A Year That Never Could Be [Finished]

[Krystal Itzume]

There was a short answer to Lucy’s first question, but Maya didn’t speak it. She found her tea, and walked back to where the cup and the kettle were. Lucy chose to elaborate then, and Maya looked to the empty cup as she did.

There was a reason she couldn’t look at Lucy, a reason every word that Lucy spoke seemed to put Maya on eggshells. She knew that voice from when she’d used it. She knew the haunted look in Lucy’s eyes from when she’d held it in her own. It was impossible to look at Lucy without remembering, and for some reason, she was trying to forget.

‘That’s what he is, though.’

Maya looked up when Lucy looked away. ‘You are being sensible. You’d be dead and we both know it.’ It was sensible to stay rather than die. “I’m…,” that should be a very simple answer, so why wasn’t it? Why couldn’t Maya say she wasn’t in love with the Master? “not.” It sounded like a half-truth, a secret that she didn’t fully know herself. The doubt in her own tone caused enough worry to start a flood of adrenaline, the panic of fight-or-flight in the rush of her confusion.

Her face didn’t show it. “I’m merely doing my job. Speaking of,” she wasn’t doing her job at all. She needed to. She needed to, before she got too confused, before she got in too deep, before she let herself become like Lucy again.

Lucy could never have a good life here. Jack couldn’t. The Doctor. She knew how to end this. “Where is he? There’s a matter I need to discuss with him.”

[Bleu]

Lucy heard Maya, even when the latter never seemed to find it in her to look her in the eyes, and seemed to frown. It was this, and something that Lucy couldn’t quite point out, that didn’t seem to convince her of Maya’s answer. Maya didn’t seem so sure of herself, not how she usually did with other things. Maya’s face showed no signs of distress, but Lucy could see something behind the mask. There was definitely something beneath the surface. Perhaps Maya just didn’t know it yet…

“I think it is a good sign,” said Lucy, turning back to the empty plate that sat in front of her, “that you can’t seem to look me in the eye. It means you’re not blind. That is good. It means that it is not too late for you.” She didn’t immediately answer Maya’s query, but she knew that she had to. The Master would hear of it, and that would not end well. Like Jack, Lucy was also the Master’s play thing.

Maya didn’t deserve the fate that surely awaited her.

“I think he’s in his office,” she breathed out, giving her best guess, “though I don’t know why you would seriously think that I know where he is.” The Master gave no updates to anyone, except perhaps Maya. “Whatever it is that you need to talk to him about,” Lucy turned back to Maya, “make sure that you’re careful with him.”

There was a pause, it was agony and desperation alike.

“He’s so much worse than you know.”

[Krystal Itzume]

Maya might have found Lucy's perception strange, if she weren't aware of how the Master had tricked an entire nation. The fact that Lucy noticed so much was a nod to the Master's skill at tricking people, and then keeping them wrapped up in his game through fear. She didn't expect her own perception to be complimented, considering they were in a similar boat.

No, Maya supposed she didn’t really expect Lucy to know where the Master was, despite that perception. She merely wanted confirmation of her own suspicions. Maya gave a single nod and started to walk for the door, before Lucy added in that last bit. She paused, hand on the doorway.

“No,” Maya denied what Lucy said, not that the Master was terrible, but that she was ignorant. “He isn’t.” She left the kitchen then, left that last cup of tea and the warming water, because she could no longer accept such a luxury.

‘Knock. He’ll know it is you by the knock and invite you in.’ Maya told herself as her feet took her towards the office. ‘You can deduce where he is standing by the sound of his voice. Aim. Fire.’ Simple. As simple as when she’d done it to Jack. This couldn’t go wrong. She couldn’t let it go wrong. Everyone else had failed because they’d been too rash, too caught up in emotion.

Sure, this was a bit of an emotional movement, but she had been planning it forever. She’d known how to do it forever.

Maya came to the office door, and she knocked those familiar three beats into the door.

[Bleu]

The very universe was at risk from the Master’s invasion. Not all of it had succumbed to him yet, but a great deal had. The Toclafane were not  easy to take down, and his invasions often resulted in an increase in his band of followers. His armies grew, and his name became more and more famous. At his side had been Maya throughout, and the next couple of days would prove to be just a fruitful as the last couple of months.

The Daleks and the Xhinn were but a few that had only barely managed to avoid him. Even then, the Master was beginning to corner them to a place where they could no longer escape. He was looking at a hologram of his next conquest when he heard the all-too-familiar knocks outside his door. He pushed away from the table and stood from his seat, going around the table to get a better look at the hologram.

