I couldn't have been out for long. When I regained consciousness the soldiers still walked, just sitting me down on a wide sofa. One leaned closer to inspect my wounds, but shot up as soon as he saw my eyes open. I counted five or six people buzzing about in the room. They had another priority.
A sting in my shoulder made me wince; the arm hurt too, but not as bad. Pain radiated to my back, so the bullet had gone completely through. How strange, I always thought this would hurt more. Maybe it was the adrenaline.
No time to process. Where was the Master? What sort of room was this anyway? Shelves lined the walls, all of them filled to the brim with books and trinkets. A large desk stood proud in the middle of an expensive carpet; notes and open documents littered the surface, a pen, carelessly left behind on scribbles of round symbols.
I only had seconds to take everything in, then Vienna stumbled inside, still helping with carrying the Time Lord and flanked by another pair of soldiers who trained their weapons on her, following every movement.
"Don't you have somewhere else to put him?" she asked. "A med bay of sorts? And is there a doctor around? I have no clue how Time Lord bodies work." Vienna almost carefully dropped the Master down on the sofa I had occupied just moments before. "Not that I'd help him anyway. And put those guns down, for fucks sake!"
"Keep them up," I mumbled and met her gaze. "But don't harm her!" I added as an afterthought. They weren't hypnotised, but I had no clue how far their loyalty would go. And I had no authority over them and also…
They… listened.
Surprised, I watched as they exchanged looks and kept their weapons up before two turned to the Master. He laid on his back, clothes drenched in the wet sheen of fresh blood. His breath came in shallow bursts, rattling painfully through his ruptured lungs. Someone came into the room, kneeling down next to him with a stethoscope and a bag. Blood dripped down to the ground. Not much, but it didn't stop, didn't get less.
The Master's eyes snapped open, he gasped and tried to curl together, but instead just groaned in pain. The other man tried to hold him down, struggling in vain because the Time Lord was too strong, even hurt like he was.
"Hey, hey! He'll help you. Let him!" I begged.
A gurgle of blood came as an answer. His eyes flickered, a sliver of recognition? The Master tried to say something, but nothing but red foam came over his lips.
"There is nothing I can do for him," said the doctor. "The lung ruptured and one of his hearts got shot through. No one can heal that."
Nothing I didn't know already. And as if to agree with him, the Master arched his back, writhing and crying out with pain. A small cloud of mist emanated from the shot in his chest, hovering there like a threat. My mouth dropped open, admiring the mesmerising spectacle. Each particle glowed in a slightly different colour, melting together in a golden hue, like the magic of old forgotten times.
But this was no magic at all.
He would die.
He would die and I could do absolutely nothing about it. More blood, golden mist and a groan of pain. He gasped out more particles and even his skin seemed to glow now.
No, no, no! It couldn't end like that! I knelt down next to him and grabbed his head, pressing my forehead to his, trying to reach him somehow. Just somehow. Let me do something, anything. Don't die, don't die, don't die! I begged those words, pressed them against him like a prayer and-
Pain. It seared through every vein in my body the moment our minds clicked together. Not my pain, his. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. Everything drowned in red until the flickering light of… mind. Mine. He clung to it. A life line that lead nowhere and still he couldn't cease his grip of it.
Go away! he screamed. Run, run away! I will burn you!
But I couldn't. I fought through his pain and through my own desperation, pushing it all away until the only thing that dared to remain was… darkness. Its all consuming, thick tendrils wound around us, squeezed without touching, swallowed without moving. Black smoke swallowed the world, rising up to dark towers of never thundering clouds. I didn't have it in me to look up, didn't dare to even wonder what might have happened, because deep down I had hoped that this here would be real. The dreams of this place, the moment under the table when the world had collapsed over our heads.
The black-purple glow on my chest.
And the tiny dragon with the same colours that now landed on my shoulder and rubbed my cheek with a happy squeak. Its touch sent an emotion through me, faint, yet noticeable. The joy of reunion. It knew me and I probably had known it too at some point.
"I'm sorry, little one," I whispered. "I don't remember you."
