Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Dollhouse.
I moved the Dollhouse Timeline back a little bit so things take place a couple of years earlier, there is a reason for this but it now takes place from 2006 to 2007 as opposed to 2009 to 2010.
The Master Chronicles 14 - Gathering Disciples
The Master's Tardis, Rings of Akhaten…
"Just how many species live in the Rings?" Jaime asked eagerly as she and the Master walked back into the Tardis after experiencing the Festival of Offerings. The Master smiled and told her.
"Oh quite a few. It changes a lot as some come and go but still it is a good place to see many different species." The Master said and set the co-ordinates. He had been enjoying this little holiday, the last one had taken them to Catrigan Nova where they had whirlpools of gold and it had been an interesting experience. Still as Jaime went to train, he frowned, not sure if he was prepared to kill her yet as she was still so useful but it was becoming apparent to him that he needed to be by himself for a while to recharge his batteries and get him back to his true self he thought.
She had been his companion for a long time now, over a two hundred and fifty years he guessed as being time travellers it could be difficult to tell but it had been at least that long and they had managed to achieve a great deal in that time he thought with pride. Then he was struck with idea that would keep her useful to him while letting him get some time to clear his head.
But first he thought with amusement, he wanted to consider his future trip to Arcking and to have some nice time to think.
That meant a trip to Scoundrels Club, he thought with a smirk eager to enjoy some alone time.
- x -
Scoundrels Club, London…2005…
The Master relaxed back in his chair and sighed with ease, sipping on his tea which was perfect before taking one of the hot buttered scones with jam and taking his time to enjoy the treat.
He was reading the Times as his mind worked on his latest scheme when he overheard two other club members talking.
"It was perfect." Doctor Skarosa said with a wide smile on his face. "She was willing to let me do whatever I wanted while we talked particle physics."
"I chose a little foreign girl." Lord Ascot said with the casual racism he was known for, "She was willing to serve my every whim just as I asked."
"This Dollhouse is the best place in London, they can program their little dolls do anything you want. It's expensive, but for that you get whatever you want or need. I got a PR woman that managed to convince a local council to let me knock down an eighth century church to make my new high-speed line. Convince them it was good for the community and was skilled in…other areas I wanted too." Bobo Braithwaite said with a lecherous smirk on his face.
The interruption annoyed the Master and he was about to kill them so he could get some peace but the mention of this 'Dollhouse' as they referred to them being able to program people make him pause. He cared not for the prostitution they seemed eager to indulge in but the idea they could make someone an instant expert in particle physics that quickly attracted his interest. So, he finished his tea and went over to the three men who had been so loudly talking.
They seemed to freeze at first as it was unlike him to engage any of them in conversation before, he asked them.
"About this 'Dollhouse' you were talking about?" He asked them with an imposing stare.
- x -
The Master was wondering just how the Doctor was able to like humans so much when they were such a morally bankrupt species.
He had learned a great deal about this supposed Dollhouse from the other members of Scoundrels, all of whom were unsurprisingly clients of theirs. But what mattered was that they apparently were an offshoot of the Rossum Corporation and more to the point it seemed they had developed a process of wiping a person's mind, storing it on a hard drive and then imprinting new personalities onto the now empty person.
They could be made to do or be whatever you wanted, an expert thief, an assassin, a bodyguard, a banker or any number of other things and while the technology was impressive for this era of the backwards human race the Master also saw the dangers.
It would not be long he realised before they were able to wipe and imprint people from range with electronic devices and that was something that could wipe whole cities or more with time. The complete collapse of human civilisation, probably within ten years at present speed.
He hated this but while he loved chaos he wanted to rule over an orderly world, one completely under his thumb and the world if that technology got loose would be near uncontrollable.
Still, he thought with amusement, it would be a tremendous thing. To be able to turn a stupid human into an expert in any field you wanted with muscle memory to match in a matter of minutes. He could do a great deal with that technology, he thought with a cruel look in his eyes, make the human race actually useful for once he thought.
So, he developed a plan in his mind and went to the library to fetch Jaime, there was a great deal of work to do and she would be doing at least half of it.
He found her tucked up in one of the comfortable chairs in the library reading, what she was reading surprised him. It was the Black Scrolls of Rassilon! The forbidden knowledge from the Dark Times and nearly all other copies had been destroyed deliberately to hide what those scrolls contained although he had managed to steal a copy before leaving Gallifrey. His surprise didn't end there as on a small table next to her chair she had the Black, the Green and the Red Books of Rassilon not to mention the Record of Rassilon too. All of which were written in Old High Gallifreyian, he could read it of course but the Tardis translation circuits wouldn't translate it like they did other languages so if Jaime was reading it…then that meant she had actually learnt the language too.
The improvements he had made to her with the Viral Receptor Mapping process had clearly been more effective than he had realised, the Master thought with worry. As useful as it made her, he was wondering if she was growing too powerful now. He had made her something more than mere human and it worried him a little but he shook himself, Jaime couldn't hurt him he thought with his confidence returning. He had made sure of that a long time ago and she was loyal to a fault now.
He almost cursed himself for being so paranoid before walking up to her as she finished the last scroll. He asked her with a smile as she put them back carefully.
"Interesting read?" Wanting to know just what she had gained from it.
Jaime had a thoughtful look on her face and then told him.
"Enlightening and terrifying too. All those old legends that echo through time like the vampires. The Great Old Ones. The Racnoss. I honestly was amazed sir at the accomplishments of your people and wonder if maybe we could pop back sometime?" She asked him, wanting to see these ancient legends for herself.
The Master was struck with surprise at her suggestion, going back to the Dark Times was something even he would hesitate to do but then he thought as ideas came to his mind, it was an opportunity to gain some of those old ancient powers he thought with his greed stoked but that would have to wait till after the war was done. When things were more stable, he thought with a certain excitement at the idea of being able to do things like the Great Old Ones had.