“Come in, Maya,” he said, using his hands to stretch the hologram from end to end, zooming into one of the planets with the relevant population density. The Master’s invasion attempt had gone without a hitch, and so there was no reason to believe that this would be any different.

“This is our next project,” he crossed his arms without turning to meet Maya, completely unaware of what it was she came in to do. Still, upon saying her name, the Master smiled. “We will do greater and better things than this, you and I.”

And then he turned to face her.

[Krystal Itzume]

‘One.’ Maya heard the Master’s steps, and she followed them in her head as one hand undid the strap of the gun and took it in hand. ‘Two.’ Her hand moved to the doorknob as he continued to speak, but he had stopped moving.

Maya pulled open the door, trying to block his voice out. His words. Everything. It wasn’t working so well since it seemed in the moment, everything was flooding her instead. She’d learned to act through emotions before, and planned to as she took one step in, gun lifted already, and he turned.

‘Three.’

Finger to trigger, Maya fired, but knew immediately her aim was off. Her hand had been shaking too severely, desperately not wanting to do this as much as she wanted to do it. She hadn’t been ready, and it was with a painful realization that Maya understood she’d missed her chance by months.

Without even caring if the bullet hit him enough to hinder his actions, Maya threw the gun aside and let her back fall against the door. She slid down it, crossed her arms over her knees, and pressed her forehead to her arms. Hot tears were already starting to fall. ‘Fuck.’ She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t even sure what to feel, since at that moment it seemed she was feeling everything but fear. A laugh or a scream seemed equally feasible, but neither came forward.

[Bleu]

At first, the Master thought it was a joke, merely a greeting that had been personalized by the mutual relationship they had. What else could it be? When he took a closer look at Maya’s expression, however, he knew better. That very second, even before Maya pulled the trigger, the Master knew what was going to happen. He felt his hearts want to stop completely, and a chill went down his spine — an entirely unfamiliar feeling. He wasn’t afraid about what was going to happen, as guns never did scare him, but something clearly happened within him.

He was certainly frightened of something. 

The bullet was fired, and the Master realized. What he had been feeling on top of fear was sadness, the one brought as a product of anger and betrayal. He’d only felt this way once, and it had set him on a path from which he didn’t turn back. This time, however, it seemed worse than the last. The Master looked to Maya’s eyes and wondered what he’d done, and why this was happening all over again.

And so the Master realized why he was afraid. He was afraid of the truth before him, that another person had decided to turn against him, a person that he had convinced himself would never do so. He was deeply and irrevocably afraid that his suspicions were right, and that this was not some sort of sick practical joke.

When the bullet met with flesh, the Master almost seemed to not care. It pierced his upper abdomen, but the bullet did not go all the way through. The pain ignited, but this was not the pain that overcame the Master. No, the pain which was proving to be intolerable was not a physical pain at all.

“What have you done?” For the first time, the Master didn’t sound very confident.

The fear which had consumed him could be heard with every word he spoke. His hand found the wound, very minor in nature, and then it came back up. The Master looked at his hand, the blood on it falling down towards his elbow in a trail of dark red.

“I thought—,” his voice was one of agony, but there was an undertone of absolute rage. “I can’t believe,” his bloody hand reached for his throat as he found it harder and harder to speak. “Why is this—?!” He stumbled forward, eyes wide with anger but glossed with complete heartbreak.

“You were supposed to be the difference, Maya!”

Slowly, the Master’s mind began to be flooded with the drums. Slowly, the mechanism that had been controlling him for so long was beginning to fight back at the emotion that was overcoming him. The rage had been overpowered by his feelings, but that was quickly changing. The anger was growing, and it would only be a matter of time before the Master began to pick up the pieces.

Maya had shattered the Master, but he had not died.

[Krystal Itzume]

Maya had struck him. She knew this, but never considered running to get the gun, or finishing things. She might have even had a chance as he raged at her. ‘I’m sorry.’ It was not only to Angelus, Jack, and Lucy. It was to the Master she was sorry, for his anger was sincere.

He had, stupidly, trusted her.

She lifted her head up to look at what she’d done, as if it might provide the answer to the Master’s query. He was bleeding, of course. He was bleeding and screaming. Maya didn’t rise to stand. She’d already accepted her fate was bound to be worse than Robert’s. There was no point to running.

