Disclaimer: Do my Chibi's count? No? That's sad … :-(
A/N: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Forgive me! *makes her best puppy dog eyes*
I could say that I was busy, but that would be a lie. I was really lazy last week, and then I noticed that Saturday was THE day, and I just thought that nobody would read the new chapter anyway. So I just postponed, and now I'm feeling really bad :-(
Anyway, I hope you like the new chapter. I don't know when I will be ready with the next chapter, but it will be definitely not this weekend, because I'm going to London over the weekend (wohoo!) and then the new semester starts, so I will be busy learning more English … but I'll try to update around 20.4. …
And as always, this chapter was betaed by the glorious oddood.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Chapter Six – Fire
It seemed to last an eternity.
The fire surrounded him, hissed in his ears, and he smelled the unmistakable stench of burning flesh. His own skin, his whole body burnt and blazed.
The term "pain" had to be newly defined for this.
Again, he suppressed the urge to breath. He had closed his eyes and kept going straight on, only feeling his way with one hand.
This is just a projection, not your real body.
The endless mantra he repeated over and over again to distract his thoughts.
Then he felt a cool breeze on his face and suddenly the inferno was behind him. He collapsed to the ground, barely breaking his fall with his hands, and was relieved to breath the fresh air. Breathe in. Breathe out. Oxygen.
He had survived.
"Welcome, Doctor!"
He opened his eyes and looked up. Not even five meters from him stood the Master and grinned at him.
"Welcome to my big, wide world." He raised his arms theatrically, turned around himself once and laughed at the Time Lord kneeling before him once more. "Did you like my little welcoming committee?" He roughly pointed to the wall of fire behind the Doctor.
The Doctor nodded slightly and had a look at his hands and clothes. There was barely a trace of the fire he felt; only his skin was reddened like he had slight sunburn. "An impressive manipulation …"
"Oh, I imagined that, too!" The Master clapped his hands and took a few steps towards the Doctor. "I thought that I shouldn't make it too easy for you to rummage in my mind!" He crouched down in front of the other Time Lord, their faces so close. "And now tell me, Doctor, why are you here?"
"I want to help you, Master."
"Oh, I do love it when you use my name!" He jumped up again, took a few steps towards the barrier of fire so the Doctor had to turn to see him. The Master had stretched out his arm into the flames so they could dance on his hands.
"I like this world, Doctor. Here I can determine what I want to do, no-one else." He turned around, and a small flame kept sitting on his hands like a pet. "I can decide who lives …" He raised his hand close to his face. "And who dies!" He clenched his hand to a fist, and the flame went out. "Isn't that great?"
"You could do the same in the real world." the Doctor stated.
"No, every time I try it there you come along and destroy everything." The Master went again in front of him, and the mad grin wouldn't disappear from his face. "But here everything is different, isn't it? So, why would I want to return to this poor, filthy little world, which means only pain for me?"
"Because the world offers more than pain. There are planets out there, oh, you would love them. Full of marvels and miracles."
The Master threw back his head and breathed deeply, before he looked at the Doctor again.
"And what should I do with them?"
"Admire it. Save it, if it needs to. And then go to find the next wonderful world."
The Master snorted and turned on his heels.
"Sounds boring." He walked a few steps and lounged onto an ornate throne which had appeared out of nowhere. The Doctor made an attempt to stand up and follow him, but was prevented from doing so with a simple sign of the Master's hand. Some crimson tendrils sprang from the ground and entwined around his wrists and legs so the Doctor was fixed to stay in the kneeling position.
"No, no, we don't want the good Doctor tampering with something which is not of his concern!" The Master leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, hands folded. "And only to repeat myself, it means nothing to me to explore the universe, whether as your companion or 'friend'!" His hands drew the quotation marks into the air.
"But–"
"No buts! Actually, why am I talking to you? I've got better methods!" The Master put forth his hand in the direction of the Doctor; turned his wrist two times as if he would close something.
The Doctor tried to formulate a response, swallowed, tried again, but only a rasping sound came from his mouth.
"Better, much better! Even if you look a little like a fish on dry land." The Master burst out laughing. "Got that, Doctor? Fish... on dry land. You open and close your mouth just like one, isn't that funny?" He grinned wide and waited a moment before he smacked his forehead. "Right, you can't answer anymore. Anyway, where was I?" He made a short pause and looked like he was thinking really hard, before smiling again, "Ah, I wanted to show you why I like my little world more than anything else …"
The Master rose from his throne and decreased the distance between him and the Doctor with a few steps. "Because you forgot, Doctor, that such a connection can be used in both ways." The grin on the Master's face didn't vanish as he crouched down and put his fingers on the temples of the other Time Lord; a bizarre caricature of the Doctor's action in the real world.
The Doctor's eyes widened from fear as he felt the Master rushing against his barriers. He was stronger than he had assumed, and first he fought against the other Time Lord, but in the end he gave up; there was no point to it anymore.
The sudden flood of pictures, emotions and impressions confused the Master for the first moment, because he had thought that the Doctor would fight longer, but everything was just there, unfiltered.
He felt like a child in a sweet shop
He could do so much. He could hurt the Doctor, torment him, but … first he would torture him a little, in a very special way. By memories.
Time Lords liked to shut away their memories, especially those that hurt them.
The Master looked for the door, the little treasure chest, and found it relatively quick, as if the Doctor had prepared it for him – unlike back on the Valiant when he had to work really hard to get the memories of Rose, oh, sweet little Rosie-Posie, stranded in a parallel universe.
No, he wasn't interested in the old memories, he wanted the new ones.
"Wait … that's me!" he called out, automatically using his voice as he saw himself in the Doctor's point of view, dying. He played the memory again, but really …
"You cried for me, oh how sweet … how … human …"
Yes, I cried, the Doctor said weakly, using their telepathic link. Why shouldn't I? You left me behind deliberately, alone.
"You idiot …" the Master answered, rummaging through the next memories and again looking at one a bit longer. "You even gave me a funeral!" he exclaimed surprised as he saw the burning pyre.
What, should I have let you rot in some roadside ditch?, answered the Doctor grimly.
"Well, I would have done it if I was in your position", The Master said cynically; he was a bit surprised that exactly these memories were hurting the Doctor, but at the end it didn't matter.
Onward, onward, there had to be more …
"Hm … Rosie-Posie came back and got her own Doctor, how sweet … sometimes your life could be a bad soap opera, Doctor … and, hey, what's that?" He wound back again.
"You played with the timelines, Doctor?" the Master exclaimed nearly hysterically. "Oh, bad, bad Doctor, what was that … a trace of … Master-ism?" The Master grinned evilly, and the grin reached even into their link. "And you're responsible for the death of this little human female … nearly changed everything … 'Time Lord Victorious'? Oh please, that's too much ego… even for you …"
I'm not perfect either, Master. The Doctor was tired and exhausted; the guilt and fear from the events on Mars were already a great burden, but to remember and feel everything again was so much, too much …
Someone cleared his throat.
But it was neither the Master nor the Doctor.
The former was so irritated that he broke off the link to the Doctor which caused the Doctor to slump down as far as his bonds allowed him to.
The Master stood up, turned and …
"Koschei?"
*+DW+*
I know that some of you now want to kill me because of this cliffhanger … and I'm sorry, but the next chapters will have also cliffhangers, there are just so … good …
What about a nice little review to fight the really evil cliffhangers?