"Perhaps my dear but for now we have another scheme. One that honestly will give us incredible flexibility in the future." The Master told her, Jaime listened intently, now smirking broadly at the plan and what they were about to do. It was a true master plan she thought with an inward chuckle at the unintended joke.
The Master didn't think small she thought with pride at her master's ambition and ability, no he thought big with everything he did and nothing would stop him from getting what he wanted. It was something she deeply admired about him, something she wanted for herself someday.
The Dollhouse and Rossum would be no exception.
Los Angeles Dollhouse, USA…April 2006…
"This is a rather tasteful office." The Master said as he sat on the comfortable sofa and sipped the tea the director of this particular Dollhouse had been so kind to pour for him. It was quite refreshing he thought, pleasantly surprised by the show of tact and genuine class Ms Adelle Dewitt was showing.
"It is rather isn't it. Everything we do here is to make the client's experience as pleasant as possible. Now I understand you have a week-long engagement in mind." Adelle said with her cool English upper-class accent. The Master wondered if that too was fake but it hardly mattered, he thought and sat back carefully.
"Indeed, you come highly recommended Ms Dewitt and my needs are relatively simple. I find myself in need of a companion for a tour of the various museums of this fair city." The Master said, personally disliking the brash American cities but suppressed it as he had a job to do. "I need a young lady that is charming, elegant, well-educated and if she is pleasing to the eye then all the better. I have no need of physical female companionship as I think you will agree I am long past that sort of thing but a week in pleasant company while taking in some history would be ideal." The Master told her with a smile.
Adelle nodded before saying.
"We can certainly accommodate that, Lord Estram." Adelle said, inwardly glad to have found a relatively easy engagement that paid well. "We can give you the perfect companion; elegant, intelligent and charming."
"And she won't be harmed by…the things you do here?" The Master said with fake concern for the actives. Adelle quickly reassured him.
"No, in their natural state, which we refer to as the Tabula Rasa is almost child-like. With no memories of their lives before they came here, the Imprinting process fills that void with purpose and they become whatever you need them to be. Then when they are wiped, all the experiences and any traumas they experience are wiped away. Perhaps you would like to see for yourself?" She offered, hoping to cultivate him as a permanent client as he had been to numerous dollhouses around the world in the last few months. He always took a doll out on one engagement but then moved on. Even if he had no intention of staying in Los Angeles then he would be a good person to keep on when he came to town.
The Master pretended to think about it before saying.
"I would like that very much. It intrigues me." He said with a smile.
Adelle nodded and walked with him out of her office and into the main area of the Dollhouse, which was underground. The Master had to admit it was a very nicely furnished space with plenty of light and clean wooden surfaces. Plants gave the space some life along with the small pond at the centre where a group of the so-called Dolls were doing yoga as exercise. Handlers, masseurs and other staff milled about as did the other dolls. The Master was amused by the set up but kept that to himself and stayed quiet and observed as Ms Dewitt showed him around.
The riotous and immature Mr Topher who ran the imprinting process and otherwise Research and Development was a momentary blip but it hardly mattered as he had far more important things on his mind.
- x -
Armand Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles…That Night…
"The Hospital at Saint-Remy by Vincent Van Gogh. Painted in 1889 while he was interned there for his considerable mental health issues." The young lady at his side said with a soothing French accent. The Master was dressed in his good suit to explore the art here and while much of it was far too modern for his tastes there were some examples of more important work like this, he thought gazing at the aforementioned painting.
"I do wonder if his mental health contributed to his art or was in spite of it?" The Master asked his companion for the evening, a brown-haired young lady named Annette who was in reality a 'Doll' known as Whisky. She was or so he gathered the most in demand active of all in the Los Angeles Dollhouse and he had been lucky to get her. She was everything he had asked for and had a doctorate in Art history. Her French accent was perfect too and she even was elegant in how she moved and dressed herself. Tastefully so and not in any way vulgar.
"Many of the great masters of the arts are said to have had some kind of mental illness. Perhaps that was their burden to bear." Annette said with a cool tone.
They were then interrupted much to the Master's annoyance as he was actually enjoying himself, a younger if more portly man came up to them and rather unwantedly introduced themselves.
"I see you are interested in Van Gogh. I have a small collection myself. Sorry I should introduce myself, Michael Santaro." The man said in an accent the Master couldn't be bothered to recognise. He dressed well but had the air of a gangster about him and reeked of expensive aftershave which repelled the Master. The woman at his side was to his own surprise another active, he recognised her from his tour of the facility. A young woman with fair skin, pleasing dimensions and features. Echo, he believed she was called and if Whisky had not been available, Echo would likely have been on his arm tonight instead.
"Darling, I think the gentleman would rather be alone." She said with what he guessed was a sexy purr but the man showed just what kind of man he was but immediately putting up a finger to silence her and looking at her with a cold and threatening stare. Echo or rather whoever she was supposed to be wilted immediately and fell silent.
Thug, the Master thought knowing a street bully when he saw one however well-dressed he was and decided to kill him later that evening for spoiling his enjoyment. But for now, he restrained himself and offered his arm to Annette/Whisky and she eagerly took it before walking off. The Gangster as the Master thought of him, not bothering to learn his name glowered after them but he didn't care.
- x -
Hotel, Los Angeles, That Night…
The gangster was in the bathroom preparing to enjoy a night with the lovely Madeline, smirking in the mirror as he checked his appearance ready to get in that bed and dominate her, he had paid for some bondage and if she left with a bruise or two, he would pay just for the experience.
However, as he splashed water on his face, bending down and looked away from the mirror for a moment before he looked back up again and saw to his shock the face of the old man that had been so rude to not stick around earlier.
"What the fuck?!" He demanded, thinking this a trick but the old man just smirked back at him with a cruel and vicious smirk that unnerved him. Him! A man that had put people in blocks of cement or chained them to anchors and thrown them into rivers.
"Yes, I am so glad to have caught you before going in there to force yourself on that young lady. I have plans of my own there and it would be better if she weren't damaged." The Old Man said with a nasty chuckle. "For a man who thinks he is big, let's see just how small you can get."