His final accusation caused her eyes to move to the floor. “I know,” she’d known for too long that the Master had considered she was different from everyone else. She took no pride in it, but accepted the fact for what it was. She wouldn’t insult him now, and wouldn’t boast. She had failed, after all. She had no claim to do either, and wouldn’t have wanted to.

Her deaths were quick to spare people that pain, and not just the physical pain. “I’m sorry,” her voice broke on the words. For some reason, it had to be said. He had to know that, despite the action, she still felt absolutely terrible for committing it.

A deep breath.“I’m sorry,” again. It came out clearer. Terrible last words. “I couldn’t help you, and I couldn’t….” couldn’t bear to continue down this path. Couldn’t lose herself to the insanity that drove him. Couldn’t become Lucy, either. “I couldn’t keep serving you, either. I don’t even know why I said it. I don't belong here. I'm not a killer.” Worst time to figure that out.

At least at the end, she supposed, she’d figured out who she was again. For once. The tears continued to fall on her arm, but she took comfort in the fact she could even still feel.

[Bleu]

‘Kill her.’

The drums kept beating, over and over again. They were no longer the subtle sounds in the back of his mind, nor the loud bangs that hurt him several months earlier when he’d made her his second-in-command. No, these drums were much louder and truly horrible, crippling and amplified by the screams of the Master’s victims, by his own promises to never truly trust anyone after what had happened with the Doctor, and by the very emotions he had not allowed himself to admit.

These drums were so much worse, and the Master could not keep them quiet.  He couldn’t hush them. He could only embrace them.

‘Kill her.’

The Master approached Maya, but his body shifted towards the gun she’d thrown aside. The wound was dripping, but the Time Lord ignored it. His mind could not comprehend the pain in that moment, for it was deeply focused in trying to recover from what had been a severe blow to his person. The pain was nothing but a small distraction, and it would not break the mind. The pain could never do that.

“I don’t want to,” he snapped, pleading.

‘Kill her.’ His mind repeated firmly.

The Master fell to his knees as his arm stretched forward and his hand reached for the gun. As soon as his hand closed around its grip, the Master closed his eyes and the tears spilled over. The gun was lifted, and the Master was having a hard time breathing again. The Master hated the drums, and it only became apparent right then. Why now? Why couldn’t he have realized this before?

“I don’t want to!”

‘Kill her.’

And then he shouted — a shout that was loud, powerful, and one filled with utter frustration. Immediately after that, the Master’s finger sought the trigger.

[Krystal Itzume]

Maya hadn’t been able to help him, but then, had she been trying? It was only as he started to argue with himself that it sunk in that she had been right. Something was wrong with him. There was a Master trapped inside his own mind, and it was never clearer to her than in that very moment.

‘You can’t let him do this.’

It was that thought which took her back to Angelus, and his death, but put it in another light. She could not have condemned Angelus to live with her death. Her suicide. How could she condemn this man to live with her death when he, for some reason, didn’t want it?

‘What can I even do?’

Maya didn’t know how to help him. She didn’t know how to save the universe if he wasn’t dead, but her mind went back to the Doctor, to the one man who also hadn’t wanted the Master dead. He had that woman, Martha—he must have had a plan. Was it still possible?

Her mind came alive with possibility as the Master gripped the gun. No, she didn’t want to die, she never had, but now she had a new direction. A new thought. ‘How the hell will I ever…?’ Adrenaline was still in her veins, shaking her. “Are we going to be efficient today?”

Bad joke. Bad tastes. Maya’s hand moved to the wall. She knew she couldn’t outrun a bullet, but his aim could fail him if she moved at the right moment, and her eyes followed his finger as it sought the trigger. She’d just have to pull herself up, and it’d strike something non-fatal, if she was lucky. ‘And then what? Then he’ll kill you, still.’

Maybe.

She didn’t have any other options. "I thought I'd suffer worse than Robert. Don't you want to see what's in my head?"

[Bleu]

The Master could not control himself, and he couldn’t control his heaving chest, or anything else. Maya spoke, and it was different from any other he’d heard her. She sounded like a different person, almost like a person who wanted to help him. Hadn’t she shot at him a few instances ago? The Master’s mind did not allow him to rationalize any other thought than her murder. She deserved it, didn’t she? She had betrayed him just as the Doctor had, just as Robert had.

‘KILL HER!’

“PLEASE!”

HELP ME.

Why was this so familiar? Why did he feel this way?

‘KILL HER!’

