Owl from the Master to the Ninth Doctor

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

Doctor,

I'm sure you've noticed that your gung-ho boy Jack is on the premises. You might want to let him know he just doesn't have the talent to be a sexual predator; I'd never be able to let him down easy.

Do I really need to sign?



((ETA: NSFW!))

Comments

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"I never ask them to follow me to their death. I try to help them, I don't wreck their lives intentionally," he protested. A faint grimace creased his features as the knots tightened.

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"You think that's an improvement?" Finished with the ropework, he seized a candlestick from his desk and swung it, clipping the Doctor hard on the small of his back. "The road to your hell is paved with good intentions, but it burns just as hot."

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

The force of the blow dropped him to his knees. He grunted with the impact, "Yes. It matters. It matters to me. I don't destroy just for the sake of it."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"Do you like it, being able to be someone's last, most desperate hope? Feeling them need you?" The sneer was plain in his voice, and he kicked the Doctor sharply in the ribs. "Is that how it started?"

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

Pain bloomed red behind his eyes. "Yes, being.. needed, and helping set things right," he gasped. "I try to set things right."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"You like to solve puzzles. Having all that gratitude thrown at you must just make it all the sweeter. And of course you need your adoring audience, no matter how banged up they might get." The Master paced in a tight circle, considering his next blow.

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"I don't need the audience," he grated. "I solve the puzzle, I unravel the problem. I help them." He pulled himself back to his knees. "I never want them to get hurt."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

The Master knelt opposite him, leaning close enough for their foreheads to touch. "No, you don't. You never want them to. But you know they will. The moment you meet them, you know they will. Of course, that's not important, as long as you're not alone."

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"I try and leave them before they get hurt, I try to save them. I don't ask them to die, I don't want them to die. But I was so tired of being alone out there. Even with the TARDIS it was so hard."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"So you do all these good deeds to make up for the lives you ruin in order to assuage your own desperate loneliness." He elbowed the Doctor hard in the stomach.

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

The blow drove the air from his lungs and he doubled over, coughing raggedly. "I had to try. I had to try and set things right. Someone had to help them."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"And now of course you have 'atone for the misdeeds of my people' to add to your tasteful wardrobe of hair shirts." The Master backhanded him almost dismissively. "You're making a spectacle of yourself."

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

The blow knocked him backwards, he tasted bllood on his lips. "Atone for their misdeeds? I killed them! I killed them all," he nearly screamed.

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he shrieked, grabbing the Doctor's shoulders. "All of them. All dead. Tell me. Tell me what that makes you!"

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"Death! Not the Oncoming Storm, I was Death! I killed them all.." his words trailed off into a half-choked sob. "I didn't want to."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"Didn't want to," the Master taunted, with another punch to the stomach. "Really? Really? Tell me you don't think they should be dead! Can you? Can you say that and not be lying?"

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

He groaned, doubling over again. "No. Not after what they did. After what Rassilon did.. I had to stop them."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"All that power," the Master murmured, leaning close again, resting his cheek against the Doctor's shoulder. "Everything of them that survives. Yours now, isn't it? What does that make you?"

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"A criminal," he rasped, coughing. "A killer."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"Strongest," the Master countered softly, trailing his fingertips up the Doctor's chest with obscene gentleness, caressing his throat and cupping his cheek. "A warrior. Victorious." The Master kissed him eagerly, wanting to laugh.

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

The Doctor shuddered at the touch, eagerly welcoming the kiss. A low groan of desire escaped him. He craved that touch, needed it.

Victory. Only he could think of the War in such base terms.

"I can't do it alone. I never could."

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"But you did," the Master reminded him. "You brought it all down. Brought down your judgment on Gallifrey. Executioner of the Time Lords. Has anyone ever tasted such power?"

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

"No. No one ever should. It was too much," he rasped, grimacing at the sharp pain in his side. If a rib hadn't been broken, it was certainly cracked.

[theregothedrums.livejournal.com]

"All that power," the Master continued blithely, "and you had it in your hands." In a counterpoint to his words, he pulled the Doctor into his arms, cradling him gently. "The ultimate destruction. The crowning height of our civilization. And it will be inside you forever."

[fantastic-nine.livejournal.com]

He turned his head, seeking the Master as he gathered him near. "Yes. All that death. All I wanted to do was create, to build and all I did was destroy."

The Master was right. It was something that he would carry inside him, but unlike the Master, he would take no dark joy in that. He simply couldn't.