Michael was seething and went to smash through the mirror to get him but only hurt his fist on the mirror which refused to break. He looked at it while holding his injured hand in surprise before he noticed the room was shrinking all around him. It was starting smaller but before his very eyes, it just wasn't possible he thought and slapped himself to wake himself up but the stinging pain in his cheek was enough to make him realise this was really happening. He ran for the door which was now at least a third smaller than it had been before he entered and grabbed the handle to escape but his hand struggled to grasp the much smaller handle and when he did manage to get a good hold it proved impossible to move. He looked for a window, now the ceiling as pressing against his head but found none. He physically rammed himself against the door but it was like steel and would not break.
Michael was now crouched as much as possible while the room just got smaller and smaller, sobbing in terror as he realised there was no way out as the room finally closed in on him.
- x -
Echo as Madeline was still tied to the bed and awaited Michael but as the hours passed nothing seemed to happen. She called out his name but no-one answered her and she wondered if he'd had an accident while in the shower. She started screaming out for help but it wasn't till her handler finally saw the signs of stress she was in and forced his way into the room that she was finally saved. He found a terrified Echo on the bed and when he opened the bathroom door, nothing but a small pool of blood on the floor.
Los Angeles Dollhouse, USA…August 2007…
The incident where the client had disappeared a year before had now been forgotten by the staff of the Dollhouse as it continued on with the ever-changing array of engagements and overshadowed by Alpha's rampage which happened not long after.
It was the night shift, not long after the day staff were to go home but they had all been called to attend some mandatory presentation from their parent corporation Rossum. So, while they were all bored rigid watching some executive give them a talk on something when they would really like to be home sleeping, Adelle excused herself to go to her office and work as did Boyd and Topher. Dr Saunders too was hiding in her office rather than attend the meeting when she was disturbed by a noise.
She was worried someone might have slipped and hurt themselves so she got up and went into the common area and saw Boyd was wrestling with a tall Caucasian man while Echo looked on in confusion. She rushed over to Echo, eager to move her out of harm's way in case she got hurt when she felt her arm being grabbed by someone and turned around, he grasped at her face and she gasped horror when she saw who it was.
"Alpha!" She was terrified, the man who had slashed her face and killed so many of her colleagues was here alive. He even had a knife in his hands and honestly, she could already feel it against her skin even though it was still in his hands.
"You kept my gifts." Alpha said with a sinister smile on his face but then a voice called out.
"Sorry if I came at a bad time but I would rather not be here all night so if I might have your attention." The voice was English and definitely male so it wasn't Adelle but it was strong enough that it got Ballard and Boyd to stop fighting and for Alpha to turn around, still holding Saunders by the jaw.
At the other end of the room an older English man stood in a tweed suit, he was just standing there but his eyes seemed to glare with an inhuman cruelness.
"Who are you?" Ballard asked with suspicion, already angry enough at all the problems and deceptions he had been faced with so far and now there was this old man annoying him.
"Well Mr Ballard." The Man said, knowing his name but somehow that didn't shock Ballard. "I am usually referred to as the Master." The old man said with considerable relish.
"The Master?" Boyd said, wondering just what lunatic asylum this man had escaped from. "They call you, the Master?"
"Universally." The 'Master' said before pulling a device the size of a mobile phone out of his pocket. "As I shall now demonstrate." He taunted before pressing a button.
Whatever anyone had expected what they got was far different, the notes of Frère Jacques started playing over the PA system. The gentle notes confused Boyd and Ballard but then they noticed that Echo and Dr Saunders had put their hands over their ears and screwed up their eyes like they were in pain and the man that Ballard knew as Stephen Kepler but in reality, he was known as Alpha, the rogue active was shaking his head, as if trying to shake something off.
But then Echo and Saunders suddenly jerked out of their fear induced state and Saunders with a speed and skill none of them would have though her capable of, grabbed the knife out of the distracted Alpha's hand and slashed hard at his face with it before the screaming man's life was ended when she stabbed him through the eye with it.
Ballard and Boyd had no time to react to this though as Echo, seemingly possessed attacked them both with a variety of deadly martial arts moves. This caught both men by surprise and both took a few kicks and punches from Echo before they both tried to grab her to pin her down, forming a temporary alliance.
Saunders with the bloody knife again in her hand came to Echo's aid and stabbed Boyd right in the back. He cried out in pain and Echo used this distraction to kick Ballard off her and then the two women started advancing on Ballard who realised immediately that he was out numbered and outclassed and ran up the nearby stairs. Echo and Saunders went to pursue him but the Master called out.
"That won't be necessary my dears, come here." He ordered and the two dolls immediately followed his orders without question. Standing at attention before like toy soldiers. Boyd, trying to pull the knife out of his back turned to the Master.
"How?" Boyd asked with complete confusion. What he had done was impossible! Remotely programming the actives with just a song? There had to be more than that, Boyd reasoned and the Master smirked as he indulged him, the prone Echo and Saunders still standing there waiting for orders.
"Well, Mr Langton or perhaps you prefer to be known as the man who founded Rossum?" The Master smirked, shocking Langton that he knew his real identity. "I posed as a client of this very Dollhouse just over a year ago, took Whisky over there out on a rather lovely evening to tour some museums. But I managed to get her into a chair like the one you have upstairs and put a hidden virus into her personality imprint. When she came back here and was scanned again, the virus infiltrated the system and has spent the last year gathering data for me on all imprints and technology. But it also added a hidden sleeper program into every active imprinted since then, ready to wake up on my command. Farewell Mr Langton, don't worry. I'll take good care of her." The Master said, his eyes moving to the prone Echo. Boyd tried to get at the Master but the man pulled out a pen sized device and shot him down with a yellow laser beam.
With that done, the Master smirked in satisfaction and hoped Jaime was having as good a time as him.
