| Date: 9 January 2008
Characters: The Tenth Doctor, The Master Location: hotel dining room Link to IJ: thread #28085 |
 It was an absurd hour, and the Doctor was the only person in the hotel's dining room, at least for the moment. He got himself a cup of tea and sprawled out in one overstuffed arm-chair, and after a bit of dragging and wrestling, propped his feet in another. |
 The Master stormed into the dining room and stopped just inside the door, hanging onto the door frame, his face white with strain and anger, his eyes blazing at the Doctor.
"You bastard. How could you? How could you?" |
| He looked around and up at the Master. "How could I what?" |
| "Oh, don't play dumb with me, Doctor."
The Master's fury had only increased during the long walk back into town, fury fed by his sense of betrayal. He surged forwards, mouth set in a tight line, fists clenching and unclenching. "What the fuck did you think you were doing with the Professor?" he snarled, leaning over the Doctor, hands ont he arms of his chair, in his face. "Getting rid of his drums, trying to get rid of me - of me! Did you think there was a chance I'd never get out? Did you? I can't believe you did that." |
| "I wasn't trying to get rid of you, I was making sure you couldn't get out, and stop whinning, it's not like I got rid of your drums," he said, lazily. |
| Oh, how he wanted to punch that smug, conceited face.
"You told Yana you'd got rid of me! I assumed you thought you had!" |
| "I told him no such thing," he said, levelly. "Teach you to assume, won't it?" |
| The Master wavered for a long moment between hitting the Doctor and kissing him.
In the end, he went for neither. He stood up, turned away, came back and said, in a sick voice, "Why did he think that, then?" |
| "What makes you think he thought it, instead of said it?" |
| "Because he thought I was gone, not just locked away. And I know because I was inside his head." |
| "Well, didn't look very hard, did you?" |
| The Master ground his teeth with frustration and thought seriously about hitting the Doctor after all.
"I found out he was wrong once I was inside! I'm not stupid!" |
| "Oh, well then why are you yelling at me about trying to get rid of you?" |
| "Because I thought you'd meant to get rid of me!" |
| "Oh, don't be ridiculous," he snorted. |
| "What?" He stood and stared. "It's not ridiculous." |
| "It damn well is. The you that created him is the one that's locked in his head. If I got rid of that one, it would create a paradox in his skull."
He was so making shit up. |
| The Master thought about that for a minute.
"You're making that up," he said finally. "He could live perfectly well without me in there." |
| "Probably," he agreed, cheerfully. |
| "So it wasn't ridiculous to think you meant to get rid of me." |
| "Yes, it was." |
| "Why?" |
| "Where else would I put him? My head? Someone else's? Now that's ridiculous." |
| The Master sighed heavily, shoved the Doctor's feet to one side of the chair they were resting on and occupied the rest of the seat himself, settling in for the long haul.
He said, slowly, as if explaining to a small child, "I thought you weren't going to put me anywhere. I thought you were trying to kill me." He paused. "That version of me." |
| "I wouldn't even know where to begin." |
| "Well, that's nice to know." Very nice, in fact.
He couldn't stop himself asking, "Would you, though? If you did know how?" Stupid question to ask, really stupid. It wasn't like he actually wanted to know the answer. |
| "No." |
| ...Which wasn't the answer he'd been bracing himself for.
Well, he hadn't actually expected an answer at all. The Master leaned back in the chair and raised a lazy eyebrow, suddenly feeling a lot better. "Coward," he said, teasingly. |
| "No," he repeated. "Well, yes, but no more than usual." |
| The Master grinned, absently tapping out a rhythm on the Doctor's shin.
"Why, then?" He still wasn't really expecting an answer. He knew his Doctor. |
| He shrugged. "Because you lost." |
| Perhaps one day the Master would learn to quit while he was ahead.
Maybe. One day. Not today. He said jovially, tapping a bit harder, "Only in your reality. Hasn't happened yet in mine. And it's not going to happen if I can help it." |
| "Can't help it. As soon as you leave here you'll forget everything you've heard here." He seemed completely non-plussed. |
| "Oh yeah? Where'd you hear that? Because I have it on good authority that some people come and go from here on a regular basis and - well - they wouldn't be able to tell me that if they forgot each time, would they?" |
| "Oh, but see, when you're back here you do remember. Just not one, single, damned thing while you're not. Nothing. Not one iota of a hint of a ghost of an idea. I didn't hear that, Master, I know that, because I've left." |
| "You're lying." |
| "I'm not."
