The Master followed the psychic scent of the Doctor's rage...such was its ferocity that it was giving him a headache.
As he and Ashena walked he tried to reach the Doctor but all he got was the painful flare of the Doctor's rage and mixed in with it was the terror of his youngest son and his own temper began to rise...someone had the gall and the audacity to invade his palace and take his child.
It was a dangerous mix, even for someone like the Master; he knew the Doctor...knew how hot his temper could run and knew he had to get to him before he went beyond rage and became truly frightening and wouldn't care who he destroyed.
He was distracted from his thoughts by Ashena.
"The tracks are fresher here, we're getting closer and father I recognise the other prints now...they're Jack Harkness'."
The Master let out another snarl and looked up. "We won't catch up with them if we keep following this path."
He looked up at the rocks above. "We need to go up."
It had been a wise decision but to the Master's chagrin the Doctor's rage had suddenly gone from his head but his son's terror had not and he couldn't use that to find them. He also wanted to know what Seska was doing with the freak...that boy was far too much like he Doctor of old.
But that could wait...if he was to find his husband and child then he would need all the help he could get, including the 'talents' of the freak.
Jack looked up at the Master and tensed, expecting an attack but was surprised when the Master, a girl, who he assumed was his daughter Ashena jumped down followed by a small group of armed men.
He and Seska were ignored as the girl cast around the ground. "Four riders, one must be carrying extra weight...but they're heading up, into the mountains. If they get into the pass we'll never catch them."
Jack smiled then. "Yes we will."
The Master scowled. "Are you suggesting that you, your rebels and I work together?"
Jack nodded.
"No," the Master said but was interrupted by Seska, who had remained silent and almost invisible till then.
"It makes sense, father...they know the mountains even better than Ashena."
The Master looked at him and no matter what his opinion of his son at this moment, he couldn't fault his logic.
He sighed and said. "Fine and how do you intend to contact your rebels?"
"Oh that's not going to be a problem," Jack said and all but himself looked round in surprise at the sound of weapons being raised and figures appearing out of the shadows.
The Doctor was shaken from the same nightmare of monsters by two men pulling him up and dragging him out of the cage and the building.
He blinked as the early morning sun hurt his eyes and he had no choice but to allow himself to be dragged from the cage and be chained to the back of a cart.
He was quiet until he saw one of the men carrying Seska and threw him into the cage on the back of the cart.
He snarled and went for the man, almost reaching him but intense pain coursed through him and he collapsed against the cart.
White Coat rode up and looked at the downed Time Lord.
"I told you to remember your manners...do that again and your son will suffer. Now, get up...I believe we will have company soon and our means of escape is...shall we say...slow."
The Doctor hauled himself up and turned away from White Coat and focused on Jakaar, who was staring in wide-eyed fear at White Coat.
He put his hands on the bars of the cage and said. "Don't be afraid, little one...I won't let him hurt you."
Jakaar crawled over and finally they touched hands and the Doctor poured as much love as he could through their bond, before the cart moved and their hands were pulled apart and he was dragged along.
He stared past Jakaar and the cage and straight at White Coat's back...oh, he would play the cowed Time Lord for now, but at the right time, there was nothing that would stop him from carrying out his threat.
He felt a pain in the small of back when one of White coat's men thought he wasn't moving fast enough and prodded him with something sharp.
He bit back a snarl, adding the anger to the already boiling ocean of rage that was crashing against the cliffs of his self-control.
So instead of fighting back, he dropped his head and increased his pace.
"I will not work with these T'ara!" Ashena spat and a few of the rebel soldiers brought their rifles up.
"Enough!" the Master roared. "You will work with them. Do you think your ten men can go up against what might be an army? I want your mother and my child back...I can't replace your mother but I can loom another daughter."
Ashena flinched and seemed to shrink at the Master's words.
"Yes father," she said quietly and stepped back and some of the tension left the air.
The Master ignored her after that and turned back to Jack and his two Torchwood members.
"Then it's agreed...we will join forces and find the Doctor and my son."
And for the first time in nearly twenty years, the two enemies shook hands and an uneasy truce was made.
If we had known then what was going to happen that fateful day deep inside the Mountain of Perdition, perhaps my father would have not agreed to a truce.
But he did, for the love my mother and my brother and it was to be many a person's downfall.
That day someone was lost...and someone was stolen.
They say the Devil waits for an open window but sometimes he rips open a door.
Seska
T'ara- humans