- x -
Rossum Headquarters, Tucson, Arizona…Same Time…
The same company directive that had made all the Dollhouse staff stay after hours was also keeping staff at each of the Rossum buildings too. Jaime was waiting nearby for the right moment when she got the alert on her laptop that the virus had been activated. Smirking she typed in her command and then hit return.
A split second later the Rossum building exploded with extreme force, shattering the building into a complete pile of rubble. Alarms from surrounding buildings were set off by the force of the explosion but Jaime just checked the feeds that confirmed the destruction of all Rossum Facilities worldwide, that had been her part of the plan while the Master dealt with the Dollhouses.
Closing down her laptop she picked it up and walked off to the rendezvous point, not a care for all the people that she had just killed.
But she had to be quick as there was another target to take care of, a Senator Daniel Perrin and his wife. Couldn't leave any stone unturned, could she? Jaime thought with glee before running off.
- x -
Los Angeles Dollhouse...Same Time…
"Oh, what have they done to you?" The Master asked the prone Saunders/Whisky, looking at her scarred face with dismay. "Don't worry we'll get those fixed. In the meantime, time to assemble the troops." The Master said with a satisfied smirk.
He sent the command on his device and a moment later they started trickling in, the Actives who had triggered at his command and attacked the unsuspecting staff to wipe out the people assembled in the room. The reason he had tricked the staff into attending a company presentation tonight, he thought particularly proud of that one.
They all came in and lined up, standing to attend like good little soldiers. An exotic looking young woman stood next to a tall and muscular man with short dark hair, they both looked quite adorable together the Master thought knowing them as Sierra and Victor. Both had a few cuts and bruises from the slaughter of the staff as did many of the actives, the one called November had a very considerable black eye but all soon were accounted for. The Master opened his Tardis and commanded.
"Forward march."
The Actives didn't even hesitate to obey his orders, marching straight into the Tardis and then from the console room to the assembly point in the storage room that he had expanded to accommodate them.
When the last of them was aboard the Master took off, he had twenty-one other Dollhouses to visit around the world tonight and many more actives to pick up. My he thought, he was really getting too old for all this rushing about the Master thought with dismay as his bones ached.
- x -
The Following Morning…
Adelle the morning after the 'Active Uprising' as it were crept down into the main area of the house with a gun in her hand, looking for other survivors. She had been lucky to be furthest away from the actives when they went on their rampage and hid in her office till it was over. She had seen the sudden and brutal execution of most of her staff and was not keen to go into the meeting room where the bodies were. Seeing them on the screen had been hard enough.
She saw Mr Langton's body on the floor ahead of her and it took a great deal of her hardened resolve to ignore it as she moved past it. Each of the rooms she checked were empty until she reached Topher's Lab. A sound attracted her attention and she darted to the right before pulling out with her gun pointed at the source and found Topher and Mr Ballard much to her surprise standing there. Mr Ballard was holding a lamp like a club and Topher upon seeing her was instantly relieved.
"Adelle! I mean Ms Dewitt." Topher said, seeing the annoyed look in her eyes when he called her by her first name. However much she liked him she wouldn't allow that from any of her staff, regardless of how they had been culled overnight. "The Actives." He started saying but she cut him off.
"I know Mr Brink. I know…have you seen anyone else?" Adelle asked, eager to see if anyone was left in the house.
"No…they're all gone." He said looking very unsettled which she supposed was understandable before turning her attention to the interloper Mr Ballard.
"Well, congratulations Mr Ballard. The Dollhouse has been destroyed. Are you happy?" She asked him bitterly and he was hardly one to take that lying down and so he snapped back at her.
"Looks like karma came back to bite you on your own. You wipe these people…" He started ranting before Adelle shut him up.
"All of whom signed contracts! They spend five years here and then they get a life of privilege as result with some of them having been cured of mental trauma but either way, it's over now! Whoever that was has taken all of the actives! Now I need to contact Rossum and the other houses in hopes they might be able to help us find out where he has taken the thirty actives he controls. You both see if there is anyone else left alive. Here, just in case." Adelle said, pulling another gun from her waistband where she had tucked in. She handed it to Ballard despite not trusting him as Topher would not know how to use it properly.
Ballard likewise didn't trust her but accepted the weapon and went off to see if there was anyone else left alive, Topher looked ready to follow her instead but wanting someone she could trust with Ballard she instead stared pointedly at him till he reluctantly followed Ballard while she went back to her office as she had a number of calls to make.
- x -
Two Hour Later…
Adelle was sitting at her desk, putting the phone back in its cradle and feeling a great tension headache building up as she was faced with a worse disaster than she had ever thought possible. She would dearly have liked for Mr Langton's steady presence right now she thought with sadness at his murder by a man that she remembered had once been a client here but upon closer inspection now realised that had all been a lie.
Mr Ballard and Topher finally walked into her office with a pair of frazzled looking security guards and one of the stylists that worked in their costume department, Topher she noticed had an almost glazed look in his eyes, having never seen death on such a scale it was probably hard for him to bare but the biggest shock was yet to come.
"And this is all that survived?" Adelle asked them with a raised eyebrow especially as she had over forty members of staff including handlers, trainers, dressers and more, never letting her emotion show her shock. Ballard nodded grimly.
"Only ones still breathing, what the hell happened last night?" He asked her with what he probably thought was an intimidating stare but Adelle was unmoved and told them all.
"Well, it seems that over a year ago that man posed a client and somehow put a virus into Whisky and when she was brought back in to be wiped, the virus spread into our system." Adelle said with a frown, not wanting to imagine just how smart someone would have to be to do that. "But it gets better, I just confirmed that the 'Master' has struck every Dollhouse around the world. He did the same thing to all of them and the Actives killed nearly every member of staff before he took the Actives away. Three hundred and six worldwide including our own. I just got off the phone from the DC Dollhouse and the only one to survive there was their chief programmer Bennett Halverson and that was only because of a medical appointment last night. In all only twenty-six members of staff from all Dollhouses around the world including ours have survived." Adelle said grimly with some sarcastic anger coming into her voice at the scale of this disaster.
