The Master had no weapon and he couldn't reach his laser screwdriver, so he improvised and ripped the belt from his waist which sported a large buckle.

He swung it and felt it bite into the face of the nearest human and he pulled hard, yanking the man of his feet and eliciting a scream of pain as it tore from the man's cheek. He quickly gathered the belt and was swinging it again but it was clear that his men were losing the fight as more humans emerged from the trees.

It was then that he heard it...finally, the patrol drones.

The human he was about to attack burnt in a flash of a laser and out of the sky poured five deadly shapes.

It turned the tide of the fight as several more humans were cut down and the rest began to flee back into the trees, pursued by the Doctor's lethal inventions.

He looked round and he saw Ashena...she was shaken but looked otherwise unarmed.

Then she said. "Where are mother and Seska?"

"We nearly had the girl but she was tougher than she looked. But we managed to get two. We can sell this one to one of the houses in the north...they like them young and untouched."

Seska wasn't sure if what he was hearing was real or just a vision brought on by whatever had been used to subdue him, but if it was real then he was in trouble.

"You said you got two?" another voice said.

"Yeah, killed Peters before we took him down, probably a bodyguard, but still worth something at the slave market."

"Where is he?"

"Chained up outside."

"Fine, let me look at this one first."

Seska came fully awake when a pair of hands pulled him up by his hair and yanked his head back.

"He's pretty enough...make sure he stays untouched...soiled goods are worth nothing."

Seska was dragged to a small pen and thrown inside and then ignored and the shock of it all finally proved too much and he began to cry.

The man who had grabbed Seska by the hair was now walking outside into the snow and mud covered yard.

The second person was chained to two posts, head hanging down and blood dripping from his head onto the floor.

"Don't look like a bodyguard...get his head up."

Another man yanked on the chains and the other person's head was savagely pulled up.

When the first man saw the person's face he swore and savagely backhanded the man who had captured them.

"Do you have any idea who this is...this is the Master's whore, which would make the brat in there one of the Master's bastards. You fool, you've killed us all!"

The man got up and wiped his bloodied nose and drew out a knife. "Then let me butcher them and feed them to the dogs."

"No!" a woman's voice rang out from above. "Touch one hair and I'll be the one doing the butchering!"

The man with the knife lost all of his swagger as the woman and her escorts hurried down the steps.

She ignored him and spoke to the other man. "Get him down from there and send a message to Harkness, tell him we've got something he wants."

Seska wiped away tears when the door to his cage opened; he wasn't going to let the humans see him cry.

But he only held them back for a few minutes as two men dragged his mother into the already too small cage.

"Animals," he spat as they dropped the Doctor and shut the door.

"Shut it or you'll end up with a cracked head too," one man said.

The other man put his face against the bars. "You're lucky whelp that the whore's on someone's wanted list or he'd be living up to the name."

Seska shrank away from the bars and sat protectively in front of his mother.

"Va'isha's," he spat.

The two men left him alone with his mother who was still unconscious and bloody. All he could do hope that whoever wanted them would treat them much better, but he doubted it.

Jack was woken from much needed sleep by his second-in-command.

"This better be urgent Silas," he grumbled.

Silas smiled and started to turn away. "Depends on what you call urgent...something like the one thing you've been trying to get your hands on for the last who knows years...oh and one of his children."

Jack shot up, not sure that he heard him right.

"Are you sure?" he asked as they walked towards the waiting man.

"Ask him yourself," Silas said.

Jack looked at the man in disgust; it was one of Saskia's men. Saskia was a thorn in both his and the Time Lords side...a double-dealer who peddled in goods and wasn't averse to dealing in slavery.

"What lie is Saskia selling now?"

"No lie, General," the man said. "She has something you want."

"And how do I know she's not lying?"

The man held out a something and Silas took it from him and handed it to Jack...it was a ring, a signet ring, a bloodstained signet ring.

Jack turned it and engraved on it were the whirls and circle of what was once a dead language. It could only belong to one person; the last time he'd seen it was a lifetime ago and it was no longer on that person's finger.

He glared at the man. "So help me if he's..."

"Don't worry, we didn't cut it off his finger. He's alive and the brat, Saskia want six months of food and ammunition. She says she'll meet you at the Pass of Degradation and she'll wait one hour. After that she'll sell them both to the highest bidder."