The Master screamed as his hand began to shake. The Master closed his eyes again, tight to the point where he wrinkled his nose in desperation. Despite his attempts to stop himself, his finger pulled the trigger, and the gunshot rang out in the room. His finger did not stop there, it shot again and again.

“PLEASE!”

GET OUT.

Why couldn’t he kill her, if he had no trouble before?

‘KILL HER!’

The drums were too loud, too erratic, that the Master could no loner make them out as a clear beats of four. They went on forever, and they didn’t follow a pattern any longer. Despite their unusual behavior, the Master couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes. He sought Maya’s mind with his mind, but found a resistance that unnerved him. Had he killed her? Had he ruined his very life because of the drums?

Another bullet rang, and it rang similarly to the first, hitting the wall.

“GET OUT, MAYA!”

The Master’s voice broke, afraid, desperate, and hopeful. Then his hand shot yet another bullet, and it hit something so close to him that the sound deafened the Master. When the strange ring in the Master’s head subsided, he could no longer hear the loud, beating, drums.

[Krystal Itzume]

A wall. The first shot hit the wall. Maya had pulled herself to her feet, but had hesitated when it hit the wall. The man was fighting with all he had, and fired more into the wall. She moved away, and reached up to the necklace, the ring. ‘Maybe those dreams aren’t dreams.’

Martha had a key, and keys went to places. Maya saw it, before she darted out of the room, within the pocket on the Master’s suit jacket. One deep breath was taken and she walked forward. Another bullet struck the floor so near her foot, so near him, but she walked, knelt at his side, and pinched the chain. She pulled it from his pocket, and she ran.

The Master would no doubt get over his moment, and Maya didn’t want to be anywhere close when he got a grip on himself. ‘But he never—’ Maya wasn’t about to trust it, nor waste time.

She sprinted into the room with the Doctor, trapped and alone as he was in his cage, and came to an abrupt halt before it. “Doctor,” she calmed her voice, though her heart was in her throat, and her breathing erratic from the run. “I don’t have very long, so tell me, what was Martha going to do with this?”

The Doctor fixed her with a hard stare. The guards in the room looked between each other, seeming uncertain what to do. So far as they knew, Maya still had all the authority in the world to do as she liked. “Tick tock, Doctor, really, really don’t have the time. You didn’t want him dead, so tell me—how is everything fixed?”

A very slow understanding found itself on his face. The broken look threatened to show hope. “It opens my TARDIS,” the voice hadn’t been used in days, and it was dry. Dehydrated. “Which he turned into a paradox machine. It holds the paradox he created in place.”

Paradox machine? This was not something Maya knew about. “Is it here, on the Valiant?” There was one room she’d never seen.

“Yes, but—” the Doctor was going to say he wasn’t sure what to do about it, but Maya made her decision.

Break the machine, break the paradox. She didn’t think of the consequences to the TARDIS, didn’t care about the consequences as she went running again. She didn't even know exactly what the consequences of ending the paradox would be, but also, didn't care. Perhaps she should have stayed to get more information, but time was not something she had.

And besides, certainly Jack would know something. Right?

She snatched an automatic weapon from one of the other guards with no explanation, and burst right into Jack’s room.

There was a manic grin on her lips, “We have things to do and no time!” She informed him and went about undoing the restraints, quick as she could. She intended to keep the collar on. While the guards were still ignorant, she’d use that to her advantage. Having Jack walk around as he pleased would break that illusion.

[Bleu]

For a few moments, there was peace.

BANG.

Slowly, the Master began to make sense of it. For the first few instances, he couldn’t really fathom exactly what had happened just moments past. When at last his eyes dared to search the room, they only caught the aftershock of what he’d done, and he was completely alone. The Master felt his chest heave, but he didn’t feel tired. He felt his eyes tear, but he didn’t feel any distress.

As he rose, he felt his previously shaking hands calm immediately. Maya had escaped, and he could not believe that he had instructed her to do so.

BANG.

“Where did you run off to?” The Master’s voice was calm, pitch completely still and unamusing.

Just outside, several of his guards had found the courage to peek into the previously chaotic room. They turned to the Master, but they didn’t move from their place as soon as they caught sight of him. No, they were frozen in fear. Fear of not knowing what to expect from the madman.

BANG.

“She tried to kill me,” the Master said to the guards, pretending to be offended.

They didn’t move.

“Are you deaf?” The Master spat. “Maya tried to kill me!”

The anger began to slowly creep back into his mind.

BANG.

‘1…2…3…4.’