That shocked all five of the others into silence, not understanding just how the Master could have managed such a widespread attack but then Adelle added the final crowning piece of bad news.
"To make matters worse, Rossum was hit too." Adelle said with shock, actually having to massage her forehead with considerable headache that was brewing in her head. "All their facilities and I do mean all of them were blown up last night including the homes of all the shareholders. Maybe thirty survivors, most of which were absent for personal reasons or sickness."
The four remaining members of her staff were completely astonished at the scale of what the Master had done, never had they believed it was even possible. Ballard himself was wondering just who the Master might be a part of to have managed such a widespread action which would be beyond even the best equipped terrorist networks or crime syndicates. Topher then had a bit of bad news of his own.
"I checked the system, the virus the Master planted destroyed everything. All the imprints, all the data, even the Attic's gone." Topher said, all those minds within the Attic had been wiped and the bodies had died with them. "The Master took the chair and all the wedges."
Adelle honestly didn't think this could get any worse but now Topher had just made her worst fears real.
"What are we gonna do about the people he took?" Ballard said, demanding with aggression. He was only a moment away from grabbing the phone and calling in the FBI but Adelle snapped at him.
"We have no means of finding them Mr Ballard. They all have GPS tags but without the database information we can't even find that! Even if we did, all the wedges and chair are gone! We can't put them back without both in our possession. So, I'm calling all the surviving members of staff here from both Rossum and the Dollhouses and consolidating all remaining resources. Maybe together we can do something, but until then we are helpless." She told him with a frown that made her feel all the worse. She hated not being able to do something, her house had been defiled and stripped bare by the Master and she was ready to explode with rage at what he had done.
But she kept up her veneer of self-control and told them.
"I've arranged for the bodies of our former colleagues to be collected and taken to the city morgue, victims of an accident. So, Mr Ballard, if you would consent to assist us. Can you give us a profile on the Master?" Adelle asked with a piercing look that unnerved Ballard a bit more than he would have liked to admit but reluctantly he nodded. He was doing it for the people that had been kidnapped he said to himself with determination, so they could be found and hopefully returned to normal.
Hospital Ship Holloway, Deep Space…69th Century…
The large and mostly automated hospital ship Holloway was one of the best medical facilities in history, technology that was highly advanced and only required two people to operate from the bridge since everything including patient care was automatic.
Usually, it went to various disaster zones and treated the sick and injured there but the Master had a greater need and so he had 'commandeered' the ship.
Jaime was just disposing of the dead pilots in the ship's efficient and totally effective incinerator as the Master was operating the system. Whisky, one of the actives was being attended too by a robot surgeon who was using specially grown grafts to repair her damaged skin. He then turned his attention to the other screen where an advanced neuro imager was studying Echo's brain. He looked at it intently and studied the readings with full concentration until he found what he needed and then as Jaime came back into the room, he pointed out to her.
"There." He said, pointing towards an abnormality in Echo's brain. "Young Echo here has an extra cluster of brain cells that have acted as a sort of neural backup. Saving all the imprints that she was given and allowing her to access those skills at will, or rather will do as it's not quite there yet. It's not developed fully so she would likely suffer some headaches but it would be little else." The Master explained to her.
Jaime looked herself and nodded in understanding before asking him. "Do you think we can copy that into the other actives?"
"Undoubtedly my dear. A few sessions with the neural accelerator and we can copy that into all the dolls." The Master said with a grin as he considered the possibilities. "Have you uploaded all the personalities and imprints into the ship's database?"
"Done and dusted sir." Jaime said with a smirk of her own.
"Good, they will be my perfect little soldiers. Just the thing for a Time War." The Master said, knowing he could give them all the skills he needed to be his own little private super soldiers. He had even travelled through history to get imprints from the best individuals through history so he could take even a part of their genius and skills and put them into the mix.
Scientists, Analysts, Interrogators, Psychologists, Technicians, Hackers, Programmers, Architects, Soldiers and more. He had taken the best parts of all of them and woven the intricate strands together with the original personalities and incorporated complete loyalty to him.
Once they all had the cluster developed in their brains all that would be required before he imprinted them was to expose them to the same virus that he had used to enhance Jaime, the one from the humans on Earth he had collected some time ago. Even with the extra cluster their brains would need to be enhanced with it to make full use of their new mental abilities and of course the physical ones to go with it. He knew he would lose at least half of them during the process but it would be well worth it to get the super genius soldiers he would command afterwards.
So, he input the virus into the computer and ordered the automated labs to create enough to use on the entire group but then paused as he realised that he now had the opportunity for some long overdue revenge on not only the Doctor but people who had sided against him in the past. This process would not only make people into super soldiers for him but also render them totally loyal.
His servants, he thought with a malicious grin, he would own them mind, body and if you like soul.
While he was doing that and Jaime was preparing the Actives for the process he jumped into his Tardis with an almost excited grin on his face as he considered how he was going to get back at those that betrayed him and indirectly at the Doctor, making them remember just who their Master was.
- x -
A few short side trips later the Master returned to the Holloway with some new subjects, he also had removed Cassandra Anderson from her stasis unit and hooked her up to the Intensive Care Unit to make sure she survived being enhanced too. The use he had for her would be a strain on her body and it wouldn't do to have her die on him before it was no longer required so he would enhance her and ensure she lasted long enough.
Turning away from her he walked over to the other 'special cases' he had just acquired, staring at them with a smirk of superiority. One in particular he remembered and she had been a sort of companion to him rather than the Doctor and a useful one too until she had betrayed him and forced him back into the time vortex when he had still been using that rather dull ambulance driver's body.
Lila Kreeg, he thought with amusement. She still looked as one person had described her 'like a film star', it only being a year by her point of view since they had last met. Her intelligent light brown eyes closed under sedation.
He looked over at the small collection of the Doctor's companions he had gathered and it gave him a deep sense of satisfaction at them soon being made to serve him.
Peri Brown, he thought as he walked past her or at least one of her many copies after his own people had foolishly messed with her timeline at the end of her travels with the Doctor.
