ahead. Up the stairs. Left.
No, now the weeping became weaker.
Back, past the bust of a famous Time Lady, whom he had once given a nice beard and earned one week of house arrest for it.
The Doctor finally stopped in front of a door; he should have known that this was the room were the weeping came from.
He took a deep breath and pressed down the door handle.
The room was as meagre as he had known it. A bare wooden bed with white sheets, a simple dresser, a cupboard, a shelf with higher Gallifreyan literature, a window with a view to the mountains.
No toys. No colourful self-painted children's drawings on the walls.
Only a small boy, dressed in the red Prydonian robe, staring at him with eyes turned red from crying.
"Who are you?" he asked insecurely and wiped the treacherous tears off his cheeks with the back of his hand.
"Koschei?"
The Doctor approached the boy. Was this the child, the friend he had thought he had lost long ago?
"How do you know my name?" Koschei asked, and stood up, hesitating.
"Koschei … I'm … it's me, Theta!" The Doctor said quietly, but with a friendly smile. He crouched down, so he was more or less on the same eye level as the boy.
The young Time Lord tilted his head to the side, confused, but then with a sparkle of recognition in his eyes.
"Theta … you have become old!" Koschei hugged the Doctor so eagerly that they both nearly lost balance.
The Doctor was a bit surprised by the boy's fierce reaction and hugged him back, only with a bit of reluctance.
But as fast as Koschei had embraced him, he broke off and looked at the Doctor seriously.
"I thought you would never come and help me …" he said.
"What has happened?"
The boy lowered his gaze and clenched his fists.
"He imprisoned me here … he said, I annoy him. He hates it when I tell him that the things he does are wrong …" He looked up. "But what he does, torturing and killing people, it's wrong! I nearly had him so far he would listen to me, but then the Drums returned, and now everything is worse then ever before …" A tear dropped down his face.
"Koschei, where is the Master?" The Doctor asked with a concerned face. So this wasn't just a projection of the Master long gone childhood, but also his … conscience, if one wanted to call it that. He hadn't been completely wrong about the Master.
Koschei sighed, turned and looked out of the window, and the Doctor followed his gaze. But instead of the mountains he had seen earlier through the glass, there was a wall of fire, which seemed to reach endlessly into the sky.
"Out there …" He lifted his hand and pointed vaguely to the window. "The area I control is only very small. He holds me captive with the fire, but I think you should pass it without suffering any damage …"
"You think?" the Doctor asked doubtfully.
Koschei sighed again. "It's never safe to rummage in another Time Lord's mind. He certainly knows by now that you are here, and I don't know how he will react."
The Doctor nodded. This was understandable.
"I'll try it anyway."
Koschei smiled. "I didn't expect something else from you, Theta."
The Doctor made the attempt to stand up and leave the room, but was held back by a small hand which enveloped his own and held him back.
"You don't need your feet here, Theta. You're apparently forgetting that you're inside a mind, but exactly this you must not forget. Never!" Koschei shook his head to stress his words. "You can only hoist him with his own petard. And now I'm sending you to the border of my domain." The boy raised his right hand and smiled.
"Koschei, what do–"
But before the Doctor could end his question, Koschei tapped on his forehead.
In the next moment, the Doctor wasn't crouching in the small chamber, but was standing in front of the fiery wall, which he had seen only a moment ago from a safe distance.
"You could have at least let me finish talking!" he yelled angrily, although he knew that Koschei could hear him even here. But apparently even the Master's conscience liked some tension more than clear instructions how to save the Master.
He tilted his head back and tried to see the top of the fiery barricade, but there was none.
What scared him was that the wall emitted heat; hot enough to burn.
He lowered his gaze again and tentatively made a step towards the fire, and the heat increased.
Brilliant. With this, the probability of passing the wall without problems dropped to zero.
He nervously ruffled his hair and glanced back to the estate, to the hill he had stood on only minutes ago, well, so at least felt to him. It would be easy to simply go, to turn and leave the Master in this state …
But since when was he such a coward?
Another step. The heat was almost unbearable now, but he knew that the fire couldn't harm him.
He put forth his hand and gritted his teeth as the first flames licked over his skin and burned it.
No need to be upset. This was only a projection, not his real body.
But it hurt …
Pain was a bearable evil, he rebuked himself. But not the guilt of being responsible for the ultimate insanity of his friend.
He took a final deep breath and hurled himself into the fire.
*+DW+*
I know, another cliffhanger xD And there will be more … I just love them *hugs her cliffies*