Then, the Master smiled.

***

Jack knew that something was going on outside, and although Maya had not visited him or really spoken to him at all, he couldn’t help but hope. He hoped that Maya had found the courage in her to move forward with her plan, that at long last the Master’s corpse littered the floors of the Valiant.

The second that Maya came in, however, and despite the fact that she seemed unstoppable in that moment, Jack knew that the Master still lived. Her words were encouraging, and as she undid the binds, Jack knew that she had a plan.

This was it.

“I’m glad you didn’t take long,” he joked with a crooked smile. When he realized that his collar was not removed, he gave Maya a single nod. He’d play along to keep the unaware completely ignorant. What else could he do for now?

Protect her.

“We need to find the TARDIS,” he said, allowing himself to be pulled one last time.

[Krystal Itzume]

Maya didn’t know what a TARDIS was, though the Doctor had mentioned it, and she was certain the Master had before, too. She was certain she knew it, certain also that she knew where it was. It was going to be in the one room she was forbidden to go in. “Understood,” she told Jack as the two slipped out of the room.

There was an anxious energy now in the ship. The Master would have gotten himself together by now, or so Maya imagined. How long until the news spread to the guards in this area? In any area?

The ship was only so large. Could the Master guess where she’d go? ‘Does it matter?’ Maya didn’t know what this TARDIS could do, now that it was a paradox machine. Her plan was still to destroy it—break the paradox, to hell with the consequences. Nothing could be worse than this. Nothing at all.

“What will…happen?” Maya found herself asking, curious in spite of her apathy about the future. “No, nevermind.” She didn’t need to know, and talking would be suspicious.

There was nothing left for her, after all. No brother, no family, no fiancé. She wasn’t even sure she had herself left, after this.

The area outside the room had its guards, but Maya held her confident posture. One of the guards did move, as if to stop her, but Maya met his gaze before the action was completed. He stiffened, and stepped back into his proper position, assuming the Master had given Maya permission.

So in walked Maya, and following behind her was Jack.

That was when she let Jack go, and then took the key she’d stolen and offered it out. “I assume you know better what to do, so…I’ll give you what time I can.”

[Bleu]

Jack followed Maya, keeping up the charade easily. It was not hard for him to look defeated as he was dragged ahead like a dog, and his expression was one he had worn many times before. Despite all the excitement he was feeling, Jack could still sense that something was different. The guards were looking to him as if he was out of place, as if Maya herself was out of place. He wondered briefly whether it would have been better if Maya had actually killed the Master.

He deserved it.

The man didn’t need to ask, however. Jack knew that he was still alive, and he would waste no time in asking Maya about it. It didn’t matter, not really. The only thing that mattered was the need for them to reach the TARDIS, to put an end to all the Master’s madness. His eyes searched Maya, finding the gun he carried with her. Jack didn’t have time to wonder whether it would work, his gut was leading him.

Jack fought back the temptation to smile, despite himself.

After Maya led them both past the guard and into the room where the TARDIS was, she offered him the key. Jack took it, giving Maya the first truly since smile that crossed his lips before pulling in closer to give her a brief embrace.

“Thank you,” he motioned quickly to the gun, “but I’ll need your gun.”

And so he took it, turning to open the TARDIS as quickly as he could.

“Maya!” The Master called playfully after the girl who betrayed him, and it sounded like he was quickly approaching the two of them. “Why are you hiding from me?”

Jack didn’t let the man’s cold voice affect him. It didn’t matter right then all that the Master had done to him, all the torture he had endured because of that man. Jack pushed through the struggle and managed to open the TARDIS. He did not hesitate and he did not think.

Jack simply opened fire.
 

[Krystal Itzume]

The embrace caught Maya by surprise, so much so that there was no thought of resisting when the gun was taken from her hands. The Master had his moments of kindness, but this was far different. There was a sincerity to it that could have broken her heart, as she considered it might be one of their last interactions.

She didn’t know what was going to happen after this, and let Jack go without protest. She didn’t even return the embrace, too surprised.

The Master called out, and Maya turned around towards the door, away from the TARDIS. “I’m not hiding!” She called, uncertain if it would be loud enough. Foolish, absolutely foolish, but Maya was certain he already knew where she was.

She no longer had the gun, so her hand instead went to the bat. She knew that she wouldn’t use it, but it was something to brandish as Jack unloaded on the machine behind her. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, but wasn’t allowed to see anything within the TARDIS. The Valiant rocked suddenly, and Maya lost her footing and fell onto her left side, no doubt bruising her shoulder from the surprise fall.