The fletchling made another small noise, a not so happy one, this time. First it tipped its nose against me, then it flapped down on the Master's chest. The particle clouds had vanished and with it every glow, gold or colourful alike. Even the bleeding had stopped, the liquid hanging in the air, suspended red drops, floating in a foreboding mist of promised death.
Time did not exist in this place. The real world could move on and we would not change. But I also knew we couldn't exist here for very long. Because eventually, I did look up and what I saw let my heart freeze. There, at the far end of this place that refused to know of even the thought of distances, barely at the jagged edge of existence itself, rose timeless, ancient beings of cyclopean size into the blackness, slowly, barely moving without the flow of time to tell them what speed might be, wandering, hunting. Beings as old as the first dream that bore reality, existing since the very idea of beginning, since before the very concept of time.
And they saw me.
"What do I do?" I whispered towards the little dragon. "I don't understand anything. And if I bring him back, he'll die."
Could it even understand anything I said? The small thing definitely looked as if it was thinking about something and I felt a questioning tug at my mind. Maybe I could project something myself? I closed my eyes, trying to forget about the looming shadows in the distance and conjuring up my fear about losing the Master, an image of all the blood he had lost and the wounds that killed him.
There was a squeak and I opened my eyes again. Dread creeped up my spine, shadows moved in the corners of my field of vision. The dragonling jumped up and down on the Master's chest, then sat on its hind legs, bending its neck backwards and… a small drop of something bright and orange shot out of the snout and landed where the blood soaked hole stared at us, forebodingly.
I didn't know what this meant, but no choice remained. Already I could feel the darkness closing in, swore I could feel the brush of a deep black wing that wasn't supposed to exist. Shaking, I exhaled and bent down to reach for the Master's hands. Immediately the colourful particles returned, they engulfed him, spreading from the heart to his whole upper body, then his head.
Connection. It had to work. Breathe. Slip away. Embrace eternity, accept reality.
Someone screamed. Light pierced my eyes. Around us, the void retreated, collapsing into a bubble of black tentacles and then fading out of our reality. The colours and the gold still lingered. The Master glowed, his skin was hot where I held his hands. My gaze wandered to his chest and the dragon's gift on it. The red drop melted into the Time Lord's chest and burned. Gasping I shot backwards, fearing for the worst. But the flame didn't spread, it only blazed under his skin, dancing… cauterizing! Of course! Perplexed, I stared at the tiny flame until it died down, leaving nothing but slightly seared clothes.
The Master gasped and opened his eyes. His breath came raspy, but it came. He could breathe!
"Are you better!" I asked. Had his hair gotten lighter?
He laid a hand over his dead heart, wincing. Slowly and with an expression that told of tremendous pain, he sat up, glaring at me with a mixture of disbelief and confusion. No one else in the room moved.
"What… have you…?" He groaned. "Ough, that burns."
"I… I don't know. I just.. I really don't know."
The Master collapsed backwards, coughing and wheezing. "Not enough… I'm… still dying. Fuck. Piss off. All of you!" The shout out was followed by a cry of pain and another coughing fit.
The soldiers left immediately, but I stayed, unwilling to just vanish, now that I knew he was at least out of the biggest danger. Or so I hoped. The head hunter also made no move.
"You summoned something," she said, dumbfounded.
"Void." The Master got himself under control and sat back up, albeit with a lot of effort. Some of the golden glow still lingered around his head, or so I thought at first, but then I realized that he really had gotten lighter. Quite a bit. "This won't help for long. I need… need. There's… in the bathroom."
"What's there?" I asked.
"Why's he blond now?" asked Vienna, as if that was the most important thing right now.
"Who cares?" I groaned.
The Master's eyes wandered upwards, but of course he couldn't see. His hair was too short for that. "In the cabinet," he explained instead. "Green capsules and the… hnhngg… oof… the syringe and the… you'll find it."
Every word seemed to hurt him, so I rushed into the next room and rummaged through the cabinet behind the mirror. The named items were there and also a glass vial with some orange fluid inside and a cap that was made to stick a needle inside. I simply hoped it was all he needed and hurried back, almost stumbling when I looked ahead, not awaiting the sight that would greet me.
