For Eileen <3<3

[pawnofrassilon]

On a cold spring evening in Wiltshire, in the year 2011, a man falls to Earth.

Some children look up and think they see a shooting star that night. Adults, knowing that whatever it is is far too large, think it might be a comet or meteor. Or else they assume it's a trick of the eyes, an afterimage of a headlamp on the road. Some, oddly enough, think of angels. News reports are non-definitive.

Much like the film, the man isn't quite a 'man' at all-- not by the twenty-first century Earth definition, anyhow. He's alien, though it's only by the doubling of his pulses and the nature of his abrupt appearance in the first place that any human could tell.

Unlike the film, he isn't particularly concerned with saving his home world. Not anymore.

The Master lies very still for a long time, heedless of the fact he's crumpled up in the middle of an open field. He's fallen quite a distance, even for a Time Lord. And many of his injuries are much, much older than that. His clothes are little more than rags, torn to shreds and singed to the point of near purposelessness. If it's even possible, he's dirtier than ever. Exhausted. Parched. Hungry. So hungry.

Eventually it's the hunger that gets him up and keeps him moving. Feeling the click and slide of bones that are likely dislocated if not broken, the Master struggles to his feet, heaving and wincing in pain, his skin becoming momentarily translucent with the effort. He's in trouble, his energy stores dangerously low and his body in real danger of being ripped apart. But it's nothing a little snack won't fix. Taking a great whiff of the night air, he cracks a grin just short of sanity... and lets his nose lead him staggering through the darkness.

Comments

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

She watches him warily. Of course he's right...she knows the Doctor was able to sense the presence of other Time Lords, so this one must be able to as well. But he still won't tell her his name, and that bothers her.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

[syncopath]

He stares evenly back at her. "Because the alternative is this: you'll keep me in one of your wretched little cells and continue to fling yourself between universes at random, wasting your life on the off chance you'll run into him. Tell me, Rose Tyler," the Master raises an eyebrow, "Do you think he'll still want you around when you're old and wrinkled?"

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she says, just as evenly, remembering Sarah Jane. "Yes, he would. Maybe it will take me the rest of my life to find him. Maybe I won't find him at all. But I have more chance if I'm alive than I would if you killed me with your bioelectric thing."

[syncopath]

The Master gives her a curt little smile, his temper getting the better of him. "I was hoping you'd be bright enough to know a bargain when one was presented. Forgive me; I should have been more clear. You'll keep me as long as you can. And after that, well. It won't be a matter of 'if' I kill you so much as 'when'."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

She eyes him.

"I let you go," she says, "and I have your word no harm will come to me or my team, and you'll help me find the Doctor?"

She's trying to keep a tone of disbelief out of her voice, and succeeding for the most part.

[syncopath]

His smile widens into something... not that much more pleasant, but it's a start.

"I give you my word," the Master agrees.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose's eyes flicker up to the cameras that are transmitting their every move to the team, ready to come to her aid if necessary. She looks back at the Time Lord, nods once, and approaches to release him from the gurney.

[syncopath]

The Master stays perfectly still as she approaches-- harmless, by all appearances. Benign. The only peculiar thing he does, in fact, is surreptitiously sniff her when she gets close enough.

Beneath the human stink, she really does smell great. It wasn't just the hunger talking.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

She releases him from the straps, trying to ignore the fact that he's smelling her, which is just bloody unsettling. Once he's free, she steps back.

[syncopath]

He waits patiently until she's finished, still wearing that patronizing smile, and then sits up, rubbing his wrists slowly and swinging his legs over the side of the table. And then he's up on his feet, prowling the small room and examining some of its contents with amused half-interest.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

She watches him carefully, her hand hovering near the weapon at her hip.

"Do you want more food?"

[syncopath]

He half-turns toward her, distracted by the promise of food despite his need to stay cool. Though perhaps if she leaves the room to fetch him another snack, he can get to work turning some of this equipment to his advantage...

"Can you get more?"

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Rose looks up at the cameras, and taps the comm in her ear.

"You got that? Yes. All right."

She taps it again, and looks back to the Time Lord.

"They'll be back with more shortly."

There was no way she was leaving him alone.

[syncopath]

The Master's eyes drift up to the cameras as Rose speaks, then settle back on her. It's a look of clear disdain.

"'They'. And who's that? Your crack team? Didn't realize the great and powerful Torchwood doubled as a catering service."

He fiddles idly with the dial on one of the machines. What's she going to do? Shoot him in the heart again?

"I'll bet you don't know what half of this stuff really does."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"I probably don't, no," she said, unwilling to let him shake her with that catering business. "Why don't you tell me?"

[syncopath]

He merely shrugs. "Where's the fun in that? I'm sure a big, bad wolf like you can figure things out. Eventually." The Master turns, takes several steps closer to her. The phrasing's intentional; he can smell the traces of Vortex on the girl from here, now that his head's somewhat clear. All that energy, it makes one wonder-- could it restore him?

"You know, you could just let me out. Let me hunt. It'd be so much easier. No more catering."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Slowly, she takes a step toward him, then another, feeling inexplicably drawn to him.

"Hunt? For what, exactly?"

[syncopath]

"Something... a little more filling." The Master's doing his best to sound reasonable-- he is correct, it would be more efficient-- but he can't stop his eyes gleaming at the mere thought of larger prey. Of catching and killing...

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"Like what? Whole turkeys? Whole cows? Not... not people...?"

[syncopath]

The Master's head tilts impatiently. "I can't afford to be picky, now can I? But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you? The need for power. I hear you absorbed part of the TARDIS, once."

He takes another step closer, inhaling that near-tantalizing scent of raw energy. "Come on. Let me out. Do a fellow wolf a favor."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

Again, another step closer, close enough to touch.

"How do you know about all that?"

[syncopath]

The Master smirks. She's not backing away, though she should. What a perfect companion the Doctor chose this time.

"For one thing, I can smell it all over you." And he takes another whiff, sighing a little. Almost wistfully. "I'm a Time Lord, you think I don't know what a TARDIS smells like? The Time Vortex?"

He pauses for effect, then adds, almost as an afterthought: "Even if the Doctor hadn't told me."

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"No," she protested, shaking her head. "No, you're wrong. He wouldn't..."

Although it made sense, didn't it? How else would he know her name, know all about Torchwood, know about the Bad Wolf, if not from the Doctor himself?

[syncopath]

"He wouldn't what?" The Master takes another step. "Wouldn't brag about his 'most treasured companion'? Honestly, it's a feat trying to get him to shut up about how wonderfully resourceful you humans can be." Though they're technically compliments, the Master's taken on a disparaging tone, by habit more than anything.

[a-lost-wolf.livejournal.com]

"He told you about the Vortex," she said, more of a statement than a question.

She swallowed. The next words came out with a bit of a tremble to her voice.

"Is he all right?"