ladyofleithian | (no subject)

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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.”

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Still got Ainley's Master running in my head now, but you're still telling the story well. And apparently you're on a roll if you're cranking them out practically back-to-back.

Thank you! :D I'll admit, I've been mostly trying to reconcile all different versions of the Master into one character (not an easy feat. XD). Although I am curious...what makes you think of Ainley's version? (Not angry, just curious. :)

Just the cadence of the speech combined with mustache twirling. It popped in there, and I'm not really sure that there was a "why" after that. My brain just went with it. lol

Ah. Okay. :) I just thought it was a bit odd, because outside of maybe "Castrovalva", I didn't really see much of Ainley's Master, sadly. However, after you mentioned it, I did look up some clips of Ainley's Master, and the most I got was some apparent game footage supposed to lead into the TV movie. Speaking of the TV movie, why oh why did they have to cast Eric Roberts? I mean, technically it was Demonic Possession, but *still*... #Sorry, had to bitch. But anyway, it mostly involved Ainley!Master pleading with the Doctor for his life regarding the Daleks. Which, I must say, if even the Master is fucking terrified of you, this is not a drill, to say the least.

Edited 2012-06-17 03:11 (UTC)

It's all good. Eric Roberts is worth bitching about. He managed to screw up nearly everything he's in. I liked him as Michael in The Prophecy, but that's probably because it was a minor role, and he didn't say much. :P

Knowing what I know about the Master, there's very little reason for him to be terrified of either Dalek or Doctor. He was supposedly in his last regen when we met him in Pertwee's run. He'd seen everything, done everything, and has no qualms about doing it again. He uses everyone as pawns, and he knows when he's in over his head. He might be a little frightened for his life in the moment, but when the moment passes, he's instantly back to his old self.

Hee...I can imagine. XD Honestly, they should have brought in Sean Bean or Gary Oldman for the Master. Seriously. Eric Roberts? And it doesn't help regarding that ridiculous costume he wears when he's about to steal the Doctor's remaining lives (as I recall).

Ah. Gotcha. So in the game footage, it might have also been him trying to appeal to the Doctor via whatever friendship they had left. *Has a bit of a soft spot for kinda-sorta-still-loves-the-Doctor!Master. I know. XD*

*Takes more notes regarding the Master* What? It's what I do. XD

Those would be excellent choices! I'm still thinking they should use SG-1's Cliff Simon ("Ba'al"). He was bred for that role.

You know... they both lie. We don't know what the nature of that "friendship" was. Just a thought.

I sadly haven't seen SG-1, but that I can imagine! :D Also, if he hadn't played the Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. I'm sure he could bring the sort of manic, cultured quality to the character. :)

Maybe. :) We don't really know.

God, I didn't even consider Eccleston. He has the chops for that kind of role. Cliff Simon, though... that's hard to beat. Seriously, watch SG-1. You'll end up with a new fandom. It's brutally snarky. Watch the movie first though.

Okay, okay. :) I'll definitely get the movie on download or something. :)

But yes, Eccleston really *can* play the Master. Menacing, yet also bizarrely likeable at the same time. :)

*Briefly considers a rewrite of the TV movie and oh sweet Jesus not another plotbunny dammit -- *

Don't you know? Plotbunnies are like tribbles - they're born pregnant!

XD.

Tell you what -- how about you could rewrite the TV movie sometime? At the very least, you don't have to -- just consider it. :) Because honestly? With how well you're doing with DC-53, I think you can do it. :)

You know, I can make it all better even easier and faster. My Doctor Who buddy knows this book that takes place right after the movie, and in the first two pages, it explains everything into canon and makes it better. I'll ask him which book it is.

But I appreciate the vote of confidence! It might be fun to write an 8th Doctor adventure. Or ANY Doctor, really...

That sounds amazing! :D Let me know when you find it. :)

And no problem. :)

And that I can imagine. :) Hell, I've been having fun with this so far -- mostly because it's an excuse to play around with Nine's character some more, which is fun. I love Ten, make no mistake, I think Ten is made of amazing, but there's just something about Nine that is way too much fun to play around with. :) I think some of my favorite scenes to write so far were him bitching the Master out during the phone conversation (although I will admit I made a really, really bad judgment call -- I missed Ten's original line about the Toclaphane. Granted, Nine would behave differently than Ten, and I didn't want Nine to be too much like Ten, if you get what I mean, but it's a pretty important piece of exposition regarding that, up until now, the Doctor mostly thought the Toclaphane were the boogeymen or something. So...all the facepalms for my bad judgment. All of them. XD), as well as some of the scenes on the VALIANT. Especially with Martha -- I think I got Martha down okay, at least.

