(no subject)

[ladyofleithian]

Title: Still Believe

Summary: He isn’t as alone as he thinks he is. No matter what the Master may do to them, they will not break. Ninth Doctor/Martha friendship fic.

Warnings: Mentions of torture, mind rape.

Prompt: Isolation

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

He isn’t as alone as he thinks he is. Not by a long shot. No matter what the Master may tell him, he’s never, ever alone.

Martha Jones knows this, more than anything. Rose is still out there – and she’s loyal to him. Jack is still there, willing to do whatever he can to resist the Master. And the Doctor, wonderful clever Doctor, is still finding a way to defy the Master. Hooking himself into the Archangel network. Trying to find ways to counteract the drum signal that the Master has put in there.

Her family is enslaved. Occasionally, the Master makes Martha watch as one of them is tortured – or as Jack or the Doctor is tortured, as if to tell her what will happen if she tries to escape. Still, in the meanwhile, Martha tries to console Tish, to provide support when she can, while trying to stay in touch with Rose as best she can. They are teammates, after all. 

The good news is that Rose is still out there, boosting the signal. They can never stop the signal. The Master thinks he's all-powerful, all-knowing, a god over men, a Timelord victorious -- but he knows nothing. He knows nothing of the story Rose is telling, of why the Doctor and her and everyone else continue to resist.

The Master knows nothing of anything. And that could be his weakness.

***

It’s on one of her visits to the Doctor that she notices him, curled up in the dog kennel-esque thing that the Master has set up for him (she cannot help but wonder why the Master would make it look like a dog kennel, but she supposes that she’ll never quite understand anything about the Master), knees drawn up to his chest almost like a small child, head at his knees, murmuring something that sounds almost like, “I’m not a murderer, I’m not a murderer, I’m not – ’’

What has the Master done to him this time? Even now, Martha shudders to think what the Master might have done to this brave, good man – the Doctor and Jack are the Master’s “favorites”, but especially the Doctor. While Jack seems to be just a project to see how many ways you can kill a person (which is bad enough), the Doctor – there seems to be something much more personal between the Master and the Doctor.

The Doctor mentioned something about them being friends in their childhood, on Gallifrey. Martha has a feeling, though, that it’s not the whole story.

“Doctor,” she says, softly.

The Doctor doesn’t seem to notice her. “Tried to save them, all dead – all dead –’’ He laughs, and it sounds horrible, almost a maniacal, broken laugh.

“Doctor, it’s me, Martha. It’s all right.”

Silence.

The Doctor raises his head, and Martha winces – there are bruises on there, near his eye and on his neck. Worst of all are his eyes – they are glazed over in an almost thousand-yard stare, as he gets whenever he speaks of what he did in the Time War.

“Martha...”

“Yes,” she says, “It’s me. It’s all right.”

“No. No, it’s not. We’re still on this stinking ship, in the custody of this tyrant – ’’

“Rose is still boosting the signal, Doctor. Please don’t give up.” You never give up, she pleads with him, silently. Please!

“Right.” The Doctor seems to come back to himself – his eyes are less glazed over, at least. More focused. “They can never stop the signal.”

“Exactly, Doctor. Now please...” Martha holds out the food in hand. “Please, eat.”

The Doctor eats, but it’s more picking at the food – the Master was feeling generous today, apparently. Instead of the usual “prison gruel” that the Doctor tends to joke about, it’s plums today. Plum salad, to be more precise.

“Not bad,” he says, rather sardonically, “The Master’s upped his standards.”

Martha chuckles, if slightly. Then she falters. “What happened, Doctor? What did he do?”

Silence.

“The Master has this...machine. The Projector. It is said to show you your worst fears, your greatest tragedies – everything terrible that’s happened to you. He showed me, and...and – ’’

“What did you see?”

“I saw the Time War. I saw Daleks and Time Lords alike, dying because of my actions. And he saw it – he made a point to...taunt me about it. To congratulate me again, of sorts, for destroying my own planet.”

Even now, Martha can’t believe it. The Doctor, the kindly Doctor, having to make a decision that destroyed his own home...

“And the ‘best’ part – it’s not over. He gets to do it again!” The Doctor laughs that horrible laugh – that maniacal, sardonic, broken laugh. “As long as I’m on this ship, as long as I’m in his custody – he gets to do it again and again and again...”

Even now, as he breaks down, Martha can do nothing but hold onto him, comfort him as best she can. To whisper words of comfort to him, to hold him like her mother used to do to comfort her whenever she had a nightmare when she was small. Only in this case, the monsters are very, very real.

“We won’t let him break us, Doctor,” she says, softly. “And that’s a fact.”