but none of 'em were home inside the catacomb (for twood_rose)

[syncopath]

He had no way of knowing how long he had been in the dark; it was a funny thing, perhaps, but even a Time Lord must concede (as much as it might personally gall him) that death is timeless by its very nature. Still, he remembered everything.

When he awoke, groggily, the first thing he did was clap a hand to his neck, expecting a mark or a hole where the persistent memory of pain told him it should be. There was nothing. A ghost feeling. He blinked twice and sat up.

The room was dim, dusty and unused, and the small sink in the corner rattled ominously before spitting out water of some unsavory color, but there was comfort, egregiously tiny as it may be, in washing up as best he could. He surveyed his surroundings again. Besides the mattress he'd woken up on (and who had placed him there?) the room boasted nothing else.

He knew when he was, but not where. Or why. Not for the first time, he wondered if it might not be a prison.

The Master took panicked strides toward the door, fully expecting it not to open when he yanked on the handle roughly, and almost falling backwards when he was proven wrong.

A maze of hallways spread itself before him, each equally dim and dusty as the room behind. As the Master began to walk, it became obvious what he'd somehow known from the moment he opened the door. It wasn't a prison.

It was a ruin.

Comments

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

That earned a snap of her head.

"What exactly do you expect me to do about it?" she said irritably. "Any of it? They don't stop. I can't possibly understand what you're going through. And neither can the Doctor. Fine, fantastic, and now that that's settled..."

She stood and tried to wrench her hand out of the Master's grasp.

[syncopath]

The Master tightened his grip, holding her there for another moment and giving her a hard wordless look, before suddenly releasing her and turning away.

Always the Doctor. Always the Doctor coming between them.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

He turned away, and she glared at his back. Always playing the Doctor card.

"What do you want?" she said finally, with a stomp of her foot. "You blow hot and cold on me, draw me in then push me away... for god's sake, make up your mind!"

[syncopath]

He whirled on her, closing the distance between them quickly, his face dark, maliciously angry. "I see. You'd like me to make up my mind, would you? Do you imagine this is some sort of game?" He made a grab for her.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

She tried to dodge, but he was too fast for her, and she yelped in pain as his fingers dug into her flesh. She glared at him, shaking.

"You're the one making it a bloody game," she near spat into his face, her eyes flashing. "I'm not your pet, I'm not your toy, I'm not your plaything."

[syncopath]

His laughter was harsh. "Oh, there's that fire again," he remarked approvingly.

"Why don't you tell me, then, Rose Tyler-- stop struggling, now, I'll only hold you more tightly-- tell me, what is it you think you are? Friend? Lover? Confidante? Savior?" He made each option sound patently ridiculous.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

She stopped, but continued to glare. She knew that to answer that question as it was asked would mean trouble no matter what.

"Why don't you tell me," she seethed, "and stop dicking about?"

[syncopath]

The challenge caught him off-guard for a moment, and he faltered, before his anger caught up with him again.

"Nothing," he hissed out the spiteful lie, giving her a little shake. "You are a little... human... nothing."

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

Her heart wrenched, and she swallowed.

"That's not true," she said quietly. "If I was nothing to you, you would have left me already."

[syncopath]

"Don't flatter yourself," the Master snapped, but he continued to hold her there, not knowing quite what to do with her.

"Did you really believe that a stunted ape from a backwater planet could possibly hold the interest of a Time Lord? Do you even know what I did to your precious Earth?" He gave her an almost desperate look, as if he needed her to know.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she said, her voice still quiet. "The Doctor told me. Jack told me. I know what you did. And I know it was undone."

She swallowed.

"I think," she continued slowly, "that you don't want to say I mean something to you because it makes you vulnerable. And that is what scares you more than anything."

[syncopath]

He laughed. "Oh, no, no you don't. Don't you dare try to get inside my head. Not this time."

He yanked Rose towards a wall of the cave, intending to pin her there.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

She struggled, of course, but it did very little good. The only thing she accomplished was cracking the back of her head even harder against the rock than the Master's actions alone would have managed. The flash of pain made her whimper, and she sagged in the Master's grasp.

[syncopath]

The Master felt a flash of concern, deep down, as Rose's skull connected with the wall with a little thud. A small moment of

what am i doing

before his common sense resurfaced.

"I warned you," he told her sternly, before pressing on her shoulders to push her to the floor.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

She couldn't do much more than slide to her knees, leaning against him, her eyes closed, feeling dizzy and a little sick to her stomach. It wasn't hard enough to give her a concussion... she hoped... but she certainly wasn't feeling so hot.

[syncopath]

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked her harshly, as if all this were her fault. In truth, part of him was enjoying her supplicant posture, his position above, very much. In truth, another part of him was tense, on the edge of something terrible and alluring.

And it was all her fault.

"Look at me," he demanded, yanking her head back by her hair.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

She didn't even have the energy to yelp. Instead she grimaced, and moaned, and raised her eyes to his.

[syncopath]

"That's better," he said in a tight voice, looking her over. Rassilon, she was like a ragdoll in his arms, limp and just as useless.

"I brutalized your planet," he informed her, "And I enjoyed every second of it. I would have built an empire-- a new home-- on its ashes, if it weren't for the Doctor and his pathetic little band of companions. Your species is nothing to me but a means to an end. Do you understand?"

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

"He stopped you," she said hoarsely. "Him andhis companions. Humans."

She coughed a little, smiled a little in spite of the pain.

"Friend? Lover? Confidante? Savior? Yes. Yes I am. I was all that to the Doctor. I have been all that to you. And that just scares the daylights out of you, doesn't it?"

[syncopath]

"You're wrong." The Master pushed her away from him violently, taking a few steps back himself to increase the distance, as if she had suddenly become a dangerous thing.

"You're wrong," he repeated, words having temporarily fled him in his rage.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

And again against the rock, more her back than her head this time. She groaned, and slumped against the cave wall, then opened her eyes to regard him.

"No," she stated. "I'm not."

She coughed a little, shivered, the cave still drafty, damp and cold from the storm outside.

"If I'm n-nothing to you now, then l-leave. Go find your own way off this d-dead rock. I'll not stay just as your toy... your means to an end."

[syncopath]

The Master tried to ignore his sense of misgiving, watching Rose shiver on the cave floor.

"You'll not tell me what to do," he growled. "Little fool. I do as I please, with you or otherwise. It is my right."

Although his words were stilted, he sounded like a bit more like a sulky boy than a Time Lord.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

"You h-have no r-right," she chattered, shivering harder. "You h-have n-nothing that you d-don't s-steal. You're n-nothing but a thief."

Rose's skin was getting very pale, and her lips were tinged with blue. With the cold and the psychological and physical trauma, her body was beginning to drift into shock. She lowered her head, curled in on herself, shaking hard, trying to warm herself at least a little.

[syncopath]

He laughed, painfully, at that, thinking of what the Doctor had taken away from him, his own plans, his genuine hard work, laid to waste. Abandoned time and again by the cowardly hypocrite. Taking away his home, his origins, leaving him stranded, awash in the universe.

The Doctor is the thief. Not me.

"You know nothing," he said, quietly, suddenly tired.

Rose's head dropped and he strode toward her quickly before he could think it through.

"No, no, no. No. You can't sleep." The Master attempted to push her upright, his hands on her shoulders.

[twood-rose.livejournal.com]

Rose's head lolled back and to the side, her eyelids fluttering open just a little.

"Can't," she mumbled. "Can't stay awake. Got to sleep. So tired..."

Her eyes closed again.