The short Zoe Heriot, her pixie like features concealing a powerful and useful intellect. Her memories of her travels with the Doctor had been a hard thing to recover but after making a wedge with her personality on it he had managed to remove the block and when they were reuploaded she would regain all of her lost memories and be a loyal acolyte to him.
Constance Clarke, a woman from the 1940s who had travelled with the Sixth Doctor. She had a very strong and sharp mind but he had bent her to his will now.
Charlotte Pollard, a self-styled Edwardian adventuress who had gotten in over her head he thought with amusement knowing she was supposed to have died on the R-101 in 1930, but instead had gone on a long series of adventures with the Eighth Doctor and then the Sixth Doctor before becoming a slave to the Viyrans. Annoying pests the Master thought of the species that had destroyed many potential viruses he could have used. She had been hard to acquire and he had been forced to snatch her from the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity after she had escaped her captors.
Finally, there was Lucie Miller, another companion of the Eighth Doctor although at a later point in his timeline. For the 21st Century the Master knew he would have found her incredibly annoying with her speech and manners being from low class Blackpool. She had been put with the Doctor by the Time Lords due to a case of mistaken identity and travelled with him for some time until they had a disagreement and she had been so stupid to let someone like that foolish Meddling Monk convince her the Doctor was an uncaring monster. The Master couldn't help but laugh at how foolish she was to have believed that, the Doctor cared far too much which was his greatest weakness. After travelling with the Monk for some time she had at last wised up to him and re-joined the Doctor only to die by sacrificing her life to destroy the Daleks during another of their attempts to invade Earth. It had been tricky but the Master had managed to grab her just before the ship she was flying crashed into the Dalek compound and destroyed them.
He had been forced to use a homogenite crystal to heal and rejuvenate them all to a younger age to increase their chances of survival. Lucie Miller in particular who had lost an eye and suffered damage to her legs due to Dalek Virus. They all looked the same age they had been when they had started travelling with the Doctor the Master thought with amusement or perhaps a little younger.
The Master returned to the control room and saw that all the viral doses were ready, they had all been through the neural accelerator and all that was needed was for him to give the word. Jaime who was monitoring the physical condition of all the subjects looked at him, waiting for the word before he smirked and pressed the button.
The screen in front of him flashed with a message to let him know it was happening, all three hundred and thirteen subjects were injected with the virus.
The Master and Jaime then spent the next five days watching as the virus did its work. It was rather enjoyable the Master thought as he watched them suffer, the virus was like the worst flu imaginable mixed with terrible migraines from the neural development they were going through. Some he noticed as Jaime poured him some tea couldn't stand it and died in their capsules. When the copy of Peri he had acquired died he was shocked, he had been sure that the artron energy that she had collected in her body would have enhanced her immune system enough for her to survive but apparently, he was wrong maybe due to the spectrox toxaemia she had once contracted, the Master thought and kept a close eye on the other companions of the Doctor to see if they would survive.
He also personally kept watch on the Dolls to see how they were faring and quite a few died, his favourites from the Los Angeles Dollhouse though were doing well he noticed, Echo was managing better than anyone and Whisky wasn't that far behind.
On the fifth day when their fever finally broke and the virus completed its work the Master considered the survivors, he saw the virus had a 47% lethality rate and so 63% had in fact survived the treatment.
Cassandra had managed it, intensive care had made sure of that and so had Lila but he wasn't surprised somehow, the Master thought with amusement. Even without her memories she was too stubborn to die.
With the exception of the Peri copy, all of the Doctor's assistants too had survived. Maybe some residual effects of the homogenite he thought with a considering look on his face as Peri was the only one that he hadn't used it on.
As for the Dolls, he thought with satisfaction, nearly half of them had died. More than he had hoped but enough had survived to serve his needs, so he was quite content the Master thought, counting the Doctor's companions, Lila and the Dolls, one hundred and ninety-six had survived out of three hundred and twelve.
He would consider increasing that number should it be necessary before he set about activating the headsets that he had installed in each medical capsule to imprint the new and improved personalities into the waiting dolls.
The process took longer than it would have on Earth due to the added complexity of what he was trying to upload into their tiny human brains even if he had now made them far more than human.
They carried Time Lord, Trakenite, Isu and Kahler DNA within them now, he thought having made a perfect warrior species out of the parts of others.
When a few hours had passed and the imprints were stable, the Master and Jaime put the Dolls into stasis. Each chamber powered by a fission cell battery that would outlast a sun or so the Master claimed. Each one was loaded into the Master's Tardis and as Jaime stored the last one, the Master came over to her looking rather serious.
"Jaime. I have an important job for you." He told her and Jaime was of course happy to serve and replied.
"Anything sir."
"Well, my dear." The Master said sternly. "I haven't a use for my new soldiers right now or for the others we have. So, I have decided to put them in my house on Earth." The Master said.
"You have a house on Earth sir?" Jaime asked him and the Master while walking with her back to the console room told her offhand.
"Oh yes, there are times when I prefer some solitude and the Tardis while my home is not always suitable. So, I had a house built as a place to not only rest if I wish it but also to store some keepsakes there, a few trophies and bits and pieces for a rainy day. But if I am storing the dolls there and Miss Anderson then I need someone to watch over the place until the time is right. So that duty falls on you, I need you to stay at Blackfield until I return." The Master told her firmly in a voice that would allow no argument.
Jaime was struck silent and very angry that she would be left behind to nanny a bunch of sleeping toy soldiers. But she was loyal to her master and so she nodded and he returned it before setting the controls.
Blackfield, Southern England…January 1826…
"This is your idea of a house!?" Jaime exclaimed in disbelief as she looked at the incredible structure in front of her. The Master smirked at her awe and proceeded to boast about it.