Jack said nothing for a minute. "I know you're her right-hand man...three months food and two months ammunition."

"There's no haggling, she has the upper hand."

"Really," Jack said and raised an eyebrow. "I could of course let the Master know where her camp is...I'm sure he'd love to haggle for his husband and child."

The man paled. "Fine, it's a deal. But still one hour."

"No time limits, tell Saskia exactly what I said. I'll be there at dawn tomorrow. She has a choice, deal with me or the Master. If she doesn't turn up then..."

The man nodded and was allowed to leave.

Jack turned to Silas. "Have him followed and contact base camp. Inform Doctor Jones to expect a Code Red, she'll know what that means."

The Master watched as his men torn the camp apart, but there was no sign of the Doctor or Seska and the human whose mind he'd torn apart knew nothing.

He turned to one of his generals and snarled. "I don't care how much you have to scorch, find them and bring me the head of whoever took them."

A slender hand appeared on his forearm. "Calm yourself father, we will find them."

The Master looked at his daughter. "I can't lose them...not after your brother...I just can't."

Ashena tightened her grip. "They're alive, I can still feel them. But we should go back to the capital, Jakaar will be missing mother...he will need us."

The two turned away from the now burning camp...the first of what would become many.

Seska tried to shield his mother from the worst of the bumps as the cart carrying their cage was pulled along. He glared at the back of the head of the driver; they could at least have put his mother in one of the covered wagons.

It had been a deliberate act to keep him quiet and to keep his mother out of action.

He shivered but refused to take the coat he'd laid over his mother, who still hadn't stirred. He felt his pulse, it was thread and erratic, but all of his medical skills he'd learnt and was still learning counted for nothing...his mother was badly hurt, a fractured skull highly likely.

"You cold boy," a woman's voice said and he looked up.

"I'm fine," he said curtly.

"Really, then you won't want this fur," she said, holding up the coat.

"I'll take it, but for my mother," he said.

The woman laughed. "Mother, now that's just wrong. No more for him, you can stay cold."

She rode away and Seska vowed to kill her when he got free.

The cart shifted again and he had to grab his mother and he once again glared at the back of the driver's head.

Jack watched the small column approach the pass. He raised his binoculars and spied the cart with the cage chained to it.

He couldn't see the occupants clearly but he had no doubt as to whom it was, the Doctor and his son.

"Saskia, you unfeeling witch," he growled and strode back to his vehicle.

Saskia's party arrived a few minutes after Jack's and the two leaders walked to the middle of the only piece of clear ground.

"Saskia," Jack said.

"A pleasure to see you again General," she said.

"I believe you have something I want," Jack replied.

"No time for socialising then," Saskia said and nodded to one of her men.

The cart carrying the cage trundled forward at the same time as the wagons carrying the food and ammunition.

"You drive a hard bargain General, but I am rather attached to my head."

Jack watched as the wagons and the cart passed each other and the drivers had swopped. Once the cart with the Doctor and his son was safely behind the two RV's he spoke.

"Now get out of my sight Saskia, before I change my mind. If you care at all for your people, shut up shop and get as far away as possible."

"Is that friendly advice?"

"No, it's a warning. If the Doctor is permanently damaged I'll hunt you down and end your little business. If the Doctor dies I will hunt you down and hand you over to Master personally...is that clear?"

Saskia smiled. "Always a pleasure doing business with you."

Jack didn't move until Saskia and her men were gone. Then he walked past the RV's and stopped at the cart.

"Get them out of there," he snapped.

Two of him men opened the cage but were rebuffed by the young man inside, who was cursing in his own language.

But he was eventually dragged out but was still struggling.

Jack finally intervened and grabbed the boy. "Stop it! I'm trying to help!"

The boy glared at him and he found himself looking into familiar eyes and the flash of gold confirmed it...this was definitely the Doctor's son.

"Then let us go...stupid T'ara," the boy spat and struggled harder when they removed the Doctor from the cage.

"Get him in the truck, cover him with as many blankets as you can find, head straight for base camp."

Jack looked back at the boy. "See, trying to help. Just relax, my name is Jack and you are?"

The boy looked at him and Jack felt just like he did when the Doctor used to look at him like that; like he was being judged.

"My name is Seska and you're not just Jack. You're General Jack Harkness and you knew my mother before New Gallifrey was born."

T'ara- human

Va'isha/ Va'isha's- bastard/bastards.