He wasn't. |
| "Well, it must be different for different people, then," the Master said dismissively, refusing to let go of hope. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. It still hasn't happened for me." And even if it did, he had Lucy and his ring and his back-up plan.
"Apart from which, you're not from my reality anyway, are you?" |
| "Different for different people," he agreed. "Wonder if you're going to be more like a person or another Time Lord." He was pissed off. It was starting to show. "And why the hell would you say that?" |
| "Because I got the distinct impression that you didn't remember the things I told you I'd been upto, the last time we talked," the Master smirked. It was good to see the Doctor finally starting to get angry. He started drumming his fingers on the Doctor's leg again to see if he could get him riled up any further.
"Certain specific and personal events," he clarified. "Like what I'd been doing with you and Jack, and that I'd made you young again." |
| "Let me give you a little piece of advice," the Doctor said, and leaned forward with a grin. "When I'm the one from the future, you don't know what the hell I remember. You've got no way of knowing what I remember, and because I remember? I can tell you anything I want. I can make you believe anything I want. I can lie through my teeth to you, and smile while I do it. You, apparently, are too naive to know any differently. That makes it your problem." |
| "Oooh, Doctor, you wound me!" the Master declared, hands pressed to his hearts dramatically. "The thought that you would lie to me - you, whom I trust so implicitly - "
He leaned forward too, echoing the Doctor's position, and his grin. "Of course, it works both ways, Doctor dear. You have no way of confirming anything I say, either. Well, unless of course, you actually are from my reality, but with so many variables I really do doubt it. And as I keep pointing out, the rest of what you say you remember hasn't happened yet, for me. Anything could happen." Yes, he was struggling a bit to keep his end up in this game, but he was enjoying it mightily all the same. This was the Doctor as he loved him, all flashing fire and magnificence and - well - just paying him attention. This - this - was what it was all about. |
| He flashed a quick, bright grin and stood up. "You know what keeps completely destroying your credibility, Koschei, dear? That you keep doubting that we come from the same reality. I hope so, oh, I do hope so. But all in all, in all these years, and all my experiences, I have never seen an entire universe made from a diverging timeline, and you can try to change it, but in the end you didn't just lose, you died. Forever."
And with that, he turned and walked away. |
| "Don't you dare walk away from me."
The Master's voice was low, and furious. He did, of course, go after the Doctor because he knew perfectly well that he dared. He reached the Doctor only just before he got to the door; he grabbed his arm and swung him round, backing him into the wall beside the door. He leaned in and up to snarl in the Doctor's face, "I died, but I didn't lose. You really don't know what you're talking about, Doctor." |
| The Doctor lifted his eyebrows. "Oh, I know exactly what I'm talking about." He shoved the Master off him. "You on the other hand are grasping at straws. Let me know when you're done with your tantrum and we'll talk. I'm too tired and no where near desperate enough to be abused today." |
| He stepped back immediately. "I'm not - I didn't. Oh, to hell with it, I wasn't trying to abuse you." Not as the Master understood it, anyway. "As if I could anyway! Nothing I do ever really gets to you, does it?"
He shrugged. "But fine. Run away if you want. But you're wrong. I didn't die forever. I never die forever." |
| He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and rubbed his face with both hands. "Of course you get to me, you self righteous prick, and I hope like hell you're right about that." |
| The Master grinned. If he couldn't have magnificent-angry-Doctor, an admission that he did actually get to him was a pretty good consolation prize. "Of course I'm right. I'm always right. Come on, Doctor, you know I always have a back-up plan!" He tilted his head, eyebrows raised. "You think I'd really leave you, for good?" |
| " I think you already did," he said, sounding more tired than anything else. "It's late. I'm going to bed. Harrass me again tomorrow." |
| The Doctor standing there looking and sounding so defeated tugged at something inside the Master. It might have been his hearts, if he'd know how to use them anymore.
He stepped close again, and brushed the Doctor's lips with his own, feather-light, and murmured, "You're wrong. I didn't leave you. Trust me, Theta." Then he moved back again, deferring to the Doctor as he always did in the end. "Off you go to bed, then," he said, with a small smile. "Sweet dreams. I'll see you around." And he walked out the door. |
| He sighed, closed his eyes and thumped his head against the wall before managed to shove off - the wall and in general - to go back to the TARDIS.
Dammit all, anyway. |