"The site was once the location of a Roman villa which was sacked and its inhabitants killed ritualistically by Boudicca's Army. Later in 1066 an Anglo-Saxon Castle was built here only for the men who lived here to be slaughtered by the Vikings who themselves were then slaughtered by the Normans who built their own castle here. Then during the war between Empress Matilda and her nephew Stephen for the English Throne 1141, the Norman nobles who lived here were died in the fighting and it changed hands several times often violently before it burned down in the War of the Roses by Yorkists. The new owners then built a manor house or the equivalent back then here which over the centuries was the site of several particularly gruesome murders and accidents until during the English Civil War when it and the nearby village were slaughtered by Cromwell and his thugs. So, it changed hands again till it burned down in 1810 and I purchased the land to have a new house built here, just finished in fact." The Master told her, showing enthusiasm on his face for the history of the place.
Jaime smirked now herself as she saw what had drawn him to the place and told him with a glint in her eye. "Oh, this place so you sir."
The Master nodded, accepting the compliment. He had modelled the place on Stowe House in Buckinghamshire on the outside although he had incorporated elements from other British country houses like Blenheim Palace and Waddesdon Manor. It might in fact be more readily described as a palace with an estate that covered four thousand acres, with extensive gardens, a forecourt with gazebo, elaborate fountains and sculptures, beautiful pavilions and more. And the Doctor could only manage a townhouse in London and one cottage in a village called Stockbridge the Master thought with a sense of smug superiority.
"Inside there are three hundred rooms, a Grand Library, a Grand Dining Hall with Grand Staircase modelled after the Jordan Staircase of the Winter Palace and a copy of the Gold Drawing Room from there too. A perfect replica of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a ball room modelled after the one in the Catherine Palace. My personal lounge which is a copy of the one from the Grand Ducal Palace. My personal bedroom modelled after the Salon of Mercury. 50 other bedrooms, feel free to take one of those for yourself. Multiple galleries, trophy rooms, a large kitchen, games room, music room, wine cellar, a laboratory, indoor swimming pool & spa, a gym, a workshop with all modern tools, a laundry of course, torture room but underneath are extensive underground vaults and with a Fission Power Core. That gives all the power required by the equipment and powers one of the most elaborate security systems you'll see in this area of space for a thousand years." The Master said with pride.
Jaime realised quite quickly that this was a testament to the Master's pride and vanity but wisely didn't say this. So instead, she asked him.
"How long do you think you will be away sir?" She wanted to know just how long it was going to be for. The Master looked uncomfortable for a brief moment before admitting to her.
"I don't know my dear. It depends on how long it takes me to take over the Heavenly Paradigm. But you could be here for a long time." He warned her.
Jaime did not like the sound of that, not one bit. She hated being stuck in one place too long and this was beginning to sound like a long-haul assignment. But she was loyal and so she nodded in acceptance and went to get her things before they unloaded all the actives and hostages from the Tardis. The Master allowed her time to do this before he made a small hop over in space to the Underground vaults where he unloaded the stasis chambers and a few other things. Once all the Dolls, Nyssa and Miss Anderson were all stored safely away he unloaded some pieces of technology he had been meaning to drop off from his adventures with Jaime since they had started traveling together.
It annoyed him greatly when he realised he was going to miss her, oh by Omega he was going soft and reassured himself that he would get himself straightened out before he came back here to collect her and the army he had tucked away.
Jaime had taken three chests from her room, mostly keepsakes like her stash from when she was pirate or an Assassin not to mention some of their other journeys around the universe. Her personal stash of weapons, some clothes and put them into one of the bedrooms till she could unpack. Thinking ahead she had taken some period dresses from the Tardis Wardrobe and stood there as the Master stepped into his Tardis and took off without her.
Los Angeles Dollhouse, USA…August 2007…
The Dollhouse facilities while damaged were largely operational and Adelle with ruthless efficiency had all the Dollhouse and Rossum staff that she had managed to gather fixing the damage and working on finding out just who had attacked them.
Adelle looked at the lab area and saw Topher was talking quite intensely with Bennet Halverson, his opposite from the now defunct DC Dollhouse. Puppy love she thought with annoyance at the pair being so distracted but it didn't take a genius to see the two were already becoming besotted with each other.
Mr Ballard who reluctantly had come over to their side was directing what efforts they could manage to find their missing actives, what resources that remained were somewhat limited but doing their job.
Adelle wanted dearly to get a nice relaxing bath and a glass of wine to go with it but there was time for that later, unfortunately one of her new employees, Mr Singh a survivor from the Mumbai Dollhouse and her temporary head of security came up to her.
"Ms DeWitt." Mr Singh said with his Indian accent reminding her again of the multinational team she had assembled. "I am afraid we have visitors."
"Visitors? Mr Singh." She said with a raised eyebrow and to her dismay saw men with black tactical gear and heavy weapons enter her house. The other members of staff all looked around alarmed by the sight of armed men bursting in especially after what had happened only a week or two ago. Armed members of her staff went for their weapons only for a blonde-haired woman with a smug grin on her face to run in and grab all the weapons from their hands and dump them in a pile on the floor.
Adelle alone was unmoved and stood there impassively as the woman smirked at her before turning around to face the person that was apparently in charge.
"See, no one dead. Feel free to let me off the leash any time." She said with a sarcastic tone but the man, older with a bald top and short dark brown hair at the back. He had a face like stone and unfortunately Adelle did recognise him.
"After all the crap you pulled, no chance. Ms DeWitt." Jonas Bledsoe said as he came up to Adelle, ignoring the other woman who seemed to glower at him. Adelle frowned but answered.
"Mr Bledsoe, so I take the Berkut Group is now investigating the Dollhouse." She said with annoyance but Jonas had no intention of not rubbing in the poor state of the network.
"You mean shutting down any chance of that technology getting out of control. Before we couldn't touch you before because of Rossum's great reach but now Rossum isn't around anymore I am taking great pleasure in taking over whatever remains of this incredibly dangerous element." Jonas said to her without a single care.
"Now you wait a minute!" Adelle started saying with anger but Jonas cut her off and told her firmly.
