Nine has been alone since day one, contemplating his murder of Harriet Jones. He hadn't meant to kill her, only knock her off of him. He surprised himself at how strong he'd been, and he knows he must continue to be strong.
He has traveled north, up a trail in the mountains. The weather is much colder, a light dusting of snow caking the rocky ground. The day before, his Mentor sent him a gift, a blanket that camouflages body heat, but also reflects it, making him undetectable if anybody gets special heat-seeking weapons, but he is also safe and warm. Shivering, he wraps the blanket around himself, and plods upward. He continues on, until he trips and falls over a lump on the ground.
Shaking himself off, he looks back at the thing that tripped him. It looked like a person, a woman. Noticing her hair is blonde, he rushes over to check that this woman is not Rose.
It's not. It's Sally Sparrow. Her skin is cold, and has a slight blue tinge. However, her eyes blink open at Nine's touch, quickly to shut again. She is half-frozen, yet alive. Nine still has the metal rod, and raises it above his head. Just as he is about to bring it down, and rid himself of another competitor, when his first thought of the girl comes back to mind. He thought she was Rose. And Nine knows he could never kill Rose.
Instead, he lifts her slowly off the ground, wraps the blanket around her, and carries her onward, fearing a cannon blast at any second, for Sally is close to death.
However, the Master is doing quite well. He is well fed, with the help of his very own food-pack. He is protected from the cold with his thermo-suit. He can see at night with his night-vision goggles. And he's been on the trail of Martha Jones for two days, just waiting to get close enough, without being discovered.
And, on this day, he found his opportunity. Martha had sensed she was being followed, or at least tracked. So, in order to evade attack for as long as possible, she traveled all night long, going from the southern river, to the ice fields, back around to the base of the mountain, then towards the Cornucopia a part way.
When she had traveled all she could, when the morning sunlight broke over the trees, she decided to sit down and rest. After the sun had risen, she decided it was as good a time as ever to set up camp and sleep. This is how the Master finds Martha: propped up against a tree, tucked inside a sleeping bag, with her sack of supplies from the Cornucopia next to her, and a sonic modulator in her hand.
The Master picks up a pine cone, and tosses it towards Martha. It passes her, and hits the ground with a rattle on the other side of her little camp. If Martha were aware of the noise, she would look up at it. But she doesn't move. The Master, realizing with sick pleasure that she was asleep, creeps up behind her.
He had every intention of killing her quickly, but, as he raises his blade, he has a sudden urge. An urge to have fun. He presses the cutting edge to her throat, waking Martha with a start.
"Good morning," he says with an icy voice.
"Saxon," she says with disgust, as she realized her situation.
"Master, you mean," he replies coolly, pressing the blade harder against her flesh. "Now, Jones, would you like me to kill you quickly, or do you want to put up a fight?"
"Why bother asking me, then?" she asks venomously. "Why not just kill me now?"
"Oh… Dear Martha… Where's the fun in that?" he asks, his mouth close to her ear.
"That's sick. You are sick."
"My dear Martha Jones," he says with a laugh, "You can't have slaughter without laughter."
Martha's disgust reaches its breaking point, and she activates the sonic modulator in her hand. Instantly, a loud, low, sonic force explodes from the modulator. The Master reels back, and clamps his hands around his ears, ineffectively trying to block the noise.
Martha, also affected by the device. She leaps from her sleeping bag, grabs a large chopping knife from her bag, and runs across the clearing, dropping the sonic device. Without that modulator on, the Master would surely give chase. However, Martha has a significant head start. Nevertheless, within a few seconds after setting out for the Cornucopia, Martha hears footsteps approaching behind her.
Lorna Bucket is crouched in a tree, when she hears someone rushing past beneath her. She looks down just in time to see Martha race past. Moments later, the Master crashes past. He is gaining on her, noticeably. Lorna decides to watch and see what happens. She drops from the tree, and follows them.
At the Cornucopia, Ten and Amy are having an eventless day. The morning has passed with nothing happening, but, just as Amy and Ten finish up their mid-morning meal, laughing at a memory that Ten shared from before the Games, they hear something from inside the woods.
Ten begins across the field, curious as to what the sound. He stands for a moment, inspecting the line of trees, when, suddenly, Martha Jones bursts into the field. She is closely followed by the Master.
"Amy!" he calls.
She is by his side in a second, and places a sword in his hand. They charge at the Master, but he has already caught up with Martha, and tackles her to the ground. They arrive just as Martha scrambles to her feet.
In the fight that follows, Lorna watches from a nearby tree, wondering if she should join in, or run away. She can see that, even though the Master is clearly the main target, and therefore outnumbered, he is fighting back strongly. However, the only real alliance in the fight is between Ten and Amy. The Master and Martha are just fighting everybody. She winces as Martha carves her knife against Amy's forearm. Lorna's stomach jumps as Ten takes a slice to the shoulder. She reels as Martha is stabbed through the middle. However, when it appears that the Master is somehow stronger than the other three, Lorna decides to take action.
