Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Without warning and for no apparent reason, Theta jerked his head around to face the door. Then, turning back to Jack, he asked excitedly, "Did you hear it?"

"Hear what?!" Jack asked, having no idea what Theta was talking about.

"The whispering."

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Whispers? Jack may have heard many things on this ship, but whispering was not one of them. He glanced at Theta, worried that maybe being reversed to this age had somehow damaged the Doctor's ears… or maybe his brain. "Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"

"Yes I'm sure! I heard it! I know I heard it." Theta protested adamantly, glaring at Jack. "It's like… I don't know. But it's weak and it's calling for help."

"I'm going to see what it is," Theta announced, bouncing to his feet in a very Doctor-like way. Then, when he was nearly at the door, he turned back to Jack. "Aren't you coming?"

"Well, I'm a little tied up at the moment," Jack answered, rattling his chains and looking pointedly at where they were cuffed to his wrists.

"Oh," Theta said, sounding disappointed. He wandered back over to Jack and tugged ineffectively against the chains. "Can't you get out of them somehow?" he asked, plaintively.

Jack looked up at where the chains attached to the walls. Maybe there was a possibility that he could yanks them out. "Stand back," he said, and waited for the boy to get to a safe distance. The last thing he wanted was for him to succeed, a chain to whip away from the wall, and hit Theta, injuring him.

Jack grasped a chain in each hand, so as not to further injure his wrists, and pulled as hard as he possibly could against them, straining his muscles for all he was worth.

Eventually he gave up, panting for breath. He looked at the chain hopelessly and commented, "I assume the Master took the sonic screwdriver away from you."

"The what?" Theta asked, his blue eyes full of innocent curiosity.

"The—it's a—never mind. But I just meant that the master must've emptied your pockets," Jack said, gesturing as best he could to Theta's too-big jacket.

"No," Theta said simply.

"What?"

"No. Koschei didn't take anything away from me," Theta repeated.

Jack stared at the boy. Surely the Master couldn't be that stupid as not to take the sonic screwdriver away from the Doctor? Then again, as the time agent thought about it, the Master could be astoundingly self-obsessed, and in his arrogance he could have easily forgotten about all the little things that the Doctor had besides his brilliant mind (which the Master as good as had taken away from him).

"Well ok then," Jack said, a little flustered from surprise, "Check your pockets for the sonic screwdriver. It's a thin metal tube about the size of a pen, with a blue light on the end."

After much rummaging through his pockets, Theta eventually found the sonic screwdriver and with only a slight hesitation, handed it over to Jack. Jack took it gratefully and undid all the chains restraining him, all the while wondering why the Doctor had so much crap in his pockets!

Finally free, and rubbing his sore, raw wrists, Jack walked to the door where Theta was now standing and handed the sonic screwdriver back to him. "So, where's this whispering coming from then?" he asked. He wasn't entirely sure that this was what he wanted to do with his newfound and almost definitely temporary freedom, but he knew that even if he refused to go and investigate with Theta then the boy would go by himself anyway, and Jack felt a certain amount of responsibility for the young Doctor than to let him do that.

Theta paused for a moment, apparently listening, and pointed down the corridor to their left, "This way."

And so they set off.

A minute later Jack was very surprised when he felt a much smaller hand slipping into his own. He glanced down at Theta, but the boy didn't look at him, just carried on looking ahead down the corridor. Jack said nothing and merely held the boy's hand. It just showed that Theta was more afraid of this ship and whatever might be on it than he was of Jack, and the ex-con man wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

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Meanwhile, the Master was becoming impatient. He had expected the Doctor to have come back by now, the coward that he was as a child.

He snapped his fingers and said, "Hey, you," to one of the guards, "Go and find the boy and bring him back here. He has a visitor to see him."

The guard went immediately.

Ignoring the disapproving stares he knew he was getting from the Jones family, one of them in particular, the Master went back to staring at the Earth, where everything was just as he wanted it.

He turned to the girl kneeling on the floor, hands tied behind her back, and said, "It's good to be King, isn't it?"

Martha Jones glared.