What Maya didn’t know, but what the Doctor sensed immediately, was that time was reversing itself.

The Doctor smiled, and then he laughed in his room as he finally took hold of his own energy to heal his aged body. The golden glow surrounded him, reversing his age as the cells began to rapidly heal. He wouldn’t have bothered with this earlier, since the Master would have simply aged him back. It’d be a waste of energy. However, he knew that now, it wasn’t.

[Bleu]

Jack could sense that time was reversing, though perhaps not to the extent that the Doctor could. Nevertheless, it brought about a nostalgic thrill inside him – starting off at first as only a sensation, but growing into a tempest of emotion. Maya had done what Martha was supposed to do, and the Master had been stopped in his tracks of world dominion. Even though time was fixing itself, erasing all that had happened from existence, Jack could not bring himself to stop the gun.

The gun continued its shriek, and Jack would emerge proud from the TARDIS.

The Doctor would live, and all the lives that had been lost would be revived in an alternate past. The blond rebel who the Master disfigured would live. Donovan, the guard who tried to kill the Master, would live. Even Robert, the paralegal who’d run the Valiant for a time, would see the light of day again. All the others, too. All of them.

The same could not be said about the Master. He’d sensed it too, of course, and there was nothing that he could have done to stop it. The Valiant tumbled as the paradox machine crumbled, yet the Master managed to stay afoot as he approached Maya and Jack.

The Master let out a shout, angered and completely demented. However brief it was, it still reflected just how frustrated and livid he was about the situation. Despite it all, he was still confused. In his search for Maya, he had not truly realized what was going to happen to his paradox machine. Perhaps it was that the paradox machine simply didn’t matter to him as much as Maya’s betrayal did.

This seemed even worse than death, in a way.

“Why?!” He asked the fallen Maya on the floor as he emerged in the room, eyes cold and unkind.

Jack was soon out of the TARDIS, gun in hand. He’d protect Maya from the Master’s retaliation. Dying again seemed like an easy price to pay for their victory. Whatever the Master had done before, it was now gone. It was all erased.

At long last, it was over.

[Krystal Itzume]

As the Valiant started to settle, the Master entered in the room. ‘Can he fix it?’ was Maya’s first worry. Then she heard the Master’s question and her gaze settled on his. She heard Jack step out of the TARDIS, and could see he still had the gun. He didn’t fire senselessly.

‘No, he never did.’

The three of them had been on a ship together, before. Memory, dream, the future or the past, Maya found she was too disoriented to know or care, but she knew its truth all the same. Jack had protected her, and Jack hadn’t fired senselessly at the Master. Was it his Doctor that kept him pacified, or was it something else?

‘Something else.’ Maya determined as she managed to sit up.

Her phone rang. Maya knew it was Angelus, and saying his name as the reason was on the tip of her tongue, but it wasn’t complete.

Not complete enough, anyway. Maya clicked the reject button.

Maya placed the bat on the ground and rose, hands open, “I can’t tell you why,” she spoke slowly, carefully, “but I can show you.” She’d never seen or understood all the Master could do with minds, but she knew his control could be absolute. She’d seen what he did to Robert, after all. If he could do that, certainly he could just see.

One hand was extended towards him, “Come see.” It was an invitation meant to trick her own mind into allowing permission, though she knew she might regret it. She was dead anyway. If Jack died, she’d be next. There was no point in Jack’s senseless sacrifice.

~***~

The Doctor was left only with one, very clearly afraid, guard when he kicked the door of his own cage and crawled out. The Doctor didn’t care where the other guards were, he only cared where Jack and the Master were, and all his senses were telling him they were in the same place. They were at his TARDIS which was, blissfully, a TARDIS again.

He knew the path, and didn’t spare the guard a look. He did pause to pick up his sonic screwdriver, kept far from him at all times, but always in sight—the cruel torture of the Master. He spun it in hand, smiled, and then ran to get to the TARDIS room.

[Bleu]

The Master wanted to explode in rage, to unleash his very frustration on all who were present, but he knew that wasn’t the wisest choice anymore. No, things were far too delicate for that anymore. The complexity of the situation kept him temporarily paralyzed. The Time Lord turned, and Jack settled his gaze on him – hard and unforgiving. If there was a way that the Master could rebuild what he had lost, he couldn’t see it.