(Sorry if I sound really self-absorbed; I'm mostly doing a bit of an evaluation here. Especially since I'll admit I'm nervous -- I've never really done this before)

Evaluation is a good thing! How else do you know if you're hitting the marks you want to hit?

Very true. :)

And I think for me it'll be especially useful -- I really do try to hit my targets at times. I try to be on the mark regarding characterization and dialogue and detail and what-have-you, but let's say in terms of details...at times I kind of forget a detail. Other times I make a really bad typo or misplaced modifier -- let's say in terms of crossposting to AO3, as a result, I've kind of had to revise a bit. And sometimes add a few details.

Most of my typos are mostly leaving words out by accident because my brain automatically fills it in for me. Have you ever had those? :)

Of course. That's a sure sign of being in the flow. If you're editing as you go, that's not flow. Write, THEN edit!

Definitely some good advice for me to heed, I say. :) Especially considering that my inner editor has a bit of a bad habit of going, "Hey, you forgot this and that and such and such and that and such!" Sometimes, it can be useful, such as pulling out a pretty useful character trait, but most of the time, it's like, "Stop helping me!"

*Sighs*

I will admit in my lurker days, it was even worse. Especially when I was, say, writing for the LOTR fandom. Seriously, if you look up "pedantic" in the dictionary, you'd see the more hardcore of the LOTR fandom -- at least, the ones that felt the need to flaming newbie writers for not writing "their" stories. Fanfiction.net was definitely a breeding ground for that sort of stupidity. I mean, you have no idea.

I'm bad about it too. My inner editor likes to strangle my creativity, but I'm gaining ground! lol

I can't even take hardcore LOTR fandom seriously. They're not hardcore enough. There are people who actually get degrees in Tolkien now! That's insane!

I want one. lol

That's good to know. :) And fortunately, I'm gaining some degree of ground as well -- it helps that a lot of people here are ridiculously nice and supportive. :)

Hee -- I want one too. Seriously. :)

But yeah -- hardcore non-sane LOTR fandom might not be hardcore enough (although if that's the case, I shudder to think what could possibly top it. XD), but let's say that their stupidity was enough to prematurely raise my blood pressure, really. XD

It's true! I've gotten more support out of this one story than out of any past attempt. I might have to shoot through NaNoWriMo this year!

I can imagine... Everyone's got to be right, and nobody knows a thing about what Tolkien actually intended, and it's really up to that one guy who tears apart everything to sort it all out because he's the worst of the worst fan that ever lived... I had that on a Star Wars message board once, before the prequels, and on a DC board once. Never again.

Seriously, do it! :D At the very least, we can plow through it together. :)

That's very true. I will admit that I've been going through the book of his letters, and it's been pretty fun to read. :) I know one letter I really liked was him telling a friend that his writing the scene on the stairs of Cirith Ungol in TTT was one of his favorite scenes -- if only because it was mine as well. I mean...d'awww. (Even if it was ruined by what came later. Seriously, I'm not even arachnophobic, and Shelob pretty much followed me into nightmare land when I was a kid)

Oh, *ouch*. *Hugs* You have my complete sympathies. Seriously, message boards can have some genius stuff on there, but most of the time, they pretty much breed brand new forms of hardcore stupidity. I know the KOTOR Fan Media forums taught me that -- the hard way. :P ~~As did JCF.~~

I just need the right story to tell... something epic that will carry me through a novel...

You got the first draft set of the War of the Ring, didn't you? That's an addictive little piece of insight...

This was when the internet was new, so those scars are long healed. Besides, I had the knowledge under my belt to compete. I was Joff-slapping before there was a Joff!

I swear that GIF never gets old. XD Seriously. XD

Maybe you could try a DOCTOR WHO story or something. Or STAR WARS -- I'd love to see your take on that! :D

Oh God, yes. Seriously, I love that stuff -- getting into the minds of how writers wrote their stories. I've grown to love the DVD commentary for the LOTR movies (the Director/Writers' commentary that is) for that very reason. :) That and Peter and co. are made of awesome on multiple levels -- insightful, funny, all that good stuff. :)

And that's good to know. Still kind of sucks, though. :(

My Joff GIF makes me grin. :P Here it is again, because I can...

Star Wars? Star Wars you say? Hmmm...

Oh very much so. The only issue I still have with the films is the ending. I want the Shire burning as Tolkien demanded! Still, hard to bitch about what we DID get. I mean, that Bakshi animated version came out when I was 4. I lived with THAT for far too long! Thank the Force for Peter Jackson!

Yeah, I was holy terror in college when it came to all things DC or Star Wars. It was fun.

That I can imagine. XD

Awesome! :D

And this, so very much. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed that the Scouring of the Shire wasn't in there, but that was because everything else was just so amazingly good that I have no doubt Peter and co. could have done it justice. :)

And yeah, the Bakshi version...yeah.

And that I can imagine.

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