She moves slowly along the outside of the clearing, making sure not to be seen. The fight has moved close to the edge, so Lorna creeps just beyond the tree line, knife in hand, when, at last, she finds herself directly behind the Master. Without thinking, she plunges the knife into his back. At first, the fight seems to continue without acknowledging his wound. But, when his eyes become distant, and his body limp, and a cannon is shot into the air, Martha, Amy, and Ten all stop.
All is still for a moment, until Martha also falls to the side, a hand clutching her stomach. She looks at her hand, which is covered in fresh blood. Her blood. And a lot of it. Far too much. Her eyes meet Ten's who has knelt down beside her.
"Martha, hold on," he says urgently.
"Doctor…" she mutters quietly, griping his hand weakly, before her eyes flutter closed, and a cannon blast bellows in the air.
"Ten," Amy mutters softly, "Who was she?"
Softly, he replies, "She was… my friend. we used to travel together…" His voice trails off.
"I'm sorry," Amy says quietly. The next second, Martha's body dissolves from Ten's hands, and disappears.
"That'll be the transmat," he says, matter-of-factly. He stands, then sees his suspicion confirmed, as the Master's body is nowhere to be found.
Instead, he looks into the forest, peering deeply, trying to find someone.
"You in there. You can come out now."
Lorna, who had hidden in a tree the second she'd killed the Master, dropped down, and timidly walked forward.
"Thank you," Ten says sincerely, his eyes brimming with gratitude and guilt.
"But I… He still got your friend," she says, uncertainly.
Ten looks away. "Yeah…"
"Hey," says Amy, "I know you. I met you at Demon's Run."
Lorna nods. "That's right."
"But…" says Amy slowly, "But you died. I'm sorry, you're dead. I was there when it happened."
"Yes… well… The Games must have fixed that," Lorna replies, nonchalantly.
"Come on," says Ten, walking back towards their camp. "People could still be around. If someone heard that fight, they'd either head away from us, or come right for us. We need to be prepared."
"Um…" says Lorna, "I think I'll head off on my own."
Amy gives her a quizzical look. "But you just saved our lives. Why not stay?"
Backing further into the trees, Lorna replies, "The three of us in alliance? We'd dominate the games. But then we'd have to turn on each other. I wouldn't want that."
Amy can't reply, before Lorna races away. She sighs, and walks back to her friend at the cornucopia.
Captain Jack Harkness opens his eyes at sundown. He blinks and tries to stretch his muscles, but finds that his arms are bound. He hears the river a ways behind him, and sees a campfire in front of him. Sitting against a tree, he sees a man.
"Oh, you're awake," he says, rising from his spot.
"What's going on?" Jack asks shakily, still recovering from his icy dip in the river.
"I just saved your life," he says. Jack can see who it is, now. It's Tom Milligan, the first man reaped.
"I came along just as that Christina chick gave up on chasing you. I figured you might make a good ally."
"Then why," asks Jack, slightly venomous, "Am I all tied up?"
"Well, I wasn't sure if you'd agree with me," Tom replies.
After a moment of thought, Jack agrees. "That's probably a good idea. But I'm not interested in any alliance."
"In that case…" Tom says, picking up a bow and arrow slowly, "I really don't want you as an enemy."
Jack realizes what's going in. He begins to protest, and makes it to his feet, arms and legs still bound, as Tom points the arrow at him. However, Tom must be having a change of heart. He points the arrow at the ground, and it sails directly through the ropes tied around Jack legs.
"Now get out of here. Now."
Jack takes this as an excuse. He utters a quick "thank you," and runs off into the trees. But Tom is cleverer than that. As Jack's back is turned, he raises the bow one more time. He pulls it taught, Jack still in his range. He is about to release the arrow, when the Dalek anthem rings across the sky.
His concentration was only broken for a fracture of a second, but by the time he looks back to Jack, he is gone, and well out of the range of his arrows. He kicks the dirt, and sits down.
Two faces flash in the sky: the Master, and Martha.
He didn't care about the Master. But Martha…
They'd known each oteher, during the Year That Never Was. Those times were all erased, of course, but Tom and Martha had met again. As if my fate. They'd instantly found attraction, and that grew into love. They were even engaged for a time. But, then, one day, she called it all off, breaking Tom's stone-cold heart.
And she turns up in the Games, married to Mickey Smith.
"Micky Smith…" he mutters, a thought coming to mind.
He's learned a lot in the week of training. He learned that Rose was once Mickey's girlfriend, but left him for the tenth Doctor. Mickey was left alone, but he found Martha…
Then it clicks inside his mind. If Martha hadn't met Mickey, she'd be Tom's wife. If Mickey had never been single in the first place, he'd never taken Martha away from him. But he would have been with Rose… If Rose hadn't ruined it all.
Tom had lost Martha before, now he's losing her to death. But he now, he knows who caused his anger and sadness. Rose. All his problems started with Rose. And he intends to get revenge.