“What game are you playing?” The Master looked to Maya and her outstretched hand, confused and defensive. “Are you mocking me?” When he looked to Maya, however, the Master saw something different in her. It was as if now, in hindsight, he could see just how masked and insincere Maya had been up until that point. Despite that, the Master felt like she was not lying to him right then.

Could she really control whatever it had been that prevented him from intruding upon her mind?

“Maya,” said Jack, a single word that served as a warning to what she was about to do. He took a step forward, entirely intending to stop the Master from reaching her, but something stopped him.

Jack stopped in his tracks, but the Master approached Maya. She looked sincere, but her betrayal had left a wound that had not yet healed. Just before reaching for her hand (and despite being fully tempted to just strangle her), the Master ruthlessly attacked her mind.

The barriers which had kept him at bay before were now gone. It didn’t feel like Maya was trying to keep him out at all, and so he found what she had to offer. These were dreams, thoughtless interpretations and imaginations of things that didn’t make sense. At first, the Master didn’t even question their validity.

Except…

These weren’t just dreams or hopeful wishes. These images that began to flood into the Master’s mind were memories, and they felt real. The Master knew better than to believe them, so why couldn’t he tell the difference between these memories and his own? How had she known that rebel before she’d even met him? What about that man that seemed all too familiar, the one he’d never seen before?

The Master’s mind control lost its aggression, and instead just maintained a calm hold on Maya’s memories.
The Master’s confusion was evident, and it seemed like for a moment the drums had lost their hold on him. Something much larger was at play here, and it left a hollow feeling in the Master’s stomach.

“Who are you?”

'Who are you to me?'

***

Martha’s eyes opened as if she had just woken from deep sleep. Her mind began to race – desperately trying to remember what had happened. It was useless, of course. Whatever had happened in the year, it was as if it had never existed. When she craned her neck forward and pushed herself up, she recognized immediately that she was on the Valiant.

But how?

And then she saw him, quite a ways away, but he was absolutely unmistakable. Martha’s hand absently reached for her neck, as if searching for something. With a look of both worry and relief, she broke into a sprint towards the man.

“Doctor!”

Without hesitating and without warning, she embraced him.

“What’s going on?”

[Krystal Itzume]

"It's okay, Jack. Trust me." Maya managed to say, right before she felt the force of the Master's probbing.

It hurt.

Maya had expected it to, but it was a pain unlike any she’d ever known, for who on Earth could have possibly attacked her mind? Physical, emotional, and even mental assault were things she was familiar with, but this was a different level. She grit her teeth and shut her eyes, did her best to keep the guards down and to keep her hand from digging her nails into the flesh of the Master’s.

She didn’t try to direct the thoughts. That would have been far beyond her skill, and she was smart enough to know what she could and couldn’t do. This was something new, something she was only just beginning to understand.

Then, it calmed. The agony of having her mind assaulted left a throbbing pain, but the sharpness of it was gone. Maya opened her eyes, and in her mind’s eye she could see what the Master was seeing, knew which memories he was flicking through. Her breathing slowed to match her calm, and she was pleased to see the Master was confused.

His question came, and Maya could only answer, “I’ve been asking myself that for a while. I don't think I ever belonged here.” Maya was not the guard, though she’d played that role. “None of this seems quite right, does it? I think I’m her, though. Somehow.” That had to be how she had the ring, that ring that only the Master could have, that ring which she’d caught when it was thrown to her in a time that once was.

Her hand finally closed around his hand, the way it had in times that once were. “I think we’re friends.”

As far as they’d admit. As far as she’d confess.

~***~

The Doctor had been so lost in his concern that he hadn’t seen Martha there, and he nearly fell over when her body collided with his, taking him into an embrace. He staggered, but laughed and threw his arms around her, happy.

She was alive. “Martha Jones!” He declared in the happiest of voices, pulling her tighter against him, “I’m so glad,” he said, his mind rushing back to the fact she had been dead. He almost said it, but then he remembered there was still a problem.

Just as quickly as Martha had initiated it, the Doctor broke it with sudden force, “We have to get to Jack. He should be at the TARDIS. Come on now!” He said, and he took off running, hoping Martha would follow him.

[Bleu]

Maya’s words were honest, but they didn’t help clarify anything. Quite the opposite, actually. They raised questions that the Master would have never asked before. How had this been possible? A paradox had created all of this, his ring that was given to her by an unfamiliar man. What did it all mean? Why was she sent here? And perhaps most importantly: who was behind it?