Vienna stood in front of the Master, her gun trained against his forehead. The weapon glowed in its electric blue light, humming softly. A contrast to the death it might bring. My breath caught in my throat and I slipped a hand into my hoodie pocket, relieved to find the laser screwdriver still there. I couldn't remember having put it anywhere, but right now I didn't care and fished it out, shooting at the ground right next to Vienna's feet.
The woman jumped and hurled around, her eyes widening, the gun not leaving its place. "Why are you defending him! I could rid the universe of one of the cruelest monsters!" she hissed.
The Master wheezed out a weak laugh. "Coward. Just do it."
"No!" I stepped closer, not leaving her out of sight. "Just no."
"Why not!"
Yes, why not? My gaze wandered to the Master. A twitch of fear crossed his face. There were more reasons against letting him live than for it, that for sure. And yet, the moment he had almost died… something had simply snapped inside of me. And I still felt it, the rising panic, the blinding fear, my pulse quickened, my grip on the laser got tighter.
"Leave him alone," I said, my voice shaky.
I had no answer. Maybe I never would.
All I knew was that I couldn't lose him and that spurred me on more than anything ever had. In my entire life there had never been a single thing that had made me act like this. Not once.
Until now.
I didn't need any memories to know that this meant something. "Get away from him."
Finally, Vienna powered off her gun and stepped back, not without casting a venomous glare at the Time Lord. "If she's hypnotized to do this, I swear you will die the most painful death I can come up with."
The Master laughed and coughed, holding his chest in pain without stopping. "She isn't." His breath rattled, leaving him no choice but to calm down. His eyes bore into mine as I approached with the meds. "Hilarious… little thing you."
"Shut up." I tried to give him a scowl. I really did. But this stupid boyish grin didn't fail on me, even with all the blood on him.
He poked his tongue out and took all the supplies from me. The vials seemed to be the right ones, so he stuck a needle inside and drew some of the orange fluid, then injected it into his arm, grimacing. Next he swallowed some of the green pills, almost coughing them up again, but he managed. "Help me up," he demanded.
What else could I do? Sure, I wasn't the strongest person, but I did what I could to get him to the bathroom where he splashed some water in his face to wash away the blood, then he nodded towards another door and together we hobbled towards it. Vienna followed close behind, but left her weapon in its holster.
It was a bedroom. Although one that didn't look as if anyone had ever made use of it. The single bed looked untouched, as did the desk in a corner and even the shelves with files and folders. No pictures anywhere, nothing to indicate whom this room might belong to. It probably was the reason he had chosen it.
"Ssss od clos in… mhmh… that one."
"Whus?" I looked up at him and the Master glared at a wardrobe.
"Clothes," he repeated, his voice sounding strangely dragging. "Is toooo much lod… uh… red stuff."
He let go of me and stumbled over to rip open the doors and grab a black jumper. Without another word he slipped out of his jacket and shirt, flashing his bare, blood smeared back for a moment before covering it up again. The wound looked bad, really bad.
"Better." The Master turned around and leaned with his back against the wardrobe, penetrating me with a stare. "Thaaaat…" He coughed. "Pills, stuff… sedatives, mild hallucinogen… not for me, but ah uh… helps sleep." He ran a hand over his face. "Lucy, listen." I stepped closer, nodding. "I can do… a healing coma, 's a Time Lord… thing. I will sleeeeep. Deep as a dead… dead thing. Will look like it. But I'm not, yeah?"
I nodded. "And that will help you heal?"
The Master nodded. "I hope sssso… 'm still dying. Inner bleed. I can feeeel it. Listen, listen, little one." His voice regained a little firmness. "I won't die. Don't worry. Don't be fooled."
"O… okay." He swayed a little and I grabbed him to help walk over to the bed. "How long will this take? Can I… check somehow? To make sure."
"Mhmmm… weak pulse 's always there." He swayed some more and I had trouble holding him. But right then he let go on his own and turned to face me, his eyes hazy, but the rest of him… he looked at me as if I were the most fascinating creature he had ever seen. "Silly little thing," he said and cradled my cheeks. "You're… best… the best thing." And then he just leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, warm and trembling and I froze, way too perplexed to react.
The Master retreated only seconds later, collapsing on the bed. He stayed conscious just long enough to properly roll on his back and then stopped moving all together.