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They'd been walking for at least 10 minutes, twisting and turning around the corridors of the Valiant, and Jack was just about to suggest that maybe they give up, when Theta stopped outside one of the doors.

"This one," he said, and opened the door and went in.

Jack followed Theta into the room just in time to hear the boy say in wonder, "It's a TARDIS," staring at the familiar blue box that Jack had come to know and love, and maybe even think of a little as home.

He laughed in delight and said, "It's not just any TARDIS, it's your TARDIS! Oh, Theta, you're a genius!"

Theta smiled shyly, clearly pleased at the enthusiastic praise he was receiving.

However, all three hearts in the room dropped when several of the 'toclafane' appeared, right between them and the TARDIS.

"Oh hell no!" Jack exclaimed, glancing at the floating spheres in front of him, and then at the small boy next to him. How was he supposed to protect Theta from these things? Especially when they got out their slicing knives...

As if reading his thoughts, the 'toclafane' each unfurled several long, thin and extremely sharp blades and started sweeping them around menacingly.

Jack glanced again at Theta, ready to leap in front of him at the slightest movement from the spheres that for now weren't coming any closer. He just really hoped that until he could think of something, that Theta would keep it together. He couldn't deal with a hysterical child on top of everything else.

But amazingly, Theta didn't look too afraid. His hand had reached up to grasp tightly at Jack's, and his eyes were slightly wider than before, but if anything, he looked more curious than afraid.

"Why're you doing that?" he asked, in a clear, calm voice, before Jack could shush him.

But to the time agent's surprise (and great relief), the creatures didn't immediately swoop down on them, instead they answered Theta's question. "The Master commands that we protect the paradox machine," they said in unison.

"But why are you?" Theta persisted.

"The Master commands it," the toclafane repeated.

"Why do you listen?"

"Because he is the Master."

"Why is he the master?" Theta asked.

"He has the paradox machine."

"No he doesn't. You do," the boy pointed out.

But the toclafane held firm, "But he is the Master."

"Why should he be the Master?" Theta argued, "You're the ones doing all the work. That doesn't sound like much fun."

To this, the toclafane said nothing, foiled by the logic of a child.

Jack wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't very well gag Theta, and he couldn't get him to stop in his persistent questioning of the murderous spheres in front of them. But he also didn't think that it was a good idea to annoy them, given what they were capable of.

"Wouldn't you rather be the masters?" Theta continued, and Jack had to concede that he was being rather persuasive.

Again, for a moment, the toclafane said nothing. Then they began murmuring, and Jack felt as if he were only hear half the conversation. He supposed they had some sort of communication system between them.

"We could be the Masters… he has no hold on us… we have the paradox machine…"

Oh yeah, this was good, Jack thought as he and Theta watched the deliberation. If the Master no longer had these balls of death watching his back, then he'd be a lot less formidable, in fact, he'd be almost laughable. But then again, Jack had to worry about what the toclafane would do if they did betray the Master. Would they leave? Or would they go on a murderous rampage? Nothing was certain.

"It is decided," the few in the room said in unison, their childlike voices so at odds with what they were saying, "We are the Masters. We will fly and slice and burn."

Damnit.

Jack backed away slightly, standing slightly in front of Theta. This was not good. "Hey, easy on the slicing there," he said genially, with a nervous laugh.

Then, when the toclafane said nothing, he looked at the swiping, shining and very sharp blades in front of him and muttered to himself, "Guns. I knew I shoulda brought guns."

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A/N: Yes, I know, I've done it again... This was supposed to be the last chapter... and I've gone and split it again... I'm sorry!

Anyways, yes, definitely (well... almost definitely) only one more chapter to go which is... so far 400 words long, and all in incoherent notes... damnit.

And I have a feeling there are a lot of mistakes in this chapter, but that's ok. I have a whole list of excuses!! Firstly, I'm ill (and I never get ill!! sniffle) Secondly, my flatmates music is STILL blaring... and thirdly... lectures (that says it all, doesn't it?!)

So, please review!! (it'll cheer me up greatly!)