“Friends…,” the word sounded strange coming out of the Master’s lips, and yet when he said it he felt his grip on Maya’s hand soften. When Maya closed her grip on his hand, the loud bangs came back into his mind.

They were painful, and their echoes made the man flinch. The Master closed his eyes, in agony and frustration, but he didn’t act out. They were trying to control him, but they were weaker. The drums were banging loudly, but they were losing their strength. The Master wasn’t bending to the drums, and he was beginning to understand what was different between this world and the other.

It was him.

The Master withdrew his hand and took a step back, silent. This single act was enough for Jack to question whether the Master was entirely mad. He surely didn’t seem so in that moment. It was different, and even though he hated the man, Jack couldn’t ignore it.

Not even the steps of people approaching caused a change in the Master. 

As soon as Martha emerged, Jack smiled – his expression that of complete relief. Everything had been fixed, it seemed.

“I…don’t know what to do.”

The Master was lost, and he was absolutely terrified of the drums, the uncertainty, and his other life.

[Krystal Itzume]

At the start of this, Maya would have never imagined this as the end result, but when the Master had gone through her dreams it seemed to solidify them in her head as memories and she held fast to them. She wouldn’t let them slip back into the abyss of thought, as so many dreams did. She didn’t want to forget it.

He let go of her hand and slipped back. Maya didn’t move. She was torn between moving back to Jack and asking him the favor that she knew she needed to ask, and approaching the Master.

Running steps complicated things more, as first Martha—a woman Maya could never forget—appeared in the doorway, and then the Doctor. The Doctor not as an old man, but as a youthful person Maya had seen once before in a movie. ‘And in a maze. In a maze with Rose.’

There was a shriek in the back of her mind, and Maya keeled forward, a hand going to her head as the Doctor looked, bewildered, from all the faces. The Master was injured, but not dead. Jack looked confused and concerned. Maya was—oh hell, she was holding her head—but the Master didn’t appear to be behind. He was…not in control? He didn’t know what to do?

“What?” The Doctor couldn’t stop his own confusion. Since when did the Master not know what to do? He immediately looked to Jack, “What’s going on?” Because he was so utterly lost now, to see the Master lost.

When Maya got a grip of the pain, it was not the Maya of the Year that was looking through those young eyes. It was Maya Porter of five years in the future, and she looked quite bewildered herself. The memories of this Year quickly became her own in the span of seconds, and the rush of thought was difficult to accept. However, when she looked up, she took hold of the last few moments and made sense of them as best she could.

Her phone was ringing again, and Maya grabbed it. The name Aeron was on it, and Maya hurled the phone away from her with force, startling the Doctor. “Master,” Maya called to him, said, “Don’t worry. The drums will be gone, and five years from now, I’ll understand. So will Jack.” She turned to look to Jack, to say something along the lines of ‘I love you’, because it would slip so easily to Jack, the love for him like that for Angelus, but all she got was, “Jack, I—” and then she was ripped from the Year rather violently, time up.

[Bleu]

When Maya crumbled, the Master was concerned. There was no hiding it, and he couldn’t even stop himself from showing it. The pounding in his head was becoming louder, but it didn’t matter. The Master wanted to approach Maya more, to help her, but he couldn’t. He took a step forward, but nothing more than that resulted. How was he supposed to stop something that he couldn’t control?

Who was attacking her?

Jack was at her side at once, but even he was confused about what was happening.

When the Doctor spoke and after Maya got a grip on her pain, the Master turned to face him. The Doctor seemed to be just as confused as he was, which wasn’t comforting at all. Not often was the Master without any answers, and in the rare occasion that such a thing would happen, the Master would have normally turned to the Doctor. In the past, that is, when they were friends. Perhaps even still.

“It’s the drums,” guessed Jack after the Doctor’s query, but he was sure that the Doctor knew that already. “Something is causing this.”

“I’m not supposed to be here,” said the Master, though not entirely true. “Maya is not supposed to be here.”

Then, Maya spoke. She spoke of a future where the drums would be gone, when the two of them would be friends. It sounded perfect, but he didn’t want to hope in vain. “Do you promise?” He asked in tamed agony, but it was of no use. Maya had turned to Jack, and then she was gone. Maya was gone, and the Master began to feel empty again. It was not a feeling he would wish even on his greatest enemies.

It was instinct when the Master turned to the Doctor. “Help me!”

And then everything began to disassemble. Slowly, everything began to get erased. Every action, every decision, every memory.

The Year was no more.


End of thread.