"Adelle you can either fight this and spend the rest of your life in prison, or live with it and still come out with a job and some power in the situation. Maybe do some good for nearly destroying the world." Jonas said and Adelle bit her tongue, knowing she had little power to stop him. Mr Ballard came over with a storm in his eyes.
"Now hang on…we need to find those people! Who the hell are you?" He demanded, walking up to them and then making the mistake of trying to push his way past Sarah Corvus, who didn't take kindly to that and grabbed him by the arm and threw the much heavier Ballard down hard. He hit the wood hard and everyone could almost feel the impact.
"Now, remember, respect someone's personal space buzzcut." Sarah said with an almost demented smirk on her face. Jonas gave her a deadpan look which made her frown before letting go of Ballard who was very winded and slow to get to his feet. Jonas nevertheless answered his question.
"To answer your question Agent Ballard, you and I work for the same people just in different areas. The Berkut Group is an off the books agency that is tasked with preventing technology that could be dangerous from getting into the wrong hands. We had our eye on the Dollhouse for quite a while now but thanks to Rossum's political ties we couldn't touch them. Fortunately we can now and we will absorb what's left into our own ranks so if you all want a job, I suggest you get used to it." Jonas said and Adelle's group all looked around in confusion while Adelle just wanted to scream in frustration at now being under the Berkut Group's wing but they had little choice.
Then one of Bledsoe's men came up to Adelle and Ballard who was getting slowly to his feet, an Asian man with slicked back hair, serious and well balanced he was clearly a trained fighter. Sarah gave him a pouting air kiss which he returned to their surprise but then he came up to Adelle and held up a picture of a white-haired old man that she recognised immediately.
"Was this the man that attacked you?" He asked quickly and Adelle frowned, not wanting to admit anything under duress but Ballard had no such restraints.
"Yeah, that's him. 'The Master'." Ballard said and a frown went around Berkut Group as did recognition before the man pulled out a second picture, this time of an attractive brunette woman in her mid-twenties.
"And her? Was she with him?" He asked sternly, Sarah they all noticed looking unnerved by the image. Like she was scared of her, given her previous confidence that surprised them but also made Adelle curious.
"No, she wasn't with him. But woman matching that description was seen near the Rossum buildings before they blew up although I doubt she could be in so many places at the same time." Adelle volunteered, wondering just who this was.
"Oh, don't put it past her. Not with the Master involved." The man said before putting the pictures away.
"Since you are all hereby drafted to the Berkut Group, how many of your 'actives' as I believe you call them did the Master take?" Jonas asked plainly, taking back control of the conversation. Adelle frowned before admitting.
"Three hundred and six."
"Damn, you guys screwed up." Sarah said with a bit of her smugness returning. "We only lost one."
"And we are going to get her back." A nerdy looking man from behind Jonas said with certainty that wasn't shared with the others but the mention of them losing someone made Adelle curious again and decide to play along till she could find some sort of leverage that she could use to her advantage.
"And who is she?" Adelle asked with curiosity. Jonas however shut her down.
"You and your team will be briefed on the Sommers situation in due time. Right now, we need to know just where the Master has stashed her and the puppets you lost." Jonas said and Topher who had been silent until now spoke up.
"We prefer to call them actives but I think you mean doll."
"Same thing." Jonas said with some firmness to bring an end to these proceedings and then he turned to a blonde-haired woman who was about Adelle's age and told her. "Process them, then we can get back on the trail."
Adelle and her staff were left confused and annoyed as they found themselves drafted into a government agency against their will. Dearly wishing they could kill the Master for all this while the nerdy looking man who had who had insisted they were going to get 'her' back stared at a picture of brunette woman and seemed almost broken as he did so but also determined, we are going to get her back Will Antros thought to himself. Maybe some of these Dollhouse guys might be helpful in cracking the code and breaking Jaime free from the Master.
Blackfield, Southern England…January 1826…
For a short while after the Master had left Jaime stood there, full of anxiety as she came to terms with the fact that he had gone and now she was alone. Stranded over a hundred years from her own century and with no way out.
Reluctantly she went to unpack her belongings as it seemed she would be here awhile and with considerable reluctance she took off her modern clothes and put on an uncomfortable period dress with a ridiculous hairstyle to go with it.
She looked out of the large window and frowned, not sure what she was supposed to do with her time now. Blackfield was equipped with alien technology to maintain the gardens, the structure of the house and a few other things. It even had small drones that dusted and cleaned the inside so realistically she just had to monitor the systems and the stasis units.
Looking out at the star filled sky and Jaime wondered if the Master was around one of them right now but dismissed that as foolish. He was off, travelling to distant worlds and conquering them while she was stuck here! She thought with considerable anger, but she suppressed it with considerable effort.
Instead, she decided to tour the place the Master had left her to watch over, familiarising herself with all the rooms and pieces within. He was a notorious collector she realised seeing a four-thousand-piece dinner service made of silver from the Georgian era along with a lot of other decorative pieces like that.
In the galleries she found some marvellous paintings that the Master had obviously picked on his travels but also a gallery devoted exclusively to him she thought with amusement. Another monument to his ego she realised with amusement.
Portraits of different incarnations of the Master hung on the walls, all sinister looking with groomed beards and dark clothes, their evil glaring out of the pictures as she walked past.
Coming to the library she decided to do some reading till morning, picking up some of the many books that were stacked high in shelves around her and settling into one of the comfortable leather backed armchairs.
It would help pass the time she thought, not knowing it would be a lot longer than she had ever thought before she met the Master again.
There we are, hope you liked it and please leave a review to let me know what you thought.
Constance Clarke was a companion to the Sixth Doctor in the Big Finish Audios. A Wren from Bletchley Park during World War 2 she was a no-nonsense companion. While her eventual fate has not been revealed yet I decided to use her in this story. Played by Miranda Raison who also played Tallulah in Daleks in Manhatten and Evolution of the Daleks.
Next Chapter - Jaime now alone must live her long life in waiting, deciding just what to do with all her time and deal with things on her own.